E-reader bags from reclaimed fabric

This past couple of weeks I have been busy making e-reader bags for any kind of e-reader. Kindles, nooks and i-pads. They have 2 zippers pockets, one for the cords and lights and ..... and a separate pocket for the e-reader. The fabric has been a blast to work with.

Some of them I added just a touch of new. 

Black Butterfly star with a twist!

Black Butterfly is one of the designs in my book and now and again it is oh so fun to do something a bit different so I have added secondary spokes/points and it is coming along quite nicely. I am using 2" diamonds instead of the 2 1/2" called for in the direction. 

The original fabric choices 

Diamond arrangement not to be used 

These diamonds make great spokes

deciding the background 

Yep this background

Do I want a single secondary spoke ????

Or do I want two secondary spokes????

Choices 

Two it will be. I like the way using two secondary spokes looks way better.

1/8 th section 

1/4th section is done 

Quilts

The Laurel Birch cats quilt is finished. Sandi's hand pieced quilt is quilted and there are a couple of confetti pieces on stretcher bars ready to be hung at the Myrna Loy Center tomorrow. Several pieces of my work are currently at the local Urgent Care +. I think it is wonderful that our local urgent care is displaying the work of local artists. It's almost time for the local Farmer's market as well, YEA summer is on the way.

Confetti - blue sky

Laurel Birch cats in a traditional quilt! 

Confetti
Oranges! 

Sandi's hand pieced quilt, close up.

Sandi's hand pieced quilt. 

Life is busy

I've been working on traditional quilts. I am so in awe of people who do them all the time, they are so much work and so much fun.

Redworks fabric 

The blocks were so much fun and it is almost ready to go on the quilting machine.

Oranges and accents for a quilt more or less like the redworks.

Progress on the orange not quite traditional quilt

The new owner has chosen the bright turquoise for the border strips.

Doodles 

Hearts 

The top is finished and the quilting has commenced.

The red works quilt is finished and bound. 

The quilting is complete! 

Doodles with thread

I've been working on this yellow and blue 9 patch forever, mostly because I find squares boring and corners hard to match. (My star quilt followers are probably laughing hysterically - but it's true) It is a scrappy 9 patch so quilting can be for fun. I can doodle, I use to doodle on paper while I talked on the phone, who knows what I might have said. Machine quilting is doodling with thread, loud sooting movement music and I really like how this quilt turned out. 

Now I've added more pictures of a customers quilt, also doodled - this is a blast.

Quilting 

9 patch 

The back is a piece of my rescued fabric.

Sandi one of my customers brought this hand pieced quilt for me to quilt. 

Yes she really hand pieces the whole thing, then brings it to me to machine quilt, she is so cute! 

The rescued fabric living on my house

How do I explain the fabric I rescued? There really was about 20 tons of it, it took 4 or 5 months of hauling it home from the dreary warehouse basement where it had been livi   ng in the dark. Fabric needs to breath, in the light.  I started small with a couple of car loads, it was kinda smelly, could it be saved? There were hours and days of sorting and washing, if it couldn't be washed it was out of here. There were tons of polyester, the original stuff with glue on the back, most of which had turned black, the 100% wool it was glued to ended up being wonderful. I ended up bringing it all home, my friends thought I was nuts, they could be right. The colors and types of fabric are terrific, all kinds of windows and creative doors were now wide open. What could I make, as I was still sorting and washing, a 4 year process, really truly! The washed in laundry soap vinegar and baking soda, hung on the line in the sunshine to dry, folded and too much in the studio, lots of containers full in the garage is now providing a 24 hour a day retreat in my studio. I am in awe everyday and once in awhile overwhelmed. There were zippers too, lots and lots of zippers. Part of the reason I rescued it was because I knew it was going to the dump if it did not find a new home and much of it had the mills where it was made on the pieces of fabric. I looked them up, this fabric was manufactured in the United States, in mills no longer open.

Sorting, it all came in black garbage bags or boxes

Always and forever sorting

Progress

Fabric and zippers

Just a bit of it now, washed clean and in the house waiting.

Cottons for ordinary quilts.

Rescued fabric 

January and the sun is shinning

Last week it was horribly cold, windy and then tons of beautiful wonderful snow. Today the sun is shinning and it feels like spring is just around the corner, which I am sure it is somewhere. I have been busy making new bags and finishing WIP's, one day I hope to be able to find my studio floor again, but alas it will be temporary. The process of listing my work on my web site is under way as well.