Saturday, October 17, 2020

Free Zoom Quilt Class, October 20.


   Free Live Online Craft Class

Learn to quilt with Jessica

Wed., Sept. 9 Tues., Oct., 20, Nov. 9

7:00 – 8:00 pm

Sign up now.

 

Take one or all three sessions and get started quilting. Machine and hand sewing, beginners welcome. Techniques will come from Jessica Alexandrakis' book, Get Started Quilting: The Complete Beginner Guide (Interweave, 2015).  The details for each session is as follows:

1. 9/9  Half Square Triangles (machine required)

2. 10/20  Flying Geese (machine required)

3.  11/9  Hand Applique  (no machine)

 

Please prepare the following materials before the class: 

Working sewing machine, Assorted cotton fabrics (scraps ok, totaling 1/4 yard), quilter’s ruler and cutting mat, rotary cutter or scissors, pencil, needle, thread, straight pins.

 

Registration Tips:

  1. Log on your computer device and get to the UPL website at: https://www.uniondalelibrary.org

  2. Scroll down to click the green box View All Events on your right-hand. On September 9 event, locate Learn to Quilt and click the Register button.

  3. Fill in the required fields to complete your registration.

  4. The log-on link will be sent to you before the workshop.

 

Uniondale Public Library, 400 Uniondale Ave. Uniondale NY 11553, https://www.uniondalelibrary.org/


Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Free Zoom Class, July 28th!

Have you been making time for hand-stitching this summer? 

We all know that the meditative stitches of English paper piecing is a great way to slow your thoughts. On Tuesday, July 28th, I'm offering a free hand sewing workshop via Zoom through the Uniondale Library. We will be making little placemats (see my progress pics in the last post), please click the link below to register and I hope to see you there!

Register Here!





* just keeping it real.  #honestkitchentable

Monday, June 29, 2020

Mid Pandemic

We will spend the rest of our lives contemplating this time. 

And I wonder if my children will learn anything about the time pre-pandemic when they're in school. Of course they will learn American history by whoever ends up writing it, but how far into the recent past will they go? I am sure they will cover the birth of the internet and the rise of change brought on by technology, they will cover 9/11 unless of course whoever writes the history books of the future sees that differently. What will they know of the first 20 years of this century? What will my children learn about the times their parents lived in when they were born? I know my children in particular will hear about when Greece abandoned the drachma in favor of the euro, and the 2004 Summer Olympics, and then the crisis and then the refugees and then the pandemic.
....
Like I said, we will be pondering this time for the rest of our lives.


I was at Target today, first time in four months. The school supply aisles just didn't feel right, no one had rifled through the bins, there was no rush to put out the stock. But I turned the corner and saw a familiar box on the shelf.

I got one because this past week I started a new English Paper Piecing project and I think it needs its own box. 

I would also like to make a new pin cushion, because they're very useful and awfully cute, but we will see if those thoughts get cut out and put together.


Stay safe everyone and please Journal throughout the pandemic.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Travel Quilt #6 and some public crafting

I have been working steadily on Travel Quilt #6 since last fall and it is growing.  I got a chance to piece a few units while I was in Manhattan over the weekend and took this pic:

It is amazing how many fewer photos I am taking now that social media isn't a daily habit.  I have been peeking into Instagram lately because I miss my friends, but I don't yet feel the need to post regularly there again.

Travel Quilt 6 is interesting in that I am writing on the triangles but the fabric selection has gotten chaotic (as all my quilts do, I don't know why this surprises me) and I needed to reign it in a bit.  I added horizontal hexagon sashing between some of the rows and that helps but I'm envisioning a 60 degree diamond border and then a wide DSQ print to give it a straight edge.  I am antsy to get to the border stage but I know it's best to just keep piecing units and letting it grow as it will.  I am working with the local library to set up a drop in sewing session for May. Once things are finalized and I have a flyer to share I will post details.  I miss having a quilt group and I'm hoping to make it a regular occurrence if I can. I love having the input of quilters in real life for decisions like these.

I finished a huge quilt at the beginning of 2020 and have yet to post about it here.  I am wondering if I should try to submit it to any local or national shows.  Does anyone have suggestions or know of places taking submissions this spring? Please share.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

A reintroduction


My name is Jessica Alexandrakis and a long time ago I started a quilt blog.

I quilt pretty much every day.  There are certainly times where I'm more focused on one project than another, but I usually have multiple quilts going on at the same time.  I love pulling fabric, using up scraps, whipstitching (EPP and BINDING!!) and taking a finished quilt out of the wash.  I hate measuring, squaring up, fixing mistakes, and fiddly machine paper piecing patterns.  We all like what we like, you know?  I also like writing.  sharing. documenting and rereading my journey with making soft housewares to be USED.  I am not an art quilter.  I don't do embellishments.  I don't do matchy matchy.   I follow my gut and make what I want.  Sometimes I make the quilts that want to be made, without much forethought.  At any rate, I enjoy the process and I want to share it here with you all.


I just told my 7 year old that I used to write a blog and I told him what it was--  A way for people to tell their own stories online.  He said he had lots of stories, so we agreed to make more time for paper journaling. 
And for me, I want a facebook/instagram free 2020, but I'm writing here because I am open to connecting in other ways. 

Pen pals
1x mail exchanges
Mail art
Holiday exchanges 
Round Robins (I'm dying to do a row by row...)
Kids letters/packages.

I have been using the internet now for 23ish years... I don't want to become a recluse but I want to enjoy how I interact with others online, and commercialized social media platforms haven't been having a positive impact on me for a long time.  I'm still looking for ways to connect with quilters in real life too, but somehow the demands of modern life, work, parenting... there are so few hours in the week.  I won't give up though, there are too many good stories to tell.

Please follow, no, connect with me here.  ♡

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Unexpected surprise

I brought Charlie (my chocolate point Siamese) with me to Rich's this weekend and I always bring a quilt from home so he feels comfortable and has a home base that smells familiar.  By the end of the weekend he had claimed Rich's computer chair, so he definitely made himself at home, but that's not what this post is about.  I had Travel Quilt #5 on the quilt next to Crumplequiltskin and I was shocked to find that the quilts looked... the same.  Both are dark with bright scraps, but as I was making them, separately, years apart, I remember thinking that this use of dark really wasn't "me".  But here we are.  Two of my recent finishes happen to look.. incredibly similar and an awful lot like me.




Travel Quilt #5 started on a car ride to Virginia, spring 2014?  I put the borders on and quilted it in 2018 and then it sat on my couch with pins in it, waiting for some perle cotton.  A few lines of quilting got stitched in one corner, but I don't know if I'll do the rest.  The machine quilting will definitely hold it together and when the urge to hand quilt strikes, I've got a project ready to go.  

Crumplequiltskin happened this past fall.  I spent the end of the summer just making crumb blocks and playing with layouts in my new sewing studio.  I grabbed a stack of blocks and added a few borders and trimmed them into huge blocks (16"x20"?).  This top went together very quickly and was just the right amount of sewing for me to focus on at the time.  I had it long armed through The Quilt Tree in Nyack and the binding went on shortly after.  It was made specifically for Rich's couch.  62" x 93".  Rich thinks it's for him, but really, Archie has claimed it.  

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Reworking a t-shirt


So I guess like a lot of people, the standard neck line on modern t-shirts (you know, the unisex or male sizes, not the ones cut cute for girls that they charge extra for), those neck lines aren't always how I want fabric on my skin during the day. So I got this red t-shirt at the thrift store a few weeks back and it had a cut neckline and I thought, I don't know if I can wear that... I mean it seems a little bit risque. But it has become a wonderful sleeping shirt and I thought with some adjustments, I could turn it into something, a way to alter some of my current wardrobe to make it more "me".
And here is my process:
First, lay out the shirt you are copying from and take some measurements. 

Although this thrifted shirt did not have a tag in it, compared to my other t-shirts, I'm guessing it was once a size medium. The shirts I'm choosing to alter in this tutorial are both unisex-adult large. So I measured and put pins where I want the cut neckline to start. I have average to narrow shoulders on my 5 and 1/2 foot frame and I don't always wear a bra but I still wanted it to sit comfortably on my body after I cut off the original neckline..

Then I measured how far down I wanted to cut it. On the white t-shirt, I did have print pretty high up on the chest so that limited my ability to give a scoop neckline, which I think is my preferred. But I made a pin where I wanted it to be roughly following the guideline of original.

Next step is to mark a cutting line. In my new sewing space (!!!) I have already brought over a whole bunch of notions but I did not have a water-soluble marking pen so being is this was going to be a make-do upcycle.  I marked my line with a regular mechanical pencil-- I used a spool of thread to give me the same distance around the original neckline, which you don't have to do at all if you don't want to follow that curve, but first I drew that line and then without cutting anything I moved on to the sewing step.

Using Pearl cotton number 8 and taking a piece of thread maybe 6 in longer than the line I want to stitch, I buried the knotted end in the seam allowance of the t-shirt and then just did a running stitch maybe quarter inch lower than my cutting line-- only on the front-- seam to seam. I then buried the thread in the other seam allowance.  I repeated that two more times and then, using my fabric scissors, I cut along the cutting line on the front of the shirt.   On the back of the shirt I cut just underneath the neckline and along the original seam so it's more of a straight cut across the back.

I was so excited to take a picture and see how I fit on my body, I just threw the shirt on I did not wash it so I don't know how the stitches will hold up.  Based on experience with other raw edge jersey knit, I do think it's going to roll a bit after I wash it but I think that'll be fine with me.  On the next one, I might want to adjust the neckline a little bit more so it covers more of my shoulders. I definitely want to play around with a squared off or scoop neckline on future t-shirts so that gives me a lot to do in summer.  The whole project start to finish took less than an hour. So I highly encourage you to pull out a t-shirt you have not worn in a while and give it a try.  Then you can see how you like it before you try it on one of your favorite t-shirts. If you do it, please let me know!! send pictures here in the comments or find me on Instagram (@jessica_alex) and send me a private message there because I'm really curious to see if this works for anybody else. 

Free Zoom Quilt Class, October 20.

    Free Live Online Craft Class Learn to quilt with Jessica Wed., Sept. 9 Tues., Oct., 20, Nov. 9 7:00 – 8:00 pm Sign up now.   Take one or...