Tote Bags

Beth contacted me about a pattern she had gotten from a friend to make tote bags. After my critter hiatus, I was ready to get back into functional fabric and I had scrap squares, so I gave it a go.

They seemed easy enough, and they were, but following a pattern has never been my strong suit and I messed up a few times, especially where the straps were concerned. I hate ripping seams, but I got a lot of practice when doing bags.

No fun little stories to report about the bags, except to say that the first thing I ever sold was a bag. It was actually the one I put the least amount of work into, but the fabric was music notes and some band geek (I say that affectionately) must have snagged it. Okay, that's not really a fun story, so how about this: Last night I found myself wishing that I looked younger. This morning I woke up with 4 pimples. Funny, Universe. I see what you did there.

If you do try to make these, I strongly encourage you to reinforce the straps with at least three lines of stitches. That's the weak spot, but once you take care of that these things will hold much more weight than you would imagine.  Also, machine washable so you can carry, oh, say, transplanted irises in them. Versatile!

I made many a bag since I got the pattern. Quick to make, and easy to customize. I scaled down the pattern and made purses, too. Sadly, I don't have many pics of the bags that I made. Guess I didn't take them seriously enough to record them. Too bad, too, because some of them rocked.



 

 

 

 

The Critters: Ugly-ish Dolls

So it didn't take me long to want to branch out and see what else I could do with fabric. At this point in my life, Ugly Dolls had come to my attention. These guys:

 

They were awesome and creative and I really wanted one. But they were just shy of a billion dollars. So after examining their bits and parts at a local store, I realized that they didn't seem that complicated. They really aren't that complicated. Why they charge so much for them, I do not know.

So I set out to make some furry monsters myself. They were pretty easy to do. I goofed around on Youtube for awhile until I had seen enough tutorials that I felt I could give it a go.


Here's the result:



Mona and Humbert

 



 

I had a blast making these little guys. They were created quite quickly. They're clearly a first attempt, but I was smiling while making them, so yay!

So, yeah. Humbert and Mona were born. Humbert was the first born and my favorite. I wound up taking him into various situations and posted about his travels. If you're feeling like seeing what sort of oddness I can get up to, click HERE and you should be able to see Humbert's album. This is a Facebook album and I think this particular one is set to public, so if you can't see it, let me know in the comments and I'll fix that for you.

Unfortunately for me, the thrill wore off after a short while. I tend to love stuffed animals for a few days and then they bore me. I don't know why. They collect dust and I really don't play with them anymore, so I decided to "rehome" them. Mona went to live with an ex-boyfriend and Humbert is still living with one of my best friends, Eric, and I get to visit him on a regular basis.

Anyone interested in trying to make these guys really should give it a go. You draw one side of the monster you want (start simply, no tentacles or anything), make two copies of the pattern you drew, trace the patterns on fabric, sew the two pieces together, stuff their guts into them, and embellish however you like. Fun gifts for people if they're into this sort of thing. Wouldn't suggest them for tiny humans, though. Choking hazard and all that.

Oh, I did do another monster off of the pattern I still had for Mona; this one is a love-sick male named Geoffrey. Note: All monsters must have pretentious names or pretentious spellings. It's some kind of rule, I'm sure of it.

Geoffrey

 

I never really got attached to him, so I wound up selling him at a garage sale. He was just kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time. I did use "furry" fabric for him and it wasn't that great to work with. Very slippery and he shed a lot. 

Rag Quilt: Quilt #4

 

Oh how I hate this quilt. I have never hated a quilt before, or since, but I really hated this one.

 

Originally, it was going to be a gift for my parents. A handmade, flannel lap quilt for Christmas! What a great idea, right? So soft...so cozy...and how hard can they be?

Well for starters, this has three layers of flannel. What was I thinking? I was thinking "softness" but I was clearly soft in the head for attempting this. Using three layers of flannel means that there is flannel "dust" EVERYWHERE. Also, it's thick, unrelenting, wiggly fabric and trying to jam all of those layers together when piecing was an exercise in major frustration and machine rebellion. Remember that when you fold them together to attach two blocks together, you are actually sewing through six layers of flannel. Six! Cough, cough, wheeze, wheeze! Jam, snap, curse!

Once you have finally ruined a million needles and your machine's motor (I had a crap machine then), you still have to snip every bit of exposed fabric into fringe. This. Takes. A. Long. Time. And it hurts. I purchased special scissors for the job...they're spring loaded with small blades, and that did help...but still. Eek and ow. And since the first baby quilt I did only took me an evening...I waited until Christmas Eve to begin. To BEGIN! I was insane.

So I worked like a crazy person all night long and still wasn't able to finish it. I was able to destroy my room, however. I was sewing in my bedroom then and didn't have a designated sewing room, so you can just imagine the fluff and threads and fabric shrapnel that were everywhere. It was ungodly. I hate this quilt.

So I finally admitted defeat and groggily went to bed with the quilt unfinished. I told the 'rents that it wasn't done and that I would get it to them that week. I never did. I couldn't face it. I burnt myself out. This is the only quilt that I never finished once I began it.

Had I finished it...I'm sure it would have been VERY cozy. So any sadist out there who wants to make me one, I will take it with gratitude and respect for the work and insanity involved. Just don't ever ask me to make you one. I don't love anyone that much. ;)

I Spy Quilt; Quilt #3

A friend of mine was pregnant at just about the right time: I was looking for another quilt idea to try out. Beth had told me about something called an I Spy Quilt: It's a baby quilt, and the idea is that you cut out various novelty fabrics that would be something you could ask the spawn to find, like the car game you probably played when you were a kid: "I Spy with my little eye...a lamb!" and then the wee one searches for the square containing the lamb. This particular quilt does have a lamb, but it also has a Dobro as I come from a musical family and couldn't help myself.

I've since seen many variations on I Spy Quilts, and many of them don't seem to use the window-pane style that I used...in other words, they didn't use borders between the squares. I don't like that as much as it seems like too much color and loudness. Like this one for an example:

 

 

 

 

It's not that this isn't a nice quilt, I just personally feel like it would stress me out if I were a kid that had to sleep with all that chaos. The separations I used in this quilt helped with my weird need for organization, and I feel it helps all of the different colors work better together. You do want to avoid putting all of the dark squares on one side though...mix them  throughout the quilt or you'll get an unbalanced look.

The fun parts about making an I Spy Baby Quilt:

• Finding all of the different fabrics. You generally want to stay away from anything too complicated, considering these are made for tiny humans.
• The small size. I honestly finished this one Sat night. I stayed up too late to finish it, but still.
• Because of the small size of the quilt, I was able to avoid binding the quilt and was able to just do the whole "inside-out" thingy.  Note: You'll notice on this blog that I often forget or don't use the technical terms. I have no idea who my audience for this blog may be (if anyone) so if I write about something that needs clarification (like the "inside-out thingy"), just ask in the comments and I'll try to be a little less nutty in my descriptions.
• You can almost guarantee that this quilt will be used if it is given as a gift (even if they hate it). Parents of babies and small children almost always find themselves needing extra blankets. So if you're of a practical mind...there you go. Problem of baby showers solved.
• Cheap to make! Especially after you buy the fabric to make one...save the left overs. These were only 4" squares and years later I still have more than enough to make more baby quilts. Unfortunately, most of my friends have stopped breeding. Oh well. Eventually I'll have a grand kid. ;)

Quilt #2: "Trail of Roses"

 

So here's my second quilt. This guy is a large lap quilt; an Irish chain. I was wanting a more advanced pattern than my last one, so Beth suggested this one. I liked how complicated it seemed and how easy it wound up being. I always appreciate something that seems like I huffed and puffed over it when in reality, I watched many episodes of House, M.D. while doing it.

On this quilt, I learned how to fold over the backing (flannel) and use that as the binding. I then hand stitched it on the front of the quilt. A pretty time-saving technique, but it didn't wind up being as sturdy as the traditional method of cutting strips for the binding. Other than that, this puppy has stood up to time and abuse. I still use it frequently, and I am pretty hard on my functional quilts. What can I say? I have a dog and I'm kind of absent-minded. ;^)

In the Beginning; First quilt

So here it is. The one that started it all. This is my very first quilt, a full-sized, hand tied basic quilt made for my son. This is the only picture that I have of it and the quilt itself is now a little less photogenic.The colors aren't that true in the pic, but they are a rich brown, a blue and a green of a similar tone. I wanted to choose "boyish" colors, but the truth is, I've always been attracted to earth tones, anyway.

I chose a white flannel for the backing since I love the feel of flannel on my skin and I also love my kid, so there was no alternative. For similar, if less logical, reasons, I chose Warm and Natural Batting. Much more expensive, but it seemed to be a blanket in its own right, soft and warm and sturdy. Exactly what I would want for a quilt made for my kid. It is still my batting of choice. I always take time to smooth some against my skin when I first lay it out, even now.

A friend of mine, Beth, walked me through the quilting process. I think she was a little overwhelmed with my intensity...I was often ready for the next step way faster than she was expecting. She tried to get me to slow down, but once I started, I didn't really know how to stop. That's true today...if a project I enjoy is in the works, it's really hard for me to rest until it's done.

As I said, this quilt was hand-tied. I didn't learn about free-motion stitching until much later, and this kept my hands and mind full for awhile. I learned how cut with a rotary cutter, to piece strips and blocks, how to match blocks, how to hand bind a quilt, how to follow a pattern...all of the basics that seemed so difficult then and so tedious to me now.

So that's all there really is to tell about this quilt. My son loved it. I loved it. It's filthy with mistakes, but all the more valuable to me because of them. I never named this quilt, but I guess I could call it "Parenthood" for those same reasons.

Copperhead

I wish I could blog on fabric. It would be SO much easier. Sigh.

The goal of this blog is to find a way to showcase the fabric art that I create. This is a test post to try to figure out what the hell I'm doing.

 

 

This is me. Well, this is me when I was 25. I call this piece "Copperhead" and I am not quite finished with it yet. Full details about it will arrive when I get the hang of this blog.