Ghosts of Days Gone By

Do you keep a Journal?

I have been keeping a journal for close to 20 years now.  My journals tho do not follow what many people think are the RULES of journalling.  My journals are not uniform, they may not be neat and nicely written, whether hand written or typed, but they are my journals.  My journals do not contain secrets.  My journal sits on the table by my TV watching chair and sometimes I will add things in the morning, sometimes in the evening, sometimes I will rush to my journal to put in a photo or make a drawing that seems to me to be important to remember.

The journal I worked on, I never say wrote in, cause I add so much more to a journal, photos, drawings, bits of yarn or fabric that might show a current project and memories...

There are no rules to my Journal, except that about 10 years ago, I started calling the notebooks that I put them in ODD BITS...

Even the rule of having a dated book for journaling is not a rule, where I am concerned.  Most of my Odd Bits books are dollar store blank notebooks, that I often spent some time creating a cover for -- either in fabric or paper or a combination.  In fact creating the cover is my favourite part of the journal book.  This year, I didn't even make the cover until about September!  I think, tho, I already have a "end of the world" theme cover for 2012!

Now, I put everything and anything that strikes my fancy into my journal.   If there is not enough pages, or if there is a newspaper clipping or other printed article that I want to keep, I will glue in or tape in (I do try to use archival type tape) an envelope and put the extra "odd bits" directly into the envelope.

Sometimes I perhaps have decided there is nothing to write on a page, or maybe something that is important enough not to be regulated to just one day, so I will often paint, draw, scribble over or otherwise decorate a whole page and then glue in a seperate piece of paper with the written or printed bit of news so that it stands out in the book.

Sometimes, I don't have much to say or not alot has happened in the days drifting by, so the book gets words put in as I feel like doing -- some days are "memorial" days and my thoughts are too complicated and extensive to write alot about them, so I just do a small summary of the day.

I don't worry about missing days.   I don't worry if a family member  reads or even writes or draws in something -- but it is MY book so if something is added by another person, I do ask them to keep it to a minimum.  I have pages from years past where one or the other of my sons have added special little drawings or messages -- I love to read those when I go back and flip through those journals -- and I have to say I have reread my journals many many times and can open a particular journal to a particular page whenever I am feeling the need to review that memory!

Now if you are thinking of starting a journal, make or break rules as you please.  I have no secrets in my journals, anybody could open any page and not find something that might shake their world.

Remember too, not everyday is important enough to take time to write everything down -- who cares in 20 or 50 or 100 years that you got up at 8am and had porridge with cinnamon in it.  Nobody, really, but it could be interesting to put your grocery list in one week with how much those things cost.   Of course you want to document important days, births, deaths, and all those kind of events.

If you are thinking of keeping a journal, you don't HAVE to start tomorrow!  You can start and end, or take a break for periods of time.  Some of my journals fill up in 6 months and other books I have take 2 or 3 years to use up all the pages.   There are no rules to it.

And speaking of Ghosts ...

We do believe that Cats have special powers.  We have known for many years that cats can teleport -- one moment they are sitting quietly on the floor, next moment they have teleported to the kitchen counter (especially if you preparing a chicken for roasting or even just slicing some ham for a sandwich)! 

I have finally caught Walter in the processes of teleporting from one side of the room to the other!

Happy New Year, Everyone!  Drive Safe and Sober if you are out late tonight!

Good Riddance Day

I noticed a "tweet" this morning that today is "Good Riddance Day", which apparently means that you should write down any bad memories that you have been holding onto from 2011 and then tear, shred, burn or otherwise destroy the paper with that memory.

Start the New Year Fresh and give up on those little incidents, slights, wrongs, mistakes and other foolish events that take up your thoughts that could be used for creative things instead.

Okay?  Now thats done!

By now you know my Christmas Day and the days surrounding are very quiet, but I do find ways to keep well occupied and my family too enjoy this week without stress and obligation.

Anyway.

I made a little wall hanging for my kitchen.  A bit of embroidery, a bit of big stitch quilting and a bit of quilting; along with a bit of fauxing...

Pretty teacups simply surrounded by sasning and a blue binding to reflect the blue embroidery stitches.

Destined for a bit of wall between the window and the fridge in my kitchen.

Now, I must admit I did not actually embroider the teacups.  They look and even feel like actual stitches on the white cotton fabric.   The Tea Cups tho are IRON-ON!  This is a product by DRITZ and I really cannot tell you much about it because I found 9 blocks and the instruction sheet in a 'packet' on the back wall at Value Village -- .99 cents I think.  It has a soft fuzzy texture once you iron on the pattern piece.  Do you remember what the used to call flocking?  That is very much like what this product is.   I LOVE it and now that I have seen it once I will be on the lookout for more!

And in these lazy days at home I have been working on a quilt project.   I spent a few hours a couple of years ago, figuring out the math for these blocks so that I can make two blocks out of two width of fabric strips that are 2 1/2 inches wide.  Each block is 8 1/2 inches square.   After cutting strips in every red, most browns, and all my yellows and golds, I have spent the last few days -- a few hours each day making up these blocks.  I have now, done 64 blocks -- I am trying to decide if I want to do a few more.

Here are 36 of the blocks made. My 'design wall' is not large enough to show them all.

I am thinking of hand quilting these blocks and plan to use the "Quilt as You Go Method" which you can find written instructions for here or check out the Original Lap Quilter here to learn more about this particular technique.

Every morning I go through and look at the updates of other blogs and came across this quilt block being done by Grey Cat Quilts, so take a look at her treatment of this same design!  Go to http://greycatquilts.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-christmas-eve.html

Well, now, back to the sewing room....

Over Christmas

Well, we got through those few days with minimal interruption of our daily routine.  I think I have said before, my household doesn't do alot for Christmas and we do not do ANY gift giving, except to a very few friends.  I am way over the idea of the obligation of exchanging gifts at Christmas.  Don't get me wrong -- I love to give gifts!  I just really dislike giving them because there is an obligation to do so.  I give gifts when the mood strikes me.  Anyday, anytime.

So instead of the hustle and bustle and the rush to get presents I spent time doing a bit of cleaning in the corners of my house -- you know a house always needs that, even if we try not to notice those corners!  Mostly tho, I did some sewing and testing out some ideas for products to put into my etsy store.

I made a cozy for my french press coffee carafe quite a few months back and then just realized that they go together fairly quickly and that these carafe's are generally about the same size.

The possibilities of variations is limitless.  I decided to use a tab with a button hole and large button as both a easy to put on and take off of the carafe element and as a decorative element.

So I am working on making a few of these in a variety of colours and using both a whole cloth fabric and co ordinated pieced fabrics.  They will be listed in the Etsy Shop in the new year. 

And then, because I can't just sit and watch TV, I found this little cap online at

http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/2011/12/crochet-cap-with-bear-ears-small-infant.html

and set to making one -- it worked up so quickly, that I made a second -- the blue one, but I did not have enough yarn to add the same colour bear ears, so I am at a dilemna.  Do I leave off the ears? Or maybe do the ears in a completely different colour?  I have a really bright yellow that might be just the thing to contrast with that blue.   Then.  Perhaps I will also list these caps in the Etsy shop

as I have no young ones to give these too...

I definately recommend this free pattern tho if you you have a small child to gift it to.  Use a soft chunky or worsted yarn for the little ones and keep their little noggins warm on these cooler winter days.

Well, now back to the work room for a few hours and for the next few days -- it is still the Holiday Season and there are alot of people out in the shops still looking for those Boxing Day and Boxing Week sales -- as for me, I still don't need to be out there, so I will work on piecing some bits of fabric into quilt block that I will then put together to make a quilt.  Maybe I will keep it for my own, for a change.

Will show you some peeks of it in the next day or two!

Enjoy these last few days of 2011 and I hope the Christmas Wishes you wished for came true!

2012 Pantone Color of the Year

Tangerine Tango

I discovered this web page a couple years ago -- when the color of the year was blue turquoise -- 2005.   It has become somewhat of a habit to check the website to see what the newest year will bring for color.

Seems to me the last couple of years, 2010, 2011, and this year the colours are becoming much deeper than 5 or 6 years ago. It is interesting to see the progression of colours, isn't it?

Go Check Out

 http://www.colorbudz.com/2011/12/pantone-color-of-the-year-2012-2000/

for further details and much clearer image that I am able to put here on my blog.

Housetop Quilt Block

The last time on this blog, I wanted to talk about something new that I learned, the Housetops block.  Turns out it really is only the name, Housetops that was new to me.

This block is almost a Natural block that one would make if you had no idea about what patchwork patterns were out there. Perhaps this would be the very first block that you would make if you had a stack of fabrics and had no idea about patchwork.

"It is a historical utilitarian pattern used by the amish, african american women, rural women and many others. It is a form of log cabin variation at its simplest, but according to Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, is called "Blocks in the Box," and "Bright Hopes." Gees Bend quilters called it a variation of a pattern called "Housetops."

From a stack of scraps this is the block I came up with, as you can see, quite similar to a log cabin but each round varies depending on how much of a particular scrap you have.  Some of the pieces were easily long enough to sew a complete "side" but in most other cases, I had to patch together scraps to create a length to go along a side before sewing the next side (or log onto the block).

You can practically use any format to put together a Housetop Block.  You could get quite artistic or very random about it.  You could choose a colour theme or just use the idea of colour value in piecing the scrappy bits.

The only thing about this block, it uses all your leftovers and in this world we have so much that often we don't need the leftovers from our projects.  This is where this type of block would be very useful in creating blocks and the piecing together the blocks for donation quilts. These would also make great picnic or beach quilts.   So maybe make up a few of these and incorporate them into the next "utilitarian" type project you have.

Putting together a number of these blocks, whether or not you used light and dark sides to enhance or create a secondary pattern would be up to each individual quilt maker.  You could do the patches, completely randomly.

I only made the one block, for now mainly to see how it worked out.  This block is 19" square and turned out just about perfect for a pillowform that I had sitting on a top shelf, that was waiting to be used someday.

OOPS

I decided to machine quilt the Housetops block to a piece of blanket flannel as I did not want a puffy or textured finish to the pillow cover -- EXCEPT somehow along the way, a tiny (this piece is about 1/2 inch wide x 1 inch) bit of scrap got stuck onto the back of the blanket flannel and was quilted along with the layers! 

This I'm sure is not such an unusual occurence!  How many times have you done this?  Well, this time it was not a big deal and I am leaving it right where it got quilted in because it will be on the inside of the pillow cover and no one but you will ever see it again!!

There now.  Can you see the Oops from the right side?  No, eh?  So it's fine.

And then when you step back and see the cushion on the recliner you would never even suspect there was an Oops!

I hope you enjoyed this little Mystery and puzzled over what a Housetops Quilt Block might look like.  So Easy, wasn't it?

Well, today, I think I shall do a bit of crochet instead of sewing.  I ordered some fabric from anETSY seller so that I can make a pair of pillow cases for my son in Victoria, BC.  I'm sure, as a single man, buying pillowcases is one of the last things on his mind, so I am going to make some for him...  He is a guitar player and a car restorer in his spare hours so the pillowcases are a bright blue with sporty cars and car parts print.   I have to wait til it arrives before making the pillowcases so, a crochet project seems to be just the thing to fill in the rest of the day.

The More You Know...

I discovered quite sometime ago that whenever I learned something new, I realized how much more I didn't know and how much more I had to learn...

Well, I sort of forgot that little "rule of learning" because I was beginning to think that I knew ALOT about quilting - and to be honest, I do have a pretty fair knowledge of quiltmaking but there is at least twice as much again that there is still to learn.

I have a couple of books -- actually more like 4 or 5 books on Quilt Blocks, the construction of, the design of, and the names of, the traditional blocks, how to recognize blocks using "grids", even a book with some japanese blocks and so much more in those books.

But.

I came across a quilt block that I had never heard of before and went looking for examples of it on the internet.  And that was quite a search, it is not a well known block at all!  In fact I am beginning to think that it is a SECRET!

So, Dear Readers, I am going to give you some hints about this quilt block and I am going to issue a challenge.  Make one of these blocks!  Or make a quilt using these blocks.

I am not posting any photos of this block but I will give a few hints about what it is and I would LOVE to see what you come up with.

First the name of this block is  Housetop

Next  think of your neighbourhood, then think what it might look like if you were in a low flying aircraft and looking down. 

And, the block is quite interpretive, there is a "design"(a detailed plan) to it but not really a "pattern" (a regular or repetitive form).

Now, create a Housetop block...

I am not promising any reward or giveaways, just the satisfaction of learning something new about quilting.

In a few days or a week or when I get around to it (now thats a promise, eh?), I will post some photos of Housetop blocks and tell you where this particular block probably orginated from.

I hope this gives you a little puzzle to work on and if you are so inclined, please send me a photo of your Housetop block and I will post it here on the blog.  

Send your photo to me at jswb4com AT yahoo DOT com

Oh, (since my sister who really, really dislikes me says I am a bully) I will BULLY you into sending me your interpretation so if NO ONE sends me a photo of their Housetop block, I may not reveal the SECRET at all and you may have to just go on wondering what the block looks like!

But Really, I would LOVE it if you would take up this little challenge!

Quantity vs Quality

A subject I have been dwelling upon for a day or two and finally came to some conclusions about this question.

A week or so ago, I answered a question "When it comes to crafting which do you prefer?"  

I actually answered the question wrongly, or rather differently than any of the other respondents.  I came at the question from a different direction than anyone else who submitted their thoughts.  You can go and see the question and answers by a variety of people, including me.  http://www.favecraftsblog.com/monthly-craft-question-quantity-vs-quality/

Now, that you are back do you see how my answer did not fit in with every other answer?  I wondered why?  And I have been wondering why for the last couple of days.  Turns out, to me, this is a more important question than I at first realized.

First, everyone who answered the question assumed that they actually have a choice between quantity and quality.  In general, so do I, most of the time anyway.   As for the question having to do with crafting -- one must have quality materials to create quality products, so because I have NEVER been easily able to choose a sufficient quantity of quality materials, I have created items to the best of my ability with materials that in most cases come from sale stock or are "vintage" from the 2nd hand stores or garage sales that I frequent.   In many instances I have a choice, to buy 1 meter of top quality newly released designs or buy 3 or 4 meters of year or older "sale" materials. Now, in the case of quilt making -- it is really not possible to make a quilt with one single cut of top quality fabric, so in this case my option, my choice becomes "What is the best quality I can get at discounted prices?"

And this is what blurs the question of Quantity vs Quality.

As a child, I grew up mostly on a farm -- my father worked in the city, driving 20 miles to his place of work everyday, in fine weather and bad and dangerous weather.   He provided the income for our family that paid the 'traditional' bills -- mortgage, car payment, and clothing.   Our farm provided the "intangibles".  We only had about 25 acres, but that was alot for my mother to manage.  The farm provided 95 per cent of the food we ate.  Even so, we still did not have alot of extra dollars to go around, so things such as clothes were usually second hand along with toys and many of the household items such as dishes, pots, utensils, towels, etc.  My mother used to say after you have worn a brand new shirt once and it has been washed, no one knows that the shirt you got from the 2nd hand store was not first worn by you...

As a child, my choice was often quantity over quality.  What good would one shiny crystal crock (large marble) be without 20 or 50 other marbles to make it a game, so 50 plain regular marbles was the first choice everytime.

This is how I was taught that choice sometimes meant that quantity was the choice to make over quality.   It was always better to have two or three second hand dresses than one dress that could only be worn for a special occassion.   We learned early that "something was better than nothing"  in EVERYTHING.

As my years have progressed the choice between quantity and quality became a Mother's question.  Two growing sons taught me that often Quality was the way to go even if I had to sacrifice a choice somewhere else.  As teens my boys played sports and did ALOT of running -- shoes became important -- the quality shoe not only helped them to be part of the sports they wanted to play but the quality shoe would out last the cheap wal-mart runner by at least 3 to 5 times the length of usefulness and therefore cost less in the LONG run!

Maybe it is only me (it sort of seemed like it by my answer of the question I replied to) but I thought just having the choice between quantity and quality is somewhat of a luxury.

Do you have that choice?  I bet you do!  You make the choice between quality and quantity every single day.  Do you go to the grocery story and buy 2 freshly baked loaves of bread or do you first go to check the day old bread and take home 4 or 6 loaves of the exact same baked bread that came out of the oven 2 days ago?  Me, I always choose the day old bread!  Habit, somewhat, necessity also often true.

Now -- to the point of this whole thought, of Quantity vs Quality.

What if you didn't even get a choice?  What if because of finances, perhaps bad choices others made for you, your choices were taken away.  Your single mother HOPES she has enough to get a turkey for christmas, she HOPES she can find SOMETHING for the child to open on Christmas morning.   What about the young man who even though it is his own fault is now living on a downtown street, he will be lucky to have the choice between a cold doorway Christmas night or a blanket in a corner of a overcrowded shelter.

Not only was it the initial question posed by Favecraft about Quantity vs Quality but it has also been the ongoing news story about the Attawapiskat First Nation Emergency which is not so unusual in our own rich country of Canada.  You can google the news stories if you have not heard of this (especially if you are outside of Canada).  Distress is not just in Africa, or Cuba, or remote areas of the world. 

My wish for the world and those humans living on it is that we all be able to have the basic choice of Quantity vs Quality.   What if your choice for Christmas was between a shelter, any shelter and one meal?  Which would be your choice?

Take the time to think about your own choices between Quantity and Quality -- How lucky you (and I) are!

Recyclable/Reuseable Christmas Wrap

Since I discovered that stack of Christmas fabrics in that bottom drawer in the back closet in the corner of the attic, I have been trying to think up uses for these pretty seasonal fabrics.

One of the first things was to make the table cover I did a few days ago.  Then I was thinking that I would use the fabric to wrap Christmas gifts in.

Then the idea progressed just a step further.

 I made drawstring bags of various sizes, some specifically for bottles, some for small gifts, and some for much larger gifts.  I went to Micheal's (and the 2nd hand store) to find the cheapest satin ribbons on rolls and used the different ones as the drawstrings.  Now each gift I have so far sent or given has been wrapped in these bags.  But.  Oh my! I still have at least 20 of these drawstring bags, (did I tell you how deep that drawer was?) so I am giving the bags to friends and relatives so that they can hopefully make their christmas wrap  more sustainable. Perhaps save some pretty printed papers from the local transfer station (dump, in other words) and save dollars on one time use paper so you can buy a bigger turkey... (SAVE A TREE)!

Now, I am not saying to go out and buy fabric for this purpose, unless of course you want to.  I am saying this is a really good use for the older colours and prints and designs of previous years, that perhaps you are not so keen on making a quilt or a christmas dress with. 

These bags are so quick and easy to make up, there are tutorials on the internet of how to make a drawstring bag, in fact, here are a couple...

This one is for a lined bag (great to keep small toys in afterwards)

http://sewbunnybum.blogspot.com/2008/05/drawstring-bag-tutorial.html

This is my favourite one for simplicity and speedy to make up.

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/02/18/a-drawstring-bag-tutorial/

And if you want to be meticulous about it, here is a tutorial to make french seams on the inside of your drawstring bags!

http://pm-betweenthelines.blogspot.com/2009/04/drawstring-bag-french-seam-tutorial.html

Christmas wrap for the next 10 years! Or even translate the idea to using drawstring bags as birthday wrap, or even as useful little storage units to keep things in...

How about the drawstring bag itself as part of the gift -- a sewing kit in a bag?  a winter emergency car kit in a bag? a camping cook tools kit in a bag? A "Hot Wheels" cars Storage Sack?  How many other things can you think of where the bag itself is part of the gift?

Currently In the Sewing Room

On Monday I thought I would dig into my stash of christmas fabrics -- these fabrics have been preying on my mind lately, mainly because they are OUTDATED, some from as long ago as the mid-nineties!  I thought I got rid of a bunch of christmas fabrics a year or two ago, but somehow another stack propogated in the back of a drawer in the furtherest dark corner of a closet up in the attic...

So, I was wanting to make something "quick 'n dirty" as they say and I thought that I would cut the scraps into 3 inch wide strips -- most of the scraps were parts of fat quarters so were about 18 to 20 inches long.  I have seen this idea used to some success before.  But I wasn't pleased at all with the long strips sewn together.  They were not at all interesting and somewhat drab.

So.  I took the strips in sections of 4 strips and cut them crosswise and trimmed them up into 9 1/2 inch squares.

and laid them out like a 'rail fence' pattern.

There.

That looked a bit more interesting to my eye and not too much more work.

Next I added a narrow border all around -- it too is a christmas print but so dark that it is almost depressing -- but it did help the mish mash of christmas fabrics stand out and yet contain them.

With a backing, but no batting in between I simply did a seam all around and turned it right side out, and sewed or perhaps quilted the two layers and called it a table cover.

Now, if you look  closely at the bottom of the photo you will see a little nose and under that nose are cat teeth trying to pull the cloth off of the table!  So since he, you know WALTER, right?  Since he insisted on getting a better look at the new christmas table cover I took the opportunity for some candid family photos...

I'm thinking I might have to make a frilly christmas collar for Walter -- He does make a fine looking Christmas Cat, does he not?

Check This out - Christmas

I have one quick link for you today...

Sometimes I find an interesting idea while surfing the internet and I get this little greedy bug in the back of my mind.  It is a bug that says, if I make this and show it off, everyone will be SOOOO impressed and I will have something special and unusual... Do you get like that?  Well, it is a hard thing to admit, but mostly I can overcome that little bit of greedy thought!

So here is a link to an origami type wreath.  It takes 12 pieces of paper or fabric -- remember if you use fabric to make folded items first spray starch the fabric or, I also discovered another method for accurately and crisply folding fabric, first iron your fabric to freezer paper!  The paper gives it that nice crisp fold.

Now, as I said here is the link.

http://angsandy.blogspot.com/2011/12/origami-wreath-tutorial.html