New bag

New bag from scraps

I’ve been wanting to try a bag pattern from Bag Boutique by Amy Barickman, so I gathered up some scraps, added a lining fabric and a zipper to come up with this. I don’t really like the end product… the shape anyway. I do like the way the design turned out. The pattern was easy to use, with clear directions (I even kinda read them!), so I will be making another bag from Amy’s book one of these days.

new bag detail

Road trip!

Denali from the Parks Highway, heading north

I escaped Fairbanks this past weekend, to visit a friend in Anchorage. Fabric shopping, Title Wave (used/new bookstore), the Anchorage museum, dinner and some tasting at a wine bar, snowshoeing/walking, entertaining baby, walking Gizmo. It was a wonderful break from real life.

I was totally surprised to enjoy the drive back and forth. About an eight hour trip, interrupted by potty breaks and dog walking, and constant scenes of Alaska’s winter beauty, the Parks Highway was in considerably better condition than the last time I drove it. The Subaru Legacy was a pleasure to drive; I was hardly tired when I arrived in Anchorage.

Test fabrics for the tee shirt quilt I’ll be making for the friend I visited:

for the tee quilt

test fabrics for the tee quilt

and fabrics for future projects. A few other odds ‘n ends for gifts too, that of course I won’t be showing

A cap?

Possible child-oriented wallhangings, or maybe a pair of baby overalls?

Kid fabrics

Laurel Burch is one of my favorite artists.

Laurel Burch fabrics

And some wool for applique; so easy to embroider!

wool for applique

Couldn’t get out of Title Wave without a few books!

the books...

Journal cover and a small what if

Chinese butterfly, journal cover

Now that I’m back home again… ran out of oil, heater wouldn’t restart, so I stayed at a friend’s for three days. Finally got the Monitor oil stove going again-yay!!-after working on it for 4 hours in a 40° below cabin. I couldn’t sew at my friend’s house due to poor lighting, otherwise this would be finished. But hey! I was warm, the dog was warm; that’s what counted!

Symbol of hope, freedom, renewal, for a new journal, which happens to coincide with a new year. Lovingly attached with metallic threads to the black felt, backstitching along the inside edge of the wings and body, and inside the blue thread on the tail. A small what-if I don’t attach the tail edges? Let them fly with my hopes and dreams for future. Let them fly with happiness and a tiny bit of freedom.

The design is from Oriental Designs CD-Rom and Book, a Dover book. I used metallic threads to attach the butterfly to the black felt, backstitching along the inside edge of the wings and body. I did the same thing on the tail, but instead of backstitching along the buttonhole stitch edge, I did the backstitching along the inside of the blue chain stitch, and then did a herringbone stitch over the orange.

I’ll add a line of yellow beads on the yellow wing edge, and then it’ll be done and I can attach it to the cover of my next journal. If it’ll look nice, I’ll do it in such a way that, when I’ve finished the journal, I can remove the butterfly and use it in another project. I keep my journals of course, but I don’t want to hide away my covers!

Chilly Alaska

Love my ‘bee!

It’s cold today!

Well, my thermometer says 20° below zero (Fahrenheit; that’s about -29° Celsius), but the radio insists that it’s -33° F (about -36° C). As you can see from the photo on the left, Gizmo doesn’t care! He is all about his Frisbee. So we played outside for about a half hour, garbed in dog booties (Giz), Carhartts head to toe, Sorels, and polar fleece (me). And that’s what happens to a Frisbee when it’s cold; he doesn’t tear it up on purpose, it just breaks.

I wanted to work on organizing the storage shed with all my sewing gear, but it’s just too cold to handle boxes. The cold goes right through two layers of polar fleece mittens and my fingers hurt too bad. So I measured for shelves, and stared at what could be. Soon…

Update 12/31/2008: And today the news is: Colder!! It’s supposed to get down to – 60° F. Good thing I could put some fuel in the oil tank last month. I was just putting in five gallons at a time, til lower prices collided with some extra money and I could afford to put 100 gallons in the tank.

And since I live up in the hills around Fairbanks, I have been enjoying warmer temps than at the airport, but the article I read said that colder temps will “…the growing cold will begin spreading into higher-elevation areas in the borough later this week.” So my warmer-than-town weather is over, dang. It’s about -30° F, or it was around 4:30 p.m., and Giz was happy to get out, but me? Hey, I was running down the road dragging the dog, trying to hurry him up!

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen these kind of temperatures; I think the last time was 1990, when we had 3 or 4 weeks of -40 temps. And the last time I’ve seen -60° was the year before that. I’m guessing that’s why it feels so cold to me; other than not liking to drive in those low temps (it’s really hard on cars), it’s never really bothered me before. You just dress up and go. Oh, well, just dress up and go!

Happy Solstice! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Sunrise over the Alaska Range

Okay, so I’m a tad late… but I am soooo happy to have Winter Solstice behind me! The picture was taken on Solstice (Dec. 20), about 11 a.m. Sundown that day would’ve been around 2:20 I think… I love the short days; quite often the sky is just fantastically colored. If it’s cold enough, the trees and brush will  sparkle brilliantly. It’s a great time to go walking.

And just for fun, here’s our lab Christmas card: Merry Christmas!

They’re so sweet, wear ‘em on your feet!

Aren’t these cute baby booties?? One is plain, to get the feel of making. The other is embellished, to see how the colors go together, get a feel for design placement, what can I do with this? Originally I was looking for a slipper to make for myself, but three babies this summer subverted the plan, at least temporarily. Cheap polyester felt on the outside, organic cotton flannel on the inside. An elastic cord and satin ribbon tied together to help keep them on. Soft and cozy. Almost makes me want one of the little munchkins just so I can make more slippers! Thank goodness for friends with babies…

Some free-for-personal-use patterns:

Star Dust Shoes cloth shoe pattern (this is the one I used); be sure to check out the cloth shoes Flickr group!

ohelene syr’s leather shoes (very similar to pattern I used)

Poo Pocket three seam footies (0-3 month & 3-6 month sizes)

Heather Bailey’s Bitty Booties

Tacky Baby Shoes (similar to the pattern I used; has lots of information on baby booties)

Martha Stewart felt booties

What if I made a ball instead of a baseball cap?

and it worked out just fine. I kept this one very simple – just a jumble of the first six and last six letters of the alphabet, embroidered with simple stitches. It was something I’ve wanted to do for quite awhile, inspired by the pentagon patch balls (or Grandmother’s flower garden, if you prefer).

Baseball cap ball

another view

But, I used a baby’s baseball cap pattern, sans bill , for my pattern. Okay, it’s not exactly round! And it’s a bit large, so next time I’ll shrink the pattern. I think for a smaller ball, I would embellish the seams instead of the sections though. And wouldn’t it be fun to do a crazy quilt ball?

And just because, here’s a list of other patterns for fabric balls:

Purlbee’s fabric beachball

Baby grab ball

Use up your scraps on this rag ball

Another beach ball pattern

IHanna’s balls using the pentagon patch

Sigh… I’ll be glad when my class is over. Two more weeks. Then maybe I can find the time to rearrange the shed and get to all my stuff. And get MORE stuff out of the house. I am so tired of tripping over stuff, the dog, things that aren’t put away because there’s nowhere to put them. And I’m tired of not knowing where this is, and that is, so I can go get it, do whatever, and put it back. I am frustrated with not being creative and thinking about projects to work on, but no room, no materials, and no time to work on them. Only three more weeks and Winter Solstice is here! I’ll get back to being my creative self again

Rules schmools

I wrote this post about six weeks ago, and forgot about it. I think it’s still relevant… comments appreciated! How do YOU feel about crazy quilting “rules”?

Awhile back, I was amazed at some of the comments I read about crazy quilting… as a longtime (20? + yrs) CQ’er, I have never worried about “rules” or what you are “supposed” to do or worried that I would offend someone because I didn’t like their style or they didn’t like mine (tho their negativity might hurt my feelings, but eh, just get on w/it). Frankly, I never even knew there were rules for crazy quilting!

There’s no reason to superembellish a crazy quilt. You don’t have to start with a central five-sided piece of fabric*. You don’t have to use only fancy fabrics. If you look at 1880’s vintage crazy quilts, they mostly did not incorporate any lace, buttons, beads, etc. Just embroidery, and often fairly simple embroidery at that. The embroidery was generally worked on velvets and silks, because this was a decorative piece of work, not intended to be functional. There are some crazy quilts from that era, or perhaps a few years later, made with cotton fabrics and intended to be functional.

You can make functional crazy quilts or crazy quilt items. You just need to decide whether you can put that much work into something and know that eventually it will show signs of wear. I tend to use cottons in something I plan to use a lot, but I certainly don’t stick to that. I usually limit what I embellish the piece with, to ensure that I can toss it in the washing machine (just don’t machine dry anything with embroidery on it; dryers are very very bad for embroidery; let it hang dry unless it’s huge and then lay it flat. Good luck finding a flat surface, at least at my house!). But I don’t worry about that too much. I can always handwash if necessary (no, I don’t have kids <lol>).

Some people don’t understand the need to embellish with embroidery (& I almost always use seed beads too). “Why do you waste so much time with that?” I have been asked on more than one occasion when someone has seen one of my embroidered and embellished hats or a sewing machine cover or whatever. And all I can say is, I don’t like using a sewing machine, plus my hand embroidery is relaxing, soothing, contemplative. I have time to absorb the day when I sit down with a needle and thread, or I can visit with firiends. Try talking to someone with your machine running! I guess I am not product/goal oriented; it’s the process of making that I like, the product is almost an afterthought. I’d be just as happy working on one huge piece for my entire life, sometimes. Other times I do need closure, and want to finish a project.

Anyway, the whole point of crazy quilting, as far as I am concerned, is to do it your own way, whatever that way is. If you want to go crazy with beads, buttons, findings, laces, ribbons, then go for it! If you want to use solely fancy fabrics, go for it! If you want to use up your dressmaking scraps or your cotton quilt fabric scraps, go for it! If you want to work in one color scheme, go for it! If you want to use everything, restrain yourself, or work somewhere in between, go for it! There are no rules, you don’t HAVE to do anything!

Repeat after me: There are no rules in crazy quilting!

Just because someone else does it “that way” doesn’t mean you have to! Find your own path, sew your own way. Any rules in crazy quilting are just guidelines, a starting point, not something you must do this one way and only this one way.

*The pentagon in the center of many contemporary CQ blocks is for ease of machine piecing. Paper piecing is a way to get around that, but it has limitations too. If you hand piece your block, you can start anywhere and have much more freedom to place patches any old which way, including convex/concave curves, circular shapes, points, or other geometric shapes. I don’t like machine piecing; I don’t like the spiral effect, or the need for really long patches. Yes, I know you can break the long patch into several patches, but it’s still one long shape.

What-if list

Oct 13 update:

ah, once again I’ve overbooked myself… I DO want to participate in Jude’s “What If” and the list is as far as I’ve gotten because I’m taking Vegetation Analysis & Description. Basically what I do at work, is put my supervisor’s veg analysis & description of the arctic tundra online; I thought it would be great if I understood what he does out in the field. It’s an awesome class, but it’s taking a LOT more time than I thought it would! I keep thinking that “next week I’ll be caught up” and I can sew again (and never mind about the house renovation project; that’s been put on hold too!). And today… ack! I just found out (nooooo, I didn’t read the syllabus carefully!) that our notebooks are due on Wednesday! So I will be madly organizing all my lab notes tonight and tomorrow night. Sigh. Not sewing yet…

What if list:

I thought I’d better start a list of “what-ifs” so I don’t forget them. Not that they Have to get done, but old ideas are often a good starting point for new ideas. I haven’t started on a “what if” yet, because I’m still working on the house remodeling and the sewing things are in the shed. But I do have to table-sit tomorrow, so I might have something to show on Thursday.

1. what if I use just red? what can I do to red fabric to change the color? w/out dyeing/painting/etc… how can I use embroidery thread/stitches, organza, or ?? to change the color?
2. what if I manipulate the fabric to include texture? how can I use embroidery thread/stitches to add texture?
3. what if I use sewing machine thread instead of embroidery thread? how many threads (plies?) will I need? can I mix colors? can I add in a rayon or metallic thread for some sparkle?
4. what if I stop painting for a bit and play?? oh, the kitchen is still torn apart, I can’t cook, I can’t find anything, most of the sewing stuff is in the shed… sigh. I’ll finish up the kitchen and *then* I can take a break.
5. After seeing this post at Crafting a Green World… what if I made a crazy quilt in a particular shape? Like my name… or I don’t know, crazy or quilting… WITH a hole somewhere…
6. What if I use a digital photograph of Alaska’s fall colors; enlarge it to the point that I can pick colors from individual pixels, and use that for a color scheme? Or heck, just collect some leaves and go with those!
7. What if I take geometric shapes, lay them down, and embroider through the middle, rather than laying down irregular shapes, turning edges under, and embellishing seams? Like this, but with hand embroidery, using a variety of stitches.
8. And even easier, just take small pieces of fabric and lay them down as is, then embroider. No turning edges under, no worrying about whether the ground fabric is covered. Use something pretty for the ground, rather than muslin…
9. in response to Jude’s wool what if – what if I take wool and just seam it (no ground fabrid)? or not even seam it, just join it? w/insertion stitches? or um, whaddya call it… a whip stitch? no ground fabric (& I’ll probably use wool/polyester felt, because that’s what I have). but I could collect some wool clothing from the transfer station or Value Village…
10. computer printing! I just got a sample of printable fabric from a co-worker that I’m going to play with. Not that I haven’t printed on fabric, but the sample is quite a bit different from what I’ve used before. so what’s the what if? what if I print on the backside of the map that’s printed on the sample, cut up the fabric and use it? I could cut pieces that would be reversible (ie, the same shape no matter which side is “up”).
11. I have several Dover clip art images that I printed onto fabric and then colored. What if I cut them apart, in say, a fan design, then insert crazy quilting between? I’ve been wondering what to do with them.

I haven’t had much of a chance to check everyone else’s “what-iffing” ( reallyreally need to add all the blogs to my reader!), so the list below is sort of in response to some ideas I saw tossed around earlier. These are projects I’ve done in the past, similar to a couple of “whatifs” I’ve read on Jude’s blog. The links go to my Flickr site.

1. Laura’s Quilt – made from a yard’s worth of 4 inch square Laura Ashley fabrics in 1990. I consider this my first crazy quilt.
2. Air conditioner cover – made from a package of pre-cut hexagons in 2002.
3. Roses Are Red – five mono printed rectangles, with embroidery and embellishments. In the center is a beaded rose; I traded something for it, but I can’t remember what-probably a small quilt.
4. Victorian Landscape – linoleum block print on fabric that incorporates crazy quilting, made in 1998 (block printing done in 1991 I think).
5. Flower Basket – I like using crazy quilting as a frame; this is the first “CQ frame” I made, in 1994.
6. Photo holder – this is the second one I made. I don’t really like it, because it doesn’t function the way I wanted it to. Take the long part and fold into thirds; the “wings” on each side fold into the center to hold the pouch closed (there are velcro tabs too). I need a picture of it folded up…

Project update

Irish hat

Brim for the Irish hat

The Irish hat is almost done! This is the hat I started when I went to Ireland in March this year. Most of the embroidery thread and embellishments were purchased in Ireland. I did use my American seed beads, as I have too many and it was really silly to purchase seed beads in Ireland. Now I have to choose the lining fabric and sew the hat together, and then I’ll be done!

Wedding wallhanging

And this little… wallhanging I guess, is the best description, is coming right along. About 3/4 of the seams are embroidered and embellished now, and I’ve started adding “stuff” to it. So far just bells, which tinkle nicely as I manipulate the fabric to reach a seam or turn it to facilitate the embroidery. It will eventually hold a wedding photo in the center.

Small bag

I’m also working on a small piece that was supposed to become an eyeglass case, but after a little disturbance with a Sharpie marker, it’s going to become a small bag instead. Really, it’ll make a better bag than eyeglass case. Lesson #57: Do not use Sharpies to mark your ground fabric! And I should have known better.

More on these projects…

Just so you don’t think I’ve been plodding through the same old projects all summer… I spent Sunday afternoon playing with my three dollar, basic Versa-Tool Woodburning Kit, that I got from Value Village (secondhand store) awhile back. People drifted in and played for a bit, so it wasn’t a big crowd scene. And considering that the Versa-Tool is REALLY hot, that was probably just as well! Good plan to use it outside too, because a) burning stuff stinks, and b) I probably breathed in a ton of carcinogens anyway, but less than if I was inside. I used an old picture frame with the glass still in the frame as a, um, a light frame I guess. I taped a stencil pattern on one side (face up) and a piece of polyester organza fabric on the other, and cut out a seahorse stencil and a Chinese character stencil. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with them yet, but I just signed on to this project, so I think the two might be a match.

You can also cut shapes out of polyester fabrics; I have two huge boxes of ’70s vintage polyester scraps from a friend, so I played with those too. I also experimented with some embroidery stabilizer and Peltex. Oh, and polyester felt! I made buttons with single and double layers of felt. They’ll be cool with some embroidery.

A dog and his boy

I also fooled around with my crayons and pastel crayons, and doodled on cloth and stabilizer, and layered some organza onto stabilizer and then some more crayon… it was just play time, no goals, no final piece to show off. And watching little boy Sawyer draw on fabric (and his face), throw balls for Gizmo, eat too much cake and too many pretzels, and enjoy summer’s last gasp.