Bountiful Baskets Custom Quilting

"Bountiful Baskets"

There are more and more requests for custom quilting coming, and I always feel it's a great learning experience. When I was approached a few months ago about doing a quilt pattern called Bountiful Baskets by Pearl P. Pereira, I started doing my research. Planning how to quilt a piece usually starts with looking to see what everyone else has done. In this case, though, there was very little to go on. Next, I searched for applique quilts, and that was nearly endless. So I gathered my ideas, and met with this quilt's maker, Vickie Thomas. 

Spin Drift: 9

Reach In and Touch Them

Don't they look alive? Like you could feel they're cool, rubbery leaves if you swept your fingers across the fabric. I love this digital print! Maybe it has something to do with my fettish with succulents. They're like collecting Beanie Babies. Each slightly different, and low care. I find I can winter over dozens under fluorescent lights, and my world is still green on gray days. 

Spin Drift: 8

Cornerstone Dresden Plates

Shall I admit that I have rarely, if ever, made a whole quilt from a pattern created by someone else? As I sit up late at night writing to you--I slept for hours, and am now awake having thought street tacos were a good choice to eat late, I am working to remember. Okay, oh, yes, Moda Modern was one except in prints, and I believe two more patterns over the years perhaps. But none that I even loosely followed someone else's color scheme as well as the pattern. This must be my first, and admittedly, I have enjoyed following without leading. Not recreating the wheel, a friend tells me. There is joy in that when the rest of our lives are a bit helter skelter. Just follow the directions step by step.

Spin Drift:7

A Friday Sneak Peak!

I just can't stand it any longer. I'm not really good at secret projects, and have been dying to show you how this quilt is coming together. Dang! Isn't this a fun quilt!? The litmus test is when you put a section together on the wall, stand back, and giggle. I've laughed out loud many times, and admittedly photo bombed several friends with this marathon project. My studio has been my happy place!

Spin Drift: 6

Mixed Media Fantasy

Have you noticed how many more digital prints your local quilt stores are carrying this year? They're everywhere now. I stood in a shop yesterday watching people's reactions as they walked by a long rack of them. Several quilters paused longer to look at them, but none reached out to touch them. Interesting, I thought, but why? 

Spin Drift: 5

How Tweet It Is!

We feed the birds throughout the fall, winter, and spring. Sure, on the edge of a large woods they can forage for food, and especially during such a mild winter as we're having, but we feed to draw them in. We want to see the red cardinals, graphic woodpeckers, little gray juncos and titmice, yellow-green false canaries, brown sparrows and wrens, and even those nasty blue jays color our world when most things are gray. It's been a green winter here, but still the birds add so much color.

Spin Drift: 4

Memories of My Garden

My garden is not particularly planned. It's more of a jumble of plants I've bought or been given. Many have to be heeled in quickly, and quite often I have to move one after the fact. It might not like the sun or wind in that spot, or maybe it spreads enough to block another favorite. It may appear messy to some, but most often there is a sense of order in my mind. It's controlled chaos at best.

Spin Drift:3

Oh, the Romance of Rome!

As they say, "All roads lead to Rome", but have you ever been to Rome? It was many moons past for me, but it is a city still etched in my memory. Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and a shabby pensione that overlooked a courtyard fountain. I was 16, and backpacking across Europe--yes, I had a young, daring spirit even then, not to mention trusting parents, and Rome was--hot. Don't laugh, but that was absolutely one of my most vivid memories. There was a heat wave, and I was carrying an overloaded pack. See how I can bring a romantic travel experience down to a base level?

Spin Drift: 2

Dresden Block #2

I decided to show you the blocks in the order I made them. It's interesting how we intuitively change our fabric choices as we progress with a pattern. If one block is high drama, the next might be toned down, and so on. While we can only have one princess at a party, quilts can handle more than one, but not all. 

Spin Drift: It Begins

Spin Drift

Pattern by Michelle McKillop 
for Jen Kingwell Designs

Are you ready for a few weeks full of quilter's eye candy? Then stayed tuned each day as I roll through all the blocks I've completed for this quilt. They are gorgeous because the pattern was made for the fabric! "What?!" you say. Well, this pattern was made especially to use those large scale prints we all love, and have to buy a little of, but struggle to use in our quilts. I was dying to get mine into a quilt so this was a heavenly match. It was like having the Oreo cookies, and finding cream filling! 

Vintage Drunkard's Path

Vintage Indigo Drunkard's Path

It's kind of funny. I often get requests for business cards, but stall to print any as I ruminate over what to put on them. Julie Stocker: Quilt Hunter, Quilt Detective, Quilt Rescue Society, etc. (And seriously I know I need to break down, and just get something printed, but I'm obsessive about this kind of thing.) For those of you who know me only as a quilter, I also love to discover old quilts and the stories behind them.

Quilt for a Hard Rocker

2020 Quilts for Family

I get requests for quilts fairly often, and I used to spend a lot of time asking what colors people liked, if they saw something on Pinterest, etc. It's led me down a few roads I'd rather not travel anymore. I've gotten smarter. If someone asks for a quilt, I get to pick it. That's it. My choice. 

Scrappy Trips Around the World Quilt with Borders

Scrappy Trips Around the World with Borders

It's time to pick up where I left off so here I am. I will tell you I sit down with the intention to write a beautiful post, and after taking care of other humdrum computer business I think, "Oh, it will wait until tomorrow." Well, it's tomorrow. 

Domestic & Long Arm Collaborative Quilting Process

Inspirational Embroidery

A very good friend of mine showed me this project in its earliest stages. She'd found this center block, a beautiful piece of vintage embroidery, from over the pond. She was working on a way to incorporate it into a quilt using some Blocks of the Month, and her batik stash. 

Digital Quilting Design #2: Ogee Bulb

Oh, Gee, Ogees!

Take 2 on my digital quilting design work. I think this new pattern was a great way to elevate a one patch quilt design to a fun, new level. It gave it great texture while still keep it soft and cozy, and added a lot of visual interest, too.

Amish Bright & A Gentle Shift

"Amish Bright"
26" x 26"

The New Year is knocking! Are you ready? Maybe you'll do the same thing I will, and greet 2020 with the first sunrise instead of the clock strike at midnight. Either way, Happy New Year to you, and a toast to our past, present, and future together! Julie Stocker Quilts at Pink Doxies is over 5 years old now, and ready for a shift. Notice I said shift and not change. Shift is my word for 2020. More about that to come. 

First Steps to Digitizing Long Arm Designs

Vinegar Fizz

A little restaurant at the Las Vegas Wynn, Parasol Up Parasol Down, has an intriguing draw. As you watch from the balcony, decorated parasols creep both up and down in rhythm while suspended from the ceiling. It's mesmerizing and calming--a change from the typical Vegas scene of lights and noise. I had the same sensation both designing this geometric pattern, and watching it stitch out. 

Digital design is a seductive blending of creativity, software design, and physical mechanics, and my tools to battle the dreaded meander. There are moments and quilts that a meander satisfies, but it takes such little extra effort to use a decorative edge-to-edge pattern. 

Long Arming Christmas Quilts

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

While most people spent the last months of 2019 thinking about how to decorate their homes for the holidays, my decorating thoughts have been all about how to finish my customers' holiday quilts! Stacks of quilts big and small passed through my studio these past 2 months. I felt like the Head Elf after so many marathon sessions, and all--but my own--were finished as promised. You know how the cobbler's children always go without shoes. Mine will get finished, but perhaps not in time for Christmas this year.

Would you like to see some of the Lovelies I've been working on?

Roll of Quilts & Shredding Thread

Fresh Off the Longarm

Things have really been moo-ving around here since I hung out my shingle as a longarm quilter. I'm learning there is a fine line between busy and swamped, and that can change in a breath if I'm not careful. With Christmas around the corner, I'm in the swamped camp with most other quilters. Time management is important, but I'm enjoying the pace. 

Blog posts have been few and far between, but I have dog sitting duty today, and thought I'd show you some of the fabulous quilts by customers brought to me for quilting. 

Update: 1930's Depression Era Quilting

 Quilting Revision

Imagine this: You're laying in bed in the middle of the night wondering if you should have added more quilting to a project. The batting package said, Quilt up to 8-10" apart. You wonder, "In every direction or does it count if there's 2" and then a channel?" The dog whines. You let the dog out, and you---dumb, dumb, dumb, you check your phone. And someone on your quilting list says, "I wonder if she put enough quilting around those plates?" That is cause for a hot flash, and you are wide awake, sister! Not to mention the quilt has already traveled half an hour back to the store for pick up for binding. Now aren't you glad this isn't you, but me?

Longarming a 1930's Dresden Plate Quilt

"Oh, What Shall I Quilt on Monday?"

Just a tiny tongue-in-cheek, but not really true in this case. I just actively began taking in outside quilting. Not enough to be bombarded, but figuring 15-20 hours a week would be a nice pace for me. It's been most enjoyable so far, and I've met some talented quilters. But the person who pieced this quilt top is gone, and she or he left behind a legacy for future generations. Lucky me, I was asked to finish it.

Fall Themed Charity Quilts

All the Colors of Fall Fabrics

The charity quilt tops I've pulled to quilt recently definitely have fall vibrations. I'm drawn to these earth tones! Rich burgundies, greens, and golds are mainstays of our fall palettes.

Machine Pieced Hexies Progress

The Final (Organic) Layout

In my free sewing time, I'm following along with Mary Huey's Scrappy Hexagon Quilt. Her method allows for chain piecing these bad boy angles, and makes it easy to whip up a crazy, difficult quilt in no time. (It's kind of like the magic of having an Instant Pot, ya know?) Last week's post had us laying out the sets we'd made. Groups of 4, 3's, and a few 2's. Then the border or edge pieces were cut, and the whole shebang laid out as one quilt. 

Hex, Hexe, Hexie: What's the Link?

Hex, Hexe, Hexie: What's the Link?

My brain always itches to know the whats and hows and whys when I see possible connections--especially in the quilt world. This one didn't fail me either. There is one. I'll get to that in a minute. 

Vintage Feathered Star Scrap Quilt

Clean and Fresh

A friend of mine has a passion for antiques of all kinds. He's always on the trail for interesting textiles worth saving too. So when he called me about a local quilt he'd found, I first asked what the pattern was. He hadn't a clue. When I finally saw it the next day, he asked me. I hadn't a clue either. It was so scrappy, and so dirty, it was was hard to see the pattern. We could make out a star here and there, but what were the alternate blocks?

Official Start of Fall Sewing

Two Friends and One Heavenly Afternoon

Yesterday was the first official weekly meet up of the season in my studio. (I cleaned for TWO days! It was a great summer surrounded with my boxes of sewing stuff, but I buckled down for a serious cleaning at last.) Scraps still haven't been sorted, but they are in boxes at last. Out of sight, out of mind for now. Instead, we hit the stash for a quick strip quilt, and some satisfying sewing.

Custom Prostitcher Quilting: Urban Cottage Star

The Adventures with Prostitcher Continue

Let me show you the pretty finish at the start. But like everything, there's a story behind this project. There's always more than meets the eye! Follow with me as I explain the process, and for some more eye candy to follow.

Baby Postcard from Sweden & Dragger

Vibrance!

Many long months ago I promised a baby quilt for a friend--a grandmother-soon-to-be, and immediately after my life was swamped. It was one big thing after the next. Life can be that way, you know. My sewing projects were shut down tight. Six long months later the storm of activity has officially passed, and we're all breathing easier, thank you. I am gratefully, intentionally back to sewing. It's like a dream waking up with permission to say to myself, "Today I am going to sew!" And sew, I have.

Walnut Creek Vintage Fair 2019 & Linky Party

The Rosy Fingers of Dawn: 7:00 Arrival

Living in the heart of quilt country has its advantages if you pay attention. The Walnut Creek Vintage Fair has been around for several years now, but I first heard about it last week when a friend said she was vending vintage fabric there, and I should come. I coerced my daughter and soon-to-be daughter-in-law to wake early on their Friday-day-off, and off we went. My advice to bring extra shoes was helpful because there was water in the parking field despite the gorgeous dawn. Little did we know that the dark skies we had experienced in the late afternoon the day before had brought a torrential storm here. It wreacked havoc on the vendors who had already set up shop. Large puddles persisted as we entered the market. Muck boots were haute couture, and more than just a good look.

Choosing Quilting Patterns & Motifs

Postcard from Sweden: Baby Version

It has been months since I woke up in the middle of the night with clouds of swirling thoughts. When this happens, I feel like I am stuck in sleep mode yet awake. All the unrealistic thoughts that would be dreams--especially those that might be nightmares while asleep are processed while wide awake. It's like having surgery without the anesthetic. The so-called creative, free-associating side of the brain runs without the conscious filter of the other half. A monkey brain. I worry about things in the dark I could talk myself out of in daylight. Yuck. But sleep finally comes, and I swear the next morning to never drink caffeine so late in the day again. 

Cultivating Quilts

Postcard from Sweden for Baby

Early February this past winter, I promised a quilt. A cascade of family events moved life far away from our ordinary pace, and seemed to have taken ages to return. Have you ever uttered to yourself, "I just want to catch up." And so, in spite of spring rains, and all kinds of new things I'm cramming to learn until my brain hurts, I feel closer to caught up than in months. True, we still need groceries, and are hunting for clean laundry throughout baskets parked down a hall, but sorting life on the outside is not the same as our inner life. We first seek peace in our hearts, and watch it follow in our world. 

Studio Reno & Learning ProStitcher Sortware

Charity Quilt Back 
with ProStitcher Premium

Combining a healthy portion of pride, reasonable self-criticism, and buckets full of gratitude to all the help I've been blessed with, I've made good progress. Is it perfect? Heck, no, but it's quilted, and looks darned good! Sure, I was so nervous setting it all up I forgot to stagger the design, but as Beth from Cooking Up Quilts said, "Tell them it was a design choice." Beth, who has been at the other end of the line patiently listening to me fret and wail, and answered with giggles as well as the right answer. I'm so grateful she's several steps ahead of me in learning. Thanks, Beth!

Quilt Studio Renovation

The Great Renovation Begins

There should be a sign on the studio:

New Hours: Severely Limited

or more appropriately labeled,

Warning! Construction Zone
Enter at Your Own Risk!

Gratitude: Piece On for Spring

Watching Spring Creep In

Hasn't this been the longest winter ever? I can't remember a year I wanted spring so badly while the last of its months dragged on with cold, wet days. It was interminable.

Cloth Basket Ideas

Cloth Basket: Quick Sew

How's that for a quick gift in under an hour? My daughter asked me weeks ago for a small gift for a co-worker, and I forgot until the 11th hour. It didn't take long to check this one off, though. Cloth baskets are wonderful for highlighting pretty fabrics, using up remnants, and easy to personalize for individual uses. While I typically use a denser, iron-on batting, it was nowhere to be discovered. I resorted to a quilt batting remnant, and it made for a slouchier construction. A little straight-line quilting adding some body, and more would have even been better in hindsight. 

I would love to make a grouping of smaller baskets using this method, and tack them together in a group. Wouldn't that add a bit of color on a nightstand to hold hair clips, earrings, and those little things that typically get misplaced? 

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

     

Thursday's Tips

Pfaff Creative Performance: New to Me

Over the past winter, I've had my share of problems with my older Pfaff sewing machines. Two shorted out their motherboards (Read, "More expensive to fix than the value of the machine"), and another had tension or mechanical issues. It was a constant rotation to find or borrow one that was in working order. Maybe a newer machine was what I needed. Thanks to a husband with a keen eye to Craigslist he spotted this one. It was only 6 years old, but a buy for me compared to new. I will admit there was an initial learning curve--and I'm far from a whiz on her, but I'm back to piecing finally. She came with all the embroidery attachment bells and whistles, but I'm not even venturing there yet.

Marching Along with Charity Quilts

The Awesome, Official End of the Polyester Batting

Isn't that great texture? I love how this quilt turned out in spite of the waviness. Polyester batting in a comforter thickness is not conducive to detailed quilting. Even with widely spaced stitching, the tension causes it to draw up in spots. Still it will be a wonderful quilt for someone to snuggle under, and the vintage fabrics give it a 60's retro vibe.

It's been a real task to use up the last of the monster roll of poly comforter batting, but this marks the end. Thank you, and Amen! The road ahead is smooth sailing with cotton.

Quilts In the Width of a Week

My $4 Fabric Fun

I love to tell people, "I can make a quilt out of almost any fabric." You don't need the latest and greatest (or highest priced) fabric to make a fantastic quilt. You just need good contrast, and something in common. It's like the great game of SET for those of you who play. Now, I'm not saying this is going to be worthy of entry into Quilt Con--to which I'll be visiting next week, and hope to meet any of you who will be there, too--but wait until you see just how darn cute this new quilt is turning out! And for an honest disclosure, the batik was higher at $5 a yard, not $4. 

Lots of Quilts & Ramblings

Finished Beauties Added to the Stack

Last week's sewing detail for the Gnadenhutten Quilt Project was full of finishes, but I might also say we have quilts in every stage right now. It's wonderful how we are working as a team. Each person in our little group seems to have found their niche for what suits them. My mom is happy working on blocks at home between meetings, and coming in with a stack that can be turned into a quick top. 

Gnadenhutten Quilt Project:January Quilts

Simple Labels: Gnadenhutten

Quilt Project

Allow me to catch you up to speed on why I've been an infrequent blogger these past weeks. I've been buried in quilts, and isn't that the most glorious thing you could imagine? Ah...yes, it is!

The Gluten-Free Quilt Issue

To Quilts & Beyond!

In spite of sounding like that tinny, pull-string recording of Buzz Light Year, I keep repeating the theme of My Life Beyond Quilts. Perhaps I've poured the essence of my mental and emotional energy into learning everything I could about quilts for the past 5 years, and neglected to honor my other needs. As Creatives, we do this. It's all or nothing, baby! We self-consume. We eat that one food everyday until it grows tasteless, and think, "What have I been missing?" Don't get me wrong. I still adore quilts, but I'm adding a few spices now for flavor. 

2019 Quilts and Beyond: Bluprint

Do you like the new header? I keep looking at it like a new haircut in the mirror, but I do. I like the freshness. I spent a lot of time with a talented gal working out all kinds of graphics this fall, and was waiting for just the right time to change it. This is it. 2019 is going to be a year full of tweaks. Tweak meaning fine adjustments along with some sharp pulls. Tweak as in no sweeping changes in view. Just some little ones. And, while we were working on the new logo, I was was trying to define an image that represented what this blog, Pink Doxies, was now. That turned out to be very enlightening.

Happy New Year, 2019!

Delectable Mountains Variation

Welcome 2019! I hope the year came in the way you wanted whether quietly or with a bang. For the first year in decades, I was awake at midnight listening to fireworks off in the distance as I crept upstairs to bed. There was no kissing, though, as the Mister has a bad cold, and I am doing my best to keep it from catching it. 

The last few days have been low-key while he recovers, and I have taken advantage of the time to sew a few blocks. I used some Anna Marie Horner fat quarter scraps, and Sakura yardage from Moda to test out the method from the YouTube video below.

The Gnadenhutten Quilt Project

Olive Branch Quilts

And so it begins. Ready for the cliffhanger ending? Let me only say the ending is really the beginning. Imagine me sitting amidst my pile of scraps only a week and a half ago to a growing stack of quilts and comforters. Quilts that will soon be delivered to a local shelter for women and children. Imagine a project that has formed to offer something handmade to someone local who may need a sign of hope. These are Olive Branch Quilts.