August 2013 – Page 2 – Artquiltmaker Blog

August 26 Projects List

I just noticed that I have only 8 projects on my WIPs list. EIGHT!!! I have really made progress.

Finished 2013 Projects:

Corner Store: Finished on 1/1/2013 YAY!
The Garden. Finished on 1/5/2013 YAY!
Stepping Stones: Finished on 2/14/2013 YAY!
Fabric of the Year 2011: Finished on 2/27/2013 YAY
Calm: Finished on 3/14/2013 YAY!
A-B-C Challenge: Finished on 3/31/2013 YAY!
Petrillo Bag*: Finished on May 5, 2013 YAY!
Super Secret Project #1: Finished on June 13, 2013
Super Secret Project #2: Finished on June 23, 2013

Other non-quilt Projects finished

5 donation Pillowcases
2 fabric handbags/project bags
6 cat beds

Still WIPs

Aqua-Red Sampler – Frances is working diligently, though I know she feels frustrated with the foundation pieced block. I think part of that is because she is left handed and I am right handed. I finished the foundation piecing tutorial, along with my block for this part of the class. I am not giving up on her.
The Tarts Come to Tea: I still haven’t worked on this since April 2011, though I did think about working on it. I hope that counts for something. I really do need to get back to the quilting. I am still a little mad at myself for making such good progress and then getting sidetracked. I thought quilting the Whole Cloth quilt would get me back in the swing of quilting, but apparently not.
Pointillist Palette #4: Fourth is a series of 6 quilts; needs tiny square patches sewn together. Mrs. K. gave me more PP fabric and I won some from a giveaway. I still think it is a sign that I need to work on this. Leaders and enders.
See: needs satin stitching. Small, also a possibility for finishing. I really have the feeling I came so close to working on this project this month.
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? The attitude I need to have is that I can’t ruin it; there is always more fabric.
Under the Sea: class project; like the design, but not the colors much.
Flower Sugar Hexagon: I thought about sewing more hexagons together. Although not difficult, sewing Y seams is a bit of a chore, so I get tired of doing it after awhile. I could, perhaps, use leaders and enders to get this piece moving?

Ready for Quilting

Original Bullseye: At the quilter
New:* Wonky 9 Patch: needs basting, quilting and binding. Not on original list
Infinity blocks: blocks sewn together into a quilt top, borders on. Back and binding made; ready to be quilted.
Spiderweb: Top is together, binding is made. This is at the quilter.
New:* FOTY 2012: top, finished, though I can’t decide if I need a quilting border. Back and binding are complete; I am waiting to take it to the quilter.
New:*Star Sampler: Top finished, back and binding finished. Ready to go to the quilter (not on original list)
New:*Fresh Fruit: Top finished, back and binding finished. Ready to go to the quilter (not on original list)
Young Man’s t-shirt quilt: Top, back and binding are all ready to go to the quilter.

Please note that even if you combine the two lists above, I do not have 26 projects on this list anymore. I have made progress!!!

In the Finishing Process

New:* Sparkle Pink – quilted, working on binding it. (not on original list)
New:* Swoon – Quilted; ready for binding.

Abandoned

Nothing so far for 2013

Hunting and Gathering

Spin Wheel: really not started, but supplies gathered. I probably have enough fabrics and just need to decide to start.
Windmill quilt: Still hunting and gathering.
Stepping Stones #2 using Bonnie & Camille fabrics Bliss, Ruby, Vintage Modern: made two test blocks, but still in the thinking stage while I decide on the background colors. I want the contrast to be good.

Last update for the 26 Projects List. Read it. There’s some interesting stuff there.

I thought you might want to take a look at the first list I made, the one with the 26 Projects. I started the list in October 2011. I have made progress. I plan to stop this post when I have no more projects from the original list to write about. I wonder when that will be?

*New – Project started after I started working on the 26 Projects list

Bill Kerr Quilts

I meant to post this right after the workshop and I even worked on getting the photos in shape to be in the post. Life intervened and here it is late on a Saturday morning and I am just getting to post it. You East Coasters are already off doing whatever it is you do at 1pm on a Saturday. 😉

This is the quilt that we discussed the most and made the idea of choosing fabrics for their role in the conversation stick in my head. The thing about this quilt is that each fabric has a role and is related to, at least, one other fabric and is a bridge to another. I really like this idea of bridging fabrics to each other. Even if fabrics don’t look like they fit together in a quilt, there is a story the maker can tell through the fabric. Read the Fabric Smackdown post for more information.

I have been reading through the color sections of the Bill Kerr/ Weeks Ringle books to try and find a reference to this method, but so far I haven’t been successful. I also haven’t found tow of the books, which I know are buried in one of my quilt book stacks, so stay tuned.

I knew all the names of the quilts after the workshop, but now I don’t. If I get them wrong, let me know nicely and I will make the changes.

One of the questions I have heard numerous times in workshops that deal with using fabrics is how to use the fabulous large scale prints that are so popular now. Follow the Leader is a good example of how to use large scale prints. One of the things that brings these fabrics together is the literal connection of the grey bits connecting the rectangles. He still followed the other guidelines we discussed, but that bit of grey (could be another color) adds a connection.

One of the things I found in almost all of the Kerr/Ringle quilts was that my eyes moved around. There was interest in the selection of fabrics in the quilts. Their method of selecting fabrics is a lot of work, but, clearly, for my eye, it works.

There was, also, a consistent message throughout the ‘trunk show’. Each quilt provided another lesson in the same things we discussed at the beginning: scale, pattern, role, etc.

In the detail of Follow the Leader, you can see that fuschia-maroon dot on a greyish-beige background (lower right hand corner). We discussed that fabric a lot. It is related to the paisley on the sea green background. The shape of the dots is also related to the green/gold dot next to the paisley. The relationships are some part of why both fabrics work in that quilt. The class discussed that dot a lot, though, because it was an unexpected choice. Not wrong, but it might not be the first choice when choosing a selection of fabrics.

We had an unexpected discussion about kid quilts as well. I am sure many of us have made quilts for our kids (see T-shirt quilt, Eye Spy, etc), grandkids, nieces and nephews or even for Project Linus and other kid charities. The default is something like the T-shirt quilt or a quilt using novelty fabrics. They give us a place to start.

As a parent, I have always tried to talk to my kid like a person rather than a kid. I have also encouraged others to do the same. The conversation we had about kid quilts in the workshop was all about kid quilts that encourage play and grow with kid. In other words, quilt as more than a bed covering.

Duh.

The quilt he brought to illustrate this point was made from all solids and would be suitable for a dorm room bed as it would be for a toddler’s play mat. The quilt comes with bean bags and Bill said that Sophie made up a lot of different games using the quilt and the bean bags. This quilt is on the cover of Modern Quilts Illustrated issue 6. I presume the pattern is in the magazine, but don’t have that issue.

I know that I could make this quilt with solids I have on hand. It would be great with tone on tones as well. You could try changing out some of the squares for suitable novelty fabric and add to the game playing fun. I wonder how it would look in black and white fabrics with one color?

Pam has a series of holiday and seasonable quilts going that she uses to decorate. When I saw this quilt, it reminded me of a stack of eggs and I thought it could be used as a sophisticated Easter quilt in the colors shown or, made with pastels, a more traditional kind of spring quilt. I believe they use raw edge applique’ for the construction. This quilt is still available in the Kerr/Ringle Modern Quilts Illustrated issue 2 and there is a much better picture there as well. ;-)

I think that the quilt is interesting, but what I really like is the construction technique. They made it by sewing the grey and white, then cutting the strips apart and inserting the yellows. I thought that was brilliant. Why make yourself crazy trying to piece those angles if you don’t have to? The quilt is in their MQI #3 issue.

Remember: Every quilt is an opportunity to learn

Creative Prompt #221: Velvet

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.

Velvet TV movie, 1984

Velvet Underground

Velvet magazine

Velvet Light Trap – A journal of film and media studies, edited by graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Velvet Taco

Definition: “Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.

The word ‘velvety’ is used as an adjective to mean “smooth like velvet.” Velvet can be either synthetic or natural.

Traditionally, velvet is associated with nobility. Velvet was introduced to Baghdad during the rule of Harun al-Rashid by Kashmiri merchants and to Al-Andalus by Ziryab. In the Mamluk era, Cairo was the world’s largest producer of velvet. Much of it was exported to Venice, Al-Andalus and the Mali Empire. Musa I of Mali, the ruler of the Mali Empire, visited Cairo on his pilgrimage to Mecca. Many Arab velvet makers accompanied him back to Timbuktu. Later Ibn Battuta mentions how Suleyman (mansa) the ruler of Mali wore a locally produced complete crimson Velvet caftan on Eid. During the reign of Mehmed II, assistant cooks wore blue-coloured dresses (câme-i kebûd), conical hats (külâh) and baggy trousers (çaksir) made from Bursa velvet.^{[citation needed]}

Velvet with Medici Arms, Florence or Venice, 1440–1500

King Richard II of England directed in his will that his body should be clothed in velveto in 1399.^[1]

The earliest sources of European artistic velvets were Lucca, Genoa, Florence and Venice, which continued to send out rich velvet textures. Somewhat later the art was taken up by Flemish weavers, and in the sixteenth century, Bruges attained a reputation for velvets that were not inferior to those of the great Italian cities.”

Velvetpop.com

Red Velvet Cake

Velvet Elvis Painting

Finished Donation Blocks

I did diligently work on these donation blocks until they were done a week or so ago.

They are fun to work on and I am happy I put the blue square in each block. I think it adds interest.

I am thinking that my next effort will be sans background, e.g. no grey, and just have different scraps all in the same color make up the blocks. Where the blue is in these lovelies, I will substitute a complimentary colored patch, similar to what Pam did with her Rainbow Baby quilt. I guess I keep saying this over and over so I must really want to do it.

Yes, I still want to put sashing between the blocks. I’d love to get this done by the September meeting. We’ll see. Apparently, crawling up into my fabric closet for a blue bin is a problem. I don’t even know if I have the right blue for the sashing.

Inspiration Wednesday

The people with whom we stayed in Georgetown over the weekend had little shrines all over their property. Many were devoted to Mary or seemed Catholic in origin.This was a very beautiful piece that was laying on a table on their deck. The simplicity and smoothness really appealed to me.

Surprise Quilt Show

As part of DH’s duties as Grand 3rd Vice President (PooBah!), he participates in dedications of historic places in California. This past weekend I went with him to Georgetown for the dedication of the Josephine Mine Cemetery. The mine is off a road near Volcanville called Paymaster Mine Road. This deep into the California back country ‘road’ is a kind word.

The Georgetown Parlor that worked towards unearthing this cemetery from the ravages of time did an amazing job. The cemetery is very small, but someday there will also be a NSGW memorial park at the site as well.

Last night I had a dream that the guys set up a souvenir shop near Wentworth Springs Road and Volcanville Road selling postcards and cemetery knick-knacks from a little wooden shed on the corner. They also had the cemetery added to the Automobile Associate guidebook. We joked that it would be a 3 star destination.

After the dedication there was a barbecue. It was a very nice BBQ at a nice location. I brought my own food, which was a very excellent steak that DH cooked for me. It was relaxing to just sit and chat.

Sunday we got up with plans to drive home, but it took us quite awhile to get on the road. It is hard to rush around from event to event. I would love to have time to just go when we wanted. Work is so inconvenient. I guess the way they get people to show up is to pay them.

One of our stops was in Auburn, California where all of Placer County was having museum free day. This is the heart of the gold country so, I guess, there are a lot of museums. One of the museums was called the Bernhard Museum. We went up there to see the wagons and carriages owned and maintained by the Natives at Auburn Parlor.

In one of the Bernhard Museum buildings, the Foothill Quilters Guild had put up a small quilt show. The wife of one of the Past Grand Presidents went with me to look while the boys chatted about carriages and boy stuff.

There was quite a bit of applique’, both raw edge and needle-turn.

Feelin' Groovy by Ronda Kucala — Feelin’ Groovy by Ronda Kucala

This is a Verna Mosquera pattern and this rendition was made by Candy Brown. Candy Brown was one of the ladies manning the Foothill Quilters Guild table. We spent a few minutes talking with the two ladies. I also bought a couple of raffle tickets for their opportunity quilt and signed Mrs. Past Grand President’s name instead of my own. She would love to win and the quilt wasn’t really my colors. Candy turned out to be an unknown cousin of Dave, the Past Grand President. It suddenly hit me why people move from large urban places like the Bay Area to the boondocks.

As an aside, I have had many discussions with my Austrian friends about how stupid Americans are to move from their lovely urban homes close to public transportation, amenities like hospitals and traveling nurses when we retire. They claim to do the opposite, though you should understand that their large cities aren’t nearly as large as our large cities and the country is very close to the ‘city’ in many cases. Talking to Ms. Brown and listening to her and Mrs. Past Grand President talk as they found this connection, which expanding into knowing other people in common and having another cousin or uncle or something in common made me realize that in small towns people have the opportunity to meet people like this and have these kinds of conversations. We are rushing around from place to place trying to get everything done and there are sooooo many more people that we never have time to stop and talk to any of them. I felt like a bunch of puzzle pieces fell into place.

I saw this and thought immediately of Pam. There are cats in each window. I didn’t just take the photo because of Pam. I really like the shape and size of the houses.I also like the symmetry.

Fortunately, they told me where the quilt shop was so next time I head to Auburn I’ll go take a look. Stay tuned for that.

Many Journal Covers

I am really in awe of pattern makers. The reason I am in awe is because of the journal covers. I have a tutorial for them for the Miquelrius journals, yet it is not perfect. I tinker with it all the time. Tinkering with it makes me loathe to expand it to other types of journals, though I know it would be useful to have the standard measurements for, say, composition books or even paperback books.

If a pattern maker is good s/he tests and tests until the pattern is right. I assume that is what the pattern maker does, anyway. I assume that s/he tests many, many variations. I also assume that there are fewer variations with quilt patterns than with patterns like bags and journal covers.

I really do have the measurements for the Miquelrius journal correct now. I don’t need to trim, unsew and retrim and resew at all anymore. This is really a good thing and makes me very happy. Unsewing is part of the process, but I don’t like it as much as sewing fabric together.

Now I am tinkering with the filling. After the bonanza of journal covers that was my activity for sew day, I have decided that I need to find something else to fill the journals with. The batting is too fat. This is really a shame, because I have a lot of batting scraps. It would be nice if the batting were perfect.
It isn’t, though and we need to move on.

I tried the Pellon 806 Stitch-n-Tear interfacing on the combination journal cover. This is the cover I made with many different types of scraps. I didn’t try and keep the scraps from certain quilts together. I just sewed whatever pieces of fabric together that would fit and not look terrible.

I like the weight of the Stitch-n-Tear, but I don’t like the stiffness. I know that Stitch-n-Tear tears away (I use it for machine embroidery), but I don’t think that will be a problem. I have a lot of it on hand and it was convenient. I didn’t want to have to run out and buy something else.

For one journal cover it will be fine. I really like the thinness of the Stitch-n-Tear. Long term, for the tutorial, it won’t work. I am not sure what else to try. Perhaps I’ll try the Shape Flex I used in the Petrillo Bag?

What is your favorite interfacing?

Is there a garment interfacing that might be the ticket?

Did I say that I liked working on the same type of project over and over? I do. I was reminded of that when I made the journals. I liked trying different things and making small changes and trying again. It is a great way to get better at something and lessen the fear factor.

Certainly, I am not afraid of sewing and I am not afraid of journals, but I really want these to be an easy, fast project that is more about the fabric than about the construction. I can challenge myself in construction techniques with quilts.

I just got two quilts back from Colleen. With them came a bag of scraps from the edges. I am still working on journal covers, but this means I will be working on more Any guesses what else I’ll be making more of? More small projects!

Bill Kerr Workshop: Fabric Smackdown

Remember I wrote a really long post about the Bill Kerr Workshop? Well, that was only the talking part of the workshop. The Fabric Smackdown was the working part of the workshop. I moaned when I heard what he wanted us to do, but once I was into it, I loved it!

This is the best, most exciting way to make fabric selections for a quilt!!! At least until tomorrow when I find a new way to choose fabric. 😉

He asked us to each to pick a fabric that gave us trouble from the fabrics we brought.

Hhmmm. Difficult. I didn’t want to pick anything too hideous as I suspected we would have to do something with the fabric. I thought about brown, which is really a challenge for me, but decided to stick with some color.

I chose this green and pink. Despite pink and green being compliments on the color wheel, this fabric is so strong that it is a challenge to work with. I still wonder why I bought it. Perhaps someone gave it to me or it was part of a pack. I haven’t been able to find anymore of it so I used it for something. How quickly we forget.

Yes, we did have to use the fabric for something.

Bill picked two fabrics, mostly, gave the two fabrics to their owners and then the owners had to make a fabric palette that got the fabrics from one to other.

There were two groups with three people. I was in one of them with Jennifer (of the photographing the meetings fame) and Lynette (of the A-B-C Challenge fame).

We used our fabric and our group shared, so Jennifer pawed through my scraps bags while I looked through Lynette’s neatly folded FQs. The criteria we were supposed to use in addition to hue were:

scale
figure/ground
illustration style
pattern
value
saturation
Large scale prints-isolate or integrate
Think about fabrics as a conversation.
etc

The thing to remember is that this type of exercise takes practice. And more practice and even more practice. He told us that we would not be able to speak very well about what we were putting up, but that we had to try. The more we tried, the better we would get at it.

We had an interesting group of fabric and our interim attempt at selecting fabrics was pretty interesting.

You can see my little green and pink piece in the middle right. I don’t remember what the other two starter fabrics were, but I think the blue, white and brown floral and the yellow, brown and green floral at the top. I am not 100% positive.

Now, the rule is to “Love it for 10 Minutes.” Remember the homework we did around the topic of ‘Encourage’? At first you might think “YECH!” What were they thinking.

We thought that, too, trust me. This selection was way out of our comfort zone, but we kept looking and fiddling with choices and, in the end, I think we all really liked it.

I would love to have all these pieces and make a quilt.

Definitely, there are two palettes into which this grouping could be divided. If you look and think about it, the fabrics can be used successfully together. I wouldn’t put equal amounts of all of the fabrics in. I might put a touch of the yellow and more of the salmon and blues. I don’t know.

I just know that I thought this would be impossible (though what teacher,in their right mind, would give an exercise that couldn’t be done? It would be all over the Internet in 2 seconds signaling they should hang up their rotary cutter) and now I am trying to figure out how to do it at home by myself. I am looking at the starter fabrics for the Jelly Roll I want to make and wondering… I think the exercise was very successful.

The groups of fabric are unusual, but not crazy. When you look at where people started (their fabrics) and how they got from fabric A to fabric B, the grouping make sense and are excitingly different. Enlarge the picture and see what you can.

What makes these groupings work, aside from hue, is the variety. The variety of pattern, scale, motifs and the inclusion of some drabs. And so much more.

And, by the end, we were all tired, but we look happy. I was happy I know that.

Round Robin

I didn’t know what category to put this post in, so I hope it works for those of you who are category-crazed.

The last time I really thought about this piece was back in June and I really wasn’t thinking about this particular piece, but the Round Robin in general and my piece specifically.

Where did you say July went?

I haven’t been to a BAM meeting in forever, sadly, but Kelly has been a great sherpa for me. Yesterday, I sent off my round robin work along with some cat beds and she will, once again, kindly, sherpa them to the meeting this Saturday. Someday I will see the BAMQGers again.

I wasn’t able to finish the orange and grey donation quilt yet. I didn’t really work on it last weekend. I’ll get back to that as soon as I pick out a blue for the sashing. Apparently, that is the hold up in my brain.

I did make some time last weekend, in the midst of the quantity to do some quality.

This is Chris’ piece and when I first saw it, my impression was that it needed some space. I used the white to give it some space, but didn’t want to just put white strips on, thus the corners.

I also varied the width of strips a little bit so it would have a bit of movement, or viewer’s eyes would move around.

Now that I look at it, it kind of looks like a tulip.

I tried to make the white the same white as in the flowery black/white/yellow print so neither would look dirty. The black on white I added is pretty bright. I think it works. I hope it works, at least. Chris makes art quilts, so she can paint over the white, if she doesn’t like it.

This project definitely involves muscles that are atrophied in me. I am committed to working through all of the pieces, but I am not sure about the project. I am anxious about doing a good. My technique will be good. I hope the design will be, too. I am not sure if my design work fits the piece. It certainly isn’t terrible.

Book Review: Aimee Ray’s Sweet & Simple Jewelry

Aimee Ray’s Sweet & Simple Jewelry: 17 Designers, 10 Techniques & 32 Projects to Make by Aimee Ray

When I received this book from Ken at Lark Crafts, I saw the cover and was really excited. The cover looks like the designer got his/her colors from a candy shop. ‘Sweet’, but not sickly sweet, is definitely how I would describe it. I have to say that I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t a quilt book, but was glad to see that fabric is used in a number of the projects.

I have noticed a trend (can I call it that?) of including a visual table of contents in some recent books I have read and/or reviewed. Purses Bags Totes had one which really helped my navigation of the book as well as writing the review. I notice that this book has one as well.

Not only does this visual ToC, as we, in the Library biz call it, help with navigation, but it gives a potential buyer a little more information. I hope that Amazon and other online booksellers will include such information in their ‘inside look’ pages.

From the ToC, I can see that this book has more colorful projects than some of the other jewelry books I have read recently. This one uses felt, embroidery thread and fabric scraps in many of the projects, which adds to the color choices.

Like many other Lark Jewelry & Beading books, this has a comprehensive Basics, pg.10, section. I love the ‘cover photo’ that begins the section depicting a variety of supplies and embellishments. Many of the supplies can already be found in your quiltmaking cupboard. Each subsection includes a couple of sentences about why you would use each material. Tools are listed separately, starting on pg.17, again, with definitions of what they are and why you would use them.

Following Tools is a section on Techniques, pg.20-, which discusses embroidery, transferring templates and patterns, hooping, to knot or not to knot (HA!), stitches, working with polymer clay type materials and a whole host of other techniques that may add to your creative jewelry designs.

After a very comprehensive 28 pages of Tools, Tips and Techniques, Aimee Ray launches into the projects. The first page of the section includes larger photos of a selection of the projects.

One of my favorite projects is the Felted Terrarium Necklace, pg.45. I wouldn’t make it, but I like the look. It would also be great as a gift for a charm bracelet.

The projects consist of a large photo of the finished piece9s) and 1-2 pages of directions, which includes tips, a materials and tool list. Not being a jewelry maker, I cannot judge whether this is enough information to finish the project.

I also like the Cabochon Hairpins, pg.57. This is a really unique idea, perhaps because I have hatpins on the mind after reading Jacqueline Winspear‘s book, Maisie Dobbs again. I have not seen anything like this before and give kudos to the designer, Kathy Sheldon for thinking outside the box.

This is also a very well designed book. I like the colors of the layout as well as the graphic embellishments and photography on the inner pages. Take a look at this book and be inspired.

View all my reviews

Creative Prompt #220: Luck

pure luck

hard luck

“You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.”
– Bill Watterson

We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP

Luck of the Irish

Lady Luck

What’s luck got to do with it?

Andrew Luck

“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”

? Thomas Jefferson

Lucky Chances

good luck

Lucky (grocery store)

Luck, Wisconsin (I wonder if you are automatically lucky if you live there?)

Jason Mraz – Lucky

Lucky Strikes

stroke of luck!

“Do ya’ feel lucky, punk?”? Clint Eastwood

good luck charms

Lucky magazine – shopping and style

Definition: “Luck or chance is an event which occurs beyond one’s control, without regard to one’s will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense. In the prescriptive sense, luck is a supernatural and deterministic concept that there are forces (e.g. gods or spirits) which prescribe that certain events occur very much the way laws of physics will prescribe that certain events occur. It is the prescriptive sense that people mean when they say they “do not believe in luck“. In the descriptive sense, luck is a word people give after the occurrence of events which they find to be fortuitous or unfortuitous, and maybe improbable.

Good Luck Charlie

“Here’s the thing about luck…you don’t know if it’s good or bad until you have some perspective.”
? Alice Hoffman, Local Girls

The Joy Luck Club (book) by Amy Tan

Cultural views of luck vary from perceiving luck as a matter of random chance to attributing to such explanations of faith or superstition. For example, the Romans believed in the embodiment of luck as the goddess Fortuna,^[1] while the philosopher Daniel Dennett believes that “luck is mere luck” rather than a property of a person or thing.^[2] Carl Jung viewed luck as synchronicity, which he described as “a meaningful coincidence”.

Lucky symbols are popular worldwide and take many forms.”

bad luck

Gin & Luck, Los Angeles

You’re in luck!

On 21 February 2008, [UN] Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Edward Luck as Special Adviser at the Assistant Secretary-General level

“People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have. ”
? Anne Tyler

Plethora of Cat Beds

You know, sometimes you just have to sew like a demon and make a lot of cat beds.

I have to say that when I sew these cat beds, I think about the two cats we had growing up, Spooky and Sunkist. they have long since gone to that giant cat bed int he sky, but I still remember them fondly. Spooky used to crawl under my covers and sleep there, hogging the entire bed, of course. Sunkist was what we would call “A Big Guy”. He weighted about 18 lbs and liked to park himself in a convenient lap. Once he parked, the lap was not going anywhere. You would be lucky if you could move at all!

I made a lot of cat beds over the weekend. Amanda was kind enough, via Kelly, to send along the parts for about 5 cat beds. Now that I am pro-cat bed maker, I can make one, start to finish in about 20 minutes. The first one, which I mentioned, I made at Sew Day. Everyone stuffed their schnibbles in, but Amanda will still have to stuff it some more.

I heard Very Lazy Daisy’s podcast #1 where she was talking about the tiny slivers of fabric she keeps for collaged art quilts. I kept yelling at her, in the middle of the gym no less, to make cat beds and stuff them full of those tiny scraps. The kitties will love them.

The other thing I like about the cat beds is the fun fabrics. I would never buy many of these fabrics, but they are fun. How often do you get to work with smiling pieces of cake? I like thinking up funny names for them.

I also think that I should try more patriotic fabrics once in a while and this project gives me an opportunity to do so. I like the idea of helping animals, especially since they provide so much comfort to people without children or other family members nearby.

You can make cat beds, too. I previously posted the pattern and it is still valid. I will get them to Amanda if you make some and get them to me. You can also talk to your local shelter and see if they accept cat beds and what the parameters for making some are.

Various & Sundry #11 2013

Quilt Bear August Aurifil Club Selection

I received my Aurifil club selection from The Quilt Bear on Monday and it is cute. I was piecing with turquoise thread other the weekend, because it was in the machine after I did some decorative stitches on the napkins and I figured I didn’t need to change it. I think I have plenty of piecing thread and can use whatever color is to hand. I do like the light grey for piecing, though. You, too, can join in the Aurifil club fun by checking out theAurifil Club page on The Quilt Bear site.

Blogging
Sister Diane (not my sister, but what she calls herself for some reason I don’t know) over at CraftyPod blog had a great post about marketing and blogging. I have to admit that I haven’t been asked to feature any products on my blog, though I do write book reviews for Lark. I write for Lark, because they offer me something. I am pretty sure that you all don’t wait for me to say “go and buy X product” then run out and buy it. S. D. says that we bloggers don’t need stuff to write about. I think we want exchanges with our readers and that can extend to marketers who want our attention as well.

I especially loved these lines “When you ask a blogger “Please mention this to your readers,” you’re essentially saying “Please come up with a great marketing idea for me. I won’t be paying you for this service. Thanks!” ” Sister Diane has good ideas for anyone wanting something from the blogger. If you had done what she suggested I would be more inclined to listen to your proposal than someone who just says they love my blog and does not show that they love it. Loving my blog means reading it periodically.

This is a well written and coherent post. I would urge you to read it and let me know what you think.

On the Web

Piecemeal Quilts has 4 posts on the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. The last one is here.

Katie talked about Fear of Failure on her blog recently. I am less nice and say “get over it and move on. There is always more fabric and you can worry when you are dead!” I know, not very nice, but I bet I made you laugh. I am also really sick of people putting themselves down. Just because you make a mistake doesn’t mean you are a loser. Mistakes were invented so we could learn. Katie shows her progress in machine quilting as an example. I think I will try and do a post about progress on something. NOT machine quilting since you know how I feel about that, but perhaps there is something I felt frustrated about and can show progress. I would do it all for you, Chiclets. I put up mistakes so you can see that it is not all peaches and roses here at AQ. Let’s accept our mistakes and move forward.

Katie asked this question “So ask yourself, what is your fear of failure holding you back from achieving?” Tell me your answer.

Perhaps I’ll go do some machine quilting.

Gretchen has a great book review on one of Carol Doak’s paper piecing books. I am not much of a paoer piecer, but the technique does have its uses. The brief description given makes my mind soin with the possibility of adding corners and borders to blocks to make them more interesting or just different.

Tools

Camille Roskelley has a great photo of another clever use for WonderClips. (scroll about halfway down) Do you have any? No? Go buy some RIGHT now!

History Quilter Susan and I will be working on the Russian Rubix project together — well, alongside each other is a better description. I meant to buy the pattern when I was at Always Quilting for Sew Day, but forgot so I was surfing the web looking for a good price on shipping when I found a picture of a ruler to go with the project. (I know Flickr does sell stuff, but I got distracted!). That led me to the blog post with the link to Richard, who made the ruler/template. The templates are $15 and I think there are two, but you need to contact (info@red-designs.com) him yourself if you want more information on purchasing the rulers.

Housekeeping

Do you know about the Glossary?

34 people are now subscribing to the blog via email. Yay! And, thanks. 😉

Have you see the Quilts in Print page? I started a list of references to quilts in fiction, mostly, that I came across. Obviously it is not exhaustive, but I will note down what I find as I come across references. it is something I have been wanting to do and am glad I started finally. I plan to also surf around and see if someone else has done something similar.

Big doesn’t even begin to express the size of the mess I made over the weekend in my workroom. I think it wasn’t helped by bring a lot of stuff to sew day. It took me forever to unearth the floor. I did get a lot done and that was nice.

Saturday and Sunday

In a way, Saturday and Sunday, which fed off Thursday, were all about getting as much done in the sewing room as humanly possible. I didn’t kill myself, but I was clearly going for quantity. Remember the post I wrote about creating a relationship with your quilts? Not Saturday and Sunday. I had some projects I wanted to finish and I just put the pedal to the metal.

I had rummaged through my Christmas fabric drawer on Wednesday night, in preparation for Sew Day. I decided that instead of just making a bunch of gift bags, I would make a couple sets of napkins also. We use cloth napkins and I have always wanted 30 or so to use during the month of December. I picked two fun fabrics and cut them up ready for sewing. For 4 napkins I need 2 yards of fabric. I like big, fat, generous napkins, so I make them fat quarter sized. I also don’t like just folding the hem over and having the back show, so I make them 2 sided.

I forgot what a pain making napkins can be. I like them when they are done, ; not difficult, but they are a pain to make. Decorative stitches take forever.

This is the journal cover that I worked on as leaders and enders. I mentioned it the other day when it was in progress. As you can see, it is a combination of the Philip Jacobs fabrics, the Circa 1934 fabrics and some random fabrics as filers. I think it looks more interesting than some of the other journal covers I made on Thursday. I’ll have to do a post just showing off the journal covers.

I think the problem in my mind is that the pieced journal covers are pretty time consuming when I really need a journal cover and am feeling a bit rushed. I think what I’ll have to do is use leaders and enders to work on piecing journal covers that I want to be interesting and when I am in a rush, I’ll use some lush fabric dying to remain, essentially, uncut.

The inside of the journal cover is what I was talking about when I mentioned the problem of the long strips. I had a long strip with the green bubble dot and the brownish dot sewn together. I didn’t want to just add a long strip, so I cut the strip in half, turned one of the pieces and sewed it back together. Then I sewed it to the end of the cover. I think the little bit of effort adds some interest. Even though it is on the inside, I will see it each time I open the journal.

I put together all four cat beds. This was the first one and I stuffed it part way with the leftovers from the T-shirt quilt.

Total count for the weekend is:

3 napkins
4 cat beds
2 journal covers
binding for t-shirt quilt
Modern Round Robin work

This doesn’t feel like a lot, but I know I worked all weekend when I wasn’t doing housework or chauffeuring. The work is good, too, so I guess I have to be happy with that.

WIPs
There are also some projects I didn’t quite finish, but will, hopefully, later this week.

3 napkins that still need decorative stitching
2 journal covers that still need finishing

Bill Kerr Workshop

The Bill Kerr Workshop was awesome. It came hard on the heels of the Sew Day held on Thursday and there were 35 people there! We didn’t get to see Weeks Ringle or the famous Sophie, who has recently published her first book, A Kid’s Guide to Sewing, but I’ll suffer through.

I said somewhere that I want to crawl inside Bill Kerr’s head and suck out all the information he has in there. It sounds gross, but that is how I feel. This is the second lecture/workshop I have taken from him and this was all new information. Or I wasn’t really paying attention last time and he just got a gimme in me.

He is a very good lecturer, regardless, because even if he said the same things over again, they resonated with me and I want to incorporate them into my work.

The last time I heard him speak was at the Peninsula Quilter’s Guild in 2008. At that time I wrote “I am hopeful that I will get to work with them, because he mentioned that they teach a week long, intensive design course. It is now on my list of things to do when the work situation simmers down.” I remember that a month after i wrote this statement, my work troubles were put firmly on the back burner, because my husband was laid off and it was a year and half before we could even consider something like this workshop. I still want to take the design course, and will still have to inquire, though he said they are still busy, but Weeks has created a Craftsy class with a lot of information and that class has 6,000 students in it. I can’t even imagine having that many students. I know they are not all in a classroom at once, but still that is a lot of potential questions.

My ideal would be to have a once per week class with them where the students, including me, went away, did some work and came back the following week to work with them some more. Since they live in Chicago and I live a few thousand miles from them, I will have to put that on my list of things to do when I win $100,000,000,000 in the lottery.

If you don’t know Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle, they are the owners of the Modern Quilt Studio (formerly FunQuilts). Weeks is the author of the popular Craft Nectar blog. They are the authors of several books:

Workshop

The workshop was scheduled to last from 6:30-9:30, but we really went until about 10:00pm. At 6:30, Bill bounded, literally, into the room and just started talking to us about color and design and I was, immediately, riveted. I think he really did chat with Rhonda for a minute before he started, but being in the way back of the room, that was my impression. He is energetic and full of life and I know I would gain so much by truly studying with him and Weeks.

He said something that I truly believe. When I looked back at the208 blog post from the last lecture I attended. He said a version of “He suggested that people think you are born Picasso or doomed to mediocrity. He believes this to be wrong and that visual arts take work, like anything else, and that you can be successful if you work at it.” He really emphasized that everyone has an artistic spark and that the owner of the spark has to practice and practice. For us that means making many, many quilts and failing at some of them.

A lot of what I write below is from my notes, so some of the sentences may be just fragments.

Definitions:
Hue – what we call color. When I say my favorite color is turquoise, I really should be saying my favorite hue is turquoise.

Value – relative lightness or darkness of a hue

Saturation – in-tenseness of the hue – hue in purest form – middle of Itten color wheel. e.g. Pure saturated yellow can never be dark.

Black is the most desaturated “hue”.

The other thing he said that I need to remember for my own work is that it is never, ever solely about the color; it is about the role that the color plays in the quilt. THE ROLE. Fabric is fabric; you can use all types and styles together. There is no quilt police who will look at your quilt and tell you to take some fabrics out. Who cares if it is modern or civil war, etc? If hte fabric has the right role int he quilt and it is a modern fabric next to a Civil War reproduction next to a feedsack, and the piece works, you have succeeded.

Isolate one concept, express one idea:

showcase 1 fabric
showcase 1 pattern
etc.

Above is one of the quilts Bill Kerr brought as an example. It is a perfect example of the above statement. It is a combination of David Butler’s first collection and Jo Morton fabrics. David Butler is Amy Butler’s husband and his quilt fabrics are more ‘modern’. Jo Morton designs Civil War reproduction fabrics. The fabrics work together despite their different styles and, thus, the quilt works. Don’t limit yourself because you think “I don’t do Civil War.”

Drabs work really well with brights. “Drabs” are taupe, putty, some greys, olive green, some browns, etc. Drabs are forgettable. Drabs allow other fabrics to shine. He didn’t have a chance to go into this very much, but he said that a lot of times a drab version of the complementary hue can really spark up another color. Drabs can add some relief, <Jaye editorializing> I think that what Kerr discussed was what is sometimes referred to as “buying ugly colors” or “using ugly colors”. I don’t like to think that there is a hue that does not have a role to play in some quilt (see above in David Butler/Jo Morton quilt). I also like the idea of calling these types of hues “drab” rather than “ugly.”

He also said, and I really like this metaphor, that putting fabrics together for a quilt is like creating the perfect guest list for a party. Think about hue, scale, pattern (like polka dots). Think about eliminating the ‘loud obnoxious guest.’ Think about how the scale, pattern and hues work together as a harmonious whole. I keep thinking back on his comments comparing quilts to a party.

Figure Ground and Illustration Style
Choosing fabrics for a quilt is not just about looking at the circles on the selvedge and picking colors. Figure Ground and Illustration Style are two things to consider.

In simplest terms the figure is what you notice and the ground is everything else…The figure always defines the ground and the ground defines the figure. They are inseparable — you can not have one without the other. If you draw the figure in a composition, you are drawing the ground at the same time… (Daphne)

Illustration Style is the style in which motifs are drawn. Are there light objects on dark field? Are there dark objects on light field? Are the motifs are outlined in black? Are the motifs not outlined? The type/style of drawing, such as the way I draw my CPP responses or a watercolor color style are all examples of illustration style and they are another tool that you can use to choose fabrics.

Bill likes RJR Linen White as a great background. He likes it better than Kona Snow and there was a suggestion that Kona, while dominating the market, ravels too much. The RJR Linen White is very warm.

Other

Every quilt is an opportunity to learn.

Weeks Ringle wrote an article in the June 2013 American Patchwork and Quilting called Stash RX

I’ll write another post about the Fabric Smackdown exercise we did.