Category: 2009

Use for posts written in 2009

Random Blog Ring Bullseye

Ellen Guerrant
Ellen Guerrant

I barely know what a blog ring is, but today I clicked on the random link from the Pink Chalk Studio blog and ended up on the Occasional Threads blog. I saw this bullseye there and thought I would share. The writer loves the colors, which are not my thing (no turquoise, what was she thinking???) 😉 , but I really like that little black strip separating some of the pieces. This also looks like the Wonky Circles quilt.

Quilting Arts says: 10 Ways to Rev Up Your Studio

This is the Quilting Arts email newsletter, Embellishments. It often one big come-on to buy something from their store, but this time has great ideas for updating your studio or workroom space.

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December 30, 2008
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In This Issue

Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Redo Your Studio

Learn new techniques with Pokey Bolton & Friends!

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Greetings !
In this issue of Quilting Arts Embellishments we offer you 10 tips for giving your studio a new look, plus tell you how you can learn new techniques at home from Pokey Bolton and friends.

Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Redo Your Studio

A new year, the lack of light, and cabin fever (for those of us in cold climates) often moves us to mix things up and make a change in our surroundings. Here are 10 ways you can rev up your studio or other creative space (even if it’s just a desk) quickly and inexpensively.

  1. Rearrange the furniture. Saying, “What if I put the desk over there?” and doing so, can give you a fresh perspective on your room and your art.
  2. Let in the light. Remove the window treatments or, if privacy is an issue, install blinds or shades that will let in maximum light during the day and can be closed at night. Not only will this help more light shine on your artwork and your psyche, it will give the room a cleaner, airier look.
  3. Put light on the subject. Those fancy “natural light” lamps are great, but even a small but powerful desk lamp will help you see things in a better light and avoid eye strain.
  4. Get “new” furniture. Do like the furniture re-arrangers do on those home dec shows and “shop” for furniture in other rooms of your house. Is there a funky old desk in the garage? An extra chair in the guest room that would make a cozy place to embroider in? Sweep out the old and swap in the “new.”
  5. Paint. A can of paint costs very little yet it can transform a room, warming it up, making it cheery, or conjuring up calm.
  6. Floor it. Hard floors are usually best for sewing-oriented rooms—the better to sweep up threads and find dropped needles. But to give your floor some added oomph, put a colorful throw rug here or there away from the sewing machine or pick up an inexpensive piece of patterned linoleum to put down like a rug under your work area.
  7. Find fresh inspiration. If you have an inspiration board, change the pictures or swatches. Find a new quote or quotes to create by and pin or staple them to the board. Cover the board with fresh fabric or paper. StudiosOr use something unusual for your “board,” like a large, lightweight metal tray, and attach your pictures and notes with magnets.
  8. Change the scenery. Creative people need to stare out windows. If the space where you create has no windows or small, high ones (like in a basement), create your own “view.” Hang a large, framed photo of your favorite vacation spot or other vista where you’d like your window to be. Or, if you have the talent, paint a mural of your favorite view on a wall.
  9. Trade spaces. So, you’ve been working in a corner of the dining room while a guest room upstairs goes unused 50 weeks of the year? Maybe it’s time to turn the “inn” into a studio with a fold-out sofa bed.
  10. Get some new goodies. A couple of fat quarters, a new sketch pad, some dyes you’ve been longing to try, even a new pair of scissors—a small splurge goes a long way to upping your energy level and igniting the creative spark.

Looking for more ways to organize and spruce up your studio? Get the Fall/Winter issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studios now.
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Learn new techniques with Pokey Bolton & Friends!

Quiling Arts bookOn “Quilting Arts TV” and in The Quilting Arts Book, Pokey Bolton brings together some of the best creative minds in the art quilting world to bring you techniquesqatv300, tricks, and inspiration. With the “QATV” DVD sets, you can watch and enjoy each of the three seasons at your own pace. The Quilting Arts Book shows you much of the best artwork and tutorials from Quilting Arts Magazine. Whether you are an experienced art quilter or just learning the basics, Pokey’s book and DVDs will help you take your art to the next level—and beyond!

Get the “QATV” DVDs now.
Get The Quilting Arts Book now.

 
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To our customers: Please allow 10 days to process your order, due to the fact that our offices will be closed between Christmas and New Year’s. We thank you for your patience. Happy holidays from Quilting Arts.
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Watch the Quilting Arts Holiday Video!

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©2008 Interweave Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
Interweave Press, 201 E 4th St., Loveland, CO 80537

Re-introducing The Tarts

Please meet The Tarts Come to Tea.

I started this project sometime in the past. TFQ and I made some tops using a technique that we called Improvisational piecing. Mostly we did this type of piecing at her house. When I came home after one trip, I decided to take an idea for a hot drink quilt and work on it on my own using the technique. After doing quite a bit of work, I put it away.

I was spurred on to take this piece up again after writing the UFO report for 2008. I want he UFO list to be shorter on 12/31/2009. Either some of these projects have to be completed or they have to be abandoned. It isn’t about just getting things done, though, it is about deciding whether I want to devote mental energy to projects that no longer make my heart sing.

I have put it on my design wall as the first step in getting it off the “to do” list. I decided that I wanted to look at it for awhile before I decided how to proceed. There are elements that I really like about it, but others that I want to redo. My plan is to work on a few other projects (like cutting FOTY patches!) while I look at The Tarts and figure out what needs to be done. I already have a small list of parts that will change.

1. The plaid has to go.
2. The cup in the middle with the striped print will morph into a cup with a sleeve on it, like a Starbuck’s or Peet’s cup.
3. I need to add some more of the red/white dot print that is currently in only two of the cappuccino cups.
4. The random piecing under the grey tea pot with the purple background has to go.

TFQ and I worked on a list of elements to change and add, but I can’t find the piece of paper anywhere, so I have started to recreate it.

When I first took the pieces out of the box, I thought I would just abandon the whole project, but I see possibilities now. I will work on it a bit and see if I can generate some enthusiasm. Looking at this project has made me realize how I have evolved as a quiltmaker: different types of fabrics, different colors, more piecing. Some of what I talked about in the Word of the Day: Time post applies here.

Word of the Day: Cooperation (January 17)

Today’s word is all about quilt guilds and quilt groups. Today’s word is all about leadership, teamwork and support, which are the hallmarks of quilt guilds and quilt groups everywhere.

“True leadership is a combination of initiative and humility. The best leader remains obscure, leading but drawing no personal attention…Credit is not to be taken, it will be awarded when people realize that it was the subtle influence of the leader that brought them success.”

Hard to imagine in this day and age, but a worthy goal.

Fabrics Not to Pass Up


I was at Always Quilting last week for my longarm class and bought these fabrics. I saw separate fat quarter packs with the orange fabrics and its friends (Fresh Paint by Moda, I think), as well as the fabrics related to the cherries. I wanted to buy both, but settled on what you see above. There was an icky green fabric like the orange one, but they didn’t have it on the bolt. I am thinking about making a quilt like Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs with the cherries fabrics and some others. I’ll have to put it on the list behind all the other projects I want to do!

Word of the Day: Time

” We must understand how the past affects us, we should keep the present full of rich satisfying experiences, and we should devote some energy each day to building for the future…so too should we consider the whole of our time when deciding how to spend our lives.”
 
While the quote obviously applies to saving money, and taking care of your health, buying fabric sprang immediately to mind.
 
Sometimes I go through a bin of fabric and wonder why I bought that particular yardage.
 
Sometimes I look at the fabric that I have and think that it is a hassle, because it is somewhat disorganized and I can’t always find what I want/need.
 
Often I look at fabric ads in magazines and think about what I could make with that fabric. Time factors into tthose dreams, because I would need time to go buy the fabric and make the project. It also makes me think of building up my dreams as well as my stash of fabric when acquiring new colors and patterns.
 
Buying fabric is about the past, present and the fugure, because it reflects who I was and the dreams I had when I bought the older fabric. It also reflects who I am in this time and space and the projects I am working on now. I am also building dreams and projects for the future.
 
I want to incorporate those fabrics from the past into current projects even if I use it in some way that wasn’t the original intention. I don’t want them to be discarded, because they are not me now.

Word of the Day: Positioning

This sounds like a marketing word or part of business negotiations.
 
The image that came to my mind, and is in the description in the book, is that of a heron standing in water. I really feel an affinity for these large water birds.
 
“Actions in life can be reduced to two factors: positioning and timing. If we are not in the right place at the right time, we cannot possibly take advantage of what life has to offer us. …When life presents an opportunity we must be ready to seize it without hesitation or inhibition. Position is useless without awareness. If we have both, we make no mistakes.”
 
In quiltmaking, we have to look for opportunities to learn. If a teacher comes to town, I need to take advantge of the opportunity to learn from that person. If someone is available to assist me with a problem, I should take the time to work with them.

Bright and Cheerful Prints From Melody Johnson

I just use the fabulous prints that I can buy. As a result, I sometimes get a complex because I don’t dye my own fabric. Melody Johnson has always made quilts that I admire, so I was thrilled to see some new quilts on her blog made with actual commercial prints! WOW! They are very bright and cheerful as well.

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Trying out Inks

I saw Pam Rubert’s sketchbook using these inks and I have been thinking of trying them. I would love to have a place where I could go and try out all the artists supplies that I would like to try without buying them.

FW Artists’ Inks

FW Artists’ Ink is an acrylic based pigmented water resistant ink in a range of 38 colours, all of which have either a 3 or 4 star rating for permanence.
Such a high degree of lightfastness over such a range of fully intermixable colours makes them ideal for use by artists in the production of pictures for permanent display.
Equally, however, colours can be substantially diluted to achieve the most subtle of tones, very similar in character to watercolour. Such washes will dry to a water resistant film and successive layers of colour can be laid over a highly predicable manner. FW Artists’ Inks work well through airbrushes and technical pens.
38 colours

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Flower Tote Bag

I loved this fabric, which I bought back in November. As I mentioned last week, I finally got to making a tote bag out of it.

I am pretty pleased with how it came out. I love the bright cheerfulness of these splashy flowers. I think it is a good way to use those big prints.



On one of the last bags, I didn’t like the way I couldn’t see the pocket and the straps, so this time I used a blue for one side of the outside of the bag so that the pocket was highlighted. It means that the bag sides were different fabrics, but who cares? I am pleased with the way the flower fabric stands out.

I used a tulip stitch for the top stitching on the edge around the top. It is ok. There were parts where I had to sew over a lot of layers and the spacing got a bit wrecked. I am going to keep this bag for myself, because it is cheerful and I didn’t put any interfacing in it.

Word of the Day: Shaping

“We must give [situations in our lives] rough shape and then throw them down into the center of our lives…As we shape the situation, we must be aware of what form we want things to take. The closer something comes to completion, the harder and more definite it becomes. Our options become fewer, until the full impact of our creation is all that there is.”

When I start a quilt, the possibilities are endless. I start shaping the finished product with an idea in my head. Each decision I make limits future options until I have a completed idea. This is not a bad thing, it is the process of a project. Working through the process allows the final piece to take shape.