Day: July 17, 2014

Some new Kaffe Fassett fabrics

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Last evening I attended a lecture by Kaffe Fassett. Three of the local quilt guilds decided to work together and sponsor his visit to Nova Scotia. His talk was about “colour” – I’ve been following his work for years, beginning with his knitting books. His latest work has been quilts using fabrics he designs for Westminster Fabrics.

After the purge of my house last week, including the sewing room (I got rid of a lot of fat quarters and scraps I knew I was never going to use), I promised myself I was NOT going to buy any fabric — NO FABRIC, until I saw those luscious flowers in gold, pink, pale green, turquoise. And beside that bolt was the green dots, and then the pink houses… I added in the strong pink circles and a couple of others, bought a half meter of each. Then I came home and went through my Fossil Fern fat quarter collection (I still have about half of them unused) and picked out eight that I thought would work with the Kaffe Fassett prints.

These are more subtle than my usual quilt fabrics in shades I don’t usually gravitate toward, but last evening they called out to me.

I have no idea what kind of quilt I will make with this fabric collection. It might be several months before I think about using them but something interesting will get made.

Day Lilies

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IMG_3032We’ve got day lilies in one of the garden beds across from my town house. They’ve been blooming for the past 10 days or so. This plant is thriving this year with a gazillion blooms to come.

Palazzo Pants

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Bali is hot, and we also have a few hot days each summer here in Halifax. So I decided to make a pair of palazzo pants — loose fitting pants with a yoke that sits just below the waist.

This is the first pair — I used some of the katagami (Japanese batik) I bought several weeks ago. I’ve used this fabric in a couple of quilts (I backed one with it). It washes well, presses nicely and drapes softly.

The pattern I used didn’t have pockets (I added two on the front – deep enough to carry my phone in my pocket), and it had a side zipper. This pair I put in the side zipper with an added tab (with a button) at the top.

I’ve made a white and a navy pair – each with a fly-front which I prefer to a side zipper. I’ve got two more pair cut out – I think at least one of them I will cut off to a capri length.

Definitely comfortable. They’re not all for Bali (I’ll probably only take a single pair), but they’re great to wear in our weather which has been warm and humid for the last couple of weeks.

Luggage Tags

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The women on the Bali trip have been talking about how to recognize one another in the Denpasar airport when we arrive. We’re coming from both the east and west coasts and from locations in between. Some travelling west, I’m traveling east. Several of us are arriving at about the same time in Denpasar. Since most of us don’t know anyone else on the trip, the suggestion was made to create luggage tags in a lime green so we can identify another trip member at the luggage pick up.

Seemed like a good idea. So yesterday I whipped up a couple of luggage tags – one for my suitcase, and one for my backpack (which I will be wearing). Very easy to do.

  • Cut 4 pieces of 3.5″ x 5″ fabric as well as 2 pieces of 3.5″ x 5″ heavy weight interfacing, two 6″ lengths of grosgrain ribbon and two  3.5″ x 5″ pieces of plastic.
  • Fuse the interfacing to two of the pieces of fabric.
  • Place the other two pieces of fabric on the right side of the fabric/interfacing piece and sew on three sides.
  • Turn inside out, press.
  • Insert the folded grosgrain ribbon (cut ends) into the open end which has been folded  inward. Stitch the open end closed.
  • Take a business card (or a card with your ID on it) and lay it in the middle of one side. Place the plastic piece on top and stitch around the outside, then stitch around the edge of the card. Trim the plastic as close to the seam as possible.

And there you have it – a personal luggage tag – won’t look like anybody else’s!