Flaming Lotus Creations

Self-bound coasters experiment

Pat — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:50:15 +0000

In my adventures in making coasters, I realized that binding the edges takes way too much time relative to the overall process. I thought that there must be a way to simplify this process… Having done no homework whatsoever I devised a method to use an oversized back for binding, and I think it will work well. I have a set assembled and quilted, ready for me to bind, so we’ll know soon how it turns out. I can’t be the first person to have tried this, but I sure hope it works. It will save me a bunch of time/effort/fabric if it does. Stay tuned for the results and some pictures. If it works well I’ll probably do a small tutorial.

Coasters for Children!

Pat — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:23:21 +0000

I promised a fundraising project for Aura’s House soon, and it’s here! I’ve started making coaster sets with the entire sale price going towards the Children International projects at Aura’s House (hence the title, Coasters for Children!) The first set is shown here, and is on sale now. These are JUMBO sized to accomodate large mugs and cups (about 5 1/2 inches across). The ENTIRE sale price will go to Aura’s House, so I’m footing the materials and time to maximize the contribution. Hopefully this is an easy way to make a BIG difference with a small price tag.

I’ll continue adding sets to the store as soon as they’re ready. Thanks again for your support of these wonderful projects!

U.S. Plans to Drop Case Against Former Senator From Alaska – NYTimes.com

Pat — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:52:50 +0000

This blog is not about politics, or even news, but this story is just infuriating. Stephanie puts it best:

I want to be a politician so I can do anything I want.

U.S. Plans to Drop Case Against Former Senator From Alaska – NYTimes.com.

Thanks

Pat — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:38:46 +0000

…for all the donations to the Aura’s House projects so far! They’re making steady progress, and every bit helps.

New fundraising venture coming soon…

Pat — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:20:21 +0000

I’ve been inspired by what some people close to me are doing to help raise money for the projects that Stephanie has going at Aura’s House. Even children have great ideas and can do amazing things to help.

(With some help of course….) I’ve come up with an idea to do a little fundraising of my own! All proceeds will go to the Aura’s House projects. Stay tuned for an announcement…

Experimenting with film

Pat — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:48 +0000

In addition to a Nikon DSLR, I currently have a decades-old Minolta Himatic 7s rangefinder. It still works great, meter and all, and has inspired me to try shooting some film. I’m not going to debate the merits of film vs. digital here, since there are, according to Google, roughly 11,500,000 articles already covering that. Suffice to say, each has its benefits and drawbacks. I’m just messing around with it for fun, as the logistics of film would prevent it from ever being my primary choice.

I did shoot film in high school, so I’m not necessarily new to the darkroom, but haven’t been in one in a very long time. After finishing this roll of fuji 800, over a several-week period, I sent it off to mpix.com for processing. For about $4.50, they’ll develop it and mail you back the negatives, paying for shipping both ways. They give you thumbnail scans before sending back the negatives, but they’re not big enough to use for anything. Either plan on paying $10 for a CD (lame) or scan the negatives yourself.

The above shot is nothing amazing, but it does illustrate one key benefit of film: dynamic range. I’ve got the sun and bright sky as well as shadow area detail in one shot, which never would have happened with digital (either the shadows would be black or the sky blown out, or both). I’m sure I’ll try some more sometime, but for the moment the convenince of digital trumps any benefit film has to offer, besides novelty.

Started a pair of ruffle pants last night…

Pat — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:00:05 +0000

…no photos yet, but they’re based on a pattern that Stephanie found from Sandi Henderson (Portabello Pixie). We’re doing a matching top to go with it too. It was my first time cutting fabric from a paper pattern, and I don’t like it much to be honest. I much prefer a set of dimensions and a ruler. They look good so far, and I’ll post some shots when I’m done.

In other good news, Wednesday’s skirt got a warm welcome Thursday morning, and was worn right away.

8-panel fat quarter skirt (finished in an evening)

Pat — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:52:09 +0000

I designed and made this skirt tonight in a total of about 3 hours of work. It has 8 panels, with ruffle and trim at the bottom and an elastic waist. I used the french seams I learned for the Bo-peep skirt, hemmed the bottom of the assembled panels, and attached the ruffle & trim. Really it was pretty easy. The best part… this is made of just 5 fat-quarters! (1 fat quarter = ~18″ x ~22″ for those not in the know…) 4 FQ’s make the panels (8″ x 20″ each, for the size I wanted), with scraps used for the ruffle trim, and the fifth makes the ruffle (5 strips of 3.5″ x ~20, roughly 2x the skirt bottom circumference). It actually leaves almost no waste! Wonderfully simple & highly recommended. A great instant-gratification project.

Fat-quarter placemat sets

Pat — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:55:29 +0000

These are placemat sets that we made for holiday gifts. We used the same prints within each set, but varied the position of each print within the pattern. This makes a nice matched set where each mat is unique. The sets were fairly easy to make, and very well received. Best of all, you can make an entire set of placemats from one set of fat quarters.

Bo-Peep Skirt!

Pat — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:47:18 +0000

So this seems like a big milestone… I’ve made my first article of clothing! [applause...] It’s the “Bo-Peep Skirt” designed by Anna Maria Horner in her excellent book Seams to Me. Essentially it consists of 4 full-length panels, with ruffles and trim applied to the side panels. There’s elastic at the top and a rolled hem at the bottom. We used the recommended french seam technique, which is excellent considering we’ve not gotten around to learning how to use our serger yet (shame, I know).

This is a pretty big deal for me since I’ve always wanted to make clothing but have been intimidated by not knowing how to do all the details. Quilting is easy… 1/4″ seams and you’re good to go. And, quilts are flat! Clothing has ruffles and hems and gathers and zippers and buttons and buttonholes and curves and… you get the idea. Besides, the consequences of non-functional elastic in public are far worse than a torn quilt.

Anna Maria’s book is great at illustrating a simple way to attack these techniques for the first time, and I can say I’m definitely inspired to do some more clothes. Most importantly, this skirt was worn, and it didn’t fall off.

Stephanie made a fantastic one at the same time, using a different length and different ruffles to get a completely different look. Keep an eye out for hers on her blog. Also, she gets complete design credit for picking the prints for mine. She has a great eye for color!