Friday, June 8, 2012

My Old, Old, Old Projects

A colour wash flip-n-stitch
I started this maybe when I was in high school. There are only two blocks finished, but I still have it and remarkably, I still like it.

This is in direct contrast to other quilt projects that have come and gone in my life. My mother pointed out that every quilt you make tends to be more beautiful than the last. I believe this to be true because our brain, the amazing machine it is, continues to change as we do new things.

As you may note from my other quilts (notably my I-Spy), I like the vibrant colours (no thank you to beige) and I also like the colour wash effect.

So this quilt is on my mind. I spend a lot of time just thinking of things as I'm doing the dishes and sitting with the baby and... I'm hoping to come back to this one again, although I'm thinking of changing the pattern a bit.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Japanese Fans: Another New Project

Pilot Japanese Fan
Because I cannot just sit with ONE new project, I have been experimenting with another. This is a form of "stack and whack"which is a method of cutting out an identical part of the fabric pattern to make a kaleidoscope patter. (The right is an example I got from the internet.)

Well, I didn't want to do EXACTLY that. I wanted to vary the pieces just slightly so I could have a different effect. But I'm not 100% pleased with this block. You see, the pattern slowly moves down the geisha's body. And I am not really interested in looking at the blocks that don't contain a geisha's face.

So I'm going to do another pilot block.

PS This fabric, I have had since I was in high school. How is it that I acquired 2 meters of fabric which I have never used until now. And only now, am I using it because I am refusing to buy new fabric. This falls under what I said before about how new stuff is always better than old stuff.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Redwork Nursery Rhymes

Redwork
This is a first. I don't really have any projects on the go.

Okay, that's somewhat a lie considering that I don't believe in sitting still and I am notorious for neglecting my housework to do my various projects. These days, this includes dealing with all the photos since I got married 9 years ago, editing and restructuring a YA book I wrote in 2005 and sorting through my junk in the basement.

For sewing, I am working on a redwork project. Redwork is basically embroidery done entirely in red. This comes from a time when there was only one colour of cotton thread which was... wait for it... red. (Other threads were made from silk and much more costly.)

These are all nursery rhymes. I will have 12 of them eventually, but right now, I have one.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Regina Quilt Show -- I Won! I Can't Believe It!

My two ribbons and me. Maybe I should have done something
more with my hair?
This year, I decided to enter four quilts into the Regina Quilt Show. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but my I Spy quilt placed third in its category and won over all for the best use of colour!

I got two fancy ribbons which the kids oohed and aahed over. Then there was general feed back on all of my quilts (yes, they noticed the red wine stain on my citrus quilt and it was noted on the sheet).

The only thing that really bothered me was the placement of my citrus quilt which was put in the darkest corner of the show. Boo.
The flash makes the citrus quilt a bit brighter, but the
lighting in this corner was terrible!

This ribbon for best use of colour really makes me think about things. In a previous post, I commented that I felt debilitated by colour and as a result tend to pick colours that I know will work. I accept that black works with brown because Coco Chanel did it sixty years ago (or more!), but without Coco, I would never try something so radical.

But then I win this award. Out of the hundreds of entries, I got the one for best use of colour. I don't quite know what to think.

(I also know that my citrus quilt was also in the running for the colour category because they had marked both sheets with "*colour." I really don't know what to think now. My quilts were competing with each other for colour!)

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

New stuff is always better than old stuff

My stuff ready to be shipped out.
A friend of mine from Toronto said this to me a million years ago and it has always stuck with me.

We were just sitting around one day and he told me he was going to take a bunch of CDs down to the used CD store to get credit for new things. I had this odd feeling of loss--why would he want to get rid of CDs that he probably once enjoyed and some would probably only get him 25 cents (the minimum they would pay for CDs at this particular place at Bloor and Bathurst).

"New stuff is always better than old stuff," he said like it was so obvious. And it is so obvious. But it is something that I have thought of extensively over the past number of years.

Embracing this has been a long process. I have tons of stuff. We all have tons to stuff. Stuff is cheap and abundant. In the same way that we crave sugar snacks, we also crave stuff. More than we could ever need.

I have been battling myself in this way. There are so many things that I never use, so many projects that I genuinely don't want to finish. And yet I hold onto them... is it my responsibility to hold on to them forever?

How does this relate to quilting? It mostly relates to slow quilting. I don't need to make a quilt every single week. There are many quilters who do and many of their things are beautiful. But I don't need one quilt a week. If I can make one per year, I will still have 50 quilts when I die (we'll see if that happens!). And 50 quilts is way more than any one person could ever need--even in cold, cold Regina.

But new stuff is always better than old stuff, even in handmade quilts. I should think about limiting the number of quilts I have, replacing old ones with news ones. In this small way, I might be reducing the amount of things that pass through me on their eventual trip to the landfill. My job as steward of the earth is to keep less stuff going to the landfill.

So here is my start: a pile of things going out the door. Thank you church garage sale. Now I can get some new and exciting things when I go to preview everyone else's junk!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The week of endings

I Spy quilt finished. Pleated border. Buttons. 384 appliqued "I Spy" squares.
And then the I Spy quilt. It is finished! For many of you who see me out and about, you know that I have been plugging away on this baby for the past two years or so. I had a little Le Kit box that was from my childhood which I carted around in my diaper bag. At every spare moment, I would sew on a couple of little squares. At the drop-in centre. At the pool. At the playground. I was trying to bring in applique like the knitters brought in knitting.

For the backing, I used an old sarong I got from Nelson, BC back when I was in high school. It was the sarong I was wearing when I met my husband, although I haven't worn it in a long time and I don't plan to again.


My Non-Quilt Related Observations--Making It Work


Detail of "I Spy" quilt. 2012
I am often asked how we can afford to have four children with only one income. In the first place, my husband is a skilled professional who is an excellent provider and husband. (This is why I married him!) That being said, there are many people in his place of employment where BOTH parents are skilled professionals. I sometimes think that I could be a skilled professional if I had someone to watch all my kids, but this isn't the life we are choosing.

My life works well because I use two "exciting" economizing strategies: "making it work" and "waiting it out." Making it work means using things I already have to do tasks that often require other tools. This works for cookware (using a wine bottle for a rolling pin or envelopes for a funnel) to kids toys (yogurt container sandcastles, anyone?) to quilting (sarongs can be a backing!).

The point is, if you have something that works okay, just use it. Marketers and stores are trying to tell you that you NEED a quesadilla maker. (I will admit that I currently have two waffle makers though.) Also, I fight the urge to get all the attachments to any product that I use. I don't need the pasta maker that goes onto my mixer. I just don't. I look at a need I think I have and then spend my time trying to find another way to fill it. D doesn't have any shorts, but he does have a pair of holey sweat pants.
holey sweat pant + scissors = shorts

My second strategy is waiting it out. I use this primarily in our housing, but also in many other things. I might think I need a bigger house, but I'm planning on waiting until I feel I NEED a bigger house and then I plan on waiting another year. I try to do the same for everything else as well. When I feel I need a new t-shirt, I start by doing laundry. Then eventually I realize that I only have one shirt that doesn't have oil stains on it before I go out and find more. (This oil stains are getting more common since we started an exciting future with "Deep Fried Sundays." Good for the tastebuds, but not for the waistline.)

These could both be summarized by "buying less" but I believe that people generally know that to live more economically, they need to buy less. (Or maybe they think they can just buy cheaper although I don't subscribe to this.)

Finished?

Finished Sashiko Lone Star May 2012
I am done! And a few days left until the Regina quilt show.

I have come to really love the simple lines and shapes of sashiko quilting. They are so appealing to my math brain.

I have long thought of myself as an "unartistic" person, but I realize now that most of this is from the fact that I am not a great sketcher. Compared to the kids, I am pro, but I use many Ed Emberely books to get my bugs and creatures to look realistic-ish.


Sashiko Lone Star detail
But sashiko appeals to me because it seems so "mathy." I used a pattern called Ganzezashi or sea urchin stitch from a book I got from the library. If anyone is at all interested, there are tons of books you can get from the library. I could see decorating many things with the geometric marvels of sashiko.

I am wondering if I should have done more sashiko on the corners. More diagonal lines. More star points. Thoughts?

Friday, April 27, 2012

Sashiko Quilting; Decluttering My Life

Lone Star quilt with Sashiko pattern ideas
Sashiko Quilting

 I made this quilt last winter and it's been sitting mostly finished on my wall downstairs since then. I never felt quite done on it. After about a year of thinking about it, I decided that the quilt needed Sashiko quilting--a type of Japanese quilting that uses geometric shapes.

So I drew this up with three different patterns. I asked my kids which one they liked the best (steps, stars or strips) and they all said stars. My mom also voted for stars, so stars it is.

I stared working on it and I am intending to be finished it this weekend. I think I have bad sewing posture because it is really hurting my thumb... But I must continue. I have entered it into the Regina Quilt show here at the Conexus Arts Centre, so I really do need to have it finished.
Lone Star quilt, Winter 2011 before Sashiko quilting
The colours in this photo do not do justice to the quilt.

Decluttering My Life

 On a non-quilting note, but in an effort to reduce my clutter and increase my sanity, I have started to think a lot about the things that come into my home. My current peeve is the detritus that comes home from every single appointment you go to. And with four kids, I go to a lot of appointments.

I consider myself to be a new category of hippie Catholic (not an oxymoron), and the amount of paper and garbage that comes into our home is astounding. (I can't begin to imagine how much waste I would be getting if I sent my kids to school.)

Yesterday, we took the kids to the dental hygienist to get fluoride painted on their teeth. (Yes, I am a hippie, but science says fluoride keeps teeth looking good.) In addition to being one of the most plodding appointments, she practically gave us a shopping bag full of stuff. Colouring books, stickers, little sheets to put the stickers on every time the kids brush their teeth, a storybook about dental health, large stickers, information sheets about fluoride. I spoke very firmly to her to convince her that we had enough toothbrushes at home (anyone need kid toothbrushes?) so she eventually stopped pushing those. But come on! Enough already!

Every specialist has their own little do-dads that clutter up our lives. And many of these things are "responsibility-making." Stickers to monitor their teeth brushing? What a pain for me! I feel confident that the kids will survive P. and I brushing 80% of the teeth, 80% of the time.

But let's think of the steps required. My children are not at an age where they are really able to take care of sticker sheets like this one yet. So for me, I have to
1. Segregate the stickers from my general revenue of stickers
2. Hang up this piece of paper somewhere not too tacky
3. Brush teeth (okay, I am doing this anyway)
4. Remind child to put on sticker
5. Find new place for stickers and paper so that younger siblings don't go to town on the stickers and use them on something else (heaven forbid!)
6. Deal with fall-out when younger sibs do find the stickers and put them somewhere inappropriate ("He ruined it, Mom!")
7. Spend 7 minutes trying to pick off stickers and re-affix them to the paper (this I have done so many time)
8. Start process again.

I will be the first to admit that one sticker sheet is not the end of the world. But every specialist that you meet must imagine that you are only seeing them. If I only saw the dental hygienist once a year, then this would be okay. But I see dozens of people, all of whom are giving paper and junky toys and clutter to my children.

At the moment she handed these sheets to me, I literally thought about throwing them into the garbage. But that would be much too rude. So instead, I take them home and throw them out there. Is it necessary for us to go through this whole pantomime?

I wish I could just be honest with people like this. No, we don't want your little junky car.* Nor the diamond ring.** Nor the colouring book.*** Nor the fact sheet about why it's good that our kids won't get polio.**** The stickers I will take, but we really have thousands at home. Cancer society does a good job at mailing them to my grandma and her friends who save them all for us.

Can we end all this clutter nonsense--if not just for my sanity then for the environment as well?

*At the optometrist, we got a really cheap-o dinky car that one of the kids was driving on P.'s face and it cut him. A big cut down the side of his temple. Safe, hun?
**Also an optomistrist toy that G sucked on so much that the diamond popped of. Thankfully, she didn't swallow it.
***What type of kid enjoy a colouring book about dental health more than one with Disney Princesses? Any?
****Of course I don't want my kids to get polio. That's why I let you stick them with a needle. I don't need the sheet anymore; you've already explained to me the side effects. Email me if you must so at least I won't have to make more frequent trips to the garbage.


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I Spy progress

I Spy quilt with pleated borders and buttons
 We are really progressing. I have stalled out a tiny bit because I am working on my Lone Star quilt which I am also almost finished.

Am I just procrastinating because I don't actually really want to be finished? Maybe. But also, what am I going to do once I am finished these two big projects?



More buttons on the I Spy quilt
I'm sure I will find something. I did get some interesting books out of the library. Anyone heard of Furoshiki?

And I do have about 30 dress shirts that are in a box downstairs waiting for me.

Or maybe I'll play with my kids more. I can't hide behind unfinished quilts all of the time!





PS My number one comment about this blog thus far has been about the "pre-cut dental floss." I admit, I thought this was very funny. Unfortunately, I am not the funniest member of my household and it was my darling husband who, regarding a new great idea I had for economizing from my favourite book*, said, "I hope you don't read something about cutting my dental floss."

How crazy is that? So I asked him how crazy he thought I was. The short answer: very.

He elaborated: "I wouldn't be surprised that after some type of analysis, you would have us all wearing black garbage bags with holes cut for the head and arms."

I questioned this: "Aren't plastic garbage bags very unenvironmental?"

Then he used my greatest asset against me: my inability to take anything on feel ("Kraft Dinner doesn't feel expensive") and instead get out the calculator and crunch the numbers**  ("Kraft Dinner is ridiculously expensive compared to homemade macaroni! We are never buying it again!"***).

Him: "You'll factor in the resources used in black plastic bags compared to the pollutants created per article of clothing from harvesting the cotton, to sewing it in a factory, shipping it to Canada, and driving it to the store... You are just too rational."

*The Complete Tightwad's Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
**In the past week, I have have calculated:
1. How much my iron costs to run (4 cents per hour on cotton with high steam)
2. How much it costs to make a pot of coffee at home with a paper filter (2.5 cents/filter, 3.5 cents/coffee grounds, water and electricity are negligible)
3. The return on keeping $1500 in our chequing account so they don't charge us fees ($72/year equals 4.8%--much better than putting this money into savings)
4. How much money we have spent on Cadbury Cream Eggs since Easter (much too much, but I won't go into those details)
***He told me that we could have it for "special occasions." I took this to mean our 9th anniversary coming up this summer. Romantic. If you would like to come, tell us ahead of time and we'll splurge and get two boxes!

Messy, messy feet prints


This is not quilting, as you can probably tell from the photos.

My good friend Elena gave me these four little four little canvases when I was out to visit her in Ontario. Her great idea was that I should do footprints of each of the kids. (Read next part with sarcasm.) What a marvelous idea! Paint! Kids! More kids! More paint! Paint on feet! New lino in kitchen!

I was thinking very clearly how NOT appealing this was.

But I thanked her because I know that she has good ideas, it's just that executing them is sometimes tricky. (There was also "canvases as gifts" when I had my second baby that I was supposed to paint with little characters. For Elena, the prospect of painting a little picture is probably very appealing. I am less inclined towards drawing and more towards fabric. I also know that Elena is expecting baby #1 this month and hasn't experienced the joy of bringing out a bunch of paints with little kids. Soon, though...)

So I did it one night while my cousin was here and it actually wasn't as bad as I was imagining. We even did one of the footprints on a sleeping child, my 2 year old, who is the most likely candidate for kicking the wall with a painted foot.

Unfortunately, after I finished them, I wondered what I was going to do with these four little paintings. And then I found the perfect place... above their coat hooks.

Thanks Elena! (Read with zero sarcasm.)

PS True, Elena did end up painting those three little character canvases she gave me--and I love them!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

I Spy is almost there

I Spy appliqued quilt with pleated borders
I am really getting there. Now I need to decide how I'm going to quilt it. I am not feeling like machine quilting it. Nor am I feeling like I want to hand quilt it. But I was thinking that I could use little buttons to sew it all together. I have a million little white buttons from various dress shirts that I have been given for recycled quilts.

Unless there is a better idea that I'm not thinking of...



Thursday, April 12, 2012

I Can Wait

People say it all the time, mostly without thinking.

"I can't wait."

I probably say it. My main source of feedback right now is a four-year-old who repeats things like, "Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness." Which is something I must be saying. (She also says it with an inflection that I find really funny, which I now realize means that I am laughing at myself.)

I-spy quilt April 2012 These squares are all hand appliqued. All 384 of them.
In life, there are things that we look forward to. But can we really not wait? Can't we enjoy the process?

I must admit that I have been working on my I-spy quilt for a long time now. Finally, it is starting to come to the end. But I can still wait for it to be finished. It will be finished... I just need to keep plodding along with it. And I don't want to start rushing now because I am (relatively) close to finishing it.

I've heard it a hundred times, but a person who writes a page a day will have a book at the end of one year. Like many resolutions, few people will ever go to the trouble of writing a page a day. I just need to remember to keep working.

But I must say this is really starting to shape up.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Pleats, please

G and Nana's quilt 2012
I have been puttering through my I-spy quilt for probably two years now.

I started it because my Nana made my daughter G a quilt that was I-spy and I had never seen anything so lovely. What an exciting idea! But because I don't have a lot of time to sit in front of a sewing machine, effectively staring at a wall in the basement while my children run crazy upstairs, I decided to hand applique all these tiny little squares onto a white background.

I-spy quilt with polka dot pleats
I started by just doing a mishmash of colour, finished one block like that and realized that I wasn't going to be happy with the results. You see, I don't think I have the best eye for colour.

More pleats for the quilt
Pink pleats for quilting
I imagine that this quilt could look absolutely awesome in a mishmash way, but I didn't have all the pieces picked out before I started and I wasn't confident enough that I would like it. So I went with monochromatic blocks. And because I really can't make decisions, I did it in a colour wash (from light to dark).

Now that I have finished the centre panel (24 blocks each with 16 little squares) and sewn them all together, I have the issue of borders. I feel that someone with a good "feel" for colour would be able to pick a single unifying colour that could bind the whole piece. I don't have the confidence to do that, and at this point, I'm feeling timid.

I did play around with the idea of doing white around the border, like I did in the citrus quilt, but white stains easily. And I wanted something a bit fancier and so I resolved to do pleats on polka dots.

Now each row will be bordered by a pleated block of the same colour. I might be handicapped in my ability to work colour, but I can figure out ways to get around it... What do you think?

Friday, April 6, 2012

The Need for Slow Quilting

The Citrus Quilt Fall 2011
There is the slow food movement. It inspires us to think about our food, prepare our dinner, enjoy our meal. It makes food into something that requires care and attention, where part of the value is created in the process.

I believe there should be a movement for slow quilting, where care and attention is paid to each piece. Let's do hand sewing. Let's design our own patterns. Let's make something that really pleases us. And after this is all done, let's start something new from what we have learned.

It seems to me that many quilting magazines advertize Quick Quilts. These are projects that can be finished in a day of work. Unless you are selling them, or you are very, very cold, you do not need to finish a quilt in a weekend.

Instead, let's make really tricky quilts that will take a year to complete. If I've got another 50 years in me (maybe I do, maybe I don't), I will still have an insane closet full of completed quilts. But they will be very complicated quilts. And I hope very beautiful.

So let's slow down. Work slowly with passion. Make something beautiful. Challenge ourselves. Reduce clutter. Conserve our resources. Exercise our creativity.

Let's try Slow Quilting.