Fabric Collage

I’m taking a break from the internet this week. I need to rest and get caught up because Gwen only has two more weeks of school. She will continue with camp until the end of July but will be home more often and need more attention.

I recently joined Art42, a new mail art site based on the old Nervousness format, and promptly signed up for three projects. The first one is to art up a brown cardboard star sent by the swap host. For a long time I have enjoyed looking at the colorful jumble of fabric scraps that accumulates on the floor while I am sewing. So I attacked some bright batik fabrics with scissors and went to work with some glue. Here it is so far. It needs to be shiny, so I’ll give it a few coats of varnish before sending it off to the pacific northwest.

Have a great week!

Completed swap blocks

At first I wasn’t very enthusiastic about swapping blocks instead of mini-quilts for the latest installment of the 4SQS swap. But I’m glad I signed up anyway because the lovely and talented swap host chose a block that was fun to make and looks great. Her tutorial on piecing this block is here.

I made 9 blocks with scraps left over from the green pinwheel and red Norwegian flag mini quilts. Part 2 of this swap (up to 20 more blocks) is due in mid-August, so there will be more of these in the near future. I still have some red and green fabrics but will probably pick up some fat quarters in another color (orange, maybe) for variety.

Summer Sewing

Big news- gwensdad and I may get to take a vacation for the first time in 12 years! Plans are to spend four days in the mountains on the other side of our state. We are currently working out all the details with Gwen’s caregivers, so keep your fingers crossed that we can cover all the bases. I’m already thinking of what craft projects to take with me.

In the meantime I have been working on the shirt quilt for the Old Red Barn Quiltalong. I sewed my strips into squares, laid them out and was underwhelmed. The blocks were big, the piecing was plain, and the fabric design (shirt plaids) and colors were subtle. Not ugly, but not what I love to make. Now it takes a lot of time to assemble a quilt and it is a real drag to labor over something that doesn’t exactly float your boat. So I got out the rotary cutter, hacked my blocks into smaller pieces, sewed them back together and chose some blue sashing for contrast. Still more traditional than my usual work, but much better!

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The binding is really going to look great. I’ll be piecing together the leftover patchwork strips for a super scrappy look.

Today I’m finishing up some blocks for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap Sumer Block Swap. Here are a couple I cut from pinwheel quilt leftovers. There will be red ones as well.

Gwen is having a blast this summer! She goes to school in the morning and camp in the afternoon. She gets so tired that she actually sleeps late and chills out on the weekend.

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzz!

Devastation

Last week my mom came over. I asked her if she wanted to go with me to Hancock’s (fabrics) get some quilt batting on sale.

“We can’t go there. It burned down last night.” she said.

After standing with my mouth hanging open for a few minutes I checked the news website, and sure enough.

I felt like I had been slapped. My fabric store was gone just like that! What would happen to all those ladies who cut fabric for me? One has been there forever and another had just started. Would they be out of jobs? Over the years, Hancock has closed two stores near my house and moved farther and farther into the suburbs. This was the only one left inside the I-240 loop.

That day I fought the crazy-making traffic and bought my batting at another Hancock planted in the middle of big box retail hell. Since then I have heard rumors that they will rebuild but they’re not sure where.

Gwensdad drove me over there a few days later. It was pretty ugly. Here are a few fellow gawkers.

At first it seemed as if there was no indication of what this blackened twisted mess used to be. But then I spotted a lonely bolt of blue fabric with singed edges among the rubble.

So sad.

Ok, Breathe!

I am totally freaked out because I just put Gwen on a school bus for the first time. The nurse, the attendant and the driver were all great, the air conditioning was working and I know it will be ok. But OMG!

And no, I am NOT following the bus in the car! I will be going to the school in a few minutes to make sure all the medical paperwork is in order and to correct the bus orders that have her coming home after school instead of going to camp. But I thought I’d blog in the meantime as an alternative to hyperventilation :0

Like a hole in the head

I didn’t need anything else to do. But I found this great quiltalong and signed up because I needed to make someone a quilt and because the grand prize is a tricked out Janome sewing machine.

New fabric for this would have run over $50, which was not in the budget. So I turned to the thrift store stash and found a few plaid men’s shirts and a plaid pair of pajama pants. After a return trip to the thrift store on 1/2 price day I had enough shirts for a great start. I’m saving the pockets for another project.

Here is some of what was left.

Stay tuned for an update soon!

Graduation!

Last week Gwen graduated from 6th grade and her mama almost melted down. Not sure why, but the anticipation of this event had me freaked out for the entire last week of school.

Gwen is not capable of doing 6th grade work, but graduated because she is 12 and it’s time for middle school. There is a large special needs population at this school and any one of them who age out can participate in the ceremony. Throughout the year, the special needs kids spend time in regular classrooms, so they are graduating with their peers.

The week leading up to the ceremony saw me a complete wreck, and for no reason! We are registered at a great school for next year. We already know that Gwen’s teacher will be a wonderful lady who has had her for the last 5 years in summer school. It’s all good, but the prospect of change made me come unhinged. I’m a lot better at this than I used to be. The first time Gwen moved – from a baby class to the 2-year-old class next door on the bottom floor of a world class children’s hospital – I cried and panicked for days.

We were able to use this year’s fancy dress for the third time. She wore it first in a wedding, then to the prom and finally for graduation. I left off the crocheted gloves and the necklace because I didn’t think graduation called for bling. I was wrong- many of the girls looked like they were going to Cinderella’s ball. There were updo’s, high heels, rhinestones and floor length dresses. One dude was looking really sharp in a fedora.

Once again we had the opportunity to participate in a rite of passage that seemed out of our reach. Yes, I cried this time too. Not out of panic, but out of gratitude for what our precious girl has been able to achieve.

Teacher Gifts- done and done!

My baby is graduating from 6th grade tomorrow. *sobs* Gwen has attended her current school since she was three and has thrived there. Her teachers and therapists have been wonderful so I decided to go all out and make them (all SEVEN of them) tote bags as a thank you gift. I have given these bags before but never this many at once! Most were made from thifted clothes with a little yardage from my stash thrown in when necessary. We gave them out this afternoon.

Here they all are hanging from Gwensdad’s prototype grape arbor. We’re going to raise muscadines.

They look kind of washed out in the sun so I took some better pics indoors. These bags are for Gwen’s Physical and Speech therapists. The plain blue bag is denim and batik yardage. The other bag is made from a linen dress and lined with batik yardage. This one is my fav and I may need to make one for myself.

The blue bag was kind of plain so I put the bling on the inside. Gwen’s PT is Filipino but became a US citizen just in time to vote in the 2008 presidential election. I printed the flags of both countries on some inkjet sew-in fabric sheets and used them for the pockets. He loved it!

The Occupational Therapist is special because she is the one person that has been with Gwen from day 1. For her bag, I cut into some home dec fabric samples that came from a thrift shop a long time ago.

There were four different colorways of this ocean print and I used them all. She is excited to take it to the beach this summer.

I loved making these two with some pants I have been hoarding for a long time. Two of Gwen’s teachers told me that their favorite color is purple, with one specifying a purple and green color combination. The green lining was a skirt and the yellow was a dress. I had to take this picture in a dark corner so that the purple would not look blue.

Finally, the other two teachers liked pink and bright turquoise blue. The pink bag made with a fabric leftover from this reconstruction. The blue and green one was a skirt and the lining was a pair of green linen shorts.

Inside each bag I put instructions for making broccoli cheese soup. We have given them a quart of it every Christmas and they wanted the recipe before Gwen went off to middle school.

OMG she is going to middle school! *sob*

Memphis Knittas Rule!

The Memphis Knit Mafia has struck in Midtown! This piece went up on Tuesday and today our local alternative paper interviewed our fearless leader about this fine piece of art. **ETA Our daily did an article too!

Everyone’s favorite was the batman panel knit by Karen, our token Canadian member.

My contribution was the checkerboard and the blue fun fur stripe.

After this triumphant debut, there is discussion of covering more of the top of the pole. But we’re not sure anyone has a tall enough ladder.

Thrift Store Stash to the Rescue!

It’s time to make the to make teacher gifts again!
Thanks to my insane stash of thrifted clothes there is no shopping for supplies involved. Even the zippers for the inside pockets are recycled. They came from other clothes that have already been chopped up and repurposed.

I asked the four teachers for their favorite colors and got pink, bright turquoise blue and two purples. The pink one is made with leftovers from this bag and it finished except for a little topstitching. Today I pulled clothes for the rest and came up with this:

I really need to sew from this stash more often because it is taking over the house.

DSQ6- the Quilt I Sent

Most of my swap quilts have travelled long distances to locations in Australia, Europe or at least the Northeast US. But this one had to journey only 200 miles and never even left the state. The Post Office says that it has arrived at its destination so now I can show it.

This quilt was slow getting started because I couldn’t settle on a design. After staring at these lovely batiks for a while, I decided on a disappearing nine-patch, using both prints and a solid in each square. On the first attempt I cut 3.5″ squares which turned out too large for a small quilt. Next I tried it with 2.5″ squares. The size was more appropriate but the solid looked too boring with the batiks. And I wasn’t too jazzed about the disappearing nine patch after all. What to do, what to do?

To complicate matters, my fabrics were all in the same value range. After much hemming and hawing I remembered a technique used by Malka Dubrawsky of A Stitch in Dye. She buys commercial fabrics, then overdyes or discharges them to vary the colors. Following her lead, I took the lightest print and faded it a little with diluted bleach. The result was just what my quilt needed- a lighter shade that would set off the other prints without looking too plain.

But we were back to square one (pun intended!) on choosing a design. I started pairing the large and small squares to see which fabrics looked best together and liked what I saw.

It was just a simple square-in-square but wow! When you have good fabric the design doesn’t have to be complicated. I threw in one turquoise square for contrast and started piecing. Once again, I took some good advice from Gwensdad and left that turquoise square unquilted. When the top was finished it read too pink, so I added some tangerine touches by quilting heavily with tangerine thread and using one of the more orangey batiks for the binding.

There were a lot of scraps lying around at this point so I sewed some of them together freestyle and used them in the back of the quilt.

I’m really not sure which side is my favorite! If my LQS has more of the blue batik I might just make myself a mini quilt with the rest of my tangerine scraps.

But first I need to make four tote bags for Gwen’s teachers……

DSQ6 Received

For a week I have been patiently waiting for the sun to come out so I could photograph the wonderful quilt that arrived from Salt Marsh Designs in New Hampshire. Then the clouds parted yesterday but the camera was nowhere to be found. After the sun went down I found the dern thing in the bottom of my knitting bag. Now the gloom is back but the photo shoot just couldn’t be delayed any longer.

DSQ 6 received

This quilt is genius. She improvised it ala Gee’s Bend and then backed it with…BATIK! I love batiks but never would have thought to pair it with wonky log cabin blocks made with solids. The offset stacked coins are my favorite part. This will look great on the wall of my future sewing room. The wall color I have chosen is a light blue similar to the one in this quilt. Here’s a close up of the hand quilting.

This intrepid quilter went way out of her comfort zone to make this quilt for me. After piecing the top she blogged that although she enjoyed working without a ruler or rotary cutter, this design was really not her and didn’t represent her point of view. It grew on her though, and after the quilting was done she was reluctant to send it off. But I am very very glad she did. Thank you Ms. SMD for this beautiful work of art!

An Evening in Paris

Gwen went to the prom with Alexander again this year. Both of them seemed to have more fun than they did last time, possibly because they are older. See how much more grown up my baby looks since the last prom!

They visited the Eiffel Tower

And relaxed at a French cafe

Then they hit the dance floor

About halfway through, the DJ’s turned on the disco lights. Once Gwen saw them flickering across the ceiling she wouldn’t look at anything else.

Her necklace is a little diamond pendant that my grandmother gave me years ago. I’m not that into jewelry (except earrings) but putting this piece on her was kind of thrilling. It is one of those things I never expected to do but got to anyway!

Some odds and ends

A few random things from gwenshouse: I have acquired fabric for Doll Quilt Swap 6! I decided to use the pinker solid on the right. I’m dying to cut into it but can’t decide on a design.

We have some more pictures of Gwen as a flower girl at Elisabeth’s wedding. Here are some of the better shots.

With Alexander at the rehearsal.

the recessional

Wedding girls

Finally , I have neglected for far too long to thank two online friends for some nice recognition. Gothamgal tagged me for “Your Blog is Fabulous” and the aubirdwoman gave me a “Sisterhood Award”. Thanks ladies, I appreciate your friendship!

Can’t Let Go

*sigh*

Today I must mail this little swap quilt across an ocean. It’s very hard to let it go because just it may be my best to date.

Last year I saw this quilt made in rainbow colors and was reminded of it while cruising my flickr favorites for inspiration. My partner chose green for the color, so I was limited to green, black and white for this monochromatic challenge.

It was a little scary to try a pattern that requires so much precision. After the squares were pieced I waited two more days to join them for fear that they wouldn’t line up. But it worked out somehow and the result is far better than I expected. Don’t you love it when that happens?

My only major goof was forgetting to add a seam allowance to the pattern piece. As a result, the pinwheel squares are smaller than originally intended. But it looks fine and the quilt measurements, 16″ x 19″, are within the swap parameters. I do regret quilting the sashing. It would have looked better left alone. And to give credit where credit is due, it was gwensdad’s good idea to use white for the binding instead of green.

This little success has really given my confidence a boost. That’s why it’s so hard to actually put in the mail :( But it must go because it’s time for me to move on to Doll Quilt Swap 6. I have some lovely fabrics but have not yet decided on a design. Hmmmmm….

Amen, Sister!

On Thursday I went to the theater with some girls from church to see Sister Myotis’s Church Retreat. It was two hours of sanctified hilarity.

Since there are not words to describe what we experienced, I will refer you to this video clip of the Sister herself. Check out her website as well.

**It seems as though her website is no more. But here’s a link to the Sister’s myspace page.

Monochromatic quilt received

Every time I find a new swap quilt package in my mailbox, my heart beats a little faster.   Here’s what arrived this week from Alice’s House for Four Seasons Quilt Swap 6.

In this round of the Four Seasons swap, the quilts were to be monochromatic with the recipient choosing the season and the main color. I asked for “fall” with “soft golden orange” and Ms. Alice delivered! She named it “Whoosh”, as both the design and the quilting suggest falling autumn leaves blowing in the wind.

Participation in these swaps has taught me not to be so sure about what I think I don’t like. For a long time I cringed at fabrics with metallic content or prints. But when my adorable winter quilt arrived with shiny accents from the equally adorable Ms. Birdie in Australia I promptly changed my mind. This time it was convergence quilting I had never cared for this type of quilt because the colors fade in and out of each other too gradually and it ends up looking murky. Alice’s use of two colors in the same family but with contrasting values made all the difference! Her quilt has high contrast geometric color blocks just the way I like it.

A great exercise to stimulate creativity would be to choose a style or fabric you don’t like and tweak it until you do like it. Civil War reproductions fabrics have never inspired me because the colors and prints are so understated. What would I do if someone gave me a fat quarter pack of such fabrics with a commission to make something out of them? In the same vein, I find 1930’s reproduction fabrics too cutesy. Could these little prints be de-cute-ified? Maybe, maybe not, but the challenge would be fun!

In other news, I am almost finished with my monochromatic quilt and will blog it as soon as I get some good photos. As the mailing deadline approaches, new quilts are being added to the FSQS Flickr pool every day. There is some serious gorgeousness over there, so be sure to take a look.

The Wedding

Gwen’s social life is picking up this spring.  Last weekend she was a flower girl in the wedding!

Gwen’s caregiver Elisabeth was the bride.  The colors were black and white with red accents.  Elisabeth wanted Gwen in a dress with a black bodice, a white skirt and some red trim somewhere.  I went ahead and made a duplicate of last year’s prom dress using silk dupioni in black and white.  It was very scary to be sewing that beautiful thin silk, but dupioni is surprisingly strong and nice to sew.  Pin marks didn’t show on either color. It is imperative to zigzag or serge ALL raw edges because the stuff ravels. Fluffy black threads are still wafting around my sewing area.

For the red trim, I made a ribbon ladybug because Elisabeth’s mother has called her “ladybug” ever since she was a tiny preemie many years ago.  The florist decked out the back of the wheelchair with white tulle, white ribbon and a cluster of red roses.  We couldn’t get any smiles out of our usually happy girl.  We thought it was because she was tired, but it turned out she was on the verge of being sick with a nasty virus.

OK- on to the pics!  A view of the ladybug:

Gwen with her boyfriend Alexander, who served as the ring bearer.   Gwen will be attending Alexander’s prom again this spring.  She will wear the same dress but we will glam it up a little.

There were lots of kids in this wedding.  Gwen and Alexander both needed escorts to get down the aisle.   These handsome dudes (ages 5 and 6) did a great job.  Gwen’s escort, J, is a pro at posing for pictures.  Doesn’t he look suave in that tux?  At the rehearsal I asked him what he was going to wear in the wedding.  He said, “Fancy shoes!”

Gwen and Alexander were great attendants. They only made a little noise. Alexander’s mother and I were strategically seated on the front rows in case somebody got a little too rowdy but everyone behaved beautifully.

In the lobby after the ceremony.  Aren’t Gwen and her daddy just two peas in a pod?

Elisabeth has taken care of all of these kids at one time or another.  The boy standing up is not handicapped, but is the twin brother of the boy in front of him.

We are hoping that the wedding photographer has at least one pic of Gwen with a smile.  She did perk up a bit at the reception, because after all it was a party!

This made for a tiring weekend but it was a lot of fun. I was a flower girl three times and it was fun to see my sweet baby have the experience too. Even if she had no idea what was going on.

WIPs and FOs

I’ve been working on a few things!

Several weeks ago I made this cutie patootie a soft fuzzy hat made of recycled yarn. There are even cuter pics on his mama’s blog. We hear he got a lot of mileage out of it while the temperatures were low.

Although it is 70 degrees today, part of last week was snowy and frigid. One day I passed a bus stop where a man was waiting with the cold wind whipping through his thin gray hair. He had gloves and a mid-weight jacket but he really needed a hat. So I decided to make some and keep them in the car for such occasions.  I used an old favorite pattern that gives instructions for 6 sizes of this hat in 7 different yarn weights.   The first was made with some scrap yarn.  It may go unused until next November, but it will be ready when someone needs it. The colors are much better in person.

Current projects are a flower girl dress for Gwen to wear in Elisabeth’s wedding this weekend (pics to come, I promise!) and a spring-themed mini quilt for FSQS5 Monochromatic challenge. I used the fabrics from the last post and scattered them willy nilly to reflect the profligate greening that goes on at this time of year.  Here’s where I left off yesterday:

This is a LOT of little pieces to sew together but I like the way it is turning out.  I may even hand quilt it!

Let the stitching begin!

Tomorrow is the beginning of a big sewing month.

First we need a flower girl dress for Gwen to wear in a wedding on March 14.  The bride wants a black bodice with a white skirt and some little red roses as an accent color.  Gwen’s prom dress from last year still fits her,  so that pattern will be the starting place.  This time I’ll make the top and skirt separate for maximum wiggle room.

I must also get cracking on my monochromatic mini quilt for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap #5.  The design (not my own) has been chosen and the pic above is a preview of the fabrics I’ll be using.  More as things progress.

Then, as you can see in the sidebar, I have signed up for Doll Quilt Swap #6.  My first quilt ever was made for DSQ #2 but I was too busy to sign up for #3-#5.  I wish I had that quilt back.  The photo is the most frequently viewed in my Flickr photostream and the recipient didn’t even acknowledge receiving it!   I know she has it because I sent it with tracking.

The other news around here is the wacky weather.  Last Thursday and Friday were fabulously warm but Saturday afternoon the temperature plunged and snow came down until it was as deep as 8 inches in some places – very rare for Memphis.  All the shrubs looked like frosted cupcakes.  I covered my flowers from the last post with some clear plastic and they seem to be holding up.  Later this week we are expected to have highs in the 70’s.     Whatever!