I spent a few minutes each day this past week cutting the pieces for the first La Pass rosette.
I cut almost everything as the cutting guide suggested. I added teacups for the extreme diamonds (now purple in the lower left), but decided the pieces weren’t big enough to show off the tea cups. They are waiting for another outing.
Small pentagon eyes
I did change the small pentagons. I used dots for some and eye fabric for some. I hope it looks ok.
I finally got all of the cutting done and am ready to baste. I think I am going to use glue. I’ll see how it works and ditch it if I don’t like it.
I want everything to look good in my refreshed workroom. This is a tools bucket I use. It sits next to my sewing machine.
I thought Collage Pauge** would work. I pasted (painted??) fabric on to the outside of the bin. While the fabric was hard as a rock, the look was not ideal when it dried. It was too see through. That was not the look I wanted.
Tools bucket – blue pass
Lil Sissy suggested I mix Collage Pauge** and white paint. I didn’t have white paint so I used turquoise. It didn’t work. I should have gone and bought some white. Thus: I still don’t like it.
I am not sure what is next, but I may collage over it with some text paper. Collage Pauge** is really made for paper and covering what I have done with paper might be the best thing.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
SuzyQuilts wrote an ultimate guide to the best fabric shops. During a recent work meeting where I was invited as a courtesy, and also where I understood nothing, I glanced through the fabric at some of these sites. I had a couple of thoughts that I thought I would share.
I was surprised that I had only heard of a few of these online stores and shopped at only one or two.
Hawthorne Threads: sample color trends
I am not sure if it is these particular shops, but I noticed that colors are becoming less clear – I wouldn’t say murky, but definitely more into the mustard, apricot, mauve, mint, blue grey, rose, cream, etc. As you can see from my quilts, I like bright clear colors. Way too much brown for me in current fabric lines.
It is interesting to see the personalities of the shops based on the colors and the variety of products.
There wasn’t as much Tula as thought there would be. Perhaps I am just immersed in Tula at the moment.
Sewing Arts in Santa Monica has a great and interesting line of thread gloss. I have heard a lot about Robot Mom in the La Pass BOM group, but her store is closed for the moment, so other thread gloss lines and thread conditioners are catching my attention.
As mentioned, I joined the La Passacaglia BOM through Pink Door Fabrics. The other day I received my first month’s shipment. This is an 18 month project, so I’ll be getting a lot of these. This one was special because everyone in the group was so excited to start.
Yes, I am in a group of about 500 people who are doing the BOM. There is a private FB group where we talk about our journey. In the group there was a lot of hype up to the first shipment.
La Pas BOM month 1 shipment open
I wasn’t in the first wave of recipients. I got mine probably in the middle group. I have a month to finish the rosette, so I wasn’t worried. I was excited when I got the package. I immediately ripped it open and checked everything out.
La Pass is a daunting project and this group as well as the monthly shipments helps break it down into bite-sized pieces. It also gives me a project on which I can work when my workroom is in disarray.
Yes, Put A Ring On It is finished. I have been slowly stitching the binding down. I was able to finish it on July 30, just in time to cross it off my list so I could start La Passacaglia. Hand sewing is about all I can do right now with my workroom still in disarray.
Put a Ring on It corner
This is the first quilt I have made than has round corners…that I can remember. I have a vague memory of using that Katie’s Corner ruler on something, but I don’t remember what. I found it to be great not to have to miter corners. I did have to stretch the binding a bit to get it in the right place, but bias binding works great for that.
Put a Ring on It detail
Colleen did a great job on the quilting! I like the way she highlighted the arcs.
I know the whole project seems never-ending. Guess how it feels from here? It is getting better.
The painting is done. I have some furniture in the room, but am still waiting on the bookcases.
We (meaning DH) pulled up the carpet and the floor is in pretty good condition. We didn’t take the time to redo it, though I did clean it with Murphy’s Wood Oil soap. We really didn’t have the time to do a full scale floor update.
View from the windows
I am starting to put things back in the green bookcase, not that you can see that in the photo (left). I am forcing DH to go through his books before I reshelve them. I am not putting books back on the shelf that should be donated. He doesn’t have to give any of them away, I made that clear, but if he is going to read them, I have other uses for the shelves.
New power
My sewing machine is going against the wall that used to have my new design wall, as mentioned. That is one of two walls with an outlet. I wanted to minimize the number of extension cords required as I kept tripping over them. The last thing I need is another broken foot or torn ligament. I took the opportunity of all of the furniture and stuff being out of the room to have the electrician expand the available to outlets to ‘fours’ from ‘twos’. One reason I had 200 extension cords in use was that there were a total of 4 outlets in the entire room. That was nowhere near enough. While 8 is better, it is still not enough, but an upgrade nonetheless. We have outlets on only two walls and if we want outlets on all the walls, we have to rip out more of the walls than we want to and that is too big of a job for us now. The outlet covers are nice and fresh. You can see the difference between the phone jack and the new outlet.
New door handles
Finally, I got new door handles as well. I don’t know that they are my dream door handles, but they are fresh and clean. I am really happy with them.
This weekend: bookcases, I hope. The YM is coming for a flying visit and it would probably be nice if he could actually get into his room.
I am on month 2 of my 3 month Quilty Box subscription. Victoria Findlay Wolfe provided this month’s project – a lozenge quilt. I didn’t really get to enjoy this one yet, because of the Workroom Refresh.
Quilty Box n.2 open
I was still excited to receive the box. Everything is such a wreck at our house that a little treat was a good thing. This time I didn’t know what would be in it, so it was a complete surprise. The picture (right) is exactly what I saw when I opened the box. They wrapped it pretty nicely, if simply.
The booklet has a couple of projects inside as well as a Q&A with Victoria Findlay Wolfe.
Quilty Box n.2 contents
Quilty Box n.2 contents
I didn’t know what to expect in this box. There was another label, some mini fabric bolt cards, a seam ripper, a spool of Aurifil, acrylic templates for the quilt and the booklet. The seam ripper is a serious Havel one. I’ll put it in my La Passacaglia kit.
Astrid Fabrics
I like the fabric. The amounts were better this time. I got 1/3 yard cuts and can make the quilt pictured on the front of the booklet, if I add some background.
I don’t need everything in this box, but the overall contents were better. I think I just want to open mail and dream about the contents. I am pretty sure I don’t want to organize it, find a home for it or put it all away.
I continue to work on the Yellow Improv. As I work on other projects, I sew bits and pieces together. The piece is almost 20 inches square now. Not big enough yet, but getting there.
What this post should have been named is “Nearing the End of the Life Sucking Beige”, but that is too long and it makes for ugly URLs.
The white is definitely dominating and only the baseboards need to be painted. The room really looks fresh. Today it was pretty foggy and the room didn’t look as depressing (which I try to ignore since it is my own space) as it has in the past.
Carpeting gone
DH also ripped up the carpeting, which I wanted. The floor is hardwood and in good shape except for one spot. I call that a win. The dirt we swept up from under the carpet was amazing. It looked like a sand drift. That blue is the old pad, which DH is using to keep the paint from hitting the floor.
The house stinks and I have had a headache for two days from the paint fumes. We have the windows open as much as they will open and there isn’t much else that I can do except stay away.DH isn’t allowing me in the room anyway since I may hit some surface that is still wet.
Wall of design wall
This is a picture of the wall where my new design wall was hung. The door is the door of the fabric closet. The furniture lumps in the center of the room are my work desk and my sewing table. They are the only two things we couldn’t get out of the room. They are too heavy for the two of us to carry.
I also bought new door handles. Ours were sort of functional, but I thought I would just go for broke and replace them with new fresh ones.
I mentioned the other day that I folded up some fabric and put it in boxes temporarily. As I was doing that, I came across another group of fabrics that I think I want to make into a quilt.
I had been looking at the Kaffe violet urns and the Philip Jacobs Chrysanthemums for awhile. I wasn’t sure what to put with them, but I think the group of fabric I put together and photographed will make a good quilt.
The two mentioned fabrics will definitely go together. I like the darkest blue (middle right), but I don’t know that it really goes with this group. I also think that bottom green has to go.
I am not sure what I will make, though I think it will be something with an Irish Chain kind of look. I also want to fussy cut the urns so the motif is highlighted.
Anyone whose email is on my Feedburner list has been moved to the WordPress feed. If you have not verified your email, then you won’t get any emails. I have deactivated the Feedburner feed, so if you weren’t able to make the change up until now, you will no longer be hearing from me. 🙁
If you have no idea what I am talking about, then ignore this admin talk and read on for quilty goodness.
Projects, Classes, Patterns & Tutorials
Check out Friend Julie’s village blocks. I think this is a larger project. Are you working on these blocks?
As I said, I am gearing up for the La Passacaglia project. The first month’s shipement of the BOM is shipping at the end of this month. <squeeeee!!!> The BOM group is really fun and I can’t wait to read the messages every night to see what people were talking about. Many of the participants are trying to organize their supplies. To this many are making the A Place for Everything 2.0 bag from byAnnie. I, too, would like to make one as I do think it would be a great bag for this project. I might make one, but I don’t have the bandwidth right now (have you read my posts about clearing out my workroom?). I do enjoy thinking about it, though.
Tula Pink has a FB video where she talks about her process for making byAnnie patterns. One of the things she highlights is the way she chooses fabric with fussy cutting in mind. I think I am seriously going to make the A Place for Everything bag for the La Pas project. When? Who knows. Soon. Maybe. I enjoyed the TulaTalk video, though she does say ‘like’ a little more than I like. ?
If you want to learn the basics of EPP, Naudia Tatum has an EPP 1 video where she discusses making the Smitten BOM with Pink Door. This BOM has already started, but you can stretch your imagination to your own project and learn about the tools she uses. She goes into a good amount of detail. From what I have watched, I agree with her on most points about tools. She uses the Jen Kingwell template grips**. As she shows how to use them, they look just like True Grips**, which are what I am used to using. I use a different kind of thimble, but any thimble that works for you is fine. The second part of the video discusses cutting.The third part discusses glue basting. I don’t glue baste, but I was interested in her discussion of the direction of her dog ears (at about~50 minutes). I can use that information, I think even though I will be thread basting.
A good follow-up to Naudia’s video is another one by Tula Pink. The thing I like about this video is how she talks about choosing fabrics. She says choosing fabrics for EPP is like eating an elephant. If you try to cram the whole thing in your mouth, you will choke. Watch this video. It is really helpful.
Yes, I have EPP on the mind!
Barbara Brackman’s Flora Delanica block-of-the-month has setting and fabric options posted, now that all the blocks are finished.
Media
In another video Tula talks about the new Free Spirit pre-cuts. In an offhand sort of way she highlights that nobody ever knew where to measure pre-cuts when they had pinked edges. FreeSpirit is now cutting layer cakes and 5 inch charm packs with straight edges! Yay!
Alison has shop called And So There. She makes beautiful cards, journals and other paper products. Take a look at her small journal with the scissor motif.
Textiles in Lockdown is a podcast by Ruth Singer which “explores the research project ‘Textiles In Lockdown’ which she has created for Gawthorpe Textiles Collection. During August 2020 Ruth created surveys to delve into the stories of textile making practice over the months of lockdown. 180 hobby makers and over 120 textile professionals responded to our survey to share their stories.” The “Gawthorpe Textiles Collection is an internationally renowned collection of global textiles located in the heart of Pennine Lancashire. The Collection is an accredited museum and independent registered charity with a focus on education, well-being and the preservation of traditional craft skills.”
Books, Fabrics, Notions & Supplies
I was led to the FIGO fabrics site and spent a happy amount of time looking at their current and forthcoming fabrics. I love their solids and Bijou is interesting.
I found an article on Fons & Porter in the Quilting Daily. I think I saw it on Friend Julie’s blog. While their quilts may not be your style I have always admired them. I watched their shows on Friday nights while the YM and my DH were at Scouts. I would draw pictures of interesting blocks in my journal and try to make them later. This is an interesting article about the trajectory of their business and what they have been doing since they sold it.
Russel Wright Pitchers
I read an article about Russel Wright and his ceramics in the Wall Street Journal while I was waiting for a meeting to start. That sent me on a journey to find out more about him and his work. I read an Artnet article. I love his dishes and, especially the pitchers. They have a great shape. I saw a blog post, which shows more of his work and links out to the Metropolitan Museum of Art article about him.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
As I mentioned a few days ago, I watched a video suggested by Pink Door to get ready to make La Pas. I didn’t really feel like I needed to watch it. After all, I have been working on the Half Hexie project for years. I was tired from a long day of Workroom Refresh and needed a break so I sat down and watched it. I found it to be interesting and helpful.
I have most of the tools I need, though I did toss a few more True Grips** and a new kind of thimble to try into my cart as I perused the Pink Door site while watching the video.
The thing I found helpful, was watching Naudia cut and organize her pieces. It was also helpful to see what supplies would be coming in the BOM shipments. The video with this information was especially helpful as I think about making a bag to organize all of this stuff. I have a better idea of the types of pockets I might need. I am thinking I will want to carry stuff around so I can work on this project on the go. So far I need pockets for the following bits and pieces:
Book, which has the pattern*
Tools and supplies
Rotating mat
Rotary cutter
Scissors
I will definitely need a pocket for prepped or cut pieces and their papers
Pink Door cutting guide
extra fabric
thread
What else??
I also liked the way she showed using a rotating cutting mat. Of course, I have used one before, but in a different way. Her rotating cutting mat is really small – good for one piece at a time. Mine is really big, so I may think about buying a smaller one.
*The pattern not included in the BOM subscription. This wasn’t a surprise as Pink Door made that very clear. The pattern is included in the book, Millefiori Quilts**, which is the first Willyne Hammerstein book. Yes, this book is expensive, but worth the money if you make one or two of the quilts. Also, it is beautiful to look at since the quilts are so amazing.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
In Process or To Make
The ‘In Process’ is used to denote projects on which I am actively working or are on the design wall waiting for me to stitch. I am continuing to try not to put away projects. I find putting a project away ensures I never work on them, because I just lose steam.
Quilts
The circle quilt is on the design wall
Small Projects to Make or in Process
Most of my progress involves thinking or just cutting.
One Hour Basket for my stuff that tends to accumulate on the dining room table. I may switch to one of the Minikins projects or a Catch All Caddy for this purpose.
One Hour Basket for DH’s stuff that tends to accumulate on the dining room table. I may switch the pattern to one of the Minikins projects for this purpose.
Percheron Pouch cut out and ready to sew
Retreat Organizer – another project from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, also on my list, but not yet started. Recently, I saw one of these made up and I am not so nervous about it
Superbloom tote using Hindsight fabric – not started
Tessuti Japanese Apron – cut out and ready to sew. I am figuring out how to make it reversible.
Ultimate Project Organizer – another project from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, also on my list, but not yet started
Ultimate Carry All Bag gift – Bag-a-Long for BAM – I have the inside pockets as well as the front panel made and am looking forward to the next step
Ultimate Carry All Bag for me – I have the inside pockets as well as the front panel made and am looking forward to the next step
I decided that some of my projects are in a different class because they are hand piecing or embroidery or beading. They take longer. Thus I created a new category and have moved some projects here.
Still WIPs
I still have WIPs. Who doesn’t, after all? A project in the ‘UFO’ category means I am stalled. A nicer way of saying UFO is a WIP. The list is a lot shorter and the projects are newer, for the most part.
Handbag Sampler – this is still the forgotten project. It should be on the UFO list. The blocks were teaching samples when I taught a sampler class some time before I started writing the quilt class sampler tutorials. I found one block recently, but otherwise I actually don’t know exactly where the blocks are hiding. I crawled up in the far reaches of my fabric closet to see if I could find them and they weren’t where I thought. I am sort of mystified as to where they could be. I haven’t even found a picture of all the blocks. Sad.
Lobster – I think I might make this into a tablerunner for the buffet. I think that will be a good and fun use of the piece even if the colors aren’t quite right for the dining room.
Pies and Points from 2016 Victoria Findlay Wolfe class. The last time I worked on it was when Julie and I had a playdate in April 2018. I brought this piece with me so I could cut more elements (Julie has a Sizzix). I lost my excitement about this piece shortly thereafter and still have to get it back. Thus, I had to move this to the WIPs area.
Pointillist Palette #4: Fourth is a series of 6 quilts; needs tiny square patches sewn together. No progress.
Serendipity Lady – I am still planning to take this piece to be framed.
Who Am I? – This piece is still languishing. Perhaps having a larger design wall will help me regain momentum. The amount of satin stitching I was facing was a problem until I thought of BIAS TAPE. I am going to make the words with bias tape, perhaps different widths, then I won’t have to sew the satin stitching. Red Scribbles and Friend Julie helped me come up with this solution. Now I just have to do it!
These quilts are all made from the edges that are cut off of other quilts as they are being squared up. Sometimes I make the backs larger than needed so I get some large-ish pieces back. Those pieces are hard to store, so making some donation quilts out of them is a good idea.
Ends (n.1) – see more information – this is the top that started it all!
You could also put scraps together into strips, add some background and make one of these. These are very improv-y and there isn’t a pattern. It is a good way to do something good with fabrics I wouldn’t otherwise use.
