A Little Prototype Book Project

I just finished this prototype little book.  It's 5 1/2" by 3 1/2" and filled with an assortment of papers including old book pages, atlas pages, drawing paper, graph paper, old blank workbook pages, painted pages, and brown paper. Basically stuff many other people might throw away. The cover is made from bonded fabric that has been folded (and ironed) instead of using a heavy paper for the cover. The binding is a simple long-stitch bookbinding method. 

The fabric for the cover was actually also an experimental project. It was a simple navy blue cotton that I stenciled with freezer paper and sprayed with bleach water to make the checkered heart pattern. I called this project a prototype because I've never made a book with this kind of bonded fabric cover. I didn't have any instructions to go by and I had no idea how it might come out but I suspected it would work. 

The book construction method is not new. There are many places you can find instructions for long-stitched books with heavy paper covers. There are a number of books and examples I referenced to understand the basic construction techniques. The experimental part was making a stiff paper like cover using fabric without glue or cardboard. 

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

Quilt Table Runner from a Charm Pack.

My current quilt project uses one charm pack of 42  5" pieces of fabric. There isn't enough fabric in a charm pack to complete the design I have planned so I've pulled some additional matching fabrics from my collection.

This is the moda barcelona fabric line charm pack cut into 2 1/2" squares and sorted by color groups.

This is the 22" x 52" table runner design I have planned. 



I started the design on the wall with the charm pack fabrics. 

These are the matching fabrics from my stash I may be using to fill in the remainder of the design. 

And this is the design on the wall ready to sew. 

So, I'll be doing some sewing now.

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen. 

Just Quilting Stuff and Random Art Play

Just doing a couple small quilt projects. 

Another Guy Block. 

And a pink thing. 

Now I'm working on a random scrap thing. 

I haven't felt very artistically motivated lately but I have been practicing some pattern making and playing with new art materials. 

This little book has lots of ideas from patterns in nature. 

I've been sketching some patterns from examples in the book. I see this as filling my internal database with patterns and memorizing them by drawing them. Internalizing art techniques is very different than studying a new programming language or memorizing science facts. 

And I found this fun bleeding tissue paper. I'm not sure exactly what I will do with It but I see some possibilities. 

These colored pages are screaming for more artwork. 

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen

The Guy Block

I haven't done too much in the past couple weeks. Distracted by springtime, gardening, video's and some new craft supplies I guess. But I did reorganize one of my fabric cabinets while I was straightening up my craft room and pulled out this assortment of rocks, wood and nature themed fabrics. 

I don't remember having a specific purpose for these pieces but they are an interesting addition to my fabric collection. And I have to admit I 'collect' fabric like someone else might collect salt and pepper shakers or teapots. I don't just buy fabric for projects, specific or imagined. I often buy a piece of fabric because it is beautiful, unique, a color I love, or a theme I'm attracted to. Lately I've been picking up colorful geometric patterns and anything map related.

 I may or may not use them in a project anytime soon or ever but I enjoy having them, looking at them and may just pulled them out and use them in an out-of-the-blue project one day just like I did with the pile of stone, bricks, rocks and wood prints. 

I call it the The Guy Block because it's seems manly and I made it for a guy. No pink colors or flowers. Just rocks, bricks, wood, and well, ferns. 

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen

Choosing Colors for Projects

I'm working on defining a color scheme to match the Villeroy & Boch Design Naif porcelain. 

It took me many years, piece by piece, to collect a full set of this design.  

Snapshot of some of the images on the dishes in this collection.

The goal is have a color guide to pick fabric to make matching placemats or other dinning room accessories. 

I use an app called ArtRage on my iPad to pick these colors.  I import a photo of one of the dishes in the collection and use a feature in the app to select and match the color with a color picker.  Then I digitally paint these colors to create a sample file I can print out to use as a guide to match against when looking through fabric choices. 

This sample was made using the paint brush tool in ArtRage. 

The pastel crayon tool. 

The wax rayon tool color. 

The paint roller tool. 

The ink pen tool. 

I used multiple different tools to paint the colors because even though the colors are all the same, the tool used gives a different appearance.  

I'm considering these basic colors to work with. 

Once I decide on the colors I wish to accentuate, I may design companion fabric in a simple geometric pattern to make other kitchen and dinning room accessories. For example color coordinated dish towels or napkins. I could also design a tablecloth pattern and have it printed at Spoonflower. 

These are all just ideas and possibilities but I plan to simply start with finding matching fabric in these general colors to make a table runner and placemats. 

Thanks for reading.

Aileen

A Bunch of Little Quilts

I've been sewing up a small storm of small quilt projects.  First I used up all the leftover fabric from the St. Patrick's Day placemats project that I showed in my last post.  Then I used up some random pastel squares and triangles I had from other projects with some old Easter egg fabric to make a couple Easter themed placemats. 

The completed green mini quilts:

Random scraps.

Tiny one inch squares.

Some leftover two inch squares.

More random leftover pieces.

This Easter egg fabric I've had for several years. I made a quilt square as a table centerpiece with it several years ago and I look at it now and wonder what was I thinking.  It's so bright!

I used fabric colors that matched the bright colors in the print and they really really stand out. When I decided to do something more with this fabric I choose matching pastel fabric and less of the Easter egg print to tone down the overall effect and these Easter placemats are much calmer. 

There are leftover pieces from at least seven different projects in this block.

But the backs of these quilts are bold. 

Besides doing holiday themed placemats, I also put together a quick one that my son would like from this neat matrix like fabric. No patchwork here, just neat prints. 

Thanks for reading.

Aileen Biser

Green Spring Quilts

I ended up making several projects from the St. Paddy's Stonehenge 2 fabric I mentioned in a previous post. I began with eleven fat quarters which amounts to 2 and 3/4 yards of fabric.

My initial goal was four St. Patrick's Day themed placemats. 

One.

Two. 

Three. 

Four. 

Five. 

I ended up with five 14" x 20" quilted placemats.

But I still had leftover fabric and several odd size scraps of fabric. 

So I decided to see what else I could get out of the remaining fabric.

I ended up with four more scrappy patchwork pieces.

But I still have a pile of tiny scraps, and I have an idea for how to use them, 

but that will include some watercolor paper, paint, random stencils and maybe some collage papers. Not sure at all what this will turn out to be.

I wonder how many projects I can squeeze out of this one bundle of fat quarters?

Thanks for Reading.

Aileen