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  • “Pin It Weekly #340 : Latest pins for inspiration

    I’ve been pinning a bit lately. In the course of a recent Pinterest episode, I found these adorable little bags that I think the girls would love. The are in my “basket bags buckets” board.

    And of course, I’ve been pinning inspirational ideas for the boro jacket (more about that here). It’s coming along quite nicely, so I’ve already started looking at closures. This link is to the “boro kimono indigo flax hemp denim. I think I’ll go with a few large buttons. They really seem to draw me in. But since I’m six weeks away, I could still change my mind. Am I right?

    I’ve also been looking at how people layer their fabrics, adding more and more pieces on top of the original. I haven’t been doing much of that, but my Pinterest board inspired me to add a couple of circles. The jacket is beginning to take on a life of it’s own, which it’s supposed to do. Right?

    Thanks for coming by. I hope to see you next week for PIW #341.

  • Let’s “boro” together: more jacket slow-stitching

    I’ve been sick with a sinus infection that has knocked me to my knees. I’ve done three things? sleep, sit, stitch. Not a bad combination, but really, it’s probably getting time to move. I do have good news though. My boro jacket stitching is coming along. Hours of stitching can really add up. I think this is where I was on my last report: straight lines with a few kooky stitches. Then I decided to change thread color, which you can’t even tell is different in this photo. The wavy “watery” lines are the palest of blue-greens. It was just a whim, very improvish of me. This piece is complete. I had just sewn up two additional pieces before I got sick. Thank goodness!
    This one is completely different from the first, I guess I was thinking clouds. I got this far and decided I wanted to do something different, again. So I picked up what is now the third piece. Circles, flowers, wonkies. That’s what Milly named the shapes. Wonkies does seem to fit, so we’re running with it. But they definitely need some more work.
    And after a few hours, I got to here. Can you see that I’ve decided to start introducing a few neutrals? One reason was to cover the stem of that flower on the left. I don’t even know why.
    And here we are on piece 3. More of the same. In other words, lots of wonkies. I can’t figure out why I can’t get things to be symmetrical, but I figure if I add enough wonkies, they will look like they are supposed to be that way.
    I still have these two pieces to finish and at least another two or three to do. Then let’s remember that it’s supposed to be reversible, so the neutral side is waiting. Hmm, maybe my wonkies will find symmetry by the time I get to the end. I’m not so sure it matters. Most of the boro jackets I’ve seen online are far from symmetrical, which is one reason they are so charming and popular. These are a couple of really interesting patterns that I think I may have to try. Don’t the textures look yummy?!

    Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful week!

  • Where do we go from here? Studio Update

    Background. I thought you’d like an update on the studio repairs. One of my recent surprises was a huge nest of termites in the studio walls. The sewing studio is a separate building, so the termites hadn’t eaten their way into the house. They have, however, destroyed about 50% of the studio walls. We began right away looking for other options. None were viable. Repairing or replacing the studio is just more than we can afford.
    Two rooms with opening to form the sewing areas.
    It took years, okay, decades to build and furnish the current studio. We were both working back then. Almost everything is second-hand, painted to look like it belongs, and built or installed by my husband and sons. They are handy guys.
    Back bedroom to become the storage and cutting room. (Assuming everything fits.)
    Few Options. Since we can’t afford to start over or to replace the building, Richard decided that we’d take half the house and turn it into a new studio. We don’t use most of it anyway. I agreed because the kids could rebuild what we are now changing should they want to sell the house when we’re gone. I mean dead gone. I’m hoping to remain in my home for as long as I can sew. Then it won’t matter where they put me. Okay, enough of looking that far into the future. It’s a little too much gloom and doom, right?
    My floorplan before Richard modified it.
    New Space. To make the new space work and give it some feeling of openness, cohesiveness and movement, we removed the doors, took out one wall and opened the closets to form a walk-through. This means the sewing area will be divided into two distinct spaces and the cutting/work area will be in a separate room altogether. I’m okay with the new setup. I don’t have too many options, so I’m making the most of this new arrangement. The drawing above is a basic floorplan that I’d put together. Richard has his hands on it now and has already made several changes. I’m not keeping up with him, so there will likely be some surprises. Let’s hope for the best.
    It’s difficult to tell, but these are two closets back-to-back. They are opened up and I’ll have cubbies and shelves on each side of the doorways.
    This is the original hallway from one bedroom to the other. On the left is the closet where I had my sewing space when we moved in. Now it serves as a small office.
    And there we are. It’s slow, but I have two guys who suffer from chronic pain doing the work for me. Most days they can’t hold a hammer or paintbrush for longer than an hour or so. I’ll just have to be patient. (Not one of my virtues.)
    Each room has one window, which means not a lot of natural light. Richard has promised to move my florescent lights from the studio to here. You don’t realize how many dents and bings the walls take until someone comes along and starts filling them. Adam is fantastic at these type of repairs and painting. So, when he feels well enough, he’ll be the paint guy. I just have to choose paint soon. I think I’ll go with a white to keep the rooms bright and let the quilts and fabrics be the stars.

  • How to Make a Small Zippered Coin Purse

    After making my sister a small wallet to hold her credit cards and keys, I decided to use the pattern to make another to hold my rosaries.  Since I keep two rosaries in my purse and have had to take measures to keep them from tangling, I thought I’d solve that problem, too.

    Materials List

    paper for your pattern
    3 coordinating pieces scrap fabrics 9″ x 11″ or larger (One for each of the following: outside fabric, lining, and separating divider.) This picture shows the pieces already cut and placed in neat stacks.)
    7″ zipper
    batting scraps 
    fusible webribbon scraps approx. 6″ long

    1. PATTERN and CUTTING  I used the pattern that I’d made for my sister’s wallet.  To create the pattern, traced around a credit card, then added 3/4 inch all around.  I wanted to add seam allowance and a little extra so that it would be easy to put the cards in or take them out.  The pattern is 5 1/2″ w X 4 1/2 h (The purse is oriented in a landscape design.)

    2. ZIPPER  Start out by inserting a 7″ zipper.  Match one of the lining pieces with one outside piece, right sides together (rst), slip the zipper between the two so that the outside edge of the zipper tape lines up with the top of the purse.

     My fabric is a one-direction fabric, which means that I had to be extra careful to make sure the birds were flying right side up.   You may have noticed that the zipper is centered in the fabrics and that the top and bottom stops are far from the fabrics.  This is to be able to fold and sew the excess zipper down into the purse cutting it.

    I pinned the pieces in place then turned down the outside fabric so that I could check the hummingbird.  I also checked to make sure the zipper was facing in the right direction.  The zipper pull, or slider, needs to be on the same side as the outside fabric.

    3.  Once I was certain that I had the fabrics oriented correctly, I used my zipper foot to stitch the zipper.  It’s especially important to move the needle all the way over to one side of the foot, so that you don’t break the needle.  I like to move the needle to the side nearest the zipper elements, or zipper teeth.  This allows the foot to hold the zipper in place as I sew because it is riding on the fabric and the zipper tape, putting pressure on all three pieces.  Of course, I pin carefully, also.

    4.  After I had one side of the zipper sewn in, I flipped the fabric over and pinned it down.  I could have top-stitched at this time but, knowing that I planned to quilt the fabric, I skipped this step for now.

    5.  Time to pin the second side of the zipper in. 

    Again, I pinned both the outside and the lining so that the zipper tape lined up with the edge of the fabric and checked the orientation of the hummingbird.  This time I also checked to make sure that the fabrics lined up.  I am a smidge off (gosh, it looks much worse!) but let it alone–the side seam can accommodate a smidge.  (Now finished, the purse looks great.)

    6.  MARKING THE QUILTING Before adding the batting, decide how you will quilt the purse. If you choose a stipple or other design that does not need lines, skip this part. I chose to quilt in close diagonal lines, which needed to be drawn in with a ruler and Frixon pen so that I could achieve somewhat straight lines.  

    Tip: Draw the line on the inside of the purse so they don’t show even though Frixon disappears with heat or friction.  (Play safe.)

    Cheat tip: I was not concerned with aligning the lines since the two sides would not be seen together.  
    Cheat tip: I drew in only two of the lines on each side and used my pressure foot edge for rest of the lines.

    7. BATTING To add the batting, simply slip it between the two pieces of fabric and tuck it along the edge of the zipper.  Tip: Less batting makes sewing in the zipper much easier, and the purse less bulky along the top.

    8. QUILT  Just go ahead and quilt one side then the other.  I’m halfway, in this picture.  

    9. SEW Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the divider.  It’s optional though easy to make. To create a divider I cut a piece of coordinating lining fabric 5 1/2″ x 9″ and folded it in half, wrong sides together (wst). Add a layer of fusible web and press at high heat.

    10. SEW  Close the purse by folding in half along the zipper, rst, and add the divider. Tip: the folded edge should be closest to the zipper.  Adjust the divider so that it is about 1/2 inch from the zipper. Trim the raw edge on the opposite side, if necessary.   Pin all around.  Begin sewing about 1/2″ from the zipper.  Sew around the perimeter of the purse.  Be careful to catch all the layers.  

    10. SEW Again Yes, make a second seam inside the first one.  I used a zig-zag stitch to finish the edge of the seam, then sewed another straight stitch between the two.  This little purse (in my case) will see lots of use.  I want it to hold.

    11. TRIM Trim the corners cutting up to, but not through, the seam lines.  Tip: Be careful!

    12. ZIPPER TAPE At this point I folded the zipper tape down and made a quick seam to hold it in place.  To make sure it appeared neat and clean, I stayed inside the seam allowance.

    13. TURN Open the zipper as much as you can and turn the purse through the opening.  Use a knitting needle or other small object to push out the seams at the corners. Tip: Push out the corners from both sides of the divider.

    14. RIBBON PULL Using two pieces of small, coordinating ribbon,  Tie the individual ends of the ribbon and fold in half.  Finger press tightly.

    Slip the folded end into the hole in the zipper pull. Now push the knotted ends through the loop and pull tightly.  

    And it’s complete!  Add your rosary, coins, credit cards, lipstick, compact, mirror–whatever small items you have lost in the bottom of your purse–and you’re in business!

  • Pin It Weekly #339 : new followers always welcome

    It’s time to meet a few new followers. Our last PIW was in December, after all. Oh wow! First up is Jacqueline Giambalvo‘s “Sewing” board. This board has mostly quilts, but there are some other sewing-related items.

    Now say hello to Marilyn Wilkinson. If you are on Keto, you should just scroll right on by, because this board will tempt you, maybe too much. I’m not sure which bread looks the most yummy, but I’d sure like to taste them all and get back to you. 🙂

    And finally, say hi to Briony Blake. She is really into yoga. Check out the pins from one of her yoga boards. This first pin is just too fun. If you want to remember the names of each pose, it will certainly help in the way of mnemonics.

    Have a great week, everyone. I’ll see you again for Pin It Weekly or you can visit my Pinterest boards here.

  • Slow-stitching: Boro Fabric Beginnings, One Piece Complete

    My little boro fabric is coming along quite nicely. It’s slow, but that’s the idea with slow-stitching. My peeps cannot understand this concept, but their fun doesn’t bother me. I’m enjoying the calm that handwork provides during this time of no studio. We’ve worked out a plan and Richard (poor hubby!) is working diligently to fix up what will become my new studio. But more on that later in the week when there’s something to report. Since SQI was all about indigo, let’s focus on the indigo boro fabric.

    The first piece. It’s right at the end in the photo, but I’ve actually added the few lines needed, including the “scattered rice” where my needle is. I actually stitched the rice while Richard drove me to Baton Rouge and back. The roads are much to bumpy to attempt a straight line, so I decided to go with it. “Scattered rice” is my name for this stitch because I have spilled raw rice a few times and it definitely looks just like this.

    Did you notice the wavy lines? I worked on the piece for several hours one afternoon and white got boring. So I changed to an almost blue-green. (It looks white here, sorry.) I am improv-ish enough to use what happens to be at my chair. That thread happened to be an almost blue-green. Why not? And since I was changing color, I figured I’d also change stitch. There you are, a few waves of water. I’m sure I’ll pick up that color/motif again somewhere in the ensuing pieces.

    One the left is the back of the section now completed. The lining fabric (right photo) is thin enough to see through it and make out the variances in the table. (The whiter section has four or five layers of lining.)

    The back of the piece (right photo) is more difficult to see because the white thread barely shows up against the off-white fabric. I’m not really sure what this fabric is. It’s thin like gauze but doesn’t have the hand of gauze. I took it off the back of curtains, I think, and have a pretty good piece, so I’ve decided to use it for the entire jacket, both the navy outside and the neutral lining. Actually, if I play my cards right, it will be reversible. But I’m not promising myself that quite yet. There’s way to much slow-stitching to do and the end of February is on a faster trajectory than my slow-stitching.

    I have two more pieces of the indigo ready to begin stitching. The one above is next in line and is a bit larger than the first one. Below is a very large piece. I’m thinking it will be for the back, perhaps. We’ll see, I suppose.

    I have nor begun layering smaller pieces on top of the bases yet. I’m still not sure how “authentic” I want the jacket to feel. The traditional jackets may have many, many pieces, and I like that look. But I’m not sure how practical that might be. I plan to wear the jacket, assuming I like it. So I think that I should spend a little more time deciding what my “look” is before I add too many small pieces or different stitches.

    Look at these jackets from my Pinterest board. They are fabulous. Would I wear them is another question altogether different. I have figured out that I need something longer than this waist length. Most likely hip or mid-thigh, because I get cold and a jacket with this many layers will be warm. Are you beginning to get a sense that I have lots to work out before I arrive at our retreat?

  • Sunday Quilt Inspiration: indigo

    There’s an SQI from 2018 on the old blog that covers indigo, but I am into indigos right now, and want to create another indigo SQI, with a bit of a boro slant. I’m thinking it will inspire me as I work on my boro jacket fabric. I have a little done, now, and it’s beginning to look like something boro-ish. (Yes, boro-ish. Why not?)

    My first attempt using different shades of indigo stitched together improv style, backed with a thin lining, and hand-sewn using big stitches. I’ll continue with the big stitches and, as the feeling catches me, add other stitches for interest.

    This photo (above) shows the way that boro jackets are repaired and added to over time, so they almost never wear out. When a hole appears, the maker adds a piece of fabric and sews it in using large stitches in an improv pattern.

    Eventually, those added pieces make up the jacket. Pieces are added wherever needed, Oftentimes, on top of previously added pieces. And so, as always, a few quilts in our SQI theme…

    I’ll leave you with my own small indigo art piece, titled Indigo Dusk. Click on the title for the link explaining how I created it.

  • Quilts of 2020: The Surprise!

    I’ve been looking back at 2020, in the hopes that looking back will help me move forward in a direction that brings my family calm and happiness. Looking back at how we spent our time was fairly easy since 2020 didn’t allow for many big events. Still, Richard and I know how to enjoy ourselves even when there’s little to do or see or have. We are very aware of how blessed we are. Our children and grandchildren and great-grands bring us such joy and love. We appreciate our home and our community. And we are enjoying retirement: he has his woodworking; I have my sewing and quilting.

    Ruby Snippets was my first finish of 2020. It was well on it’s way to becoming a finish when the new year rolled in.

    I accomplished much more this year than I had hoped. I suppose being home has something to do with it. (I don’t sew as much when we’re off traipsing around state and national parks.) Here are photos of some of the pieces and quilts I brought to some form of conclusion. This does not mean bound and labelled, as you’ll see. Like so many other sewists I made facemasks. When I’ve heard of people who have made hundreds of masks, I am awed. I finished about 100 and that was becoming a struggle.

    One of three customer quilts for Anna Dean. I wrote about the other two, finished in August, here.

    My Sherry Lynn Wood top, finished in March
    and the finished quilt completed April.

    I changed directions and worked on a few art pieces:
    Magnolia I (top) and Magnolia II (bottom).
    In June I started two new projects: the Bernina Sugaridoo QAL and a small sewing camp for children in our area.

    Sewing Camp was a great success, despite having only three students. I was at first disappointed but soon realized that including a younger girl meant having to give her extra support. In the end, it was lots of fun and I hope to have another one.

    I also attended the first of two retreats. Members of the Baton Rouge Modern Quilt Guild set up the retreats and they know what they are doing. Yvonne is a pro! She recruits people, collects money, and organizes meals. At the July retreat I worked on a Sugaridoo strip and sewed two tops. I have yet to quilt those tops but they are in the que, waiting their turn.

    Sometime near the end of July Richard and I contracted CoVid and it took us much longer to recover than we’d hoped. As a result I didn’t complete any quilts in July and few in August. Two hurricanes hit Louisiana pretty hard. Though we had only a little damage, the worst for us was probably going without electricity. Louisiana is a miserable place to be in July and August when temps are in the high 90s and the humidity is just as high. Some days we had heat indices of 115. The poor guys who work on power lines. They can’t possibly know how much we appreciate them.

    By September I was back on my game and completed two quilts that had been waiting for a while. All About the Boxes and The Retreat were easy, fast finishes. Perfect! About this time, with Richard’s help I opened a booth at Griffin’s Antiques and Main Street Market. In November I launched this website to have a place to sell my book and some of these quilts. Then in December I attended my second retreat which I haven’t even written about yet and we’re in a whole new year. I wonder what happened.

    In the middle of all that, somewhere, I managed to fiinish writing my novel, This World So Fierce (here’s an excerpt), and self-published it through BookBaby. Since then I’ve mostly been trying to sell copies. Speaking of, have you gotten your copy? If not, you are in the right spot! Click on the title in the top bar or here. You’ll be purchasing directly from me, so you’ll receive a signed copy, if that matters at all. If not or if you’d prefer a digital copy, go to Amazon or Books a Million or your favorite book retailer. Thank you!

    Whew! I was busy all year, wasn’t I? What about you? Did you keep busy with quilting or another craft? Leave a note linking your year-in-review and I’ll come by for a visit. Thanks for getting through this long post!

  • Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Crazy Quilting

    This post is from a time when I was on a crazy quilt kick?  I’d look over Pinterest and other sites for ideas for the crazy quilt bolster that I was working on at the time. That bolster was never finished or maybe I gave it away, who knows after 7-8 years. But I’m back into stitching because my friends–Glen, Yvonne, Tracy, Crissi, and now Pam–are planning a retreat on which we’ll make a boro jacket. I’ll need some stitches in my repertoire of sewing skills. So a look at a few Pinterest boards, including this new one, “slow-stitching embroidery handwork needlework.”

    When I was pinning the crazy quilt ideas, I’d found Crazy Quilt Passion, a blog that makes for some interesting reading,.  I love the pastels and the beading and all the extra embroidery in the photo.  Annette is a true artist and made this pink and blue piece to decorate a bag. The pins of stitch types or how-to… are some I found while searching for ideas for the boro jacket. See how things keep coming back around?

    When we were younger, my sisters accused me of living in the wrong century.  I supposed they just knew me and it’s probably true that I’d have been very happy as a Victorian lady. But the Acadians were not people of wealth or fancy, so I’ll just stay here in the 21st century. Not that I’m wealthy (in a monetary sense) but I sure am living it up when it comes to anything crafty.

     

    How lucky are we that we have access to so many forms of education? Remember when Pinterest didn’t exist? Searching was so time-consuming. And before computers?! All opportunities to learn had to come from another human or from books. The Victorians had only each other. Ahh, but what they produced! Lucky us that they did.

    Thanks for visiting. Leave a comment and let me know which of these is your favorite.

  • Slow Stitching: Practice for a Future Boro Jacket

    The Book of Boro: Techniques and patterns inspired by traditional Japanese textiles by Susan Briscoe

    While we were on retreat in Baton Rouge, Glen began talking about wanting to make a boro jacket. She’d brought Susan Briscoe’s new book and “encouraged” everyone to look through it. Really, it’s fascinating and immediately my brain started whirring. Why not make my own? I could easily create my own pattern, after all. However, I’ve decided that the only way to do this is to get my own copy. It’s in my cart already!

    I started with the red lines then moved on to the blue circle. Just playing with stitches. At some point I decided that I liked the circle shapes. That brought me to the yellow and I tried to create a circular shape in the upper part. I’m not sure it works, but I’m not disappointed.

    In no time at all we were all buzzing about wanting to try some new technique from the book. Or maybe some stitching. Or maybe some of the mending techniques. You get it. We were bouncing off each other’s ideas and maybe a wall or two.

    Still playing with a variety of stitches, I decided to add some scattered stitches. They remind me of spilled rice.

    Before we left we’d made a plan: retreat again at the end of February (they invited themselves to my CQG retreat 🙂 and we’d all make boro jackets as one of our projects. If we’re going to look silly we’ll be in good company!

    The bullion stitch in the navy (upper left) is new to me but all the others are some I’ve used before.
    Obviously I need to practice, but it’s not a bad first start.

    But you know I couldn’t just go home and forget about it, right? So I didn’t even fight it. I found some muslin and my trusty pink bag of embroidery thread and played for an evening or so. I love having a little handwork to do when I’m sitting in front of the tv. It’s so nice to focus on something during a shootout or fisticuffs. And these tidbits are what I managed this past week. I amazes me how quickly one little square will fill up with thread.

    Have a wonderful New Year and may 2021 be better than 2020.