Planning

Anni Albers Design

My motivation and creative practice was all over the place at the beginning of the pandemic, but I found a lot of comfort in piecing together shapes. It’s repetitive, which allows me to zone out, but also provides some fun opportunities to problem solve.

For this project, I copied an Anni Albers design. I believe there’s a difference between knocking off for personal use and copying for profit. I think that when it’s for personal use, the act of replicating can be an incredible learning process and a means to improving your skills. Copying encourages you to assess construction and puzzle out how things come together.

I used 10oz cotton duck in Natural, Black, and Khaki. I need to find a new canvas supplier because the company I got these from had blue lives matter bullshit in one of its recent newsletters.

I had a lot of fun figuring out the blocks for this. There is one section that I would do a different way, if I were to do it all over again, but whatever!

Initially I had planned to use the khaki canvas for the border but must have used it in another project. I’m actually quite pleased with how the natural color border turned out. This color definitely made the stretching process a little easier – the wonkiness from stretching is somewhat hidden.

Some day we’re going to rip out this terrible 70s “update” and make the fireplace a focal point instead of an eyesore.

Scrap Quilt

Another piecing project I’m slowly working on is a scrap quilt. Whenever I cut out a woven garment project, I’ll cut 2″ x 2″ squares out of the leftovers. As a chronic over-buyer of fabric/project switcher, it’s making me feel better about the waste that comes with each garment project.

I recently made a small design wall for quilting projects. It’s just a 48″ x 48″ piece of homasote that I stretched cotton canvas over. It’s not as sticky as a traditional design wall, plus it’s right next to a vent, so stuff needs to be pinned to it.

If you’d like a tutorial for this, Farm & Folk has an excellent one.

Anyway, I started this project back in early September of 2019. It’s a nice long-term project that I can pick up and leave whenever feels right. However, my goal is to make 100 blocks and document them in my IG stories.

Initially I wanted to do 100 consecutive days, but I completely forgot about one day, then another… and then I felt silly about it. So now I’m just gonna call it a “100 Blocks” projects that will be completed in the time frame that feels good to me. I’m especially fond of these blocks. The pink seersucker is my first attempt at using natural dyes.

Quilted Jacket

The third pieced project I’m working on is a quilted jacket. I’m lengthening the Seamwork Easton jacket and adding hidden pockets.

Here’s what a single block looks like (above). I am using leftover wovens, plus Ace & Jig scraps with a black linen. I like how this project will be a reminder of past garment projects.

I’m leaning toward using the composition on the right. Maybe this jacket will be ready by next winter!

My stash has gotten a bit out of control. Simply put, I’m buying a shit ton more fabric than I’m sewing. And that’s right, I have some coming in the mail too. I try to buy fabric with a pattern in mind, but sometimes I don’t, or I change my mind… You know how it goes. So I’m going back to a tried and true method – drawing flats and pairing them with swatches. The only thing that’s different is I’m taking them out of my sketchbook and hopefully posting them somewhere super visible in my space. Oh, and documenting them here. I think once a project is completed, the drawing and swatch will go back into a sketchbook.