Organization

 

January always seems to be the month that people say "I am going to get organized!!" Whether they do or not is debatable. I am focusing on STAYING organized. The photo above is (blurry) picture of my quilt prep organization. I have five stacks of these: they are technically ornament holders without the dividers. Each holds a project: fabric, pattern or sketch, any ideas I have for quilting, and sometimes thread. I have one for each quilting project. It keeps them tidy, out of the way, and I don't worry about using the fabric for other things! (<- Most important thing, right there!).

The labels are just file labels, and I peel them off when I am done and re-use the box. They also serve as a display stand for my design board when I am not using it. (Double duty!)

I like this - it works for me, obviously, and it allows me to see what projects I am planning. Right now they vary from "Clothing" (which currently holds pattern and fabric for vests and a light jacket), "Kits," which has small wool kits from Las Colchas, in San Antonio (go there, buy things! I love that store!!) to a box for Two Fabric Bargello quilts, Large Hex Garden, and lots of others.

Of course, there are always projects that sneak up on me, that never get a box. I have one that I want to do tonight, as a matter of fact: The Minimalist Hawkeye logo. It shouldn't be hard (aka, "how hard can it be?" - the catchphrase of my old college gaming group). I hope to have the top done by tomorrow, and then I can set it aside with the others to be quilted.

Tops waiting to be quilted don't go back into boxes; instead, they get rolled up with any templates, designs, sketches and such until such time as I get to them. I try not to pin until I am ready to work on them - we have a finite number of pins, after all!

How do other people stay organized? How do you store projects to be done/in progress? How do you store your stash, for that matter? Ours is on shelves, with fat quarters separated out. Scraps smaller than a fat quarter get sorted into one of three tubs.

(And yes, I was a gamer. All sorts of Tabletop RPGs... from DC Heroes to Star Frontier to D&D. Still remember most of my characters, too!). I miss some of my characters.... *sigh*

Purses and quilts and getting things done!

I love Fizzgig. He is one of my spirit animals (from Dark Crystal, if you don't remember/have never seen it). He sums up what my attitude is about a lot of things. Maybe I should make a Dark Crystal quilt one of these days... stained glass-looking, with Skeksis and Fizzgig and the gelflings, and landstriders, and all the lovely that was Thra.  I can see it in my mind, almost a movie-poster in detail and such. I may have to start drawing this out. It would take me a while, but it might just be worth it. *Makes note* *Looks at quilt design list and sighs*

As an aside, I watched a special on the making of Dark Crystal, and it was this special that got me interested in stilts. I wanted (and still want) to be able to move on stilts like a landstrider. It seems somehow freeing.

 

ANYWAY... When I wasn't feeling Fizzgig-ish this weekend, I managed to get some things done! (Oooohhh..... aaaahhhhh).

 

Number One - Saturday. I wanted to make a more structured purse than I usually do, so I turned to a pattern I found at one of my LQS.  When I got into it, I decided I didn't care for the pattern - it seemed unnecessarily complex. Since I tend to streamline things (aka, I'm a little lazy), I made some modifications.  I tossed more than half the pattern pieces, shortened the strap (I'm short), and made a few other minor changes. It went together pretty quickly after that! The pattern called for upholstery weight fabric, but I wanted to use quilting cotton, so I put a layer of polyester batting between and moved on with life. I don't use polyester batting for anything else these days, certainly not in quilts, so I use it where I can to get rid of it. It worked out rather well - enough so that I may have to make another one. And figure out how to make more of the handles... I want to have them in nicer woods - mesquite, cherry, and so on. I think it would bring out details in some of the fabrics I want to use. The purse is completely washable - just have to take the wooden handles out first. Overall, I like it!

 

Project Two - Sunday. I finally found the fabric I wanted for this - the background building fabric. I had some, lost it, looked forever, found this, and then promptly found the original. Isn't that how it goes? *shrug*  The prairie points are in a glow-in-the-dark fabric, because why not? This one isn't huge, and not QUITE done... I still have to quilt it. But, here it is: The View from Godzilla's Mouth. The quilting will be other kaiju - Mothra, Gidorah, maybe Jet Jaguar... in glow in the dark thread. Because I can, and why not??

 

I also managed to get my project boxes re-organized and re-arranged, so I can actually find the projects I want to work on this year. Currently, my goal for tops this year is 8, including View from Godzilla's Mouth. So I have finished one already! *cheers myself*

 

Tonight I will try to take pictures of my project boxes. I am pleased with them. Organization makes me happy.

Turning to Aim at 2018

 

This is the final weekend of the calendar year. 2017 was meant to be (for me) the year of finishing things. Looking back, I've done reasonably well.


In 2018, I will do even better. I currently have at least 6 quilts that have completed tops, but need to be quilted. My goal is to complete them in 2018. I have another 4 tops that are in progress - I intend to finish those as well - if quilting happens on them, I've learned to make more time.  :)


I also have a book to write.
A rug to make.
A series of cross-stitch patterns to figure out.
And whatever else turns up.

So really, this will be the year of Channeling Hawkeye. He's a mortal man, no superpowers (just mechanical alterations made, depending on which version of Hawkeye we're talking about). He's just a normal guy. Who plays with superheroes and supervillains, and keeps up with them.

I will be adding one to the tally of tops to make: the symbol up top - the minimalist Hawkeye look. I will put it on my bed when I am done to remind myself that I'm not super, but I can be mighty.

Maybe that should be a more common goal. Be the mightiest you that you can be.

Scrappy-dappy-do? (aka, what am I doing??)

Yes, this mess is what I am doing these days... between work stress, sickness all through the house, Christmas blahs, anxiety over gift-giving, this is an innocuous craft. If you can't tell - and you probably cannot - I am plying fabric to make a rag rug. It is similar to braiding fabric strips for rag rugs, but I am learning to ply - like you do for yarn. I hope it will help me when I finally get the spinning bug again.

There is no plan, no pattern for the rug this will wind up being. It will probably be oval-ish, and stitched by hand unless Frank (the mid-arm) will stitch it. Need to check that.

It seems to be an excellent way of using up scrap fabric. Right now I am plowing through pre-cuts from jelly rolls. If the rug isn't big enough when I am done, I will have PLENTY of scraps to cut up, and the rule is simple: once it hits the scrap bin, anyone can use it.

In some ways, I cannot wait for the holidays to be over. Not that I don't wind up enjoying them - I am not claiming that. But... I am looking forward to a slight reduction in stress and anxiety, and being able to apply myself to Ballet Folklorico and other quilts.

I want to turn this pic into a quilt. It's my pic, so why not? It is the inner roof of the Japanese Tea Pagoda (?) at the Sunken Gardens in San Antonio, Texas. If you get the chance to go, you should. It is beautiful, and a wonderful way to re-purpose an old quarry.

When I looked up at this, it cried out to be made into a quilt. So, it's on the list.

And, of course, there are the geek-themed quilts that I want to make. Some for others, some for me, some just because I want to make them.

Like this one - this is going to be the theme for the upcoming year (which for me will start on the winter solstice, because I can). It will be detailed and time consuming, but so be it. I also have the Hulk quilt planned out, another Iron Man quilt planned out, and am currently mulling over a Wonder Woman quilt. Although if I start there, I will wind up adding Hawkgirl (why is she a GIRL???) - probably the bombshell version, but you never know.

Part of me also wants to do a whole-cloth quilt... maybe I could use the poster to the right for that?

But first, I am going to continue the process of finishing UFOs: Clipper Ship, Fabric Homicide, and Crazy Diamonds. Those come first for quilting.
For those that read this, I have a question....

If we started making geek-themed batiks, what themes would you like to see?? (oooh, we could make batik shirts....)

S

Holidays... ugh. Crafting blues

I will start this off by saying that I am not really a holiday person. I like them in theory, but in reality they stress me out - I know I am not alone in this. It's the television showing Christmas movies that all end like a fairy tale, it's the songs everywhere EVERYWHERE, it's the ads trying to sell cars for Christmas in a Winter Wonderland that isn't real. Nothing about Christmas feels real any more.

Yes, I head 'home' for the holidays. Except it's not really home anymore - I've spent more time away than I did there. I'm in Texas - snow and cold weather and all that is right off the menu. There's so much worry in my head about getting the right gifts for the right people, the hope that they won't hate them, etc. etc. etc. It sends me into a tailspin on top of the usual anxiety and depression. So. I have lists upon lists upon lists of things that need to get done before I can drive to Christmas and spend time with the family.

Do not mistake me for someone who hates holidays. I don't, and I refuse to take the enjoyment away from those who do. There is a certain nostalgia, sure, for the probably-false memories of anticipation and simpler times - things seen through a cloudy lens, showing me what I want to see. When my grandparents were alive and we would go there for Christmas, or (since my parents were teachers), we would take a trip somewhere - the whole family. When the whole family was more than 6 people in total. I remember those with fondness because they were experiences. I have no clue what gifts I was given.

But this is not an anti-holiday screed. This is the crafter in me wishing for some of those "simpler times" ornaments - I have some that my parents hand-painted on precut wood forms. I have plastic canvas ones that my grandmother made, as well as clothes-pin reindeer. I have 60's felt ornaments, with most of their sequins still left. The small stockings that my great aunt made and stuffed with poly-fill and glued little pieces of plastic holly to. Things that are not 'retro'. Things that even hipsters look at with disdain.

Those are the things that I miss. The hand-made aspect of Christmas, that added to the anticipation and the festivity. The things that, in my 20's, I said "I don't want those. They are soooo 'crafty,' with air quotes around the "crafty" like it was an insult - reminiscent of slate blue wooden cut out geese wearing hats, and ducks with signs around their necks - that country crafty style. I still don't want the ducks or the geese. But the ornaments... yeah... I'd like to have some of those.

Lifesaver Yarn Elves on the tree.
Plastic canvas 'boxes' that held Hershey's Kisses.
Tiny crocheted wreaths.

I want simple. I don't want a house lit up so brightly it can be seen from space. I just want...  I don't know.

So of course, what is my crafter's brain working on? Not Christmas, that's for sure! Rag rugs, a knitting loom scarf in a pattern I've not done, my next quilt for piecing (Ballet Folklorico), and my next quilt for quilting (Clipper Ship).

I am so unfocused I feel as though nothing will be accomplished. I know it will - it just takes list upon list to get organized and pointed in the right direction. I know that this time of year carries stress. It always has - just like it does for a lot of other people.

My list for tonight includes:
1. Update the big chalkboard list of major things to do
2. Clean the upstairs
3. Find a goose recipe, because I want to try goose for Christmas
4. Cut strips of 2.5" fabric from scraps
5. Finish the folded ornament I did start
6. add seam allowance to Ballet Folklorico pieces and run some color tests
7. Dinner
8. Wash dishes
9. Make sure roomie doesn't fall over (she's been sick, and is still off-kilter)
10. Work on scarf
11. Research history
12. Shower and bed.

I just don't know if I can manage it all.

Do others experience this? What do you do when it happens? I'm single, and more inclined to holidays than the roomie really, which says something....

Oh, and I have 4 stories going.

*thud*

How do I slow down???

The other things I do

Because a girl can't have enough hobbies... right?

I also sew costuming. Mostly for myself - because I can always fit myself.

 Here we have one of my favorites - a modified Saxon gown in teal, dressed up and made a little more formal. It was meant for the dress of a Danish sheriff.

The character was stiff and strict, and so the formality of the outfit matched her personality very well. This was round two of the costume - round one had a train and was less formal in appearance. I prefer this one. It was worn with a massive hat.

I try very hard to match outfit to character personality. It's easier if the two match - it's easier for people to know how to interact with the character. (This is all for a Renaissance Festival, by the way). For the sheriff, people expected her to be a little more serious. Which she was, other than the book she was writing. We won't go into that here, though, because that was sheer silliness.





Here we have one in progress - 16th century Russian. It's not entirely stitched together, (the trim is just pinned at the top, and it's still missing straps for the dress). The overcoat will be trimmed and have faux sleeves attached, and then I will consider it done.

This may wind up being a one-shot - we'll see. At the very least, after the first wearing I will take the coat apart and line it so my seams don't show, and find a little more of the snazzier fabric for the dress, because right now the back (which won't be seen), is a cotton that MOSTLY matches the front.







Oh, and how lovely - you also get a sneak peek into both the studio (the top pic) with plant life in the background (studio doubles as a greenhouse when it gets cold), and my bedroom! (please excuse the mess).

S

 
 

Quilting and Writing

I've been so busy on the quilting aspect of life that I haven't posted much about the writing part of my life.

I've been writing little snippets and bits, chucking out the dross that clouds up my mind so I can write some decent stuff again.

Still searching for an agent for Choosers, and one for Weasel Montgomery and the Devil of Dallas, and soon will add Twa Corbies to the mix (once I do a leeeetle re-writing to take out one of the worst scenes I've ever written).

Mostly, it's quilting.

Boston Molasses is done, Black Widow is done, and Heart of (Lime)Stone is almost done. I have more quilts planned, but since this is the year of finishing UFOs, the new ones will have to wait.

This one is high on my list, though.... this is the roof of the Japanese Tea Pavilion in the Sunken Gardens in San Antonio, Texas. I WILL make a quilt of this.

Y'know... after I make Sandstone Variations, Ballet Folklorico, and, and, and.

*need more time in the day*


S

Autumn in Texas and Mesquite Trees

So much is said about how the south doesn't have an autumn. How it goes from summer to spring without anything in between. That's silly, obviously. Our trees go dormant, a lot shed their leaves, and so on. It's just not so flashy or showy.

We make up for it in other ways - bringing a stereo-typical northern autumn into our homes and jobs as much as we can, as though we can cast some sort of autumn-summoning spell through sheer volume of FALL AUTUMN FALLING LEAVES PUMPKINS SCARECROWS, like the five points of a star in a summoning circle. (No, this paragraph isn't getting out of hand, why do you ask?)

I cannot claim to be any different. I get sucked into the whole "FALL" summoning stuff. This is my first entry for the year. It started as "What can I do with these strips?" and turned into a wall hanging that celebrates autumn. It's nothing grand, but I like it. The quilting is of falling leaves, of course. (What else could it be?)

And also of course, one quilt inspires another. Unlike a good many people, I love mesquite trees (aka Devil trees... very dramatic). They are survivors. They have massively long taproots, and actually return nitrogen to the soil, instead of removing it, like most trees/plants. Combine my love of mesquites with autumn in Texas, I want to make a mesquite quilt.

Growing up, we had a mesquite in the front yard. It stabbed all of us in the feet repeatedly, and picking up limbs and branches before mowing wasn't terribly fun. Outwardly, a full-grown mesquite isn't terribly attractive to most people - a rough and harsh black bark, a trunk that splits low, and heavy creaking limbs that stab and grab. Oh, and the beans. Sometimes it's like mowing over a rock.
But the inside is gorgeous. A beautiful red-brown with a clear grain, that dries evenly in all directions, and ends up strong - enough to be called Texas Ironwood.

My father offered to make me a quilting frame out of mesquite. Of course I said yes! OMG YES YES YES!  And I want the first quilt to be quilted on it to be an homage to the mesquite tree. Blacks, red-browns, and several shades of green - from the bright spring green of early leaves, to the darker, almost olive-y green. So I guess it's on to the planning stages for YET another quilt.

In other news, I've finally started working on Heart of (Lime)Stone. It seems that I am slowly amassing a list of quilts about Texas. *shrug* So be it!

S

Finishing

This is the year of finishing things. I hope.

But since I have already finished Black Widow and now I have finished Boston Molasses Flood, I'm going to call it the year of finishing things! I took one other quilt to a professional quilter, so I am counting that one as well, quite frankly. There are just some that ask to be done professionally.

Here is the "thrown over a chair" picture of Boston Molasses Flood. I am proud of this one - even though it took somewhere along the lines of 4 years to complete. At least and at last it's done! Woohoo! It is hand-quilted with variegated brown thread in waves, to symbolize the waves of molasses that flooded part of Boston in the early 1900's. The shape (as I may have posted before) is based on a map of damage done by the molasses. Each piece is one of many shades of brown. The overall effect is much more pleasant that I expected.

That's not to say it's going to any competitions! It's not that good - and I see all the errors. But I am concentrating on how nice the whole composition turned out. Even the binding complements the whole. Originally I was going to make binding and do a traditional binding. Instead, the borders are wide enough that I could trim the back and use the front as binding. I bound it front-to-back, leaving the brown to "run" around to the back fabric.

Next up on the quilting block is Heart of (Lime)Stone. I've got to pin it and hoop it, and then away I go again.

And on the piecing block... Ballet Folklorico. (I'm terrified, really I am).

S

Quilt is Life is Story

Last night I dreamt about quilts.

This isn't a real shock to anyone, I am certain. However, the trappings of the dream around the quilt made it more important - important enough that I remembered it when I woke.

I was in a... well, for convenience let us call it a cave or tent that was covered on the inside with animal skins. I was sitting on furs and working on a quilt. The quilt I was working on was only one of a stack, and the rest were unfinished - no bindings, rough edges like I'd stopped working on them in the middle. I was bound and determined to finish the one I was working on.

Someone asked me why I was working so hard. I replied that I had failed on the others, but this one I was determined to get done. They asked why the others were failures. My answer was "I don't belong there anymore." It was a bit gloomy, but resigned.

Another voice asked "Why not? Were they not part of your life?"

"Sure. But they don't want me anymore."

"But they were part of your life."

"Yes."

I looked down at the quilt I was working on and realized that as soon as I finished the quilt I would be dead - I was making the quilt of my life. The other quilts were parts of my life that were no longer current - things and people that had fallen away or left, or I left behind. I realized what the voice was telling me. My quilt of life isn't done. More, the old quilt pieces are part of the quilt I am working on now. They are all part of my life, whether I like them or not.

"But how do I join them?" I asked. "How do I quilt them together?"

And people filed into the cave/tent. All of them with fabric and needles and thread. All of the people I have known, past and present, and probably some that I haven't met, or those that I had an impact on without knowing it. They settled around me and started to work, pulling out the old quilts and starting to piece them onto the section I was working on. They joked and exchanged stories about me and each other, pointing out pieces of fabric that represented them.

It felt lighter and brighter in the cave/tent. I felt lighter and brighter. The colors of the quilt I was currently working on changed from browns to bright colors. There were darker patches and browns still, to be sure, but the whole was brighter. I could see where the sections joined, they were now adorned with embroidery and even conductive thread and LED lights so areas lit up. I forgot about binding off the section I'd thought complete and started to share in the quilting bee of my life.

*digression* In college, I had a professor who interpreted dreams. I asked him if he could help me interpret a dream (as in, do it for me). He shook his head and said "I can only interpret my dreams. You must interpret yours."

*back to the point* I think this is a fairly obvious dream. :) I get so caught up in the minutiae of life, like all of us do, that I forget all the other parts of my life. Not all of them were fabulous, no. But they make me who I am. They changed who I was into who I am. Regardless of whether I see some of the people from my past again or not, they encouraged or helped me along my way. Some of them may not have even meant to, but they did. They moved with me down my path, added pieces to my quilt of life.

I have been thinking about this all morning. I would like to make a quilt of my life. It wouldn't be a picture... not really. There would be patterns, and maybe the eye could pick out a picture from far enough away, like those photo montages of Abraham Lincoln. What would my quilt contain? What fabrics would I choose for people? Can you boil a life down into a quilt?

I think I will start. I know what I want to do. It won't be a fast quilt - nor should it be. It will be a work in progress. A work that lingers, to be bound by someone else who can bind around the rough spots and the curves of a rounded edge, to be laid over me in the coffin, to be used to shroud me as I am lowered into the ground or taken with me into the urn.

And while that last bit seems morbid, it isn't really. No one gets out alive. I am just working on my shroud well before-hand. And whoever has to wind me in my shroud will see all the people who had an impact on my life, all the people and memories that will go with me into the ground and into the unknown. When I go, I am not going alone.

S

Patchwork Fedoras and Self-Imposed Limits

I looked online for photos or patterns for a patchwork fedora, so I could get rolling on the Indiana Jones Quilter's Guild (IJQG). The patterns I found were pretty bad... and the pictures I found weren't even fedoras. They were trilbies. Different hat entirely! (I have this whole hat rant, but it's not really worth it. Suffice to say, nothing I found was accurate enough for my tastes). So for now, it's a nice plain fedora. Still looking. I suppose I could find an old one that's not in great shape and applique patchwork over it. That might be the best, really.

Finally finally finished the Black Widow quilt. Finally. (Did I say that enough?). I am now returning to hand-quilting the Boston Molasses Flood quilt. I designed the pattern, and will never sell it, because 70 degree triangles are dumb. The shape of each piece is taken from the map of partial and massive destruction from the flood of molasses, and the quilt is all shades of brown. Seemed appropriate!

At any rate, it is half-way hand quilted. I stopped to work on other things and just haven't gotten back to it. So.... my next quilting goal is to finish quilting and bind it. This is important to me because it will feel as though I am making a dent in all the pieced quilts! In fact, I have imposed on myself the rule that I am not allowed to work on piecing another quilt until I get another one quilted.

Now, two of them will go out to be professionally done. I don't know how the quilter will react to one of them, but the other should be an easy thing. I... I don't know about the first. It's a design I want to use for the front cover of a book about quilting the way you want. After all, that's what we are all about - doing things your way. We are not modern quilters. We are not traditional quilters. We are not art quilters. Or, rather, we are not ONLY any of the above. Some of the quilts I wouldn't know what to call. Except useful, mostly. But two will go out to be done by a pro, and that will knock my list down a few! (Yay!!!)

And then, I am going to tackle Ballet Folklorico. That should keep me occupied for a LONG time - I am trying things I haven't ever tried before, and I am not even sure I have all the fabric for it yet! But in my mind it is gorgeous, and I will work hard to get as close to that image as I can.


Here is the image that inspired the quilt. I love the way her skirt swirls, love the design and the movement in the photo. We shall see if I can get close to what I am looking for.

More photos to come - it's a long weekend, and there should be plenty of quilting and planning and sewing done, which means more pictures!

S