learning from a master

There are Kaffe Fassett fans (fanatics?) in the quilting world and then there are people like me who have had one or two KF fabrics in their stash...may own a book or two for inspiration...but have never gone in for the OneDesignerAllTheWay kind of quilt design. For me much of the fun of quilting has been adapting existing or traditional designs to my own sensibility, or playing with colours and fabrics to challenge myself.

Well.

I have a friend who has been making the most magnificent quilt tops from KF fabrics (her stash of them is formidable!). And I caught the bug. I just wanted a rich and wild KF project, dipping into the reds and hot pinks and oranges that Kaffe Fassett does so well.

So.

I bought a kit. GASP!

The colourway is "Scarlet." 

I have never ever done a kit, until now...or even followed the recommended fabrics or even the general colours in a quilt pattern. As I organized all the beautiful and wild prints that came in this kit, I had to wrap my head around the fact that choosing fabric was not part of this particular adventure. I could take no credit at all for the design choices if I followed this kit to the letter.

But I decided to follow obediently, nevertheless. I approached this as a mini-course in a master designer's approach to quilt design. And it has been fascinating!

The combinations are weird and wonderful and I think the final quilt will be kind of amazing -- all credit to Fassett, I am just the labourer ;p

Today I am just sharing lots of pics...more notes and reflections to come soon (and more projects, since I do have some others underway).

The pile grew (30 blocks in all).

And I added the seemingly BIZARRE choice for sashing and cornerstones (but of course they actually work, because Fassett is nothing if not a colour genius).

And now, VOILA! A quilt top! I learned a lot (but am so eager to get back to making my own choices, with this new experience under my belt). Quilting to come..

 Well...hello!

It has been a while, old blog. And non-monetized blogs are no longer a "thing," are they? Nevertheless, here I am, in need of a place to document what I make. 

If anyone stumbles across my posts, please feel free to comment! But I suspect that these posts will be primarily for me and a few of my closest friends.

So here we go (again)!

MITTENS ('tis the season)

My absolute favourite book of mitten patterns has remained one that is relatively hard to get ahold of (so I'd better not lose it, ever): Solveig Larsson's Knitted Mittens. Here it is, side-by-side with my sweet pup Heidi (a longhaired miniature dachshund, best doggie pal EVER, almost a year old now. Extra pic of Heidi, for good measure).

Isn't she the BEST? Well, yes. She is!

Anyway...

Among other small knitting projects I have been doing in recent months (including lots of sweaters for Heidi and her cousin, who lives around the corner and a hat for myself), I just finished a pair of Larsson's "Eva's Mittens" from stash yarn (mostly Jamieson & Smith) and gifted them yesterday.

CRAFTING (re-jigged)

My sewing life came to an abrupt halt a few months into the global pandemic, when my cat Lulu chewed through the cord to my Juki's foot pedal -- and then proceeded to locate and swallow 5 hairbands which required life-saving emergency surgery. 

Phew. That was a stressful sentence to type, because it was a stressful period of time to live through. 

We live in a small house and I have to craft in shared, common spaces. I thought that perhaps my free-wheeling, multiple projects-at-at-time crafting life had come to an end. But as the months wore on, I felt terrible without these forms of creative expression that are potentially dangerous to two cats with compulsive pica (yes, Coffee Cat has it too -- but his compulsions are for tape and plastic).

I restarted my knitting life with small projects like mittens and hats (easy to stash works-in-progress in zippered bags, no more open baskets for me). 

And I recently managed to reboot my sewing life with -- TA DAHHHHHH! -- my new and very beloved Elna Lotus 2.

Excuse the mess -- but sewing on our kitchen island, on a machine that can be closed safely and fully in a few seconds, has been a LIFE SAVER! This machine was made for me and my obsessive-compulsive chewer cats. I am back, baby! I am now piecing on the Lotus and reserving the Juki 2010Q for the actual quilting.

CLEARING THE DECKS: finishing gift quilts

I have a thousand ideas about what I would like to sew...but first I am clearing the decks, wrapping up projects I had started for friends and family but abandoned when the pandemic and cat neuroses and puppy-raising made sewing impossible for a time.

I am DELIGHTED to report that I finished a quilt for my SIL and BIL, both of whom are now happily retired (as of December). They chose the fabrics when visiting (they live 1000 miles away)...ummmm....8 years ago. Oops. 

Anyway, here are some progress shots -- pieced on the Lotus and quilted on the Juki 2010Q -- and (drum roll) the finished quilt, mailed off yesterday.

You'll see that Coffee Cat kept an eye on me the whole time. Heidi often napped at my feet. It was delightful and no animals were harmed in the making of this quilt. Phew.

Block pattern by Kim Brackett.

After mailing this off, I managed to finish piecing another gift -- this one for neighbourhood friends who chose the pattern and colours. It is queen-sized, so basting on the kitchen island (my VERY NEW approach, developed for cat safety) may be a challenge. We will see.

More soon :) 

xx

J

crafting freedom

There are times I have found myself bemoaning the fact that I lead a double life, that I can't make my crafty/creative interests part of my work life. My PhD is in Folklore, and material culture was one of my areas of study back when I was in grad school...so it could be otherwise...could have been otherwise...but I have found my academic home in an English department, where other parts of my training are relevant, and my own research keeps me focused on print and performance, rather than fabric, thread, and yarn.

There's one exception, a project I worked up with an old friend, an Art Ed prof-turned-senior school department head at a prestigious girls' school.  

During a series of classroom visits with her grade 9 art students last Winter and Spring, I taught the girls to do English paper piecing, culminating in three themed quilts which I squared off, basted, quilted, and bound. 

There's so much to say about this experience; it will have to wait for another day, another post (or posts), or (most likely) an article.  This was the one period of time I have been able to blend my realities, to be both teacher-researcher and (in this case) a quilter.  It was deeply satisfying...but it also left me with little drive to quilt in my own spare time...at least temporarily.

Two of the quilts were hung in the school last week. I'm looking forward to reports about the girls' reactions. I tried to warn them about the major perspective shift that happens when a quilt comes together...it's that magic quilt alchemy, and they will be experiencing it for the first time. The thought makes me happy!

 

So no bemoaning today!  I feel lucky: lucky to have and to love my job.  And I'm lucky to have rich, rewarding, stimulating hobbies...that word sounds so trite, but maybe it's worth embracing. I loooooooove my hobbies!

And when I put the last stitch on the binding of the 3rd quilt a week ago, I suddenly felt...free!  Quilting time is now my own again. It is beautiful because it is not work, not evaluated, not required. 

With joy and a feeling of abandon, I whipped up a baby quilt for a woman I have never met, one of my husband's coworkers.

 

And a few days later I found myself raiding the stash again -- just like the good ol' days -- cutting up some treasured fabrics (Bloomsbury Gardens from Liberty Lifestyle), just as the inspiration hit and with no set goal in mind. (More on that project soon. I'm very excited about it!)

Pulling, combining, squinting, refining, slicing and stacking...it was lovely and reminded me of what I find so wonderful about this craft.  If only I could distill that feeling and make it into a happy pill...

...but wait: if you're reading this, you probably have the ingredients at hand!  Go take your happy medicine, for goodness sake!

xxx

 

back in the saddle

It's been a while, and I was starting to think that I might just let this blog gather dust...but armed with a nifty little toy (an iPad mini), I'm thinking I may be able to do some short and (hopefully) sweet posts in the months to come.

Last night I made a first pass at a sleeve for the iPad...it was a bit of a bust since I just made it up as I went and it turned out too small.  All of my brain energy is going elsewhere right now, so I really need patterns.

Second try was a success! I used the iPad mini clutch pattern from schoolhouse patterns' etsy shop...it was just the ticket, and includes a little front pocket perfect for my VGA adapter, or any accessory you want to keep close at hand.  http://schoolhousepatterns.wordpress.com/. Highly recommended! As you can see, some of my current teaching -- Victorian women's ghost stories -- is impacting my fabric choices.

Finally, I'm taking the plunge and "claiming" my blog on bloglovin'...an action that still seems bizarre to me, but here it goes...


Wontchna please

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Project Cardigan, chapter 2...and a whole lotta knitting, in general

I love sewing but my first crafty love -- knitting -- has been consuming me lately, being so perfectly suited to my life, my over-full mind, my desire to get away from anything with a plug (and away from the dining room table, which doubles as office and sewing space).

Knitting has been perfect and this summer it's a fair bet that whenever my hands are freed from the keyboard or pen/cil, they are holding knitting needles.

I realized last night that in all the years I've been knitting I have never made myself the kind of sweater I wanted to wear all the time...until this summer.  I don't know what's going on, but my knitting stars seem to be aligned this year.  My 3rd FO in Project Cardigan is my Favourite Sweater Ever (or at least to-date!).

This is my Blackberry cardigan, made from Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool and using Baby Cocktails pattern "Bailey's Irish Cream."

progress shot -- blocking

I visited my dear friend Freda recently -- please do follow the link to her blog...she's one of the most interesting, smart, and complex women you could hope to meet! -- and my blackberry cardigan was perfect for the cool Chicago spring weather.

My one modification of any significance was the addition of horizontal (short row) bust darts -- my first, and they were really successful.

in case the giant pink arrow blocked your view, here it is again

It might seem odd to add short rows (I threw in about 5 pairs of short rows) to a lace pattern, but they really did blend in.  All that was eliminated in the patterning at the side seam was one cable crossover...I don't think I'd ever notice this if I wasn't looking for it, but the fronts of the cardigan hang SO much better than usual for me.









The next cardigan off the needles wasn't quite as successful...in fact, I haven't brought myself to do those last little bits of neatening and button sewing because I am ambivalent.

This short-sleeved cardi is made from a bamboo yarn and -- don't let it be said I wasn't forewarned (the nice guy at the cash register at Romni Wools tried to tell me!) -- it "grew," unpredictably.  In fact, this fits more like my sweaters of yore, too wide aound the shoulders and underarms. Ick.

But it might be okay....  It definitely looks best layered over a long-sleeved dress like the one I happened to be wearing when I was knitting the neckband.

The jury's still out, and I have put this aside for the time being.












Finally, there have been some little things flying off the needles, since I find that it's healthiest for me to have a couple of things going at once.

There have been two lacey things made from HandMaiden Sea Silk (one of my all-time favourite yarns), drawing on patterns in my beloved Japanese stitch dictionary.

I could rattle on, but I think that's PLENTY on knitting discussed in a single post!

























By the way, you can find my work on instagram (I'm "enchantedbobbin") and ravelry (my account was set up years ago and then long neglected...it's all pre-enchanted bobbin: there I'm "mother bunch"). So if you're interested in the little progress shots that fill out the time between posts, please look for me there!

Wishing you many happy stitches,

xx

Loulouthi hexies for Bloggers Quilt Festival S'13

It's been a couple of cycles since I entered a quilt in Amy's Bloggers' Quilt Festival 

and I'm delighted to be getting out of the quilt closet once again.

WELCOME!  

I can hardly wait to browse through all the lovelies in the various categories and really hope that you enjoy the little quilt I have to share with you, which I'm entering in Amy's new "throw quilt" category.

Loulouthi Hexies

This is one of those projects that took a loooooooong time from start to finish, which makes it especially meaningful.

47" x 54"
hand pieced (English paper piecing)
free motion quilted on my domestic sewing machine

I began this project as part of the Summer 2011 "hexalong" organized by Lynne of Lily's Quilts.  I began by experimenting with a variety of hexagon shapes and a small set of Anna Maria Horner's then-new Loulouthi line of fabrics, which I was combining with solids from my stash. One of the delights and challenges of Loulouthi is that it is far, far, far from a "matchy-matchy" kind of line.  The line has its own internal scrappiness, with a very wide range of colours and print scale. 

My collection of hexies started to grow....





    ....and grow and grow...

until the walls hung with vines...

Oops...until it started to feel a little out of control.

Sooooooo....

I reined it in, establishing Kona lagoon and aqua as the only two solids to be used throughout, and also establishing a configuration of 60 degree stars and tumbling blocks as the basic "building block" of my layout.



Once I had this basic unit figured out, it became much easier to move forward and to do some heaxagon experimentation within the basic pattern (as you can see in some of the pieced hexagons that run along the edges of the finished quilt!).



EPP is slow, no doubt about it, but I'd say that most of the time it took to make this quilt top was spent thinking...trying to figure out how to balance the wildness of Loulouthi (and the scrappiness I was really enjoying) with my need for harmony in the layout.


Finally, more than a year later, I had a throw size top I felt happy with!

And now, with the help of my sweet daughter Chloe who was willing to hold the quilt for a few minutes before school today, I have photos of the finished quilt, 

which is backed with AMH's "Summer Totem" 

and free-motion quilted on my domestic machine in a very relaxed loopy pattern.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Enjoy the quilt festival!

camp memories

Hellooooooo! Happy spring (she writes, optimistically, as we in Toronto exit from a spell of chilly weather).

I have been meaning to post something about the absolutely wonderful, exhausting, memorable time I had at Brenda's Camp Stitchalot...but somehow the days and now the week/s have slipped by, and others -- like Rossie, Katy (here AND here), and April -- have done a great job capturing its spirit.

The fact that I have next to no photo documentation of the weekend has been one hindrance to blogging about the experience.  But the fact that I neglected my e-mail, instagram, flickr, and camera are actually really good signs: I was there, I was having fun, and for at least a little while I wasn't at all concerned about the world beyond. And fortunately for me, my fellow campers (and most especially my dear friend Melinda) did document and now there's a great pool of flickr photos to serve as our collective scrapbook.

The opportunity to focus on sewing, and I mean really focus (as in sew-every-waking-moment-focus) was amazing in itself. For a few days weekend-before-last, I forgot about my research, my writing, my deadlines, my admin responsibilities. I wasn't thinking about what to make for dinner. It was a great treat!

Most memorably, I had the chance to spend time with a group of women doing the same thing, and doing it with humour and enthusiasm. The talent and generosity of both our "counsellors" -- Brenda, Rossie, Katy, Rae, Melody, and Rashida -- and fellow "campers" is really stunning. It was just what I needed and I wish we could do it all over again, monthly!

I admit that my camp spirit waned on Sunday morning as my thoughts turned to the drive home and the very serious work in front on me...I think I even uttered the sacrilege, "It's ONLY fabric!" during a spontaneous scrap swap...what was I thinking?

I repent.

And I hope to go back to camp next spring!