Valerean

I'm officially on vacation! I really worked a lot of overtime to earn three weeks off, too. What do I have planned? Last night I slept 8-1/2 hours catching up after many, many sleepless nights. My guy even walked the dogs for me this morning so I could get in a couple extra hours. This is why he's wonderful. Let's see, other than going along with whatever the family has planned for on my birthday, I'd like to wrap up some projects, like the liner I'm crocheting for this art yarn woven basket I made in June. Still need to get started on the July tote for my calendar project. I want to start using my new project diary to record what I'm doing with, well, everything. I need to replace the missing buttons on my heavy jacket so I can wear that this coming winter. I'd also like to finish this short story, which I'm writing just for pleasure. Not sure if I will, but there's no deadline involved. Mostly I'd like to stop expe...

With much careful and strategic sewing I've applied all the crazy quilted fragments on the black canvas foundation for May's tote. I had to go very slowly because the pieces are literally shredding, shedding and splitting apart from being hand sewn to the backings. Not unusual for 126 year old quilt bits, but a bit hair raising. I intended to add some beading and trims to the pieces, but now I'm rethinking that. These fragments won't take much more handling without self-destructing, and the whole point of using them on a tote was preservation. I might do a bit of beading on one piece and see how it goes. Anyway, stay tuned to the blog to see how it works out.

After brooding for a week about the May tote for my calendar project, I got started by disassembling the black canvas bag I'm using as the foundation. I then spread it out on my cutting mat and arranged the vintage embroidered crazy quilt fragments and the heron block on it until I got the look I wanted. This will be the front side. This will be the back (I may rearrange the fragments one more time.) To give you an idea of how I'm going to put this tote together, here's a box top I embellished with a damaged vintage crazy quilt piece. I created the top by sewing the piece to some backing and batting, covered the patchwork damage with some lace, added embroidery to the places where the original needlework had worn away, and then quilted it with beads and added an old dragonfly brooch.

For the May edition of my calendar tote project I decided to use a vintage embroidered crazy quilt patch I've been saving for a while. I'd like to do a theme of vintage embroidery with a black tote. Ordinary I avoid black, as it tends to be depressing, but this time it feels right. I did test the patch against a cream colored cutter quilt piece and while it does bring out the bird a little better I prefer how it looks with the black. I also got out my basket of vintage crazy quilt pieces to hunt through and see if there are some smaller bits of embroidery work I can incorporate. All of these came to me as cutter pieces, which kind of breaks my heart, but crazy quilts are well known to disintegrate, especially because of the types of dyes and the thin silks used during this era, so I feel lucky to have them anyway. The granny square I crocheted in Gumdrop silk yarn last month doesn't quite work with my idea. Neither do these blocks. These defi...

After brooding for a week about the May tote for my calendar project, I got started by disassembling the black canvas bag I'm using as the foundation. I then spread it out on my cutting mat and arranged the vintage embroidered crazy quilt fragments and the heron block on it until I got the look I wanted. This will be the front side. This will be the back (I may rearrange the fragments one more time.) To give you an idea of how I'm going to put this tote together, here's a box top I embellished with a damaged vintage crazy quilt piece. I created the top by sewing the piece to some backing and batting, covered the patchwork damage with some lace, added embroidery to the places where the original needlework had worn away, and then quilted it with beads and added an old dragonfly brooch.

I've set aside all my crocheting to finish my March tote for the calendar project, but it's been slow going from the start, and I'm starting to resent how long it takes me to feather stitch, something I've never before experienced. I think that's why I've avoided the tote making for a couple days this month. Crochet is easier so it makes me feel better about myself. I need to work on that bad attitude. I set aside this vintage crazy quilted piece for next month's tote, but because of all the embroidery I wanted to do on it that might not be the wisest choice. I need to do something fun to get my heart back into the project. This video shows how to fuse quilting with crochet, and tempts me to try that next month. I could also do a spin on this crochet and fabric pattern from Yarnspirations to make my April tote half crochet and half quilted. Since childhood I've avoided what makes me unhappy by removing myself from the situation and doing s...

When last I posted about my February tote for the calendar project I was futzing around with the patchwork. I finally did go with this idea of traditionally stacking and sewing the fabric pieces. I also had to resort to using the sewing machine on a few bad nights when my fingers locked up too much to do hand work. I finally got the patchwork completed. It's not pretty, but it's done. I'm using the solver, copper and gold metallic threads I picked up at the quilt show last year to feather stitch the seams, as that's the easiest embroidery stitch I know. I don't want to attempt any beading on this go, so once that's done I'll be ready to assemble the tote.

Last night I finished the embroidery on my January tote, which due to my diminished dexterity took a couple weeks. I think I'll have to be a little less ambitious with embroidering in the future. It's actually a little easier to see the stitching from the back. :) I'm quite happy with it, although I have only three days left for the beading. Hopefully I can wrap it up before February 1st, but if I go over a few days it's okay. I don't think the calendar project police will throw me in jail. :) Added on February 1st: Going right down to the wire, I finished beading, lining and assembling the tote at 11pm on January 31st. I am very happy I completed such am ambitious design, especially considering how messed up my hands have been with all the winter arthritis flares. I'll probably try something a bit simpler for February's tote. :)

Aside from crocheting and enjoying a drama-free month for a change I've also been working on my calendar project. I finished hand-piecing the outside of the January tote with pretty fabrics. Now I'll apply some trims and then start the embroidery. The final stage will be the beading. Although I usually don't work with these colors (red in particular makes me nervous), I'm enjoy the project. All of this invokes my grandmother for me, and although it's been 47 years since she passed away, I still miss her all the time.

Along with the crochet project I'm also working on my calendar tote project a little at a time when my hands allow. After deconstructing the black canvas bag serving as the foundation, I handsewed a layer of batting to the outside. Now I'm piecing the patchwork out of silver, black and garnet colored fabrics and scraps on top of the batting, also sew by hand (although I will use the sewing machine if my fingers stop cooperating.) Back in the 80's (yep, I have been quilting that long) I worked in darker, jewel-toned colors, but as I've aged I've gravitated more toward lighter and neutral/natural shades. Red usually makes me nervous, but not this time. This palette does invoke my grandmother for me, and I loved her very much. Working on this has brought back lots of happy memories from when I started quilting, and has helped keep my spirits up during this month, too.

Sometimes a project you mean to knock out quickly has other ideas. Such was the case with a market bag I decided to make out of blue scraps from my bin way back on May 18th. Once I pieced it I just knew it was going to take longer than a night, which had been the original plan. I began seeing lighthouse spotlights, and wanted to interpret that in embroidery. Since my arthritis has curtailed my hand stitching that created a time management problem for me. I'd have to work on it when my fingers allowed me to. Very often such complicated artistic choices happen out of the blue (forgive the pun) for me. I don't know why. I become obsessed with something and I can't rush the process. I take it on despite my limitations. I cannot be persuaded to abandon such projects, even when I get sick and tired of them. I worked on this for a short time almost every day since I took the fabric scraps out of my bin. It often frustrated me. It really challenged the ab...

While Hurricane Milton was raging I worked on this cat-themed Halloween treat bag, which I sent to my favorite Kat on the other side of the planet. The last minute addition of the vintage lizard brooch really made a cute touch. She was always picking up lizards when she was a little girl. The other side. I really like how the cat appliques turned out, too. For some reason the shot I took of the inside blurred, but you can still make out the novelty candy corn print, which was a scrap from a Halloween treat bag I made her when she was in high school. So (although I save fabric way too long) that was the perfect finishing touch.