There were two estate sales in our neighborhood over the weekend so we went and took a look. I think estate sales are incredibly sad. These were especially so. We saw piles of photographs of the people living their lives. There was a pile of scrapbook pages. One of the pages held a portrait of a handsome young man with the handwritten caption “almost married him.” What a story that must be! Yet there they were in boxes being sold for whatever the family could get. Very sad.
1950s Ornaments
I really like the shapes and the stylized indentations.
Ornaments
I was pleased to see, and buy, these ornaments, though. My grandmother had a tree full of them when I was a kid and I loved them. She also had strings of metallic beads she used as garland. She got rid of them all in a frenzy of cleaning because they were too old. It made me sad. I have been collecting old fashioned looking ornaments, like the Christopher Radko type ornaments. These are the first I have of this type.
It is interesting to see how one person can generate interest in an effort to get a fabric or fabric group reprinted. Perhaps I should do that with the turquoise (Botanical Pop from Baum Textile Mills/Windham Fabrics) fabric I need. There are a lot of steps to join this project, so I haven’t done it yet. It would be nice to get some more that blue!I have enough now, thanks to Julie, but you never know!
I love it, you love it, we ALL love it! Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt seems to be one of the most sought after fabrics out there. And it’s oh so hard to find!
These dire circumstances have inspired me to start this blog as a sort of petition to see if we can raise an eyebrow (or two!) at Free Spirit Fabric to do another run of Flea Market Fancy (FMF).
K. S. Perino is one of the participants in the CPP, so I peruse her blog periodically to check out her prompt responses. As I was doing that this morning, I saw that she had made a pencil roll. I have seen the pattern for pencil rolls on the Pink Chalk Studio website and Julie over at High Fiber Content even made me one for my birthday last year. I really like the pencil rolls and have been contemplating expanding/adjusting the pattern a little to accommodate knitting needles.
This pencil roll is one of the best that I have seen. First, it is gorgeous. Next it is even more useful because of the little zippered pouch that the artist added (note to self: learn to put in zippers!). Finally, the little details such as the fabulous machine quilting and the little charms on the ends of the ties really make the piece.
I am thinking that one of these would be great to replace the ziploc bag in which I carry my PITT pens around.
I haven’t had a chance to make anymore blocks since I first introduced this project last week. Some block making is on my agenda this weekend, but in the meantime, I have been looking at fabrics and adding them to the mix. The biggest addition is the purple batik (upper right hand corner). I also added a couple of medium-large scale flower prints to see how they work in the mix.
I noticed that there is a lot of pink in the fabric mix. I hope it won’t be too pink, but I am enjoying the pink.
I received another batch of Infinity blocks from my SIL in the mail last week. Here is the large group (about 31) that I received.
Blocks from SIL, August 2009
It is so interesting to see her fabric selections and the fabrics she has and compare those two points to the blocks I have made and the fabric I have used. I was also thrilled and amazed to see some of the fabrics that she owns/chose for this project. We get along pretty well, but, sadly, we don’t get to spend very much time together since we live on different coasts. See the bottom right, second block in? That is not a fabric I would have suspected SIL of having, yet I am thrilled that she included it! It shows me another side of her quiltmaking.
After laying these out I decided to lay out all of the blocks I had, so I gathered up the various stashes of Infinity blocks and laid them out on the floor of my workroom.
All Infinity Blocks, August 2009
The above group has about 80 blocks in it. WOW! I can’t believe that we have made that many. I realized that there are a few elsewhere that aren’t included. So, there will be at least one more photo of these quilt blocks for your perusal.
I am glad we are working on this project together. I feel like it brings us closer together.
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 a book called Brain Rules. One of the rules is that the more senses you stimulate, the more people will remember about what you were telling them. Another rule is that vision takes up about 50% of a person’s sense-related brain power.
I had a lot of help on the Tarts as it progressed and one thing that SherriD did was use her Photoshop powers to stimulate my vision sense.
In the first picture, she showed how the quilt would look with some more flying geese in the bottom middle would look. I ended up adding some silverware, but the idea was sound.
SherriD Two Cups
Once I definitely replaced the Flying Geese with the stack of cups, SherriD thought it would look better if I had two godl cups there. I wasn’t about to redo another part, but I liked the show and tell.
By the way, there are twenty-three elements (blocks) in this piece. Of the 23, twelve have been redone at least once. rust me, it seemed like I redid a lot more than that!
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
In some ways this is a homage to Crave Bakery, a San Francisco Bakery that creates gluten free goodies for those who cannot eat wheat and other grains.
It is also an effort to create an old fashioned ice cream counter.
