Happy 4th of July!
xoxo Deborahthecraft AKA ChicCosas
And Tie One On apron theme this time around is gingham! Can you stand it?
xoxo~Deborahthecraft AKA ChicCosas
Hello!
Long timey, no bloggie! Apologies to all but I have an exciting new venture to tell you about. Many of you know my wonderful boyfriend Vince. But you may not know that he is also crafty. Well, indeed he is!
He has been collecting vintage record albums for years and we have tons of them framed and up on the walls in our apartment. But the collection has grown out of control lately and something needed to be done. So he bought an industrial paper cutter, a binding machine and a case of recycled paper and starting making journals out of them. We shared a booth at a small local craft fair earlier this month and he blew me out of the water! Those journals were flying out of the booth! I helped him set up an etsy shop and Vinyl Frontier was born. Go on and check it out!
www.vinylfrontier.etsy.com
xoxo
Nicole
Xoxo-Deborahthecraft
Ummmm and how much do we love the user/member gallery where they share their projects?This gal re-made her favorit Anthropologie skirt!
XOXo~Deborahthecraft
xoxo~Deborahthecraft AKA CHICCOSAS
PS congrats to Berit and her new baby Brody! and our sister crafter Susen and baby Pearl,love and stitches!
Soon I envision whipping out all sorts of lovely pillows and other accents like placemats and dinner napkins (for all those proper dinner parties we are sure to have) with the gorgeous fabric parade I got from StitchCraft recently.
One collection ,('sky' color ways,sort of blue-grays)of the fabrics, is what our master bedroom will be entirely based on.
Serena and beautiful-a little girlie- but mostly spa like since we have a genormous bathroom that attaches to it where I spend at least two evenings a night soaking in the deep tub ,indulging in some form of beverage with too many calories!
I haven’t even unpacked my clothes yet,really just the essentials for the kitchen and and bathrooms and for my daughter,but you know what room is unpacked?The sewing room. I’ve recently discovered garage sales. People sell clothes with the tags still on them! In my size! A perfect guilt free way for me to embellish things(you know,incase I mess something up,then I can pawn it off at my own garage sale without thinking about how much money I spent on the base item)!
You know who is a master embellisher and revamp-eress of clothing? My dear friend Carrie!
XOXO~Deborah
I am in a total sewing frenzy right now. I totally did not budget my time well over the last week and now it's crunch time. Tons of bags and headbands and makeup bags are all cut and in various states of construction. But nothing in actually FINISHED. OK, back to the the grindstone. But first, I need an ice coffee. Mmmmmm.......sweet elixir of the gods!
xoxo
Nicole
I'm so excited, I wanted to start yesterday, but I'm too busy getting ready for Maker Faire (yay!), and I still need to wait for the organic sheeting I plan to use as the background fabric to arrive from eQuilter. I ordered it Sunday, before the quilt along even officially started. Ditto for choosing some of my fabrics:
There are those who would say that the best part of making quilts from one's scrap pile is using up all those scraps. And they are on to something.
But.
I am here to tell you that the best part of making quilts from MY scrap pile is working along, so completely absorbed in a project that I'm casting aside the leftover fabric without thinking about it. Measure, cut, sew repeat, until it's time to clean off the dining room table, and voila: a pile of prints I never thought to mix, mixing themselves. I never would have come up with this otherwise.
I think I'm getting a hang of this craft thing....
xoxo,
Jennicakes
This weekend is Bazaar Bizarre at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. I will be vending there with the Queen Puff Puff line and sure hope I’ll see you there! I'll be right next to fellow Seamster Jennicakes and the gals from the Sacramento Craft Mafia. And nearby will be 2 of my favorite crafters Cathy of California & Bossa Nova Baby. Yay!
I might be a little glassy eyed as I am frantically sewing my little heart out this week. I forsee lots of coffee in my immediate future! But I will have tons of new items to sell like a new bag that fits a laptop and market shoppers. And of course all of the best selling items like Francie bags and headbands will be available in new prints. Yay!
If you go:
Saturday May 3rd, 10am-6pm
Sunday May 4th, 10am - 5pm
Bazaar Bizarre & Maker Faire SF
San Mateo Fairgrounds
xoxo
Nicole
CRAFT Magazine (and blog) rocks dont you think?! I think they have the greatest contest sponsors!
There are some cute ones already!
It was like Christmas this morning when a large box arrived from Westminster Fabrics. It filled with luscious bolts of Amy Butler and oel Dewberry fabrics! Yay!
Now, I just need to photo them and get them listed on Etsy.
MY NEW LOG CABIN QUILT! TAKE THAT, MISTER LINCOLN!!!
Actually, I have no real reason to lord my piecing success over our 16th president. Unless it was my obsession with U.S. history that made me keep at this block for so long, and I cant be sure that it wasn't.
Notice that Hatbox would not even tread upon the top. She was just that impressed!
I backed it with chenille, because I just want it to be hugged for its entire lifetime. Sorry to be so sappy. I got these pins from the amazing Rox via the pin cushion swap. It's all made with love and stuff.
Seriously, did I mention that I made a log cabin quilt?
xoxo,
Jennicakes
This weekend, April 4-6 in San Francisco is the 2nd annual Craft Con (formerly known as Craft Congress). All events are taking place at the Brava Theater in the Mission District and this will truly be an awesome event.
The Craft Con website describes the events as follows:
Craft Con is a business development conference for the craft community. People who make things of all types, of all backgrounds, will come together to talk about the business side of crafting, how they market themselves, and the philosophies behind it all.
Everyone is going to be there! Faythe Levine will be showing a trailer for Handmade Nation. Many of the organizers behind shows such as Renegade Craft Fair, Crafty Bastards, Handmade Arcade will be attending as well folks from Craft Magazine, ReadyMade and more.
I am super excited to attend and to participate on the panel for the Teach Your Craft discussion. My panel will be on Saturday, the 5th from 12:05 to 12:35 in the Dance Theater.
They are still accepting applications so if you want to attend be sure to check out the website: http://craftcon.org/
I'll take lots of pictures!
xoxo
Nicole
Remember when I was done with log cabins?
I lied.
Well, I didn't exactly lie. I was pretty sincerely fed up with the whole concept, and completely at peace with my decision. But I've just had one of those weekends in which I couldn't wait to start a new quilting project. Only I didn't know what kind of project, except that I wanted it to be Extremely Spectacular and Nothing Like Anybody Has Ever Done Before.
You can imagine the difficulty I had finding inspiration photos.
So I was reduced to looking, once again, at pictures of log cabin quilts, trying to understand their hypnotic influence on me, when I found this.
And I thought, "Well, I could try a spiral. That seems safe."
And it was. Relatively.
The main design problem I've been having is that trying to develop a continuous-looking line doesn't allow for any big jumps in value. I had to eschew a lot of great prints because they were too bright, and that's never fun. Of course, had I simply used a white background, I probably could have gone completely nuts. Or not. There are no quiet little pastels in Rosa Pomar's quilt, after all.
So my creation, once again, seems destined for cushion-ville, but that's okay. I think if I tighten up the palette - not everything needs to be a scrap quilt, I guess - I can actually make this work for 16 blocks!
Thank you for the successful pincushion swap ladies!
Mira mira!
Made By Queen Puff Puff
Made By ChicCosas
Made By Heidi Kooey
Made By Jennicakes
Made By Applehangover
Last Tuesday, I played hooky from blogging. I couldn't help myself - I was traveling on the east coast, and an acquaintance had arranged for me to take a tour of the U.S. Capitol! WHEEE!
If you know me in person, you can imagine what a huge thrill this was for me! And for anyone who loves art as well as history and politics, the Capitol really has so much inspiration to offer, particularly in its floors and ceilings! But that's true of a lot of places. Check out my nifty new flickr mosaic for some examples:
From L to R:
1. This is a bit of floor at the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano, on my honeymoon. (And, no, I did not spend my entire honeymoon at the Vatican. This was just a day trip.) The Basilica is decorated with many, many different depictions of keys, to represent Jesus' having given Peter (San Pietro) the keys to heaven. Even though I am really not one for devotional crafting, I have always wanted to make a small quilt from this photo. For one thing, I always thought the keys to heaven were a beautiful idea, and, for another, there is so much art in Rome, and on such a grand scale, that, if I were to replicate anything I saw there, I'd want it to be something overlooked, like a section of the floor.
2. Once I had it in my head to make a quilt out of tiles, I started simple. And humble. This quilt is made up of a bunch of Amy Butler fabrics cut and pieced to replicate the floor pattern you'll find at my local Una Mas.
3. Some year I will get around to turning this into a quilt, as well. It's part of the floor on the second level the Small Senate Rotunda. There were lots more amazing tiles in areas of the buildings where photography is prohibited. Alas!
4. A gushfest over the Capitol would be incomplete without mention of the corridors painted by Constantino Brumidi! Brumidi was an Italian artist who so admired the United States that his dream was to come to Washington and decorate the Capitol. And he got to, for 25 years! It pays to have goals! His work is really breathtaking. I love this painting of the Committee of Five, and that it decorates the space above the meeting room of my very favorite Senate committee: The Committee on Foreign Relations.
5. & 6. A bit simpler are these tiles in the corridor connecting the House to the Senate, and I love how bold and graphic they look. I also liked the way my feet looked on them, and, if I decide to turn these photos into quilt blocks, I'll have to get all Las Meninas and appliqué my shoes into the picture!
xoxo,
Jennicakes
Hello! Seamster Nicole checking in here.
Oh my gosh! Look what arrived in the mail the other day. I recently participated in the pin cushion swap that Deb organized and Heidi from Pie Dough Productions sent me this absolutely adorable handbag pin cushion. I LOVE IT!!!!!!
The handle has wire in it so it is nice and sturdy and the whole thing stands up thanks to her ingenious use of buttons on the bottom. Thank you so much Heidi! And thank you Deb for organizing this! It was a lot of fun!
xoxo
Nicole
Pattern Review has some great ones.
Here is a list of the ones they have this year!
**Would you like to sell a few...or a few million of something you love to make...? I dream about it.Drempt really.
Its that time again for Fred Flare's Next Big Thing:
***Did you remember to send out your pincushion swap?Dont forget to send me a photo!
****Tonight:How to make the fastest greatest market tote ever!I promiss you love it!
XOXO~Deborahthecraft AKA chiccosas
you're creating kind of continuity in the piece?
No, what I'm saying is I don't want to end up with some damn ugly quilt.
-- How to Make an American Quilt
Did anyone catch the recent log cabin post at my other blog?
In which I made a log cabin block, and, in a fit of ambition, joined a log cabin challenge and swore I'd have a log cabin quilt, made up only of scraps, at the end of the year?
Well, I tried. I really did. I made the February block. And I didn't like it.
So I made another February block. Once again, I did not like it.
I don't know if I'm just short on the number of scraps required to make a log cabin block actually look like something other than a hot mess, or if I just don't have an eye for the log cabin. But, I am, as they say, so over it.
Hambone asked me what I thought I was doing wrong. I told him that everything would look fine during assembly, but once I had two or three blocks, the whole thing would look messy and disjointed.
"I think all log cabin quilts look that way," said Hambone.
"You do? Well then, to hell with log cabins!"
I value Hambone's opinion in that, when I ask his advice on a quilt, he tends to point out something I haven't thought of, and that leads me to make good decisions. Never mind that I usually do the opposite of what he suggests - it's the discussion that matters, right?
So he was pretty shocked that I swore off log cabins then and there.
"You're going to stop making a quilt because I don't like log cabins?"
"No," I said. "I'm going to stop because I don't like the quilt. I'm not going to start again because there's no point in making a quilt you're not going to like. I can just make something else."
By the way, I quite like what Jenna is working on at the moment. But I wouldn't choose to make that myself, which is a pretty good indication of why the log cabin-along was a bad idea from the start. Every now and again, we quilters have to admit to ourselves that there is not time in a lifespan to make everything we might want to. It's not a fun realization, but it is part of what makes a handmade item beautiful and special.
The original, cute block, by the way, was easy enough to make into a pillow, and is now on sale at Angelfish & Co. I may be a quitter, but I'm a resourceful quitter!
xoxo, Jennicakes
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