The Stuffing Realm

I started a little improv piecing....a few almost-square shapes, a few strips of ants. I had a little banner of colour.

And then my Pixie decided to start teething...we think she's cutting her four year molars, six months early. She had a fever that peaked at 103.9 and slept with me last night.

This morning, she was puttering around the house and found a little Fisher Price owl that her Daddy loved as a child. We explained that she could not add him to her stash of toys because of the toy's age. She very quickly put two and two together and politely asked me to make her an owl of her own.

How could I refuse my hurting child? This is who we came up with. She calls him Button Owl because of the button print on his body.

Button Owl was very quickly improvised. His eyes were appliqued from a black and white print that will eventually make it into the Pixie's next quilt (the fashionista in her has decreed that her bedroom shall be black, white and pink). His beak is a stuffed and squished triangle.

After the face was on she hit me with an upgrade in the request: her owl had to have the same wings as Daddy's owl.

Those little wings caused me trouble!! I did a. lot. of unpicking stitches, a lot of sewing and resewing, and maybe a little bit of swearing.

I love the way he is more pillow than owl....she already tossed him a few times this afternoon. Before Christmas, he'll be demoted from cuddly to bed accessory.

I didn't make a pattern, and I didn't photograph a tutorial. I really think that anything plush is better if you Wing It! I might even venture into the rag-doll construction zone before Christmas rolls around. If you want to make your own owl, then my only advice is to add the face before sewing the front and back together. I boxed his butt for more stability and pillow-ish-ness.

I guess this....

....will have to wait.

The Way of The Creative Heart

It was a dreary, rainy morning. Some artificial sunshine was needed.

I had this wild and crazy idea to make a mug rug for a new friend of mine, and so the day started off like this:

But since I was on a roll, I couldn't stop at mug rug size. I ended up with a mini-quilt.

I had some magical help....my own personal Fairy. I love seeing those drooping wings concentrating on design - and those still-chubby toes standing on a chair at my studio.

This is her first me-designed quilt block ever. I think I might add it into the mix of Rambo Bright blocks, and leave a note for the recipients (her aunt and uncle) about who made it.

She couldn't make the block any bigger because she got distracted by her ability to fit into a backpack.

I will have to have another go at making a mug rug, but my inspiration has changed. I have the plan to go where I've never gone before....my own personally designed paper piecing. Wish me luck, cause I will certainly need it!

After all of this practice, I might feel confident enough to make a cover for my design book. So many ideas, so little time.

Eyeballing my Stash

Before I get to the meat of this post, please comment favourably on my latest quilt finish: The Pixie's Circle quilt!

I was at the fabric store 20 minutes after it opened and picked up the missing thread (and a small piece of fabric - couldn't help myself).  I had the quilting finished by noon and the binding went on like a dream, thanks to being premade over the weekend. I'm absolutely loving machine binding quilts! Luckily, the Pixie was sleeping on the couch when I put the last stitch in; then Husband and I quickly photographed and hid the quilt. I'm hoping that out of sight = out of mind, at least until the Big Day.

Here's the back:

Now about my stash. My pathetically small fabric stash. My embarrassingly tiny fabric stash.

As it turns out, my stash is not all quality. It's all excellent quilting cottons - don't get me wrong. Nothing cheap in this collection.

But I just don't LOVE all of it. Quality to me is stuff I cannot wait to use - or love so much I never want to cut (can I get an amen?). I started quilting 11 years ago and one of my then-current relatives needed an idea for something to get me for the family Christmas gift swap. She figured it would be great to get me a quilting book and some cuts of fabric that she loved....and I do not love. I've held onto these fabrics for over a decade, waiting for my tastes to change, waiting until these fabrics would make it into the "beloved fabrics" pile.

And I conclude that 10 years is long enough to hold a grudge against a colour. I recently "met" a lovely quilty lady online and offered her these fabrics in exchange for some brighter scraps from her stash. She said yes! I'm so excited!

This is as close to true colour that I could bribe my camera to give me. And, Anna, I was wrong about the size. They're not fat quarters. They're half meter cuts. Enjoy!

But what to exchange? Do I want batik scraps? Children's prints? Random close-your-eyes-and-pray scraps?

These are pictures of stuff that has very recently made it into a place of honour in my stash. I cannot resist bright colours, stripes of any kind, anything spotty and dotty, batiks are good, stuff with words or music is better.

I bought these black and white prints with two specific projects in mind, and still need a few more meters before I can start designing. I'm also big into monochromatics, solids, unusual neutrals like gray, green and red. I select fabrics to enhance design possibilities; I do not buy fabric and then design a top to enhance the fabric. (No enormous Kaffe florals for me.)

I'm hoping this gives the whole world an idea of what my stash loves. Although I've been working on Christmas projects, they haven't been exciting me. I really just want to grab fabric and a rotary cutter and go nuts! My favorite method of designing quilts looks a lot like "winging it." January has so much potential!

In fact, most of my life looks like I wing it. And I do, of course.

Art Show

I've made quite a creative journey these past few months. I've tried new techniques, jumped waaaaay outside my comfort zone, and found myself in love with "winging it." I plan to do a lot more sewing by the seat of my pants in the future. I have two quilts in my head that are still in preliminary design stages - still just ideas and scribblings in my handy and beloved design book. If you look closely, you can see Mr. Grey, the patron moose of my design life. His home is on top of my current pencil, and he needs a new pencil soon.

Projects in the works include finishing the binding on the Pop Culture Sampler.... I must confess with hung head and *almost* ashamed countenance that I hand sewed most of the binding on while watching Twilight last night. In my defense, it was mindless movie for mindless work. (I loved the part in the movie when Bella and Edward are lying in a field of blue flowers - I actually yelled at Edward to get up quick! before the caterpillars consume your entire face! And then I realized that those were his eyebrows. Silly me! Honest mistake!)

Also up next is machine sewing the binding onto the denim quilt for my Punk. She needed something that would not only hold up next to denim, but also take a lot of her abuse. Rosa, at my favorite quilt shop, said to do batiks because they are more tightly woven. I couldn't agree more. She knows my tastes very well, and picked out this awesome fabric on her first try. She cuts, and I pay. It's a good relationship.

Tomorrow I have a stack of flannelette that needs cutting into. Pictures to come.

And now to show off some of my art. I've seen a lot of quilty blogs that lack in the production category. I do not lack. In fact, I could not even find all of the item that I've sewn in the past couple of months, because I give away a lot of pieces. A lot. My friends benefit greatly. Many people suggest sewing stuff to sell - "You should get a booth at the Farmer's Market!" "I love your stuff - where can I buy it?" "You really should turn this talent into a business."

I say, "Nay, nay."

I know it hurts to hear the truth, but at this stage in my life sewing for money is not an option. There are a few reasons; Commissions stunt creativity; being told what to do makes me not want to do it; I don't want to prostitute my hobby for cash; many items I make are not within the monetary realm of the recipients - they are meant as gifts; I am not confident that people would pony up the appropriate cash if I told them how much time went into them (even if I only charged current minimum wage); I'd rather make stuff that I love than to please some other human's esthetic style - then it is a bigger gift when I give it away.

So here are some of my creations. Love them or hate them as you will - comment if you have any strong opinions. I am not in love with everything, either, but I am in love with the process. The process makes the art worthwhile. The dream makes the work easier. The translation from Head to Fabric is what fires my imagination.

This piece is something I dreamed up in my favorite location - the space between sleep and awake. It is also a design that was conceived while I was in Kelowna this summer.

These fans were drafted and sewn all in one day, and quilted the next. Their purpose is to look pretty on the wall by my studio space.

Behold my Half-Square Triangle Experiment:

This was an *actual* pattern that I found at the Moda Bake Shop. It's hanging over the Pixie's bed.

These were my very first two "mug rugs." Such a popular little project, so of course I jumped on the train. The Pixie claimed that pumpkin before I even had binding on it, and the one on the right I named, "The Birds of Fall." Get it? I kill me.

This is something that I'm not happy with. It was originally a challenge project - get a grab bag from the store and make a cohesive piece using all the fabrics. I made a doll quilt so that I don't have to see it often. I hate the colours. But the Pixie, who breathes and dreams in pink, loves it.

A scrap project, just because. It was useful for learning raw edge applique, free motion quilting, and how flannelette behaves under duress. It is called "Out of Fat Air: Circle Sampler."

The "Floating Fruit" trivit. Very dirty. Also, the Punk's hand. Very sneaky.

My original "wing it" art work. When inspiration hits, yo gotta run with it. You should see the back of this "Red vs. Blue" wall hanging. I wrote all over it - all the lessons I learned while bringing my idea to life. If you flip it over you can read the multiple reasons for using the best thread you can afford, the right size needle, a clean sewing machine, etc.

Also pictured above is the reason why I am accepting donations for a new camera. And why all the techno geeks could pretty please recommend and/or send me a link to a free/cheap photoshopping program that will work on my little laptop.