clipped from www.sewstitchcreate.com Fabric Design I have known about Spoonflower for a while, but didn’t really have any interest in making my own fabric design.  Truthfully, I don’t know where to begin or what to create.  But tonight I had an “aha” moment.  Morgan and I were looking at a pattern for a fabric egg (more on this soon) and she said she wanted one with her name on it.

I haven’t tried Spoonflower, but I am eager to do so. I have been thinking about making more of the Windham fabric using Spoonflower.

Last week, I posted an Odds and Ends post that included some information about a new Judy Martin video. Hope you watched it.

After I watched it I had the following question:

“I was just wondering if I cut the black line off before I stick the template on to the ruler or if I cut on the black line? Or do I leave the entire black line on the template?”

Judy got back to me with the following answer:

“That’s a good question. Do not cut off the black line. Cut on the outside edge of the black line. Technically, the center of the black line is the perfect size. However, including all of the black line in the template will compensate for the take-up due to seam allowances upon stitching.  Judy Martin”

Put that in your arsenal! Thanks, Judy!

Creativity Mirror

I went to A Work of Heart on Sunday with a group of friends to belatedly celebrate my birthday. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that place! I love the space, the creative energy, Andrea (the owner). I want that creative wonderland to be down the street from my house. Really, I want to live there, but I would settle for it being down the street from my house.

I invited some non-crafty people so Andrea the Awesome suggested the Altered Mirror project. I wasn’t that excited about that project, but went with it and am very pleased at how mind came out (top), how successfully everyone was able to work and how well all the mirrors came out.

The place is great and all of the supplies you see in the backgrounds of the above photos are available to use.

Step 1: Paint the Frame

The first step was to paint the frame and the little chipboard squares. I ended up painting all of them (top and sides). Above it shows the squares as I was painting the sides.

The color scheme I chose was to coordinate with the way we are going to paint our bedroom. I didn’t mean to put ‘CREATE’ as the message, but creativity is on my mind lately and it seemed like the right thing. I don’t know if the mirror will end up in our room ultimately, but we will see.

Step ?: Distress Some Squares

Each of the squares has something done to them: cover with paper, paint with crackle paint, ink, etc. Above I was using distressing/embossing powder on some of the squares. BLECH!!! I sincerely disliked how they came out and the effort was not worth the result. Live and Learn, though. I am glad I tried it and now I know.

Step Near the End: Embellishing

Above I have lined up all of the squares and glued them to the frame. I have also started to embellish. Andrea has FABULOUS glue and I only had to stick down some of the papers a little bit. The glue used to stick the squares down is different from that she suggested I use to apply the embellishments.

Kathy's piece

Kathy, from Everyday Bliss, wrote a great post about the day. She expresses some self doubt in the post, but I didn’t see that at all. I saw her start looking at the paper and dive right in. Kathy’s piece, with its orange base, reminds me so totally of her. It has whimsy and a little reality check (see the martini glass? She is the parent of a 2YO, after all) and a fabulous girly, but elegant girly look. Check it, and her project out, at the Everyday Bliss blog.

One of the great things about the afternoon, as I mentioned, was that everyone was successful. Everyone worked on their mirrors and created beautiful pieces. Everyone seemed happy and to have a good time. There was  a nice creative and relaxed feeling that permeated the event.

Julie's

I love Julie’s message. Her message of “Today” makes me think about not looking to the future too much. It is a good reminder to be in the moment – or to balance planning for the future while living in the moment.

Helen's

Helen seemed really uncomfortable when she started. I don’t know what Helen’s creative experience is to date. She did the most amazing work. I love the color scheme and her selections of paper and embellishments. It was so fantastic to watch her work.

Bron's

Bron’s embellishments came across to me as delicate.

Mary's

Mary knew not getting the squares straight would drive her crazy, so she made the squares wonky. That small changed added movement and now the straightness is not an issue. I adore her background color.

Maureen's

Maureen used her hand dyed fabric instead of paper to cover the chipboard squares. It reminds me of a painting I saw at the SFMOMA. I’ll amend this post if I remember which one it was.

Terri's

I love the red that Terri used for the background color. Her piece has a bit of an Asian feel.

Camille's

Camille insisted that she was not crafty. Her piece, for her daughter’s new bedroom, tells me otherwise. I had a pink and purple bedroom when I was a girl, so I am partial to this piece.

Maggie's

Maggie wanted to make a piece to commemorate our sorority. I love it that she used yellow to to prevent the pink from getting to sickly sweet. This piece is very cheerful.

Kim's

Kim has more experience than anyone with the various tools and supplies. If you look closely at her piece, you can see where she used a rubber stamp and then embossed. The embossing actually came out well on hers.

Kim's also

I think the above photo reflects the colors she used a little better.

Sharon's

Sharon’s piece reminds me of sailing and code flags. She says that she chose a color scheme that would coordinate with her duvet cover.

Adrienne's

Adrienne, or AJA, is one of the quiltmakers with whom I do the Bullseye Project. She came all the way from Tucson to be at my party. I was so happy! She and Julie and I went to dinner after the party. I love the way she used the bottle cap and the garter hooks.

Valerie's

Valerie and I see each other once a year. We met in the baby class when we were both pregnant and our kids used to play together when they were small. Now we see each other about once a year, but it is great. She is a great sport at being creative with me.

I am thinking of having my birthday there again next year.

No, this is not another insane project of mine. The Pineapple is my insane project and I am not starting another until that piece is done.

Mom's DWR

A few weeks ago my mom and I went to the DeYoung to see the Amish Abstractions Exhibit, as you might remember. In that exhibit was a Double Wedding Ring quilt. My mom has been working on a DWR for awhile. She is a really good seamstress and the arcs, etc don’t bother her. She is also fearless. She was going to give it to someone and then decided it was too much work for that particular recipient. When I saw the DWR I asked her about hers and we decided that hers might be about the size of the one in the exhibit. She was under the impression that she needed to make 190 arcs or some such crazy number. I asked her to bring the pieces over.

Mom's DWR (other side)

A few days later she brought them over and we laid them out on my living room floor to see the approximate size. I know the photos are not the best, but they were hard to photograph given the angle of my living room. You can kind of see the curves in the way we laid out the pieces.

Mom's DWR detail

As you can see from the photo (above) she is using foundation piecing. She is having some challenges:

1. She recently gave away all of her scraps in a fit of cleaning. Now I get to cut scraps for her.
2. She was having a hard time visualizing the size. She doesn’t have a design wall (or a wall big enough to hang a design wall) so she uses my living room floor as her design wall.

Fortunately, she was able to see the size when she laid it out while having the quilt from the exhibit in her mind. I think she is going to finish the arcs that she has and then start putting it together.

George X's Monkey

My nephew made this monkey with my guidance.

Monkey Tail

I first showed him how to use the machine to make the tail.

Sewing the Body Together

Next, I made him pin the body pieces together and then I let him sew them on the machine.

Finished Sewing & Turning

Here is the piece after he finished sewing and turning it, but before stuffing.

I have a lot of talented colleagues who also attended the quilt retreat. I realized, after I got home, that the pictures I thought I took only were taken in my head. Sigh.

Dolores 2010 #1

Dolores, for whom I made the pencil roll, is really making progress in her work. She takes classes deliberately from well respected quiltmakers and works through the techniques and makes it her own. For the past several years, she has worked in neutrals. This year she decided that she was going to add color back into the equation. This piece is from a photograph (right) and some techniques she learned in a class with Caryl Bryer Fallert. Dolores reworked the photo on her computer and then blew up the pattern, transferred it to freezer paper and used Fallert’s method of piecing to create the top.

Sonja, a new CQFAer was working with FabMo fabrics and just playing. She did a fabulous wave piece that I was really sorry not to have taken a picture of.

Sue and I are kindred spirits in that we both like to make quick projects in between our larger quilt projects. She worked on totes, scarves AND basted two quilts!

FabMo also has wallpaper -high end wallpaper – and Jan has been experimenting with folded boxes and bags using pieces of the free wallpaper. They are fabulous. She is also working on a piece based on the view of Nebraska from a plane. She worked on embellishing the circles she was making. Jan was sitting next to me and we talked about color, because she is finding her piece too dull. We discussed colors that would fit with her nature theme.

Julie's Hearts

Julie bought a pack of Moda turnovers and is making a fun and sweet Valentine’s Day quilt. She is trying to limit her need to cut and this was a great way to do it.

Julie's Hearts #1

Here is Julie’s quilt before she started on the appliquéd hearts.

Julie's Heart Art

Above shows her machine applique’ pieces waiting for their turn under the needle as well as the tools that are required for excellent quilting (glasses, rulers and coffee!).

Illuminated Manuscript Heart

I thought that the above block looked like one of the illustrations in an illuminated manuscript.

Good Color Combo Heart

This is a nice color combination. I am not sure the computer intermediation shows the subtlety, but it s great.

Skull Heart

We talked a lot about this block, because of the skull. It is the block that shows that relationships can be icky and rocky sometimes. Fun fabric, though.

Maureen tried the pencil roll pattern and came up with a nice piece using some of her hand dyes and some FabMo fabric.

Terri worked on getting some tops put together. One was an exchange top that included some really nice batiks.

Debbie was trying to finish her daughter’s college quilt. She was using some very jewel-y turquoise, purples and other blues. It was very rich looking.

Kathy is a member’s daughter. We haven’t seen any of her work before this weekend. It turns out that she does wonderful handwork. She is working on this Piece O’Cake design, do it mostly by hand. I like the color choices she made. They are a bit muted, but not murky.

Kathy's Piece O'Cake

She didn’t like the scallop border that came with the pattern, so she designed this leaf border on her own.

Kathy's Leaf Border

On Monday, per the game directions, I posted about participating in the One World One Heart blog project. I have never done anything like it and have found it to be interesting. I haven’t had much of a chance to look at the other blogs, sadly, though I have looked at a few.

I am madly approving comments from people that come to visit. Most visitors just leave a quick comment, but the ones who take the time to tell me where they are coming from make it really interesting for me. Visitors have come from such places as:

Finland (2 visitors, I think!)

Moldova (had to look that one up)

Germany

France (the person was Dutch, but living in France- cool!)

Australia

a few of my friends

Many, many from the US

• Idaho
• Wine Country, California
• San Jose
• Santa Barbara
• Central New York
• Nashville, Tenn (she must be best friends with Anna Maria Horner, right?    )
• Massachusetts
• Berkeley
• Buffalo, NY
• Spokane, Washington
• Arizona Texan (living in AZ, but from TX  via MN)
• Pennsylvania
• Illinois
• etc

I am so glad people have had the opportunity to stop by. I hope some stay around and join in the fun!

clipped from www.whatsuproc.blogspot.com what’s up roc clipped from whatsuproc.blogspot.com clipped from whatsuproc.blogspot.com

Remember to leave a meaningful comment on the OWOH post in order to entered in the drawing.

Update: 2/15/2010: The contest is closed! Thanks for reading. Check the 2/16/2010 post for the winner! Thanks for playing and come  back and read the blog!

Welcome, new readers and well known readers, to Artquiltmaker.com. We are participating in One World One Heart, a fun way to get to know new blogs and win prizes! Lisa created this event in 2007. “The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way”, as she says on her blog.

Artquiltmaker Blog is a way for me to share what I am working on with other creative people. I like the idea of this blog being a magazine type information source, so I try to vary the content to include commentary on works in progress, book reviews, media reviews (such as podcasts), Quilt World News, etc. Sometimes I venture outside of quiltmaking to appreciate other artists, different crafts and and report on different events and exhibits I attend. Every week, I put up a creative prompt as a way to spark inspiration and creativity in the Artquiltmaker.com community. You can find more information about the creative prompt on the AQ CPP Inspiration page. In the future I would like to include tutorials as well. It is on the list!

At this time there is no money making venture associated with Artquiltmaker. I write in this space because I enjoy writing, love quiltmaking and want to share my creative journey. My hope is that Artquiltmaker.com and Artquiltmaker blog will inspire you to be creative and expand your creative horizons.

As part of the One World One Heart Project, I will be giving away at least one prize.

Batik Handbag

This is a batik handbag that I made in August, which I will give away to one lucky winner. Depending on the response, I may also give away other prizes. If possible to add prizes, I will update THIS post with other prizes before the deadline. Your comment must be in the comment section of this post. How to enter and things to know about my giveaway:

1. Leave a comment in the comment section of THIS post on this blog (e.g. NOT on FB or FriendFeed or a reply on Twitter). I would love it if you would comment on something I wrote about on the blog, but any comment will enter you in the drawing. I review all the comments and any spam comments will be deleted and not count as part of the drawing.
2. It is not a requirement, but I would love to know where you are from and whether this is your first visit to Artquiltmaker blog.
3. One comment on THIS post will enter you in the drawing for all the prizes I may post. (As of 1/25, I have one prize posted, but hope to post more.)
4. The cutoff time for comments is 6pm PST, February 14. The time stamp on my blog’s comment area will be the official timer. That means that if your comment’s time stamp says 5:59pm, you are in.
5. Please leave your blog address, if you have one, in the comments area.
6. To choose the winner, I will put names in a bowl and pick one out.
7. Make sure that the email you provide when you leave the comment is valid as I will email you for the address to which you want your prize shipped. Please DO NOT leave your snail mail address in your comment. Let’s all be safe!
8. I will announce the winner in the February 15 blog post. Sometime on 2/15 or 2/16, I will email the winners for their snail mail address. I am happy to mail internationally.
9. You don’t have to be participating in One World, One Heart to win.
10. I am a OWOH newbie. If I find any issues with the rules, I reserve the right to alter what I have written above.

NOTE: I have to be able to tell that your comment is not spam.

There is a lot to look at here at Artquiltmaker blog. Once you have taken your magic carpet ride, I would love it if you would come back and become part of the Artquiltmaker community.

Have a blast!

1/26/2010 Update: ArtQuiltmaker.com Blog is #472 on Lisa’s list! Thanks to Lisa for coordinating this project. Leave her a message saying thanks, if you have a chance.

I have to admit that this week has been a challenge and I am pretty exhausted. I felt this way on Wednesday and just had to power through the rest of the week. It was tough! Boys are gone and I am supposed to go to a party. I am tempted to blow it off, but I have gotten a lot of emails asking me if I will be there. I also really like the people who are giving it. We’ll see.

I’d like to get some sewing done as my brain is starting to wonder what that is. I feel like it has been an eternity since I have been at the machine.

I went to the Timberlake Quilters Guild Blog, which is called Fiber Whimsy and saw some lovely photos from their string piecing workshop. One of the photos was a Spiderweb! They seem to be popping up all over. I guess this is message to get back to mine. I think it is one of the projects I want to work on in 2010. Stay tuned to see. Love the red background on the one pictured in the photo.

Tagging this Blog

As a librarian, you’d think I would have all the answers about tagging, but I don’t. I have been thinking about whether or not I should add a tag for the name of each project so you (and I!) can click on the name of a project and see all the posts about that project. I am not sure I could back and tag all the old posts unless I was laid up in bed for a period of time, but I could do it going forward. Let me know if you think that would help you. I would also like to k now what you do in your blog, if you have one.

I helped my mom download iTunes and subscribe to some podcasts. We listened to a little of the Cast-on podcast and she loved it. I can’t wait to hear whether the whole premise works for her or not. She has really gotten into Cat Bordhi, a knitter, lately so I downloaded some interviews to which she could listen as well.

Laura Wasilowski class "Flower Garden"

Laura Wasilowski left a comment encouraging me to finish the piece that I started in her class. I took a look at it again and realized that the handstitching makes the piece look really spiky and unfriendly. I think I need to add some petals to the flowers and see if that makes it look more friendly.

You can see a watercolor painting that usually hangs in my dining room. I love this painting. It makes me feel calm. I just generally love beach and water scenes. That thought makes me wonder if that is why I like turquoise so much? After the painting project, the art is not back up yet. We may rearrange the art. However, as I seem to never be home, we haven’t discussed it yet.

Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! blog has a laptop sleeve tutorial on Sew, Mama Sew! While I am not fond of beige, I do like the swirly motifs on the fabric. This would make a nice gift. Yes, I am thinking ahead! I would probably add a strap or a handle, however. I have to admit that I find it hard to navigate that site, but sometimes the effort pays off and here is a list of a year’s worth of Elizabeth’s projects just for you.

Oregon Fabric

My sister received Lakers v. Trailblazer tickets for Christmas from her boyfriend. Our dad lives near Portland, so I think they went together. While she was there she took the opportunity to raid and scan our childhood photos. In the course of that project she went to a craft warehouse to get supplies. While she was there, she found some fabric that she said was for me. YAY! I haven’t received it yet, but presume I will soon.

She has sent me some scans of my 5 year old self, which are not new, but still entertaining.

I saw a post on Twitter to a Detroit artist who is doing interesting things with blue. Steven Magsig has a blog called Postcards from Detroit where he posts paintings of little areas of the city and buildings in the city

I seem to remember mentioning that I spent an hour and half last Saturday talking to the CQFAers about developing a creative habit. I got lots of good feedback. Here are some tips from my talk:

• Use what you have at hand
• Use materials you feel comfortable using
• Tools (KISS)
  • paper
  • pen
• Start small
• Acknowledge your distractions
• Be process oriented not goal oriented. The goal will be achieved if you engage in the process
• Develop a daily practice that works for you
• Surround yourself with inspiration

I am thinking about something bigger with more detail on this subject, so am just giving you an overview.

Have an inspirational and creative weekend!!!!

Pavement to Row Quilt

I have been thinking of row quilts on and off for a long time. I wrote about a row quilt idea back in April of 2007. I have seen a number of them that I really like. One I remember was from a Sue Nickels machine quilting class I took a number of years ago at an EBHQ workshop. The quilt was called Blue Tulips on Pink Skies and you can see it in her gallery. She is a great teacher, by the way. I would highly recommend one of her classes.

I haven’t actually made one as I have plenty of other UFOs! Still, I cannot help being inspired when I see patterns and motifs that might work.

As I was walking to the Courthouse from the parking lot on Tuesday for jury duty, I noticed that the walkway would make a great pattern for a row quilt, especially if you wanted a simple one.

I took this with my phone so there isn’t much that you can see. The basic idea of the paving was that they had laid three rows of 4patches (right of photo) by the width of the sidewalk. I was late so I didn’t count. Those four patches were interspersed with many, many (perhaps 20?) of rail fence blocks by the width of the sidewalk.

I would have to figure out how to make the proportions look like the sidewalk without making a quilt that was 1/8th of a mile long! Perhaps really small blocks? This particular idea might also be a good idea for a monochromatic quilt. Hhhhm lots of food for thought.

Inspiration everywhere!

I meant to write about this sooner, but it just didn’t happen. I saw this Flowering Snowball quilt when I went to Back Porch in October.

Back Porch Flowering Snowball

I have to admit that I was shocked, because I thought that nobody was making that pattern except for me and here was a semi-local quilt shop teaching a class. I have to admit that I was disappointed, because I thought I was doing something unique. Call Back Porch if you want to sign up for the class.

When I went to the Kaffe Fassett lecture, we also went to the shop, where we bought a few things.

Back Porch Fabrics

I wanted to restock up on the Lonni Rossi fabrics. The line was long and as we stood in line, I saw this quilt on the wall.

Back Porch Log Cabin

I know TFQ will like it, but I also like the cheerfulness of it. I think the background is dots.