Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Use for posts written in 2010
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I am REALLY fortunate to have wonderful friends and family who are willing to give me books and quilt related items that I love. I really received a lot of gifts; so many I will have plenty to write about and read and think about during the gift giving drought that is the rest of the year.**
My birthday was a week and a half ago and the gifts just keep coming. Julie gave me some fabric, a book, some note cards and some little things while at the retreat over the weekend.
The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer came from a gift certificate I actually got from TFQ for Christmas. I think of it as a birthday gift to myself! Thanks, TFQ!
Art + Quilt came from DH. I have been borrowing TFQ’s copy and now I have my own. I am pretty excited about some of the exercises in the book.
Sew, So Cute by Mary Engelbreit came from Julie. I have wanted this book because of the apron on the front. I love it. It has some much style. I can’t wait to make that apron. Perhaps I will add it to my gift arsenal?
The bottom three reading material came from my sister. The Crafty Chica book has a very cheerful layout. I also like the pocket bag, which is made out of tablecloth vinyl. I love the tote on the front of the Sew News magazine and Artful Blogging often has links to great new blogs.
I really like they style of that tote bag on the front of the Sew News magazine. I looked at the directions last night and they are a little cryptic. I am going to look up the designer at some point and see if there is some additional explanation before I dive in. We’ll see.
I am so fortunate to have so much new reading material and project ideas. it is nice not to have to get these books out of the library and read them quickly. I really enjoy dipping in and out of books, especially quilt books. Thanks!
That wasn’t all, though. I also have some fabric to go along with the project ideas. Above are some pieces that my sister bought for me. they are colors that she loves, so I wonder if she is angling for another bag or a quilt or something? Hhhmmm.
Here is the wonderfulness that came from TFQ. Her gift was right on time, actually early, and I opened it as soon as I could get it in the door. The journals (Miquelrius) will not go to waste. I think I have to write more so I can get through them faster. 😉
The pink and red fabric (on the right in the middle) is a Malka Dubrowsky screen print (batik, maybe?). The funny part of about that fabric is that I bought TFQ some of Malka’s fabric as well. We roared with laughter about that! Great minds, you know. 😉
I have only glanced through Creative Time and Space, but I love the Voodoo lounge podcast, which is also by Rice Zachery-Freeman. I am reading Life is a Verb and really like it. I will write a full on review when I finish it. One thing I already like about it is that the author says that she created large margins so people could create ‘marginalia’. I have done one of the exercises she suggests and enjoyed it. Unlike Maisel’s book, I can do them in the 20+ minutes I carve out for creativity every day with minimal technology requirements.
I loved all the gifts and cards and phone calls and emails I received, but this card is really special. One thing I really appreciate is when people give me some of their precious time. When someone takes the time to make me something, like a card, or when they take the time to write me a letter, it is most appreciated. I love it when someone sits down and writes me a real letter about things they are doing and observing. Even if those things seem mundane, I love hearing about the day to day things in others lives. Mailing the letter to me with a real stamp in a real envelope is one of the best presents I can receive. I love it that Julie took the time to make and write the card.
I had to cut off the writing because is personal. Isn’t Julie creative? She put flags on the inside, too. I really like this card.
I am so fortunate to have such generous, thoughtful, wonderful and creative friends.
**Do Valentine’s Day, my anniversary, and Mother’s Day count? 😉
Go to his blog and leave a comment there if you are so inclined.
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I used some of my Christmas money to buy some new fabrics. Are you surprised?
The second row dot fabrics will be a tote bag. I love the color combination. I thought the orange was more of a salmony orange, but the lighting in the store wasn’t that good and I found out it was a more pure orange. That is ok. I still think the color combo looks good.
I may use them to try the scaled down AMH MTT. I still haven’t tried the scaled down version. I have a rule to use good fabric for new projects in case it comes out well, but I decide not to make the pattern again (remember the Sweet Harmony bag?) Thus, I am wondering whether I want to use good fabric and possibly screw it up or fabric I don’t care that much about and have it come out really well.
Julie took me to a store called Hart’s. What an awesome store! They had one of the largest selections of quilt fabrics I have seen in a long time. The quilt fabric selection was HUGE! Julie said she hadn’t been there in a while because of a bad experience when her kids were little. We were pleased that the service was excellent!
Hart’s also has an upholstery section. They had lots of wonderful upholstery fabric, trims and laminated cotton. The selection of laminated cottons and oilcloth was more extensive than I have seen anywhere. Some of their laminated cottons were so soft they were almost like non-laminated cottons.
The Cal fabric, from Beverly’s, will be for some pillowcases. That is all I can say right now as I am contemplating whether they will be gifts. Yes, I am planning ahead. Stay tuned.
The red dot fabric (top row, third from the left) was the gift wrapping on my gift from Julie. I don’t remember seeing those dots and the wrapping she did looked like that form of Japanese wrapping, whose name I can’t remember right now.
I have a lot of talented colleagues who also attended the quilt retreat. I realized, after I got home, that the pictures I thought I took only were taken in my head. Sigh.
Dolores, for whom I made the pencil roll, is really making progress in her work. She takes classes deliberately from well respected quiltmakers and works through the techniques and makes it her own. For the past several years, she has worked in neutrals. This year she decided that she was going to add color back into the equation. This piece is from a photograph (right) and some techniques she learned in a class with Caryl Bryer Fallert. Dolores reworked the photo on her computer and then blew up the pattern, transferred it to freezer paper and used Fallert’s method of piecing to create the top.
Sonja, a new CQFAer was working with FabMo fabrics and just playing. She did a fabulous wave piece that I was really sorry not to have taken a picture of.
Sue and I are kindred spirits in that we both like to make quick projects in between our larger quilt projects. She worked on totes, scarves AND basted two quilts!
FabMo also has wallpaper -high end wallpaper – and Jan has been experimenting with folded boxes and bags using pieces of the free wallpaper. They are fabulous. She is also working on a piece based on the view of Nebraska from a plane. She worked on embellishing the circles she was making. Jan was sitting next to me and we talked about color, because she is finding her piece too dull. We discussed colors that would fit with her nature theme.
Julie bought a pack of Moda turnovers and is making a fun and sweet Valentine’s Day quilt. She is trying to limit her need to cut and this was a great way to do it.
Here is Julie’s quilt before she started on the appliquéd hearts.
Above shows her machine applique’ pieces waiting for their turn under the needle as well as the tools that are required for excellent quilting (glasses, rulers and coffee!). 😉
I thought that the above block looked like one of the illustrations in an illuminated manuscript.
This is a nice color combination. I am not sure the computer intermediation shows the subtlety, but it s great.
We talked a lot about this block, because of the skull. It is the block that shows that relationships can be icky and rocky sometimes. Fun fabric, though.
Maureen tried the pencil roll pattern and came up with a nice piece using some of her hand dyes and some FabMo fabric.
Terri worked on getting some tops put together. One was an exchange top that included some really nice batiks.
Debbie was trying to finish her daughter’s college quilt. She was using some very jewel-y turquoise, purples and other blues. It was very rich looking.
Kathy is a member’s daughter. We haven’t seen any of her work before this weekend. It turns out that she does wonderful handwork. She is working on this Piece O’Cake design, do it mostly by hand. I like the color choices she made. They are a bit muted, but not murky.
She didn’t like the scallop border that came with the pattern, so she designed this leaf border on her own.
This past weekend was our annual CQFA retreat by the beach. I spent the weekend working on the FOTY 2009. I also relaxed a little even though I spent a lot of time hard at hard sewing. My body is rebelling a bit from sitting so much and standing so much.
First, I found the last few FOTY blocks on my design wall before I left and I wanted to post a picture of them. I didn’t think I would use the one with the earthy brown (middle row, middle block) on the front, but I ended up using it.
I really worked hard on the piece. As with last year’s piece, there is a lot of sewing and pressing. The process, after I figured out the size and laid the blocks out was to sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall, sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall and then repeat that process 133 times. Once I sewed sets of blocks together, then I sewed two sets of two blocks together to make a set of four. I did that approximately 67 times. Since I wasn’t in my own workroom I had to walk around my table, past another table and into the corner to get to the iron. The distance was inconvenient, but also good, because it forced me to stretch my body. Putting the top together was a lot of rote sewing, but it was the perfect project for the retreat.
I did a few things differently this year. One was to count up the blocks and try to make a plan as to how I would lay them out before I arrived at the retreat location and was standing in front of my design wall. I knew I had 225 blocks, so I thought I would lay them out in a 15×15 format. What I didn’t take into the consideration was the size of the portable design wall. If I placed 15 blocks down, 3 of them were on the floor. I didn’t want to work with blocks on the floor even though I could have. It is hard to photograph the in progress piece. It is easy to forget some of the blocks, etc. I reconfigured the layout and ended up with, I believe, 12 down and 19 across. I prefer a rectangular layout anyway so it worked out. I needed another block, however, so the earthy brown one ended up on the front. In the grand scheme, it doesn’t scream brown out of the quilt.
I also sorted the blocks. Last year, I think I just put them up in general areas on the design wall and then I had to move them around a lot. This time I sorted the fabrics on the table, put them in Roy G. Biv + white and black order and then put them up on the design wall. This strategy was a lot easier. I didn’t have move such large groups of blocks over and over. I had to move some groups, but the whole process was much easier. Below is a progression of how the piece evolved as I worked on the color:
Another thing I did differently this year was ask some of the other retreaters if any blocks stood out to them in an “I am out of place in this quilt” kind of way. Many of the CQFAers are really skilled designers, others are skilled colorists. All of them have something wonderful to offer if I remember to ask and listen.
I was looking at FOTY 2008 last week and found that there were some rectangles I really should have moved. It is by no means a horrible quilt, but I should have played with the layout a bit more. Asking for help was a great strategy, because people mostly liked the color work I did and I got lots of kudos, but some of the blocks jumped out at them. Funnily enough the blocks they noticed, for the most part, did not jump out at me. Almost exclusively, these were blocks that were hard to place – multi-color fabrics, conversationals, light backgrounds almost completely covered by various colors, etc. The CQFA group is great, because they helped me place the problematic blocks to their best advantage. In this way, I also learned.
I spent a good portion of the retreat sewing the quilt top together. Open house at school was today, so I had to leave the retreat early and only got some straps for my next Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote done. I really wanted to stay, but am glad I was able to have a chat with various teachers at school as well. There is always so much to do!
On Monday, per the game directions, I posted about participating in the One World One Heart blog project. I have never done anything like it and have found it to be interesting. I haven’t had much of a chance to look at the other blogs, sadly, though I have looked at a few.
I am madly approving comments from people that come to visit. Most visitors just leave a quick comment, but the ones who take the time to tell me where they are coming from make it really interesting for me. Visitors have come from such places as:
Finland (2 visitors, I think!)
Moldova (had to look that one up)
Germany
France (the person was Dutch, but living in France- cool!)
Australia
a few of my friends
Many, many from the US
I am so glad people have had the opportunity to stop by. I hope some stay around and join in the fun!
Dolores, a member of CQFA, faithfully arranges a retreat every year. Every year it is better and better. I had in my mind that I would make her a pencil roll as a thank you. After last week, I didn’t think I would have the time, but, I started it on Sunday, thinking that I could finish it at the retreat and she would be none the wiser.
I didn’t do any piecing on this one, which made it go very fast. I think it took me less than an hour and a half from start to finish. I may be dreaming, though, as I didn’t really time myself.
I am not sure what colors Dolores really likes. She has been working in neutrals and especially black and white, so I chose a black and white FabMo upholstery fabric for the back. The FabMo upholstery samples are a good size. I think you could make two smaller ones from one of the samples. I had a good sized strip left over that may make its way into another pencil roll that I need to piece.
I thought some red and black and white for the inside strips and the front pocket would be great. I just couldn’t do all neutrals. I had to add some color. I think it looks really nice and am pleased with how it came out.
I am concerned that I will run out of friends who need/can appreciate pencil rolls! I see some blog giveaways in my future!
I forgot to put a label on it. Either I will forget it or try to hand sew one on.
Unrelated notes:
* I have no Internet at home at this time, so if I am a little slow responding to comments, I apologize! It makes it a challenge to get blog posts up as well!
* Remember to leave a comment in the One World One Heart post for a chance to win!
Shockingly enough, I saw this word in a spam comment and it stuck in my mind. I think there is a lot we can take from it and use to create, right?
Pound Sterling
1 British pound = 1.6144 U.S. dollars
Sterling silver
Sterling work
Sterling effort
I found a lot of towns and counties which included the name Sterling. I also found tons of companies with Sterling in their name.
See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It will keep all the artwork together.
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.
I was checking a comment (some of the comments look just like spam – bleah!) on the OWOH post and was taken to Roc’s blog. As you know, I am a wannabe visual journaler and just haven’t quite gotten there yet. Don’t worry, I am not giving up.
I think one of my issues with visual journaling is that it looks messy. I know that the actual process is messy and I am not into messy, especially painting and such. However, the pages look messy. There is a lot of stuff on them. I like that look, but it is also keeping me from trying. That sounds like it makes no sense. I guess I need a therapist to work on that weirdness!
In any case, enjoy Roc’s blog.
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Remember to leave a meaningful comment on the OWOH post in order to entered in the drawing.
I mentioned that I was thinking of making a diamond one patch. I looked at the diamond ruler that I have at home and decided that it wasn’t going to work. Mostly because the lines that divide the different sizes of diamonds were too thick to be accurate — at least for me.
I looked at the Creative Grids website and decided to buy this ruler. I’ll see what I think when I receive it.
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Reminder: check out the One World One Heart post for a chance to win!
I spent Sunday, and a few minutes on Saturday night, finishing up the FOTY blocks so I can take them to the CQFA Retreat. When I return from sewing bliss, I hope to have the quilt top ready to show you.
I really like the warm colors in this group. Some of the darker colors, especially the greens were given to me by my sis for my 2009 birthday.
Getting down to the bottom of the pile made matching up fabrics difficult. I tend to pull out the ones I really like and press and use those first. Some (not all!) of these were my lesser favorites.
In a way the FOTY exercise helps me train my eye and mind to choose fabrics I really love and want to use right away. At the same time, it trains my eye to avoid fabrics that are not my colors. Yes, I did find fabrics that I bought that made me wonder why I bought them. Before I buy, I think I will have to not just look at the fabric next to lovely coordinating bolts. I think I need to take the potential bolt off the shelf and unroll it a little to see more of the fabric. That will make me shop slower, which can’t be a bad thing.
I pressed, cut and sewed the last fabrics on Saturday. Sunday I counted all of the blocks and consulted with DH about the layout. Not the layout in terms of color, but the layout in terms of numbers of blocks across and down. He told me I had to have an even square root number (or something). I ended up needing 14.83 blocks across the top and down the side. I don’t know what a .83 block looks like, but I knew it wasn’t going to fit evenly into my quilt.
I immediately grabbed the fabrics I received for Christmas and shoved them in the washer. Then I went to work on a pencil roll, which you can read about later in the week. When the fabrics were done, I had figured out that I needed to make 7 more blocks to come out with an even 225 (15 across by 15 down). I pick out some pairs of fabrics and sewed them together. Now I am ready to arrange the quilt and sew it together.
I do have one extra, which I will stick on the back.
Some of the fabrics I bought at the very end of 2009 will end up in the 2010 quilt. As the Quilt Mavs say “my quilt, my rules.”
Unrelated notes:
* I have no Internet at home at this time, so if I am a little slow responding to comments, I apologize! It makes it a challenge to get blog posts up as well!
* Remember to leave a comment in the One World One Heart post for a chance to win!
Update: 2/15/2010: The contest is closed! Thanks for reading. Check the 2/16/2010 post for the winner! Thanks for playing and come back and read the blog!
Welcome, new readers and well known readers, to Artquiltmaker.com. We are participating in One World One Heart, a fun way to get to know new blogs and win prizes! Lisa created this event in 2007. “The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way”, as she says on her blog.
Artquiltmaker Blog is a way for me to share what I am working on with other creative people. I like the idea of this blog being a magazine type information source, so I try to vary the content to include commentary on works in progress, book reviews, media reviews (such as podcasts), Quilt World News, etc. Sometimes I venture outside of quiltmaking to appreciate other artists, different crafts and and report on different events and exhibits I attend. Every week, I put up a creative prompt as a way to spark inspiration and creativity in the Artquiltmaker.com community. You can find more information about the creative prompt on the AQ CPP Inspiration page. In the future I would like to include tutorials as well. It is on the list!
At this time there is no money making venture associated with Artquiltmaker. I write in this space because I enjoy writing, love quiltmaking and want to share my creative journey. My hope is that Artquiltmaker.com and Artquiltmaker blog will inspire you to be creative and expand your creative horizons.
As part of the One World One Heart Project, I will be giving away at least one prize.
This is a batik handbag that I made in August, which I will give away to one lucky winner. Depending on the response, I may also give away other prizes. If possible to add prizes, I will update THIS post with other prizes before the deadline. Your comment must be in the comment section of this post. How to enter and things to know about my giveaway:
NOTE: I have to be able to tell that your comment is not spam.
There is a lot to look at here at Artquiltmaker blog. Once you have taken your magic carpet ride, I would love it if you would come back and become part of the Artquiltmaker community.
Have a blast!
1/26/2010 Update: ArtQuiltmaker.com Blog is #472 on Lisa’s list! Thanks to Lisa for coordinating this project. Leave her a message saying thanks, if you have a chance.
I moved the Fabric of the Year project forward all weekend last weekend by sewing like crazy. I made over 100 Zanzibar blocks, as well as cut and organized other little pieces that I need for other projects despite the rain, power outages and family obligations.
Keep in mind that these are SMALL blocks. Each rectangle is 1.5″x3.5″, so they sew together very quickly. I do about 8 at a time using chain piecing methods. I talked about the selection and resizing of these blocks on February 16, 2009.
I actually felt rather smug getting so much done. Sadly, that feeling was short lived. I haven’t done anything this week except a little pressing of fabric. Pressing of fabric is the first step in the process so that is a good thing. I, however, had grand illusions of finishing the blocks this week and making another pencil roll this weekend. I have about 18 more blocks to make from uncut/unpressed fabric. Half of those fabrics are pressed and half are not, so I still have some work to do.
I also have about 10 groups of cut pieces waiting for mates that I need to sew. I have a lot of dots, which should not surprise you, and I am trying not to put dots together every time if I can help it. In some cases I can’t help it. In the grander design of the quilt, I don’t think it will matter.
I have been trying to post this blog post all week as well and there were several days where I did not get near the computer at home. I am glad podcasts are around, because they kept me in the creative loop.
One of the things I tried to do with this batch is put contrasting colors together. I did some of that before, but didn’t feel successful. I was bored putting two yellows or two blues together, so I decided to mix it up a little.
I am in love with the blues. What do you think?
In case you were wondering, I have about a foot of design wall space because the Tarts are still waiting for me to machine applique some hearts onto the curvy teapot. Below is what I have to work with:
Heart in Hand
Bird in the Hand
Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania
Hands All Around
Lend a Hand
Helping hand
Give a hand
A handful
Hand soap
At hand
Fell into the wrong hands
On the other hand
