Doing Good – Page 41 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Soda Bag

I stumbled across this on Great Recycled Gifts website. I don’t think I want to use a metal bag, but I can definitely see the advantages. I also love the shape of this bag. I may have to see about making a bag that shape.

clipped from www.greatrecycledgifts.com

Pillowcase Learning

The Child and I worked on and finished his pillowcase. I wanted him to do several, but we won’t be doing that. My original idea was that he work on a project during the summer that was not screen related and would help or benefit someone else.

We started on Thursday of last week. There are 3 pieces in the Twiddletails pattern: the cuff, the trim and the main body of the pillowcase. The pain part of this project is lining up the 3 pieces.

The whole process was a challenge for him. Sewing is not high on the list of interesting activities for a 13 year old. The prospect of helping kids with cancer kept him there, but he had a hard time with the various parts of the process.

It was interesting and a good lesson for me to show him what to do. Everything was so foreign to him. Pinning took forever and it started with me showing him how to stick a pin in the fabric layers to keep them all together. I was surprised that I found it so incomprehensible that he didn’t intuitively know this basic concept. Almost all of the steps of sewing are so ingrained in my being that working with someone who had no experience was an eye opener. It gave me some insight into some of what beginner quilters know and don’t know.

Running the machine was not an attraction for my darling. He sewed carefully and slowly…for awhile. He had a hard time with the concept of not pushing the fabric through the machine, but letting the feed dogs do the work.

He didn’t pay attention and wandered off where the seam line should be. He learned how to rip out his stitches.

He was able to finally finish sewing the burrito. If you can make it through the pinning and sewing with this pattern, the burrito creates the cuff, trim and body of the pillow case as one large piece. The Child had some trouble with the trim, but I didn’t feel like making him rip it out again. It is good enough. I plan to pin a note to this pillowcase saying that a teenager made it and it was his first sewing project.

After he sewed the burrito, I had him sew the first line of the main part of the pillowcase. He sped the machine up a little (I had it set to super slow) and his mind wandered. The seam, which started out a 1/4″ away from the edge of the pillowcase ended up near the middle of the main part of the taco fabric. I didn’t look before I told him to backstitch, which ended up as a square spiral, also in the middle of the pillowcase. More ripping and unsewing. I did half for him and we took a week long break.

Yesterday, we got back to it. I drew a line on the pillowcase that he could follow while sewing. Brilliant! The line was much easier for him to follow.

Yes, his hair has a life of its own, but here is The Child with his finished pillowcase. He left my workroom so fast I was surprised my head didn’t spin. Now I need to think of a new project for the rest of the summer.

I really didn’t know I knew so much about sewing.

Finally, Again, Odds and Ends

Doing Good

I have gone on and on about the Rainbow Around the Block project. It is so easy to make blocks. They are like candy. I can’t just make one. Etsy featured the project on their blog a few weeks ago.

If you want to get together with people to make pillowcases, check the AllPeopleQuilt site for info on sewing with Etsy and ancillary meetups around the country. TFQ went home from our trip after hearing me go on and on about pillowcases, to find that she could easily make a few dozen from fabric on hand. Not sure how many she has in the pipeline, but I am looking forward to seeing her finished products. The Child and I are slowly plowing through his pillowcase. It is painful, but he is doing it. Go make some pillowcases!

I hope you know that there are plenty of other opportunities to do good with fabric!

Office Supplies

I am a pen junkie (are there any positive words for junkie/whore when referring to legal things like pens?). My current love is the Pilot G2. Recently, on the Cool Tools Blog, I saw a post about Jet Pens. They also sell journals, notebooks and scrapbooking supplies. Do not blame me if you spent your retirement money on pens and Japanese office supplies.

Sewing

Also on the Cool Tools Blog, I saw a post about a spiral eye needle. Apparently, you can thread this blindfolded! I need this needle. Sadly, they are not sold in regular stores and are expensive, so no losing them. Order from the Spiral Eye Website.

Linda M. Poole, who used to respond to the creative prompt, but got a fabric design contract and has too many things on her plate now is having a contest with said fabric designs! The designs are now fabric and a new line just came out. The deadline is October 4 and all the details are on a recent blog post. Go check out what she is offering as prizes. Did I mention they are FABULOUS prizes? [SherriD: I am looking at YOU!]

Someone pointed out another type of design wall on the Big Tent Quiltcast Supergroup. It is called the Vanishing Design Wall and it looks like it has potential.

Need some quilt-spiration? Bradie Sparrow is doing a summer quilt-a-long. They are on Week 5, but it is easy to find the blocks from the previous weeks. Friend Julie is making the blocks. and has been posting them. I thought about joining in, but really have enough projects going!

Blogging/Social Media

When I used Blogger, I was able to post via email. It was convenient when I went on vacation or saw something inspirational. WordPress has that feature, but I have never been able to get it to work. Amplify, related to Clipmarks, has a way of posting to blogs, Twitter, FB, etc via email. I haven’t tried it yet, but have set it up. We’ll see!

Are you on Goodreads and FB? If so, you can connect them so that the books you read post to your FB wall. I enjoy seeing what quilt books my friends are reading. I also enjoy seeing the fiction and reading reviews friends have written. I kept track of the books I read last year and was amazed to see how many I had read. This year I am a little scared of how many books I am, ostensibly, reading at once. Try it out!

Other

If your child stays at the local library after school, then you might wnat to get him/her one of the seat savers shown in Library God Stephen Abram’s blog. While you are at it, give them a donation. After all, you are saving on childcare, libraries offer a great service and are really hurting right now. Alternatively, perhaps you need one of these for your quilt guild meeting to keep the Quiltzillas away from your preferred chair?

Julie wrote very well about The Sketchbook Project. I have to admit that I got one, too. Since she wrote about it and, basically, wrote everything I was going to say, go look at what she wrote. My theme is In Flight. I haven’t started.

I saw a slide show of a sketchbook by Victor A. Lundy on the Library of Congress site. It reminded me that practice makes perfect and that sketchbooks can be small. The drawings are much better than I can do right now and capture some great images. I studied the people in the drawings especially.

Pillowcase Party

I am sick of Wordless Week. It was great while I was gone, because I didn’t have to worry about posting, but now that I am back (yes, I will tell you all the details) I want to toss up some words and get some words back from YOU!

I am sitting here listening to Patrick Monahan and Train singing “Hey, Soul Sister” and “Save Me, San Francisco.” Suddenly, I am obsessed with these two songs and have been listening to them over and over for the past half hour or so. I don’t know what they mean, but I love the sound. I first heard “Hey, Soul Sister” on a re-run of CSI: NY, then I found the performance on YouTube and, then, had to buy the song. Now I can listen to it, as well as “Save Me, San Francisco” whenever I want. It is a good thing I am home alone (as I write this), because I am sure the family would be screaming for me to stop torturing them.

Along the lines of obsession, I have been making pillowcases for the past 24 hours. I have 4 cut out and two made. Of the two, one has already been mailed as a special gift. I hope the recipient is still where I mailed it when it arrives! She told me today she is leaving! Oh well!

The fish pillowcase is made from an oooolllllddd Hoffman print. TFQ informs me that it is at least 15 years old. It was in my stack of fabrics that are designated for backs or ‘other.’ Often I buy a half yard or less (though I am having a crisis of how much fabric I should buy), which is not enough for a pillowcase.

Unless I have bought specific fabric for a pillowcase, then my general collection does not provide large enough pieces for the main piece of the pillowcase, so I dug into the back stash. If I haven’t used the fabric, it should be fair game, right? I have a lot of conversationals in this group, so they will work well for the cheerful pillowcases being requested.

I have mentioned the Million Pillowcase Challenge a couple of times. I went to the website to try and figure out where to send the pillowcases and encountered a problem. Quilt shops are collecting them. I have to donate them locally and don’t really have a local quilt shop. One is a few towns over, but they don’t seem to be collecting them. I was determined to forge ahead when CraftHope came through.

CraftHope just finished their largest project, related to the oil spill clean up in the Gulf of Mexico, ever. As is their M.O., they started Project #9, a collection of pillowcases for the Con Kerr Cancer Project. The good thing (for me) about this particular project is that they provide a regional directory of hospitals to which I can send or take the pillowcases with contact information. The deadline is September 15 for the CraftHope project. Can you make some pillowcases?

As I mentioned, The Child and I will be making the taco and robot pillowcases tomorrow. I cut all the pieces and made the fish pillowcase so that I have the steps firmly lodged in my head. He would lose what little interest he has if he had to wait around while I tried to figure out the directions. TFQ walked me through the first pillowcase (see below) and, thus, was instrumental in getting me started.

One big problem is suitable fabrics for the 12-17 year old boy set. After all, all agesa nd genders get sick. I looked at the various quilt shops I visited last week and saw some that would be ok. I saw a great selection at VooDoo Rabbit.

I saw the chocolate fabric at Britex when I was inspired to make a Sweet Dreams pillowcase for my mom. She has ongoing problems sleeping and is having a hard go of it taking care of Grama in SoCal.

The fabric has been around since the end of June and I finally got my act together and made the piece. I am happy with the way it turned out. She is coming home next week. I sent the pillowcase today and hope it arrives before she leaves.

I used the Twiddletails pattern and it is great! It seems bizarre, but works very well and I learned to make French seams! She has a store, so go buy a pillowcase kit and make one for Con Kerr. Thanks, Anina!

I have graduated from Train to Semisonic singing Closing Time, so I will end this post and work on my CPP responses, pillowcases, napkins, and all the projects I am fired up to make!

Sunday Work

I felt a bit of freedom in my sewing today. I finished the Blue Janus back yesterday (have to write about that, yes) and didn’t have anything pressing to work on. That left me to see how I felt and work on what I felt like.

I sewed two more test blocks for the Frosted Star pattern. My pattern is much easier to follow and trimming the segments before sewing the block together works really well. I used a mostly monochromatic color scheme for these latest blocks so I can also donate them to the Rainbow project. I couldn’t resist using a bit of one of my Philip Jacob prints.

I think I need to test the 9″ pattern rather than the 12″, because the 12″ is just too big and the 9″ is what I would use in the quilt. I am thinking that I won’t make this quilt even though I like it a lot.

I felt compelled to make a back, so now the back for It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap is finished. This back was less arduous than the one for the Blue Janus quilt. Quite simply, it was much smaller. I also made a big effort to use very large pieces of fabric. Rather than days, it was only a few hours in progress. I am happy that it is done, though I don’t have plans to quilt it yet. I’ll have to see about that.

Making the above back gets me farther along in the various finishing tasks I have to do. I still need to make the sleeves for FOTY 2009 and the Chocolate Box as well as the facing for the Chocolate Box.

I don’t know what is next on the list, but am thinking a tote bag is in order. I have this new black and white fabric that is demanding my attention. Half Moon by Moda will be the bag body with possibly a pink inside.

The Kaffe Fassett dot attracted my attention for handles (I think I may be in a monochromatic phase right now). GAQF only had a fat quarter, but I found a half yard in my fabric closet, which will be enough for the handles. I like the combination of big and small dots.

I am thinking I will use the AMH Multi-tasker tote pattern again even though it isn’t exactly the bag I want. I’ll peruse my other bag patterns first. I do know how to make the AMH MTT and it is a pretty good bag pattern.

Rainbow Blocks

You might remember that there was some devastating flooding in Central Tennessee earlier this year. This is Anna Maria Horner’s neighborhood. She created a project, which I talked about on Thursday, called Rainbow Around the Block. Simply, she is collecting 12.5″ unfinished 2 color blocks (e.g. red and white, blue and orange, etc). These blocks will be made into quilts and given to families who lost their homes, belongings, etc.

Last week, she sat down with her children and designed blocks. I think this is a very nice idea. I can picture the children drawing and coloring and talking with their mom about helping these neighborhood families. We have these kind of times in my family where the lull of filling in a spot with color without the distraction of screen noise helps to free the mind from the mind’s monkey chatter and allows people to bring up interesting conversation topics.

She intends to post a version of each child’s work on the Rainbow Around the Block page as a group called The Horner Family Blocks. The first one, The Joseph Block, is up already. It is a simplified version of a Square in a Square block and simple directions are given for sewing it together. I am concerned about the way she suggests cutting a square into the quarters that the quiltmakers will have a lot of bias blocks to work with. Perhaps that is part of the plan? In any case, you can make any block you wish and a variety are already posted for your viewing pleasure in the Flickr Group.

I made two blocks. I don’t normally make 12×12″ (finished blocks) and the pieces seemed so large. I just made them, though, without questioning or quibbling. The first deadline is July 1. Close to 100 blocks have been posted to the Rainbow Around the Block Flickr Group. People have really taken the idea of letting the fabric do the work, that I talked about from the Jane Sassaman lecture, to heart. I guess they got the message sooner than I did!

What will YOU make?

Auction Throw Pillows

My DH is an executive board member for a California organization called the Native Sons of the Golden West. In addition to supporting the preservation of California history, they raise money to help people suffering from facial deformities such as Cleft Palette. During their elections, each of the candidates opens a hospitality room. They do their best to raise the most money for Cleft Palette. To do this they display items, such as gift baskets, for sale. People purchase raffle tickets or bid on items. The competition to put out the best items is fierce, because each candidate wants to draw the most people to hospitality room. They get kudos for the amount of money they raise.

NSGW logo pillow

DH comes from a long line of ‘Brothers’ and his mother rallies her friends to make up the gift baskets. I told him I would make throw pillows. He found the designs and fixed up the images. When I was ready to make them, I printed them on fabric, and last weekend made the pillows.

The hardest part was the color. I needed colors to match the logos, which were slightly greyed. I used some older fabrics. I am pleased with how the pillows came out.

When I did the printing, the first print came out in greyscale. DH had selected, at some point in the process of fiddling with the images, to print in greyscale. I ended up with a black and white rendition of the California flag and NSGW logo. I printed again and gave DH some fabric pens and left him to coloring the first printout.

NSGW logo pillow #2

He did a good job on this logo.

He went a little outside of the lines on this one.

The bear looks a little angry. DH is off to raffle these pillows tomorrow.

I was very glad to be able to cross things off of my to do list and pillows are a big one. I feel like I am now geared up to do the 2010 Teacher Pillows.

Knitting Progress

The progress I am making on the next Orphans.org scarf. They like them to be 60″. I am on the second hank of yarn and not even at 30″ yet, so I am not sure I will make it.

Sue, a CQFAer, suggested I not cast on so many stitches and make the scarf more like 25 stitches wide. I will try that on the next one. I like doing this because I feel like I am doing some good for the world. It might be a small thing, but perhaps it will make a difference

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Tag: Doing Good