kittycafe

One For The Boy

My, my, my it's been one of those weeks.
I tried out a new job, had more than a few life stresses and a deadline, The Lad's 17th birthday, and I was determined to finish this quilt for him.

It was started oh, over a dozen years ago.
It began with an off-hand comment from a friend when our boys were just starting kindergarten. She was an avid sewer and we were discussing the wide difference between "girl" clothes and "boy" clothes. She mentioned that a friend of hers was saving her son's T-shirts and was planning to make a quilt with them.
Now I had never heard of "memory quilts". I had never made a quilt. I had taken a quilting course with my sister years before but that was as far as I got. But this comment had lodged itself in my mind and I started to put some of my boy's outgrown T-shirts in a bag and shoved it to the back of the closet. Eventually the bag was replaced by a larger one, eventually by a large garbage bag.
Every once in a while I would take the bag out and spread the shirts out on the bed, decide I did not have enough to begin and back into the bag they went.
I never actually "saw" these pieces as a quilt or even fully realised it in my mind; I just liked the idea of it.

Then suddenly the boy is not so small, 16 almost 17 in fact and the bag is bursting full.
But when you're 16 almost 17, there are stipulations.
No goofy baby motifs.
Nothing fancy.
No stripes.
Make that no patterned fabric at all.
In fact, just black.
Maybe white.
Dark blue if I was desperate.

I spend many hours just moving the pieces around the floor on my hands and knees trying to make the pieces make some sort of sense.
My felines also spent many happy sessions on the floor running through the pieces and sliding them around the floor. Just when I thought I had finally made it work.
But eventually I made them fit, cursing they were not all the same size but this was just not possible.

A few things I have learned while making this quilt:
Keeping the T-shirts pieces small is easier as the fabric stretches every which way. I did use a fusible facing on the back of each piece but they still moved, making the sewing challenging.

Use what you have. I didn't have designer T shirts to work with. Many were gifts or even hand me downs but I chose the ones that had meaning to him (and me! There were some he was too small to remember wearing), or were a favourite for a while. They're history, popsicle stains and all.

He especially liked the soft flannel backing fabric (off white, of course)

Do not pull out hair when confronted with comments like this one:
The younger sister, upon seeing me struggle to get the pieces to fit together says,
"Jeez Mom, couldn't you have just stuck the pieces onto a piece of black fabric and be done with it?"

There is one problem that I thought I would finally be done with.
The big garbage bag.
I've still got it and it's still pretty full. There is a lot of off-cut T-shirt left that I would feel guilty putting into the landfill.
So I think the next frontier is a large rag rug.
Now I have never made a rag rug and don't have any idea what I want it to look like but I have this vague idea ...
But for now, it gets shoved into the back of the closet.

To all Canadian readers have a great Thanksgiving weekend!
And happy birthday, my boy!

Second Things Next

I had to make one.
As I mentioned previously, one hot day this summer I pulled out the clothes line (it's retractable) to hang out some wash and couldn't find the clothes pegs. I looked and looked. They were stored in a plastic container in the corner of the kitchen window so I hid them during the house showings. Apparently too well.
I bought more and then the clothes peg bag was a given. I had to purchase fabric to make this. You'd think this would be easier than just recycling scraps with regards to colour and pattern choice - but no. I didn't make an obvious match. I hate things too matchy matchy. I didn't use a pattern so don't ask me.

Current thrift store finds. Somedays you just hit pay dirt.
Notice the Bazaar Novelty pattern booklet? Should be called Bizarre Novelties!
But let's check inside. (click for bigger)

Who could resist the dog sweaters and tea cozy collection? And the sock slippers!
We won't speak of the toilet roll covers and the poodle bottle covers. But I do remember when they were in "fashion"
I swear.
And now may I direct your attention to the vintage Kroy sock yarn (3 balls for $1.49) I'll wait while you bow your heads for a moment of respect.
And let's look in the Little Book of Sweaters.

There are some solid classics in there. I'm taken with the Grape Seed jacket and the fitted Simple Cardigan. The Barbie-like mannequin models are unnerving, I admit. I was feeling my inner kitsch today. I won't show the more freakish patterns. I may need them for arsenal at a later date.
Two two gardening books and Enid Blyton I found at a Book Barn Sale, yes in someone's barn (yes I love country living visiting) I didn't have my reading glasses with me or I would have bought much more. The bookseller thought I was too young to know the Enid Blyton series.
Made my day.
La lala.

Smelly Tea Party

Before I hit the delete button on the spam, I do a quick once over in case I missed a real email. You can't help noticing the crazy gobbelygook of the robot generated junk mail. I've been copying a few down for my own amusement and this week, "Smelly Tea Party" came up.

I couldn't resist this, partly because Littlest, who's on a baking kick, made Nigella Lawson's Cheesy Feet biscuits. So I got out some of the pieces from her little girl tea set that I made when she was about 5 years old and we made a proper party of it. It's hard to fit much tea in those cups but the constant refilling is all part of the tradition.

I've also made some child's mugs like these, with a surprise figure at the bottom, although Littlest complained that the best ones, like everything else, are in storage.
I had hoped to finish some of the tea cup paintings I am working on to go with but I seem to have misplaced my 36 hour day somewhere.
What's the best junk mail header you've ever received?

Meet The Boulangers

I can't quite remember how this Snow Family got it's name but they were stitched into being about 10 years ago.
They are made from painted canvas stuffed with er...stuffing and weighted down in their bottoms with popcorn (unpopped, of course). Their lacquered real twig arms have been "loved" to nearly amputee status by both children and cats. I really must do something about that. They have their place in our Christmas tradition and their own little nook to sit in, beside the advent calendar ( keeping an eye on any chocolate pilfering from the little calendar pockets.) They have to sit in the same place every year... you know how it goes with kids.
So crafters, if you're up for it, make your own Snow Family and be sure to come back and show me.
Or, sit back with a nice rum and eggnog and contemplate the project for after Christmas, when the kids are still on holiday and you are well... you know.

Show and Tell a T- Shirt

First off, and I think I've told this before - I don't wear T-shirts. They do nothing for me. I have one white T that I wear as an accessory, for a little contrast under a v-neck or peeking out of a cardigan.
I do have this collection however.

These are some of the Lad's T-shirts that I have been saving for a T-shirt quilt since he was in kindergarten. How exactly this is to become a quilt was just a sketchy idea at first but is becoming clearer and clearer to me.
Yesterday when I pulled these out from their box under the bed I got to thinking about the leftover scraps of material from these shirts. That's a lot of rags. More than I would ever need. "Rags" got me thinking about rag rugs and I took the scissors to a few of the backs and cut long strips. (This is more work than you think)
I found this site, which made me think of my Grandma and her rag rugs. She made these huge ones for our cottage, the one my Dad and my Grandfather built themselves. You see, I come by this handmade affliction legitimately.
This is her giant crochet hook you see in the photo.
I think I'm more inclined to knit my rags, though. I don't like the idea of sewing braids or strips together at the end.
So now it appears I have a quilt AND a rug to make.
Did I really need another project?

Show and Tell brought to you by Blackbird.

Week Interrupted

In which I present gratuitous Art in lieu of any interesting content:
Did I ever tell you I paint portraits?
This is Moe and Jack, two dog portraits I did last year. As must as I love to do human portraits, I love animals just as much - they just don't "sit" as long.

Other tidbits:
The insurance company sent out a cleaning crew for the basement , packing the goods up ( thank you thank you thank you), removing the carpet and wet drywall and disinfecting. I have spent the week waiting for people to show up at my house and waiting for phone calls, which takes ALL day of course.

I think my snb has disowned me for the amount of no-shows lately.

I have started some new knitting, although I had to quickly bag this last night when I saw a MOTH in the living room ( an escapee from the basement detris, no doubt) Another cardigan, or cardiganized version of Patons Urban Aran ( in the same book as the Must Have)
This was meant to be an avoidance of the intarsia one a quick pick-up project using up chunky wool before the spring sweater really sticks but of course the pattern had a glitch in it, what I call Gauge vs. Schematic Measurement Battle...but I've worked it out. I had to start over (3 times)so progress makes for sad viewing at this point.

I had no Show and Tell Thursday this week because I ate all the chocolate in the house before photographing it. For clarification though, I think www.dagobachocolate.com/ ( any flavour in dark, and the Milk Chai) wins as my favourite but I am notoriously unfaithful when it comes to chocolate.

So let's call it a week. Whew!

One Thing Leads To Another

A long, long time ago in art college we had a printmaking assignment of 10 lino images. The first image was to be printed pure black and in the next 9, a picture was to immerge, but each print had to stand on it's own as a complete image and not a work in progress. The first pic ( above) is the tenth image.
Sometime in the next few years I used this image to make a fabric picture. I set a limitation that I only use fabric that was on hand at home. I was a little disappointed in the variety but carried on.( second pic) Lately I have seen many quilted art projetcs on the internet . It's tempting but I promised myself to finish projects not start new ones. Yup... of course, those 5 or 6 quilting books I ordered from the library this week are purely for research purposes only. Really.
Fast forward a few more years and I made the painted version in full colour. These are not scanned images you are seeing and I still haven't got the flash to stop flashing but I think you get the idea. I have been carrying "my ladies" as I call them in my head so long that I keep coming up with new situations for them. I have made a series but I'm not sure what to do with them yet. I think I may have shown you this one a while back.
It's interesting how some ideas take hold and some are quickly forgotten. These ladies are over twenty years old and...okay, that made me feel old...moving right along....
I have knitted the back and one front on the Vintage Jacket. I thought after the Zigzag pattern disaster I would be home free on this very simple jacket but no. I site this excerpt as exhibit A ( even though it is the third boo boo I've found so far:
Cast on 52 sts and work 14 rows in K1P1 rib. Blah blah decribing pattern here..... Continue in patt, inc ( we assume 1 st) beg of 13th and every foll 16th row to 49sts
Isn't that a cute increasing trick? I hope I finish this soon because it is the last day of summer and the jacket is cotton. It looks like summer is going out as it came in - hot, 28'C. I have loved the weather this month, a perfect 25'C, no humidity during the day and cooler at night. September is a gift.