Category: 2008

Use for posts written in 2008

Thinking about Jump Rope



I never really liked the Katie Jump Rope fabrics by Denyse Schmidt. However, since looking at the Denyse Schmidt pool on Flickr, I have a new appreciate for the group. These ribbon prints have, especially been growing on me.

One of the things I realized is that I like seeing the entire of line of something, but that I have to be careful and remember that I don’t need to buy or use the entire line. I should, also, take designs/pieces from an entire line and look at them together without all the others.

The people in the Denyse Schmidt pool are really creative and I am enjoying looking through what they are making.

Book Review: Inspiration Odyssey

Inspiration Odyssey: A Journey of Self-Expression in Quilts Inspiration Odyssey: A Journey of Self-Expression in Quilts by Diana Swim Wessel

My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of best books about creativity I have ever read. This book was written when quilt book publishers still thought that quiltmakers had brains and didn’t insist on spoon feeding us repetitive patterns with no challenge or thought required. Diana Swim Wessel takes the reader through a variety of exercises to get those creative juices flowing. Useful for more than just quiltmakers as the exercises and ideas apply to a variety of different artistic endeavors. I am very sorry that this was her only book and she seems to have disappeared.

View all of my quilt and non-quilt reviews.

Puzzling Through the Eye Spy

This week was kind of crazy week work-wise for us. As I result, last night was the first time I got back to the Eye Spy. I spent the time with a bit of sewing, a bit of cutting and lot of puzzling. I am puzzling through the best way to put it together. As you may know, I like to jump right in and start sewing. This gets me into trouble sometimes, but I do enjoy just sewing. Puzzling through problems isn’t so bad as I can’t always visualize the whole process. Of course, if the problems become too problematic then the quilt pieces usually go back into the closet.

I started working on the sewing on that Sunday where I introduced the piece but I didn’t take the edges into account. I am very much into my self bordering technique and would like to use it here. I used it on the Interlocking Triangles quilts and some others. Essentially it means that I don’t like to hack off bits of a border block to end the quilt.


I attempted to work on this yesterday while I was sewing triangles to hexagons. My dilemma, defined, is that I really don’t want to just randomly hack off the edges to make a straight side. Nor do I want to apply a binding to an edge that needs a miter every two inches.

First, I broke the hexagons I have sewed into two groups. Left, the pieces are arranged in a way where the triangles are pointing up. In this orientation, there are no straight edges. The side edges could be okay with a slightly irregular edge made by putting the piece together in chunks using diamonds (see far left).

The top and bottom edges would be a piecing nightmare, however, because I would have to inset triangles somehow. I can imagine that this would be a top that ended up becoming a permanent member of the UFO/ WIP list.

Right, the hexagons are arranged in a way where the triangles are pointed to the left. This is the way that Simply Quilts suggested putting this top together and what the directions on the package of templates suggest. Still, hacking off the edges to make this work makes me cringe. I was considering putting fabrics that were allover prints on the edges so the mutilation wouldn’t be as brutal. I don’t know.

Options:

  1. Hack off the top & bottom or the sides, depending on layout.
  2. Choose to piece the quilt in chunks using diamonds and do inset piecing to make a straight edge along the top and bottom.
  3. Deal with very uneven edge in the binding process.
  4. Add some other shaped pieces to the edge in a uniform color (more red?) to make the edge square.

Left is a detail of the corner of the piece with the section I have sewn together and arranged with the triangles placed pointing left.

I’ll have to troll the web and look at what others have done.

More From the Bag Lady

A long time ago there was a discussion on a Yahoogroup about being a bag lady. Not the kind you see on the street begging for money, but someone who loves all kinds of bags.
Tote bags
Handbags
Purses
Laptop bags
Briefcases
Backpacks

You name it. I love them. I am also a bag lady, as you might have noticed. Not that I am not particular about the bags that I buy or make, but havingg the right bag at the right time makes all the difference.

This site has a list of of many free (and some NOT free) patterns for a variety of bags that you can make. Some of them might make great Christmas or holiday gifts.

clipped from tipnut.com

35 Reusable Grocery Bags You Can Make – Free Patterns

clipped from tipnut.com

Sewing Grocery Bags & Totes

  • Fabric Grocery Sacks: Replicas of plastic grocery sacks made from vintage sheets and pillowcases (any fabric will do!). These also make cute lunch bags. Features a tie closure for a neat fit in your purse when not in use.
  • MorsBags.com: Offers a downloadable pattern in pdf or word doc format (also an animated web tutorial). Simple tote style, easy to make.
  • SewUseful San Fransisco Shopper: Roomy fabric tote with shoulder straps, folds down nicely to fit into a pocket or purse.
    • blog it

    New Inspiration Source

    I found a link somewhere for a blog of blogs. After adding this blog to the list, I scrolled through the offerings and found a blog for Piece O’Cake. One of the great parts is that they have a show and tell page where they post customer photos. What a great source of inspiration! I am including a few for you for your viewing pleasure.

    clipped from www.pieceocake.com

    Show & Tell!!!

    blog it

    I like it that people have chosen different colorways and color combinations.

    Judy Martin’s QOM

    I think I need to make a shrine to my favorite quiltmakers. Judy Martin is one of them.

    She, periodically, posts a Quilt of the Moment (QOM) and the one she has now is gorgeous. You must go there right NOW and download the pattern, then come right back! Once the pattern is gone, it is gone forever; she doesn’t repost them or archive them or anything, so time is of the essence. It reminds me of my Spiky Stars quilt (must do something about that crappy picture!). It has that whole ‘the center is not the center’ thing going, which I really like.

    I will post a picture here for anyone who makes a quilt from this pattern. Judy is also giving a prize to people who make a quilt with this pattern. Check out her site for specific details.

    Inspirational Podcasts

    People may wonder how podcasts can be inspirational, but I think they can. I am of the mind that if I am not in front of my sewing machine, I want to find another way to be breathing, thinking, seeing, and listening to quilts or creativity or design.

    As you may remember I have been on a Bill Kerr/FunQuilts/Weeks Ringle kick lately, so when TFQ mentioned that Weeks had been interviewed on the Craft Sanity podcast, I had to go and look it up. After a lot of drama with the iPod, I was finally able to listen to it and a couple of other Craft Sanity episodes this morning.

    Weeks Ringle talks (CraftSanity episode #41) about having a business that is craft/art related and how it works with her life balance. She comes to this discussion from her background and the bio of her life. It is great to get perspective on how she came to where she is now.

    I had also downloaded a couple of others. One I listened to was with Rhonda Simmons (CraftSanity episode #31), a Vancouver artist with a website called AlteredEverything.com. She is taking the Art-o-Mat idea to Canada, calling it Outsider Art in a Box and she also does bodycasting.

    I couldn’t stop, so I also started listening to the podcast Jennifer recorded with Anna Maria Horner. WOW! I am going to start reading her blog, I think.

    The interviews that Jennifer does are quite long and in depth, which offers a very satisfying podcast listening experience.

    Sunday Work

    The dishes and laundry are waiting and I am having another Manderly kind of day. Not as bad as the other day, but still kind of unfocused. The tab with my blog has been staring at me all morning making me think, as I have been plowing through some work, that I should write something. This was actually a good thing, because it spurred me on to go upstairs, turn on the sewing machine and sew. After sewing some hexagons, I took the Cheerful Baskets off the design wall so I could put the hexagons up. The photo on the left is my production today, though I did start sewing some of the triangles on earlier in the week. The big piece that I showed previously is also in there. I was really amazed at how fast these little hexagons turn into a hexagon with two triangles. Very satisfying. I always liked the Grandmother’s Flower Garden with diamonds in between and it just occurred to me that this is what I am making now in just a slightly different scale.

    I don’t work with conversationals very often and now I know why. It is almost as though my eyes have a hard time focusing on so much visual stimulation in one piece of fabric. I don’t think that is what is happening, but that is what it feels like. The pieces that attract me the most are the ones that have a fairly clear and consistent background (one color). I don’t think that the entire piece looks horrible or anything, but it is a different kind of project to work on.

    Below and right is my total progress. I put the pieces up so I could see what I had accomplished. I just put the pieces up on the design with very little rearranging. I did take care to place the monster pieces, of which there are several, far from each other. I’ll move the other pieces around as I get to it.

    My next task is to figure out the normal size of a quilt. I don’t know if I will go for a full or twin yet. Some of it depends on how many hexagons I have (I haven’t counted, but I know I have a lot). I also don’t want to make the quilt three times the shape of my design wall, which I did with Thoughts on Dots last year, because that is a weird shape.

    Following that, I have to cut more triangles. I went through all those that TFQ and Julie sent to me. I did start cutting more already and I have a great deal of respect for my friends, because they are a bit of a challenge to cut.

    I found that my larger rotary cutter moved smoothly next to the triangle template. However, it felt too big, so I tried the smaller rotary cutter that TFQ usually uses. It didn’t roll quite as smoothly, so I’ll have to figure something else out.

    One good thing about cutting triangles is that I get to look through and select red fabrics to use. I need to find a variety so I don’t use the same combinations over and over. So far I have cut batiks without hauling any bins down. I’ll get to that next.

    I Did Not Attend Houston

    Nor have I ever attended the International Quilt Festival in Houston, but I would like to sometime. Depending on life, finances and the state of the universe it could be as soon as next year. In order to attend Virtual Houston, head over to the QA blog for some entertaining photos and commentary by Pokey Bolton.

    I was pleased to see that she has a picture of Pamela Allen, doing what she does best: showing off her style (though she is a pretty great teacher as well).

    I also love the Caroline and Co booth. I wonder if I could paint one of my rooms with those orange stripes; people may rebel and/or develop a sudden, recurring bouts of insomnia. I do like the cheerfulness, though.

    Pamela allen
    Caroline and company
    Yum
      blog it

    Longarming a Tree Skirt??

    As I mentioned, I have had longarming on my mind lately. One of the things I have been trying to work out is how to use different colors and different machine quilting designs in one quilt. I don’t want my quilt to look like I didn’t think about the quilting design and just Pantographed over the whole thing. Quilting Arts has a pattern for a tree skirt and it occurred to me that this might be the PERFECT project for the longarm. I could sew several pieces of coordinating fabrics together, longarm it and then cut out the tree skirt. They suggest stamping and painting and embellishing, which is a good idea. Another project to think about!

    Denyse Schmidt Fabrics: A New View


    countyfairpurse2
    Originally uploaded by SarahQFD

    I wasn’t that enamoured with the new colorways that DS came out with recently. I like the designs, but the colorways didn’t do much for me. Today I saw this photo (still working my way through the DS Pool on Flickr). These fabrics are obviously designed to be used together. That weird gold looks almost buttery next to the burgundy. It makes me wonder about a fat quarter pack. I have to stop myself, though, because there are many, many gorgeous fabrics that I could use with a bunch of fabrics I already have and these would almost certainly have to be used together and then what would I do with the finished project?

    I am glad to see that these fabrics look nice together. Quilt Fabric Delights blogs about these fabrics and this purse at: http://quiltfabricdelights.typepad.com/quilt_fabric_delights/2008/09/i-sewed.html

    Bags of the Kemshalls

    Linda and Laura Kemshall are quilt artists extraordinaire. I love their Thr3fold Journal and the straightforwardness (is that a word??) and artistry with which they present their projects. They have come out with a new gift bag pattern via Quilting Arts. I looked at the pattern and it is kind of a backwards bag. What I mean by that is that you create, paint, embellish, bead and torture your fabric THEN you make the bag out of it. I can see where this pattern would work for stuff you already had around the house or for test techniques that you didn’t want laying around after you were done testing. These bags look pretty complicated, however. Please note that I haven’t made one, but I am very much a fan of he 10 bags an hour method. Let me know if you make one of these bags and how it turns out. I’ll be happy to post your photo to my blog or link to your blog etc from Artquiltmaker blog.

    Thinking about Longarming: Lava Beach


    Lava Beach
    Originally uploaded by cjb_roe

    I saw this quilt in the Denyse Schmidt ‘Pool’ (DSP) on Flickr. The DSP is a group of photos of projects made from DS patterns or fabrics. It is interesting to look through and see the different projects people have made. I saw a couple of things, as I mentioned earlier in the week, that were inspiring.

    TFQ asked for more information about the longarm demo I attended last week. As a result, I have been writing about in a letter to her, thus it is on my mind. As I was going through the photos on the pool, I saw this quilt and thought that the quilting design was interesting enough to note. One thing that Kit, from Always Quilting, said was that one needed to doodle designs to be prepared to draw them with the longarm.

    Mom confirmed this when she went to try out her friend’s longarm. She said she thought it was about muscle memory.

    This picture serves two purposes: the one above, obviously, but also to move me along in a task for my quilt class. I have been putting off creating the machine quilting design sheet for my beginning quilt class because they have totally lost interest and have not basted their quilts. I would like to teach more people to quilt, so it is worthwhile for me to create the worksheet for the future. Seeing this great design gives me a little incentive.