Inspiration

Out and About Inspiration

I went out with my mom the other day for lunch and a day out. We meet halfway between our two houses in a town with a great cafe, good streets for walking and a quilt shop. Almost perfect!

The crowning glory was the gluten free cafe. Yes, walking around is great. Yes, visiting a quilt shop is great. However, it is really fantastic to walk into a restaurant and not have to ask what ingredients are in every single item.

While we were having coffee and catching up, someone drove up and parked their Austin-Healy at the curb. My mom is a sucker for vintage sports cars. She always wanted a Porsche Speedster until she rode in one and found it to be uncomfortable.

After lunch, we went to Wooden Gate. They have moved, as I mentioned a few months ago. Mom hadn’t been there since they moved and she really liked it.

I resolved not to buy anything, but couldn’t resist one of the new Tilda solids and a luscious pink. Yes, those ding my fabric usage. I feel like I was very restrained. I also bought some gifts for the holidays, but you’ll have to wait to see those.

I really like the Tilda solids. They have a nice hand and seem pretty tightly woven. I still have to wash and try them, so we will see. I wish these various solid lines that I like would expand their color ranges.

Tilda has new range of dots as well. There were a couple of fat quarter packs including the dot fabrics that tempted me, but since I didn’t have a project I could think to use them in, I passed.

I saw a cool mosaic motif in one of the stores, which could make a great quilt design. It would definitely have to be EPP or applique’.

Embracing Beauty

I really struggled with the metadata to apply to this post. It is not about quiltmaking per se, but more about surrounding yourself with beauty to enhance everything you do in that room/workroom/studio.

I had a stack of papers to file. It was a large stack starting from right before the pandemic started – December 2019/January 2020 to the present. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t done any filing since then. It isn’t easy to file, because my fabric closet is so crammed. I have to move a lot of stuff out in order to file. The task was on my to do list, because the giant stack of papers was interfering with my ability to put everything in the closet (that is where the cutting table goes when we guests or I have to clean my workroom for some reason).

That was depressing enough, but when I opened the drawer I was confronted with the terribly ugly horrible green hanging folders (files?). I like green in nature, but it is not a favorite in quiltmaking. I don’t sincerely dislike it; it is just not a favorite. I like icky green and lime, but only as accents. I have only made a few green quilts. I decided that they had to go. I would love to replace them with turquoise hanging files, but I didn’t have turquoise, so the newish yellow, red and blue would have to do. I took out all of the horrible green files I could and replaced them. They all went in the donation pile (now I have to find a box and put them there. Bleah! if it isn’t one thing, it is another).

I was very clear about what was staying and what was going when we did the workroom refresh last year. DH was a little annoyed with me, because some of the stuff I wanted gone was perfectly serviceable. I didn’t care. When I spend 12 hours per day in a room, it has to be fabulous. The horrible green files were going.

This doesn’t make everything 100% better, but at least I don’t want to barf when I look in my file cabinet. Already a not-fun experience, the fresh new red, yellow and blue hanging files make it better.

I think it is important to embrace beauty especially in small things. I mean who really cares about folders in a filing cabinet? Nobody, but me sees them. That is actually the point. I felt better not having to look at those horrible green hanging files. Maybe next time I won’t wait 2-3 years to file the health insurance receipts.

I think I need to eradicate anything that is ugly or merely functional and replace it with something that doesn’t make me cringe.

Embrace beauty in all things!!

Last Happy Box

I am sad to say that Natalie is ending the Happy Box subscription due to supply chain issues. I am sad even though I don’t really need most of the things that come in the box. It was really fun to receive the boxes and see what was included. I really liked the make-up/skincare products she provided. I don’t often buy those types of things to try, but when I have them in my hands, I use them.

This month’s box arrived slightly smashed, but everything inside was ok.

The theme was strawberries. Natalie didn’t include an info sheet this time as I guess it wasn’t needed. Everythign was pretty self explanatory.

The first think I saw was a mini lunchbox. As you can see the front has a tomato pincushion with the little strawberry attached, so definitely sewing themed.

Everything was in the little lunchbox and the various items are all strawberry themed.

I am thrilled with the coin purse project, because I have wanted to try creating using the metal clasp frame, but have never spent the money to buy a frame.

The pen is a smelly pen, but it smells of some strawberry like fragrance, which I kind of like. I am smelling it right now.

The strawberry fabric in the middle is actually a microfiber cleaning cloth and the fabric on the left is the fabric for the coin purse. The card, as usual, will come in handy.

I look forward to seeing what Natalie comes up with next.

New Happy Box

Happy Box - June 2022 — Happy Box – June 2022

I received another Happy Box. If I haven’t said it before these boxes do make me happy.

One of the things I like is the reusable silverware set. I’ll bring that to work, so I don’t have to keep using one time use silverware. I also like the skincare care and makeup products Natalie includes. I would never know these things exist, so it is great to be able to try them out.

The Happy Box subscription is sold out for now, but you can be notified it it becomes available again. Consider getting one of your own. The Happy Box Mixer is still available which gives you the opportunity to try out the program. No affiliation!

Foxglove Inspiration

I had just read Friend Julie’s Late Spring Flower Friday post when I went off to a work event and saw this bed of foxgloves.

The nice, but odd thing is that this is right next to a parking garage. I didn’t really have to crop the photo much to keep the concrete out of the photo. This bed was quite large and even included a few small trees. It was really nice to see some nature near a shopping mall.

Happy Box Contents

I have received three of the Sew Hungry Hippie Happy Boxes. You saw the Rainbow Pincushion I made from the first box. I really enjoy these boxes, partially because they are not 100% sewing supplies and partially because they are fun.

There is always a theme. This month’s theme is ‘Radical 80s’. Did people say ‘radical‘ in the 80s? I seem to recall they did. This month has some fun smelly erasers, which I remember my sister having in the 1980s.

The box also contains a boom box project. Boom boxes were big in the 80s. The nice thing about the projects in these Happy Boxes is that everything is there: fabric, interfacing, pattern, hardware, everything. You don’t have to think; you just have to sew. The project has some of the Ruby Star Society novelty prints with roller skates and boom boxes.

There is candy, too. From the other boxes, I noticed that it was candy with which I was not familiar, but always fun. This time it is Hubba Bubba chewing gum. I am not really a gum chewer, but Hubba Bubba and Bubblicious are the most fun gums to chew, because a person can blow HUGE bubbles.

The box also always includes a good card with a profound saying.

I won’t get these forever, but for now it is fun. I am two projects behind now that I have gotten the latest box, so I need to get sewing.

I noticed on Saturday that there were two left, so check out the Happy Box subscription and consider getting one of your own. There is also a Happy Box Mixer, which gives you the opportunity to get a box one time and see what is inside. No affiliation!

Clematis Inspiration

I saw this flower at a friend’s house over the weekend and just loved it.

I really want to draw it and play around with the lines.

I thought it was a Stargazer Lily, but after searching I found it was a Clematis. This one looks a little different than the others on the web, but I still think it is a clematis. I wonder how it would do in my yard, if I would need to pamper it too much. I’d love to look out into my backyard and see these giant blooms.

Thinking about EPP

I went to a luncheon the other day and the restroom had beautiful tile. It was also in very good condition. As mentioned, I am thinking about what project to make after. I am not very inclined to design my own EPP.

However, looking at these tiles makes me think about how I would go about making the design using EPP. It might be fun to make one block. The single tile would be a great design.

I really like the ease of the EPP BOM. Lots of hand stitching, but relaxing, because I don’t have to do much. In an ideal world, they would set up another Wilynne Hammerstein design as an EPP, but who knows? La Passacaglia is the best known.

Getting Back in the Groove

I keep hearing talk about ‘getting your Sew-jo back’. At the moment I have plenty of sew-jo, but there have been times where I have not had any inspiration or motivation. I wanted to sew, but somehow couldn’t.

At various times, I have talked about this. Once was when I was contemplating creativity. 2006 was a year of challenging sew-jo. There are other posts about getting back in the groove. I should make a tag for those.

There are a couple of quilts I have made specifically to get me out of a slump. One was Thoughts on Dots. It came to mind over the weekend, because the YM dragged it out to sleep with. It was on the cold side this weekend and his room has a lot of windows.

This quilt is painful to read about. I was definitely struggling with my process and you lovely people got to read about every minute shift in my thinking. The point about this quilt is that it is plain squares that I rearranged and rearranged until it seemed done. It got me back in the groove.

Lesson: cut squares and rearrange them.

Much earlier than Thoughts on Dots was a little Playmat I made for the YM when he was a baby. According to the information I have, I made this quilt in 1997. I remember making it envelope style. No binding.

I don’t remember why it is all on the bias, but you can tell I was making improv quilts even then. These were scraps of fabric. The lobsters were kitchen curtains we had when the YM was born. The scribbly fabric was purchased in a basement shop downtown on my lunch hour. I am sure that shop is long gone, but I remember the thrill.

I don’t know about the different styles I have employed to get me back in the groove, but here are two of the resulting quilts.

Pretty Flowers

I saw this beautiful flower in a friend’s garden yesterday. Isn’t it gorgeous?

I thought it was fake when I first saw it, but it just a perfect specimen.

I was looking at this photo again and kind of wishing I had bought this set of dishes.

I like the shape of the gravy boat.

Pandemic Tile

For the first time during the pandemic, I ordered take-out online, went and got and took it to a friend’s house where we ate on their deck. I had a specific time I had to pick up the food. I left the house, ran some errands and then went to the restaurant. I was 15 minutes early. The neighborhood has a lot of nice shops so I decided to just walk around for a few minutes and then go get my food. It was interesting to read all the pandemic related signs with different rules about accessing their store (order online with curbside pickup, temperature check, physical distancing – you name it, I saw it). I also saw a lot of people out and about with a variety of masks. There are more people wearing fabric masks than the small blue pleated paper masks. I was less anxious about being out than I have been, but some people wouldn’t stay away from me. That was anxiety provoking.

I also saw some tile. It was on the doorstep of the IOOF and would make a GREAT quilt.

That line at the bottom could be one of 3-4 columns in a quilt. It looks a little like bargello. The squares are clear enough so that I could make a pattern without very much problem. I don’t think I have seen a design like that before. It is pretty distinct.

I was disappointed that whoever is the tenant can’t be bothered to clean the tile.