Zentangle Break

3" x 3" accordion sketchbook

Back in May, the Zentangle people offered a 21 day "Be Well" series which I was interested in but didn't want to do at the time. I just recently took a look at the video from day one and saw that all the tangling would be done inside a leaf-like shape set on the diagonal. I've been doing a lot of my Zentangling in one of my commercial sketchbooks but didn't think it would work well for this. I also didn't want to use up the individual tiles I have on hand. I got to thinking that placing those leaf shapes in an accordion style book might be just the ticket and I thought I had something I could trace around to make those shapes uniform. Yeah, I'm a LOT about uniformity.

So I took a break from my house cleaning for company to make a simple and quick accordion book. Well, nothing I make is quick but at least it would be simple. I took a look at a couple of videos in my Handmade Book Club to refresh my memory about folding and joining strips together, and I was off. Quick calculations showed that cutting an 18 x 24 inch piece of mixed media paper would give me strips that would fold into 8 panels, and three strips joined would give me the number of panels I would need and a few extras. With the video instructions in mind, I just folded that big sheet in half, then folded the sides to the middle and used a blunt knife to tear along the fold lines. I'd only need three of the four strips.

As I started folding the strips, I momentarily puzzled over the fact that the panels were turning out to be rectangles instead of squares, the planned dimensions for my book being 3" x 3". Oh yeah, dividing the width of the big sheet of paper into fourths yielded strips 4-1/2 inches wide. Oops . . . I quickly trimmed off the excess 1-1/2 inches and continued folding. More scraps for another project. Does this sound like quilting yet? ;-)  The two small rectangles will be used to join the three strips. The bone folder run over the folds makes them crisp.

To make sure I joined the strips correctly - valleys and mountains in proper order - I paper clipped where I'd be adding the joining strips on the back. The rectangles are folded lengthwise and that fold positioned flush with the end of the adjoining strips. My bookclub directions showed this done using PVA glue but I wasn't keen to deal with the messiness of glue and was happy when I remembered that I had Scor-Tape on hand in a half inch width which was just what I needed. Accordion booklet almost done. 

I wanted to attach some kind of cover on the first and last panels for stability but didn't need anything particular thick or heavy. I decided to look through my various papers, settling on this mulberry paper one. Does the design remind you as it does me of trees? Again, I didn't want to fool with glue so cut 3 x 3 inch squares of Scor-Tape from a 6 inch square sheet. Scor-Tape is sort of a one and done tape meaning you have essentially one shot at getting your item positioned correctly before the adhesive makes it impossible to remove. Fortunately, the mulberry paper lined up without a hitch and along with the Scor-Tape, stiffens up the mixed media paper just enough to work as "covers". The bone folder comes in handy to burnish for a good adhering.

Now to draw the diagonal leaf shapes on the panels. There's the thing I thought would work well to draw around, some kind of end plug from packaging that begged me not to throw it away. Hopefully you can see now why I thought an accordion book would work well.

I penned the title on the first panel (and as an after thought added my initials chop after I'd taken the picture). Each day has a theme to meditate on (day one is Embrace not Erase) and a related quotation so I am adding those in the negative space around the leaf shape. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about this first zentangle and less excited with the way mine came out but at least I've started!

When filled, it can be displayed open to show off the undulating zentangle designs.

I like this small 3 x 3 inch little book but accordions can be awkward to work in. I need to find a bit of decorative elastic I think to wrap vertically around it to hold this closed when I'm not working in it and to hold together the springy pages not in use when I'm trying to zentangle on a panel - it's already proven to be an issue. And wouldn't you know it, no sooner did I finish this up and readied myself to complete the remainder of the cleaning and straightening than I got word that my company has had to postpone their arrival. So a relaxing weekend I wasn't counting on in a mostly clean and picked up house!

 

 

A Mending Week

Arrow pointing to invisible thread loop of finger

I have company coming in a couple of weeks; it's prodding me to take care of some things I've been putting off, like making more repairs on the couch quilt. You might remember that a lot of the cotton bobbin threads had worn through leaving loops of the invisible thread my fingers kept catching on. These were mostly along the stitch in the ditch quilting and I decided to requilt all those lines, using a stronger polyester bobbin thread. I feared that the scallop quilting in the borders and setting triangles might also be at risk but was not up for requilting all those sections too. As I suspected, those areas started failing as well and I started tying yarn around the loops I ran into, dreading having to requilt those areas. I did realize one thing though as I noticed where these loops were popping up - almost all of them along the top border where strain would be put on the quilting as I'd pull the quilt up over me. Anyway, having a quilt with a lot of yarn ties decorating it would be embarrassing to have out for company to see, so this week my "creative" time has been working my way over these broken areas.

Right side of seaming

I finished the left front panel of the eyelet cardigan and discovered that the 3 needle cast off required was not only easy but a pretty nifty way to seam two pieces together.

Wrong side of seaming

The two sections are placed wrong sides together as you would any seaming, with those needles with "live" stitches held together. Then casting off proceeds as usual except for knitting together a stitch from each needle before moving the previous stitch on the right hand needle over this new stitch for a cast off. Makes for such a smooth seam on the wrong side as well as the right side. I'm about 4 inches up the right side panel and wishing this was going a little faster only because I have something else waiting in the wings that is for warmer weather like we've been having.

I realized that when I showed you the plantings of my deck garden, I didn't show you the plant I decided to put in the big pot out front. I was looking for something that would stick up higher than the pot rim and these flowers are doing just that.

Finally, I've been noting the progression of blooms along a stretch of my daily walk that includes a vacant house (where the lilac bush grows along with old fashioned roses and sweet peas) and an undeveloped lot next to it (just trees and brush). The roses from next door have spread into that area, and to my surprise, I spotted some honeysuckle as well. Seeing that honeysuckle brought to mind a specific image from my youth when dad liked to load up the camper and head over Thompson Pass into Montana to fish. We'd gotten over the pass and had pulled to the side of the road where mom spotted some syringa and honeysuckle just like these. I always marveled that mom knew all the names of the flowering plants and she always approached them like old friends.  

Quest Completed

I've been working on the orphan block tote bag in fits and starts, most sessions ending with "my head HURTS" from all the working out of dimensions and figuring out construction sequences. But it's all together now, my quest for a big bag for my knitting over. I said I wanted a big bag and it is BIG: 10 x 16 x 16 inches tall. 

The headaches were of my own making as I tried to be clever about hiding the seam allowances on the inside rather than just making a separate lining. My solution not only "encased" the seam allowance but eliminated additional seams on either side of the blocks. Not sure you can what's going on here but basically I pinned a piece of fabric on front and back of the blocks' sides and turned inside out after stitching - look ma, no exposed seam allowances.

 

The bag is so big because I decided on a two inch border all round the 12 inch blocks. I'd sewn a two inch strip to the bottom of each block before adding the side fabric that had an extra 2 inches on each end to form this border after pressing. I'd been mulling strap attachments when I noticed another bag of mine had straps that did not feed through a top seam of the bag but extended down the fronts. Aha! So I sewed a band along the top that when turned to the inside would provide that two inch border on the top of the blocks.

I'd considered some kind of stabilizer on this band but abandoned the idea since I'd not stabilized the sides, counting on the double layer of fabric to be enough. I turned under a seam allowance and pinned the turnover to the inside, attaching it with machine stitching in the ditch from the outside. The inside of the bag is on the left. I also ran some stitching along the folded edge to stabilize it.

I made some straps that would finish two inches wide to fit in that 2 inch border space on either side of the blocks, its raw edge ends to be caught in the bag bottom's seam. Again I'd wondered about using stabilizer inside the straps but was beyond being interested in fussing with that. (So ready to be done with this!)

I used the same narrow topstitching I'd used around the top of the bag to attach them and stabilize the parts becoming the handles.

Now on to the last step, the dreaded setting in of the bottom. I really did think long and hard about this step from the beginning, but because of my other design choices, I couldn't opt for an easier way. And my "clever" way of encasing raw edges of the seams was not going to work here. I also had to trim the pieces I'd already cut for the bottom, the dimensions arrived at when I'd thought I could extend it like I had the sides to form the bottom border of the blocks. I made a bit of a mess of the 90 degree turns needed to set in the bottom section but close enough for my needs.

With the bag essentially sewn together, my speculation about needing to add a really stiff stabilizer between the inner and outer bottom pieces was spot on. And the easiest way to hide the bottom seam allowance might be to wrap the inner fabric piece around the stabilizer. Here I've used a Roxanne marking pencil which I'd found out does not easily erase as advertised. This was a good place to use it up where it will never show, marking the quarter inch seam allowance for a guide to placing the stabilizer.

I cut some Stiff Stuff interfacing left over from the Eisenberg Fountain quilt. It hadn't worked as I had hoped on that quilt but it worked perfectly for this bag bottom. I applied Heat and Bond to the fabric (normally I don't use this fusible except when making books but I didn't have large enough pieces of either Steam a Seam or Wonder Under on hand), centered the Stiff Stuff within the lines and carefully turned the edges over the Stiff Stuff and fused. Turned it over to complete the fusing to the Stiff Stuff. There, a nice stiff insert for my bag.

Oh how I wished that I could continue fusing but I decided it would be much easier just to run some glue over the seam allowances and plop my stiffener into place. I had a box that was the right width but not quite as long as the bag bottom but better than nothing for having something solid to turn the bag inside out over. I had a narrow strip of the Heat and Bond that I decided to use to at least partially fuse the two bag bottoms together. Here it is with its protective paper removed before adding the stiffener bottom.

Still a bit tricky but not as tricky as fusing would have been, I worked my way around the seam allowance applying some Fabri-Tac old enough to refuse to squeeze out of the nozzle so applied with a glue spatula and pressing the stiffener in place. To my relief, it fit and held. Turning the bag right side out, I could now make that final fuse of the inside and outside bottoms.

I loaded up the yarns and knitted sections of the eyelet cardigan and the bag is more than big enough. In fact, it might hold all the yarn I have waiting to be knitted up.

Knitting projects lined up - need another bag?

It really could have used either some stabilizer or extra padding in the sides, band around the top and straps, but on the other hand, I like that it so easily flops closed to keep the dust out since most big knitting projects take a lot of time. I'm satisfied and rather pleased to have these old blocks out where I can see them. And I'm reconsidering what I said about not needing more pillows . . . 

 

Planting on Memorial Day

Today turned out to be the perfect day to transfer the plants I bought into various pots and planters on my deck. Yesterday was too hot and muggy (we got into the 80's!) with little gnatty-like bugs fluttering about. And when I stopped on my walk later in the day when it had cooled a little to tighten a shoelace, I was immediately attacked by several mosquitos even though I was in the sun. I remember well most years having to fight off mosquitos while getting plants into my pots so what a relief to find today about ten degrees cooler and windy. No mosquitos except briefly when the breeze died down momentarily.

I still need to pick up, sweep and arrange the smaller pots but I am so relieved to get this done. My usual geraniums are in the big tub while the other pots hold a mix of new flowers to try along with a few that have done well in the past, like begonias and pansies. I usually stay away from marigolds because I don't like the smell, but I needed something yellow and that was all my store had. The purple one is Verbena and smells heavenly. The tall bloomless plants are ones that wintered over - the name escapes me at the moment - and they look particularly healthy. 

I even transplanted the Easter lily I'd enjoyed in the house into a big pot and we'll see how it does. I planted one once along the foundation when I lived in a place with a more moderate winter and was so pleased that it survived the winter and bloomed the next year. Not sure I'll have that sort of luck here. Oh, and one daisy-like plant went into the pot out front next to the stairs to the front door. I think I'm going to pick up some nasturtium seeds to fill in around them. Cleanup can wait until tomorrow . . .

More Blooms!

The next trees to open up their blooms are these decorative plum trees in the park behind the animal shelter.

Every year they look better and better!

And the lilacs too are in full bloom, as usual just in time for the Lilac Festival over in Spokane WA (a little more than an hour away). I've been enjoying this tree along my walking route since I moved to Ponderay.

The Torchlight Parade is this evening and unfortunately for the kids, rain is predicted to start about when the parade does. It's a long parade, honoring our Armed Forces as well as the lilacs. I have fond memories of marching in this parade when I was in junior high (playing sax in the band) and high school (out front with the twirlers).

I'm getting tired of looking at the empty pots on my deck but have been waiting for the weather to warm a bit. My store put their pony packs on sale this week though so I picked out the usual 3 geraniums for the big copper tub and a variety of plants for the other planters. Weather is supposed to be a bit better next week so I'm hoping to get motivated to make the transfers.

Nature and Knitting

Spring really is here with trees along my walking route finally showing blooms. These are on a tree in front of the animal shelter. Have no idea what kind of tree.

Bees are back and busy.

And this gave me a chuckle - pretty much it, except in drier parts of the world, my friends in Arizona remind me!

I haven't seen a moose in several years, even though I know they are wandering about the area, so I was quite pleased to run into this one as I started down my street at the end of my walk. 

And I DID nearly run into him because he came out from behind a trailer parked at the side of the road only a few yards ahead of me. I slowly backed up and and ducked around to the far side of said trailer.

You can see I peeked around the trailer to see if he'd moved on. No. He stared my way for a very long time before ambling into the trees to browse. I made my escape when a car passed by creating a suitable shield. These babies are big (although this one is actually a bit small) and can be surly so giving them a wide berth is the best option. Not the first time I've nearly walked into a moose since I moved back to Idaho. Still waiting to see one sporting his rack.

I've only worked a little on the tote bag, getting the blocks quilted and still mulling piecing sequence as well as cutting a few more pieces - trying to hide seams and create more heft without making a separate lining, I really am making this harder than it should be. However, the cardigan is coming along with completion of the back - note at the top stitches that are on stitch holders that will be joined to similar stitches on the front panels with a 3 needle bind-off, something I'd not heard of so cross fingers I can find instructions for that. As I start knitting the left front panel, it has dawned on me that this is a bigger project than I realized what with it being longer than the sweater I just knit and the two front panels having turn backs requiring more stitches. I don't know why I thought this would be a quick project . . .

Maybe they're not all humility blocks?

I knew I had one row near the bottom left where my stitching got off because I messed up with the yarn overs. But when I laid it out for the photo shoot, I spotted another row farther up on the right side where stitches are off as well. Sigh . . . NOT going to try to fix it, in fact trying to fix a missing yarn over may be partly why it is off. Instead, just thinking of it like a "humble or humility" block in a quilt. Orrrrr . . . maybe some of those blocks and any knitting errors aren't intentionally humble ones but the result of tippling while working?

On A Quest . . .

I'm sure most quilters could knock out a tote bag in a few hours but not me. Apparently I'm on a quest for the perfect knitting tote bag. I've spent days and days and days thinking about how to put together one using those two blue and muslin orphan blocks. It occurred to me that a nearly worn out reusable grocery tote was about the size I was thinking of, and I spent some time studying its construction to come up with a game plan.

Then I spent more time mentally going through fabric on hand that would be suitable for a tote. On one of those many nights when my mind was too busy to fall asleep, I suddenly remembered some fabric I'd gotten from my late friend's stash, a heavier cotton fabric she had dyed up to make into table drop covers when vending at quilt shows. I'd not even folded them up after washing when I got the big pieces home but hung them over a hanger. Perfect!

Ok, I sort of had a plan, and I had the fabric. Time to do some figuring and get to cutting.

I'd also been thinking about how to handle the blocks, remembering times when I was sorry that I hadn't quilted a block before adding to a pillow top. I flipped each over to remover stray threads (boy were there stray threads from the muslin!) and discovered that each had a piece of paper with my name pinned to it. Ahhh - now I vaguely remembered why I made these blocks: they were for a block contest held for the Sun Prairie quilt show one year. I don't remember the contest parameters but I think it had something to do with the Temperance Movement - I'm sure I've got that info somewhere in my documentation files. I also realized that the center of one block had been paper pieced and the center paper not removed - oops!

After trimming and a good press, I decided to layer the blocks with Thermore batting and the same fabric for backing as for the tote itself. Ready to lightly quilt these with some stitching in the ditch.

Still going over sequence of sewing all the pieces together in my head, hoping my figures are correct but knowing that if they are off a bit, I can fudge things.