Thursday, February 27, 2014

Color

 George and I have been having an ongoing discussion about color.
George is in Kindergarten and his favorite color is PINK.  He loves pink, gets very happy when he sees it somewhere, and I usually try to give him the pink plate from our rainbow set of kid dishes (thanks IKEA).  In Pre-K, his favorite color was grey, and before that, green.  When he chooses his own clothing or accessories though, he often picks red.

The most recent conversation arose when he was telling me what happened at school.  I don't remember the context (or he didn't explain it), but he told the other kids his favorite color was pink and one boy said, "But that's a GIRL color!"  and (I get all proud here) George replied, "No, any color can be for anybody.  My mom's favorite color is blue."  and the kid says, "MY favorite color is blue, that's a BOY color."  and then something about how I'm strange for liking an obviously boy color.

So we talked, George and I, at our kitchen table with its blue and white plaid table cloth, green and grey-purple walls, and rainbow colored dishes.  We talked about what colors are for boys and what colors are for girls (anything for anybody), and if that even makes sense (no, that's silly), and why the kids in his class might believe things about color differently than what our family believes.
We talked about marketing-- companies want kids to ask their parents to buy things.  Companies make pink things for girls and don't  make pink things for boys (except for our rainbow dishes, thanks again IKEA).
We also talked about having older sisters and brothers.  The opinionated kid at school has an older sister. There's probably a lot of pink things in his house that he's not allowed to touch.  They belong to his sister, hence, PINK also belongs to his sister.  He probably never even had the option of liking it.
After siblings, we discussed parents, namely the parents' style.  This kid's mother is very stylish (and beautiful, btw), sleek black hair, long black coat, black boots.  So I asked, "George, what's E's mom's favorite color probably?"  "Black"  "is black a girl color?"  "No."  And we brought up examples of the colors we choose to wear.  My winter coat is white (poor choice with little kids, I now know), George's is bright blue (guess who chose it?), and Jack's is navy (hand-me-down).  Thankfully, he's not too picky about clothes yet, so I can still get him to wear just about anything.  I wonder when that will change..
I also brought up the parents' jobs.  What colors does dad see and use every day? (White for papers and books, black for his laptop and pens, red for when he corrects homework).  What colors does mom see and use every day?  (Every color!) This also influences how our family feels about color.

We very very briefly touched on cultural norms and gender issues (I didn't want to make the discussion too complicated and I also didn't want to alert him to societal baggage he hadn't figured out yet).  Like that time the girl cousins were painting their nails and I painted his too, and then Dad and his mom freaked out?  Yeah.  I wanted him to be prepared to receive some shock when expressing his color preferences, but to still be able to stand his ground.  I mostly wanted him to know that his opinions and feelings are supported by his family, and that it's ok to change your mind about the things you like, but you don't have to change your mind just because your friends want you to.
I felt the conversation went well, but I still think it's hard to support kids as individuals in this gender-obsessed society.  I'd love to hear how you guys have handled similar topics with your kids, thanks.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

And the Rain Hexies go to..

Thanks for your patience, I finally found time to write this post and congratulate the winners!
The four packs (two each) of Rain hexies go to..

Hilachas
and
A at Keeping me Happy

I have emailed you both!

A big Thank you to Timeless Treasures for sharing their beautiful fabric, and another thank you to everyone who linked up last week.  This week we've got 10 so far, isn't anyone else stitching?

Monday, February 24, 2014

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/8

The highlight of my quilting week? (after Skyping my way into a Japanese quilting class, of course) Basting hexies in the car as Jack napped, parked at the beach.
We had beautiful weather this weekend and I really wanted to get out and run around with George and Costas, but the little guy was sleeping.  I got a few more in the pile and when he woke up, we went on a beach adventure.    We had to climb over a pile of snow to get there and once we were in the sand,  Jack didn't really know what to make of the place.
We had fun though, and now we're all anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring. 

Even though I basted a nice stack, I didn't manage to add anything to the finished pile this week.  I have several non-epp projects going, including the binding on Travel Quilt #2, which I hope to be able to show off in a few days.  The thing is mammoth though, don't know who I can bribe to help with a decent photo shoot.. 

So, for this week's Star Count, I have nothing new to show.. 3 down and 17 more to go til summer.  We had a great turn out for last week's linky party, so the giveaway will go off as promised.   I'll do a separate post congratulating the winners, hopefully later today.   A big thanks to all who linked up, especially friends of Ailyn (whose post on EPP was amazing!  If you missed it, go check it out!) I was surprised and happy to find so many German speaking quilters into EPP, and I'm excited to share that Quilting on the Go has been translated into German and will be published by Frechverlag this spring.  More details as soon as I get them.  
So now on to this week's link up!  Show us what you've got!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Hokkaido sewing class

I love Skype.
My first quilting mentor, Mrs. Kubota in Hokkaido, teaches patchwork classes out of her home.  She recently got a tablet and we have started skyping once a week.  Tonight she called me during her class and I got to meet two of her students (Hi Noriko! Hi Chiharu!) and see what they are working on.
They both made pincushions from Quilting on the Go with adorable hedgehog buttons (how did I not get a screen shot of that?), and Chiharu is working on a sewing kit (Mrs. K's pattern), with an EPP hexie front.  Isn't it cute?
I made my first sewing kit when I started visiting Mrs. K in 2002  (have I really known her for 12 years?!  Man, I miss Japan.), I should pull that out and blog about it some time.  Anyway, I've been admiring several sewing kits both in real life and on Instagram lately, and I hope to find time to make a new one for myself soon.  If you've made one or have seen a cute one online,  I'd love to see it.  Please send me links.

It would be so fun to join in their sewing group every week, at least for a little show and tell.   I'll try to be more prepared next week, and remember to take more pictures!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/7

I'm late today, but it's worth it.  I've been working all week on Travel Quilt #5 and here's my progress:
Two full diamonds and most of a 3rd.


I've also been cutting fabric for the next few.  I don't know how big this will be, but I'd like to have 20 diamonds finished before summer gets here.

You guys have been making great progress, and I love that our community of busy stitchers keeps growing.  Most weeks we have at least 10 links, and it has gone as high as 16.. but I know there are more of you out there.  Today I'm offering some incentive to have you all come, link up, and document your progress.
Timeless Treasures has generously shared some of their pre-cut packs of hexagons to give away to our EPP community.  Each pack has one of every color in their Rain Basics line, and fit perfectly on a 1" hexie.  (You may remember I was working with a pack of these last summer)  These pre-cuts are not available in stores, but yardage of Rain is available at a bunch of online retailers (Fat Quarter Shop, eQuilterPink Castle Fabrics, and others) as well as in quilt shops.
So, do you want some?  If we can get 20 links for this week's linky party, I will choose two of you and send you each two packs of Rain hexies.  To be clear-- the giveaway will only happen if we can get 20 people linked up to this post by next Monday, 2/24, 3:00am NYC time (when the linky is scheduled to close).  You can link up all week!  If you usually link up, go bug your EPP crazy friends to also link up so we can make it to 20!  If there are not 20 links this week, I'll roll the giveaway over and we can try again next week, but come on, how many of you are reading, have EPP progress to share, and just haven't done it yet?  Remember, flickr and instagram photos are acceptable (link up instructions for those types of accounts are in this post)
Only quilters who add links to the linky below are eligible, this is not a "comment to be entered" giveaway.  I will ship internationally, as always~

So come on!  Let us see your EPP!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/6

I had another wonderful workshop this weekend.  My friend Laura from NYC Mod invited me to teach EPP to her local guild further out on Long Island.  It was a very comfortable intimate class, with just 13 quilters sitting at tables in her living room.  Most had done EPP before, and the rest caught on quickly.  We chatted and stitched, the time just flew by, but by the end, there were some completed units and we agreed that they will all have progress to show when I come visit their guild next month.


I love teaching, but when I get home I always want to just sit and SEW!  I did make progress on TQ#5-- one full diamond and most of a second.  Let me keep working and I'll have pics next week.
Thank you for linking up today!
Don't forget to comment when you visit the links below!!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Travel Quilt #5

I couldn't fit any more into my last post, but I needed to share this important quilting milestone-- I started Travel Quilt #5 on the train to the NYC Mod meeting last weekend.  (Well, I cut fabric and filled my sewing kit the night before, but I basted the first piece on the train).  #5?  Yes.

See, TQ#1 and #3 are finished (and well documented), TQ#2 is at the long armer's, and TQ#4 is a project I started when I was gathering ideas for Quilting on the Go, but it stalled when we chose to include other quilts.  The rest of the book projects, though mostly stitched while traveling, weren't numbered as such.

I came home from teaching last week full of so much positive creative energy.. I felt better than I have in months.  And I immediately had ideas for two new EPP quilts.  I was able to reign in my enthusiasm and only start one, but I jumped in with two feet and spend most of my free time last week working on it.  The idea was to make 1" hexies from Costas' old shirts.  I ironed, cut, basted, and then.. as I was piecing I realized two things:
  1. I don't really like gingham and a quilt of all plaids may drive me insane.
  2. Ralph Lauren shirts are beautifully made of high quality fabric, and a bitch to stitch through by hand.  

So no, this idea was out.   I still want to make a quilt from his shirts, but it will have to be by machine.  By this point though, I was emotionally invested in making a new EPP quilt, and the pattern was still filling my thoughts throughout the day.  So I just chose different fabric and started another. This will be TQ#5.

As I was on the train coming home from Manhattan after the guild meeting on Saturday, a family got on and was standing because there weren't many open seats.  I had my box open and was basting these hexies, and a little girl kept stealing glances at what I was doing.  The mother whispered to her to ask me about it, and I invited her to come sit on the seat next to me.  She was hesitant at first, but as soon as I asked if she made things, she dropped her guard and started telling me about the patterns of rainbow loom bracelets she could make.  I told her I made bracelets in elementary school too, but now I make quilts; blankets for the bed. I showed her how I basted and whipstitched the patches together and told her that I wrote a book about it that she could get from the library when she's older.  (She told me she was 6, btw)  I gave her mom my postcard so she'd see I wasn't just some crazy crafting lady on the train, I'm a legit quilting teacher!  I kept stitching as she watched and we chatted, and then she surprised me and asked if she could sew two hexagons together.  Umm, sure!
So on a bumpy train, somewhere between Queens and her stop, I taught a first grader how to sew.  And she loved it.  I let her keep the 3 hexies stitched together, and she asked if we could add blue ones next, but we ran out of time.  I showed her the picture of George sewing on my phone, and told her I was glad to have met her.  Her parents thanked me as they got off at their stop.  And all the way home, my heart was so full. 

Monday, February 3, 2014

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/5

What a wonderful week for EPP!
I did a whole bunch of stitching today, but hardly any on my own projects.  I taught 2 workshops this week, and I think I'll share pics and progress from those today instead.

First up, the Long Island Quilters' Society.  This guild was so welcoming and their meeting was very well run!  It's an old school traditional guild (of 90 quilters in attendance, only about 4 admitted to reading quilt blogs) and it was so nice to spend the day with them.  One visiting quilter, Margaret, came to show me the EPP she had been working on since coming to my event at the East Meadow library last August.  Check these out.  She made 60 degree diamond stars and embelleshed them for Christmas ornaments.  These are really nice, and much fancier than the one I tried to make..
She also had a STACK of 12-piece star units.. I think she's ready to stitch them together..
I taught the pillow workshop to a group of 35 women and they all seemed to have a good time.  Having such a big group helped me see where common problems arise-- many people have an inclination to want to baste with a running stitch and pull (as if you were making a yo-yo) instead of the back-stitch method I use.  They looked relieved when I said they could save time by taking less stitches.
After 2 hours, many of them were well on their way to new pillow projects.  One student even emailed me a pic of her progress later in the week.  I love emails like that!

I hope you don't mind lots of photos because we kind of had an EPP party at the NYC Metro Mod guild meeting on Saturday.   Lisa asked me to come and teach everyone how to do EPP (which wasn't really that hard of a job since about 50% of the guild EPPs already) and then we started working on a group project of 1" hexies.  At show and tell, there were lots and lots of EPP projects to share:
 Here are Bernadette's blue hexies (1").
 And Ivete's pink ones (3/4"):
 And going even smaller, Karen's 1/2" hexies.  She has twins, so I thought these may  be the beginnings of quilts for those two, but she said they will become pockets on a bag.  (A much more manageable project, I'm sure)
 This may look familiar, Helen with her blue and white strips:
Aleeda showed her progress on a pattern from Hexa-Go-Go.  Great colors!
 And the whole meeting, we all just sat back and stitched hexagons.  Some preferred to baste, others to join, but nearly everyone tried it and I even had a few converts~
(Of course some, like David in the back row, stitched his obligatory 8 hexies and then swore he'd never do it again.  Little does he know, this is going to become an ongoing project for the guild.. hehe)
 After 2 hours, 50 quilters were able to make the beginnings of over 5 stars.  This is just what I collected at the end of the meeting (plus a bag of basted-but-not-pieced hexies).  I know some people took theirs home to finish, so it will be fun to see how many we have in April.

Ok, enough from me, it's your turn!
(if it's your first time, instructions for linking up are in this post)

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