LaVieEnRosie

Reset...

I think I wrote something about being back sooner than today.  But as I've written to friends this past week, ideas, thoughts, to-do's and don't-forgets tend to spontaneously explode in the heat, leaving me with little puffs of smoke coming out of my ears.    

That about covers it.  

But I haven't forgotten the important things on my list.  

Monday - June 25th at 4:00 pm EST - 3:00 pm CST - 2:00 pm MST - 1:00 pm PST ~ Tune into American Patchwork & Quilting Radio with Pat Sloan!

Who's on?  

Two friends!  Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts.  And Camille Roskelley of Thimbleblossoms and Planet Simplify. 

And somebody else.  Not sure who.  But it will be entertaining to find out what might go wrong this time.  The first time, the show's computer malfunctioned and the telephone call was dropped mid-way through the interview.  The second time, there was competition from vacuum cleaners, doorbells and jets.  What's left?  Locusts?  I suppose I should be happy that I'm not in Texas preparing for a visit from Debby.

Here's what Pat has to say about Monday's show!

Take 5!  I've got books!  Yes, books... as in two of them!  

• Patti Wiggs - who wrote on Tuesday at 5:42 PM... Great to see more pictures of the quilts in Kathy's new book -- one worth adding to the book collection. Anxious to choose one to use five.
• Jen -  who wrote on Tuesday at 3:51 AM... I already have a fabric in mind for the Stars pattern! What a great concept! I'd love to win a copy of that book!

Ladies, if you'll check your e-mail boxes, there should be an e-mail from me asking for your mailing addresses.

To everyone who left a comment - thank you.  I appreciate it, and if I had books to give everyone, I would definitely do it because it is a terrific book - a worthy addition to any quilter's library.  If you can't find it at your local quilt shop, or if you don't have a local quilt shop, you might want to check the Martingale website.  E-books are on sale for $9.99 through Monday - June 25th.  (I bought the e-book this weekend so that's why Jen is getting the copy Kathy sent me.)  

Finally, since Mondays are the start of a new week, it's finally time for some new patterns.  They'll be in the shop on Monday morning and I'll be back by Wednesday to tell you a little more about each one.  

Really.  Wednesday.  Two days after today - Monday.  

Unless it's hot and my head explodes.  Or my computer.  

See you on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio!

Same Pat-time!  Same Pat-channel!

[Hehe  Really, how many chances does anyone ever get to use that line?]

[I know.  The answer is "too many".]

Five? Just five?

I know.  I was confused too.  Kathy Brown asked me to review her new book.  

Five fabrics.  JUST five fabrics.  In one quilt.  I'm pretty much on record as stating that if five fabrics are good, fifty-five have to be better.  After all, more is better, right?

Apparently not.  

Five is fabulous.  Five is fantastic.  Five is perfect.  And yes, Kathy, the lovely lady and brilliant mind that is The Teacher's Pet, has convinced me.  Less is more.

I should have trusted Kathy.  If she said it could be done, then it could be.  Then again, maybe it only works because she designed the quits.  Whatever the case, I should have known better than to doubt a Louisiana girl, they're pretty smart about these kinds of things.  If you don't already know, Kathy has written several terrific quilt books - Take 5: Quilts From Just 5 Fabrics and Strip-Smart Quilts: 16 Designs from One Easy Technique.  It's about what you'd expect from a smart girl from Louisiana.

Rulers.  Fabric.  Books.  Gadgets.  Pet-lover ~ four dogs and seven cats.  Great quilt teacher and lecturer.  Wife.  Mom.  And really nice lady.

All that, and she still talks to me!  I know.  I'm confused too.  

In all seriousness ~ yeah, right, that's me... ~ I love the book.  

It goes without saying that every quilt in the book could be made with scraps, fat quarters and even pre-cuts.  That's the easy part.  The beauty of this book, and what puts it at the head of the class (I'm sorry... I couldn't help myself.) is that they are perfectly suited for just the five fabrics.  At a time when every one of us is wanting to sew up some of of our stash, these sixteen quilts will keep you busy for awhile.  These quilts are the real "stash-busters" because they can be made with the kind of stash most of us actually have.   

This is Rocks With the Stars.  The starting point is a couple of yards of a medium-to-big "focus" print.  Can I have a show of hands of who doesn't have four or five of these sorts of pieces in the fabric closet?  I should probably raise both hands.  

While Kathy's style is what I would probably call "updated traditional", every design works for any style of fabric.  From clean and modern to country and/or primitive, reproduction to eclectic, batiks to brights, these designs will work with those fabrics.  

Loves Coffee Milk.  I love this quilt ~ it just might be my favorite.  Have you been itching to make a quilt using all solids?  Brights, neutrals, modern or pastel, you only have to worry about picking five colors!  Even if you completely change the  color palette and use prints, Kathy's directions and method for making this quilt will give you perfect results without having to worry about fabrics and/or colors touching.  

This is Gets a Buzz Cut.  I love this block.  I've used this block in a scrap quilt.  So how is it that Kathy used just five fabrics and made it look scrappier than mine?  That's probably my favorite single thing about this book - even though all sixteen of the quilts use just five fabrics, each one of them looks like they have more fabrics than that.  She's made quilts that look like scrap quilts but aren't.  That's genius.  

Do you think that might be why Kathy is the Teacher's Pet?  Make sure you go say Hi to Kathy!  

Here's what you need to do - leave a comment on this post by midnight on Wednesday, June 20th to be entered to win a copy of Kathy's book, More Take 5 Quilts.  The winner will be announce on Thursday.

And don't forget you still have four other chances to win:

• Tara Lynn Darr of Sew Unique Creations.  Tara posted yesterday, she also loved Kathy's book... but I'll let her tell you all about it.  
• Moi.
• Pam Vieira-McGinnis of PamKittyMorning.  
• Barbara Groves & Mary Jacobsen of Me & My Sister.  (Pssst... Please go remind Barb that she's older than I am.  And Mary is the same age.) 
• Vanessa Christensen of V and Co. .  

And that's all she wrote.  

Until tomorrow.  

That's when she'll have wrote more.  

 

Five...

Five is the luckiest number that you'll ever do... no, I am so not singing or re-writing any more song lyrics.  Well, not today anyway.

But five is a good number this week because Kathy Brown ~ aka the Teacher's Pet ~ has asked five of her buds, friends, pals, and posse to tell you all about her new book, More Take Five Quilts.  

It is the terrific follow-up to her bestselling book, Take 5 Quilts ~ Quilts Made From Just 5 Fabrics.

If you hang around for five days this week, you could win one of the five books being given away... though I bet there are a few more than that.  Here are the five:

Monday ~ Tara Lynn Darr of Sew Unique Creations.  I think I met Tara at my first Market almost ten years ago.  We were both just out of high school.  She is flat-out, bar-none, absolutely one of the nicest people in the quilting business... though it was just a little annoying that she released 237 new patterns at Spring Market in Kansas City and every single one of them is an I-need-that-now-kind of project.  

Tuesday ~ Rosie's Alter Ego

Wednesday ~ Pam-Viera McGinnis of PamKittyMorning.  Pam was in my workroom this weekend.  Well, not her personally, but her oh-my-goodness lovely fabric, PamKittyMorning was there and I was cutting and sewing and pressing to my heart's content.  Though I think my heart is going to need more of that fabric soon... and the PKM Love.  Visit Pam on Wednesday but watch out for the spider.  

Thursday ~ Barbara Groves & Mary Jacobsen of Me & My Sister.  I've known Barb and Mary for at least fifteen years, which means I know the "real them".  I was there when Barb got up on the cutting table in the store to dance to a movie soundtrack, and I was there when she learned about the capillary action of water on sweatpants... and that's all I'm saying about that.    

Friday ~ Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.  While I haven't met Vanessa, I have met her fabric and Simply Color is Simply Terrific.  

Make that six, counting Kathy - the leader of the pack.

As for life here on the home-front:  it's hot.  HOT.  But good.  I'll be back a few times this week... I know, I'll believe it when I see it too.  Baby steps, right?

I didn't have any pictures of anything to share so I borrowed one from a magazine - one that I saved for my bulletin board.  It just makes me happy and it is a nice almost-Father's Day sort of picture.    

Until tomorrow!  

Now go say Hi to Tara and Kathy!

Sunny days...

Literally and figuratively.  Things are looking up and good in Rosieland.  

While I'm sorry that I haven't been able to thank each of you individually, I truly appreciated your kind thoughts and good wishes for my Mom.  It definitely worked!

My Mom has been home for a little over a week now and she's doing really well.  While we're still adjusting to a few changes, her improvement this past week is such that she's probably the best she's been in a year.  It's amazing what being pain-free and able to sleep can do for a person.

With the outlook here being a little sunnier and happier, I've managed to get back to work a bit and finish up a few things.  Some patterns, a little bit of sewing and a crafting task with my hot glue gun have been on the agenda.  

Okay, so this isn't a whole lot to show for my sewing but this is the only thing I have that was actually finished.  I'm not really in love with the navy perle cotton but that was what I had on hand that looked the best.  When you've only got about 30 minutes and a leftover 5" "test block", you do what you can.  I experimented with the filling because my goal is to get it so that it has enough squish to allow it to be "pinched" by the perle cotton but also have a little bit of weight to it.  The Beta testing for Pinkeep v.1 went well but after deciding I could improve on it, I went in search of another block.    

When I get caught up with everything else and have a little bit more time, I think I'm going to have to continue working out my filling issues.  It's getting better but it isn't "perfect" yet.  Still, I like the way they both turned out and they look very nice on my shelf.   

On the quilt/work front there are four new Schnibbles patterns being printed later this week, and I think a big quilt pattern too.  While the Leap Year PDF will be in the online store in another day or so, the other three will go up when the paper patterns are complete.  At this point, the instructions are done and I'm just waiting for covers.  After that, there will be a few more Schnibbles patterns next month and something else, the result of my latest experiment and/or flight of fancy.  For now, let it suffice to say that when I first heard about [name of whatever], I thought it was kind of silly.  But as with too many things, the thought of [it] kept rolling around in my head until I got an idea.  That lead to another one and so on.  

In the meantime, there is a little sewing going on in bits and pieces.  Again, literally and figuratively.  

The mail has helped me out too as I started working on the new pieced Summer Block of the Week from Primitive Gatherings.  It arrived on Friday and I've finished all of my blocks for this week.    

After having so much fun with both of the Summer Blocks of the Week last year and then seeing the terrific blocks planned for this Summer, I couldn't miss out on the fun.  There's a pretty good chance that I'll wind up changing something with the pieced quilt again this time but not because I think I'm making it better.  As if?!  I don't mind that everybody else's quilt will be better than mine so long as mine is different.  It's odd and compulsive and rather silly, but I just can't help myself.  Besides, I still have all these great charm packs that I bought at the shop that I can use for those lovely blocks.     

As for my hot-glue-gun adventure, the impetus for that was simple -- I have this corkboard in my sewing room and I needed some "new" tacks.  Since I was having a hard time finding any that I really liked -- I know... picky, picky, picky... they're just tacks! -- I  decided to make my own.

I stuck them into a small square of cork to make it easier to glue the buttons on.  

This is what I stare at when I'm at the ironing board.  The little embroidered redwork rooster under the stamps?  I didn't stitch that, Ginger did.  It is stitched with a single strand of embroidery floss and measures about an inch across.  I'm not at all sure how I wound up with that piece of fabric but she's not getting it back.  Ever.  This is as close as I'll ever get to stitching that tiny and perfect.    

As for the stamps, I'm not really a Hello Kitty girl but I thought these stamps were way too cute not to save.  

That's pretty much what's been going on here the past week.  I was thinking it sounded a little boring but there are times when a little bit of boring is a good thing.  Given the alternative, I could get used to boring.  

So until I have more to share, I hope you're having sunny skies and good days too.  Though hopefully not boring... I need the vicarious thrill.