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 :-)

July finishes

Two doll-quilts in lovely Japanese taupes, with squares and circles from Oakshott-fabric.
Quilted and bound. Still to be signed. But thats the least part of it ... which is probably why I so often never get around to it :-)

And the tiny purse from Yoko Saito's "House"-book is finished too.
Pictures of the two sides.


Lots of taupes.
Lots of muted, subtle nuances.
Lovely in and of itself.
All the same. A long burst of neutrals makes me long for colours ... which is why its now on to the brights and to "fuchsia and chartreuse are neutrals" ... I think :-)

... to be bound ...

Only one decision left : dark or light binding ? Time will tell. I lean towards dark, but then, I always do :-)

Hair-do

On your left : the 4-leaf clover-style folded-fabric hair-thingie that I made for DD. She's fairly happy with it ... but would have preferred it to be black with sculls on it.
And yes, it is DD who's modelling it, and yes, she said she had brushed her hair "really well" , and no, she hadn't, and the revenge of the Mother is, to put a picture of it, here, on the 'net, for everyone to see !!!





And on your right :
the progress of the doll-quilt-quilting.
It doesn't show well on this picture, but there are diagonal quilting-lines running the other way too, making the quilting a sort-of cross-hatching ... with very, VERY wide spaces between.
And - as always - I'm amazed at how invisible a light quilting-thread becomes once its in a quilt. Well, naturally it does show, does so on the light fabrics too, but its not conspicuous, even on the really dark fabrics.

Banners etc

.. but first : flowers that went perfectly with both vase and the table-topper-thingie.

Only flowers are new. The rest just went perfectly well with them :-)



And below, the banner that DDs freind made yesterday, back and front. DD couldn't be bothered to make a quilted one, but freind and I worked very well together most of the afternoon, designing and executing the vision.

Featuring :
3D-leaves, that will be sewn to the back-ground with a quilting-stitch, thus making the "string" in the centre of the leaf as well as securing it.
AND folded origami-"flowers" that can be said to look like the quatrefoils that are part of the 4H-logo ... at least when the colours are green. DD has ordered one as a hairpiece, so ... that'll be the job of today ... after church :-)

Something like this

Just pinned on. Not at all finished, but ... the little quilts will end up something like this.
Don't think they'll get a border, just a binding ... eventually :-)
But now one is ready for hand-work :-) and the other will be before I go to bed tonight.

Nice :-)

Playing with taupes

A selection of "ties" :-) or rather, of 2 ½" strips of most of my Japanese and Japanese-style taupes.
All for the purpose of making these two small quilts :








And these - in turn - will get a selection of candy applique'ed on them, probably in the soft and muted colours that are in that bowl of goodies, making it all into the colours of sticks and stones and the woods-by-the-sea in November colours. VERY unlike my usual palette ... but quite exiting to test the waters in this way. Making doll-quilts :-) (and the making of doll-quilts is all the "fault" of this picture, and this)
Besides, making very small quilts, solely for the joy of it is ... joyful :-) who'd have thunk :-)
And I can experiment without feeling too wasteful too :-)

Small steps

... or, as the saying is in this country : he who travels with oxen arrives too.
The front of the tiny purse is now quilted (such as it is) and joined. It is possibly the most fidgety knee-cap-protector I have ever made :-)
But it looks cute enough.

Now its on to the equally small pieces that go on the blocks on the back of this thing.

And the other picture ?
Well. Just because :-) and to remind me that life not only holds taupe, there's pink and the shimmer of raindrops in a lazy sun in there too.

Welcome to my yard

Coming in from the corner , the garden gate (sounds fancy, doesn't it)

And here's a picture of the deck, in all its shabby splendour

There are roses growing on the corner, and they have a lovely scent

And finally, another picture of the candy, only, now it's washed and getting ready to go into a doll-quilt ... when I've finished the purse !

Unexpected pleasures ...

Gift from a student :-) given in sheer happiness at an exam passed. And just for the record, he passed justly :-) and the professor (who is male) got half, but passed them on to me, seeing that he would not be home until tomorrow, so ... I had one of the (very rare) chances of bringing out my Aalto-vase, which needs about a gazillion flowers to be filled and look good. I never thought that the first time this year would be roses in the softest of pink / powder.
So, an unexpected pleasure now fills the air, both visually and scentedly :-)

Showing the shower

And why ?
Because fabric is stuck to the tiles in the shower :-) and looking good. v.g. (read your Bridget Jones if you don't know what that is.) ... and why fabric is stuck to the tiles of the shower ? well ... to dry :-) When I hand-wash small samples of fabric, or the odd F/4, I don't want to hang it, and I certainly don't want to tumble-dry it, so ... while wet, it gets stuck to the tiles, and it stays there until it is dry ... after which it just falls off on its own :-)

And the game-board - with its owl playing-pieces for a quick game of tic-tac-toe - is finished. Quilted and bound, and has been used already :-) Both kiddies have been licked by their old mama (aka : me) and the board, with owls, have taken up residence (temporary or permanent ... who can tell) at the dining-table, from which all life in this house takes it's departure and to which all life in this house returns :-)
This picture, however is taken on the (rather worn) deck.

The UFO-fairies

Well, I thought I had better bring this one into the public eye, rather than having it lying around on my hard-disk :-)
And please note, that in this post "UFO" refers to "Un Finished Object" of the needle-work sort, rather than other possible expansions of the abbreviation

UFO-fairies ... well ... UFO-fairies do exist !

What do you say ?
Didn't you know ?
The problem, however, is ....

Now ... we all know about the flower-fairies. Snowdrops and daisies, and roses and tulips, even brambles ! Each of these have their own pretty fairy .... but ...
Did you ever wonder about the look and the temperament of the fairie of the stinging-neetle ?
Not to speak of hemlock or poison-ivy ?

The UFO-fairies are closely related to the poison-ivy-type of fairies :-)
And know, clearly, without a doubt in your mind, that they are not nice. Besides, they see their duty clear ! They help the UFOs ... not you !

So, to trust in the UFO-faires means trusting that they will keep the UFOs hidden, until said UFOs have truly multiplied. And then they'll only let go of one or two of their charges, and will keep all the rest hidden from your eyes.
They will hide them at the back of closets and the bottom of drawers. They will stuff them into the recesses of your shelves and under your bed. In short, they will see to it, that there is, at all times, at least 5 different projects placed in ideal breeding-grounds.

Because, as we all know, UFOs do breed. And their favourite breeding-grounds are in the back of closets, and the bottom of drawers and ....
Knowing this, the UFO-fairies will do their utmost to keep you away from those places, so that their wonderful charges can grow and breed, undisturbed and unmolested by the dreadful "Finishers" !!!

Naturally, this entails hard work for the fairies at times. Work which includes taking out lots of stuff in your sewing-area, and spreading it in weird places. Hiding essential equipment, thus making it necessary for you to get another one (which will send you not only out of the
sewing-room, but out of the house ... or at least, in front of the computer, in which case your UFOs are "safe" anyway :-), spreading fabric around, and putting interesting and inspiring bits in there, which necessitates your starting another project ... and also necessitates your scrambling through your stash to find co-ordinates ... and yes, the UFO-fairies will help you to do that ... and will drop fabric absolutely everywhere to ensure that you don't get close to any
of the already exisiting UFOs, just as they will render you every possible service in your quest to create another UFO.

UFO-fairies are hard to evict from your sewing-space, once you have an infestation, but it can be done. What is more. Occasionally, one or more UFO-fairies have known to transform into a WIP-fairy, who will actually encourage you to finish things. The transition, however, is very tough for all parties involved, and can take years ! (WIP = Work In Progress)

But it is well worth it, when you see your stack of beautiful finishes :-) and you take the last of your UFO-fairies by their scrungy (and possibly quite dirty) ear, and toss it out along with its pets : the dust-rabbits.
BUT, the dust-rabbits is an entirely different story, and you won't get that one now :-)

More owls ....

As you can see, there now are no less than 6 small owls ... waiting. 3 blue ones and 3 red ones. They are the "useful" small owls :-) who will live (I hope) a long and satisfying life as play-pieces for a tic-tac-toe game.

The playing-board of which is now in the process of being quilted. Machine-pieced in an afternoon.
Nice :-)


...and next I dusted off my frame-on-a-stand to hand-quilt that one. First time in years (literally) with hand-quilting taking place in this house ... and you can tell from the stitches.
No, there is no close-up of any stitching here :-) But take my word for it. They are uneven in both size and precision. And frankly, I don't care one jot :-) If I continue to find my quilting unsatisfactory, I'll just call it Folk Art and be happy :-)

Fabrics and rabbits and cats

.... oh my.
On your right, first prototype rabbit. I like the look of this one well enough, BUT, I don't like the fact, that you really do have to like curved piecing or the way I've set the ears. The ears, I could work on, the curved piecing ... no.
So I had to come up with another way of doing this particular kind of critter, and fortunatly I remembered Ellen's webshots of all her gorgeous Chuck Nohara applique-blocks, and there it was, the prototype for the second attempt at a rabbit
Oh, you want to see it ? OK :-) Go here ... and while you're there, look through her entire album of appliques. The blocks are 4½" finished size !!
ANYways, I then tried to make a rabbit a wee bit like the one of the applique, and the result is the blue and yellow critter. Only 2 pattern-pieces. Nice :-)

And the owls have eyes ! and are slowly turning into quite a family of owls.
As you can see, I have now made a smaller version, and I actually like this format better. One is finished, 5 more are ready to stuff, embroider beaks, put eyes on and close at the bottom. 3 blues and 2 more reds ... enough to make play-pieces for a tic-tac-toe game :-) ... and then I guess that I'll just *have* to make a board as well ... quilted, naturally :-)

The final picture for today is of some of the results of my S.E.X. yesterday. No, it is not a naughty word, it is an acronym. Please note the full stops.
It means "Stash Enhancment eXpedition". So there :-)
A series of neutrals with linedrawings or almost line-drawings (by Carol Endres), two Kaffe Fasset ikat-stripes, two batiks and some soft, rose/brown fabrics. To me, it's a pleasing combination, and they will be made into something ... preferably on the machine ... preferably using BIG pieces (i.e : more than 1/4" square, finished size).

An owl's nest ...

Another colloquial, translated literally :-) The colloquial means really messed-up hair. Quite a bit like DDs at times :-) But this is perhaps rather the beginning of a nest of owls. They have no usefulness, what-so-ever, apart from being cute and rather fun to make :-)
They are presented, with the first one at the back, then one for DH with birch-trees, a home-spun one and a japanese one with daiwabo and japanese indigo.
I think I need to find some buttons so they can get eyes :-)

Owls in the bog ....

Well, sorry, but that's a colloquial Danish expression, meaning that one has a suspicion that whatever is going on is not as it should be. This, however, is not an owl in a bog :-) It is a stuffed owl on my deck.
I first saw owls like this over at Moonstitches's blog. Unfortunately, she didn't make the pattern so she cannot sell or give it away. It's from a japanese book, that I frankly don't have the courage to try and order, even if she does link to Amazon-Japan. So I looked at her owls and was ... envious.
Then she made a tutowlrial and I decided to try and construct a useable pattern myself, and the owl here is the first result. I didn't use cardboard for it's bottom, but a seriously big washer, and I did wrap the washer in a wee bit of batting, to make it softer to the touch and easier to manipulate the fabric for the joining of the top and the bottom part ... but I have made my first owl. Yes. First. I do foresee more in a near future as I tweak the pattern to fit my needs and desires and wishes :-)

And the house is progressing more or less according to plan. What is next on the agenda is to come up with a way I can mark these tinies on the front, without risking it to show once the bag is joined ... I think perhaps a small running-stitch just outside of the seam-line might do the trick ? Then I can get the three of them quilted separately. That needs to happen before I join them.

I got candy !!!

See what the mail-man brought me.

Fabric-candy :-)

And its not fattening at all !! rather the opposite. At least the wallet has a risk of going on a crash-diet :-)
Aren't they gorgeous ? They look even better in real life :-) and what you cannot see is, that they shimmer slightly. Not gaudily. Just enough to change the hue a bit, depending on the direction you have the light coming from, and the angle from which you see it.

I see a doll-quilt in the near future :-)

And the yard for the house is in progress.
One tree sewn, one prepared, 3 more to prep. and sew.

Yes. It will be very cute :-)

... even if my long suffering DH doubts my sanity more than he usually does. Or rather, he doesn't :-) This one settles the issue once and for all.

... naw. He doesn't really understand my need to fidget with tiny bits of fabric, but he likes the results, and he enjoys my enjoyment. Which is good :-)

Moving in ...

And here is the first part of the tiny purse. Only 5 more "blocks" to make ... and then the joining, and quilting and ....
The block is all of 6" tall ... unfinished as it is. Looks rather cute, me thinks :-) And even if I question my own sanity when I make things like this, I do enjoy it too.

Decisions, decisions ....

On your left, the composite parts of the first tiny block for the very small purse I'm pursuing :-)
Yes. It is a 6" ruler to the left of the bits.

Do not sneeze !
Some of these bits are going to finish at 1/8" wide !!!
... when I finish it.
I will keep you posted :-)

And then to the title of this post.

Decisions.

The major decision I'm about to embark on, is exactly what I'm going to do with the small applique-blocks.
Will I finish them, just "with themselves" so to speak ? As on the picture here, or will I combine them with the Baltimore medallion ?

The reason the medallion is back in the equation is, that I want to use it. And if I'm searching deep down into my soul, I know that the probability of my making another 12 or 18 Baltimore-style blocks is not very high. At least not while I still have so many other quilts I want to do and styles, techniques, combinations, colours that I want to play with.
So, I've actually trimmed the medallion, and have now put it up on the wall, along with the small blocks.
Set like this, I need to make 4 blocks that finish at 12" ... and they would very probably be paper-cut style. Either Elly S' or my own ... but I would use all of the small blocks, and with a 6" border (well quilted) it will still be as big as my Dear Jane, and that's big enough to cover a queen-size bed.

The thing is, that I really want this medallion to be a thing not "only" of beauty but also of usefulness, and if the latter is going to happen within a foreseeable future, it needs to be part of something that is not a complete Baltimore-album, 'cause frankly, that's not going to happen any time soon.

And yes. I know. There is some clashing of style there. Formal and informal. "Real" Baltimore and folk-art. All mixed up with each other ... but then ... that's not a bad image of what I am. I can dress up to the nines for a gala-premiere. I can move about in a power-suit and make people think I belong in the executive corridors of a corporation. I can scoop my grey hair up into a pony-tail and dabble around with bare feet in my sandals and a worn t-shirt over a pair of well-washed jeans.
I'm all of that :-)
And frankly, I think it would not be a bad thing to make a quilt that shows this :-)
... And I guess there's no harm done in just starting some 12" paper-cut blocks ... I can always use them for something else, if the above layout is not the one I decide to work with in the end :-)