Stitch Adventures

Bad bells/good bells

There’s this bell in my neighborhood, which I hear several times a day. I tried not being annoyed, but it sounded like some jerk who left their keys in the car, with the door open, while they ran into the house to get something they forgot.

Mind you, I forget things all the time. But I don’t leave my keys in the car with the door open. And I wouldn’t do it several times a day!

Mystery solved. I was driving back to my house, just passing the elementary school down the hill from my house, and I heard the bell. I suddenly dawned on me – the bell I’d been hearing for the last month is a new school bell!

Now, even though I hear that bell, same as always, I forgive it. I can think of my high school counselor days, or think of my oldest daughter teaching right at that moment, with all the little kids getting in line for lunch.

My Mom as Cowgirl

Like many of my quilts, the cowgirl quilt was an odyssey. I never finish quickly because they have to “feel right”, and because there’s always so many other things to do (like knitting, making presents, working on my website, cooking). I work on one sporadically, so when it’s done, I feel complete and totally satisfied in my accomplishment. 

The idea for the cowgirl quilt came several years ago while helping with the quilt judging at the county fair. I just fell in love with the quilts that had a western theme. Usually though, the western theme fabric consisted of cowboys and broncos. I wanted a cowgirl quilt.

So, I started a search for cowgirl fabric and when I had enough, got inspired by a quilt book by Earlene Fowler. She’s a novelist that writes murder mystery books that take place in San Luis Obispo, CA. Her books all have a quilt name and theme, and her main character is a modern cowgirl.

I never copy a quilt exactly, just kind of use the ideas and appliqué shapes and go from there. I had purchased a printed set of old-fashioned cowgirls. Taking my favorite one, I started building the quilt around the print, adding squares and borders. Then I did some motifs: running horses, horseshoes, stars, etc.

I was having fun, but once the top was pieced, it sat. Don’t know why, because I love the quilting part, and really wanted it to get done. But it didn’t please me, for some reason. It needed something.

Months later, a box of pictures belonging to my mom (who passed away about 5 years ago), was given to me by the daughter of my mom's former boyfriend.  When I got the box, I couldn't wait to see what was in it.  And there was a picture of my mom, as a 1930's teenager, dressed in a cowgirl costume! I couldn’t believe it.  I had never seen the picture before and they just didn’t wear jeans and cowgirl hats then. But somehow, she had the cowgirl urge too.

I scanned the picture, fooled around with the size, and printed the picture out on cotton fabric in my printer. Then I added it as the centerpiece of my cowgirl quilt, and added a ropey trim to accentuate it.,

That’s why the quilt is entitled: “My mom as Cowgirl” . It is a unique tribute to my mom, and how similar we truly are.

Someone else will be inspired with your cast-offs

The finale of the unfinished quilt saga occurred several weeks later, when my daughter turned the squares into a baby doll quilt. I sent my 1-1/2” pieced scraps to my oldest daughter, and then found out she created something beautiful, and useful. My decision to get rid of something that did not inspire me, led to her inspiration.

When she got the envelope filled with randomly pieced squares of fabric, with the note that said “Your turn”, she was surprised, of course. But who can resist an envelope of fabric squares that were already grouped and pieced? Instead of seeing a mish-mash, she saw a quilt that was almost done (hah!). Just a matter of putting together the rows, adding borders, then quilt and bind.

And as you can see by the pictures, she did an admirable job! The quilt was used in her  kindergarten classroom, wrapped around the baby doll that the kids got to take care of and play with.

The blue borders pull all the colored rows together, 

And on the back, she used the remaining squares to create a fancy corner used to cover the baby dolls head.

So maybe I should have a new creative rule – what you don’t know what to do with, give to someone else. They will see it with new eyes, and it can become something you couldn't imagine.

 

Thank goodness I got rid of that fabric

In August I was talking about the 1-1/2" quilt squares that reminded me of the Dodgers baseball game.  All those thousands of people, and me with hundreds of miniature squares of different colored fabrics.  I never told anyone what happened to all those.  Here's a clue:  I don't have them anymore.  Maybe we should all get rid of the projects we don't like!

I tried all the different combinations; random, light to dark, same colors in a row, etc.  I finally decided to keep the randomness, but in similar colorways.

So then, it was time to sew all the little pieces together the way I had laid them out. 

So I sewed, and sewed, and sewed. My daughter was the one who took lessons in how to piece, and I sort of remembered how she did it – just make a chain. But I can only piece two together at a time. Then sew pairs together. After quite a few hours at the sewing machine (just how many squares are there?), I finally had rows of random colored fabric squares sewn together. And I didn’t like it.

It was fun to finally get to my sewing machine and sew, but what’s with the random rows? They aren’t speaking to me at all. I like appliqué, not traditional, and definitely not random rows of pastel-y colored printed flowery grandmotherly cottons. I’m not trying to put together scraps here – my great-great grandma needed to do that so the family could be warm at night.

I don’t know that for sure. But I do know I want something fabulous – there must be a fabulous wall hanging, or purse, or something hiding in there between the squares.

So I grabbed some black background fabric, added some red squares, and placed the colored rows of tiny squares on top. Then spent an hour grouping them in colorways. It was fun, and I was finally pleased with the arrangement.

Then I got up to get lunch, and that evening, peeked in at my soon to be masterpiece. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to make it.

So I had a decision to make.  I don’t leave unfinished quilt tops laying around for later. Really.  I do that with my knitting projects, and it really gets me in trouble!

Inspiration finally hit. I grabbed a brown padded mailer, addressed it to my daughter, The Quilter, and shoved all the little random rows in, with glee. Then I wrote a short note that said – “It’s your turn!”, and walked down to the mailbox to mail it.

Couldn't wait to see what she would do with all those rows!

How big is this purse going to be?

Since cleaning my yarn closet (and remembering I've got a whole bunch more garage sale wool in the trunk of my car), I decided it was time to start making felted purses again. 

Felted purses/totes are great because they knit or crochet up quickly and use up a lot of yarn.  And that's just what I need right now - use up some of that wool yarn!  

I decided to use up the yarn that I painted in a yarn painting class a few weeks ago.  I was so disappointed in the results from that class - instead of vibrant beautiful reds and browns, I achieved two hanks of pale pinks and tans.  So, instead of using it for the intended sweater vest, I doubled it up with another wool to make really thick yarn for a felted purse.

Here's a closeup of the handpainted yarn, near the top half of the picture, doubled up with a dark pink rug yarn that I had in stock.  The base, near the bottom of the picture, is some random thick wools that I had in stock too.

When I finished the knitting, using double strands of thick wools, the purse was as big as the whole seat cushion on the bottom of this chair!

Here's a closeup of the whole purse, before felting.  You can see the color change, where I had to add some other wools to try and blend with the original hand painted yarn, which I ran out of! Then, I put the whole thing in the washing machine, and using hot water and heavy duty agitation, ran the purse through 3 full cycles.  Used a cold water rinse, checking after each cycle to see how much felting had occurred.

Here's the felted purse.  Much bigger than I thought it would be - more of a satchel, but once it dries, I can add handles, brush it to bring out the fuzziness, and I'll have another carryall.  I kind of like the homemade look, and the various pinks. 

Cleaning the Yarn Closet

Now here's the kind of cleaning I like - organizing my walk-in yarn closet took days, but it was fun! 

It all started with an email from a new weaving teacher looking for donations for the weaving and knitting classes opening at U.C. Santa Barbara, my alma mater.  I decided to give up a lot of weaving books (make room for more quilting and sewing books), because I only have one large loom left in my house. 

Then, I decided to donate some yarn - because I have so much thin weaving cotton on cones.  The coned yarns are not real practical for knitting, except knitting by machine, or if you want to knit with small needles and double-up on the # of strands. 

So here are some pictures of what I have left! 

The walk-in custom yarn closet  was built for me by a dear friend many years ago.  The back wall has cedar lined shelves, and that's where I put my wools.  As you can see, I color code them.  At the bottom, in all the sacks, are my spinning fleece - mostly wools too.  And beneath that are unfinished knitting projects.

Here's the other side of the back wall, with some of the rest of the knitting weight wools.  I say some, because I had pulled out all the boxes stored in front of the shelves, and realized later that the wool in those boxes couldn't be put on shelves, because I've outgrown the shelf space.

Then, there's the cottons, silks and rayons, which are on the shelves on the sides of the closet.

The white cotton is in a large box at the bottom of the shelf.  The box next to it has all the sparkly stuff, and yarns with metallics.

Yes, I know, I know.  But I do have an excuse!  I've been buying yarn since I was a teenager, and used to own a yarn-selling business, so I could buy wholesale.

I keep telling my daughters that they need to take up knitting and crocheting.  Some day, they say.  Meanwhile, I do knit and crochet every day.  And I've found that knitting and crocheting wool purses uses up a lot of the wool yarn. 

Why not just use a computer to design fabric?

After weeks of driving hours to my fabric design class, I just can’t imagine why an artist would spend the time and money to paint big sheets of paper, when the computer can give you any color you want. And for that matter, why would a designer spend all this time and money trying to duplicate a design by hand, when computers will duplicate a design, precisely, and it only takes a click.

I was telling my oldest daughter about how my “dream” to learn fabric design was just plain hard work using just paints. I wanted to paint on fabric, or something.  I told her that painting is messy, time consuming, expensive, and I wanted to learn how to design on my computer.

And then, she told me about a website where I could have my favorite  fabric design printed on fabric at Spoonflower.com  I only needed to download a digital picture of my design, decide how much to order, and wait a few weeks. And it's fun to look and order the fabrics that other people have designed too.

Here's a video that explains the process.

I immediately decided to say goodbye to the paints, and learn fabric design by computer. There are probably several good programs that let you design, do repeats, and create wonderful patterns. I was relieved, and several weeks later, I don’t miss class (or the drive) at all!

A Ditzy print - sounds like fun.

In our last fabric design class, we learned about ditzy prints. These are tiny, flowery or natural prints with randomly scattered objects over the surface of the page. They look like calico prints to me, although one of my classmates painted bees.

My biggest problem with this assignment was that we were told to paint our background first. It was so hard to get the paint even (maybe if I had a miniature roller?).

I am pleased with the results - sort of like a quilting print.

This one I think I'll keep - I'm pleased with it because it seems simple.  Funny how I keep using the same colors - green and violet-blue.  I wear those colors a lot too!