Baby Buckeye Quilt (With Binding Tip!)

Until 2017, I totally sucked at making, attaching, and turning binding. Super sucked.

All thanks to Darlene, I am now competent in this important step.

Part of completing this important step includes coffee, of course, and free weekend hours.

FYI: Binding is the outside edge of the quilt
(for those dear friends of mine who I've roped into reading
and don't know what this is).

I almost exclusively use funky beer cardboard to hold my binding because it happens to be found in our recycling bin. Nearly all the time. Don't judge.

Previously, I would cut way too many strips of fabric when making binding but now know there is actually a way to figure out exactly how much you need for this. Credit goes entirely to Darlene at Material Girl Fabric Shop:

Measure your quilt all around and add that all together. 

E.x., For my current make, it is a square top measuring 38 1/2 by 38 1/2 which equals 154. 

Divide that total perimeter by 42 because that is the length of a cut of fabric from the bolt

 (I think...something like that...just divide it by 42). 

That number, 3.667 in this case, is the number of strips you need. 

Round up to the nearest whole number and ta-da! 

You now don't have way too many strips!

Taking quilting classes has been a game-changer for me. If you quilt or want to learn, the usefulness of sitting down with a great instructor and a bunch of enthusiastic learners shouldn't be underestimated.

Check out this finished binding! I used to do a sloppy whipstitch all the way around. Not so professional. This is much better. ...Just don't look too closely at the knobby corners as I haven't quite perfected those yet.

This quilt is a baby gift for my dear friend from graduate school who helped me through some of the toughest parts of my twenties who is going to be a MOM soon. She doesn't know about this blog yet so SHHH! Don't tell her!

I can't wait to give this to her Baby Buckeye.

Ohio Star block crafted with the help of
Jeni Baker's Half Square Triangle book.

Fake It 'Till you Make It

Here's a secret...

I entered a contest. 

An essay contest. 

An essay contest by MARY FONS. 

TO WIN MARY FONS PATCHWORK!!!!!! 

I made a (apparently fleeting) promise to myself I would not abuse capitalization or exclamation marks on this blog to help prevent people from being annoyed by me. Oops. I'm sorry but they are necessary in this context!

Instead of hemming and hawing and potentially chickening out or second guessing, I wrote the essay yesterday and sent it today. I went with my gut. I was acting like I wasn't nervous when I sealed and stamped the essay yesterday. But then I got up to the mailbox to send this sucker and I froze a little bit. I almost didn't plop it in that slot there, guys.

Check it out.

Mary is my quilting hero. I sent something very personal and very real and very me to my quilting hero who would definitely open it and look at it and read it. 

Let's not dwell on that. Fake it until I make it? Yes, I will!

Here are some tulips sitting pretty on my table to celebrate. Happy First Day of Spring!

Two lips are better than one, they say, and I agree.
X's and O's for Bravery!!

Beauty

This quilt still lives in my mom's linen closet.

My mom and I met for BBQ and beer and went to see Beauty and the Beast over the weekend.

It was so much like the original Disney movie. The music was perfect. The CGI didn't look too bizzaro. Emma Watson was seriously enchanting as the real life version of my favorite character from childhood. It was amazing.

One of my favorite surprises about quilting is the way it has changed the way I experience other things, sometimes when I least expect it. During the movie, I found myself in awe of the colors in Belle's blue dress, the way the fabric in her yellow ballgown seemed to float around her while she danced.

It makes life more like an adventure-- seeing things from a different perspective, noticing beauty you wouldn't have necessarily taken in before.

And don't we all want adventure in the great wide somewhere?

One more reason to Make!

A Love Letter to Mary Fons

There is something you should know about me. I have a major, full-fledged, epic crush on Mary Fons. Almost everyone in my life knows about Mary Fons even though most beloved people of mine are not quilters and would have no reason to know who she is. My husband Bryan refers to her as "Fons" which I think is cute and hilarious.

When I first began quilting in the fall of 2015, I was learning most things from my grandmother Carole (who is the most amazing grandmother you will ever meet). My grandma is a Wonder Woman. She happens to be a rock star quilter who used to be a home economics teacher. This makes my whole learning experience that much more fantastic because not only does she know many things, Gram C also knows how to teach them. My primary quilting teacher does unfortunately live a couple hours away and when I was first starting, I would get stuck on many different things between our visits. I needed to start outsourcing.

And I found Mary.

Photograph from Mary Fons's website: www.maryfons.com.

I happened on her by accident at a Half Price Books. Make + Love Quilts found its way into my hands and on my nightstand. I would hop into bed as usual with my novel but find myself eventually opening up Mary's book before closing my eyes for sleep. I would read parts over and over and stare at those pictures. I had never bought a book with quilts in it. It rocked my damn world. For those of you who don't know this book, it is full of freaking magic. I had not ever seen quilts like this. Naturally, this led me to look up Mary Fons online. I found that she had a magazine and a television/internet show to help beginning quilters figure out what in the world they were doing at their machines and on their cutting mats. Quilty (Mary's magazine and show) taught me a ton of skills that have made me the creator I am today.

I have seen Mary speak twice and both times, I was a total fan geek. I took a personal day in January to see her speak at the opera house in Woodstock, IL near where I live. She talked about quilt history, her famous quilting mom, and her own path into the art. Here are my top three things I loved about her Creative Living talk:

3. It was super informative. I was scribbling notes like a weirdo. Mary talked about a lot of things I didn't know that were crazy fascinating. Did you know there were very few quilting books even available before 1970 but that the craft has been documented as early as the 1800's? Did you know that the Industrial Revolution was a primary force in the quilting explosion because of the increase in fabric manufacturing? That the Whitney Museum in New York City showcased quilts "off the bed" and in the art world for the first time? Did you know Mary made her first quilt when she was 28? It is shown below...I was ungodly incredulous that this was her first quilt ever.

Photograph from Fons and Porter's website.
Pattern originally appeared in Quilty Magazine, Spring 2012.

2. During the talk, there was a lady in the audience who accidentally had left her phone on. This poor lady's phone was blaring a repetitive, beepy alarm that was impossible to ignore. On top of that problem, she could not for the life of her figure out how to silence it. Mary was up at the front and made it clear she was trying to ignore it, but when she couldn't and when everyone in the audience couldn't...do you know what she did??!? She-- kindly, sweetly, and with grace-- left her post on stage to walk into the audience and help turn off the lady's phone. Mary made everyone clap and laugh instead of feeling annoyed and angry at the poor women who couldn't get her phone to shut up. It was amazing.

1. At the end, Mary showcased a number of her quilts and when one of them was held up and unfolded, people in the audience literally gasped. Loudly gasped. Including me (duh). Gasped! It wasn't until that moment until I really appreciated a good gasp. A gasp is that feeling of absolute wonder in action-- so much so, you lose your breath for a hot minute.

Not only is Mary a quilter, she is also a fantastic writer. Please stop what you are doing right now and leave this blog to go read hers. Part of the reason I decided to start a blog is because her blog is so amazing and if I can inspire and comfort one person the way she inspires and comforts me, it's worth it. Mary shares her life vulnerably, bravely, and beautifully...and she can be quite hilarious, too. So go! She is really, really cool.

http://blog.maryfons.com/

In case you read this one day, Mary...thank you.

You changed my life.

Monday Making

Lined Drawstring Bag pattern designed by Jeni Baker.

This week has been a mess at work. I am a speech-language pathologist by day and I work in an elementary school. I love my students. Seriously, I love them. But sometimes it is just insanely, emotionally exhausting to manage work responsibilities. Ammi right, working women of the world!?

But let's not talk about that. I'm "making it work" and that is not what I want to share about. Ever. Especially on this amazing blog that will be dedicated to joy and creation and quilts and general cool stuff to make and think about.

So.

Sew.

I left work in a huff yesterday and went straight to one of my happy places. My favorite fabric shop is Material Girl in Crystal Lake, IL. Go there-- it's amazing! It has bewitching healing powers. I mean it. I go in there and sniff and touch fabrics of all colors and feel a unique kind of calm. Bonus-- Darlene was there and she is absolutely amazing and helped me reset myself. I'll tell you about Darlene another time. You'll love her.

Anyway. I made myself a lined drawstring bag. For all my non-sewing peeps who I will (hopefully) convince to read this blog, School of Sewing by Shea Henderson is an outstanding manual to learn some rockin' fundamentals about sewing. It kicks off with 52 pages of information about the founding of the book, as well as a long list of resources on machines, stitches, supplies, and fabric. The rest features beginning projects, starting with a pillowcase. A quilt is the "final exam". It is a wonderful book!

I had to laugh at myself while making this bag because although the directions are very clear and helpful, I made a bajillion mistakes. I lined up the interior fabric where the exterior ones should be, cut 1 1/2 inch squares for boxed corners on the wrong side, and could not for-the-freaking-life-of-me figure out how to put the drawstrings in it so that they would actually work.

But. I did it!!

It is a sincerely magical feeling I get when I'm about to finish something that I made with creative joy on my sewing machine. I get a little shaky and giddy and...proud. In a different way than I do in other parts of my life. It's special. And it's changing me somehow, little by little and bit by bit.

And come on-- look at this shade of pink that peeks out at me from the inside of the bag. Doesn't it make you want to squeak with silly delight!!?

Squeak!

Make a Blog

Here's my first post!

Okay. I need to be honest. I'm not really an Internet person. Which is why I was really nervous about starting a blog. HTML?!? Cookies (...but you can't eat them??!)!? Analytics!? Gadgets and widgets and links, oh my! We're going to pretend you don't have to be "techy" to have a blog. We'll see if that is true.

Make with Might has been an idea long in the making. 

I have become a woman obsessed with a short list of other blogs by women and wanted to contribute my own ideas to this wonderful world of quilts and cooking and crafting and general life-making. But mostly quilts. Quilts are good. So good. This will mostly be about quilts.

I am a modern woman who, like many, is feeling a little burnout by the responsibilities of a busy adult life. And I don't even have babies! Or a dog! But work can be hard. My newest habit has been to tumble into images of quilts and fabric on the blogs I love and on Pinterest during my (too short) lunch hour to briefly escape my daily grind. And I gotta tell you guys...it's working. 

I sincerely and truly hope someone out there will find similar inspiration, comfort, and joy over their coconut yogurt while taking peeks at this blog on their (hopefully not too short) lunch hour. 

Cheers, friends.

I promise I will not generally advertise yogurt.
But this is the first post so just go with it.