History Oscar's Quilt 2005

My great nephew Oscar baby shower quilt. All bugs amphibians and creepy crawlers....

History 1995 ... Trash to treasure YKK

Back in the early 90's we were living in Matthews, North Carolina. I was working at the local "Piece Goods Shop" fabric store and volunteering at Crown Point Elementary School. At some point the fabric shop was revamping it's inventory and had decided to toss out this zipper rack. Never feeling right about tossing such useful items into the dumpster I took it home and with the help of my (now ex) husband removed the metal hanging rods and replaced them with dowels and washers. I made slings out of flag bunting to hold the books and turned the door around to disguise the YKK logo. My two daughters kindergarten teachers were happy with it and I like to think it is still in service. My daughters, one is pictured in the first photo, just graduated from high school so I am sure that it has since made friends with the land fill, but it was a fun experiment!

TTFN

OOh Wee, I'm done for this show!! I opted out of the bow ties (though I still think it's a good idea) and made small handbags for little ladies and a sampling of bibs. No big story here. I used what I had for materials hoped they turned out OK.

Every project seems to have a life of its own and I had a lot of fun today (with more stress thrown in.....)

Let's hope we have good weather tomorrow!!

"Do you like my hat?"

Here is a sampling of the fleece hats. It is tough making them 'your own'. The orange one is for an adult (what else would I do with this colored fleece than make a hunters cap?) The berets are toddler size, but I only have an adult head to model on (live or otherwise) so the bottom edge isn't looking the way it should. This last little plaid one has ears, and I am still working on getting my proportions right. Do you like it?

More to come....

cul de sac

This is the last set of bags completed today.

Two of the travel bags and one last "To Go" handbag.

Tomorrow should be an interesting change of pace as I start and finish the baby items and (gasp) some bow ties....maybe a jacket too....you never know how the spirits will move me.

michellini bags

Understanding that there is a need for travel/passport bags out there I made up these little beauties. ..a couple more will follow tomorrow. The funny thing is that phrases come into my head while I am working and when I was trying to think of a title for this entry I wanted to write something about passports or travel or adventure and all I could think of was The Owl and The Pussycat. Because these two bags came out so differently using the same pattern one is the owl and the other well, you get it....


I wanted to print the poem along side these photos, but really it is just too long. so here is the link instead if you are driven to read the entire piece.


http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/pussy.html

beige vs coffee

This is the only bag so far this season that has NO RED on it anywhere....I am not sure why that is...that this one has no red and all the others do; but here it is in all it's beige glory. I really like the swirls, they remind me of my younger sister...and cream going into a cup of coffee......

Clutch or standard?

The piles of fabric surrounding me today were more than I could stand. I had to photograph some of my favorites before they were cut and sent off to a life of their own.


The purple silk embroidered in a modern sort of geometric pattern has been keeping me company for years (literally) and I decided to finally let some of it go. It is now an evening bag with black piping. The rust color with leaf pattern is a new aquisition, purchased specifically for the Arts on the Common.
The mustard colored bags were made from some yardage I picked up at Winmill Fabrics in Chinatown with Addie. There will be another full size hand bag made of this as well. The fabric is quite beautiful and I would have been happy just keeping it in my stash for a while but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.........so it will be at the show and hopefully sell!

More to come...

....but keep the old

These are left overs from last year, but thought they should be in the mix.....they are each appx 9" across.

Black bird fly......

This bag was really difficult to photograph. The colors just aren't coming through the way I wanted. I think the closest to the actual color is the shot of the close up of the handle. It is a bit quirky, but I like it!

and the bags continue.....

These two bags are made using the same set of fabrics. The panels were created using the 'pagoda quilt' technique of curve piecing, then each was embellished separately.

The small purse was the first experimental design using beads and surface yarn. The second bag, uses the basic pattern of the previous black and white bag. The decorative stitching is all flat machine stitching and I used different piecing techniques for this bag as there is more structure to work with. This bag also has a zip closure.

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag!

Preparing for the Arts on the Common in Burlington later this month, I thought that a new bag should be added to the repertoire. This one is adapted from (yet another) Threads article. Remnants, remnants, remnants....not a bad outcome from the reject table at Fabric Place!

More to come.