Spirals and Stars

Hi everyone!  Happy Thanksgiving.  This time of year is always my favorite.  I love Christmas that celebrates the birth of my Lord Jesus Christ.  I love the sparkly lights and the over-the-top decorations.  I love the music and everything about it.

In a somewhat related item this year, I am making a deep space quilt which I may not finish before Christmas, but actually, it is inspired by the great beauty and glory of the wonderful space scenes that NASA and others bring to us with their telescopes and photography.  Here is the chosen picture I will be celebrating.  When I see some of these glorious pictures, Haydn’s music “the Heavens Declare the Glory of God”, based on Psalm 19, runs through my head.  It was one of the pieces I sang many times with multiple choruses over my decades of singing.  Haydn had partially been inspired by a friend’s telescope focused on space some time before he wrote that piece.

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While it looks like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a collision with a neighbouring galaxy, this is just the result of the chance alignment of the two objects in the night sky. NGC 105’s elongated neighbor is actually far more distant and remains relatively unknown to astronomers.

I am acutely aware that my quilt can never fully capture the glory of this scene, but it might be beautiful when finished.  I will use a background fabric of Pepper Cory’s “Deep Space 98” peppered cotton, with a lot of crystals, Angelina Fibers, a little paint, black nylon veiling, and beautiful threads to make this.  I don’t have a clue how long it will take me to make it and I am not going to rush it.  I also plan on doing a few other projects during the same time-frame.  Will I be providing a video tutorial on this?  Well,not really.  I am planning to simply show some of the making of it, but not try to teach people the techniques.  If they pick them up from just my videos, that is fine.  I just basically want to share my fun in the making of it in a video or two.  Sew I will need a few other projects that are tutorials with patterns for my subscribers too.

By the way, I am making some short little project tutorials for presentation from time to time over the next few months.

ANNOUNCEMENT:  I will be providing a showing and discussion of some of my work over the years at Suzzie’s Quilt Shop, 10404 Portsmouth Road (Westgate Shopping Center) in Mannassas, Virginia on January 10th at 10:30 am. 

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A little report on my YouTube channel: As of today (Thanksgiving 2022), I have 465 subscribers.  According to the YouTube analytics, that represents about 31 percent of the people who watch my videos.  If I were to reach 500 subscribers, it provides me with a few more tools to add interest to the channel.  I cannot monetize the channel until I reach a minimum of 100o subscribers and lots of viewers.  Monetizing might help pay for some of the fabric, thread, stabilizers, battings, paints, beads, crystals, needles, cameras, lights, machine maintenance, sdcards, batteries, tripods, machine feet, and on and on.  Sew if you want to support my channel, all you need to do is “subscribe” (it’s free and does not require filling anything out) and then “like” my videos.  I would really appreciate it. By the way, I am making some short little project tutorials for presentation from time to time over the next few months.


Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studios (even if that “studio” is closet size or the top of your dining table).

 

Mild Frustrations but Still Fun in the Studio

A video studio (not mine) from stock photos. Where’s the sewing machine?!!!

This has been one of those days that are both fun and frustrating.

I am making several versions of a quick little project for Christmas presents and simultaneously using the making of them for a short video project. It had gone very well until today with a pretty good overhead scene and one at the machine showing the start of the project I did yesterday.  I had a whole scene worked out at the machine that took about an hour and a half to film. It actually took me more than two hours by the time I did the preparations filming things and so forth. It went so well at the machine. I was so happy with what I thought was an interesting video showing some special stitching techniques and how to do them at my Bernina 880 plus. And JUST as I came to the end of the scene, the camera ran out of battery power. I didn’t see it happen because I was concentrating on the stitching. The camera did what it has only done once before and gave me a warning that it hadn’t completed the file and did I want it to repair it. Sigh.

Practice Stitch Library showing extra wide multi-directional special stitching

Now the last time it did that on a previous project, I said yes and it reformatted the whole card and wiped out all the files on that card. So instead, I turned off the camera and removed it. I took the card to the computer to see. The two previous scenes were fine (phew!), but today’s was corrupted and unable to play!   Oh fiddlesticks! The item itself, however, was beautiful.  I’ll tell you later what it is.

Fortunately it’s a small project, I had leftover fabric, and I was able to prepare the next piece to redo today’s filming and am now ready to redo today’s work tomorrow. It will at least result in two of these small presents, and I was planning on making several anyway. So in essence, I did not lose much time. That is, if tomorrow’s filming goes better. Plus, I think my demonstration will go better because I have done a full run-through now.  Hahaha.

The moral of the story is to have extra supplies and fabrics, and try to not get too upset when these things happen in this combination video work and sewing adventure and look on the bright side.  I think you are going to like this project.  I have several shorter projects lined up for the next few videos and then I will launch into quilted fabric art for 2023.  Yes, I have a list much longer than I can possibly do already worked out for next year, which, to my delight, includes a couple of show quilts!!!  Perhaps my biggest challenge will be choosing which project to do first and so on.  But I am anticipating having some fun my studio.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio even when things don’t always work out like you want.  Cheers everyone!

Online Fabric Shopping

Hi everyone!  Earlier this week Fabric.com closed suddenly.  This was difficult for me because even though I have access to three more or less local quilt fabric shops that cover my quilting fabric needs, none of them carry things I use for abnormal quilting fabrics, clothing, very little for bag making and other assorted giftable-type items.  Fabric.com was my go to for these things that I must order online if I am going to get them at all.  It was an adjunct Amazon business and had a fabulous supply of fabrics at reasonable prices and great search engine to find them with.  So this set me on a mission to find replacement resources.  Here is what I have found so far, but I am still hunting:

  1. I have yet to find a supplier that has everything they had and no company’s search engine is a good, though some have reasonably good ones.
  2. Hancock’s of Paducah has a nice selection of about half of the non-quilt cotton fabrics, so it is a good place to start if you are on the hunt for certain fabrics.  Besides, I have bought things from them for years and they are in my “trusted” category.  I know from past purchases that they are a little slow in getting your order to you and aren’t particularly good about letting you know if they have something on back order until after you have ordered it.  But besides that, I like them.
  3. Farmhouse Fabrics fills in a lot of places when you are trying to get the supplies for something special like a Christening gown or a Victorian heirloom sewing by machine dress or blouse, for instance.  They have exquisite fabrics, trims, and laces, though I think they are a little pricey.  After this month’s Threads Magazine where they have cotton velveteen on the cover, and one of my best friend’s passion for velveteen I found that fabric almost impossible to find until I found it a Farmouse.  I have used them in the past and they are fast and efficient.
  4. Then there is Fashion Fabrics Club where one can often find a great bargain piece and they have a lot of fabrics.  I have also used them for many years, and have sometimes gotten a great piece for a bargain price.  The fabrics are normally wonderful, but occasionally, the quality is not quite as high as it should be, though this is rarely the case. The prices in general make up for that rare time though I think.  I did not like some silk dupioni I once got there, and ended up using it only for practice pieces, but the wools I bought there are fabulous, and I have bought a lot over the years.
  5. I have found that if you want a good quality denim, cotton twill, or something for draperies for instance you may want to take a look at sellfabric.com.  I found this by getting in touch with Carr Textiles that manufactures a particularly nice brushed denim I sometimes want and used to get through Fabric.com.  They directed me there for their fabrics.  The shipping cost is a little pricey but since I was unable to find the brushed denim I wanted anywhere else after much looking, I think it is the only option at this point.
  6. I did take a look at Mood Fabrics, and saw they have fabulous fabrics, though I thought the prices were a little high.  I’ve never used them, but they seem to have some of the things I will miss from Fabric.com.
  7. Then there is my good old friend G Street Fabrics, which I have used for decades, have some close friends who work there, and it is where I bought my Berninas.  I love the store, even in its lesser version after it moved to the current place in Rockville, MD.  It used to be so magnificent, but it is still the best fabric store around in my humble opinion.  The problem for me has become getting there, because I have gotten a little older and the trip from here to there takes about an hour through rough dense traffic and I find it stressful, so I don’t go anymore.  Nevertheless, they are offering a lot online of their exquisite, often out of my budget, fabrics.  But take a look.  You will enjoy seeing some of what they offer I suspect.  Hint:  One yard of something expensive but magnificent can go a long ways when carefully used or make you happy just to have it to pet in your stash.  They also still have gorgeous buttons.
  8. Amazon still has some of the fabrics and especially notions I like, but often precut into links or sizes you may not want. It says to me that it is likely someone who doesn’t understand our industry is now in charge of the fabric offers from or through there.  It’s likely someone who is not aware how this is a living, growing industry with lots of interest by young and old alike.
  9. And of course there is Joann Fabrics we all know.  I have found they have the best prices on interfacings, especially Pellon brand.  There are a few other things I like, but I am not a particular fan of their fabrics, which are quite frequently a lesser quality.  You can still get some nice fabric there with careful shopping.

I am quite sure there are other places that some of you have found that are great I haven’t mentioned, or maybe you are one of the lucky sewers who have a great fabric store nearby or live within reach of a fabric district.  But I think I know know where I can find most of the things I will be missing from Fabric.com.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studio and have fun shopping.