Tuesday Tool Tip: Paint Chips

Why the heck would I want paint chips?  Well, because color matching isn't just for your painter.  Paint chips are a great way to pick colors and to help others buy fabrics that match a specific set of colors.

Bonnie Hunter recently announced the colors for her winter mystery quilt.  She announced the colors by paint chips available from Lowes Home Improvement.  This allows everyone to pick fabrics that match the paint chip instead of matching the display on their phone or a print out or some other less than precise method.  You could send two people to the fabric store with a list that says "pink, teal, green and yellow" and you won't get two with the same shades.  You might not even get complimentary colors.

I picked up the chips Bonnie recommended and wrote down how much of each I would need.

Then I cut them apart so I wouldn't have to carry around anything more than the chips I needed.  This picture doesn't include the black and white fabrics that are also needed for this mystery quilt.

Then I decided I didn't like those colors and would be going in a completely different direction.  The magic of these paint chips is that sometimes you can find a collection like this one.  Where someone with much better color theory than you have has already picked some great colors to put together.  Something about this collection really caught my attention.  I think it has a very modern feel with the fun colors.  No pinks and blues for this girl.  Oh, no.  We're going off-road with this one.  This will test my ability to substitute colors in a quilt that is a complete mystery.

It may turn out to be a total disaster.  I don't know.  I won't know until sometime in December or January.  I do know that since I'm using the Quilters Quest Shop Hop to pick up the majority of these fabrics I won't be changing my mind half-way through.  I'm committed.

Do you play with color when making quilts?  Do you like to challenge yourself by substituting unexpected colors?

Quilters Quest - First Day, First Shop - Traditions at the White Swan

Last year I had a blast joining my very first shop hop.  I was surprised how many quilt shops were hiding out there in the Maryland/Northern Virginia area.  This year the Quilters Quest promises to be as much fun as last year.

On Saturday, I grabbed a quilting buddy and we headed out to the first stop on my list for the day:  Traditions at the White Swan.  Since the shop hop is ten shops in ten days I didn't want to rush it so we decided to take it easy.  I only planned to hit three shops.  Traditions at the White Swan is over an hour from my house so we started that way and planned to stop at the other two shops on the way back.

This shop was filled with fat quarters, kits and some amazing people doing demos and talking about tools, books and techniques.

I filled my little basket with fat quarters that I intend to use on Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt.  More about that as the Quest continues and I pick up more fabrics.  I'm going off-script with colors but I'm pretty excited about it.

While there I met a really fun and creative lady that is Cabin in the Woods Quilters.  Penni Domikis was great to meet and I really like her ideas on how to use up scraps with the tools we already have around the studio.  She shared stories about going to Quilt Market, a thing I hear about but will probably never get to go to.  If you are an Instagram user you should check out Penni's feed.  Loads of fun pictures to share.

Vintage Revival: Model 66 - Introduction

A few weeks ago I picked up this cute little Model 66 through Craig's List.  Nothing fancy, but the perfect thing for a friend that wants a more reliable machine.  This won't be a quick clean-up as this will be the first time I'm working on electrical things.  I'm up for the challenge.

It came in the Model 56 cabinet.  A little fancier than some, but still a small cabinet.  No bench came with this one.  I'm sure the stools get lost along the way with these machines.

This one needs some care.  I'm not sure if I can get it perfect, but better will be better.

This machine dates to December 18, 1952.

Poor thing had so much dust on it.

The first step is to get the machine head out of the cabinet and onto the worktable.

Time for cleaning and rewiring and more cleaning.  This will be a fun one.

Thread Thursday: Magnifico!

I've mentioned my love affair with Superior Threads before.  It does bear mentioning again.

This past week another Magnifico club order arrived.  This time I got some appropriately Halloween colors, if there is such a thing.  I like all colors, so I'm not all that picky.  I just love thread.

I also got this cone of So Fine! #50 in blue that will be another great addition to my growing collection of colors.  At some point I'm going to have to shift my club to another one so I can start collection other threads.