Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Yes, I really did it! I made the first quilt in this series and it is finished. I have brought it around to CQFA and BAMQG and shown the contributors in those groups. I want as many people as possible who contributed blocks to see it before I give it to DH’s cousin.
Now I have to call the cousins and arrange to bring the quilt. I am nervous, since I don’t know them that well. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Nota bene: the Block-a-long will return next week.
Yes, Fabric of the Year 2010 is finished. I took it to the photographer today so that it can be professionally photographed before it goes to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles Show. This is not a great picture, because the quilt is too large for my quilt holder (DH) to hold it out straight. I will replace it when the professional photos come back.
These pillows have been languishing in my fabric closet for so long they weren’t even on my WIP list. They were yelling at me very loudly on Saturday after I finished the Teacher Pillows. I was inclined to work on them since they were taking up valuable floor space in my fabric closet.
The class I took at the Sewing Workshop was called Simply Pillows and Linda Lee taught the class. I took the class in 1999. Most people didn’t piece their pillows, but since I was enamored with quiltmaking I decided to piece my pillows. We learned to do piping and the striped piping on the pillow above was already done when I took the pieces out of the bag on the weekend. I had to sew one seam and I was done. It is pathetic that I let this project languish for so long.
Actually, I was kind of surprised that I took the class in 1999, because I thought for sure I had taken it when I lived closer, but the dates are in my handwriting on the folder. Very strange.
The hourglass pillow did not finish as intended. I put on some piping, which was in the bag of supplies. I found out that the back wouldn’t fit, because, apparently, I needed to trim the front of the pillow before adding the piping. I took off the piping and just sewed the back to the front and called it done.
Enough pillows already!
Whenever I finish the Teacher Pillow Project, I always feel a little sad. This is even after ripping half my hair out and spending way more time than I wanted in the process. Crazy, I know.Somehow the end result of a little pile of pillows is wonderful. And this is the last year I am doing this. The Young Man goes to high school next year and, except for special occasions or for special recognition, I am resolved to not make this many pillows again. (I know you are thinking “Famous Last Words.” Stop thinking that!)
This year I had 5 pillows to make, but decided, as I talked about yesterday, to also make a pillow for the Art Teacher, leaving me with a total of 6 pillows to make.
I made a Greek Cross (pg.72) block for the 8th grade Religion Teacher.
The Science Teacher got a Big T (pg.37) block. Do you like the label? It is an exploding test tube. The Young Man’s goal of blowing something up in science class has not yet been achieved.
Art will receive a Martha Washington Star (pg.85). I really like the back that the Young Man did for her. Very appropriate, I think.
The Social Studies and Reading Teacher will also receive a Martha Washington Star. Look familiar? I was feeling uninspired. Now I think I should have made the block red, white and black, but I am not remaking it. I don’t know what the back means. Perhaps an inside joke?
English and Literature received a basket block pillow last year and she will receive the above Grape Basket (pg.71) this year. The fabrics and colors goes with the block I made last year. This basket block was a bit of pain. I have made a number of basket blocks and this one went together very strangely. When I had finished putting it together, I looked at it and thought that I would have done it differently, had I known.
The Math teacher will receive a Free Trade block (pg.67). see a theme here with the Sawtooth Star variations? Again, I was uninspired. The fabrics go with some I used last year. Hope she likes pink. The back depicts Pi out to a lot of digits.
In years past, I have also given the Resource teacher a pillow, but this year she is getting a quilt.
Nota bene: All the blocks are from a book called Around the Block. It is out of print, but has been been reprinted with v.2 and v.3 in a book called 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks. Very worthwhile purchase. I would have a hard time living without this book.
The last time you saw this quilt was after Thanksgiving.
Last night I finished the binding while watching Oceans 12 and now it is ready to go off to its new home. I am not ready for it to go off yet, because I will wait for the end of the school and give it then. I decided I am going to go and get several large gift bags (no, I am not making them, though I probably should) and just start filling them up with quilts and Teacher Pillows. The thought of having a bunch of gifts to wrap at the end of the year makes me crazy.
I have to admit that I have never gotten over the feeling that the quilting will ruin the look of my piecing. It turns out that I am really pleased with the quilting. Colleen did more feathers, which I love. She also paid special attention to the various borders – no all over patterns for me. The other thing that is making the finishing of these various quilts much easier is giving her the binding and having her sew it on. I can just bring it home and start working on the binding right away. Wonderful.
I decided that I should take a photo of the back, so I asked my quilt holder to turn the quilt around. You get a lovely view of the back:
I like using the leftover fabric as the back, as I have said before. I prefer to use larger pieces, as I discussed when I was talking about making the back for FOTY 2010. Two panels were included in this group of fabrics. I thought it was a little odd looking, but one of them works for the back.
Here is the full quilt. I only showed part of it before, because it was too large to photograph in the space I had. I am going to make a second version in different fabrics with a few changes.
I wanted to get this one done so I could send it off, but didn’t get it done in time, so it will have to wait for the new owner to get home.
I really finished this in December, but never got around to taking a photo. Here it is in all of its glory. It will be a gift. This is a pattern from Sandy Gervais called It’s a Wrap. Someone thought the packages looked like elephants.
The last post about this project talks about selecting the border.s
I still have a bit of handsewing to do, but I want to bring this to the meeting this weekend, so I am considering it done. 😉 As Margi says: My quilt, my rules.
This is a great pattern. Once I sat down, focused and stopped with my own creative drama, it really came together.
I know now why one should use the fusible fleece. It is much stiffer and makes the bag stand up very well. This one is a little floopier than my first Chubby Charmer. My closet is a bit emptier because I used batting I already had.
Perhaps this is more summery than springy?
Perhaps I should have used more blues and greens and held on to this for summer? Nah! I was ready for some cheerfulness after the unbelievably grey skies of the past few weeks.
My plan worked. My plan was to alleviate the depressing grey that was shrouding my town. It worked! Today was beautiful out! Blue skies… no clouds. It was gorgeous, even from the window of my office. And, peeking out of my bag was this cheerful (bordering on loud and obnoxious??) journal cover. It made me smile every time I caught sight of it.
I used the Philip Jacobs fabric I bought at Always Quilting after PIQF 2010. I still want to make a bag or something larger, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.
I didn’t plan on centering the flower, but it was a pleasant surprise.
I used a bit of hand dyed fabric for the inside and added a little to the edges of Philip Jacobs fabric to add interest.
I have finished all of the pages my current journal, which has the Innocent Crush cover. I am sorry to be finished with that journal, because I wanted to carry it around in the Innocent Crush Flea Market bag. Adrianne brings her Flea Market bag to the BAMQG meetings and I admired it again at the last meeting. I wasn’t happy with the way my bagn turned out so I took it apart – not the whole bag yet, but the straps. You can kind of see the unevenness in the photo (the one I linked to above). I like the fabric and the design and didn’t want to just abandon it. When I made the bag, I was not able to sew the straps smoothly which meant that I tried to ease the handles together, which, further, left tucks in them. I didn’t like the way the tucks looked. I have unsewed the handles and am working on lining them up better. I haven’t done any further sewing on them. We’ll see.
Yes, I can reuse the Innocent Crush journal cover and I might do that. For now, though, I am loving the cheerful and fun Philip Jacobs cover.
This is a quick project. I made the journal cover in about a half an hour on Saturday morning.
I really like the Martha Negley giant vegetable prints. I am not sure why except that they are really different. This one was a much darker color than I thought when I bought it (online), which I mentioned when I made this pattern back in October. I was a little unsure what I would do with it.
This tote bag pattern is great! It is a good size and it is a useful size. I sew the straps a little differently than the pattern suggests, because I prefer the straps to be inside the seam. Otherwise this is a very clever pattern that goes together relatively easily and quickly.
I also think large scale fabrics show up very well on this pattern design.I finally learned to put the contrast fabric behind the pocket! TFQ likes to use the same fabric for the middle panel, but I like the way I have done it in the picture. I hope I remember to do it that way next time!
I have an idea in my head to make one of these a month all year. We will see: two months down, 2 bags complete.
My next wishlist item for this pattern is to make a bottom out of the fusible Timtex like stuff that Anna Maria Horner uses for the Multi-tasker tote and insert that to give the bag some stability.
I finished Passionate Purple in December, but didn’t post it for some reason. This is the latest in a series of Bullseye quilts. You can see Seeing Red and Feelin’ Blue on other pages. The information about this project has its own page under Series quilts.
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.
Here is the finished (completed! done!) Red Journal that I started on Halloween at A Work of Heart. I went to the second (and last) class on Sunday and finished. I could have done a lot more embellishing on the pages, but my ephemera wasn’t that good and I wanted space to write. Yes, I want to use this as a journal and not just a scrapbook. If my ephemera was more personal, then it would have been a good scrapbook making project, but I like the idea of writing in something that I made.
Above is the first page. You can also see the Malka Dubrowski fabric that TFQ gave me as a gift. I like the idea of see it more often. I may not really like writing in the Red Journal, but it is only 40 pages, so I can blow through it fairly quickly. What pen to use will be an issue. I see a Sharpie in my future.
The pink page looks like it was made with a crayon. I don’t remember doing it, but it came out of a big box of paper I had saved. I like it. We’ll see if I can write on it.
I really can’t say what possessed me to make the pages the way I did. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
I had homework and kept putting it off. After class last time, I knew there was no way I could finish all the sewing if I waited until the next class (Sunday’s). I was finally able to get to my Red Journal project in a serious way on Friday afternoon and evening. Essentially, in between the Frosted Stars and Frosted Stars Leftovers I worked on the pages of the signature.
I was particularly happy with this page, which was made from just an image that I had been saving for awhile. I was happy because I finally got to use it.
Making the pages took a lot of sewing. There are 2 signatures of 10 pages each, folded in half to make a total of 40 pages.
I really want to make another one of these journals. I can think of two people who would really like them as gifts. It is a ton of work, so I would only be able to make them for people who would really appreciate the time and effort. We’ll see.
As I have probably said 42,000 times, the outside of this journal is made from fabric I made by sewing scraps of red fabric together a la Shannon Williams.
The Cheerful Baskets is finally finished! I am pretty excited, because this quilt has been long in the making. TFQ had some trouble getting it quilted, so we dropped it off with Colleen in Long Beach and then picked it up at PIQF. She did the most amazing job of quilting it. The quilting is masterful.
TFQ put the binding on (in case I have never said, she is the fastest binder in the universe!) and I just finished with the label and sleeve.
This quilt will go and live at TFQ’s house after I get it photographed. She has a gorgeous periwinkle wall where it will look fabulous.
Another quilt is finished. This one didn’t take very long, aside from the cutting, but it was a monster to deal with. The binding took me a long time. I probably spent 10 hours on the binding alone.
This is a gift for one of the nephews. Hope he likes it.