Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
If you are thinking about your resolutions, read the post on Christine Kane’s blog, Resolution Revolution.
I have a book called 365 Tao. I have had it for several years and decided this year to read one page every day, and think about the word of the day in order to get inspired. Where appropriate to quilting, I will post the word of the day here for you to ponder as well.
Beginning:
It is really no big surprise to me that the word for the first day of the year is Beginning. It seems appropriate on January 1. The book says that before anyone can begin they have to make the decision to begin. This seems so basic, but I never thought of it like that. If I don’t decide to start a new project, I can’t begin it. Interesting to let rumble around in my mind.
The author writes that the beginning of a journey is always filled with hope, wonder, anticipation and excitement. This is also true, if you think about it. I was thinking about this in relation to the Hop, Skip & Jump quilt I started yesterday. Before I physically begin a project, but after I have decided to begin there is a lot of hope on how it will go (fast? easily?); wonder at how yardage can be turned into something different, comforting and useful; there is anticipation on the feel of the fabric in my hands and the skillful wielding of tools as well as the pleasure of seeing the pieces go together; and, finally, the excitement at starting a new project, using new fabrics and a new design.
Once you have started the project, the bloom is off. I face the reality of making the quilt; the maker is in the process. The hope, wonder, anticipation and excitement still exist, but they are very much in my head while the process is actually something that I physically do. Sadly, physical actions have to comply with the laws of space, time, physics, etc. For the HSJ project, I found that that the pieces had to each be cut individually because they use templates. It was not a surprise, because I looked at the book carefully before I started. Cutting pieces individually using templates is not bad, just different. I thought about whether or not to change the pattern to make it easier to rotary cut, too, as I mentioned and decided to leave the project as it was rather than modifying it. There is a certain calmness to templates. They force me to slow down somewhat. It is all just part of the process. The reality is always different than what is in my head, and often a splendid surprise.
Good word for the day, I think!
This picture, as you can, probably, see, is taken at a very interesting angle. I like the way the stitch lines in the bottom right corner take on the look of a road. It is also interesting how one can see the center coming together and which way the pressing was done.
One of the things I learned this year about quilts is that a portion of a quilt can be attractive to me, even if I don’t like the total execution. This revelation came about after viewing a number of shows where I found no quilt that jumped out at me and said “I am the best.” There was a lot of brown and a lot of techniques and patterns I had already seen. I am not disparaging the efforts of any quiltmaker, because making a quilt is no mean feat. I truly believe that everyone should make whatever quilt they want whenever they want (and can) in whatever method and colors they choose. So, below you may see some quilts where the pattern or a portion of the work is what I liked.
San Mateo County Fair 2008: I liked the use of pink in the quilt. I also admired the use of different black on white fabrics. Scrappy, but pulled together. I am looking for uses for pink and like the movement of the pinwheels. I also admire the maker for using hand applique.
APNQ 2008: Love the wheels and the use of turquoise/aqua as a background.
PIQF 2008 – Quilt is a reproduction of a Pennsylvania Dutch Quilt. Each block is really tiny – like a little jewel. I want to find the book as some of the blocks are very unique (EQ can you make a CD so I don’t have to draft them all???), but it is hard to come by for a reasonable price.
PIQF 2008: Seasons by Linda McLaughlin. There were many, many quilts depicting leaves and trees at this year’s PIQF show. This was one of the best. One of the things that I noticed about this was the excellent use of Shibori. I don’t like quilts that are all about making people notice the maker used hand dyed fabric. In this one the hand-dyes are part of and advance the design. Nice work!
PIQF 2008: On the Wings of a Dream by Ana Bazzolino. I like this quilt, because of the attention to detail and color. There is just enough pink to make it interesting, but not so much that it becomes sickly sweet.
This is the detail that I really like the black on white fabrics are appliqued on to the solid black fabric and the white on black pieces are appliqued to the white fabrics. I like the thoughfulness.
Overall thoughts:
2008 has seen more sewing progress, as well as more positive feeling sewing progress. I like to inventory my UFOs to see if I made any progress since my previous roundup post of December 31, 2007 and where I am in the process as well as what I need to do. But first, I want to tout my accomplishments. 😉
Completed Pieces in 2008
Completed means to me that they are now usable and can in no way be considered to have anything left to do to them.
As it was last year, I thought there were more. I am surprised that I finished NO quilts, because I worked on so many, but 12 tote bags is nothing to sneeze at. I have to say that I think, in 2008,I really focused on enjoying my work and the process.
Mostly Done, Need Finishing
I added this new category to break up the UFO list and to make myself feel like I had accomplished something, which was quite overwhelming. Also, these are all mostly done, IMO.
True UFOs
Here is my list of UFOs. You can see many of them over at Artquiltmaker.com or look at the links I have provided.As mentioned last year, this list in no way implies that I will discontinue starting new projects or finish any of these.
On My Mind
Here are the quilts and projects I am thinking about. Some are on the list from last year. In some cases I have purchased fabric, but no sewing has been done, so they are not yet considered UFOs.
Abandoned Projects
This is also a new category. I decided to be upfront about the projects I got rid of.
Other
I decided to work on the Hop Skip and Jump pattern by Denyse Schmidt (Denyse Schmidt Quilts book) as my next project right now. I rarely sew from patterns, but this one seemed like a good one to use with the blues that I had weeded out from my new fabrics. I had thought of modifying the pattern so that there were no curved pieces, but I didn’t. I am not afraid of curved piecing (note Flowering Snowballs/Cross Blocks), but each of the 16 pieces required for each block must be cut out separately. It is an arduous task, but I am into it now and will just continue on.
One problem I already had was with the copy place. The pattern directs the maker to enlarge the pattern by 400%. I have terrible problems with office equipment, copiers in particular, so I went to an office shop and they offered to do it for me. The girl couldn’t get the entire pattern on an 11″x17″ sheet of paper. She asked me at one point if it would be a problem to have the top of the pieces cut off. Finally, I told her she could reduce the size slightly and that seemed to work. It doesn’t bother me to have slightly smaller blocks. I can make a few more with no problem.
For once I have cut all the blue pieces for 6 blocks before I have sewed any of them together. I haven’t decided on the background yet, so I haven’t cut background pieces. I thought I had just bought a white on white that I would use, but I can’t find it so either it was my imagination, it is hiding from me or it isn’t washed yet.
This is my favorite. The background is a very cheerful dot print where the dots are irregular and a variety of different colors. I am all about cheerful, you know. 😉
The above is my second favorite. I don’t have enough of this particular black on white print, so I would have to use a variety of different black on white prints with the same weight/ratio of black to white. I wouldn’t want it to be too overly black.
I really wanted a very calm looking quilt, thus all the blues. This background is one of the P&B New Basics from 2000. I recently bought a yard of it and have at least a fat quarter somewhere else. The problem is that it is very close to some of the value of the other fabrics so the pieces blend together. I think they blend together a little too much.
There are a couple of factors for the background: one is that it has to have the look that I want. Another is that I have to have enough of the chosen fabric to use as a background. The bottom line is that I want this to be a quick quilt. I don’t want to spend weeks on picking the background. I also, however, don’t want to hate it when I am halfway through the sewing. I am happy to hear what you think.
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Thanks for reading in 2008! Happy New Year!
*German for “ever closer” (approximate translation)
These tiles are on the stairs of a house on 21st Avenue in San Francisco.
