Jaye – Page 134 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Fall Journal Cover

I am on the last section of my current journal and know I will be needing a new journal soon. I have gotten used to using journal covers and thought it was time to make a new one. I have been using the Innocent Crush cover since I made it. Even though I have made others, none of them have felt the way the Innocent Crush journal cover feels.

Still, I enjoy using journal covers and I want to perfect the process, so I made a new one.

I am pleased with the fabrics I used – all scraps and bits from other projects, though the letters and numbers were a perk from Bear Patch Quilting in Minnesota.

I am glad I was able to use the Belle Fleur fabric, but I am a little annoyed that the piecing all ended up the back. I might switch the cover around so that the piecing is on the front even though that will mean that the letters are upside down. I might not care, but we will see.

Yes, I knew while I was working on this that I should be working on the Stars for San Bruno #3 quilt. I haven’t been in a really great mood, so I haven’t wanted to work on it, since I don’t want to infuse it with bad energy. I may have to eat more chocolate.

I decided to photograph this end up from above so you could all see the front and back.

I have heard mention of ‘lifestyle’ photographs that seem to be popular on blogs right now. I don’t have a photograph studio, so this was the best option I could think of at the time.

Bear Patch Quilting gave out small pieces of fabric (about 10″x10″), which is where I got the letters and numbers and fabrics. Apparently, they give them out to everyone who purchases something in the store. I think they were called Bear Paws. I was allowed to choose the fabric I wanted from a box they kept under the counter. I asked what kind of fabrics they used and the owner said that they cut from current fabrics.

One thing that worked out really well was the Wonder Clips. Again, I bought these in Minnesota. I had been wanting to try them for binding. I was tempted to buy the large size package, but decided to try the small one first. Good thing, because they worked fine for binding but not for my process. I already poke myself plenty with the needle and the clips stuck out too much for comfortable stitching.

I had a brain wave, however to use them to sew the journal cover together and that worked great! Using straight pins works ok, but it hard to insert them into the fabric when the cover is on the journal, but not sewn. I need to have the cover around the journal so that I get the fit right. The clips worked really well, because they didn’t interfere with the journal. I loved them for this purpose!

There is a link to the journal cover directions from the tutorials page on the toolbar (just under the AQ banner) above. You will see the submenus if you put your mouse over AQ Info. I welcome your suggestions on making this tutorial better.

Finished: Pavers

And then there were 25.

Except for changing the name of the quilter on the label, this quilt is done. Hooray. That means one more project off of my to do list.

A Few Things

I didn’t buy anything when I went on Wednesday night and Thursday, but Sunday I went back to PIQF and bought a few things. I didn’t take a picture of the inks. Didn’t have the wherewithall to do a lifestyle shot of them. I bought several inks. Trust me.

The Perl Cotton (some of which are Valdani) are for Kissy Fish, as is the embroidery book. I felt like I needed a few more colors and a few more stitches. That piece should be done, but it seems to be perpetually “almost finished.”

Soon.

The two magazines are from New Pieces. I went on Friday to pick up the Zig Zaggy quilt and saw them. The Japanese magazine has some great bags and some wonderful Trip Around the World pieces.

I told myself never to buy a Quilt Scene magazine. I think the idea of magazine reporting on the show and showing photos is fabulous. I think the idea of a magazine about a show that couldn’t be published without projects was stupid. As you can see, I bought this one. The photos of the quilts (the few that are shown) are FABULOUS. This magazine also has the most beautiful Baltimore Album quilt I have ever seen. It is truly lush.

ColorBlock Quilt Design

I keep walking by the RK Kona Challenge as it languishes over my bannister. As I did this, an idea formed in my head and that idea is in the photo.

My idea was to cut 1.5″ squares from scraps and using them to sew these blocks. It seems like it would be a good leaders and enders type project.

Last Jane Market Totes

Yes, I should have been working on the Stars for San Bruno #3 quilt, but I didn’t. these bags were cut out and I just wanted to get them out of my hair. I believe that these are the last two Jane Market Totes I need for Christmas. I counted three times as I was rearranging bags to take this photo and came up with the right number. I have to check with DH to make sure I know about everyone who needs one.

If these are the last ones, I would just like to point out that it isn’t even December much less the 24th of December and this part of the gift giving process is done!

I feel like these came out the best of all of the bags. I put some fusible interfacing on the bottom of the bag (after I cut out the corners) and that gave them a little more shape.

Hexagon Progress

As you may have inferred, I got two quilts back from the stand-in longarm quilter last week, so I had two quilts to trim and bind. I don’t enjoy these steps in the process, probably because I don’t have a good set up for dealing with them. Colleen usually machine applies the binding and trims the quilts for me, but I didn’t feel like asking the new person since I don’t know her that well.

Friday, before the weekend, when I was at work, I made a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish during the weekend and trimming and binding these two quilts were among them. All of the tasks I wanted to accomplish were what I call ‘finishing tasks’ – making backs and bindings, trimming, applying bindings. Unsatisfying tasks, IMO. Of course, I like the finished products and I don’t mind hand stitching the binding, but getting to that stage is an uphill battle for me.

I buckled down and did the tasks and in between I added hexagons to the Sugar Flour Hexagon quilt top. I am not sure I will make a thousand hexagon quilts, but I making this one is really fun. The pieces are large enough so that it is not misery to machine sew the hexagons together.

I also enjoy the fabrics and, thus, the color placement. I thought of adding the hexagons in rows, but adding rows wouldn’t allow me to control the placement of the color in the same way.

I had fun with the blob, but want to make it more square, in anticipation of it actually being used for a quilt like purpose. I don’t know how large I will make it – I have plenty of fabric so that isn’t an issue – but I think, perhaps making the width in the neighborhood of how large I want the quilt to be would be a good idea.

Adding the hexagons was a really nice treat in between making the back, and binding and trimming Pavers and Stars for San Bruno #2.

PIQF 2011

Last week, I spent Wednesday night and Thursday all day at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara. This is the first time in several years I have not rented a hotel room and stayed down there with TFQ. I stayed over Wednesday night with a friend who lives nearby so I wouldn’t have to drive back and forth, but I came straight home after the show closed on Thursday. As you read this I am presenting at a conference, so I had a lot to do on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the conference.

The Zig Zaggy quilt was part of the New Quilts for Northern California and I was pleased to see how well it was hung. It really hangs straight, too, which is always a thrill.

I didn’t hang around my quilt for hours, but the few times I passed by, I saw people studying it and taking photos, which is also always a thrill. I was with my mom and Julie part of the time. When we visited my quilt they gave me lots of kudos and told everyone within hearing distance that it was my quilt. I was embarrassed, but also a bit happy.

Angela’s Kona Challenge quilt, Kona Color Waves, was hung nearby, also as part of the challenge. It was so great to see it well hung. The color choices she made really work well. I hope she hangs it up in her house so she can admire it. I also hope other people are inspired by it.

BAMQG was well represented at the show as Kathleen’s sunflower quilt was hung there also.

I really enjoyed the World Quilt Exhibition this year. There was lots of good imagery, many, many Israeli quilts and great designs.

CQFAers were represented as well. Caroline had her landscape quilt in the show, prominently displayed at the end of an aisle. Marie had two, yes TWO quilts in the show. One was a Pineapple made from Hawaiian fabrics and the other used hand dyed fabrics. We helped Marie at her first meeting figure out how to proceed with the hand dyed quilt.

Some trends I noticed were: surface design appropriate to the quilt, lots of amazing quilting and stitching, again appropriate to the design and not over the top. I also lots and lots of portrait quilts. It was interesting to compare the different face techniques. There were also a lot of landscape quilts. I got the impression that people are no longer exploring their machines, but know what they can do and are doing those techniques well.

For a long time, I didn’t get to see my friend Faye, but I would get to see her quilts in the World Quilt Exhibition. Then, as her husband became more ill, she wasn’t able to enter quilts in the show either. Her husband, sadly, died a few years ago after a long illness and I have gotten to see her as she spends about 2 months near me every year now. I was also pleased to see her quilt, Stars, Curves and a Touch of Yellow, in this show.

The Quilt Show has a video up of various quilts. If my link doesn’t work check the Quilt Show’s Daily Blog for October 14, 2011.

My purchase downfall was Tsukineko inks and Perl Cotton. There was a booth at the show selling inks with tons of colors and I couldn’t resist adding to my collection.

26 Projects

For some reason I felt the need to count up the projects I have in process. In process, to me, means that some sewing has taken place

26.

Yes, I have 26 projects in process. Too many. I was kind of appalled, actually, but when I thought about it, I realized that many of them are more than 3 years old. Some are half class projects. I used to stop, put a project away and go on to something new. I thought that was what quiltmakers did.

At some point I decided that I did not want to do that anymore. I have changed my process so that I gear up, gather, test and then focus like crazy on one project and finish it. I might be working on more than one project at a time, because they are in different stages, but at some point in the process each of them gets my full attention and gets finished. Once I focus on a project, I can finish pretty quickly.

I don’t enjoy making the back or the binding, but I get it done and THEN, only then, move on to the next project. Projects frustrating me now stay on the design wall so I don’t forget about them.

This post is not about finishing for finishings sake. I need brain space. I need closure on some of these projects. I need to work on them, learn what I need to learn, finish, or abandon them. They are cluttering up my brain and my fabric closet. They don’t allow room for me to start new things. And I have plenty of new things I want to start, fabric to buy, blocks to test.

Now I am on a mission to work through some of these projects. Stay tuned.

Various & Sundry #19

Books & Printed Materials
I received 4 books recently from Lark. Hey! Thanks, Lark! I don’t have time to do full on reviews this time, but here are some mentions of 3 of them:

Dimensional Bead Embroidery by Jamie Cloud Eakin (hardcover): some really nice pieces in the large gallery; beading techniques you could use for embroidery on a quilt
Color, Texture & Casting by Carles Codina (paperback): very modern looking layout, great photos; shapes within photos that could be useful for quilting design inspiration.
Rachel Nelson-Smith’s Bead Riffs (hardcover): lots and lots of encrusted seed bead pieces, Billie’s Bounce looks like it could be a very cool Christmas garland.

The Quilters Strip Ticket that TFQ sent me some time ago came in handy the other day when I was making the binding for the Food Quilt. The number I came up with for the length needed for the binding was right on the chart! Often the number I have is different and I have to figure it out anyway, but this time it was there. I was pretty excited.

Tools & Supplies
I tried out the True Grips (remember the rant?), which I bought from the Intrepid Thread, and they are awesome. I put them on some of the specialty rulers I am working with at the moment and those rulers don’t slide a bit. I think I’ll have to buy more.

I got a bug in my ear to try a binding tool to make the ends of my bindings meet perfectly. I went and bought the Fons & Porter version at Joann, but also would like to try the Wendt version (Follow the link and scroll down a bit. If your LQS doesn’t have it and can’t get it for you, Joyce will) that Joyce of Quilting Adventures mentioned to me. I was amazed at how well it worked. It is confusing and the directions are complete, but could uses a few more pictures. If you are a member of QNNTV, there might be some videos that you can watch, too.

I was able to finish the ends of Pavers and Stars for San Bruno #2 really nicely. Much better than the big end lumps of the past. I am really pleased with how the ends came out. Now those two quilts are ready to have the binding hand stitched down. (and then there will be 24!)

Patterns & Inspiration
Oliver & S has their first digital pattern out. it is called Puppet Show. It is a basic dress pattern for little girls. It looks nothing like a puppet show, but I thought I’d tell you. 😉

Media
Mark and Jodie were at Keepsake Quilting (also taken over by New Track Media!) and the KQ Kids posted about their visit. Some of the outtake photos were funny.

Did you like Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion? Well, go over to their blog and tell them so. They are thinking of bringing it back, but you need to put your money where your mouth is.

I am finally catching up with Creative Mojo. I have about 4 episodes to which to listen, so I listened to Creative Mojo 9-13-2011 the other day and it was a fabulous episode. It one that is going in the favorites pile. Harriet and Carrie Hargrave and Dr. Barton Goldsmith were on the show and those segments were the best I have heard in a long time. Harriet and Carrie were talking about teaching quiltmaking in conjunction with their Quilter’s Academy, Junior Year coming out soon. Harriet said that you can’t learn how to quilt by taking a project class. I think that is true, which is one of the reasons I offered to teach the sampler class. Before anyone has a heart attack and starts yelling at me, I do think that project classes can get people started and keep people interested. However, I do think that to progress, you need to know the basics of good technique. Dr. Barton Goldsmith was talking about self esteem and he said a lot of things that I say to myself (that came from my mother, probably) such as “don’t should on yourself”. He made a lot of sense and I have added his book, 100 Ways to Boost Your Self Confidence, to my to-read list.

On another Creative Mojo Show, Mark talked with the editor of Cloth Paper Scissors about their new iPad emag called Collage in Color. It looks like a free app with the short preview version of the magazine, if you have an iPad. The individual issues are $9.95. There is also a windows version you can access from the Interweave website. You only need to be connected to the Internet to download the magazine. Once you download it, the videos, etc all work without a connection. Obviously, if you want to to go an external website, you will need to be connected. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan on downloading it. It sounds like a cool way of looking at media. Stay tuned; I’ll let you know.

I wanted to remind you about Hearts for Christchurch. Evie is still collecting hearts and my friend, Faye, who lives about 4 hours away from Christchurch tells me that they are having magnitude 4+ earthquakes every day and may not be able to rebuild the downtown because of the instability. Students have dropped out of Canterbury University and gone to a different school and people are moving away.

Japan

Joplin

Christchurch

Alabama….are you next?

Make a heart.

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