A travel company commissioned me to make 20 luggage tags for them, in green. The prep took nearly as long as sewing them! They are on their way to the US today.
I have others for sale in my Etsy store, for when you’re next ready to travel.
Everything prepped for making the luggage tags
20 finished luggage tags
Sadly, Bluprint (ex Craftsy) is closing down! I’ve written up a set of instructions for downloading your Bluprint ‘forever’ classes here: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2020/05/25/bluprint-getting-your-forever-classes/
Another art quilt I started in 2018 is now finished! I did Susan Carlson’s workshop in May 2018 and created Iggy Marley, a Jamaican iguana, from fabric scraps. His body was pretty much finished by the time I finished the workshop, but it took a long time to get the inspiration for how to do the background. Iggy sat on my design wall for ages, waiting for the inspiration to come.
I actually did the background some time back—painting direct onto the duck/canvas fabric. But then I was faced with the dilemma of ‘how to quilt it?’, so he sat on the design wall for many more months. Eventually I decided to do stitch a jumble of leaves in the green background and perhaps pebbles in the brown dirt. To give a lot of body and texture to the quilt, I had already put batting behind him and quilted the major parts of the body, the tree trunk, and around the leaves. To add even more body—and to stabilise the quilt—I added a large piece of foam stabiliser (such as ‘Soft and Stable’) and backing fabric, then quilted over it all again, making sure everything that needed to be stitched down, was. I was still in a dilemma regarding the quilting for the background.
Some weeks later, I bit the bullet and stitched a heap of small leaves in the green background. And I hated them! They were SO busy, and detracted from Iggy, who needed to be the star of the show. So I unpicked those 10,000-plus stitches… watching two movies and a 4-part TV series in the process (the dark but compelling ‘Lambs of God’). Fortunately, fabric is pretty forgiving, so with some shaking, gentle patting, some water and some steam, all the needle holes from that stitching eventually covered over. And there he sat on my design wall, again. Waiting for inspiration. Again.
Finally the inspiration came when I saw one of Pam Holland‘s art quilts on Facebook—she had done very narrow vertical stitching, and that inspired me to do the same on Iggy. But I didn’t want to use vertical stitching for the entire green background so I decided to stitch some more large leaves, echoing the size and shapes of the painted leaves. Then I stitched all the vertical lines, nice and close together. I decided to do the same for the foreground, this time stitching horizontal lines in a soft brown. Now he was done!
Except for how to finish him off—do I add a binding? (no, too traditional), or do I add a facing? I’d never done a faced quilt before, so I experimented first on the vintage doily quilt, then once I had the technique down, I experimented on a scrap piece of foam, with batting, backing and the same duck/canvas I used for the top, and stitched with similar quilting. I wanted to make sure that I could turn a facing over all that thickness and not mess it up. I certainly didn’t have a lot of extra space at the top and bottom of Iggy to work with, so messing it up wasn’t an option. It worked, so I got to and finished him off with facing.
He’s going into a local art exhibition next month (textile category), and then I might put him up for sale in my Etsy store. His finished dimensions are 85 x 57 cm (33.5 x 22.5 inches). My Mum REALLY likes him 🙂
Back in April 2018, I attended Empty Spools at Asilomar (Pacific Grove, California), and was part of the 5-day class run by Cindy Needham. One of the small pieces I worked on in that class was a vintage doily on a soft taupe background. I did most of the quilting on it in class, but it has sat in my sewing room, incomplete, since I returned. Well, I finally decided to finish it off. There was only a small amount of cross-hatch stitching to do on the background, plus trimming it square and facing it (I didn’t want a binding on it, so I used this excellent facing method from Robbi Joy Ecklow: https://weallsew.com/make-quilt-facing/). Then I hand stitched down the loose edges of the doily.
I’ve called it ‘Enter the peacock’. I might put it up for sale in my Etsy store after it’s been exhibited next month in a local art exhibition (textile category). Final dimensions are approximately 50 x 50 cm (about 19 inches square)
One issue I had—and it was a major one—was that I’d used a blue Clover chaco chalk wheelie thing to mark the layout of the quilt in preparation for squaring it up and facing it. Then I’d sprayed a lot of water and used a hot iron to press down those facings so they weren’t going to move. What I didn’t realise was that the blue chalk was now EMBEDDED in the taupe fabric and it just wouldn’t come out. Normally, quilting gets rid of it, but this piece was already quilted, and by me using water and then IRONING the piece before getting the chalk out, I’d ‘set’ the chalk.
I spent hours testing various methods to get it out. Some of the things I tried based on some Googling (from least intrusive to most intrusive, testing small parts of the chalk-marked fabric at a time):
What eventually worked (well, for 90% of it) was soaking the chalk lines with a pre-wash stain remover, then while it was still wet with that, making a think slurry/paste of Napisan and water and rubbing that into the marks as well. The quilt was really quite wet by now, but I left it for a good 30 minutes, then rinsed it out numerous times in cold water, giving the chalk areas a good rub with my knuckles to add the element of friction. Then I blocked it on the design wall and left it for a day to dry. There are still some residual blue marks, but they’re much harder to see now.
Click a photo to show it larger.
Last October (2019) I attended the Quilt Symposium in Auckland, and one of the classes I took was a 2-day whole cloth mosaic class with Chris Kenna, a NZ quilt artist. I got the top completed in the two days, but it’s taken until now to finish the quilt ready for exhibiting in a local art awards (textile category) and then perhaps putting it up for sale in my Etsy store. The final dimensions are approx 1 m x 1m, so it’s fairly big! I’ve called it ‘We need the bees’.
Some of the things I did to complete it:
Click on a photo to view it larger.
The call went out for people to make items for the wildlife carer groups who are trying desperately to save wildlife injured in the devastating bushfires that have claimed so much land and bush on the eastern side of Australia in the past few months. I heeded the call last weekend, as did many many others from within Australia and around the world. So many heeded the call, in fact, that the coordinating group of volunteers had to press ‘pause’ during the weekend to take stock of what they had received and still needed. One Facebook group went from 20,000 members to more than 200,000 members in a matter of days. Even if each person only made 5 items, that’s 1 MILLION items that have to be transported, cleared through Customs (if from outside Australia), checked for correct materials, sized, labelled, sorted, stored, and distributed. And that takes a LOT of storage space (which has to be paid for), and enormous time and energy from a small group of volunteers. I’ll talk about how best you can contribute—if you feel the need to do so—below.
Meantime, I was already well into finishing a 3-day sewing binge converting 15 m of flannelette and 10 to 15 m of fabric from my stash into nearly 20 day and night time joey pouches, and about 10 wildlife pouches in various sizes. I delivered these to my local hub yesterday, and won’t make any more unless there’s another call out for these types of goods.
Some examples of what I made, ably modelled by my teddy and other soft toys:
Daytime hanging pouch for a joey — the scooped side allows joey to poke out its head to observe the world around it
Small wildlife pouch, with 3 removable liners (spares for when others are being washed — frightened little animals poop… a lot)
Night-time hanging pouch — this time there’s no scoop. Joey needs to sleep undisturbed and not be tempted to look out into the world.
The items I made, ready to be bundled, labelled, and given to my local collection hub
YouTube video of how these pouches are used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNNt8ssoTvE
NOTE: These are my personal opinions and not any official stance, though I believe they reflect the position of the many groups and charities that have been inundated with donations.
My message to crafters outside Australia:
We love and appreciate the need you have to ‘do something’, but there are some not-so-small logistical and biosecurity issues that could mean all your efforts could end up being wasted. Sending unwashed items, items washed in perfumed detergent, items not made of natural fibres, items with pet hair on them could mean rejection of a whole shipment. We don’t have rabies in Australia nor many insects, lice, ticks, etc. that live in other parts of the world—and we don’t want to introduce any pest to the Australian environment that could severely damage our wildlife and agricultural industries (we haven’t got a good track record with introduced pests… just Google ‘cane toad’).
Although it doesn’t feel like you’re ‘doing something’, money is what’s needed for the ongoing support of human and animal communities that have been devastated by fire. As an example, food needs to be supplied to surviving animals in burnt areas, and this need will continue for many months—this food has to be purchased (if not this week because someone donated it for free, then next week and onwards), transported (often by helicopter because roads are impassable, or the terrain is impenetrable), and put in places of need. That takes MONEY, not craft donations from overseas. We have many many crafters in Australia who are meeting the immediate need for animal pouches etc.
So while we are honoured and humbled that you are all feeling so helpless about the plight of the animals etc. that can’t help themselves, money is a far better contribution you can make. Consider how much you would have spent purchasing the fabric/yarn (or how much you’ve already spent on fabric/yarn in your stash) and the cost of sending the goods to Australia (it’s not cheap!), and donate the monetary value of that instead, if you feel the need to ‘do something’. Or make pet beds, nests, or similar and donate them to your local wildlife carer groups—they also have ongoing needs to help them care for animals, but without any of the recent media coverage.
Money is portable and can be given where it’s most needed based on conditions on the ground, noting that these conditions are changing daily. (For people, some want clothing, some want accommodation and food expenses, some want agistment and feed for their horses, cattle etc.; for animals, some carers need pouches, others need food, water, and/or medical supplies, or industrial washing machines to clean the pouches, carry baskets and containers to allow animals to be transported or to sleep without being disturbed etc.).
Money will be spent in the local communities that are hurting the most, helping their economies get back off the ground. Money can buy food for animals, helping the communities and farmers who have produce that they may not be able to sell otherwise (e.g. fruit and vegetables with smoke taint).
Donated goods of any type have to be stored (requiring massive storage space requirements), and have to be appropriate to needs (e.g. no perishables, ‘as new’ not cast-offs/discards/unwanted clothing or furniture), and then have to be sorted and allocated (a LOT of people and coordination is needed to make that happen) (see here: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/daniel-andrews-tells-people-to-stop-donating-food-and-clothes-for-bushfire-crisis). Consider the situation where someone’s house has burnt to the ground in your neighbourhood—someone says the family needs toys, so hundreds of (used, discarded) toys are donated. But the family is living in a single hotel room with no storage for toys, and don’t have a home where they can store the toys. At that point, toys, especially in large quantities, are next to useless for that family, when they are trying to survive by paying for the hotel room (remember, the parents may have lost their jobs because their place of work has burnt down too or because they can’t turn up to work while they’re trying to deal with this crisis), for food for their family, for clothing to replace what they’e lost, etc. Hundreds of toys are the last thing they need.
If you’re outside Australia, especially if you’re in the US, your dollar will likely buy far more than you expect. Currently (14 Jan 2020), US$100 will buy $144 worth of goods in Australian dollars, so you’re getting a good ‘bang for your buck’.
Here are some lists of registered charities that are accepting donations:
Links last checked 14 Jan 2020
Each year I go on a couple of private quilting retreats with friends—private in that they are closed groups and by invitation only. One of them is held in January, one of the hottest months in Australia, but where we go has a huge studio room with super bright light and wonderful air conditioning to work in. This year I decided to make some things out of the three jelly rolls of fabric I bought in Bali last September.
Notes to my future self:
First up was a rectangular rug (I made an oval one last January, so this time I wanted to change it up), made with gorgeous aqua toned batiks.
The Jelly Roll Sasher helps keep the fold in place
The first few strips – for a rectangular rug, you stitch each strip separately. You don’t join the ends of each strip to the next one
Strips waiting to be matched with batting strips and then stitched
The jelly roll ‘dreadlocks’. Eventually you’ll have 40 to 42 individually sewn strips.
More strips. I chose to stitch at the edge of the join, not in the middle of each strip as some videos and instructions tell you to do. I like the slight puffiness this gives.
Auditioning the colour array. At this stage I was thinking of putting the darker strips on the outside of the rug.
The final rug. I decided to put the darker strips closer to the centre, and kept aside a couple of unsewn strips for the binding at the top and bottom edges of the rug.
Next, I decided to make a bag. That changed when, on the advice of one of the other ladies, I left off the handles and made a large container, into which I think I’ll put the trash can in my sewing room. I love the oranges and purples and pinks and how those colours blend so nicely together. And turning down the top a couple of rows adds extra stability. Stitching through the layers at the bottom was hard, though, and really taxed my machine.
I used a pre-cut/pre-wound roll of jelly roll batting for this second piece.
The finished container with the top turned over for stability.
The finished container (top not turned over). Size is about 16 inches wide by a similar amount high and about 6 inches across the bottom. I still have to add a covered piece of stiffening into the base to help stabilise it.
Finally, I made a similar one to the orange one, but this time in blacks, whites, and greys. However, I forgot to leave off about 8 rows so it’s way taller than I expected or liked. I’ve since unpicked those rows and removed them, but have yet to finish this container (my next blog post will explain why…).
The range of colours as per how the roll was put together.
Jelly roll ‘dreadlocks’ in the colour order that the fabric came off the jelly roll. This was my original colour plan.
Next colour audition was gradation from black through the various shades of grey to white—an ombre effect.
I finally settled on black on the outside, grading to white in the centre.
The sewn piece, ready to be trimmed and made into a rug or a bag or a container, or whatever.
The container made from the stitched jelly roll piece. It’s way too high for a trash container or a bag, so I have to unpick about 8 rows from the top.
Looking down inside the container. I used a plain grey fabric to cover the open seams.
Here’s the latest batch of quilts I quilted for the West Australian Quilters Association’s Community Quilts program.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
I used a glow-in-the-dark thread for the cobwebs—hopefully the kid who gets this quilt gets a nice surprise!
I had to be careful when quilting this one as all those corner triangles are floating (i.e. not stitched down), so I avoided them by just stitching double straight vertical and horizontal lines.
Here’s the latest batch of quilts I quilted for the West Australian Quilters Association’s Community Quilts program; some were from them, others I made from my scrap stash.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
I attended the Quilt Symposium in Auckland, NZ a few weeks ago. I took two of Claire Smith’s classes—one on monoprinting and one on making a quilt-as-you-go bag. Today I combined them! I took the green/yellow tones fabrics I made in the monoprinting class, added some other greens, aquas, yellows and oranges from my scrap stash and made this bag. It took about 4 hours, as I had to remember what to do—Claire’s instructions were sparse… And a couple of weeks later I made another one, also using the monoprint fabric I’d made, this time in the pink/blue/purple colourway.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 