Material Girls

Once again I want to thank Shay over at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com for hosting Favorite Things Friday.  It is always rewarding to be able to focus on your "favorites" and read about others.

This week my favorite thing is a quilt shop in Wichita called "Material Girls". The shop is run by two sister-in-laws that took their love of quilting to new heights. For this size community, it has a vast selection of quilting fabrics.  The number of possible fabrics in a given color makes my head swim.

And this is just regular greens and blues.  There is another whole section for for the green and blue batiks.  I couldn't even begin to show all the color selections.

 Besides their wide selection of fabrics, they provide a place to just sit and visit with other quilters.  It is a cozy, gathering place for area quilters with coffee provided.

                              They also have classes which I will investigate down the line.

The walls are covered with beautiful quilts made by local quilt artists.  Here are a few.  I wish my photographic skills were adequate to show the quilting in many of these quilts.

Aren't the colors gorgeous in these two?  Because they are hung high on the wall, I wasn't able to capture the beautiful quilting that was done on each.

This one was made by one of the owners for her coming grandbaby.  It is a combination of regular quilting and minkee fabrics with the backing made of the minkee.

                   This store is housed in a historic building that is part of the Delano District of Wichita.

 This is another reason this store is one of my favorite things.  This building has a long and interesting history.

 The Delano District, at one time, was separate from Wichita due to the Arkansas River that runs through the town.  Delano has seen many changes in the more than 135 years since its founding. Delano started out with the reputation of being the rough side of town. In 1870 Delano became an important cattle-shipping center on the Chisholm Trail.

Cattle were herded up to Delano from Texas.  The cattle-shipping industry became a crucial part of the formation of Delano as a recreational district for cowboys. “Vices” were kept out of the Wichita area. Most of the gambling, drinking and prostitution took place in the township of Delano, which did not have any law enforcement. Guns were checked at the bridge before you could cross into Wichita. Often, drunken cowboys would shoot their firearms much as boys shoot fireworks off today. Occasionally there would be gunfights.

Herding cattle was a hot and dusty job. The cowboys would take baths in the river. This resulted in an ordinance in 1872 prohibiting nude bathing, but only during the daytime.

During the years of 1872-73 the saloon keepers sponsored a curious form of entertainment on Sunday afternoons (weather permitting of course).  Cowboys would load the Saloon girls into wagons and take them down river a short distance. The girls would then strip naked, tossing their clothing in the back of the wagons. At the sound of a pistol, the girls would race back to the saloons accompanied by the whooping and hollering cowboys. Bets were placed on the race and the winner would receive a prize.

Due in large part to the death of the local cattle trade in the late 1870s, Delano was incorporated into the city of Wichita in 1880. A building boom in the 1880s brought brick buildings and paved streets to Delano.While I could not verify this, I assume that the building housing the quilt shop today was built during this time.

 In December of 1925, Beech, Cessna and Stearman started a new company called Travel Air Manufacturing Company located in the building that is now "Material Girls". This company became the forerunners to Boeing, Beech (Raytheon), and Cessna aircraft companies.

As you can tell the window and doors have been modernized in the building.  The interior, though, has much of the original wood work.  Recently, the owners were able to buy two large crystal chandliers that were being sold before the renovation of another historic building in Wichita--The Broadview Hotel.  It was built in 1922 and is just across the river in original Wichita.

Hope I haven't bored you too much with the history of the building, but I find this fascinating.  I'm always so pleased when I hear of someone preserving our heritage.

Potpourii

This was another week where other considerations took precedent over sewing.  I worked on the cookbook and finally have all the writing completed.  I'm down to preparing some of the dishes so they can be photographed for the cover.  Oh, darn!  That means I have to do some cooking.  Of course, cooking is another of my favorite things to do.  Such torture!  Woe, is me!  Actually it is rewarding to do the cooking and then try to make the dish look like they do in the magazines.  Well, I may never quite achieve that as I'm definitely lacking in any kind of photography skills.  But here are the dishes I cooked today.

                                                             Pot Roast and Spaghetti

                                                                  Mediterranean Salad

As far as sewing goes, I was able to complete Block 5 of the Wing and a Prayer quilt.  Since it is a new twist on Bear Paw, there were 60 pieces in the block.  Does having a lot a pieces count for my lack of having much to show?  I've always wanted to do a Bear Paw so having it in the sampler has added to the fun.

My daughter and I had to feed our fabric addiction this week with a trip to Material Girls.  She had received a 25% discount coupon from them for her birthday and it was about to run out.  I planned to just "look".  Well, you probably know the end of this story already.  I was lucky to escape with spending less than $15 by finding beautiful fabrics in the sale bin.  (The "rotten rack" as my mother-in-law always called sale racks).
Most of the fabrics in this store run $9-$14 per yard.  The sale fabrics were only $5 per yard.  And, Oh, darn, again, you had to buy in 1 yard cuts.  I chose two fabrics that were metallic (the two on top) and another that was complimentary in color.  Since I have no clue what I'll make with these fabrics, I thought it best if I bought 2 yards of each.  I let Michelle pay for them so I got in on the 25% off too.  Does a trip to the fabric store count as sewing for the week?

A Little of This and That

The last week and a half my sewing time has been rather sparse.  Since my daughter has figured out how to self-publish books, I dug out a cookbook that I had written 3-4 years ago and had done nothing with.  So I have been busy proofreading, editing, writing an index, and adding prep. times and cook times.  I think, at last, I'm down to writing an introduction.  Then I'll turn it over to Michelle and let her work her magic.  (Anything too complicated on the computer is pure magic to me).

However, I have been able to finish 3 more blocks for the Wing and a Prayer.  Each one is a new learning experience for me.  One thing this pattern does, is have  you make block units a little larger than the actual size that is needed.  The unit is then trimmed back to a specified size.  For example:  Flying geese come out 1/4" to 1/2" larger than needed.  The directions say to trim each one back to 2 1/2" x 4 1/2".  I made a template that size to speed up the process.  My first thought on doing this was that it wastes fabric, but it does make for a precision sized piece.  My blocks are coming out much more uniform.  I think with blocks this complicated (45-55 pieces each) that it will save me a lot of headaches down the road.  At least that's what I'm telling myself now.

So here is the sum total of my sewing for the past couple of weeks.

                                                Sampler block 2

                                                  Sampler block 3

                                        
                                                  Sampler block 4


I have another on going project that keeps me entertained while I watch TV.  My nephew and wife are expecting their second child in April.  Therefore, something needed to be made for the new little one.  I've been working on a shell stitch baby afghan.  It is about 2/3 done.  When the body is finished, I would like to add a ruffled edge as the new one is to be a girl.  Pink, I think, or maybe a pastel variegated yarn.  I'm still searching for a pattern for the ruffle.

Beyond the Mortal Coil

Thanks Shay for once again hosting Favorite Things Friday for the New Year.  Yes, I know, I'm a week late, but I so look forward to this through out the year.

For this week my favorite thing is a book.  No, not just any book-- one written by  a member of my family.

My late husband spent ten years writing over 20 short stories and 3 novels.  Most of his short stories were published, but, alas, no luck with the novels.  His last novel, "Beyond the Mortal Coil"  was superb.  An editor at Bantam Books reviewed it, praised its writing and originality, but said he could not publish it because it was so original, he didn't know how to market it.  Jeez, you'd think that  publishing companies would want originality.  So the book has languished for five years.

Our family did enjoy the book through the years by having family reading times.  We would all gather and I would read the book aloud.  So this book is not only my favorite thing because of its content, but also because of the great memories of us all sharing it.

Now here is the good part!  My daughter, Michelle, has found a way to self-publish the book as both an e-book and a hard copy through Amazon.  She has worked all week getting it formatted, designing a cover, and getting it set up for sale.  She also was instrumental in the writing of this book acting as writing consultant, doing the typing, editing, and doing the marketing.  I am ecstatic that this novel will finally have a chance to be read by the public.

Wing and a Prayer Session 1

This week I finally began working on the king-sized quilt hat I mentioned in last week's blog using the pattern "Wing and  Prayer".  The pattern features 12 sampler type 12 1/2 inch blocks around a large center block. (See last week's blog).  I bought the pattern over a year ago so I'm glad to get started by making block 1.  It has 51 pieces in it.

With this pattern, there are directions for new techniques that I've not used before.  Now I've read about these techniques in quilt magazines, etc., but these are new to me.  The directions that I had seen previously were not clear enough for me to want to try them.  However, this pattern has explicit written directions and great diagrams.  I LIKE pictures.  I'm wondering if I'm the only quilter out there that does not already use these techniques.  But contrary to popular belief, old dogs can learn new tricks.  It just takes us longer.

The first technique used two 3 1/4 inch squares sewn diagonally with right sides together.  Then they were cut apart to make 2 half square triangles sections.  The squares were then squared to 2 1/2 inches.  This made for a really precision sewn segment.

The next technique was for making flying geese using a large 5 1/2 inch square and 4 3 inch squares. Place two small squares in the opposite corners of the large square.  A diagonal line is drawn from opposite corners, then two seams are sewn 1/4 inch from the drawn line.  The small squares overlap in the center.  The piece is cut along the drawn line.  Press triangles outward. To finish each of the two geese, another 3 inch square is sewn diagonally in the corner of the large square that is left.  Repeat to finish the second flying goose.  Shown here is a unit of two different geese sewn together.

Finally a third technique was used to put triangular corners on a square.  The pattern called it Sew and Flip. A small square is sewn diagonally  on each of the corners of a large square.  The original corners are cut and the new corners are pressed out.

 

I also discovered how great a new quilting tool is (also bought a year ago)--The Quilt Rule.  It is used for drawing center diagonal lines and 1/4 inch seam lines for pieces like the ones I just described.  How slick!

Sure wish I had taken the time to more fully explore these techniques and  this tool when I first came across them several years ago.  Oh, well, I've got them now.

So now I'm on my way to a new quilt with block 1 being complete.