Gifts – Page 30 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Finished: Black Jane Market Tote

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.

More February Stars for San Bruno

Mom has been busy making more stars. She is trying different patterns, which means I never know what to expect from her! On another note, I told her to start showing some of her 19 (!!!) works in progress on her blog. I can’t wait to see what she has started.

The paper pieced block in the upper left hand corner was made by Maureen. It is really a perfect combination of colors. I know Maureen from CQFA. She is wonderful dyer and fabric printer. She does a lot of really good work in fabric manipulation with dyes, paints, etc and is an inspiration and teacher to others in the group in this area.

Mrs. K came to a party yesterday. She lives 4-5 hours away from me and prepared these reverse appliqued blocks for the drive down the mountain. The stars are reverse applique’ and then she has tied some French knots in each inset of the stars. You can just see them in the photos. I will have to take out some of the basting and trim the backs, but that is ok. I would rather do it when I am ready to sew than have the edges unravel or fray. I know Mrs. K from an online quilt group and we have gotten together several times. She loves handwork and crazy quilting. She taught hearing impaired students for many years in public schools. I really appreciate her effort on these blocks.

Mrs. K also made me a cookie. Check it out! I think I need to have a cookie baking and decorating session with Mrs. K!

We now have over 50 blocks!

Want to help? The background for this project is that one family we know from school and my husband’s cousin were affected by the September 2010 San Bruno fire. We are making 3 quilts: one for our cousin and his wife, one for my son’s friend and one for the parents of my son’s friend.

I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?

All star blocks are welcome!

Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished (8.5″ unfinished) or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!

Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March. We can’t do it without you!

Daisies & Dots

The fabric I ordered with my Fabricworm gift certificate arrived about 2 days after I ordered it. This is a different look than I usually buy, but I like it. Not sure what I will make out of it. I am thinking I will use it together, but we will see. I have to finish FOTY 2010 first! You can see it all at the Piece O’Cake website fabric page. There is a wonky 54-40 or Fight quilt on their home page today. I don’t know how long the links will work, though.

Purple Quilt Top & Back

I have been working on this quilt on and off for a few weeks. I was mostly cutting and piecing the stacks of rectangles, but last weekend I sat myself down and pieced all of the blocks and finished the quilt.

I did something different on this quilt, which was making an assymmetrical border. I made a large stack of rectangles for the bottom and the side of the quilt.

The piecing wasn’t difficult, but the cutting and the figuring out of how many fabrics to use was a challenge. I started off with a Birch Bundle from Birch Fabrics/FabricWorm. I ended up adding a few fabrics from my own stash. I had to add still more fabrics from my stash for the back.

This will be a gift, but I don’t want to say for who until the gift is given.

I have to say that I felt the same way I felt when I made Passionate Purple. The purple on the design wall was depressing. I needed to get this quilt done, because it was too dark and was making my workroom depressing. It could be that I seem to do purple quilts in the winter. It could be I just don’t like purple enough to make more purple quilts.

New Books & Fabric

Here are the books I got for Christmas, etc. DH came through with the two books on the left, American Quilts and Sew Serendipity. The American Quilts book is another book Robert Shaw and some of the quilts are the same as those in his other books, but I love to read books where quilts are woven into history. I have glanced through it and read some things that have attracted my attention, but I haven’t delved deeply into it and I look forward to doing so.

Sew Serendipity is a book that has a great pattern for a coat. It is on page 154 and called Classic Tailored Jacket. I plan to try making it from polar fleece, hopefully the two-sided kind that I found once before. My mom said she would help me, but that is all the farther we have gotten.

I heard about Kiss Ass Creativity on Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski and thought it sounded interesting. He has a lot interesting authors on that show. AJA gave it to me and I can’t wait to read it.

Lil Sissy gave me The Apron Book. I think I will have to make her an apron.

Friend Julie also came through with two books, Sew Serendipity and Collage Lab. I am hoping that Collage Lab will help get over my wet, messy at home avoidance problem. Andrea at a Work of Heart has a Collage Lab book club, but it is too far to go on a weeknight when I work.

Finally, I checked the Artist in the Office out of the Library and then I had to buy my own copy, because I needed to make a note on almost every page and the book was a little over $5 (go buy one, you won’t be sorry). I read it and it really made me feel a lot better about my day job. It isn’t inspirational in a sappy way, but gives practical tips about dealing with a day job, thinking about “obligations” in a new way, making choices and getting the work done.

People are so generous! I am so fortunate. Yes, my thank you notes are written. 😉

I am going to write a review of these books so stay tuned.

I decided to break down and buy the Martha Negley Grapes in Plum. I tried several places and none of them could confirm the color. One of them said she had no idea what color the fabric was. Huh? That I do not understand.

In the course of my explorations, I emailed Batiks, etc & Sew What Fabrics. They actually emailed me back and weren’t lame! They were able to confirm the color and they answered a question I had about a ruler. I was so impressed with their service. I would definitely shop there again! Customer Service is everything, folks!

As you can see I also bought some Peppermint from Hoffman. It is a batik and I do like those swirls.

Left are the two grape fabrics that I now have. You can see the difference in the colors. They are destined to become bags. Which bag, I don’t know. Perhaps the Jane Market tote? I am in the mood for another AMH Multi-tasker tote, so perhaps one of those. We’ll see.

Gift Post #6

I didn’t do any massive gift making, but it turns out that I did make a fair number of gifts. I wanted to test the journal cover tutorial and use the fabulous bas relief fabric I talked about a few weeks ago for someone who would enjoy and appreciate it. My pile of gifts for Friend Julie looked a bit pathetic, so I rushed out and bought a journal and made her the journal cover with this fabric.

I had a fat quarter of the fabric and I wanted a journal that would show off as much of it as possible. Flax had a huge pile of black sketchbooks on sale, so I rummaged through them and finally came up with a 10×10″ size. I thought it would be a useful size and show off the fabric nicely.

It turned out to be a bit too big for the fabric, because, of course, of the requirement that book has to open. As a result the pockets for the covers are a bit small – only about 2.5″, but I hope they will stay on when she is drawing.

I had some trouble with the measurements. This is a different journal than the Miquelrius journal and I needed different measurements, so I adjusted the instructions in the tutorial and have, hopefully, made it more clear for future.

I think I centered the fabric nicely and it is shown off well. I thought of a lot of different ways of wrapping it and ended up with just a ribbon. I salvaged the ribbon from somewhere, but pressed it and it is of nice quality, so it looked nice.

Hopefully, the gift will spur on a plethora of creativity at Julie’s house.

Gift Post #5

DH’s family has a tradition of his siblings and cousins giving each other’s families small handmade gifts at our big Christmas Eve celebration. People make bread. One SIL makes tea and other hot drink mixes. There is a lot of food that I can’t eat, but it is all in good fun.

We have fallen into the habit of making ornaments. Last New Year’s we were thinking ahead to another year of strained finances and we bought kits for ornaments from the revered craft company, Herrschners when they were on sale. We planned to be very organized and have them done in a timely manner well before Christmas. No last minute beading for us.

You know where this story is going and know that our plan didn’t happen. We were beading and poking pins into styrofoam balls a few days before Christmas.

Each family received three ornaments. One seems so meager, though I know everyone would have been happy with one.

DH was the primary maker in this endeavor and he did a great job directing me after I was able to get away from the pies and help him.

Some of the ornaments, especially the round one called for many more sequins and much more beading, but DH decided they were sparkly enough and we passed on some of the beading. The round ornaments required a lot of pins to keep beads on.

I found it fun to work with DH on a craft project. In general, I enjoy working with people on projects, as long as we are companionable.

Gift Post #4

See? I really did go on a jag making these wallets. It was a great project that I could make quickly. After making the first one, I was able to make one in about half an hour, not including the bit of hand sewing required.

The version above uses that great Philip Jacobs fabric I bought at Always Quilting after PIQF.

One issue I am having with this project is the selection of fabrics. As you can see from the various choices I have made, I have tried different things. I like this combination, mostly. I like that the Philip Jacob fabric has different areas that I could select from. The ‘foil’ fabric was a challenge. I don’t mind the solid, but I would have liked something a little more active (a tone-on-tone, perhaps?) since it shows quite a bit on the bottom, especially when the wallet is open.

I love the Philip Jacobs print! It is so fun. This particular colorway is quite loud, but it works. It works for my mom, the giftee, as well. I made it with the intention of putting a gift card in it and the young man ended up getting her a gift card and I gave this to him as the wrapping.

Gift Post #3

Julie, over at High Fiber Content, has been making Halloween Houses for some time. You can see her most recent post about the project. I found some cool skeleton fabric few months ago with the intent of making her some houses. I didn’t do it right away, because I was busy and also because I started to doubt whether it was a good idea or not. I am not sure if it is a friendship block project or just a project she is working on herself. In the end, as you can see, I made the blocks. After 25+ years of giving gifts to someone, a person has to get creative. If she doesn’t like them, she can put them the back.

The above block uses some Dia de los Muertos fabric I found somewhere as well as some Jay McCarroll fabric for the walls and roof of the house. I intended to use the same Liberated Quiltmaking technique I used for the Women’s Work 1 quilt to build the houses. That was a fun technique when I was in the class.

During the process of making WW1, I really got into a groove doing the red houses for Women’s Work 1. I thought it would be easy to get back into the groove, but it wasn’t. I had to rip and redo, because my ratio of roof to walls were off and looked strange.

I had a little scrap of the Dia de los Muertos fabric so I made the above house, too.

This is the last block I made and, as you can see, the skeleton fabric is different. It was a much larger print and a little hard to work with. I could have made a really large block, but didn’t want a block I made to dominate her quilt.

I included the leftover fabric in the gift bag, so she can make some others. I hope she has already received the package before she reads this!

Gift Post #2

I didn’t make as many gifts this year as I did last year, but I did make a few. This is a Valori Wells Little Wallet project. Terri promised that it was an easy project and she was absolutely correct. The hardest part of this project was the turning it! The part that took the longest was the cutting. This is a great project.

This is a present for my SIL. She wanted some gift cards and I thought it would be cute to put the gift cards in this little wallet.

Gift Post #1

This is the first of a few gifts that I made this season. I really missed making the quantity of gifts I made last year. It was fun, but I was way too busy this year. I’ll have to think about it and plan better for next year.

I made this Little Wallet as a hostess gift for a friend who hosted a CQFA meeting on Sunday. We went to her house and just did handwork and chatted. It was very pleasant and relaxing. She has some beautiful trees in her backyard that were sending showers of leaves down as I looked out the window. Gorgeous.

The afternoon made me think that I need to spend more time just sitting and stitching. Anyone need right of first refusal for artworks in exchange for a salary each year?

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31