Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

I Didn’t Realize I Did Do Something!

Normally, I like to give my posts their day in the sun – the one time in their life when you will see them and only them first.

Today isn’t one of those kind of days.

A few days ago, I was lamenting the fact that I hadn’t been doing anything sewing related lately except thinking. When I realized that I had been working on the Cross Blocks (Flowering Snowballs) on and off, but pretty regularly for about three weeks or so, I was thrilled and had to show you. I have some work done! Hooray!

Some time ago, I spent a couple of hours cutting a bunch of patches to have handy when I had time to make blocks. The above five blocks are the result of that exercise as well as the actual sewing that I have done during the past few weeks. It pays to plan ahead, I think.

Some of the fabrics I wouldn’t use again, because they are too dark or too blah, but I think they will mix in well in the end.

Since 5 blocks is an odd shape, I took a close up of these four so you could see the circle (of which I am very proud). I also wanted you to have the opportunity to enjoy some of the fun and fabulous fabrics: the kitchen fabric in the middle (upper right block, yellow) as well as the lamp fabric (upper right block, blue). Normally, I don’t use these in the types of quilts I make, but this project is perfect for some of those conversationals that I like and never use.

I have a total of 33 blocks. I could stop at 36 and make a 6 block by 6 block quilt. I would like to have this piecing see me through my summer travels.

I also want to do the self bordering technique on this project so that the quilt looks finished. I will have to make a round of blocks for the outside. That idea worked so well with the Pineapples, I will have to really think about how I can do it successfully. If I make the center too big, the border will be too daunting.

Decorating Ideas

There is a restaurant in the City called the Slanted Door. I like to eat there because there are many, many offerings sans wheat. It is very hard to get a reservation as well as a bit pricey for regular visits, so usually I get take out and enjoy it at my desk. In the winter they have a particularly wonderful chicken noodle soup with NO wheat.

One day, when it was pouring rain, and I wasn’t downtown so I stopped at a restaurant near my house looking for a lunch of Mexican food. I got a variety of sensory delights.

First, they had fantastic decorations hanging all over the walls and ceilings. Many of these items were hand crafted from items you can buy at IKEA. There is a green lamp in the lower right hand corner of the photo above. It is garbage can that has been embellished and had a hole cut in it.

There were many, many parrots in cages.
They also had a variety of mosaics.

There was NO dust either. The waitress told me that they spend two hours in the morning dusting. She also said that they take stuff down that is broken or too gross.

Finally, they had the most unbelievable chicken soup. Not chicken noodle soup, but it was GREAT.

Denyse Schmidt Returns with more Fabric

TFQ sent me a notice about this post on TrueUp saying that Denyse Schmidt is coming out with another line of fabric. This time it is home dec fabric and it looks like she is repurposing some of of her other designs. You know what? I am fine with that as I don’t think Flea Market Fancy stayed around long enough and wish it would come back.

clipped from www.trueup.net
denyseschmidt-countyfairstack

Denyse Schmidt’s County Fair line is being introduced at Quilt Market next week and will be in stores in June. In addition to favorite designs from her Flea Market Fancy and Katie Jump Rope lines, there are a couple new small-scale geometric patterns and a cheater print called “Patchwork Promenade.” All are on 54?-wide, home dec weight cotton canvas. Patchwork Promenade will make a quick and easy quilt, but that’s not its only application, as you can see below.

  blog it

Some Not Like the Others


TFQ put this together a week or so ago. It is small. I think it is has a lot of movement and a lot of possibilities. The movement is created (or at least facilitated) by the variety of colors that are close to each other…or complements.

TFQ’s project has a a lot of possibilities as a jumping off point for a series.

  • How would this look with different colored circles on the same background?
  • How would this look with these same circles on a different background?
  • What if you created circles all one color and put them on a very active background?

The possibilities are endless.

Thanks to TFQ for sharing! Ready? Set! Go! 😉

Inspiration: More Mosaics


These are some titles from a restroom floor. I know it is weird to take photos in the restroom, but some of the old floors are so great that I just can’t help myself. These are in block form, but the block is made up of smaller pieces. If you look at the bottom picture carefully you can find the larger block (towards the right side). I fyou were to use this design to make a quilt block, you might notice that you can’t put the entire block together without partial seaming. The partial seaming makes the block interesting.

1000 Journals Project Visits SF

You Tube Video of 1000 Journals Project

I have never been to a film festival that I can remember (my parents took us to a lot of strange and culturally significant places), but I went to the San Francisco Film Festival last night to see the 1000 Journals film. It made me really excited to go and to see an indie film.

I am so lame about celebrities, never knowing who they are and who is sleeping with whom, but at the film festival I felt how other people must feel about TV and movie stars. The director, Andrea Kreuzhage and Someguy were both there. After the movie, there was a Q&A and people asked thoughtful and good questions. Of course, everyone wanted to know where the journals are, but people also asked about whether they kept journals (both do to some extent), the exhibit that Someguy is working on getting together.

Today I went out and bought the book. I haven’t read it yet, of course, but I glanced through it and am already more excited than I was.


There is something about this project that is so great. First of all journals are close to my heart. It isn’t just that I have been stumbling along trying make visual journals for the past little while, but I have kept a journal since high school. They can be really powerful and helpful. It means a lot to me have somewhere that I can just blather on about the stupidities and irritations as well as the triumphs of daily life without worrying about my handwriting, grammar or vocabulary and spelling.

I was excited to be at the movie and see the celebs, because it is a collaborative project that Someguy started in his living room. Someguy works. He is just a regular guy. He looked the same *at* the movie as he did *in* the movie. No tux or entourage. It shows that one person can REALLY touch other people’s lives. It is inspiring. It also showed that people are really creative and can take a project and help. It also showed that people cared about the journals and the project. You can see a lot of other footage about the project on YouTube, including interviews with Someguy (above with Andrea Kreuzhage) and Andrea Kreuzhage.

I think people just want to be part of something greater than themselves.

Towards the end of the Q&A, a woman stood up and said she had one of the journals! She said she had had it, I think, since 2003. She had been giving it to people, but it had continually returned to her. As soon as people started leaving I jumped up and asked Someguy if I could have it. Sadly, someone had beat me to it! She, kindly, offered to send it to me when she was done, so I gave her my address. Life happens so we will see if I ever get one.

Here are some photos from the event.
This is Erin with journal #270 right after she told Someguy that she had the journal to give back to him.


Andrea and Erin with journal #270.Someguy, Erin and Andrea.

Someone was there with a Flat Stanley and wanted to take a picture of Stanley with Someguy and a journal.

Two Bag Day

I had resolved to look at all of the Pineapple blocks yesterday in order to see how many I need to remake in order make progress on the Pineapples. It has been kind of a Pineapple disaster couple of weeks and I wanted to get back to it.

But, I didn’t.

Instead I worked on the easy project and finished a bag and made another whole bag. Yes, start to finish. I am going to use it today.

This is the bag that I had been working on. It is kind of part of a small series of bags made from fabric that I bought from Fabric.com. I was going to keep this one for myself, thus the dots, but I don’t think I will. I like it and find it to be well made, but the colors aren’t me. I need a another bag for a gift and will probably use this one as the gift. I also decided that I don’t really like the paisley fabric that much. I was happy with the way I centered that one paisley on the pocket.

The white dots had been languishing in my sewing room for awhile and I wanted to get them into a bag. I, originally, wanted to make an entire bag out of them, but didn’t have enough of the dot fabric. One of the fabrics I bought on Saturday was destined for the inside of this bag. I also used the webbing straps I bought at Britex for this bag. They made the sewing go REALLY fast. However, I melted one part of a strap and got goo all over my iron, so I may not use them again. I also don’t like the limited color selection. Anyone know of a good source for these straps? How about nice colors and NOT made from plastic?

This is the inside of the bag. Isn’t it fun!?! It is a very sedate bag until you open it and then it gives you a little punch. I love this fabric, because it makes me feel cheerful when I look at it. I was shocked to find that it is a Judy Rothermel Aunt Grace fabric!

I cut out the pieces for another bag and will use this cheerful flower fabric for the outside of a bag as well. Yes, I am going bag crazy.

Organization

It is very hard for me to accomplish anything if I am not organized. The first thing I do on any project is organize the pieces. I get a lot done, I think, because I am organized. It drives a lot of people close to me insane.

The fabric closet in my workroom had dropped off the organization list sometime in the last century. I have been flinging things into it randomly for some time. There was no space for me to get into to do anything. I knew I had to take everything out [EVERYTHING!!] and start over. There was no possible way I could face such an endeavor alone. TFQ mentioned it last year when she was here for PIQF. It had gotten so bad between times that this trip she convinced me it was time. I also asked her to help me clean it out.

I threw out, recycled, and organized, for Goodwill and Freecycle, a ton of stuff. It felt good. I have been on that binge for awhile in other parts of the house, but this was a major quilt/fabric related effort.

Sadly (or perhaps not), I didn’t take before pictures. I think that is, at least, partially a good thing. I do have the after pictures.

Closet Right Side: Quilts are on pants hangers and hung in the corner. File cabinet was moved closer to the door so I can file paperwork easier. Fabric bins that I use a lot were brought down, so I don’t have to crawl up to get at my fabric quite as much. We didn’t do much with the fabric bins, but have gone through them together in the past. I have also been going through them recently as I work through the bag project. I will go through them again in the future, I am sure.

Closet Left Side: The new drawer thingy is full of dots. Closest to the left side of the photo is a continuing part of the project. I have to get some crates to replace the bankers boxes for ‘current’ fabric. In the middle on that upper shelf is a weird bin (the style of the bin is weird) full of projects in process. They are organized, so I can find them, which is a good thing, because I would like to move through some of the projects that have been lingering. I also went through a lot of of my projects that were going nowhere and got rid of them. No point in keeping something that never even made it to my UFO list. A number of them were block exchanges from the early 1990s. Lots of teal went to people I hope will make great quilts for others.

We really needed one more day to get the project completely finished. We didn’t have it, so TFQ sent me to the Container Store with a list of items to buy. Above are the containers I bought to fill with stuff. The clear plastic garbage can is full of rulers now and I want to get another. After I filled it up, and amazingly all of my rulers fit, I decided that I didn’t like the rulers with instructions and packaging in the same container as the regular rulers. The other frosted garbage can was a ruler possibility, but the shape is wrong. I may actually replace one of my garbage cans around he house with it. I am definitely going to get another one of the clear plastic ones.

PS. I surpassed 450 posts yesterday. Thanks for reading!

Another One Night Stand, Part 2

At the end of the Nance O’Banion class today, we had to talk about what set us off in the direction we went and the themes we saw emerging our work. Both of my pieces were driven by the beginning of the class when Nance said to be open to serendipity and surprise. Because of the “personal pieces” I chose, the themes that emerged were themes that I had worked with in the past: One Night Stand and the Goddesses.

Nance’s class was full of different types of supplies and things to inspire us.

Rubber stamps lined up and ready to use in the books.

The book on the bottom is full of wonderful bits of embroidery and quilted books.

I was intrigued by the way she lined up everything.

This was waxed linen thread that she offered for our use. I used my own hand dyed thread.

We were supposed to bring three meaningful things with us. I wasn’t quite sure if she meant things we could use in our work or just things in general. I chose the former definition and these are the items I came up with.

Dots, of course.

The little woman figure is very like Desiree and I like her shape.

I am really into taking time for tea right now, thus the cup.


Cover: Here is the cover of the finished piece. I made this one MUCH smaller. We had less time for this second book and I wanted to accomplish a lot, if not finish the piece.
Page 1 and Page 2: First I went through and drew all of the figures. I alternated between the shape from the bead and the Desiree shape. The little figure on page 1 said that her name was Paulina. Not sure why or what her goddess responsibilities are, but there you have it.

After I was done drawing the figures, I went back and modified colors, sewed a bit, added beads. I think I want to stiffen the pages on this book as well.

Page 3 and Page 4: I merged the two shapes in the figure on page 3.

Page 5 and Page 6: Page 5 may be Referencia, but may be someone else. She did not reveal herself. The wings are a flash of brilliance, I think. The house in the Little Mother’s tummy is supposed to be a Gwen Marston house.

This is the end. I used a rubber stamp that I bought from Karenlee (finally!). You can also see the binding very well. It is called a stab binding. I still need to sign and date it.