oh fransson

Found Objects

I was looking for something in my closet yesterday morning, and I found this quilt top.  I had forgotten I even made this.  I think it was supposed to be a baby quilt for someone, but I got frustrated with my horrible job of piecing and threw it in a box.  (If you look closely, the blocks don't really line up at all!)  Judging by the fabrics used and the use of polar fleece in the appliques, I'm going to date this early 2005. 

The appliques include a ladybug,

a bumblebee,

 

and a caterpillar.  I'm not sure what I was thinking with that sashing.  It's too busy and too dark with all the other prints.  I think I'll take this apart and try to salvage it.  (My friends have given me no indication that they intend to stop having babies anytime soon, so I can certainly use it for something.)

I also found this pile of blocks that I pieced from hand-dyed fabric.  I believe I made these in 2004, right after I discovered fiber-reactive dyes.  My intention was to make a quilt using Kaffe Fassett's Venetian Tile pattern from Glorious Patchwork. 

This is another project I decided looked truly awful and threw in the closet.  I'm kind of liking it now though, so I think I might try to put something together.  (Probably not as gigantic a quilt as I was apparently planning on making when I pieced these blocks -- there must be 100 of them!)

Then I found these quilt tops, which also include fabric that I dyed.  The balance of the fabric is all from Kaffe Fassett and these tops are based on another pattern from Glorious Patchwork, the Leafy Rosy quilt.  These are actually left over from my wedding (so, mid-2005) for which I made patchwork tablecloths for the tables at the reception.  I realize that, especially in this photo, these look kind of weird and non-wedding-like.  I'll just have to ask you to take my word for it that they looked okay.  I'm thinking I'll take the binding and temporary backs off these and make them into proper quilts.

But wait, there's more!

I can't remember why I was making this one, but I remember that I stopped because I thought the brown and white dot (Kaufman Pimatex Basics) was "too much" with the Flea Market Fancy prints.  I adore the butterflies though, and I think I still have the templates I made for them.  I don't think I'll be able to retrieve this top, but it's a good reminder that I need to recreate it with a simpler background fabric.

Finally, and best of all, I found this.  I know that I made this shortly after we moved (so Fall 2005).  I also recall that I put this project away because I thought it looked horrifically ugly.  Um . . . yeah.  I'm not sure what I was thinking either. 

I remember that, after seeing a room divider at Target, I had come up with this elaborate concept involving lattice and pieced squares in three colorways that appeared to be layered on top of one another.  (How like me to come up with an elaborate design concept beyond my practical skill level!)

   

These pieces are part of the same project.  I don't have any of my original measurements, notes or drawings, so I'm not sure I'm going to be able to figure out exactly what I was planning to do with all this.  I've had quite a bit more quilting experience at this point, so I'm sure I can do something with it.

Anyway, this is what I found in my closet.  I'm particularly excited to have found the aqua/lime/periwinkle project.  I think that will be the first one I try to finish.

Sweet Dreams Winner!

I have to say that I'm completely overwhelmed by everyone's comments on the Emma quilt.  Thank you all so much for your kind words!

Tab asked about the durability of the felt appliques.  They're surprisingly durable.  The felt, especially if it's acrylic, fuzzes a bit after several washes, but it doesn't disintegrate or fall apart of anything like that.  If you're using 100% wool felt, you'll want to be careful about using hot water or tumble drying (unless you pre-wash and dry the felt).  Minky stays the softest if you wash it in cool water and dry it without heat.  The fusible webbing stops working as soon as the quilt is washed but, as long as you've sewed everything down, that shouldn't be a big deal. 

Diane mentioned that she hadn't heard of the Sweet Dreams line.  That may be because it's a couple of years old and out of print.  I've just been hoarding it!  I bought mine from Fabric Shack, and it looks like they still have several of the prints left on clearance.  I didn't mention before that the designer of this line is Jennifer Sampou (who also designed two really cool leafy prints that are going to be on Poppy's baby quilt).

Robyn asked how I packaged the quilt.  I guess I didn't really.  I just tied a bow around it like this:

And now, the moment you've been waiting for.  The winner is . . . .Sarah of Pink-Petal-Designs!  Sarah, please send me your address and I'll get your fabric bundle out right away.

Thank you all, again, for all your wonderful comments!

Sweet Dreams Quilt & Giveaway

I finished one more baby quilt today.  This one is for Emma.  The patchwork squares are all from Kaufman's Sweet Dreams collection.  The applique's dress and the quilt binding are red and white gingham seersucker, which added a nice texture.

The back is white Minky Swirl.  I quilted the top to the batting and then added the Minky back as a separate layer.  I feel like that gives it a "best of both worlds" look and feel in that the front has a nice quilted look and texture, while the back is the super-soft Minky.

The girl applique is made in much the same manner as my Minky bunny applique.  She also has a three dimensional skirt and felt jacket.  Her cat friend is made from wool felt.  Both the girl and cat's facial features are hand embroidered. 

I went a little nuts with a appliques on this quilt and decided to add Emma's name.  The letters are made from different red and white prints (two from Sweet Dreams, two unknown).  The birds are acrylic wool applique and the "ribbon" behind the letters is hand embroidery.

Now that I'm done, I have quite a bit of Sweet Dreams fabric left over.  I set some aside for a future project, but I still have a stack of about 50 assorted 4.5" squares and three fat quarters, which I would like to send to a good home.  If you'd like to enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post before 5:00 pm Pacific on Monday, February 25.  I'll draw a name on Monday night and send this bundle out to the winner.

Bunny Applique Doll Quilt

 

The tutorial is finally done!

Download bunny_applique_doll_quilt_tutorial.pdf

Download bunny_applique_templates.jpg

This is my first attempt at explaining how I make Minky appliques.  It was kind of difficult to put together, because thinking about my process step by step is not something I'm good at.  I also have a nagging feeling that by putting this out there I'm giving people Really Bad Advice, so I'll offer this disclaimer:  I am not a trained seamstress.  Everything I know about sewing and quilting was learned by trial, error and a really strange job I used to have making patches for high school letterman jackets.  I've had my little Janome for 10 years now and, despite what I'm sure the staff at Sewing Center West would consider a valiant effort, I haven't managed to kill it yet.  I guess what I'm trying to say is: don't take my advice as the word of an expert at anything other than coming up with crazy ideas.

Now that I've discovered Japanese Craft Books, I've gone totally nuts for linen and I love it on these doll quilts.  It really sets off the patchwork squares and I think it makes the lavender look a little less precious than it might with a "girlier" fabric.  This one is backed with an awesome and sadly out of print Alexander Henry piece that features a little hillside village with cows and horses.  (Nancy, this is the one I'm sending you.)

Here's another example, with brighter prints.  (I love that measuring tape print!) 

I love making animal appliques from Minky, because it's so very soft -- perfect for baby quilts.  I think some people are hesitant to do much with it, because it's so cumbersome to work with.  (Once it's cut, it produces lint like you won't believe.  It's usually full of static.  It's expensive.  The bolts are big and awkward to put in your cart.  The list goes on.)  There are some good points though!  It's unbelievably soft.  It has beautiful, rich color.  It's washable.  It's also more durable than you might think.  Unlike acrylic felt and some polar fleeces, I've found it to be fairly resistant to heat.  I've also found that I can avoid making permanent "press marks" on it by using a lot of steam and very little pressure to "activate" the fusible webbing. 

I should probably specify that I'm talking about the "brand name" Minky by Versailles.  It's entirely possible that the knock-offs behave the same way, but I haven't tested them -- mainly because the ones I've seen (mainly the ones at JoAnn) only come in primary or baby colors, not the colors I want to use for animals.  I usually buy Minky from Fabric Depot out on 122nd and Stark.  They have a wide variety of colors and will let you buy quarter yard pieces, even for online orders!  I should also clarify that I use "wool felt" as a pretty generic term.  I often end up buying felt/rayon blends, which are less costly and come in more colors.

Anyway, I hope this tutorial is of use to someone!  I really encourage quilters to try making appliques with Minky.  It can be tricky at first but, once you've got it, there are just so many possibilities!   

Not Exactly a Mobile. . .

 

. . .but still kind of cool.  It's the middle on the night, and I've just finished my mobile for Elsie Marley's fabulous Mobile Swap.  It's not, strictly speaking, a mobile -- it doesn't rely on balance in any way, but just hangs from the ceiling.  I'm hoping my partner won't be disappointed. 

My partner had a picture of a lampshade on her blog that made me think of this Japanese Craft Book (ISBN 978-4-579-11115-2) which is filled with really cool projects made from felt.  I had seen pictures from this book online and was considering ordering it from YesAsia, but I decided to give finding it at my local Kinokuniya a shot . . .and I found it there!  (I can't read Japanese, so that was actually quite a feat and involved pulling out and checking the cover of pretty much every book in the crafting section.)  I'm sure I didn't construct it exactly as the author intended, but I made more of an attempt than I usually do to follow directions.  Here is a picture of the project from the book:

Here is a picture of the entire finished mobile.

The main body is cut from panels of green wool felt.  The design is really clever in that there are actually three felt panels, but the joints are covered up by some of the little fabric circles.  I made all of my circles from scraps of Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy (which I continue to hoard).  Each circle on the mobile is made from two circles of fabric, gathered around a freezer paper template, pressed and then hand stitched together.  This involved hours and hours of hand stitching, but the finished look is better than it would have looked if I had tried to use machine stitching.  I also made those little felted balls from wool roving.  I hadn't ever tried it before, but it was very easy.  I used these directions from Martha.  The white birds are cut from wool felt, using the template from the book.

Here's a shot of the whole thing laid flat (above), and a detail shot (below).

This mobile will be on it's way to Canada tomorrow (ooh, a clue!).  Hopefully the recipient will like it!

Sushi Ipod Case

Waaaaay back in December, Nassim asked me to make her a sushi-themed Ipod case.  Now, approximately 60 days later, I've finally finished it.  I used this tutorial from Julie Ree, which is pretty nice and includes measurements for different kinds of Ipods. 

It was hard to make the sushi fabric work, since it's such a big print, but I think the piecing is kind of cool.  I put a piece of green ric-rac in there just for fun.

She wanted a Maneki Neko on there somewhere, so I pieced one into the back panel. 

One more thing crossed off the list!

After Dinner, But Before the Movie

I had a little time after dinner, but before the movie, so I decided to finish off this quilt top, which I started last weekend. This is going to be a baby quilt for Gus, twin brother of Poppy, whose partially completed baby quilt is here.  Since I hadn't yet done anything about the top of Gus' quilt, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and use one of the blocks from Sew Mama Sew's Quilt Along for last week.  The block is a Crazy Nine Patch, which I'd never used before, primarily because it's a little, well, crazy for my taste.  I think it works really well with these fabrics though.

The fabrics include several prints from Michael Miller's Beatnik Daisy series.  The bright orange-red print with the space tentacle looking things is from Alexander Henry and, if I remember right, it's called Kenya.  There are two Kaffe Fassett prints (the one that looks like hard boiled eggs and the pinked flowers).  The other prints (the yellow texture one and the bold print used for sashing) are from Fabric Depot.  I'm unsure of the manufacturer on those

Poppy and Gus' Mom loves giraffes.  In fact, when she was a child, she told people she wanted to be a giraffe when she grew up.  Knowing that, I had bought this Giraffe Minky a LONG time ago, but hadn't found anything to go with it.  Pairing it with all the bold prints on the front of this quilt is going to be busy, but I think it will look cool.  I'm also going to applique a big Minky giraffe on the front.  (I'll probably use solid Minky for the applique though.)

I really wish that I had time to do every one of the quilt-along blocks, but I think I'm going to have to stick to choosing one each week.  If only I didn't have a "real" job!

Vintage Pillowcase Challenge

Ta da!  This is what I made for Handmade Parade's "Vintage Pillowcase Challenge" contest.  I just love the way they look.  It reminds me of candy!  Entrants in the contest are challenged to create something from a single vintage pillowcase and NO additional fabric.  It's okay to use notions, interfacing, etc., but no extra fabric.  This was a real challenge for me, since I rarely make something using all one fabric -- especially all one print.

I've often admired the bright, kitschy look of old poplin pillowcases, but have never actually tried making something from them.  My first obstacle was the smell.  I washed these a total of five times.  Twice with bleach and twice with white vinegar.  Between washings I even soaked them in a bathtub full of vinegar solution for five hours.  Sadly, even after all that, they still had a slightly "off" smell that I'm not sure I can do anything about.  I know that a lot of thrifting advocates suggest that it's a good way to recycle and, while I agree in concept, I have to wonder whether, after five hot cycles in the washer, plus a bathtub full of water and a bottle of vinegar, there is truly a net gain here.  (Maybe Value Village just had particularly nasty pillowcases!)  I would really love to make something else from vintage linens though so, if anyone has any suggestions about getting rid of the smell, I would love to hear them!

   

My concept for the project was a lunchbox-bag with a covered top and laminated body and handles.  This pink one was my "test run" and, if you look closely, you can see how the top seam is not nearly as nice as the seam on the other two.  I used iron-on vinyl, which is really cool stuff.  It wrinkles as you work with it, but the wrinkles press out really easily. 

 

Because I cut the drawstring top from the pillowcase headers, it ended up having a worn stripe down the middle (where the fold was) which I covered by sewing on a strip of ric-rac.  On a whim, I decided to try the ric-rac on the handles too and I'm really happy with the results (though I think the smaller size ric-rac used on the yellow and blue bags is more effective). 

I ended up having enough extra fabric to make a little desk placemat for each one.  I included a pocket for cutlery and a snap strip to wrap it up like this:

I backed the inside panel with cotton batting and quilted it in a diamond pattern, which added a lot of stability to the bag.

I hadn't originally intended to include the flower embellishments but, much like the ric-rack, I tried one on a whim and loved it.  They're cut from wool felt and secured with a vintage button, which i sewed to the exterior before inserting the lining.

The above picture shows how much better the top seam looks on the yellow and blue bags.  I constructed these a little bit differently than the pink one.  On the pink one, I attached the drawstring part to the lining and put the whole thing together much like I would normally finish a handbag.  On the yellow and blue bags, I attached the handles and drawstring part to either end of the exterior panel before I sewed it together.  I sewed the lining separately and, after securing the bottom corners of the lining and exterior together with zig-zag stitching, I slipstiched the top of the lining by hand.  This resulted in a much cleaner look.

This blue lunchbag/placemat combo is my entry for the contest.  There are more pictures of it on Flickr, if you're interested.  (Actually, they'll be there regardless of your level of interest but, if you want to see them, please go to Flickr.)

I also want to give a shout out to my husband who cleaned the house by himself while I worked on this project all day yesterday and today.  He has already agreed to go to the 10:10, rather than the 7:00 showing of There Will Be Blood tonight and is, as I write, waiting patiently for me to come downstairs and make the Mu Shu Pork I promised for dinner.  Thank you, sweetie!

Finally Finished!

Well, I finally finished this tiny little quilt, and there are things I love about it and things I really don't.  Somewhere between quilting the middle and quilting the border, I got a hot pink stain on the white silk border  I have no idea how this happened.  There was nothing hot pink in the vicinity!  What it ended up meaning for my quilt was that I had to find a way to cover it up -- hence the silk yo-yo's at the corners.  It's not the best ever solution, but I suppose it could have been a lot worse.  I found nine vintage plastic buttons to use on the yo-yo's and they match the quilt nicely.

I used a compass and disappearing ink pen (aqua, not hot pink) to draw the quilting pattern on the blocks and then machine quilted over it.  The quilting pattern turned out really nicely and sort of looks like the pattern on one of the prints.

I made the binding from leftover pieces of the faux bois fabric and I LOVE the way it turned out.  It's probably due to the fact that the quilt is tiny, but the corners are sharp and perfect.  Yay!

In certain light, the quilted silk has a little bit of luster, which is cool.

I pieced a little strip to make the back more interesting.  It shifted a little while I was quilting the front, but I still like it.

In case anyone is curious, I usually use freezer paper templates to do my fussy cutting.  To make the template, I just cut out a piece of freezer paper the same size as the block, draw a seam allowance on, and cut out the middle.  I can then use it as a viewfinder to pick the section of my fabric to cut.  Once I find the right area, I can iron the template on and use it as a guide for cutting.

(Yikes!)  Let's hope nobody else's pressing board looks like mine!

There are probably enough photos in this post already, but I'm going to add one more.  It's a sneak peak of my project for the Vintage Pillowcase Challenge. 

Frenchy Bag and Improving Embroidery Skills

Here's my finished bag for U-Handblog's Monthly Contest.  It's Amy Butler's Frenchy Handbag with some embroidery and applique embellishment.  I ended up throwing out my first attempt at the front panel but, after some practice, my embroidery isn't awful.  It isn't great, but it's no longer awful.

I'll even show a close-up to prove it!

The body of the bag is linen.  Besides the Eiffel Tower, I added some felt bird appliques, like this:

Since I'm apparently incapable of completing a bag without a little yo-yo flourish, I also added this:

I love that vintage button!  It was in an eight-pound tin of estate sale buttons I bought on e-bay a few weeks ago.  (And now I'll have vintage buttons for at least the next couple of years!)  This one is your standard-issue mid-century molded plastic, but there were some pretty elaborate ones too -- some bakelite, some rhinestone and a lot of mother of pearl.  I'm going to have to find a project for the mother of pearl in particular

The top band is made with a white on navy dot print from Kaufman's Pimatex Basics line.  The yo-yo is also Kaufman, from their Night and Day line.  The woven trim on the handles was something like 99 cents a yard a JoAnn.  I sewed it to the strap through each of the stripes -- in red, white and navy thread, which gave the handles a better shape.

I'm pretty happy with the bag overall.  Now that I've made this embroidery pattern, I think I might try it out on a bag of my own design.  We'll see.