{sew} Allegorical

New Site is Up! Follow me there!

2013-05-06T19:31:00.001-04:00

It's moving day online!

My new site is up and live just in time for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day!

http://www.athousandneedles.com

I'm really rather excited about the new name and the logo and pretty much everything about all this.

I've been able to move all the old posts over so there shouldn't be any lost content.

{sew}allegorical has been really great but it was time for a fresh place. The name was just something I threw together one day and never fit quite right. The new name/logo already makes me so very happy.

I've loved getting to know all my online friends and I really hope you'll follow me along over there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to port any subscriptions/followers over so you'll have to re-subscribe. Up on the new site is an RSS button, a BlogLovin button and a form to fill out to subscribe by email. I think that's got everything covered.

I hope all y'all will grow into this new site with me. I've got some great things coming including some publications, new class announcements, patterns and maybe even my very own little fabric store.

Thank you so much to everyone for all the inspiration and support!

<3 Al

Maintenance! And a Question..

2013-04-23T11:17:00.003-04:00

Just a heads up!

The new site is being worked on so there's going to be some maintenance going on around here.

Hopefully I don't just delete everything or something crazy but I'm working on moving the posts over so that I don't have to lose content.

So if things look a little funny around here...I probably pressed a button that I shouldn't have.

I'm so very very very excited for the new things happening and the new site where everything can be under one matching name.

I hope you'll follow me over there. Since Google Reader is going away I'll be setting up a different reader service on the new site. When the site is public, I'll be sure to include a post with different following options.

If you have a moment could you please let me know your current preferred reader? I don't want to force anyone to use one specific reader so I'd like to provide at least two options.

I know things have been quiet here! Thank you so much for putting up with me during the site move ;)

Wordless Wednesday

2013-04-17T13:48:00.001-04:00

Friday Five - Out of the Studio Edition

2013-04-12T12:32:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past few days out of my studio and instead working in the dining room.

It's been warming up here and my dining room has a great set of sunny french doors.
There's not a lot of sun in my studio, which is great for my fabric but sometimes I just want to work in full sunshine.

Now I'm glad I kept my old iron and my ugly table ironing board. It's perfect for setting up shop somewhere else:

Yesterday was spent cutting. And cutting and cutting. Cutting papers. Cutting fabric. And cutting ribbon to wrap it all up.

The warm weather inspired me to spend some time restocking hexie kits in the shop.

Trying sometime different this time around. First cutting kits by color and soon cutting some kits by line.

I've also been gathering up stray projects that need to make their way into the studio to be finished.

Some hexie flowers for Hush Bella:

And some Tiny Tumblers that I had cut down at Fabricate for the Tiny Quilt Club:

I'm not exactly sure what my studio desk looks like right now.

Maybe I'll be completely crazy and not check on it until Monday.

Maybe.

Friday Five

2013-04-05T17:28:00.001-04:00

This week all five projects happened to be shoved into one corner.

I've been working on something big that I needed the desk space for and this is what the other side looks like right now.

It's composed of:

1. More scrappy trip blocks

2. X plus pieces, cut but not sewn

3. Rows for Scrap Vomit in the purple/red box

4. The blue box is overflowing with HST for smorgasquilt. I want it to be a monster so I just keep making them between projects.

5. And a muslin for a bust adjustment.

What a wreck.

Wordless Wednesday

2013-04-03T10:19:00.002-04:00

An experiment that I'm not quite sure I like.

Going to let it sit for the month before seeing if I want to quilt it.

Friday Finish - Farmer's Wife

2013-03-22T11:34:00.002-04:00

The five things on my desk don't matter much this week.

They're awesome but not nearly as awesome as a finished Farmer's Wife top.

My baby is done and I don't think I could possibly be happier.

All the weeks. All the tiny triangles. All absolutely worth it.

I knew the traditional layout wasn't right for me and after some wonderful advice from a friend I staggered some strips of Michael Miller's Clown Stripe in between each block.

I love the movement the stripes give this quilt. And the breaks from all that color.

This layout meant that I needed an even number of blocks so I put together this quick little star and added it in.

Which worked out perfectly because those pumpkins were a purchase from my birthday trip to Nashville and I'm really excited that they got to work their way into my quilt.

112 blocks. Set into 14 rows of 8.

Long enough that I can completely hide under it. Or run around the house with a fabulous cape.

I've gotta part with my baby for a little while. She's off to the longarmer to get a bit of pumpkin treatment.

Binding is proving tricky for me at the moment. I can't decide what I want. So I think that the time away will give me a chance to really think about it. Then I can look at it with fresh eyes when it gets back home.

...I haven't even gone to the post office and I miss it already.

Wordless Wednesday - The Secret Is Out

2013-03-20T08:30:00.000-04:00

I'm Going to be Teaching Here!

Ignoring the List

2013-03-12T13:50:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just have to ignore all the things your epic to-do list says need to be done today.

Instead you DIY a lightbox.

And finish up a present for a friend.

Quote from Empire Records.
Stitches charted out by me.
Finished up with a bit of felt on the back for stability.

Wordless Wednesday

2013-03-06T08:30:00.000-05:00

The Birthday Spoils

2013-03-05T12:14:00.001-05:00

Wow. My dining room is rocking some yellow light these days. I think I need to go shop for different bulbs.

That pile is my task for the day. While I think it would be lovely to just have piles of fabric on the dining room table to stare it, there has been the suggestion that the dining room table could be used for other things.

Like eating.

Silly idea, I know.

Off into the studio this fabric will go. Much to my bookcase's horror. I believe I heard the poor thing creak the other day when filing a half yard.

Maybe it is time for a destash.

Or another bookcase.

Birthday Mini-Vaycay

2013-03-01T12:10:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure of the state of my desk at the moment (for Friday Five) because I've put all my WiPs on hold to do a little traveling.

I'm off to Nashville for my birthday. I expect a lot of fabric shopping. And BBQ eating.

Did I mention Fabric Shopping?

I'm sure some fabric will be showing up on my Instagram feed.

I'll be back on Tuesday to try and conquer my epic list of things to sew.

Okay...so I might have packed *one* WiP in my bag but there could be down time!

Can Jellybeans be Ugly?

2013-02-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

-I should take the time to note here that regular visitors might notice this post is a bit off the norm for this blog, but it's more on the 'norm' for my brain. If that makes any sense. There's a bit of text to follow, but after numerous edits I feel like every word that is left is necessary. This piece takes a bit of explaining. I feel like it is the explanation which makes the finished project mine.-

After a bit of time on Twitter bonding over wrestling, I actually got the chance to meet Thomas at Sewing Summit in October.

Late one night, Thomas had the chance to hear a lot about the way I think about fabric and sewing. It was a conversation that made me feel far more comfortable about expressing these thoughts. Clearly, that hasn't happened up until now.
I felt like I needed the right moment to open this particular door into my brain.

That moment came with the chance to play with ten FQs of fabric for the Jellybean-a-thon. Armed with the knowledge that I'd have free reign with the fabric, I decided to take a risk.

Here's where the door into my brain starts opening.

There are piles of things in my studio that don't show up in photos here. There's a book worth of notes on my desktop (some even organized into chapters) and even some lesson plans blooming for some future awesome. It's a concept that occupies my mind to the point that I wake up in the middle of the night to make notes.

I spent a lot of time in my studio trying to make ugly things. And it turns out that it isn't as crazy an idea as I thought.

(On a corresponding note,Thomas made a Wager recently that's worth a read. It's not about ugly things but more the state of quilting affairs. It's very much linked to the thoughts that occupy my brain and he's able to convey it in a way which can be understood vs. my tangent-ridden attempts.)

I've always done things outside the norm. For example, to start quilting I picked machine-sewn hexagons as the first pattern even though the shop kept pushing patchwork or log cabin. I work backwards. I break rules.

I make mistakes.
And almost every single mistake has become possibilities.
Actively setting out to make mistakes would be silly. Instead this concept morphed into working to create ugly things.
Because once I stopped worrying about the pretty fabric and the pretty pattern and the constant overwhelming need for pretty I found that all the creative blocks I had been facing had disappeared. Setting out to make something ugly let the pretty come on it's own.

Or sometimes not.

I don't think that my mind is always satisfied with making pretty things. Allowing for ugly has opened up space to solve creative problems. I've found that ideas that previously were only allowed to exist on paper now held potential. There's a lot of freedom in cutting out all the worry about what I was making looked like as I was making it. Instead the focus is turned towards why I am making it.

Sometimes the answer is 'because I want to' which I can allow as an acceptable response. Other times it is because I want to play with a shape or allude to a story/game.

More often than the above times, I make things in order to learn.

So with a stack of Jellybeans in front of me, it was time for an experiment.

Pretty is such a personal word. My project start would be to find a non-quilting item that I found pretty and break it down into three reasons why.

My pick:

Photo belongs to Jeni. Flickr source here.

Pyrex dishes.

The three reasons:

-Single color representations.

-Large negative spaces.

-Patterns presented in straight lines.

Step Two of my experiment: Pick one reason to keep and 'break' the others.

Single color was the first to be eliminated because the fabric obviously doesn't fit.

I've always found negative space pretty and don't take advantage of it in my previous work so I decided to keep that one. This meant whatever I made couldn't have straight line patterns.

Here was the point where I sat down to think of the ugliest thing that I could make. Again, ugly is a personal concept.

Yo-yos.

Yo-yos and I have a history. One in which I made hundreds of them for my mother to make a quilt. I think they're still sitting in a bag somewhere in her house.

I've seen gorgeous yo-yo quilts but every time I've set my hands to them it's been disastrous.

Yo-yos would be my method of ugly.

Armed with a hundred or so yo-yos, it was time to finish my experiment.

The task to make something "more functional than a pillow or a blanket" was also presented to me by the Mr. one night when I was sewing yo-yos on the couch.

To be fair, there are dozens of pillows and blankets around the house.

So I made an ottoman.

Covering it completely with yo-yos would have left me without negative space. I spent a good day trying to cluster them in a seemingly random pattern. It turns out that without a set plan my default is to arrange things in balanced lines.

That was surprising to me as I always thought I took a more random approach.

Clusters of yo-yos are on every side of the ottoman.

There's no escaping them.

The strange thing is that my 'ugly' ottoman is growing on me. It's been sitting between those bookcases for a couple weeks now and has cemented itself as the thing that should have always been there.

Maybe I simply love it because it is mine.

Or maybe it's that it goes with absolutely nothing in my house which really means that it goes with everything.

Lucky for y'all, the Jellybean-a-thon is just kicking off! Which means there's a whole line-up of stunning projects to help clear your palates of my experiments.

Feb 25: Thomas Knauer
Feb 26: Allegory Lanham <--you are here!
Feb 27: Tracy Mooney
Feb 28: Sara Lawson
March 1: Rachael Gander
March 2: Rashida Coleman-Hale
March 3: Heide Mueller-Hatton
March 4: Audrie Bidwell
March 5: Kim Niedzwiecki

Thank you, Thomas, for letting the ugly into the mix. I've already been collecting another stack of Jellybeans for a new experiment.

A Big Little Finish

2013-02-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

Far too long ago, I took a bundle of fabric to Sewing Summit and started an EPP Spring Carnival Pillow a la the super Katy.

It stayed zipped up in its little project bag and lived in a pile of project bags in my studio.

I don't know why I let it live in the bag for so long. It went together really quickly once I actively sat down with it.

Some hoarded Ikea fabric, a 22" zipper that I found while straightening up and a giant pillow form and it's finished.

Mr. Al suggested the 1/4" spaced quilting. It was a slight pain but I'm really happy with the finished piece.

Looks like I'm gathering quite the collection of pillows. Could stand to have a few more I think.

And now I've got an empty project bag for handwork.

Wonder how long that will last.

Winds of Change

2013-02-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

No Friday Five this week. It'd be mostly a bunch of boring pictures of paperwork. There's paperwork all over my house.

But it's a good thing!

Those of you that may follow me on Flickr/Instagram/Twitter may have noticed the changes. I waited as long as I could and hopefully I can make the shift as painless as possible for everyone.

I'll be operating under a new name as of this year.

Don't worry. No planned changes after this.

I've had some amazing job opportunities come my way this year. Things I'm so incredibly excited about and can't wait to share with everyone. With that came the need to sit down with some counsel and establish where I wanted to go from here.

I'm sure you've noticed that things have been quiet around here and I do apologize. I've been busy at work in the background. It's going a little slower than I had hoped, but any forward movement is good!

I've adjusted the usernames on all my established accounts (rather than opening up brand new accounts) so there shouldn't be any social media hiccups if you already follow me.

Twitter: @A1000Needles
Instagram: @a1000needles
Flickr: AThousandNeedles
etsyshop: AThousandNeedles

I'm doing a lot of thinking about the blog. I don't know if it'll stay on Blogger or move to Wordpress but I do need to at least change the domain name.

If anyone has any feedback, I'd love to hear it!

So I do hope you forgive me for the few bumps in the road over the next month. Hopefully my logo will be finished soon and I'll have more news about the blog.

Whew...that's a lot of text with no pretty fabric pictures. I've got a pillow that's *thisclose* to finished so I'll have some actual progress to show you this weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

2013-02-20T11:47:00.003-05:00

Friday Five

2013-02-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

Winter Round of 4 x 5 (I taped them up on the wall 'cause they kept falling off the edge of my desk):

Fabric for my latest Halloween quilt:

Finished Spring Carnival EPP (I'm having trouble deciding what the backing should be):

Scrap Vomit Bucket (my current leaders/enders):

A stack of dots for more Xplus blocks:

Today is shaping up to be a crazy errands day so there's a strong chance that my desk will look exactly as-is tomorrow too.

Here's hoping that's not the case.

Admit Two Shadowbox

2013-02-14T19:58:00.000-05:00

With a little bit of lens flare.

I'm glad that Valentine's Day is finally here so I can reveal this box I made. It's been hiding in various rooms around the house and I was careful to not take any pictures in case of snooping.

You can just see the top where I modified the box to have a coin-slot style opening. This way the Mr. and I can put future tickets in the box. It didn't take much, just some time with the Dremel. I did see some already modified boxes yesterday (after already making this one) but they were $30 and much smaller. I'll take my $8 shadowbox and some diy anyday.

I'm excited to see it all fill up. I think there's additional tickets in his office too. I was afraid of taking them earlier this week and then having him ask where they were.

Now to find a place to hang it.

That's always the hardest part at my house.

Friday Five (with a Fabric Swap)

2013-02-08T20:11:00.001-05:00

The #scrappytripalong officially begins:

It will multiply soon:

My xplus craze has moved into my 4x5 blocks:

The orphan HSTs bucket grows:

And cat fabric for the #badcatfabric swap. The link for the group is here! There are still spots open!:

We're swapping 10" squares of cat fabric. Because there's a secret pleasure in terrible cat fabric.

Dot Dot Dash Bag!

2013-02-04T10:40:00.002-05:00

The combination of clouds, rain and wind stopped long enough for me to get some pictures yesterday afternoon.

Remember that big stack of zippers? They all went into a new bag.

I was incredibly excited to get the chance to test out the Dot Dot Dash Pattern by Sara @ Sew Sweetness.

I've always been fond of Sara's bag patterns and this one has quickly become one of my favorites.

The pattern has instructions for using one print or making a patchwork version.

In a continuing effort to use up some Charm Squares, I picked the patchwork version to test.

I didn't have any of the Soft and Stable on hand that the pattern recommended so I used Fusible Fleece. My bag is sturdy but really slouchy. Which makes no real difference except when I'm trying to stand it up for a picture.

I'll absolutely be stocking up on Soft and Stable for future bag making.

There are six zippers in this bag but it went together really smoothly.

My favorite is the zippered accents:

I'll be making more of these bags as gifts this year expect to see a couple more of these popping up.

It's the *perfect* bag to take sketching supplies with me. I can keep my pencils and such separate in the outside pockets and my sketchbook fits with more than enough room inside.

I think it'll also work well as an EPP project bag. Fabric on the inside, paper pieces and notions in the outer pockets.

Sara has just released the pattern and I can't say enough that you should really go grab it.

If nothing else, take a look at her site to see all the great prints the testers each picked for their bags.

Friday Five

2013-02-01T12:17:00.002-05:00

It's really strange to see how projects get rotated on and off my desk from week to week.

The First #scrappytripalong Tube:

Doll Quilt Swap Progress:

The bucket of orphaned HSTs (which has doubled in the past week):

Supplies for a project that's still forming:

Pieces for more Xplus blocks:

Today I'll also venture out to get pictures of my new bag so I can finally show you what I used all those zippers from last week on.

I'll post that up this weekend.

X + blocks using charm squares

2013-01-30T15:00:00.004-05:00

I think I may have a charm square problem.

Organizing the studio has made it become more apparent.

It's not really the charm packs that come packaged in the store. It's charm swaps. Especially Japanese ones.

The ability to get all these little pieces of fabric that I wouldn't have found/been able to afford otherwise. Getting the packs in the mail and seeing fabrics that I never would have picked, but love none the less.

Then the question comes.... What to do with them? They're all different colors from different lines and don't blend easily. Plus, I had yet to find a "charm square pattern" that I really loved. One that would be worth cutting squares into bits.

So they sat. Spread around the studio. Until I got more organized and they got their own shelf:

It doesn't seem so bad until you hear that it goes three stacks back...

Earlier this week I needed a break from a project I was working on. It wasn't going together easily and was getting frustrating.
I figured I could just sew a couple of random blocks of something and then get back to scheduled sewing.

Combine my lingering guilt of unused charm squares and my Instagram feed being filled with the #xplusalong and I had an idea.

The only problem was that the #xplusalong blocks required 5.5" squares so I had to make a little readjusting.

A bit of sewing. A bit of math. A bit more sewing and math because the first two didn't turn out quite right.

And my favorite charms, my basket of polka dot scraps and my basket of super hoarded fabrics are now becoming something.

These are two of four blocks I have finished. I'm already pretty excited.

Then I went and made myself a reference block on my computer in case there's ever a lapse in time between making blocks.

Blocks using charms come out to 11.5" square.

Cuts you need to make these blocks with preexisting charms for the X (referencing the colors in the block design above):

White - Four 5" squares
Grey - Eight 3" squares
Aqua - Two 2.5" squares and a 2.5" x 6.5" rectangle
Purple - Four 2.5" x 3" rectangles

I'm not sure how many of these blocks I'll end up making.

Probably a ton.

Or at least enough to empty out two stacks of charms.

Friday Five

2013-01-25T13:39:00.002-05:00

I miss Farmer Fridays. More than I thought I would.

(Quick FW update: I'm still trying to find the perfect fabric for sashing and cornerstones which is holding up the whole process of getting the top together. )

The lack of having a regular post on Friday was starting to make me sad. So I thought about what I could do.

There's the standard Flickr Favorites Friday that I see a log of blogs in my reader do. I just don't spend that much time on Flickr.

We know by now that I'm notorious for not working on a single thing at a time. Which inspired my Friday Five.

The five things on my work table, exactly in whatever state they're in as of Thursday evening.

Fabrics patiently waiting on me:

A sampler I keep meaning to start on:

Solid strips for a scrappy trip:

A stack of paper piece patterns waiting for my attention (I think that's three patterns. Maybe four):

Why yes all those zippers are for one bag:

The rest of my hardware came in the mail this morning which means I can finally put it all together.

So that's my five for this week.

Here's hoping they all don't show up in the same state of completion next week.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

2013-01-16T13:36:00.002-05:00

It looks like things have been a bit quiet on my end. At least virtually.

Sometimes I wonder 'what if this blog had a "listen in" button for the studio'.

Could certainly be amusing.
Perhaps a bit shocking.

Maybe that's not such a good idea.

Really what has happened is that I let my to-do list push itself just on the other side of crazy into panicky.

Imagine that...

Pile on some non-sewing issues that need my immediate attention and you have a bit of not-so-normal chaos.

Here are some peeks of what I'll have to show soon:

Farmer Friday - I Can't Believe It Edition

2013-01-04T22:11:00.000-05:00

I really don't know what hit me this week.

It started on New Year's Eve where I wanted to just sit and finish as many blocks as I could before the Mr. got home from work.

I had five done at the end of that day. And the thought hit me that I could maybe, actually, possibly finish piecing blocks this week.

This is what 111 blocks look like:

The stack on the left is blocks from previous weeks.

The stack on the right were all completed this week,

My studio is a *disaster*.

Those of you that follow me on Instagram got a sneak peek of my desk. I didn't put any fabric away after cutting. It all just got tossed into the back corner.

I'm going to have to purchase a new scrap bin for Halloween scraps. The Easter basket can't contain them all anymore.

Taking pictures of 30 blocks is a daunting task. For now, I've pulled a few of my favorites out of the stack for the week.

The one on the top right is a particular favorite. The actual block design is supposed to look more like a star/pinwheel. I noticed with a bit of rearranging that it could look like a witch's hat.

Appropriate, no?

There's still trimming to do. And sashing.

Speaking of which, I have absolutely NO idea what to sash this quilt with. None. If I had thought about it, I would have picked that black and white spiderweb print since I love it so much. But it's been used in my blocks and I don't want to sash with a block fabric.

That's a problem for tomorrow though.

Tonight, I'm going to just sit back and take in the fact that I now have 111 completed blocks.

Filled with more tiny little triangles than I want to even count.