QuiltCon Link Party

As you may, or may not, have noticed by now, Lauren may Quilt but she sure doesn't blog much.  Possibly because I've been in a slump and haven't completed anything lately.  Possible because I've become obsessed with modern quilts and my stash is overflowing with prints and reproduction fabrics.  Possible because my sewing room is a work in progress and its hard to work in there.  So many excuses. So little sewing.  And yet... [drum roll] I'M GOING TO QUILT CON!

Let me count the ways that this is incredibly fabulous - First there is nothing I love more than a quilt convention.  Second - modern quilts and modern quilting are my current obsession.  Third - I've always wanted to go to Austin.  Fourth - I really need five days away from work, family, etc.  And pre-eminently (before First even) I'm meeting my best friend Amber and we get to explore and learn and shop and eat and play together!!  We are spending a day and a half on longarm machines with the amazing Angela Walters and attending a full day of lectures on Saturday.  We will definitely be at the 80s Dance Party.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

At the Behest of the MQG and Quilt Con I'm going to link up here, show you my picture, and post five things you might not know about me.

If it is humid in Austin look for the glasses, my hair will NOT be straight if it is humid.  Now as to five things you might not know about me:
1.  I listen to a lot of audiobooks.  I've always been a reader of printed pages but lately it;s almost always Audio.  Occassionally Kindle.  Since Christmas in 2006, when I got my first iPod, I have amassed 360 Audible books in my library.
2. I would like to live in the country.  Raising food for us to eat.  Making blankets to keep us warm.  A girl can dream.  3 chickens and a cow.  That's mine.
3.  I'm on my third Ford Expedition.  We still have the first one (13 years old driven by our son).  I drove the second one for eleven years until it was totaled in December.  I have a lovely new 2012 model now - Ford has made some fabulous improvements over the last eleven years!
4.  I grew up in Southern California (Hermosa Beach), then lived in San Diego as an adult.  After 14 years in San Diego the Navy apparently needed my husband in Virginia Beach, VA.  We've been here since 2004.  Having a continent between me and my mother is not a bad thing.
5.  I'm a licensed attorney in California.  I spent my first professional life ardently helping move money from one insurance company to another.  I'm a little more useful now.  I have a lovely office management job.

Quilt Layout Dilemma

Among the many beautiful things my MIL left to me, I recently discovered this very pretty bag.  It is flannel and it contained some very pretty flannel blocks.  88 each of 6" four patch and half square triangles.  I want to find a lovely setting for these blocks for a gift that I need to make quickly.  I thought of Jacob's Ladder right away but the four patches are really too big for the traditional setting I'm familiar with.  I tried to lay it out in a similar fashion which probably has a name but the problem is...  there really isn't good definition between the lights and the darks (I'm not dissing my beloved MIL, I've done the same thing - see strip twist blocks above).

 See - sometimes it is clear which is the light fabric but I'm afraid a lot of these are medium.  Mediums are great.  They don't work very well in this setting though so - I'm asking for suggestions.  What do I do with roughly 166 of these blocks?



Fabric for the backing and binding were in the bag along with the blocks but (unusually) no pattern.

Any ideas???

I'd really appreciate any suggestions.  Thanks!

Quick Summary - March to September

Ok.  I've done it again.  No blog posts for six months.  No wonder nobody reads it - ok I've never actually told anyone about my blog so it could be that rather than my spectacular disregard for my readers.  Enough.

Since March I have:

• Attended the fabulous Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show where I took two really great classes including one from Carol Taylor where I had the best time making learning how to couch fibers and ended up with a wall hanging; and one from Marjan Kluepfel which is still a work in progress but which I love already.  These ladies are fabulously talented and I highly recommend them if you ever get a chance to take a class from them.

Fall Tree from Marjan Kluepfel's class

Beginning of my fabulous couched fibers from Carol Taylor's class

• Participated in a block swap on swap-bot.com where we traded Bonnie Hunter's Strip Twist blocks.  I received some beautiful blocks from Darla, the Scientific Quilter.

Layout for Strip Twist blocks

My Strip Twist blocks on the design wall

• Taught a beginning quilting class to five 3rd through 5th graders.  Really one of the most fun experiences I have ever had quilting.  The girls were great and each of them left with a partially tied lap quilt.  I was so inspired I had business cards made and am in the process of cleaning up my quilt studio (formerly middle child's bedroom) so I am ready to teach small group classes to kids or adults;

4th Grader Hannah tying her quilt

5th Grader Caroline tying her quilt

• 

  3rd Grader Allison tying her quilt
  

• Taken a great class from Nancy Prince on thread sketching;
• Listened to a LOT of quilting podcasts - if you've never tried it go the the Quiltcast Supergroup over at Big Tent to find some super talented quilters who have a lot to say about life and quilting;
• Made quilts for my son Caleb's two kindergarten teachers - one of them from the blocks made by Darla that became a signature quilt for the kids to sign and one labor of love where the kids drew "under the sea" themed pictures with fabric paint pens.  (I neglected to photograph these quilts)
• Attended a guild meeting of the Colonial Piecemakers.  I loved them.  I'm considering joining even though it is about an hour away;
• Attended 3 out of six guild meetings of my local Tidewater Quilt Guild;

• Participated in two other swaps - a general fabric swap (in which I was able to present all of my oriental fabric to Katie) and one scrap swap.  Also fun but I preferred the block swap;
• Let my friend Jenn pull fabric from my stash that she turned into a really fabulous hexagon quilt (her first quilt - she is amazing);
• Helped my eight year old niece make a rag quilt for her mom (her first quilt and she did it nearly all herself);
• Made two really cute baby quilts which I'm in the process of quilting; and
• Sewed the binding down on two of the UFOs my dear MIL left to me;

And that is just the quilt-related stuff I can think of off the top of my head.  I still have to be a reasonable wife, mother, employee, friend, neighbor, room mom, Hospitality Chair for the PTA, and Concession Chair for the PTA school carnival.  Now you know, I like to feed people - nobody goes hungry on my watch.  Ever.  

I try to do something in my sewing room every day but I am apparently not very good at writing about it.  Well I'm turning over yet another new leaf.  I need some help from the online quilting community but I'll write about that in today's SECOND post.  That's right.  Two in one day.

I have a stash problem

Hi.  My name is Lauren and I have a stash problem. [Chorus of Replies:  "Hi Lauren."]  Really.  It's not entirely my fault...  When I began quilting, in 1996, we lived in a condo in California.  My stash lived in bins in the closet under the stairs.  This was inconvenient.  When I wanted to make something, I generally trotted off to the quilt shop and bought new fabric for whatever was on my mind.  If I finished the project, the leftover fabric went into a bin with like colored fabrics.  If I didn't quite finish the project, but had to clean up the dining room for some reason, the whole project went into its own individual bin.  Very organized.  Still, by the time we move to Virginia in 2003 I had eight big bins of fabric and 25 small bins containing UFOs.
In Virginia, my stash lives in the single car garage which is supposed to be my sewing room.  It is unfortunately also the garage and thus houses my stash, the bikes, one tall tool chest for automotive related tools, one set of shelves containing general household junk, the laundry facilities, and the completely fabulous wonderful eighty gallon hot water heater installed by PC a couple of weeks ago.  (Before the addition of this miraculous device we had only enough hot water for one short shower or shallow bath or load of dishes or laundry about every three hours.  Four of us live here.  It was inadequate at best.)
Still, a single car garage is a pretty big room.  I purchased some chrome pantry shelving, and moved and old dresser and my desk out there.  Storage is tight.  I have never been able to see the top of the dresser and the top of the desk simultaneously.  Never.  I'm still trying to figure out placement of my beloved stuff after seven years.

Semi-Organized fabric shelved by color 

I could perhaps have figured out where to put my original stuff but my stash grew by a power of five in October of 2009 when I finally packed up my inheritance from my mother in law, Linda, which had been sitting in storage waiting for me for nearly two years.  3,700 pounds of fabric, patterns, notions, and books.  Packed up and shipped via Amtrak.  36 new boxes to absorb into the never-organized and already crowded space.  It isn't pretty.  First, I continued the tradition of bins.
But, I couldn't see the fabric.  And I really don't need to buy more (at least not until I figure out what I have).  So one weekend I began unpacking all the bins and mixing up her fabric and mine by color.  At first, neatly folding with rulers for consistency, then less neatly as I became overwhelmed by the scope of simply folding.  So now, I'm at a horrible in between state where I just have towers of empty or partially empty bins everywhere, the visible shelves are nearly full, I'm tired of folding, and I JUST WANT TO SEW.  Really.

I have purged things I just didn't like.  I have gifted many works in progress that didn't appeal to me that I was unlikely to finish.  I got rid of a lot of my own UFOs because I don't want them.  It is hard to just give away my mother in laws projects to be.  Some of them were meant for family members and I'm meant to finish them.  (Unfortunately, although she told me which projects those were it was in 2007 I can't remember which projects are which.  At all.)  I estimate that my dear MIL left over 100 UFOs.  At various times that estimate has been as high as 300 depending on my state of mind.  She also left a ton of nearly finished quilts.  Several that only need binding, several that need to be quilted, a couple in the midst of being hand quilted. Hand quilted?  Really?
Deep breath.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?