Valerean

A few years back some quilter friends of mine asked me to redesign the classic card trick patchwork so that it didn't involve triangles. Since a card trick is very much like a log cabin, I came up with this: I took my old idea and photoshopped my shibori fabric to see what it would look like with those fabrics: Set on point, the blocks look very pretty in a quilt: I like this better than a log cabin (particularly because I figured out how to do it), so it's taken the #1 spot on my design possibilities list.

Oliver's mom asked me to make one of my crazy quilt totes for her grandmother, Marie, a lovely lady who is in her nineties. How could I say no? It's also good for my creativity to do little projects like this. So I started working on it last night, and got the patchwork tacked to the tote foundation: Did I mention Marie's favorite color is pink? Ha. Obviously not my favorite color, but I'm thinking of it as peachy and rosy instead. :)

Rather than sketching (at which I'm terribly rusty) I decided to play with my photo-it program last night and make some log cabin blocks from the photos I've taken of the shibori fabrics. This is what a log cabin block would look like in the traditional arrangement of the fabric strips: Once I had the block cobbled together I duplicated it and tried some different combinations (I like the four on the bottom left best): I sliced off half of the solid fabric strips to make a diamond-shaped block, which looks like this in an arrangement of four: It's pretty (like flowers, I thought) but I'd have to fill in the square gaps the diagonal trimming creates: I might go with a traditional log cabin if I can't devise something more interesting of my own design. Stay tuned to see some other ideas.

I don't often design my own quilts (using a pattern is easier), but I'd like to turn these shibori and complimentary solid fabrics into a functional art piece. That means doing the designing myself. At the moment I'm waffling between a card trick design I did come up with some years back, figuring out a new spin on log cabin patchwork, or randomly cutting and piecing the fabrics together ala my recycled linen quilt. I'll probably do some sketching before I commit.

I finished up the first runner from my fab four projects, and I think it turned out to be one of the prettiest I've ever made: I changed my mind on the color of the variegated perle I used for the feather stitching, opting for a hand-dyed blue/violet ombre instead: I also ran out of the perle thread about six inches from finishing. Since it's no longer available to buy more from the one lady who makes it, I thought I'd have to unpick all the stitching and do it over. Aka total disaster. Only I dug through my thread stash to see if I had something close, and discovered I'd actually bought two skeins of it. So I was able to finish without a problem. Even the backing turned out neat: Since my guy liked this one so much I'm keeping it. I thought it looked nice on the counter between the kitchen and dining room: Stop by tomorrow and I'll show you which project will be next.

Kat's Biology degree finally arrived in the mail: I think actually seeing the degree has finally made it real for me. My kid is a scientist, and a lot of hard work and sacrifice made that happen. Katherine did 99% over the last four years; three spent on her own in a strange city where she knew no one. She had to grow up fast, take care of herself and study her ass off. Her Dad and I helped by making sure that she never had to worry about the financial side of it. We were able to pay for all her expenses without loans (and she earned back nearly all of her tuition cost by keeping up an amazing GPA.) That she's the first person in either family to graduate college is simply a bonus. Congratulations, Ms. Viehl. :)

Working on the table runner has given me a chance to clear my head every night and think about the future instead of panicking over the present. Pandemic-related panic has already wrecked too much of this year for me, and facing the potential end of my ability to hand-stitch can be terrifying or inspiring. I'd rather be inspired than terrified, so I'm going to focus on what I can do for as long as I can do it. Once I'm finished the quilting I might do a bit of feather stitching on this one with one of these embroidery threads. There's an unmatched seam in the white patchwork in just one spot (directly below the threads in this pic) that annoys me. I decided last month that I want to make a couple of quilts that combine artistry and function. Thanks to Theo, I was able to purchase a quilt kit and a second panel featuring prints of some architectural/nature watercolor paintings by Noelle Phares : I'm going to make this one according to the kit. I think...

Today I'm off to spend the day with Oliver, but I wanted to post something to explain what's been going on with me. I actually spent an entire day last month writing up a very long post to explain why I've been (virtually/emotionally) hiding under the bed for most of the summer. It started out with detailing some unkindness I had to deal with that upset me, the pressure on me in several areas with my job and the family, my latest bouts of insomnia, plus a lot of wingeing over my new hand issues and my old neck problem, both of which are quickly getting worse. Watching my country being torn apart by a pandemic and the most hateful politics I've ever observed doesn't help. Writing about all that then blew up into this diatribe on basically everything that has been weighing on me, not just this summer but for years. Imagine a mushroom cloud of emotion, all negatively-charged, and that was the original post. After proofing it and realizing just how upset and depr...

I got the first table runner batted, backed and pinned: I'm using three colors of holographic Sulky to quilt it, and maybe some white silk for the center white patches (still debating that.) I also found some store bought violet binding leftover from another project that I'm going to recycle and use for this one: My guy doesn't usually notice what I'm working on, but last night he admired the piece, so I'll be keeping it for him. :)

These are the first four projects I'll be working on from my bucket listed to-do bin: I felt like the My Secret Garden scrap quilt, the shibori fabrics art piece, and two table runners had the most appeal for me, and whenever you take a new direction you should be excited about it. I'll start with this table runner: The aqua broadcloth I had intended as the backing wasn't quite wide enough to work, so I switched it with a white/blue starburst print: I'm going to stagger these projects with the holiday gifts I'll going to start making next month, too. I have Mom's birthday quilt to do before November, and then a quilt for Oliver that I didn't get done last year, and something special for Katherine (who reads this blog occasionally, so that's all I'm saying on that subject.) For those reasons most of the to-do projects will likely roll over into 2021.

I got this warning in my fortune cookie from our Chinese takeout: It sounds ominous, right? It certainly could be, but I don't think it is. What it immediately called to mind for me was all the projects I've stuck in my to-do bin: As I mentioned last month I'm losing function in my only working hand due to the progression of my arthritis, and I think by this time next year I won't be able to hand stitch anymore. Now I can whine and cry about that (and I have), or I can get on with what I want to do right now while I can still do hand work. I can do a lot in a year, trust me. :) Along with my silk crazy quilt I've added my to-do bin to my hand quilting bucket list. So I unpacked the bin to look at everything and decide in what order I should do them: These are shibori fabrics dyed by a textile artist; I have some vague notions on making them into an art piece. I've always wanted to make a queen or king size version of the Yellow Brick Road pa...

The patchwork piece wanted to be a table runner, so that's what it became: I used some scrap lavender binding to finish it off, and then scrounged in my 2019 scrap bag to make some matching coasters: The colors will work nicely as decor for Spring/Easter, too, I think: Always listen to your projects! Ha.

Finished quilting and embroidering the patchwork piece: It turned out very pretty, thanks to the blue holographic Sulky I used to quilt the entire piece, and the variegated blue/violet perle cotton I feather-stitched on the white strips: I was going to make it into a tote, but now I'm wondering if I should instead make it into a table runner. The colors are perfect for summer. Anyway, stop in tomorrow to see what it becomes. :)

I finished up embroidering and quilting the two thread spool patchwork panels, and made them into a little gift bag: I also got started on quilting a larger patchwork panel I bought from KnJ to make into a bigger gift bag: Instead of cutting a new piece of muslin off the one bolt to serve as the backing for this one I pieced it out of scraps leftover from other projects.

While I brood a bit more about Mom's birthday quilt (and to stick to doing small projects) I got out some orphaned patchwork blocks I bought from KnJ Studio and put them together in two panels: The patchwork was a bit wonky, so matching the seams wasn't possible, but I'm just going to make them into a gift bag so it doesn't matter. I quilting this one with holographic Sulky and embroidered it with some hand-dyed perle cotton: They remind me of spools of thread. :)

For my mom's birthday I'll be making a lap quilt out of these three star patchwork blocks, some matching violet batik yardage (both from KnJ Studio), and (possibly) some plain black broadcloth to sash the blocks and/or border the quilt. Still thinking it over a bit, so I'm not ready to begin the work, but at least I've decided on the general materials. Since I'm not ready to start it, I'll do a few more smaller projects.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'm finished with the silk on silk project. It buckled in more than one place on the back, but I just had fun with the stitching -- which ended up going in circles mostly. I really like how the stitching looks on the green section. Very dreamy. I might make this into a pillow, or keep it as is. Right now I'm just setting it aside to get on with the next project, which may be a lap quilt if I can make up my mind. Stop in tomorrow to see what I'm waffling over.

It's pretty tough to invent a new embroidery stitch; humans have been embroidering for roughly the last 32,000 years. But the other night I tried a variation on feather stitching that I've never seen done anywhere else: Here's how to do it: run a row of feather stitching in one direction. Then feather stitch on top of that row in the opposite direction: It creates this neat lacy effect that I really like. I'm also sure someone else thought of doing this before I did. But, just in case no one has, I'm naming my variation the swan stitch. :)