Various & Sundry 2013 #5

Housekeeping

I finally fixed one problem I was having with the email subscription tool. If you subscribe via email, you will now be receiving the email from AQ Admin, poste [at] artquiltmaker [dot] com. Hooray! I can’t tell you how long it has taken me to fix that AND how many stupid questions I had to ask. Oh well, that is how we learn, I suppose. On to the next stupid problem.

Just a reminder that if your comment looks like spam to my super duper spam filter, it will be sent straight to the spam anniliation tool, never seen by any human and deleted. As I said earlier, I no longer look through the piles of comments asking me to buy their fake C-o-a-c-h and L-o-u-i-s V-u-i–t-t-o-n bags. So sorry. I just don’t have the time and would rather spending it writing here or sewing stuff to write about here. Of course you can always email me at poste [at] artquiltmaker [dot] com. I always love to hear from you, my fabulous readers.

And thank you for the comments. I appreciate hearing what you think.

Creativity and the Creative Prompt

iTunes is giving me fits, which manifests in not being able to download new episodes of podcasts, so I have been listening to a lot of back episodes of Notes from the VooDoo Lounge. These were not episodes I had already listened to, but episodes I had not yet listened to, because I was busy with Pam, Frances, Sandy, Susan, etc. This is a really good podcast. It is not a quilty podcast, but more of a creativity podcast. Rice (rhymes with Lisa) talks with artists who create in a variety of media and they discuss a lot about creativity and inspiration.

I think it was in one of these episodes where index cards were mentioned.

 

A light bulb went on in my head!

People could do their creative prompt responses on index cards! This would:

1. Make them less precious
2. Provide a smaller space to fill
3. Not use precious materials
4. Easy to fill in 5 minutes or less

Go do a  creative prompt on an index card!

Jill, of the Quilt Rat blog, one of the original CPP participants has taken her responses to a whole new level. The new Janome machine has several of her designs included as stitches in the MC 9900! She writes about it in a blog post and shows in progress and completed pictures. I take full credit. 😉 Truly, Jill is extremely talented.

Listen to episode 171 of the Creative Mom Podcast. It is on iTunes and there are quite a few gems of creativity and life inspiration there. I love that podcast for Amy’s great voice and well put together episodes.

I have also been on a Notes from the VooDoo Lounge binge recently. There is a lot about creativity in some of her recent episodes. She gives a good description on iTunes, so branch out and take a listen.

Shows and Exhibits

BAMQG was included in a special exhibit at the recent Santa Clara Valley Quilt Show. The Quilt Show had a blog post about the show as well. the banner for the BAMQG Modern Exhibit is photo #55 and the Renewed Jelly Roll Race quilt is included in that photo. YAY! Tons of people will see it, though they won’t know who I am! 😉 Kelly promised me photos, but I haven’t seen them yet. I’ll share when I get them.

Take some time to make some flags for Boston in the “To Boston with Love” Project. Check out the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild blog for more details and the palette.

Techniques

Is my triangle technique not working for you? Need more half square triangle tips? Triangle square tips? Check out a recent post by Camille Roskelley. While you are at it, buy one of her new books.

Kati has some tips from Jackie Kunkel on her blog about paper piecing.

Other Artists

My mom was plowing through blog posts about quilting with Perle cotton (when did she get so smart? I would have just threaded a needle and dived in!?!) while we were sitting with Grama. She came across a post by Susan of Canadian Abroad about quilting with Perle cotton, which had a picture of the embroidery to the left included. I would say that the sentiment is true for many of us.

Thanks to Susan for allowing me to post the picture.

There are a lot of quilts with letters right now and I have never felt the urge to make one until I saw this saying, which rings so true with me.

Mark Lipinski had his kidney transplant and is doing well. You can follow along with his updates at his Facebook Fan Page.

Sadly Libby Lehman suffered a brain aneurysm yesterday. She underwent surgery and is recovering in a Houston hospital. The Quilt Show put up a basic post about the situation. Keep her in your thoughts. She is a great teacher and I really enjoyed the class I took from her and have always wanted to take another one.

Projects

Torie told me about a BOM a long time ago, but reminded me again recently. I took a look and really like the look. Torie is encouraging me to do the BOM in brights, but my excuse is that the Star quilt is taking all my time. 😉

Like Camille Roskelley? Having trouble focusing on a project? Jana is hosting a Quilt-a-Long with Camille’s new book, Simply Retro, and this might just be the project for you. Buy the book and go sew! It doesn’t come out until June 5, so you have plenty of time to clear your decks. You should preorder, though, so you are ready. From the blog post, it looks like Jana has a lot of features that will make the camaraderie factor high in this QAL.

NQR

Being to think about life in a serious way lately has made me think about things like my own mortality, if I will be affected by the same things my grandmother is experiencing now, my parenting — essentially my entire life. I am questioning and examining my entire life and how I have lived it and how I will live it going forward. I came across two blog posts that relate to topics on my mind: parenting and body image.