Dioramarama

Thoughts on Two

2009-06-12T14:43:09Z

OK, it's sad that Otto's first birthday celebration post is right there if you just scroll down a few posts -- but what can I say, he (and this) has kept me plenty busy. Otto is two today! Happy day! Everyone says oh doesn't it goes by so fast, but geez people, this has been the longest two years of my life! But that is good. Anything that slows time down is good. But I also agree with the parental refrain, "the days go slow but the years go fast." Otto has always been a night owl -- these days he wakes around 9:30-10am, naps around 3, and goes to bed at 11. It's that last hour of the day that really drags, and makes me feel every second of the two years! And that time pre-child -- well, that seems like the ancient past. On the other hand we see him getting bigger and seeing new facets of his personality emerge every day, and we're like, "Who is this creature living with us? When did he move in?" In the past year he has gone from a jarhead-looking baby to a blondie to a sandy-headed little guy. The burst of curls in the back of his head (that turned into an undeniable mullet a couple times this year) is just starting to tame down. He has gone from a babbler to a full on talker (his first novel adjective + noun combo happened the other day -- "nekkid mama") which, for linguist/SLP mom, is one of the most miraculous things in the world to witness. We can't wait to have full on conversations with him. The one thing that has not changed is his cheeks. They do not seem to let up. There is so much more, but I will channel that energy into the long-neglected baby book. Also, there are cupcakes to make. Happy birthday, little fellow. We love you more than anything in the universe.

Estate Sale Quilt Top

2009-03-27T22:57:29Z

A quilt top I got at an estate sale a while back. It is all hand-stitched, and amazingly square and flat (though I'm worried about the quality of some of the fabrics -- I'll just have to wash carefully). I'm thinking about how to quilt it. Straight lines in a plaid pattern, maybe?

Tutorial: Easy Pieced Curves a la Fleming

2009-02-07T22:22:41Z

I created this tutorial ages ago but never posted it for some reason! I had to revisit it to see if I could use it for my Single Girl piecing. I don't think I can for the inner circles, but I can for the outer part of each block. ..... Before taking on the Pie In the Sky Quilt in the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, I had never pieced curves nor done hand appliqué, so I was a little nervous about the pattern, which required both techniques. By some stroke of luck I caught a tutorial by Dale Fleming on the TV show Simply Quilts. She has a book called Pieced Curves So Simple that centers on this technique and its endless possibilities. The basic instructions are online here, so I figured it's OK to show how I used the steps to make the Pie in the Sky blocks. 1. Ingredients: outer background fabric, freezer paper, inner circle fabric*, compass or circle cutter. And, not pictured, glue stick (acid-free, water-soluble, preferably archival quality), your standard everyday sewing supplies 2. Cut a square of freezer paper the same size as your finished block. Fold diagonally both ways to find the center. Draw a circle on the smooth (non-waxed) side the exact size you want your inner circle to be. Standard compasses only draw circles so big -- you can get the tool you see in the picture here at your local hardware store. 3. Cut out the center of the freezer paper. Scrapbooking supply stores might have circle cutters that would make quick work of this, or you can get a somewhat expensive circle rotary cutter at your quilt supply store. These contraptions only go up to about 6" (15cm), though -- for bigger circles you're going to need to hand-cut. 4. With a dry iron, iron the freezer paper, wax side down, to the wrong side of the background fabric. The freezer paper should be good and stuck to your background fabric. 5. Now, cut out the center of the background fabric about 1/2" (1.5cm) from the edge of the freezer paper. 6. Cut "fringe" into the overhanging fabric. Your cuts should end at least 1/8" (0.3 cm) from the edge of the freezer paper. 7. Run a glue stick around the edge of the freezer paper LIGHTLY. You want the minimal amount of glue to tack the fringe down in the next step. 8. Press the fringe out with the tip of your iron (which is still on a no-steam setting). Turn over to the right side to check that curve flows smoothly. If not, lift that area of the fringe and re-tack with the tiniest amount of glue. 9. Now run your glue stick around the edge again right onto the fabric, this time more heavily. It's best to keep the glue on the fabric so that none gets on the paper. 10. Place the glue side down on top of the right side of your inner circle fabric and press, again with a dry iron. The inner circle and outer background fabrics will now be temporarily fused together. 11. Peel the outer background fabric from the freezer paper. Then, pop the freezer paper out. This can be a little tricky. If you did steps 6-9 perfectly it should release easily. It may require some coaxing and ripping. If the inner circle and outer background fabrics come apart in places, just lay right side up on your ironing board, nudge some glue in there, and re-iron. 12. With the block facing right side up now, gather up the outer background fabric into a little bundle. This exposes where you are going to sew -- into the fold between the outer background and inner circle fabrics. 13. Sew around the fold line on the fabric. Ms. Fleming recommends a zipper foot for the sewing, but I had a really hard time with that. I found that a transparent plastic foot worked better. The trickiest part is keeping the excess fabric on the left of the needle from bunching up under the feed dogs. Sewing over a lump will mess you up. If you're not good at feeding the fabric smoothly, just pause and lift the feed dogs every so often with the needle down and smooth the left side out. 14. It's going to look ugly coming off the machine. Press on the wrong side and again on the right side and it'll be beautiful. 15. Cut away excess inner circle fabric to leave a 1/4-1/2" seam allowance. 16. Here is what the back of a finished block looks like. On the Pie in the Sky block, the light colored fabric of the pie "crust" dictated that I press the seams toward the darker fabric. But with this technique, pressing the seams in toward the center of the circle yields an applique look; pressing the seams out away from the circle yields a pieced look. 17. Done! Don't you feel mighty? If you are intrigued by the possibilities of this "pinless piecing" technique, be sure to check out the book -- it gives tips on how to make shapes other than plain old circles. If you're worried about using glue instead of pins -- that somehow it's cheating or chinzy looking or that's going to ruin your fabric -- seriously, don't worry, give it a test run and you'll see. I entered my Pie in the Sky quilt in a show and the design [not my work] and piecing [using this technique] were the only parts that got praise! I have had the quilt for a while now and the glue has not lingered or seeped through in any way. Since it's water-soluble, as far as I know it all washed out the first time through the laundry. * My inner circle fabric happens to be a circle-in-a-square block that was already pieced using Ms. Fleming's technique**. If you are following the Pie in the Sky pattern from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, this technique allowed me to skip the "C" pieces altogether. Using this pinless technique will save you WEEKS of laborious hand-applique. ** In Ms. Fleming's tutorial you use a square of fabric the same size as the finished block for your inner circle fabric. But you can use circles too, e.g. the coral-and-brown pieced "pie" blocks in this pattern. Using a square for the inner circle fabric just gives you a little more leeway with the gluing and sewing. The Pie in the Sky quilt is copyright Denyse Schmidt, of course.

Best Parent Hack Ever

2008-10-23T22:38:26Z

Using Bryan's height-adjustable drawing table to cut out quilt pieces, out of the baby's reach. Also, teaching the child to clean up after me.

I Am a Longarmer, Feel My Power

2008-10-16T22:08:10Z

Last week I took an introductory longarm quilting class from Duck Soup Quilts here in Austin, run by the lovely Deana Everett Tollerton. After taking the class you can rent her machine to quilt your own quilts. I was so giddy I forgot to take note of the make and model of the machine, but it was very easy to set up and use. You get to say goodbye to basting, more or less, and that is a very good thing. Basting is one of those hurdles that keep my UFOs UFOs. And thank god for stitch regulators, is all I can say. There are certain line types that will take practice to get right if you're working freehand -- any sort of measured, precise curve, for instance. You can use pantographs for this purpose, which are long scrolls with preprinted quilting designs on them that you use to guide the machine, but Deana and I agreed that they're not really our thing. Here are some designs I tried out on my scrap quilt (I pieced together the fabric I dyed somewhat unsuccessfully a while back). It got me thinking that there should be a Flickr group for modern quilting designs, especially all-over, continuous line quilting designs. I don't like many of the standard meander patterns but I don't have too many ideas of my own. Pebbles - this is actually a widely-used meander pattern, very forgiving. meandering squares -- do I like this? I don't know. Wavy horizontal lines -- I like this one. Please ignore all the other stray scribbling. Amy Karol (Angry Chicken)-inspired hills/fingers ... I love it! Attempting Funquilts' signature continuous line pattern -- FAIL Attempting Denyse Schmidt's signature loop-de-loops -- FAIL (Seeing a theme here? Get your own signature pattern, and it won't look like a failed attempt at someone else's!) Coral-esque -- I like it! I can't wait to get back to work on my many unfinished quilt tops. Oh -- the Flickr group! Wham bam, it's done. I'd love to see your ideas, though I suspect this group won't be a chartburner like good old vintage fabrics!

Wee Wonderfuls Turtle

2008-08-04T19:07:36Z

Joining the Wee Wonderfuls Hand Sewing for Fun Birdie is the Wee Wonderfuls Hand Sewing for Fun Turtle. He was a gift for a turtle-loving baby friend who is no longer a baby. I like how it turned out, and I just love hand stitching with wool felt.

Whatever

2008-08-01T06:53:23Z

A little subversive cross stitching, which will be a gift for an ex-co-worker and still-friend as soon as I find the right frame for it. I went straight from the pattern; maybe next time I'll try a full-on workup of "whatever loser."

Sesame Street Overload

2008-07-22T16:27:59Z

We've been getting Sesame Street: Old School DVDs from Netflix and have come to the conclusion that it'd be worthwhile to buy them. Here are some classic segments on Youtube: So awesome.

New Ironing Board Cover

2008-07-21T20:34:20Z

I didn't follow a tutorial for this, but I know they are out there. The old one -- the one that came with the ironing board -- sucked bad. It wouldn't stay on. It was just a piece of batting with a cheap fabric cover, not sewn together, and there wasn't a proper casing, just a thin cord run through some overlock stitching. Here's how I made the new one: 1. Laid out old cover, used it as a pattern to cut fabric for new one (just cut it roughly about 5 inches bigger all around -- should have even gone a couple inches more) 2. Laid out old pad, used it as a pattern to cut some batting for an extra layer of padding. 3. Folded old muslin fabric cover over the two layers of batting, and stiched all around. Intended to sew this to the wrong side fabric cover, but then decided not to. 4. For casing, folded about 1/4" in on wrong side of fabric and pressed down, then folded another 1/2" in and pressed. 6. Unfolded this casing and stiched in a buttonhole in the 1/2" hem at the tip of the cover in which to insert the cord. 7. Sewed the edge of the casing down with a zigzag stitch. 8. Ran cord through the casing with a safety pin. Done! The fabric is from an Urban Outfitters tapestry. And remember when I got my new iron? Thanks to some intervention by Weeks Ringle, Rowenta sent me a new iron after I wrote that entry. It is an excellent iron and I need to post a full review soon. I just like the looks of the Black & Decker classic more.

A Year of Ott

2008-06-12T13:30:04Z

Our Otto is one year old today. Ott (which he can say). Toto. Totebag. Looking through all these photos, trite but true, I can't believe how much he has changed in so little time. Especially: When did all that hair come in? There's always something extremely difficult about each stage of infanthood, but there's always something going on even more extremely wonderful. Right now he's walking (wonderful) and exploring (following him around every waking second - difficult). He's starting to puzzle things out, like how to hold the pop bead in the bath water just right, so that bubbles come up as it fills with water. If he takes a piece from something he tries to figure out how to put it back, and if he can't, he hands it to us, always saying "oin?" (Wonderful.) He's holding his little graham crackers and biting off little pieces -- no need to break everything up, paranoid first-time mom. But how did he learn that? (Wonderful.) He's gone from downing two jars of whatever baby food per sitting to refusing, with an unambiguous head-shake, pretty much anything but yogurt. (Difficult.) He's starting to show fear and sensitivity -- last night I yelped "NO!" when he stuck his entire fist into a smoothie, and he started crying and wanted away from me. That was awful. (Just the first in a long line, I know. Difficult.) He knows that the remote works the TV, that grandma's voice comes out of the phone, and that the mouse works the computer. He comes up when I'm working and pushes my hand out of the way -- HARD -- and takes over the mouse, looking at the screen as he moves it around. I'm realizing what "setting a good example" means and that we need to start -- now. (Difficult.) He is happy and wonderful and curious and the cutest sweetest baby ever. I have kissed his gigantic cheeks a million times every day. He has lived with us for a whole year now. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. He's officially a toddler now, and we're just now getting glimpses of the new set of difficult/wonderful things in store. (Parents - what do you wish you had known? That's my favorite kind of advice.) Happy birthday baby guy, we love you big time.

Olive's Quilt

2008-05-31T23:36:17Z

This is a quilt I made for Olive. I neglected to show you the awesome bunny her mama Gina knitted for Otto (uhh, last year ...); I will have to do that next! It's the Easy Lap Quilt pattern from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing. So easy, in fact, that I went from my memory of the pattern photo and didn't even reference any measurements. I tried to do the quilting similar to this amazing quilt thinking it could be done with a walking foot, and indeed it can be. Now, Olive is not a traditional pink-y kind of girl. I started making this before Olive was born and my Otto was new -- I think a small part of me was depressed about the relative non-cuteness of baby boy clothes so I totally girled out on this. I thought it was more orange and yellow, actually ... that's why it's a good idea to take pictures of your quilt top in the assembly stage; you learn truths that being up front and personal tends to hide! But I think (I hope!) that Olive and Gina don't mind this pink. More pictures: detail, quilting, and back.

Camilla Engman Theme

2008-05-01T15:32:14Z

Camilla Engman iGoogle home page theme! I got mine.

Takashi Iwasaki

2008-04-30T21:59:55Z

Collages by Takashi Iwasaki, via Martin Klasch. I get so much quilt inspiration from collage art. Iawsaki's embroidery, "Abbies", and paintings are incredible.

Announcing True Up

2008-04-15T14:58:35Z

I know I've been scarce. It's because I've been consumed with a new project, and today I'm finally ready for the reveal. I'm thrilled to announce True Up, a blog devoted solely to fabric. All fabric, all the time. Fabric love 24-7. I got the idea last year after I lamented that I couldn't go to the fall Quilt Market to get a sneak peek at all the newest fabric lines being released. Even if I could get the time off work and take the journey with baby in tow, they wouldn't let me in because I'm not a shop owner or manufacturer or press. But wait. Wasn't Dioramarama press? Kinda? I mean, I write about fabric a lot. I thought maybe they'd accept someone with a blog about nothing but fabric. Wait. A blog -- all about fabric?! Why doesn't such a thing exist? How great would that be? I already spent so much time looking around online for new and vintage fabrics, and dreaming about my own patterns, it seemed like a job perfectly suited for me. Even though the idea came from my desire to go to Quilt Market, the project quickly became far more than a means to that end. It feels like I'm finally answering my calling. So, after months of planning and mucking around in Wordpress (to which I have switched after being a Movable Type person since the beginning of blog-time), my all-fabric, all-the-time blog is ready for the light of day. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I don't know quite what the fate of Dioramarama will be in the midst of all this, but I plan to keep it going (at the slow pace you've come to expect!) for the time being.

Dyeing Lessons

2008-03-12T19:30:57Z

For my baby shower my friend Christie gave me some hand-dyed/stamped cloth diapers (to be used as burp cloths). I love them and ever since I have wanted to try my hand at dyeing. After what seemed like a long time gathering all the supplies and finding a some time this past weekend, I got my chance. Here's how it went. I bought three colors of procion MX dye from my local art store: chocolate brown, avocado green, and pearl gray. You also need soda ash, but the art store was out so I went by the pool store for some. When I asked the guy there for some, he asked me immediately if I was doing some dyeing, so they are familiar with this request. I gathered a bunch of cotton onesies, new big ones and old small ones, and bought three yards of Robert Kaufman kona PFD. All together it weighed 2 1/2 pounds. Each 2/3 oz bottle dyes one pound of fabric so I figured I was good. You also need salt -- a lot of salt -- two cups per three gallons of water. We had a big box of coarse Kosher salt on hand and a container of regular table salt. Now that I (duh) read the instructions on the Jacquard site, I see you're supposed to use non-iodized salt. I knew the coarse salt would probably not dissolve well, and thus cause problems, but I forged ahead anyway. I'm not too into the mottled, variegated hand-dyed look; I was after more solid colors. Apparently the mottled look is best achieved by the low-water immersion technique, so I opted for tub dyeing and pretty much just followed the directions on the bottle of dye. However along the way I referenced pburch.net and Lisa Call's great series of posts on her process. I got the fabric wet, then filled three buckets full of hot tap water and dumped in the salt. I didn't pre-mix my dyes or use urea, just (carefully) dumped each jar into the salt water mixture. You have to use a mask and gloves as you do this, as the dyes are very toxic in powder form. Then I put the fabric and some of the onesies in and stirred. The soda ash goes in next. I realized I was supposed to have already dissolved the soda ash in water. I decided to just dump it straight into the dye solution. It is coarse, about like laundry detergent, so it probably didn't dissolve all that well. However, the brown and green looked great immediately, rich and deep. The gray looked bad from the get-go, more purple than gray and with lots of spots all over. (yuck) I let it sit for a little while then added more onesies, so that they would come out a shade or two lighter than the first fabrics I put in. (They did.) I let it all sit, stirring occasionally, for a few hours more. The dye jars say 50 minutes but I let it go longer. Then I removed the clothes and fabric from one bucket and ran them under the faucet a little bit. I squeezed them out, put them aside, and dumped the bucket of dye solution down the drain. I was worried about staining but there was none. Then I transported the fabrics in the empty bucket to the washer, which was filling with cold water. I repeated the steps for the other two colors. You can wash them all together without worrying about color transfer. Last, I ran two more cycles on hot. Lisa Call recommends turning your water heater up to max before you do this so the wash water is as hot as possible. The heat is what removes the leftover dye at this stage, so you want it as hot as possible. I didn't bother with synthrapol, a special detergent that dyers use that bonds with the remaining dye molecules and wisks them away. The results: The gray was all but disastrous. Clearly the dye powder didn't dissolve very well before I put the fabric in. I think there was a layer of powder still on top of the water that hadn't busted through the surface tension before I added the fabrics. Although, the second round of onesies turned out great! (Oops - no picture of those.) The brown and green turn out lighter than I thought they were and far less than solid. Turns out I didn't stir the mixture enough. Still, Otto wears it well. I want to try again, if only to do it right! I bet the washing machine method would yield more solid colors. Now to think of something good to do with the fabric.