I’ve been reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. It’s a great book! In it she talks about “scratching” which basically means, research and digging in. Although, I’ve come to think of it as literally scratching. Once I’m given a challenge, like this project, my brain gets itchy. My thoughts itch and won’t be satisfied until they are scratched (until I can come up with solutions to the task at hand). Here’s how it went on this project:

When I looked at this brief, my brain instantly scratched Chanel. I’ve always adored Chanel. My mom wore Chanel No.5 when I was a kid. If I ever catch the scent it teleports me back into her arms. So there was that… Then I thought of grosgrain black ribbon and blush pink. One of the most feminine colour combinations in my humble opinion. I began to draw bows and ribbons.

When I saw my black line ribbons on pink stationery it was so boooooooooring. I began to itch again…what did I need? More motifs, more colours? Yes but I also needed more info to scratch. I remember seeing an Elizabeth Olwen Silkshare class about creating fabric collections. It was brilliant. It really helped to fill in the gaps. I also checked out Creative Bug with Denyse Schmit, Heather Ross and Lizzy House. Again brilliant.

I began to put more thought into the feel of this collection. I wanted it to feel feminine but not foofy (technical term), strong but not loud. Fresh, uncluttered… understated was a word that kept coming up.  Although, it was kind of hard thinking in terms of words. Which is why I turned to collecting images on Pinterest. That’s where I found these sometimes funny, always unyielding and insightful Coco Chanel quotes. I researched her too. Love or hate her, she was a bit ahead of her time, I think, in so many ways and not only in fashion.

I knew right away I wanted these quotes inside the notebook, journal and diary. I love when there is more to a book than meets the eye. The text for the quotes, I wanted in white so they were quiet. Next the background colours started to come. My bows were still in black…. It didn’t work. It was hard but even though it was something I wanted in the beginning, I decided to loose the black ribbon and go all white, like the text. I’m so glad I did.

Then came the envelopes. I met a friend for coffee one afternoon. I had a huge grin on my face when I saw her. The first thing that came out of my mouth was, ” I MADE AN ENVELOPE!” She looked puzzled but saw how happy I was and joined me in my celebration!

The very last itch was, what to call the collection. It’s one of the itchiest problems but also one of the most satisfying. I’m not sure how I didn’t see it from the beginning. It was there all along, waiting patiently and quietly… Understated.

Wow! Time has just been swimming by (see, what I did there, wink-wink) I realized the other day. There is so much work that I’ve never shown you. Time to correct that. This piece “Just Swimmingly” (drawn in March of 2012) was the first drawing I did in my Fabric Stash Drawing Project. Just like the pieces that were to follow, it was drawn on a wood canvas with coloured pencils (a fancy way of saying pencil crayons). This piece is 14″ high and 11″ wide, 1″ deep, to give you some scale.

Berene was kind enough to indulge me on raiding her (impressive) fabric stash to draw. In hindsight it was a huge leap of faith on her part, seeing that we hardly knew each other. True, we had just finished a inter-guild swap but still… Funny, I remember when I was given her name for the swap, I think I had blurted out, “Hey! I know her!” I had seen her work online and was impressed.

Eventually we met (actually we ended up doing a few other swaps together, such a treat), however in the beginning,  it was so nice when I realized she was as awesome as her work.

Photo credit goes to the fabulous Reaenne Schachter

In celebration of Krista’s book coming out in a few days! I’d like to share this interview with you. First let me set it up…

I first heard Krista talk at a Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild meeting in 2011. She gave an impromptu chat about do’s and don’ts in swaps. It was pretty pertinent information at the time, since I had just signed up for my first online quilting bee. I quickly realized Krista really knew her stuff and that she’s one smart cookie! It doesn’t take long to figure that out from reading her blog “PoppyPrint” As it happens at that same meeting I had shown a drawing of my own stash at show and tell. Krista was very keen about the drawing. In the spring of 2012 I started my Drawing project with Berene Campbell’s stash, who happens to be one of Krista’s BFF’s. After I finished Berene’s drawings I remembered Krista’s enthusiasm and asked her next. After seeing Krista skip wildly to the front to collect her door prize I figured she’d probably say yes to my adventurous invite. Which she did!

Krista has just released a new book called “Make It, Take It: 16 Cute and Clever Project to Sew with Friends” (due out February 10 of 2015!). We’re all just thrilled for Krista and can’t wait to get our hands on it! However, luckily for me Krista took time out of her busy schedule to answer these questions while she was in the midst of editing her book this past summer. She’s pretty awesome that way. 

1. You moved your stash since I last drew it. Where is it now? Did you do anything different when you set it up this last time? My daughter and I switched rooms, so now she sleeps with the spiders in the basement and I get a lovely view of Vancouver to Metrotown while I sew. I completely culled all of my out-of-date, out-of-my-style fabric and chopped it up into 2 1/2″ squares with an Accuquilt Go cutter over the Christmas holidays last year. I’ve already made 2 “scrap vomit” quilts out of the squares and I think I could make 3 more! I rolled all my yardage onto acid-free boards and arranged my stash in colour order on shelves. Everything is so much easier to see, find and use now.

2. I noticed you’re a big fan of wrapping your stash around comic book boards. How and when did that come about? See above! I noticed several bloggers I read were doing this and having worked at an LQS, I already had an affinity for vertically-displayed fabric. Now, instead of looking at a disaster of crooked piles, I have a pretty display. My non-quilting friends routinely react in shock at the sheer magnitude of my stash. Result!

3.What are your top three go to online or brick and mortar stores to buy fabric from? Do you have a preference to online or in person shopping? And is there a reason behind your choice, for example I enjoy buying online but I still love and prefer to feel the fabric before I buy it. I freely admit to buying most of my yardage from U.S. online shops as the selection is always much better than what is available locally (plus, I am fairly in tune with upcoming lines and they are typically available sooner in the U.S.). I started doing this when our dollar was at par, however now that it has dropped again, my buying is much more selective and I’m trying to use what I’ve got first. I shop at Sew-Sisters, Mad About Patchwork (both Canadian Stores), Marmalade Fabric and Fabric.com. Locally, I look to Spool of Thread for modern prints and Kona solids.

4. Do you have a method to your madness, do you buy per project, when you find a good price or just when you see something you like? Price has a lot to do with it – I’m definitely a sale shopper. I am trying to avoid hype-buying (hello, Cotton & Steel?) because when I look at my stash I do see quite a bit of ‘trendy’ fabric that remains untouched. I have a large enough stash now that I don’t need to buy to fulfill most of the projects I have in mind.

5. If you were on a deserted Island and all your fabric was floating off into the water, what three pieces couldn’t you live without? Keeping in mind, these are shark infested waters and some of those pieces may have floated off into the distance. Is there a story to these three pieces or are they simply your favourites? I love my Liberty tana lawns and Echino linen blends the most. I’d fend off sharks for them, I swear.

Wildwood is inspired by long walks through the forest, searching the forest floor for rare flowers and interesting leaves and forms and revelling in how timeless it feels. One of the themes that inspires me throughout my work is that of the fairytale — the fields and forests of a British landscape, the places that wild-at-heart maidens run away to when they’re going to be married off to someone they don’t love, the sound of fallen leaves crunching as a horse gallops through. A ‘wild at heart’ spirit. A sense of romance. The wild forest. ‘Wildwood’ speaks  to these foresty areas and their uncultivated nature ~Elizabeth Olwen

Above was the description we received when we took on this Warp & Weft Challenge. British? Romance? Fairy tales? Perfect! I love anything British, especially anything from the BBC, hence recently watching “Call the Midwife“. The more I looked at Elizabeth Olwen’s Wildwood fabric I felt like it came from the same period as the show. The WW2 era I think we all have romanticize about at one time or another. In the show I loved seeing them handwriting letters, licking stamps and sending them off hopefully to arrive in time. You might already know but I have a thing for envelopes and stationary. When working on this project I cracked open my record player, broke out my Grandfather’s albums from the post WW2 era and scattered my vintage button collection about.

I thought about the story of Little Red Riding Hood – which I think the Wildwood in Crimson just screams. PS. The blue fabric is called Deco Petal Navy. I thought about Little Red Riding Hood travelling to visit her grandmother. Which led me to thinking about when I was a kid visiting my grandparents. Both sets lived about an hour from us. We’d ritually fill up at the gas station, dad would buy us each a bag of Old Dutch potato chips and a Pepsi. It was very comforting. Maybe not the healthiest but to this day I just love eating in cars, a habit I’ve had a difficult time breaking. I’ve always loved a good road trip (the right soundtrack is key) and I’ve always brought a project with me to work on, whether we’re driving or we’re flying.

So, for this challenge I wanted to make something that would be the ultimate travel sewing kit. Something to keep me organized, something to hold on my lap and something that’s better than throwing everything into a large pouch, which usually results in getting all my threads tangled, my scissors lost in my seat and having to reach around on the floor (ew!) looking for buttons I’ve dropped.

This is what I’ve come up with. I call it, “ To Grandmother’s House We Go!”

Inspired from some vintage buttons my friend Trudy gave me for my birthday last year, I attached two buttons with elastic to clasp the sewing kit together. That way the kit has plenty of room to grow!

The top flap opens and doubles for a thread catcher.

I always find I never have anywhere to put my teeny bits of thread. I either have to put them in to my pouch, then they mix with all my other supplies or I have to… shhh, don’t tell anyone, drop them on the floor.

The bottom flap I’ve sewn in some of my vintage buttons to hold my thread.

It’ll require some pre-planning and pre-loading of the thread but I think well worth it. I’ve developed a big pet peeve of thread unravelling in my project bags. This will keep everything nice and neat!

The flap on the right holds scissors and a seam ripper (perhaps a point turner depending on the project.)

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve lost my scissors in my seat while travelling.  So annoying! This little button strap is to prevent that from ever happening again!

And the last flap is a needle book.

A needle book with  three layers of felt.

The travel kit includes two pockets (three if you include the thread catcher) and one zippy pouch.

The Essex linen holds most fabric-y things in place but I thought I might need pouch with a zipper, for those slippery things like buttons or do-dads. (I love the word do-dads!)

… and really, I just wanted an excuse to make a 3 dimensional cassette tape zippy pouch.

I worked in the salvage on the cassette tape. On one side I used Elizabeth Olwen’s signature. On the other side I pieced it to say, “Wildwood”, ” For Cloud 9″. I can’t believe how well it worked out!

And of course, I had to do the bottom true to form.

TA DA! My Warp & Weft Challenge with Elizabeth Olwen’s fabric for Cloud 9!

Be sure to stop by the other blogs from the Sewing Society. Carla’s clutches and Cynthia’s table runner are just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve seen a sneak preview of a few of  the other projects. You’re gonna love them! I know I do. Thanks so much for popping by!

Blog hop schedule:
September 26- Carla from “My 1/2 Dozen Daily”
September 27-Cynthia from “Cynthiaf”
September 28- Me
September 29-Cathy from “Blueberry Patch”
September 30-Esmari from “Warp and Weft”
October 1- Shannon from “The Finished Garment”
October 2-Hedi from “Elegance & Elephants”
October 3- Sherri from “Thread Riding Hood”

It’s August 1st, which means it’s Warp & Weft Calendar Day!

I made this downloadable calendar especially for you!

Let me start by stating, “I love TRIANGLES!” It’s this month’s theme for the calendar and in real life! Our guild is bringing in Barb Mortell (back by popular demand) to do a couple of workshops with us.

What are the workshops about?

Funny you should ask.

Triangles!

Last week I mentioned, I took a Deynse Schmidt workshop in Portland two years ago. In the workshop we de-constructed triangles.  I never did make the blocks into a quilt. I’m glad I waited though. Now I have a plan that I’m really excited about and I can’t wait to play with it in Barb’s workshops.

Our guild also has our Warp & Weft’s Challenge due this month. I snuck some of the fabric in this month’s calendar. Shh, don’t tell anyone, wink wink!

Oh and P.S., did you know Warp & Weft now has an $8 (within Canada) flat shipping fee! And it’s FREE if you spend over $100! How’s that for snazzy? I must add, Esmari sends the prettiest packages too! She’s the best!

This little zippy pouch (8 1/2″ x 6″) is going to the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild. It’s chalked full of goodies : zippers, bakers twine, fabric, fancy scissors, a note pad, some pencils and some pens. Oh ya, and a few of my cards. I hope my swap partner likes it!

UPDATE: And she did, Margo left me a very sweet message on Facebook during my Four day giveaway last week. I’m so glad it went to a good home. These things are like giving away kittens for me!

Why a cassette you ask? Being a child of the 80’s, scratch that, growing up in the 80’s, who doesn’t have a sweet spot for them. I thought I had a paper piecing pattern for a cassette tucked away in my studio but nope, I couldn’t find it anywhere so, I made my own pattern. Which I find so fun to do!

This past September our guild had its 3rd anniversary and instead of bunting we did banners of charm packs sewn together. The white texty fabric was on that banner as well as the black I used by the zipper.

I love how the A1 lined up!

I don’t often do fabric swaps at our guild. I’m not sure why, I’m always pleased with what I end up with. Add it to the to do list!

UPDATE: Ta Da! My lovely orange ( I LOVE orange!) zippy pouch I received from Michele! Loaded full of goodies. I think I got spoiled, tee hee! Thank you , thank you!

However if mine doesn’t get chosen…

an awesome pillow it will be!

In the mean time, if you wouldn’t mind crossing your fingers for me.  I’d greatly appreciate it and I’ll keep you posted!

It’s revealing time!

FIN-a-LLY!

Oooft,  it was hard keeping this under wraps, especially after seeing all the innovative and beautiful things the rest of the Warp & Weft Sewing Society gang made for this Lotta Jansdotter Challenge. Here’s the run down: Monday April 21st, Esmari made a fresh and beautiful quilt. Tuesday, April 22nd, Sherri made a couple of adorable totes (she has a tutorial on how to make them too).  Carla was Wednesday, April 23rd and she made a tote/purse, zippy pouch and wallet (I recently ordered a writstlet from Carla, I can’t wait until it arrives!). Thursday April 24th was Shannon with her loveable tunic and baby quilt. For Friday, April 25th Cathy made a mouth watering straightlined quilted quilt. Cynthia was Saturday April 26th with yet another, hitting it out the park quilt (oh, and pouch)… that’s a hard act to follow. 

BUT remember Monday April 28th is winning time, which will be announced on Warp & Wefts blog. To enter this giveaway please follow the Rafflercotper instructions below and leave a comment on this post. You can obtain 7 entries in total by leaving a comment on each participating blogger’s Lotta Jansdoter Challenge post.  One lucky duck will receive 12 Lotta Jansdotter fat quarters from her latest collections, Mormor and Sylvia. So stay tuned! (See photo on the left – that’s what you’ll win!)

I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had with the Lotta Jansdotter 6 fat quarters Esmari sent from her Warp & Weft shop! (See above photo on the right)

Here’s what I made! The Clock (at the top of the post)  and  the Match Needle books have been some projects I’ve been dying to do for a while now and this was the perfect opportunity!  It was also the perfect opportunity to do something else I’ve always wanted to do, design a pattern. Which I did for the Match Needle Books! 

I’m so thrilled with how every thing turned out! I especially enjoyed, stacking and arranging the needle books…

… and oh yeah, putting needles and pins in them. Now, I have enough needle books for every future project I do!

Best of luck with winning the 12 Fat Quaters! Remember you can enter 7 times, once on each blog. I’ll have my fingers crossed for you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway