There was so much inspiration at Hearst Castle that one post wouldn’t do. The previous post was mostly about the outside of the castle. One of the most beautiful parts of the estate was the indoor pool. It didn’t have the feel of indoors or outdoors.
The bottom of the pool is gorgeous. The colors are rich and strong even through the water. Yes, turquoise is a favorite color, but that blue is hard not to like. Coupled with the green, it is a very special color combination It is definitely worth trying to replicate in a quilt. A very different two color quilt?
While the bottom of the pool is awesome, the walls are fantastic, too. In fact the entire inside of the building is covered in mosaic tile.
Wouldn’t the rectangular design to the right make a fantastic quilt with no additional designing? Start saving your 1″ squares!
The outer borders, however, would also make fantastic borders. See the squares spaced at regular intervals? I think tile artisans have the same problem we do with spacing and the math around borders. The squares on the sides as well as the L shaped corners look great, but also help deal with the math. I am sure the tile people Mr. Hearst employed were perfect and this was the design, but for mere mortals like me and my quilts, the ideas would be really helpful.
The colors are really great, too. Blue and green, of course, since it is an indoor pool, but the yellow doesn’t overpower the rest. Perhaps it is more gold?? I also see a few different colors of yellow tiles. That probably helps, too. Scrap tiling/quilting?
My favorite part of the indoor pool area was right when I walked in. The photo (right) is flooring! Yes, I walked on it. Look at that gold! Look at those circles! Amazing.
I think what caught my attention first was the blue and gold. They are the colors of my alma mater, so they always grab me. On second look, I saw the design and was even more enchanted. Don’t the figures look like animals?
I also see some pinwheels and nine patches. I just love tile.
Organized by 500 Startups, Geeks on a Plane (#GOAP) is an invite-only tour for startups, investors, and executives to learn about high-growth technology …
Wonder Woman’s invisible plane
jet plane
Leavin’ on a Jet Plane
Plane & Pilot magazine
graph points on a coordinate plane
US Air Force Space Plane
The 17 plane symmetry groups
Cargo plane
plane crash
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 get familiar with your blog or website.
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
In between other projects, I started another pink journal cover.
Yes, pink. Are you surprised?
I have a lot of pink scraps. 😉
And, due to a lot of complicated reasons, I needed a quick leaders and enders project. Since I will need a new journal cover in the next month or so, it seemed logical.
I considered the size of the pieces when I made the Orange Crush journal cover. I am using that cover and I really like it. I really like the size of the pieces, the flatness, everything. I want this journal and the others I make in the future to be just as good. I am concerned that I am making the pieces too small and going back to being frustrated by the lumpiness of the final product. I have about 10″ of mosaic piecing left to make the journal cover. We’ll see.
Last week was Grand Parlor, which took place in San Luis Obispo. Wednesday of the week was ‘Playday’. I signed up for a tour of Hearst Castle and DH went off to nap, play Pidro and whatever.
I had been to Hearst Castle before, twice, I think, but it had been many years. I remembered a lot, but I am more into details now.
The place is full of inspiration. Unbelievable art in all forms wherever you look and cannot be escaped. A lot of it is not really my style, but *I* don’t have to live there. 😉 Regardless, it is amazing collection of art, which is probably the understatement of the century.
I always thought that William Randolph Hearst went to Europe and just bought up everything in sight. This time, the tour guide said that he bought everything out of art catalogs that were sent to him from New York. Who knows what is true?
One of the oldest pieces at the estate is a statue of Mary and an infant Jesus. It is outside the main front door. There is something about it that I really liked. The Baroque or Gothic look to the overall section is a bit much for me. Still without the trimmings, I like the Mary and Infant Jesus statue.
One of the things I like about architecture is the inspiration it provides to quiltmaking. The balustrade (a railing supported by balusters, especially an ornamental parapet on a balcony, bridge, or terrace) has a complex design, but it can also be used as inspiration for a quilting design. Imagine this – or a version of this – as a quilting design in a large open space.
I really like the detail of the area below the roofline of the cottage. I know that this is a multi-millionaire’s guest accommodations, but why can’t modern housing and infrastructure type buildings have any detail like this? I think it would make the surroundings in cities much more interesting and easier to live in.
It was a great trip and there is so much more to show you. Better though, would be for you to go and visit the Castle yourself.
This is like a bonus week. I keep thinking that it should be June already, but Memorial Day weekend was so early and the week preceding Memorial Day was so crazy that normal life barely registered. So BONUS!
I saw this quilt on a magazine I bought (**Disclaimer: yes, I bought this willingly and with my own money, it is not a review copy). It is called 30 Something (Thirty Something???) I LOVE this quilt on the front and have to put it in my queue to make. I like the different shapes and the way the pieces are set and then make the blocks.
I wouldn’t make in those soft 1930s fabrics, but I would make it scrappy. I am still thrilled with the bright scraps and dots I used for Scrapitude. I think I would use my bright scraps again.
It is so odd when a quilt grabs my attention like this one did. I can look at 100 quilts, yawn and move on, but then one grabs me and I can’t get it out of my head. It isn’t even the fabrics that I like. How can I look at this quilt and imagine it in brights and dots? I look at other quilt projects on magazines and can’t imagine them made any other way–with any other fabric. This quilt is different.
I decided to make the peacock One Block Wonder project. I was really on the fence, as you may have gathered from my previous posts, about making it. I talked about some of my concerns in the last post and had decided not to make it. Things change.
There were a couple of things that made me decide to do it. 1) I was able to find the Timeless Treasure panel on a website. 2) I saw Maureen’s blocks and 3) I really like the colors in this panel.
I was easily able to buy the panel from Miller’s Dry Goods, which I found unexpectedly after doing a simple Google search. The line is fairly new so I wasn’t expecting that it would be available yet. I am still interested in the group of solids shown with the panel, but they are not as important. I think they might make a good addition to the quilt, but I don’t know what the final quilt will look like, which means I don’t know how they would fit in so we’ll have to see.
Maureen read one of my previous posts and brought her One Block Wonder blocks, as well as a piece of the original fabric to show me at the retreat. I didn’t even know she had worked on a One Block Wonder and was very pleased to see what she had done. Pam’s class using a panel seems very different from using fabric, but there are quite a few similarities as well. I was pleased to see how different Maureen’s blocks looked from each other and she confirmed that it is fairly easy to avoid ending up with the same blocks, which adds to the variety of the quilt. We encouraged her to work on her OBW quilt, but she worked on other projects. I would love to see what she does with those blocks.
I do like the colors of the panel. There is no cream, as there was in the other yardage I considered, which is a bonus. I am annoyed at cream backgrounds lately. They look dirty to me.
Maureen assured me, as did looking at her blocks, that the black would not overwhelm the piece. There is plenty of blue, especially turquoise (!!!), in the panel as well.
This is a limited collection for Timeless Treasures and I only bought the panel. If it doesn’t work out, the effort will make a great donation quilt.
The Field Day Zipper takes on a new view once it is on the design wall. So does my workroom. I need to get this piece sewn together and OFF the wall as it really sucks the light out of an, otherwise, fairly bright room.
This is such a weird concept to me and I spent some timing thinking about it. No, it is not directly related to the making of this piece, but it affects my work in general.
First, sadly, my workroom is still life sucking beige. (Why is a question for a long evening and a bottle of your favorite libation.) The ugly and light sucking nature of the color, if you can call life sucking beige a color, means that all the other colors I work with in that room look different. Also the light has to work a lot harder and I have to be careful to move bits of the projects to other parts of the house. It isn’t a perfect system, but it is working to a certain extent.
Anyway, I still have not put up my new design wall, but I did put FDZ up on the smaller design wall (~4.5′ x 7′). It doesn’t all fit as you saw in Design Wall Monday, but it will fit better once I sew some more of the parts together.
The other thing, unrelated to color, about this project is that seam allowance is affecting the size more than I anticipated. When I laid the piece out, the strips of Sangria were roughly equivalent to the ‘coin’ segments. As I began sewing the coins together into vertical strips, I lost many inches. I added a couple of coins to the first couple of rows to see what would happen and how many coins I would need. I could just cut off the solid strips, but I want the piece to be the length of the Sangria strips. I am going to sew more of the vertical strips together and then see what I need to do.
I am desperate to get back to this project — or really any project. I haven’t been able to sew at all in the past week and am feeling the effects.
Before I revamped my design wall, I reorganized the Flying Geese from my exchange with TFQ and took a good picture of them.
Yes, the mistakes are still in there, but they won’t be on the front of the finished piece.
It is kind of fun to see how bright and cheerful they are. Even the grey does not make the group look depressing.
Looking at them this way makes me see all the red and pinky-red I, especially, have used. I think I need to work with some cool colors for awhile.
Looking at them also made me want to sew them together instantly. I don’t have enough to make anything (and I had no time), so I refrained. Still, I think the end product will be one I enjoy when I do sew them together, whenever that is.
Definition: “A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit).
The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species such as cultivars of the sweet cherry, Prunus avium. The name ‘cherry’ also refers to the cherry tree, and is sometimes applied to almonds and visually similar flowering trees in the genus Prunus, as in “ornamental cherry”, “cherry blossom“, etc. Wild Cherry may refer to any of the cherry species growing outside of cultivation, although Prunus avium is often referred to specifically by the name “wild cherry” in the British Isles.” (Wikipedia)
Definition: “The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species such as cultivars of the sweet cherry, Prunus avium. The name ‘cherry’ also refers to the cherry tree, and is sometimes applied to almonds and visually similar flowering trees in the genus Prunus, as in “ornamental cherry”, “cherry blossom”, etc. Wild Cherry may refer to any of the cherry species growing outside of cultivation, although Prunus avium is often referred to specifically by the name “wild cherry” in the British Isles.” (Wikipedia)
Manufacturer of keyboards and computer mice incorporating fingerprint recognition, barcode, magstripe and smartcard technology.
Cherry – 2010 movie
cherry blossoms
Manufacturer of keyboards and computer mice incorporating fingerprint recognition, barcode, magstripe and smartcard technology.
cherry tree
Cherry switches, sensors and controls are synonymous with quality, precision and reliability, and can be found in a broad range of applications.
Cherry Bomb
Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown
Neneh Cherry
Cherry Republic features gourmet cherry products and gifts made from both tart and sweet cherries.
A gentle slope overlooking the Lake with views to the Ramble, Cherry Hill offers a contemplative space perfect for picnicking, reading, and sunbathing.
cherry picking
cherry pie
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 get familiar with your blog or website.
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
Another thing I did a the retreat was work on the nine patch blocks for the O9P quilt.
Before I got to the Box Full of Letters blocks, I worked on these. I wanted to finish all of the parts and then cut more when I got home – I need about 55 more 9 patches to fill in the rest of the O9P quilt. As I finished the squares, I realized that they were getting to look too much alike and I decided to switch to the Box Full of Letters blocks.
Good decision as I got two sets of blocks done and major dents in both projects.
No, it isn’t about getting things done and finished, but it is about making progress and both of these projects felt stalled before I left. Now I feel like I am back on the road.
This book was sent to me by Karen Searle at the publisher, Beyond & Above, after I offered to review it. This edition is, apparently, the revised edition of Bojagi and Beyond published in 2010 and has new material added.
Being the tactile person that I am, the first thing I noticed was the paper. The cover isn’t as thick as other paperback/trade paperback covers of books I have reviewed, but the paper used for the pages has a thick and pleasant feel.
The first pages of the book talk about BoJaGi outside of Korea as well as some inspirations. Since I didn’t know what BoJaGi was before I read this book, I wished that the first part would have included an explanation. The author got around to it after a bit, never fear!
The introduction describes classes at the Rhode Island School of Design and how those students took the art form further and made it their own. “While these classes and workshops outside Korea have produced work to convey ideas and personal expression, the same is largely true of the work made over the centuries by women in traditional Korean households. While those makers practiced the craft as a means to fill a practical need for special ceremonial textiles, they also saw it as an outlet for their artistic and spiritual expression.” (pg.iv) This reminds me of what people say about quilts. In both instances the need for something practical provided an opportunity for women to express themselves when they had few other ways to do so. This is also another example of people from different backgrounds and cultures being more alike than different.
The introduction and foreword applaud the author for her work with students and how that work influenced work in other countries and in other textile disciplines.
The true introduction (called Introduction), was written by Chunghie Lee herself, does describe what BoJaGi are and mentions that a related form called ChoGakBo which involves patchwork. Truly, however, the introduction is a mini-bio of the author’s achievements.
The table of contents comes next and tells the reader that there are many different kinds of Korean wrappings. We glean that some are especially used for events like weddings or for covering a table for a meal, but most of the table of contents leads the reader to making and designing these wraps.
The history of BoJaGi includes their usefulness, a reflection on the lives of Korean women and when and why the tradition of making and using BoJaGi was established (pg.1). The book discusses the oldest BoJaGi in Korea (pg.3) and how they were used in the royal court. In this section ChoGakBo and other varieties of BoJaGi are also described (pg.5). This section says that the wrappings “are named according to function: OpBo are large BoJaGi used to wrap large items such as bedding. SangGo are lined with oiled paper and used as food covers” (pg.5), etc. There is a long description of the usefulness of BoJaGi, which make me look at my Tupperware cabinet with a speculative eye. Colors and symbols are also covered (pg.7) in this section, which is well illustrated with examples of the cloths and symbols.
Examples are shown of the various types of wrappings in the next part. This section is illustrated with watercolor illustrations and I got an image in my mind’s eye of a pile of fabric wrapped gifts at a wedding or other major (graduation?) event (pg.14-15).
In the food covering section, different types of handles are shown, also as watercolor illustrations. These handles could be adapted and used for tote bags, I think.
A gallery of works by Chunghie Lee is included in the book. Many of the pieces are installation pieces and shown in situ (pg.24-25, etc). One outdoor installation piece reminds me of Christo and Jeanne-Claude (pg.60-61). I particularly like the journal shown on page 28. it reminds me of fabric journals I have made in the past. These works, in general, are different in influence, but do not look very different from some art quilts. A number of the works have embroidery stitches and screen printing (or similar). Chunghie Lee uses images of women’s faces on many of her pieces and this practice makes me think of honoring the anonymous women who have made other textiles such as quilts, table linens, pillowcases, etc. She also expanded into kimono shaped robes and other types of wearables, though I hesitate to call the pieces wearables. They may be normal, if large, BoJaGi draped over people (pg.44-59).
The first part of the ‘how-to’ section centers on using a BoJaGi. The illustrations are drawn and show how to wrap and object, including a decorative knot (pg.78-79). Making a basic BoJaGi is a logical next section (starting on pg.80) and includes photos of the product, drawings of the supplies and sizes in both English and metric systems. The process is simple and similar to finishing a quilt without batting in the envelope style. Directions for making the tie are also provided (pg.82), which is immediately followed by some ideas for making the tie more decorative (pg.83). Again, my mind raced to making tote bags more decorative with something like these ties. The directions for other types of specialty BoJaGi are also shown and include pictures. I can see a transformation of the display of gifts for the holidays when you use your plentiful fabric to make these BoJaGi and wrap all of your gifts in them!
A section on embellishing starts on page 105. One of the embellished Bojagi shown looks like a Cathedral Window quilt (pg.109). Another embellishment looks like prairie points (pg.111). The wedding embroidery KiLeoKi (pg.112) are very beautiful and provide a lot of inspiration.
As with many books sold today, there are projects included. The directions for the 5 projects start on page 121. The wall hangings don’t look very different from some modern or art quilts, but the other items have a distinctive Korean flair. In general, they have a different aesthetic than other projects in other books.
The final section is about designing for BoJaGi and the thing I liked about it was that the author asks you to consider your materials in a different way. One thing she says is “consider scale in the repetition of elements (pg.138)”, which makes me think of the design series.
There is a lot to look at in this book as well as a lot of inspiration to be had. I would recommend you take a look at it.
It has been awhile since I was able to attend a CQFA Retreat – 2 years, I think. I was so thrilled to be able to attend the current retreat, which was held over Mother’s Day weekend. Isn’t that a great Mother’s Day gift?? As a bonus, I sewed so much!
I feel like I really made some good progress on projects that were languishing:
First of all, I, pretty much, threw projects and parts into project bags starting about a week before the retreat. This helped me not forget critical fabric and supplies. The only thing I forgot was a lamp and my sewing machine’s light kept me from going blind.
Next, I made sure I had plenty of blocks and parts that would make good leaders and enders. Using the leaders and enders technique, I made 20+ Nine Patches for the octagon 9 Patch on which I have been working and 27 (!!!) Box Full of Letters blocks. In addition to significant progress on two projects, I am pleased with the progress I made on the leaders on the leaders and enders projects.
The other thing I did was try out the Oliso iron I bought. I finally dragged out the June Tailor ironing surface I bought for the Dale Fleming Circle class as well. It was a little different because you don’t set it up on its end, it just pops up away from the ironing surface. Also, the steam and basic functionality are a little different. Friend Julie tried it also (we shared a table and a mini ironing surface) and gave me her feedback as well.
People made great projects. Bron and Sue were working on baby quilts for friends. I liked the ideas they had and may use the ideas for donation quilts.
Sue’s (left photo) quilt is made from strips and a background. She said she cut strips and then sewed them together in rows. She said she used different widths of strips and I think that gives the piece a lot of movement. Lucky kid, I say.
In thinking of different ways to make this quilt, I could use strips, cutting them as I cut into new yardage. I would save up strips until I had enough and then get Gerre to quilt it. 😉
The other thing I could do it rummage through my scraps and get pieces large enough to do something similar. My mind is reeling.
I didn’t get a photo of Bron’s quilt, sadly, but what she did is wacky sew pieces together, then she cut the pieces into squares and sewed them together with sashing into a baby quilt. She used a white dot on yellow for the binding, which I loved! It would be a good scrap project.
Gerre was working on an amazing art quilt. She put layers of fabric together with tulle on top, then quilted it then BURNED it! It was awesome.
Reva worked on a flower quilt.
Angela was doing some improv piecing based on a piece she started in a class.
Julie worked on 3 or 4 pieces, including a self portrait and a couple of pieces she started in China. She also sewed rows to her tumbler quilt top, which is nearing completion. It was so great to see her so productive as well.
Rhonda worked on handwork all weekend, including an applique’ project inspired by Kevin Kosbab. She showed me the Valdani Pearl Cotton collection she bought from MassDrop, the temptress! I love Valdani Pearl cotton. I may have to start another quilt like Beach Town. Or just pick a project on which I can embroider. Hhmm.
Maureen worked on a piece that I thought was made from a pre-cut, but she picked all the fabrics herself. I really think that she should put pre-cuts together for Moda. Her piece looked like a mid-Century modern quilt or painting.
Maureen worked on a plaid piece as well. She found the fabrics at FabMo and turned them into improv blocks which she was playing with when we all had to leave.
Dolores was working on dolls from a class she took with Susan Else as well as the piece from the online class she is taking.
Caroline made pillowcases and worked on a crazy paper piecing project. I think the one section she worked on had 58 pieces!!!
Amy was working on a kind of landscape with flowers. I loved it!
There was also a “free stuff table” and I picked up a couple of pieces of fabric. There was something about the colors and imagery that attracted me. There were a couple of pieces of Kaffe Fassett and some others. I tried to exercise restraint. It was difficult, but I seem to have succeeded. The purple dandelions were kind of a surprise, but they will come in handy somewhere.
In addition to the sewing, it was great to see other people’s projects and chat with my friends. There was never enough time to find out everything I want to know about other people’s process or what is going on in their lives. I didn’t take nearly enough photos and wanted more time to sew.
Still I am glad I got the time I did, especially at this time of year. I felt like I was really productive and that feels good. I need to sew more.
The last post was in April. Not quite a month, but close.
How’s this for a change? I completely revamped my design wall.
Normally, I am fortunate enough to work with two design walls. I usually have a large design wall leaning against one wall, but I gave it to Friend Julie at the last retreat. yes, I used it, then made her take it home. HA! I have been waiting for a new one since the Santa Clara show and it was finally delivered on Friday of last week. In the meantime I was a design wall short, so I cleared off the small one in anticipation of actually sewing. HA again!
I made two Flying Geese all week. This nonsense has got to stop or I will not have anything to write about and you will all go away.
Here are the things on my design wall this week:
Hot 4 Patches. I will want to make more of these and do something with them, but they have not floated high enough in the idea file for me to actually do anything about it.
I rearranged the red and turquoise 4 patches. They look kind of cook in a big row like that, don’t they?
FOTY 2015. This is the start of the second batch of patches. Amazing how fast they accumulate.
Field Day Zipper (or whatever I am going to call it). I wasn’t able to put the whole thing up on the wall, because I didn’t want to take down some of the things on the left, but the last three rows are stacked up on top of each other on the right. When I am able to sew the left hand rows together, there will be space for all the rows.
These are hand written numbers that tell what order the rows should be sewn.
I worked on the Box Full of Letters blocks at the Retreat. I made 21 blocks as leaders and enders. The photo (left) shows a selection of the blocks I made.
I love the leaders and enders technique. I couldn’t believe how much I accomplished using leaders and enders.
I still don’t know what I am going to do with these blocks, but I am thrilled that I have an actual group of blocks with which to work.