Stitch Adventures

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!

Dodgers Game Quilt

Dodgers Game Quilt

I'm sitting high in the stands at Dodger Stadium, enjoying just being around my oldest daughter and her in-laws, even though it's over 100 degrees. I'm definitely not a sports fan, especially not in record breaking heat. But, 43,795 people think this is fun, and paid for it, so there must be a reason. So many people – all wearing different colors, lots of blues. Tiny people, multi colors, voila, a live postage stamp quilt!

 

A few days later ago I showed my daughter two Keepsake Fabrics sample boxes, filled with several hundred 1-1/2” cotton prints that I received as a “member” of their club. Only in her twenties, my daughter is the expert quilter in our family, and has always wanted to make a postage stamp quilt. Well, she forgot to take the samples, so after the Dodgers game and my visualization, I started fooling with them.

First I did some research on postage stamp quilts – some using 2 inch squares, one woman made one using 2,935 1 inch squares and then hand pieced and quilted it (crazy!). Use of a flannel board for placement. Put all your squares into a paper bag and pull out random squares of fabric and place in rows.

Didn’t find that yet, but started playing with the colors that came in the boxes. I spent hours! First, I did the random thing. I made a few changes as I went along – to make sure I had red, yellow and turquoise squares randomly scattered throughout the piece (one website advised to do this to make the other colors “Pop”). But the random colors just don’t look like something I want to make and hang on my wall.

 

Then I wondered what the pattern would look like if I grouped them by color – light to dark, maybe with strips of solid color in between to separate the strips.

Then it came to me – make this the Dodgers game quilt. Random people in different sections – with strips of blue in between (like where the graphics and advertisements were displayed). Now I like it!

So time to figure out how to sew these little squares together.

Happy Belated Fathers Day

It just occurred to me, I didn't post the pictures of the present I made for my husband for Fathers Day, several weeks ago.  I gave it to him on time, and he proudly sent me pictures, once he put it in place in his shop.

This present wasn't actually inspiration.  My husband owns a machine shop, and his building is filled with big metal cutting, grinding, forming machines.  Big, like the size of trucks, cars, and refrigerators.

Several months ago he asked me to make a cover for a machine that is the size of a refrigerator, when it's on the stand.  Not all the machines need covers, (thank goodness).  Just this one, because it's a precision measuring machine, and flying metal chips and oil could cause it to lose accuracy.

I kept telling myself how easy it would be to take the measurements and maybe borrow some old sailcloth (he used to have a sail loft, to make hang gliders, hang glider bags, and tie downs.  Yea, really).

But I never got around to it until a few days before Fathers Day.  I got the measurements, found a huge plastic continuous zipper in a box in his shop, and brought everything home.  He still has his industrial sewing machine in his shop, but that wouldn't have been much of a secret if I worked on the cover there.

Making the cover was easy enough - it's just a big box without a bottom.  I applied the zipper all around the front so that he can zip the cover open and use the machine without removing the cover.

And, since I love using my new embroidery machine, I decided to put his business name on the front, so it would at least be special.

I used some canvas pieces in his favorite color - blue, and did the design in silver metallic, to go with all the metal chips that he makes.  Here's the finished cover.

So much better than a new tie!

Transformed another sewing project

This quilt block started at a quilt workshop that I went to in January at Road to California Quilt Conference. http://www.road2ca.com. If you are a new quilter, "going to Road" will absolutely overwhelm you -but in a good way!  There are many workshops to choose from, 100’s of exhibits, vendors, and just great eye candy.

The workshop I took, “Dahlias”, was lead by the designer, Sharlene Jorgenson.  Her website www.qheartlands.com, shows the quilt (gorgeous!) that was to be our inspiration.

The Dahlia pattern and templates that I purchased were well written and easy to use.  We spent the entire day making the most perfect ¼” seams, just so the dahlias would come together exactly.  Well, I should have brought my husband’s micrometer. He owns a machine shop, and all his measurements are in hair widths.  Or smaller.  That’s how exact the seams needed to be.

I finished the block when I got home.  I can do this, yeah.  But do I want to make more than one dahlia?  Nope.   That’s why the one dahlia block that I made ended up in a grocery sack.  There it sat, in a pile on my fairly clean sewing table. 

Then, my good friend Maria, came back from her 6 month trip to Cape Town, South Africa.  Over sushi and wine, she related all her amazing adventures, and then brought out a present for me – a package of fabrics from South Africa! 

One of the fabrics immediately jumped out and said – these are the same colors that you used in your dahlia block.  With just a small strip of fabric to use (it was a remnant), I sewed it around the perimeter to make a perfect frame around the dahlia quilt block.

Once the dahlia was framed, I had to do something with it.  Make a table runner, pillow or a tote bag? Too many pillows in my life, for now, but if I made it into a tote bag, it would be useful. The tote bag was born, and finally finished.  It’s pretty special, maybe a little too good for hauling drippy cartons of milk from the grocery store.  So, I’ll use it as my spring knit bag.                                                              

 

P.I.G.S.

Pigs - Projects in Grocery Sacks

A few years ago, my new year’s resolution was to finish as many of my unfinished knitting projects as I could during the year. And I ended up completing about 10 different sweaters and pairs of socks, which was fun.

But Pigs, come to find out, are more than just farm animals. I read that there’s a name for all my unfinished sewing – “projects in grocery sacks”. (I belong to the American Sewing Guild, Los Angeles chapter, and they used this term in their newsletter).

I have an entire pen of pigs! An entire drawer of unfinished sewing projects in grocery sacks. You know, my biggest concern when I vowed to use canvas bags for my groceries was “what am I going to put my projects in?”

So when I was cleaning one of my sewing rooms – a real thorough cleaning – I opened that drawer and found some really neat stuff! Probably a dozen bags of fabric with pattern, thread, ribbon, etc. – all ready to go.

Now I have to admit some of those pigs are a wonder – as in “what was I thinking??” But I think it would be fun for me to do something with those patterns and fabric – even if the original intent is unclear or unappealing. Now that’s a challenge to my creativity!

I think I will do one "old pig" for every new garment I make. If I start working on some of this old sewing, I can actually have fun, and maybe get rid of some of my “pig guilt”.

First grocery sack in the drawer that I pulled out to complete was a half finished green fleece sweatshirt. Ugh. But it's perfect for the cool foggy days that preceed the blazing hot summer to come.  

You can see how I added some extra length on the bottom where the pockets originally ended.  I didn't want it quite so short as my original intentions.  I've installed a separating zip, and didn't add a lining because I don't need the extra layer for the weather here in California.  Nice thing about sewing fleece is that the edges don't need to be finished.  They don't ravel.  So this truly is a quick project.

My contest entry is in the mail.

Have you heard the expression "deadline hugger"?  Well, last week I was a prime example of that.  My entry in the American Sewing Guild creativity contest was finally mailed - good thing my local post office was open on Saturday till 2pm.

What a challenge I gave myself.  I was up till the wee hours every night last week to complete everything. But I did it, and I'm happy with the results.  I achieved my goal of 5 pieces complete, pictures taken, and fabric samples sent.  Here are some of the pictures of what I made.

Here's the original dress, but ironed and complete.

And the jacket I made to go over it, and to go with the other three pieces (shirt, capris and skirt)

Here's the shirt and capris.

And the skirt, blouse and jacket.

See the flower? I decided to make that too.  Here's a closeup.

I made the flower from the same fabric as the blouse, used my serger to finish the edges, then found the cute little ladybug bead in my button box.

I spent the weekend recupperating from my self-imposed rush.  Now, it's time to go clean my sewing rooms!

In a hurry

I'm demonstrating, once again, how to procrastinate.  I knew the deadline was fast approaching for the American Sewing Guild "Sew Creative" contest.  And I do have an excuse - my quilt needed to be done for the quilt challenge last week.  However, now I only have this week to complete my sewing project.

I started with this pattern, which is Simplicity 2659.  The rules of the contest state that all items must be sewn using any of 6 Simplicity patterns, and pictures of completed items are due by May 1st.

  

After spending several months debating the many choices, I chose to make this dress.  I used a beautiful linen print fabric from my stash, and started sewing.  But the first try-on convinced me that the dress was just a sack.  Sorry, it just reminded me of what I used to wear when I was pregnant.  I know that blousy styles are fashionable right now, but they are certainly not flattering to an older woman.  In fact, I think the gathered tops are only good for skinny young people. That want to look like hippies from the 70's.

So I reinvented the dress.  Cut the dress apart under the bust, added a strip of red print cotton underneath, and put everything back together.  Now we're talking.

Then, since I only had a smidgen of red fabric left, I made some skinny piping to go around the neckline.  I would have liked to add more of the red at the hemline, but don't have any more.

I raided my moms old button box, and found these two antique buttons, with little rhinestones in the center - perfect color!

Then, I read the rules of the contest.  The only two categories I can enter are "Creative use of embellishment" or "Best outfit, 5 pieces or more".  Uh oh.  I changed the pattern, and made it into a dress I like, but embellishment?  So, I've decided, If I want to try and win, not just enter, I need to make four more pieces that will create a "weekend summer wardrobe".

Goodness, what have I challenged myself to?  A trip to the fabric store, washed all the fabric (staining my white shirt, stupid me, because I wanted to wash more than 2 yards of fabric, and threw in some of my regular washing).

I've decided to try and make a jacket, a blouse, a skirt, and a pair of pants, using two other Simplicity patterns.  One day left because the quilt show is Friday and Saturday, and I'm working both days. Kind of like mimicking Project Runway.  But, let's see what I can accomplish.