My spot with Julie

We were in the same location as last year, which has a separate building in which we are able to sew.

Other sewing space

This was my view as I sewed. Reva does wonderful work and it was wonderful to watch her, Sue and Robin’s work evolve.

Reva's Black & White Piece

The black and white piece is made from the fat quarter bundle Reva won from the prizes we got from Fabricworm.

Robin's Blooming 9 Patch

Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch was made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I liked looking at it. I like the pink.

Robin's Blooming 9 Patch 2

Robin added some 4 patches on the ends to make the piece a bit longer.

Sue's Scrap Quilt

Sue half square triangle scrap quilt is the kind of project I like to do on the Retreat. Sue had the blocks done and thought to do the rest at home. We encouraged her to use Robin’s design wall to finish the piece. She did so and made good progress. She wanted to use up as many scraps as she could and I think that she did well. Sue is making this quilt for her bed.

Maureen's work

I think the pink fabric in the middle left looks like the leaves a tree with the trunk being the piece right below. I mentioned it and Maureen said that we all see what we want to see.

Julie's work

Julie's Calendar Piece

Julie's Baggo Piece

Julie made a lot of progress on various pieces. She started some and made progress on others. I was very impressed with her progress.

The Baggo piece is from a challenge where each person receives a bag of supplies from another and makes something out of it. I was particularly taken with the Baggo piece’s eye stamps. I was even more impressed when Julie told me she carved them herself. I really like the images and encouraged her to make more and sell them. I would be first in line for a set although I don’t do much stamping.

She quilted and bound this piece. She was irritated at the binding, which tinkled every time she worked on it, because of the bells she had added. I told her to stop and do something else in between. By the end of the weekend, the binding was done and Julie was not gnashing her teeth.

Julie

We went out to dinner on Saturday night together, which was fun. We had the most wonderful waiter who was kind, didn’t complain about any special requests and gave us each individual bills.

Projects

I didn’t do a ‘Hey! Make these Projects for Christmas post’ because my theory is that if you haven’t already started by December, it isn’t going to happen. That is the way it works for me. And I actually was invited to parties this year, so I didn’t have much time to sew on the weekends, which is when I get the majority of my sewing done.

As a result, you can start on your gifts for next year. Sue Astroth has a cool chess board posted on her blog. The spray painting makes it a bit too much work for me, but I like the idea.

Quiltin’ Jenny took up the gift bag banner this year. I was a slacker and didn’t harangue about that pet project. Did you make gift bags? Let’s see them!

Quilt World News

The Pantone Color Institute has come out with their signature color for 2012: Tangerine Tango. Read the story on the Always Quilting (Australia) blog.

FunQuilts is becoming Modern Quilt Studio. They have a post about their upcoming schedule on a recent Craft Nectar post. Their new studio will again be in the basement of their home and Weeks has been keeping a diary of the renovations.

Do you know Pinterest? It is a great way to wile away the hours. There is also a great trick to find out who has pinned what pictures from your site. Adrianne over at Little Bluebell posted the tip last week. Check out who has pinned pictures from Artquiltmaker.com/blog!

My Boxing Day Sew-in post was featured on Creating the Hive. I don’t know why, but it is a thrill when they feature one of my posts. I guess I feel like my writing is validated in some way. Not that I need it to be validated, of course.

Quiltin’ Jenny has joined the SeamedUp team. Check out the announcement.

Fabric and Supplies

The week before Christmas felt like hell at work. All the vendors wanted everything done by the end of the year. Management wanted everything done by the end of the year and I wanted to bury my head in the sand. I tried very hard to buy fabric and somehow just couldn’t achieve it. Camille Roskelley kindly posted a picture of her new fabric line. I asked her to send me some…

Wouldn’t these 1920s designs make great fabric for bags and pillowcases?

Do you stock up on thread per pound when you find it? Do you use mystery fiber thread with your 100% cotton LQS quality fabric? I really liked this thread snob essay. Now, don’t get shirty about the word ‘snob.’ It is a perfectly good word in certain cases. Read the essay, tell me what you think.

There is also a review of Aurifil thread on the KikiSews blog. I liked the way she talked about what needle she used and other such details.

I heard about Quilting by Celia from the Katie’s Quilting Corner podcast. I was tempted to go and take a look because of the promise that she had investigated several methods of making half square triangles. Nice blog. She does lots of blocks, which you know I love. I am also amazed at the people doing the Orca Bay mystery challenge. The steps seem daunting – ‘make 350 HSTs’. Yikes! I would read that and run away screaming.

Design

Weeks Ringle posted about negative space on her blog recently. This post probably relates to their new Transparency book (which nobody has seen fit to send me yet.   ) While negative space isn’t, as of yet, officially part of the design series I am doing with Sandy, it is an important concept and I will at least mention this post in the Design Resources section.

Not Quilt Related

I liked this list of things to stop doing. They were all reasonable and doable to me.

Nutcracker

I hope that your day is filled with good, peace and joy, whatever you are doing or celebrating or not celebrating and that all of that follows you through 2012.

Speaking of Denyse Schmidt, did you know that Free Spirit will be re-releasing Flea Market Fancy again? I haven’t heard when, though. Soon, I think.

There was a very article on Jean Ray Laury in a recent issue of QNM. The article is more about her life than about her death, which I wrote about in March. It is an article I am going to cut out and keep. Lots of good inspiration.

Some photos of Burning Man with a sewing twist. Love the Steampunk look of the vehicles. I think admiration of Steampunk is a whole segment of my personality that I have not even begun to explore. I’ll have to go there a different day.

I checked into the whole Carolina Patchworks business using some contacts and resources at work. No lawsuit has been filed; she received a cease and desist letter, which is, as you might imagine, a letter. A nasty and scary letter, but a letter. As with many legal issues, things take time. People bluster. People propose. People think. People counter. All of these steps take time. Emily is smart to keep her mouth shut on the issue and I urge you, regardless of how curious you are, not to ask her.

I think Emily did the angry designer a real service by not naming names. From the comments to Emily’s post, it appears that people are angry and will boycott the angry designer, if they knew who it was. I am not saying this is fair or a good thing to do. I am merely commenting.

Inspiration
I don’t know how I found this image, but I thought it was interesting. Trees have been on my mind since the Primal Green show ended. Also, having Jill participate in the Creative Prompt Project again has made me get interested in paper cuts/Scherrenschnitte. I know about it from Austria, but haven’t tried it recently. I’ll have to see what I can produce.

Creativity and Process
Maureen sent a short list of books about fear and the creative process from the Brainpickings newsletter to me. How many of these do you have? How many have you read?

Tutorials/Patterns/Assistance
Sarah has a picture dictionary of hand embroidery stitches. Big deal, you say? This is cool, because she has organized them into stitch families – all of the back stitches together, all of the chain stitches together. Sarah also uses pretty colors. I could have really used this when working on Kissy Fish.

Christina has a very clear tutorial on making a machine sewn Cathedral window block. I never thought of making one, but looking at her instructions make me think that I could try it. Or add it to the Sampler class! Watch out, Frances. I like Christina’s blog as well. She says in one post “..my new hobby is napping. And that’s how mid-November just sprung up on me out of nowhere.” That is how I feel. She also made me laugh, which is always a good thing.

Katie of hte famous Katie’s Quilting Corner podcast has tutorial on making half square triangles (triangle squares) using the paper fish method. In her tutorial, she has a printable sheet for the fish and the HSTs come out the same size as the HSTs using 5″ charm squares in my Triangle Technique tutorial.

UFOs/WIPs/PIGs
I am not the only one. One of the editors at C&T enumerated her works in process and, while I know a lot of people have UFOs, I feel better when I see someone else put them out there.

Many of us are heading into the holiday time of year, which is also the I-have-no-time-to-post-comments-to-blogs time of year. Remember that your bloggers love comments so take a moment to read a post and comment on something in it. Thanks!

Beth Lipman is a glass artist. Many of the pieces that she makes have every day objects as her subject. She makes parts that belong on a table and then puts a lot of the parts on a table so there is a plethora of plates, cups, vases, fruit on a table all made of glass. Her pieces are so entrancing to me. I have watched this segment over and over. Her work is fabulous.

Some of her work reminds me of the pieces in one of my favorite museums, Hofsilber und Tafelkammer in Vienna, especially her piece La Seduction de la Belle et la Bete, 2011. One of the things the two have in common is that they deal with tableware, plates, cups, wine glasses, etc. The other thing they have in common is that there is so much to look at in the installations.

Ms. Lipman’s website will give you a good idea of what she makes.

Something she said in the interview struck a nerve with me. She took some time getting to it, but she ultimately implied that she was driven by death. I have danced around that thought in my mind as well. I think that, to some extent, we all want to leave something behind – to not be forgotten.

I think the fact that quilts have traditionally been every day objects is one of the reasons I like them and enjoy making them.

I hope you can find Craft in America at your library. It appears you can watch them online or via an iPad/iPhone app. Look at the Craft in America website for further information.

Fields Of Gold by Sarah Ann Smith

Please check Sarah’s blog for details of her lost quilts. One is Fields of Gold (left). If you hear about it, see it posted on another blog or have any news, please contact Sarah via her blog, Art and Quilting in Camden.

Today was a bit different as I was heading to C&T Publishing to return a quilt from the Primal Green Show, go to lunch and do some other errands that were out that way. It was a long haul, but a good day in general. Drivers weren’t too idiotic, people did not zoom through the Fastrak lane and then try and swerve to the cash lane at the last minute, the rain didn’t pour down while I was driving or while I was walking around without a hood or umbrella: all in all a good day.

Where the Magic Happens

First stop: C&T Publishing

This unassuming industrial type building, in an industrial neighborhood, hides a lot of colorful goodness! I walked into the building and saw the most beautiful C&T commemorative quilt. I am sorry I didn’t take a picture of it. It was really gorgeous!

I also liked the wall of tear sheets they had opposite the reception desk advertising their current titles. It was a great decoration/advertising idea.

Lisa was kind enough to show me all of the different departments. It was funny to think that I have a mystical, awe inspired idea of working in a quilt publishing house, but the people there were just working. I am sure they enjoy their work, but I am also sure that it is a job to them. She took me out into the warehouse where I saw a lot of palettes covered in industrial strength Saran Wrap! I also got a peek inside the photo shoot studio, which is also in the warehouse. Very interesting!

Slightly damaged

I was allowed to pick out some books from their slightly damaged shelf. I didn’t have much time so I just grabbed books. These look interesting, don’t you think?

We went to lunch and, afterwards, I showed Lisa Kissy Fish, which I had in the trunk.

Thimble Creek

Second stop: Thimble Creek, Concord, Calif.

Talking with Lisa reminded me that I have been wanting to try TAP, so I decided that that would be my excuse to go to Thimble Creek, which is just a mile or so up the road from the C&T headquarters.

I hadn’t been to their ‘new’ location. They moved at least 3 years ago. There was a theme a few years ago of quilt stores moving to industrial or office park areas, because of less expensive rent. It worked for some stores not for others. I was nervous about going, because I don’t know the area and I was afraid I would have trouble finding it. Sometimes the stores that have moved to these industrial areas have been hard to find. Silly, I know, but there you have it.

I walked in and there was a feeling of comfort and light in a country/shabby chic sort of way. The place wasn’t as large as their last location, but they had a lot of fabric The arrangement by color, mostly, but also by style/type. There was a section of large florals including Kaffe Fassett, Philip Jacobs, etc. There was a section of reproductions (some Civil War?) and the choices were very appealing. I didn’t buy any, but loved some of the colors – some of the pinks and blues, especially. There was also a section of dots,and another with fabric that looked like the forthcoming Malka Dubrowski fabrics. There was a section of wools. They had a small section of notions, quite a lot of thread and a nice selection of specialty rulers, but not many Creative Grids.

Kissy Fish Framing

Third stop: Framing

Kissy Fish is finished – my part at least. The back looked unfinished, because I stitched through to the back. I originally thought I would put an additional back on. As I got near to finishing I decided that I would frame it. It is an art piece and I want it to be considered art.

A few years ago, I had a number of different types of art pieces framed. The frame shop to which my mom took the pieces did a really great job. Unfortunately, that outlet closed. Fortunately, I found that they had a second shop near C&T, so I went there. I was really pleased to find the shop and added it to my list of tasks for yesterday. I was really pleased the the service. The above mats and frame color are what I chose. It will be ready in a few weeks and I’ll let you know if I like the final result.

Whole Foods was right across the street so I was able to get the gluten free pie crusts I need for Thanksgiving and then I headed home. I thought about stopping at The Cotton Patch and getting the TAP, but I decided just to head home. I’ll get it another time.

Finally: I decided to stop by the Young Man’s school and see if I could find him and if he needed a ride. Boy, was I lucky! He was right out front and ready to go.

I received the following in my inbox this morning and thought I would pass it along. I bought a grab bag and will give them as gifts, if I don’t want to keep the books. I have to say that the hardest part of the transaction was entering my credit card number! It went so quickly and smoothly. The text below is copied and pasted directly from Judy Martin’s email.

No affiliation and I am not getting paid to post this!

“Greetings quilters,

Just in time for Christmas, we’re bringing back the Grab Bag Quilt Book Surprise. We haven’t done it for a few years, so it seemed like a good idea. Here’s a summary of the details. Please read all the way to the bottom before clicking through.

First off, this offer will expire at 4:00 PM Central Standard Time on November 16, 2011. If the latest winter storm knocked out your power, and you didn’t get this newsletter until the 17th, sorry. Or if your spam filter delayed this newsletter until it was too late, sorry again. These things are always a ton of hard work, and we have to have a firm cut-off date so we can get back to things like working on new books.

The price is $25 plus shipping and handling. For that you will get 3 books with a total current retail value of at least $40.85, but it might be as much as $83.85! In practical terms, it means you are guaranteed to get at least one of our full-price books (Scraps, Judy Martin’s Log Cabin Quilt Book, Stellar Quilts, or Patchwork Among Friends). You are guaranteed a savings of at least $15.85. All 8 of my current books will be made available for this deal. And we will send out at least one order that has all 3 of our $27.95 books. At least one lucky quilter is going to hit the quilt book jackpot!

Specific requests will not be honored. Every book shipped will be randomly selected. We can’t promise you won’t get a book you already own. If you do, you now have an inexpensive Christmas present for your best quilting friend!

We can’t promise that you will get different titles. You might get 3 of the same book or 3 different books or 2 of one title and 1 of another. If you receive duplicate books, you can give them away as gifts to your quilting friends. After all, giving is as much fun as receiving, and it’s more emotionally satisfying.

This offer is open to customers all over the globe. We are limiting it to 1 order per customer.

Special shipping rates will apply on orders outside the US. We sometimes lose money on foreign shipping, but we make enough on the books that we can ignore that fact. At this greatly discounted price, we can’t afford to lose money on the shipping.

In the United States shipping for the 3 books by Media Mail is $7, plus $1 for any additional books ordered. Shipping by Priority Mail is $10, plus $1 for any additional books ordered.

In Canada shipping for the 3 books is $16. We cannot ship any additional books with a Grab Bag Quilt Book Surprise when we ship to Canada because it would push the weight over 4 pounds and cause the shipping rate to go sky high.

For all other countries shipping for the 3 books is $30. We cannot ship any additional books with a Grab Bag Quilt Book Surprise when we ship to foreign addresses because it would push the weight over 4 pounds and cause the shipping rate to go sky high.

We normally ship within 24 hours of receiving your order. Because of the volume of orders, it will take us several days to get all the Grab Bag Quilt Book Surprises out the door. Needless to say, we’re going to work as hard as we can to get all the orders shipped as quickly as possible. If the volume of orders is particularly heavy, some orders may not be shipped until after Thanksgiving weekend (November 24-27).

This is meant to be fun, so have some fun. Let the joy of receiving a surprise sweep over you. Anyone who wishes to complain about getting 3 good quilt books for $25 plus shipping will be repelled at the gates!

If you think this sounds like fun, share it with your quilting friends. And be sure to tell them you were in on this info first because you subscribe to my newsletter. Encourage them to join the “in crowd” by signing up for the newsletter themselves.

To order go here:

http://judymartin.com/products.cfm?action=detail&prod=22&CatID=1

If the link gets truncated and doesn’t work, go to judymartin.com, click on Books and then on Grab Bag Quilt Book Surprise. Have fun!

Judy Martin
http://www.judymartin.com/
info@judymartin.com ”

Zig Zaggy in the wild

Last week, I spent Wednesday night and Thursday all day at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara. This is the first time in several years I have not rented a hotel room and stayed down there with TFQ. I stayed over Wednesday night with a friend who lives nearby so I wouldn’t have to drive back and forth, but I came straight home after the show closed on Thursday. As you read this I am presenting at a conference, so I had a lot to do on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the conference.

The Zig Zaggy quilt was part of the New Quilts for Northern California and I was pleased to see how well it was hung. It really hangs straight, too, which is always a thrill.

Angela's Kona Challenge

I didn’t hang around my quilt for hours, but the few times I passed by, I saw people studying it and taking photos, which is also always a thrill. I was with my mom and Julie part of the time. When we visited my quilt they gave me lots of kudos and told everyone within hearing distance that it was my quilt. I was embarrassed, but also a bit happy.

Angela’s Kona Challenge quilt, Kona Color Waves, was hung nearby, also as part of the challenge. It was so great to see it well hung. The color choices she made really work well. I hope she hangs it up in her house so she can admire it. I also hope other people are inspired by it.

World Quilt Exhibition

Kathleen's Sunflower

BAMQG was well represented at the show as Kathleen’s sunflower quilt was hung there also.

I really enjoyed the World Quilt Exhibition this year. There was lots of good imagery, many, many Israeli quilts and great designs.

CQFAers were represented as well. Caroline had her landscape quilt in the show, prominently displayed at the end of an aisle. Marie had two, yes TWO quilts in the show. One was a Pineapple made from Hawaiian fabrics and the other used hand dyed fabrics. We helped Marie at her first meeting figure out how to proceed with the hand dyed quilt.

Some trends I noticed were: surface design appropriate to the quilt, lots of amazing quilting and stitching, again appropriate to the design and not over the top. I also lots and lots of portrait quilts. It was interesting to compare the different face techniques. There were also a lot of landscape quilts. I got the impression that people are no longer exploring their machines, but know what they can do and are doing those techniques well.

Faye's Quilt

For a long time, I didn’t get to see my friend Faye, but I would get to see her quilts in the World Quilt Exhibition. Then, as her husband became more ill, she wasn’t able to enter quilts in the show either. Her husband, sadly, died a few years ago after a long illness and I have gotten to see her as she spends about 2 months near me every year now. I was also pleased to see her quilt, Stars, Curves and a Touch of Yellow, in this show.

The Quilt Show has a video up of various quilts. If my link doesn’t work check the Quilt Show’s Daily Blog for October 14, 2011.

My purchase downfall was Tsukineko inks and Perl Cotton. There was a booth at the show selling inks with tons of colors and I couldn’t resist adding to my collection.

The weekend of the 6th saw a huge event in NYC to support the Alliance for American Quilts. they are having an event called Quilters Take Manhattan. I think all of the unexpected hoopla surrounding Infinite Variety gave new life to quilts as art. All of the quilting glitterati were there and I followed the action as best I could from 3k miles away. Some blog posts I saw about this were:

• Bumble Beans Inc QSoS interview
• Cocktails and Thread
• Fashion Show
• Jackie’s Quilting Chronicles
• Red Headed Mermaid (very short mention)

In the course of following the events, I was pointed to Marianne Fons blog. I like her writing style and hearing about her family. She is a sensitive writer who records her observations in a delightful way. In a way, she reminds me of Rosamunde Pilcher, my personal gold standard for descriptive writing. She writes about her personal life and family, but doesn’t give too much away, but she does write about her daughter, Mary’s, illness a bit, which I had only heard about in passing. I was curious, of course, but such a thing is none of my business, so I wouldn’t ask, even if I had someone to ask.

Marianne, in turn, pointed me to Mary Fons blog, which I will look at and, perhaps, add to my blog reader.

Media
I saw that a show called Why Quilts Matter will be coming to PBS in the Fall. I am looking forward to watching it. The website has a video trailer. It is 9 part documentary in which Shelly Zegart is heavily involved. A lot of the people in the trailer are from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I wonder if Frances will be able to take advantage of any lectures or anything? There are a lot of other contributors as well. I checked my Tivo and the show isn’t yet listed, but I have a ‘quilts’ keyword search, so, hopefully, it will come up in that search.

Stitched, the movie, came out a few months ago and I still haven’t seen that. My libraries don’t have it yet and I am not a Netflix member.

I think there is something to be said for quilt companies to be small businesses, well any companies really. I am not enamored with large companies right at the moment. Small businesses seem to care more about their customers, though that is a generalization and a stereotype and I know it is not always true. The ones that have been taken over by larger companies, such as Fons & Porter, have become impersonal and don’t really seem to care about their customers. Fons & Porter is now owned by New Track Media LLC, which is further owned by a person and a private equity firm. They also own Quilter’s Club of America, Keepsake Quilting, QNM and others. What is their interest in quiltmaking? Money, I am guessing.

I watched one of the Fons & Porter episodes #1201 on the Spin Wheel quilt project (definitely a repeat), which said that the updated directions for using the hexagon ruler and their pyramid ruler to make the Spin Wheel with these tools would be available on their website. I bought the DVD with the pattern from the magazines, both rulers and went looking for the adjunct instructions. They weren’t on the website. I searched over and over to no avail, so I contacted customer service. The customer service people (called Answer54) were diligent, but supremely unhelpful. They had canned responses and I became more frustrated as it became clear that my question did not fit into their list of responses. Somehow I was transferred to Keepsake Quilting and the person contacted me and responded to me several times, but ultimately didn’t have the instructions. I also posted on their FB fan page. No response. I can make the block without that adjunct sheet of instructions, but it just seems so lame of them not to be able to find a sheet of instructions. I guess New Track thinks of their quilting properties as cash cows. This seemed like a simple request: M&L said the adjunct instructions were on the website, they are not on the website, please send them to me. I guess New Track Media thinks their brands are so awesome that they don’t have to provide customer service. Customer Service is everything, New Track. Get with the program.

SeamedUp is having a fundraiser (you, too, can be a venture capitalist!) to get more server space and a bunch of other stuff. They are a small, women owned company. Only one person has contributed, as of this writing, which is kind of sad. If all of the almost 2000 people who are members contributed $5 that would be $10,000, which is much more than their goal. Go for it and if you are not a member, join up! You can read more about their plans, the campaign and everything SeamedUp on their blog

Tools, Books  and Supplies
I bought a new iron when I was out shopping for the Young Man’s school uniform parts. It is the most expensive iron I have ever bought – $29.99. I figured I should splurge since I have two in the closet downstairs that were cheap and, clearly, not up to my pressing needs once I got them out of the box and heated up.  It is really nice to have steam again. I also like this iron, because it doesn’t beep at me all the time. I need many fewer irritating beeps in my life.

Did you enter the book giveaway I announced earlier this week? Check it out!

Are you interested in how thread is made? Coats & Clark made a video which I saw on AllPeopleQuilt.com.

BryeLynn of SeamedUp and Sew~Stitch~Create did a review of the Frixion pen. It is really nice when someone else does the heavy lifting for you!

Learning
As I have mentioned a few times, I have helped to organize a class at Always Quilting on August 27, 2011, 10-4. It will be taught by Lynn Koolish of C&T fame. It is open to everyone though the BAMQG and CQFA folks have had a headstart on sign ups. The class is now on the shop’s website. You can register via the website or by calling their shop at (650) 458-8580. Hope to see you there!

ArtQuilt Tahoe is coming around again. There are still some great teachers available. If you are able to attend and haven’t taken a class from Libby Lehman, sign up immediately. She is a wonderful teacher – giving, not stuck up, a great presenter, personable. I’d like to go sometime, but this isn’t the year. I’d love to hear about it, if you attend.

Projects
Hooded towels are very popular in our house. The Young Man thinks about things in the show and likes to tell me about them when he emerges from bathing. They are great to wrap up in on cold bath/shower nights when bathrobes are too fussy. The hooded towels have the added bonus of drying the hair with very little effort. They are harder to find as children get taller. I saw a tutorial for a hooded towel. For larger children, I would use two towels. Use a very sharp needle when sewing the two towels together, so you don’t break a needled or jam up your machine. Since you may be having the same issue, I thought I would share.

Yesterday, I posted about the gift I made for Grama. I took it to show a friend visiting from New Zealand and realized I hadn’t done the topstitching from the top hem to the bottom corners. DUH!. It would really help if I read the directions once in a while!

Last week (?) I posted the finished Kona Challenge quilt. Yesterday I saw a blog post about the responses to the challenge from the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. Some of them remind me of Angela’s Kona Challenge quilt (which she was binding at the last meeting!!!)

Chair Pillowcase

Due to my ongoing machine issues, I am working on easy projects, or projects that don’t require complicated piecing. The Jem just can’t handle it. I bought some more of the Tufted Tweets chair fabric when I went to New Pieces the other week and cut out a pillowcase to go with the purple quilt. I sewed the whopping 3 seams it took to put the thing together and will send it off this week, hopefully.

Other Artists
I had heard about Claudia’s blog, Machen und Tun from Frances, but had never gone to look at it until I saw one of her quilts in the Quilting….for the Rest of us Flickr group. She is a working on the Attack of the Hexies project and is doing a wonderful red and white color scheme. Why didn’t I think of that? I went to her most recent post (8/4/2011) and was thrilled to see a, mostly, aqua and red sampler quilt. If you scroll down she shows some more blocks and the whole effect is quite wonderful. She talks about looking at the Fresh Lemons Summer Sampler Series blocks inspiring her, but also encouraging her to go off in her own direction. She might select different blocks that weren’t as difficult or required no paper piecing. She also talks about making the blocks a little differently to make them her own. What a great idea for inspiration! I noticed a circle tutorial, which looks very similar to the Dale Fleming method. The other thing about her blog is that she writes in English and German. This is great practice for me. Thanks, Claudia! Her blog is definitely worth looking at.

Angela has posted over 240 photos of quilts from the UK Festival of Quilts. She posted the photos in a Smilebox format on Creating the Hive, so you can scroll through them fairly easily.

Life

Learning
Everyone on the web seems to be way better at Photoshop Elements than I am. My friend, La, tries to give me little tips, but I forget by the time I get home. As result, I have helped to organize a class at Always Quilting on August 27, 2011, 10-4 and is taught by Lynn Koolish of C&T fame. It is open to everyone though the BAMQG and CQFA folks have had a two week headstart on sign ups. The class is now on the shop’s website. You can register via the website or by calling their shop at (650) 458-8580. Hope to see you there!

I was listening to an episode of Creative Mojo the other day (via podcast) and Mark was interviewing Patrick Doughty, an artist whose medium is sticks. I wasn’t terribly interested in the work, but find that I can always learn something. He said something really profound in response to a question about getting stuck. He said (paraphrasing) that it takes time to get into the groove of creating. He creates every day or only takes short breaks. this helps him not to have to get back into the groove, because he is already in the groove. This is a really important part of how I work. I think, write or read about quiltmaking every day I cannot be at the sewing machine. I cut, press, fold and organize fabric when I can’t sew (like last week when my machine was getting services). Every other time, I sew. I am always in the groove, because my work is in the forefront of my mind.  I do get stuck on projects, but then I move to another project or cut, press, fold and organize my fabric.

Quilt-a-Longs
I think I talked about the Farmer’s Wife Quilt-a-Long. There are a lot of blog posts, discussions and projects blooming out of it. I saw on the ModaLissa site that the United Notions people are having a Hen Party (go read the post) that also has to do with FWQAL. Perhaps I do need to jump in…meaning ‘need’ in the broadest and most non-committal sense of the word.

Camille Roskelley of the gorgeous red dotted chair blog, ok the Simplify blog, has posted another group of her Farmer’s Wife blocks. I love them! Perhaps I do like grey after all. I think I have get out my Ultimate 3-in-1 color tool and see what I can learn from her color scheme.

How about my Block-a-Long? Have you made any blocks? Let’s see them? Are they boring?

Color
I am reading a book (review soon-ish) and I realized the author was not doing complicated piecing, but was creating complex color stories to tell in the form of a quilt. I am intrigued by this concept, especially after working on FOTY 2011. I ran across the Michael Miller site, which is doing color stories every week also. During the week of July 20 they had an aqua and red color way, which you know I love.

Media
I am feeling like Miss (Ms?) Popularity lately. I never was one of the cool kids at school so I am not quite sure how to handle it. I was recently interviewed on episode 2 of the SeamedUp podcast. It was fun to talk to the SeamedUp ‘girls’ and get to talk about design a little bit, my blog and life a little bit. They produce their podcast in a very professional way, I think, but laugh a lot along the way.

I was listening to a recent Annie Smith episode and heard about Cori Blunt. I took a look at her website and blog. Her drawings are really sweet, I especially like her bike pillow. Of course, I probably wouldn’t do any of those quilts, but I can admire them. I do like the way she did the sashing around the star blocks in the Cherry Tweets quilt. Very clever.

In conjunction with her episode #166, Amy of Creative Mom Podcast post GORGEOUS pictures of stairs with mosaics on the risers. Even if you don’t listen to her podcast (which you should!), go take a look at these photos. They are wonderful and make me want to do some mosaic work on my stairs.

I think I heard about GenerationQ magazine from Adrianne at some point in the not so distant past. I was reintroduced to it last week via an article they did on smartphone quilting apps. There are two that are interesting to me. One is block pattern app similar in concept to Around the Block, one of the most useful books in my library. The other, which constantly made me think of TFQ is the Fabric Stash by Blueshift Software app. She needs this app. This one does not get high marks, but the writers say that the portion where you can document your fabric stash works really well. It seems easy to photograph your fabric and keep it handy on your phone when I go shopping, especially for projects like the Food Quilt where I am trying to get one piece of many different fabrics. it is on the pricey side for apps, but it may be worth trying out. Now to get Blueshift together with SeamedUp so I can zap my fabric from my phone straight into SeamedUp. That would be awesome (at least in my head).

Other Artists

Lil Sissy passed on a  good blog post from Kelly Rae Roberts. I think it worth reading and keeping in mind. Short version: there is a time to dream and a time to savor.

Vicki posted an Art Saves story on Crescendoh. I didn’t know about those stories until I saw a link on Vicki’s site and happened to click on it. Very interesting. I like the stories.

Fabric

Last week, Julie of The Intrepid Thread post some photos of new fabrics in her shop. She posted:

• Sweet Treats http://fb.me/16eeAMWIt
• Licorice Cloud http://fb.me/SdMcvn79
• Cotton Candy http://fb.me/wwGp0deq
• Sapphire http://fb.me/Ez55AJPA
• Ruby http://fb.me/TwMwQ24o
• Citrine http://fb.me/160LGuNQ8

They were some fabrics I saw when I was on my quilt journey a few weeks ago. When I saw them at New Pieces I thought that I couldn’t possibly use such fabrics, but when I saw the pictures Julie posted, I thought they might be fine if I cut them up. Is there a meeting point between fussy cutting and strip piecing that would allow the beauty of some of the larger motifs to come through? What do you think?

Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and/or your blog, and how your work relates to the other responses.

The Creative Prompt Project has a Flickr Group, which you can join and to which you can post your responses. Have fun and link to your responses! Ask a friend to join, too! You can respond to the prompts together. I created that spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted. Post yours and get kudos!

Take flight

In flight

Kelly Rae Roberts blog

cheap flight deals

book flights

Microsoft Flight

flights of inspiration

track departing flights

Wright Brothers

Charles Lindbergh

transatlantic flight

dynamics of flight

The Art of Flight

Flight 93

Angel’s Flight

take flight

Flight of the Conchords

human flight

bird in flight

flight patterns

maiden flight

flight attendants

space flight

Definition: –noun 1. the act, manner, or power of flying. 2. the distance covered or the course taken by a flying object: a 500-mile flight; the flight of the ball. 3. a trip by an airplane, glider, etc.

Primal Green Postcard

Did you go and see the show? This is the last week to see it. Primal Green is a show of environmental art quilts at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

The Wallace Stegner Environmental Center is one of the special collections at the Main Branch and, after a year of work with the Library, CQFA has over 20 quilts and other fiber art on display. The quilts all have an environmental theme. The show will hang until this coming Saturday July 30 and be available to viewers during the Library’s normal open hours. Don’t wait until the last minute! Oops! It is the last minute. Go TODAY!

Primal Green, the art quilt exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library, has some information on the Green Stacks portion of the SFPL website. Hope you can see the show.

Hope you can stop by and see it. Check the library’s website for hours.

Lorajean's Flags

I was looking through my Flickr Feed when I came across this quilt of Lorajean’s. Remember my Flickr trick from ResearchBuzz? My eyes nearly popped out of my head for a couple of reasons.

• this is one of the layouts I am thinking about for my FOTY 2011 quilt with the triangles. While she is making it look more scrappy than I would, she has the idea.
• this is a fresh and fun piece
• the red really moves your eye around the quilt

I was thinking this morning that, perhaps I would lay the quilt out in a similar way to Lorajean’s, but focus each row on a different part of the color wheel and then within the row, I would colorwash the colors. I want to use Kona white or Kona Snow in this piece to give the fabrics some space. I’ll have to look at that and see if it works. Seeing Lorajean’s piece above makes me think it might. I know I have many more pieces to include than she has included in her quilt.

I also thought of making a two sided row with a thin strip in between so that some of the triangles are pointing and some are pointing down like Lorajean has done.

You can see Lorajean’s blog and this particular post about this top. The site has a very nice tone and some great posts. Aside from the pennant quilt posts, I really liked a post in which Lorajean talks about making a Harry Potter themed doll for her daughter. She does a lot of different crafts and the photos on her blog are well presented. Take a look at her site, leave her a comment and let her know you saw her top featured here at Artquiltmaker!

Dutchman's Puzzle

As you may have heard on The Off Kilter Quilt podcast, Frances and I are working on a Sampler together. Frances posted her version of the Dutchman’s Puzzle and it looks great. She is doing a wonderful job!

We have been on a bit of an unintentional hiatus, because I was out of town for 10 days, she had some things to take care of and went to the beach, the Young Man graduated and, generally, life got in the way of quiltmaking. I needed to get in gear for as much sewing as humanly possible this weekend, so I started in on the Dutchman’s Puzzle on Thursday night.

Doing one block doesn’t take very long. I thought I would just getting the cutting done, but I was able to piece the whole block together. I had enough time even after I sewed the four major sections together wrong and had to rip them out! Being more of a morning person, I don’t sew well at night (make lots of mistakes) and usually just hand sew bindings or something. I am glad I didn’t do worse damage!

Sampler Blocks, early July 2011

Now I have a nice round 6 blocks. This reminds of the goals of the first ever quilt class I took. The goal was to make a 6 block sampler. The blocks are different, but this group of blocks provides me with some fond memories.

I also was able to look at the piece from a color and fabric stand point. I am not liking the Card Trick. I need to decide if I will make a new one or include the light background fabric in a couple of other blocks.

I can also see that I need to include the Big Plain Jane fabric, and a few other fabrics, in at least one more block. I am pondering whether or not there is a block scheduled that will showcase it.

All in all, I really like the way this is coming out.