Marty's Fiber Musings: September 2011

Shopping Views From Seattle

I didn't make many purchases today, but the picture taking was good! Inside this leather goods/clothing store were multiple hundreds of vintage Singer sewing machines. I could only stare....You don't see this in my home town!

Photos from vacation

View from Bayview Market

Owner/Chef Dockside Bistro - Laurie Nguyen prepared a most delicious meal at the Bayview Cooking School. Seared scallops with curried sauce, asian slaw with bamboo rice, beef tendorloin skewers and much more. Not a meal for the faint of heart!

Shipwreck Beads

Where the beads are embedded in the sidewalk - makes quite a beading statement!

I needed no encouragement.....

Then we were off to Dockside Bistro on the dockside of Budd Bay for lunch. The doorway reflections give you a hint of the beauty of it all.

Arrived in Olympia, Washington, Sunday afternoon and it's already Wednesday. Full days and they will only get better.

prepping for halloween

I should be busy - instead of prepping for halloween - making a note card!

I'm going to a 4 day quilt retreat and I'm gonna sew!

Some quilts from my archives.....

It was rooster love at first sight. A paper pieced rooster pattern I found in a magazine! I'll find it later in the week (perhaps) 'cause I know it was worth keeping. I first started out with the wall hanging, then used the same pattern in the quilt guild's round robin quilt challenge. I was really pushing the fabric limit by the time I got to the last round....the flying geese had to have some help getting around this large quilt! I call this one Roosters On A Lark.

Here is round one (medallion center) round two (four patch) round three half-square triangles, round five (curves), using nothing but scraps from previous quilt projects.

Eleven of us serious quilters are heading out this morning to our semi-annual quilt retreat at Camp Harris where someone else cooks for us....then cleans the kitchen! TTFN ~ Marty

And my cornbread still tastes good!

I don't cut my cornbread into pie wedges - and it's still delicious!

The HuMAn grew up in a home that had a housekeeper who cooked for the family!!! And she cut the cornbread in pie shape wedges. He was shocked to learn that my family was rural poor and if we didn't do it, then it didn't get done. Thus, whoever cut the cornbread....well, they just cut the cornbread until it was cut! Didn't matter how it was cut, it still tasted good.

And, what did you have for lunch? It was steamed turnips, sauteed onion and yellow squash and cornbread for me. Gifted squash....thanks Ethel. Life is easy, just a tad of canola oil in a skillet, saute onion and squash for a few minutes then add a wee bit of water and let the squash simmer until done. Minimal salt and cracked black pepper.

A notecard....a pretty lady in a smart hat

Pretty Lady in A Smart Hat

Set of Six Notecards

4.25" x 5.5"

Includes Envelopes

Blank Inside for Personal Message

$12

{Finishing Touches}

Finishing touches to the quilt tops I put together over the fat and happy weekend.....

Pieced Back for the Scrappy Horizontal Community Service Quilt

Thanks, Ethel and Dorothy for providing these pieces parts to complete the back for this quilt. The pieces just came together last night, so this one is in the bag!

With just a little more fabric, this will work beautifully as the backing for the horizontal

I mentioned to someone the other day that I was getting really tired of making quilts.....can you tell? Friends...not only do they listen to my Marty misconceptions, but they also give me fabric to complete the backs for our community service quilts. Now if anyone out there has batting to donate....I'll take it!

And so I sew.....quilted hotpads!

A friend wants me to make her some hotpads out of blue stripe and red stripe ticking....and she wants them to have binding around the edge, but she didn't want the hanging hooks (thank goodness!) Like Norm, I often like to make a prototype before I consider cutting and sewing the real fabric. And so, here are a couple of hotpads: one is 7" diameter, the other 8 1/2"! Oh, not a waste of fabric at all! Now I have some nice fresh ones for my kitchen. I'm now ready to stitch up the red and blue stripe ticking.

Yes, I made a new brush in photoshop.....did you notice my butterfly in flight? I think I'll make this my signature stamp ~

Marty

Music Appreciation

It was a fat and happy weekend.....

I've been sewing and sewing and sewing.....

Half square triangles - started here - all quilted and bound.

Friends and I recently visited a nearby quilt shop and a sewing class was going on....We stopped in and discovered that the group was piecing a Moda jelly roll end-to-end (and without knowing the specific pattern) then it appeared they were recutting into strips to sew back together horizontally......Well, guess what! I don't have any jelly rolls, just fabric which I cut into 2 1/2" strips, all colors, all designs. Here you see my strips sewn end-to-end then sewn horizontally! It's 60" x 48" and ready to be quilted!

but my favorite is the vertical! This one is 70" x 55"....can't wait to get it quilted!

Can you see me doing a Marty rendition of Elaine's happy dance! Moral - do not limit yourself to something you don't have ~ i.e. a jelly roll ~!

Mad 'bout Plaid

Just a quick note this morning....Have I mentioned that I subscribe to the Stitch Magazine newsletter. Tricia Waddell...Editor in Chief...never ceases to inspire me. I don't think I have enough plaid to make this table runner - a Kevin Kosbab design - but I know I have enough other fabrics to make a rendition of it. Here's the link to subscribe to Tricia's newsletter. I'm off and sewing and will drop by later. Happy day!

Beet Cake ~ Beautiful and Delicious (I am told)

beet cake from tiger in a jar on Vimeo.

Why does art have to be explained?

And then the finish - Her name is Dorothy.....

It started like this.....I drew a face, made a brush in photoshop, then just had to use it ASAP.

I had just taken this picture of Dorothy's quilt one day last week and decided this would be a perfect backdrop to practice my latest brush on.

If you live stateside....then happy Labor Day....and to those living elsewhere, then a happy day to you!

Louisiana - that's where home is!

Be it good or bad, rich or poor, wet swamps or dry rolling hills ~ Louisiana ~ that's where home is ~

A photoshop brush can be made from just about anything!

For example, I opened this picture in photoshop, selected Threshold from the Adjustments Layer and from the pop up box, made my levels adjustments.....not too dark, nor too light.

and here is my outcome

Now, you're gonna want to save this baby to use over and over! So, to begin, make sure the size of your image is no larger than 2400 pixels. Keyboard shortcut ctrl >alt>i. Neither the width, nor height may be more than 2400 px or your brush will not save but you want it as large as you can get it...so just increase or decrease your pixels to get the largest side to 2400 px.

Layers Pallette: Flatten Image

Next step: Ctrl A

Edit>define brush from selection>name your brush>ok

Now, go to your brush folders and select the folder where you want to store your brush....I have a folder set up as 'marty brushes'

find the double arrows and click to the tab, save brush.

And here is how I framed kitty with my newest brush. I stamped it on the kitty picture, then rotated then erased the stamp from his face.

Kitty Framed

Still having fun with half-square triangles

Half-square triangles - oh my! Just twist and turn, then turn some more! After I completed this quilt, I was still in the half-square triangle mood! One thing about doll quilts - they can be completed in one morning. Here's one using half-square triangles - just a little smaller than for a large quilt - in red and cream.

Since it's a doll quilt, I felt totally okay using shades of red ranging from deep burgandy to pink and peachy and purple. Bernina has a new interchangeablae sole for the walking foot....with guiding plate for edge-stitching and in-the-ditch stitching. My Bernina has been in the shop for cleaning and we drove over to Shreveport yesterday to pick it up.....I came away with this new gadget. A dream to have nice accurate in-the-ditch quilting lines.

A birthday card for the kid.....

I've been puzzling all week about how to make a birthday card for the kid that's about to be four! Well, this afternoon, I finally relaxed and let my ordinarily very expressive self come back to life. I don't profess to be an artist, but I do like to have fun with pen and ink and my wacom tablet and photoshop. I take the attitude that if I like it, then you must also!

Here's how....first, do the line drawing in photoshop. I used my wacom bamboo tablet. The eraser tool can always take away unwanted areas, but I don't stress over lines outside the box.

Here's an easy way to color within. (1) select an area of the image using the magic wand tool in the tool bar.

(2) double-click on the foreground color box at the bottom of the tool bar and open the color picker palette. Select a color and click OK. The new color should display in the foregound color box.

(3) On the top menu bar, go to the drop-down menu edit, then fill, then select foreground color from the fill dialog box and click OK.

(4) The section will be filled with the foreground color. Continue selecting each area and use as many colors as desired to make your image happy.

Hint: As you are drawing, make sure the drawn lines are closed. That allows you to select each closed area to paint within.

Now print this on fabric, as I did, or on cardstock, sign your name and you have an original card each and every time you need one!

I found a few complimentary scraps of fabric, stitched them together then stitched Finley's picture on top of that. I like to use the sticky sided heavy pellon to sandwich between the front and back fabric of my fabric cards. They can then be propped on one of those little artists' easels for easy display.