Sometimes you just run into fabric that you know is going to go with a lot of other fabric you have in your stash and sure enough it did! I don't remember when I purchased this fabric with the swirls but I pulled it out of my stash recently and cut a couple of aprons out of it and combined it with a couple of other fabrics to make some stunning aprons which I will sew up at a later date. I had this piece left over that was aprox. 14" wide and 30" long. Just looking at the fabric I could tell it was going to make a STUNNING fabric bowl. The narrow stripes that one uses to wrap around the clothesline to make the bowl has to have some give to them to wrap properly and unfortunately there was only 14" left from the width of the fabric once the apron was cut out of it. Also, to get the full effect of the changes in the color of the swirls I wanted to cut them in the proper direction. If I had not discovered the joys of glue (see blog entry http://www.newenglandfiberarts.com/node/163) The 14" strips probably would not have been long enough to bother with. But with the use of glue there is so much less waste do to not having to over wrap when you add a new strip. I decided to go ahead with using the shorter strips.
You know a project hasn't gone well when the best part of it is that you are done. I really love making things...and for the most part, especially when I am learning something new, I enjoy it. I never expect things to go perfectly, especially if it is my first couple of times making something but this last project has me shaking my head and saying I am so DONE making market totes! Also, I have made several of these bag, I should know what I am doing, RIGHT? I blogged about making this particular tote using this fabric back in September. http://www.newenglandfiberarts.com/node/145 I remember at the time being pleased that I had enough of all the fabrics to make a second bag at a later date. This was going to save me not having to buy more fabric but also time since the bag had been designed as to what fabric was going to go where
I am sure that I am not alone in my love of Kaffee Fascett fabric. I wanted to make a quilt as you go purse the same size as the folk art purse and thought this would be the perfect place to show off a Kaffee Fascett print. Since this is only my second attempt at making a purse, I spent more time planning it than I did actually making it. I detest having to throw out a project due to foolish mistakes so I always plan carefully.
Last week I made one of my large market tote bags out of this fabric that is based on Caribbean folk art. I do not normally go for the folk art look but the second I saw this fabric, I had to have it! I also purchased some of it's sister fabric at the same time that had a white background. This would be the second market bag I have made from this fabric. The question for me always is what do I do with the scraps left over from the market bag? I looked at some pictures of folk art but did not see anything that set my creative juices flowing. I really wanted to do this lovely fabric justice but let's face it, I am NOT a folk artist!
A couple of weeks ago I went on a hot pad spree. I made several hot pads all from this adorable veggie fabric. I ended up with 6 hot pads. I had two 2-1/2" strips of the main fabric along with some scrapes and also a 2-1/2' strip of the matching plaid fabric that was all part of this wonderful collection...HEY why not make a fabric bowl.? Good idea. The 2'1/2" strips yielded 3 strips each suitable for wrapping so I had plenty to make a smallish bowl. I started out the bottom of the bowl with a fabric which I will call nice green. It was a tone on tone and very Spring-like. I then switched to the veggie fabric and did a few rounds around the base with that and then started tilting for the sides.
A few years back I happened upon a store that was moving and they were getting rid of all of their books so I bought "Focus on Batiks" by Jan Bode Smiley. It has been sitting around collecting dust every since. A few days ago I picked it up and was browsing through it and there was this black and while scrap string quilt (not a batik) and there were 3 methods for making these string blocks and that fascinated me. The author was nice enough to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each method so this week I made an 8" block using all three methods. Since I felt that the black and white prints in the featured quilt were a bit monochromatic, I decided to throw in a couple of red, black and white fabrics to add a bit of interest. I have always liked quilts that employed these 3 colors and this was a opportunity to play around with those colors and try out some new techniques.
One of the most common misconceptions about being self employed as a fiber artist is that I spend all day at the sewing machine making lovely items. The hope is that when I am at my sewing machine that what I am working on does indeed end up being a lovely item but the truth of the matter is that in running a business and being self employed, I probably only spend about 50% of my time at the sewing machine. It amazes me how much time I spend on non sewing activity that is related to my business. Case in point...Sunday morning I spent an hour and a half printing tags, cutting out tags and labeling work that I would be delivering to a store this week. The term head chef AND bottle washer definitely applies here. What brings this up? I realized that it was Thursday and all I have made this week is 4 hot pads.
As I get up this morning to it being zero out side yet again, I am still determined to think Spring. The extended forecast tells me it is not going to get above freezing any time this week. Once again, I dig a nice floral fabric out of my stash to make a Spring like fabric basket but first I will talk about making a basket out of the scraps from the butterfly and flower themed hot pads. Since the background of the main print was while I felt contrast was the way to go. I have always liked teal and orange together and this is probably why I purchased this fabric in the first place. I did not have much of the teal fabric left so I would need to plan carefully. I started out with the teal for the bottom of the basket with the idea of making orange stripes further up the side and having a go around with the teal in between the orange stripes. All was going well until I got up to the teal stripe...I was running out of the teal! It was then that I remembered that these are bias strips and stretchy by nature. I unwrapped part of the teal back to where it wasn't sewn and rewrapped it a bit tighter and also stretched the strip slightly. YES, it worked and the teal strip did indeed go all the way around the bowl.
For us folks here is the northeast, it has been a long and brutal winter. We got a short respite from the bone chilling cold last week but it was short lived. Looking at our shrinking supply of wood for our wood stove it is becoming painfully clear that we are going to run out of wood long before we run out of cold weather. I realized this week that it was time to start working on my Spring line. I found a fat quart of this nifty fabric a few weeks ago and liked that it had a white back Siground and the print had a wide pallet of bright and cheery colors along with not only butterflies but also hearts and flowers, all of which I really like working with The intention when I bought it was to make some fabric bowls and purchased at the same time a couple of coordinating fabrics.but I could see what wonderful hot pads I could make using it as the background color.
I am definitely the type of person who thinks that variety is the spice of life. This may sound funny from someone who has been married to the same person for almost 38 years. But it is true...and no doubt what attracted me to quilting and sewing was the endless variety of fabric to choose from.. What is also surprising, since I do like endless variety, that it wasn't until last year that I purchased my first jelly roll. It was purchased with the thought in mind of bringing LOTS of variety to my coiled fabric bowls. I had endless enjoyment playing with all those 2 1/2" strips and deciding which fabrics would go where. and was delighted with all the multifaceted bowls that came out of that jelly roll, no two alike. It led me to purchase another jelly roll, this time batiks. I had spied a table runner type quilt as you go project in a magazine a few months ago using silks. OBVIOUSLY it was not going to be used as a table runner but was a mighty good looking wall handing that implemented the idea that I had been working with the rainbow coiled bowls, color progressions. As soon as I saw that batik jelly roll, I knew what I would make with it. and also get to try my hand at a quilt as you go project.
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Sometimes you just run into fabric that you know is going to go with a lot of other fabric you have in your stash and sure enough it did! I don't remember when I purchased this fabric with the swirls but I pulled it out of my stash recently and cut a couple of aprons out of it and combined it with a couple of other fabrics to make some stunning aprons which I will sew up at a later date. I had this piece left over that was aprox. 14" wide and 30" long. Just looking at the fabric I could tell it was going to make a STUNNING fabric bowl. The narrow stripes that one uses to wrap around the clothesline to make the bowl has to have some give to them to wrap properly and unfortunately there was only 14" left from the width of the fabric once the apron was cut out of it. Also, to get the full effect of the changes in the color of the swirls I wanted to cut them in the proper direction. If I had not discovered the joys of glue (see blog entry 
You know a project hasn't gone well when the best part of it is that you are done. I really love making things...and for the most part, especially when I am learning something new, I enjoy it. I never expect things to go perfectly, especially if it is my first couple of times making something but this last project has me shaking my head and saying I am so DONE making market totes! Also, I have made several of these bag, I should know what I am doing, RIGHT? I blogged about making this particular tote using this fabric back in September. 
I am sure that I am not alone in my love of Kaffee Fascett fabric. I wanted to make a quilt as you go purse the same size as the folk art purse and thought this would be the perfect place to show off a Kaffee Fascett print. Since this is only my second attempt at making a purse, I spent more time planning it than I did actually making it. I detest having to throw out a project due to foolish mistakes so I always plan carefully.
Last week I made one of my large market tote bags out of this fabric that is based on Caribbean folk art. I do not normally go for the folk art look but the second I saw this fabric, I had to have it! 
I also purchased some of it's sister fabric at the same time that had a white background. This would be the second market bag I have made from this fabric. The question for me always is what do I do with the scraps left over from the market bag? I looked at some pictures of folk art but did not see anything that set my creative juices flowing. I really wanted to do this lovely fabric justice but let's face it, I am NOT a folk artist!.JPG)
A couple of weeks ago I went on a hot pad spree. I made several hot pads all from this adorable veggie fabric. I ended up with 6 hot pads. I had two 2-1/2" strips of the main fabric along with some scrapes and also a 2-1/2' strip of the matching plaid fabric that was all part of this wonderful collection...HEY why not make a fabric bowl.? Good idea. The 2'1/2" strips yielded 3 strips each suitable for wrapping so I had plenty to make a smallish bowl. I started out the bottom of the bowl with a fabric which I will call nice green. It was a tone on tone and very Spring-like. I then switched to the veggie fabric and did a few rounds around the base with that and then started tilting for the sides.
A few years back I happened upon a store that was moving and they were getting rid of all of their books so I bought "Focus on Batiks" by Jan Bode Smiley. It has been sitting around collecting dust every since. A few days ago I picked it up and was browsing through it and there was this black and while scrap string quilt (not a batik) and there were 3 methods for making these string blocks and that fascinated me. The author was nice enough to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each method so this week I made an 8" block using all three methods. Since I felt that the black and white prints in the featured quilt were a bit monochromatic, I decided to throw in a couple of red, black and white fabrics to add a bit of interest. I have always liked quilts that employed these 3 colors and this was a opportunity to play around with those colors and try out some new techniques. 
One of the most common misconceptions about being self employed as a fiber artist is that I spend all day at the sewing machine making lovely items. The hope is that when I am at my sewing machine that what I am working on does indeed end up being a lovely item but the truth of the matter is that in running a business and being self employed, I probably only spend about 50% of my time at the sewing machine. It amazes me how much time I spend on non sewing activity that is related to my business. Case in point...Sunday morning I spent an hour and a half printing tags, cutting out tags and labeling work that I would be delivering to a store this week. The term head chef AND bottle washer definitely applies here. What brings this up? I realized that it was Thursday and all I have made this week is 4 hot pads.
As I get up this morning to it being zero out side yet again, I am still determined to think Spring. The extended forecast tells me it is not going to get above freezing any time this week. Once again, I dig a nice floral fabric out of my stash to make a Spring like fabric basket but first I will talk about making a basket out of the scraps from the butterfly and flower themed hot pads. Since the background of the main print was while I felt contrast was the way to go. I have always liked teal and orange together and this is probably why I purchased this fabric in the first place. I did not have much of the teal fabric left so I would need to plan carefully. I started out with the teal for the bottom of the basket with the idea of making orange stripes further up the side and having a go around with the teal in between the orange stripes. All was going well until I got up to the teal stripe...I was running out of the teal! It was then that I remembered that these are bias strips and stretchy by nature. I unwrapped part of the teal back to where it wasn't sewn and rewrapped it a bit tighter and also stretched the strip slightly. YES, it worked and the teal strip did indeed go all the way around the bowl. 
For us folks here is the northeast, it has been a long and brutal winter. We got a short respite from the bone chilling cold last week but it was short lived. Looking at our shrinking supply of wood for our wood stove it is becoming painfully clear that we are going to run out of wood long before we run out of cold weather. I realized this week that it was time to start working on my Spring line. I found a fat quart of this nifty fabric a few weeks ago and liked that it had a white back Siground and the print had a wide pallet of bright and cheery colors along with not only butterflies but also hearts and flowers, all of which I really like working with The intention when I bought it was to make some fabric bowls and purchased at the same time a couple of coordinating fabrics.but I could see what wonderful hot pads I could make using it as the background color.
I am definitely the type of person who thinks that variety is the spice of life. This may sound funny from someone who has been married to the same person for almost 38 years. But it is true...and no doubt what attracted me to quilting and sewing was the endless variety of fabric to choose from.. What is also surprising, since I do like endless variety, that it wasn't until last year that I purchased my first jelly roll. It was purchased with the thought in mind of bringing LOTS of variety to my coiled fabric bowls. I had endless enjoyment playing with all those 2 1/2" strips and deciding which fabrics would go where. and was delighted with all the multifaceted bowls that came out of that jelly roll, no two alike. It led me to purchase another jelly roll, this time batiks. I had spied a table runner type quilt as you go project in a magazine a few months ago using silks. OBVIOUSLY it was not going to be used as a table runner but was a mighty good looking wall handing that implemented the idea that I had been working with the rainbow coiled bowls, color progressions. As soon as I saw that batik jelly roll, I knew what I would make with it. and also get to try my hand at a quilt as you go project.