Leftovers

So many foods are better the next day. Soups and stews are usually better the second day, and of course there's nothing like leftover pizza for breakfast. Leftovers from quilt projects are little treats too. This baby quilt was made from some of the leftovers from my Shirts and Sheets quilt. I'm sending it to Debra for her charity project.
The borders are cut from a re-purposed ruffle that must've come from some gigantic gingham curtains. I put a dent in this long strip, and still have a big piece left over.

This baby quilt was made from the leftovers of the blue and yellow quilt I'm also sending Debra. The Chinese Coins pattern was easy to put together and I used up almost all of the leftover fabric.

I also finished a Tasha Tudor shawl. I'm sending it to my Auntie Nena, who gave me her yarn stash. I got Allie to model it for me. "Old lady shawl?" she asked. Of course she totally rocked it and made it look cool.
The body of the shawl is knit from some of the vintage wool my aunt gave me, and the lace trim is knit from yarn from my stash. It's a fun mindless knit: it's all garter stitch, and the lace pattern is easy to memorize. I love this pattern so much I've started another one.
Of course the other thing about leftovers is that using them up requires vigilance and determination. I've pulled these fabrics for another baby quilt.

Short Attention Span

I was distracted from my Wheel of Fortune quilt by all the fun Debra's having improvising quilts for donation to homeless teens, and now for the babies of teen parents. I dug through my flannel scraps and put together this small quilt to send her, either for a baby, or perhaps as the center for a larger quilt for a boy. That's bad Louie posing on the quilt. If I put a quilt on the floor, a cat will come sit on it. "Thanks for the great rug," they say.



Then I looked around to see what I could whip up next really fast. My neighbor had given me these pillow shams, saying, "maybe you can do something with these." They are those mass-produced Chinese hand quilted linens, and I saved them because I like the stars and the colors. I sashed them and sewed them together, and then I realized I have lots of yellow and blues that would go with them.



I've had these blue and white patches in my stash forEVER. I had forgotten all about them and was thrilled when I found them in the drawer. The yellows came to me in a swap from Debra. What goes around comes around, right?



I even had a border fabric in the perfect yellow. The finished quilt is about 60 x 80 and this one will go to Debra too. I hope it's not too light-colored or girly.

I went though the trunk where I store some of my finished quilts and I found this baby quilt I'd made awhile ago.

It's reversible. Here's the other side. This will go to Debra too.

My thrift store deal of the week is this 2.5 yard cut of seersucker for $2.00. Talk about cheap thrills: I love these colors. I've got to get the Wheel of Fortune done so I can use the design wall and keep the quilts off the floor and the cat hair to a minimum.

Free and Wonderful

I saw two very cool freebies on the web this week. First Kyra posted pdfs of Barbara Brackman's Obama fabric that you can download and print on your inkjet printer. The files produce two different sheets: one is a medallion with images of President Obama and Vice-President Biden in an Americana design. The other features images of Obama and George Washington. Remember to change the settings on your printer to the highest quality before printing for best results. I happened to have some fabric sheets handy, so I'll be making a block to commemorate the inauguration.

Also, Pink Penguin posted this wonderful downloadable pattern for a paper pieced tea pot and a detailed tutorial. Wouldn't these be fun to make in different novelty prints?

Happy sewing!

Wings to Fly (12 x12)

I finished another little quilt in my bird series. When I went to PIQF this summer I bought some fabric with images of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo on it. It also has little banners with quotes from her diaries. The banner I chose for the top translates: "Why do I need feet if I have wings to fly."

Frida has a fan-base all over the world. She was a woman who sought creativity and freedom and who battled the aftereffects of a crippling streetcar accident all her life, including infertility. The dramatic film of her life, Frida, in which she is played by Salma Hayek, is visually stunning, but it overemphasizes her relationship to her husband, the painter Diego Rivera.

In addition to the Frida cut-outs, I used a machine applique of birds that Debra gave me, and I set them on a vintage handkerchief. I attached the applique with French knots, which I also used to mark the edges of both the floral design and that nice moon-like circle in the background. I adhered Frida to the piece with good old-fashioned heat and bond. Then I embellished with beads, embroidery, and sequins.


I left the flounce of the skirt free, because it overhangs the edge of the hanky. I backed it with a scrap of fabric



and at the end I added a lace petticoat.



Frida was well known for wearing Mexican folk costumes. Adding sequins to the skirt made her outfit like the the costume of La china poblana, the national costume of Mexico, known for its elaborate embroidered and embellished skirt. The other banner in the piece says: "I feel like living, so I started to paint."


You can see how I lapped the hanky over the binding to preserve the rolled edge. This piece was a gift to my friend Leslie, a very talented painter and big Frida fan, who married her long-time partner recently. In California same-sex marriages were outlawed after the last election, so their union is not recognized by the state.

This was a fun project, very much like playing with paper dolls.

My Thought Process

I had made four of these Mississippi Wheel of Fortune blocks--the design is by Karen Stone--some time ago. It's taken me until now to decide that I don't want to make any more, and so I'll make a small quilt and move on. I sashed the blocks and put on a wide black and white border. But then it looked a little unfinished to me.


So I cut up a bunch of 3.5" squares and created a new, more colorful border. And I auditioned an orange outer border.

And then I thought, but I've got plenty of fabric laying around, and I just cut a bunch of 2.5" strips. So I made blocks.




I'm encouraged in this move by the Material Obsession site. They have great eye candy, and I've noticed that a lot of the quilts I've found interesting on their site, instead of getting calmer as they move outward from the middle, seem to get busier and busier. We'll see what comes next. Bunny is helping me to think it over.

There Will Be Afghans

Happy New Year to All. I hope 2009 is full of joy and creativity. I don't make new year's resolutions, but I wish myself the same: another year of joy and creativity in increasing doses.

I finished a quilt in the run up to Christmas. This one was for Michael, and I quilted a top I'd finished in 2007 featuring embroidered blocks Debra had sent me when she began her machine embroidery journey.



I layered it with a bamboo and cotton batt, which I liked a lot. It's light and drapey, and doesn't require very close quilting. Here's an old and very fuzzy shot of the top in progress.


I had to wrap the quilt before I got a proper photo of the whole thing.

I also knitted Allie this Vegan Fox stole for Christmas. The pattern is very fast and fun to knit. I'd never used fun fur, and it's actually kind of fun to knit up.

Then, between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I hit the road for a solo trip. First stop was a visit to my parents, sister and her kids. My nephew Nick, who lives in Los Angeles and works on the tech side of an insurance company, was visiting. Here he is with my mom. We all had a nice visit punctuated with too much food, and then it was time to go to San Francisco for a professional conference.

I stayed in SF with my friend Juanita and her husband Ian, and then I stopped in to visit my Auntie Nena and my cousin Mary Ellen.


Auntie Nena passed me her yarn stash. She was a dedicated crocheter for many years, and so she has the stash to show for it. "I had planned to make afghans," she said, "but then I decided I didn't want to."

Since "waste not, want not" is our family motto, she passed me four copy paper boxes full of yarn, nicely sorted by color.

Some of it was wool. Did you know that Sears had sold wool yarn? The rest is, of course, acrylic. I'm not a yarn snob, so I'll find projects that will make use of it, and what I don't use, I'll send to the local jail, where they teach women inmates to knit.

I'm excited to have received the legacy of busy hands from my aunt. It's also very sweet that she wanted me to have her stash, because she knows I'll make good use of it.

After our visit, complete with Mexican sweet bread, coffee cake, and canela, cinnamon tea, I hit the road again, and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge for the six hour drive home. It was an auspicious close to 2008, and I feel well supplied for a busy new year.

Factory Work

The American factory may not be completely a thing of the past. I've been working in my own version of it on two fronts.

I've been in a marathon of paper grading over the past couple of weeks, and yesterday I finished the last batch of ten-page term papers and turned in grades. (Hallelujah!)

I can do some fairly plain knitting while I read, and so my pile of fingerless mitts for Christmas gifts has grown while I've graded. Multi-tasking isn't part of factory work, but it's more an adaptation to my life as a contemporary woman.

Between undergraduate and graduate school I worked in the plant at General Mills, where my mom worked in the office for many years. Those months on the graveyard shift, dropping coupons into the bottoms of empty cereal boxes as they came down the conveyor belt, kept me motivated in my studies.

One of upshots of all those years of school is that, even though I do an occasional graveyard shift, there's no more single-tasking for me. Plus my work environment is a lot quieter.

Here's the recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto for Allie, adapted from one in Oprah magazine. I hope it helps you eat up all the squash you harvested this year.

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I use the veggie broth that comes in the cartons)
2 T olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 med butternut squash (about 1.5 lbs), peeled, seeded, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes (you can also use acorn and other winter squashes)
8 large sage leaves, chopped (omit or substitute dried if you don't have it)
2 T butter
2 t salt
freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola
1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans (I use walnuts)

In a large heavy-bottomed pan, over a medium-high flame, heat the olive oil. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add the rice, stir for 1 minute. Add the garlic and squash, and cook for a minute. Lower the heat to medium and add 1/2 cup of the broth and stir until the liquid is absorbed, but the rice isn't sticking to the pot. Continue adding 1/2 cup broth and stirring until the liquid is absorbed, about 20-25 minutes, or until the rice is cooked, the squash is tender, and you've used all the broth.

Remove from the heat. Add sage, butter, salt. Season with pepper and stir. Add the Gorgonzola and nuts. Serves 4.

Mother, Rejoice (24 x 27)

I finished this piece I've been working on. I think of it as a collage of fabric and embellishments more than as a crazy quilt. It doesn't have much embroidery, unlike "Little Flower." I think I am taking a break from heavily embellished pieces for now. (Or perhaps, this is what passes as light embellishment for me.)

I used vintage linens and lace, fabric, trim, and lots of beads. Most of the border fabrics are home dec samples.

This is my second time working with transfers made from holy card images. They have a lot of significance for me, as they call up my childhood in a very sentimental and innocent way. I like the way these images fit so nicely on vintage handkerchiefs.

I use plain old pre-made t-shirt transfer sheets from the fabric store. I make the photo transfers by running the sheets through my printer, and when I iron them onto the handkerchief, the print of the fabric shows through.

Allie Aller gave me this silk panel. I embroidered over the message and did a bit of had embroidery and beading.

This patch is from a handkerchief that I cut down and embellished.

The lighting was bad when I took the photo of the whole piece: the sky was black and stormy. The detailed photos came out better, however.

I cut the gold flowers from a trim and I used a lot of sequins and pearls. The beading did double duty in that it also hold the quilt layers together.

Most of the flowers in this piece were pre-made and I combined them with beaded accents.

In the middle of this photo you can see some small pearls from an old broken necklace.


I like the way this part looks like an apple blossom branch.

Click on the images for close-up views.

Birthday Goodness

Last week we had our annual birthday fest. Michael and I have birthdays two days apart, so it's one celebration after another for a few days. For Michael's birthday, I finished knitting his vest.

This pattern is from the book Folk Vests. It was knit in a sport weight wool and alpaca blend. It's very soft and light weight, but warm. I also cooked Michael dinner: butternut squash risotto with Gorgonzola and walnuts, fresh green beans, and chocolate cake.

Two days later it was my turn to be the honoree. Allie cooked, though Michael shopped. She did a beautiful job with wild salmon, rosemary roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus. For dessert we had the red velvet cupcakes in the first photo.

How nice to have so much to celebrate.

The Color of 2009

I saw this news report about the anticipated trendy color of 2009. It says that bright yellow will be hot.

I've always liked yellow, and I've noticed that a wide range of shades haven't been widely available in recent years, so I'm glad we'll likely see more yellows in the near future.

This shade looks like butterscotch, and it kind of reminds me of our old 70s friend Harvest Gold. Can burnt orange and avocado green be far behind?