I think I let the project sit too long. One good thing is that I cut out the copies and matched them with the next batiks for the colored cats before setting it aside. I did that today too, though plan to return to it tomorrow.
What I forgot is the PP system which requires that I think upside down and backwards. The black is a tone on tone and must be facing the right way. Rather, it must be the backside of the fabric to the backside of the pattern. Then the next piece also has to have enough to it so when it opens wrong side to the wrong side of the pattern, there will be enough of it to cut to fit.
I know, I know, practice, practice, practice.
The quality of the batiks is high enough that if I do have the wrong side out, some pieces are so small that you could not tell anyway. I spent more time correcting my sewing mistakes than I wanted, and wondered why I couldn't learn by these mistakes? Black gets scrapped more than the batiks and I am so glad I got twice what I needed.
Some months ago, I participated in a 6.5" square swap for Halloween fabrics. Rather than get too frustrated with the PP, I pulled these squares out, trimmed them to 6" and then started cutting them the way they were cut for the Autumn table runner, using 3x6, and 3x3 pieces. They just need squaring up and joining. If the Southern Hemisphere swap goes, the next one is May 1 where they celebrate Halloween. I made it just a little longer using using 24 different fabrics.
I am really surprised how quickly that pet bed form is filling up. I will most likely spill out the contents and make sure none of the pieces is too big before closing it up.
What surprises me even more is this issue of not learning from my mistakes. Usually we learn our lessons just because we don't want to pay the price of getting them wrong. I thought about the cost of it all, not so much the fabric costs, but the costs of my time and energy.
My current solution is to take it out again this afternoon, and again tomorrow, while it is relatively fresh in my mind. I really think that setting it aside for as long as I did was a mistake. Another thing I might have done was to watch the videos on it again and then start up with it. I think I trusted my memory a bit too much, which goes to show memory fades.
Since moving all my quilting items into one room, its been a challenge for me to find what I want. Funny how I've formed simple habits of reaching for something, even when it meant going into another room. I got really excited when I saw one of the bins in the closet a little more than half empty. Then I saw another bin sitting outside of the closet, so full it wasn't closing!
While I did make two charm square table runners and have a third cut and ready for piecing, what was taken out for them was hardly noticeable with what I still have in stash.
I try not to seal any of the bins so air circulation isn't cut off from the fabrics. There is always a fine line to storage, because fabric will absorb odors and smoke, even from cooking. And once in, its really hard to get them out, if you ever can. I think moving everything in this one area is smart as long as nothing radical happens. I don't mean to be whining about not finding things easily. The goal of being organized is easy retrieval.
I am ready to start paper piecing again. I thought that would happen already but got caught up in running errands and then finishing up some of these smaller projects.
This is a traditional Friendship Star block ready for the BSA 12" mailing. I like to limit my trips to the PO to once a week just because their staff is low and it means waiting in a very long line for service.
It will be a nice complement to the other block I made with the same fabric. My partner says she has been quilting since she could stand at the sewing machine and is still hoping for a blue ribbon on one of her quilts. If she is like me, she lost count of how many quilts she has made over the years.
I've been thinking the machine needs to go in for service and so want to have a few projects ready to work on while it is in the shop. Luckily, I have several packages of batting so could go to the clubhouse with those. And I have a couple of embroidery projects too. Its all about timing.
Old habits and patterns can be valuable friends, especially in quilting. And for me, they only last a little while before I go onto something new. I cut out two more of those Autumn table runners, one for the second swap I am hosting publicly on swapbot, and the other going into one of the boxes designated for one of the Grandgrrls's new homes. I've finished the top of #2, need to get a back and batting.
Then I returned to the House Blocks for the International 12" Christmas Block Swap. I planned to make two blocks to send off and didn't realize that the pattern would make up two identical blocks, so right now they are blue houses, and I am thinking they will go on the back of other quilts rather than to her. Now that I know how the pattern works, I will make something different to send her. As my February partner & I chatted about House Block quilts, we started thinking about what a swap between the two of us would look like. We haven't make concrete plans about it and will chat more next week when she is more free to think about it. What is fun is that she is from Oz (the name most Australians call their country) and that means she is in the Southern Hemisphere.
The second block project is for the 12" BSA swap and was a bit more complex combining 4-patches, HST and finished off as a 9-patch. It is a Friendship Star Variation. The stores in town didn't have a gray batik, and even this gray doesn't photo true colors. Its quite lovely. I've cut out a second block with the traditional Friendship Star pattern to try with these colors.
These smaller projects are close to complete, and my plan is to return to the Paper Piecing project. I didn't want to get too far off track and knew these swaps were coming up. Its given me a respite from the concentration it takes to work with paper piecing, and I am ready to get back to it.
I am hosting a swap on swapbot with a theme for Southern Hemisphere seasonal celebrations. The group owner sent out a request for someone to step up and do it, so I did. Because they are six months out from us, and the March Equinox is their Fall. Realize that half the globe faces the Sun for a different view. Simple science. If we exist on a globe, we cannot all see the Sun and experience its warmth the same way. March Equinox brings Spring to the Northern Hemi, and Autumn or Fall is experienced in the Southern Hemi.
I decided to make a small table runner (12x28) for the swap that can be used in a number of ways, and found this cute & fast pattern. It takes 21 - 5" charms. I sorted through what I had, and came up with a nice variety that have a more Autumn feel from my perspective. Wonderful to use my stash. As I did the machine quilting grid over it, I was struck how much a wine color is in the squares I selected, and that blue. Placement was somewhat random and the more I tried to re-arrange that, the more it just needed to happen without a plan. Here's the link ~~ http://sewsweetness.com ~~ I put a simple wheat print on the back, which is also something we harvest in the Northern Hemisphere at fall.
At first I was going to buy fabric for binding and went into another shoebox container for 2.5" strips and found a dark beige with green circles that was not one of the charms, yet does go with the center piece. And done is done.
Because this is really a seasonal holiday, making the simple runner felt more like a sacred act and that the cloth was suited for a daily altar. I could see a clear glass vase of fall leaves sitting on it, or a big golden candle. Once again, my work took on a prayerful attitude and intention.
I know that I am always so surprised when I open a package from someone and feel a connection to a person from some other country or state in the US. Its delightful, healing.
Another thing I know is that what I make can be simple, can be quick, can use up stash. Sometimes I get caught up in thinking what I make is not enough. Yet it is! It is my best in the moment and made with my good intention. How much better can it get?
While going through my fabric bins, I found a leftover piece of flannel that I used when I set up a Duck Display at the County Fair a couple of years ago. I set it up using Ducks to tell Women's History. It was fun and difficult. I used the fabric as a backdrop.
I simply put a seam around the edges, turned it right sides out, top-stitched it, and then ran quilting stitches across it to keep it together. Its gone to an Infant Center in town as a doll blankie. California law prohibits giving any child-size blankets to babies under a year old, which has me shaking my head. Better they have it to play with than it take up space in my fabric bins. I sent a few ducks to the school too. Regulations say kids that age cannot have anything smaller than what can fit through a toilet paper roll. The ducks are fine & easily washed at night to be clean the next day.
Then I made another fabric box. Wow, do I love them! This one goes to a swap partner celebrating Ostara or Easter. I get to use up my buttons too; four singles and as long as they match in color and size, they work! This one was made of 10" squares which are the largest I cut from scraps. Its fun to find matching fabrics. I've seen some fabric boxes that are more creatively stitched on the edges, but once I figured them out, I just like what I do.
The rest of my day was spent cutting and getting ready to piece. I have three projects set out; One is for my friend Debi's birthday gift. She loved the knitting needle case I made her last year, and asked for another one. Seems she was given her Auntie's collection of knitting needles in a baggie and wants to protect them. Of course, I tossed the pattern for the needle case and couldn't find it online. This one is much more difficult but will be easy enough once I get to it. The second project is the House Block for my February 12" Christmas Block Swap. And the third one is going to be a Fall Table runner for another swap I am hosting for the Wheel of the Year in the Southern Hemisphere. They are seasonally 6 months different from us in the north, so this the next holiday they will have is going to be Fall.
You would think all my stash would get used up with all these projects I make, yet it seems that its never ending. I have nearly filled one of the pet bed forms too!
Another 12" quilt block swap partner for the month asked for hers to be made out of batiks in gray, and yellow, which I don't have. And while I am at the fabric stores, I need to buy complementary colors for the Mystery Quilt. Goddess, those mysteries drive me crazy just having fabrics cut without knowing how they will be used. Yet, I keep doing them. Oh this is why stash builds...duh.
One of the groups in Swapbot is sponsoring a monthly prayer flag swap. The facilitator posted it twice, once in a group that is called Transcendence, and once in the public domain. The Transcendence group profile says it goes above the material, thinks outside the box and goes beyond usual limits in thinking and art.
Yesterday's mail brought this wonderful package that included five fat quarters of red & white geometrics. I washed them with TWO Color Catchers that turned pink, and unfortunately the FQs did too...maybe not as pink as the Color Catchers, but still pink.
So that made me think about doing another Prayer Flag and giving the fabric a chance. This would be the third PF I made this month with that theme. I am working with the quote, "Every Broken Heart Can Heal". Everyone has a broken heart at some stage in their lives either from loosing a dream or a relationship. Healing the heart and soul ripples out to every relationship we have and every act we take.
I like the tatteredness of the fabrics. They are supposed to have un-hemmed edges so they fray or come apart in the wind. Traditionally, when the flag deteriorates and falls to the ground, it means the prayer is answered.
The first one I made, hanging on the door, is the one I am keeping. The rows of scrap squares are meant to invoke the elements. Blue for Air, Red for Fire, Green for Water and Yellow-Gold for Earth.
The second one I made was with only the Fire element represented in it, and has 3.5" strips in layered rows in various shades of red.
The third is all 1" strips folded over the top of the foundation piece, using the red & white (bled-to red & pink) fabric which was also cut at 1" strips for a fully broken-hearted look. Almost looks like a doll dress the way it is laying for the photo because the foundation is cut.
A couple of things are happening for me with this work. First of all, any prayer we say starts from within our own soul and touches us as much as the one we pray for. And secondly, I am interested to receive the two prayer flags, one from the public group and one from the Transcendence group. Of course, we cannot compare artists, and in no way can we really compare the energy of spirits. What is seen above are my three efforts and how different they are from the same Fabric Artist, using the same concept. Different, as I have written before, is only different, not better nor worse. I am still interested to sense the energies.
I do think that the more I made the Prayer Flags, the better I have gotten into the feel of what I want to create. I see how formal I was in the first one for this month and how my personal evolution continued.
This is a monthly swap (if it continues). My plan is to keep working with the concept of tattering fabric.
I have always been a person who enjoys tradition. Sometimes a person has to make some changes. Change can be frightening and letting go isn't easy. read more about change
My Cuz in Alaska has been quite inspirational to that, telling me how she is releasing some things she's saved for her art work dating back some 30 years. She's gotta have some lovely treasures. However, like me, she changed over the years, and what used to spark her energy, now, doesn't do so much. I took a cue from her and decided to make some bigger changes in my storage spaces. After some thought, I decided to move all my fabric art and paper crafting into one room and rename it a studio.
Its been my office for a good eight years now. However, I am not teaching (one adult education class here in town hardly counts) and struggle to write. Its not really an office any more.
No matter what I said about loving organization, the actual cleaning drives me crazy. I go through periods where I am so caught up in what I am making that I cannot see the dust bunnies multiplying and growing large. The home I live in is small compared to other spaces I've been in, so its a real art to put things away and know where they are when you need them.
I discovered TWO bags of fabrics (gallon-size) that were totally forgotten at the bottom of an unclear bin that had been kept in a corner. It felt like a birthday gift to discover them. Lesson learned there. Only buy clear bins to store fabrics and quilts in no matter how I think I will remember what is in it.
In changing my old ways to work with a new or at least different life style, it depleted my energy. Cleaning has that sort of effect on everything that makes the thing next to it scream for attention. Sigh...
Everything that is for quilting has been moved into this one room now. And of course, rearranging is only one step. I've gone through every bin and box and put them into a priority of use. What I didn't do was label the boxes and that makes me smile. And now I am done with this cleaning until the next day when I realize all I have is chaos and it needs a change. If I remember, I might label a box after using part of its contents. Or not.
