I was never able to print this type, but it was for the back of the Brandon Roy card--the header read, "The Reason." Because, when it comes down to it, B-Roy is the reason that many, many people came back to the Trail Blazers, after the team had some very dark days.

What I really loved about this project, is that I got to experiment with photopolymer and the results of using different ink and paper combinations. My original goal was to print an entire team set of basketball cards, complete with back descriptions. However, between limited access to printing facilities and my workload increasing, I didn’t make my goal. However, I was very happy with the prints I did make. The red were printed in open editions, but I limited the silver to a small run of 12 each. The cards are around 3×4, printed on acid free paper, with round corners. The silver ink is actually made with silver–so the metallic quality has a lot of depth, and I suspect that it may be oil-based–given how long it took to dry and how difficult the clean-up was. The variations in the red are due to mixing the red at different times (I have to hand-blend the rubber ink), I also learned that if consistency is important, you need to mix all your ink at once. I ended up only writing a few descriptions, again, because I ran out of time with the letterpress studio and hand-setting all that type is extremely cumbersome.

So, with all that said, here are the results (please keep in mind that these are based off of the 2008-09 team, not the current team)…

This is Rudy Fernandez–if he were traded, the collective heart of Portlanders would break, he is incredibly popular, and the showman on the team (he can fire up a crowd like I’ve never seen). I had a really difficult time creating the artwork for this one without Rudy looking like a zombie; he has smallish eyes and fine features, so I had to improvise a lot to get him to look “right.” Rudy’s probably the most enthusiastic person I’ve ever see play any sport, and he clearly loves his job, so I tried to replicate this in this letterpress portrait. This card is dedicated to one of my favorite people, my friend Michelle (who I met at a Blazers game last year).

Oh, Greg Oden. This was one of my favorites to design and print, because I really wanted to capture the funny, charming #1 pick that Blazers fans fell in love with before his ill-fated rookie season–and I think I did that fairly well. My mom and I were at the game earlier this season in which he broke his kneecap, and we were both choking back tears. All I can say is, in our house, we still believe in #52.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s portrait is the least portrait-y of them all, intentionally because I tend to think of him as only existing on the basketball court. I am actually grateful that I never got around to having to come up with content for the back of this card, I don’t think I would have had much material. It seems like there have only been a couple of in-depth interviews with the Blazers power forward, and we don’t know a ton about him. We do, however, know that LaMarcus Aldridge does not seek your popular applause.

Travis Outlaw and I have a strange history–he drove me nuts all of the 2006-07 season. And, I wanted the team to sign Ime Udoka instead of extending Travis’ contract (this has more to do with Ime being from Portland than anything–I’m very loyal to fellow Oregonians, it seems like there’s so few of us sometimes). However, over the summer, I started to feel guilty about it, and then I figured out that Travis was really, really funny. So, I actually spent the next season making amends with Travis, and cheered extra loudly for him whenever he took the court or really did anything–and he was pretty awesome during the team’s crazy 13-game winning streak in 2007-08. So, now I’m really fond of Trav, but, unfortunately, he too is injured. I love how he turned out in letterpress. He may look a bit like an alien, but it really looks like Travis. In a sense, this one is the most true-to-life card, right down to the look he has on his face. He always has that look on his face. I would have had a great time composing the back of his card–there is a lot of wonderful material out there featuring his “Travisms.”

Nicolas Batum’s letterpress card was the first one I made, and I was pretty thrilled with it. You can really tell how young he is, and to me the look of it illustrates how promising he is as a player. I can’t explain why, but it’s the way he’s looking upward that really does it for me. This was one of the few that I had time to do the typesetting for the back, and I’m sure glad. (By the way, the “Frenchie” nickname seems to have stuck, since Adidas now provides Nico with custom sneakers with it stitched on them.)

This was my only letterpress card that is of someone who is no longer on the team, Channing Frye. This card is based off of a photo taken by the extremely talented Brian Kroll. (Go check out his awesome photography!) I love that this image is very clearly a non-basketball portrait, since the reasons that I’m such a Channing fan have far more to do with the was he embraced Portland as his home and little to do with the sport (though, I don’t think you could ask for anyone to have a better attitude while facing adversity on a basketball team). While he’s having lots of success in Phoenix now (and playing with two of my favorites: Grant Hill and Steve Nash), I sure do miss his blog posts about living in Portland… Incidentally, my quasi-famous “Channing for Mayor” shirt still gets the occasional comment. In terms of the actual printing, I was really challenged with this one, since I wanted to have fine details that were true to Brian’s photo–which is hard to do in letterpress. After a lot of trial and error, I think I was able to capture that, and it feels the most “real” of all of the portraits. (Pats self on back.)

I really developed a soft spot for Martell Webster last year, when he was injured the entire season (oddly, it’s the exact same foot injury as Travis Outlaw has right now). That sounds weird, I know, but I went to a lot of games really early last year (to get good parking), and before most games I watched from my seat in the 300 level as Martell went from kid to kid (and a lot of adults, too) who clamored for a professional basketball player to say “hello” to them. You could tell that it meant a lot to those fans, but what really struck me was how he never rushed away, always looked thrilled to talk to everyone and was just the epitome of gracious to everyone to whom he talked. It was some kind of impressive. I know nothing about the circumstances of why he was so good to all those folks, and never saw an interview about it, but I certainly won’t forget it. Furthermore, Martell famously–while in his walking boot–pushed two people’s cars out of the snow during a storm. I just have a feeling that he’s a really good dude. Actually, this fall I saw Martell while he was driving, stopped at an intersection, and I was walking the dog. When I did a triple-take (I’m sure it was pretty funny) and realized it was him and smiled like a total dork, he very nicely smiled back, so there’s that too. I do fear that since I’m a big Marty fan, it will result in his being traded, since I have that awful Blazers karma. Anyway… Printing-wise, I am actually kind of disappointed in this one. Martell is a very good-looking guy, with very distinctive features, but I had a hard time translating that into the letterpress medium. I like the look of this print, but I’m just not thrilled with it actually being a portrait.

This is my favorite, Brandon Roy. I think I got really attached to this one, because I spent so much flipping time working on it. Brandon has very distinctive features, but they’re kind of fine, so translating that into the letterpress medium was a tremendous challenge. I actually really struggle with creating the artwork (I create it digitally, in Adobe Illustrator) for letterpress projects, because I’m not very confident in my ability in visual arts. So, I invested days and days and days of work into creating my first Brandon print, which was terrible! He looked, well, scary. Which was definitely not the look I was going for. Finally, when I was almost ready to give up, I hit on this design, and I love it. The eyes were the toughest part, like with the Rudy print, and I like how the eyes translated in ink and paper in this one–especially in the silver. I am really proud of this one, and it’s really the first thing that I’ve made that actually feels like it’s “Art.”

~Sarah

P.S. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I have to remind folks to please not use my images without my permission. I have had a lot of trouble with that lately, particularly with sports bloggers stealing my images off of my All Rights Reserved Flickr stream and posting them on their blogs–without credit or permission. All of the thieves has had ads on their sites (one was an ESPN-affiliate blog), so they are literally making money off of my work without compensating me.  I’m sure many of you have been dismayed to find your work on other people’s sites, and I encourage you to combat content theft–it helps protect all of our intellectual and creative property.

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Up on a high shelf, there's something pretty awesome hidden in some inauspicious cardboard magazine holders.

Anyway, the magazine is an extremely cool snapshot of textile–and cultural–trends. I spent a bit of time thumbing through an issue from fall of 1949 (I snagged this one, because I love post-war fashion–the hats were just wonderful during that time). Check it out my mediocre cell phone shots of some of the highlights.

The cover. There was a Van Gogh exhibit at the Met at that time, and so there was a feature about his use of texture and how it relates to fabric.

There are lots of ads with fabric swatches throughout the magazine.

This one's called "Everglaze" and it's got a weird burnished surface.

This is an orange pique--but made out of some sort of synthetic, not cotton.

I couldn't come close to identifying what sort of fabric this is... Some sort of synthetic.

This fabric is a melton fabric that's just dreamy, it's very textured and the color is deep. Also, check out the model's rad hat!

This issue had a special feature on nylon. Which is not one of my favorite fabrics–actually, I think it’s extremely creepy and kind of gross. But, this nylon is far nicer. (It’s still creepy, though.)

What you should know about nylon!

One of several spreads on nylon fabrics.

Didn't you know? Nylon provides "psychological uplift?" Of course it does...

I think I'm going to add this to my favorite quotations list on my Facebook page.

This had some weird narrative in the caption about "the human chemical plant." I believe it was intended to describe how synthetic fabrics are made. The illustration is kind of amazing, actually.

Then there is just some random fabulousness…

"The Fight Against Bureaucracy." This is an article about rayon labeling.

What's amazing about this little blurb, is that in 1949, textiles were still the #2 industry in the USA.

This is an insert about textile & textiles--inspired by a Van Gogh exhibit that was showing at the Met. The type is beautifully handset, by the way.

I love this ad so much, I don't even have words for it.

When I have more time, I’ll bring my good camera, and take notes, so I can share more of the awesomeness that’s in American fabrics with you. There are some intriguing-looking issues from the sixties, that look very Mad Men.

~Sarah

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And I hate snow. As has been well-documented here.

Fortunately, when we had friends over to watch the Christmas Ships last weekend, I invented a pretty stellar new drink–I call it the Twisted Caipirinha. When I got home this evening, the first thing I did to seek solace from the snow, was make myself one–and I thought I’d share my recipe with y’all.

I first had a caipirinha at one of our favorite restaurants several years ago, The Lumberyard in Cannon Beach. (True confession: we call it The Logjammer, which is a Big Lebowski reference; I’ll just leave it there for those of you in the know to snicker about.) I got a little obsessed (I know, shocking, me obsessed.) with re-creating a caipirinha, but we could never find the special Brazilian booze that goes in it, cachaça (theoretically, you can substitute rum, but I hate, hate, hate rum, so that’s a non-option for me). We finally found some a few months back at the wonderful liquor store near Josh’s work (liquor stores in Portland tend to be creepy places whose primary focus is lottery tickets and generic brand gin, so this place is a treat–if you’re ever in Portland, you’ve got to check it out). So, after tinkering quite a bit and messing with recipes from my two favorite cocktail books, I perfected the caipirinha.

The Twisted Caipirinha Team

Ask anyone who hangs out with me regularly, I’m not a big drinker. Sure, I enjoy a trip to Thatch with Rachel when she visits (Uh, by the way, Rach, when are you making another journey to PDX?), love Portland’s vast selection of microbrews and really love the fancy bourbon Josh buys me every Thanksgiving (another one of our funny traditions–my favorite is Blanton’s single barrel, which is not hugely popular, but works great the way I like it: over ice, plus a teeny, tiny splash of soda water; it also has a badass bottle), regardless, I’m not much of a drinker.

(Geez… Was that a long enough intro to this cocktail recipe?)

Assemble your ingredients. (Makes one cocktail.)

• Cachaça (I prefer Leblon. It’s smooth, and tasty. You could substitute rum, but I wouldn’t recommend it–track down the real thing if you can. Cachaça is made with cane sugar, rum is made with molasses, they’re quite different in flavor.)
• One Lime
• One clementine, “cutie” or mandarin orange; you could also use half of a tangerine
• Simple syrup (I cheat & buy mine at Trader Joe’s. Here’s a recipe, if you want to make your own. Hint: If making your own, use a natural, organic sugar.)
• Ice

You’ll also need the following:

• Cocktail tumbler
• Sharp knife
• Muddler or pestle from mortar & pestle
• Shot glass or other measuring tool that measures down to the 1/2 ounce

Make your Twisted Caipirinha.

First, slice your lime  into quarters, but do not completely sever the skin. Basically, you’ll have two halves that are almost divided into quarters.

A way to make sure you extract the most juice out of your limes is to roll it on the counter before slicing.

Repeat with the clementines.

Mmmm... This is funny, because it's a tropical drink, but the clementines are only available in the winter. I love it for a surprising holiday cocktail.

Toss all, cut sides down, into your tumbler.

The juice will squeeze out better if you take care to make sure your fruit is cut side down.

Next, add a half an ounce of simple syrup to your fruit. (I tend to like things sour, so if you do too, add less syrup. If your taste runs to the sweet, add a bit more.)

I think the store-bought TJ's brand simple syrup is just as tasty as the stuff I've made, and it's a whole lot less messy.

Now it’s time to add the Cachaça! Pour two ounces into your fruit and syrup mixture.

Mmmm... So much better than rum!

Now take your muddling tool (I use the pestle from our mortar and pestle that we’ve had forever (Josh got it for me for a birthday, 21st  or 22nd, I think) and mush everything together in your tumbler. You don’t need to be too aggressive, just mix the liquids and gently push the juice out of the fruit.

It's funny that we don't own a muddling tool--but this has worked well for ten years or so...

Fill your tumbler with ice and give it a quick stir.

Your Twisted Caipirinha is ready to drink! Enjoy!

Twisted Caipirinha! While I love the original, which is a sour lime drink, my version with seasonal clementines is really festive and tasty.

~Sarah

P.S. For a traditional caipirinha recipe, try this one. (And please, consume your caipirinha responsibly, and make sure your guests are responsible as well–don’t drink and drive.)

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Saoirse's Helping

If you’ve seen the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, you know that it’s not an ordinary quilting book. There are not strict rules, no precisely-matching corners, it’s all organic and free-flowing–akin to the quilt’s from Gee’s Bend. The designs and style have really captivated Josh and he’s actually done all of the piecing for a crazy (and huge) version of The Big Zig (progress on that has pretty much been thwarted by both our having to move across town–ugh–and the fact that the thing’s so big that it’s practically impossible for a mere mortal to quilt). Josh decided that the Hop, Skip & a Jump quilt from the book would be perfect for Viola.

This photo is the version in the book--it's hard not to straight-up copy the fabulous red and white color scheme...

Josh went with a gray and blue palette–most of them from random fat quarters from Bolt, some gray shot cotton (also from Bolt) and some bits of an old blue shirt (more on that adventure in a minute). A pretty nice combo, eh?

The small amounts of red and yellow in the blue fabrics kind of balance out the design, if that makes sense... It keeps it from looking too stripey.

The old blue shirt fabric proved to be a bit of a “challenge.” (”Challenge” always sounds so much more positive than, say, “pain in the ass,” doesn’t it?) Because the aforementioned old blue shirt was, you know, really old–hence, it was a good candidate for being hacked up and given new life in a quilt. However, there’s a minor detail we failed to consider: sometimes, when fabric is really hold, it doesn’t really have the structural integrity to hold up to sewing.  So Josh had a hell of  a time with those pieces, they just frayed and frayed as he sewed. Ugh. You can see in the photo below the nubby blue shirting that had to be whip-stitched to the gray fabric because it unraveled after the top was pieced together.

Aw, yes, the blue shirting was a good idea. Until it wasn't.

Once that excitement was over, Josh quilted the top. Since neither one of us is down with anything so insane as hand-quilting, Josh went with a free-form, random vertical strip for his quilting. It turned out pretty fantastic, actually. It’s funny, something so unconventional can really make a rather simple design like this quilt very distinctive and kind of arty-looking. The cheap-ish natural color cotton quilting thread helped too, since it looked kind of rustic.

Quilts are hard to photograph, but, hopefully this gives a decent impression of the meandering lines Josh quilted.

Oh, yeah, and then we backed the thing in a pretty dark red. (And put dark red thread in the bobbin, so the quilting on the back is barely noticeable.)

Is this quite possibly the most boring photo ever posted on Sewer-Sewist? Just maybe...

Finally, Sarah bound it in bright blue using a patented no hand-sewing technique that’s a combination of a trick Susan taught us and Sarah’s method for binding sleeves (it’s hard to explain, but it’s a two-step process and involves monofilament/invisible thread).

Here’s the finished quilt…

Finished!

It hung out on our Old Man Chair (Have we ever told y’all about the Old Man Chair?) that we found on the street last year (seriously–it even came with Old Man Smell) for a week or so, and we got really, really attached to the quilt. So Josh is just has to make one for us. Perhaps in Denyse’ awesome new Hope Valley?

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This Labor Day we piled into the car, along with our friend Bryan (check out his beautiful new photoblog, by the way) and went down to Sarah’s hometown of Canby to check out one of the cooler annual events in this area–the Swan Island Dahlia Festival. (Locals: Even though the festival is technically over, you can still visit the flowers for a few more weeks–actually, it’s kind of more fun when it’s not the official festival. If you go, the Canby Burgerville is one of the best. Just sayin’…) It’s simply acres and acres of dahlias of all sizes, shapes and colors–it’s a real visual treat.

If we had been smart, we would have grabbed the handy sheet they had available and made a note of the really fabulous ones, since we’re definitely going to plant a few at our new house (more on that in a future post). But, we didn’t do that until we were leaving–whoops.

Our favorites are the reds–red translates in dahlias in more wonderful shades than any other flower. This one is a fabulous medium-size dahlia that has flowers that are almost spherical, and the individual petals are shaped like cones that collect water. How cool is that?

We also saw lots of happy bees. Not all bees are happy, you know. Bryan totally geeked out, which happens when you put a former environmental educator in a field of flowers. We’re pretty sure that Bryan was as excited about the bugs as the flowers…

Bryan is totally taking bug pictures in this photo.

Have you ever seen a dahlia that looks like this? We sure hadn’t. It looks almost like a sea creature, a starfish maybe…

How bad-ass is this two-tone dahlia? It’s bright red on top, pale yellow on the underside. Wow.

So this one’s called “Rip City.” It’s red and black. Yep…

We had a great time–even though we had some nasty food at a place that used to have pretty good pie and decent hash browns… We also tried to go to the cool architectural salvage place in Aurora (it was closed) and had a great time at St. Josef’s Winery (the winery is right behind Sarah’s mom’s house). You can see more of our photos of our day in this Flickr photoset.

But since we’re talking about gardening, we thought this would be the perfect time to mention that Sarah’s mom has started a nifty new gardening blog! She’s done all the work on it herself, and is still learning how to work with Wordpress, but it’s looking good. Check it out if you’re a plant geek.

~S & J

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Even if you don't live in the Portland area, you should be reading Bolt's blog--it's full of awesome stuff and pretty pictures of fabric.

So, we’ve been very naughty bloggers lately. Basically all summer long. We haven’t really had a post of any substance in over a month–isn’t that terrible. We have lots of good reasons, basically that this summer has been very hectic and extremely stressful. We’re hoping that things will calm down over the next couple of months, and that we’ll resume our regularly-scheduled programming here at Sewer-Sewist. We so enjoy writing this blog and connecting with all of you.

Anyway, we wanted to let you locals know about an awesome sale that our favorite fabric store, Bolt on NE Alberta Street, is having this weekend. All fabric is 20% off all weekend long! And Gina, Bolt’s fabulous owners, only carries top-notch, beautiful fabrics, so you’re bound to find something that’s just what you “need.” We love that Bolt doesn’t just carry quilting cottons, but also has a huge variety of stuff that’s great for garments, decorating, etc. Plus, the quilting cottons that are at Bolt are all ones that work for a whole lot of other things, which is great for us, since we make mostly clothes and accessories. We don’t really need to go on and on about the awesomeness or local fabric shop, but we sure do love it! So, if you’re local, and looking to treat yourself to some wonderful fabric, head on down there this weekend. Oh, and if you’re not local, you’re not totally out of luck, because they recently launched a very cool blog about the shop and neighborhood.

~S & J

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One of my favorite creativity blogs is the wonderful Dabbled blog. So I was thrilled when I was asked to write a guest post about letterpress while Nancy’s on vacation in Europe. Hopefully, this post will be helpful to those of you who are contemplating learning letterpress. It’s a lot of work–but the rewards are fabulous. Check it the post right here.

Also, I’m thinking I should get some special props for working multiple Trail Blazers references into a post about letterpress on an art blog. Just sayin’…

~Sarah

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So, Saoirse doesn’t actually sew, but she does love hopping up on the chair in front of the sewing machine. But my mom does sew.

A couple of Mondays ago, my mom came over and hung and we each made a quick project–the Amy Butler Swing Bag. Oddly, my mom has never ever made a handbag. She had it in her head that it was really hard–and I think they’re one of the easiest things to make. She was kind of driving me crazy over the last year talking about how she was going to make a bag, but not actually doing–which resulted in lots of absurd conversations, for sure. So, we went over to Bolt and picked out fabric for each of us and she brought her machine over and we got to work.

Like I told my mom it would be, it basically took no time at all to sew up our bags–hers in a cool brown and orange Amy Butler print with a houndstooth lining, mine in an Anna Maria Horner print in aqua and blue with a complimentary lining. Here are a few photos of what we were up to (in reverse order, because my slideshow maker is not being cooperative at the moment).

It also seems like my making a quilt started an all in the family trend as well, because my mom finally pieced together the quilt kit that she’d ordered from Pink Chalk Fabrics “some time ago.” She brought it over that same day to show it off and get me to help her pick out her backing fabric (because, apparently, since I’m the only person in our family who has ever made a quilt, I’m now the resident quilting expert). Check out how gorgeous this is.

She chose a very cool Joel Dewberry print for the back, by the way. At some point, I’m going to help her sandwich and quilt the thing. (Again, how funny is it that I’m now the “expert” on quilting around here? I literally have no idea what I’m doing.)

My point with sharing this random snapshot of an afternoon is to remind y’all about how sewing actually can be a “community” thing. For knitters, crocheters and needle-workers, getting together to work on projects and share knowledge is second nature, but–despite the history of quilting bees and families sewing an entire school year’s wardrobe together back in the day–sewers don’t really do that a whole lot. It was great to get the chance to share so new tricks I’d figured out with my mom, pick out fabrics and just talk sewing. It’s a great change from the normal solitary nature of sewing as a craft.

Modern sewing machines are pretty darn portable, and fabric isn’t that difficult to transport at all. Scheduling time to meet up with folks at your favorite fabric shop isn’t that hard either–I mean, you’re going to be going there anyway. One of the things I love about watching basketball (yes, it all circles back to basketball for me), is the communal nature of it, the shared experience. Sewing can have that same effect–try it sometime.

~Sarah

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Image courtesy of Denyse Schmidt Quilts

This Friday, July 17, Portland folks have the chance to attend a very exciting talk from a really fascinating person–quilt artist, fabric designer and entrepreneur Denyse Schmidt. She’s a really interesting person–I’d highly recommend that you read this article that appeared in American Craft Magazine awhile back for a bit of insight on Denyse’ and her work.

PNCA’s Continuing Education program has organized and is sponsoring this talk as a part of their Summer of Making program–and Denyse is also teaching a (very full) weekend-long class (that I wish I could take). My pal Susan is taking the class, and I bet she’s going to blog about it a bit–so make sure to check out West Coast Crafty next week for a bit more about that experience.

The talk–generously provided free-of-charge by PNCA-CE–is being hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Craft here in Portland, starting at 5:30. It’s bound to be pretty crowded, but it’s really a can’- miss if you’re interested in fabric, quilting, textiles or craft.

If you read this site, and you go, please let us know–we’ll make sure to say “hey.” And, if you go–consider thanking the folks at PNCA for providing this high-quality free public programming as a supplement to their Summer of Making classes, I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

Be there.

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Yep. Me, Sarah, made a quilt. For years and years I’ve been adimently anti-quilting. I’ve had garment sewers’ snobbery, I guess. I just couldn’t imagine having the patience for all that cutting. And then the sewing all those little squares together. And then the actual quilting part–I couldn’t get my head around any of that. Well, on my trip to Pittsburgh for Quilt Market for work, Laurie–founder of the Fabric Shop Network–got me a wonderful quilt kit from Quilt Company (if you’re ever in western Pennsylvania, it’s definitely a shop worth visiting). Determined to not let my coworker, Mandi, finish her quilt from a similar, also awesome kit, before me, I got cracking on it and sewed the top up in no time. The reason it was so simple? Uh, because the Quilt Company had kindly cut everything in advance. How nifty! Seriously, I probably would never have made a quitl if that fussy, frustrating cutting wasn’t already taken care of for me.

I have to admit, it’s almost embarrassing to tell y’all how much stress the backing and the binding were for me. I was convinced that I would end up frustrated with the busy fabric I originally selected for the backing. I became obsessed with trying to line up the pattern vertically and horizontally and I could tell it was all going to end in tears, so I quit while I was ahead and headed back to Bolt for more assistance.  They helped me pick out another, less complicated fabric for the backing–a very pretty Vicki Payne (whom I met at Quilt Market and was totally RAD–she told me I was “fashionable”) 60″ cotton canvas sateen that coordinated perfectly with my quilt top. For whatever reason, this fabric behaved itself and I even managed to quitl it (nothing elaborate, just stitched in the ditch) fairly easily–especially considering that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

The binding was kind of another story, though. I used the fabric that I had originally intended for my backing and it looked pretty cool. However, I just couldn’t get my head around attaching the binding, mitering the corners and all that stuff. This was further compounded by the fact that most quilt books tell you to hand sew the binding on–because of my tendonitis, I simply can’t do much hand stitching. Not to mention, I kind of hate to hand sew. I mean, I sew buttons on with the sewing machine… I was convinced that the ‘Quilt Mafia’ was going to come after me for not hand sewing my binding. It was dumb and irrational, but I was panicking.

(Uh, I guess a real quilter would have ironed their quilt before photographing it. Oops.)

Anyway, as you can see, after all that angsting, I was able to get my binding sewn own. This is really thanks to my wonderful pal Susan, who has an incredible book that describes an easy one-step binding that worked well. (I didn’t execute it that well, but that has a lot more to do with my tiredness than the actual method.)

I’m pretty proud of my quilt–flaws and all. I’ve actually started another quilt, believe it or not. It’s a simple design from the beautiful book Material Obsession (worth checking out just for the stunning photography) for my mom as a retirement present. While I don’t think quilting is something I’ll take up on a regular basis, it is a satisfying diversion from my usual garment and accesories sewing projects. Josh, on the other hand, has been bitten by the quilting bug. He went out an bought Denyse Schmidt’s gorgeous quilting book (another book that non-quilters would probably enjoy having on their shelves because of the inspiring designs and Denyse’s unique aesthetic). In fact, he’s currently in the midst of a massive quilting project himself–The Big Zig. It’s wild and awesome.  In the meantime, he’s become very attached to the one I made…

~Sarah

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