Going in Circles......Stash Busting

Does this happen to you?.....sometimes you see something and you just gotta try it for yourself?.... that is how this all started. One day I saw an image of a floor mat made by wrapping fabric strips around rope and stitching....and you know I felt compelled to give it a go.

I started with the strips.....lots of them, including selvages. The basic method is simple, wrap the fabric strips around the rope, begin by creating a small coil, as you build the circle, a zig zag stitch binds the rounds together. It is the same basic process as making a rope "bowl" and there are plenty of tutorials to be found online. The big difference is that when making a floor mat you need to make sure that the whole thing is being supported on a flat surface. The bigger you want to make the mat....the trickier this can become.

To set up, I placed my machine on an old wash stand that got the bed of my machine matching the height of my work table, in front of that (behind the machine) I built up an area that would be at the same height as the machine and the work table beside me. A combination of things were used, a sturdy cardboard box on top of a large plastic bin worked out just right so that I now had lots of support space

here it is finished, it is 48" across

But wait.....there's more! I quite enjoyed making this and decided to try a different approach. Instead of one large circle, I began making lots and lots of smaller circles in a variety of sizes.

butting them up against each other and "joining" them with that same zig zag stitch
In order to keep everything together in the design pattern I had worked out on the floor, I pinned them together by inserting pins in opposite directions.

and joined them

The process does require a bit of planning and some careful handling, but because the pieces are essentially "hinged" together, it is not that difficult to manipulate under the machine

I had a particular spot in mind for this project. The carpeting in front of the patio doors sees lots of traffic in nice weather but a regular area rug would not work because of the placement of the floor vent. By creating this one out of the circles, I could shape it to suit my needs.

Practical, kinda funky and a great way to bust that stash.  (who am I kidding.....gonna have to make many many more to put a dent in the stash.

A Journal Cover and Yes....... more doodles

I was inspired by Exuberant Color's blog where she has been making many journal covers, you can find them here, scroll down and you will find her excellent tutorial.
I thought this would be a good way to use some of the things I have been playing with lately.In addition to using a couple of my doodles, I have added several of those inchies I made a while back, see that leaf?......it is a real leaf that has been preserved and then thread painted (it was a "test' leaf for my piece called Reality Show)...............and of course there are the selvages, gotta love those selvage edges.



I used some of my hand painted fabrics, practiced some machine quilting and even that fun little hand stitch......that one is addictive.
I have also put some vinyl pockets on the inside flaps to hold cards from my favourite quilt shops. I plan to keep my wish list in this book along with quilt ideas so I will be all set the next time I go quilt shop hopping.

The most recent CPP word # 30, is Points.................so I sharpened my pencil to a fine point and drew this Mariner's Compass.

Inchies

I am exploring all sorts of new things this year and these Inchies have to be one of the most fun projects so far. I became interested a while back when I had read an article by Normajean Brevik in Quilting Arts magazine and then came the new, hot off the press, book by Nadine Ruggles titled Inchie Quilts.................so okay, I just had to give em a go.
I started with a few scraps, layered with batting and backing and by gathering up a bunch of supplies for I already had on hand to use as embellishment. Now even though it seems that this would be just an oh so simple a project to tackle, I have to say that it can actually be kind of intimidating to try to make something interesting out of one inch of real estate. But once you get going they are really quite addictive and the ideas are now flowing. I rubber stamped, painted, foiled, used bits of old jewelry and even some postage stamps.
What will I do with these? Well possibly a large quilt sometime in the future using many, many inchies or perhaps some fellow guild members would be interested in an inchie exchange.......who knows, but I must make more of them......lots and lots more.
Click on the images if you'd like a close up look at these, now you may say to yourself, hey what gives, these are not all one inch in size................well yes some are one inch and some are what Normajean Brevik calls Plus size inchies while others are Super sized ;-) and yes there are some selvage inchies in there as well.

Selvage House

Over the last little while, I have seen many versions of these little houses made to hold everything from tea to trinkets or maybe even chocolates. I decided that one of these little houses would be perfect for another selvage project. Have you seen all the wonderful things being done with selvages? Spend a little time on Karen Griska's
Selvage Blog where she features works from artists around the globe. Building a house is easier than you think, if you click on the photo of the pattern it will come up much larger so you can see the dimensions written on it.
You can make them any size. This one is just 6 1/2" tall by 3" wide. You may notice that the pattern is one piece, I decided that would cause too much waste so I cut the peaked pieces separately.
Cut the pieces from Timtex and then cover both sides with fabric, add selvages, then machine a zigzag stitch around the outer edges, finish using a whip stitch by hand to hold it all together leaving one roof edge free for the opening, add a closure of your choosing and you are done............... just what does my little house hold? Well my selvages of course!

Selvage edges

Recently, while spending a little time checking out other blogs I came across this one which has great ideas on what to do with those selvage edges. Since I was re-organizing my fabrics anyway I decided to begin collecting all those edges and thinking of ways I might use them. Turns out that since I buy almost exclusively batiks, usually fat quarters, I don't actually have a lot of fabrics with selvages containing text.

Still, I like the idea of seeing the text so I added what I had in the way of black and whites to a vest I was in the process of making.................the selvage edges turn a rather boring piece into something just a bit more interesting. I have a feeling I'll be taking a closer look at the "edges" of future fabric purchases.