Jaye – Page 85 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Seattle: Stash, Columbia City

I had never been to the Columbia City part of Seattle. Apparently, since the light rail went in, this part of Seattle has grown a lot. There is definitely a lot of building and newly constructed dwellings there.

Stash is a nice little shop in a block of what looked like condos that had been taken over by businesses. The parking was difficult but not impossible. There is no lot, just street parking. We found a street spot and walked about 2 blocks to the shop.

The quilt on the left hanging on the rack is one of the quilts from Fast Quilts that I talked about last week.

The main part of the shop is shown in the picture above. They have a nice selection of fabrics, but. volume is not their strength.

The area shown is right next to the picture right above it. This is the checkout counter of the shop. It also served as the cutting table.

They have a section in the back with more fabric, which made the selection quite a respectable size.

It looks like this area could accommodate a small class – perhaps 3-4 people.

We liked this quilt. The alternate block adds interest.

There is a small cafe next door, which has some selected gluten free options. We were gasping so they we kind enough to give us some water.

Stash Quilt Shop
3829 S Edmunds St, Seattle, WA 98118
(206) 535-8179

Seattle: West Seattle Fabric Company

I spent a few days in Seattle for work. Since TFQ lives in Seattle, and I hadn’t visited for awhile, I stayed at her house.

It was really nice to have a place to spread out, be around fabric and quilts. We also ate together and just hung out. I raided her book stash and began reading Henry’s Sisters.

We weren’t really planning on fabric shopping. Well, at least I wasn’t, but stuff happens. I am glad it did. The two stores we visited were great. Fresh, friendly, different and interesting fabrics.

The first shop we visited was the West Seattle Fabric Company, which, funnily enough is located in West Seattle. We did not take the Admiral Way exit and, thus, took the scenic route to get there. Partbof West Seattle is right on the water and eeminds me of Marina Green, though the houses in the two locations are very different.

Simple clean logo.

This is a totally staged shot, but isn’t the table cute? I love it and especially the placement with the pennants in the window behind. I can imagine sittin FB there eating ice cream and looking at my purchases. Too bad there wasn’t an ice cream store next door.

I found a spot to park right in front, but the shop pays for 5 spots in the lot next door so don’t worry about parking.

I also really liked the awning. That is how I recognized the place. I saw it on their website. Definitely a good idea to make the place stand out!

It is a small shop, though not tiny and very cute. It is not cutesy, though. No hearts, rainbows or unicorns. ;-)The owner, Monica, is very friendly, too. We chatted for quite awhile about fabric shops. We got on the subject because I asked if I could take photos for this space and that spurred the conversation.

There are nice samples and, as with Stash, the checkout counter is also the cutting table. Good use of space.

I looked at the hooped fabric on the wall for a long time. Some prints lend themselves to being used as wall art. I am not sure I am fond ifbit though since somehow it reminds me of stapling textiles to canvas and using it as wall art. It was really a good look in my childhood home. I couldn’t tell if the memory woukd overwhelm the good idea. Also, I am not sure about the hoop. It is definitely easy, but I am not sure it looks as polished as I would like in my house. I wonder if I could morph the same idea, but use a frame?

This is taken from the top of the stairs. Sorry it is a little dark. The notions are on the left.

Fresh displays.

Display of new V&Co pre-cuts. That is a great new line, BTW.

Nice display of other pre-cuts. I love the mirror.

Art in the restroom.

This is a great bag. I saw it and thought it would be perfect for my First Lady gifts. It is large enough to out a few other items in. It is also not so large that it takes up tons of fabric. I was thinking of the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote, but wasn’t convinced.
The difficult part was that they didn’t have a pattern. It was a class and there wasn’t even a pattern sheet. Once I explained that I was from out of town and as much as I would like to take the class, it wasn’t really possible. After that, we had a good time deconstructing the bag. TFQ took some measurements and, after we have a chat, I am sure I can make it. I am really grateful that Monica was nice enough to allow us to deconstruct the bag.

West Seattle Fabric Company
2210 California Ave SW Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 257-1083

Improving Spill

As you might remember, I posted this response over the 4th of July weekend.I mentioned that it didn’t quite look right to me.

My mom saw that comment and gave me an example of what I could do to improve the drawing.

For me it was a total AHA moment. Let me know what you think.

See the wonkiness of the line you can see through the glass? That makes the drawing look less weird.

Isn’t it great that there is always something to learn?

Creative Prompt #216: River

Quote: I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street. –W. H. Auden

Cry me a river

Digital River

Riverworld

River Styx

Viking River Cruises

River Phoenix

Blue Danube

River Tam is a fictional character and a main protagonist of the Firefly franchise

River Network

Nile**

River of Words® (ROW) is a program of The Center for Environmental Literacy and a part of the Kalmanovitz School of Education.

River Plate can refer to: Río de la Plata, the River Plate in English—a large estuary between Argentina and Uruguay. La Plata Basin, basin of the River Plate.

Russian River Brewing Company

River Poets Journal

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.

River (typography), unattractive gaps appearing to run down a paragraph of text
River (poker), a nickname for the final card dealt in certain variations of poker
Rivers, alternate name for Shisen-sho, a one-player game using Mahjong tiles
Rivers Casino (disambiguation), multiple casinos
Riverines – the Mobile Riverine Force
WERV-FM, Illinois radio station also known as “95.9 The River”

Hudson River

Sacramento River Cats

San Antonio River Walk

Amazon River

Definition: “A river is a natural watercourse,^[1] usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely at the end of its course, and does not reach another body of water. Small rivers may be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for generic terms, such as river, as applied to geographic features,^[2] although in some countries or communities a stream may be defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are “run” in the United States, “burn” in Scotland and northeast England, and “beck” in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek,^[3] but not always: the language is vague.^[4]

Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g. from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general.

No extraterrestrial rivers are currently known, though large flows of hydrocarbons described as rivers have recently been found on Titan.^[5]^[6] Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars^[7] and are theorized to exist on planets and moons in habitable zones of stars”

River Monsters host and extreme angler Jeremy Wade uncovers the world’s largest, strangest and most dangerous fish.

Quote: I’ve learned from being in the woods that titles don’t mean much and that actions speak a lot louder than words – even in Congress. I always look for the people who want to act – people who want to run the river or climb the mountain – even if they’re not members of my political party. –Mark Udall

1971: “River“, a folk song by Joni Mitchell
1988: “River”, an instrumental song by Enya from the album Watermark
2009: “River” a 2009 J-pop song by AKB48
2009: “River”, a song on The Listening by Lights
2012: “River”, a song on “Our Version of Events” by Emeli Sandé

**Nota bene: I am not including an exhaustive list of all rivers; just the ones that seem important to me

Inspiration Thursday

Fast Quilts Surprise

Fast Quilts was a new magazine to me, though I see there are a few issues, at least, out. I picked it up, my lip curling, in an unattractive manner, at the name. I expected to look at another batch of boring quilts. You know my firm and fast opinion: quilts are not fast, simple or easy. Quilts take time.

My sneer quickly dissipated. Yes, these quilts are fast, but they are not boring. The people who selected the quilts for the magazine were smart. They chose quilts that are not difficult (I refuse to use the word ‘easy’) to make, but use interesting designs.

This McCall’s magazine includes only patterns. There are no articles except a brief introduction by the editor. A few of the quilts use clever techniques such as wonky applique and button embellishment to add interest to various quilts within the pages.

Primarily, however, there is an excellent use of fabric and block settings. a couple of the quilts include an additional colorway with the pattern. You know I love that! Funfetti (pg.50) is a two block quilt made with Textured Basics, like Fresh Fruit. The setting looks unusual, but a closer look tells us that the 2 different blocks and the way they are set do all of the work. The fabric choices don’t slack either. While looking at this quilt, it occurred to me that using a plus type block as an alternate block can create all kinds of interest in a quilt. This quilt is fresh and fun while making good use of the fabric.

As I said, the settings are interesting, sometime unusual without being gimmicky. Raspberry Cheesecake (evocative name, don’t you think?) (pg.69) has similar blocks to the Orange & Grey Donation quilt. The wide sashing between the blocks and the way the fabric sashing blends with the background fabric in the block provides an interesting row quilt look in one version while also showing an interesting grid arrangement in the alternate version.

The quilts in this magazine reminded me of donation quilts. Nobody wants make a boring or ugly quilt and the quilts in this issue would be great donation quilt patterns. Odds & Ends (pg.67), which includes more plus-type blocks would make good blocks for the leaders and enders technique. It would also be interesting to make with a consistent background and scrappy pluses.

Zig & Zag (pg.56) is really the reason I bought this magazine issue. I was interested in the other quilts, but this one was really interesting. I like the colors and the strong diagonal line. I also wanted to study the construction a little more than a quick glance at Barnes & Noble allowed. It is one of my favorite quilts in the magazines.

McCall’s really shows their dominance in the quilt world with Pickup Sticks (pg.52). I know that phrase sounds quite pompous, but Pickup Sticks is really just a bunch of strips, yet the designer (and the editor for picking the quilt0 was a genius, because she really takes a simple technique of strip cutting and makes blocks that are not boring and uses fabrics that moves the eye around the quilt. This is the type of quilt where I can see the possibilities using different fabric.

Check it out.

T-shirt Quilt Border

I worked on the border for the t-shirt quilt on Sunday. I have about 8 really long seams left before I can start on the back of this quilt. I really dislike long seams so putting the borders of this quilt together is some kind of torture.

The Young Man designed the border. I was all ready to make a floating square border when the Y.M. told me what he wanted, which was two thin strips of fabric surrounded by the grey.

I did a border like this on the Water Kaleidoscope quilt, so I showed it to him. In that quilt, the thin strips are a variety of oranges, pinks and yellows (I don’t have a picture of this quilt. Sorry).

After looking at it (and he really did contemplate), he decided that he would rather have black and green strips alternating than the blues, greens and red that he, initially, selected.

The fickle mind of a creative in action!

The middle photo is a detail of the corner. The piece is very heavy and won’t stick to the design wall, so I have it pinned.

The Y.M. told me he wanted the rows to line up up so the black in the first row touched, but was slightly offset from the black in the second row. I told him that I would use random sizes and see how it went. I think I can, mostly, accommodate his wish, but it won’t be as precise as he imagines.

I gave him my scrap bin to rummage through. This was my way of having him pick out the greens and blacks. He came up with some nice blacks and greens, which were very different than those I would have picked. The greens were all very much in the same chartreuse color line (I am thinking of Joen Wolfrom Color Wheel when I say line, rather than a fabric line). I don’t have enough of the types of greens he chose in the scrap bin for the second colored border. I’ll have him pick some fabrics out of my green bin. I am sure I have more of that chartreuse color.

This quilt feels like it is taking me so much longer than it should. On the other hand, I think I sew faster than most and have higher expectations of myself.

The Young Man is pleased so far. That is what counts.

Orange and Grey Donation Top

I have been working on these blocks as leaders and enders for the past month or so. I finally finished sewing enough of the two-squares-sewn-together basic unit for a large lap quilt. I pressed all the pieces and put them up on the small design wall, which had been, mostly, empty since the end of the Star Sampler.

Most of the orange fabrics are leftovers from Fresh Fruit. The grey background is an old half yard (or so) I had laying around. I am trying to use up my bin of neutrals for donation quilts since I don’t use them that much.

In using up pieces, I am trying to use greys that are too beige and other beige fabrics. I worked at making sure this piece did not look too depressing.

While doing my Qi Gong exercises yesterday, I stared at the piece and moved patches here and there and exchanged placement of certain bits as well.

Pam gave me the idea of adding a blue square when she posted her Rainbow Baby quilt with the white square. I like the illusion of looking through the block to the wall (or whatever) behind. In mine, I went for adding some punch. I love that blue and orange combination, though, I think it would have had a greater effect if I had used no background fabric. Next time I might try making monochromatic blocks and punch it up with a dash of a complimentary color.

Clearly, I am not done with this pattern yet.

Nota bene: My computer is still giving me fits so some of the next posts and photos will be via cell phone. Bear with me while I get used to the new platform.

More EPP Stars

Thursday, as you may know, was the Fourth of July in the US. We celebrate our independence by barbequing, watching fireworks, etc. We went over to my BIL’s house for a BBQ. It was last minute and very small. We picked up MIL, a friend from the Natives came and an old friend of BIL’s came. That was it. The Young Man was disappointed that his cousins didn’t attend. Since BIL got sick, he is not up for a large event. He said he misses the larger BBQ, especially seeing friends, they used to host, but it just wasn’t possible.

Since the event was small, I had a bit of space to spread out. I finished one EPP star and started and finished another. I was pleased to be able to do a little sewing even though I was away from the machine. It was nice, because I could participate in the conversation. I also made a bit of a sensation. People were really interested in my project. The Natives friend, Dave, brought his girlfriend, Teri. She asked a lot of questions about the process and what I did with the quilts, etc. I encouraged her to look into a class. I doubt she will do it, but I always try and encourage people to learn to quilt.

This group of stars also makes me wonder if I should continue with my plan to have alternate rows be dots on white or if I should make alternate rows warm and cool colors.

You can see the last stars I worked on in a May post.

T-Shirt Quilt Center Complete

For those of you who do not follow me on Twitter (@artquiltmaker, if you are so inclined) will not know about my commuting woes. Our local interurban train system is on strike, which makes for longer and more tiring commutes. As a result, I have not had much inclination to sew after work or even write much. I don’t often sew much in the evenings anyway, but occasionally I will cut or press fabric, sew a seam or two or do something.

Still, over the last week, I was able to get the center of the T-shirt quilt mostly together. I need to put on a couple of borders to anchor all of the stretch, but, essentially, the main part is done.

I am also considering a pieced border. I am thinking about 4″ squares surrounded by the grey speckle, but we will see.

The biggest problem with this quilt is keeping the &^%$#@ thing square. I have, actually given up, because each time I trim, I have to trim somewhere else. I can see the sense in sashing all the blocks first.

Holiday Weekend

Almost two days through the holiday weekend and I have done no sewing. Partly, I can’t decide what to work on and partly, I feel distracted.

We went to a small BBQ yesterday (the BBQ was normal sized, but the party was small), so I didn’t do much sewing. When we got home, we spent time watching Castle, yes, one of our favorite shows. I didn’t even do any handwork (I really could use a couple of bindings right now). I don’t know what to think.

The obvious choice to work on is the t-shirt quilt. It should be a no-brainer since I am nearly finished, but somehow it isn’t calling my name and I don’t have the mental strength, at the moment, to power through. I feel terrible that it isn’t calling my name, too, because the Young Man is so excited about it. He is excited even though the piece has a lot of steps to completion before we can put it on his bed. I am hoping he just wants to check something off his list.

I also have a donation quilt in progress that I have been working on as leaders and enders. Tfun orange scrappy pieces at the top are just there to add some fun to the photo. They are not part of the quilt. They might become a journal cover some day, but right now they are just leaders and enders.

The problem with the donation quilt is that I am just short of some orange, so I have to cut some more orange squares. Not only do I have to cut more squares, but I am out of appropriately sized scraps, so I have to go find some orange for which I don’t have a plan. I am just not up for crawling around my fabric closet even though I’d like to be able to send this with Kelly to the August meeting.

I also thought of working on the Wonky Nine Patch. That means quilting. The thing is already basted and I have an idea of how I am going to quilt it. If I had started today, I probably could have finished it by Sunday. I didn’t start it, though and I am not sure I want to start it now.

I guess I have to admit that the biggest problem is my computer. My old (3 year old, which doesn’t seem that old to me) died. It sort of died. The hard drive was acting up, which turned out not to be the problem. Then the motherboard was the potential problem and I just ended up buying a new laptop. It is a nice laptop and I can mostly get it to do what I want, but the set up and passwords, etc, not to mention I wasn’t planning on spending this money today, is all making me a little anxiety ridden.

I guess I should really title this post Quilt Angst, because I really do feel, as we say in German, aengstlich about sewing this weekend. What’s up with that? Perhaps I’ll lay on the couch and read and hope that tomorrow provides more inspiration.

Creative Prompt #215: Plate

Definition: “a broad, mainly flat vessel on which food is served”

Silver plate

Plating – the deposition of metallic layers

Plate electrode or plate, a type of electrode that formed part of a vacuum tube
Plate, a physical approximation of a theoretical plate in separation processes
Plate, an appendage of the Stegosauria
Tectonic plate in geology
Plate tectonics the movement of tectonic plates
Petri plate
Wilhelmy plate, used to measure equilibrium surface or interfacial tension at an air–liquid or liquid–liquid interface

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

Photographic plate, an image-capture medium
Plate, an intaglio printing medium
Plate, a printing medium in lithography
Plate, a term in book design, meaning an image added on a separate page. This is derived from the practice of printing images from intaglio plates, separately from pages of text printed by letterpress.
Plate (surname)
Plate, Germany, a municipality in Parchim, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
Plate (metal), rectangular metal stock that is more than 6 mm or 0.25 in thick
To plate, to present food on a plate
Plate, one of the forequarter cuts of beef
Approach plate, in aviation
Dynamic compression plate, a metallic plate used in orthopedics for internal fixation of bone
L-plate, or learner plate, for a provisionally-licensed vehicle driver or motorcycle rider
Face plate
Folding plate, in a folding machine
Home plate, in baseball
Service Specific Front Plate
Wall plate, vertical building-construction component
Vehicle registration plate, or license plate
Plate armour, body armor made of metal plates
Plate camera, early photographic cameras that used plates
Plate theory, a continuum mechanics theory to explain thin solids
Tourelle de la Plate, a lighthouse in France

Plateonline is a community for professional chefs

iPad app

There are a lot of restaurants that have ‘plate’ in their name including The Blue Plate in San Francisco

Plate magazine

‘plate the food’

fundraising license plates