Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Let's try again
I scheduled this post yesterday, but forgot to get around to writing anything in the text. How lame!
So last weekend I got itchy quilting fingers. I still have tons of scraps left over from this quilt, so I thought I'd make a little wall hanging to put up for sale on Etsy. (Not to shamelessly promote, but you can go see it on Etsy if you wanna...)
It was so nice to just sit in the studio and run my little sewing machine and piece things together. I'm not sure what is so alluring about the putting together of little pieces of fabric, but I love it!
I freehand quilted it, then handstitched the binding. I also love the feel of needle and thread in my hand, so I really satisfied all kinds of cravings.
Labels: handmade, obsessions, quilts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Gratitude
Gratitude. There just aren't many words but to say "thank you" to my Aunt Elaine for this quilt. It's unbelievable. She was incredibly worried about her color choices. It's really a sad state of affairs when making something for you stresses out your loved ones.
This is a queen size beauty!
Elaine and several of my other aunts hand quilted this over a period of months.
Of all people to receive a hand made gift like this---I was speechless. I'm afraid I wasn't excited enough when I opened it, but I love it so much!
P.S. I took this on the day when the temperature was a HIGH of 12 degress Farhenheit.
Friday, October 17, 2008
The quilt is progressing!
Netflix is our friend here out in the country. We have satellite, but we're used to the best cable package ever. So we watch lots of movies. And while we're watching these movies, I sew. And sew. And it makes me so happy.
I'm so thrilled with this technique. It was born out of the desire to hand stitch the top and to have a "couch" project which I can work on while watching all those movies. And also the desire to finish a quilt in my lifetime. This is so FAST! And it doesn't have to be perfect.
Basically, I'm hand-quilting with embroidery thread. I love the graphic effect that it has. It's big color and high effect. I love hand quilting--perhaps because it's so laborious and difficult--but I don't have the attention span for that.
I'm already daydreaming of the next quilt I can design and stitch in this way. It has been 3 weeks of working when I'm not doing anything else, and I think that's the perfect amount of work. It's almost done! Here's the original post.
Another good thing about living in the country--the Bookmobile! It comes to the bank parking lot in our little town of 901 every 2 weeks. Here's the view of my couch right now:
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I'm just a tag-a-long
I became somewhat obsessed by the Grandma's flower garden craze a month or so ago. I say "became" because I no longer feel the nagging urge to make more ridiculously tiny hexs. I made my piece and that's pretty much it for me. This project served it's purpose in being a great small take-a-long project for my long long, no-sleeping cross atlantic flights. And I spent at least an hour every night working on them while in Barcelona. And my mom even had to chip in some time, too.
I was inspired by the Craftzine link to Sunshine's site. She made it super easy. I didn't even have to read the destructions. There were plenty of pics to go around. Now I think there is even a flickr pool dedicated to the Flower Garden. Liesl from Disdressed posted this week about the torture of doing tons of work for such a small outcome.
The fact is, sometimes I like to really dig in and indulge my perfectionist, neurotic need to do really teeny tiny things. I love itty bitty things, as I believe I've mentioned before. Now I'm done. I feel no need to do any more of these. I scratched the itch, and that's all I need. I think I'll just paste it onto something else.
After I started doing these hexagons, I started seeing them everywhere. Here is a pice of tiles designed by Gaudi that were all over Spain. I really wanted to buy one, but I didn't want to haul it back.
I'm including another bad photo of the stinkin' birdcage. I just don't have the right spot to shoot it, I think.
p.s. See those handy little yellow scissors up there? Yeah, they made it through my carryon luggage at 7 different airports' security counters. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I was happy not to use my fingernail clippers to cut things with.
Labels: handmade, obsessions
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
slouchy purse x2
I'm working on tweaking this pattern. I'm so thrilled with the fabrics in this. They're Alexander Henry (at least, i'm pretty sure) I used my trusty pin-tucking foot. I'm in love with little tucks. I still need to work on the shape. The last one was a little too wide, this one is a little too narrow.
Still awaiting word back from Franklin's Pumpkinfest. I'll have to kick it in high gear if I do get in. Anyone want to participate in the Beth Howard Studio Sweatshop? Didn't think so. At least I'll have a month this time instead of 2 weeks.
I'm super stressed at work, so that accounts for the lack of blogging. I have plenty 'o subject matter, just no time to write.
Go out and enjoy the beautiful weather! Or at least open the windows in your sewing rooms!
Labels: handmade
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Some small things
Trying desperately to make stuff, even when I don't really feel like it. 
This is a photo album cover that I made. I bought one of those cheapy plastic ones from Target, then made a cover and slipped it in. I think it's really a testament to my whole back-to-school nostalgia from last week. In the background are 2 photo frames that I made from scraps. I just love being resourceful! And the fact of the matter is, I love patterns and color and fabric. And I have a lot of it. Might as well use it.
NEXT!!
This is a slouchy type bag. It's my prototype for a series I want to do for the show I'm going to be in in October (if I get in. fingers crossed.) I have a whole lot of fabric that I think would make lovely bags. Have any of you had much luck with Etsy ? I really have not been impressed. It's so frustrating to see a bag that you know took 30 hours to make be listed for $4. But maybe it's just my luck or layout,, or something. Anyway.
I sewed little pockets in the inside, and a larger pocket on the outside. Finished with a grosgrain ribbon. Next up: elongating the width and evening out the curve of the bottom. Off to bed!
Labels: handmade
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Crafty Goodness
I'm so excited to tell you all about the Nashville Craft Mafia I went to the first major meeting on Saturday and met some fab crafty folk. Lots of us are day-job designers and weekend knitters, sewists, purse-making, camera-wielding types. If you live in Nashville, and make things, you must go to their website and sign up. We plan to have shows, fundraisers, and generally support craft artists in a fun-loving way. These girls are serious and determined. We must band together!
And I met some people signed up for my Fabric Collage Class I'm so excited. I just sent the finalized supply list to the aRThOUSE. I'll post it here after Whitney sends it out. I can't wait. I want to inspire my students to think beyond their normal imagery vocabulary.
Speaking of classes, here are some prints that I made when I was at home on vacation. I made stamps and used thickened dye. The thickened dye makes for such lovely saturated colors. I'll be teaching this class on October 21st at the aRThOUSE . It will be so fun! Next stop on the class list: Quilting from the Hip...from the BH school of "Sew crap together"
I'm working on some photo albums and purses. I applied for Pumpkinfest in quaint little Franklin, Tennessee the last weekend of October. I'm not sure if I really want to jump into the production that it may require, but on the other hand, I would love to sell some things and get my name out there. We'll see.
Labels: handmade
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
It's that time of the Season
So, fall has come in a hot blustery rush. And now it's cool and all, well, autumnal and it makes me sad. Sad is perhaps the wrong word. More sentimental. So sentimental that it's a little too much for me to take. Today I worked 10 hours in a windowless office. I had no idea if it had been sunny or rainy until I walked out the door at 6pm. Turns out it was a glorious day. The kind that makes me wish I could walk home from school. But alas, I'm neither in school nor capable of walking home from work.
Maybe it's that this weather triggers all the wonderful memories I have of wonderful times at this time of day. First days of school, new beginnings, break-ups, new relationships. Major life changes. And also the smaller things: coming home from float trips with my favorite people in the world, driving to high school football games when I was still completely thrilled to be independent, cruising country roads just because, driving by myself to Nashville from Missouri for my first real-world-on-my-own-type-job.
I promise I'll try to soak up this season while it's here, not hide from it because I don't want to know what I'm missing while in my dark little office. Stay away, dreary winter! I'm not ready to abandon my flip-flops yet!
Here is the quilt I made while on Vacation. It's lap-quilt size, and quilted with only small frustrations on our new John Flynn Quilt Frame. I hope to make a few more style/designy quilts and sell them somewhere. Or maybe market them to a mass-market company. Who knows. Any ideas?
Love you guys. I know you're out there reading, and I'm eternally grateful. See? I told you I'm really sentimental right now. I even had to edit out a "freakin'" because I was trying to be faux-non-chalant.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Flexing some rusty skills
In a former life, I ran a tiny but relatively successful business out of my teenage bedroom in my parents' house. (My dad to this day thought all I did up there was talk on the phone and paint my nails.) Ok, so I did that too, but mostly I made lovely little brightly colored things out of polymer clay. I made "canes" in any image that struck my fancy, then sliced them up and made beads, covered glass bottles, and made lots and lots of jewelry. I sold all these things in a little gallery in Columbia, Missouri called Poppy. A wonderul boutique. And still lovely even today.
There was something so strange about doing all the same movements that I used to do all those years ago. The rolling, the squaring up of the clay. I repeated those movements so many times. Muscle memory is a real thing. I read about it in the Creative Habit (on my "books" to the right >> Isn't there something you haven't done in years and years? I'm thinking of making a friendship bracelet. I had another little business making them for friends in the 4th grade. Almost got in big trouble for that one. Let's just say there may have been some investor fraud going on. Ooohh, that Tressa. I'm still mad that she made me go to the principal's office for the first time in my life. And I was such a do-gooder! I still remember my mom saying "Now don't let it get in the way of your school work." Sheesh! I was in 4th-freaking-grade!! How serious must one be? If you can't focus on a friendship bracelet business then, then when, I ask you? I was a pro at the knotting, too.
I've often wondered how my designs would be different if, after a college education and almost 10 years (ack!) exactly what I would do differently. I would hope to at least have better design and taste in color. Who knows.
So I decided to try it out again and here are the results. Not too bad. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with them. I may make some beads to embellish a quilt. We'll see.
Gonna go make a friendship bracelet. Well, maybe tomorrow.
Labels: handmade, try, try again
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Glad tidings
Okay, soes if you didn't know, it was my birthday Saturday. Thank you, thank you, I did have a very happy birthday. A lot of mama's cooking and my boyfriend and sister making me laugh hysterically. Not too many family dinners are kicked off with a sisterly fight over an "inside" (less crust) roll which caused a youngest sister to clank the other sister's teeth with a steak knife in an fit-of-rage-attempt to gain back the disputed roll. Anyway, i digress. This here quilt was made over the weekend. It goes along with my Fabric Collage Class that I'm teaching next month at the the aRThOUSE.
It's about 18"x 14" I'm undecided about name for now. And i have another one almost done--more pics soon. Golly, i thought I wouldn't have anything to write, and now I just don't have enough time to write it. I guess I'll just have to clean house a little less....mmmm. yes. less cleaning.
Too. Tired. Must sleep.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
News! of the Exciting type!!
I had a meeting yesterday with the aRThOUSE Nashville, it's on 12th Avenue, and I'm going to be on the fall roster to teach some classes. I love to teach, and since I (not so) secretly am trying to recruit a quilting group for those under 80 years old, it's great news! I'll keep it posted on here the exact classes, etc. once they are officially on the aRThOUSE's website. I do know that I'm teaching 2 workshops--Fabric Collage and Fabric Printing--like what's in the pic above. And later in the fall, I'll be teaching a beginning quiltmaking class. Hooray! Keep checking up here, and on the aRThOUSE's website, for class info. They're super nice people there, and have a great gallery, as well.
Labels: handmade, sharing, try again, who I am
Thursday, August 03, 2006
New Design Board!
My teeny little studio (at least I have a studio, I know, I know) was crying out for a design wall. Something that I could use to put up little parts of projects and step farther away than the length of my own two arms to get a grip on whatever tedious process it was desperately in need of. This process is how I got into making 18 more blocks...yes, that's DOUBLE the original number of blocks...for my RRound Robin quilt Thanks, Kim. Ugg. Oh well. She and Lauren helped me make a couple of more blocks as part of a labor trade.
So anyway, the design wall is cotton batting tacked to my wall. And on the other wall, I've used some big ole hooks bolted in the ceiling that are supposed to be used to hang a bike from your garage ceiling. I'm so clever! Unfortunately, it was actually my dad's idea. Unfortunate because he thinks he's sooooo smart. It would have been better if he had just done it for me. Anyway, so I took dowel rods and ran them into the sleeves of the quilts, leaving their original dowels in there also, and voile` I have a great way to hang my quilts out of the way, all organized and not bunched up in a closet. "Parade!" I mean "Hooray"! My sister babysat a little girl who had the two words mixed up. But they both sort of carry the same feeling, no? Anyway. I'm making myself late for work....ta-ta!
Labels: handmade, try again, who I am
Friday, July 14, 2006
Round Robin Bliss
Here are first, my blocks for my aunt's quilt. Second, my blocks with my fabrics. All the crafty ladies in my family joined forces and agreed to sew at least 2 blocks a month.
Here's how it works: I picked out 10 fat quarters, sewed 2 block for myself out of those fabrics. Then, I mailed these 2 blocks and the remaining fabric to the next person in line. The next person sewed 2 blocks out of my fabric, in her own style, then mailed them on, with whatever fabric is leftover, to the next person. We went from Mid-Missouri, to Nashville, to East Tennessee, to New York, to California. Whew! My blocks are tired from all that travelling! I'm so excited about them. I really need to sew 2 more blocks--then I'd have 20. Any ideas what I should use to set them all together? I can't even decide if I want it to hang on the wall or use it as a lap quilt. I guess I'll figure it out after I sew it all together. If I spend too much time on it, I probably won't want to use it as a functional thing. We'll see.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
I'm a stripper, baby!
I've spent the last 2 weekends making strips and strips and strips for this baby quilt. I love how it's turning out. Moreover, I love that I'm using all my lovely scrap fabrics. During the week I've been appliquing on the flowers by hand using the freezer paper applique method, which works beautifully. I'm increasingly unwilling to spend time doing nothing--even with my friends. I could go out every night of the week and eat lovely dinners, but all I really want to do is sew, and look for more fabric to sew to my existing ridiculous amount of fabric. But I love it! I sit in my studio and listen to podcasts. My favorite so far are Alex Anderson's 15 minute weekly cast, and a delightful 1hour-1.5 hour podcast called Craftsanity--it's all about indie crafters and how they came to be crafters, and how they make it work. It's so much better than watching tv!
Labels: handmade
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Dancing Girl
Here's a quilt I've been working on. It's about 36x36. The inside part is floating from the stripes part. I stabilized the material, then crazy-machine stitched around to secure it. The final step will be to melt off the stabilizer. The inside pic is of a little girl dressed like a princess twirling around. It was taken by a friend of mine who sadly died in the last couple of months. I think it's a nice reminder of her spirit. I scanned the image then ran a piece of fabric on freezer paper through my printer.
Labels: handmade