Random Piecing

Saturday afternoon, I needed some mindless sewing to do.  So, diving into the scrap bin, I found some strips that were already cut and some pre-pieced sections.

What if.....

Yes, what if.... Log Cabins?  But the one of the pre-pieced bits wasn't square.  But what if????  And why does it have to be square?   (And more questions - think of a 3 year old......)

Play time! That was the answer.  Explore the world with playtime.  So I sewed strips on, log cabin fashion -lights and darks segregated to opposite corners of the pieces.

Here are the results.

Can you see the two blocks?
Lets look at them individually.

The first started with a four patch - not really the traditional Log Cabin, is it? I also allowed the strips to be wonky. And there is an extra "dark" strip at the top.
Next up:

This piece started with a strip piece unit of five vivid colored pieces. It is a non-square rectangle shape.  So, now, what do I call these peculiar pieces?
I decided to call them "Log Condos."  They are log cabin like but the interior is subdivided.

I know, just some silly ramblings - but perhaps you will be inspired to expand on the theme of a traditional block in a non-traditional manner.
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Finally!

Why "finally?"  Because, finally I can show this piece I made for someone.  It was bought as a gift so I have waited over a month to show it off.

This is an art quilt made with a horse silhouette. The fabrics are all hand dyed pieces purchased from Vicki Welsh on Etsy.  Vicki is my go-to shop for hand dyed fabrics.  The black is not solid but has some visual texture to add a bit of ooomph to the work.  The blue and orange/tan for the background was a gradient dyed piece that I cut up for this. I love the woven path section as well as the thread painting I did on the horse's mane and the edges of the sun/moon shape.

I mounted this small quilt on a piece of foam core that I then attached to a stretched canvas so that it will hang nicely and show as a work of art.  - Oh yes, that "wooden frame" - that is some hand dyed fabric also. I thought it was perfect for this piece.
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A Wish

I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

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Quilting and Just Because.....

I am going to start off with the "just because" part.  A few days ago I looked over and saw this:

It is a spool of white weaving thread. But the crystal in my window was "shooting rainbows" into the room. I couldn't resist taking a photo. Wouldn't it be cool if the thread was really those colors?

I know some of you are thinking I have quit quilting.  But I have made several pieces I can't show until after Christmas (or even later!)  Today,  I have been doing a nice meandering quilting on a quilt.  I can't show the whole thing right now, but here is a bit of the quilting.

I am not doing a lot of fancy quilting on it, because it needs to be soft and comfortable.  So, meandering seemed the best way to go.  There are a few places that I will do some pebbling but I am saving that for last.

I also wove some cloth in which I used some handspun yarn made of bamboo and silk mixed together.  I actually did the spinning and immediately took the yarn singles off and wove them in.  Here is the final cloth. Only some sections have the handspun yarn.

I loved my handspun in there so much that I have already made more yarn to use in my next weaving project.

So much to do - Yes, I am retired, but I seem to have less time than I did prior to retiring.

In case you don't hear from me again this week ---Have a very Merry Christmas!

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This Happened

(((Geek Alert))))

In 1977, I saw the original Star Wars movie.  Over the years I have seen them all. I was planning to "just wait" for  The Force Awakens to come out on DVD. Then a friend from my acting group posted a call for someone to go with her. She said "The 3D version is tempting me."

So yeah, this happened:

Over two hours and you don't dare go to the bathroom.  It was a thrill ride.  I won't give any spoilers, but I had only one or two minor complaints.
If you saw it and didn't like it - well - Don't Tell ME!
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Sewing with Handwoven - Draping Collar Vest

Back in August, I started weaving a roughly 20 cm wide piece of fabric. (that is slightly less than 8 inches wide.) I wove quite a length of it.  Finally it decided to become a piece of clothing.
As a quilter, I am quite used to joining pieces of fabric together to make bigger pieces.  That is a secret that many weavers seem to miss out on.  Weavers tend to think that the loom needs to be wider so that wider fabric can be made.
My loom will weave roughly three times this width - I just chose to weave a more narrow fabric.

So, I sewed pieces of this together  to make the cloth wider.  Then I sewed it into this Draping Collar Vest which is a pattern in one of my Japanese pattern books.

Front

Back

Front closed
a button could be added
or a brooch could hold it closed.

Because the patterns in this book are sized for the average middle aged Japanese lady, this is a petite size for someone in the USA.

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Spinning a Yarn-and.....

Suddenly,  this craving to spin some yarn overtook me.  I had bought some white bamboo fiber with thoughts of dyeing it.  The craving said "spin it!"  So I started spinning it.  Then the craving said, "You have some fun colored silk fibers in your stash - it will go so well with this."
Hmmm... to the bin I go, digging around. YES! there are three bags of it - and two of them are multi-colored. So I spun for a while.  Then I wound the thread off onto weaving bobbins.
Ooooh SHINY - and pretty too.

Both bamboo and silk are very soft and have a lovely sheen.  They almost glow with an internal light.

Hey, I have a piece that I am weaving --and this will work great with the cotton in it. In what seemed like moments, the three lovely bobbins were empty.  (it was longer than moments, but when you are in "the zone" - time loses meaning.)
WOW!  Look how it looks in my weaving.

It has lovely random color changes going across. This really plays nicely with the stripes in the warp.
Here is a close-up.

I have a feeling, I will be doing this more often.

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Playing with Quilt Designs

I have been playing with some quilt designs.  I played in Electric Quilt so I could have images easily of what I am thinking of.

This was my original design -with lots of contrast.

But it is a baby quilt so- there was a thought of doing it with beige, pink and lime green.

Then I decided to play with chevron stripes.  First a basic three color chevron stripe.

Then I thought "What if.....I split the squares with the accent colors?"

Then I thought "But if I use two different neutrals/beiges, and split it....."

 So which do you like best?

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A Little Stitch-out

Here is a little stitch-out of a cute bunny that I did.  I plan on using this in a baby quilt.

I haven't decided on the actual quilt piecing design, but I am playing with ideas.  More to come in the next few weeks.
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Weaving Update

Back in August, I attended a weaving event for Saori weavers.  There were quite a few folks in attendance. The event was a kai. Kai  is a Japanese word that translates to club or association or meeting.  A Saori kai always has a sharing (show and tell) element.  We also have fun weaving and sharing ideas.  Because this was a 3 day kai, it was called Super Kai.

So here is how I got to where I am with what I am weaving now.
At Super Kai, we were given an envelope with paint color cards. The solid card was to be the color of the majority of your warp. Mine is white. Then we had two additional shade cards. You must use one color from each card. Finally an inspiration card. It is the card in the photo with the peacock feather. We could use any or all of those colors to spice up our warps. I choose the blue and the bluish green.
There are 230 threads at six meters long.

 We were told to weave with all the colors in the warp but that we could add any colors we want to add to the weft.
I have started weaving but there are no pictures of that yet.  Here is the warp after I got it on the loom.

I have waited so long because I didn't think I would enjoy the process or the color combination.  To me, white is better as a warp accent - not as the majority of the warp. However,  the way I did this warp, the white is a great "background" for all of the pops of berry, green and blue. The blue is not very obvious so I am weaving some more blues into it in hopes that it makes the blue warp threads more apparent.

I hope you have a great December.  And I hope I am here a bit more blogging about my creative adventures.


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Free Motion Practice

As a relaxing activity after two days of Thanksgiving hubbub,  I decided to take a pieced block and do some free motion quilting play.  So I layered the square with backing and batting to make a mug rug.  I left the backing larger to use as binding (but I didn't make it wide enough.)
I did some good and some not so good free motion quilting.

Then I pulled the backing around and attempted to make a nice binding with it.....Oh well!  I think it could look a lot better. But I did get that FMQ practice done and made into a usable piece.

I have also been weaving on a warp I got in an exchange.

Pink is so not a color I love - but this piece is helping me love to work with pink.  When I got the warp, I thought it was mostly red and yellow.  But there was a lot of pink in it also.  So I decided to embrace the colors of the warp and try to stay with the warp colors for weaving. I have added a little and used a few deeper versions of the warp colors.  The truth is this: I love how this looks.
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Tulips Chose the Colors

Back at the end of August,  I attended a weaving event in North Georgia.  One of the fun things we did was prepare a warp to bring.  The person was to use a picture or painting as the inspiration for choosing the colors. These warps were swapped - although not a direct swap.  Each person went up (by random drawing) and got to grab one from the pile.  I chose what I thought was a mostly red and yellow one.  (I continued to think that until I started putting it on the loom!)  Here is the picture that the person who made my warp chose as her inspiration photo.

As you can see, there is pink, yellow and orange in this photo.   Hmmm......
So yesterday, I decided to put this warp on my loom to weave it into fabric.  The note with it said "doubled warp threads." That means you use two threads in each slot. Of course, I don't always play by the rules.  So I have some with only one thread, some with two, some with three and even one slot with four threads through it.
Here is how it looks on my loom.

Mmm, this looks so happy and warm.  I am excited  to get started weaving this beauty and see what happens. I don't normally use a lot of pink in my weaving.  I do have a few cones of pink yarn though.   So I will be using pink in this.  I am thinking I need to add some greens for the leaves.  Of course I am itching to add some purples and blues also.  I am sure this fabric will be very bright and happy.
And the Craftsy Black Friday sale on supplies and classes just might be live already!

Disclosure: I am a Craftsy affiliate and this is an affiliate link. If you click it and purchase I may earn a dividend - but your cost will still be the same.
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Literacy - It Matters

Here is an infographic on literacy.  One of my grandparents was illiterate - although she was a smart woman.  Consider what you can do to help with this problem.


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A Glorious Day

Today I got to see one of my woven works being worn.  I politely asked permission to take a photo.  She agreed that I could take pictures and post them here.  I think this piece looks perfect on her.

She LOVES it. 

A couple of people have commented asking about items that weren't sold.  Everything I have left is still for sale.  If you are interested in one of the pieces please contact me. 

Craftspacecontinuum. - you are a no-reply blogger. 

 My email is if you wish to contact me. 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible unless otherwise stated. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger" - I can not reply.