OK…this was too adorable not to share!  This version is shortened because parts of the original (see link below) have songs that aren’t exactly used according to copyright.  But I’m putting this version instead of the silent, longer one since I love the animal sounds:

PS…I originally saw it at http://www.wimp.com/swimmingpiglet/ where it has a fun song track, so click on the link if you want the whole shebang.  Enjoy!

detail from the most recent free motion sampler--should be clickable for a larger view in most browsers

In my previous post, I shared The Ginormous Quilt (I may have to actually NAME it that!) inspired by Jenny Bowker’s quilt sampler and my variation on her theme.   I was able to see Jenny at Quilt Festival in Houston, have supper with her and Aussie friend Lisa Walton (of the gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics, here), and Jenny invited me up to her class one morning before the class began to see her other samples.  I thought I should try a few variations on the theme myself but, unlike Jenny’s samples in Houston, introduce some curves into the process.  Here’s my original variation on Jenny’s idea:

And here is the most recent one–and yes, *I* actually *pieced* that!  What’s become of me?

Free-motion sampler, before washing

Since I have the Ginormous thing, I wanted to test out various battings before spending a bundle to have it basted on a longarm.  The good news is that wool batting does not alter the whiteness of the sashing enough to be noticed, so if I want to I can use a wool or wool-blend batting. In this sample, I used Hobbs Heirloom Wool, which is quite puffy.  To use a Pamela Allen (if you’re not familiar with her work, click on her name to visit her website and prepare to spend a good long while being inspired!)  word, I like the “puffosity” of it.  The bad news is that you need to baste MORE with wool batting than with cotton or  you get some slippage and bubbling.  Ahem.  Basting is NOT my strong suit!

Since the Ginormous Quilt is to be a used bed quilt, with cats sleeping on top of it and getting it seriously hairy, I need something that will wash up nicely and easily without fuss.  So I tossed the sample into the washer and dryer with the regular washing.  As you might gather, I’m not a fusspot about some things.  This is what it looked like straight out of the dryer….gulp!

After machine washing and drying, wool batting (shrinkage expected!)

I took it upstairs, misted it with water and pulled it out a tad—here are back and front before ironing:

After machine wash and drying. Misted with water and pulled out a little.

Back view, after washing, drying, and a light mist of water prior to ironing

After ironing, it is much better and an inch smaller than before washing/drying:

After washing, drying, misting and ironing. Notice the ripply straight grain bindings. This is why I ALWAYS make bias! This was as a sample of why I don't like straight grain....

I REALLY dislike straight grain bindings, but given how little of the fabric I had left, I decided to do a straight grain binding.  This sampler is a perfect example of why:  ripples.  UGH.  The teaching part of this section of the quilt is “why I don’t do it this way”.  Ahem.

The bottom line:  despite the apparently horrible crumpliness of the quilt straight out of the dryer, I think this soft, light, drapeable wool batting (Hobbs) could work.  I would simply tumble dry to “damp” instead of “dry”, then let it air dry the rest of the way.  Of course, there is the question of whether or not it would fit in a home dryer! My sample was just under 18 inches before quilting.  It was, after squaring up after quilting, 17 inches with binding.  After washing, it is 16 x 16  inches.  This shrinkage was expected and planned for in constructing the top, which I made oversized so that when hubby and the cats hog the covers I will still have enough quilt  left.  Smile!

I have at least one other wool batting sample, by Pellon, and plan on also making a comparable size  with the Quilters Dream Wool and another with their cotton batting, which is one of my favorite cottons.  All samples will be machine washed and dried…I am absolutely NOT going to fussy-wash a quilt that is nine square yards huge! When I get them all done (probably in about a year…sigh…) I’ll share the final comparisons.

Maria Peagler, whose book on Color Mastery is designed to help you get over your fear of playing with color, has just published this video on her blog and facebook pages.  If you’d like to vote for your favorite and win a free (my book, her book, Inklingo or fabric), take a look at the video, the surf over to Maria’s place and vote (more on that below).  Here’s the video:

Maria profiles four must-haves for quilters, starting with my book, ThreadWork  Unraveled.  Most of you who visit here have heard plenty about the book, but just in case, there is more info here plus lots of very kind reviews of the book on Amazon (and if you’d like to add your own review, please do!). Maria’s Facebook fan page is http://www.facebook.com/colormaster .  You can visit the page even if you’re not a member on Facebook.

Maria also shares Linda Franz’s Inklingo, a system for  precise piecing using any size scrap.  Linda is the author of the FANTABULOUS Quilted Diamonds, which is a diamond-variation on the theme of the Jane Stickle (Dear Jane) quilt, liberally salted with Jane Austen quotes, and which has some of the BEST hand piecing and hand applique directions you’ll find.  I treasure this book–clear, precise directions, stupendous photos…a keeper! Linda’s website is here, and more about InkLingo is here.

Third on Maria’s list is a Clothworks kit with the fabulous Laurel Burch fabrics.  As many of you know, the talented artist died not too long ago, but she spent a lot of her last years making art which her children could then turn into prints and designs for the many facets of Laurel’s work which include not just fabric, but mugs, earrings, totes, socks…..lots of fun things! You can find the kit here.

Finally, there is Maria’s own award-winning book, Color Mastery.  To learn more about her book, check it out on Maria’s website, here (scroll down to the bottom for the link to purchase Maria’s book).

To vote and have a chance to win your favorite, click here.  First it appears you need to “like” the post.  Then click on the photo of each of the items;  you can leave a comment to enter to win.  It appears, however, that you may need to be a Facebook member to actually vote.  Give it a try and see if you can vote! Update:  Linda Franz posted really good, thorough instructions on how to vote here.   Thanks Linda!

And if you’re not the lucky winner but just HAVE to have one of these items they are (what a surprise…not!) available from the maker!  I hope  YOU win!

OK...draped over the double-sized antique canopy bed...read on!

So, you might ask, does Sarah EVER make quilts any more?  Art quilts?  Bed quilts?  Lap Quilts?  ANYthing?  Some days it feels like the answer is no, there is so much life happening that I can barely manage to get myself dressed and stumble through a day!  But I have managed a few new class samples and a few other things.  A while back, I wrote about Jenny Bowker’s totally awesome idea (seen in her blogpost,  here) and my riff on the subject here and here.

Well, I had been collecting tropical colored big prints (Kaffe Fassett, Martha Negley, Phillip Jacobs and the other designers from the Westminster Fabrics crowd) for a possible project for a possible (in a couple years) new book.  Well, I had (still have) this totally cool idea, but decided it was probably too complicated for a simple book project and, honestly, was more piecing work that I wanted to do.  Then I made my sample a la Jenny, and had a brainstorm!  A QUILT made with bright squares and simple sashing.  PRESTO–fabrics re-directed to new project.  So I got out my graph paper and charted out sizes for a BIG new bed quilt for us!

I decided to use squares of the tropical prints cut 8 1/2 inches, which meant I could get four pieces plus some leftover from a fat quarter (usually about 18 x 22 inches or thereabouts) of fabric.  A sashing that finished at 3 inches would look good.

Blocks cut, order set out on wall, vertical sashing on first six rows...

I was VERY careful cutting, and used my AccuFeed foot on my new Janome Horizon 7700.  I even went to the extent of cutting the strips on the non-stretchy lengthwise grain of the fabric because I wanted this to be perfect.  Drat!  It wasn’t!  The white pieces, on the bottom, were coming out 1/8″ too short, and I KNOW (and triple checked) they were cut to the same length.  Luckily, I am on this great Yahoo group for 7700 owners and another one for 6500/6600/7700 owners (a lot of us on the first list are also on the second one, which was the mother list).  Someone (and boy do I wish I could remember who so I can say THANK YOU) mentioned the button on the right of the machine and some instructions in the manual (yes, I had read it, but just didn’t remember this part!).  If your fabric isn’t coming out even, you can turn the knob to fine-tune the dual feed!  PRESTO! Problem piecing solved.  I told the little red guy with forked tail and spear on my shoulder making rude noises at me to go away, that it wasn’t MY piecing at all…I just needed to learn how to be smarter than and adjust my machine!

Here’s what it looked like as I was chain piecing lots of blocks and strips:

(Notice the lovely “Lemon Grass” Fiesta Ware mug amidst all those lovely prints!)

Here’s the quilt top a bit farther along,

Then I measured.  SHRIEK!  adjust border plans to smaller!  Eliminate the white what *was* going to go all around the center blocks and go straight to the pieced (from leftover bits) border of all colorful prints!  Here it is as I am ironing…. under the top is an ironing board with a 60″ wide Big Board PLUS a 39″ (one metre) wide table….and it drapes over the ends!

Aren’t those colors awesome??????

Trying to get a picture of the enormity of this thing was beyond a do-it-yourself photo shoot, so you’ll have to put up with me!  The finished top is 107″ square!

It's too big to fit...this shot, before all the borders are on, shows only 6 1/2 of the 9 color squares going across and up...so it's about 2/3 of the quilt!

That would lead to some questions:

Q1:  Is Sarah sane?   Answer:  obviously not

Q2:  How do you plan to baste this?  Answer:  I don’t; bless Doris and Debbie at Quilt Divas (great quilt shop in Rockland, Maine), they will baste it for me with water soluble thread on their longarm.  I don’t care what it costs.  I am NOT basting it.  Answer, part 2:  re Q1, perhaps she’s not as far gone as we thought

Q3:  What about the quilting?  Answer:  Yes, I plan to do it, but NOT for a while.  And at least the worst part, the basting, will be done by checking account!  Also, my big treat once we get moved in late January and next year’s teaching is done, is to buy myself an HQ sitdown model for working on very large projects.  I think a quilt 3 yards by 3 yards square qualifies.  Answer to Q3, part 2: ummm…OK, Sarah is clearly certifiable; either that or she has no life

Q4:  What quilting design will you use?  Answer:  I’ll do something similar to the sample I did  up in the links posted above.  When I shared an in  progress picture with a friend, she was concerned that the white is TOO bright.  I agree, it is!  But once it is quilted the starkness will be toned down and I think it will be a lovely summer quilt.

Q5:  Is Sarah insane?  Answer:  Ayuh!

Our younger son has joined jazz band, and practices are Weds. mornings before school.  So instead of sending him to the bus at 6:50 a.m., I drive him to school.  In winter, this means GLORIOUS sunrises, and today was one of the best.  The pictures are with my cell phone camera, so not as good as my good camera, but still pretty darn amazing.  So just an hour ago this is what I got to see after dropping Eli, snapping a shot over town to the harbor and distant islands.  I uploaded LARGE files, so I apologize if they are slow to load; they should be clickable to see a larger view.

Sunrise over Camden, 6:55 a.m. That tall thing is the smokestack from the old woolen mill. Notice the cool vertical flare from the sun peeking through layers of the clouds. The vertical brightness was there in real life; it's not a camera flare!

And here is the sunrise in my neighborhood:

A woodsy sunrise, downhill from our house

And from the road, by the driveway of a downhill neighbor whose house faces more towards the East:

From a neighbor's driveway, looking East

Ahhhh…..Maine!

I keep thinking of my Dad…he was born in 1899, when gaslight was not common, was a teenager when the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, when telephones were rare. He used to be amazed at men on the moon, think of what he’d think of the internet and cell phones!  I can’t imagine what he would think to see me have a phone smaller than a deck of cards, that is also a camera, so I can send a photo to my son and to myself then post it to share with the *world* in a matter of minutes.  He’d be amazed and smile!