Day #21 and Photos

Finally some pictures. Most of these were taken as progress photos (i.e., nothing is completely finished) that I sent to Dave as I was working, since I was with the pups and he was home with Gray Kitty.

This, for example, is a photo of the layout of a pillow I made for Dave out of my "floor sweeping" blocks and some recycled denim from thrifted jeans:

Dave had actually laid these out and I photographed them so that as I was sewing them together, I didn't lose the layout, since the blocks are easily flipped and turned around.

This is one of the blocks, closer up:

They are literally made from the bits that would normally get thrown away: Stuff too small to sew together, selvages, bits of seam trimmings, the tangled threads that come off in the washer when you wash new fabric, and so on.

This is my sewing area as I was working. You can see in the upper right one of the pillow toppers I made (the first one I quilted). The larger bits of fabric on the left were things I was cutting up as I went along. The smaller bits in the lower right hand corner were things that I thought I could put to use eventually (and usually did).

My sewing machine is Japanese made, a little workhorse from Janome that I bought a little over a year ago. I bought it because it was cheap and sturdy. It has no computerized bits; all the internal working parts are metal. It's a throwback for sure. It has a 25-year warranty even.

This is the five-houses quilt coming together. The blocks are not sewn together, I was just sending Dave a progress photo that incorporated the "hedgerows" between the houses (his idea that I stylized so that I could try strip piecing) and the "road" that I made from long strips of dark fabrics.

Eventually it came together, though I had to add to some blocks and cut away at some blocks.

This is a progress photo of the second pillow I made using "liberated" half log cabin squares and the green fabric I had. I had just sewn on the purple border and sent the photo to Dave to check it out.

Green and purple is one of my favorite color combinations, even though it is kindergarten-level color theory stuff.

These are the potholders I made. The first (and likely last) ever potholders.

They are made from scraps and a bit of calavera fabric (that rips off José Guadalupe Posada's work) from a fat quarter. They've got a double layer of batting and they're backed with the recycled thrifted denim. When I took this photo, I had yet to hand-stitch the opening I left when I turned them right-side out.

These are my Ojo de Dios blocks in progress. (I took this photo to send to Kelly to show her what I was working on when she texted to let us know that she and Kevin were bad-weather-related stranded in Chicago on their way home.)

The near block is kind of distorted because it was bent in half to lean it up against my sewing machine. On the right is the little plastic Talenti gelato container I use to collect the scraps that get sewn in the "floor sweeping" blocks in the first picture. (These particular blocks kick up a lot of colorful scraps because they're flip-and-sew, which means that they have to be trimmed to size.)

And that brings us full circle, doesn't it?

The day:

No sleep, of course.

We were expecting Kelly and Kevin home today, so we (mostly Dave) schlepped all my sewing stuff back to the casita. Then we cleaned up.

Dave went off to visit his mother while I stayed home and napped. When I got up, I had some lunch, took a shower, and got ready. (Today's lipstick was Colorganics Hemp Lip Tint in the shade Earth, a brownish-red with "glints of copper and rust.") We thought we might go to a movie in the afternoon, but Dave was delayed getting home, so instead we went fabric shopping again! (I have a problem.)

I bought another bag of fabric, more solid colors (brown, purple, orange, more yellow) and some patterns, including a volvox-looking print that inspired a whole new idea for a pond water creatures quilt with volvox and amoebas and other protista-y things.

We came home via the ramen place, fed the pups, threw my new fabric in the wash, and relaxed. In the evening, I pulled out my sewing machine (as you can see above, with the ojo blocks) and sewed until my shoulders started to ache, then I went to bed and looked at quilts on my computer until I was too tired to keep my eyes open.

Over dinner, Dave asked, "Have you started dreaming about quilts?" and I said, "No, because I'm not suppressing anything about them, so I don't need to dream about them." All my dreams about quilts are waking dreams.