A Midwestern Conundrum

I got an invitation/request to donate something to the ReStore Art Show/Auction next year.  They asked for another doll but, since I haven't been making them lately, I offered them a quilt instead.  They said yes.

I'm a little overwhelmed with the idea of making something new but I'm pretty sure I only feel that way because it's so close to Christmas right now.  I don't have to start anything till afterwards.  But it occurred to me today that I could just donate this older quilt.  

I'm proud of it and all it really does right now is hang on a wall.  Someone, somewhere might really get some use out of it.  I'm pretty sure I feel that way because I'm from the Midwest and tend towards being practical even when I don't want to be.  Plus, I LOVE ReStore and want to support them.

What I don't know is what how to price it.  It took for freakin' ever.  Whether I make a fresh quilt or not, pricing is going to be hard. 

Any advice?  I could really use some.

Also, here's a bonus photo of the last drawing I made in my last Figure Drawing class.  Looking at it now, I can see that her neck looks crazy huge but I'm very proud of the hair.  I'm trying to decide if I want to take the class again.  It was really fun but not particularly practical.  Again, such a Midwestern conundrum. 

Cloth Instant Book

One last Instant Book made for displaying at my Saturday program.   I mentioned this one earlier so this could be considered to be more follow up, right?  I'm growing up. Here's the front cover of the book. 

 

I randomly used images from a pair of pants that I found at Dig N Save and cut up.  I want to know who thought: You know what will make great pants: Pictures of people!  It's whack-a-doo and will not be seen walking around in a town near you because those pants are now a book. 

There's something you don't hear every day. 

 

Next pages.

 

The book in the book.  In staring at these randomly placed images while sewing on and playing with the book,  I kind of came up with a story/non-story thing.  So I used my daughters junky old typewriter (Best kind for this project) and typed it up.

 

Then I stapled the cut up pages into the paper Instant Book that lives inside the cloth Instant Book.

 

 

 

 

 I hope I was clear enough about this story really making no sense.  I embroidered a little yellow and green thing onto each page and that thing is what the story is about.  Really. 

Then I just stapled the paper book into the cloth book. 

And the back cover.  

In sewing it up, I embraced the messy!  But that's hardly worth mentioning because I always do. I feel like I'm pretty well set for my program.  One whole person has signed up...that's actually pretty typical for a library program.  People tend to sign up at the very last moment so wish me luck.  I'll run it no matter what. 

Seven!

So, I wrote a little comic book 'zine thing.  I'll use it as a display for my Instant Book Program that I'm running at the Library this weekend.  I just found out that the Madison 'Zinefest is this weekend and I might bring it there, too.

 

Here's a page done just in pencil.  I only posted one picture here because it's not very interesting to see them all. I thought it would be but, no, it's just repetitive.

I went over the pencil with a superfine sharpie (truly a super and fine marker - I love them).

Cover

Actually, I decorated it a little bit more - it looks so boring here.

 I have to preface this with these disclaimers:  I don't obsess on my school years; this story happened to come up as the result of a Lynda Barry workshop.  I was a weird and nervous child but I'm fine now, thank you.  This story is totally true.

I did add the words "Math Test" on this one.

Scary Miss O.  I used to have nightmares about her.

And I added the words "Test Results" because it wasn't really clear.

 

Here's the whole shebang before it gets "instant book-a-cised"

 I made a few copies just to see if it would work.  I'm going to make some more now that I've seen them.  It was truly fun. 

Follow Up!

I realize that I bring things up here sometimes and then never mention them later.  So, here are some things that require a little follow up:

Lynda Barry workshop:  Soooo fun.  I was inspired to write a little 'zine in Instant Book format but haven't finished yet (Yes, this follow up requires follow up - I see that now).

I brought my bargello quilt to the Modern Quilt Guild and we did our swap.

My partner was very gracious.  I was hoping there would be a picture on Facebook that I could use here but it never got posted.  She made me a lovely purse with my denim scraps.  I think I'll keep going to the meetings after all. 

The shoe insert idea?

Total bust, didn't work at all.  They made the orthotics slip all over the place.  Oh well.  They are cute but I don't know what to do with them now. 

Hand Map thingy: 

Back burner.  I am going to move the hand to a larger backing piece. I am too busy preparing for two different library craft programs to work on a project with no foreseeable purpose.  I don't think I'll even have time to make Christmas gifts this year which is totally freaky. 

I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them now.  Pictures of the 'zine and the purse will be here soon...I imagine...

Action shots!

 

I've spent a little time on this busy day playing with my fabric instant book and want to share some action shots!  It's really fun to work on!

 

Pow!

 

Zap!

Woosh!

KaBOOM!

 

 

Bang!

 

 

I Can't Stay Grumpy

I'm going to be a presenter at the Wisconsin Book Festival.  Woo hoo!!

I'm going to lead a teen program on making Instant Books.  

Inspired by The Great Good Thing by Rod Townley and How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith; both incredible and inspiring books.  

So, with that in mind, I've been making instant books to use as display items.  

Of course, I had to make one out of denim - duh.

 

I picked a randomly sized rectangle of fabric; I went with slightly bigger than a regular piece of printer paper.  I thought that would be easier to work with than, say, a postcard size or a couch size.

 

If this had been regular paper, I would have just folded it, but I get to iron it because it's fabric.  

I folded/ironed it in half.

 

 Opened it and ironed it in half the other way.

Then, I ironed the edges in to the middle so that it ended up looking like this:

 

Then I folded it like that first fold again.

 

That gave me this cutting line

 

  Which I cut.  Just to the first horizontal fold

Then I'm going to refer you here (steps E and F), because, using floppy fabric, it was really hard to get an action shot. 

 

But, when finished it will be this shape.

 

Here's where I was when I ran out of time.  I need to sew these features on (That thing that doesn't match the rest is another instant book that I made out of paper...clever, huh?) and then I'll probably sew the rough edges together.  Fun fun fun!

Now, I think we should al collectivley shake our fists at Blogger which made me fight to place these pictures in order.  Grrrr Blogger!  

But, since I'm off to a workshop being run by Lynda Barry (!!!!)  I can't stay grumpy. 

Attitude Adjustment

I didn't have time to work on my scrap quilt yesterday so I had to knock it out today. I'm glad I took that time off because when I sat down to work on it, I felt completely different about it.

I realized that this project is been a great opportunity to try something new that I never would have chosen. Yesterday, all of my whining was really just my insecurities rearing their heads.

I'll hand it over to my swap partner happily; she knew she was risking getting a final product she wouldn't necessarily adore, just like I did when I gave her my scraps. It's really the point of the whole exercise and I'm glad I finally figured it out.

It was a chance to try out these little corner pockets for hanging. I put one on every corner so she has lots of hanging options.

Sigh

I finally got going on this Quilt Guild project.  For those who haven't been following along, I joined a local Modern Quilt Guild.  The people are very nice and I enjoyed the meeting.  For fun, they had a scrap swap.  We each brought in some scraps and swapped them with someone else with the intention of making something for each other and then giving it back finished.  I brought denim and the minute we switched ziploc bags, my heart sank. I got selvedges that are black and white and highly patterned.  No, not crazy about those.  But I rallied.  I picked a bargello type quilt to work on and got started.  Well - I knew this about myself already - I don't like to take direction and I don't play well with others and, I've recently learned, making a bargello quilt is super dull.  I like making quilts out of solid fabrics and making them up as I go along.  Anyhoo - I put it off for over a month and now the next meeting is coming up on tomorrow. 

So yesterday:

 

  

I pulled out my already cut scraps to iron.  Please note that there are lots of them.  Should make a decent doll quilt, right?  And then some.

 

Oops - dang it, I sewed one on backwards.  I always do that.  

 

There.  Fixed and all sewn up.  I trimmed the edges and sewed the top to the bottom to make a tube.  It really is a clever (but picky) technique.

 

 

Then I turned it and started chopping the tube up.  See those safety pins?  They're there to help me keep track

   

Still with me?  Boring to read, boring-er to do.  Actually this part was the funnest bit.  All lined up and ...

 

Tada!  Wonky and cool.

Backside

Unpick the seams that make them tubes and they make this cool pattern.

Frontside

 

But somehow, in all that seaming, it ended up as this long skinny piece of nothing (Remember waaaaay back to the beginning of this post?  When there was plenty of fabric?).  What the what am I supposed to make that into?  This is where I got re-stuck.  Tomorrow night it's supposed to be a finished thing.  My swap partner did have a list of suggested items she hoped it would be: A zipper pouch, an iphone case, a throw pillow or a doll quilt.  Not seeing any of those things here.  

And then there's this:  She's an actual quilter.  She probably could have made something better out of her own scraps.  Something she actually wants.  So, like, I could make it into a wall hanging but she'll never hang it.  If I cut it in half (which I'm tempted to do), to make a doll quilt, the cool zig-zaggy-ness effect will look decidedly uncool.  So...sigh...

"Sigh" is all I got.  I'll post a picture of whatever is ends up as.  I'll have to machine quilt it since there's no time to do it by hand.  Also, I have resolved to never ever join a swap like this again.  So, there is a bright side.  :)