Give that girl a treadle

A few weeks ago I drove to nearby Kalona to take copies of a Quilt County magazine article I'd written to a few of the people mentioned in the piece. Until I moved to Iowa, I thought the Amish lived only in Pennsylvania. But on a summertime drive to Kalona, about 20 miles south of Iowa City, it’s not unusual to pass a farmstead with a large garden, where Amish women walk the rows of beans and squash in bonnets, plain dresses, and bare feet. Hand-lettered signs posted by white houses and red barns advertise fresh eggs, rhubarb, and grass-fed pork. Black buggies pulled by horses wearing blinders dot the roadsides in all kinds of weather.

If you stray off the main highway you encounter Amish businesses, including a general store lit only by gas lamps that sells black shoes in all sizes, and the Stringtown Grocery, where horses and buggies are tied up outside while Amish and Mennonite families shop.Years ago, when I worked on the pediatrics ward of the hospital, we'd occasionally get Amish children and the little ones spoke no English, only a kind of German that one of my friends from Germany couldn't understand.

The good citizens of Kalona have learned to capitalize on Amish rubberneckers like me. Antique stores line the main streets and a fall festival each autumn and quilt festival each spring bring even more tourists. Over the years we've made friends with Ken and Brenda who own the Kalona Antiques Company and a furniture repair and refinishing shop. I took Ken some chairs for repair and while I was there I wandered among the dusty wooden furniture he had for sale—dressers, side tables, and an enormous Mission-style sideboard all held my attention. And then I saw the treadle sewing machine.

I actually did a lot of my early sewing on a treadle machine my mom and I bought for $10 at a yard sale when I was in junior high (and no, I'm not so old that I was a pre-teen in the days before electricity). My mom had a fancy Necchi machine that she worried about me messing up, so when we saw the treadle she told me it could be all mine and I loved the idea. I stitched up skirts and shifts, but eventually my sewing slowed and my mom took the machine out and antiqued the base a light blue and installed the Necchi in—no one remembers what happened to the machine.

There was a rush of nostalgia when I saw that dusty relic and the price wasn't bad, so I told Ken I'd take it. I'm not sure how much I'll use it and it is taking up valuable real estate, but the machine was so lovely I simply couldn't resist. It's much fancier than my first treadle...I can't get over the filigreed metal bits and the ornate transfers that are still intact on the machine.

 Probably one of the funniest moments came as I was leaving the shop. The machine didn't have the drive belt, that attaches the flywheel to the treadle, and I wondered where I'd get one. Brenda suggested I check out the Stitch and Sew Cottage next to the Kalona Antique Company. Not only did they have the name of someone who services treadle machines, they actually had drive belts in stock for $8.00. Only in a town where a portion of the population is forbidden to use electricity would there be a treadle sewing machine technician. Kalona may be only 20 miles down the road, but it's truly a world away.

Modern Quilting

Awhile back (actually, about a year ago right now) I wrote my first post for Etsy about modern quilting and the Modern Quilting Guild. I had the good fortune to chat via email with guild founders Alissa Haight Carlson and Latifah Saafir. Just tonight as I was cruising about online, one thing led to another and I came upon Alissa's blog and a post about a Modern Quilting Guild challenge with Robert Kafuman Kona Cotton Solids.

Check out Alissa's fantastic wonky rectangles, surrounded by halos of quilting, which is on her blog. If you've got a few minutes, take a peek at the many fabulous quilts from the LA Guild. There's also a Flickr group of photos of other Modern Quilting Guilds challenge quilts...haven't had time to check this out yet.

And it looks as though Jacquie Gering, the modern quilter who's inspired so many, was a guest at the LA guild...lucky them! I interviewed Jacquie a year ago January for a Stitch story...I'd been reading her blog for awhile and pitched the story of her Project Improv challenge, which inspired tons of quilters to take a stab at Modern Quilting, to Stitch magazine's editor, Tricia. It's fantastic to see how modern quilting, online challenges, and an entire community of modern quilters seems to grow and grow, and to bring into the quilting fold people who previously didn't think quilting was their thing. I so enjoyed talking with Jacquie and it's wonderful to see her influence spreading...I never cease to by the designs she comes up with, along with the thoughtful commentary she presents. She's got lots of great tutorials on her site, too. Check out Tallgrass Prairie Studio if you haven't before!

Take my breath away...

Just opened an email from a (non-quilting) camp friend, who sent me the link to a Daily Candy feature on quilter Carrie Strine. I then went to Strine's website, and then her blog. As the photo slowly loaded (my computer is rather lethargic these days) I did literally gasp...the double wedding ring quilt is the perfect combination of Modern Quilting and homage to our ancestors. Here's a quilter I'd like to more about! Thanks for the tip, Annie.

Oooo, baby love...

Just had to share these photos of Eli and Jack on the quilts that Sondra and I made for them last fall and bequeathed right before the winter holidays. I know we all believe our own babies are the most adorable, but you have to admit these two rank right up there on the Chuck-Them-Under-Their-Chins-Baby-Scale-of-Cuteness. And with expressions like these, their mom Anne looks to have a couple of engaging photo subjects who will oblige her with photo-worthiness for years to come.

Thanks for the photos, Anne!

(The quilts are the Mod Pod pattern from Carolina Patchworks. The blocks are Andover's Snorkel by Cosmo Cricket in two different colorways. Perfect for land-locked Iowa.)

Scrap-happy

I finished the top of the quilt I started a few weeks (months?) ago at Home Ec. Steff, one of the women in our quilting group used a little folded edge between her top and the border and I thought it looked so lovely I out-and-out copied it.

Of course, I didn't really think ahead about attaching it. I sewed the little strip (an inch-and-a-quarter wide, folded with right sides together) to the border and that worked out just fine for the first two sides. But then I tried the same method for the next two sides it didn't work at all. There was lots of ripping and re-sewing and cursing and gnashing of teeth—luckily the Academy Awards was on to distract me. I never did come up with an elegant solution, but it eventually worked. I ran into Steff the very next day and she told me that she'd sewn her edge to the quilt itself...Duh! A much smarter way to have done it.

Now, the trick will be to take this puppy from a top to the finished quilt stage. I'm finding I'm not a huge fan of machine quilting...I'm more piece-loving (ha!)...but I hate to pay to have a baby quilt finished, so I will likely do something simple.

Here are a few others from our group. Steff's is the one with the brown background. The other two belong to Anna and Amanda. I love how these are all so different!

Vortex to Insanity

The title of this post is from a movie (video, in those days) that my youngest daughter made with friends when they were 11 or 12. Yes, they titled their film Vortex to Insanity. I probably should have taken this as a clue that the next ten years were going to be challenging, but instead I thought it was absolutely hilarious and have pulled that title out whenever the occasion warrants. (The next ten years WERE challenging, but well worth the outcome. There's lots less insanity.)

However, a new kind of insanity has entered my life as I've discovered Twitter and Pinterest, and my already limited hours of creation have suddenly shriveled. Pinterest is a site where you can post photos of just about anything, categorize them, and then peruse others posts. There's inspiration galore here, but one feels a certain responsibility to maintain one's Pinterest boards as sites of interest. This leads to more hours online of sorting through amazing sites, blogs, etc., and drooling while looking through gorgeous homes, textiles, vignettes, scenery, etc.

And Twitter is much the same. I ping-pong between my "serious" sites (New York Times), photography (Light Stalking), lots and lots of fabric folks (too many to mention), comedians (Andy Borowitz comes to mind), a celebrity or two (Tom Hanks...John Cusack was too weird), and family and friends. In between all that I'm forced to tweet myself. It's all fun, but I do really wonder how anyone gets anything done...I noted that Lizzyhouse is taking a month off from all technology and I can understand the need. Such a brave thing!

So with that whining behind me, I share with you a few more shots from last week's Etsy post on Doris Montag and her amazing collection of tatting and crocheting. Read all about her here. I must say the comments on that story have been amazing...I love how much those items and what Doris is doing with them resonated with readers. Creating these intricate textiles is an insanity all its own, but certainly a more tactile and soothing kind of crazy...with gorgeous results.

A Book About Life and Yarn

Children's book author and illustrator Michelle Edwards http://michelledwards.com/blog/has a warm and snoggly new book for grown-ups, A Knitter's Home Companion http://www.prairielightsbooks.com/book/9781584799160. It's a comforting compendium of projects, recipes, and essays about the ways that knitting fills the interstices of her life.

The essays touch on husbands and children, on home and giving, on relationships created through textiles, even Iowa City's very own Home Ec Workshop; they're universal in appeal, yet intimate in approach. It's the kind of book that just makes you feel good about the simplest things in life, the kinds of things that occupy most of us each day.

I've gotten to know Michelle a bit, as we've met for coffee and discussed writing, or bumped into one another at Home Ec. She's been extremely generous with her time and advice as I've picked her brain about the vagaries of writing and publishing.

So check out this lovely volume. You can feel good that a kind and clever soul penned it and I promise it will be worth your while to put down your knitting needles long enough to dip into an essay or two. Its ease and warmth will soothe you like the coziest hand-knit shawl.

Sewing in fits and starts

On my stitching radar for quite some time was the Birdie Sling I'd promised my niece Anna for Christmas. Since she's in Virginia and I'm in the Midwest, I had her go to Fabric.com to pick out the three different fabrics needed for the bag. I had her do this well before the holidays, fully intending to have it finished in time for her to open it on the day.

Instead, Anna got a card with little snippets of fabric attached. (She chose a fabric from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern 2 for the handle and two from her Lotus line for the bag interior and exterior.) And it's taken me more than a month past Christmas to actually complete it. But I did a little bit over a couple of nights and last weekend and it's done.

This is the second Birdie Sling I've made for Anna. Her first was a high school graduation gift and she seemed to love and definitely used it. Last summer she sent me a photo of the now threadbare bag, asking if I could repair it. I told her it would be just the thing for Christmas.

Because she uses it so much, I decided to use the fusible fleece throughout the bag, instead of just in the exterior layer as I've done with some of them. This is the fifth I've made (others are here, here, Anna's original here, and here) and I've got an "order" for one more. Don't hold your breath, Rebecca, I don't seem to be able to whip these out very quickly!

Now my goal is to make sure Anna gets her Birdie Sling before Valentine's Day! (I did throw in a little something to help make up for the delay...hope she remembers to check the pockets.)

Addendum: I've heard back from Anna, who not only sounds quite happy with her bag, but told me that her friends were "fawning" over it (loved that she used that word)! One of them even asked if I'd be willing to make her one, too. Very sweet, I must say, even though I'm not able to go into production mode just now.

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...

One of the most fun things about writing for Etsy are all the comments that follow the post. It's very gratifying to know people are reading and that they've enjoyed what they read. This time around I wrote about how bird feeding evolved in the United States and I loved hearing from all the people who were enjoying birds at their own feeders, across the country (except for the woman from Georgia who has bluebirds at her feeder...that just made me jealous).

As always, I got excited by the research I did for the piece. Birdfeeding turns out to have a pretty fascinating timeline that includes big name writers (Thoreau), political policy (the Lacey Act of 1900, the first to protect bird and other wildlife), and 1950s suburbia (where birdfeeders were as de rigueur as cars with fins).

It also provides the perfect opportunity to share this clip from Portlandia. I haven't seen the show in its entirety, but I first saw this courtesy of Monica over at Happy Zombie. I will definitely be checking out this show, soon. Put A Bird On It!!!!!

Stitching Knits

Sewing clothing has always been a frustrating experience for me, largely because of fit. I'm your basic straight-up-and-down gal without much of a waist. It's that way whether I'm sleek or slightly plump. But sewing patterns never seemed to work for that body type...if the things fit my hips then they were too tight in my waist and if they fit my waist they'd balloon around my hips. (Except for shifts...anyone remember shifts? They were perfect for my body type.) My mom had some complicated methods for altering patterns that my math-phobic mind never let me grasp. So I quit sewing for many years, until my friend Anne taught me to quilt. It was perfect for me. I got to play with color and pattern and never had to worry about darts, set-in sleeves, or zippers.

But as time has gone by I've been intrigued by lots of kinds of sewing. And this weekend, I was brave enough to try sewing clothing again. I took a Sewing with Knits class at Home Ec Workshop with Alissa. There were five of us and it was fantastic...in four hours we all cut out and finished a long-sleeved t-shirt (and many people finished in less time). It was so satisfying, and I wore my shirt all the next day. Sorry not to have pictures, but I used a knit from Moda—a very springy turquoise and white dot from the City Weekend line by Oliver and S. It is so soft and cozy the color makes me think winter may eventually come to an end, something I've been doubting of late. And best of all, Alissa altered the pattern (a Burda pattern, I believe) for each of us in the class, so our shirts actually fit.

All this was exciting enough, but the new Stitch magazine has a fantastic article about sewing with knits, as well as some truly adorable patterns. I'm itching to try the Spiral Skirt. Check it out here. (The instructions are in the magazine.) And if this pattern isn't for you, seriously check out the issue, anyway. It's a real keeper, with explanations of great sewing techniques and tons of fantastic projects and patterns. I'm also seriously thinking about using my stash of Woolylady fabrics to do the cover pillow. And there's a Malka Dubrovsky freebie pattern here. How I love her work!

In addition, there are a couple of short articles by yours truly in the issue. One about Collecion Luna, a wonderful endeavor that seeks to preserve Guatemalan  textile traditions while provide a living for families, and another about the New Dress a Day blog, where Marissa creates a new frock each day from an old one (and it can't cost more than one dollar).

Yes, my name is mispelled in the bylines for these pieces...they had a new proofreader and as a former editor I know that these things happen. But they did get it right on the back page, where staffers and contributors were asked about their 2011 sewing resolutions. I said that one of my goals was to take more classes in the new year, and I'm pleased to say I did just that at Home Ec on Saturday.