And so ends 2022…

This year was such a good one in the studio.  The Fika Tote by Noodlehead is my current bag crush.  This one is my third, and I have two more planned.  We aren't traveling much these days, so I have to find people to gift these bags to.  So far my sister and Cristina are the lucky one.  This bag to the left?  It doesn't have an owner.  Yet.  What is so special about this bag is the use of some bits of Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric. I'm awaiting the arrival of small additional red fabric with Kanji writing for the next bag.  

My current project is to work my way through my ever-growing pile of scraps.  Here are my purples and teals.  Below are strips made from blues and violets. Although there's a thin line between purples and violets and I cross it all the time.  To keep from getting bored, I think I'll tackle reds next.  Or perhaps oranges.  My goal is to make long strips of scraps and join them together with some leftover neutrals.  We'll see...

Occasionally I have projects that I don't care to do.  This one to the left is one of them.  It's a quilt top made in the late 1930's or early 1940's that was never finished.  The appliquéd butterflied and basket in the middle represent a  lot of handwork.  A LOT.  And somehow this top was folded up and boxed.  It took over 2 hours of pressing just to get the top smooth.  And these fabrics are old and thin.  It's been batted with wood and a Kona cotton backing.  There's machine quilting in the sashing.  And there's hand quilting around each butterfly and the floral basket in the middle.  While the quilt now is absolutely useable, it's still something I would not recommend washing.  You know that musty smell that old fabrics get?  This quilt top did not and does not have that.  I think the owner, the maker's granddaughter, will be pleased. This quilt top is now waiting for its label and then a trip to Atlanta to February for delivery.  While I wasn't particularly happy working on this quilt, I recognized that this quilt deserved to be finished.  Best of all, this restoration/completion was a paying job.  I think I may have to go fabric shopping!  

But now on to the fun stuff!  This quilt belongs to a guild buddy, and I volunteered to hand quit it for her.  Unlike the appliquéd butterfly quilt which weighed 7 pounds and was a beast to keep repositioning, This is a much smaller quilt and - imho - so much more beautiful. 

These dark days of winter are so perfect for hand quilting.  The process takes me back 8 years when my mom died and how soothing I found the hand quilting process after her death.   The same is true for me today.  And I'm eager to finish this quilt because I have one of my own in queue for hand quilting.  More on that in January.

Almost daily John or I will remark how the move to our condo has been such a good one.  We are thrilled with our space and where we live.  There's a long hallway leading to our front door, and currently no one lives across from us.  So I have started to look at this hallway as quilt-hanging opportunities.   And coincidentally both of these quilts involve my niece Leslie.  The small one at the end is made from leftovers of her high school graduation quilt.  And the big one will be going to her shortly.  She and her boyfriend are engaged, and they have selected this quilt at their wedding present.  

There is going to be great sadness in 2023 but there will also be great joy.  I'm so thankful for my studio and what happens here. 

In the bleak midwinter - correction

My mom died 9 years ago December 22.  It was actually 8 years ago, not 9.  I had to admit to all three sibs I was wrong.  Her death was welcomed and peaceful.  I remember spending the next few weeks adding stitches to the quilt I was working on - and at that point  I was still an emerging hand quilter.  And now at this time of year in these deeply dark and cold days, I find hand stitching so comforting.  A week ago I started adding stitches to this quilt.  Its owner says this quilt top is 90 years old.  Despite the age and fragility of the fabric, it is a quilt top that deserves to be finished.  In each block I am outlining the butterfly.  The sashing has been machine-quilted.  I'm not crazy about this quilt, but it is satisfying to give this shape and life. 

I love the Fika Tote pattern by Noodlehead.  It's so well-written and turns out nicely.  This is the second one I've made, and it went to Cristina.  I'm in the process of making another and possibly another.  For years I''ve been cutting from a roll of Soft and Stable that I bought years ago.  That roll is gone, and I actually had to purchase some by the yard from ByAnnie.   Bags cannot be made without it!  Imagine the bag below without the red clips!

 

These little butterfly purses are thanks to the scrap table at the last CMQG retreat.  There wasn't much of it, but I was able to make four flaps from it and think these purses very pretty.  So thanks, fellow CMQG guild member!

I figured out what stitching to add to my Left-handed Leftover Liberal Quilt.  And I like the effect.  I was all set to hang this in our dining room, but John asked me not to.  Hrumpppphhhhhh....

The people in our building are more than friendly.  Daily we open our door and find a little something there, like some chocolate or a little Christmas decoration.  So I've been making key fobs.  In addition to the hardware, you only need a 4" x 13" bit of fabric.  I may have to crank out a few more.

It's a peaceful cold gloomy day.  And I'm pretty content.  

Heading into the Holidays

The Benton Avenue Christmas Fairy has successfully made the transition to the Oak Brook condo.  He has had to be creative with wall space, so our blingy quilty Christmas tree is now in the kitchen but seems peaceful there!

Meanwhile the nonChristmas Fairy continues to work on a project she’s in love with - the Left-handed Liberal quilt of Leftovers.  Avert your eyes if you are a political conservative.

I’m struggling with how to finished the upper right corner.  I still have time to figure that out!

Meanwhile, there are always purses.  This box to the left has 12 kits of purse parts and three purses in various stages of construction, all ready for a workshop in February.  I'll continue adding to the box as I make more purses.

Below are the latest eight.

And there is always a project that should be done, even if I don't want to do it.  This quilt on the table is an unfinished family heirloom of my stepdaughter's best friend.  There has been a lot of work invested in this quilt of appliqué.  Brenda's grandmother, the grandmother's sister, and their BBF all worked on this.  Brenda thinks this work is from sometime in the 30's.  While I'm not sure about this (I would estimate 20 years later, like the 50's), this quilt top need to be honored and completed.  These fabrics are fragile.  And despite using steam, there are some wrinkles that probably will not come out.  My plan is to back with with a light yellow, bat it with wool, and pin baste it all.  I am going to try to machine quilt in the sashing and then hand quilt around the appliquéd bits.  We'll see...

Guild Retreat

 

To state the obvious, our guild hasn't met much in person for the past two years.  There was a retreat last spring, but participation was determined by a lottery.  And I didn't get in.  But the recent retreat was held at a hotel near O'Hare and participation was not limited.  I've been feeling a bit disconnected from the guild and my mates.  And this retreat took care of that feeling.  So good to reconnect with the oldies and meet some of the newbies. 

Guild retreats mean unbridled sewing.  Instead of 6 hours a day, one may sew for 12 hours without getting odd looks!  And so I did.

See those strips in between the big blocks consisting of two dark strips separated by a middle light strip?  I made 72 of those units but waited until I was home with a design wall to construct the quilt top.  It is now 80" x 100".  The big fabrics are by e bond and her Glyph line.  

Before leaving for the retreat, I did the heavy lifting of cutting out all the bits.  So at the retreat all I had to do was assemble.  The two darker colors run into each other more than I envisioned, so I am thinking about how some hand stitching in all areas might bring out the beauty of this pattern, which is Shuttle by Glad Hand Sews.

A really fun part of the retreat was sewing with Ellen.  This fellow guildster has been so supportive of my work with Sew Powerful, and she came to this retreat prepared to make her first purses.  Look at the photo,  Can you count six around Ellen's neck?  Nothing like sewing with someone to get to know them!  

I'm heading back to purses soon.  In fact, I found several fabrics on the retreat scrap table that are perfect for purses.  I have an opportunity to lead a workshop in the new year and am about to put together purse kits!

In The Works…

Here are the leftovers from the Jinny Beyer Tote and the recently-completed jacket.  I left my feet in for scale.   I also got out all my scraps of a Kona, maybe snow.  Not sure.  Hoping I don't run out.

And here's what I've started to do with them:

And it has morphed into this.  The upper right corner is complete.

Meanwhile, I have had this Kona navy and the low-volume train schedule print.  I thought I was going to do a two-color quilt, but I couldn't find a design that grabbed me.  Fellow Guildster Amy made a quilt for her son using the pattern Shuttle by Heather Akerberg @gladhand_sews.  At the same time I saw this quilt of Amy's I found a fabulous blue grunge.  So #Shuttle is next up.  The pattern follows these fabrics.

 

And the last project in my queue involves the leftover fabrics from e bond's Glyph collection.  I made one quilt from these and love it.  And somehow these fabrics have to be honored and used.  The pattern is in the upper right of these fabrics.  

I'm excited by all three of these!  Geek out much? 

Nothing to see here but trees…

 

Last fall must have been pretty, but I don’t recall.  We had just moved here, we had not yet sold our house, and I think there must have been some emotional and visual hijacking. But this fall?  It’s glorious.  

Perfecting the Pillsbury Dough Boy Look - part 2

 Longtime readers know that I’ve made quilted jackets only to later cut them up and make them into zippered pouches and totes.  When will I learn my lesson?  Apparently not anytime soon… 

I made this tote years ago from a Jinny Beyer kit.  But I made it before I learned about bag interfacings and underlayers.  The bag is gorgeous but would just collapse on itself.  For over 10 years I’ve had the fabrics and paper pattern (this is paper-pieced). So I decided to make a bag that would actually stand on its own.   But as I made the new front and back for this new bag, I decided it was too pretty for another bag.  Instead, I deconstructed  the bag above and retrofitted it with Soft and Stable, thus creating the bag I wanted.  

But now what do do with the bits I just created?  10 years later these Jinny Beyer fabrics are still among my favorites.  I think there’s a depth of color in her RJR fabrics. 

I ordered a jacket pattern - Tamarack Jacket by Grainline Studio - and a bolt of Thermore, a thin batting.  And then I got busy.  

It’s almost completed.

I lined it with one of my favorite Art Gallery fabrics, Hello Bear.  And I’m still figuring out the closure.  So far toggles seems to be the answer.  To be determined…

I still have some leftover colored bits.  And a lot of odds and ends of a plan white/cream.  Thinking… but it’s what’s up next! 

47 Purses in the Mail - and My Reward

Combined with a few purses done in August, I sent 47 purses to Sew Powerful this week.  It is a great feeling of accomplishment and with such a great payoff.  There was a team from Sew Powerful in Zambia last week, and they posted pictures of young ladies receiving their purses.  Go to SewPowerful.org for these pictures. Along with those smiles were good reports from the various components of Sew Powerful - sewing, farming, soap making, etc.  This community-driven initiative supported by the Sew Powerful army makes me know that what I do, along with hundreds of other purse makers, is important.

Devoting an entire month to just purses means putting aside projects that I want to do.  And Ive been wanting to make my way through not only the fabrics I have but also the projects set aside that I've been meaning to get to.  The fabrics in the bag below were set aside for a different bag.  But suddenly I saw them on the FIKA Tote by Noodlehead.  This pattern was new to me, and it has so many different pieces.  My husband does word puzzles.  I do fabric puzzles, and this was like a monster 3-d puzzle.  But I loved how it turned out and of course want to make another. 

This bag is essentially 19" wide by 15" tall and 5' wide.  One side of the bag has two slip pockets.  The smaller pocket in darker grey (with my phone peeping out) is the last of a fabric that I have loved.  Holly and/or Sarah turned me onto it.  I tried to find more, and all I could locate was this lighter grey matching fabric.  Against the grey/brown grunge, I think both are striking. 

The reverse side of the bag has one big zippered pocket. The foundation of both sides as well as the gusset is Soft and Stable, which means this bag can stand on its own.  The handles are lightly padded with fusible fleece.

The bag has a recessed zipper and enough interior pockets to confuse the best of us.  What I think I like most about this bag and pattern is the final step.  Instead of leaving a seam in the lining open and birthing the whole bag through the lining, the interior and exterior are simply sewn together as they are meant to be and then bound.  I think the result is excellent and very polished.

Before I started on the Fika Tote, I worked on this years-old Jinny Beyer tote bag. The small panel above on the left is paper-pieced, not a way that I prefer to work.  But look at the precision!  There's another identical panel under it.  All the colorful leftovers from the paper piecing were kind of big, so I sewed them together.  There are two big sets of panels.  And wait!  There's more.  Look at the skinny colorful strips on the right.  All these bits - big and small - need to be featured.  I don't know how or what, but I'm thinking...

Next?  Hmmm.....

And the last purses…