Friday, November 18, 2011

Cleaning up studio to move forward

After I got home from the airport yesterday, I spent the afternoon cleaning up my studio. It turned out to be a very productive day. Here is a photo of how messy it gets when I am in that creative work mode and don't take any time to tidy up as I go along, which never happens when I am deep into a project. Every flat surface gets taken over by all my stuff that I am using or that doesn't have a home.
This is from the doorway of my studio. In this photo, it shows you that every flat surface gets taken over by all my stuff.
Now to prove to you that I did indeed clean up.
As I was cleaning up my studio, I came across this little pillow cover that I made, it is Sashiko dragonflies, while on the quilt trip to Vermont this summer. It has been to the stage of needing stuffed for months and I had picked up a pillow form still in its original wrapper at Goodwill, I decided to get it done so I wouldn't have to keep moving it from one place to another when cleaning up. This is not one of my original projects on my list from yesterday but since it only took about 15 minutes to complete I decided it was worth doing right then and there instead of having it continue to clutter up my work surfaces and my mind. It is really cute.
I also got 3 t-shirts finished for the craft sale. So over all, yesterday was a very productive day.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Projects Finished Up

I finished up several big things over the last several days so now I can play with some other fun projects but that will still have to wait a bit. Today I have to take Dan to the airport to fly out to California for a buddy's wedding this weekend. When I get home I have to spend 1 -2 days cleaning up the house before I get back to quilting. I finished up my last customer quilt last night about 7 PM. My legs were really aching by the time I got done. I also finished up the rag rug. It didn't get too much bigger.
My list of projects to work on next.
1. 2 more backpack/tote bags
2. 6 casserole carriers
3. fabric Christmas star ornaments
4. my Tabacco Bay wallhanging.
5. a journal cover
6. set of faux leather baskets
7. 2 chennille style scarves
8. Oriental wallhanging
This is all I can think of at the moment but that is enough to keep me busy for a while. I will post photos of these projects as I get done with them. Now I am off to the airport. Have a safe fun day.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

What next?

I am on a mission to finish up a lot of projects that are just about done so that I can get to working on my seascape again. This is the piece that I started at the quilt retreat at the Greenville Arms Inn last month. I have not worked on it since getting back home although it has been hanging on my design wall so that I can study it and work out the rest of the quilting ideas. Here is where I am with it so far.
I also have a small piece that I plan on finishing. It was also started at the same retreat. It will become a journal cover perhaps. Here it is.
It will get a tree branch perhaps going across it. It should be a fun quick project to finish. I hope you have fun thinking of projects that you want to get finished up before the holidays. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Crotcheted rag rug

I have been working on a rag rug. One of our quilt group members taught us how to do this last week at our work day. This is a great way to repurpose those old worn out sheets. I wish I knew how to do this about 6 months ago when my favorite purple sheet ripped from being so old. I chucked that beauty. It would have made a great rug. Oh well, no need to cry for that one when I have plenty others in my closet or that can be gotten cheaply at the Goodwill Stores. Here is what I have been able to do so far.
How about that. It is about 3 feet in diameter right now and I have several more colors to add to it. It does take quite a bit of fabric to make one of these, obviously depending on the size you want. I think I read that a 4 ft rug takes about 9 yards of fabric. To do this you rip your fabric into strips about 3/4"-1" widths, attach the strips into one long one, roll up into a ball. That is the prep work. Make as many balls of different fabrics as you want to use and then you can begin to crochet the rug. I am not going into how to crochet but it is a single crochet stitch. You can find tutorials online or get some good book on how to do this. You can make the rug round or oval or rectangular or I suppose you could even make it square. It has been fun working on. You can do this while watching TV at night and not have to concentrate on what you are doing too much. BTW, this will be a Christmas present for my BFF. Hope you try to make one sometime.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Tote? or Not

I am working on several things right now. I just made several backpack/tote bags from practice quilt sandwiches. They turned out cute and they used up something that very easily could have ended up in the trash years done the line when I got tired of trying to find a place to store them. This is what I started with
It took 3 of these quilted pieces that are 9x21" to make one bag. This is what the bag looks like.
And another one.
Sorry they are sideways. I will have to work on my computer skills some more. It took about 1 hour to make a bag. They can be worn as a backback or push the straps through the handle on top and you can use it as a shoulder bag. They have a deconstructed look due to the raw edges. They will make great Christmas gifts. Hope you enjoyed and I plan to be back every day M-F to share other things I am working on.