I finally broke down and am making another Chubby Charmer. I use my first Chubby Charmer all the time. It is a great bag.
TFQ gave me a charm pack of Sugar POP squares by Liz Scott for Moda. I like it because it is a cheerful pack. I needed some leaders and enders while I worked on other projects, so I laid the charms out on my design wall and sewed a bit.
My favorite fabric is the flower fabric with the turquoise background (second from the left, top row).
The layout you see is not exactly correct in terms of the Chubby Charmer pattern. It is correct in the placement of the fabrics. Notice I have placed the browns on the bottom? 😉 I haven’t wrapped my head completely around the Chubby Charmer pattern yet, which is why not much has been sewed and I have layout wrong.
This fabric was really a pain to cut. I cut it raw edge to raw edge, because I wanted the coffee cups to be right side up when I carried the bag. It really took a long time to cut, as a result.
I am pleased, however with the results. I wish I had switched the pocket fabric and the front panel fabric, but the colors go together, so I am ok with the way it turned out. I do have to sew up the opening on the inside that I used to turn the bag.
I am not working on one in the Martha Negley black vegetable print that I used before. I wanted to use up that fabric in the black for these style of bags.
I am trying to decide if I will make enough of them to give as gifts at Christmas. Shock, horror, I know, but I have to start thinking about it now, because I have to make 12 or so if I do decide to make them.
Except for one diamond, all of the diamonds for Fabric of the Year 2010 are cut, bar one. I am now in the stage where I have to make sure that I have enough border patches. I also needed to figure out what the arrangement of the diamonds would be.
Counting Diamonds
My first task was to count my diamonds. It was fun to go through the patches and see all of the fabrics I cut. I weeded out a few duplicates and came up with 330 diamonds.
Next, I needed to figure out the layout of the diamonds. I thought I could figure that puzzle out by doing some division, but, as it turns out, diamonds are whole different animal. The rows are not right next to each other. There are, as I see it two rows for each segment. The inside row (eg if you think of the bottom most row of the quilt, one row up is the inside row) is one diamond smaller than the bottom row and so it goes up the entire quilt. One row is, for example, 10 diamonds across. The next row up is 9 diamonds across. One row up from that is, again, 10 diamonds across and so it goes up the entire quilt. This means that you can’t just assume that to make a quilt of 330 diamonds could be designed by taking the square root of 330 (18×18=324), which you could do if the patches were square or rectangular.
When I realized this, I had to get my resident math genius involved. DH began working on the problem and realized the difficulty of the math.
Two Last Diamonds
DH ended up making a rectangle or square out of the diamonds (imagine a rectangle drawn around the two diamonds above) and worked out the problem that way. After a few hours, it occurred to me that EQ7 might have a solution. It has elaborate explanations on how they count diamonds.
Math & Diamonds
As DH came up with different arrangements, I tried them out in EQ7. We still had to count the two rows of diamonds and then multiply to be sure that we would use the most number of diamonds cut. There was no way, in EQ7, to put in the number of diamonds and then have the program determine the arrangement. That would be a great feature.
20x9 Diamonds
Eventually, we figured out the arrangement: 20 diamonds across by 9 diamonds down. The above is from EQ7 and the coloration was just a quick way of making the layout stand out a bit. It seems like a bit of an odd shape, but I have to remind myself that the diamonds are taller than they are wide and, thus, it appears that the arrangement will work.
My next step is to cut one last diamond, because for this arrangement I need 332 diamonds. I am planning to use the Metro coffee fabric from Monaluna. I did buy that fabric last year, so it fits with the theme. I am not sure what I was planning to make with this fabric, but after spending another 1.25 days making a back for a quilt I just finished (just the top and the back; I haven’t done the quilting), I am sick of pieced backs. I am still going to make them, because I see no point in not using fabric I already have, but it is so much easier to use larger pieces of fabric. To give myself a break, I am planning to use a large piece of the Monaluna fabric on the back of FOTY 2010, thus I want to include a diamond from that print. Before I cut the diamond, I decided to make a Jane Market tote from that fabric.
I cut a bunch of border triangles and I need to count those to see if I need to cut more. I need 38 top and bottom triangles total. I need 16 side triangles total. I am good on the corner triangles, though I did find them a little hard to cut. The Fast2Cut corner ruler did make it easier.
Diamond Test Piece
I still haven’t finished the test piece. I started it, but haven’t been using my sewing time well lately, so I am behind.
Finally, I will arrange the patches at the retreat.
I have been working on this quilt on and off for a few weeks. I was mostly cutting and piecing the stacks of rectangles, but last weekend I sat myself down and pieced all of the blocks and finished the quilt.
I did something different on this quilt, which was making an assymmetrical border. I made a large stack of rectangles for the bottom and the side of the quilt.
Top part of quilt - in process
The piecing wasn’t difficult, but the cutting and the figuring out of how many fabrics to use was a challenge. I started off with a Birch Bundle from Birch Fabrics/FabricWorm. I ended up adding a few fabrics from my own stash. I had to add still more fabrics from my stash for the back.
This will be a gift, but I don’t want to say for who until the gift is given.
I have to say that I felt the same way I felt when I made Passionate Purple. The purple on the design wall was depressing. I needed to get this quilt done, because it was too dark and was making my workroom depressing. It could be that I seem to do purple quilts in the winter. It could be I just don’t like purple enough to make more purple quilts.
With this drawing, I am out of pages in my second drawing book. I have a new one, but it has a different type of pages. I’ll try it and see if I like it. I am also only one prompt behind. I don’t have an idea for the last week’s prompt, though.
This is supposed to show watching a slide show. The projector is off the page and I couldn’t think of how to draw that light that shines on the screen. Anyone know?
Virginia and Jeanne came through with two more blocks each for the Stars for San Bruno Project. We now have 18 star blocks. A good many of them are the same pattern as Virginia’s, which is Friendship Star. I think that is a nice message to send to the people who will get these quilts.
Virginia is a wonderful quiltmaker, bagmaker, teacher, helper with the upcoming show and all around good person. She is such an inspiration.
Jeanne (said the French way)
Jeanne is an awesome colorist. She has been making quilts for a long time and loves fabric and color and scraps. Many, many of her quilts are scrap quilts and go to auctions, the babies of her office and other good causes. She works mostly in tiny block sizes so she mentioned that these blocks seemed like behemoths to her. I love the Sawtooth Star in a Sawtooth Star block. I also love the Pinwheel in the Sawtooth Star block.
Want to help? We now have a total of 18 blocks, which is a thrill. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
2. Salivary foam released as a result of disease or exhaustion.
3. Something unsubstantial or trivial.
4. A fit of resentment or vexation: was in a froth over the long delay.
froth assistor on the steam wand (espresso making!)
Froth is an open-source, Objective-C web framework for Cocoa developers. It enables people who are familiar with iPhone and Mac development to feel at home… (frothkit.com)
The Froth House is an Art House Café; not only do we serve delicious food and beverages, we also provide a space for our community to enjoy Fine Arts (frothhouse.com)
Have fun and link to your responses! Ask a friend to join, too! You can do the prompts together.
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/or your blog.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. Are you already a member? I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted. Post yours and get kudos!
I saw an episode of Quilt Out Loud yesterday (?, Saturday maybe) where the Door Knock artist had her scraps divided by color.
Others are thinking about this, too. SherriD wrote a post about this very subject recently. Don’t you love the way she colored some of her words? Very clever!
Mine are all heaped into a, now, overflowing pile. This situation has been getting on my nerves lately, so that one shot was just what the doctor ordered! The basket is too small, does not fit my decorating scheme and it is not working for me at all. I am thinking of changing systems. I need something to keep them in, though.
My brain was on overdrive while I slept last night. I figured out a work problem, my sleeping mind worked on the quilt I sewed on all weekend, and I got an idea for a new scrap organization system. What a nice night’s work! Not sure how rested I was, but you can’t have everything. 😉
I went on to Amazon and they have these:
Rainbow Cart Small - 16 x 8.5 x 36 inches
and
Rainbow Cart - 15.2 x 0.1 x 37.5 inches
These aren’t very different in height, but after measuring my sewing table, the smaller one would fit better and add to the usable horizontal surface total in my workroom. One problem is that the purple drawer is so big. I wish that were for red, though I suppose I could just put the red scraps in the purple drawer. There isn’t a law or anything! I like the colored drawers as that means pre-coded color coding.
Finally, I saw this version:
Rainbow Cart Double - 16 x 10.8 x 26.5 inches
I can’t imagine how these dimensions could be correct, but if they are, this piece would be optimal, I think. Moving it in would require some moving of stuff around, but would give me a place for scraps, remnants, chunks, etc, as TFQ said.
I stumbled across this on Great Recycled Gifts website. I don’t think I want to use a metal bag, but I can definitely see the advantages. I also love the shape of this bag. I may have to see about making a bag that shape.
I saw this project on Fons & Porter the other day and had to go and watch it again, so I could get more details. It is show #1607 of the 1600 Series.
They don’t provide measurements on their show, because they want you to buy the magazine. Like the Corner Store project, I thought this would be a good scrap project. Frances, of The Off Kilter Quilt podcast, talked about having too many scraps and composting them in a recent podcast.I think Frances should do mosaic quilting, but I’ll bring that up another day. I already inundate her with all of my advice.
Twirling Triangles Half Block
I don’t want to compost my scraps, but I do want to use them. I though this block would work very well. I have the Pyramind ruler and I thought I could use the Kona Snow as the background and then just cut appropriate sized scraps to the right size and make blocks until I have enough….for something.
This project doesn’t look like it would work well for chunking, but it does look like an interesting project. We’ll see.
Twirling Triangles by Kehoeta
This is one I found on the web by Kehoeta. I like the use of the black triangles. I was thinking of that idea as well. I only saw this one example. It looks like she used a lot of scraps, so I am heartened that my idea isn’t stupid.
The photos are bad, because I paused the TV and snapped photos of what was on the screen.
Here are the books I got for Christmas, etc. DH came through with the two books on the left, American Quilts and Sew Serendipity. The American Quilts book is another book Robert Shaw and some of the quilts are the same as those in his other books, but I love to read books where quilts are woven into history. I have glanced through it and read some things that have attracted my attention, but I haven’t delved deeply into it and I look forward to doing so.
Sew Serendipity is a book that has a great pattern for a coat. It is on page 154 and called Classic Tailored Jacket. I plan to try making it from polar fleece, hopefully the two-sided kind that I found once before. My mom said she would help me, but that is all the farther we have gotten.
I heard about Kiss Ass Creativity on Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski and thought it sounded interesting. He has a lot interesting authors on that show. AJA gave it to me and I can’t wait to read it.
Lil Sissy gave me The Apron Book. I think I will have to make her an apron.
Friend Julie also came through with two books, Sew Serendipity and Collage Lab. I am hoping that Collage Lab will help get over my wet, messy at home avoidance problem. Andrea at a Work of Heart has a Collage Lab book club, but it is too far to go on a weeknight when I work.
Finally, I checked the Artist in the Office out of the Library and then I had to buy my own copy, because I needed to make a note on almost every page and the book was a little over $5 (go buy one, you won’t be sorry). I read it and it really made me feel a lot better about my day job. It isn’t inspirational in a sappy way, but gives practical tips about dealing with a day job, thinking about “obligations” in a new way, making choices and getting the work done.
People are so generous! I am so fortunate. Yes, my thank you notes are written. 😉
I am going to write a review of these books so stay tuned.
Martha Negley & Hoffman
I decided to break down and buy the Martha Negley Grapes in Plum. I tried several places and none of them could confirm the color. One of them said she had no idea what color the fabric was. Huh? That I do not understand.
In the course of my explorations, I emailed Batiks, etc & Sew What Fabrics. They actually emailed me back and weren’t lame! They were able to confirm the color and they answered a question I had about a ruler. I was so impressed with their service. I would definitely shop there again! Customer Service is everything, folks!
As you can see I also bought some Peppermint from Hoffman. It is a batik and I do like those swirls.
Martha Negley Red & Plum
Left are the two grape fabrics that I now have. You can see the difference in the colors. They are destined to become bags. Which bag, I don’t know. Perhaps the Jane Market tote? I am in the mood for another AMH Multi-tasker tote, so perhaps one of those. We’ll see.
