This is the quilt that Gerre and I worked on at her house a few months ago.
She finished it and brought it to Sew Day. I couldn’t believe that she finished quilting it so quickly! I was thrilled. Not just that it was finished, but also that we had another donation quilt to help give someone some comfort.
The oranges worked out really well and while we are working on the circle quilt, I am excited to cut for another T quilt. I am thinking of digging into those green bins and thinning out some of those fabrics. I also saw my nephew’s Wonky 9 Patch quilt over the weekend and think that blue would look great with the orange Ts as well.
The other shop I visited in Portland was Bolt. It is near a really nice neighborhood that reminded me of Berkeley.
I have heard about this shop, but I don’t remember where. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised.
This is a small shop and a number of my photos were blurry, so you’ll get a taste of the shop then you’ll have to go and visit yourself.
The shop has a respectable amount of quilting weight fabrics. They also have interesting garment fabrics including rayon, knits and non-garment fabrics like laminates.
I saw a lot of indie patterns as well. I think they were mostly garments, but I am sure there were a few bags and quilts as well.
Bolt
I was thrilled to find that they had wool felt. Real wool felt. I have seen it online, but have never felt confident enough to buy any without feeling it and/or seeing it in person. I bought two pieces to make…something.
The shop also had a wool-rayon blend felt. I bought a number of pieces of that in order to make a kind of garden scene. I got an idea in my head and will run with it when I am done binding Flowerburst.
Bolt
Bolt
2136 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
1-503-287-2658
I know the last time I talked about this piece was back in February. I have sort of been working on it, though there have been long stretches where I have not worked on it. I got a little fed up because sewing big sections to the big main piece is really a pain and I didn’t want to do it. It made me think twice about La Passacaglia, but that is a tale for another day.
EPP April 2016
Finally, I put a new section on and it is looking good. A little boring and staid, but good.
I am going to try to put one or two stars on the main piece instead of larger secondary pieces. It means more handling of the large piece, but perhaps the duration of dealing with the main section will be less.
The xylophone is a component of the percussion section of an orchestra and many instrumental groups.
Definition: “The xylophone (from the Greek words ?????—xylon, “wood”[1] + ????—ph?n?, “sound, voice”,[2] meaning “wooden sound”) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children’s instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.
The term xylophone may be used generally, to include all such instruments, such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term xylophone refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused.
The term is also popularly used to refer to similar instruments of the lithophone and metallophone types. For example, the Pixiphone and many similar toys described by the makers as xylophones have bars of metal rather than of wood, and so are in organology regarded as glockenspiels rather than as xylophones.” (Wikipedia)
Super Mario Xylophone
xylophone mallets
Xylophone Master
book by K.Z. Snow
Xylophone Tiki is one of the high-ranked members of the Tiki Tak Tribe in Donkey Kong Country Returns.
The xylophone Nabby is known use when luring in the children of Goldenvale, right before she starts chasing and snapping at them.
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 and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP
Well, my big plans for pillowcases almost fell apart, but not quite. I sent one last care package and snuck in the last pillowcase. What I didn’t do well was report on my progress. My last update was in January.
September
Theme: soft
Fabric: Minkee and flannel
Theme: Back to School
Fabric: Timeless Treasures Fun #2306
September College Pillowcase
September College Pillowcase
Back-to-School Pillowcase
Back-to-School Pillowcase
As I said in a previous post, I was tempted by a “School Daze” theme and he was ok with the fabric.
October
Theme: Halloween
Fabric: skeleton fabric by Timeless Treasures for the body. The cuff is an old P&B Fabric.
Halloween Pillowcase for YM
Halloween Pillowcase for YM
This is a gimme. Very easy fabric to choose and I am pretty sure the YM will like it.
As I said, I was disappointed I couldn’t find a cornucopia fabric. I’ll keep looking and perhaps will find one next year.
December
Theme: Christmas
Fabric: California Christmas (not the real name, but it is something like that)
YM’s Christmas Pillowcase
YM’s Christmas Pillowcase
January
I did send him a January care package.
Theme: Pokemon
Fabric: Robert Kaufman licensed from Nintendo
Pokemon Pillowcase #2
Pokemon Pillowcase #2
February
Theme: Valentine’s Day
Fabric: Moda
Valentine’s College PillowcaseValentine’s College Pillowcase
I really wanted to send him a Valentine’s themed package, so I made a Valentine’s pillowcase and will send it off towards the end of the month. I think the grey (Julie’s suggestion) makes it not too sweet. The color is heading towards pinky red. The original theme below will have to carry over to another month or end up as a gift for one of the nephews.
March
Theme: St. Patrick’s Day?
Fabric: ?
I was lazy and too cheap to buy St. Patrick’s Day fabric, so he didn’t get a pillowcase in March. It’s an opportunity for next year.
April
I ended up sending him a Viewmaster pillowcase that I had made from Cotton and Steel fabrics with his Easter box. The Easter fabrics were all too sweet, pastel and cutesy.
I still have the Angry Birds fabric. I’ll have to see what I do with that. It could end up as a donation quilt. The YM didn’t seem very excited about the motif, so that might be the best use.
While I may not do an official pillowcase tally again, since I have no plans for making more pillowcases, I have some ideas for pillowcases as gifts and will show you those. I am particularly interested in making pillowcases for a couple of the YM’s friends and for two of my nephews. I went and visited the nephews and they have their Christmas pillowcases on their bed. That is a sure sign they could use more.
A few days ago, I was alerted that photos on the blog could not be enlarged. I have gotten help and have identified the problem. I am in the process of fixing it, but there may still be a few photos that aren’t perfect. My goal is make sure you can see the detail on the all of the photos. Your patience is much appreciated.
I made some progress on getting FOTY 2015 sewn together.
I have big chunks, so ~6 seams and I am done.
Sort of.
I have some problem areas that need partial seams or something. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Partial seams is the best I can do now, but how is the challenge.
Light area problem child
Problem area #1
I think you will have to enlarge the photo (there still may be a problem with enlarging the photos. Sorry, if that is the case; I am working on it) to see that yellow that lines up nicely with the top chunk.
It doesn’t line up with the bottom chunk.
Blue area problem child
Blue Area Problem child #2
This area is a little more difficult. There are more pieces that are problematic and there are more of them.
None of this is mission critical. I will get through it and it won’t be a huge drama. It feels dramatic at this moment. Tomorrow is a new day and things will look different.
2016 To Do List
I haven’t felt motivated enough to get busy on one of these projects, but I feel the urge.
A la Pam, and thanks to Pam, I have been keeping track of my fabric usage. My goal is not to get rid of my stash, though I do want to use my stash, which means I am not telling you my Net totals. To date I have used almost 60 yards of fabric, 22% of which is for charity. I am really thrilled to have used that much and I can’t wait to see what my totals are for next month. I don’t know how many finishes I will have by then, but it is exciting to see progress.
Wash fabric AKA The Great Unwashed-I washed a few more loads in the past month.
Cut out 3 notepad covers for gifts
Finish cutting out Day in the Park backpack variation
Finish sewing Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote -this was a gift I intended to give during Holiday 2013- sigh. Missed 2014 Holiday deadline as well. I made it for birthday 2016 and it was a successful gift.
I finally made it to a Sew Day at the new BAMQG location.
Gerre emailed me while I was in Portland and asked if I was going. I thought ‘why not?’ and Gerre was willing to sew with me again. Even though the YM is home and lounging around, he is old enough to be alone and didn’t want to come with. Why would he? He would be bored.
It was fantastic! I was thrilled to be there and thrilled to be sewing. Gerre brought the Orange T quilt and it is finished. I have to take some photos and then I will post a finished photo.
Simply Moderne
We had a great time sewing and chatting and working on our quilt. We had decided to work on a circle quilt as a donation quilt. We got the inspiration from Simply Moderne magazine. I was attracted by the cover and bought an older issue at QuiltCon.
Pushed Neutral Background
We started out by cutting the background pieces in the Pushed Neutral technique I learned from Mary Mashuta 1,000 years ago.
I brought the neutrals and Gerre brought the foreground fabrics, though we didn’t know it would end up that way.
We had talked about using greens, so I brought my green bins along with my beige and brown bin (which thankfully is almost empty). We pulled out the last of my light and tolerable beiges and cut them into 10″ squares and put this together as a background.
Circle cutting ruler in use!
Gerre then showed me some plaids she had and we decided to use the plaids instead of greens and make a boy quilt. We cut circles using both the Go cutter than Pati brought (with her circle template!) and my newish circle cutting ruler.
I wielded the circle ruler while Gerre took over the Accuquilt Go! I only had my normal 45mm rotary cutter and I think it would have worked better with a smaller cutter. I only have one of those and it was at home, so I did the best I could. I may need a new blade after cutting the circles.
We decided not to have a lot of large circles, because the size of our quilt was smaller than the example we saw in the magazine and we didn’t want the entire surface to be covered.
Circles on background
After putting the background together we laid out the circles on the background. I didn’t take a picture of that stage so you have to be satisfied with the photo on the right.
We decided we had to do the quilt in layers so that we could sew around a whole circle and not have to stop and start.
We didn’t bring fusible so we glued the first layer of circles down on the background, pressed it and then Gerre sewed.
Circle donation quilt back
While she sewed, I worked on the pieced background.
The fish and leaf fabric is OLD! The selvedge says “Sykel Enterprises 1993.” I don’t even know if Sykel exists anymore. It is certainly no Moda or Kaufman. I am sure TFQ could tell me where I bought it. 😉
It was in the brown bin and good for a boy quilt. I also had about a yard, which was a great start. It was in two pieces, so I added the strip in the middle. We also cut off a strip so we could see about applique’ing some of the motifs somewhere on the quilt. The center plaids are a couple Gerre brought.
First layer circles sewed
We were able to sew the first layer down. These were the largest circles.
We don’t intend to necessarily go from largest to smallest, but we wanted to start with the largest.
So far, it doesn’t look like much, but the next layer (no photo) looks better.
Yes, there are photo errors. For some reason since WordPress was updated it is not recording the location of my photos properly. This means that you can’t view the larger size of the photos. I know it is a pain.
I am working on figuring out the problem and will fix it as soon as possible. Thanks for all of your reports.
When you notice errors, please email me at poste [@] artquiltmaker.com. Thanks!
Along with Flowerburst, I also got back this quilt, which I wish I had called Cityscape. It really does look like a cityscape.
Cityscape- back from the quilter
I have sewn on the binding. I worked at sewing one whole side per evening so the binding process only took me about 8 hours. The quilt is 82″ x 84″ so quite a bit of work. I used a Kona solid for the back and the binding and it was a pain. The needle doesn’t slide through that fabric like I think it should. I MUST remember that.
Cityscape – detail
The red is the background and I had Colleen think of it as a sky and put clouds in it. She did four different types of clouds in the four quadrants. I think of it as the four seasons.
Cityscape – detail
The black and grey are more like buildings, so she did more geometric quilting in those areas.
Last week I sped up to Portland to pick up the YM from college. Yes, he has completed his freshman year of college. I can’t believe it! Time has flown. Stay tuned about whether he finished successfully. I am sure he did, but…. well, you know.
I drove up in two days, which is hard. It is about 700 miles and that is two full days of driving. Of course, I stopped at a couple of quilt shops along the route – Ocean Waves Quilt Shop in Eureka (always a favorite and reviewed previously) and Forget-Me-Knots in Bandon. I was in Bandon in August on my way back from dropping the YM off and reviewed the shop at that time. Both are great shops and I didn’t see anything that would turn me off from visiting again.
The Young Man had some errands on campus on Friday regarding his fall schedule and I needed to not turn right around and drive 350 miles, so we did his errands and then went our separate ways for a few hours. He needed a nap and I needed to see some quilt shops. I had to drive but it wasn’t flat out highway driving.
First stop: Cool Cottons. I had heard about this shop and tried to find it last time, but we missed the exit. I checked the directions again and found that the hotel we stayed in last time was farther south than the interchange we needed, which was the problem. As a result, mom and I got lost on our way there and gave up. I was determined this time and found my way.
Cool Cottons – front of the store
I was a little scared by the owner when I arrived, but she turned out to be very nice and very chatty. We talked a little about the transformation of the house where the shop was located. Of course, we also talked about projects.
The store is the bottom floor of a Craftsman style house. The transformation was very well done. It was also sensitively done, which is nice for such an architecturally interesting house.
Cool Cottons – front room
I loved their fabric and wanted almost EVERYTHING. I restrained myself and tried to buy things that I needed. I found some of the background fabric (see below) for the quilt I started in the Victoria Findlay Wolfe class. I wasn’t even looking for it, but when I saw it – well, what I think it the right color since I didn’t have a swatch, I bought enough for a background. If this isn’t the right color, I have enough for a background on another quilt. Buying this fabric means I have to actually work on that quilt! 😉
Cool Cottons – enclosed porch
This shop has mostly modern fabrics, though not so many of them are the big prints. I saw lots of tone-on-tones / blender type fabrics as well as the various fabrics with motifs that come in lots of different colors like the Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets, the Timeless Treasures cross hatch fabrics, etc.
The shop had a lot of GREAT greys. I resisted, though I didn’t want to.
The selection of blues and turquoises was fantastic. They had a lot of in between colors, such as aqua, blue green, dark blue (like that StudioE blue I like so much) as well. Again, I was tempted to get one of each. Again, I restrained myself.
Cool Cottons – Stairs
The stairs are used as display space for some of the solids, which was a great idea. In general, I thought the space was used very well for fabric. It was functional, appealing and very light.
The shop carried American Made Brands of solids. Yay! I didn’t see any Konas, but there could have been some.
I also saw an almost-full, if not full line of Peppered Cottons by Pepper Cory. Frances has talked about her and her fabric on the Off Kilter Quilt podcast. I hadn’t seen them in person before, so that was nice.
Cool Cottons – back room
I would have bought more if they had had the fabrics I wanted in fat quarters. I know I go back and forth on fat quarters, but I am in restraint mode, so I am going with FQs some of the time lately. I am not complaining at all about the fat quarters at all. There were plenty of FQs in the shop, just not the ones I was considering. Also, I didn’t ask if they cut FQs, which I should have done to make this a complete review.
I was also pleased to see a really nice selection of sale fabrics. The two at the bottom of the photo below were both on sale. I will use the blue for the next food quilt and the pink was just interesting. There were also sale FQs.
Cool Cottons – back room
Prices were $11-12 per yard, which I have found to be normal in urban areas.
The neighborhood is interesting. There weren’t a lot of traffic lights, so I got some steps in by walking a few blocks to a signal with a cross walk. There is a nice looking bakery for non-GF people, a couple of interesting vintage shops and some boutiques. I had coffee at a place called Coava after my fiber expedition.
This shop was stuffed with fabric, but didn’t come across as messy. There were shelves of fabric, nicely arranged, in almost every available space. This is a shop I will definitely visit again.
Coffee and Fabric
Above is my art shot of coffee and fabric. 😉
Cool Cottons
2417 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214
Waterfall enables brands, agencies and technology providers to directly engage subscribers across SMS, Passbook, QR Codes, mobile wallets, mobile coupons, MMS, IVR, etc
waterfall model – The waterfall model is a sequential design process, used in software development processes, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards through the phases of conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, production/implementation and maintenance.
Definition: “A waterfall is a place where water flows over a vertical drop in the course of a stream or river. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf.
Waterfalls are commonly formed in the upper course of the river.[1] At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens slowly, while downstream the erosion occurs more rapidly.[1][2] As the watercourse increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks material from the riverbed. Whirlpools created in the turbulence as well as sand and stones carried by the watercourse increase the erosion capacity.[1] This causes the waterfall to carve deeper into the bed and to recede upstream. Often over time, the waterfall will recede back to form a canyon or gorge downstream as it recedes upstream, and it will carve deeper into the ridge above it.[3] The rate of retreat for a waterfall can be as high as one and half meters per year.[1]
Often, the rock stratum just below the more resistant shelf will be of a softer type, meaning that undercutting due to splashback will occur here to form a shallow cave-like formation known as a rock shelter under and behind the waterfall. Eventually, the outcropping, more resistant cap rock will collapse under pressure to add blocks of rock to the base of the waterfall. These blocks of rock are then broken down into smaller boulders by attrition as they collide with each other, and they also erode the base of the waterfall by abrasion, creating a deep plunge pool or gorge.
Streams become wider and shallower just above waterfalls due to flowing over the rock shelf, and there is usually a deep area just below the waterfall because of the kinetic energy of the water hitting the bottom. Waterfalls normally form in a rocky area due to erosion. After a long period of being fully formed, the water falling off the ledge will retreat, causing a horizontal pit parallel to the waterfall wall. Eventually, as the pit grows deeper, the waterfall collapses to be replaced by a steeply sloping stretch of river bed.[1] In addition to gradual processes such as erosion, earth movement caused by earthquakes or landslides or volcanoes can cause a differential in land heights which interfere with the natural course of a water flow, and result in waterfalls.
A river sometimes flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. Waterfalls can occur along the edge of a glacial trough, where a stream or river flowing into a glacier continues to flow into a valley after the glacier has receded or melted. The large waterfalls in Yosemite Valley are examples of this phenomenon, which is referred to as a hanging valley. Another reason hanging valleys may form is where two rivers join and one is flowing faster than the other.[1] Waterfalls can be grouped into ten broad classes based on the average volume of water present on the fall (which depends on both the waterfall’s average flow and its height) using a logarithmic scale. Class 10 waterfalls include Niagara Falls, Paulo Afonso Falls and Khone Falls.
A free screensaver is definitely cheaper than a round-trip ticket to an exotic locale. This Waterfall Screensaver displays a realistic picture of a waterfall.
indoor waterfalls
waterfall kits
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 and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP
As mentioned in yesterday’s FOTY post, I need leaders and enders. Donation patches inevitably end up doing the job. I made a bunch and have an idea for a red and white donation quilt. I don’t have all the details in my head yet, but I am working on blocks using red fabrics to go with the plain whites.
Donation Blocks – April 2016
I don’t have an unlimited selection of red 2.5″ squares cut, so I am also making donation blocks using other colors. I will donate those blocks to the Charity Girls and they can do something with them unless I have enough blue and green blocks and enough time to make a second donation top. We will see.
It was fun to make the donation blocks. I am playing with the arrangement of colors and different fabrics. The recipients may not know but I have fun and I hope the quilt absorbs my joy.
