Progress

Well, there's progress on SE-2.
As you can see by the picture, first mock-up of the quilt is now up on the design-wall ... and looking good, even if I do say so myself.
It is a rather overwhelming quilt, and it'll end up HUGE ! but ... well ... I don't want to mess with doing these triangles in miniature-size. Their curved seams just about kills me in full-size, BUT I'm persevering. I'm piecing the last of the ones with curved seams. After that, it's 12 with just straight seams, and the one with the most pieces in that lot have 14 of them.
Piece of cake :-)

And then there's pictures of a stone.
We took it with us from the beach during our vacation in Jutland. Most people I know, pick up stones and shells and thingies when they walk on the beach. This one is not one of the usual "pick up and put in your pocket" stones. It's much, much larger. Its actually a two-hand stone (at least it is for me), and even DH doesn't have pockets big (and solid) enough for this one.
But it was a windy, rainy day, and the rock laid there, in the surf, glittering and beckoning and just looking beautiful. So I badgered DH to pick it up, and we took it with us.
What fascinates me about this stone is both the shape of the "band", and the colours ... and let me tell you straight out : the picture doesn't even begin to give justice to the colours.
When it is wet (as it is in the pictures), the light band is a sort-of golden rose. Don't know if that colour exists officially as it were, but that's what is is. Soft powder-rose pink with a golden hue and darker grains of old rose and grey-rose.
And look at the folds. Now, mind you, this is granite, and started out as two straight layers. One on top of the other. Then it solidified, and THEN mother nature decided to mess about a bit, and she proceeded to fold the sheets of rock until they look as you see them. Twisting and turning and snaking around each other.
Gives you pause doesn't it ? The forces of nature are not only awesome, they are down-rigth scary if you ponder them. And that's part of why I keep it. The other is, that this stone is a wonderful reminder to me what the japanese taupe palette is all about. Recreating the palette of nature in cloth :-)

I love digital cameras

And why do I love digital cameras, do you ask ?
Take a look at the many pictures in this particular post.
They are all made with the same 2 sets of sewn-stripes triangles.

Now, in the "olden days" before the digital camera, I would have had to lay them out, and then change the layout, and then hope I could remember what the first layout looked like. Or I would have to draft them on paper ... or even take pictures, and then have to wait until the film was developed. These days, I take a digital camera (or a cell-phone), point it at the thing, click, and move on.

And in case of it being a big quilt, I would have a very hard time to get far enough away from the thing, to be able to "see it all", but ... not a problem, me old china :-) Works perfectly well, and with the small format of thumbnails, one does get a very good impression of the whole ... and can see boo-boos too ... hopefully before the quilt is quilted, signed and bound :-)
And my favourites in this lot ? Well, actually the first and the last picture ... but I fear that both of them would be much better in a lap-size or larger quilt .... and I don't have enough fabric for that. I'll keep you posted on what I choose, only, please, don't hold your breath :-)

Progressing on triangles

There is progress on the triangles. Still just a mock-up, but it's looking good :-) Clearer colours than is shown on this picture, but still ...
Yes, it will be a fairly pink quilt. Good thing I love pink :-)
And frankly, after a long period of working browns and taupes and muted colours, it's wonderful to be back with "my" colours.
... all the same. Browns and greys and taupes are growing on me.

And the other picture is two MORE bags.
Yes. Made a zebra-and-coke bag for ME, 'cause I really liked the "in your face" red of the coke-fabric with the black-and-white of DD's sculls fabric ... just didn't like the sculls. Personally, I think the zebra-fabric is a good substitute.
And then a huge, not particularly lovely, but very useful bag made with a stripe-fabric I got far too little of (the shop - it turned out - measured in increments of 30 cm, not meters so ...3 of those only got me a yard, not the 3 I thought I would get.
Oh, well. ANYways, the tote is finished and will hold quilt, chocolate, water and a book for taking to the beach or the park or ... in short : very useful.

And then a small addendum to my words on Leanne Beadsley's "Romancing the Road Trip". Yes. The patterns are very simple, and I - in my arrogance - have been thinking "too simple". Well, the fact remains that I had never - until I got that book - thought it necessary to have a pattern for such very simple bags as these ... but then, until I got that book, I never made any bags !!! So, there ! Guess the irony (and hopefully, the laugh) is on me :-)
I'm making bags ... and am enjoying myself hugely. There can be great satisfaction in making something very simple.

Still more bags

It does seem almost incredible, doesn't it ? Those are bags # 3-6 you see on the right.

All four bags have 4H-fabric on the outside of the flap. All 4 bags have the lions-and-parrots etc, mostly green fabric for shell.
Two have tiger-lining and two have leopard-lining. But ... they are fully reversible, so there could be two tiger-bags and two leopard-bags :-)

Below is a close-up with shell-fabric showing.


And this is really another sad story about great fabric with pictures on it, bought while kiddies were small ... dreams were high and energy and time was very low, so ... no skirts or shorts or quilts happened with any of these fabric.
Very sad actually.
BUT, at least they now get a life as bags for kids who love animals :-)
AND the fancy fabric I bought with DD in mind has been used for stuff for DD. The rest can now mature on my shelves (or not, as fancy takes HER). The main issue being : fancy fabric bought for specific persons should be used asap, or, put more directly :
USE THE FANCY FABRIC NOW !!!
Do not wait for when you have time. Whip up something that will give your Home-Ed teacher nightmares forever (or make her turn in her grave), but USE it for the kids you bought it for ... while they still think it cool !!!
Besides, know that the formula of "Cute fabric + moderately to very cute kid = No-one looks closely at the construction".
It's true too !! Try it :-)

Cats and Paws

Another bag is finished. And this one has no black, no sculls and no pop-art icons.
Nicely dark blue with very cute cats.

The shell-fabric was bought many moons ago when we were in Japan, so its a rather loose-weave japanese indigo. Darker than the South-African ones, and much coarser.
But still very, VERY cute :-) "Bought" on my own shelves this time around.

The lining is another shelf-shopping find.
Golden paw-prints on a cream-to-sand ground.
Works well together, even if the lining should have been "colder" in hue for the match to be perfect.
BUT, that's 2 bags finished in one day

... and this one is for ME !!!

This morning's work

Well, occasionally I do get my act together. Also, the lesson that I've been teaching myself the hard way is : use it NOW, while its cool (or hot, or groovy or ... whatever).
I have too many fancy fabrics with all-over smallish or "stand-alone" largeish motives on them that are very suitable for kids .... 5-10 years younger than the ones I have.
Lesson is : Novelty-fabrics should be used immediately ! unless we're dealing with staples like the lining of this bag :

DD is heavily into black and sculls and bones and such-like, so ... got some fabric at the Repro-Depot, and hey presto : the work of a morning. "Sculls 'n' Coke" :-)

And seeing that the above shop doesn't seem to have more of it, I found the fabric on-line for you at other shops (no affiliation, and I can't even say I'm a satisfied customer, not having bought anything at either of these places)
Sculls and Coke.
The bag itself is out of Leanne Beadsley's "Romancing the Road-Trip. I just added a snap-hook, sewn into the inside seam. I tried to take a picture but it doesn't show well. ANYway, I put it into every bag I make, 'cause it's such a nice feature to have it for your keys ... unless of course you enjoy emptying your bag to find your keys (only to find you put them in your pocket ... sigh)

The book is a nice enough book. Patterns are very simple, and nice, if you don't want to "waste" a lot of time fidgeting with too small bits of fabric. If you have more than one book already with patterns for bags, I doubt that you need this one, though. There's a bit of stitchery in there too. And whereas I wouldn't want you to spend money on it if you already have books with bag-patterns, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone who's fairly new to sewing.
And now, a nice bag has been made from it :-) in a few hours :-) Good :-)

The new project

First star on what will - eventually - become a very pink King-size quilt.
Triangles : Dear Hannah,
Hexagons : my design.
Setting : my design.
Name : SE-2.
The first one of this kind was made for the Dear Hannah-book and now resides in the collection of Brenda Papadakis. That one is called "Sara Eleonora" for my DD.
So, this one, which isn't an identical twin, but a close sibling, is "SE-2" :-)

And yes. It's really good to deal with nicely neutral pinks and magentas :-)