{"id":1425,"date":"2011-11-13T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-13T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2011\/11\/13\/home-again\/"},"modified":"2015-01-01T12:17:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T20:17:18","slug":"home-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2011\/11\/13\/home-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Home again"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’ve been home from the big Houston Quilt Festival for just hours short of a week now, and I think I’ve finally recuperated and caught up enough to get my blog caught up, too. \ud83d\ude09<\/div>\n
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A friend and I flew to Houston on Wednesday (11\/2\/2011), arriving in time to dump our luggage in our hotel rooms and dash over to the convention center for the preview night. We headed straight for the vendors, as usual, saving the gorgeous quilts for a full day \u2014 at least. I have to say that I didn’t buy as much this year as I have in past years, but I enjoyed the shopping and looking just as much. What did I buy?<\/div>\n
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1. a king-sized batt from Pellon, in their Heritage line. Hobbs was sold out this year in record time, and the Pellon product is just as nice as the Hobbs product \u2014 in fact, it’s made from the same formula.<\/div>\n
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2. a large package of Soft and Stable, much of which I’ll need when I make one of the two patterns I also purchased.<\/div>\n

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3. two patterns. The one on the left in the photo will use that Soft and Stable, and it’s an adorable dog bed. The one on the right is another wool appliqu\u00e9 project, for which I bought some yummy lavender wool and Valdani thread.<\/div>\n

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4. a new pair of thread snips.<\/div>\n

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5. some Martelli rotary cutter blades.<\/div>\n

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These were my “just because” purchases. \ud83d\ude09 No books this year, no fabric other than that piece of wool! But I’m trying to use what I already have, so I was good.<\/div>\n

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Thursday at lunch time I met up with an online friend from Australia, and she bowled me over by bringing me a gift. She made this adorable little (12.5″ x 8.75″) koala, using aboriginal fabrics. Isn’t he wonderful? I just love him \u2014 and I’m so grateful to have him. \ud83d\ude00<\/div>\n

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Thursday I also had a class in curved piecing from one of my very favorite instructors. Here is the block I made, though I still need to add the curved borders:<\/div>\n

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We learned how to make just about any block into a curvy one and how to put the pieces together to end up with a flat result. One of the tricks was to use a very fine polyester thread. The fine thread takes up very little space in the seam, and the poly allows for a little stretch in the curves. The thread I bought to try out is made by Wonderfil. I bought some Deco-Bob, which is 80wt., and some Invisifil, which is 100wt \u2014 as is fine silk thread.<\/div>\n

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On Saturday I took a second class, this one on machine trapunto. I’ve experimented a little with this technique in the past, but I learned so much in this class! I still have much to do to finish my piece, but we began with some patterns that we then changed around to become more “personal”. I’ve finished all except the background stippling to make the trapunto stand out more:<\/div>\n

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Since coming home, I’ve started yet another class, this time on how to knit lace! It’s an online class, and it’s very good. The lessons are all on video, so we can see exactly what the instructor is explaining, and we can ask questions, post photos, and make comments. The beginning of my lace shawl is on the left, and I have to admit that the yarn for it was yet another purchase in Houston! \ud83d\ude09 That’s where I found out about the online class I’m taking.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been home from the big Houston Quilt Festival for just hours short of a week now, and I think I’ve finally recuperated and caught up enough to get my blog caught up, too. \ud83d\ude09 A friend and I flew to Houston on Wednesday (11\/2\/2011), arriving in time to dump our luggage in our hotel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[299],"tags":[211,217,269,224,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-1425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-quilting","8":"tag-houston-show","9":"tag-piecing-2","10":"tag-trapunto","11":"tag-travel","12":"tag-wool-felt","13":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/patterns.jpg?fit=473%2C476&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yzuO-mZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2135,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2015\/06\/25\/herding-cats-er-elephants\/","url_meta":{"origin":1425,"position":0},"title":"Herding cats … er, elephants","author":"Sandy","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I was in need of some little gifts for three young children and was tearing my hair out trying to think of what to make. 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I love everything about it: the gorgeous quilts, the amazing vendors, spending uninterrupted time with friends \u2014 some of whom I only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0023.jpg?fit=612%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0023.jpg?fit=612%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0023.jpg?fit=612%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/back-from-houston\/","url_meta":{"origin":1425,"position":2},"title":"Back from Houston","author":"Sandy","date":"November 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gosh! It's been a month since I've written a post \u2014 time really does fly sometimes. I returned home last night from a wonderful trip to the Houston Quilt Festival, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary. I know there are photos all over the web of the glorious quilts; I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0184.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1313,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2013\/11\/04\/back-from-houston-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1425,"position":3},"title":"Back from Houston","author":"Sandy","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What a week! Last Wednesday \u2014 early in the morning \u2014 I flew to Houston with my quilt buddy from Phoenix. We had an amazing five days at Quilt Festival there: lots of quilts, lots of vendors. This was, I think, the twelfth time I've been there, and it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/IMG_0406.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3631,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/13\/houston-quilt-festival-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1425,"position":4},"title":"Houston Quilt Festival","author":"Sandy","date":"November 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I absolutely love going to the Houston Quilt Festival, and I'm very lucky to be able to do so. I left home last Wednesday and returned home on Sunday, and it was so much fun to meet up with old friends and see the gorgeous quilts and the amazing vendors!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2411,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2015\/11\/03\/back-from-a-very-wet-houston\/","url_meta":{"origin":1425,"position":5},"title":"Back from a very wet Houston :)","author":"Sandy","date":"November 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My quilt buddy, Phyl, and I met up in Houston again this year, along with a few more of her Phoenix friends. As always, it was a fantastic time! The only downside was the very wet weather, which saw Phyl and me almost swimming to the convention center one day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0940.jpg?fit=1200%2C1197&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0940.jpg?fit=1200%2C1197&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0940.jpg?fit=1200%2C1197&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0940.jpg?fit=1200%2C1197&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0940.jpg?fit=1200%2C1197&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}