English Paper Piecing

 

 

 When I retired I had visions of myself relaxing with some hand stitching, so I treated myself to a kit for Tula Nova by Tula Pink, who designs English Paper Piecing patterns.  Tula Pink also designs fabric, and one can see many versions of her patterns using her fabrics on Instagram.  I however, decided to use this pattern as a way to feature my collection of Mexican themed fabrics that I've collected over the years.

 

Several rounds in, I'm enjoying this project.  The last time I did English Paper Piecing, I made my own papers and stitch basted the fabric.  Now, kits come with die-cut papers, and each piece is glue basted, so it goes much faster.  Getting a thin thread makes one's stitches almost invisible.  Check out the vintage juicer I use to hold my threads, it makes me smile every time I look at it.

EPP is not very complicated, and I got a lot of tips from Tula Pink's YouTube videos.  When I want to feel especially retired, I sit in my armchair and stitch a few seams.
 

Scrappy woven scarves on the rigid heddle loom

 

Weaving is very meditative once you get the loom warped, and one beauty of weaving scarves is that the warps are skinny and go pretty fast.  

As usual, I was using up bits of this and that, nice yarns I'd picked up at the thrift store, a mix of wool and linen in compatible colors.

I used my little loom, an Ashford Sampleit 8", a tiny thing that doesn't fit on a stand, so I use a cheap work bench I bought for 20 bucks at Harbor Freight. 

In the purplish scarf I also incorporated tiny leftover bits of yarn into the weft, which jazzed up the fairly plain warp.

Both scarves were finished with twisted fringe, which is my favorite way to deal with fringes. Some people finish their wovens by washing them so that the fabric becomes more fuzzy and tight, but I like the look of these as is.

Table Toppers

Table runners are great stash busters.  They use up not just scrap fabric, but also scraps of batting.

I used up some of my favorite scraps on this runner, and set them in my favorite scrappy block.

The one is the perfect size for my kitchen table.

I had some leftover blocks and a really nice piece of home dec fabric for this longer table runner.

I just alternated leftover blocks in a long row. 

I'd been saving an old seed catalogue with historical illustrations for the longest time, and it came in handy when I decopaged the top of this small side table.

It lives next to the chair where I read, knit, and watch movies with my eyes closed in the afternoons.

 Smokey the cat is a living and breathing table topper.  This is one of her favorite places to hang out.

Scrappy Knitted Projects

 

 

Why, who could this little jacket be for?  It is indeed for a special knitted creature.

 

 

Knitting this little frog was the perfect distraction: the directions were precisely written and took just enough concentration to be interesting.  The pattern is Kristina Ingrid McGowan's Frog and Toad.  It was very satisfying to knit an anatomically accurate frog.  His body was knit from the perfect green wool blend yarn I had reclaimed from an old sweater some time ago.

Eventually, after my tendonitis calms down, I'll knit him some pants, as well as a toad friend for company.

I finally finished an old WIP: a child's sweaters for donation.  Hopscotch Cardi by Rae Blackledge is a free pattern on Ravelry.  I used maybe one and a half skeins of Caron Cakes, an acrylic and wool blend that comes in self-striping colors.  I cut the colors apart to make the striping uniform.  

This baby sweater was knit from leftover bulky wool yarns and will also be donated.  I've made up this pattern, Little Coffee Bean Bulky by Elizabeth Smith, a few times.  One beauty of the pattern is that the stripes, and the small size, allow you to use up yarn left over from other projects.  In both sweaters I was able to raid my button box and found the perfect buttons.  Sometimes being quarantined at home gives me the opportunity to use what's at hand.

 

A Crazy Quilt for Mexican Jenny

I'd pieced these blocks awhile back, intending to make a quilt about Mexican Jenny, the subject of the title poem in my 2014 book, Mexican Jenny and Other Poems.  Jenny was a woman who served time in the 1920s in Colorado for killing her husband in self-defense. She had been a sex worker in a mining town, and he'd been her pimp.  He'd beat her up for not bringing in enough money, and she killed him "with his own gun."   In prison she made a crazy quilt that told some of her story, and that quilt found its way into the personal collection of quilter and quilt collector Eugenia Mitchell.  Jenny's story spoke to me as a writer and as a quilter, and I wanted to make this piece as a tribute to her and to her story, which has been told in various ways over the years.

I've finally embellished 3 blocks of this project, and now I'm thinking about it in some new ways.  Originally imagined as a quilt, I'm now thinking of it as a fabric book that will not tell Jenny's story in a narrative way, but instead render some of the emotion in her story, as well as engage the complications of representation.

My dear friend Debra has been instrumental in inspiring me to take up this project, as she's also currently making an inspired and personal crazy quilt.  Debra also gave me the idea of the fabric book, which appeals to me for several reasons.  

The fabric book has freed me to incorporate non-textile media, like the vintage button card I incorporated into the block above.  I unthreaded my sewing machine needle and carefully punched holes into the card, and then attached it to this block with a silk-threaded running stitch.  I also like the idea that a fabric book allows the viewer to look at individual blocks, one at a time.

The images of women in these blocks come from various sources:  a CD of French women from historical postcards (also shared with me by Debra) and an embroidery transfer of a Mexican woman doing laundry from a mid-20th century embroidery pattern.

 

No matter how much we feel we know about a historical person, that knowledge is always shadowed by other familiar images, in this case about women, and about sex workers. 

 

A finished scrap quilt (78 x 82)

 I recently finished a large-ish scrappy quilt.  It's hard to photograph in its present state, but you can see the design clearly in this older picture.

The machine quilting on this project is complete, and it's now labeled and ready to be mailed to its recipient.

Dang, it's hard to photograph a large quilt without getting too much cat hair on it.  I'm glad it's going to a household with a resident cat.

 I used a black and white backing from various flannel fabrics.  The foundation piecing made the quilt heavy enough to skip adding batting.  

It's been a really fun stash buster, and I hope its new owner will get a lot of pleasure from it.

In the Scrap Pile

 

 

I've been making more baby and children's quilts for donation.  I was cleaning up some scraps and started cutting odds and ends into 2 x 3.5" pieces, which make nice leaders and enders when you're sewing up other projects.  Just pair these pieces randomly and soon you have a nice pile that can be made into a quilt.

It's the perfect mindless sewing: very meditative.

This next quilt began as a test block.  The big 20" stars are made from 5" half-square triangles, and squares were culled from the scrap drawer.  A friend gave me several yards of the navy border fabric, which has come in handy for unifying scrappy quilts.

You can't get any simpler than strip piecing.  I culled  primary-colored fabrics from my stash, cut them into width-of-fabric strips, and sewed them together with the same navy border.  This one sewed up in a flash.

Some of these quilts will be quilted using flannel for the batting and/or backing, and some will be quilted to fleece remnants, which makes them extra-cuddly.

  

As an alternative to sitting at the sewing machine, I crocheted this baby blanket from bright yarn left over from another project.  

 This knitted baby blanket was the result of my effort to use up some dusty pink yarn that the same friend gave me who gave me the navy fabric.  It's not my favorite color to work with, but combining it with a darker color made a nice blanket I think.

My box of baby blankets is now stuffed to bursting and will be sent off soon to Pine Ridge.  I feel the seasons beginning to change here in my area, so they'll arrive in good time.

Quarantine Projects

So much has happened in the world since my last post in February.  All in all, I and my family are doing well, and making things is one constant that helps me give order to my immediate surroundings.

I pray for those who seek justice during these times, and I'm doing what I can in my community to support these efforts, as well as to give support those displaced by the economic inequality that the pandemic has deepened.  The crib-sized (35 x 50") afghan, above, will be sent to a program for mothers and infants on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  There is an active group on Ravelry, For the Children of Pine Ridge, that supports various organizations on and around the reservation.  The pattern is called Classic Granny Square by Purl Soho.  I have a stash of acrylic yarn, mostly passed on to me by a friend, that's perfect for crocheted afghans.

 

For myself I sewed up new pajama pants from my stash of vintage sheets.  I used a basic commercial pattern, New Look 6233.  I skipped the pockets so as to finish faster.  The fabric has a wonderful soft hand as the sheets have been through the laundry many many times.  

 There's something reassuring in making things from stash. It gives me a feeling of abundance during these otherwise challenging times.  I hope you and yours are well.  I've added a link to the blog so you can get my posts in your email so we can stay in touch.

Sweater Genesis

 

A few years ago I learned to harvest yarn from old wool sweaters.  I don't do it so much anymore, with the exception of if I find a sweater made from more expensive fibers.  Last year I bought the holy grail of sweaters to harvest: a worsted-weight cashmere sweater in a nice navy blue.

 

It came apart easily, and then I unraveled each piece onto my yarn swift.  I washed the yarn to de-kink it,  and caked it into balls.

The result is a new cashmere pullover for me.  The pattern is Caitlin Hunter's  Koivua, though my version is edited down from the original pattern: I only did color work in the yoke, and knitted the rest of the sweater plain.  It was the feather pattern that originally drew me to this pattern and I like the drama of setting it off by itself.

The light blue yarn was also harvested from a wool sweater and dyed with kool-aid some time ago. 

I love wearing this luxury sweater from recycled yarn.  I feel thrifty, ecological and cozy all at once.

A Strip Quilt

Strip quilts are one of my favorite kinds of scrap quilts.  I've got a stack of books on this topic to inspire me, and I recently decided to take on this pattern. 

The center square allows me to use up fun fabrics, some left over from "Wild Child," the king sized quilt I recently finished.  The side strips are between 3/4 and 2 inches wide.  I've got some zip bags full of small bits for the corners.  It's very satisfying to burn through some scraps. 

I've had so much fun making these blocks that I've decided to make enough for a double bed quilt.  Or better said: I'll see how I feel when I've made enough for that size.

Turning the Page

After completing Wild Child, with all it's HSTs and blocks, I was in the mood for a simple quilt I could cuddle up with.  I had picked up these charming pre-printed blocks at my local reuse place, which has a nice selection of craft supplies.  I've never seen any pre-printed designs like these, and I liked the rabbits and cottages. 

I combined them with my favorite 4-patch blocks, some from charm squares from Debra, and some from stash fabric.  It went together fast and easy.

I treated myself to new fabric for a big floral border, and I've picked out a coordinating piece of fleece for backing and batting.  As soon as I get this pinned, I'm going to do some fast straight line quilting.  This is a nice switch from my previous 2-year long project.

Street Fabric

I've been doing a lot of walking lately.  I've enrolled in a program to get in shape, so in addition to going to the gym, I spend a lot of time taking walks around the neighborhood.

We've also added Sarah the Rescue Dog to our household, and she requires these walks too, so between Sarah and the get-in-shape plan, I'm spending lots of time cruising the neighborhood.

In my town it's pretty common for people to leave things they want to get rid of on the curb.  Lots of times it's just junk, but recently Sarah and I stumbled on a stash of Street Fabric.
 

Yes, it was spread out over the ground in a snarl, and yes, it had been rained on, but I recognized that it was the good stuff right away.

In this trove were fat quarters, half yards and even one yard lengths, in addition to some sewing remnants of quilt shop-quality fabrics.

 I scooped up as much as I could and carried the wet ball back to my house.  Yes, of course, I ran into a neighbor on the way, who was polite enough not to ask what that wet ball was that I was carrying in one hand, while holding the leash in the other.  The next day I went back and rescued the fabrics I missed the first time, and assured myself that I hadn't missed any.  After washing and ironing the goods, you can see what I took away.  Who knew I'd get more than fresh air and exercise for my troubles? It's like Santa missed the chimney, but got close to the house.