Thursday, May 20, 2010

guest blog post #2 - rachael p.

today... you get part #2.
if you haven't read part #1 i suggest you do that first.
so that this post makes sense.

part 2 of 2

Here’s how I recreated that moment at my home in our dining room turned sewing studio. You can see my chain of pieced blocks piling up behind the machine. It’s not the best shot of the presser foot, getting a close up eluded me, but you can see one block finished as the next block starts. You can also see the mini-bolted fabric for my project off to the side. Yeah, I twisted Julie’s arm into splitting a box of mini-bolts with me from Polar Notions when she returned from the Lancaster Quilt Show.

So we finish up the blocked panel, layout the blanket panels and batting, and I’m so jealous of her petal pins I got some for myself.

And those selvages, they get set aside for Julie. She gets a new set of scraps and selvages when she stops by the house.

Right, so now we move on to sewing up the blanket and here she comes with another presser foot. This time it’s the walking foot. By this point, I’m pretty much beside myself and full of consternation.  She moves me aside and sews this bad boy up in no time and with no puckering or angry feed dogs. Of course I went out and got one for myself.

I even read the manual on how not to screw it up.

So, not only has Julie taught me all these tricks she’s had up her sleeves, she’s also become my sewing book lending library. Her Denise Schmidt Quilts book taught me a trick on how to tie the blanket to make it more quilt like can suck less. I used to hate tying, now I look forward to it – it means I’m close to done! After labeling that is….

Here’s a shot of the finished quillow that was the easiest one to make to date, thanks to my Julie tricks.

That pillow panel, those animals are hand quilted. Labor of love right there. Oh, and what makes it a quillow, and where did that blanket go that I kept talking about? The blanket is the ‘stuffing’ for the pillow. Hand-quilted pillow panel, tied quilt-like blanket, folds into a pillow = quillow. Get it?

See it now? It’s a baby shower favorite!

Here’s a pic of the one I made with Julie that evening she saved my sanity.


The baby mama and I are big Jay Mccarroll fans. I had to use his Love Birds fabric for  her quillow and I about died when I didn’t think I had enough. Until I made this quillow with Julie, I had only ever used 2 full panels of fabric to make the blanket, almost like using to panels of quilt backing to make a blanket. Lame, I know, but not much anymore! Oh, the pillow panel for this guy is the same animal print from the yellow backed quillow above.

So Julie, as I write this on your blogiversary, I want to thank you for all the tricks you’ve showed me and the tools you’ve taught me to use, but most importantly, for your years of friendship and sisterhood. I’m so proud of you for all you’ve accomplished this year, not just on your blog, but in life, and a little verklempt as I write this.  Now, get some sleep on the plane ride to quilt market. Something tells me you’re going to need it!

-Rachael P.



rachael,


i did sleep on the plane... and the night before i left!  which is so not me...  as for our years of friendship & sisterhood... thank YOU for everything.  you know that you made a big impact on my life... and on many others in dphie.. and will continue to be an amazing example of what it means to be a sister... for many future sisters to come.


i think our senior dphie formal awards were pretty accurate in describing who we are... and who we still are in many ways...  mine = "biggest dphie overachiever of all time"  and yours = "most likely to write inspirational leadership novels and then write how to- write your own inspirational leadership novel books"


-julie

5 comments:

Vicky said...

What fun having a guest blogger. Great job, both on the blog and the QUILT!!

Angela Nash said...

that was so fun! and I love your quillow - those hand quilted animals are fabulous.

{have fun at market, Julie!}

mascanlon said...

Rachael, great posts and a lovely way to help Julie out in her rush to market. Can't wait to see what she turns up with next!

Micki said...

You did a great job on the quillow!
Micki

Anonymous said...

Nice job Rach.. I'm sure that Juls really appreciates you stepping in to "guest blog" can't wait to see what's next
Mom