Hmmmm...

So the Iditarod is coming up, and with it the Iknitarod! My wonderful friend Bonnie of Wonderfully Awkward has for 2 years now been hosting this event, wherein you choose a knitting project that challenges you and you finish it by the time the race ends. Now, I am not a knitter and I have no interest in becoming one. (Sorry, Bons, you know I love you anyway!) What I am is a quilter! So this year I am doing...

IQUILTAROD!

Yes, it is goofy but true. Because all the goofy things are true, really. In the time of the Iditarod race, which Bonnie has repeatedly told me is about 8 days, I will complete a quilt! No promises about how big it will be, but "complete" to me means that I will have the binding on and finished. Complete! I'm working on a pattern right now, but you must bear with me because I'm not a computer geek and I don't have any quilt planning software. I'm old-school, you see, and I use blank paper and pens. And have I mentioned I'm not an artist, either? I can picture it in my head and I can make it out of fabric, but the "has a drawing that clearly indicates the appearance of the finished product" is REALLY not where any gift I have lies. BUT! With that said, here is my inspiration:

This is, I believe, the beautiful Rowan. She's in shadow so I can't really tell her color, but Loki is bigger. Hmm. Anyway! I think this is Rowan. What I'm planning is to do the Nothing But Patience block--which I will post a tutorial of before the event, I promise!!--in whites and greys for the "snow", which will be where the brown is in the picture above. Then the stream in the picture above will be stripping, I think, of browns and greys to look like the runner trail. And then dear Rowan, of course, will be in the foreground as she is above and appliqued on. One husky quilt to commemorate IQuiltarod I. :)

Of course, I've got to get it made. But that's the fun of the challenge, right? Now to get a tutorial of the block made and posted...

So swamped

I need to come up with a way to organize my projects. Right now I have the pieces of a quilt I'm working on for myself in this white ornate wrought birdcage, but other than that everything is in bags or piles. Usually I'm a very, very neat sewer--one project out at a time, clean the entire space after every project, everything neat and picked up when I take a break or am done for the night--but these last couple of weeks I've just been scattered. I must focus.

So really, what have I got to do?

**Batik Nothing But Patience quilt. That one's for me, I can put that in a Rosie bag and tuck it away for now. Or, you know, just leave it in the birdcage.
**Nellie's bag. I need to check the remains of a jelly roll and see if I have any colors I think she'd like. I also need to go get half a yard of liner fabric, and 1/4 yard for a strap.
**Richard&Nellie's quilt. I have what I want for the quilt top, I just need to cut it and put it together. I do NOT have backing/binding, but I want to wait until I get the top done to pick that out. And I need to figure out how I'm going to put the birds on the back and not quilt right through them. Hmmmmmmm.
**Lorna's bag. Would like to get that done by next Saturday.
**The bag I was working on that is NOT coming together well. I need to decide if I'm going to scrap it or take the liner out and start over.


Hmmmm. I also have Christmas lights to pin to my ceiling, that would be a good project to get done today. I can't wait to see the effect next to my awesome wall! Maybe I should go work on that instead of sitting here typing...?

No quilting in BVI

I did not do any sewing in the BVI. BUT!

My sister-in-law asked me if I would make her a quilt for their bed. Absolutely everything has to be shipped in--there is no industry and no production on the island. EVERYTHING is an import. I took measurements and talked with them about my general idea, and they loved it. So now to buy fabric!

My general idea is built around stripping, and mimicking the color flow of sand-water-sky. Some white thrown in occasionally for a whitecap or two, maybe an interpretive palm tree off to the side. I think I want to use batiks for the water, to get the illusion of movement. I know I want tone-on-tone or very close for the sand--it's white sand there, so I may veer toward ivory to make it not so harsh. Depends what I can find for blue-teal-aqua batiks. For the sky I'm considering not piecing at all, and just using yardage.

Oooooh, cool! Just had an idea!! They want it so that they can fold the top back when the bed is made. I was going to just do a solid backing, but what if I did a line of appliqueed seagulls/pelicans that showed when it was folded back? COOOL!!! Oh, I'll have to try that...

I need to hunt for fabrics!!

My sister-in-law also requested a messenger bag like the one that I was carrying around the island, in blues and greens. So I REALLY need to hunt for fabrics! I think I'll do a tutorial about making the bag. Once I have fabric!

Quick change purse

I am a huge fan of hidden seams, and I try to complete all my projects so that my raw edges don't show. With that in mind, I made up a fully lined change purse with all hidden seams. You can make it whatever size you want, but I'll give you the measurements for the one I made.

You'll need:

**two complimentary fabrics--one is your liner and one is your outer fabric
**batting
**snaps--I use magnetic
**thread, sewing machine, rotary cutter...the basics :)

Spray your fabric with heavy starch, sizing, whatever you want to use, and iron it smooth. The starch will be important in just a minute! Cut your outer fabric to a 11"x6" rectangle. Cut your liner fabric to 9"x4 7/8" (5 inches minus 1/8th of an inch). Cut your batting to 10"x4 7/8". Make yourself a quilt sandwich like this:

Outer fabric face UP + liner fabric face DOWN + batting, all lined up to your left bottom corner. Sew that long-side seam:

Now go to your ironing board and spread your sandwich out so that your outer fabric and inner fabrics are face up and your batting is underneath the liner fabric. Iron a sharp crease between your outer and liner fabrics:

This is where you want to put on your snaps, if you don't want the backs of them to show. You'll notice that your liner fabric is "short". You want your snaps to go onto your outer fabric, so that the actual "snap" part is on the right side of the fabric. Put one snap 3" in and 3/4" down from the longer end (the end that is longer than the liner). Put the other half of the snap 3" in and 1" up from the end that lines up with the liner fabric.  Now, follow me here: fold the outer fabric back over so that the long raw edge of the outer fabric lines up with the long raw edge of the inner fabric. Sew that long seam:

Now, you should end up with batting and the wrong side of your outer fabric on the outside, and the outer fabric SHOULD NOT lay smooth and flat. This is intentional. Trust me! :) Go back to your ironing board. Remember how I had you iron a hard crease earlier? Lay your sandwich down so that your hard crease is face up (batting down to the ironing board) and AWAY from you. Very gently lay your fingertips on the "extra" bunchy fabric. The starch you sprayed on your fabric earlier will make it easy for you to get a finger-crease here. Finger-press the fabric to the edge so that you get a zig-zag effect:

Then use your iron for a hard crease. That's one side. Flip the sandwich around so that your newly pressed zigzag edge is close to you and hold that crease with one hand. Use your other hand and finger-crease the other edge. Use your iron to hard-crease. If you look at the short edge of your project, you should see nothing wider than the batting, and the fabric zigzagged as above on both sides.

Back to your sewing machine! Holding those zigzags, sew that short seam.

Now turn it all inside out! You should end up with a 1/4" border along the long edges of your liner fabric, and--this is why you did it this way--no bulky folded batting at the edge. You're gonna care about that in a second! :)

At this point I like to just run my iron over it to give it a bit of an edge, so things just lay nicely. Fold the remaining raw edge--at the "top" of the "long end"--1/4" and sew 1/4" seam all the way around the entire piece. Trust me, it lays much nicer this way. Be careful of your needles and your snaps! A 1/4" foot will walk over the edge of a snap--it can handle the rise--but you can't hit it fast and you've gotta make sure it will still feed. Take it slow.

Now is the fun part! Switch feet to a free-motion foot and quilt to your heart's content. :) I do a random stippling in a thread in one of the colors in the fabric, but you could just as easily use blending thread, invisible thread, or high-contrast thread. It's up to you!

Once it's all quilted--be sure to get around the snaps, too, to give them some stability--fold your flap. Now, remember where your liner fabric was "short"?

You'll discover that your project "wants" to fold right there, so fold it over and sew three edges: one short side, the long fold that is about 1/2" away from your snap, and the other short edge:

Now, here's where the flap actually stays down: close your piece (make sure your snaps meet, too--BEFORE you sew down the final seams is a good time to do this!). Find the crease where the top flap folds down, and sew that crease down:

Make it as tiny or as large as you want, so that your snaps line up. Once that crease is sewn down, open it back up. Change to an all-purpose foot. I have a machine that does fancy stitches, so I just chose one and sewed the "pouch" sides closed:

Sew both sides, and you are done! One change purse with no raw edges. :)

Questions? Comments? Clear as mud? Let me know!

Rainy days and...Tuesdays

Tuesdays are my day off work. I want nothing more than to sew and dream about fabric and colors and lines, and spending time in my workroom is blissful. Today is a rainy and cold day. Add a pot of hot tea and it would be perfect for sewing.


However.


As it is my day off during the workweek, today is also the day I have get everything done. Now, I don't have kids. My free time is ample compared to those wonderwomen who raise children and my hat is off to you. I do. however, have a house to take care of, doctor's appointments, financial issues, health, house-functioning stuff...all this is to say that I have quite a bit to get done today and no time to sew. I have had two pots of tea and this makes me happy. But I've got a doctor's appointment and then a bank appointment this afternoon, and a to-do list a mile long. Which means I really shouldn't be sitting here wasting time. Dishes laundry ironing beds recycling errands...the list grows as I sit and think about it. At least I went to my class this morning, so I can scratch "gym" off the list.


At some point I will take pictures of my "Nothing But Patience" block and show you my project. If it works it will be gorgeous...but I have to get it done first!

And so it begins...

Is there ever really a beginning, though, to something that has been for awhile? The magic of living is not that you get to create a new version of yourself, but that you get to constantly discover things you didn't know you were.


Take last night at the gym. I have never been a runner. I have slogged my way through the first few weeks of Couch to 5K (hasn't everyone?) but have never felt at ease with it. But my husband wanted to go, and as I am doing the first week AGAIN I hopped on a treadmill beside him. I did my prescribed 30 seconds on--90 seconds off--repeat 8 times, but then I had an idea. My thought was that I could just sprint it out to finish. For considerations of balance I needed Nick to turn my speed up as I just maintained my pace, so he stood next to me and punched my speed up until I felt like I couldn't keep my feet under me.


I ran at 7.6 mph. ME! Perish the thought. But then, this is the even weirder part...I did it again. This time I just set the treadmill to 8.0 and hopped on. I could only maintain that pace for 15 seconds, but I did it! I felt strong, too. I felt--dare I say--coordinated. Imagine that.


On that same vein, I have always "known" how to sew. My mom made all of our clothes when we were little, and sewing has always been a part of our lives. I've always known how to navigate a fabric store, always known how to care for cloth and read a pattern. It was just always around me, and I basically learned by osmosis. This last year, though, I have thrown myself into quilting with a passion and a focus that surprises me. I am absorbed in my sewing. It entrances me. I can sew for hours, and eventually look up and realize that it's 3am and time for bed...after I finish this piece! Quilting is my heart and soul in a way nothing else ever has been. That's the best explanation I can offer. It's like a part of me that was missing was found again, and I'm grateful every day.


Though, of course, I'm anything but a "standard" quilter. (Is there such a thing?) I make up my own patterns. I get ideas from books and see how I can apply them. I love batiks and quite dislike traditional "country" patterns. I will occasionally just sew two pieces of fabric together to see what happens. One of my favorite ideas right now is to take all my batik scraps, sew them all together in one big sheet, and then cut it up again to sew back together. Could be awesome, could be nothing special. I'll never know until I try it!


I have a gym class to run off to right now, but I'm sewing this afternoon. More later!