Labor Day Fun: prepping for new projects

It's fitting that on Labor Day I finally have the time and energy to begin prepping for some new projects. Check out the fabrics I bought this morning!

So with an idea in mind, and remembering the wonderful colors and shapes that I was inspired by on my visit to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and the beautiful beaches, I headed over to my favorite brick and mortar fabric store, Stonemountain and Daughter. The fabrics above are all for a new quilt I'll be working on. Unfortunately, this will be another long project that will take me weeks, if not months to complete. What a bummer, but a great lesson in patience. I'll try and post updates on my progress to keep me motivated; it'll give me a sense of accountability!

I've also begun prepping my materials for Christmas gifts (yes, already)! Did you read that lovely sisters of mine? I'm already getting started on your Christmas gifts! I'll be spending a lot of my evenings working with my hands, needles and thread. I can't express how much I'm looking forward to being creatively active again. And since I don't wan to spoil the Christmas surprise,  I'll refrain from posting images.

And for now, I'm off to finish cooking my mom's famous Mexican rice. 

finished Quilted Library of Babel

Two straight weeks of sewing, 1 1/2 yards of fabric, and 62 hexagons later...

I originally planned to do some Sashiko embroidery, but instead sewed a few bees to complete the honeycomb/beehive look. Once I was finished, I stitched it onto a piece of canvas, and Joel stretched it onto some stretcher bars for me.

And now this 16" x 40" piece of quilted art is hanging in our bedroom. I'm so happy with how it turned out! It feels great to have finished the project, but I already have another one lined up! My hands just can't sit still for too long.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Inspiration

I wanted to share some of the inspiration for the Quilted Library of Babel project I've been working on. For this project I've drawn on a short story, a favorite movie and my favorite color palette.

Library of Babel/La Biblioteca de Babel

The name itself references Jorge Luis Borges' short story, The Library of Babel (Biblioteca de Babel), in which he describes the library as a universe that consists of an enormous expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms, each of which contains the bare necessities for human survival—and four walls of bookshelves. It's one of my favorite stories, and I've been fascinated by it for years.

Set in the 1940's, Espiritu de la colmena is a film by Spanish director Victor Erice. It's eerie, quiet and just beautiful to watch. I first saw this film for a Spanish film class in graduate school, and instantly fell in love with it. One theme, that is carried out throughout the entire movie, is that of the beehive. The image of the honeycomb is seen various times in the movie -- it's very hard to miss! Not only is this movie visually stunning, but it's an amazing critique of post-Spanish civil war society and the effects of dictatorship and war on a society, and it's individuals.

Papered Pom set from BHLDN

A couple of years ago when my husband and I were planning our wedding, we drew a lot of inspiration from our love of books, and the stylish items and decor at Anthropologie stores. Above is a papered pom set from Anthropologie's wedding line, BHLDN, that is pretty spot on to the color scheme I chose for my project. It's also very similar to the colors at our wedding -- very soft and warm tones. If only BHLDN existed when I got married. Side note: We actually had tissue paper flowers/poms, that were made with the help of my awesome coworkers, decorating the backdrop for our ceremony.

Isn't this brooch beautiful? Couldn't pass posting this little guy.

Honeybee Brooch from BHLDN

Well, there you have it! What things bring inspiration to your projects?

Quilted Library of Babel

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been working on for the last week and a half:

from this:

to this:

and finally, this:

Just a few more touches before I can reveal the whole project. Stay tuned!

Patchwork Star hanging

For my birthday a few months back, I used some of my birthday gift money to buy myself the Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and fabrics (Thank you, family!), which is full of basic techniques for sewing by machine or hand, and lots of other craft techniques and tips. The second half of the book is full of wonderful projects with detailed (and sometimes very confusing) instructions. I already bookmarked a ton of projects, but have decided to start with the Star pattern patchwork.

The instructions in the book are for a 24in finished star, but I thought that was a bit large (imagine the size of frame you'd need to buy for it?) and decided on making a 12in star. I used scraps from 4 different fabrics and interfacing I had left over from the gathered clutch.

The very first step is to apply the interfacing to the back of the fabrics. Here's a helpful tip for ironing on your interfacing: make sure you have the textured side DOWN. It's the adhesive side, and I made the mistake of ironing the interfacing to my damp towel. No worries though, I peeled it off, and ironed it textured side down to the fabric. Phew.

Next, comes the math and ruler part. The instructions call for drawing vertical lines 2 inches apart, and then another set of lines at 45 degrees, two inches apart. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this sort of stuff, so I enlisted Joel's help to mark up the back of the fabrics (the side with the interfacing). You may notice in the photo below that the interfacing is not one solid piece. I made use of all the scraps I had, and just made sure the seams were overlapped when ironing it on.

I carefully began cutting the diamonds with my rotary cutter.

Once your diamond pieces are all cut out, play around with them until you decide on a pattern you like. Below is the one I chose. You can always use more fabrics, but I thought I'd keep it simple and use an even number of fabrics (plus, these are the ones I had handy). I ended up changing the pattern around because I unknowingly flipped a couple of pieces when sewing, but that's okay -- you're allowed to change your mind along the way!

When sewing the individual pieces together, make sure that the right sides are facing each other (IE: the sides of the fabric without the interfacing).

I began by sewing the center pieces together, and then working outwards.

Initially, I sewed an entire star out of 8 diamonds, but I was having a difficult time sewing the additional diamonds to the core star. I ended up taking apart the center seam that joined the two halves together. Once I did this, I quickly basted diamonds to each of the halves and then ran the whole thing through the machine.

And when I was done, I had this:

I still need to sew the Patchwork Star to another piece of fabric before I frame it. Another option is to float it in a frame as is. Now that I've got this first version under my belt, I'm thinking of how to modify, modernize and personalize it. Look out for a different version soon!