UFOs

The quilting blogs often talk about UFOs - UnFinished Objects. I've had a lot of UFOs lying around the house. On President's Day I had hoped to complete a bunch of them but it wasn't destined to be.

My plan was to use the ocher colored embroidered piece above and create a variation of my previous pillow using some precious fabrics I've been dying to use. I was excited about the somewhat unusual color combination of ocher, teal, milk chocolate and khaki, and was ready to create another 12x16" pillowcase.



Sadly, the width was only 11" so I dug out my other pillow forms to consider my other options. I decided to do something with a log cabin pattern for a 16x16" pillow form. In my haste and lack of recent practice, I cut the embroidered square out without allowing for the seam allowance, making me a wee stressed about fucking it up.



I decided to use my stash of scraps, which is what I prefer to do for log cabins. It feels so thrifty!



I started the project, but it just didn't feel right.



Here's the final(ish) product - or as far as I got. Looks pretty good here but I really originally envisioned it complementing teal - not navy - and I just couldn't go through with it. I actually out the patchwork so I could start afresh with a combination closer to my original vision.

As I look at this pic, I think - that really looks pretty good! Why did I have to maul it and start over?

More fun with doodles

Finally, a new pillow! It's been a while since I put one of these together and I really enjoyed the zen of the whole process - getting out the ironing board, dusting off the sewing machine, fearing I wouldn't remember what I was doing but finding it was like riding the proverbial bicycle. Rotary cutting from muscle memory - something I always thought was hearsay but apparently a real phenomenon.



I did another version of the same pattern, this time in chocolate with avocado and pumpkin highlights.

Wanting to tackle something larger, I sketched out the next project quickly, while watching Friday Night Lights (the show, not the movie) on Netflix. Fantastic series, by the way. This is my lifelong preferred mode of creating - watching TV or on the subway (or BART in my SF days). My ideal mode isn't multitasking - it's dedicated dual-tasking.



This one looks prettier in person - kind of a peanut butter background. I took multiple pictures but really couldn't do better - I really could use a different camera/camera tips!



I then sketched out a more horizontal version - sort of a city scape, most likely for wall art rather than a pillow. I'm enjoying this series - quick to sketch out, quick to sew and produce. A nice way to get back in the game.

Coming out of my shell...

... um, what happened to this year?

Well, dear readers, this year I had a major job transition and truly threw myself into my work, which thankfully I really enjoy. This did not stop me from percolating and dreaming of projects, but it did slow even that down. Occasionally I'd venture out of my shell to purchase an irresistible piece of fabric from the City Quilter or Purl. Occasionally a little sketch would appear on my meeting notes. I'd stare at my carefully curated fabric stash and sigh, not even sure I still "had it." The materials didn't have that inspirational shimmer - was that previous year of spending hours obsessing over color combinations and staying up late creating at the sewing machine just a dream?

So, it all re-started with a doodle...

I was inspired to do something (deceptively) simple and geometric by Molly's Sampler Pillows project on the Purl Bee. I loved her use of Muji's linen pillow cases and wanted to create a design that would look good against that texture. Anyway, I doodled out a little line and squares pattern - which is basically something I am constantly drawing in the margins of my notepads anyway. 

Not having any linen on hand, I was drawn to this avocado green fabric - which reminded me of my mother's fridge (and half of my childhood bedrooom furniture) when I was growing up. I selected some earthy browns, in keeping with the original idea of doing this project in an undyed linen. 



I increased the dimensions of my original sketch by 150% (after experimenting with various other sizes), and transfered it (as I always do) using basic carbon paper and a pen.

The project went super quickly - it was such a relief to be embroidering again! Somehow some bright orange worked its way in, and cheered things up considerably. 

This was a fun, quick project, and I can definitely see myself doing more riffs on it. 

Buttery Toasted Patchwork Pillow

I'm having trouble coming up with new words to describe these yellow and brown wool pillows - toasty is first and foremost on my mind when I look at them. I'm working my way through two stacks of felted wool I bought from the City Quilter. They have quite a nice selection - I actually bought a teal/blue spectrum stack as well, but I I've been holding back from starting to work on it, as I feel like I'm on a roll with the yellows and browns.



I designed this pillow while on the subway, but had to improvise once I was actually executing it. These wools are bought in stacks containing beautiful but slighly mishapen pieces - it's not like I have even full fat quarters of any of these, so they almost force you to do patchwork.

I had hardly any light yellow fabric yet, and a lot of brown, so the rows containing yellow pieces ended up being 2" tall while the one containing solely brown pieces were 3". It's very hard to see this, but the corner pieces are a slightly different yellow than the others, again, improvised out of necessity due to not having enough of either yellow color.



I was also planning on having the rows and colums of brown (except the 4 dark pieces) be the same shade of brown, but I discovered that was not to be either. However, I enjoyed the troubleshooting process and was relieved that ultimately I was able to come up with a combination that worked - both in sticking as closely as possible to my original vision, and in having enough fabric to execute it.



These wool projects take longer than the cotton ones, because pinning and pressing are absolutely key. Pinning is just about the same in difficulty (show above) but the pressing of the wool seam allowances is a bit challenging. In order to prevent bulking up the patchwork, I pressed open the seams.



You really have to presss the hell out of it, and put some elbow grease into it to make it work.
Overall, I'm glad with the results - it lays flatter than my previous wool patchwork project.



The next step was that I hand embroidered the contrast stitching. It's fun to do this with the wool fabric. First of all, I love embroidery. And you don't have to use an embroidery hoop, because the fabric is nice and thick and a little stiff.



And here's a picture of the final product again!

A

Purple Pillow for Michele

I made this purple pillow for one of my best friend's new apartment - actually I made two identical ones for her. I used the same pattern as I did for the bunny pillow and the Joel Dewberry faux bois/birds pillow.

The flowered fabric is a Japanese imported fabric I bought from purl soho, and the striped fabric is from the American Jane series from Moda. I think it's an ideal stripy fabric, and it comes in lots of nice colors that have the feeling of being just slightly faded.

You may notice that I'm trying to make a leap forward here in terms of setting "set dressing" my photos. The chicken and I enjoyed playing with props and creating a "view in a room" feeling (like in westelm.com) though there's a lot more I'd like to learn about my camera in terms of light and clarity.