Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I don’t usually sew during the week. It is a habit I got out of some years ago due to general evening chores, preparation for the next day, etc. Tonight I just decided to sew 3 more seams and now the top of Serendipity Puzzle is complete.
Here is the entire piece. It is very busy and the reds and brown do stick out. It is cheerful. I could just make the back and have it quilted, but will try out some borders before I do that.
Detail of one of the blocks.
Learning to do something new makes the first two blocks or parts of a project practice. For this project, and, yes, it is now on the project list, I am pretty pleased with these two blocks. The blocks are fairly flat, there is no paper to rip or muslin to quilt through.
I spent some time yesterday putting the last two rows on as well as the corners. I may have to remove the corners and put others on, as they need to be a bit bigger, but we will see.
I am very pleased with how the fabrics look together.
I am still cutting strips, which is a drag, but I will be happy when I have piece of all of my dots cut.
Here is my last try at figuring out which fabrics to use for the sashing. I decided against the larger print background fabric. The background of that particular fabrics is not as bright as the background on the others. Also, the motifs are so big that they mostly got cut off.
Once again, I am trying to sew it together in chunks (rather than rows) to keep the piece straighter and more manageable.
Essentially, I have two more seams to sew to get this baby done. I can’t avoid them being long seams. Of course, there is the border. I, also, already started the back.
The class was great.
I had enough dots, but could have used more.
The Pineapple Ruler is totally worth the money.
The above photo shows how to place the ruler to cut the pieces. No foundation.
Here are the blocks that I made:
This is how my one block looked after a couple of rows.
This is how my two blocks look now. I have two more rounds to go: I have to put some strips on the corners and one triangle on each corner then each block is done. I should have cut the strips in advance, so I would have had more sewing time, but I didn’t have the time, so the point is moot.
This is the teacher’s, Katrina Lampken, quilt. She did a nice job teaching. She a little background on the Pineapple block. She talked about different ways of making it and why she liked this method. Then we got started. She was able to answer all of the questions. She was really mild mannered, but go her point across. It was a great day.
These are some of the other student’s work:
Sue
Barbara from San Ramon (we were dot sisters)
Laura worked with gradations
The Pineapple class, about which I have been talking on and off for the past week, is today. I began packing my supplies and materials and got into a panic that I don’t have enough dots in enough different scales and colors. I want to have a wide variety to provide interest. I rummaged through everything to find more and came up with two that I had washed last week, but needed to be ironed. I ironed them, but the stack still looks pathetic. One of them is a Michael Miller fabric similar to the one below, but with more of a sky blue background than the soldier blue depicted below.
I hope I am just having the last minute jitters and really do have enough fabric.
I saw these plush critters on Etsy. While I like the “wild abandon design,” I also like the color choices. The red and blue critter doesn’t look too Fourth of July-ish and the pink and green is just the right shade not to be too preppy. I am also enamoured with the stitching. I have often struggled with how to put stuffed items (mostly pillows) together and have them look good. This London artist does it very well.
That is a quote (without the Serendipity Puzzle part) from Lorraine Torrence. It is a great ‘rule’ to remember, at least for me. I find that the picture in my mind’s eye often looks better in my mind’s eye.
To that end, I cut some sashing pieces to try and figure out if I was on the right track.
This example was my original idea for the sashing. I am not fond of it, but it is also not terrible. It looks busy and is not restful. Not sure if this quilt can be considered restful in general, but I certainly don’t want to add to the excitement. I may have to sew some pieces together to make sure this is not the right sashing design before I decide.
To me, this screams “look at the cross.” I think the contrast between the light background and dark sashing does not add to the overall design.
Think, so far, this is the best, which surprised me. It gives some space to each block so you can see the design and alleviates some of the busy-ness. I would put pieces of the three different lights instead of just the blue on white.
I worked, yesterday, on selecting fabrics for the Pineapple class, which takes place next Friday. These are the fabrics that I have selected so far. As I looked through my dot fabrics, I felt like some were missing, but couldn’t find any others, so I guess I just have the impression in my mind that there are never enough dots! I am pretty happy with the selection, but am still contemplating whether or not the dot sizes are too similar and whether the colors are too similar in value.
In this selection, I didn’t include any of the Fusions fabrics by Robert Kaufman, but am considering adding some to add a little motif size interest. Some of the colorways are very light, however, so if I do add them I need to take care. I don’t want the background to bleed into the foreground creating visual confusion. I can certainly bring them with me, so if I need them I will have them, but if not, no harm done. Opinions are welcome.
Ignore the checkerboard, as that is my ironing board cover!
The two pictures above are the same group, so you will see some overlap (e.g. the red).
Value too similar? I might have get rid of the red one in from the right as it seems to read as a solid.
5 Forelle pears
Some perspective on the size
Red bowl of vegetables
This is a photo taken from the observation room in the deYoung tower. It is to the front and east of the entrance. I like the big circle, which is a pond and other other oval-ish shapes.
I have wanted to make a Pineapple quilt for a long time. With that thought in mind, I have collected various patterns and foundation papers, thought about fabrics and discussed the project with St. JCN. I have also seen some beautiful Pineapple quilts, such as these:
This one was shown at the Marin Needlearts Guild Show a few years ago. I don’t know the maker, but if you are the maker, I will be happy to post your name here.
I don’t remember where I saw this one, but I like the way the maker used black in the actual pineapple blocks and I also LOVE the border. The use of the the black and white print in the border is also very interesting. It reads as grey, but works with the red-orange.
On a whim (talk about impulse shopping!), I signed up for a Pineapple class using the Positively Pineapple book and ruler. It will be held at Black Cat Quilts in a few weeks. This is not the method that I intended to use to make the quilt, but it will give me an overview of this technique. I have long admired quilts made by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith, so this will also give me an overview of their patterns.
I have a lot of preparation to do for the class, but have already started. I bought the book and borrowed the ruler from St. JCN. Now I need to gather the fabric. I will use dots again. I am not done with dots and have plenty that I can use. I have decided to to dots with white backgrounds for the “background.”
These are the dots that I have decided on so far. I have enough of each of the fabrics in the group to use for the entire background, but would like to add to the group. The one on the far right is still a maybe, but seeing it with others gives it more of a chance.
I have to face the fact that these two quilts are too big to photograph at home and I will have to get them professionally photographed. Here are better photos, but not GREAT photos.
I read a bit more of the Amish-Inspired Quilts book. One thing I noticed, as I was reading, was the picture of the quilt, Lorna’s Vine. You can only see a bit of it, but the thing that struck me is osmething that St. JCN and I discuss all the time: more fabric is beter than less. St. JCN has recently accepted that she prefers making scrap quilts with lots of fabrics. In this picture, the vine and leaves use many different solids, which adds a lot of interest to the quilt. Why in the world should a quilt be boring even if the fabrics are all solids? It shouldn’t. More fabric is better than less.
I finished all the blocks for Serendipity Puzzle today. It isn’t even late at night, so I could put the sashing together and really be done with the top. We’ll see. I might jump over to the QA Challenge and see if I can make some headway on that.