Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I whipped up another pillowcase to send along with the Walker Bag to Friend Julie. I forgot to take a photo before I sent it off, but she was kind enough to oblige.
The fabric is some that I bought at PIQF on a whim. While I intended to think of something fabulous and special to make with it, it seemed right to use it for this particular pillowcase. I definitely made it for a fabulous and special person.
I am pleased with how it came out and I have little piece left for the FOTY 2017.
My knitting needles were barely cold before I cast on a scarf for the YM. I want him to have one as well. Almost as soon as I finished the Cosmic Wonder Dust scarf, I started his.
He thought the Madeleine Tosh yarn was a little rough (he is very kinesthetic and also very tuned into the way things feel). At PIQF, I bought some wool and silk yarn from Thread and Ewe. It is Avalon yarn by Round Table Yarns – 50% superwash merino and 50% silk, DK weight. Even though I was annoyed at the “DK weight” – clearly designed for experienced knitters – I was eager to try it out.
The fibers are not as tightly wound (spun???) together, so I have to be careful not to knit only part of the strand as I progress along the row.
Like the Monarch scarf, this yarn is slippy, so the stitches tend to slide off the needles if I am not careful. While I cast on to straight needles, I am knitting with some circular needles and the line between them is a bit short, so I have to be careful.
I really hope this yarn is soft enough for the YM.
As if I didn’t have enough piecing to do on En Provence, I had to spend some time un-piecing and re-piecing. It happens, I know, but I was pretty annoyed with myself when I realized my error.
The alternate blocks that are on the interior of the quilt have a half square triangle at each corner to keep the chain that zigzags across the quilt whole.
Does that block look like it has four HSTs? One at each corner?
No.
The question, then, became could I live with the error or did I need to unpick?
One consideration was that I had already sewed that block into the quilt. If I could live with it, I could save a lot time. However, the block was only sewn on two sides, so I wouldn’t have to rip apart much of the quilt.
However, I noticed it because the chain was broken, so clearly the error was noticeable.
Also, I would be short of four patches.
I decided I couldn’t live with it and fixed it. I am happier now.
I finished the Cosmic Wonder Dust scarf last Thursday! Yay! Now I have all of the scarves finished for the kids uh, young adults who helped the YM during his cast phase. They are not wrapped or boxed or mailed, but knitted is a good place to be.
This was made with Madeleine Tosh Chunky yarn. This yarn was a little different than the ones I used for the Lichen and Nighthawk scarves. it is Madeleine Tosh Chunky. It knitted up faster, though I didn’t have as much time to work on it. Good thing it was chunky yarn. The unexpected part is that it is not as long as the others. I should have bought three skeins, but didn’t. C’est la vie.
I can’t always stop when I start and pillowcases are like candy. I had promised the YM a couple of pillowcases for his housemates. The pillowcases are popular among YM and his pals, because of the high quality fabric.
My promise and the call for pillowcases for Sonoma and Napa fire victims got me in gear. In addition to Bento Box and Chocolate Box pillowcases, I made two more. I also made the requested case, a skeleton pillowcase and a Little Green Men pillowcase just because I love the Little Green Men.
I made the LGM pillowcase for the YM, but told him he could give it to his new housemate if he wanted. I didn’t want the new guy to feel left out.
You never know when skills/patterns from Sew Days will come in handy. Remember a few months ago when we made walker bags for the folks at a local nursing home? Peggy worked out the pattern for that day. I remembered it and when I found out my friend was getting her hip replaced, I contacted Peggy about a few measurements and made one.
The fabric line is called Alien Invasion. I pulled the purple bins out of my closet and found it. My friend will have to try it out and see if it is practical. I told her I would make another, if it didn’t work.
This feels just like a vision board. Bloomston says “your mission statement is one way to water your grass” (pg.85). I’ll have to believe her and try.
“In this chapter we’ll write a so-called non-business ‘business’ plan — a creative mission statement” (pg.85). In the course of this exercise, she asks us to toss out the “Photoshopped perfectionism” (pg.85) of our creative life. We all know what that is, sometimes called Instagram. 😉 Creative life is not “all tied up in a pretty bow and stylized like a cool magazine lifestyle shot” (pg.85). We “have to start with” our “feet on the earth, even as” we “reach for the stars” (pg.85).
Carrie has a worksheet that will help us envision a creative life. She suggestions that we “look back in our family history” for a “passionate person,” a grandma who loved “to can peaches,” an “uncle who tinkered away in the garage making wooden benches” (pg.86) for inspiration. She wants us to “close your eyes and picture yourself in your creative life. See as many details as you can. Be specific” (pg.86). The worksheet has good and specific directions for filling it out. Photocopy it so you can use it over and over.
You can see the last post on this topic from last week.
Nota bene: we are working through Carrie Bloomston’s book, The Little Spark. Buy it. Support the artist. Play along. There is much more to each spark than what I am writing. The original chapters will help you. Go buy Carrie Bloomston’s book, so you get the full benefit of her fabulousness! You can see my book review, which is what started this flight of fancy.
I bought this fabric awhile ago in order to make a pillowcase for the YM’s new housemate. It has been languishing until BAM lit a fire under me to make some pillowcases. I bought more fabric at PIQF and from the Fabric Depot. I got inspired.
The first thing I did, after finding the fabric again, was find some coordinating fabric to go with it. Red with an interesting texture. Hope she likes it. I know nothing about this woman as she has never been around when I have visited the YM.
I had enough extra to use some of this fabric as a cuff, so I made another red pillowcase and will use that to donate to the Sonoma and Santa Rosa fire victims.
As I have said a few times, I have a stack of donation blocks slated to make at least one donation quilt, but probably more. As a result, I should work on that project rather that making new blocks. I don’t listen to myself. I have tons of 2.5″ squares handy. And I need leaders and enders periodically, so there you have it. And endless supply of blocks.
Lately, things have been no different. I have made a few as I have sewn En Provence. I need to cut some pieces for the Triple Star, which is why I haven’t been using those quilt blocks as leaders and enders.
I feel like I should just randomly select foreground colors and be done with it. That doesn’t work for me. I seem to have to carefully select all one color or similar colors to make a block. Not sure what is driving that (OCD on some level?). Still, I want to make pretty quilts to donate and this is part of how I do it.
I recently came across some beige Cotton & Steele 2.5″ squares and decided to make a block with them as the background.
I happened to place the dots so they were all moving in the same direction. On some level, it looks to me like the dots are flowing behind the foreground. The beige won’t go very well with the bright whites the guild usually uses, so I might have to pull some beige out of my bins and make several more blocks with a beige background. It would be nice clear out my beige, but not so nice to work with. Perhaps I won’t notice?
Finally, I had one under the needle. It was finished, but placeholding so I could start up again with no needle issues. There is a little violet, but most of this block is pinks and oranges. I am really liking that color combination at the moment.
Yes, I have another donation block on the wall even though I have a lot of other projects to use as leaders and enders. A good habit, I guess.
I really feel it keenly when I can’t sew, so I think I am posting every little bit of progress so I don’t seem like a slacker in my own mind.
This is the most recent star that I have made.
Due to some cutting errors I repurposed some of the pieces to other uses in the Triple Star. This means I have to cut more before I can make much more progress on the rest of the stars. I have one in progress and am sewing as much of it as I can, but I have to cut.
As much as the flippy corners method is a pain, I do like the look of the Friendship Star in the center.
Four and a half more blocks to go.
I made an effort to make some progress before I went off on my 5 days away from my sewing machine. I was able to get an En Provence column done. In case you can’t tell by comparing my last update photo with this one, it is the column on the right.
I have decided that adding rows and columns isn’t going to work, so now, while I still have the quilt on the design wall, I am laying out a row and sewing it together, but I won’t sew it to the whole piece. I will use it as the first row of the upper quarter. Once the whole quarter is made, then I will sew it to the piece shown above. This will prevent me from having to sew too many long seams.
After the top left quarter is sewn, I will work on the two right quarters and do the same. At the most, I should have 3 long seams.
You might remember me talking about the first star donation top. I don’t always get to see the finished product, but last week at the BAM meeting, I got to see it finished.
Erin quilted it. She doesn’t make a lot of her own quilts, so she quilts a massive number of charity quilts.
The setting looks pretty boring compared to Stars #2 and Stars #3, but I had to make it in order to get to those two. Erin’s quilting makes it look a lot better!
I was thrilled to collaborate with Erin and look forward to seeing what she does next.
I was sort of in the mood to make something small and wanted to give a small gift to the Retreat Committee, because I had a great time at the Retreat. And because making stuff is fun. Pincushions are fun and I enjoy making them.
I was completely thrilled, because I made these in between work and life. I got them finished after working on them a little bit in the evenings. I was also thrilled, because each entire piece is made from scraps. I did not dig into any yardage.
They are from Love Patchwork and Quilting, issue 39. It is available digitally in the Apple and Google Play stores.
I told myself I wasn’t going to use selvedges again, but I did anyway. I had some sewing failures and had to remake two of the pincushions, because it was too much of a hassle under the deadline to rip them out. My attempt to repair with ShapeFlex didn’t work. Still, the selvedges are very popular, though I don’t think they work very well with pincushions. Whatever. Looks are everything, right? 😉 I’ll get to the repair later and have some pincushions available for gifts.
The pattern says to center the flaps for the Wonderclips and I haven’t done that thinking it would be too hard to sew. I tried it on one of the pincushions and I think it worked pretty well. I eyeballed the placement and might actually measure next time, but I think it came out well and it looks good.
I sent the finished and fabulous pincushions to Gerre, so she could put them with her gift. She reminded me that I had missed one. It is a good thing they are easy to make and I have lot of scraps, because I made up two more quickly. One I gave as a gift – just because and it is already in use.
I enjoy making these I need to buy more wool roving so I can make more – and find some friends who need pincushions.
I am on a binge of pillowcase making. I bought a number of pieces of fabric in the past few weeks to make pillowcases and I started right before I didn’t have time to sew.
First, I washed all the new fabric, then ironed it while I was on the phone (great activity for talking on the phone). After searching out my file of directions, I made a couple for the YM with the Bento Box fabric I bought for that purpose.
I wanted to highlight the green in the print. Since there is a lot of pink in the print (raw fish, after all), I didn’t want that to be the focus. Not very manly in this day and age, thus the green. YM isn’t particularly fond of green, but he doesn’t dislike it either. My pillowcases have a reputation of being awesome among his friends, so I know he will use them. I think they like the high thread count.
I don’t put trim on, though my pillowcase guide says to do so, because it adds an extra crease to the cheeks.
I dug up some pillowcase fabric I bought some time ago and will work on that one plus others over the weekend.
Go and get your Little Spark book. We are back to fostering “a beginning, a seed, a whisper” (pg.6). Today is all about vision boards and this is not my thing. Perhaps I don’t believe they will work, so they don’t work, though everyone who has used one says they do work. Perhaps I am just scared of making one and getting what I think I want?
Bloomstad says “A vision board is simply a collage of images you pull from magazines and other places and paste to a board. This exercise puts you directly in touch with your desires. It leaves you with a visual inventory of all the stuff that bubles up from your unconscious mind and hear to illuminate your path and remind you of what you want” (pg.81).
This is the spark that I wish I had a direct line to the author. I think it is my fear talking, but I have questions. Do I really want what I think I want?
The directions for making a vision board are pretty clear. “To make a vision board, tune into your heart and soul. Sidestep your mind by banishing your inner critic, judge, and editor. Those parts of yourself are not welcome for this exercise. Ask them to leave the building. Why? because you are only going to be listening to your desire. Not your desire for your partner, your children, your friends, or your family. Just your desire, for you” (pg.81).
Carrie gives a list of materials to the reader (pg.83) and directions:
She also gives some explanations, such as “sometimes we aren’t always aware of our own greatness or even what awaits us. Using pleasure and desire as a guide keeps you in your heart and soul and out of your editor and judge” (pg.83)
Finally, Bloomston says something that doesn’t scare me. “New Year’s is a great time to make a new board for setting your intentions for the new year” (pg.83). I watch everyone else set intentions, pick a word, make New Years resolutions and I do nothing. Not because I don’t want to, but because I want to do something meaningful and sustainable. I can probably spend two hours making a vision board for my year. We’ll see.
Nota bene: we are working through Carrie Bloomston’s book, The Little Spark. Buy it. Support the artist. Play along. There is much more to each spark than what I am writing. The original chapters will help you. Go buy Carrie Bloomston’s book, so you get the full benefit of her fabulousness! You can see my book review, which is what started this flight of fancy.
You can find the last spark on the blog from a few weeks ago.