November 2010 – Page 2 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Frosted Stars Progress

I spent a good portion of my day off Wednesday piecing the sashing and the borders on to the star blocks. As you can see, I didn’t quite finish, but I am moving forward.

A discussion came up at the CQFA meeting on Saturday about Jelly Rolls. As you know, I used a Jelly Roll for the Zig Zaggy top, It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap and I am in the process of using one for the Frosted Stars. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been hearing about Jelly Rolls and wanted to try one. Why not, right? It is always good to have an informed opinion.

One member had a few questions about them and so we started talking. Another member chimed in about how using someone else’s color choices took all the creativity out of making a quilt. She kind of went on and on for a bit about it. After she had finished I felt compelled to say that using someone else’s color choices might be a good way to learn to use colors that you wouldn’t normally choose. There is a gold in It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap that I wouldn’t ever pick myself, but works very well with the off shade of blue included in the Merry & Bright Jelly Roll by Sandy Gervais.

This conversation got me to thinking about color choices and how I work with color. I realized that I work in a couple of ways.

1. I choose colors in which I am interested in working. I see a color or a fabric and it gets me thinking about a quilt or a bag or a tote in those colors. At this moment, that means that I am collecting aqua and red fabrics and setting them aside in order to make a quilt in the future. I don’t know what quilt, though am leaning towards a basket quilt.

2. I also like working with whole lines of fabric. I like being part of a creative endeavor that someone else started. In a strange way, it is like a round robin. Like the It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap quilt, for which I made no decisions (pattern, whole line of fabric), I found solace in not making decisions. Also, if I am making a difficult quilt, like the Zig Zaggy quilt, which requires a lot of thought in construction, I find that putting the color choices aside allows me to focus on the sewing techniques and process.

2A. I am also enjoying the groups that Cynthia and her staff at Birch Fabrics/Fabric Worm put together. They are usually not a whole line of fabric from one designer , but fabrics that go together and have a variety of scales and designs. I haven’t actually made a quilt with one of her groups yet, but I am putting them together after washing and cutting patches in order to be ready to go when I start the next quilt. I am finding that I am also adding other fabrics in that I will go well.

3. Sometimes, I see something that inspires me.I have been driving by the house pictured for YEARS. In the last year or so, they painted it this rose and pumpkin color. I never have my camera with me when I go by, but today I was nearby and did have my camera so I swung by to snap some shots. I think I will make a quilt in these colors, but will add some violet as well. I think violet would look fabulous with the pumpkin and rose. There is an orange tending towards pumpkin dot (like the Ta Dots) that I have seen around. I haven’t had a chance to dig through my collection of dots to see if I have it, but it is on my list. Of course, I have to make visual decisions visually and will have to see.

4. Sometimes color doesn’t matter and I work with light and dark and a certain pattern. The Pineapple quilt is an example of this type of fabric selection. I am not sure if one would call this ‘color’ selection per se. Once inside such parameters, I do make rules for myself such as no like colors next to each other or only complementary colors next to each other etc. It usually depends on my mood.

5. Monochromatic color schemes, like the Blue Janus quilt are also intriguing me lately. I like the monochromatic color scheme, because it helps my eye discern the different types of blues, or reds or whatever color I have chosen for the color scheme. When you have 300 blues together they all look a bit different.

6. Rainbow/color wash type quilts have really been good exercises lately. The FOTY quilts have really been good for this. I have to admit that I am not liking the way I blended the colors in FOTY 2008. I don’t know what I was thinking. I do like the quilt, but in this color wash type of colorwork, the colors should blend more. It could be that my idea of this type of colorwork has evolved since FOTY 2008. I did a much better job on FOTY 2009. Maureen helped and I learned a lot from working with her on the colors. FOTY 2010 with the diamonds is next. We’ll see how that goes. In general, I like trying to blend the colors. I think the quilts are very attractive and they are an intellectual challenge to make.

How do you pick your fabrics?

Liesl Backpack

Remember this bag? I was reading the Martha Stewart blog and saw it referenced again there. This version by Liesl of City Weekend fabric by Moda and her own company, Oliver + S. I am not a big fan of that green, but the whole look really works. I need to get the pattern out and make it! I have all hardware and have for awhile. Love those dots. I wonder if I have them? 😉

Good inspiration.

Frosted Stars Color Choices

I made good progress on the Frosted Star quilt over the weekend. Not as much as I would have liked, but I never make as much progress as I would like!

I finished the border piecing for the Frosted Stars. It required that I piece a whole Jelly Roll of strips together in sets of 10 strips each. It was fun to arrange the strips in different and, hopefully, pleasing ways.

I have an amazing amount of leftovers from the above piecing exercise. The pattern refers to a second pattern to use for the leftovers. I am a little annoyed that I would need to buy a Jelly Roll and spend a bunch of time pressing the strips and piecing them together only to find that I needed less than half of the pieces. Isn’t there a better way? It may be that I did need strips that long in order to make the bias sashing/broder strips work. But it may also be that they wanted me to buy a whole Jelly Roll. I suppose I will have to make a second Christmas quilt. Or I could just waste the fabric pieces.

My great feat was that I am now ready to put the whole thing together. Since I need to make visual decisions visually, I laid out all of the pieces on two different backgrounds to see which I liked better. I also got opinions from around the house. One opinion was that the turquoise looks like ice. The stars really stand out in this piece, which I like.

At some show I bought a bunch of a turquoise batik to use as needed. I wouldn’t use it all for the background to this quilt, but I wouldn’t have to piece strips together, because I have a long enough length to just cut one piece. In looking at this layout, I think I would have to add a border strip around the outside if for no other reason than to stabilize all of those bias edges.

The other background color we considered is the snowflake blue that is part of the 12 Days of Christmas line of fabrics. In this rendition, we noticed that the blue bias strips that make up the borders and sashing drop out, because the snowflake blue is so close in color. The look of this piece is much more subtle.

CQFA ATCs

Saturday was the ATC swap at CQFA. I didn’t really like to make ATCS when the group first started swapping, but lately I have found the creative outlet to be a good one. I really enjoyed making my swap ATCs (lower right picture) this time and may make more of them. I found that I could make something unusual in a small format and not have to make try the idea in a large quilt piece. People really seemed to like them as well. I received a lot of nice comments. Diane’s (upper left) are more of her silk painting and I see intention in these ATCs. I didn’t ask her if she painted the pieces specifically for ATCs or if they were leftovers or what. I really like them and hope she makes more like this. Trudi hadn’t been to the meeting in awhile, so hers were snapped up quickly.

The environmental theme that is pervading the group (because of the show) is very evident in Reva and Virginia’s pieces. I have been enamoured with leaves lately and it is very interesting to me to see how many different ways people can depict them. I didn’t ask Virginia if she painted her leaves, but they look painted.

One of the things I love about Bron’s ATCs is that she does something different each time. I was disappointed that I didn’t get an ATC paper doll last time and was hoping that she would make more, but, alas, it was not to be. She did the lovely green abstract that look at bit like leaves. Mine (right), as usual, were nearly impossible to photograph. I made an extra so I could keep one for myself.

Above are the ones for which I swapped, except mine, which I just kept. They will look great in my collection.

Early November Diamonds

I have been cutting like a possessed person. I am very anxious about getting all the pieces cut for this quilt, FOTY 2010. I am doing pretty well. The pile of fabrics to cut is slowly shrinking, but I do have another stack fo fabric to wash, which is followed by the need to cut.

I also need to figure out what fabric I am going to use for the edge. I was thinking one color for corners and edge, but perhaps I will just make it scrappy? That might be harder, since I don’t know what fabrics will go on the edge. We’ll see, I guess.

Different Things

One of the work events I attended recently was a conference. I have a number of badge holders around the house and it occurred to me that they would make a very convenient ATC display system. A the moment I have, pictured on the left, four ATCs on display in my workroom. It is nice to see them hanging around. I have at least two more badge holders so I will fill those up with new ATCs. I have been working on ATCs for the upcoming show. I used some net from Baby Bels as part of the ATCs. I could do a lot more on them, but think I just need to stop. We will see. Photos to follow.

I sewed a good portion of the day on Saturday. I have three quilts nearing completion and I am determined to get the finishing work done. Since I finished the second binding I needed more handwork. I made two sleeves and one binding. I may never make a binding out of batik fabric again as I sewed the wrong sides together numerous times and had to unsew a lot! Now I have enough handwork to keep me busy while I watch TV.

I also cut a few more diamonds, so stay tuned for photos of those, which are coming to a blog near you! 😉

TFQ turned me on to the RØssie Blog. She is the creator of the Fresh Modern Quilt group on Flickr. We were talking about what a modern quilt actually is. She has a blog post about, what she calls, Mutant Quilting. Interesting.

C&T followed up on PIQF with a blog post that mentions some favorites, including Colleen Granger of Sew Little Time Quilting. I am glad she is getting some air time finally. They also mentioned that the Color Cascade exhibit was based on the 3-in-1 color tool (C&T product, I believe). I didn’t realize this and may have said that the makers used paint chips. Great idea. They also refer us to a blog post about the Color Cascade exhibit. This post tells how they organized the exhibit. I really enjoyed the exhibit and think it would be a great project to do on my own. I don’t know if I have the stamina to do it on my own. I know I don’t have it in me to coordinate a project.

It is probably too late to make a “going off to college” quilt for your child, but you might want to make an “I miss you” quilt or an “I know you are homesick” quilt. If so, one method of making a t-shirt quilt is posted on Frieda Anderson’s blog, Walks in the Woods.

I was talking to the Young Man recently and thinking about all the food fabric I bought for my mom to make her quilt. I asked him if he would like a food fabric quilt to take with him to college. I was thinking that the Eye Spy quilt might be a bit too babyish for him. He commented that he hadn’t received his quilt for this year yet! I was amazed at this comment and reminded him that he had just received his Eye Spy quilt. He looked at me in a way that only teenagers can look and told me that they Eye Spy quilt was last year’s quilt. I think I will make a Snowball quilt with food fabric for him. The College quilt? Who knows? I, apparently, have 4 quilts to make for him between now and then. Sigh.

While at a planning meeting for an upcoming quilt show, we were talking about something interactive to do at the reception. In the course of the conversation, we discussed a guy who sews for people downtown. I found an article and thought you might also be interested in reading about his cool sewing machine on wheels.

Mille contacted me when she found I was making a Flowering Snowball quilt. We had a mini email exchang,e and then I received an email from her over the weekend showing her version of the Flowering Snowball. Her two color Flowering Snowball is wonderful! I have enough handwork at the moment, but feel like I need to get back to the Flowering Snowball.

AWOH Journal Class

The A Work of Heart Spontaneous Scraps Journal class really caught me unawares. I feel like everything is sneaking up on me lately. My head is definitely not in its normal spot.

The idea of the class was the a few people were invited (or that was my impression) and would bring scraps to make a journal with a fabric cover. As I was thinking about getting ready for the class on Friday and Saturday, I decided to bring the red mosaic pieces to use to make the cover. I also brought the Malka Dubrawsky piece that TFQ gave me for my birthday and used that for the inside.

I used the mosaic quilting piece to make the journal cover. I had gotten away from it, but am now in love with that process again. I was feeling like I would never use that fabric, because it was too precious. I also couldn’t think of what project would be appropriate. Anything too fiddly wouldn’t work, because there are so many seam allowances right next to each other. The pressing was a bit of a challenge, but I think the journal cover came out very well.

The class called for a nice ribbon for a closure. I brought it, but I didn’t attach it yet. I am thinking that I want to put a button (or a Mah Jong tile with a hole drilled in it – something out of the ordinary/interesting) and some elastic to wrap around it. I need to get that settled before I do much else. I don’t have any of that thin elastic nor do I know how to attach it after the piece has been made.

That bit of mosaic quilting is a pocket on the inside. I guess I can use it for pens. Andrea suggested that putting a pocket in the piece was an option, so I did it. I am pleased with how it came out.

The red dotted page on the left is one of the journal pages. The embellishment (the paper with the white dots) is paper clipped to the page, because it has not been attached to the page yet. I did complete the sewing on some of the pages, but not all. I want to work on that before the concluding class.

I brought some strips that were piling up as well, so I was also able to add bits and pieces to make the piece big enough. Above is what I have left and I am back in the mindset of making this type of fabric. I used the bits and pieces as leaders and enders as I was sewing the journal cover together.

I am thinking that I would like to make at least one more as a gift. We will see how making the pages goes.

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Month: November 2010