There is a lot going on. I realized at some point over the weekend that I had not really inventoried what I for gifts. This year will be a much leaner Christmas even than last year, but I still have a few things to buy and a lot to wrap. There is a lot going on at work and I have just been ignoring everything, and focusing on the gifts I need to make.  I got myself in gear, did an inventory and started working on my Christmas shopping.

I am an inveterate cyber-shopper. Before the web had stores, I would spend the Friday after Christmas with all of the catalogs I had been hoarding on the phone ordering via phone. Since I do mostly online shopping, I inevitably find other sites that might be of interest.

Liesl from Oliver + S pointed me to her free mitten ornament pattern. It can be used for gift tags, winter decorating, tree ornaments or an advent calendar. I could see where the maker could have a nice little reminder of favorite fabrics from the year by using project scraps for the mitten cuffs. Thanks, Liesl!

Liesl pointed me to Alabama Chanin. I like the look of their blog, which they call a journal. I believe they are a clothing company. They do sell scrap bags of organic cotton fabrics. I saw an interesting jacket on the cover of one of their catalogs via their blog/journal. I am thinking about renewing my wardrobe, but want classic pieces with interest which look good on me. That is a project for much later, but it is on my mind.

Quilts, Inc in Houston has website with a list of the winners from this year’s show. Robbi Joy Eklow won second place in the Art-Abstract Large category. It is one of her gear type quilts. I saw Moon Garden by Judy Coates Perez last year at PIQF She won Honorable Mention in the Art-Painted Surface category.

I was pointed to the Running with Scissors Blog for an interview of Susan Shie. She talks a lot about her airpen work and how it has changed the pace of her work (she can do a lot more). She is doing less hand work, but I don’t know if she has completely stopped that. She also talks about spending the day with President Obama sitting by the side of a river and talking with him while they eat cheeseburgers. It is a very sweet image. After the debacle with the White House party crashers recently, I was thinking that it would be nice if a “regular Joe or Jane” was invited to every White House event. It is, after all, our tax dollars at work.

Also, some time ago I took a class at the Marin Needle Arts Guild weekend retreat from Gwen Marston. It was a two day class and we learned Liberated Quiltmaking. I ended up with my quilt Women’s Work 1. I used her technique to having making a lot of different house blocks.

I found a blog called Block Party and they show a tutorial for making star blocks similar to the ones that Gwen Marston teaches. I thought you might enjoy making a few. As I scrolled through the blog, I found they had tutorials for other blocks as well.

Somehow I found my way to a Dutch site full of Mariner’s Compasses and other round designs created by Jacqueline De Jonge. I have linked you to the English version. De Jonge’s work reminds me of Judy Mathieson and her work looks similar to Barbara Barber’s circular work. I took Barbara Barber’s class at PIQF once and should be able to make these without another class, but De Jonge’s quilts look so cool, I would happily take a class from her as well. There is a review and picture of a great block one of her students made. You can buy the patterns and fabric collections at BatiksPlus. I was surprised at the cost of some of the patterns ($46), but I think it would probably become clear once I actually saw the complexity of the pattern in real life. Not all are that expensive. I think I would rather have a class form her or a book and do the drawings myself.

This reminds me that I have an idea to make a circle quilt a la Malka Dubrawsky, but with inset circles like Ruth McDowell teaches and shows in her Piecing book instead of the dyed circles that Malka uses.

If I had unlimited money, after I bought the diamond earrings, I would buy the Aurifil Suitcase. Have you seen this? If I bought it I would probably never use any of the thread, because I wouldn’t want to break up the set! The colors are luscious. I love the thread and having it in a suitcase keeps the dust away.

Spiderwebs are all over the place. I saw another one on Oh Fransson’s blog. Her spiderweb has her signature colors with a tinge of Christmassy-ness and grey centers.

Janome has a content running called “Pass it On“. You answer some questions about where you learned to sew and are entered to win. Your entry and photos become their property and will not be acknowledged or returned blah blah blah. You can win a sewing machine, serger or big pack of thread. How did you learn to sew and who taught you?

A lot of brain dumps lately, I know. Hope you are keeping your inspiration high during this busy time of year.

Yes, I know. You want to know why all of my post titles have ‘catch up’ in them? I suppose that I am entering the time of the year when I am perpetually behind. It started early this year. Anyway, I hope these posts don’t bore you to tears or prevent you from posting comments. I love your comments.

Quilt World News

I listened to Annie Smith catch up podcast on Friday and heard that Mark Lipinski is giving up both his QNNTV show AND Mark Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home magazine. apparently, the current issue is his last. Huh?

I went and looked at Mark’s blog post from a few days ago – actually, September 24 – and all of this is true, sadly. Subsequent posts have his Aurifil thread collection and his new fabric collection featured, but nothing else. Stay tuned, I guess.

New blogs

Three Kitchen Fairies – I don’t know how I found this blog – some link from somewhere. I really like it and was particularly enamored with her ‘Pay it Forward’ concept. She details it in her post and button. She writes about getting a gift and her resolve to Pay it Forward. I love this idea. We have a lot of bridges here in the Bay Area so sometimes I pay for people crossing the bridge behind me. Stay tuned for something quilt related along these lines here at Artquiltmaker blog. Perhaps you will consider paying it forward?

Ginger Monkey: I found this blog via 3 Kitchen Fairies blog. Somehow Ginger Monkey is also connected to the quilt Pay It Forward concept, but I am not sure how. I still like this blog based on the bit of exploring I have done. I like the look, the colors. She has a tutorial for a Spiderweb quilt, which reminds me that I also have a Spiderweb quilt in progress. I think she has more than one in progress or has made more than one. In any case, I like that pattern, and Ginger Monkey’s color sense. I like some of the buttons she has. I think buttons give people a sense of who the writer is and some idea of their quilt values. Hers look friendly and kind to me, after a quick glance.

Red Pepper Quilts has a lot of really cool, bright and cheerful quilts. Her Flickr stream has a lot of wonderful photos.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Sometime, in the not too distant past, I talked a bit about sewing oilcloth, or laminated cotton, as I have learned it is really called.  Kathy, over at Pink Chalk Studio, wrote a long blog post about using laminated cottons and shows her impeccable photos to display the finished product. Also, the comments posted to her blog are very helpful.

Inspiration

I saw this cool scrap buster quilt on Flickr from Red Pepper Quilts . Very cheerful, don’t you think?

Holiday Crafts

As if you didn’t need more to do as you gear up for Thanksgiving and the December craziness, my friend Kathy of Everyday Bliss, found this link to making individual paper envelopes. They look really fun and would be great for gift certificates or other flat gifts. You might remember Kathy from Creative Prompt #35, where we did a joint special prompt posting to link our two projects together.

Other Patterns

Here is a Wagon Wheel tutorial. This is another great pattern that would be great for a scrap quilt.

clipped from disdressed.blogspot.com

Liesl + Co is the parent company of Oliver + S. The former is the company that put out The Day in the Park Backpack tote that I bought last year at PIQF

I am on a trip to the Midwest so I wrote this post in advance so you would have something to read, and, hopefully, enjoy,  while I am away. I’ll be back tomorrow and the Creative Prompt will be posted tomorrow like normal. Sadly, as it is a quick trip for a board meeting, I doubt I will have time to check out any quilt stores while I am there.

1. I am a fan of the Electric Quilt on Facebook (and in general, of course!) and was directed to a blog called Piecemeal Quilts via the EQ Blog. The linking sounds complicated if you are not on FB! Sandi, from Wisconsin writes the blog. She has a number of free pattern downloads, paper piecing patterns and examples of EQ work. She is also ‘man enough’ to keep a quilting resources list! It is a lot of work to keep such a list up to date and, from what I saw, it is pretty complete.

The thing that really drew me in to her blog was her writing tone. I seem to be noticing writing tone lately, for some odd reason. She has a nice, friendly and intelligent, but not goofy or insipid tone to her writing. I enjoyed her post on books. I like the books that she likes and thinks that she and I may have the same tastes.

2. When I mentioned Quiltposium on my blog last week, MavMargi pointed  me about another online magazine called Sewn. I took a quick look and it looks interesting. Sewn is out of Australia. The styling is very Heather Bailey/Anna Maria Horner. They have patterns and a gallery as well as a fabric search function. I immediately put the Botanical Pop fabrics I still need in and got an email back pretty quickly. Worth a look.

I am not that enamored with online/digital magazines, because I can’t read them in bed (I don’t want to hear from you people who take your laptops to bed!!!) or on the train. However, I do recognize that I will have to get with the program at some point, because more and more stores are ceasing to carry magazines.

One of the sites that was a link in Sewn was called Modern Textiles. The Modern Textiles site has lots of navigation choices. I looked at  ‘Sewing Patterns’, specifically the Melly and Me Bags. These are really unique bags. The combination of fabrics are quite bright and cheerful, but the styling is also very different from other bags I have seen. I really want to see the Bon-Bon bag, because I have never seen anything like it. I would like to see the inside of it in order to determine how useful it would be.

I did find that the pattern list did not have many alternate photos of the bags, but that information may be on the main Melly & Me website.

3. It looks like our financial situation will stay the same through the end of the year, so I am gearing up to make some of my Christmas gifts this year. I don’t know if I will have time to make it before Christmas, but I bought the Pencil Roll pattern from Pink Chalk Studio. Julie made me one for my birthday last year and I have started to carry it around in my clear tote. There are a few free patterns for pencil rolls out there on the web, but this one looks like the best in terms of functionality and styling. We’ll see how difficult the pattern is when I get it.

Perhaps I’ll get good enough to modify the design like in Kathy Perino’s version, which she showed on her blog a few weeks ago, and which I wrote about on August 30.

4. Pam Rubert of the PamDora quilts fame has redone her blog. She writes a really great post about the process, and her thoughts, about the changes in the blog world. She talks about circular writing and I think her thoughts are right on point. It seems that the web is leading us around in circles. (ever notice how I link back to previous posts? I am trying to give you the whole picture, but it ends up being circular, in a way) I haven’t played around with some of the things she discusses, but hope to do so in the future.

5. Want free Moo cards? Check out this link for a free pack with your own images. They have advertising, but free (you do have to pay shipping) is still cool. Thanks to Deirdre for the link.

6. I saw a video on the Craft Zine blog for a new book called Bent Objects. it is about the art of a guy who bends wire. There is a hilarious video on the Craft site that is well worth a look. It does explore a bit of the darker side of crafts, which we all know can be the hilarious side of crafts. Take a look.

Its a Major Award

7. On 7/29/2009 Quilt Rat left a comment saying that she had given me an award and I should go look on her blog. Jill’s comment about the inspiration in my creative prompts was really sweet and made me feel great. Despite the fact that almost 2 months have passed, I am still really thrilled to have received the “It’s a Major Award.” Thanks!

Scarlett Burroughs over at Craft Gossip.com has written an article/post about the CPP. I am really excited that the project is getting some traction in various places around the web.

Craft Gossip has different areas dedicated to different types of crafts including felting, crochet, knitting, and many others. Recent articles/posts include book reviews on a metalsmithing book and a post on elf-like Christmas stockings. It looks like she has tutorials, videos and freebies. Go check it out and thank her for highlighting the CPP.

I have come across some interesting websites lately. Also, many things have been running through my mind. As a result, today is Catch Up Saturday! That means that you get a bunch of random links, some photos that have been hanging around, and other miscellaneous stuff.

Janome 9K

1. In my post, Caring for Tools, I talked about taking my Janome 9000 into be repaired. Cost=$$$$$. The monster needs a new screen; apparently it could not be recalibrated.  What a shocker; I need to find a consulting job to cover the cost. Anyone want to buy a quilt?

The cost notwithstanding, I have more good things to say about Lafayette Sewing Center. Before they started the work, they called me and went over the estimate with me very carefully. I spoke with Audrey who said that she wanted to make sure I wanted the work done and understood the costs so I wouldn’t get sticker shock. No assumptions there! Great service.

2. Suzanne Cabrera did a series of drawings of her home, which I really like. They are simple in an architectural kind of way. She has added comments about various pieces of furniture, which satisfies my need for words. She also has a sense of humor in her drawings, which I appreciated in her post about learning to cook with her husband. See them at her blog, An Open [Sketch] Book.

3. Felt Food (FF). I love felt food. It makes me smile. I first got interested in felt food when I heard CraftSanity podcast episode #66 (what else? My one source of craft information!) with the owner of Lilly Bean Market, Hillary Seabolt. Her sandwich is still my favorite. I saw some pictures of felt food somewhere recently and that has reinvigorated my Felt Food Mania and led me on a multi-day Felt Food Flickr Journey (F3J).

Flickr has tons of FF to show. There is a group called Handmade Felt Food with such fabulous creations as elaborate birthday cakes, cups of coffee and espresso, sushi, shrimp stir fry and a pancake breakfast and ice cream treats and I am also quite fond of Sam McLean’s full on turkey dinner and …. The list goes on and on. . I am going to save up for the felt gingerbread house. That is much more up my alley than making a real gingerbread house – or perhaps I’ll sew a felt one. I could put some of the decorations on with Velcro and change them. Or, perhaps I’ll buy one. You can also make your own FF from patterns created by Umecrafts or you can make a Lilly Bean Market cherry pie from the pattern on Martha Stewart website.

The F3J led me to general felt creations such as softies (we called them stuffed animals back in the day; apparently that term is no longer PC), including a journey around London by Lumpy Bear (made/arranged? by GiantButton), felt sea creatures including a Hammerhead Shark and squid and an unzippable ocean complete with islands by Lizette Greco.

You have to look at this stuff to believe it!

4. Stewart, Tabori & Chang and Melanie Falick: Once again, I was listening to CraftSanity podcast #30 the other day (I really do do other things besides listen to CraftSanity, I promise). Melanie wrote Knitting in America, seminal book on the state of knitting in the US. She is the craft editor at STC AND has her own imprint. WOW! I have heard of her before, because I love STC books and she is the editor who acquires them. I really loved hearing about her journey to that job and found a lot of similarities to my life (you can stop laughing now, thanks).  She gave really practical ideas about getting a book published, especially in the area of writing a book proposal. Thanks, I needed that! That was really food for thought for me, since I have a dream…..

You can follow Melanie on Twitter at STC_Craft or take a look at her website.

Tessalated Tile

5. Beth sent me this image when she lived in England. I had asked her to take photos of mosaics and tile. This is a particularly good design for quiltmaking, because it would just be squares and rectangles. Yes, you would have to plan a bit, if you were doing anything more than a 2 color quilt, but it would be quite stunning once finished. Note the L shape at the top.

6. Toy-a-Day: This project is definitely like the Creative Prompt (which you should join) but much more intense. The Wild Things characters, KISS, Pikachu, the Mario Bros, Michael Jackson and Michael Gorbachev are all included in this project. I noticed that the author has PDF downloads of some of his toys so you can make your own.

Periodically I peruse the various that comprise Urban Sketchers. Yesterday I found Caroline of the Artist’s Smock. Her drawings remind me of Seattle Sketcher, but with a European Twist. I like her descriptive bio as well. I can’t insert the drawing I like, but you can see it at http://tinyurl.com/artistsmock.

I realized this morning that I had about twelve browser tabs open, many with sites that I wanted to share. This is a post that is all about cleaning up my desktop.

Jen made a comment on my blog that got me to thinking about a problem I was struggling with. Her profile led me to her blog, A Quilting Jewel, which I mentioned in a previous blog post. Jen quilts with her aunt and she is very prolific. I like the way she shows her work in process.

Notebookism is a blog about notebooks and journals. I write every day and go through several journals a year with just writing and a couple of others with notes and drawings for quilts. I was led to this site somehow after looking at the Myndology website. They have some interesting finds in the journal department and they don’t seem to post much.

Michael Nobbs, a Welsh artist, started following my Twitter stream. I always wonder why people follow my Twitter stream because I don’t say very much on it. I certainly don’t say anything very relevant. Perhaps that is the whole point? Anyway, I went and looked at his stream and found some interesting sketches that he is doing and others to which he links, like Seattle Sketcher, which I mentioned he other day. As a result I decided to follow his Twitter stream as well. I think the Creative Mom podcast, as well as my thoughts on a Daily Art Practice, are turning my mind towards sketching. Don’t worry! I am not abandoning quiltmaking. Quite the contrary; I think that viewing sketching sites can inform my quiltmaking. When he received the notice that I was following him, he sent me a message thanking me and a link to his website. On the main page he has a drawing of a teapot, which immediately attracted my attention. There is also a link to his blog.

Matt Sparrow has some interesting quilts and information about thread listed on his blog. I like the batik star he posted. He said the pattern is called Enchanted Star. It looks like an Ohio Star with some 4 patches thrown in.

The Fresh and Modern Quilt Pool at Flickr is really inspiring. Not only are many of the quilts interesting, but the photography is inspired as well. I found this pool by working my through the Denyse Schmidt pool, also on Flickr. Some of the quilts are in both pools. There are lots of simple patterns and the use of fabric is really good. I particularly like the way people have used the large scale prints. One nice thing about Flickr is you can blog straight from the image (if you have set that up) and it makes a very nice layout on your blog. You can see an example in the New Star Block from Flickr post.

As I may have mentioned, the Creative Mom podcast has a bunch of associated sites including the CMP Circle Flickr Pool where members and listeners post their various projects.

Finally, Deirdre pointed me to the Quilt Show blog. I am a little annoyed at the Quilt Show,because of the way it has changed Alex Anderson’s podcast. I liked the way she interviewed people in the past. Now she just goes on and on about the Quilt Show. I am sure it is a great, but I don’t watch it, because I don’t have time and I don’t want to pay for something I don’t have time to take advantage of.. I know things change. Blah. Blah. Blah. Anyway, the blog, even though it has a lot of ads, has a lot of nice quilts pictured. There are a variety of different topics also: block of the month, process of fabric design, guests on the show, etc. It’s worth a look.

Enjoy this surf around the web.

clipped from www.etsy.com

I have been listening to the Creative Mom podcast for a couple of months now and it has been on my list of things to tell you about. Amy Cowan creates CMP, where she offers essays, book reviews, pattern reviews, a community of like minded people, creative prompts, enthusiasm and a travelogue of her journey through the creative process.

This is a very professional podcast. She is organized and prepared for the podcast. The sounds is perfect. Her voice has a calm and relaxing timbre. There are few ums, uhs, like, hemming, hawing or dead air. Amy rarely mentions her personal issues. On the occasion she make s a brief mention, she doesn’t go on and on about them and she often weaves the explanation of the issue into the theme of the podcast. This is a podcast for the creative person who thinks about art on many different levels: the physical act of making, a daily creative discipline, and something to be studied.

I know the mom part may turn off some of you, so I want to get that out of the way too. Amy’s two boys are definitely involved in the podcast.Mostly they work as headline readers for her next section. Listeners hear their little voices saying “I am the art and the art is me” or “books to read, books to read” for the book review section. Amy reviews books that she reads to her children as well as adult books. Amy observes her children and weaves those observations into the theme of the podcast as well. I don’t think the involvement of the children would annoy those of you who are sensitive to the child worship that sometimes occurs on the web. That doesn’t happen here.

While Amy does different kinds of art than I do (more sketching and photography, mostly), I have found that I enjoy listening to her talk about her process and what she does to keep going. I feel inspired when I listen to her podcast. She has been working on a bird project for at least a year. Listening to the podcast makes me consider whether or not o focus on one word or subject for a period of time.

As I have gone through Amy’s older episodes I came across a collaboration she is doing with one of her listeners, known as Gooma8x, and was directed to their joint Etsy site. The quilt above was posted there and it is gorgeous! Amy and Opal (Gooma8x) also have a joint blog called Here2There.

Finally, I also discovered another Amy goldmine in Threaded Thoughts, another blog.

It is apparent that Amy is in her creative sweet spot right at the moment and we are the lucky recipients of her largesse. I urge to check out one or all of the various media streams Amy has created.

Last week I was tootling around the web on my lunch hour and went from Margi’s blog to Pat Sloan’s blog/website/bonanza.

I first went to her blog and liked the little designs she has up to illustrate her posts. They remind me of Mary Engelbreit’s artwork. As I wandered around I was simply amazed at all the info and links she has on her various media. I was interested in the webcam on her design wall. It would be interesting to see in action, e.g. if she were working on a quilt. I also liked the cheery way she writes.

There is a shop, free patterns, blog, Good Book Cafe, Amazon search button, website, webcam, podcast and much more. Take a look.