Dear Blair,

Hi, I’m back.

Ok, so, at first I was thinking about taking all those fancy fabrics & doing a sort of undulating striped patchwork piece, meant to be wave-esque.  But, you know, slippery.

That was my best idea,  though, until the image of concentric ripples, like when you drip water into a puddle, popped into my head.

I thought it would be a nice way to manage the gradations of color you sent, plus it had the added benefit of making use of wonder under instead of actual piecing, so I was all for it.

So I organized the colors, then cut some wonky circles.  After fusing my pieces, I stitched around each one with some metallic aqua thread I had on hand.  And that was it.

On the one hand, it sort of reminds me of an egg (if the white fabric was in the shape of a slice of bread, it would look very much like my daughter’s lunch today), but on the other hand, it’s also sort of like a lily pad, which is also watery, right?, & mostly it feels very clean & simple & unfussy to me.

D

Dear Daria,

July’s little watery piece was just what I needed this month. I’m not sure why, but I found the process of making this one very relaxing and sweet. Perhaps its because summer is ending? Perhaps I was remember all those afternoons the we wandered around the beach, picking up rocks and other little bits. I loved all the parts in the box you sent for July, especially the little painting.

I’m sure you didn’t intend for me to quite as literally inspired by your painting as I was, but I couldn’t help it. It was just perfect, and I enjoyed putting all the colors and shapes together to come up with a fabric version. The green-blues and baby blues you sent could be my new favorite color combinations. Its funny how they did not feel pastel, but just beachy and washed, lovely.

So, I consider this a postcard of our summer. It will always be a reminder of good stuff.

B

Dear Blair,

Holy moly, this one was hard. Hard!

Which, ok, I guess is not too surprising, since I am not one someone who collects vintage buttons, or thinks to use buttons for decorations on things I’m making — I have SEEN some fantastic vintage button collections, & some great, inspired, charming uses of said buttons, but it’s just not my gig, to look at a button & have a flash of design genius. But we’re stretching ourselves, right?

Though I am not sure a nine-patch with buttons sewn on is much of a stretch, & am definitely sure that it’s not genius, but focus on how the thing is actually FINISHED & humor me, ok?

For a long (long, long) time I didn’t know how I was going to pull everything you sent together, but then I noticed that the aqua in the Japanese print you sent was pretty close to one of my favorite aqua cottons, & once I had the fabrics working together, it was easier for me to let the buttons do their mismatched thing.

I had originally thought I would “quilt” the nine-patch with the buttons, only I had too many/not enough, so I tacked the corners with a machine satin stitch & attached the buttons (with orange thread) in two columns. I experimented with some orange binding, but it sent the entire project over the edge from tiny quilt to potholder, so it was a thankfully short-lived experiment.

The little silver button was my favorite, I think.

Ok, so, I have to say that this was the first project of ours that was NOT my favorite while working on it, though I did have a very satisfied moment when I figured out the background color scheme. However, now that it’s done, I’m not sorry we included the BUTTON theme, since I think that if we went through a whole year of challenge without totally tearing our hair out at least once, it’s not really so much of a challenge, right?

(I’m looking forward to getting back onto a less aggravated path with WATER, though.)

D

*As usual, I posted larger images than usual for the big reveal but looks like our template cuts off the sides so be sure to click the pictures for full size or check them out on the 8×8 flickr.

Daria and I were asked a loooooong time ago (wasn’t it ladies?) to create cover projects for Mixtape’s issue #5. I have been anxiously awaiting each new issue of Mixtape since Justine and Nichola began it and was honored to be asked. In keeping of the spirit and theme of what eight by eight is all about, a box was sent (one to Daria and one to myself) from Australia with an assortment of all kinds of things create a project with. Daria and I did not see each other’s pieces or really even discuss how we were using the items in the box until they were completed (it was killing us, believe me). Same rules as always…use all the materials in some way on the project, finished size must be 8″ x 8″. To fully show each finished project, they featured mine on one side of the cover of issue #5, and Daria’s (below) on the other.

I love how different they each turned out. Yet we each seem to be on a similar wavelength, which seems to happen to us often.

You can preorder your copy of Mixtape issue 5 here, which will begin shipping in late July/early August. It promises to be larger than ever. I can’t wait.

Thank you to Justine and Nichola!

Blair

P.S.- Daria, I’m still struggling over the whole button project for June. Which is why I haven’t shown my finished project yet. It’s not finished! Soon….soon….God help me soon…..

Dear Daria,

The box of green bits you sent for May threw me for a loop and I didn’t even realize it. There it all sat…on my work table…staring at me. Capped off by those little pots of fabric ink. My thinking ran the full gammet of possibilities. I could use a little of that ink…or a lot… I could use a little of the fabric…or a lot… Some days I would feel like just jumping in there, with no plan, and tackling it with whatever on-the-fly inspiration I had that day, but I held back and finally felt I came at it with some sort of creative plan. Here’s what I did.

Rather than use the large green piece you gave me as the base/background, I decided to use some quilter’s muslin I had (I worried that the green fabric and the light green ink were too close in color). I fiddled around with a pattern repeat I’d pulled from somewhere ages ago, which I drew out onto acetate (2 separate sheets, to cut out one for each color placement). Then taped them down over the muslin, one at a time, and pounced the ink on with a sponge. I like the way the darker green ink came out, but I was hoping for more even coverage for the lighter green (I think I should use a finer sponge). Each color required a couple of coats, which also affected the surface hand. But anyway, I reach a point where I was ready to move on to the fabric, so added the various fabric you sent a dots in between the patterns. I like the way it turned out.

This whole fabric printing business came at a really good time for the amount of brainspace I had for it. Its something I’d like to do more of, so you pushed me in the right direction D.

And yes, I think June’s theme is hard. Hard to put the box together, hard to find the inspiration for. Maybe now that the kids are home for summer break, we should get them to help us, no? :

-Blair

Daria,

You were a very clever girl to have gathered the bits you sent me from charm packs, to go along with our theme of “square”. I loved each of the prints and actually had in my mind a finished piece very similar to yours, using them as squares within the larger square. But when I sat down to work on them I decided on strips of them, all mixed up. I am sticking to my commitment to myself of doing each month’s eight by eight project in one sitting (which sometimes leads to, um, interesting effects), so in an afternoon I had several strips of pretty prints, all kind of loosely based on this pillow I saw in one of the magazines I got recently-

I thought it would be interesting to combine these into strips and zig zag stitch them on to the beige large swatch, similar to that pillow in the photo. I wasn’t loving my result until I added the teal blue binding-

I don’t remember where I got it, but it has got to be the most narrow width of binding I’ve ever tried to sew over an edge (which I’m now thinking it wasn’t meant to do, but whatever). Once I added it, it all felt much more cohesive to me. This was good practice for me, I’m always trying to get nice sharp corners. As Melissa once said about her (always lovely) quilt binding, “Next time will be perfect.”

The charcoal embroidery thread you included added a little more handwork, which I liked adding to this piece. I just roughly marked parallel lines and handstitched a running stitch across them.

As I said, you totally got my April package to you, it is perfect!

Is it May already? Okay, your “post” May Day package of “green” is on its way (can you guess I’m behind).

For anyone joining in, you can check out our entire gallery of past month’s eight by eight projects in our Flickr group.

Dear Blair,

This has been done for a couple of days, but the surprise March sleet has been interfering with my photo light for the surprise March color pairing, ahem.  Plus, I had to sit around thinking about how much I love your project before I could post about mine.  I love it!

Ok, so, I took the fabrics you sent, added a handful of solid cottons from my scrap box, & gave foundation piecing a whirl.  I’m not sure it’s a technique that will become part of my standard toolbox (not like the paper bag trick you used, which I’m dying to try), but I will say that it was very easy to handle some pretty fiddly little bits of fabric this way.  I used my rotary cutter to slice the fabric up into little freehand strips, then sewed them down to a muslin backing (more pics on flickr), & while the end result is thicker & lumpier (seamwise, I mean) than I would want in many cases, it was a lot of fun for this little project.

I initially made three strips, but felt like the piece needed something more, so I cut each of those in half the long way & sewed everything back together.  I added a few embellishments with the felt & ric rac you included in the box, then decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test out the square loop quilting design I’ve been working out.

Of course, with all the extra seaming & then the fairly heavy quilting, I came up short on size, so I decided to add a scrap of the uneven foundation-pieced ends across the bottom, since that skyline effect was actually one of my favorite results of the technique.  I ended up having to trim off most of the interesting bits when I cut the piece down to size (bad planning = making the piece too large & having important sections, pre-trimming, at both top & bottom).  Still, it’s something I’ll remember about doing strips that way.

I absolutely agree with you, the size & scope of these projects makes them feel very manageable, a perfect little way to try out new ideas or new techniques.  (I do really wish I could find my notebook, though.)

D

*As usual, I posted larger images than usual for the big reveal but looks like our template cuts off the sides so be sure to click the pictures for full size or check them out on the 8×8 flickr.

Dear Daria,

You’re probably amazed at how ahead of our deadline I am this month (I know I’m amazed!). I think this one is my favorite so far. Paper bag piecing is so fun! For readers who may not know what I’m talking about, as I cut strips out of the individual fabrics, I put them in a bag and pulled them out in pairs- without peeking- and sewed them together. Then those pairs were put back into the bag, pulled out in pairs, sewn together, and so on. What you end up with is something like the idea of my finished pieced. I put a few pictures of the process over on Flickr. There was not a bit of thought as to how these were going together, I really followed the rule of no peeking!

What is really freeing about a process like this is that the colors just come together on their own, there’s no planning and wondering if there’s too much of one color here or a pair that doesn’t work over there. And its so quick! Because there is not much planning and contemplating, I completed this in one rainy afternoon, from start to finish.

The handquilting is rather, um, rustic. But I actually tried to do that (you believe me, don’t you D?). I bought some various colors of orange and blue thread and just played around with stitching different shapes. The muslin piece you sent worked perfectly as a neutral border and the twill tape became the top and bottom edge. I *love* the way the colors came together in this, and how they are framed by the neutral border. I plan to play around with this whole technique some more. Its so simple to think by just putting the strips in a paper bag and not actually looking at them when choosing could inspire me, but I often go through periods of overthinking color combinations.

OK, Daria, we are three months into this and I couldn’t be happy with where this project has taken me. It has not been daunting, it has not felt like a burden (well, except for when I was knee-deep in school auctions, but at that point sleeping was a bit of a burden too.) Quite the contrary, it has inspired me and gotten me thinking in new directions creatively. Hope you think so too.

Blair

I have a story around what came out of this month’s theme. First of all, the colors of what you sent just jumped out of the box with all their vivid-ness. They were a welcome surprise (although I don’t really know what I was expecting, which I guess is part of the fun). I formed an idea of what I would do immediately. Then a h u g e project landed on the little lap of our small business, and everything was put aside. Everything. I found myself working not only while the kids were away at school each day, but at night after they were in bed, and sometimes even through dinner. I can’t say its put me in the best mood. Feeling as if I had no time for anything at all and most definitely no balance…well…yes…I was pouting a little. Anyway…

Just as I was about to go to bed the other night, I switched gears and decided to jump into my eight by eight project instead. I suddenly felt the urge to do something completely for me, and let me tell you, this was the perfect thing. Funny how sewing all these little stitches created such a total calmness in me, I immerged from my studio feeling so much better about everything, immediately calmer and just more “me”. I love having a pre-defined size and a pre-chosen set of materials to work with (that I did not choose). This month especially, it just seemed like the best kind of crafting therapy.

Looking back at the original pile of bits I got in my box, I was most interested in the felt dots and immediately called them my favorite part. They definitely fueled my initial inspiration. I found it most fun to use them as a foundation to play with different embroidery stitches. As for the fabrics themselves, they all seemed to come together as a patchwork, with the dots on top. I loved how the polka dot corduroy balanced with those round felt dots.

The wool roving you sent stumped me initially, but then I decided to pull out my needlefelting supplies and create pom poms (you can see these pom poms inspired other aspects of my crafting this month). I have wanted to do some needlefelting again for a while now, and while this is not a huge amount of work, my hands immediately remembered how theraputic the process can be (well, when I don’t get poked). I sewed these onto the corners, and this all suddenly felt very pillow-like to me. You know how I love the pillows. I added some stuffing, added a backing of red felt, and present you with a very tiny, eight by eight (actually a bit smaller) patchwork pillow.

On to March, a surprise color pairing is on its way to you!

Blair

Dear Blair,

I really loved the materials you sent for COZY*, & started thinking about layered organic shapes just about as soon as I opened the box.

I worked on the little pieces separately over the course of a few days, then had to set the whole thing aside for a while. When I picked it back up, it was pretty obvious: I’d been making a (cozy) box of chocolates. I’d thought I was just being inspired by the shapes & layering of this amazing quilt, plus the imaginary Martha Stewart article I was talking about, but then my husband came home talking about a Japanese craft book of tiny felted desserts he’d seen, plus it turns out that a big half-price box of post-Valentine candy got in there too.

So I totally went for it.

Down to the little gray salt sprinkles.

After all the fussy embellishing & quilting I did last month, this project felt very sweet & simple. I had the perfect candy paper brown corduroy for the background, & I kept my quilting to a minimum, just doing a couple of echo lines around each “chocolate,” then edging with a wide zigzag.

And now, onto Color Pairing!

*Just like last month, I posted larger images than usual for the big reveal but looks like our template cuts off the sides so be sure to click the pictures for full size or check them out on the 8×8 flickr.