ResearchBuzz pointed me to this site, which has collected lots of vintage ads and put them up in categories. I checked out the Christmas ads and it was interesting to see that photography seemed to be the unifying theme through the decades. Kodak had quite a lot of ads
I think this site could provide a lot of inspiration for visual journal and collage.
Tara at ResearchBuzz passed on this warning: “One warning: the ads here do reflect the outlooks and prejudices of their times, and as such some of them are offensive. Pay attention to what categories you decide to browse. I wouldn’t let a kid go through this site on their own.”
My mom often cleans out some part of her house or storage and tries to give me things. I have a lot of things. Probably too many, so I try and refuse. She got me in a weak moment over the holidays and I ended up with a plastic bag containing something that was a very odd shade of green. She said it was Aunt Grace’s Holiday tablecloth.
I have a holiday tablecloth and during one of the massive cleanups during this holiday season, the plastic-bag-with-green-who-knows-what got shoved in a closet downstairs. As luck would have it, or perhaps some goddess of table linens was smiling on my dead Aunt Grace, The Child spilled chocolate milk on my holiday tablecloth right before a party, so I went in search of the green thing to see what it was and if I could stand looking at it.
Oh Me of little faith!
Holiday Tablecloth
Well, I have to say I do like this tablecloth. My mom said that Aunt Grace had one of the first zigzag sewing machines in the 1950s and made this tablecloth with her own drawings. I have no idea if that is true (when were zigzag machines available to home sewists??) or just family lore. I can relate, however, as I did a wild and complicated machine applique’ project when I first got the 9K because I was so excited about having zigzag capability.
Dancing Santa
We had a big discussion in my house about the meaning of the Happy Dancing Santa and his red face. Too much dancing?
Santa has long and luxurious hand embroidered eyelashes!
The satin stitch on all the pieces is really thick, so we have had discussions about that as well. I can’t tell if she used thick thread or if the fabric bunched up under the zigzag. I guess there could also be some stabilizer in there, but I didn’t see any when I looked at the back.
Candles
One thing I noticed is that there is a lot of movement in these designs. The slanted top of the candles is an example of this. The shape of the candles echoes the shape of the holly, wreath and other motifs.
Reindeer
We all agreed that this reindeer looks very Seussian. I would love it if Aunt Grace had a journal or blog where she talked about her inspiration. Was she reading Dr. Seuss at the time? It gives me renewed resolve in continuing to post about my projects and quiltmaking encounters!
Bells
As you may be able to see (click to enlarge the picture), Aunt Grace has used French knots for the edge (lip??) of the bell. Notice how she used one towards the bottom to highlight the shape. Very subtle, IMO.
Snowman
The very un-PC snowman with his prominent pipe! She used some hand embroidery stitching for the eyes, which she also used on the reindeer. I also like the way the stitching around the sections of the motifs do not match the fabric.
Tablecloth detail
I love the detail in the designs and also the variety of thread used. I also like it that everything is not perfect. I don’t mean that she put in fake mistakes. She just did what she could do. It looks real to me.
Here are some of the Christmas gifts I received and bought for myself this year. I don’t have reviews for them yet, because I have really only just glanced through them. I will look forward to reviewing these books in detail and you can look forward to them in 2010.
I talked briefly about Journal Bliss in a previous post. Dolores brought her copy of this book on Thursday when we met so I had a chance to look through it. Some of it is pretty basic, but I love the bright and cheery layout. After Dolores and I parted, I stopped in at Borders and bought it.
Julie was kind enough to give me Fearless Design by Lorraine Torrence. Lorraine gave me the rule “make visual decisions visually”. She and TFQ know each other via the quilt world, so whenever we are together and see Lorraine we are able to have a little more than a writer-customer conversation. Last time, at APNQ, we discussed her desire to have made the book longer and I suggested putting additional information up on her blog/website. I don’t know if she ever did that.
I received a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. I don’t normally shop there, but decided that I would immediately sit down and buy as many books as I could with the gift card. With the card and about $3 I was able to add 3 books to my library. The first is Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again. I wrote up a bunch of notes to write a review during my week away, but can’t seem to find the actual review on the blog. Perhaps I never got to it! I’ll have to dig up those notes and write the review for you. Look for that sometime.
This is more of an inspiration book for me. A lot of the projects require some kind of fabric manipulation. Since I am generally opposed to messes, I don’t do that stuff at home. However! I am open to the possibilities and would work with someone else on dyeing and painting etc. The photo shows one project that I really want to try! These are dolls where you use photos of the heads of family and friends. I love this idea. My great niece, “Henry I”, lives in Maryland. She has never been out here and it is has been awhile since her parents have been out. I was thinking that it would be great to make a set of her cousins (11) using this idea. I also think that one of my nephews might benefit from a sister doll when his sister goes off to college in the Fall. Getting the heads on the body (provided) looks like it requires some Photoshop so I may need Natalie to help me. Cut and paste may work, too. In general, this project is a lot of work, so I am not committing to anything more than thinking it is a great idea. If I do it, it might be the impetus I need to learn more about Photoshop Elements.
When SIL and I went to hear Kaffe Fassett, we had some time to kill, so we stopped in at Borders. They have a wonderful selection of magazines, which I greatly appreciate. I bought a copy of Magic Patch, a French quilt magazine to which I used to subscribe. It is the November/December issue, #47. The Christmas tree project was really appealing. I’d love to make one!
Magic Patch Tree
I have studiously avoided stuffing things in the past, but it looks like, with the dolls above and this project, that there is a possibility that this will be the year of stuffing!
My friend Faye, from New Zealand, has some kind of stuffed Christmas tree that she uses instead of a live tree. I don’t think I have even ever seen a photo of it, but I have often thought of how cool such a decoration would be. When I saw this pattern, I thought that it would be worth a try. I even thought of making 14 for the siblings and cousins, but think that may be too much of a committment. Perhaps I will win the lottery and be able to stay home and sew all the time, which would make it possible.
This issue also has a journal cover pattern with embellishment, some string pieced 8-pointed stars and a inteview/portrait of Lorraine Roy, among other things.
This is mostly a project magazine, but they do have quite a bit of information on what is going on in the European quilmaking community, in which I am very interested. They announce shows in Europe and the piecing in the projects ends towards advanced quiltmakers.
Finally, Julie also gave me Inspired to Quilt by Melanie Testa. I have to admit that I have not had a chance to sit down with this book yet, but I am looking forward to being inspired by it. One of my CQFA colleagues has highly recommended the videos on Ms. Testa’s site. Another item for my to do list!
Christmas Fabric
Finally, I cannot forget the fabric. I received fabric from my mom and Julie both. Dots galore and some cute paper doll fabric that I think, if I have enough, will be a bag.
I might be obsessed with thinking about creativity. I want another WOTD book, but am settling right now for Eric Maisel’s book, The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance. My sister sent it to me and I am making my best effort at it.
One thing that Julie does is pick a word of the year. I heard about this from the Creative Mom Podcast and from other places. I have never been able to settle on a word. OR, more accurately, I have never sat down and given a word for the year enough thought to choose one. I found Ali Edwards word of the year post and thought about it again.
Do you choose a word of the year? If so, what is your word (please post to comments). If not, do you do something to inspire you every day?
EDITED: I just came across this really nice free download “Word of the Year Discovery Tool” from blogger Christine Kane. It’s a worksheet for thinking through your word and essentially telling the story of your word. Totally recommended. This is a great action step.
On FB, I am a fan of Janome Sewing machines. Periodically they post a project from their sister site sew4home. This update included heart sachets displayed on a tree. The concept reminded me of a thought I had where I would decorate my ficus for each holiday. Not sure what I would do for MLK Jr Day or Veteran’s Day. Tiny flags, perhaps.
So far, I haven’t done anything like it and am still working on the napkins for each holiday.
This is a denim bag I made out of of an old pair of jeans for my stepdad, The Big Guy. I made one of these in high school that I carried around and embellished. I am not really sure what happened to that bag or whether there are any photos of it anywhere. I stitched around the edges of the pockets with embroidery floss and embroidered flowers on my version.
I wanted to do something like that on this bag, but really ran out of time. I had a lot of gifts to make, as you know.
The shoulder strap is pretty wide. I made it that wide because of the seams and because I thought it might be a little more comfortable for him to carry. The straps will be a good opportunity for him to embellish.
I really had a hard time sewing through the denim and all of the layers in various places. The 9K did NOT like the denim. As a result, I couldn’t do as much topstitching as I normally do on bags. Both of the issues I ran into allowed me to go with the flow, though, and I billed it as a joint work in progress.
The Big Guy is VERY creative. He works in various media including leather. He has made leather slippers before, so I thought the bag might be a good canvas for him to stitch on. He loved the idea! I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.
I am pleased [with myself] to say that 2010 started out with a sewing bang. I finished the bag for my aunt (she never reads this blog as far as I know, so I don’t feel bad about posting it even though I haven’t sent it off yet).
Jeri’s Bag
I started this bag way back in December 2009, but with one thing and another wasn’t able to finish it until Friday. I feel bad, because it was intended to be a Christmas gift. My aunt really loves purple, so I made this bag in purple for her. In terms of fabric selection I had a couple of things I wanted to accomplish and some limitations to deal with. First, I was limited in my fabric choices because of the size of the pieces of fabrics I had available. For a long time I have purchased half yards and FQs. These are fine for quilting, but I am finding that they are barely adequate for bag making. I intend to try the Mini-Multi (AMH’s pattern for the Multi-tasker tote that I resized)This limitation directed me to more plummy colored purples.
Also, I wanted to try a bag where I didn’t use fabrics with a ton of contrast. I think Marilyn’s Multi-tasker was pretty successful. That one wasn’t boring to make. Thus, I wanted to try another interesting combination of fabrics that were also not wacky looking and my aunt wouldn’t feel bad about carrying around.
I am pretty happy with the way this bag turned out. It looks nice and does not look wacky. I made the pockets and straps at the beginning of the process even though AMH says to make the straps at the end of the process, right before I am supposed to attach them. I think my process worked better for me, because once I got past the tedious, fiddly parts, I was able to put the bag together relatively quickly. I like to get all the fiddly parts done, so I can move through the process quickly as I tend to get bored if I have to keep going back to the fiddly bits periodically throughout the process.
Jeri’s Bag – detail 1
I think the combination of fabrics is a good one. The colors work well together and there is some interest in the combination. They are all older fabrics, so an added bonus is that I delved into the fabric closet and used some stuff that has been hanging around. I think Auntie would have preferred less plummy and more purply colors, but the bag is what it is.
Jeri’s Bag – detail 2
AMH does not make her pockets fully lined. Another change that I have made is that I make them fully lined [by cutting a piece of fabric, folding it in half (right sides together), sewing around, turning] before sewing them on to the bag. I think this method makes a nicer finished product and doesn’t take much longer. I want to remember next time to add a label to the pocket. It seems like a good place to include a label.
Jeri’s Bag – detail 3
I am still liking the cell phone pocket, which I learned to make from the Sweet Harmony bag, so I added one to this bag as well.
Cloth Napkins
I have bought some of the fruit and vegetable fabrics, that seem to be popular, recently. I had a joint project with my mom in mind, but decided I liked certain ones too much to give away, thus I made napkins. Perhaps I am making a series after taking a look at the raspberry napkin I made in 2009? The cake fabric and the pots and pans fabric is from my collection of fabric for backs. Those pieces are large, so I can make FQ napkins with no problem and no piecing. In general, I don’t really like making napkins. Turning the pieces and getting the seam crisp are really frustrating and I am generally not successful at it. I tried a couple of different methods this time and am progressing. I do enjoy using the new napkins! I also enjoy looking at the cake fabric. My sister wants a set, but I don’t know if I have it in me to make a SET. Perhaps I can make one a month for her, then give her a set of 12 for Christmas? We’ll see.
In a way I wanted to set a trend for 2010 of major league sewing. In 2010 I want to make major progress in the sewing-quiltmaking-bag making department. I think I did well last year. Still, I want to do better. Not necessarily in terms of numbers of projects completed, but improvement in my processes. Oh, and I would like to see major improvement in my organizational systems. I am not committing to anything on that front, but would like to see it. We’ll see about that.
My Tivo is taping Fons & Porter periodically. I didn’t ask it to do so, but it started doing it on its own and then I started to watch them. It is nice to be immersed in quiltmaking for a few minutes and get a different perspective. Recently, they had a show on a baskeweave quilt. The photo is from their website. I love the idea of this quilt, because it is not simple patchwork done in rows. The maker has to insert pieces into the middle of already pieced rows in order to get the basketweave effect. The project was originally published in February 2007. I would like to see if it is actually make-able. It looks pretty straightforward on the show and the video, but you know how that goes. I’ll have to look around at the library to see if they have it. I found that with my Quilt Out Loud membership, I was able to log into the Fons & Porter site, so I have to look around there as well. If I ever had that magazine, it is long gone.
Clipmarks and my Internet security system are not liking each other, so I will have to try and explain about Bemused and the online Quilts Japan preview rather than show you. I was reading the Bemused blog and she mentioned her love of Japanese quilting magazines. She also mentioned that Quilts Japan has an online preview. That means you can page through the new issue. YAY!!!
As soon as I remembered to click the page LEFT button, it worked great. Remember? They read towards the left.
My regular podcasting people, Jennifer at CraftSanity, Amy at the Creative Mom podcast and Annie Smith of Quilting Stash/Simple Arts, are not producing podcasts fast enough for me. At the rate I consume them I could go through about 3 hours of them a week. Of course, I can’t whine or complain (I am certainly not whining or complaining, just stating a fact) since the podcasts are FREE, the hosts work for free and I guess don’t get paid. Not having new episodes each week, however, means that I have nothing to which to listen. This has forced me to search iTunes for new material. I found some interesting works. IMy two current favorites are CastOn by Brenda Dayne and An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory.
One of the things I like about Brenda Dayne’s podcast is that it is about fiber and not just knitting. I wouldn’t call myself a knitter, though I do know how to knit and I admire knitting and would like to knit more, yet, Ms. Dayne does not bore me with the minutiae of knitting. She does talk about the minutiae of knitting, but I am not bored by it. She talks about other things, too. And the way she talks about things is not boring, it is professional, and, real sounding. She squeals with delight in a professional sounding way.
Danny Gregory, author of An Illustrated Life, Creative License and dannygregory.com did a series of podcasts in conjunction with the publication of An Illustrated Life a few years ago. I talked, briefly, about that book here on the blog in the past, but didn’t review it thoroughly. His podcasts are about 30 minutes long. Longer segments are broken in two parts. He has a wonderful voice and his conversations with artists who contributed to the book make me appreciate the book a lot more. Perhaps I will look at it again and give it a thorough review.
So far, I have listened to Danny talk with Peter Arkle and Roz Stendahl. I also listened to the Voodoo Lounge interview with Roz and I, now, want to be her. She is amazingly creative and practical in a way where she seems to use every moment of her time and get a lot done. I liked her interview with Danny Gregory, because she says that shopping (e.g. going and looking for the perfect pen to sketch with, or, in my case the perfect green fabric) is not a substitute for creativity. I think she also inferred that you cannot count shopping as part of your creative time. She has a follow-up to that comment on her blog.
One of the things I like about these non-quilt podcasts is that I get exposed to other artists and start thinking about creative things in a different way. I am not going to give up quilt podcasts, don’t worry.
I have never heard of Peter Arkle before. Peter Arkle is a commercial artists/ illustrator. He also does something called The Peter Arkle News. It is a newspaper containing stories of his everyday life. I love the idea. He started it just out of college (??) to show potential employers he could create and idea and follow through on it. It is now an occasional publication, which he calls ‘wheneverly’. As a librarian, I’ll have to use that instead of ‘irregular.’
One of the things I love about podcasts is how I get to hear the story of people’s lives. As I listen to more and more podcasts, I find that listening to professional radio is starting to be a bit boring or….not as interesting. I always liked Terry Gross, but now I’d rather know about her life than listen to her interview people all the time. I am interested, usually, in the people she interviews, but would also like to know about her. I like stories about people. I like to hear about the wonderful things ordinary people do. Have you done an StoryCorps interview? Take your grandma or your dad out to a StoryCorps booth and do one. Or use your new Flip. What is your story?
I love this tree quilt. It is one of those Miami Christmas quilts. I admire the way she put together the fabrics. I found this blog when I was working on my end of the year post and I was looking for the name of a pattern I bought to make the “It’s a Wrap” quilt by Sandy Gervais (obviously, I found it!). Not Your Run of the Mill blog seems to be associated with a shop, but I wasn’t able to find a direct link to the shop, though it looks like she has some interesting things.
My guild, CQFA, is doing a creativity project in 2010 and I am the first presenter. I did a lot of legwork in anticipation of the prep meeting in November and then was unable to attend. Dolores, from CQFA met me about an hour south of here on Thursday. We had lunch, looked at quilt and creativity books and talked about what I would talk about. I feel much more prepared for my presentation than I did before. I, frankly, had no idea where I was going or what I was going to say. Dolores is extremely creative. Sadly she has no website and no blog, but you can see some of her work that I have posted. Perhaps I will post notes or something on what I talk about. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with things that people expect me to do lately. Not to mention the pressure I put on myself! I think I will have to practice the word ‘NO’ in 2010. We’ll see.
By the way, the Dynamic Quilt link in my sidebar provides a list of my delicious quilt bookmarks. If you have any interest in what quilt sites I am looking at, click there and you will see some of the sites I have bookmarked.
Matt Sparrow is talking about creating a TMZ type quilt website. It should be interesting to see what comes of that. I wonder if there is enough quilt news and gossip to make it worthwhile?
Christmas Fabrics
Nobody can tell me that I do not have the best MIL in the world, perhaps the universe. I love my MIL. She told me recently that I was the best daughter-in-law.;-) I was helping her wash silver after Christmas dinner. I don’t think the dishwashing was the issue. I like to think she just likes me. Anyway, part of my MIL’s fabulousness is that she gives us money every year for Christmas. I used to spend a weekend gift shopping with her, but she is no longer interested in shopping, so she gives each of us, usually, a magazine and money. If you do not select a magazine, you get some soap or something “to open”. Usually, I hoard my money jealously and wait to spend it. This time, I spent it almost as fast as I could on the fabrics in the photo when I was at Back Porch fabrics. I bought some more pieces of the Lonni Rossi fabrics. I used most of the FQ pack I bought on Marilyn’s Multi-tasker. I have another project in mind for them and wanted to include some in my FOTY quilt. I may wait and include them in FOTY 2010 as I still have a lot of fabric to cut and wasn’t sure I could commit to washing and cutting and sewing all of those additional fabrics before midnight on 12/31. As I write this, it didn’t happen.
For FOTY 2010, speak of the devil, I am thinking of doing another one patch, specifically diamonds. I like what I learned from combining fabrics when I make the Zanzibar blocks. I know I told myself I would create a design that used new and old fabrics like TFQ does and I do see the value in that. As the year came to a close, though, I felt quite stressed about this project. I wanted the cutting and piecing to be done by the end of the year and it just didn’t happen. It was totally my fault for leaving the washing, ironing and cutting until the last second, but still. I have to have fun with my quilt work, so I am cutting myself some slack.
If I do diamonds, I just have to decide what size. I almost bought some diamond rulers at Back Porch, but resisted until I could see what I already owned in the diamond arena.I was thinking of something like a 60 degree ruler.
As of January 4, 2010, I will be working more hours. For various reasons, I have always worked part-time since I left graduate school. My husband, however, has been our house-husband for the past year (almost). Sadly, I cannot afford to pay him at all, even though he does an excellent job. There are just things we need more money to pay for such as healthcare, so more hours at the day job for me are required. I am VERY fortunate that the work is there and the company is willing to allow me to make the change. I am sad to be giving up some of my free time, which I love. I don’t want to make changes in the blog in terms of posting less, but we will see. I haven’t gotten many comments in the past 1.5 months, so perhaps I don’t need to post as much? Again, we will see.
Although, New Year’s Day was yesterday, I want to wish all of my readers a great day and may 2010 be MUCH better than 2009!!!
SIL is in town from back East. As I have said before, she likes to quilt also, so we spent the day driving to some quilt shops. These quilt shops are across a bridge from me, so I don’t go and visit them very often. We were planning to do this on our way (as my excuse?) to pick up the Young Man, but he got sick and didn’t end up going to visit his grandparents. We went shopping anyway. 😉
Preponderance of Dots
Yes, I bought some stuff, including fabric. I looked hard at the notions and I have to say that the stores don’t, in general, have good selections of notions. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I really wanted to see a large number and variety of rulers and pins and other notions. I did find a few things I was looking for including a teflon pressing sheet.
Cotton Patch
Cotton Patch Back Door
The first stop was the Cotton Patch, a long time favorite. I bought fabric for my first quilt there . At that time I bought mostly solids and the day we went they had lots of dots in the room where solids used to be. They recently bought my Janome dealer, which used to be across the street. I was eager to see how they crammed the Janome machines in with the Berninas, fabric, notions, cutting tables, etc into their limited space.
The shop used to be a house and they did expand upwards at one point, but the shop is still really small. They gave up some fabric in order to fit the Janomes. I used to like seeing all the feet displayed and I didn’t see that this time. Now they are also closing out the Madeira thread, which is a shame. I don’t do much embroidery, but when I do I always liked the Madeira thread. My SIL has a dedicated embroidery machine, so I will have to talk with her further about thread. Until I get back on the embroidery saddle, I don’t think I will be buying much more thread. They also don’t have as many Janome machines on display. Perhaps, if I wanted to look at the 11K, they would bring it out for me to try. Patty, the lady I liked who worked at the Janome dealer is still there and that makes me happy.
Simplify Book
I saw this book, which had some interesting projects. I’ll have to see if they have it at the library.
I was really influenced by the way they had the fabric arranged, which is why you see the different red dots. I could see using those dots all in one project, perhaps the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker Tote? Yes, I think I have some of them already. Oh well, you can never have too many dots, right?
I bought the Martha Negley Grapes fabric, though it looks like Cherries to me, that I talked about in Thursday Misc. The one I bought is very red and the one I posted looks much more pink. There is another colorway called Plum that I think I should have bought.
Cotton Patch Mural detail
The mural on the back wall is new and I like it. It has similar impressionistic brushwork to what Monet et al did. I think it is a nice touch.
Next, we went to lunch, because I hadn’t really had much breakfast and it was lunch time. I really enjoyed my tostada salad. My stomach is feeling much better after the treatment I did at the beginning of the holidays, so I could actually eat a salad! We ate at a place in Danville called Father Nature’s. I liked the service, and the room was light filled and open. It would make a great workroom.
Wooden Gate Quilts
Wooden Gate Quilts
Thus fortified we headed off to the next shop. Wooden Gate Quilts was formerly Quilters Inn. Bari J talks a little about the switch on her blog. I had never been to either shop, but we mapped it using Quilters Inn and then had a little bit of trouble finding the actual place when we got there, because it seemed to me from the outside that the shop was selling quilts. It is also on the side of a larger building and we couldn’t see directly into the shop. The area has a lot of historical buildings that look nice, so it was pleasant.
The shop was worth the wandering around. They didn’t have a lot of fabric, but the fabric they had was cheerful. Not too many ‘heirloom’ fabrics, as my SIL kindly phrased it. I saw the fabric line below at a couple of different shops. While I didn’t buy these particular fabrics, I did want to remember the color combination for future reference.
Fabric Combo
Most of the fabrics in this combination, Flower Sugar are from Lecien. One of the prints (not pictured in above photo) is a border stripe with big dots. The colorway I liked is made from a nice cherry red. I am not fond of the border stripe, but wish they had designed a companion print with those luscious pinky-cherry red dots (#30050-30). Oh well, as if I need more dots.
Lozenge
I loved this quilt. I love the colors (of course; see above) and the use of the little black pin dots. What I don’t love about the photograph is that the plus sign element of the piecing really stands out. It didn’t stand out as much when my eyes saw it. Yes, this is a pattern, though I didn’t notice which one. I have been thinking about that lozenge shape since my quilt adventure in July, so it was good to get a photo of another rendition.
I have to say that the people were really friendly there – chatty, cheerful and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. The colors of the shop were nice and the samples were really wonderful. They had two renditions of the basket quilt pattern (Going to Market #146 from Diana McClun and Laura Nownes new company “From Me to You”) I bought at PIQF and it was fun to see the colors they had used. I am not fond of the Asian prints used in the pattern photo and thought I would make it in my collection of aqua and reds, but the examples at Wooden Gate gave me some other ideas for color combinations. I really appreciated that they took the time to make two quilts from one pattern.
They had some interesting notions. I bought some fusible piping cord to finish some pillows. They carry a small selection of Aurifil there as well. I was looking for some bright orange, but they didn’t have what I was imagining. Of course, Aurifil may not make what I was imagining. I may have to put an Aurifil color card on my birthday list. The Aurifil suitcase is on my list, but I am skeptical that that will actually show up in my birthday gifts. They had a magenta thread colorway I almost bought, but don’t have a project for magenta thread at the moment, so I passed.
I also found a product there, sold by the yard, called Soft Fuse. It is wide, too – about 54″ and it makes your machine applique very soft. Wooden Gate also carried sheets of it that can be run through the printer! I really could have used this when I was making the Tarts. It is paper backed fusible web for hand or machine applique’. I bought some and will have to applique’ something to try it out.
Shockingly, I bought some chocolatey brown fabric with cream dots on it. I sincerely dislike brown, but this fabric was calling me. It is much more chocolatey than ugly brown. I need to make something with it quick.
In Between Stitches
Our final stop was at In Between Stitches in Livermore. In Between Stitches is on the old (?) main street in Livermore and the shop’s architecture has great details – wide pine floors, wainscoting, high ceilings. I would love that shop to be my workroom. This is Alex Anderson’s home shop and she has spoken about it on her podcast.
I had never visited this shop, because it seemed so far away. Once I was in the boonies, however, it wasn’t that far. 😉
In Between Stitches
The downtown area was very vibrant as well, which was gratifying. The retail space seemed full, the sidewalks were wide enough to encourage strolling and there was plenty of parking. Although traffic was busy, I had no trouble finding a spot right in front of the shop. Desiree has been very kind to me this December.
They had a pattern for a quilt by Verna Mosquera, which was very bright and cheerful. It is called Mon Ami and the colors really drew me in. They had cheerful fabrics (I bought the orange dots there), including the Lecien fabrics, but a lot of their fabric was of the reproduction/heirloom variety.
Basket Quilt
The basket design is a great pattern. I like the way they use the four patches for the middle of the basket. I might have to try a few. The fabrics are a good example of the fabrics they had at the shop.
They had a class going on where people were making the Plus sign quilt like TFQ is making. They were using horizontal strips and I am sure there was a method to the madness, but I couldn’t figure out how to make the quilt from just looking at their work. They classroom was nice and big.
I liked the patterns for the samples, but probably wouldn’t make them in the colors used by the shop staff. There was one star quilt (kit, I think) that I really liked. The fabrics were kind of French General looking colors, but it did inspire me to get off my duff for the Stars for San Bruno blocks.
In Between Stitches is where I bought the teflon pressing sheet. I am using it to make the Flea Market bag from Grand Revival Designs and I have to say it is interesting. The sheet looks like thick, slightly cloudy plastic. It seems to work as my fabric did not get scalded, but the sheet does get very hot, which is a bit deceiving because it doesn’t change color or anything.
I really like seeing new shops. I may not like everything about a shop, but I enjoy seeing the personality of the owner and the staff come out. I also like seeing the fabric in person. I just can’t tell the scarlets from the cherry reds by looking at a web photo. I would definitely visit all of these shops again. I am glad to see that new shops are hoping in the relative vicinity, even if ‘relative’ means 50 miles away!
I have to say I was fairly shocked at the prices. The regular price of all of the fabric I saw was $10.99/yard. I must be getting old, but I remember buying top of the line fabric for $5-$7/yard. I know I got my knickers in a twist at one shop during my summer fabric adventure because their fabric was $11/yard. I am buying larger pieces now, so the cost really adds up. I hope I don’t have to stop buying fabric.
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.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.
Below is the 2009 inventory of my UFOs. Let’s see if I made any progress since the previous roundup post of December 31, 2008 and where I am in the process as well as what I need to do. First, I want to tout my accomplishments. 😉
2009 started off very well.
I read 50 books this year. Of the 50 9 of them were quilt, bag or creativity related.
Completed Pieces in 2009
One of the great things about completing quilts and projects is that they go off the ‘not done’ list and on to the completed list. Two birds with one stone and all of that. 😉
Completed means to me that they are now usable and can in no way be considered to have anything left to stitch.
464 blog posts related to quiltmaking, design or creativity. This year I also published my 1,000th blog post. That is a lot of writing! Thanks for reading!
Mostly Done, Need Finishing
I added this new category to break up the UFO list and to make myself feel like I had accomplished something, which was quite overwhelming. Also, these are all mostly done, IMO.
Cheerful Baskets: Top finished; sent to TFQ for back, quilting, binding and sleeve. We meant to talk with Angie of the Quilting Loft about quilting it and what design we wanted, but we didn’t get to it on my week away.
Chocolate Box: Top and Back finished; needs quilting and binding. See the post from August 14, 2006 to see the fabrics I used. I will take it to Colleen to be quilted and damn the cost. I meant to do it before Thanksgiving, but didn’t get to it.
Purple Bullseye: Top finished; needs back, quilting and binding. See above under Chocolate Box.
Kissy Fish: top finished, though I may want to add some more machine quilting to it, needs binding and sleeve or binding and framing.
Beach Town: from April 2009 Pamela Allen class with CQFA; finished; needs facing and sleeve.
True UFOs
Here is my list of UFOs. You can see many of them over at Artquiltmaker.com or look at the links I have provided.As mentioned last year, this list in no way implies that I will discontinue starting new projects or finish any of these.
Original Bullseye: Still have those directions for doing the border the way I want it (the directions I found late last year). Asked TFQ to help me puzzle out the border, but we had better things to do. No progress in 2008, but am hopeful for 2009.
Flowering Snowballs/Cross Block quilt: I have been working on it steadily all year and have finished the center blocks. The side and corner blocks are drawn out on EQ6. I worried on and off about how to keep the blocks from fraying after I square them up. Got some good ideas from fabulous readers after my December 20, 2008 post! Progress throughout 2008.
Garden from Pamela Allen class: needs hand embroidery and embellishment. Worked on it in the 2009 Pamela Allen class and it is much improved. Needs quilting, embellishment and binding.
Laura Wasilowski Flower Garden: started in the Laura Wasilowski class CQFA held in July 2007: needs machine quilting, hand embroidery and embellishment. No progress in 2008.
He Tried to Make it Up to Her: needs back and to be quilted. This is probably a quilt I will want to quilt myself. TFQ has dug out a number of quilts, but I don’t know if this was one of them. No progress in 2008.
Her Eyes were Bigger than Her Stomach: needs a back and to be quilted. Very active quilt; probably not the best design, but a mile marker in the quiltmaking journey and an excellent learning experience. No progress in 2008
Pineapple: All blocks are done. Need to put them together. Still facing the reality that some blocks are much too large and trying to figure out how to move forward. I measured all the blocks and found they were all different sizes. I think that I will cut them down to all the same size and let them be wonky.
Pointillist Palette 4: Night: This is the fourth (of six) in a series of Pointillist Palette fabric by Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka that was popular a number of years ago. No progress in 2008
QA Challenge Quilt: need to fuse the parts and rubber stamp the words. No progress in 2008
Quilt Sorbet: started after finishing the Tarts top.
See: started in a David Walker class. Needs fusing, satin stitching around fused pieces and quilting. No progress in 2009, but I did think about it alot.
Self Portrait from Pamela Allen class: needs more piecing, hand embroidery and embellishment. No progress in 2009
Solid Star Friendship Quilt: need more friends so they can make stars for me in solids with black. Do you want to exchange a star block with me? No progress in 2009
Spiderweb: foundation pieced project, still piecing. Need to create the templates for the border blocks. Aside from collecting more strips, no progress in 2008
The Tarts Come to Tea: Top finished in 2009. Adding a few bits of machine applique’ before I baste and quilt.
Under the Sea: brown piece from April 2009 Pamela Allen class with CQFA. Needs machine quilting, hand embellishment and finishing.
Women’s Work 2: last year I said that this quilt “needs focus.” Was inspired and have the design. No progress in 2009, except for finding my drawing and making a file. Scroll down to see the blocks for this piece.
On My Mind
Here are the quilts and projects I am thinking about. Some are on the list from last year. In some cases I have purchased fabric, but no sewing has been done, so they are not yet considered UFOs.
Paper pieced Nativity scene: I downloaded this pattern when it was free a few years ago and have never gotten up the energy to be as organized as I need to be to make this, but I still want to make it. You can find the pattern, for purchase, at Paper Panache.com
Interlocking triangles #4: love the technique and have at least one, if not two, idea[s] for more quilts using this technique.
Dot quilt with inset circles a la Ruth McDowell: more uses for dots and a good exercise in piecing. the Twinkle quilt recently shown in the January 2009 issue of Quilting Arts magazine is similar and renewed my interest in this design.
Feathered Star dot quilt from Summer 2007 issue of Quilts & More: more use for dots. Thought I would get to this after making the Pineapple, but the Pineapple is still not complete, so this this dot quilt has not been started.
Some kind of pink quilt with all the pink fabric I have still been buying.
Colorblocks 3 with silks: I want to use silk fabric with a luscious sheen instead of the regular cottons. Background will be cotton sateen. What’s been holding me up? Backing all the silk. I have the backing and just can’t bring myself to do it. Barsha told me to skip the backing and just make the quilt without it. Can’t decide if the project has new life or not. Definitely not on the top of the list.
Garden Quilt: I have been collecting photos and patterns of interesting flowers for years and have always wanted to make some kind of garden or flower quilt. It will probably be something like The Tarts Come to Tea. Need to finish the Tarts first before starting the same kind of project.
Jack’s Chain: I saw a quilt of this pattern years and years ago and have always wanted to make one. Probably at least a partial hand piecing project after the Flowering Snowball (Cross Blocks quilt).
P&B Pop Parade quilt a la Serendipity Puzzle
Bathroom ‘quilt’ out of heavy clear plastic. I want to make pockets that I can put interesting things in that won’t get waterlogged. I also think the stitching would be an interesting addition to the piece. I also saw a tallish tote bag with many pockets that is similar to what I have been thinking for this quilt, so perhaps I will do another tote instead.
Presents quilt: have the pattern (It’s a Wrap by Sandy Gervais) and jelly roll to do it. Got excited about it right after I started piecing the hexagons, but kept on with the hexagons. The link is to someone’s Flickr stream done in Figgy Pudding. I have the Jelly Roll called Merry & Bright from a few years ago, but like Figgy Pudding, so perhaps I will buy a Figgy Pudding Jelly roll and do two of these quilts!
Abandoned Projects
This is also a new category. I decided to be upfront about the projects I got rid of.
Nothing abandoned in 2009!
Other
I am still trying to enjoy the process of quiltmaking more than the finished product. I think there is more work to do, but I also feel like I succeeded so far.
I have added projects to the On My Mind section because tote bags have been a big part of my life since 2008 and I expect that to continue in 2010.
We give small and/or handmade family gifts to DH’s siblings (5 of them) and his cousins (5 on one side, 1 on the other side) plus small gifts to a few hangers-on who attend our Christmas Eve celebration. This year DH and I made cardholders. Just so you don’t have to do the math, I made about 14 cardholders.
Original Card Holder
DH’s mom has a cardholder in the shape of a Santa (oddly shaped, but Santa nonetheless) that I have long admired. She bought it from a door to door salesman in the 1950s or 1960s. She may have told me the name of the company, but I don’t remember. I have wanted to replicate it for a long time and decided that this year would be the year of the cardholders. I also quickly decided that I was not going to make the cardholders in the shape of a Santa.
Original Card Holder - detail
I searched the web to get some ideas and found very few ideas online. Apparently, this is not a popular gift. I did find a few, but no free patterns that I liked.
What I find were ideas for shapes. I decided that a long rectangle with a pointy bottom would be easiest to sew and look the best.
DH and I sat down with the measurements of felt (72″ wide) and an idea of what I could sew in a reasonable amount of time. He did most of the heavy math lifting while I stuck to the practicalities of sewing.
Once we had the dimensions down I set about cutting and figuring out the sewing process as I wanted to do as much assembly line sewing as I could.
Testing Ribbon Trims
I have a can full of various odds and ends of ribbon. I use that ribbon when I make gift bags. Some of the saved ribbon is too short for gift bags so I got it out to test trimming the pockets. Above is some really interesting French gold ribbon that I sewed on to a pocket. I liked it, but thought it was a bit wide.
I have several rolls of 1/4″ ribbon in red and green that I got when I cleaned out my Aunt’s craft room after she died. Since I have a lot of it, I used quite a bit to trim various pockets, even though I thought it was a bit thin. The best size turned out to be 7/8″ ribbon, which DH got when I sent him to the store to get some silver ribbon.
Assembly Line Pocket Trimming
I got the assembly line figured out eventually. Above it looks like I am just putting a bunch of pockets on a line of ribbon and sewing. Actually, I cut the pieces of ribbon, wrapped them around the pockets. This enabled me to sew through two layers of ribbon and one layer of felt to anchor the ribbon and keep it from fraying a bit. As soon as I was done sewing one, I would put the next pocket very close to the one exiting the presser foot and keep sewing.
Figuring out color schemes
You know my rule is to “make visual decisions visually”, so we laid out all the cut pieces and rearranged them until we were happy with the color combinations. After this step, I got down to being serious about trimming the pockets.
Measuring pockets
Once all of the pockets were trimmed, I sewed the sleeve and then pinned them to the back, measuring down from the sleeve’s seam line (above).
Cardholder: pinned & ready to sew
The pockets required more thinking to sew on. I ended up pinning as many as I had cut and trimmed and then sewing like colors on. First I sewed all the red pockets. That left some cardholders with white and green pockets only trimmed and pinned. Once I completed all the red pockets, I changed thread and worked on green, then white. This method prevented me from having to change thread (to match a pocket color) every 5 minutes.
One evening I was home alone, so I took all the cardholders down to the TV and embellished them with buttons, sequins and beads. It was nice to do a little handwork and get away from the machine for a couple of hours. I also think it gave them a bit of a one-of-a-kind look.
Little did I know that DH was surfing the web and had embellishment ideas of his own! He found patterns/templates for some stars, ornaments, mittens and holly. Again, I hauled all of the cardholders downstairs and we figured out what would go where.
Holly Embellishment
It was very clear that the red buttons I sewed on a whim would make excellent holly berries. I would have liked to put some kind of spine or shading on the holly leaves, but ran out of time to figure that element out. These are some of the cardholders we made.
First Completed Cardholder
This is the first completed cardholder. We gave it to our friends, Eric and Yar, when we went to their Christmas party at the beginning of the month. They also invite us over for dinner every year and we have yet to reciprocate. Now that the dining room is painted, I think the time has come.
This was is more plain than the later versions. I should call it subdued!
Hanger detail
We are using some Lucite rods, that didn’t work as quilt hangers, to hang the cardholders. They look nice, were easy to cut, did not need finishing other than a bit of sanding and work very well.
2 Mittens & a Star2 Stars, Mittens & Holly
I had to pay attention to what color embellishments went on which color of pocket or background. If I didn’t, the embellishments wouldn’t show up. This war particularly tricky for the mittens, because of the white cuff. I tried some other colors, but they didn’t look right. This is why the embellishments ended up on the two middle pockets on the card holder on the right, above.
Holly & Gold Ribbon
The gold ribbon in the card holder on the right, above, had a papery feeling. I didn’t like the feel of it after I put it on. I had to chalk it up to experience, though, as those were some of the first pockets I embellished and was still in the learning process.
I also made one with a winter theme, rather than red and green, for a family that celebrates both Christmas and Hannukah.
Winter theme with Holly
Here are the two winter themed card holders I made with one of the holly versions. I had fun embellishing the blue and white with silver beads, sequins and pearls.
Winter beading - large detail
The beading does help keep the embellishments on as well.
Winter theme - detail, small
I thought the turquoise snowflake added a bit of shading or interest to the Winter card holders.
One of the good things about making many of a project is that you know how to make it well. I would say that I am a master card holder maker now, if there is such a thing!
