Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I saw this as I was walking the long way back to my car one morning. I wasn’t even able to capture the true beauty of the scene. My camera is good but the eye is better. Click in so you can see the droplets and the texture of the leaves.
Yay! I finished my Box Full of Letters quilt last week. This was a fast sew. I started it sometime in March, I think. The first mention of it here is at the end of March. I am pretty sure I saw Torie’s version, or her start, back in January at the Twilter meetup. That is a 5 month process, which must be some kind of record for me. I don’t even feel like I rushed through making the quilt.
I have to give Colleen credit, because she quilted two gift quilts in record time. She has cleared out her backlog and can get to quilts within a month now. For how long, I don’t know, but for now.
I think part of the speed was that there were limited choices in the quilt:
Those kind of limitations can be frustrating, but, in this case, I gained speed and was able to use the limitations to create a creative layout.
Anyway, you have been here during the whole journey and you have seen my process. I didn’t expect to like this quilt as much as I do and I think I like it because of the layout. I didn’t think it would be that interesting of a quilt. It wouldn’t have been if I had laid out in a straight set, but the diagonal layout really makes it interesting. IMO, anyway.
Looking at this quilt makes me feel like I want to play with this pattern more. I can see making these blocks from scraps and in different sizes depending on the size squares I have around. The pattern is so easy, you barely need a pattern and making these blocks is like eating chips. One just isn’t enough.
This is large lap quilt. It will go to a doctor who has been working with the Young Man every week or two for the past 10 years. She told me she feels like her kid is heading off to college and I have to say that I can’t blame her. I did not put a sleeve on it. Handwork is a challenge right now and stitching through the damn batiks (when will I learn NOT to put batiks on the back???) to get the binding stitched down was difficult. My PT got mad at me.
Oddly, this quilt had a lot of help. Lots of thanks go into this quilt:
sweetheart or endearment
Honey badger
Twigs & Honey – Bridal headpieces, wedding headpieces, hair vines, crystal halos, bridal headbands, crowns, tiaras, bridal combs, bridal hairpins, silk flowers, bridal hair.
Honey Week – NYC – A weeklong, citywide festival celebrating the honeybee, NYC Honey Week 2015 merges the educational, the entertaining, and the downright delicious.
Honey by Marc Jacobs is a sunny, delicious floral—energetic and alluring, with a sparkling, golden touch. The perfect mix of brightness and warmth.
Honey Girls at Build-a-Bear Workshop
Milk and honey
tea with honey and lemon
honey butter
Chrome Web Store: Click on the Honey button during checkout and Honey will automatically apply coupon codes to your shopping cart.
Honey Maid graham crackers
Honey Bistro, San Francisco
Honey Sound System
Definition: “Honey /?h?ni/ is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers.
The variety produced by honey bees (the genus Apis) is the one most commonly referred to, as it is the type of honey collected by most beekeepers and consumed by people. Honeys are also produced by bumblebees, stingless bees, and other hymenopteran insects such as honey wasps, though the quantity is generally lower and they have slightly different properties compared to honey from the genus Apis. Honey bees convert nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation and evaporation. They store it as a primary food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehive.
Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, and has about the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar.[1][2] It has attractive chemical properties for baking and a distinctive flavor that leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners.[1] Most microorganisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity of 0.6.[3] However, honey sometimes contains dormant endospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be dangerous to infants, as the endospores can transform into toxin-producing bacteria in infants’ immature intestinal tracts, leading to illness and even death.[4]
Honey has had a long history in human consumption, and is used in various foods and beverages as a sweetener and flavoring. It also has a role in religion and symbolism. Flavors of honey vary based on the nectar source, and various types and grades of honey are available. It has also been used in various medicinal traditions to treat ailments. The study of pollens and spores in honey (melissopalynology) can determine floral sources of honey.[5] Bees carry an electrostatic charge whereby they attract other particles in addition to pollen, which become incorporated into their honey; honey can be analysed by the technique of melissopalynology, in the area of environmental studies of radioactive particles, dust, and particulate pollution.[6][7]” (Wikipedia)
honey bear
Honey is a beautiful and intuitive social intranet for your company. Built to connect global teams, share resources, simplify team conversations, and support
2003 movie directed by Bille Woodruff. With Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Romeo Miller, Missy Elliott. Honey is a sexy, tough music video choreographer who shakes up her life after her mentor gives her an ultimatum: sleep with him or be blacklisted within their industry.
Honey Stinger’s energy and protein bars, waffles, gels and chews are all-natural foods designed for athletes and great for anyone looking for a healthy snack.
Honey Hive Gallery: Our spoken word open mics at The Honey Hive Gallery are becoming much more creative and eclectic!
Honey Care Africa – We partner with smallholder farmers across East Africa to strengthen incomes and grow Africa’s ‘family honey company’ through sustainable beekeeping.
Andy Grammer, “Honey, I’m Good” song & music video
I went to live in Austria and learned to eat bread with butter and various toppings for breakfast. One such ‘topping’ was a special kind of honey called Kastanianhonig (honey made from bees who lived near chestnut trees). This is some of the best honey I have ever eaten and I don’t think I can ever get it out of my mind.
The YM calls one of his grandmothers “Honey”
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and get familiar with your blog or website.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP
The end of July has come and gone, which means that I didn’t make my original deadline. Still, I got back to the design wall over the weekend and worked on this piece. I decided to move all of the reds down towards the bottom, which meant touching almost every piece as I shifted the rectangles clockwise.
The biggest problem I have now is that I have a stack of blues that don’t fit on the design wall. I need to add them to the 9 o’clock position and there are many more than the 10 or so that look like they will fit. I need all of the pieces on the design wall so I can work with them all at once.
I may do some overlapping, but I definitely have to count the patches I have and figure out the size of quilt I need to make. Then I can figure out what I need to add to my design wall to design this quilt.
After using some Flying Geese as leaders and enders, I switched to using the large Improv blocks as leaders and enders while putting together the T Donation quilt. The Improv quilt is not a good project for leaders and enders as I really should have it on the design wall and be looking at it all the time as I worked. I really wanted to make progress. This project has been shuffled from corner to corner of my workroom and I am forgetting my plan. My design walls were full of other projects, so it was what it was.
I added a few more strips to make the center (A) blocks more even then sewed the four center blocks together. This breaks my ‘Chunking It” rule, but I just wanted to see the four blocks together. Somehow with them together, I was able to start on the B blocks.
They look pretty good and I got excited about working the B blocks. I had bits and pieces that I made in class that I hoped to use, though I wasn’t sure what I was thinking when I made them, so I kept going. The first one went together relatively quickly and that helped me move forward with the others. I am working on about 4 at once right now and expect to have a big group of them done at once. We will see.
I finished a donation top and back over the weekend. I thought I had posted something about this, but I couldn’t find the post. I think I must have only posted on Twitter and Instagram about it.
I wanted to use up the Flower Sugar fabrics from Lecien that I used for the Flower Sugar Hexagon (Attack of the Hexies) quilt. I thought a donation quilt would be a good opportunity.
I really want to make donation quilts that can be used for boys, but I also, as I said, wanted to use up this fabric. I don’t think I will use this fabric again, except for some of the blues, perhaps, which I really like. Also, the fabric isn’t really great in terms of quality. Some parts of the fabrics were sun damaged waiting to be used despite the fact that they were covered.
The other fabric I don’t think I will use again was some of the greys from a couple of recent-ish Bonnie and Camille collections. They turned out to be too taupe-y for my projects, so off they go to donation quilts.
I will making the binding and then bring this to the meeting to be quilted. I will see if I have enough batting parts to make a Franken-batting as well.
I sometimes make a batch of Flying Geese at once or over the course of a few days. I like to have them available in case my schedule gets crazy and I don’t have time to make some for my weekly swap. I don’t like to show them until I have sent most of them to TFQ, lest she not be surprised at my fabric choices. I also like to show the ones she has sent me. Together hers and mine look super fun.
I wanted the batch off the design wall so I could put up the T donation quilt, so I took a photo and here they are. Aren’t they fun?
I am still thinking of trying out some different rulers for making these geese, but I haven’t done it yet. Stay tuned.
This is such a fun exchange! I am really enjoying it. Find a friend and do one, too.
I am not Miss Muffet, but I am making a tuffet. As I mentioned, I have wanted to make one for a long time. I took the class at Scruffy Quilts and had a great time. The teacher, Robin Koenig, of West Coast Tuffets, was excellent. She was funny and helpful and engaging. She didn’t patronize us and she wasn’t a ditz.
The class is four hours, 2 sessions. The first session was last Thursday. We had to cut strips in advance (or buy a jelly roll), so we were ready to make the pattern and sew when we got to class. The patterns were a bit of a pain to make, but Robin had the templates ready, so we had to trace and cut. I was able to sew two sections out of eight, an accomplishment of which I was very pleased.
I got so much done, because I used 3″ strips, which meant that each section only required 4 strips. My fellow students used jelly roll strips and their sections required at least 6 strips per section so they had a lot more work to do.
The next class is in two weeks. I need to have all eight sections finished. I also want to make the button that covers the center.
I can’t wait to go back!
Last weekend, I went with DH to Southern California for the NSGW SoCal Weekend. They have it every year and this is the first I have attended. I think it was the first time for DH as well. The official events were two dedications, an initiation and a banquet with a local councilman as a speaker. We also went to a luncheon celebrating the $55,000 that the Natives donated this past year to St. John’s Hospital to help the treatment and research of cranio-facial anomalies such as Cleft Palate. This is part of the money we raised at the Hospitality Suites with the NSGW embroidered pillows. DH also took the opportunity to audit the books of two parlors (chapters).
The Order dedicated the Rialto Women’s Club and the Rialto Historical Society. After the dedication was over we took some time to look at the historical society’s collection. Of course, I was interested in the quilts.
There were a number of crazy quilts, one was in very fine condition and displayed very well on a covered board (for stability) and hung on the wall.
I really couldn’t believe what excellent condition this quilt was in. I don’t know if it had been restored or not. I suspect it had, because there was no damage at all and you know that the silks of that time were full of lead and thus very prone to disintegrating.
I really liked the center. I HAVE to be in a peacock mode. I don’t even like peacocks. I like the idea of peacocks, but the real ones, while beautiful, make a lot of noise and are messy. Their feathers are wonderful, though, and this embroidered center is one of the most beautiful pieces I have seen. I think the complex simplicity of the design is the genius.
I kind of wish I had taken a more closeup photo so I could see the stitching of the center. I didn’t think of it at the time. It is possible that I will go there again and can look then.
There were a number of other quilts. One caught DH’s eye. I really need to make him a quilt of his own as he just makes due with any random quilt on the couch.
I haven’t looked up the name, but I think it is some kind of propeller design. It is made from tumblers and I think it would be a very interesting piecing challenge.
The others I saw were all made into curtains and that was kind of sad. They weren’t especially interesting, but they were old and looked finely pieced. I suppose being made into curtains is better than being cut up into softies.
White peaches (BTW, I LOVE white peaches)
peachy keen
The Peach Kings are an American Indie Rock Band in Los Angeles. Walking a slack line between black leather and blue velvet.
peach fuzz
Peach Fuzzer™ is an advanced and extensible security fuzz testing platform. It can be used to find vulnerabilities in networking protocols, device drivers, etc
Definition: “The peach (Prunus persica) is a deciduous tree, native to Northwest China, in the region between the Tarim Basin and the north slopes of the Kunlun Shan mountains, where it was first domesticated and cultivated.[2] It bears an edible juicy fruit also called a peach.
The specific epithet persica refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia, whence it was transplanted to Europe. It belongs to the genus Prunus which includes the cherry and plum, in the family Rosaceae. The peach is classified with the almond in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated seed shell.
Peach and nectarines are the same species, even though they are regarded commercially as different fruits. In contrast to peaches, whose fruits present the characteristic fuzz on the skin, nectarines are characterized by the absence of fruit-skin trichomes (fuzz-less fruit); genetic studies suggest nectarines are produced due to a recessive allele, whereas peaches are produced from a dominant allele for fuzzy skin.[3]
China is the world’s largest producer of peaches.[4]” (Wikipedia)
Saturn peach donuts
The Peach Truck Kitchen
Princess Peach (Super Mario)
Peach Melba
Lucky Peach – An alternative quarterly journal of food writing, art, and recipes.
Peach is a parent-led charity that promotes Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI) for young children with autism.
Snapple Peach Tea
PEACH, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter-
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and get familiar with your blog or website.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP
Websites, Articles, Classes and Information
Tina, of the Weezyworks podcast wrote a limerick for me. I was so thrilled! It was very sweet of her. Go listen to her podcast. It is listed on iTunes and at WeezyWorks. She reads my limerick on episode #25. The limerick is:
There once was a woman named Jaye
A quilter from San Francisco Bay.
She turns her dots
and fabric spots
Into a quilty ballet.
Molly, Jan Burgwinkle of Be*Mused blog fame’s daughter, has a website and Etsy shop called Tokodots. Her cards are cheerful, colorful and vaguely quilt related. The site has an associated blog, which seems to be more about her projects than about sales. It is a nice refreshing change to read about loving fabric, then sincerely disliking it, only find that it is perfect again two days later. Her post on the robe she made in Field Study fabrics is lovely.
Marsha McCloskey really popularized the Feathered Star pattern when quiltmaking was young. Craft University has captured her genius with a class, Craft University Online Feathered Star Workshop. It begins on September 15. Too bad Craftsy didn’t get to her first.
I was very pleased to see a story about quiltmaking on NPR’s All Things Considered. Of course, it was about the Missouri Star Quilt Company and Jenny Doan, but still! It is good to get the word out about the fabulousness of quiltmaking out to the Muggles.
Sherri D shared a couple of posts from Geta’s Quilting Studio with me. The first is about washing quilts pre-binding. I don’t have experience with this as I don’t wash my quilts pre-binding. The second one is about making binding right after you have finished the top. I do this all the time as making the binding is such a chore that I just want to get it done. Having it done feels like an accomplishment. Also, my quilter machine sews the binding on for me, so I have to have it done before I take it to her.
I was very pleased to see a post on labels on the Dining Room Empire. Cheryl Arkison uses the same print on fabric technique that I use. Yay!
Books, Patterns, Magazines & Projects
The New York Beauty block on the Sew E.T. blog makes me want to get back to some spiky triangles. The thing about this block is that she has some fabrics in a rainbow configuration. I want to do that, but will have to take the time to organize the fabrics.
As if I need to add more to my To Do list, Amanda shared the X Plus pattern with me. I love the scrappiness of the versions I have seen on Instagram. Perhaps this would be a good pattern (and a reason to make it!) for my next Niecephews quilt.
Generation Q magazine has a new newsletter called Stashed. Aside from being super fantastic, I am not sure how I got on the list. It wasn’t too long, had plenty of pictures and a giveaway (which is probably closed by now). Take a look and let me know what you think.
I love the X Plus pattern!! Id on’t know why I love it so much, but I do. Perhaps that lozenge shape that I have been seeing? I am plotting to use this X Plus pattern somehow. I have an idea for one of the Niecephews quilts.
Ami Simms has some good ideas about bibs. She has taken those ideas and made a tutorial.
I saw another fabric basket like the One Hour Basket. I thought I might try it but after reading the directions, I thought it sounded like the fabric handbag pattern TFQ and I made together one time (last time??) when I was at her house. I am not sure how I feel about using the paper bag as the interfacing either.
Kathy M put up a tutorial on making a pillowcase. It is a smaller version of the burrito or magic pillowcase tutorial.
Fabric, Tools, Shops, Supplies & Embellishments
A few weeks ago, I took a trip with two friends to Scruffy Quilts. It is not to far from me. It is a small shop, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of quilt related tools, fabric and supplies they had. For my pillowcase project, there were a wide variety of designs from which to choose. I was also interested in the Judy Niemeyer patterns available. I don’t plan on making one, but the complexity and possibilities for the designs were wonderful to look at. I also had fun looking at the notions! I did sign up for a Tuffet class. I had been wanting to make one since I bought the pattern. I tried to win one at the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show, but was not successful, so I bit the bullet. Check out Scruffy Quilts if you are in the area. They also have an online site.
Check the accuracy of your rulers, tape measures and cutting mats. That might help your accuracy.
Exhibits, Tutorials & Events
Marsha McCloskey has posted another lesson in the Winter Star Tutorial on here blog. This one is about finishing the 3″ Ohio Star for the center of the block, and includes setting up to piece, and an accuracy test. You can see all the posts she’s done so far at: https://featheredstar.wordpress.com/
I always like to find good basic tutorials, because then I don’t have to write a tutorial for everything. 😉 Sewmotion has a tutorial on cutting fabric. It is a good, basic tutorial and not long. My only problem with this tutorial is that the photos show her rotary cutter ope in between cuts. CLOSE YOUR ROTARY CUTTER EVERY TIME!!! You never know when you will be called away and little fingers (or big) will come nosing around. Alternatively, you can get a rotary cutter like mine that closes automatically and can be locked closed. I can’t live without it.
Doing Good
“From Stashed Newsletter: Last April, Nepal suffered a devastating earthquake that killed 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000. Even more thousands of residents were left homeless from the destruction the 7.8-magnitude temblor left behind.
Luana Rubin is a GenQ friend, owner of eQuilter.com and one of the most compassionate quilters around. Over the years, she’s led efforts to bring quilts to the victims of other disasters, as well as standing charities helping people throughout the world. For more information, go HERE.
Now she’s leading a quilt drive to benefit the Nepalese people left homeless by the earthquake and she’s asking for our help. She needs lap, twin and double-sized quilts in bright, cheerful colors. You can donate finished quilts directly to Luana by shipping them to eQuilter, 5455 Spine Road, Suite E, Boulder, CO 80301. Consider getting your bee, guild or small group together to make some quilts, too. It’s all about fellowship and giving back, something we quilters have always done.
On our own home turf, GenQ staffer Bev Mabry is collecting quilts for victims of recent floods in Wemberley, Texas. If you have finished quilts or you can make a top, contact bev@generationqmagazine.com.”
NQR
If you have a kid going to college as I do, you might enjoy this article about the grief int he process. A librarian friend sent it to me. I don’t know how I will feel, but I will miss my Young Man.
Using leaders and enders I made a few more Stepping Stones blocks. They are looking really awesome, I think. I love the way the red and blue really create distinct secondary designs. This was a little hard to see in my previous quilt. From far away the previous quilt looks great, but close up you can’t see the pattern as well as you can in this turquoise and red version.
I have added a few new fabrics to the mix for this quilt. My original idea of using all Bonnie and Camille fabrics is pretty much out the window. They were a good starting place, but much too limiting. With all the fabrics I have added, I still don’t think there are enough. I get annoyed when I see two fabrics together. I am starting to see the appeal of charm quilts.
The picture to the right is the new blocks with a few of the old ones to show you the effect of the whole design.
I wanted a certain kind of lanyard for my quilt guild nametag. I wanted my nametag to be near my shoulder so people could really see it. I also wanted some options to hang things from it, like a pouch for id, money, etc.
Make this lanyard fit your personality.
Supplies
Directions
Wash and press your fabric
1. Cut a piece of fabric 40″ x 2″. You can adjust the length to fit your height, neck size, etc.
2. Layout your strip on the ironing board wrong side up. Cover the wrong side of the fabric with Shape Flex (or similar) interfacing. I usually cut the interfacing so it only goes with about 1/8″ from the edge. This reduces bulk.
**Note the Christmas light fabric was what was laying on my ironing board at the time I took the photo.
3. Fold your ShapeFlex covered strip in half, wrong sides together, and press so the edges match up.
4. Fold both ends up about 1/8″ (WST). This will finish the ends.
**Note: I don’t know what that tool is or where I got it, but I use it to keep from burning my fingers when I iron.
5. Open the strip you have just pressed down the middle.
6. Fold both raw edges towards the center. Don’t fold past the center pressed line.
6A. Once you have pressed both raw edges towards the center, repress the whole strip together on the center line.
7. Topstitch around the whole strip using a matching thread. Of course, you can use whatever color you want, so do that. Make the piece interesting.
Topstitching encloses the whole strip so there are no raw edges visible.
8. Mark 9.5″ up from the end with a pin. This will be your sewing line, which will create the lace to clip your name tag.
9. Fold that same end at 10.25″ and insert a ring or D Ring.
10. Clip piece with a WonderClip to keep everything together while you sew.
11. Sew on your marked line. I sew between the top stitched lines. The ring will need to face out so you can clip your name tag on to it and it will not be covered by the lanyard.
12. Fold each end up 1″. Make sure that the fold on the same side as the upper ring is to the back.
13. Add a circle ring to one end and clip with a WonderClip.
14. Add the metal hanging clip to the other end and clip with a WonderClip.
15. Adjust the ends so the circle ring does not clank against the hanging metal clip when you wear it. If it does it will drive you crazy. If it doesn’t bother you, it will drive someone with auditory sensitivity crazy. I always adjust the hanging metal clip to be the longer end.
16. Sew the end of the hanging metal clip closed. Bury or clip threads.
17. Now, carefully sew all the rest of the layers together. I sew the end with the ring using a square stitch pattern to reinforce all the layers of the lanyard.
Clip your nametag on, hang your pouch and you are ready to rock.
I had to put this post up, because I made the darn TP holder! Finally! The two have been on the list for such a long time. I just had to crow a bit.
To Do List:
To see the 26 Projects Lists, which list quilt WIPS, visit the July 26 Projects update. May’s To Do List has a couple of changes, which is heartening.
All small items, prior to those completed in December 2014, have been completed since November 4, 2013. This is a new list for 2015. You can find the list for 2014 and previous on the last post.
The other day I wrote about the Fine Spring Day journal cover. The day I made it was a day of changing thread colors and that project was no different. I wanted to find a certain blue.
I store my Aurifil in a plastic zipper bag. I know. I know. Not elegant. I am going to get a candy jar soon. I just haven’t done it yet. At some point I separated out the bobbins and put them in a cool box, but the spools are still in the in the plastic bag.
I pulled out the bobbin I wanted and then looked for the spool.
And looked.
And looked.
No joy
I finally pulled out almost all of my blues (sans navies and dark blues) and still couldn’t’ find it.
I couldn’t find it. It never showed up. How is it possible to have a bobbin and no spool. I don’t understand it. I guess it could be with some project.
All in all, I was not happy.