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.

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.

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!)

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!

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?