CASA Stockings for kids

The Attic Window is proud to help out CASA with "Stockings for Kids"!

CASA's Mission Statement

The mission of the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association, together with its state and local members, is to support and promote court-appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children so that they can thrive in safe, permanent homes.

Join us from 10-3pm on Oct 14th for the Stocking Sew Day.

Our goal is to make 300 stockings for the kids in need during the holidays.

National Tie One on Day!

Join us to celebrate National Tie One on Day™—make an apron, wrap it around a lovely loaf of bread, and tuck an encouraging note in the pocket. With a local bread company, we’ll deliver your gift to a women’s shelter on the day before Thanksgiving November 25th. Come sew along with us, and savor a piece of Friendship Bread. Call or come in to sign up for the FREE class.

Our “Tie One on Day”, in-store apron-making event is scheduled for:

Date: September 20th (Sunday) Time: 12am – 4 pm

A Great Read

Quilting, reading and gardening are my three passions. Baking comes in there as well. Ask me to bring something for a pot luck and most often I will bring dessert. I felt I must share the latest book I am reading, Prayers for Sale, by Sandra Dallas. She's the lady that wrote the Persian Pickle Club in 1996 that many of you might remember. Sandra Dallas writes wonderfully and quite often quilting is part of the storyline.

It’s about an 86 year old lady, Hennie, and her neighbor, Nit, who is 17 and married and they live in a town called Middle Swan, Colorado. They are both quilters. The story takes place in 1936 and Nit is asking Hennie about a specific piece of fabric in one of her quilts and this is her reply:

“…Why, it’s from the Pinto store. I saw that material there fifty years ago, and I had to have a piece of it. I never saw anything that color outside of a book. It was dear-bought. I didn’t want anyone else to have it, so I took it all, the whole bolt, cost me five dollars. Then I was so ashamed of myself for being greedy that I gave pieces of it to one and all. You see a piece of that blue in a Middle Swan quilt, and you know it came from me. That blue’s been in every one of my quilts, too. Still I am mighty saving of it and don’t give that material to just anybody these days. She paused and added, hoping to let the girl know that she was esteemed by the old woman, But you might have a piece, if you like…”.

Isn’t that great? I thought you all might enjoy that…

I get all of my books from my public library. I also get books there for a friend that doesn't drive who reads large print and let me tell you large print is the way to go. It's so much easier on the eyes. I order everything on-line through the library, it's so easy. Did you know they even have quilting books? It's a great way to check them out to see if you really want to buy it.

It's going to be in the 100s today - a perfect day to read and to quilt!

Take 5 on the 4th of July

It’s 99 degrees today, the 4th of July. It’s comfortable here in my air conditioned sewing room and I’ve been busy. Yesterday I put the blocks together for a Take '5' by "The Teacher’s Pet". What a terrific pattern! All of the pieces can be cut on the AccuCut (www.accucut.com/), thank you Jan for cutting them for me on our AccuCut at the shoppe. I used the fabric line from Benartex An Apple a Day. I knew when we got the line it would be out the door in no time. We Wenatchee quilters love our apple fabric. I had the blocks all made in a couple of hours. Today I sewed the rows together and put on mitered borders – yep, I did miter borders and I got them all right the first time. I am getting much better. I use Quilt in a Day Christmas at Bear’s Paw Ranch, page 48, for my illustrated instructions on mitering. I know lots of books have these instructions, but this one sure does the trick for me.

The top picture is my version of My Secret Garden, from the book Gathered from the Garden by Cindy Lammon. What a great time the five of us had making this quilt (see Jan’s blog My Secret Garden dated July 1, 2009). I hope to get pictures of the other three when everyone has their quilt back from the quilter. My border fabric is from my stash. How exciting is that? Of course, I had to buy several additional fabrics to match, but that was half of the fun. Everyone’s quilt is truly a work of art and we plan on entering all of them into the NCW Quilt Guild (http://www.ncwquilt.org/) Quilt Show in October and we hope that we can get them all hung next to each other.

Happy 4th to everyone! It’s my husband and me tonight watching the Wenatchee fireworks from our patio with our two shelties. I am sure the kitty will be hiding in the guest bedroom. She doesn't like loud noises and new things. I bought us some sparklers to have fun with, too. Enjoy!

My Secret Garden

Last summer I found this book sitting on a table at the store. The cover showed this beautiful quilt with so much applique. I bought the book for what ever reason we buy something that we figure we will never use. Then, I showed the book to Kathryn. She showed it to others and we are all thinking this would be the quilt to make.

So, in September '08 the five of us started meeting on Mondays to sew. We decided we would start the quilt in January giving us time to find fabric. For Anita, this was hard as she really loves her kits. She picked out her fabric based on what was used in a quilt at the Attic Window. Ruby found fabric while traveling - the same fabric that Anita originally looked at. Wilma had fabric in her stash and added much to it. I think Kathryn did the same.

January came and we started sewing. By this time, I had gathered too much fabric and was struggling to get colors to work. I made my first two blocks for the top left corner and started on the first applique block. I worked 3 days just to get the stem on that block. But, I couldn't get past the first two blocks and that the colors where not what I wanted - too dark, too stark. By this time, everyone else was done with the second section of blocks and cruising on through the quilt.

In March, I am still working on the quilt and have cut my second set of leaves for the first applique block. Some of us were still thinking hand applique and others were going to machine. During a Saturday that many of us sew together, I looked over at Sandy - expert hand appliquer and long arm quilter. I get up and ask Sandy if I could hire her to do my applique, never knowing she would say Yes! Now I had to start making block kits of all the applique blocks so that I could give them to Sandy at our guild's retreat in April.

At the Attic Window's 1st UFO Night, my neighbor and friend Donna said she had told me she would do the applique for me. So, I picked up a baggie and gave her the brick wall block with it's 3 bias stems and 28 leaves. Now, I had subcontracted my applique to two excellent appliquer leaving me with only the pieced blocks.

During this time, first Kathryn finished her quilt. Quickly followed by Anita. Though Anita's border fabric just wasn't working and she did a search at the Attic Window and found a much better border fabric - something to pull all the blocks together and more closely resembling the designer's border fabric. These two also had their tops quilted and now have finished their quilts.

Wilma came in third (no, I had no idea this would be a race) and passed her quilt top onto Sandy (see above expert) for quilting. Now, Ruby being the gentlewoman that she is took pity on me and took her time deciding on her border fabric. After a few purchases and changes, she settled on a striped border fabric. While waiting for delivery of the fabric, I was able to finish making kits for each block - except one. I have found that a great way of doing this type of quilt is to make the block kits and then, when there is time to sew you can get it done quickly.

My second to the last block gave me difficulty and was set aside for a few days. Came back to it fresh and redid a few cuts (hate those sixteenth inch cuts) and the block went together finally. But, now I was left with the last block under the checkerboard at the top right of the quilt. The block called sunshine was just not gelling for me. Couldn't find the right fabrics and after getting a lot of help from friends and coworkers, I decided to toss the designer's block and with Claudia's help found a paper pieced block that I liked so much more - the compass star. A little struggle again with color until I decided it was my quilt and I had already changed it, so do something I like. And I love the block, 2 light to medium yellows and purple, great.

Ruby finished her quilt and it also went to Sandy for quilting. This last weekend I finished my quilt at our Saturday sewing day, 3 months since I asked Sandy to do my applique. Tomorrow, I hope to put an eye on my bird. Friday, I will show it to some friends and then, this weekend it goes to.....wait for it......yes, Sandy for quilting. This will be the third My Secret Garden for her to quilt.

We are all going to have our quilts in the Harvest of Quilts show in October, hopefully grouped together. In September, the Attic Window will have Cindy Lammon's trunk show. Ms. Lammon is the designer of our quilts and we all want our quilts to be there.

My thanks to my subcontractors: Sandy and Donna for doing such beautiful work and helping me actually get a quilt top done so quickly.