Calle del Algodon

Calle del Algodon - do you know what that means????

Street of COTTON!!!  I was wandering around the historic part of Quito that houses the Centro Comercial, and happened upon this street sign.  Above the sign was...

...wait for it...

A QUILT BLOCK MADE FROM TILES!  (Sorry, no photo.  When I am wandering around alone, I never bring the camera - don't want to mark myself as a tourist any more than necessary.)

I thought for sure, I had found heaven on earth.  I looked down the street to see storefront after storefront of FABRIC!

But it wasn't heaven on earth.  It was like purgatory.  A teaser for what could have been.  There were lots of beautiful fabrics, but NONE were 100% cotton.  Not a one!  I felt everything that caught my eye, and got very good at asking, "No tiene tela de cien por ciento de algodon?"  Unfortunately, they all shook their heads no, and proceeded to show me some lovely knit or shiny cotton/poly mix.  Oh well.

In between the fabric stores were tucked little stores of trim and thread and buttons.  I was drawn in and pored over the buttons for quite a while before settling on these big black ones that remind me of wheels - I can see using them to embellish a kid quilt.

The coin is a dollar coin, placed there for reference - these are big buttons!

And then I saw the perle cotton.  Lots and lots of perle cotton.  I've been wanting to buy some, but I haven't found it anywhere near me, and it seems silly to me to pay postage for it if I buy it online.  So I inquired about the price.  Sixty-five cents for a ball of 95 yards of #8 perle cotton!  I've never bought it before, but that seemed like a steal to me!  I was drawn to the variegated ones, so I picked out five to buy.

I've never heard of Rose Brand, but frankly, I don't care!

Back in my room, I looked online to price them, and I'm finding them for anywhere from $2.29 to $3.50.  Can I just say I'll be headed back to that part of town to pick up some more in solid colors!  Some for me, and some to share in my little "help me figure out how to quilt this" giveaway.  If you've not yet put your two cents in, I encourage you to visit that post and comment.  Not only will there be chocolate covered coffee beans, but now there will also be #8 perle cotton for the winner!  And I'm not done shopping yet!

I did pick up some more trinkets to share around the office at home and put into some Christmas stockings - some colorful leather change purses

I'm not sure yet which one I'll save for me.  Maybe the black and orange?  Or maybe the green and brown?

and some more earrings (I love cheap earrings!!!).  These are made from Tagua, some kind of nut or seed that is indigenous to Ecuador.

I love the ones with the trees!

OK, off to bed to do some more quilting before I sleep like the dead.  The air is thin here at 10,000 feet above sea level, so I yawn A LOT and sleep very well.  Just three more nights until I get to sleep in my own bed!

What's a gal to do?

I've covered a lot of ground since my last post.  I flew to Guayaquil, Ecuador by way of Panama, spent two nights there, and now I'm in Quito.  I spent Sunday in Guayaquil, and of course, schools are closed on Sunday, so I had a ME day. 

• I slept in. (aaaahhhhh!)
• I worked out in the gym.  (ugh!)
• I ate 4 pieces of bacon at breakfast. (yum!!!)
• I visited a museum. (and just my luck, free on Sundays!)
• I took a river cruise on a pirate ship. (I'm not even joking)
• I visited the Mercado Artesenal. (gotta get trinkets for the people back home, you know)
• I climbed 444 stairs to the top of a neat neighborhood built on a hill, Las Penas. (pretend there's a tilde over the n)
• I had dinner with a friend who was stranded in Guayaquil after a cancelled flight (and is STILL stranded, poor thing!)
• And I quilted. (of course, I could have just spent the entire day quilting, and it would have been a GOOD day)

What a day!  Here are some photos:





There was a rail fence quilt in the museum!!!



 

Close up so you can read it - if you read spanish, that is.

Isn't this tree awesome?  I wanted to climb it, but thought that might really mark me as a tourist...

That's A LOT of steps!  Going up wasn't so bad, but coming down, I thought my legs were going to give out!

The view from the top of Las Penas, looking out over the river (and prepared to shoot canonballs at pirates, is my guess)

Wait!  Is that a pirate right there?

I can't help but buy earrings.  This is just the start - I'm sure I'll have 10 new pair before my trip is done.

And the women in my office always seem to like my bag that I bought in Ecuador two years ago, so I bought some more, in case anyone wants one.

Then, after a day of school visits, I hopped a plane here to Quito.  Lovely upgrade in the room, including access to the Executive Lounge (my second hotel in a row with FREE FOOD!  I'm so spoiled!  Loyalty has its privileges!).  I was tired and feeling grimy.  There was a plush robe, a tub over two feet deep, Sandalwood Bath Salts, and a solicitous young woman delivered a rose to my door while she asked if everything was to my likely.  What's a gal to do, but settle in for a SOAK!

JW Marriott in Quito - I highly recommend it if you are ever here.  They know how to treat a gal like a queen!

Three more days of school visits, and then I get to go home.  Since I've been to Quito about 7 years running now, I'm not feeling too much pressure to go out and explore, although I'm sure I'll find something new to do.  I'm hoping to get most, if not all of the white quilted in the Scrappy String Star quilt.  And with all the time I'll have in the plane and in airports flying home on Thursday night/Friday morning, I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish quilting the Orange Creamsicle quilt on this trip, too.  Woo hoo!

The "vintage" pillowcases and sheets in this quilt are SO SOFT!

Actually, how can you tell if a sheet or pillowcase is vintage, do you know?  Is there an "age limit" for vintage?  Or are we just saying "used"?

Quilting on the road

I may get discouraged by how long it takes me to quilt something by hand, but I am always so thankful that I am a handquilter when I travel and have something to work on.  On this two week trip (Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica to Guayaquil, Ecuador to Quito, Ecuador), I actually brought two quilts to work on: my Orange Creamsicle quilt to quilt in airports and on the plane (since the needles are use are so tiny), and my Scrappy Strings Star quilt to sleep under as I work on it.  I am using lots of different colored embroidery floss to quilt it, so I am using embroidery needles, and they, of course, are too big and dangerous to bring on airplanes, so that quilt lives in my checked luggage.


Here's a peek at my hotel room with my quilts out, helping it seem more like home.

view one from my balcony

view two from my balcony

Right now I am in the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica after spending 4 days here visiting high schools and making new friends.  It turns out that my sister's sister-in-law used to live here and still has friends here, so she connected me with them.  I actually had a slumber party in my hotel room last night with one of them - what fun!  We stayed up super late talking, but today is just a travel day for me, so it is OK if I am tired.

And I've got a question for you - on my scrappy string star quilt, I'm not sure what I want to do in my big white squares, continue making concentric squares, or quilt some other type of design in the center of the 4 concentric squares that are already there?  You can see what I've got so far.  In the triangles, since they are smaller, that will just be 3 concentric triangles in there.  Ideas, anyone?

Anyone who leaves an opinion will be entered into a drawing for some goodies from my travels.  I can't guarantee that they'll include anything quilting related, but I can guarantee that it will include at least some chocolate covered coffee beans - YUMMY!!!

I'll holler at you again from Ecuador.  Sew some for me, y'all!

The Art of Making Do

I received my last two blocks in the mail for my Scrappy String Star (Let's Bee Together) quilt this past weekend, so I was super motivated to get the top completed.  Initially, I had purchased a couple yards of white on white fabric to be the background, but I was determined to have that be the only fabric purchase for the quilt - the rest was to come from my stash of scraps.

Great in theory, but I once I got the top together, it was 64" square, and I didn't want a square quilt.  I wanted a twin sized quilt, so it needed more length.  Unfortunately, I didn't have much of the background fabric left, and it was already cut into smallish pieces smaller than my blocks.  What to do, what to do??

First, I already had two left over scrappy HST blocks made, so I made two more with the biggest piece of background fabric, and put two pairs together to be the center of the top and bottom row.  Then, I pieced the rest of the background fabric together to finish out a top and a bottom row.

Can you see the two seams, trying to make the pieces I had fit the space I had left?

Of course, there wasn't quite enough.  Into the stash I went, and pulled out a piece of white on white that was close enough.

Swirls, leaves - what's the difference, anyway?

Voila!  It is a quilt top! 

I have to admit, it is a little hard for me to leave it like this - doesn't it seem unfinished on the sides?  But I didn't want a square quilt, so this will have to do.

64" x 85.5" - big enough to cover a twin bed with 10" of drape on both sides and the bottom of the bed.

Donald got excited and said, "Wait!  I get to have TWO quilts on my bed??"  I didn't have the heart to tell him I just put it there to make sure it was big enough and to take a photo...

Definitely big enough to cuddle up in on the porch as I look out on the morning rain.

I kinda wanted to just stay on the porch this morning, enjoying the cool and the wet, but alas, duty calls.

Hopefully, whoever is enjoying the quilt won't notice the way I had to improvise to complete the top and bottom rows.  If someone does notice, hopefully she will see it as part of the charm of a scrappy quilt.  After all, my favorite quilt book of all time and the one who got me started along this delightful, fabric-filled journey, is Roberta Horton's Scrap Quilts - The Art of Making Do!

Biased

Bias.  The thought of working with it scares me.  I have visions of unintentionally wonky blocks that won't lay flat no matter what you do to them.  So when I saw that we were making Lone Star blocks in Let's Bee Together, I was scared.  Bias AND Y-seams - yikes!  But it turns out, the method she has us using to make the blocks doesn't include any Y-seams (yay!), and the fabric behaved, bias and all.  I love the fabric she sent, Kate Spain's Central Park, and enjoyed playing with it.  There was even enough scrap for me to add a 1.5" square of each of the 4 fabrics to my scrap tins.  :)

My two blocks - they aren't squared up per her instructions.  I could perhaps see me making this block for myself one day...perhaps.  Maybe as the center of a medallion quilt.

While sewing those, I worked on getting my Scrappy Strips Star quilt sewn together, as she sent the two blocks she made for me at the same time she sent her fabrics.  My goal is to have the top assembled before Saturday so I can take it with me to quilt on my first recruiting trip.  I think it is a perfect candidate for big stitch quilting with colorful embroidery floss.

Now, to completely change the subject - last Thursday and Friday was my office retreat.  As we have for the last 4 years, we spent the night at Fort Lewis Lodge - I love that place!  Not only is it beautiful, but there are quilts on every bed!  This was my room this year.  I have made a point of sleeping in a different room every year so I can enjoy ALL the quilts.

Then, this weekend, a friend visited from Atlanta, and I had a great time showing her around south western Virginia.  I know I am biased, but it is breathtakingly beautiful here.  Seeing it through someone else's eyes helped remind me of how blessed I am to live here.  We went places I've never been, and did things I've never done.  For one thing, we bought an enormous whole trout and cooked it on the grill.  My kids were quite impressed that the head was still attached to the fish (ick!), and Jason declared that he wanted the head.  My friend's husband is from Cameroon, and she explained how the head is actually the "honor piece".  I was skeptical, but she showed him how to remove the meat from the head, and the fool even ate an EYEBALL!  If you are squeamish, look away NOW!

Better and better

If I was happy when I wrote my last post, right now, I am over the moon! 

Yesterday, I received an email from a gentleman who had been in my booth on Saturday.  He praised my work and said he'd taken my card and visited my ETSY shop.  There was a quilt on there that he wanted to buy for his wife, but he didn't have a PayPal account so could he pay by check?

Woo hoo!  My first bed-sized quilt sale!  Do you know how much FABRIC I can buy with $600???  And since he is paying by check, I have some more time to spend with Pick and Choose before she is gone for good.  I love that quilt, but I'm a quilter - I can make another if I want to.

So that was what made my day great, but the icing on the cake was when a co-worker texted me to let me know that my picture was in the paper.  Of course I ran out and bought 4 copies right away!



Me, setting up my booth for the Community Festival.  I'm hanging my Scrabble Tile earrings, which were a hit.  You can see part of Pick and Choose draped over the rack.

I hope your day brings as many happy surprises as mine did!

It's all good!

I have nothing to complain about today!  My beautiful first-born son is celebrating his 10th birthday today:

My zig zag quilt is on its way back from Marcia, from whom I won free quilting in a giveaway on her blog.  (by the way, you might want to go visit her - she's having another giveaway...)

C'mon, somebody have a baby - I'm READY with a fun quilt to give!  I love how she added all the circles to my dots!

I had a FANTASTIC time at my booth at the Community Festival on Saturday.  The sun didn't shine, but it didn't pour down rain, either.  Instead, there were intermittent light showers that didn't really scare away the crowds.  Remember this quilt from my quilting bee at my house years ago? 

Funny thing - the woman in the striped shirt holding her hands up was in my booth this Saturday!

It still isn't done, so I set it up in my Ulmer frame in my booth and taught anybody who wanted to learn how to put in a few stitches.  About a dozen people sat down and learned how to prick their own fingers.  :)

As quilts are wont to do, the ones I had hanging from the sides of my booth drew people in and they stayed and shared stories of quilts and quilters from their past, both men and women alike.  I wasn't alone once the entire day.  What a wonderful way to spend the day, stitching and chatting with old friends and making new ones.  PLUS, some kind souls even BOUGHT stuff from me!  I had 14 paying customers total, and made back my reservation fee, lunch for me and the boys, and took home a tidy profit to boot!  All in all, a great day!  Unfortunately, I don't have photos, but many people took photos of my booth or items in my booth, so maybe I'll see some here and there that I can share.

And, as if that weren't enough wonderfulness in my life, a good friend is coming to stay with me over the Labor Day weekend!  Ain't life GRAND!