July 2012 – Page 2 – Artquiltmaker Blog

26 Projects – July Update

I have been in Chicago for work for a week and have had no opportunity to sew. I thought about bringing some handwork, but, in the end, just brought a book, my journal (especially to do studies for the Creative Prompt Project) and my iPad.

Prior to leaving, I saw a clear theme in my work style which manifested in me by picking up a UFO-type project and intensely working on it until it is finished. I don’t know if that strategy will work for me long term, but right at the moment I am getting projects completed.

I am, however, sick of this list. It feels a bit tyrannical to me. I really think these feelings come from the fact that I am mostly just finishing, e.g. only doing specific tasks and not working through the whole process. I am not not doing much designing of new projects.

This list, as mentioned before) wasn’t part of my plan for the year. It just evolved, which makes me tempted to bail. Alternatively, I could scratch items off of of the list, but I really want them to be completely finished before I do so. It is a good exercise, however, and provides good focus for my work. There isn’t a lot of down time when I have a list staring me in the face. though, without downtime, I don’t get to dream about creativity and new ideas. I have made a lot of good progress, but perhaps I need to take a break from these projects and make something fun that I want to make? Perhaps I need to remember that there is value in taking my time and doing good work? I have made more good progress since last time, which is good.

I am thinking that I may need to abandon another project or two that are languishing and going nowhere. There is no shame in being realistic, right?

Enough with the existential art angst, here is the list, again, still in no particular order, except that I have put some of the “mostly finished” projects at the end. This time, like last, I have moved the finished pieces off. Still 23 WIPs left, but only 17 that need intensive work to get them to the quilting stage. I am making progress. Really. I am.

Original Bullseye: needs border, backing, quilting and binding, which are all hard to do if you can’t find the project. It is lost. I know it is in there somewhere. As I mentioned, I did a test and found that my original idea didn’t work. I think a plain border will set off the blocks fine IF I ever find the top. Bleah!
Spin Wheel: really not started, but supplies gathered. Cutting fabrics as I go
A-B-C (A-Z) BAMQG Challenge – I am actually not sure if this should be considered a WIP (Please say no!), because I just barely have enough blocks with which to make something. I am making good progress. S and T blocks are done and now U and V blocks are next on the list. I am really thinking about just making all the blocks, putting sashing around them and then trimming the sashing a bit so the blocks are all a uniform size. It occurred to me today that the grey Half Moon fabric with big white polka dots might be an interesting sashing for this piece. They are not wildly off, but they are a bit off… I could bring them to BAMQG as the blocks are due. We’ll see.
Aqua-Red Sampler – steady progress has stopped and the class more than the quilt is really weighing on my mind. As far as I know Frances has finished her Dresden Plate, so perhaps we will start up again soon. The next class was going to be fusible machine applique’, but I haven’t gotten past cutting out the templates. Perhaps I should skip to machine piecing curves?
The Tarts Come to Tea: I haven’t quilted on this since April 2011. I need to work on the quilting. I was making good progress and then got sidetracked. I have been quilting another quilt and that is getting me back in the swing of quilting. Now that my machine is happier, perhaps it is a good time to take this piece out again? I would like to finish it.
Garden: I started this piece in a class with Pamela Allen in 2006. As mentioned, I used this piece for my beading demo for the 2012 EBHQ Voices in Cloth show (March 17), which means that I added some beads. I finished machine quilting this piece, removed some of the beads and have started to put beads back on to it. YAY! Handwork!
Flower Garden: I still find the ‘flowers’ too spiky. I think I need to soften them up a bit. I was thinking of putting larger petals over the spikes to soften them.
Moon and Stars: need to finish hand quilting. This quilt is not interesting. This is month 2 that I have thought this is a candidate for abandonment.
Pointillist Palette #4: Fourth is a series of 6 quilts; needs tiny square patches sewn together. Bits of this quilt keep falling off the shelf on which I have them stored. While I was machine quilting the Garden quilt, I kept finding bits of piecing stuck to various parts of my clothing. This is a good leaders and enders project and perhaps the patches jumping off the shelf was an omen.
See: needs satin stitching.
Self Portrait: started in 2006 at a class at Quilting Adventures in Richmond, Virginia. I like the piece, but don’t know where to go from where I am. Mouth? Hair?
Spiderweb: need to make sure that I have the right number of blocks for the size quilt I want to make. Need to make sure I have the border pattern and start sewing border blocks.
Under the Sea: class project; like the design, but not the colors much.
Flower Sugar Hexagon: sewed more hexagons together. Sewing Y seams is a bit of a chore, so I get tired of doing it after awhile.
Young Man’s t-shirt quilt: have cut up the t-shirts and am still in the process of applying fusible. He cleaned out his drawers and found some more t-shirts to add to the quilt. Oh Yay! <– just a bit of sarcasm
~~New: Super Secret Project~~: top, back and binding made. Ready to go to the quilter. Stayed tuned.
~~FOTY 2011~~: at the quilter, needs binding.
~~Flowering Snowball~~: Top and back finished 5/13/2012; ready to go to the quilter
~~Stepping Stones~~: at the quilter, made binding, which she will sew on for me and then I need to hand sew.
~~Jelly Roll Race~~: at the quilter. Needs binding, quilting, sleeve.
~~New: Wonky 9 Patch~~: needs quilting and binding.
~~Corner Store~~: Top and back are made. It is ready to go to the quilter.
~~Super Secret Project #2~~: Top and back are made. It is ready to go to the quilter.
~~Infinity blocks~~: blocks sewn together into a quilt top, borders on. Need to make back and binding and take to quilter.

Finished or Abandoned projects that were on the list:

Stars for San Bruno #2: Finished! YAY!
Pavers. Finished! YAY!
Kissy Fish: Finished! Yay!
Pineapple: Abandoned; will remake blocks at a later time with more care.
Stars for San Bruno #3: Finished! YAY!
Food Quilt: Finished 5/24/2012. YAY!!!!

Garden Revealed

A few weeks ago, I spent a whole weekend, essentially, machine quilting the Garden quilt. I spent so long quilting it, because I am somewhat obsessive and like densely quilted quilts. It takes forever, but it looks great.

I thought I would get this piece framed like the Kissy Fish piece. On Kissy Fish, I didn’t pay much attention to the back, so the back looked fairly terrible: knots all over the place, long stitches joining sections, etc.

However, I took at look at that back after I quilted it and thought it looked really interesting. I quilt with different colors so the stitches blend into the fabric on the front. I don’t really care about the thread color on the back, because I didn’t think anyone would ever see it. I am in the habit of using the same thread color as bobbin color, so as a happy accident the colors of the quilting on the back look very cheerful.

In looking at the detail, it occurs to me that I now know why people like whole cloth quilts. In a way the back of this piece is like a whole cloth quilt.

BAMQG is having a challenge making a whole cloth quilt and I wasn’t really interested in doing the challenge, but looking at these photos makes me think that I might have an idea for a challenge piece.

Garden Back - Another View — Garden Back – Another View

A lot of the quilting I do, when I actually quilt, uses a regular foot rather than a walking foot. I haven’t felt confident in the last few years of my free motion quilting skills, so I have taken to using the regular foot. It works pretty well.

I did do some free motion quilting on this piece, as I mentioned, just to test my skills. I didn’t do too badly and have to say, again, how pleased I am at how my machine is performing.

Can You Piece This?

I thought this was an interesting design and thought it would be great challenge to try to piece it. It is from a piece of furniture.

Deco Block

I saw this as I was walking down the street. Interesting, don’t you think?

More Yellow Donation Blocks

As mentioned last week, I am working on the yellow donation quilt and it is going well. I made several more blocks while I was off over the Fourth of July holiday.

I was spurred on by seeing the finished blue donation quilt. Jennifer finished it on her longarm machine and did the binding as well. It looks so great to see it done.

It made me think that this Yellow quilt is an even better exercise for me, because the yellows are really different than what I have done with yellow before.

The brown-y yellows are a challenge, but I like the prints, so I am working with them.

I still have a few more blocks to make, but already have cut some pieces for sashing in hopes that I will get this top done before the next BAMQG meeting.

Pineapple Redux

This is what the awesome BAMQG Charity girls made from my disappointing Pineapple blocks. I was so thrilled to see this quilt made from the blocks that I thought were a hopeless loss.

In addition to being happy that the blocks were usable, I also learned that a few mismatches wouldn’t detract from the overall look of the quilt.

This makes me feel like I could make new blocks and make a quilt out of those blocks. I still want to work out the measurements of the blocks, row by row so I can try and figure where I went wrong on the first series of blocks.

I just feel so much better about my original idea and about my technique.

Creativity and Fun

I saw these in a shop today and they made me smile. Of course, they were in the kids section. Kids get all the fun stuff. If I ever have that sort of shop, I’ll designate a section labeled “creative people”. Could be fabulous or a disaster. Would you be more creative if you had these crayons? I might be tempted to just look at them and not use rhem. Note to self: get over that!!! 🙂

Creative Prompt #165: Ferry

Golden Gate Ferry

Ferry Island, in British Columbia

ferry children

Definition: A ferry (or ferryboat) is a boat or ship (a merchant ship) used to carry (or ferry) primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi.

Ferries form a part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities and islands, allowing direct transit between points at a capital cost much lower than bridges or tunnels. However, ship connections of much larger distances (such as over long distances in water bodies like the Mediterranean Sea) may also be called ferry services, especially if they carry vehicles. (Wikipedia)

Ferry Building

Ferry Farm, the childhood home of George Washington

East River Ferry, NY

Washington State Ferry fight

Staten Island Ferry

ferry crossings

excursion ferries

Ferry Carondelet (1473–1528), a Habsburg diplomat

ferry across the River Styx to Hades.

Ferry Field, a stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Harper’s Ferry

Captain Fell’s Historic Ferries, Tasmania

cable ferry

On A Ferry Boat

THE RIVER widens to a pathless sea
Beneath the rain and mist and sullen skies.
Look out the window; ’t is a gray emprise,
This piloting of massed humanity
On such a day, from shore to busy shore,
And breeds the thought that beauty is no more.

But see yon woman in the cabin seat,
The Southland in her face and foreign dress;
She bends above a babe, with tenderness
That mothers use; her mouth grows soft and sweet.
Then, lifting eyes, ye saints in heaven, what pain
In that strange look of hers into the rain!

There lies a vivid band of scarlet red
With careless grace across her raven hair;
Her cheek burns brown; and ’t is her way to wear
A gown where colors stand in satin’s stead.
Her eye gleams dark as any you may see
Along the winding roads of Italy.

What dreamings must be hers of sunny climes,
This beggar woman midst the draggled throng!
How must she pine for solaces of song,
For warmth and love to furnish laughing-times!
Her every glance upon the waters gray
Is piteous with some lost yesterday.

I’ve seen a dove, storm-beaten, far at sea;
And once a flower growing stark alone
From out a rock; I’ve heard a hound make moan,
Left masterless: but never came to me
Ere this such sense of creatures torn apart
From all that fondles life and feeds the heart.

Richard Francis Burton (Poetry Hunter)

Ferry flying, transportation of aircraft

Ferry railway station in Norfolk, England

Ferry schedule

ferryman

Make your response simple. It doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. Take 5 minutes. Just respond and create a creative habit.

Please 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 to post your responses. Are you already a member? I created that spot so those of you without blogs or websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted.

Inifnity Quilt

I want to give up on the 26 Projects List and do something fun, but somehow after finishing the backs last week, I pulled out the blocks my SIL and I made and started putting them together.

These blocks are on the small side and I thought I would have to make more, but, as you can see, the blocks I have will make quite a large quilt.

My first idea was to just lay them out the way they came out of the box and, then, move them around. I didn’t have to do much moving around, though. They came out pretty well when I laid them out. There is a quite a lot of variety in the fabrics and also a good balance of light and dark. There were a few places where I switch a couple of blocks so that a print was next to a tone-on-tone rather than next to another print.

The adjustments I made were very small adjustments.

This is pretty much the layout I am using for sewing.

I did have to move the row on the far right to the bottom to make the ‘wreaths’ finish on the bottom.

I have not yet completed the borders as of this writing, but will do that later. I put on a Pure Elements Grey border, but will also put on another border of blue stripes as well.

I was amazed at how fast this top went together. I am also very pleased with the movement created by the different fabrics. My SIL has a different palette than I do and the combination of her floral blue-greys with my aquas and turquoises is a great combination.

This will be another large quilt, but will be good for a boy to grow into.

July BAMQG Meeting

I have to admit that with everything that is going on I almost bailed on the meeting. It was a bit strange to have the BAMQG meeting in the middle of a long weekend. It was also a nice diversion. I am really glad I went. Kelly and Patti helped me with my Accuquilt Go! 2.5″ square die, I chatted with Kathleen about the next block challenge, caught up with the Charity Girls and dove into cat bed land by taking a catbed kit to make.

BAMQG Block Design Contest

You know I love a good block.

This is similar to the QuiltCon Block Design Contest. Ruth organized a block design challenge for the guild. I sent off my QuiltCon Blocks (there will be a post about them later), but I turned in my BAMQG Blocks yesterday.

Some of the blocks are from the Block-a-Long or modified from blocks I designed for that project. I haven’t made all of those Block-a-Long blocks, so I was glad to have the opportunity to do so.

I found the colors for the QuiltCon challenge to be quite limiting.The BAMQG challenge was even more limiting, but I made it work.

I am pleased with the way all of the blocks turned out despite the challenge of the color choices.

One thing that was on my mind throughout the challenge was the asymmetry mentioned on the Modern Quilt Guild website. I didn’t want to design Liberated blocks like Gwen Marston creates, but I did want a sporting chance, especially with the QuiltCon blocks, so I tried to add some asymmetry.

I have named this block #3, but I actually made it first. This one only has asymmetry in the coloration, not in the placement of the patches. I couldn’t help myself in that there is some good in symmetry, I think.

Sadly, my great work looks crappy next to the other blocks that people made. Not that my points don’t match or my technique is bad, but their design work was awesome.

Ruth's QuiltCon Block Challenge Block — Ruth’s QuiltCon Block Challenge Block

I am absolutely NOT saying this in an “oh poor me” kind of way. I am saying this, because Ruth’s creativity is something to which I want to aspire. I love the way she has used different fabrics in this piece, especially the grey. This block might look dated in a few years, but the dynamism and movement of the design will trump the fabrics. I would love to see a whole quilt made of this block. I am so thrilled for Ruth and excited to see her development as a quiltmaker.

Ruth’s block also reminds me of the ‘pushed neutral’ concept I learned back in the dark ages from Mary Mashuta. Essentially, the quiltmaker uses more than one fabric for the background in order to add interest. Ruth has done this in her block, though the greys are much bolder than Mary Mashuta imagined when I learned this concept. The boldness does add movement and interest to the piece.

People’s blocks for the BAMQG part of the challenge all look good together. The star at the bottom implies the BAMQG logo, which was clever. My attempt at asymmetry falls a bit flat in light of the asymmetry that others created. Perhaps my blocks will provide some resting space for people’s eyes?

One of the cool things about seeing the two different groups of blocks is that people who made blocks for both challenges often used the same block. I love seeing the different colors used in the same block.

The blocks also look really good together.

Rhonda had a bit of a vacation theme going in the work that she showed today. Her block is the glass of lemonade with the umbrella sticking out. There was discussion about whether it was lemonade or a margarita.

In some other work Rhonda showed appeared palm trees. I hope she has a beach vacation planned. 😉

Speaker: Terri Thayer

I have known Terri for a long time, have her books and have been to meetings and retreats with her. I have never heard her speak and it was a distinct pleasure. She talked about her quilts and the development of her writing career. I was especially interested in that part. She mentioned a writing group and I am going to look into it so I can get my novel going again.

A-B-C Challenge

Lots of block making went on during the past month. In addition to the BAMQG challenge, the A-B-C Challenge continues and I made my two blocks, of course, Simple Flower Basket and True Blue.

As I mentioned earlier, I needed another basket block, so Simple Flower Basket did the trick for me. I just like the shape of True Blue, so I made it.

People are still working on their blocks, but I think there was a smaller group of blocks this time. Vacations and such, I am sure. We are hoping that people will finish their quilts so that we can enter them as a group in the San Mateo County Fair in 2013. We have 6 people working on quilts, but that number leaves no wiggle room for “life events.” Fingers crossed!

The blocks look really nice. I brought something to work on, but focused on talking with people and found out some interesting things about the way people are thinking about their A-B-C blocks.

Michelle, intelligently, planned out all the blocks she was going to make when she started. Using only two fabrics is a real challenge, so it was smart of her to take the time to plan out the blocks. Some blocks simply need a 3rd fabric and that wouldn’t work with her idea.

Her blue and white diagonal grid blocks (upper right hand corner) is interesting and cool.I wonder what it would look like in a quilt with fabrics gradated from light to dark. The lights could blend into the background and then appear somewhere in the middle of the quilt.

I have to say that one of the great things about this challenge is that I get to see a lot of different blocks.

Angela was back with her Hawaiian print blocks.

Rhonda is diligently catching up and making current blocks. Diana, as well.

I really got a shot in the arm at this meeting. Nothing special happened, but I felt good when I left. I felt excited and like I had my equilibrium back.