Conscious Design when Crafting

Here's the problem I have encountered. I love to craft, I love sewing and making things. BUT, my taste does not lend itself to filling my house with loads of fabrics and I don't like a look that is 'homemade'. So how does a person indulge their love of crafting while still making things that will fit into a contemporary aesthetic?
Some things to consider:
- Choose a base color and/or fabric that will add cohesion. For me it was natural colored linen. It is beautifully neutral and I have not found a color that doesn't work well with it. The linen looks clean and minimalist and blends well. Consider some other fabrics: ecru muslin, indigo dyed cotton, white cotton, burlap. When you have chosen, stick to that choice.

While the maple leaf blocks in this quilt are made from quite old-fashioned floral designs, the white cotton gives it a contemporary twist. This quilt could be put in many a modern home and it wouldn't fight with the established decor.

- Complement the base color and/or fabric with carefully added patterns and colors. Not only does this result in a less loud and homemade look, it is very economical. You don't have to go crazy buying yards of gorgeous prints. A fat quarter will go a long way. In fact scour thrift stores for cool fabrics that you can use from old clothes, then use it sparingly to add emphasis.

With these book covers, I added just a few squares of patterned fabric for emphasis. These fabrics came from all over the place, one is an old bed sheet.

- Don't be afraid of blank space. This is common advice in graphic design. You don't have to fill every blank piece of fabric with applique, embroidery and patchwork designs. Sometimes a trim of squares in patterned fabric is all you need or a button or two. Less is more because it doesn't get lost in an assault of busy-ness.

The white background really enhances the origami crane.

- Play with texture. Using different textures is very fashionable right now and is a fun way to incorporate different crafting techniques. Pair chunk knit with a cotton panel in a pillow. Mix different fabrics, but remember go easy.

The two materials here are burlap and cotton. There is no intricate design, the interest comes from the contrasting textures.

- Stick with basic designs if you want to play with colors, sewing techniques etc. Tote bag designs are everywhere these days. They're popular because the designs are simple and therefore easy to execute, but the simplicity gives you a blank canvas on which to experiment with patterns or embellishments. I see a lot of patchwork blocks that are beautifully intricate but I don't enjoy the look because so many different patterns and colors have been used. The more intricate the project the more conscious you need to be of not going crazy with materials.

This messenger back was extremely easy to do and a very simple design which meant I could be bold with fabric. Both fabrics are from old bed sheets.

New Adventures in Free Motion

Sometimes the practice is a pleasing surprise. Free motion embroidery or quilting is NOT supposed to look like this, but still - interesting!

For more on free motion sewing go to this really amazing website: The Free Motion Quilting Project. She has all you will ever need.

The De-Stash Project

It's time. Time for what? A massive de-stash.  I am terrible for holding onto fabrics for some future time. Well it's time.  I am going to be bold and try and use up as much of my stash as I can with different projects - pillows, table runners, throws etc.  Watch out for new items, tutorials and a new Etsy shop.  Yes, ANOTHER one!

Pimping My Boudoir 2: Throw Pillow

It's true, throw pillows are probably the cheapest and most effective way of giving your decor a facelift!  My sister-in-law is obsessed with them and has passed that obsession on to me.  I don't have a zipper foot for my sewing machine yet so decided to do a sleeve instead.  It worked well enough, but in the future I would make the overlap larger as the pillow is a little visible at the back.  Anyway, this is all good practice for making items to sell. 

Cushion Cover

New cover, the rosettes are paper pieced and hand appliqued, the top will be machine sewn as soon as the voltage converter comes for my UK machine!

kimono Silk Patchwork

I love kimono silks and my love of paper piecing works great with them because they are so thin and floppy to work with. The paper templates are a great way of stabilizing the material.

As you can see I am using them for a fan block, the completed one is a Dresden plate block which I made years ago. These are good blocks for kimono silk pieces which I buy and are not always all that big.

Kimonos - true love forever

I have a problem when I get such beautiful fabrics, I can't bare to cut them up! I may not use this for a project but seam it and wear it as a scarf -yum!

My Pennant Quilt Progress

I am still squirreling away on my paper pieced quilt and about half done with the top. Superbowl weekend I laid my first lot of strips out and found one doesn’t quite match in size which is a little irritating and also mystifying, but I am sure I will come up with a way make it work. I have made a new template to add straight edges to each end of the pennant style triangles so that I have a straight rectangular quilt to work with when the strips are sewn together.

Crazy Patchwork Valentine

So this is the card I made for my husband. It's in the style of crazy patchwork using fabric glue. I just stuck a bunch of scraps to some card then cut out the shape of a heart. I think I'll make some more cards like this.

Business Journal III - Finding a theme

Since I have been thinking seriously about selling my crafts, I have been deciding on a cohesive theme for my pieces. Since I am a bit of a geek/writer/bookworm, I have decided to focus on new designs for stationery solutions. So that means folders, book covers (of course), pencil cases etc.
I am also carefully choosing fabrics, as you know I have mentioned before how limited materials are here, but I have been making some really cool pieces from upcycled bedsheets, so I think I will continue down that route.

Zakka Book covers

Zakka book covers - they're all the rage don't you know! The first one I made was too small for my notebook so I use it for keeping recipes clipped out of magazines! The second was just right! Want to make more to sell at the craft market. The second is from upcycled bedsheets, my new thing.

Zakka Bag

Here it is, the bag is finally finished. The material came from some bedsheets a friend of mine was giving away, they matched so beautifully I couldn't resist making something with them. My friend went crazy when she saw the bag so I am going to make her one. There are a few modifications I would like to make: First, the lining material wasn't stiff enough so my bag is kind of floppy! I wanted it to be like an academic satchel. Second, I didn't include any pockets or dividers becaus I was too impatient, it definitely needs some as I am fishing around for my phone and keys a lot.

Salaula Treasures

Yesterday I went to the giant salaula market here in Lusaka. Salaula is second hand clothes and this market had EVERYTHING, as another friend said, it’s like a department store, the market is organised into sections – skirts, children’s clothers, shoes, menswear etc. I saw some really great stuff and bought these wonderful bed sheets which I will use for quilting. Aren’t they funky?

Quilting Plans

Even though I lived here before, I have seen so much in the time since we moved to Lusaka in September. I can’t pretend it has been easy, and coming back has made me realise I could never make Africa my home, but I also want to use my experience creatively. I have been mulling over ideas for a while now, but have come up with an idea in particular which I think might be the best. I want to try and document my time here with a series of quilts. In the past quilts were sometimes used as kind of pictorial journals but mainly in one quilt, with each block depicting an important even. I would like to try and make a number of quilts using different methods – appliqué, patchwork, embroidery, crazy patchwork.

It’s a big venture and I am always coming up with crazy and over-ambitious ideas, but I am going try this one out. Stay tuned for more.

Studio Dreams

Those of you who have been following my blog will know I had a nice little room back in the UK that I used for quilting. To be fair I only used when machine quilting and for storage and spent a lot more time in the living room working because there were comfy chairs and more space.

Here I don’t have a room at all, I have a box that I work from and a chest I stuff things in. My dream is to one day have my own workroom, but rather than it being a room in the house, I would love a little studio out in the garden of wherever we will end up settling. I have a bit of a shed obsession, I just love them, they can be large or small, cheap or expensive, quaint or modernist. When I was visited some artists friends of mine here in Lusaka they showed me their studios. For more on these studios and my work with artists here in Zambia check out my other blog Scrapbook.

The opposite side has more glass for light, unfortunately the studios are being eaten by termites – a big problem in Zambia. I keep this picture as something to work towards, what a great space it would be especially if we treat the wood to stop insects devouring it.

Paper Piecing How To

I know a few months ago I gave a few pointers on paper piecing but I don’t think there is any harm in going over them again.
I generally use paper piecing for basic repetitive patterns but they can also be used for patchwork blocks. In particular if you have a block you want to copy but you don’t have the measurements, method etc. Paper piecing makes this easy because you don’t need to work out seam allowances.

You will need:
Cardboard for your template/s (for example old cereal boxes)
Scrap paper (magazines or newspapers work well)
Scissors
Tape
A thick pen
Needle and thread
pins
Scraps of fabric

First make your template:
The triangle I am using I made by using a rectangle of cardboard, placing it lengthways, find the middle then drawing to lines from the bottom two corners on the shortest sides to the opposite side dead centre.

If you are making a number of templates for a block, number them and then number the block you have to make it easier to work out how to place them.

Tape the edges of your template so that when you draw around it, you don’t soften the edges. Alternatively you could use template plastic, which is available at quilt stores – or use plastic from packaging. I am trying to use as much recycled materials as I can, plus I don’t have a quilting store here!

Next, use your scrap paper to make the paper pieces by drawing around your template with the thick pen and cut out. Make a stack so you don’t have to keep going back to make more.

Pin the paper pieces to the wrong side of your fabric, leaving about ¼ inch space. Cut out the piece a ¼ inch away from the edge of the piece – very important, do not cut flush with the piece!

Fold the excess fabric over your paper and sew with a large tacking stitch to the paper.

When you have enough for all the stages or patterns you want, you can start assembling.

Place the fabric covered pieces right side to right side with the edges lines up and sew together with a small slip stitch. Check carefully that you have your pieces lined up correctly.

Keep going until you have your quilt. Easy!

New Adventures in Paper Piecing

I was feeling kind of down recently. It’s hot here at the moment and after Christmas I felt quite homesick, seeing all that snow and knowing my family is so far away. Nothing improves my mood than working on a craft project, especially sewing, I find it very therapeutic. So I decided to start a new quilt and luckily I have tons of new fabrics to work with (some of you regulars will have read about my love of chitenge material). As I sorted through my fabric stash and bathed in all the colours and shapes, I immediately started to feel better. I chose paper piecing again because I wanted to hand stitch my quilt and I find the slip stitch used in paper piecing super-strong. I also love the whole process of paper piecing and love the feeling of keeping alive this old method.

Considering how important precision is in quilting it’s a bit ironic that I am not a very thorough person, for example I never washed my fabrics when quilting back in the UK. Modern methods of dying mean you don’t really need to pre-wash fabrics, but the chitenge material here often runs, so I did wash them this time. Look how lovely they are with the sun shining through them on the line and the wind blowing them.

The design I am using is very simple, an acute triangle repeated alternately in cream fabric and the various patterns. I think this design will look really elegant and the cream fabric sets off the patterns well. This is a very good method if you want to use up scraps. Watch out for my method of paper piecing for you to follow coming up in the next few days.

Intelligent Patterning

With so many amazing different patterns and colours of chitenge it is very tempting to go crazy and use as many as possible in a new place like ours. We have so many windows that need curtains and opportunities for upholstering. We have been very careful though, because we don't want an over the top colour scheme. Here we put together the 3 fabrics we are sticking to for the décor of the living space. We think they match nicely and are not too over the top – the yellow print is bright and funky with the 60s style flowers, but it is complimented nicely by the pale aquamarine and gold one. We fell in love with the retro pattern on the black chitenge but have had to use it very carefully – our floors and furniture is quite dark and the print could have looked quite heavy. Instead, I cut the pattern out and used it on ecru curtain fabric so that the design is showcased and not lost against the dark wood of the floor. We have continued to use the ecru fabric as borders to maintain a uniform design.

Pin Cushion Fillings

I bought a cute little sewing set the other day and found the pin cushion felt a little strange when I put pins into it. I soon realised the inside had been filled with paper. First off this is a great way to upcycle paper and it also meant the pin cushion was nice and hard and gripped the pins really well. Obviously you can't wash it but then, who washes their pincushion. If the idea of filling you pin cushion with paper doesn't turn you on, try stuffing it with fabric scraps, the really small ones you can't do anything with.

Ababa House – Craft Centre

One of the best things about the place we have moved to is its location. Lusaka is such a sprawling city, really built for cars and I don't drive. Walking is fine but at the moment it is so hot that walking can be exhausting. There are buses of course but they can be dangerous and the routes are quite minimal. I was really happy when I discovered that, not only is there a big supermarket 2 minutes away and a vegetable market 15 minutes away, there is also Ababa house about 5 minutes walk away. It's in a little complex where there is also a great café (more on So Eat about that!), a chocolate shop, a hairdressers and plans for more to come. It is a lush green compound and the craft section is quite well designed with rooms leading onto each other in a gallery style. They sell a lot from social projects that help local people, including an organization called 'Tribal Textiles'. Tribal Textiles print their own designs onto fabric and make wall hangings, cushions etc. They are based near South Luangwa national park and specialize in training local women of the area so that they have new skills and a regular income.