Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I was inspired by the previous response of Drink by the rows of bottles and it made me think of a bakery. I had a hard time thinking of different shapes for the cakes. I hope that the shapes aren’t too boring.
Take a look at the original post and try one of your own.
I went out with a work vendor a few weeks ago. It was a nice outing; a relationship building kind of event. We sat the bar and I faced the wall of bottles, which are endlessly fascinating to me. The arrangement of them is a kind of art form all its own. I have taken some liberties with the colors of the liquor. If you prefer, you can imagine it to be sodas.
Take a look at the original post. Try one of your own.
Don’t you like the name of this block? I think it provides ‘scope for imagination’ and evokes mystery. That is one of the things I like about vintage blocks. They, often, have great names.
I thought that background fabric in the middle might look like the viewer was looking through the block to the background, but I don’t think I achieved that semi-goal.
If you want to make a block like this, review the Star Sampler: Wheel of Time pattern, which can also be found in EQ. Also, take a look at the original Quilt-a-long instructions. You can see all the posts on this topic by searching the tag “Star Sampler.”
Fabric of the Year 2011 is finally finished!
It took a little more time than the quilts in this series normally would take, but I am thrilled that it is done, not only from a finished point of view, but also from the point of view that I really like this quilt.
I have to say that I wasn’t really thrilled with the result when I finished the top. Colleen did a great job quilting it and really made the whole piece.
I am trying to decide whether or not to hang it in my office or in my hallway.
One thing that I have been trying to do with the pieces I have been finishing lately is making beautiful backs. I am pretty pleased with the back of this one. It feels light and airy to me.
As you know, I have been using larger prints or prints that don’t look good cut up into small pieces to make the backs. This one uses some prints I bought with lettering on them.
In my heart of hearts I would love to have a show with all of these quilts.
I was somewhat unclear, apparently, about what I was doing with the Star Sampler, the general idea of this piece and how it came about. Apparently, I just started babbling on and posting a zillion blocks. I thought you all just mind-melded with me and knew what was in my head! 😉
So sorry! Thanks to Mrs. K for pointing this out to me.
Really, what happened is life. I went about, in a leisurely manner choosing my fabrics and cooing about them, then all of a sudden it was time to start and things heated up at work and I had several weekends in a row out of town and WHAM! I needed to get myself in gear.
The idea for doing the Star Sampler started when TFQ and I talked about doing a project together. The idea of doing a project together came up, I think, when I saw the announcement for Easy Street, the recent mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. Both of us were a little leery of doing a project when we didn’t know what the end result would look like. We both kind of wanted to know what direction we were headed.
Due to the distance and our crazy schedules when we are together, we decided to leverage technology and work on the same project, but in our own spaces, using our own tools and fabrics. We have worked on quilts together in the same physical space and I expect we will again, but this time, we are using the same pattern and doing the work on our own.
We looked at books, Flickr and various blogs to try and find a project we both liked. We used a joint Pinterest board (great tool, BTW) to keep track of our ideas. We eventually chose the Oh My Stars Quilt-a-long. The rest of the universe did it in 2012, but we just found it and since the directions and information are still posted, we are able to do it. We chose it because we both like Sawtooth Stars, there was enough scope for both of us to stretch our creative wings, use fabrics we liked and a wide variety of blocks.
Sheila is the owner of Thought and Found blog and the creator of the Oh My Stars QAL. She seems to post regularly to her blog. I have been hanging out there a bit more, but mostly referring to the layout or the block information. She set up a Flickr group for the QAL and I have been posting photos there even though everyone else is finished. It is a great group for inspiration, even if you are just looking for color combos.
The quilt is made up of of 12″, 8″ and 4″ Sawtooth Stars. Sheila includes patterns and tutorials for each of the Sawtooth Stars needed to complete this quilt. Scroll down on the first page of the QAL information to see the blocks. We are using many of the stars she lists, but we also went through EQ and created a group of stars that we wanted to make so some of the group’s stars will not be in our quilts.
One of the attractions for me of this project is the layout of the blocks. This is not your typical straight set. This layout makes the viewer work for their view. It is interesting and the viewer is rewarded for their work in looking at the quilt for longer than the typical 30 seconds.
I am toying with the idea of sewing the 4′ blocks to the larger blocks before I have finished all the blocks. There are a couple of reasons. First, I don’t have enough space to store the thousand (ok, it isn’t a 1,000, but sometimes it feels like a thousand!) blocks I am making and they would be easier to store in larger chunks. Second, I might like to take a chance at some random color choices near each other. Third, I am not sure I can face a bunch of single blocks needing to be sewn together. I need to think about it some more before I decide.
We are keeping ourselves to a strict schedule so this project doesn’t take forever. I have already posted bunches of blocks and I will continue to do so. You can also see my Flickr set for these blocks. TFQ has a Flickr set also. She said I could link to it, so take a look and comment.
I hope this clears up the mystery of this project and I would encourage you to join in.
“East of the Sun and West of the Moon” Source: Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne, Norske Folkeeventyr (Christiania [Oslo], 1842-1852), translated by George Webb Dasent (1859). Translation revised by D. L. Ashliman. © 2001.
Taliesin West – Frank Lloyd Wright
Great Western Bank (now part of Chase)
Nato Camp: During the Cold War “the West” was often used to refer to the NATO camp as opposed to the Warsaw Pact and non-aligned nations. The expression survives, with an increasingly ambiguous meaning. (your history lesson for the day from Wikipedia)
Best Western
Southwest Airlines
Kanye West
Farragut West
Mae West
Go West, young man! – Horace Greeley
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. (Wikipedia)
West End (London)
West Africa
West Germany
The West Wing
West Valley College
West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south. (Wikipedia)
Nathanael West (author)
West Nile virus
Upper West Side
Nine West
Western Addition (San Francisco neighborhood)
In Chinese Buddhism, the West represents movement toward the Buddha or enlightenment (see Journey to the West). The ancient Aztecs believed that the West was the realm of the great goddess of water, mist, and maize. In Ancient Egypt, the West was considered to be the portal to the netherworld, and is the cardinal direction regarded in connection with death, though not always with a negative connotation. Ancient Egyptians also believed that the Goddess Amunet was a personification of the West.[1] The Celts believed that beyond the western sea off the edges of all maps lay the Otherworld, or Afterlife.(Wikipedia)
Western hemsiphere
American West
In American literature (e.g. in The Great Gatsby) moving West has sometimes symbolized gaining freedom, perhaps as an association with the settling of the Old West (see also Manifest Destiny).(Wikipedia)
West Elm
West Portal, San Francisco (Wikipedia, again)
West Seattle
To go west using a compass for navigation, one needs to set a bearing or azimuth of 270°. (Wikipedia)
Western Union
West is the direction opposite that of the Earth‘s rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun sets. (Wikipedia)
West Point
Moving continuously west is following a circle of latitude, which, except in the case of the equator, is not a great circle. (Wikipedia)
West Virginia
The word west is derived from the name of one of the four dwarves in Norse mythology, Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri, who each represented one of the directions of the world. (Wikipedia)
Cornel West
Western Europe
The West (PBS program)
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
And now for the homage to the law…
West Publishing
John West
West Group
Fenwick & West
Westlaw
Thomson West