I wanted to make a tie for Caleb for the wedding and then I thought to myself, why not make one for Bill as well? I’ve had this nifty Alexander Henry dragon print lying around for ages, and I thought it would make a nice tie. I like the scalloped design in the background.

I already reviewed the Burda Osman Tie pattern I used for Bill’s tie in my post Holiday Gifts: Necktie.  I went ahead and left out the tie interfacing/interlining as I did in the last version, again this was quilter’s cotton, though not as heavy as the pirate ship cotton from the last post.  Bill commented that he really liked the way the tie tapered a little in the middle, it made tying it easy and made a nice looking knot.  All in all, the tie took me about an hour to make. Easy Peesy Lemon Squeezy.

Caleb’s tie was even simpler.  For his, I used the Ottobre Designs Boys Tie Pattern. Once again, take the time to copy it out nicely onto pattern paper – you’ll thank yourself later.  Note that Ottobre Designs does NOT include seam allowances, you will have to add your own (don’t forget!), depending on what you’re most comfortable with. I added just a quarter inch, standard quilting seam allowance.  The toughest part of this pattern is turning the whole tie tube inside out after you’re done  sewing. I don’t know why I have such a hard time turning tubes. I have any manner of tools to help me with this task and they never seem to work right. I always end up picking the tube out with a pin! At any rate, that is really, really the toughest part.  I promise. If you have a little boy, I encourage you to make this tie!  The tail end sticks out because Caleb kept “adjusting” it. In truth, I think he liked it that way. The tail is a little short to put inside a keeper, I might lengthen the pattern next time so the tie will be long enough for a keeper. 

Burda Osman Tie Pattern: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5. Easy, free and yeilds professional results.

Ottobre Designs Boys Tie Pattern: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5. So easy and free as well, but it needs to be a couple inches longer.

Isn’t he a cutie pie? Yes, I’m biased.

PS. Yet another To-Do-list project down!

Strictly speaking, this was not a holiday gift.  My dad’s birthday falls just a few days prior to Christmas and, because I understand how much it must suck to get a load of Christmas ‘n’ birthday combined gifts each year, I make a concerted effort to give him one gift for each. This year’s birthday gift was a pirate ship necktie.

Now, be honest, a necktie is kind of a lame gift. But a handmade necktie?  It kind of rocks. I used the Osman Tie pattern from burdastyle.com (http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/osman-tie) – it is available in a PDF download for all of $2.  The most painful part of the whole process was taping the pattern together and then copying it out onto pattern paper. I do HIGHLY recommend this step, though. Pattern paper is much easier to deal with than taped together printer paper.

I used cotton, not tie silk; and to make matters “worse” it was quilter’s cotton – already relatively thick and stiff on its own. I also didn’t buy tie interlining, but used a piece of suiting that I had on hand  as suggested in the pattern instructions. The whole thing went together in the matter of an afternoon. I ended up leaving out the interlining all together – the quilter’s cotton was so thick it was unnecessary.

Just a couple lessons learned on this one: don’t just eyeball where the design is on the material. As you can see from my photo, I only ended up with one little pirate ship on the front of the tie because I thought I had it lined up correctly, but I didn’t check. Also, if and when I make this again, I’ll move the stay up a little — the skinny side of the tie is a little short to stay in my stay.

Welcome to the first in my series of holiday gift posts! I handed these cute little pouches out last night to our daycare providers during their holiday party.  I wish I could take credit for the design, but I can’t – they came from Quilting Arts Magazine special Gifts issue (2009/2010).  The pattern was designed by Margarete Steinhauer and appears on page 132 of the mag (almost all the way at the back).  The pouches are circular, drawstring, lined with coordinating fabrics, and contain 8 small pockets to store pieces of jewelry; or anything else that you might want to store. They fit perfectly in a gift box for a standard-sized mug.

Drafting a pattern from instructions in a magazine is always a little fiddly. I needed to be able to draw 4 different circle sizes and I do not have a compass; even if I did, I doubt I would have had one that would make a large enough circle for this tote.  Instead, I opted for my measurements to be a teeny bit off and ended up using a dinner plate for the outer circle, a largish mixing bowl for the drawstring channel, a pasta bowl for the inner/pocket circle and finally, a tiny mis en plase bowl for the base circle.  The bowls I used for my inner circle and my base circle were exactly right, the outer circle and drawstring channel were slightly off.  Luckily, this did not cause any problems with the final outcome.

Jewelry Pouch – inside
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

I made seven of these little pouches; the first two as a prototype – once those were done, and I understood how the pattern was supposed to fit together and work, it was easy enough to throw together the other five via the Assembly Line method. I had all of the awesome matching fabrics on hand in my stash, and even the little bits of heavy interfacing needed for the base. The only thing I DID have to buy was the rat tail for the drawstrings. I am absolutely positive that I have a large spool of rat tail somewhere in my sewing room, but it beats me where I put it.  I did not buy enough rat tail so that the pouches will lie flat when opened – I didn’t think it was necessary and I didn’t like the idea that the drawstrings would be so long when the pouches were closed up tight. Overall, I think I would be happy to get one of these as a gift…I really hope the teachers are too!

A close friend of mine found an local interior decorator who was moving offices/going out of business/changing things up (we’re not quite clear exactly what the situation is) and was invited to take a look at the stuff that the interior decorator was getting rid of. She was astonished to find that ”stuff” included ROOMS full of fabric: samples, yardage, upholstery, silk, cottons…

My friend kindly invited me to join her yesterday for some free S.E.X. (if she knew that that is what it is called, I think she would unfriend me immediately) and I happily agreed, though I have to admit I was a touch skeptical. We arrived, and the decorator informed us that we were last on her priority list, first being her staff, second being charity and third, us. This was FINE WITH ME.

The fabric selection was astounding. Being a quilter, I could happily take even the small sample-sized fabric squares. By the time I left, I had 3 trash bags FULL of fabric & even a number of beautiful trims, and they STILL hadn’t finished clearing out the back room. Of course, it turns out that the fabrics I really wanted were in the back of the back room. My wonderfully, amazingly, awesomely fantastic friend volunteered to go back today and pack up even more fabric for me, along with some pillow forms and other wonderful things.

Last night I cut open my garbage bags and sat in my living room sorting fabric.  Quilters cottons, tiny pieces, medium pieces, yardage, shears, other, and trims.  I have ideas for about 50% of it. 

Keep your eyes out for some fabulous carpet bags and vintage style baby quilts to appear in my etsy shop soon!

I’ve been keeping myself quite busy for the past few weeks with preparations for Artomatic, and now the show is finally upon us!  Walls have been painted, lettering has been added, postcards printed, paint touched-up and, most importantly, art has been made and HUNG!  Even though I completed my installation on Sunday, there is still a nagging voice in my head saying “What on Earth did I get myself in for?” and “Isn’t there more that I can do?” I can’t wait until 10pm tonight—the last minute of installation.  After that, the building will be “hermetically sealed” for staff to clean and finish prepping things like lounges, bars, and classrooms.  So as of 10 pm, I can’t do any more, even if I wanted to.  The show opening is this Friday, May 29th—I will be there as soon as I can be after work.

My Artomatic Wall, from the side
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

I’m showing two different sets of work—4 pieces of each series.  The Full Moon series that I started at the beginning of the year includes Wolf Moon, Quickening Moon: Seedling Ambition, Storm Moon, and Wind Moon.  I realize that I haven’t made blog posts about any but Wolf Moon; I am going to try to get them together and post this week or in the first week of the show, in case folks come here wanting to know more.  The second is a series that I began over a year ago which I’m calling Water & Stones. I pieced the large quilt many moons ago as a study of patterns and lines and colors and just got stuck.  I pulled it back out and quilted it just recently in time for Artomatic.  The small quilts that run along side it were fun little variations on the theme.  There is a fourth, but 3 is a better number for display purposes.  My current description of them starts out with “if Andy Goldsworthy were a quilter…”  Once again, I realize that I haven’t made a blog post about any of these.  Just like with the full moon series, I am planning to post something descriptive up this week or next.  If you want to see more pictures and details of the quilts, check out my set of Artomatic pictures on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyson_olander/sets/72157618608512307/ .  Once Artomatic opens, I will be posting (almost) all of the pieces on etsy for purchase: http://wonderlandquilts.etsy.com .

Me & my wall
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

Here’s the oh-so-important plug and show information:

55 M Street, SE (Navy Yard Metro, Nationals Stadium Exit)
Washington, DC 20003
My work be found on the 4th floor, near the education area

May 29-July 5, 2009
Fri-Sat: Noon-1 am
Sun, Wed, Thu: Noon-10 pm
Meet the artists night: June 13th (I’ll be there!)

More Information: http://www.artomatic.org/

It’s been a while since I posted. I’m so out of practice. I worked on this piece today. I know you can’t see much of it here, but it will be in Artomatic between May 29th-July 5th, so iffin you want to see it, you should come for a visit. Or, I will probably post a full pic when it’s done, so you could take that route as well.

Also, we made a pilgrimage to Ikea for Artomatic lighting and a myriad of other fun things. I want everything. In particular, a new kitchen; but also, everything.

The NIH Juried Art Show Starts tomorrow. My purple swirly quilt that’s already been everywhere is in that show. While I am very excited to be accepted to a juried art show, I have to admit to feeling disappointed that the other submissions were overlooked in favor of the purple swirly one. I think it’s getting retired after this show, I’m tired of looking at it.

Off to go work on some more stuff for Artomatic. I think it is possibly a bad idea for me to leave all of the hand-sewing till last…

My new fabrics from Equilter arrived! Also, my new Vogue patterns arrived AND I went to the awesome vintage store and got buttons with toadstools and four leaf clovers on them. How could the day get any better?

I had an abbreviated sewing evening tonight because we had to keep the baby up so we could dose him with tylenol before bed (shots at the doc’s today). I didn’t finish anything, but I FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY started on our re-usable grocery bags. I cut them out ages ago, but I just never got around to sewing them. I thought I would treat you to a photo of the tremendously ugly, yet so appropriate fabric that I got for them. Yes, that is lettuce and olives with leopard stripes on pink. You are not imagining things. It’s a cotton/cotton blend that I got on super sale at Hancock’s. The cotton webbing that you see will be the straps. Sewing the straps on is the most tedious part because I have to pin to keep them straight, that’s where I am now. I have 7 LARGE bags cut out, straps sewn on to two of them. With any luck, we’ll have reusable bags in time for our next grocery shopping extravaganza!