The CQFA meeting last Saturday went really well. We laughed a lot. Nancy, one of the members, is on a quest to improve her art. She took a long course (certificate program??) in Seattle that ended last year and is diligent. When she comes to the meeting she brings works that are very different from what the rest of bring. She often has interesting construction problems that make us think outside of the box. We were helping give her ideas about what she could use as a form and that led to extreme silliness as many great ideas were generated.

Everyone looked at the two Lark Books I received last Friday thoroughly and Terri said that she thinks Lark sold at least 10 copies by sending me those books.

Maureen’s ATC exchange was a raging success. I showed mine last week in the Saturday post. I liked them, but they didn’t seem to be that popular. People made wonderful pieces, so perhaps it was just hard to choose.

Below are the others that members brought. The lower left is one of Sonja’s. Originally I picked a different one, but when I saw the chair, I switched!

I didn’t get one of Maureen’s. I did get one of hers last time that I keep where I can see it all the time.

Bron’s have a very New Zealand look to them. She doesn’t do a lot of fiber, so I was glad I chose one of hers.

Caroline’s jacket was in these same colors. I think she works in them a lot.

I was also sorry not to get one of Dolores’. She did a great quilt at the retreat in January and I admire her dedication to her work. How do you like that one curved corner? Clever, don’t you think?

Sonja’s are very subtle this time.

I think this is the first time that Sue has participated. I didn’t get one of hers either. The flowers really attracted me.

Debbie hasn’t been to a meeting in a long time, so I was pleased to see that she brought ATCs. I was also pleased to see that she used her signature style on them.

Every horizontal surface in my workroom is covered, mostly with fabric, but other stuff, too. I don’t have large enough horizontal surfaces, but that is no excuse. I have so many things going on. On the top of my list is sewing!

I am trying to pick out fabric for my latest Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker Tote. I’d like a new one for spring and it just isn’t going well. I tidied up a little after I got home from CQFA, but I still don’t have enough space to work.

I had three fabrics ready to make the next Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote and one of them disappeared or I lost it or misplaced it. To make matters worse, I don’t remember which one I had selected. Bleah!

I was looking for a red or a pink to bring out the middle of the flower, but am considering another green to encourage subtlety. I looked at pattern on the fabric as well as the color and I am not really sure any of them work. The above are some that I tried out to see if I liked them. I think I need a red with a little more pink.

Perhaps you like the above?

No? I found more fabric choices in the pile behind the door. they caught my eye when I was wandering in and out. This area is like the Tollbooth in the Phantom Tollbooth and they haven’t been on my radar since my sister moved a bunch of stuff around in my workroom.

I definitely like the pink dot better. It is a lot of dots in the piece, however.

The small dot kept catching my eye as I looked at some of the other choices. It was on the top of my ironing board because I had just ironed it. I kind of like the lavender/pinkish color.

Stripes don’t work for me. Well, actually, the stripes work, but the color of the stripes doesn’t work. Too Pepto Bismally.

Too much green?

I really wanted to get going on that tote today. It has been too long since I sewed. Since I couldn’t decide on colors, I was stuck. NOT!

I have plenty of fabric and had just come across the perfect green to make the straps for another AMH MTT, so I started in on that and got pretty far after I made the  straps.

The reddish pink fabric is a Martha Negley for Rowan fabric from the Variegated Garden collection will be used for the exterior. This particular print is MN-40 Dahlia.

That fun dot is the inside. As you can see I have the pockets pinned and ready to sew, but haven’t sewn them yet. I was tired.

I added a cell phone pocket, which is the smaller pocket also waiting to be sewed on.

Sorry, this photo is bleary. I have been up and down the stairs (4 flights) at least 8 times to fix photos and I am not doing it again. This idea is from the Sweet Harmony bag. The dimensions of this  pocket are 4″x5″. I cut it 8″x5″, sew around the outside with right sides together, turn it and then sew it to the lining of the AMH MTT bag. The way I make it fit the cell phone is that I pin the bottom so that it measures only 3″, which makes a pleat.

Maureen is a great ATC Shepard for CQFA. She reminds us to get our ATCs done and how many there will be to exchange. At the meeting today we will be exchanging 4 each. I worked on mine a couple of Fridays ago when I kicked the boys out of the house and spent the day sewing. I don’t normally sew during the week, but don’t have as much time so forced myself to pretend it was the weekend and sewed.

I wanted to use the current Creative Prompt and remembered an African fabric I bought with eyes on it. Amazingly, I was able to find it and use it. First, I found the mask fabric, which I thought would work. I wasn’t as happy using it, so I went back for the eyes.

I thought of Pamela Allen the whole time I was working on these as she has a thing for eyes.

I made an additional 8 (only 6 shown above) thinking that we would be exchanging in multiples of 4. Then I went back and read her message and found that she only wanted us to bring 4. No problem. Now I can send one to a friend and keep one for another project I am working on.

In case you can’t tell, I am making a series. The two highlighted above are first in the series and I thought I would bring them along (had to finish them first!) and see if anyone didn’t get the first series.

As I mentioned before, I find pencil rolls to be a pretty quick project. I have have the hang of them now and they put themselves together, pretty much, as long as I am paying attention.

or so I thought.

Not so with this beauty. Trying to be the good little green girl, I used a beautiful teal, feather design FabMo fabric for the outside. I talked about these fabrics before. That fabric became the bane of my existence.

It would not stay put. I tried to sew all of the pieces (back, front, flannel, pocket) together, like the directions say, and that upholstery fabric wouldn’t cooperate.  It was very slidey for some reason and I would end up with an inch of flannel on the top and an inch of upholstery fabric on the bottom. I ripped the whole thing out three times. It was very frustrating.

If you don’t look too closely the piece turned out ok. That FabMo fabric looks really good, but I will pay more attention to my how my selections feel next time. This is a gift and I hope the recipient likes it. I can’t, however, send it off until I show it at CQFA on Saturday.

I went to A Work of Heart on Sunday with a group of friends to belatedly celebrate my birthday. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that place! I love the space, the creative energy, Andrea (the owner). I want that creative wonderland to be down the street from my house. Really, I want to live there, but I would settle for it being down the street from my house.

I invited some non-crafty people so Andrea the Awesome suggested the Altered Mirror project. I wasn’t that excited about that project, but went with it and am very pleased at how mind came out (top), how successfully everyone was able to work and how well all the mirrors came out.

The place is great and all of the supplies you see in the backgrounds of the above photos are available to use.

The first step was to paint the frame and the little chipboard squares. I ended up painting all of them (top and sides). Above it shows the squares as I was painting the sides.

The color scheme I chose was to coordinate with the way we are going to paint our bedroom. I didn’t mean to put ‘CREATE’ as the message, but creativity is on my mind lately and it seemed like the right thing. I don’t know if the mirror will end up in our room ultimately, but we will see.

Each of the squares has something done to them: cover with paper, paint with crackle paint, ink, etc. Above I was using distressing/embossing powder on some of the squares. BLECH!!! I sincerely disliked how they came out and the effort was not worth the result. Live and Learn, though. I am glad I tried it and now I know.

Above I have lined up all of the squares and glued them to the frame. I have also started to embellish. Andrea has FABULOUS glue and I only had to stick down some of the papers a little bit. The glue used to stick the squares down is different from that she suggested I use to apply the embellishments.

Kathy, from Everyday Bliss, wrote a great post about the day. She expresses some self doubt in the post, but I didn’t see that at all. I saw her start looking at the paper and dive right in. Kathy’s piece, with its orange base, reminds me so totally of her. It has whimsy and a little reality check (see the martini glass? She is the parent of a 2YO, after all) and a fabulous girly, but elegant girly look. Check it, and her project out, at the Everyday Bliss blog.

One of the great things about the afternoon, as I mentioned, was that everyone was successful. Everyone worked on their mirrors and created beautiful pieces. Everyone seemed happy and to have a good time. There was  a nice creative and relaxed feeling that permeated the event.

I love Julie’s message. Her message of “Today” makes me think about not looking to the future too much. It is a good reminder to be in the moment – or to balance planning for the future while living in the moment.

Helen seemed really uncomfortable when she started. I don’t know what Helen’s creative experience is to date. She did the most amazing work. I love the color scheme and her selections of paper and embellishments. It was so fantastic to watch her work.

Bron’s embellishments came across to me as delicate.

Mary knew not getting the squares straight would drive her crazy, so she made the squares wonky. That small changed added movement and now the straightness is not an issue. I adore her background color.

Maureen used her hand dyed fabric instead of paper to cover the chipboard squares. It reminds me of a painting I saw at the SFMOMA. I’ll amend this post if I remember which one it was.

I love the red that Terri used for the background color. Her piece has a bit of an Asian feel.

Camille insisted that she was not crafty. Her piece, for her daughter’s new bedroom, tells me otherwise. I had a pink and purple bedroom when I was a girl, so I am partial to this piece.

Maggie wanted to make a piece to commemorate our sorority. I love it that she used yellow to to prevent the pink from getting to sickly sweet. This piece is very cheerful.

Kim has more experience than anyone with the various tools and supplies. If you look closely at her piece, you can see where she used a rubber stamp and then embossed. The embossing actually came out well on hers.

I think the above photo reflects the colors she used a little better.

Sharon’s piece reminds me of sailing and code flags. She says that she chose a color scheme that would coordinate with her duvet cover.

Adrienne, or AJA, is one of the quiltmakers with whom I do the Bullseye Project. She came all the way from Tucson to be at my party. I was so happy! She and Julie and I went to dinner after the party. I love the way she used the bottle cap and the garter hooks.

Valerie and I see each other once a year. We met in the baby class when we were both pregnant and our kids used to play together when they were small. Now we see each other about once a year, but it is great. She is a great sport at being creative with me.

I am thinking of having my birthday there again next year.

When we went to the North Coast, I also brought along this scarf, which I discussed before. I only had a few rows to knit before I was ready to bind it off.

I knitted a few rows and started to bind it off. When I had about 10 more stitches to bind off, I realized that I didn’t have enough of a tail to finishing the binding off. I was in a patient mood, so I unbound what I had done and unknitted a row, then bound the scarf off.

This was a really good reminding experience. I have knitted a few things and once I get going, I am ok. I liked the stitch, especially since the edges don’t curl. It is no great masterpiece, but I enjoyed working on it.

I didn’t measure it, but you can see the approximate length (25″??) because the charm pack is 5×5″.

I would like to get more yarn and make another scarf. I don’t think this one is long enough, so perhaps I will use 2 skeins next time. Perhaps I have a knitting needles roll in my future?

Thanks to Michele and Ginny for getting me going on this project.

I am thinking of using this combination of fabrics for my next pencil roll. I will center the main part of the back around those two feathers and the teal and chocolate will be the inside and the pocket piece. I thought I would start this the first weekend in Feb, but kind of tanked and didn’t do it.

The upholstery fabric is another FabMo fabric. I already pried off the tags and removed the staples.

My nephew made this monkey with my guidance.

I first showed him how to use the machine to make the tail.

Next, I made him pin the body pieces together and then I let him sew them on the machine.

Here is the piece after he finished sewing and turning it, but before stuffing.

Our Internet connection at home slowly came back up over the course of the week. Hooray! We had one computer working early in the week, but the WiFi wasn’t completely up and running until Thursday. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to post this weekend, so I prepared posts through the weekend, so you wouldn’t feel sad and lonely. It is a good thing I am resourceful otherwise it would have been 2 weeks between blog post.

Welcome Magic Carpet Riders! If you would like to join the drawing, please leave a comment on the One World One Heart post. I hope you come back frequently and join our little community.

The Magic Carpet Ride/One World One Heart is interesting. I have gotten over 120 comments on the post mentioned above.  they aren’t coming as fast or as furiously as they were, but people are still wanting to sign up for the giveaway. Some people just say ‘enter me’ others stay for a minute and tell me where they are from. That is really nice. I have also visited a few of the blogs, sadly not anywhere near all. After leaving a few comments, I can see where typing a lot of info would get hard if you were intent on visiting all the blogs.

I have always liked the name Susanna. There is something about it that makes me smile. The name is what attracted me in the massive list Lisa keeps updating for OWOH. As I look at the list of all the blog participants, I find that I have no way to judge them except by name and that is what is turning out to attract or repel me.

I stopped by Susanna’s Sketchbook and left a note on her OWOH post so I could win. Then I looked around at some of her other posts. The tone is wonderful and she has a list of the Simple Things in Life, which is really nice. One item on her list, which caught my attention was “receiving the daily, 11am phone call from J“. I was reminded (after my rant about Internet access) that there are other things in life for which to be thankful

Another blog I liked was called Coral Seas. Actually, I liked the pendant she is giving away, but I also liked the banner image on her blog. She seems to have a variety of posts from birds to cooking.

Paper from the Heart is another blog I visited. She is giving away layered cards made from different paper designs. She has some interesting Valentine’s cards.

I do think that the people at the beginning of the list get the most comments. Some towards the bottom (700+) haven’t even made it to 100 comments yet. I would never ask Lisa to organize the list, but would love to know which are the sewing and quilt blogs, so I could look at them first. If you look through the list and see any, let me know.

Julie is blogging again! Hooray. She has put up a number of posts this week and it is a pleasure. A number of these pieces were at the retreat and I guess we had too much other stuff to talk about, because I didn’t ask about the stories.

Have you taken a look at SherriD’s blog lately? I really liked her procrastinating post. I am not sure how she can say she is procrastinating when she has so many projects in the works. She has completed another U is for Unicorn block. I am in awe of that project, because of the detail work involved. I like it that she talks about both hand and machine projects. My favorite part of this post was the view out her studio window. Lovely! Thanks, SherriD!

Have you seen the needlecase over at Quilt Rat’s blog? It is a gorgeous black and white piece. I am in awe of Jill, because she says that she just sat down and designed as she went along. Kathy over at Finishing Lines did this with the pencil roll she made, which was also fabulous. I want to be like these women!

Have you see the magazine Quilts & More? The magazine is pretty project oriented, but the projects are pretty good. They usually have a tote bag, which I love! The thing I like about this magazine is the color. Bright, cheerful, happy colors grace this magazine. As you have probably guessed I am not one for murky colors. To each her (or his) own, but they are not for me. Thus, I like Quilts and More.

I am friends with them on FB. Earlier this week they posted a link to their All People Quilt website with photo ideas for organizing your sewing room. Talk about happy colors! The ideas for organization are great, too. They make me a little depressed, because this person’s sewing room must be huge. Their buttons are gorgeous (and organized), they have way less fabric than I do, etc. Still, the colors are wonderful and if I can implement one of the ideas, I will be happy.

My friend, Kathy, of the Everyday Bliss project had an interesting post this week. In it she talks about getting started, about what is art, her own doubts, etc. She posts some interesting works. I think it would give you some food for thought. Go and take a look and leave her a comment. Let me know what you think.

Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust: I am reading it and really liking it. I wasn’t optimistic when I started it after reading the thin Ruth McDowell book. There are a very few elements of dumbing down, but many of the comments and exercises in the book are just fantastic and not complicated. I will definitely do a full review, but thought I would give you a little taste.

I have been listening to podcasts. One of the bad things about no Internet is that I cannot update my iPod. I was smart last time I updated it because I downloaded a lot of ancient episodes. I am getting sick of some of the podcasts, though. Sometimes I can only listen to a few of one and then I need to listen to another producer’s podcast. I haven’t been able to do that so I am just clenching my teeth and powering through. I suppose I could listen to some non-quilt/craft podcasts!

Zazzle

I came across a cool design in Zazzle. The design is screen printed tea cups and I first saw it on a OWOH blog. I like it so I went to look, never having heard of Zazzle before. It looks a little like Cafe Press, but seems to have cooler options on which to print. The purchaser, apparently has some options in the design of the card.  Sadly, one card was $4.50, which is a little out of my price range right now. I do have some rubber stamps, however. Perhaps I will get inspired?

I went to the Berkeley City Club on Tuesday night with my family to receive an award. Even though I lived in Berkeley for about 4 years and have been there zillions of times, I had never been to this building. It was designed my Julia Morgan, the architect of Hearst Castle and it is gorgeous! they have lots of meeting rooms, a garden courtyard, a pool, hotel type rooms and also people can live there. Perhaps I will live there when I am an old geezer?

And Now a Brief Aside

For some reason, I wasn’t able to link to this Flickr photo directly, which I much prefer to do. Go visit it and its siblings in their native habitat at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadsidepictures/244926428/

I’ll be honest this is a sign in Las Vegas for a strip club,. However, I like the idea of people celebrating librarians with a neon sign. Let’s just pretend all librarians are knock outs (not just in looks) and people cannot stay away from the library, ok?

Dolores, a member of CQFA, faithfully arranges a retreat every year. Every year it is better and better. I had in my mind that I would make her a pencil roll as a thank you. After last week, I didn’t think I would have the time, but, I started it on Sunday, thinking that I could finish it at the retreat and she would be none the wiser.

I didn’t do any piecing on this one, which made it go very fast. I think it took me less than an hour and a half from start to finish. I may be dreaming, though,  as I didn’t really time myself.

I am not sure what colors Dolores really likes. She has been working in neutrals and especially black and white, so I chose a black and white FabMo upholstery fabric for the back. The FabMo upholstery samples are a good size. I think you could make two smaller ones from one of the  samples. I had a good sized strip left over that may make its way into another pencil roll that I need to piece.

I thought some red and black and white for the inside strips and the front pocket would be great. I just couldn’t do all neutrals. I had to add some color.  I think it looks really nice and am pleased with how it came out.

I am concerned that I will run out of friends who need/can appreciate pencil rolls! I see some blog giveaways in my future!

I forgot to put a label on it. Either I will forget it or try to hand sew one on.

Unrelated notes:

* I have no Internet at home at this time, so if I am a little slow responding to comments, I apologize! It makes it a challenge to get blog posts up as well!

* Remember to leave a comment in the One World One Heart post for a chance to win!

Nota bene: TFQ: if you have not opened all of your gifts, stop reading now!!! Go open them and come back.

Yes, my good friend TFQ is 39 again today…with some years experience.

In addition to the gifts I have been collecting for her, I also made her a couple of things. Did you guess journal cover and pencil roll? I am so predictable, I know.

The black and white fabrics, from Lonni Rossi’s Paint Box collection, are the fabrics I used to make Marilyn’s Multi-tasker while I was visiting TFQ in November. She admired those fabrics and that stuck in my mind.

TFQ is an excellent colorist. She can put fabrics together in the most amazing ways. I strive to be like her, which requires cultivating more patience and determination in my quiltmaking process. If I want to make something for her, I feel like I need to really do an excellent job of picking colors, thus the clue that she liked these fabrics gave me confidence.

Using only those black and white fabrics together was too depressing, especially in winter. I had to add the dots. They cheered it up quite a bit.

One of the things I like about some of the prints in the this [relatively] new Lonni Rossi line is the screen printed look. Note the black circle on the white fabric. It really looks like a screen print when you see it up close. It doesn’t have that icky, plasticy sticker feel, though, you find with some screen printed-like fabric.

The small rows of lines under the circle also have that screen printed look. It is much more subtle in the white/grey on black colorway.

I didn’t want a repeat of the size problem I had with my mom’s journal cover, so I ripped out the bottom stitching three times until I was satisfied with the fit. I don’t know if I got it to fit perfectly, but I didn’t have to cut the journal’s plastic cover to get the journal cover on it, so I was satisfied.

Lately, when I have started a journal cover I just start piecing until I get a piece big enough for the outside. I use this type of piecing for a warm-up or when I only have a few minutes to sew or when I need a little bit of thinking time. Usually I want to achieve a certain look. With my blue journal cover, I wanted to use a variety of blue fabrics because I liked them and wanted to see them all the time. I also wanted a calming effect.

In this case, I only had scraps of the Lonni Rossi fabrics left and needed to make the best use of them. I wanted it to have a somewhat cohesive design and, finally, but most importantly I wanted it to appeal to TFQ.

I have started to think of pencil rolls and journal covers as sets. I also love this pencil roll pattern so much that I am looking for excuses to make it. Of course, time is the issue on that front.

This is a rather large pencil roll – 18 slots, I think. When I use my pencil roll, I prefer to put pens in every other slot rather than each slot. I find it easier to get the pens out.

For the moment, this is the last gift to which I have committed to make. When I say committed I mean to myself. There is one I am thinking about making, but I need to finish the FOTY 2009 blocks first. Look for a post on that project later this week.

I have to admit that this week has been a challenge and I am pretty exhausted. I felt this way on Wednesday and just had to power through the rest of the week. It was tough! Boys are gone and I am supposed to go to a party. I am tempted to blow it off, but I have gotten a lot of emails asking me if I will be there. I also really like the people who are giving it. We’ll see.

I’d like to get some sewing done as my brain is starting to wonder what that is. I feel like it has been an eternity since I have been at the machine.

I went to the Timberlake Quilters Guild Blog, which is called Fiber Whimsy and saw some lovely photos from their string piecing workshop. One of the photos was a Spiderweb! They seem to be popping up all over. I guess this is message to get back to mine. I think it is one of the projects I want to work on in 2010. Stay tuned to see. Love the red background on the one pictured in the photo.

Tagging this Blog

As a librarian, you’d think I would have all the answers about tagging, but I don’t. I have been thinking about whether or not I should add a tag for the name of each project so you (and I!) can click on the name of a project and see all the posts about that project. I am not sure I could back and tag all the old posts unless I was laid up in bed for a period of time, but I could do it going forward. Let me know if you think that would help you. I would also like to k now what you do in your blog, if you have one.

I helped my mom download iTunes and subscribe to some podcasts. We listened to a little of the Cast-on podcast and she loved it. I can’t wait to hear whether the whole premise works for her or not. She has really gotten into Cat Bordhi, a knitter, lately so I downloaded some interviews to which she could listen as well.

Laura Wasilowski left a comment encouraging me to finish the piece that I started in her class. I took a look at it again and realized that the handstitching makes the piece look really spiky and unfriendly. I think I need to add some petals to the flowers and see if that makes it look more friendly.

You can see a watercolor painting that usually hangs in my dining room. I love this painting. It makes me feel calm. I just generally love beach and water scenes. That thought makes me wonder if that is why I like turquoise so much? After the painting project, the art is not back up yet. We may rearrange the art. However, as I seem to never be home, we haven’t discussed it yet.

Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! blog has a laptop sleeve tutorial on Sew, Mama Sew! While I am not fond of beige, I do like the swirly motifs on the fabric. This would make a nice gift. Yes, I am thinking ahead! I would probably add a strap or a handle, however. I have to admit that I find it hard to navigate that site, but sometimes the effort pays off and here is a list of a year’s worth of Elizabeth’s projects just for you.

My sister received Lakers v. Trailblazer tickets for Christmas from her boyfriend. Our dad lives near Portland, so I think they went together. While she was there she took the opportunity to raid and scan our childhood photos. In the course of that project she went to a craft warehouse to get supplies. While she was there, she found some fabric that she said was for me. YAY! I haven’t received it yet, but presume I will soon.

She has sent me some scans of my 5 year old self, which are not new, but still entertaining.

I saw a post on Twitter to a Detroit artist who is doing interesting things with blue. Steven Magsig has a blog called Postcards from Detroit where he posts paintings of little areas of the city and buildings in the city

I seem to remember mentioning that I spent an hour and half last Saturday talking to the CQFAers about developing a creative habit. I got lots of good feedback. Here are some tips from my talk:

• Use what you have at hand
• Use materials you feel comfortable using
• Tools (KISS)
  • paper
  • pen
• Start small
• Acknowledge your distractions
• Be process oriented not goal oriented. The goal will be achieved if you engage in the process
• Develop a daily practice that works for you
• Surround yourself with inspiration

I am thinking about something bigger with more detail on this subject, so am just giving you an overview.

Have an inspirational and creative weekend!!!!

Just to be clear I do not consider myself to be a knitter. I know how to knit, as long as someone can help me. I have knit a hat, a vest, a sweater and am now working on a scarf, but I do not knit often or well. I do not have a knit stash.

I started a knitting project last year and it has been sitting in a drawer. A confluence of things came together to get me to pull it out.

First, I have been listening to the CastOn podcast lately, which I spoke about in a previous post. Second, all of my quilt projects which require hand work are in transition.

1. Kissy Fish needs more machine quilting and then I have to prepare the facing before I can hand sew it. I am happy with the beading I have done on it.
2. Beach Town is essentially done in terms of beading and hand embroidery. I steamed the living daylights out of it last weekend and now need to trim it and prepare the facing.
3. Moon and Stars is a project I started a looooong time ago and don’t believe I have ever discussed here. I have to get it out and photo graph it and see what it really wants and needs.
4. Flowering Snowball/Cross Blocks is embarrassing. OK, the project itself is not embarrassing. I am embarrassed to tell you what my problem is with it.
5. Laura Wasilowski Garden piece need some petals. I think it is too spiky for me. She recently commented on my blog and got me to look at that piece again. I am going to put it up on my design wall and see what I see. Any comments you have would be appreciated.

As a result of all of the above, I had no handwork to bring over to my SIL’s house on Saturday for dinner and hanging out. Since I am physically incapable of just sitting and watching TV, I dragged out the knitting. My SIL got me back in the groove and I was off and running. I was really pleased with how much I got done.

Sorry the above photo is dark. I was trying to get the detail for you. I am doing the same stitch over and over. I don’t remember if it is knit or purl. I just know how to do it.

Part of the reason I got this project out was hearing about Orphan.org on CastOn. They collect various things for care packages for foster kids who are at college. I have wanted to do something fiber related for charity and this might be the thing. I’ll see how this scarf goes and then decide.

This is the journal cover I made for my mom for Christmas. It goes with the pencil roll and bag I also made. She really liked it, which is nice.

I might make it a little bigger for her, because the journal didn’t quite fit. I have to ask her about that. I don’t know if she will use up the journal the way I do, so it may not be necessary.

I am working on another journal now and I ripped it out twice to make sure it fit properly.

AKA Gift Post #6

I am pleased [with myself] to say that 2010 started out with a sewing bang. I finished the bag for my aunt (she never reads this blog as far as I know, so I don’t feel bad about posting it even though I haven’t sent it off yet).

I started this bag way back in December 2009, but with one thing and another wasn’t able to finish it until Friday. I feel bad, because it was intended to be a Christmas gift. My aunt really loves purple, so I made this bag in purple for her. In terms of fabric selection I had a couple of things I wanted to accomplish and some limitations to deal with. First, I was limited in my fabric choices because of the size of the pieces of fabrics I had available. For a long time I have purchased half yards and FQs. These are fine for quilting, but I am finding that they are barely adequate for bag making. I intend to try the Mini-Multi (AMH’s pattern for the Multi-tasker tote that I resized)This limitation directed me to more plummy colored purples.

Also, I wanted to try a bag where I didn’t use fabrics with a ton of contrast. I think Marilyn’s Multi-tasker was pretty successful. That one wasn’t boring to make. Thus, I wanted to try another interesting combination of fabrics that were also not wacky looking and my aunt wouldn’t feel bad about carrying around.

I am pretty happy with the way this bag turned out. It looks nice and does not look wacky. I made the pockets and straps at the beginning of the process even though AMH says to make the straps at the end of the process, right before I am supposed to attach them. I think my process worked better for me, because once I got past the tedious, fiddly parts, I was able to put the bag together relatively quickly. I like to get all the fiddly parts done, so I can move through the process quickly as I tend to get bored if I have to keep going back to the fiddly bits periodically throughout the process.

I think the combination of fabrics is a good one. The colors work well together and there is some interest in the combination. They are all older fabrics, so an added bonus is that I delved into the fabric closet and used some stuff that has been hanging around. I think Auntie would have preferred less plummy and more purply colors, but the bag is what it is.

AMH does not make her pockets fully lined. Another change that I have made is that I make them fully lined [by cutting a piece of fabric, folding it in half (right sides together), sewing around, turning] before sewing them on to the bag. I think this method makes a nicer finished product and doesn’t take much longer. I want to remember next time to add a label to the pocket. It seems like a good place to include a label.

I am still liking the cell phone pocket, which I learned to make from the Sweet Harmony bag, so I added one to this bag as well.

I have bought some of the fruit and vegetable fabrics, that seem to be popular, recently. I had a joint project with my mom in mind, but decided I liked certain ones too much to give away, thus I made napkins. Perhaps I am making a series after taking a look at the raspberry napkin I made in 2009? The cake fabric and the pots and pans fabric is from my collection of fabric for backs. Those pieces are large, so I can make FQ napkins with no problem and no piecing. In general, I don’t really like making napkins. Turning the pieces and getting the seam crisp are really frustrating and I am generally not successful at it. I tried a couple of different methods this time and am progressing. I do enjoy using the new napkins! I also enjoy looking at the cake fabric. My sister wants a set, but I don’t know if I have it in me to make a SET. Perhaps I can make one a month for her, then give her a set of 12 for Christmas? We’ll see.

In a way I wanted to set a trend for 2010 of major league sewing. In 2010 I want to make major progress in the sewing-quiltmaking-bag making department. I think I did well last year. Still, I want to do better. Not necessarily in terms of numbers of projects completed, but improvement in my processes. Oh, and I would like to see major improvement in my organizational systems. I am not committing to anything on that front, but would like to see it. We’ll see about that.