Purses and Plans

In January I made a commitment to make 12 Sew Powerful purses a month.  And here are mine for February.   Notice the top row, 2nd one. I’m used the curtain material for the flap and strap,  I think I’ll do more next month.  And just as I was finishing these, a flap of friendship arrived from Shannon Greene in Oklahoma.  A perfect baker’s dozen! 

Meanwhile, my guild has started three new bees.  I loved participating in the last one when I made The Piano Tuner’s Daughter quilt.  I am using this new bee to repeat this project.  Here is the first quilt, and here are the forks for this project.   I can’t wait to see what my guild mates create.  

Former student Bridgette, the retired Marine who keeps me and several others working out daily, says she’s ready for a new bag.  And she wants a Dot Dash Dot bag.  I made several almost 10 years ago, so it will be fun revisiting this pattern.  And she has chosen the drapery material.  I think this will work.  Despite my vow to not start another project until I do grandson Brandon’s quilt, I just gotta make this bag first! 

Inherit the Wind - No, Wait. It’s actually…

 Inheriting draperies from Gone With the Wind!  Friend Cecilia is redecorating and offered me the drapery panel that covered one whole window wall of her dining room.  What a lot of fabric! Let me amend: what a lot of excellent fabric.

Here is this panel on my cutting tables, which are 120” long.  John helped me cut off the top pleated bit and … soooo much fabric.  

The whole idea behind the curtain giveaway was for Sew Powerful purses.  But first I needed to play with the fabric and see whether this brocade is too thick.  It cuts and sews beautifully.  I’ll need to make some adaption to the strap method. For sure this is great fabric.  Below is a bag about the size of a grocery bag that turned out nicely.  Now I can make bags and purses for the whole world!  

Enlarging A Favorite Quilt for a Favorite Grandson

 

Grandson Sam is renting a house in Lombard along with his brother Jack and a third roommate.  Just because they are living close to us doesn’t mean we will see them with greater frequency.  Sam went to Northern Michigan State, and one fall we took a road trip to see him - Sam was a sophomore,  and I gave him a quilt.  Since then almost any event we are attending, Sam is quick to tell me he uses his quilt nightly and has washed it a lot. Recently he told me he bought a queen bed and kind of gave what was on my dining room wall ( see below) a longing look - it is a smaller version of what I made him years ago.  I asked him if he’d be interested in a bed version of this quilt. All of the fabrics in this quilt are out of print, but grunge pairs nicely.  These fabrics were originally from a collection by Janet Clare called Wordsmith.  And most important to my eye, there’s a color in this quilt - it’s grey/green/touch of blue - that feeds my soul and is so hard to describe and match.  But this one grunge works! 

So I removed the binding of the dining room wall quilt and began to make borders.  It was 60 x 80”.  And with the borders it is now 90” x 110” .  Using the quilt as you go method, the two sides went on, and then the top and bottom.  The final step was binding.  It’s gorgeous. And the texture is wonderful.  The body of the quilt is hand quilted with a wool bat.  The borders are machine quilted with a cotton bat. And the back of this quilt is all Art Gallery fabrics, which have an almost silky feel.  

I have loved looking at this quilt on the wall for a couple of years, but I ann also happy to look at this fabulous new quilt! I think I’ll leave it up for a while!   And a final word about favorites: Sam is my favorite grandson.  But so are Ryan, Jack, Brandon and Ben. 

Changing up my dining room

 For several years this quilt has been on my dining room wall.  It’s the absolute last of. Janet Clare line of fabrics called Wordsmith, and none of it is available any more.  I had just enough left to make this Trip Around the World with no borders.  It’s very similar to a quilt I made for grandson Sam when he was at Northern Michigan State.  John and I took a road trip to visit him, maybe 7 years ago,  and .sam is color blind.  He has told me how much he loves his quilt - I think because the design and contrast is easy for him to see and appreciate.  Sam recently bought a queen size bed.  And I’ve been making different quilts. So I’m putting borders on this dining room quilt and hanging up a new one. 

.  Now?  Putting borders on the quilt for Sam.  It’s a process to add to a quilt, but I have the skilz! 

In Love With Every Aspect of This Glam Clam Quilt

This quilt is such a departure from what I usually do.  These colors and fabrics are a part of my new favorite palette.  And there are no straight lines.  These clams all had to be cut by hand, not by rotary cutter.  I did think about piecing by hand, but then I snapped to my senses and did the piecing by machine. However, the quilting?  Yeah, all done by hand, baby, with wool batting and my favorite fabric for backing.If you zoom in, you might be able to see the print of a train or ferry schedule.  It’s very subtle.  

I love cutting the clams.  I loved sewing the clams with its odd assembly of left to right, top to bottom.  And I loved quilting this.  Almost like reading a fabulous book, I really slowed my sewing down the last week just to make the quilting last longer.   What a great quilt t end the year with! 
 

2024: The Year of Seth Apter

 It doesn’t happen often - in fact, this is the third time - that I have fallen in love with a fabric designer.  The first was Marcia Derse back in 2014.  The second was with an Art Gallery fabric, Hello Bear, by Bonnie  Christine.  Last year for Christmas my stepdaughter Jen gave me a gift certificate to a Wisconsin fabric store Quilt-agious in Mukwonago. That’s where I found a collection of Seth Apter fabrics.  His Storyteller fabric line caught my eye for its texture, its color, its collage-like appeal. And thus my most recent and very serious fabric crush.  

            And here’s some of what this line has inspired, including a purse in the upper left that I use daily. 

   

My granddaughter was married last summer and had a very specific color palette.  So I cautiously began using some fabric for one of my favorite quilt designs, Trip Around The World, for Nikki.  

I know what you’re thinking: what a tame use of these fabrics.  So I went a step further by making a gift bag to go along with the quilt, and I liked the bag much better.

But at this point t I really wanted to play with these fabrics. I bought a jelly roll of Seth’s fabrics and used them in “Tightrope”, a pattern by Robin Pickens found at Quilt-afious.  It’s been hand quilted in an off-center spiral.  It almost looks like stained glass.  

Here is a Fika tote, pattern by Noodlehead.  That blue grunge along with the Storyteller fabric?  Love love love. But by this point I was accumulating some pretty tasty scraps and had to do something with them.  The quilt below is odd but pretty in its own way.  It too is hand-quilted. I added to those  Seth Apter scraps  some scraps from artisan shot cottons in an attic window approach. 

This bag pattern, Bohemian Carpet Bag, from Quilt-agious, leaped out at me from the store’s website.  I had to have it, along with some newer Seth Apter fabrics, all of which were on back order.  So I ordered the bag, the necessary hardware, and the fabric - and waited three months.  For someone who is into instant gratification, this was the longest wait ever!  But so worth waiting for.  I love this bag, I love the hardware, and this fabric is just so fun, 

But my favorite piece/quilt of all so far has been this Pacific quilt design from Art Gallery Fabrics featuring several but not all Seth Apter fabrics.  I love the braided and woven effect of this design. I’ve included two photos because the lighting is so different in each. 

I’m not done with these fabrics.  While I’m not sure what’s next, I must credit Seth for my shift in colors.  For so long I’ve been all about reds, greys, and blacks.  This last year has taught me to embrace blues and greens! And I will continue to haunt the Quilt-agious website!

The Winter Season - and John

 

Last year I prayed for one more winter, one more Christmas,  and my prayer has been answered.  My prayer will be the same this year.  And Christmas with John? There is nothing like it. This man loves Christmas and all the decorating and gifting that comes with it.   I am fully aware I am the luckiest person.  

Incoming: a new baby and a dancer with too many shoes

My former neighbor and valued dear friend Cristina is having her second baby boy.  At her request I used the same palette for this quilt as I did for her son Enzo.  See it here.   But I made too many bits for the quilt.  These bits became the best diaper bag.  What a joy to give these to here.  Even Enzo noticed that this new quilt bears a resemblance to his!  A remarkable boy…

And the other big finish this month is for my great niece Eloise.  Like her mom, Elo dances. And she has several shoes she carries.  So this bag was made to carry multiple sets of shoes and a water bottle.  This is the Aragon bag by Sew Sweetness.  One side ahas a curvy pocket.  The other side has a zip compartment.  The whole bag ones wide with a purse zipper.  And the inside feature two elastic pockets and another zip compartment. I could market this as a senior citizen special because it has so many different little places to put things.  Elo chose this fabric, and this bag will be for her first double digit birthday in January.

And last but certainly not least is my evening hand quilting project. I love this quilt.  I love my stitching.  

I’m almost at the end and sad to have this completed.  This might be my new dining room wall hanging! 

And of course little zip purses using leftover bits.  Most of them have been gifted.  After all, it is the season! 
 

                         

                         Finally, a new special project has begun.  More about this later! 

Changing gears again - a finish, a start, and the germ of an idea

At the risk of sounding dorkier than I usually do, this quilt has been a joy to work on.  AGF has free patterns, and this one is Pacific.  And look - I still have some Seth Apter fabrics!  I love these colors, and I loved hand quilting it.  But it’s time to move on.  There has been a huge pile of gorgeous greens and blues fabrics just begging for some interesting design.  And I’ve decided to repeat the Glam Clam pattern.  It’s been pin basted, and it has now been my new evening companion for the past few days.  The temperatures have recently dropped - we’re in winter for sure.  Sitting with this quilt on my lap as I stitch is a perfect way to spending chilly evening.

   

After mailing off 21 purses (see below) I let myself play with scraps and a little zip pouch pattern from The Pink Door.  These are little curvy clutches.  One will be for the December good swap.  The rest - well, it is December!

The next quilt project is a joyful one.  My little friend (jeez, Cristina is 34 - I should find a better descriptor for her…) is pregnant with her second child, another boy.  I made Enzo a pretty sweet baby quilt and am using the same color palette of blues and greens (how perfect - I have just the fabrics) for the new baby.  Cristina likes when I go off script with my quilting choices.  She likes wonk and random, but both those words make me twitch a bit.  I found this pattern and am adapting it.  Today is the day I  will play around with the “blocks” I’ve made from the strips below.  

And of course Sew Powerful purses.  I was delighted to get these three made and mailed off with these other 18.  Time to start a new batch.  This Zambian ministry is now over 10 years old and has spread to Livingston in addition to the capital city of Lusaka. My political distress over the November election results grows with each day’s news as Trump begins his second presidency on a revenge tour.  Look at the appointments he’s making.  The system of checks and balances is out of whack and getting whackier by the hour.  I sincerely hope in 4 years my conservative brother can say to me, “See? He was good for our country and values.”  But we have been on the road before.  It’s impossible for me to give this convicted buffoon a second chance.  And I am appalled at those who voted this narcissist into office.  So, I will sew.  And sew.  And sew.  And then I’ll sew some more.