I made my first checkbook cover in March, using Rebecca Mae's checkbook tutorial. It was so easy that I made nine more to sell at our quilt guild's fundraiser. I kept one back, four sold, and the other four came back home. The props shown here are just for photography purposes at home, so had no influence on the sales.
Sold
Didn't sell
On some of them, I made the insides out of different fabric, thinking that would entice a sale. Didn't work on this one.
Sold
This has the same fabric inside as outside, but the repeat is so large that it looks different.
Didn't sell - again, a different fabric on the inside. I thought this would appeal to the turquoise fans, but didn't. That's OK, because I'm going to use it with my turquoise purse.
Sold
The inside
The one I kept (never made it to the sale).
Didn't sell
Sold
The other side
Didn't sell
I had to do some analysis to see if I could figure out why certain of these appealed to people, and why others didn't. Of the four that sold, all had a floral pattern with multiple colors. Of the four that didn't sell, three were geometric patterns, and one was the stylized floral of the orange/white cover you see above. And of those four that didn't sell, three of them only had two colors. That's OK, I like them all.
Last week, after I bought the book Quilts by Monday, I said I was going to make a quilt by this week. What I neglected to say was that first I was going to make a cover for my office chair. I needed a cover because I recently painted one of the walls orange, and the chair needed to step up and join the party. I thought it was going to be a quick project, but it took at least three times as long as it took to paint the wall.
Last week I also said I was going to use up as much of my fabric as possible. but I didn't have anything the right scale, so I had to go shopping. I bought one yard each of these home dec fabrics at Jo-Ann Fabrics. I didn't pay attention to the fabric content, nor to the laundering instructions which recommended dry cleaning. I knew I was going to wash them eventually, and I'd rather have a surprise before I made my project instead of afterwards.
This photograph shows the selvages after the fabric went through the washer and dryer. The green/cream is mostly cotton, and was full of wrinkles and ravels. It looked normal. The print on the right came out without a wrinkle and not much raveling. It must be nylon or something. And it's really slippery! I couldn't use it on the seat, even with cotton for backing. I tried it, and I slipped off the chair every time I swivelled.
I wanted the fabric to have some body, so I decided to quilt it. For the chair top, I made a large rectangle using the multi-color nylon print, backed with this yellow cotton I already owned. (So I did manage to work in some existing fabric after all.) I quilted from the front, free motioning around the motifs. You can see the pattern of quilting better on this yellow side.
This is the outside of the chair top. I folded the rectangle in half and slipped it over the chair back. The slipcover top was too wide, so I kept moving pins until I figured out where I wanted my seam allowance. Since I wanted this large pattern centered, I did this on both sides.
Here I'm auditioning the rest of the fabric. I used the green/cream in the upper right on the seat. For its backing, I used the two yellow fabrics on the bottom that were in my stash. To finish the raw edges, I thought a contrasting stripe would be pretty. I decided to use both the pink and the orange, also from the stash.
I wanted mostly pink, with just a spark of orange. To make it easier, I first sewed strips of orange to large strips of pink, then I crosscut the large pieced rectangle into 2" strips that would be my edging.
It took so long to free motion quilt the chair top, that for the seat I just did straight-line quilting.
With all the quilting, there wasn't much draping going on. To me, the chair looks like it's wearing a party dress - a brightly colored, sleeveless bodice and a twirly, swirly skirt. That's why I call it my Party Dress Office Chair.
Monday is the day we look at fun items I've collected from vintage or new sources.
I found this camper at a garden center this spring. Then I saw the chairs and table. Then I saw the fire pit. Then I put them all in my shopping cart.
The
body of the camper (without the trailer hitch) is 8" long and 6" tall.
The top of the door swings open and shut. The window is open and
there's a window box on the outside.
One of the things I like about this set is that it's all made of metal.
This is the name of the rest area they're camped at.
And this is the pickup truck that towed them there.
The irises are just finishing blooming, so I thought I better hurry and show my Iris Quilt.
I made this 20" x 25" wall hanging in June 2007. Similar to my Tulip Quilt, it's a pattern from Details by Diane. I made it back when I was using batiks. I kept collecting them and not using them, so I got rid of them all last month.
The construction method is fused raw-edge applique. All the pieces, even the cream background, are fused to a large piece of black background fabric, then the edges are sealed with scribbling stitching.. It was fun and easy. I sure like to fuse things.
I used a variety of greens for the leaves and stems to give a little dimension.
These irises smell just like grape jelly.
I like the way iris blossoms are spread out along the stalk. From that one bud point, others keep sprouting, like magic.
Then I have my iris vase to fall back on after the blooming season is over.
This is a story about a clock I made for our quilt guild's fundraising event, and how it made its way back home again.
I knew I wanted to make a clock, since I liked the two I made previously - one was a frisbee clock and the other was a painter's canvas clock.
The frisbee clock was harder, so I bought another painter's canvas and was all set to decoupage it. But I decided on a better method - instead of messy decoupage, just use a staple gun to attach the fabric.
I didn't like any of the fabric I had, so I bought this Tula Pink fabric named "Arrowheads" from her Acacia Collection with Free Spirit.
As to why I donated this clock, but still have it: It was part of a silent auction, and I was pretty happy that nobody was bidding on it (I really wanted to take it back home). But the next time I checked, I noticed a friend put a bid on it. Somewhat disappointed, but happy that the guild was going to get some money out of it, I told her about my conflicted feelings. Not to worry, she said. Her intention was to give it back to me, and that's what she did. That is a doubly generous friend.
I keep the clock next to my favorite lamp.
I'm slowly diverging myself of my older fabric, and even more slowly buying new. My goal is to have only new fabric that I use in a reasonable amount of time, while it's still fresh. It finally sunk in that it's kind of silly to buy something (anything) that's exciting, then take it home and put it on a shelf or in the refrigerator until it's not so wonderful any more.
That goes for books, too. This week starts a new plan. I bought Quilts by Monday over the weekend and I'm going to take advantage of this window of excitement by making one of its quilts by next Monday. Really I am.
The title was intriguing. I've looked at books like this before, but the quilts are usually boring and the reason they can be made quickly is because the blocks are ridiculously large. For someone who primarily likes to make wall hangings, that scale isn't logical.
Although Amazon lets you look inside this book, the best place to get a peek at Quilts by Monday is on the publisher's website. Click on "See More Images" under the cover photo and you'll see pictures of each of the twelve projects.
This is the fabric I'm going to use, along with a healthy dose of white. It's a lovely organic cotton from Birch Fabrics that I bought from The Sewcial Lounge nearly two years ago. See, that's what I mean about buying stuff and putting it on a shelf. The good part is I still love this fabric; the bad part is they no longer sell it, so if I wanted more, I'd be out of luck.
My goal this summer is to use up as much of my fabric as possible. Fall is a good time for new beginnings, and that's when I'll officially start and stick to my Use-It-While-It's-Still-Exciting Plan. Between Quilt Expo and the new location of The Sewcial Lounge, September is definitely going to be exciting.
With that in mind, I'll have a new quilt to show you next week.
