Believe

I love being inspired.

Believe in today.
Your life is now.

Now all we have to do is go out there and live it!

Sewing AND a workout

Sweetie spent some quality time sewing last week, while I was finishing my big fat quilt project.  I heard from the other room, "Well, at least this way I'm getting a workout with my sewing."  I had to go investigate.

We have one of those bistro-height dining table and chair sets, meaning you can't touch the ground when you are seated there.  Well, that's the table that the second sewing machine got set up on.

So, how does one sew when one can't reach the foot pedal?

Can you see the foot pedal squeezed between the thighs?  So clever.  And functional.

And what was this fabulous sewing project that Sweetie tackled?  Capes!  For the adult superhero or superhero-in-training.

Made from a lovely Alexander Henry rainbow stripe (we love rainbows in our house!), the design was cropped, so the cape wouldn't get caught up on foreign objects, and made to attach via safety pins directly to one's running bra.  So clever again...

After the race, the capes were a bit worse for the wear, but held up remarkably well, even protecting the face and head from barbed wire attack on one of the obstacles.  (The Laundry Fairy reports that they came back to brilliant technicolor after a simple washing.)

Alaskan fabric

A bit of tidying up in the sewing room, and I found fabric that I had purchased on our recent Alaskan trip.  Stopped in two different quilt shops:

• Rushin' Tailor, in Skagway
• Sew-n-bee Cozy, in Seward

Both specialize in Alaskan-themed prints and patterns, as they are located in busy tourist areas overrun by the cruise ship crowds all summer.  Since I was beginning to explore ideas for "the next quilt project" as we were on vacation, it was hard to only stay in each store for an "appropriate" (to the non-quilter, at least) amount of time.

I ended up buying prints from a line called Animal Spirits, by Robert Kaufman.  I got the black-and-white first, with each animal bordered so they could be used individually.  I just loved the Tlingit/totemic appearance of the animals, and was pleased at the assortment of animals offered.

By the time we got to Seaward, I had discovered the artwork of Sue Coccia, the artist who designed the fabrics.  I loved her coloring books (don't the black-and-white animal fabrics just beg to get colored in?) and calendars and stationary.  I won't reveal here who is getting what from my souvenir shopping, but I love her artwork!

'Nuff said.  Fabric for the stash that is beautiful and inspirational: my fabric souvenirs.

Stack-n-whack top *done*

I feel so good!  Finished the top of a stack-n-whack quilt for my bed.  Have been working on this since November of 2010, and want to tell the whole story of this quilt, but I should save that for when it's really done done.  (As in, ready-to-put-on-my-cozy-bed.)

For now, a couple pictures: sawtooth border on the bottom.  Took me many months of should-I? shouldn't-I? to decide whether to square that off or not.

View from the pillow-end.  I added some 120-degree diamonds to the borders.  Was initially going to put in flying geese there, but I found some leftover stacked pieces. 

I am meeting with a custom quilter this week to make plans for getting it done.  I've never had a project custom quilted before, and I'm a little intimidated by trying to decide what to ask for.  Fortunately, she's a pro who can add her thoughtful artistry to my handiwork.

I can't wait!!

Not really a project report

Nothing got completed in August.  Nothing got started in August, either; so at least there's that.

Cute toes auditioning a border idea

For recordkeeping purposes, here are last month's numbers, unchanged.
Completed projects this Month:  0
Completed projects Year to Date:  12
New projects this Month:  0
New projects Year to Date: 11
Discarded/donated projects (farewell!): 8
Net Project Count for 2012: -9

Made progress on my big stack-n-whack project, and participated in Quilter's Yard Sale: not much to report.  In the process of this, I made a huge mess in my sewing room.  Got to get that Tidy Fairy to pay it a visit...

Buck-a-block August complete

Month 12 of the year-long Buck-a-block: it's a wrap!

My red/pink/black colorway version of Cups and Saucers, a block we had already made back in April, but whose components can be rearranged multiple ways to give different block looks.  I'm lovin it.

 And, starting to plan for putting the blocks together, I pulled out my Kona black and white solids.  Want to put borders on each block, alternating colors.  Sweetie helped me see that the blocks with the black borders will stand out more, while the white-bordered blocks will tend to fade back a bit.  

Maybe you can see this stand-out vs. fade-back effect in the two blocks pictured.  Excellent: I *love* three of the blocks in this colorway, and feel more "meh" about the other three.  Makes the decision of which frame color to put on each block easy.

Blocks complete.  There's a baby quilt in the not-too-distant future!

Cute cloth book idea

I'm a sucker for children's books.  Even better if they're cloth children's books.  I have created several from scratch, using ideas found in this book

"How to Make Cloth Books for children" by Anne Pellowski

I have also embellished books made from pre-printed panels, which is what made me gush over the cloth book I saw at STCA.

It's made from a counting panel (Ten Little Things, by Moda) and has both the number and the word for each number (in Spanish and French!) on each panel.

OhMyGoodness! Eight cute owl-ies!!

So there's a darling pattern sheet for making the panel into a cloth book, by sewing strips from a coordinating Moda jelly roll around each block.

"Ten Little Things" jellyroll by Moda

On each facing page, the designer used chalk cloth (who knew such a thing existed?)

But I can imagine other types of facing pages,

like this oversize paper-pieced ruler segment by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh, Fransson.  I was so in love with this when I saw it--wouldn't it go nicely on a children's counting book about numbers?

Or facing pages that involve the reader in doing something,

like "count the flowers as you take them out of the (pocket) basket and button them in place"

or "count the dishes as you lift up the flaps to reveal them".  Both these techniques have been used by me in a baby busy block cloth toy.


Of course, what really makes this particular project precious are the adorable details:  grommets, fancy ribbon to tie the pages together, and a zipper pocket in the (front to hold the chalk).

I also like cloth books that have a handle on them.  (I used to see them in the Lillian Vernon catalog, but can't seem to find any there now.)  That wouldn't be too hard a detail to add on.  Cute, cute, cute!!!

(For future reference, several websites have more cloth books for children ideas.  One nice starting place seems to be eHow.)