April 2013 – Page 2 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Making Some Star Sampler Blocks

This is the group of stars from the week of April 8 (I believe). They were a lot more work than I anticipated or expected. Somehow, they were temperamental and needed more attention than their 8″ siblings. I was also in ‘a mood’ for some of the week, which didn’t help either.

One of the things that happens when making blocks, regardless of how many you make, is that they don’t always come out the way you think they will. In the best of circumstances, I had to rearrange the look of blocks by cannibalizing parts of other in-progress blocks. In the worst circumstances, I removed certain fabrics completely and cut new pieces in order to be satisfied with the outcome.

The above, with green and lavender, is the first version of the Missouri Star. I realized, again, that the green needed to be away from the background. I don’t know why I forget that, but I did until it was all up on the design wall. It took me looking at the pieces on the design wall to see how nicely the green and background were blending into each other.

I also realized that there was too much green. I love that green, but a little goes a long way.

I changed out a few fabrics and rearranged some of the pieces to come up with different options. The arrangement, left, is the iteration with which I am most in love. I moved some of the darker blues from the Flying Cloud Star block into the center, but it didn’t work for me. I tried a variety of the medium batiks that I have been enjoying in other blocks. The combination that I have now is not a usual one, but I like it and I think it works.

Flying Cloud block - 1st version — Flying Cloud block – 1st version

The dark blues in the first version of the Flying Cloud Star (below) just don’t work for me. Somehow they stood out too much, I guess.

I was trying to add in some more of the fuchsia that I used in Mrs. Lloyd’s Favorite in the 12″ group. It is one of the Simply Color ombres and I don’t have much, if any, of the fuchsia part of the fabric left. Thus, the one I used in the Flying Cloud is a different fabric. It isn’t as dark in person as it looks in the photo. It is also a solid.

After trying a few different options, decided, again, on the medium value batik. I worry about choosing mediums all the time. They do not seem like a bold choice. I do love those batiks.

Lesson?

MAKE VISUAL DECISIONS VISUALLY

THERE IS ALWAYS MORE FABRIC, SO CHANGE OUT ONE YOU DON’T LIKE.

The last photo shows the finished blocks and I am pretty pleased with them.

The Petrillo Bag Along Week 2

If you are just joining us, please read last week’s post or Pam’s post.

If you read between the lines of my last post, I was a little ahead of those of you, because I had already gathered my supplies back in March and had started to cut. I did want to be a little ahead of you, so I could give you some tips and tricks if I found any.

Nota bene: Kay at Tantalizing Stitches sent the sew-in magnetic snaps out the day after I ordered them.

Fabric

The fun part was choosing fabric. You can see the colorways below, but the particulars about what I chose are:

For the exterior: Heather Bailey’s Pop Daisy from the Pop Garden line (Westminster Fibers #HB02). It is a few years old and had been slated for a back, but called to me when I looked in the Fabric Closet – green, yellow, red print
For the lining: Savon Bouquet by Verna Mosquera for FreeSpirit – pink polka dots
Straps and accents: City Weekend by Oliver & S for Moda (Pattern #11165, I think. It might be L1165)- yellow

I am not sure what possessed me to choose these colors and this combination of the three. It was grey and foggy at my house the day I chose the fabrics, so, perhaps, I was seeking cheerfulness. I also wanted to use some dots for something. I do like a light interior for bags. It is hard to see what is inside if the chosen fabric is too dark.

Organization

Week 2 is all about cutting, so I did the cutting. It took me awhile to get the cutting done. I would say it took me about 3-4 hours. I was doing laundry, ate lunch and went to pick up the Young Man in between, so it is hard to say. It did take me a long time as I was trying to be really careful and not miscut. Don’t plan on doing it in a few minutes.

There are a lot of pieces to cut for this bag, so take the time to be organized. I would add the following to the supply list:

sticky notes, though paper will do as well
Wonderclips
pen

I like to pin a piece of paper or sticky note to each cut pattern piece with the corresponding name from the pattern, e.g. Lining Flap, and the size. Even if it doesn’t help me truly be more organized, I feel more organized.

I also felt like I needed a spreadsheet to track everything that I needed to cut. I think it would look like a main column of what parts needed to be cut and a main row of the materials out of which the parts needed to be cut. I might also put dual columns for each put a tick mark in one noting I needed to cut a part from that materials and the second column for when I had done it. I could have just ticked off the lines on the pattern. I didn’t because I didn’t want to confuse myself for the future use of this pattern.

Cutting

Sara wants you to cut the fabrics in the order listed on the pattern. In some places, she has you cut a smaller piece before a larger piece. I like to cut all the larger pieces first, so I rearranged a few, but really tried to stick to her pattern directions. I would like to see a layout sketch for the pattern pieces on fabric in the directions.

There is enough fabric to cut all the pattern pieces. Sara did a great job estimating yardage.

I did cut one piece wrong early on and had to piece together enough of the lining fabric later for one of the bottom pieces. As I haven’t made this pattern before, I am hoping it will be ok. I am going to rummage through the fabric closet and see if I have another piece of the pink fabric (shown above) and cut a whole piece out of it. You could add an additional quarter of a yard, if you are worried about screwing up the cutting.

I just used my rotary cutter to cut the Soft & Stable where possible. I did notice, during cutting of the Soft & Stable, the sounds of paper being cut. I couldn’t feel any paper on it, especially something like paper covering a fusible. I am not sure what it is made of or if it was a good idea to use a rotary cutter, but I did want to speed the process along as much as I could.

Fun and Games

Modern Quilt Studio QuiltCon Homework #8

Weeks writes: “Give and receive. Learn how to give and receive constructive criticism for those who seek it. Find four positive things to say about someone else’s quilt and look for one thing that you think they could improve”

I have been to many quilt shows. I have also stood in front of many quilts where I often have heard people talking openly about what they disliked about a quilt. At first, I was so green I did not notice these words, being completely in awe of the quilts hanging, the work involved and the time taken for creating all parts of the works. As I gained experience and some understanding of construction, color, fabric and design in relation to quilts, I began to take notice of the words spoken around me. I did not realize at the time that I had gained quite a lot of experience and only listened to these words thinking how much these women, for they were mostly women, must know about quilts to say such things about them. I turned away from a lot of quilts, thinking they were bad because these women thought so. I lost confidence and thought that I must know nothing about quiltmaking if I could stand in front of such awful quilts finding good in them.

At a dark time in my life, I had escaped to a quilt show for a few hours and was standing in front of a quilt that I really liked. It wasn’t a quilt I would make, but I found it to be cheerful. The fabrics were bright and there was a lot to look at. As I stood there, people swirled around me and two women stopped to look at the quilt. They were slightly behind me, so I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them. They proceeded to point out all the mistakes and, in their opinion, poor choices the maker had made. All the things I liked about the quilt were not good enough for them. In fact, they made these qualities seem so terrible that if I had been listening a few years further, I would have thought that cheerful quilts and bright colors were the spawn of the devil.

I thought of the unknown person who made the quilt and how hurt s/he would be if the words of the women had reached his/her ears. Unable to help myself, I turned to stare, openly stare at the women, not opened mouth, but glaring at them. They didn’t say anything, but saw my look and moved away. Not in embarrassment, but in indignation, as if my rebuke was unwarranted.

While I may have had no business acting the way I did, I learned a lesson that day. I didn’t know the lesson at the time, but it is clear to me know. I try very hard to find something good about every quilt I see. If someone has taken the time to make a quilt, and we all know that it takes significant time, there must be some good in that quilt.

I am not such a great person that I like ALL quilts, don’t get me wrong. I have a hard time with Civil War fabrics, but often the block designs can be quite interesting. I find many of the big block quilts not quite as interesting as they could be, but the vast space for fabrics often shows off the most magnificent fabric designs. The point is that I try and find something good about each quilt – a nice fabric, a bit of excellent quilting, the obvious knowledge of the maker’s machine.

I get nothing out of bashing someone’s quilt. In fact, I might hurt the maker if s/he is standing within earshot. I do get good exercise in ‘seeing’ when I look for something good in a quilt. This exercise can enrich my future quiltmaking and doesn’t hurt anyone.

In my teaching, I try very hard to boost confidence and steer the students towards good construction and good design. In the course of this effort, I remind them that quiltmaking is a process, that it takes practice and they will get better. I want more people to make quilts, not fewer. I want to encourage not discourage.

There are ways of suggesting improvements to a quilt or design:

“what would happen if you turned this block this way?”
“What would happen if you used a bit more blue here or lightened this up over here?”
Ask the person what they are trying to achieve. Keep in mind that the maker may not know. We don’t always know why we are making something when the urge simply to create is very strong. Be gentle. coax don’t pound.

There are a lot of other things to say depending on the quilt’s design; just find four things to compliment another quiltmaker about. Be nice.

Image courtesy of The Modern Quilt Studio

Star Sampler: 4 More 8″ Stars

These are the blocks for this week. Or so I thought. TFQ took the time to go through our list and found, though not her intention, that I wasn’t ahead as I had thought. She found that I actually finished blocks for the end of the last week not the beginning of this week. I have to say I felt disheartened. I wanted to work on another project, which was why I got busy with these so early in the weekend. So much for clearing the decks.

We have a deadline of getting the 8″ blocks done by the beginning of May and I want to stick to that schedule. Her efforts, fortunately, got us back on our real schedule, rather than the schedule in my head, which is good.

Still I didn’t want to work on any Sawtooth Stars at the moment, even the new patterns. I just left these on the design wall and pretended I wasn’t behind again. This is an interesting exercise in working on one project almost exclusively. It is difficult for me to dedicate so much time to one project, I am finding. This makes me think more about my process. More on that later, I think.

Above are: Chevron Star (actually from the week before as I made the wrong block previously) (upper left) Basic Star (upper right) Home Treasure (lower left) and Stars & Pinwheels (lower right). All of these can be found in one of the Around the Block books.

I am using some of the 12″ blocks as inspiration for the fabric combinations.

Yesterday, I decided to do some cutting and cut out the new blocks. Life goes on.

Fabric of the Year 2013 #2

I am still plowing through the piles of fabric to iron. I iron fabric when I need to think and when I am under stress and it it calms me. I suppose the tactile nature of the fabric helps, but, as I probably don’t need to say, the color and design help, too.

The Petrillo Bag Along

Petrillo Bag PDF Sewing Pattern by Sew Sweetness

The Petrillo Along is starting!

You might remember that I saw this bag a few weeks ago and extolled its virtues, most of which had to do with it being a vertical bag that was good sized, but not a Rotator Cuff Injury inducing size. I posted a ‘warning’ in a post on March 18 that we would be starting soon and Pam, of Hip to Be a Square fame, talked about the bag along in her episode 121 podcast. We have finally gotten our acts together, other projects in order and are ready to go. Pam already posted the notice of the ‘Along’ yesterday and I am following along in her footsteps to catch my readers as well.

Here is the schedule that Pam laid out:

Week 1 (week of 4/7/2013) – assemble pattern pieces, supplies, and get fabric cut out.
Week 2 (next week, starting on 4/14) – sew the bag.

I may have to modify it to:

Week 1 (week of 4/7/2013) – assemble pattern pieces, and supplies
Week 2 (week of 4/14/2013) – Cut out the fabric
Week 3 (starting on 4/21) – sew the bag
Week 4 (starting 4/28) – finish up

I know that we all have a different working pace and obligations. Pam works quickly, so don’t be intimidated by her pace. I have to be out of town a couple of times this month and I like to work slowly on bags. Pick (or make up) the schedule that works for you. Pam is in the middle of her Labyrinth quilt, so the only hope I have of finishing the Petrillo bag anywhere close to when Pam does is to get started immediately and sew like a demon. 😉 I would advise you to focus on having fun.

If you need to buy the pattern you can get it instantly (or nearly instantly) as it is a downloadable pattern. It is only $8.

There are some specialty supplies you need to probably get online. Sara suggests different places to get the supplies. I had seen Soft & Stable at the Road to California quilt show I attended last year. I was interested in trying it, but didn’t buy any as I didn’t have a suitable project at the time. Thus, for this project, I ended up buying the Soft and Stable from ByAnnie.com. I am not affilated with that site and don’t think it was the absolute cheapest site, but I was in a rush and wanted to make sure I got the right stuff. Amazon was out at the time. The package was sent out really quickly. I received the Soft & Stable in a few days.

I bought the snaps from AGraffSupplies on Etsy. I am not affiliated with that site. They had the snaps cheaper than Sara’s preferred vendor. I compared and I am pretty sure the snaps were the same. The confusing part about both Etsy shops was that it was hard to tell how many I was buying. I ended up with a big bag of magnetic snaps – many more than I needed. I’ll have to go on a bag making binge to use them all up. Nota bene: These turned out to the wrong ones. You need to buy SEW-IN magnetic snaps. I didn’t even realize such a thing existed.

I bought the Shape Flex, which seems to be muslin with fusible on the back from Beverly’s online.

Pam made the Aeroplane bag pattern and says “Sara’s patterns are awesomely written with clear instructions and lots of pictures”. Pam is making one change to the bag construction; rather than using the Soft & Stable, she will be using “a combination of Pellon Decor Bond (a home dec weight interfacing) along with Pellon Fusible Fleece.” If you want to make changes like that, then Pam is your girl. I wasn’t happy with the floopy results of changing out fusible fleece for two layers of regular batting and some interfacing when I made my last Chubby Charmer, so I am going to stick with the directions on supplies for the most part. It is also a good opportunity for me to try the Soft & Stable as well.

As Pam said, in addition to posting my progress here, I’ll be posting pictures to Sara’s usual Flickr group so she can see our work as well.

Go forth and make a Petrillo bag!

**Thanks to Sara at Sew Sweetness for allowing me to use her image.

Modern Quilt Studio QuiltCon Homework #7

Weeks writes: “Share your work – volunteering to organize a quilting day to make quilts for your favorite charity, offer to give a lecture on your work at your aunt’s retirement community – you needn’t be famous or have written a book to share your quilts with others”

I was listening to a podcast the other day (Frances??) and the hostess said that a town near her had a Quilting Day. They had for years and it consisted of people working together on projects. Quiltmakers went to the local hgh school and worked with the kids on quilts. I love this idea because there is so much to share in quiltmaking – the camaraderie, math, love of fabric, the feeling of making something that will bring someone joy, whether your own family for friend or someone you don’t know.

This blog is all about sharing. While I write the blog for myself to keep track of my projects and progress, I have come to enjoy the comments and back and forth with readers. This has really become a venue for me to share. I like posting the tutorials. Well, I like posting the tutorials. Writing them can be a chore! I like sharing what I know and my opinions about quiltmaking.

I don’t like people stealing my content or my photos. That is the NOT FUN part of sharing. It is also a little sad when I don’t receive comments on a post or several, but I remind myself that I am writing this for me. It is a good exercise in not seeking attention.

I think there are a lot of different ways to share. Like Weeks says above, you can organize a quilting day, but you can also write a tutorial or help a friend to make some quilted placemats. I think that if we share, even just the project we are working on Flickr, then the community is richer for your contribution.

Sampler Class: Foundation Piecing Part 5

This segment discusses sewing the block together. In order to get to this point, you should have completed parts 1 and two and three as well as part four.

Like piecing all other blocks, you want to sew smaller pieces together to make larger pieces, then sew the larger pieces together to complete the block. In part three, you should have cut any fabric for templates that did not have matching fabric patches. so, inventory your templates and make sure you have a fabric patch for each template. If you don’t, go back to part three.

In part 4 you also pinned:

Remember that the edges are not quite as smooth on the other (blue) side, but that is ok. Just remember to sew slowly and carefully.

Outer patches sewn - blue side up — Outer patches sewn – blue side up

Once those two patches are sewn, they might look a little rumpled, but once you turn them both right side up and press the section, they will look great.

Press which ever way you think will work best for your block.

Next, we will sew the corner section to the small pieced strip (Section D).

Nota bene: if you did not foundation piece the small strip, follow the directions in part 4 or part three to do so. If you haven’t done any foundation piecing you might want to start with this piece as it is smaller and less complex than the pointy triangles section.

Again you will need to pin. This time you are pinning your quarter circle corner piece and your small foundation pieced strip.

Take your quarter circle corner piece and your small foundation pieced strip and pin them together. I, first, line up the straight edges on the ends and pin them together (horizontally). I make sure the horizontal pins are out of the way of other pins and the sewing machine foot. they are used just to make sure my piece is in place while I put the other pins in.

I use a lot of pins. It works for me. I know there are other tutorials that are pinless or use minimal pins, but I want precision and pins give me precision. Put these two pieces together the way it works for you. Remember: you only have two hands.

Once you are happy with your pinning, get ready to sew. I put the non-pieced corner quarter circle on the bottom and the pieced part on the top. I try to make this a habit, though it doesn’t matter with this particular foundation pieced section. In some sections, like our spiky triangle section, it matters.

You can rip off the paper before you piece or not. I was having some other problems, so I ripped it off, but normally, I would leave it on until the very last second I could, e.g. before I took the pieced top to the quilter!

Attach your quarter inch foot and sew your small foundation pieced strip to your corner quarter circle. If you don’t know how to sew curves, take a look at the curves tutorial.

Once you are finished, press carefully. I press to the side with the least number of seams, or to the side that the fabric seems to be naturally inclined to lay. Your corner will look gorgeous like the one above.

Once you have the small foundation pieced strip attached to your quarter circle, you will sew it to your spiky triangles piece. You will, again, pin a lot, using the horizontal pin trick to stabilize the piece.

Again, as shown in the photo above, I put the foundation pieced part on top. In this case, you are sewing two foundation pieced sections together, so you can choose which you want on top. I chose the spiky triangles section to go on top, but it doesn’t really matter, since there are no points to worry about cutting off.

Next sew the two remaining sections together, press, again, towards the piece with the least number of seams and you should have a piece like the one below.

After all that work, you have a beautiful foundation pieced block. Pat yourself on the back!

Creative Prompt #202: Iris

My aunt loves irises and I was thinking about her and flowers today. Although ‘Iris’ was not on my original list of prompts, I thought it would inspire some wonderful responses. What will you create today?

flower

part of the eye

bearded iris

Incorporated Research Institute for Seismology

Integrated Risk Information System (US EPA)

GooGoo Dolls song

OCR Software and Document Management Systems

IRIS from Cirque du Soleil

Impact Reporting & Investment Standards

restaurant in New Orleans

In Greek mythology, Iris is the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. She is also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky. (Wikipedia)

Illinois Research Information System

Iris Murdoch, born July 5, 1919

Iris Murdoch – “Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.”

Definition: (Anatomy) “The iris (plural: irides or irises) is a thin, circular structure in the eye, responsible for controlling the diameter and size of the pupil and thus the amount of light reaching the retina. The color of the iris is often referred to as “eye color.”- (Wikipedia)

Definition: (Plant)- “Iris is a genus of 260–300^[1]^[2] species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species.^[3] As well as being the scientific name, iris is also very widely used as a common name for all Iris species, though some plants called thus belong to other closely related genera. A common name for some species is ‘flags’, while the plants of the subgenus Scorpiris are widely known as ‘junos‘, particularly in horticulture. It is a popular garden flower.

The often-segregated, monotypic genera Belamcanda (blackberry lily), Hermodactylus (snake’s head iris), and Pardanthopsis (vesper iris) are currently included in Iris.”(Wikipedia)

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.

Book Review: Suzanne Golden Presents…

Suzanne Golden Presents!: Interviews with 36 Artists Who Innovate with Beads by Suzanne Golden

I am always interested in books about creativity and the creative process. If you want to read about process, this book is for you, regardless of whether or not you are a bead artist or not. The shapes and colors, alone, are enough to inspire ideas for a few years. The author makes a point of saying that she wanted to go beyond jewelry in showing what could be created with beads.

The artists are from many different countries and backgrounds. The first artist, Ulli Kaiser is dear to my heart simply because she comes from Austria. Her silver and aqua/turquoise (color not bead type) are beautiful.

Each section includes photos of the artists’ work, but also some biographical information. Many of the artists make jewelry, but Marina Dempster’s section includes several pairs of amazing beaded shoes. I particularly like the pair called Horny. I am not enamoured of the name, but can appreciate the play of words. I like the shape and color of the shoes. Another section, from South Africa, shows vessels. Other artist show tableau, consumer goods, sculpture, dolls and statues (Betsy Youngquist’s works are amazing, if a little creepy), wreaths, clothing, animals and much, much more.

Helena Markonsalo’s work reminds me of Susan Shie’s airbrushed quilts.

There are also a wide variety of designs rendered in beads. Markonsalo’s work could be described as “shabby chic” while Jan Huling’s work has a definite Native American feel. There are many other aesthetics to delight all readers.

If you ever wanted to know what, besides jewelry, could be created with beads, this book will provide hours of inspiration. There is so much included that I could not help, but go and visit websites of the artists and I have many more to view.

View all my reviews