I found a new blog recently, after listening to a recent CraftSanity podcast. The interview is with Liesl, the owner and designer of the pattern company Oliver + S. They produce patterns for children’s clothing in a “contemporary classic style.” After listening to the podcast, I decided to wander over to her blog and found that it might be one to visit regularly.
I loved the photos in this post about one of the subway stations in New York. I adore mosaics, so this lighthearted art was right up my alley.
In another post, she has a funny exchange with her daughter about a blue silk winter coat. Liesl’s blog is worth a look.
Liesel Gibson -Mosaic Hats
Take a look at the post that discusses the photo above.
Liesl + Co is the parent company of Oliver + S. The former is the company that put out The Day in the Park Backpack tote that I bought last year at PIQF.
This is probably the 5th snowball type quilt I have seen in a week. I saw a few last week in magazines and books. One was in the Quilt Sampler magazine on the wall of a shop and made up of strips. It was interesting. I like this pattern because it really looks like the snowballs are round. The pinwheels on the edges and on the cornerstones are a nice touch. Thanks to Vicki and her Field Trips in Fiber post for this link.
Today is another travel day for me. I am heading home after a week away. I have sewn and relaxed and been allowed to just be. All of my normal stuff is on hold until tonight or tomorrow or whenever it calls loud enough for me to pay attention.
This is my last trip of the year and my last trip for awhile. Now I get to settle in at home and try to enjoy the holidays.
TFQ's Hexagons
TFQ is working on two hexagon projects. The one above looks like sorbet or sherbet. It is so wonderful to look at. She is also working on a 1930s hexagon project, which is her main focus right now.
She works in a similar manner to me in that she explores the process and technique thoroughly as she works on it.
QL Fabric, Nov. 2009
Above is some additional fabric I bought at the Quilting Loft in Ballard and at the new shop in Magnolia called Fabric Crush. The dot fabric is an oilcloth and I plan to make a Multi-tasker tote in the original size whether or not I decide to abandon that pattern completely. In carrying around the Julie tote in the rain, I found that something with a waterproof bottom would be very nice. I am missing my clear tote bag.
Fabric Crush had a fresh look and feel. They are still stocking their store, but everything was fresh and new and wonderfully displayed. It is worth a look. I went into a bookstore as well and saw some restaurants nearby also.
I bought the black and white print for some other bag, but am thinking it would make a nice skirt as well. My SIL once explained to our husbands that we didn’t see masses of fabric in the quilt store, but finished projects and possibilities. So true. Now I just need to make some of those dreams a reality.
See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.
Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.
I saw this quilt by the Upland, CA artist at PIQF. It has been on my mind, even though it wasn’t one I would consciously select as a favorite. I think it has been on my mind because of the colors. I might see leaves that color, however I mostly see leaves which are rust, orange or brown.
Also, the road and trees look very white. The road and trees could be covered by snow or the light could be different or strange. It could be very early in the morning or just at twilight on a snowy day.
The contrast in this quilt is really interesting,which is probably why it has been on my mind.
See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.
Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.
See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.
Post the direct URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, now, has a Flickr group, which you can join and where you can post your responses.
Definition: 1 a: to shine faintly or unsteadily b: to give off a subdued unsteady reflection 2: to appear indistinctly with a faintly luminous quality
A glimmer of hope
LG Glimmer cell phone
The Glimmer Man (1996) – Directed by John Gray. With Steven Seagal, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bob Gunton.
Glimmer, a poem by Carl Sandburg
LET down your braids of hair, lady.
Cross your legs and sit before the looking-glass
And gaze long on lines under your eyes.
Life writes; men dance.
And you know how men pay women.
(odd poem, I know, but I was getting a little hard up for inspiration)
I heard the most recent CraftSanity podcast, which included an interview with the Directors of Margaret’s Hope Chest, a Grand Rapids Michigan nonprofit that provides quilts to people in need. Their mission is: “Our mission at Margaret’s Hope Chest is to bring hope, comfort, and warmth to persons enduring hopeless situations in the Grand Rapids area through the gift of a beautifully crafted quilt.”
They have committed to providing a quilt for each homeless child in Grand Rapids for Christmas, which will be given along with a toy and a book. The organization that provides support for homeless children already has the toys and books. This means that Margaret’s Hope Chest has committed to providing at least 400 quilts!
They need help. I am providing some free ‘advertising’ for them, because I think their reason for being is really great. You can hear the whole story on the CraftSanity podcast, but the short version is that they created Margaret’s Hope Chest as positive way to deal with the grief over the death their mother / grandmother. She died of wounds inflicted when someone tried to snatch her purse.
The organization needs quilts and tops to arrive by November 15. If you have a quilt or top you are willing to send for a homeless child ages 0-17, or you are willing to make one, please send all donated quilts to:
Margaret’s Hope Chest
630 Griswold SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507
For further information feel free to call or e-mail:
One thing they pointed out is they need quilts for male teenagers as well as little girls who love pink. Think of a child for whom you would like to make a quilt and make that quilt.
The quilt can be made from any pattern that involves squares.
I know this organization is probably not in your area, so if you want to do something, but want it to be local, send something to a local charity. They can always use a quilt or a crochet afghan or a knitted scarf.
Calling all quilters! Margaret’s Hope Chest, a Grand Rapids-based quilt charity, needs your help to make 400 quilts to give homeless children living in shelters over the Christmas holiday.
Today my art & craft column is about Carin Vogelzang, and her mother, Carol Peters, the women who turned a family tragedy into an inspiring cause. Carin, of Toronto, and her mother, Carol, of Grand Rapids, co-founded the quilt charity Margaret’s Hope Chest in honor of Peters’ mom, Margaret Herrema, who died after she was critically injured during a purse-snatching in 2005. They have given away 102 quilts since founding the charity in Margaret’s name in 2007. Read the story of how Carin and Carol are giving people hope one quilt at a time.
These are the last two Infinity blocks. I had exactly enough white to make two more blocks. I tried, while I was making the majority of the blocks, to choose tone-on-tone fabrics. For these last two blocks, this fabric called to me. I think it is perfect. I really like the movement.
I have sent the last group of blocks off to my SIL. Now I have to add this project to my UFO list and figure out how I am going to finish the project.
We spent the whole day that show again. The BoNash booth had these tubes of glitter. I have no idea what they were doing, but I loved the colors. The stack of color was wonderful.
I have decided that, while there aren’t a lot of murky colors, murky colors are coming back. (NOTE: Dear Color Council, please do not add any murky colors to your list of the most popular colors of the year for any of the next 50 years. Thank you!) There were a lot of fabrics with grey and brown in them. In terms of quilts on display, there were lot that we saw today that had different browns in them. Usually they weren’t the nice rich chocolate brown, but more in the beige and taupe range. Note to readers: please make cheerful quilts.
Glitter Inspiration, detail
I am physically and mentally unable to buy murky fabrics. . I bought the following:
Fabric, PIQF, pt.1
The bottom left fabric will be a bag, perhaps the inside of a bag.
Fabric, PIQF 2009, pt.2
There is another bag and a half in the photo above. I need to get going on bags as I have a lot of fabric for bags in the hopper.
Here are some more impressions of the second day of the show. It is really the first official day when anyone can go in, but it was my second day.
Lots of spiral and circular designs.
There were 4 rear ends: one woman, two elephants and a giraffe. I think there were more last year. I wouldn'[t think to put rear ends in a quilt, but it seems to be popular.
After a second look, I decided that the muddy colors are still popular this year,, though the cheerful, happy colors have more of a presence.
People still seem to be working on figuring out how to use the large scale prints (Amy Butler and Heather Bailey, for example).
TFQ pointed out that there is a disparity between the fabrics int he quilts (lots of tone-on-tones and low contrast prints) and the quilts the vendors are selling (lots of large scale and high contrast prints as well as conversationals). We are going to look more carefully at this tomorrow.
Hand-dyed fabric is being used as fabric again rather than the centerpiece of a quilt.
Way too many portraits. Portraits are hard to do and often look distorted because of the quilting. I don’t like the quilt versions, as a general rule, but there were some interesting elements on the non-face portions of the pieces I saw today.
I found the Nosegay and it was very well lit. It would have been perfect place for a nice shot of the whole thing, except for the chain across the front. I also notices that in the quilt show venue, it didn’t look as large as it does at home.
I stood around near the FOTY 2008 quilt and heard people discussing it. Positive comments and I was thrilled when one woman took about 10 details shots of the piece and wanted to see the back. I am really glad a few people liked it.
I went to the preview for the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009 this evening. It was only 1.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to see everything. Some first impressions:
There were a lot more bolts of fabric than in previous years, as opposed to kits and fabric packs. I was pleased to see that I would be able to buy some yardage, if I want. There were still fabric packs.
Many of the vendors from past years were there and I saw a couple of new ones. I was nervous that the vendor hall would be empty because the Quilt Festival in Houston is on at the same time.
People didn’t seem to be buying much and I heard a vendor say that most people just look on the preview night. I bought one FQ. 😉
I went to the preview to take photos when it wasn’t busy. I intended to take as many as possible, but I started taking them and just felt depressed about it, so I stopped and, then, only took pictures of quilts I really liked. I still managed to take a few hundred pictures. One thing I learned from this experience was that I need to make quilts – at least show quilts – that are interesting. I need to make quilts that people haven’t seen before. That is if I want to show quilts in the future. That is not to say that I have to show my quilts and that I can’t make any kind of quilts I want. I think if I am going to show quilts they have to be special and interesting.
Lots of landscapes and realism type quilts. There was one with a castle (Rheingau?), a triptych of big leaves, another of redwood trees, an Italian Piazza, etc.
The colors used in the quilts are a lot brighter; the quilts are not as depressing as they have been in the past. A few tree quilts, but not as many as last year.
The World Quilt Competition Quilts were very interesting as usual.
Reef Quilts/Patterns (not sure of the name) has some tote bag patterns that I want to look at more closely. They look like they are large, have plenty of pockets and interesting detailing without being too strange.
by Debbie Bosio & Yvette Ebaugh
There was beautiful machine work again, especially sheer types of embroidery. I am not sure of the name, but it is the kind of embroidery that the newer model machines do.
Pamela Allen's Cinderella Making her Getaway
Pamela Allen had a Cinderella quilt, which I thought was great.
There are some pretty Christmas fabrics with fun motifs in non-traditional colors such as turquoise, soft green cream and a light pinkish red.
FOTY 2008 at PIQF
FOTY 2008 was there and it didn’t look like I thought it would.I like the location where they hung the quilt. That wave on the bottom makes me crazy. Perhaps I am just nervous about having two quilts there? I didn’t see the Nosegay yet.
My mom has started her own blog. She said she wanted to do it, so I helped her get set up on Blogger. She is going to talk about quilts, drawing and other kinds of art that she does on Mary’s Art Musings. I told her to write every day for the first week or two so she got into the habit.
Go take a look at what she has up so far and leave a comment. Thanks!
A few weeks ago I posted about Exuberant Color’s journal cover directions. This was after I saw directions for a journal cover on the Quilts and More website, Allpeoplequilt.com (you may have to register and login). I began the journal cover last Friday and finally finished on Sunday. In the end, it wasn’t difficult; I just didn’t have much time and struggled a bit with the directions.
As I may have mentioned, I liked the idea of this project, because it is useful. I also liked the idea of having an accessory using some of my fabric with me on a daily basis. Finally, it gave my journal a bit more privacy. The journal cover got its first outing with me on Tuesday.
I started madly sewing turquoise scraps together when I was angry and needed to calm down. The repetitive nature of the sewing helps me. Not only do I calm down, but I also make progress, an added bonus. I am loving turquoise more and more lately and, found, as I rummaged through my scrap basket, that there were a lot of really pretty, if small, pieces.
Journal Cover Piecing, Oct 2009
Sewing scraps together is also an exercise I do when I don’t know what else to do. I sew like-colored scraps together to make new fabric. I have quite a large piece of red and have just started creating a pink piece. Other than tests and using them to make ATCs, I don’t really do much else with my scraps, so making new fabrics can create something useful.
The blue piece quickly turned into a journal cover. The technique is inspired, as you may have read before (March 2007 or July 2008), by Shannon Williams’ Mosaic Quilting technique.
Finished cover, Lining detail
I also used the fabric I wrote about (used as another source of inspiration) as the lining. I thought I would be able to see more of it and enjoy it, but the lining is pretty covered up. I might be a little miffed, but I know it is there and I can look at it whenever I want.
As I was making the fabric for the outside, I had to know how large to make the piece. I found the Quilts & More pattern not to work very well for me. That pattern requires that you buy a specific journal – the black & white composition notebook type, I think – which is a specific size. I did read this when I started the project. What I didn’t read was that they had no instructions for those who wanted to use a journal that had been laying around the house. Wanda at Exuberant Color came to the rescue, giving me an idea of how to measure my own journal so I could use that journal instead of going out and buying a new one.
Measuring, pt.1
First, I put the measuring tape down on the back of the journal. You can’t see it because it is in between the ironing board and the journal
Then, I wrapped the measuring tape around the back so that I could see the total width the fabric should be. You do have to close the book to make sure that you have enough. I found that if I put the beginning metal bit of the measuring tape right up against the binding, then there was plenty of fabric, even with the book closed and seam allowances.
I was a little confused by the direction on Exuberant Color about the amount of fabric for a seam allowance on the top. I eventually used about an inch larger than the book and that seemed to work.
I ended up with a total of 26″x 9 1/4″ for this sized Miquelrius journal cover. You can either cut two pieces of fabric this size or piece fabric scraps together in the appropriate size. Then cut another piece (not pieced) the same size. It reduces bulk not to piece both.
Press fusible interfacing to the inside piece. It is easier to press the fusible to the fabric that has not been pieced. I use scraps of fusible. You can also using batting, which I did in this turquoise pieced journal.
Now is the time to add your label. Use your journal to estimate where your label should go.
Next, place the fabrics right sides together and stitch around the whole piece. Leave an opening large enough to turn the piece. Reinforce the stitching near the opening, so the stitches don’t come out when you are turning the fabric.
Clip the corners.
Turn the piece and press. Press the opening so that it will look neat when caught in the final sewing stitches.
Fold over the edges towards the middle using the journal as your pattern. Make sure you close the journal with the cover around it. You will need a bit more than you think to cover the journal in the closed position.
Pin flaps in place. You will only need a few pins
Sew along the cover flaps as close to the top as you possibly can and stitch catch all four layers.
Place your journal cover on your journal and enjoy!
Finished Cover, Oct. 2009
Above is the finished piece. I put a bit of a selvedge on the front cover to add interest. That bit of selvedge had been hanging on my design wall for a long time. I liked the name of the fabric: The Butterfly Queen. I may cover up Jason Yenter’s name with a flower or something, but we will see.
Journal Cover, Back Flap detail
This picture shows the journal open and how much changes from my original measurement of 25″ (see photo above) and this photo (directly above) once the journal cover was completely sewed.
I didn’t have to buy anything to make this journal cover, which was nice. It is a project you can complete with materials around the house. It is one of those projects that works when inspirations strikes late at night and everything is closed. 😉
I want to make another one and possibly a few more as gifts. One thing I want to try is fusible interfacing like one of the thicker Pellon products rather than batting. I find the batting to be too squishy, especially when I fold the journal backwards to write on both pages.
I am posting a special creative prompt to coincide with her “virtue of bliss” for creativity week.
Kathy, my long time friend, is doing a year long project on adding more bliss to her life. You can see her blog, Everyday Bliss, and learn more about the project on her blog.
To inspire you….
Purple has always been a royal color
Kathy thinks of purple as a magical or fairy color
Calling all quilters! 
