Jaybird Quilts

Monday, June 18, 2012

Quilt Market Recap - The Booths

Exhibiting at Market often means that I don't get much time out of my booth to look at other booths. There were over 550 exhibitors at Market, so I didn't get to see them all! Below are a few snapshots I captured early one morning before the show had opened.

Dear Stella

My Dance Floor & Chopsticks quilts in Dear Stella

Beyond the Reef

Denyse Schmidt

Thomas Knauer

Lizzy House

Detail of quilting on Lizzy House's quilt - Quilting by Angela Walters

Liberty Art Fabrics

Monica of Happy Zombie

Kona Modern Quilts - Robert Kaufman

My other Spring 2012 Quilt Market Posts

Quilt Market Snapshots

Quilt Market Recap - Schoolhouse

Rock the Booth - Guest Post by Rachel of P S I Quilt

What is Quilt Market? - In case you are not familiar with Quilt Market, this post I did in Fall 2012 will explain!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Instagram is easier than blogging.

Instagram is easier than blogging.
Yes, I said it.

Instagram is easy.
Instagram is manageable.
Instagram is mobile.
Instagram is pretty great.
It isn't perfect, but it is very handy.

Don't get me wrong, I love my blog.
I'm not leaving my blog, but if you want to know what I'm working on then following me on Instagram is the way to go. I know not everyone has a smart phone or wants to add more apps if they have one. Because of this I also post most of my Instagram photos to Twitter and to Facebook.

Instagram is also fun because of all the cool effects you can do. I also use Camera Awesome and a few other apps too.

What is the best feature of Instagram for me?
It's mobile.
I have yet to find a good app that I can use on my iPad or iPhone for blogging. I'm often not at my computer when I want to be blogging, which makes this all very complicated. I didn't mean to go a week without blogging, it just was a busy week and it happened. Sorry! Instagram allowed me to easily post 20+ photos this week. Here are a few to give you a quick recap.

Backing selected & pieced for Gamer quilt. Coin strip made from leftovers of the quilt top.

Cutting up some Pick a Bunch fabrics

Making a miniature Four Patch Shift, the quilt from the cover of my book!

Making progress with the tiny blocks. Each one finishes at 2" x 2"!!

Miniature quilt done! Here is is with the original and the book cover.

My 3 minis. I made the Radio Way & Come What May ones back in February.

I asked on Instagram which quilt I should make miniature next. Chopsticks got a few votes so I went for it. The pieces were so tiny that I had to convert my pattern into a paper pieced one. {The original is just traditional piecing.}

I took this photo with the machine & rotary cutter to help show the scale.

More progress.

3 rows done...

Finished! It measures 12" wide and 14 1/2" tall. Fabrics are all Kona solids from Robert Kaufman. The silent film set & school bus orange.

I finally decided on a binding for my miniature Radio Way. I went with a single fold 1/8" finished after trimming an 1/8" off the quilted piece first. Result is a miniature binding that fits better to the scale of the miniature quilt. (regular tan binding shown behind on green sample to give scale.)

Here it is finished!

My updated collection of minis.

About the miniature quilts

1. What quilts are they? Radio Way, Come What May, Four Patch Shift, & Chopsticks.

2. What fabrics are they?

Radio Way = Original Fabrics from full size quilt

Come What May = Tula Pink & Lizzy House

Four Patch Shift = Pick a Bunch by Nancy Mims for Robert Kaufman

Chopsticks = Kona solids - Silent film set & school bus orange

3. What size are they? They are all approximately 1/4 scale to the originals. Largest one is 16" x 20" and the smallest is 12" x 14 1/2"

4. Will I be making patterns for them? Not at this time. I've been making these for my studio walls since many of my quilts are usually gone on trunk shows. I really appreciate how much everyone likes them but hadn't anticipated the desire for patterns. Right now this isn't a part of my plan for Jaybird Quilts, but I have a few other exciting things in the works that I'll share soon!!

Sewing with Knits for the first time!

Dress progress...

Raglan sleeve inspired maxi dress from laguna jersey heather knits by Robert Kaufman. It's the third dress I have ever made and the first from knits. I have already had a lot of questions about it. 1. What pattern is it? I didn't use a pattern. 2. Will I make a pattern for it. Maybe? I hadn't planned on it, but that doesn't mean no. I'll let you know if I decide to do it.

Next post is more Market recap!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Learning from my Quilter

I often say I'm a Quilter, but more accurately I'm a Piece-er these days. {Yeah I know it isn't really a word.} I have quilted, and still do quilt on occasion, but most of the time these days Angela is doing my quilting. Raspberry Dessert was the first quilt we worked on together and I haven't used another quilter since. {Raspberry Dessert will be re-published in my upcoming book, Skip the Borders!} I didn't give Angela and direction on the quilt, and haven't given her much since then. She knows quilting, so I trust her to make the best decisions for the different designs with my quilt tops.

I talk about Angela often, but for those who don't know who I'm talking about, I think it's time for a formal introduction. Angela Walters is a professional Long-Arm Quilter. For those reading who aren't quilters, this means that she takes the pieced quilt top I've made, batting & the backing I've pieced and does the actual quilting of the three layers.

These photos will help show what I'm talking about. They show the before & after on one of my Ditto Quilts.

My Quilt Top Before
Angela's Quilting

After Angela's Quilting

Quilting is the second to last step in creating a quilt. Binding is the final step. The quilting holds the top, batting and backing together. At the core it has a practical purpose, but also can have an amazing aesthetic one.

Angela & I in my booth at Spring 2012 Quilt Market

As a Quilt Designer I use a professional Long-Arm Quilter for various reasons.
1. Time! It takes lots of time to design, sew,write patterns, and run a business.
2. Ability. I'm sure I could become a great quilter if I put the time & effort in, but I've always been happier piecing than quilting. Because of that I've never dedicated a lot of time to the quilting stage and Angela is much more talented than I am at it!
3. Collaboration. Sometimes two heads are better than one. It has been rare that I have a quilting plan to send to Angela, and when I have she usually changes parts anyway. The result is always more than I could have imagined in the first place.
4. Friendship. I didn't know when I met Angela that we'd become great friends, but I'm incredibly blessed to have her in my life. She's more than just a quilter to me. She's encouraged me to work outside my comfort zone and some of my pattern designs wouldn't exist without her having pushed me. I'm getting better at designing and piecing all the time and I owe a good part of that to Angela.

Lately I've been learning a wealth of information from Angela's blog. She has been posting about many of the 50+ quilts she did for Quilt Market. In each post she talks about what she quilted & why. I'm really excited for her new book since it will finally give me the language I need to talk to Angela about quilting, even though I'll probably still just let her go for it! Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters: Choose & Use Quilting Designs on Modern Quilts.

Angela also recently started a Forum on her blog!! I joined & I see this as a place to learn, share, and get inspired. You really should check it out.

Today on her blog, Angela talked about doing the quilting on Ballerina. She actually quilted 4 of them before market! Three for me and 1 for the Robert Kaufman Booth! The post focuses on quilting designs that help with movement.

Ballerina Quilt Pattern Cover

Last week Angela posted about Ditto. Angela discusses quilting both of my ditto quilts, and specifically addresses quilting fast for deadlines.

Ditto Quilt Pattern Cover

Last but not least is Varsity. Angela posted a short tutorial on how to do Frame Quilting and used my Varsity quilt as an example. The original Varsity quilt had busy fabrics so the quilting doesn't stand out as much at first. In the second smaller sample I made the white background gave Angela a great space to show off her work.

Varsity Quilt Pattern Cover

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So are you mostly a Piece-er, a Quilter, both?...or do you have another name!

© Blog post written by Julie Herman
© Photos by Angela Walters & Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

Friday, June 1, 2012

Happy new birthday

Yup, today is my new birthday. New you ask? You can read all the details in last year's post. I assume without facebook alerts to remind people that most people will forget. I had a good birthday last year for the first time in years & my family is already on board to switch it back. Not so fast I say! {In reality they didn't actually ask for my opinion... strange.}

Anyway, today is still when I've chosen to celebrate my birthday.

Yesterday I was reminded that I have the best friend a girl could ever dream of having. She's 3,000 miles away & doesn't forget my new birthday, sends an amazing card, and a book to help me cultivate my style. Now that's true friendship. Pannepacker, I love you.

The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own

I'm going to spend my birthday playing with fabric.

{Fabric from Marmalade Fabrics}

Playing with more fabrics.

{New Kona Solids by Robert Kaufman}

Sewing a quilt.

{New Kona Solids by Robert Kaufman}

Lounging around the house with my quilts.

{Ditto in Simply Color by V&Co.}

Making some s'mores.

...and laughing at Amazon's recommendations for me.

Yes, Amazon suggested I buy my own book this week.

You can pre-order a copy in my shop. {and get a bonus!}or you can also get it from Amazon
Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts - Amazon
and come August it'll be in Quilt Shops all over!

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How do you spend your birthday?