Totebag transformation

I am a confirmed tote-bag carrier.  Briefcases aren't configured for what I carry to work each day:  my planner (a combination of Day-Timer monthly dividers and Uncalendar weekly pages), my lunch, two cans of diet cola, and at least one book.  On the way home the lunch bag is empty but I often have three or four books.  When I go to ALA or other conferences I take a small purse and I tote a tote.   I return from said conferences with even more tote bags.  Over the years I've come to appreciate tote bag design.  The best ones have 4"-5" squared-off bottoms, are about 11" tall, and are made from heavy canvas or sturdy polyester.  The best ones also have corporate logos that are small enough to cover up.   That's because I like to transform them!
Here are the three stages of today's project, which will serve as my tote this summer.

I lined it, too--meaning that I pretty much made an entire tote bag with a heavy canvas base.

I like the color scheme of this tote but it is 14" high and only 2-1/2" at the base.  Those dimensions don't work -- but I figured that out after I had handsewn the Ohio star block to the pocket. 

This is the tote bag I used this past fall and winter. There is a similar batik maple leaf on the other side. (The diagonal placement just covers the publisher's logo on both side.)

This is the first tote I transformed (in 2008).  It's the one I usually take to ALA because it easily holds my computer. It has an exterior zippered pocket, and two net side pockets.  It looks blue in the photo, but it's actually purple. 

Pinwheel Nine Patch

Here is "Pinwheel Nine Patch."  It's 74 x 86. I didn't quite have it finished for Design Wall Monday ! 
I'm still making pinwheels as leaders-and-enders but the box of 3" squares doesn't seem much emptier.

Dead Dog Creek Ravine, May

The path into the ravine

It's been five weeks since I took ravine photos. What a change from April !

Lots of water after Saturday's downpour

Ranunculus (buttercup)

Podophyllum peltatum (Mayapple)

At home!  Geraniums on the front stoop

Vegetable garden, planted 5/30

Inspired by Bonnie

I looked at the pinwheels (see Monday's post) and thought, "How would Bonnie   set these?" Here's the work in progress.  I want to make three more nine-patches.  The sashing and the border will be scrappy (but probably not red).

Design Wall Monday

These pinwheels are made from 3" squares, stacked in pairs, and stitched as leaders-and-enders. The HSTs are trimmed to 2.5" and sewn together (still leader-and-endering). The blocks are 4.5" (4" finished). This configuration is just a possibility. I may make more pinwheels.  I may decide to set them completely differently.  Stay tuned!

(There were not many pairs of blue 3" squares in the box...it's not that my stash lacks blues, mind you.)

3" squares have been one of my standard scrap sizes since 1999 when quiltmakers swapped packets of charm squares to make Y2K quilts  (2000 different fabrics).

In the garden: May

Dicentra (bleeding heart) have been a favorite of mine since childhood

Arisaema triphyllum (Jack-in-the-Pulpit): one last year, three this year!

      

I staked the peonies this year. Watch this space!

By the shores of Gitche Gumee*

One of the dozens of shoreline photos that I took. I couldn't resist!

"Lake Superior: Culture, History, and Walks in a Spectacular Setting" was the title of last week's Road Scholar trip.  We stayed at the historic Naniboujou Lodge outside Grand Marais in northeastern Minnesota. 

The weather cooperated:  cool, some cloudy days but also some sunshine. It was too early for mosquitoes and blackflies so we could hike through the woods comfortably.  Our 27 fellow Road Scholars came from as far away as California, but most from the Twin Cities.

The great hall at Naniboujou

We began each day with Tai Chi Chih exercises (a variation of traditional Tai Chi). We hiked in the woods along the Brule River.  

Karl in his "gentleman's" garb

We spent
Wednesday at Grand Portage. The video was taken at the High Falls, the highest waterfall in Minnesota. Grand Portage National Monument is a restored fur trading post. The portage was an 8.5 mile shortcut between Lake Superior and Fort Charlotte.


Over the course of three evenings Karl Koster told us about the fur trade -- the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Company, the voyageurs who were "the long-distance truckers of the era," and the beavers whose pelts were sold as far away as China. Karl is a reenactor par excellence! 

The traditional Road Scholar/Elderhostel group photo.

*Longfellow spelled it "gitche gumee" in "The Song of Hiawatha." "Gichigami" is Ojibwe for "Big Water," or Lake Superior.

All set!

I appreciate all the comments about which fabric to use to sash the postage stamp strips. I chose red. It's not the brick red in the photo because I didn't have enough. This red is pinker, less brick-y.  I cut the sashes 3".  This will be have to be an example of "it will quilt out" because I didn't pay a lot of attention to the bias edges on the strips. (I should have used quarter-square rather than half-square triangles.) 
It's 49 x 78.  The 1.5" stamps sparkle, don't they?
(See this quilt for another example.)

And, "all set" in a second meaning -- a vintage tablecloth and daffodils from our garden for our Easter table.

Dead Dog Creek Ravine, April

 The Saturday before Easter:  finally, the sun has come out and the temperatures are 'seasonal.'  Here's the April installment of the woods along Kellogg Ravine.

Virginia bluebells (mertensia virginica)



Scilla--beautfiful, but non-native and aggressive



 

Trillium



  

 



Skunk cabbage in leaf (see last month's photo)





Bloodroot

  This oak tree fell about 10:00 a.m. today, according to Lee, whose house is on the edge of the ravine. (He came out as I walked by.)  He was drinking coffee on the porch and saw it happen!  Fortunately it fell to the ravine side and not on the house.



There's an alligator in the woods!



Happy birthday in advance

The Block Swappers are exchanging birthday blocks again this year.  Each person specifies the block she wants: size, style, color.  Ideally the blocks are mailed to arrive by the actual birthday.  I've sent two already (one for March and one for early May). This week I thought I'd get a head start on the second May block. I finished it and took a look at the rest of the list.....and by yesterday afternoon I had finished them all, for birthdays from May through next February!

It was great fun to rootle through my stash to find fabrics per the instructions.

Design Wall Monday, again

(I write this late Sunday evening. If the design wall does not look like this on Monday, then some gremlins have visited my studio overnight.)

Once I opened that box of 1.5" squares I kept on piecing.  I've reached a stopping place! These strips are about 54" long and about 4.5" wide.  The sashing will be 2" finished.  I don't know if I'll add a border.

My question: what color should the sashing be?  There are four possibilities shown in the photo.

Thanks for the advice!

Baskets (Birthday) and Jacket (Easter)

Border, setting, and sashing close up

After I put the basket blocks on the design wall for last week's photo I figured I ought to do something with them.  I had chosen the fabric for the sashing and the setting triangles.   I changed my mind about the setting fabric when half the sashes were sewn on. I found a blue-green check that would work much better.  I hadn't considered the dark red floral,  but there it was on the shelf, and there was more than enough for the border.  The flimsy is 80 x 64.

There were two basket blocks from the swap that didn't work with the design I had in mind. I will incorporate them on the back of the quilt.

 Easter means many things to me -- including a new, springtime outfit!  Here is this year's version: a jacket and coordinating skirt.  I used the jacket from the Park Bench "Central Park" pattern (which I've had for years but hadn't ever made). 

The jacket has three layers, with plain muslin as the interlining.  I didn't have enough of the Asian key design to line the sleeves so I used a very contrast-y stripe.  The closeup photo shows the meander quilting that holds the layers together. 

I had all the fabric for the jacket on hand, but had to buy 1-1/4 yards of solid green (linen/rayon/poly blend) for the skirt.

meander quilting holds the layers together

Design Wall Monday

Am I on a roll?  This is the second Monday in a row that I've had something to post on Judy L's Design Wall Monday

tags on the blocks indicate the makers

The Block Swappers have a birthday block exchange. In 2010 I asked for "10" basket blocks."  I made three more so the setting would work.   I have a couple of fabrics in mind for the sashing and the setting triangles/border.  I think this quilt will be contributed to the 2012 UMW Mother's Day raffle. (This year they're getting 30's Stars )

Loose Change

I used the leftover strips from the Bears quilt to make "Loose Change." (The name is a play on the quilt design "Chinese coins.")  This flimsy is 34 x 46.

HV-MY: together at last!

We are the first merged chapter in Illinois! 

Bears and Packers!

May 20 update: the Bears quilt sold for $1100 and the Packers quilt sold for $350 at the golf outing!

"Let's capitalize on the Bears/Packers rivalry," said Gary, the chairman of our Rotary Club Golf Outing. We were talking about ways to maximize the proceeds from the auction at the banquet that concludes the event.  "Nann, could you make a Bears and Packers quilt?" After more discussion--Mike B. said, "I wouldn't have any Packers stuff in my house!"--I said I'd make two quilts.

I have been on a strict no-buy diet since November.  I knew I would have to acquire Bears and Packers prints.  What to do?  I swapped fabric with another quiltmaker and got two yards of Bears fabric.  Alas, no one offered to trade for Packers fabric so I had to go to Joann's and, gasp, buy fabric.  (On that trip I got 7-3/8 yards: Packers, plus a yard each of gold, green, orange, and blue.)  Fortunately that one trip did not break my will and I went right back to no-buy.  Whew.

Here are the results:  quilted and bound.  The golf outing is May 20 -- so I am 7 weeks ahead of the due date! 

The Bears quilt is made from this pattern:   Saddle Tramp   It's 63 x 72.

The Packers quilt is my own design -- 12" Ohio stars.   It's 64 x 76. 

Bears block closeup.  9" stars.

Packers block closeup. 12" stars.