goodbye, 2024

It's been a complex year of regression and growth, blindspots and self awareness, dismantling and renewal. It's been real and I can't say that I didn't learn a few things along the way. I'm pleased that my creative impulses seem to have woken up again and I'm looking forward to seeing and making beautiful things in 2025. To close out this year, I made some pomanders inspired by a favorite gardening YouTuber. It's the perfect way to use up my overly large stash of cloves, which I don't particularly like in cooking, to make a wonderfully fragrant winter treat for the senses. 

rehearsal tote redux

I made another Tourist Tote that will be used, I hope, as a rehearsal gig bag! I love how this one turned out, and I hope Mark will too. The tote bag he normally uses for mutes, towels, and other horn player trappings gave out recently. I know he would find something to replace it on his own, but I am somewhat charmed by the opportunity to surprise him with a fun handmade tote. 

I used sturdy fabrics for the entire thing this time, plus interfacing. It's not that I don't think the quilting cotton worked out great on my first one, it's more that this is a really good use of some heavy duty canvas leftover from an upholstery project. It looks SO classy and masculine paired with that flannel plaid. The deer print is a cherished remnant from a quilt I made for my grandfather, and adds a bit of whimsy to the outside. 

In order to get the deer oriented vertically I couldn't cut width of fabric strips for the straps. Because of that and because I eyeballed the length, these straps ended up being the "longer" I was wishing for on my own bag. I will have to measure and note how long these are for any future efforts. Also, to make the deer behave properly along the entire strap, I added a seam at the top of the straps so the orientation flipped there instead of being one long piece with deer upside down on half. 

While the deer are classy yet whimsical on the outside, I went full on whimsy for the lining. Mark has a deep and wonderful sense of humor, so I have a hunch he will appreciate these quirky chickens. The fluorescent orange beaks play with the orange in the flannel nicely and the navy and brown read as neutrals to me, so I think it all "goes" nicely. It's an out of the box combination, for sure, but it makes me smile. I am very happy with how this turned out and am really enjoying getting to play with fabric combinations on smaller-than-a-quilt projects. 

sassy tote for rehearsals

I have been going to a lot of rehearsals. In one symphony in particular I tend to want to take a bunch of things like my heavier instrument stand, a seat cushion (such hard chairs!!), and a stand light. It would be an easy solution to just grab a tote bag out of the stack I use for groceries, but why skip an opportunity to do something handmade? 

The pattern is called Tourist Tote and I discovered it from a YouTube video. It's a long one, but she nicely steps through the entire thing which is useful for a visual learner like me. I have been saving this hip and sassy girl fabric for a rainy day, so to speak, and while the scale vs bag size made it necessary to deliberately cut pieces to feature faces instead of feet, a larger project like this is a good use of a big print like this. I've also used it to back a quilt. 

This musical notation print was among a stack I brought home from my mom's stash this summer and isn't this the perfect use for it. I forget where I got the bright pink corduroy but my goodness it pops. All of the pieces are interfaced except the handle which I used quilt batting scraps instead. I wasn't sure the interfacing called for was thick enough for the type of bag I was envisioning, but it actually worked out just fine. I am glad I used a heavier fabric for the bottom, though. One could probably also do a quilted panel for any of these pieces and it would turn out similarly sturdy or better. 

Along the way I messed up a few measurements while cutting to make the girl fabric work so it is smaller by maybe an inch, no big deal. The musical notations as a lining is perfect - won't show dirt and topically appropriate for use. I initially was not sure about using the black and white on the outside for the handles given the lighter values in the main print, but with the electric pink corduroy as a complement that looks nice with both, I like the way it all works. If I were more adventurous, I could have added things like pockets, zippers, and other fasteners to hold things like a water bottle to organize the inside more. That didn't feel necessary or appealing to me. 

I do wish the handles were a little bit longer, so I may look for a way to extend them without deconstructing the whole thing. Maybe a piece of leather at the top, we'll see what I can find. It's an ideal size for my musical paraphernalia as well as a water bottle and snacks. Sassy and fit to purpose!     

kodachrome quilting

And April was the month of wresting a rainbow into a sewing machine. 

I can walk to the local library, and I am thrilled that they have a well stocked crafting section. There are a lot of great volumes on fiber arts including a great selection of quilting books. One book in particular, Walk: Master machine quilting with your walking foot by Jacquie Gering, was an incredible find. The pages show all kinds of creative ideas for straight line quilting and they are designed in a way that is achievable on a home sewing machine. I am looking forward to trying many of them out. 

For this quilt, I took advantage of the regular geometry of the top to try out this nested chevron pattern. It kind of reminds me of the Star Trek logo or a flying geese unit. It is difficult to see in the picture of the full quilt top, but the overall effect of the angled lines against the rectangles is one of movement. I'm so glad I chose something different than just mirroring the rectangles to make it more interesting. And I didn't have to mark anything!

The dark thread color I chose looks equally good on the warm fabrics as well as the cool ones. It of course disappears more on the darker cool fabrics while maintaining that texture that the eye can pick up even without seeing the thread. Quilting is always the hardest part for me, the trimming and binding will be the reward!

 

moths can be pretty too

This has been a really nice project as winter has given way to spring - I started this on February 17 and tied off the last knot as April began. Finishing the needlepoint flowers felt like a triumph that deserved an encore, and I remembered that I have a foursome of embroidery kits with whimsical nature motifs. Checking them out, this moth seemed like one of the simpler options, so away I went. And just look at those colors!! So cheerful. 

As I stitched in the early stages I wondered what on earth would posses someone to design something with a moth in it. After several layers of color and weeks of progress, I got it. What a delightful thing! The rusty tan that makes up the bulk of the wings seemed like an unusual choice until I got the blues and greens added, then I really liked it. I have also reconfirmed for myself that satin stitch stresses me out, and the filler stitching is a bummer, too. Flowers are much more fun! I actually expected to like the stems and leaves the least of all but it turns out that adding them in a final flourish at the end was quite pleasant.

For now, it is finished and I am not certain what I will do with it. I am likely going to work up the other three (at some point...) and then finish them all off in their hoops and hang on my wall somewhere. They may also end up in a quilt, or as something else. I am leaving open the possibilities. A collection of some kind would be really pretty. Tiny pillows? We'll see. 

gentle reintroduction

I took stock of my sewing room recently. I have a lot of quilt tops. Like - a lot! They are all neatly hung in the closet waiting their turn out of the way, but they do feel "in the way" mentally. Whenever I think of starting a new sewing project, I feel them staring out at me suggesting that I might consider finishing something first. And so we baste. 

I already had batting measured and cut for this quilt top, and the piece is on the smaller side compared to some of the other things in there, so it felt like a gentle reintroduction to sandwich and baste just this one. 

I fell in love all over again with the design and the rainbow of colors. It was fun to see all the bits of fabrics from projects-gone-by and to remember how proud I was of myself when I had the gumption to actually cut and organize all of those rectangles. 

I might not know how I want to quilt it yet, but getting it to this point feels like an accomplishment and a significant toe dip back into this room after a long hiatus. 

stitching my way back

I started this panel in August 2023. I can remember how quiet the house was. With Dave and both cats gone, there seemed to be so much space both physically and mentally. I wasn't quite certain what to do with it all. So I stitched. 

One evening I thought to myself - what haven't I been doing that I have wanted time for? Well, so many things. But one of them was making. Crafting, creating, playing with color. Sewing seemed like such a big undertaking, I didn't want to work on any of the knits in progress I had, so this needlepoint kit felt right. It was self contained, did not seem to require much brainpower, and would set me on the path to filling time with more than my circular thoughts about how much had changed and whether it would be for the better. 

I got this from DMC as part of a tranche of goodies I got to order on their dime after my 2020 National Embroider Month project won a contest. It's funny that I can so vividly remember working on that project - it was February 2020 and a time that felt so unaware of what was to come next. Despite the retrospective poignancy, it was also a project that helped me settle a then-anxious mind and accomplish something I never imagined I could. And so perhaps this needlepoint was more than appropriate for the moment given that connection. 

It took much longer than I thought it would, but I did enjoy the making. Once I got to the flower petals, it was absorbing and enjoyable, and filling in that deep dark brown was especially satisfying. It is quite large and is intended to be a pillow. I'm not quite certain how to get it from this to pillow cover yet. It seems to me that the canvas would be gnarly for a needle to work through? Will puzzle it out at some point! If not, it would make a fine framed piece of art.