What Do You Get When You Mix Essex Linen With Cashmere?

Another quilt for Flicky of course!!!

I've talked about it for long enough about it and it's finally complete ... Flicky's University Quilt



It all started way back in July last year when Flicky chose an Essex Linen fabric 'La Femme Deco Vines' by Melissa Crowley for Robert Kaufman on a trip to Purl Soho and it took me until September to find a backing fabric that I loved to put with it - a Betsey Johnson cashmere plaid - and you can read all about the bargain I grabbed at Mood here:

An Unexpected Trip To Mood

There's been mention of the quilt throughout the year but not much action:

Let's Get Acquainted
 What A Girl Wants ... She Usually Gets! 
 Welcome To My Second Home 

  but all that's put to rights now with lots of help from my little furry friend Tatty - she looks pretty fed up herself with how long this quilt's taken to make!

 

Flicky wanted a lofty quilt so instead of my usual batting Quilters Dream Request Cotton I used a double layer of Quilters Dream Puff and I did wonder just how I was going to manage to quilt it through the throat of my Bernina!  I thought it would be a really hard fought battle but actually, it wasn't and it took just 3 hours to finish the quilting.



Here's an Instagram pic of Tatty helping me to sew the binding - boy I look serious!



And here's the finished quilt


 

I quilted diagonal lines following the design lines of the print and just love how it makes the vines appear 3D - they're practically climbing up over the loft of the quilt as you look at it.



 Here's the back of the quilt - that cashmere is so soft and snug and silky.



The binding is Kona Solid - Robin Egg and it really makes the blue line running through the cashmere plaid pop.








The best of it is that, although Flicky and I both love the new quilt, it turns out it's incredibly heavy and thick to package up and send off to St Andrews.  Also it doesn't hold the same memories for Flicky that her original quilt does - you may remember I told you all about Flicky's quilt, the first quilt I ever made, here - so the consensus is that this new quilt will stay here, in Flicky's room, and her original quilt will go off with her to university to remind her of home.


Updated at 9 September 2014
On 3 August 2013 I received an email from Melissa Crowley who designed the La Femme fabric which reads:
"A friend forwarded me a pic of the quilt you made using a fabric I designed for Robert Kaufman. It's such a treat to see the vine illustration come to life in such a beautifully crafted piece! Of everything I've seen my fabrics become, your quilt is my absolute favorite"

To receive recognition from the fabric designer really made my year :D


What a really great start to the week! :)


Disclaimer: 
This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

Welcome To My Second Home - The City Quilter

Update - The City Quilter and the ArtQuilt Gallery are now closed

Earlier this week I posted this photo on my Instagram

I appropriately captioned it 'My second home, The City Quilter, Manhattan'

As the 'likes' came in my internet quilty friend Julie over @Jolie Maxtin made a fab comment that made me giggle "You just can't stay away from there can you" to which I replied "no, it's my addiction! My husband's arranging to have his salary paid directly to them, he says we might as well cut out the middle man ;) ".

Anyway, this got me thinking that as I talk about The City Quilter so much in my posts, maybe you'd like to take a look around for yourselves? So I dropped by again - you see I really don't need much of an excuse and it means I get to say 'hi' to all my wonderful friends who work there too - and I've taken lots of photos around the store to share with you.

Walking in at the main door - this week you are greeted by Liberty fabrics - this display changes regularly and all the 'new arrival' and 'seasonal' fabrics are also in this entrance area.

To your right The City Quilter's exclusive range of NYC fabrics and other NYC themed fabrics too.

More 'new arrivals' to your left

The colour wall - all quilting fabrics are sorted by colour - this is such a huge help when you're selecting fabrics. Here's Yellows through to Greens.

And the other end of the colour wall moving through to Brown/Grey/Black

Quilting threads and Kaffe Fassett's and the walls are hung with items made by the staff and the patterns and kits are all available in store.  The large quilt on the wall is 'The City Quilt' as featured in the Winter, 2013 issue of "Quilt Trends' magazine and was designed by my favourite City Quilter teacher Christine Janove, who taught me to quilt.

This centre section has buttons and felts and all those 'texture' tone on tone semi-solids like 'Timeless Treasures - Sketch', suedes, etc.  Under the front desk, there's a great selection of white and cream fabrics.

More of the 'semi-solid tone on tones' - oh and there's my daughter, Flicky, just walking into the photo on the right - wonder what project she's planning for me next!!!

This section to the back of the store has along its walls all the notions, tools and accessories that you could ever want, along with ribbons, embroidery threads, templates and patterns.  The two stands on the back wall are 'Sale' fabrics and to the left of these is a doorway to the basement and the long arm machine area.  The centre stand is children's fabrics - girls to the left and boys to the right.

A close up of that central 'children's fabric' stand - girls' side.

More children's fabrics - boys' side and soft accessories.

Moving through towards the Batik area - the circular stand in front of us is pure Tula Pink right now but it does change regularly - if you've not come across Tula before then have a read of my Tula Pink Trunk Show post.  You can see the wonderful Nancy, CQ's very own Doll and Felt Maker, in the background at the cutting desk serving my Quilt Guild friend Maria.

Again the Batiks are all arranged by colour making selection sooooo easy.

More Batiks, and I recognise that red and aqua Melissa Crawley La Femme fabric on the left - I'm currently working with it on another project for Flicky, and at the back there're rolls of laminates.

The City Quilter is an authorised dealer for Handi Quilter and Bernina - to the right there's an HQ Sweet Sixteen on the table (top of my wish list) and to the left is the Bernina area - pop in and you can try before you buy on these great machines.

The CQ classroom - obviously not set up for a class here but just look at all those lovely Bernina 550QEs waiting to be put to good use.  I've spent many fun hours in here and, of course, this is where I first learnt to quilt (read all about how I started quilting here) and where I found out that I'd won last year's Bernina Day Creative Challenge - (see my prize winning book covers here) :)

Another view looking back at the Bernina demo area on the left - oh dear, I've just realised I've not photographed the Echino//Essex Linen sections to the left of those machines and that's quite possibly my favourite section of the whole shop - how did I manage that?!!!!!!- and there's 2 centre stands with all the quilting/sewing books/magazines you could ever want.

And here's the Solids section - Kona and Michael Miller - that's at the entrance to The Art Quilt Gallery.

So that's it, a trip around my favourite and local quilt store.  There's something for everyone and the staff are just the best.  Lots of help and knowledge on hand and don't forget the incredible range of group classes that they run or you can do private classes if that's your thing.  The Art Quilt Gallery is a great source of inspiration - just take a look at my post about the exhibition 'Sunshine and Shadow' by Deb Hyde.

UPDATE!
Since writing this post I've actually started work at The City Quilter - you can read all about it in this post

Sonia, You'll Never Believe It - I Just Found The Golden Ticket!!!

If you're a sewer/quilter visiting NYC you have to make time to visit CQ, chances are you'll probably bump into me in there - and if you do my husband has just one request ... please stop me buying any more fabric!!!

UPDATE - The City Quilter closed its doors in October 2016

And here's something that I found out that is so interesting for those of you from England or Australia who can't visit Manhattan - there's two national rate numbers you can call to speak directly to The City Quilter staff to ask questions and place fabric orders:

London: 020 8123 5193

Sydney: 028 0050 292

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my side bar :D

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

Let's Get Acquainted

Last week I was asked if I'd like to move forward my 12 November slot on the Plum & June's Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop to Thursday, 11 October. I jumped at the chance - not a hope of me creating a new tutorial by then, I thought, but I'd just posted one that same evening and maybe not that many would already have seen it, so with that sorted, here I am.

For anyone who doesn't already know me, I'm Chris, I'm English, and I've been living on Manhattan's doorstep since 1 August 2011.  Thank you for visiting, and an extra big 'hi' to anyone who's also taking part in the P&J LGA Blog Hop.  Thanks also to Beth, who is Plum & June, for organising what has turned out to be one heck of a fantastic 6 month Blog Hop marathon :)

View From My Roof Garden

Tatty the Havapoo

For 20 years, I've been married to my worst enemy, Simon - since this Blog Hop started, I've wanted to say that as I can't quite believe just how many quilters are "married to their best friend" ;).  It's Simon's fault that I'm living in America and that I've given up so much to be here.  I admit I've done quite a bit of kicking and screaming along the way, but the problem is I kind of like it now and don't want to leave, but let's just keep that between us as there's a lot more mileage, yet in him not knowing!

I have one dog, Thatcher (known as Tatty to her friends and named after a woman I have much admiration for - Margaret), and then there are my three children.  Jack is 23; he graduated from uni in July and has since completed an intensive teacher training course and started teaching English at a school in Seville, Spain. 

In the middle, I have Joe, who is 22, and he too graduated from uni in July.  He's about to move to live in London as he's an aspiring actor, so if anyone knows of any roles suitable for someone bearing a remarkable resemblance to a young Hugh Grant, send me an email.

My youngest is Flicky, she lives here in America with me and today is her 18th birthday.  This is a significant birthday in England as you are now considered an adult in all respects and legally old enough to buy alcohol.  Unfortunately for Flicky, we live in America, so she won't be celebrating her big day in quite the same way that all her friends back in England celebrate theirs.  Still, I hope this shout out for her via my blog will ease her disappointment to some extent, but somehow I don't think so!!!

These photos were taken in Manhattan on Christmas Eve 2011, the last time the five of us were all together.

As is the way in my day-to-day life, I've just realised that I'm talking on and on about my family and haven't told you anything really about me, so ...

I've been sewing and knitting since I'm too young to remember.  I watched my mum knitting and then when I was about 7 I had a go myself in my bedroom.  I made a jumper for my teddy bear, Bruno, using scraps of Mum's leftover wool, and I remember how shocked she was when I showed her what I'd made as she'd had no idea I'd been watching her and learning.

I have always been artistic and creative but was pushed down a more academic route at school, as we pretty much all were back in those days.  I tailored my own clothes in my teens and 20s and then made everything for my babies as they were born, and finally, in 2006, I gave up office-based work and went back to college.  I studied Art & Design, following my creative dreams, later specialising in Ceramics and then moving into Textile Art. 

When we moved to the States, I booked myself on a quilting course and started quilting 1 year and 6 days ago today, and I haven't looked back; I've written more about learning to quilt on my blog post My Very First Ever Quilt.  I started blogging on 28 April this year, and you can also find me on Facebook, Ravelry and Pinterest - please come and have a look :)  Hopefully, my green card will arrive any time now, allowing me to set up my Etsy shop and start selling my work as my current visa doesn't allow me to earn money.



I'm an NYC Metro Mod Guild member, and I'm in their Mod Bee with my Queen Bee month, December, coming up fast.   When I'm not quilting, I can often be found at my LQS in Manhattan, searching out fabrics, attending classes and chatting with friends.  I also like to go to the NY Philharmonic Open Rehearsals on Wednesday/Thursday mornings. If you're visiting NYC and love classical music, this is an excellent way of seeing a concert for $18.




I'm counting down the days and weeks to QuiltCon, Austin, Texas, in February and hope to meet up with lots of you there so I can put faces to all the wonderful people I've met through blogging.  Be sure to let me know if you're going too :)




Here's a quick list of answers to Beth's original suggested questions for the Blog Hop:

Favourite quilting tip(s)
Using 2 small spare pieces of fabric, chain piece on and then off your main fabric piece saves thread, and the machine foot doesn't have to go up and down as it stays engaged.  That's hard to explain in writing, so I'll have to sort out a photo tutorial!!!

Favourite blogging tip(s) 
Don't write long wordy posts - this tip is very tongue in cheek as I'm the world's worst  ;)

Favourite fabric (or wish list fabric)
Currently, Aqua La Femme by Melissa Crowley and a Betsey Johnson plaid that I'm using to make a lofty quilt for Flicky to take off to uni with her next September.

Favourite craft book
Piecing, The Piece o' Cake Way by Becky Goldsmith & Linda Jenkins
a 'how to' quilting book recommended by my first quilting teacher, the fabulous Christine Janove.

Favourite book (or book you are currently reading)
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Both of my two grandads, as teenagers, fought in the WWI trenches and survived The Somme.  This book gave me my first insight into what shaped them as men and helped me understand the subsequent impact on their offspring ... my family.

Favourite children's book
Unless he was working, my Dad read to me every night while I was growing up, and every night I asked for the same story - Old Mister Glue-Pot from Tales of Green Hedges by Enid Blyton. 

Favourite quilting tool
I can't pick one as I have three that I love so much I did tutorials on using them.
June Tailor's Shape Plus Cut Ruler and Bloc-Loc and Rotating Cutting Mat

Favourite music to listen to work to
The Wanted, Neon Trees, Cee Lo Green, LMFAO, Katy Perry, Jesse J, Ed Sheeran, Olly Murs, Taio Cruz, oh and better mention One Direction as Flicky and her friend Maud run a fansite about them, Maud and the Dods.

Favourite TV shows to work to
The Great British Bake-Off

Strictly Come Dancing
Project Runway
The Good Wife

Binding
99% of the time, I machine the front binding and hand sew the back.

If I'd only known 
What excellent, encouraging people are out there sharing the same interests and equally keen to share their knowledge with you too.

Other people on the Blog Hop this week and next:
Tuesday, 9 October: Amy from Sew Incredibly Crazy and Foster from Foster Reviews It
Thursday, 11 October: Marit from Sew, love, live
Tuesday, 16 October: Vicki from Quilting Lodge Blog and Liz from Dandelion Daydream



The official theme of the Blog Hop is novelty prints. Fortunately, I posted a tutorial last week using 2 novelty prints - Echino Deer Patchwork in Purple and Circa 1934 by Cosmo Cricket for Moda. Here it is, A Laminated Mug Rug, for those who are still awake to finish reading this!

and finally, finally


Happy 18th Birthday, Flicky xxx

An Unexpected Trip to Mood

All fired up after the Tula Pink event at The City Quilter (detailed post with lots of piccies to follow), I headed off to Mood, Manhattan with Ivete from Rose Smoke.  Ivete was keen to pick up some fabric for a jacket she's making and I just tagged along because I'll go anywhere if there's fabric involved and sometimes even if there isn't!

So, long before Ivete found even the first item on her list, I'd fallen in love with a woollen plaid.  During the summer on a trip to Purl Soho daughter, F, had spotted Aqua La Femme Deco Vines Essex Linen by Melissa Crowley for Robert Kaufman.  There and then she decided that what a girl really needs to go off to university in England next Autumn is a new quilt - not just any quilt but a quilt made in this fabric and this quilt has to be lofty.  Deep joy!!!  I've never worked with lofty batting before but I picked up some tips from Kati at Kati's Quilting and Sewing as I know she used 2 layers of lofty batting in her log cabin quilt, and my nervousness is now confirmed - watch out shoulders you're in for a rough ride.  I didn't buy the fabric there and then - they didn't have anything that appealed to me for the backing and I wanted to mull it over, but it's been nagging me ever since because I knew she wanted it so much.  I went back to Purl Soho last weekend to buy the fabric regardless and they'd sold out - feel an internet search coming on!

Well when I walked into the wool section in Mood I spotted just the thing - I knew instantly that it was exactly the backing fabric that I needed, a fab pink plaid.  Off to have it cut, there was no price tag attached so I was sure to ask the price up front as, quite rightly, Mood say you have to buy fabric once cut.  As there was no tag the guy asked a colleague who confirmed $18/yard.  I'm busy contemplating how much I need for a whole quilt or whether a bed runner will do the trick ... I'll make a bed runner or throw and maybe a few cushions with the left overs, so I'll go with 3 yards ... "what exactly do you think this fabric is?" I ask, "wool" he replies, well I knew that but it feels pretty amazing for a wool plaid ... he cuts the piece and then he finds the price tag deep down inside the inner tube.  "F**k" he says, which really caught my attention, "this fabric's Betsey Johnson cashmere and it's $25/yard".  I stayed still and calm, pondering over the fact that Betsey Johnson makes fabric and knowing there was 3 yards of the stuff cut on the desk and Mood says once cut you have to buy.  He obviously wasn't best pleased at the dilemma on his hands and then he reluctantly said "I'll have to let you have it at the price I said".  I breathed a sigh of relief and did a quick mental calculation to confirm that I'd just saved $21 on what I thought was a bargain purchase anyway!

I've researched how to pre-shrink the wool before I make the quilt and found this easy method using just wet towels and the tumble dryer by Off The Cuff - (click the link and scroll down to 7 September for instructions).  I'll give it a go and let you know how I go on.

Guess I'd better get myself cracking with my internet search for Aqua La Femme before I end up with just the backing and no quilt top!

Christopher's Dress at Lord & Taylor

 

Daughter, F, loves the new wool plaid but is so much more impressed with my 'Mood' story of my face to face encounter with Fabio from Project Runway - well more of a face to neck tattoo encounter as he's a bit taller than me - it was one of those 'if I step to the left will you step to the right or step to the left as well?' moments.  Love his work but have to admit to rooting for Christopher Palu especially having seen his fab evening dress on display in Lord and Taylor's window on 5th Avenue. 

 And for anyone who might be wondering, given how this post started, Ivete got everything she needed for her jacket too - what a good day :)

PS: I've just watched this week's episode of Project Runway (the mums and babies episode) and daughter, F and I couldn't believe our eyes.  Fabio made the mum's dress from a fabric that I'm using to make a dress for F (should have made it this last summer but got carried away with my quilting!).  Just to prove that we chose it first I've taken a photo and included my Mood receipt - 30 March 2012 still it's good to know that we're 'on trend' but by the time I make the dress it'll be more like 'so last season'!!!

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.