Crackpot Quilters’ Blog

By Ann

Here it is:

And it is, well, reasonably accurate. (-:  I love it!! And Lou likes it too, which is pretty important.

I desperately need a Bedazzler.

This is how the whole saga began. My sewing group is doing a wardrobe challenge. Members who choose to participate will try to make a coordinated wardrobe–slacks, tops, jackets, skirts that can be mixed and matched.

So we took a fabric store road trip on Thursday. Now you’d think that if you went to a fabric store, you’d find fabric. Well, you will, but around here quilting fabric dominates the fabric stores. It’s not as easy as you’d think to find good fashion (garment) fabric.

Our main stop was at Fabrications in Richland. They have lovely designer fabric and super helpful clerks. At the store my friends encouraged me to think outside my comfort zone–to think about a print! To think beyond my usual fashion guru LLBean.

I purchased some very nice cotton/poly twill in olive brown. Ok, so cotton/poly twill is not very unusual, but this was a beautiful quality. I’ll make slacks from it.

But what to wear with it? My slacks tend to be black, navy and khaki. I wear blue, yellow, green and purple shirts. Mostly blue. And all plain colored. (No, it’s not a dress code. I’m just in a rut.)

Yellow looked great with the olive brown, but I was challenged to try a print. I purchased a rayon knit with a sort of abstract print in olive brown, navy, tan, white and mauve. Whoa! Nothing else like that in my closet! This fabric will be a t-shirt.

Since I might make a jacket as well, I decided to cruise through Kohl’s, Penney’s, and Yonker’s today to check out what might look good. Oops! Wrong season for jackets.

But there were lots of t-shirts in prints. And that brings us to the Beadazzler. The t-shirts were Beadazzled! Sparkle City! Major bling!

You’d think that a person who has as many beads as I do would have Beadazzled clothing. Nope. That I’d sparkle. Nope. That I’d wear bling. Nope.

LLBean is not Bedazzled and neither am I.

I need to get out of my wardrobe rut. I need to be Bedazzled. I desperately need a Beadazzler. Anyone have one I can borrow?

All these Delicas and bugles?

All these hanks of beads?

And these 20 tubes of 11/0s, 10/0s, 9/0s, and cubes?

That’s what she asked me. I didn’t ask her, but I did wonder what she was going to do with those two sets of 1950s salt and pepper shakers.

What we’re both doing is increasing our net worth.

This is the way I figure it: Say, for example, that the beads were priced at $100. But at the 70% off sale, I only paid $30. I’ve increased my net worth by $70.

Early this morning I had a one hundred dollar bill. Now I have $100 worth of beads and a fifty dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill.

Early this morning I had $100. Now I have $170 worth of extremely valuable stuff (money and beads). I’ve increased my net worth by $70.

Had I been thinking more clearly, I might have relieved Dr. Mathematics of all his cash before he had a chance to peek into the going-out-of-business bead store. One quick look, and he decamped to the public library across the street. With more cash, I might have increased my net worth even more.

If the phone is busy when you call, don’t worry. I’ll be on the phone with NPR for an interview on economic theory.

My sister’s birthday was this week. It was a big birthday with a zero. So I decided to make her a special card. I had a peculiar feeling that she would like this quilt block. And she did.

The mini block is foundation pieced and mounted in a tri-fold card with a square opening.

by Cathy

It’s spring break here (and it’s really spring break, with the weather we’ve been having) and I took a day off to do some stuff with current and possible future preschools.  In between, I made something!

It’s a rather small Jordy Bag, with a single button closure and the worst buttonhole known to humankind (but it’s still a functional buttonhole).  Here it is with its intended cargo:

It was really easy, setting aside the part where it took me three tries to get the handles attached correctly.  (One of those was completely my fault for not following the directions; the other could have been made clearer in the directions.)  It was also my first experience with interfacing, which didn’t adhere as securely as I might have hoped.  It was iron-on, non-sticky interfacing, and I’m thinking I may not have had my iron hot enough? I followed the directions to set it on the wool setting with steam, but maybe I should have done something differently?

Anyway, it was fun, and now I want to make another, larger one, possibly for me. 🙂

By Ann

As if I didn’t already have enough crack potty and non-crackpotty projects on my to-do list, I suddenly decided some time ago that it was time for a new glasses case. My old one was done in a counted cross stitch design of tulips and had become terminally scuzzy. Once I realized how bad it was, a new one seemed like an emergency. So here is what I came up with:

I did not do the needlepoint for the case. I do not even know who did. I bought it stitched but  unfinished so many years ago that I can’t remember where or when it was. For a long time, I thought about using it as a large patch pocket on the front of a denim jumper, but that never happened. I found it stashed away in the basement closet at about the time that I became aware of the scuzziness of the old glasses case, so it didn’t take much thought to decide that now was the time to finish it as originally intended. That was a bit of a challenge because (1) it’s hard to stitch through needlepoint canvas and (2) it’s very hard to turn it inside out and then right side out. But I prevailed, and I have been using it for probably 2 months now. I like it. And using it got me a new glasses case much faster than figuring out my own design to use on the unstitched glasses case kit that was in the L. L. Stash.

by Nancy

Sadly, progress on my Fruit Stripe Placemats has ground to a halt. Some of this is due to general busyness and allergy-related upper respiratory annoyances, but the main reason is that I’ve hit a problem while putting on the binding. I made bias binding and sewed it on to the front by machine, then blind-stitched it to the back by hand. When I had finished the first placemat, though, the edges curled under, and the placemat doesn’t lie flat. This is not good, especially when the placemats will be used by boys under the age of 10. I’m not quite sure why it’s happening. My one thought is that maybe I pulled the binding too tight as I was sewing it on by machine. Since I haven’t sewn the binding on to two of the placemats yet, I was thinking of trying to do it more loosely so that it has more give. If that improves things, then I’ll rip out the first two and try them again. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Here is a picture, though I’m not sure how well you can see the curling:

Oct. 12 UPDATE: I finished hand sewing the binding to the back of another placemat where I tried to sew the binding on more loosely, and it lies flat. Hooray!!!

by Nancy

Here’s a rather crackpotty gift bag I made for my nephew’s birthday present. The theme of the fabric is also the theme of the present inside. 🙂 The bag turned out bigger than I intended somehow, but I guess that’s better than it being too small. Now I just need to get it in the mail!