Nota bene: TFQ: if you have not opened all of your gifts, stop reading now!!! Go open them and come back.
Yes, my good friend TFQ is 39 again today…with some years experience. 😉
In addition to the gifts I have been collecting for her, I also made her a couple of things. Did you guess journal cover and pencil roll? I am so predictable, I know.
The black and white fabrics, from Lonni Rossi‘s Paint Box collection, are the fabrics I used to make Marilyn’s Multi-tasker while I was visiting TFQ in November. She admired those fabrics and that stuck in my mind.
TFQ is an excellent colorist. She can put fabrics together in the most amazing ways. I strive to be like her, which requires cultivating more patience and determination in my quiltmaking process. If I want to make something for her, I feel like I need to really do an excellent job of picking colors, thus the clue that she liked these fabrics gave me confidence.
Using only those black and white fabrics together was too depressing, especially in winter. I had to add the dots. They cheered it up quite a bit.
One of the things I like about some of the prints in the this [relatively] new Lonni Rossi line is the screen printed look. Note the black circle on the white fabric. It really looks like a screen print when you see it up close. It doesn’t have that icky, plasticy sticker feel, though, you find with some screen printed-like fabric.
The small rows of lines under the circle also have that screen printed look. It is much more subtle in the white/grey on black colorway.
I didn’t want a repeat of the size problem I had with my mom’s journal cover, so I ripped out the bottom stitching three times until I was satisfied with the fit. I don’t know if I got it to fit perfectly, but I didn’t have to cut the journal’s plastic cover to get the journal cover on it, so I was satisfied.
Lately, when I have started a journal cover I just start piecing until I get a piece big enough for the outside. I use this type of piecing for a warm-up or when I only have a few minutes to sew or when I need a little bit of thinking time. Usually I want to achieve a certain look. With my blue journal cover, I wanted to use a variety of blue fabrics because I liked them and wanted to see them all the time. I also wanted a calming effect.
In this case, I only had scraps of the Lonni Rossi fabrics left and needed to make the best use of them. I wanted it to have a somewhat cohesive design and, finally, but most importantly I wanted it to appeal to TFQ.
I have started to think of pencil rolls and journal covers as sets. I also love this pencil roll pattern so much that I am looking for excuses to make it. Of course, time is the issue on that front.
This is a rather large pencil roll – 18 slots, I think. When I use my pencil roll, I prefer to put pens in every other slot rather than each slot. I find it easier to get the pens out.
For the moment, this is the last gift to which I have committed to make. When I say committed I mean to myself. There is one I am thinking about making, but I need to finish the FOTY 2009 blocks first. Look for a post on that project later this week.
Kristen is the best. Thanks, dear!
