Ruched

My dishes are famous

Check it out, my dishes are famous.

I've found pieces of this pattern at three different thrift shops so it must have been popular way back when.

My block swap package waiting for stamps.

My sewing machine packed up and ready to go for a cleaning.  I called the local shop today and they said it would take a week.  Aaarrrgh!  A week to blow out some lint and add a few drops of oil?  Can't they do it while I wait and hover, looking over shoulders and asking irritating questions??

I've added to my about page.

Buttons Cuff

I tried the Buttons Cuff from Craftster tonight.

I couldn't make sense of the loop diagram until I actually made a few pieces.  Then I realized that you start with the width, not the length.  I wanted cuffs that  were two buttons wide and I ended up with two singles.  It was good to finish them off, it seemed like a waste to  cut them apart or leave them in strips.  The orange bead marks where I used stretchy clear bead cord for the closure.  I made them just large enough to slip over my hand.  I really worked to think up a better solution than the ties in the tutorial.  I think the weakest part of most hand made jewelry is the clasp, it lets the rest of the work down.  I want to make things that look hand made, not home made.

A sample using Mastex thread.  I liked the color but it was too thin and slippery.
 

I liked the feel of this crochet cotton but this is the only color I have.  I think it's from Lacis so it has to be something hard to get.  It's twisted so tightly it's almost stiff and I think that it would wear well.  The craft pearl cotton I used will probably beard a bit.  I'm not sure that beard is the right word, I mean when little fibers lift up and create sort of a halo around the thread making it look ratty.

My current favorite fabric, hearts and strawberries, so unlike me.  It's poly cotton too and I won't use synthetics.  These were in a lot of fabric from eBay and this smidgen is all I have.  It might be worth making some Bubble Jet Set fabric and printing my own.

A friend suggested I fill out the "About Me" page, I'll try to get that done tomorrow.
 

Bird in the Hand inspired this quilt

I love all of the Bird in the Hand pillows but my absolute favorite is the "Camilla" pillow.  I was really inspired by the colors, the bold prints, and the percentage of white in those prints.  I'm not normally a white fabric person.  I recently told a friend that white textiles can look cheap and I haven't yet formulated a concise  answer why I feel that way but these prints just looked fresh and new to me.  So this is a change for me in terms of color and also the weight of the lines.

These are typical of my stash.  On the top, traditional delicate patterns, on the bottom, modern delicate patterns, see what I mean? 

After printing out a copy of the pillow to pin to the wall I pulled out every bold fabric I had.  It was such a tiny pile I used every single one to make this.

This isn't my normal color palette, it's very bright in person.  My husband, who doesn't normally give opinions because he is as wise as he is kind, ventured that this was "kind of bright" and raised his eyebrows while squinting as if he had stepped into a really bright light.

I think it's successful, especially when I consider how different it was for me.

Some quilting thread choices.  I don't like the color of the thread to stand out to much, I'm more interested in the texture created by the stitching.  The wooden spool belonged to my great grandmother and that's the color I liked the best.  I have quite a few spools of her thread and I'm not sure I'll ever use it, I don't want to start a project and run out mid way through.  I love it for this use though, I'd much rather choose my colors at home and take this spool and not a project to the store to match. 

Usually I'll pin up the quilt and put strands of each possible thread across the blocks, then I can spend a few days mulling over my choices.  I make my mother crazy because I spend most of the time on a quilt switching blocks around and mulling over colors but that's my favorite part.  She enjoys the sewing and finished product.

Here it is pin basted

The two tools I use to baste, aside from masking tape.  I just realized they're made by the same woman.  The grips are so much easier on my fingers it was worth snapping them on to hundreds of safety pins.

I haven't mentioned that the pattern (yes, it has a pattern, it's visible if you squint!) from here.  The directions are kind of eh and it's more work than you would think because looks so fun and loose.  I didn't use the exact measurements.

As tempting as it was to use the log cabin pattern I decided against it.  I've seen lots of copies around, some without attribution (WTF?!?) and Lisa seems to be understandably touchy about having her work copied.  Using her first name feels weird since were strangers but there's no "blog" entry in Miss Manners so I'll leave it as is.

 

Finished

I finished the 4 in 1 bracelet.  I really thought it would take me longer but the modular assembly method really improved my speed.

So to recap, I'm glad I took the class because I learned some new plier and assembly techniques and met a cool crafter, but after working with these rings I think they are inferior to the rings in the byzantine kit.  The cuts are rougher and crooked and the quality of the clasp isn't as good.  I also learned that I prefer the flat cuff style to the more bulky round rope.

The fabric in the background reminded me of a group of things I used to have on top of my bookshelves.

   

I still love these colors together. I still have all of this stuff, it's just spread all over the house.  Maybe I should put it together again.

Tomorrow I'll post a small quilt I'm making that was inspired by these log cabin pillows because, well, who hasn't been inspired by them.  I really didn't like the log cabin pattern until I saw it used this way, I'm really not into the sunshine and shadow look.  The quilt is ready to start machine quilting and I'm hemming and hawing (sewing humor!) about taking my machine in for a cleaning before I start.  The problem is that I've started the last five projects in the same manner and my machine is starting to spit out clumps of lint, hello it needs a cleaning. 

As I said, the quilt is small and it would only take a few hours to quilt but I'm sure they'll want to keep my machine a few days and that's just too long!  You can see where this reasoning gets me.  I have no deadline for this project, I'm just ready to get going on it.  I spent my whole first semester of college without a sewing machine and I thought I would die, but then my very sweet mom rescued me by buying herself a new one and sending me the old one.

4 in 1

This morning I headed off to a chain mail bracelet class and here's what I came home with.

The multicolored sample is a practice piece, the colors make learning the pattern easier.  The silver is the actual bracelet, I think this bit is about 3 in long and while the pattern isn't complicated it takes forever.  I'm glad I took the class because the instructor had several tips about holding pliers and a few other things that will made the process easier, but the best part was the nice woman sitting next to me.  We had lots of things in common and chatted the while we worked.  She even quilts a bit and had recently gotten some DS quilt cards.  I even gave her the url for my blog, which was weird, I've only given it out to family and close friends.  Hello if you're reading this, it was wonderful to talk to a fellow creative.  I love reading blogs but talking in person is so important.

There were also several chain mail junkies in the class.  The woman who sat across from me was wearing chain mail earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, and a watch band, all of which she had made.  She mentioned that she had worked her way through all of the kits here and was waiting for them to add some master level patterns.  Her jewelry box must be bulging.

I also have some photos of thrifted fabric I found this weekend.

I tried to put it all in one photo but frankly it looked nasty.  Sometimes I find a group of fabrics that look nice together but not this time.  Everything in the first photo is linen.  I thought the Cape Cod calendar dishtowels would be nice bag linings.  The towels are for a softie like this.

More Gee's Bend quilts

I've read about the new Gee's Bend stamps in several places over the last few days and it made me wonder how many stamps I use in a year.  Until a few years ago I sent letters regularly but these days I don't even mail bills, it's all electronic.  I plan to get several sheets of Gee's stamps when they come out but I wonder if I'll use them before another postage hike.

I haven't seen much mention of this book which I first saw it in the Art and Design library in college.  This was pre-Gee's and thank you to the KU librarian who chose it because the first time I flipped through it I had one of those moments where it feels like your brain is throwing off sparks inside your head.  I wanted to shout inside the library.  I checked it out several times and finally bought my own copy. I even made silkscreens of a few of the designs and printed some fabric, which I've lost, and realized that the quilt patterns were just as interesting in a single color.  I think these quilts more closely resemble traditional blocks, you can clearly see how the quilter improvised and it was immensely exciting the first time I saw the book.   

Bracelet

The bracelet is finished  with two days to spare.

The name of this pattern is Byzantine and it's essentially made from jump rings.  It's fiddly but the instructions promised that you get into a rhythm and eventually I did.  It took about 2 1/2 hrs.  I had to focus to make the pattern properly but the time flew by and sometimes it's nice to zone out while working. You can see some of my joins, the idea is to make them almost invisible and I think I did a good job on most of them.  Now I need to decide if I want it oxidized and I think I read something about putting the finished piece in a container with a boiled egg that's been sliced in half.  Sounds weird, but who knows.  This won't be a passion of mine but I would try another kit.  The kits by the way are really nice, the packaging is attractive and the instructions are very good.

I saw this in the grocery store.  Sassy colors!

I found this while thrifting today.  It was $8 (big money!) and I just love it.  It's the sort of painting I see in articles about people who have decorated strictly with thrift finds.  I read the articles and wonder where they shop because all I ever see is crappy waiting room or cats playing poker type art.  I also found a bunch of fabric today which I'll post tomorrow because right now it's out in the garage waiting to be washed.  For anyone outside of California, washing machines live in the garage in this state.  I've even seen them on a patio or in a shed.  I guess because it rarely gets below freezing?  At least I never have to worry about the washer flooding the house.

Last two

I've finished the last two blocks.  I think I'll mail them out before the deadline because I always end up scrambling at the end after thinking that I still had loads of time left and oops, it's due tomorrow.

The white fabric is vintage from eBay.  In this case I don't know if vintage meant "vintage" or "old stuff from my stash".  Either way, I really liked the print.

Now that my blocks are finished I have to get to work on a chain mail bracelet kit I bought to prepare for this class.  I'd better hurry, the class is on Sunday. 

Goke Cat

Here's the book information I promised to post.
 

If you look closely you can see that two of the cats have earrings, how punk is that!

The other softie pattern.  This book only has two, cats and dolls.

I need to make one of these.  When I do anything by hand, like binding a quilt, I just dump all of the supplies in a soup bowl from the kitchen and settle in front of the tv .  This would be much more classy.

I think I mentioned that I have two Goke books.  This one is projects with patterns, the other is photos of her art quilts, no instructions.

Block 7 or 8?

Only 3 left.

This one used bits left over from the fat quarter I used to make the cat below.  It's an indigo repro and came as part of a fat quarter bundle.  This was my least favorite print in the collection and then I spotted it when I was pulling out cat fabric and it just said "I need to be a cat" to me.  I think I bought it 4 years ago.

The cat pattern is from a Keiko Goke book, I'll have to be more specific tomorrow.  She's a quilter/art quilter for anyone unfamiliar with her name.  This was fun to make but the joints are lumpier than I'd like, I think I need to use smaller clumps of batting.  I used a Hello Kitty chopstick from a local Japanese dollar store to stuff the corners because I find that sort of thing so amusing.  I could have used a plain take out chopstick but where's the fun in that?

I spotted this button bracelet yesterday and I just love it.  I need to make one and luckily I remembered that I had a bunch of same size buttons.

The jar was used as a bookend before it was given to me.  I used it to decorate my studio until this morning.  I think once I make the bracelet I'll pour the buttons back together because I loved the mix of colors.  I have 3 or 4 buttons that are really special but I'm not really a button person so most of my collection comes from relatives and people who know I'm into textiles.

This is my dog Owen, and you can see a bit of my husband's leg under Owen's chin.  This is about as much as you'll ever see of my husband on the internet.  He would rather slam his fingers in a door than have anything of his online.  Anyway, the photo.  I love it, it makes me laugh every time I see it.  Owen was sleeping, B finished his soda and ever so carefully set in on his head.  I laughed so hard it woke him up, but not before I grabbed the camera which was, for once in my life, at my fingertips.  The can only lasted 2 seconds but I have it preserved forever.