tumbling blocks - swaps

tiny bunny pincushion

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:14:00 -0700

I'm so glad I joined the scrappy pincushion swap. There is just something so succinct about a pincushion—it's small, it's stickable, and that's about all the requirements there are. Pincushions were some of the first things I made and fell in love with when I started blogging. I loved (and still love) how diverse and how special they are. Highly detailed or not, I can't help admiring their utilitarian loveliness.

My pincushion went out to my partner today. I am at the tail end of the swap, but not late. I hope she loves it—it was hard to put in the box! The felt bunny pattern is from Japanese craft book ISBN 9784529047869, which is chock full of adorable animals you can stitch up in felt. The rest of the pincushion came from my scrap basket—it was a scrappy swap, after all. I kind of want to make an entire army of these now. Pincushion group shots really get me.

a meet and a meet

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:59:00 -0700

Our little family has been busy flitting here and there on many a weekend during these last couple months. It's gymnastics competition season (yup, we do that) and this season seems to involve more far-off travel than last. Much to my luck, this weekend's meet dropped me into Erin's neighborhood, where we were able to get together. Yay! She and her daughter Kate, and Eva and I drank coffee (well, the girls didn't have coffee) and talked in a cute coffee shop with a subdued owl theme. Fun, of course. It's so cool to read someone's blog and then get to realize that they talk in the same voice that they write. As lovely as you would expect.

There were presents--pincushions! Because let's face it, we all could use another pincushion. There's always room for just one more. The photo up top is my present from Erin--adorable Last Minute Quilted Gifts pincushion and Denyse Schmidt fabric to boot! I don't have a decent photo of the one I made Erin, but she does. :-) The half-square triangles were scraps I had left over from my mini quilt, and the other fabrics were more Pop Garden.

Eva was funny on the way to the coffee shop. I was asking her what she thought it would be like to meet another kid whose mom had a craft blog. She said they could talk about their moms' Material Obsession. Indeed.

the final block (so far)

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:28:00 -0700

Some very long time ago, Meg and I started one quilt. I'll speak for myself, but I imagine it goes for many, and I'll say that it was harder than I thought it was going to be to keep things going each month. And here you have the evidence: This block is Sarah's block, for which she sent out the fabric nearly one year ago. Oh my! Thankfully, we're just a nice and understanding bunch of people. Also thankfully, this is the last block I owe at the present. At some point, I want to make mosaics of each participant's blocks, but I'm going to wait on it some more and see what happens.

Sarah's fabrics were such a good mix to work with. This quilt from a past Toko Quilt Festival was the inspiration. It is such a beautiful quilt. The part that Sarah wanted to build on was the idea of areas of densely pattered patchwork and areas of tonal patchwork. It's always fun to play with others' ideas.

green M one quilt

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:15:00 -0700

Maitreya sent lots of fun green fabrics for her one quilt block, and really the only thing she asked was that we incorporate the letter M, for her love of typography. I decided to do four different Ms using embroidery, and because I tend to dawdle with embroidery, it took a while to complete, but here it is—Yay!

I am thoroughly enjoying the long weekend. This is the third day of sleeping in, and it feels pretty good. I don't really even have an agenda for today, which is so unlike me, but I did a lot of the agenda-type stuff yesterday. Maybe we'll do a group craft—who knows? Hope things are equally chill in your neck of the woods.

-Dorie

mobile swap

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:06:00 -0700

Last year, I so loved seeing all the pretty things that came in from Meg's mobile swap, and this year I decided to join.

I didn't have too much of a plan. I wanted to have dangly cloth parts (I used Martha Stewart's strawberry pincushion as a template), and I wanted to have felt balls, and I wanted to make the circular kind. My partner wanted something colorful, and I think this fits the bill OK. Actually, I started out with red, yellow, orange, and pink, the colors in the tweed strawberry shape. Funny how it always comes back to blue, red and gray for me.

Of course, a nice thing about swaps is you get a present back. This is what I got from Liz. Isn't it cool? She used paint chips for all the different grays and blues. Very lovely indeed.

men with famous hats

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:10:00 -0700

These are Eva's contributions to the Kids ATC Swap. She really enjoyed participating--making her own art and then receiving envelopes from around the world. I'm so glad that Blair and Erin put it together. Thanks guys--900 swappers is a lot of work!

I totally expected Eva to choose collage for her medium, as she had been doing a lot of that around Christmas. Instead, she went with pencil drawing of presidents and American-ish stuff, I think highly influenced by recent subjects at school. Parents, we never know, but we are always tickled. So there you have it: Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Barak Obama, the American flag, and the Statue of Liberty.

Also related to famous historic figures, Elie and Eva made some kick-butt Hamentaschen this weekend. Mmmm-mmm. Purim is on Tuesday, and this is how we're marking the occasion. In case you're not familiar with them, Hamentaschen are cookies that are shaped like Hamen's (a wicked, wicked man) hat. The centers are filled with something tasty and sweet. Elie's favorite filling is poppyseed, so we have a lot of that, and our Hamentashen are made with bread dough and not cookie dough. You could do it either way.

bricks

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:43:00 -0700

I love this project, I really do. For the latest border, I followed Jennifer's designs for the bricks instead of the half square triangles. I strayed a bit on the placement, so my version took more time and fabric that hers, but it is pretty much the same. I like it. The flickr group of everyone's quilts is amazing. They're the same, but oh, so different—it's so inspiring.

And speaking of same but different, the first round of one quilt blocks are starting to come in. I love the places these talented women have taken the fabrics I sent them. It's amazing. Like I think I said, I plan on setting them on point. I'll have 12 blocks, so I think I'll line them up 3x4 with solid spacer blocks in between. I think I can stretch it to a bed quilt that way. But what color shall I use for the spacer?

I wore my green oxford dress out yesterday and it worked pretty well. I had some gap-osis in the top, but I think I can fix it, and when I cut a size smaller, it should be taken care of. It did not blow away. :-)

one quilt

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:10:00 -0700

So you know the Virtual Quilting Bee, that wonderful communal-ish quilting project started by Mama Urchin and completed by 11 talented others? I loved that idea. So did Meg. Together, Meg and I decided to start a similar project, which we're calling one quilt.

It's the same premise—12 talented quilting women make one quilt block each month. Each woman is in charge of sending the starter fabrics out for one month, and she then receives the fruits of that month's labors. So each woman receives 12 quilt blocks, enough for one quilt.

See the participants and follow our progress in our flickr group.

It's going to be fun.

even better than wearing a live rabbit on your head

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:20:00 -0700

This is what I received in the very last round of the CU later swap. It's made by the amazing Jill. It's all bunny, all super soft angora. My tactile child and I keep rubbing it on our cheeks. It is so good. She didn't say, but I suspect that it came at least in part from yarn Jill spun from her rabbits. She can do that, I know. See, I kinda want a rabbit that has hair that can be spun. I've had a crush on one since sheep and wool 2003. (I don't spin.) So I heard about Jill from friends long before I actually met her because she was really doing the rabbit thing.

Should I get a rabbit?

Have you seen the disapproving rabbits? Nope. No sir. I disapprove.

Lotta strikes again: the all-day tote

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:21:00 -0700

Dang, Lotta, your book is good.

I finally got Jeanne, now of Texas, as a partner in the CU later swap. She was my very last partner. The swap is now over. This bag went to her. The fabric showed up on my doorstep like six months ago, a generous little gift from petulant feminine, who was destashing. (She's not blogging now, but I owe her a postcard if only I knew where to send it!) Anyway, this fabric has been softly chanting Jeanne's name since the moment it arrived. It's been telling me things like, "Make me into something and I will be sweet plum pudding love!" Seriously. And now all its dreams have come true. It is the Lotta Jansdotter all-day tote, and it is in Jeanne's hands.

I only made one change to the bag, which is lengthening the handles. It needed to be a shoulder bag. Bags are generally more useful if they can be both toted and shouldered. I love the side pocket, and the bottle pocket. I also really like the little clippy key thing. I may someday make myself one of these. It would be really good for Saturdays when we leave the house early and come home late.

apple you glad I didn't say orange?

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:42:00 -0700

When I think of fall, the first thing that pops to mind is a maple tree covered in firey orange leaves. I'm guessing this is similar for a lot of other people. No matter how many wonderful fall memories I have, this is what springs to mind first. So when I started thinking about what to make for Chara's fall swap, the orange leaves were right up there in my brain. But, I've never been a huge fan of the color orange, the ubiquity of which in local culture makes it even less fun.

Enter fall thought #2: apples and apple pie. I have no problem with these whatsoever in any way, so I created for Stacey an apple-themed swap. Some cutie superbuzzy apple fabric played a starring role. It's stuck in the pincushion above, and in the patchwork pocket of the green recycled sweater tote below. I also sent Stacey a bunch of tiny white pumpkins (not orange!). I tried to photograph them, but I didn't really get a good one, so instead you should look at Sarah's gorgeous pic if you want to see what exactly I'm talking about. (I know you've all seen these, but go look at the photo anyway. It's nice.)

Stacey and I were on a similar wavelength while crafting up our swaps. We sent each other very similar bags--both green wool with a little something. She also knit up a warm brown scarf, and made this cool little notebook with a cork cover. Very cool! Stacey, you should do an instructable on that.

back

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:07:00 -0700

It's been a bit of a week, if you know what I mean. Things have been very very busy. Not sad or terrible busy, but happy busy, but just the same, I've been occupied. Last weekend I was away for a work conference, so that kind of threw things off, plus Brownies started this week, etc.

I'm still working on finishing a few projects. There's a good bit of hand sewing left, so until I can share all that, here's some really good mail I've received recently.

First is the above postcard sent to me for winning a comments give-away at Pyglet Whispers, Isn't it cool? I like to think of the ladybug as having stern/nonplussed eyebrows, Because you know, ladybugs have eyebrows. Thanks, Dani!

Second is the gigantic pile of scraps I received from Erin through the Scrap Swap. Let me tell you, that lady has some beautiful scraps, and she was very generous about sharing them. Thanks, Erin!

I arranged the scraps I sent her in "rainbow order" before I sent them. Looking at them, I guess I could do a little mini purl, last minute patchwork color wheel with them. That would be fun. I'm thinking that Erin's scraps are going to go toward some kind of chain quilt on a white background. Pretty.

It's about 10:00 here and I've only just finished putting Beebs to sleep. i let her stay up late with a movie and then she had a terrible time falling asleep because earlier in the day we saw a hearse go by and I decided to teach her the corresponding song. Great idea, Mom. It was just enough to produce the kind of scared, tired bedtime sad that requires your mother to sit next to you until you fall asleep.

goodness bonanza

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:28:00 -0700

Happy Beautiful Saturday! It is wonderful here, is it wonderful there? Days like this make me wonder if we would all be much more productive if the weather was always like early autumn. I've been up early, getting things done and liking it.

I'm host for this next round of the CU Later swap, so getting that going an picking a theme is on my list for today. See what I got in the last round? Karen knit me this most beautiful scarf in a pattern with lots of delicious texture. It's so cozy warm--I love it!

Karen chose the theme for the last round, which was "inside out" or maybe "hidden surprise" or "reversible". I can't remember exactly, but you get the idea. So, I made Sarah a Lotta sunhat. Actually, Sarah requested a sunhat, in a very Sarah-ish way, and I was happy to make her something I knew she wanted.

It was my third time on the Lotta hat, and I still like it. I have to say that the Simple Sewing book has gotten more use than any other pattern book I have ever purchased. Well worth it!

Oh, and aren't these special? Erica's grandmother made gazillions of these finger pincushions, and she and her mom found them up in the attic. Erica was kind enough to give one to me and to send one home for Beebs.

quilt bits for dressers

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:45:00 -0700

Today, I was going through my fabric scraps getting ready for this scrap swap, when I realized that I had completed a couple things last spring which I never shared on the blog. (There's nothing quite like a scrap of fabric to send you back to projects past.)

I had been envious of the clean and pristine dresser tops of other people I know because my dresser top was usually full of crap--stray pins, old clothing tags and their plastic bits, dust, spent lists, etc. I figured that if I made myself a nice quilty dresser topper, it would be a good place to keep my usual jewelery and it would keep my dresser tidy too. The blue triangle one is mine, and it's been working pretty well.

I also made one for Eva, but then almost immediately decided not to use it. She wasn't that into it, and she pretty much has her own dresser-top mojo going on, so I didn't want to push the issue. There isn't much room up there with all the dollies, jewelery boxes, and special rocks anyway. The thing is, now I have this pretty quilt thing that has been sitting in my closet. I think I'll take apart the quilt sides and hang it on the wall.

the printed fabric that almost wasn't

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:02:00 -0700

Did you ever have one of those swap projects that just didn't go the way you though it would? Yes, i know you have. This was like that. I like the end result. I think it's good, even though I'm feeling a little like a one trick pony with the pitcher plant print. However, it's not at all what I started out doing.

I had a great idea for Bitter Betty's Print It Yourself (PIY) fabric swap. It is so good that I think I'm still going to do it. I made up a design in Illustrator and had it all set to print. Great. All I needed was some new photo emulsion from the only place nearby that carries it, the local student-run art store. The local student-run art store was out of it, which no one there had bothered to notice, so it wouldn't be in any time too soon. OK. So if I ordered it right then from dick blick, it would still come on time for me to print for the swap. I ordered it, but the order didn't come. I checked my email for a confirmation, and there wasn't one, nor was there a charge to my credit card, and I got the distinct feeling that I did not actually hit the submit button on that last screen. OK, plan B. I though I would try those carve-your-own rubber stamps. I did, but I was pretty bad at it and found the whole process immensely frustrating. So what did I have left to work with? The North American Pitcher Plant screen from way back when.

It is a screen a like a lot. I will probably even use it again, but well, not what I originally intended.

A few other folks have posted their fabric and they are amazing. (Bethany links to them here.) I really can't wait to see what comes of all this.