Category: 2009

Use for posts written in 2009

Handbag Finished

As you know, I have been thinking of branching out from the Eco Market Tote bag pattern that I have a been using for the past 1.5 years. I saw the Over the Top bag in a recent issue of Quilts & More magazine. That mag is on Facebook, so I get more notifications about what they have going. I saw their promotion for Quarterly Challenges, which reminded me of this bag. A couple of things came together, including watching their little tips video, so I downloaded the pattern last Friday and made the bag, mostly, on Saturday.

Batik Handbag
Batik Handbag

I am pleased with the way it came out.  It is the perfect size for a small handwork project tote. As with all things I sew from a pattern, I found that the first piece is really a test piece. I rely heavily on TFQ and her garment sewing experience when it comes to 3D projects, so deciphering this one alone was a challenge.

There were a few things I didn’t really understand in the pattern and, thus, skipped. I don’t see that it made much difference in the long run. There were some things that the pattern said to do that I would do differently a second time. I would add more stiffness to the bottom, perhaps something like Timtex.  The pattern says to sew only to the dots, which are about 1/4″ away from the edge. This makes sense for the bottom seams. It is necessary in order to put the Y seams together. It isn’t necessary on the top of the bag and actually turned out to be a pain. since the top seams weren’t crossed by another machine stitched seam, they started to come apart after I had the bag mostly together.  I ended up hand stitching the tops of the seams.

    I think that this pattern has a lot of opportunities for embellishment, which could be fun. I keep thinking of a picture I saw in either thr3fold journal or Quilting Arts, where Laura Kemshall did a beaded edging on one of her bags.

    In anticipation of loving this pattern, I bought enough magnetic clasps to make 4 bags total. After making it, however, I am not sure whether or not I will make any more. In some ways I want to make the bag again, so I can perfectmy construction techniques. On the other hand, I don’t think they style and size would be that useful for me, so I am not sure I want to have a bunch of them hanging around the house. They may, however, make nice gifts.

    Quilt Sorbet

    Last year I found a quote in Judy Martin’s newsletter by a reader who talked about projects classified as mind sorbet, which I recounted in a post. After the Tarts Come to Tea, I really feel like I need some mind sorbet, something that I don’t have to think about much. The Tarts was a real design challenge: worth it, but a challenge. Now I need a break.

    Fabric Selection, August 2009
    Fabric Selection, August 2009

    These are the fabrics I have been collecting for the past little while with the idea of making this quilt. There are an abundance of dots, but hopefully enough other designs and scale to make it interesting.

    I scanned back over some of the posts showing fabrics that I bought with this project in mind. I don’t see them in the picture above, so I will need to look at them and see if they fit in with the idea I have in my mind.

    This quilt was inspired by a pattern by Terri Atkinson called Yellow Brick Road, which I wrote about in a post called Avoidance Issues. The idea was further encouraged by a trip to Texas in April. For once I sat in a window seat and was able to look at the regular patterns created by lots and fences, etc. After that trip, I had a lot of ideas and went crazy putting my own designs “on paper”. EQ6 makes such an exercise really easy. The project is really all about the fabric, though.

    Sorbet, August 2009
    Sorbet, August 2009

    This image looks a little weird because it is exported from EQ6. I haven’t colored all of the blocks, but this should give you a bit of an idea of the next project.

    I made two blocks today. They took me about 5 minutes each, which is exactly what I wanted.

    2 Sorbet Blocks, August 2009
    2 Sorbet Blocks, August 2009

    In order to get the variation, I need to print the rotary cutting directions for the rest of the blocks. We’ll see what we get.

    Picking Prompts

    In a recent comment, Quilt Rat asked how I pick the prompts for the Creative Prompt Project. In part it all started with Amy at the Creative Mom Podcast, because I heard one word, thought about her thematic prompt and started on this project. The project has evolved very differently than the project in my mind.

    Around the same time, I had been thinking about Illustrated Journals and that influenced my decisions about the CPP as well. You can read a little about my thoughts at the time in my February 20, 2009 post.

    Another piece of the puzzle was a little book that DeWayne gave me as a Christmas gift. DeWayne is a former co-worker who is an unbelievably creative person. Every year at Christmas DeWayne gave everyone on the management team a little gift and one year it was a little blank book called Jeu de Cahier.

    Jeu de Cahier, Front Cover
    Jeu de Cahier, Front Cover

    I am very particular, and a bit of a connoisseur/snob, about my notebooks and journals. This one didn’t fit, so I threw it into a drawer. When I started the CPP, I came across this notebook again and decided that it would work for keeping track of my ideas for prompts. I have a big list in the front with all of the prompts and then I organized them by first letter of the alphabet, so I can keep better track of the ones I use.

    Prompts, August 2009
    Prompts, August 2009

    As I wander through my life, I note down words that might make good prompts in the future.

    Finally, I am getting to Quilt Rat’s question. Choosing a prompt depends on my mood.  I leaf through the book and see what words jump out at me or strike my fancy. I, sometimes, try and choose prompts that fit in with a theme or something that is happening in the world. I don’t worry about that too much, however, because I don’t really think it matters for the CPP purposes.

    I try to prepare the prompts so that they post on the Friday and are consistent in terms of numbering and order. If I can think of a theme that fits, then I add that as well. Sometimes I change a prompt just before it is going o post and that can get me into trouble. Remember the double prompt Friday – June 5?

    Sketching #28

    Creative Prompt Response: Blue
    Creative Prompt Response: Blue

    I decided to set a good example for all of my faithful CPP participants and create my response right away.

    I have to admit that I was tempted to use a previous photo of some blue pieces that will be a quilt.

    Here is my response to blue, which incorporates the quilt-to-be that I mentioned above, but is still mostly in the planning and cutting stages

    Last Flowering Snowball

    Last Flowering Snowball, August 2009
    Last Flowering Snowball, August 2009

    Last Sunday night, I went over and watched a movie with my SIL. We often craft together and this night was no exception. We watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat and stitched. I was able to finish the last middle block of the Flowering Snowball/Cross Block project.

    Now I need to worry about the border blocks. I haven’t taken the time to make the pattern for those. I will soon.

    Creative Prompt #28: Blue

    The blues

    Turquoise, navy, periwinkle, aqua

    House of Blues

    Oceans, lakes, rivers, brooks and streams

    Blue sky

    See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

    Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

    There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.

    Book Review: A Thread of Truth

    A Thread of Truth A Thread of Truth by Marie Bostwick

    My rating: 3 of 5 stars
    I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written. One thing that jumped out at me was that the pacing was different from many of the novels, and especially mysteries, I have read recently. Initially, I thought the book was moving too slowly. Then I realized that the pacing was just different, told myself to slow down and enjoyed the book immensely.

    Marie Bostwick is a good writer. I liked the integration of quiltmaking into the story without having it take over the story as it does in other novels. There is some religion, but not so much that it is irritating.

    I was pleased to meet up with the characters from A Single Thread again and find out where they were. Their characters have developed and, while there was nothing wrong with them in A Single Thread, I enjoyed the character development. It was particularly noticeable in the character of Abigail Wynne. She has softened around the edges and the friendships from A Single Thread have had a noticeable effect. I also noticed significant character developments in Ivy, a new character.
    As I said, the story gave the reader some news about the lives of Liza, Evelyn, Abigail and Margot, but the basic premise of the story, around which the subplots revolved, had to do with domestic violence. One of the characters in the story is involved with that situation. I thought some of the information Marie Bostwick gave about the fear, uncertainty and mistrust was very well written. I do think that it is impossible to convey some of the feelings without having experienced it.

    View all my reviews, including non-quilt reviews >>

    Tarts Milestone

    I have a box of Recchiuti that I have been slowly savoring as I work on the Tarts project. The box is almost empty and, TA DAH, I have reached a major milestone in the work on the Tarts project!

    Tarts Top Complete, August 2009
    Tarts Top Complete, August 2009

    Your eyes do not deceive you. The Tarts Come to Tea top is completely sewn together. I had some bits of time over the weekend and used those bits to work on the Tarts. I really need to get this piece off my design wall and work on something easy. I resisted the urge, especially after all this time, to just throw the thing together. I really looked at it as my last opportunity to fix any despicable design decisions.

    My first order of business was to replace the yellow cup.

    Yellow Print Cup
    Yellow Print Cup

    I like the cup itself and am pleased with the fussy cutting and satin stitch quality. As part of the complete Tarts Come to Tea design,  it didn’t work. My eye kept jumping to it. While I want the viewer’s eye to move around the piece, I didn’t want it to be glued to the yellow cup.

    New Pie, August 2009
    New Pie, August 2009

    TFQ suggested pie.  Since I was thinking along the lines of a pastry or tart as well, I appliqued another piece of pie. I used the same design as the original piece of pie.

    Old Pie, August 2009
    Old Pie, August 2009

    The problem was that they were too similar. I didn’t make enough changes to the design, even though the colors/fabrics are different. The similarities are highlighted because the two elements are close together in the piece.

    I resolved the issue in my mind, however. I am going to applique’ some whipped cream on top of the new piece of pie, and perhaps a cherry. It will overlap on to the blue block above it. I planned to do it before the entire piece was sewn together, but I got caught up in the excitement and focus of the sewing and forgot. I’ll add it later this week or on the weekend.

    Upper Left, August 2009
    Upper Left, August 2009

    I had already started to sew sections together last weekend when I tried to tell myself I was finished. Still, there was a lot of piecing to do, so I got too it.

    Upper Middle, August 2009
    Upper Middle, August 2009

    One thing I forgot about improvisational piecing is that one has to add bits and pieces in between. I really didn’t want to do much of that, because I liked the look of the blocks being next to each other. That meant some trimming and adding little bits, which I did, and which will, hopefully, be mostly hidden once the piece is completed. I couldn’t avoid adding some bits and I had to pay attention to the checkerboards, because I didn’t want to cut them off in the middle of a square.

    Lower Left, August 2009
    Lower Left, August 2009

    There were a few places where I couldn’t trim and augment. Those spots should be readily apparent from the photo. In general, I am pleased with the way the piece turned out.

    Quilting is next, of course. As I mentioned in the last post about the Tarts, I seriously thinking about quilting the piece myself. I want it to be done a certain way. I don’t think I am good enough yet on the longarm to quilt the detailed design I have in mind. I really want the cups and pastries to stand out. More thinking on this is required.

    I can’t really believe that it is together. It has been such a long process!

    Fabulous Laptop Bag

    I have bags on the mind again. I really am thinking about new bags to sew.I would like to have several in my repertoire. They make great quick projects. As such, I was reading Vicki Welsh’s most recent Field Trips in Fiber episode and found a really great laptop bag by Candy Glendening of Candied Fibers. I got the impression that this was her own design. I was really impressed with the attention to detail and the thoughtfulness of the design. I like the water bottle pocket and the cell phone pocket. The machine embroidery or quilting which Candy used to embellish the bag is very nice, too.
    clipped from candiedfabrics.wordpress.com

    Laptop Bag for Liz!

    Laptop-Backpack18
    blog it

    Fair Visit

    Nosegay, August 2009
    Nosegay, August 2009

    I went to the San Mateo County Fair on Saturday. I was really pleased to discover that The Nosegay had won a 3rd place ribbon.

    Third place isn’t first place, but I am so happy that I won something. It has been awhile since I won a ribbon. I couldn’t have done it without Colleen of Sew Little Time Quilting. She is a fabulous longarmer. She also sells fabric, teaches and designs patterns. Her longarm work is out of this world.

    Anyway, I am reinspired to enter this quilt somewhere else. We’ll see if I can get my act together.

    In general the Fair was fun. I ate two, yes 2, frozen, chocolate and nut covered bananas. I love them so much!! They just say fair to me. We saw fireworks, got free ice cream, watched hucksters and hawkers, and some people rode rides. I didn’t have as much time with the quilts as I would have liked, but got some nice pictures and will have some time to look at them carefully later.

    Another Shout-Out for the Creative Prompt Project

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

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

    Kim Remembers

    Kim's CPP Response: Remember
    Kim's CPP Response: Remember

    The Creative Prompt Project is spreading slowly to other artists. I am thrilled about this, because part of my goal for this project is to inspire other people to be creative.

    My tiny, little sister uses paper and scrapbook pages as her artistic medium. She works in other media as well such as pottery and jewelry. Here is the response that she did for “Remember.” One of the things that excites me about her response is that her piece uses a different media than most of the rest of us use. It shows that you don’t have to draw to respond.

    This page is about the Fisher Price barn that sissy had when she was a kidlet. She also had the castle, the house, the village and a number of other pieces of the Fisher Price little people toys. *I* remember how much fun we had creating scenarios with all of those pieces.

    Thanks, sis.

    Catch Up Saturday Again!

    Well, my brain seems to be really full these past few weeks. Once again, I am writing another catch up post for you. I know that catch up isn’t exactly the right term, but Full Brain post sounds a little odd to me.

    1. Tote bags: Always on my mind. I haven’t made any new ones, but I did listen to a new podcast called the Quilted Cupcake Podcast. Jean, the producer has a very friendly and professional not ditzy style. She is methodical, but not talking head boring about presenting the information she wants to communicate in the podcast, which was easy to follow. The show notes blog is a must, at least for this episode, because Jean packs the podcast full of information, links and tutorials. The episode to which I have linked is episode 11, which is about tote bags. I downloaded all of the episodes that were available, but listened to this one, the most recent, first. I found it on iTunes and you can find it there, via a link from the show notes blog or also on Libsyn at http://quiltedcupcake.libsyn.com/.

    Some of the blogs and sites to which Jean links are sites that I already claim to read.

    Jean mentioned Rachel Griffith’s P.S I Quilt blog, which has a great tutorial about gussets. I haven’t tried it yet, but will, especially since I am thinking about expanding my bag making horizons. Jean also does a great book review and mentions several tips and tricks that should have been obvious, but were revelations to me.

    She also mentioned a couple of books, Sew Sublime Bags and Sew What by Lexie Barnes. I was able to reserve the former at the library, but not the latter. Will have to think about that. I’d like to see it and not buy it at the moment.

    I spent some time listening to her earlier podcasts and she has definitely improved her style. Some of her discussions talk a lot about thrift store shopping and saving money. She mentions a lot about how much she spends on things in the course of the discussion. It is apparent that saving money and getting a deal are important to her. My only criticism would be to leave the price tags out.

    Her episode on aprons (#5) was really good and I do like her book reviews; they are very complete.

    2. Flickr Creative Prompt Project Group:  I am very pleased to report that  a number of participants in the Creative Prompt Project have joined the group and uploaded their responses. Quilt Rat, SherriD, and Kathy (new member-YAY!) have all joined. Quilt Rat and SherriD have uploaded all of their responses and Kathy has uploaded several photos so 80+ drawings/photos/art are all available to view together. I am really thrilled about this. There is always room for one more, so join in and upload your responses. You don’t have to go back and do them all.

    3. Free MOO cards:  Get a free pack of MOO cards. There is no free lunch so there are some restrictions, but free is free and the MOO cards are really cool. Thanks to Deirdre for this tip.

    4. C&T Publishing has a list of blogs by their authors and fans. Others were new to me, such as Barbara Brackman’s blog, which includes lots of tidbits about quilt history. I also like the logo C&T created for this particular page. the different artistic letters are fun.

    5. I am weeding the links. I find that blogs change over time and don’t suit me anymore. If you are using my blogroll as a fave page, you may want to rethink that. 😉

    Creative Prompt #27: Crave

    What do you crave?

    Crave Bakery

    Midnight cravings

    See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

    Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.

    There is more information on the recently updated Creative Prompt Page.