New name, less traffic?

Occasionally I check my blog statistics on the design toggle,

and I've been seeing high traffic for my pieced letter and curved piecing tutorials. 

Stupidly I thought it was because of the content,

but really it was because of the name, which I'm not going to repeat here,

but I will let you buy a vowel.

The title of the letter making tutorial was Str*p Pieced letters

Now it is Shortcut Pieced letters

to prevent spambots from searching it out and thinking this is

an adult-content site.
I also changed the Curved Str*p Piecing tutorial to Curved Piecing.

I imagine anyone clicking on the links  wasn't interested in quilting..

I notice that several adult websites are driving traffic to my blog.

Anyone know how to prevent that?
Update: After changing the names, some of spambot traffic has found other places to land.

Blue stars nearly finished

I collected a bunch of blue friendship stars from friends

for a group quilt project.

The parameters were that the stars had to be blue, the backgrounds neutral,

and they had to spin the same way, and finish at 9 inches

I dispersed the solid stars among the rest of them,

and then offset them by 3 inches to make them dance.

It all went together quickly, and I had enough blue scraps to make the piano key border.

One friend donated three metres of indigo fabric for the backing.

I had a few stars left, so I pieced together the backing,

but not without some serious calculations.

And I have just enough yardage left to cut the binding.

Here's the finished back.

It doesn't look nearly as complicated as it was.

I love little pieces and I don't mind making 500 seams in the front,

but I'm grumpy about more than one seam in the back.

It's not quite a finish, except that I finished both the top and the backing this week,

so I'm claiming it.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

15 Finishes for February

I spent the holiday weekend (Louis Riel Day in Manitoba)

making a dozen of these needle books

I used up scraps and sewing prints and little bits of patchwork

to make each one slightly different.

I use wool felt for the inside pages.

I love the saturation of colour in the wool.

I used to make them from selvage dots like the one at the left,

but now I make mini quilts. 

The one at the top used leftover blades from a Dresden project

on a Westminster Liberty Art fabric.

That one had flown off to QuiltCon as a gift for someone

before I got the picture of all 12 together.

I also said goodbye to this little guy,

who didn't mind sitting in the snow in his new track suit.

He is now fully clothed and has a new home.

I started this quilt at a retreat in January and finished it two weeks later.

It has a pink Eden print by Tula Pink on the back.

Here's the front, made from one and a half charm packs and hourglass blocks in two colours.

It is a really simple quilt with a great visual effect. 

The two grey colours make on point squares around the charm squares,

making the quilt look like it was set on point.

Here you can see the beginnings on my design wall.

I spent 45 minutes quilting this top which had sat in a drawer for two years.

I used a Warm and Natural batting and a micro fleece for the backing.

I'm donating it to an organization outfitting people affected by recent apartment building fires.

I figure there's some little kid out there that will have fun driving on these roads.

And my last finish:

A Valentine placemat for my mom, made from a set of charms with love and heart themes.

Here she is with it and her birthday roses.

She turned 82 on Valentine's Day.

A maker's musings

So we're into the deep freeze up here in Winnipeg,

and in the depths of the creative season on the Canadian Prairies.

My city has vibrant and creative cultural communities--

writers, musicians, artists, artisans--

and lots of people say its because of a long winter where we have time to perfect our art or craft.

I certainly sew and quilt more in winter than in summer

and my creative output often prompts the remark:

You get so much done!

or I can't believe how much you make!

or another variation of that.

I don't want to appear defensive,

but why do I have to defend making stuff?

I've been doing it since I learned to sew doll clothes at age 6

on my mother's new Elna Supermatic,

I've had really productive times

and times that are less productive,

but face it, I'm a maker.

I also hear the subtext of their remarks that they don't have time to quilt.

I hear that it's not important to them to take time,

and maybe even that I have nothing better to occupy my time with.

Do musicians and artists and novelists get those kind of comments?

I don't think anyone is telling Miriam Toews or David Bergen,

two award wining writers from Winnipeg,

that they like their books, but  (sigh) they don't have time to write. 

I like turning bits of fabric into something

and touching fabric

and figuring out how to make an idea in my head come to life.

My son is studying engineering, and taking courses on design

and reverse engineering, and material properties,

and project management. 

Those are all skills quiltmakers have.

But I'm not despairing. Just wondering.

I'm energized by making stuff

and I like sharing my makings with others.

But I'm tired of the comments about my output.

One answer is I have a really fast sewing machine and I know how to use it.

Another is that I have 50 years of making stuff,

so my hands are practiced at what they do.

Maybe it's just the speed of social media

and how quickly a finished project can be shared with the world.

That's why I'm not posing this question on Instagram,

where I have followers not interested in quilts (gasp!)

but here in Quilt Blogland,

where only quilters hang out because they care about making.

I love being a maker.

I don't want to feel guilty about being fast or good or prolific.

Makers gotta make, right?

What do you make of my makers's questions?

Random finishes for Friday

I took out these string flying geese from several years back1

and last week finally got them into a top.

I decided to go with two hues of orange

and now the top is done.

It measures 48 inches square.

I made some carry bags for Singer Featherweights.

This one for Krista Hennebury of Poppyprint 

incorporates free-pieced letter in hand dyed fabrics against a background

of a snow-dyed feed sack. 

The orange fabric top and bottom is from a woven Danish tablecloth

that had holes in the centre.

I've made one more FW tote from it and cut two more.

Just in case anyone is wondering what's inside,

I free motioned the word "featherweight" on the other side.

I love these vintage half-sized sewing machines,

but the cases can have problems

like the clasps not closing properly

or the handle wearing out.

So it is safer to carry the case in a bag.

I oiled and lubed and fiddled with the tensions on my choir of Singer Featherweights last week.

They were ready to use for a workshop last weekend 

sponsored by Winnipeg Modern Quilt Guild

and for a retreat in a week from now.

My oldest son vacated his room for several months.

His furniture is still there,

but there's room for my folding table-turned cutting station

and my choir of Featherweights and other storage bins underneath the table.

The added benefit is there's more room in my sewing space now.

I took Krista Hennebury's class Speed Date with Improv last Sunday.

Those are my blocks at the far right.

She demonstrated several improv techniques

and then encouraged us to put the all the parts together.

I've made many improv quilts before, but not in this style.

I was quite deliberate in matching up colour changes and lines in this piece.

It measures about 19 by 37 inches.

We were required to bring 5 inch squares in white and black and one other colour. 

I chose a light green that reads as a medium value, 

to contrast with both the black and the white.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers at

Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Making little things

I've been playing with little bits, mostly in wool, for the last few weeks.

First up are little houses, about 2.5 inches tall,

made from felted wool and wool felt and melton,

and cut out with a die cutter.

In the past, I've hand stitched them together with a blanket stitch,

but this time sewed them by machine, using a dark thread

to outline details.

And then I made a few more VW buses,

also by machine,

even outlined the windshield with stitching.

These have all found new homes,

and I made 10 more which are part of a Christmas garland.

I've added some beading along the roof line to look like Christmas lights

on these bigger houses, also cut with a die cutter.

I posted 12 Days of Christmas Tree quilts

on Instagram (@brendasuderman) earlier this month,

and here are all 12 quilts (actually 13).

This is my latest tree quilt,

made entirely from 2 inch HST from my scrap box.

This hand dyed tree made with an easy cathedral window technique

and a linen background was my other 2018 tree quilt.

It measures 9.5 by 12.5 inches.

I'm leaving you with pix from some of the little tree quilts 

from other years.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Making Christmas Trees

Inspired by a tutorial by Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company,

I put together a Christmas tree quilt from scrappy HSTs.

These finish at 2 inches. Hers are much bigger.

I run my small scraps through the die cutter and store the shapes in small tins.

Then whenever I need a little project, or some parts I've got them.

This is now pieced and quilted,

and I'll show you the finished product once I have the binding sewn on.

I saw another tutorial for easy cathedral windows.

You know the kind -- where you place a square folded diagonally on another square,

sew the seams, and then curve back the diagonal.

It seems like a good technique, but there are six layers in those middle seams.

I used over dyed white on white fabrics for the trees,

and linen for the background, and put in lots of quilting stitches.

It is quite stiff, which is perfect for a wall hanging.

I helped set up a craft and bake sale last weekend,

and nearly took these folks home with me.

The other volunteers debated with me on the price.

I said $100, but I think they settled on $60.

Too cheap when you consider the amount of work in this.

All the pieces were beautifully knit and finished, and the faces were great.

And it is very tactile.

I debated buying it myself, but the organizer didn't want to pre-sell it,

so I consoled myself with posting pix on social media.

I put together 10 trays of 36 assorted cookies for the same sale.

Two guys in my house donated some, and a bunch of others from my church did too,

so we had 30 dozen cookies to mix and match.

I know bake sales are old school, but these trays sold for $25 each.

And a close up of a progress shot of the tree quilt.

If you're on Instagram, check out my 

#12daysofchristmastreequilts on my account @brendasuderman.

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict