The first issue of Crazy Quilt Magazine is here! What a fun and challenging journey this past couple of months has been as I have worked to learn about putting a magazine together and getting it published!
I had to learn how to use Adobe InDesign software, brush up my skills with PhotoShop, learn about tracking down creators for content for the magazine as well as advertisers, and then figure out how to put it all together in one cohesive vision. Then there is the business side of it, figuring out the best way to do sales, and things like marketing: not one of those tasks falls in my favorites list, but I managed to work my way through them! I must admit that I've had a lot of fun with the magazine in addition to some frustrating and scary moments when I thought I had lost all my formatting! But it all came together and I have a plan for moving forward!
The next issue, coming out February 1, 2021, will focus on Silk Ribbon in all it's glory, from silk ribbon embroidery, creating silk ribbon flowers, a heritage quilt with silk ribbons in it, and more! I'm still looking for submissions, so if you have something about silk ribbon that you would like to share, I'd love to hear about it! Dying silk ribbons perhaps? How to stitch a lovely silk ribbon stitch? Something you beautiful you have made that uses silk ribbon in any form? There are so many possible areas to share through the magazine!
Be thinking ahead to future issues as well. Themes for the rest of the year include:
February 2021 - Silk Ribbon - deadline 30 November 2020
May 2021 - 2020 Crazy Quilt Challenge Projects - deadline 26 February 2021
August 2021 - Whole Cloth Crazy Quilts - deadline 30 April 2021
November 2021 - Wool Crazy Quilts - deadline 30 July 2021
If you would like to contribute to any of these issues, please send me an inquiry at
Lisa(at)crazyquiltmagazine(dot)com
A huge Thank You to everyone who has helped me with this issue, including the many wonderful contributors and to the ladies who each helped with editing and proofreading! They say it takes a community to raise a child and I think that it also takes a community to publish a magazine!
If you haven't already heard, I am the new owner/Editor/Publisher of Crazy Quilt Magazine! It is quite a fun journey to be embarking upon and I am really excited about all the possibilities it offers!
The magazine began in 2012 as Pat Winter's Crazy Quilt Gathering. In 2015, Pam Kellogg continued the magazine under the name Crazy Quilt Quarterly. Now, in 2020, during this crazy year of pandemics, politics, and change, the magazine has come to me. I'm hoping that the magazine will bring a respite of calm and beauty amidst this difficult season and that it will become a treasured resource for crazy quilting in the 21st Century.
The magazine is off to a great start, and even though we are still 2 ½ months from publishing the first issue, the pages are mostly full and I have a good idea of where it will be going in the future. As with any new endeavor, there will be a couple of transitional issues while things settle into a more polished magazine. I can't wait for you to see the first issue! I'll be posting more about it as it gets closer to publication date!
Until then, you can find Crazy Quilt Magazine in the following locations:
If you have a quality project for Crazy Quilt Magazine to consider publishing, please take a look at the subscription guidelines on the website. There are a few specific things that I'm looking for to put in each issue:
- A block that needs improvement! We'd like to take a look at a troublesome block and consider different approaches to making it better! If you have a block like this that we could all learn from, please let me know!
- A vintage crazy quilt. Especially if it is unusual, exceptionally well done, or contains something interesting! The quilt must be your own quilt. Photos of quilts in museums or someone's possession other than your own will not be accepted or considered for publication.
- Small Projects and/or Tutorials that fit each issue's theme/focus.
- Interesting articles about crazy quilting and/or crazy quilt supplies.
- Photos of your crazy quilt work that has not been previously published or shared on social media! Be watching for the themes/focus of upcoming issues and consider submitting work for it!
Crazy Quilt Magazine is also looking for quality advertisers having to do with Crazy Quilting! See the Advertising section on the website!
With all the focus on the new magazine, my YouTube channel has taken a back seat for a while. Once things settle into a better routine I'll be posting more videos!
On a personal note, my dear old kitty Thomas passed away in June. He was 19 years old and with me for nearly 1/3rd of my life. I think he gave me more unconditional love in his 19 years with me than any other person or critter. Truly a huge and difficult loss.
But, now a new little furry friend has come to live with me! I'm still not certain of his name - he goes by Mr Buddy Tibbs (Buddy or Mr Tibbs) and Mushu. I think Mushu is winning. He is very playful and VERY mischievous and I suspect that played a role in injuring his eye and it's subsequent removal. He came to me via my DIL who works at an area humane society as a vet tech, where he had been brought in as an injured stray. He's super sweet (most of the time!) and totally into and on top of everything. He's settling in nicely, though I can't say I'm super happy about the 3:00-5:00 a.m. wake up he gives me every morning! We think he's about 1 ½ years old, so I hope we have a long and happy time together!
Awhile back, I posted several of my Dad's devotions that he had written over the years. There are a few more and in light of the current situation worldwide with the virus pandemic and all the anxiety that goes with it, I thought it was a good to time to start sharing the rest of them. This one provides timely encouragement and advice.
Dial-a-Devotion #7 - 17 Oct 1969
by Myron N. Plooster
John 15:5
Philippians 4:13
Our Lord said to his disciples, “He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” And the Apostle Paul stated confidently, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.”
Apart from Him we can do nothing; abiding in Him, nothing is impossible. The one consuming purpose of our life should be to live in union with Him, guarding against everything that would destroy this union, making the most of every opportunity to reinforce it. For as we do so, we will find that He furnishes us with the strength to meet any emergency, to accomplish any goal. We may not always be aware that this power is ours; but we will always find it present when we feel the need to draw on it. There will be no temptation we cannot resist; no burden we cannot patiently bear; no difficulty with which we cannot cope; no work we cannot perform. And throughout all our days we will have the assurance of His love and grace, and of forgiveness for our own shortcomings.
Our Father in Heaven, who provides for our daily needs and for our times of special need, give us a sure confidence in Thy almighty power and steadfast love. When things are well with us, accept our heartfelt thanks; and when we are bowed down with cares, enable us to look up to Thee and to the heavenly world from whence comes our strength; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
John 15:5 (RSV)
He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit,
The latest video is up on the Denim Crazy Quilt YLP!
I used some special accent fabrics in it and wanted to share more about those fabrics with you as they are really wonderful!
My dear friend Sheryl has been collecting and using antique Japanese fabrics and she generously gifted me with an assortment of fabrics to use in the Denim CQ project! There are several different types, and while I am no expert on them, I wanted to share the little I have learned about them.
Katazome fabrics are created using a resist dying technique similar to the way batik fabrics are made. Instead of wax, they use a rice flour past to stencil the designs on the fabric, which are then dyed and washed. Successive stencils provide additional colors. This piece looks like it was stenciled and dyed at least 3 or 4 times; first to mask the white areas, second for the reddish areas, third for the pale blue and then finally the entire piece was dyed probably several times to achieve the dark blue. When the resist paste is washed off and the design becomes visible.
I found a short YouTube video of the process that you can see here:
I really loved the back side, where the design is not as crisp and easily visible. The design is a bit more abstract.
Here you can see both the front and the back to see the difference.
This is another piece of Katazome fabric, with a simpler two or three color design. Like a favorite pair of jeans, it has faded with use, so it's hard to tell if there was more color once upon a time.
This is the backside where the color maintains a deeper richer hue since it was not exposed to the light as much. Once again, I prefer this "wrong" side of the fabric!
You can see just how much these fabrics must have faded with this look at both the right and wrong sides of the fabric.
Next we move on to some Shibori type fabrics. Shibori is also a resist dying technique, but instead of using a rice flour paste to prevent the fabric from taking on the dye, it uses a variety of methods such as thread stitching, folding, clamping, bunching, etc to create areas where the dye will not be able to penetrate as well.
Both this piece and the next one were created by my friend Sheryl. I love the way they look with the worn denim!
This is also Shibori done on silk or a silk cotton mixed fabric. I believe this one was likely created with a stitched pattern that was later removed.
This is yet another piece of Shibori that I believe is done on a fine silk. It is transparent as you may be able to tell, and it has a couple of stains on it, but they all add to its character. It's also quite a bit narrower than the usual 13" that you find in these old Japanese fabrics, so I wonder if it might have been used as an Obi or neck scarf.
It was obviously well used as the fabric has worn through in a few spots exposing the weave pattern. It's easy to see how the heavier threads give this fine fabric texture and added stability.
Next we move on to Kasuri. These dotted fabrics or fabrics with small patterns were the common fabric used in everyday kimono and
I found these great videos on how the threads are dyed and then woven to create Kasuri fabric:
Watching these processes makes one appreciate all that has gone into making these fabrics!
Some are a darker indigo, created by dying multiple times in the dye bath, as well as by the possible additions of other materials.
Some are a much brighter blue. I love that this piece shows evidence of much mending!
Most Japanese traditional fabrics were woven on a loom that produced a piece of cloth about 13" wide. A length of 29 feet was needed to make a Kimono.
This is a larger pattern of Kasuri.
Here you can see the difference in the scale of the patterns. All of these appear to be fairly old fabrics, though I do not know how to determine the actual age. It boggles the mind to think of the amount of time and effort that went into creating each and every piece of these fabrics! I know I will treasure these wonderful bits of history!
Today's Japanese indigo fabrics are more likely to be printed. I have quite a variety of these and even the ones that appear woven are actually printed on the surface of the fabric. I believe it is likely that the dyes used are not actually indigo, but synthetic dyes used to mimic indigo. While I love these newer fabrics, they cannot hold a candle to the exquisite older fabrics!
I'm so very grateful to my friend Sheryl for the gift of these beautiful fabrics and the opportunity to use them in this denim crazy quilt project!
Getting started on my Denim Crazy Quilt, which will be one of the Year Long Projects (YLP) on my YouTube Channel!
My daughter and I started collecting old jeans from the rest of the family about 4 years ago to make some picnic quilts. Picnic quilts are simply durable quilts that can be kept in the car for use as picnic blankets, or spread on the ground to sit on. Denim makes a really heavy quilt, so these won't have any batting. We are hoping to back them with old flannel sheets. Our hope is to make 6 to 8 of these quilts over the coming year, and these will be our gift to each family this coming Christmas. We've been talking about it for years, so I don't mind sharing it on here!
My quilt is going to be a crazy quilt, and I thought it would be a perfect project to share on my YouTube channel! In all, I'll be making 16 blocks that are 14" square to end up with a quilt approximately 62" square once the outer sashing is applied. I have a stash of old white cotton cutter lace that I hope to use, and also some old Japanese fabrics from a friend that I hope to incorporate in little spots.
The cutting up of the denim turned into quite a project. Not wanting to go through expensive rotary blades on this heavy fabric, I opted to use my designated wire/ribbon cutting scissors. They were pretty sharp to start despite the occasional nick in the blades, but they are noticeably duller after cutting 6 boxes of denim jeans up! I developed a couple of interesting calluses on my fingers as well, not from rubbing on the scissors, but from the fingers rubbing against one another as I cut.
We salvaged as much as we could. We even kept the double stitched seams to see if we can find a use for them. I'm thinking of making woven hot mats for the table with them. We also saved the back pockets, many of the watch pockets, the odd triangular back yoke pieces, and the zippers. My daughter does a lot of clothing repair, and the short zippers for jeans are hard to come by, so now she has a big stash to pull from to help with that.
For some of the jeans, we kept larger pieces so we can include the nicer seams in larger pieces. Some of these larger pieces may also be used in creating a tote bag to store each quilt in. There are some fun decorated back pockets that we saved and hope to make a few fun denim purses out of. We are going to focus on getting the quilts done first, making the denim crazy quilt I'll be working on a priority so I can upload videos of its creation in a timely manner. While I'll probably help with the planning and cutting pieces for each quilt, Jessie will likely do most of that sewing, and then I'll help her finish them. Should be a busy but fun and productive year for both of us!
One of our inspirations behind this project was learning about how many textiles end up in the landfill, or are baled up and shipped thousands of miles overseas, using valuable resources in order to be remanufactured into rags or other items. In some cases they clothes are resold in other countries, which impacts local manufacturing of clothing and textiles in a mostly negative way. I'm including some links and facts here if you are interested in learning more.
Some interesting things about textile use/reuse in the U.S.A.
In 2017:
- 16.9 Tons of textiles were created
- 11 million Tons of textiles ended up in landfill, accounting for 8% of all municipal solid waste
- 2.6 tons of textiles and footwear were recycled (including sold for reuse as is as well as deconstructing and remanufacturing into other products.)
- 3.2 tons of textiles are incinerated in energy recovery facilities
- Only 1 in every 4-8 garments that are donated to thrift stores are actually sold for re-use.
- The average American throws away approximately 81 lbs of clothing a year.
- 85% of discarded textiles end up in the landfill
A good article from Great Britain on the impact of fast fashion that also highlights what we can do to help decrease the impact of textile waste by responsibly managing our textile purchases
Article on some of the social implications of used clothing from the US/UK being sold in other parts of the world.
All of this makes me glad to be a crazy quilter, because it is so easy for us to salvage and re-use fabric from otherwise unusable/unwanted garments and linens! We get to stitch AND help the environment at the same time!
For my part, I decided at the beginning of the year that this was going to be a NO-BUY year when it comes to my crazy quilting, with one exception. That is the heart quilt that I'm working on, I don't have an appropriate fabric for the solid blocks and so I will plan on purchasing that fabric. But otherwise, I'm going to make it a year of using what I have - which as you have seen is a lot! Hope that some of you will join me!
I always have to laugh when I hear someone say that they have a "couple" of projects going as though that is a terrible thing! They have NO idea! That's what my latest video is about!
Watch the video first and then to see more of what is in my project bins; read the rest of this post!
I am a list maker. Every year, I make a new list of projects and things I want to complete that year. Some years I make great progress, others... well, not so much! Then I make new lists. Reorganizing my studio this month made me realize that my lists of projects were vastly incomplete - all three of them! In fact, I probably had 3 times (or more) the number of unfinished projects than were actually on my lists. So my daughter and I set out to make sense of everything.
We sorted everything into 4 bins.
Bin #4 is the "cold storage" bin. The one of projects I probably won't have time to work on for a long, long time.
Bin #3 is filled with lots of odd bits of projects, miscellaneous blocks, etc. It's the junk drawer of my crazy quilting world. This is also mostly a cold storage box as there isn't a lot in here I'm planning on working on in the coming year... and yet, there a few things that will probably find their way into my work bag from time to time.
There are blocks made for pincushions that never got made, blocks made for doing some stitch samplers, little blocks I embroidered in 2017 that never got made into anything. There are several bags of round robin projects that have never been finished as well as bags of miscellaneous blocks that I made up here and there but have never done anything with. Lots to work with here, but not much for the immediate future.
Also tucked into bin #3 are my various "faux paper piecing" projects. These range from the Woodland quilt that I started back in 2010 or so, the bags of bits for making pocket prayers and a couple of other small pieced items I've been playing with. These are great take-along projects and so these will probably all get stitched on a little bit here and there - just as they have been for the past 10 years! They are constantly progressing and changing as I work on them. Let me know if you would like a tutorial on doing a small project like the pocket prayers.
Bin #2 has some fairly large projects that I've been gathering materials toward. It's not quite cold storage, but most of these projects are still a ways off, as I simply MUST get some other projects out of the way first.
Here is Thomas kitty looking pretty disgusted with me for having so much stuff to work on!
These are projects that I really want to work on! They are big projects that are far enough along, that I've gathered materials for and have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with each one. There is a folk art wool quilt, some old quilt blocks made by another great Aunt that I'd like finish. There are two sets of blocks I made back in 2015 when I thought I could do 3 blocks a month while working full time and take care of a house and big garden... it obviously didn't work out! Theres a project with a piece of embroidery I found at a thrift shop, which should be a fairly quick project once I actually have time to get started on it. There's a Bavarian Trim quilt to work on, some wool pennies, a project inspired by a piece of pottery I found at the antique store, and a collection of things I've been gathering for a special "Ivory Blush Roses" project!
These are the projects I'm really itching to get working on! But... with so many other things yet unfinished, they are going to have to take a back seat for this year.
Bin #1 is the stack of priority projects that I aim to finish this year. Most of these are projects that a nearly complete. My daughter called them NFPs or Nearly Finished Projects. I also wanted to do a big project, similar to the Crazy Quilt Journal Project, but without actually joining that group this year. I came up with 2 of them. A denim crazy quilt, which I'll be posting more about later in the week, and the heart quilt which began as a round robin in 2014 or 15. Those are YLPs or year long projects.
The video went into detail on these so I won't repeat that here. These are things I'd love to get finished and off my project list! A few of them have been there for a very long time... like the Scottish themed block that might have been the 3rd or 4th block I ever made. There are three round robin projects in here to finish as well. So, 11 NFPs, 2 YLPs, and 2 bonus projects - Lots to work on!
Now that I'm "retired" and have a much smaller house and yard to care for, hopefully I'll be able to stay focused and productive this year! I'm looking forward to sharing these projects with you via You Tube in the coming months!
P.s. I also have a large tub of unfinished projects in my storage locker... deep, deep cold storage! Mostly embroidery and sewing projects as well as some needlepoint. I don't even want to think about those! My daughter thinks I have enough projects to work on for the rest of my life if I work at it full time. I'm afraid she might be right!
When I moved into this house, I knew I would use this room as my studio and office/study. I wanted shelves on the wall like the ones my sister had in her little office.
Like my sister's shelves, I put lights underneath mine and bulletin boards on the wall. I'm not quite as neat and minimalist as my sister, but I love this layout! The lights can dim as well as switch from cool to neutral to warm and they give me a lot of light, which my aging eyes really appreciate! I adapted the shelf spacing so that I could put my printer over the desk since I didn't have room for a printer stand.
Inspiration for studio decor came from my CQJP 2015 project. When I stitched it, the colors were far outside of my comfort zone, yet it ended up being some of the best work I'd ever done! Upon moving in, I thought it might be the perfect inspiration piece to decorate my studio around. So I found a rug that repeated some of the colors and searched through my fabric for pieces that would coordinate for a curtain valence.
At first I loved it! It was bold and different. I used a lot of my pink colored items to decorate the space, from little bits I had stitched, to items gifted to me. With the multi color rug, I also decided to let other multi-color items take precedence, like the jars of colorful buttons and the tray of bead containers.
As the year progressed, I realized I wasn't spending much time in this space. I preferred to paint in the kitchen, due in part to better light. I was stitching at the kitchen table as well. And even for computer work, I was either avoiding it or bringing my laptop out to the living room. The bright colors and the chaos of the multi-color rug were just too much for me. The room had become a catch-all for everything I wanted out of the rest of the house. This little house has no storage space and teeny tiny closets, so the studio/study space became more of a storage room and I was increasingly frustrated with how difficult it was to find the supplies I needed. Time for a refresh!
I started thinking about what would make my studio/office space a place where I wanted to spend time, and what would make it easier to find the supplies I wanted. I also knew I needed a better, simpler space for filming my YouTube videos. Bright pink is notoriously difficult to photograph and in videos, all the bright pink meant I spent hours editing, trying to come up with some semblance of real colors. I knew I wanted this small room (11"-0" x11'-0" square)to feel more open - so that meant lighter colors. The space desperately needed a calmer rug. As fun as I found the multi-color rug at first, it felt like it was always cluttered to me, I hated filming against it, and the pink/red colors reflected onto everything I was working on, making it hard to see the real colors.
I also wanted to cut the glare from the window for when I was filming, and yet I needed to let the light through in this otherwise dim room.
That turned out to be an easy fix as I had a pair of shorter linen curtains that I hadn't used and I had a vintage lace curtain panel which I have loved for years and it fit perfectly between the two linen panels. The window also has an easy to operate blind for nighttime privacy.
While I enjoyed this display for a while, the clutter of all the little bits of decor made the space seem smaller as well, so I knew I wanted to simplify things in that realm. My tastes are definitely evolving towards a more minimalist style!
First step was to find a new rug. With the multi-color rug, I had been lucky to find one that was nearly square and filled the open space well. Most rugs are rectangular or round and square rugs are hard to come by, but on Wayfair, I found a rug I liked that also came in large square sizes (the one I purchased is 10'-0" square!) and was also within my small budget! It's modeled here by Thomas, who seems pretty happy with the new decor as well!
It took about 2 weeks to get the room re-organized and change out all the decor. All the little bric-a-brac has been put away, but accessible if I want to look at it. On the wall I hung my Cream and White crazy quilt, the first big project that I stitched when I started crazy quilting. I hung a simple wreath of faux fern fronds and hung a strand of ivy over the curtain rod. Instead of lots of little art, I propped up an old mirror on top of the shelves. It is all so much simpler and calmer now!
The new rug reflects lots of light and makes this dim room seem so much brighter! I made a new curtain cover for my art shelf where all the canvases, paints, sketchbooks, mediums, etc are stored. Even when neat and organized, it always looks cluttered and a mess. I was able to use fabric I already had and some antique crocheted lace for an extra touch.
All the threads and ribbons have been newly re-organized as well and all the bits from all over have been consolidated into labeled boxes and baskets. Finding things is so much easier now and I don't have to go through umpteen different containers before finding what I'm looking for!
The little radiator heater keeps this room a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the house, so I can work comfortably during these cooler months and I don't have to heat the entire house to my working temp! It is Thomas' favorite spot as well, and most days he can be found with his paws tucked underneath it!
The old cabinet I have from one of my "adopted" grandmas has been utilized as my sewing cabinet and holds all the little sewing bits from needles and pins to interfacing, scissors, bias tape, etc. I love having this bit of "history" that is filled with memories for me!
The stack of frames I've been accumulating, waiting to be filled with paintings is now hung on the high wall over the door rather that stacked in a pile in front of the closet door.
I spent some time re-organizing the shelves above my desk as well. While I strive towards minimalism, I never will really be a minimalist. I have too much instinct to "save" things and somehow I also become the keeper of the family history, so I have boxes and boxes of extended family history/genealogy in storage and somehow, more bits to add to it continues to come my way. All those boxes on the upper shelf contain bits for that plus the necessary office stuff like pads of paper, and other useful items. Then there are things like the basket of notecards to send out, envelopes, stamps, and notepads. In my ideal world, I'd find a way to get rid of most of this! But I'm not there yet!
I re-did the bulletin boards and filled them with postcards of some of the favorite art pieces that I've had the opportunity to see in the past couple of years. Lots of Monet! Also some Van Gogh, Berthe Morrisot, Cezanne, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth as well a couple of things painted by friends that I love. Sprinkled about here and there are Bible verses I find inspiring and other bits that I enjoy seeing.
Behind the door, there is space enough for a vintage cubby hole cabinet. The little shelves are just the perfect size for storing my favorite fat quarters of fabric! These are mostly batik and some Japanese Taupe fabrics that I've gathered over the years. (I'm not showing you the 8 drawers of additional fabric I have stored in the closet! ). Above the shelf I have hooks to hang the rings of pearl cotton embroidery threads and also the ribbon trims I use. There are also a two items here done by my Mom; a crewel work embroidery she did in the late 1960's and the plaque with my name that she painted for me when I was a little girl. It used to grace the front of my toy shelf and I had a little painted table to match, now long gone. The bunny print is by Tasha Tudor, one of my favorite illustrators.
So, that is my newly re-furbished studio/office space! I love how open and light it feels, and I find myself spending most of the day in here working on projects!
