A Bag for All Seasons

...and for all reasons.  The top bag is 7" x 9", started as an 18" quilted square, and is perfect for carrying cash, credit cards, passport, sun glasses,chapstick - you know, life's essentials.

The middle bag started as a 21.5" quilted square and is now a 9" x 11" bag - perfect for a Kindle and its charging equipment.  Fellow CPS retiree Carol Conway received a Kindle for Christmas from her family - and this bag is a belated birthday present.

This bottom bag is just perfect for carrying an iPad.  It's 10" x 12" and began as a 24" quilted square.

Full credit for this original pattern goes to the Jinny Beyer website.  And I must quickly add how terrific it is to work in a clean and organized space.

Three Pictures = Three Thousand Words

Before... And After!

Completing a Request about Kathmandu

Today was my day to begin to sort and organize in the studio. How much do I want to avoid this project? So much so that I decided instead to fulfill one of John's few quilting requests: to turn his too-small t-shirt from Nepal into a wall hanging. And - uh - it's been almost two years since we were in India and Nepal. So this wall hanging is ready to hang, and I still have a messy studio. Perhaps tomorrow...

I don't know what's going to help this board of scraps.  I paid grandson Brandon to organize and sort, but that was several months ago.  It must be time for another scrap quilt.

I've got some great surfaces, but all of them are covered with odds and ends that simply must be organized and put away.

Fabrics on the floor must go into the cabinet, and the table to the left? I don't even know what all is there. My cabinets are terrific, and I need to make them more efficient.

My standing tables are covered with fabrics that were used for purses and bags or fabrics that I thought I would use and bits and hunks of different weight battings. I'm not finished making purses/bags, but these fabrics have to be put away.

So stay tuned for some "after" pictures - I have great hopes for tomorrow. We leave for Kenya in less than two weeks. Starting new projects just isn't going to happen. And things in other parts of my life are getting busy. Maybe in early February I can do the sort of "project dreaming" that I normally do at the beginning of a new year!

iPad Bag - one more - and an In Situ

The one problem with having my bathroom and closet upstairs with my studio is this:  I go up to take a shower and get ready to go out, but then I get distracted.  I see a piece of fabric I need to use - or there's just one more step I want to do on a current project - or there's one spool of thread I need to put away - and then there's a photo I've clipped for inspiration - and then there's a piece of fabric I need to put away - but then I find another piece of fabric I want to use - and then John's asking if I'm ready to go.  And I'm all like "What?? Go where?"  Then I'll take a shower, but before I dry my hair I think, "Maybe I'll just put the binding on" and start to sew.  You get the point.  This bag on the left really is the final project of 2010.  I love it.  Even though I don't necessarily plan on taking my iPad anywhere, it's still a convenient way to keep the iPad and its cords together in one spot. 

While I was sewing today, John began to dismantle the Christmas decorations and did take down the Christmas wall hanging.  Here's Moonscapes doing what I intended:  making the new living room chair upholstery look like it belongs in the living room!

Ok, this time I'm really going up to shower and get ready to go out.  We're heading to Greek Islands in Lombard with the Hickses and the Seidelmans.  Nice!

iPad Bag

Sometimes I feel like the Goldilocks of the Quilting World.  I know I made a bag for my iPad earlier this week, but it just wasn't right.  I adapted the Jinny Beyer Envelope Purse pattern but didn't make it quite big enough.  So here is today's bag, which carries my iPad and its charging equipment securely.  The first iPad case I made (see below) will now be for the Kindle and its accessories.  (Yes, I am truly embarrassed to have both of these toys...but also happy!)

The difference in size is these two bags isn't huge, but I think it's enough to make a difference. The green bag started as a 21.5" square. This second bag was a 24" quilted square.

Here's what the bag is designed to carry.

I had intended this day as a studio clean up, but sewing has taken precedence. I have another iPad bag ready for the little bit of handwork and then the velcro and the magnets. So this year will end - happily - with the studio still a mess and thinking about posting process pictures of this envelope bag. 2010 comes to a peaceful and happy ending. And that's my wish for you and me in 2011 - peace and happiness.

Moonscapes - and its lessons

It's completed and ready to hang in the living room, as soon as John takes the quilted Christmas tree down. I'll be happy to look at this daily, but of course I would do things differently if I were starting this project all over - a common lament among quilters. I do love the colors and fabrics in this piece, and the inspiration behind this design was to unify the various colors currently in my living room. I'm also happy that I am finally getting the hang of free-motion quilting - this piece represents my first with free-motion quilting. I like that I used one color of thread which takes on a new dimension with each moon   But instead of framing the quilt with a traditional border (which I did deliberately to incorporate that scarlet red), I wish that I had engaged the edges of the quilt with the design. I wish that I was bolder with my quilting, but that's a skill that will grow with time.  And - bottom line? - this quilt makes me happy.

Wrapping Up the Year

Christmas Eve with the kids and grandkids in LaGrange Park and then Christmas Day here with my sister, her family, and our parents were both terrific.  John and I are so blessed with our families.  Today was a day to enjoy leftovers and to not get dressed - a luxury.  While John was footballing (Go Bears!), I made a quilted cover for my new iPad - a slightly bigger version of the envelope purse - and decided I would be very happy if I could begin free-motion quilting Moonscapes, which I started last September.  So I got busy, using words from Hecate in Macbeth (be bloody, bold, and resolute) to spur me on.

Out of the 25 moons, I have quilted 7 of them.  I'm not sure I like the effect - yet.  This piece is an exercise in relativity.  I'm using the same color thread for all the moon quilting, which is more pronounced on some of the the moon and their backgrounds.

During the next few days my goal is to finish Moonscapes and restore order and cleanliness in the studio.  Then I'll be all set for 2011!  But I've still got time. Maybe just a few more bags...

Christmas Gifts

These pillows for John's sister Chris are finished.  These are both 24" by 24" and will be part of the window seat in her dining room.  Chris uses color the way I use black t-shirts.  So it's always fun to work on something for her because her color sense is so different from mine.

This iron is a Christmas gift for the studio, and I am pretty excited about this.  It's the Rowenta Steamium and kind of futuristic-looking, isn't it?  I've had two other Rowenta's, each lasting for over 10 years.  Considering that an iron is something I use as often as and in conjunction with my sewing machines, I'm happy with their lifespans. 

The heat control of this older iron has come off - broken plastic parts - so that this iron now has one temperature: HOT!  Also check out the number of steam holes on this new iron. There's supposed to be 400!

In the true spirit of the season, I won't use my new iron until December 26!

Not Enough Hours in a Day

My shopping - such as it is - is complete. My wrapping becomes what I've made, despite John's ability to wrap presents so nicely.

These are pillows I'm making for John's sister Chris and hope to give to her Christmas Eve. I have the 24" by 24" pillow forms. All I need to do is finish them! But kitchen responsibilities are calling - steamed cranberry pudding and hard sauce, mushroom barley soup, slicing the beef for stroganoff. And I'm having an attack of the lazies - this just might be a "blow off the workout and watch a movie" afternoon.

Today's a day to enjoy the peace of the Christmas season, despite John's having decorated my quilted Christmas tree. At least he didn't string it with lights!

Maybe there are enough hours in the day.  It's my choice to take a break from the studio!

Peace to all during these dark days of the Winter Solstice.

The Start of a T-Shirt/Jersey Quilt

Being organized? It's important. In fact, it's huge. This morning the mom of a high school senior came over with various hockey jerseys and t-shirts from her son. We figured out that we will use a total of 30 jerseys/shirts, and that at least one of the rows will have to be taller than the rest because some of these jerseys won't fit the 12.5" by 12.5" template. Three of these shirts are spacers with the real ones to be delivered in March. Perhaps by then we'll know what college this young man will attend and incorporate those school colors into the quilt. And we also know this quilt will be used as a bed quilt.

For the time being, I'm just going to pick all these up and start a new pile in the studio. At some point I'll cut them and work on a preliminary layout.

Nice to see the project list for 2011 take shape!