Artquiltmaker Blog – Page 142 – Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity

Column Donation Top in Process

Last week I found some extra half square triangles leftover from the Stepping Stones n.2 quilt. Not being able to focus led me to sewing them together randomly. I put a couple of blocks up on the wall and they happened to fall near the Dove block I didn’t use in the Aqua-Red Sampler. Suddenly I had an idea for a donation quilt top.

Yesterday I worked on it some more. It is nearing completion and I will have a top by the next meeting. I thought I would place the column in the middle, but I don’t have enough of the Pure Elements Snow to do it, so I’ll have to think of something else. I ended up sewing the two pieces of Snow together and sewing them to one side of the column.

This is a very ‘go with the flow’ type piece and not planned at all.

Various & Sundry 2018 #9

I got my spreadsheet working again and have used 50.99 yards of fabric net. Will I get to 100? I don’t know.

Projects & Patterns

Gotham Quilts has an organizer of the month project club. It has already started, but you can still join.

RainbowHare has some great patterns in his/her Etsy shop, I like the sewing machine cover caravan.

I don’t know what possessed me, but I bought this Westchester Dolman top pattern and video pack.

There is a Disaster Quilting Project. It’s not what you think. “The purpose of this site is to showcase the amazing artists who have transcended extraordinary circumstances through quilting.”

Splendid Sampler Sew-a-long is going on. Use the FB page to follow along.

If you want to make a pet bed after seeing my post the other day, I have two tutorials. One is regular and one is simplified. These were written by Amanda.

I do like this Basket Tote pattern from Sew Can She. It has a great shape.

Quilt Class & Other Tutorials

I was horrified to realize that I had posted the wrong size patterns on the Quilt Class lesson for curves called The Dove. I am really sorry! I realized this error when I was putting the Aqua-Red Sampler together. It is fixed and the directions themselves are correct and haven’t changed.

All People Quilt has a closure technique they call the Magic Invisible Closure. Others call it the ladder stitch. If you need to hand sew something closed, this is a technique for you.

Inspiration

The International Quilt Study Center has a quilt of the month feature. This month’s quilt is the Soldier’s Quilt, a piece made from military fabrics.

The MQG has a new website.

My friend sent me a link to a blog post about the 1718 quilt. This is the complex kind of sampler that I like. Even though I have no space for new quilt books, I bought a copy of the book anyway. You can too!

Apparently, the Smithsonian has a national quilt collection and has made a video about it. The video starts talking about the first quilts in the collection.

After watching the Smithsonian video, a video on the history of the Dear Jane quilt came up, so I watched that as well. I have read the book, but why not get a refresher? It was a lecture at a quilt show by someone who made (and finished!) a reproduction of the Dear Jane quilt.

I found a link to a book of Japanese wave and ripple patterns. It has been sitting in my inbox for weeks, but I decided to share it here since many of you look for free motion quilting (would work for hand quilting, too!) patterns and these would be great. Be sure and page through the book on the top of the page. It is awesome!

Other Artists

Sarah Goer has some doodles for free motion quilting on her blog post. I like those little pieces of paper.

Charlotte talks about block printing on fabric in a recent blog post.

Exhibits & Contests

Entries for QuiltCon are now open and will close on November 30 (the YM’s birthday, BTW). The QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge is now taking applications. This year’s theme is small piecing.

QuiltCon registration is now open — there are still plenty of great workshops and lectures, including Sherri Lynn Wood’s featured lecture. Check out the catalog and schedule here. Changes for QuiltCon 2019 include the Awards Ceremony moving to Wednesday evening, and the addition of Sewing Lounges!

Scott Fortunoff, the new owner of Free Spirit Fabrics ( and other great brands) has a contest posted on his blog: visiting quilt shops!

Books, Fabrics, Supplies & Notions

I get an email from Paintbrush Studios about various things. Today I got one about a new fabric line called Launch Party. I don’t have small boys at home, but this fabrics makes me want my 10YO back (for a few minutes, at least). The robots, aliens and rocket ships are fabulous. One of the robots looks like Rosie from the Jetsons. Also the dots companion print are wonderful.

I found an article on Philip Jacobs. Sigh! I love that man’s designs so much.

Janome is releasing sewing cards every few days. These have useful sewing information printed on them. The first one has yardage info. the second one is all about needles.

You know I love Judy Martin. I do. You should, too. She has recently embraced online publishing, so her books take up less space on your shelf and may come faster. She says she can also publish on more esoteric quilt subjects without worrying about recouping her printing costs. While I like printed quilt books, I am a fan of esoteric quilt topics as well. Judy writes in a recent newsletter (though not the latest, I don’t think):

“BORDER INSPIRATIONS
I’m a strong proponent of pieced borders. It wasn’t always thus, but since 1994 when I wrote Pieced Borders with Marsha McCloskey, I realized almost every quilt is made better with a pieced border. Since that time a quarter century ago, I’ve designed a pieced border for most of my patterns.

For a while I’ve had a hankering to gather a bunch of my designs and talk about what the borders bring to the quilts and what I considered as I planned them. So with the prospect of e-books removing some of the publishing shackles, I sat down to write Border Inspirations.

Border Inspirations isn’t a pattern book. You won’t find a single pattern in it. It is, however, an idea book and, as the title suggests, an inspiration book. And the ideas and inspiration aren’t limited to borders, though obviously that’s the focus. You can look at the quilts in this book and find color schemes and fabric choices you like, or quilt types or specific quilts that call to you. I don’t know about you, but seeing a lot of beautiful quilts all at once almost always gets my patchwork engine revving. I see beautiful quilts, and I want to make a beautiful quilt, too.

You don’t have to be the sort of person who can simply add a border to an existing pattern all on your own. Not everyone can do that. With Border Inspirations you can decide what border qualities impress you and then seek patterns that possess those qualities.

Border Inspirations won’t take any room on your shelf. It is 96 pages and sells for just $7.95. It has 82 large photos of quilts with pieced borders, with the pattern source listed in the caption. Download your copy today and get jazzed up about quilts with pieced borders!”

I don’t get many emailed newsletters since they just pile up in my inbox until I delete them unread. I think Judy’s newsletter is worth reading. Here are the instructions for receiving your own subscription:

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO JUDY MARTIN’S NEWSLETTER
If you’re reading a forwarded email and would like to sign up for your own free copy, use the link and enter your email address under “Subscribe.”

ColorPlay: deYoung Flowers

ColorPlay: DeYoung Flower - original — ColorPlay: DeYoung Flower – original

I took a few photos at a special exhibit held at the deYoung in late March.

I can’t remember the name of the exhibit. They do it every year and it is up for a very short time. Someone chooses artworks and matches them up with floral designers who create a floral arrangement that matches, reflects, goes with – or something – the artworks. I had a hard time seeing how the floral designs went with the artwork. You never know what the artist sees. I find that with my own work.

I have many pictures from the show, but the pink in this one intrigued me. I really created a lot of palettes and could have created more. There is a lot of scope for color in that arrangements. I had to stop because I knew you wouldn’t read about 50 palettes. I also didn’t want to write that much.

The first palette, as usual is the default palette. This one is seriously neutral and somewhat depressing considering the vibrant colors in the bouquet. I noticed that the circles tend to be placed towards the edges.

I made sure my first palette included some brights, or at least cheerful solids. I kept in some of the neutral feel as I was trying to show progression. I don’t like that Kona Cotton Latte much. It sticks out like a sore thumb.

I have up on progression when making my first monochromatic palette, the pink. I was able to make two (yes, TWO) monochromatic palettes this time: a blue and a pink. I went for broke since that Kona Latte fabric really bugged me.

I went back to progression when I made palette n.3. I thought blue would look great with pink, so I kept some of the pinks and added some blues. I put more blues in as I didn’t want to make the palette exactly equal. I probably couldn’t have done another one that had more pinks than blues, too.

This one led to the monochromatic blue palette pictured above.

I tried to get away from my default blues and do something different. I think the anchor fabric in this palette is the Kona Cardinal. I didn’t completely succeed with this effort, because the Wasabi and Butterscotch are very similar. I am not sure the arrangement has need of that much of those tones.

I wanted to improve on the palette above, so I made minor adjustments. Chestnut Palm and Spice are not favorites. This is not my kind of palette.

I tried to improve the palette above again. I think I did a better job. The Grass Green and Deep Rose are much better.

I think n.8 is the best iteration of the last few. The palette reflects my personality. The pink brings out the best in the Sunflower. I think Taupe is a supporting actor and I wouldn’t put a lot of that in a quilt.

You may see other arrangements from this show in the future.

Octagon 9 Patch Returns

Octagon 9 Patch - ready for binding — Octagon 9 Patch – ready for binding

It was back in May that I finished preparing the Octagon 9 Patch for quilting and July when I took it to Colleen. The child has returned and the quilting looks fabulous. There is something about not seeing a quilt for awhile that makes it that much nicer. Also, being almost finished is wonderful, too.

Sadly, Colleen hurt her hand and she didn’t get to the Stepping Stones before she did it. I don’t know how badly, but I know she isn’t quilting for awhile. Hopefully, not too long. I am continuing to sew! (as you probably noticed)

New Pet Bed

I have plans to cut up scraps with my Accuquilt Go! on Monday. I figured that I had to have somewhere to put all the schnibbles, so I made a pet bed.

In the past, I have put the schnibbles into the bag I keep clipped to the side of my cutting table. It is, however, nearly full, and why take that interim step? I will probably have enough scraps after my Go! session to fill the whole pet bed. Yay! More comfy pets.

Aqua-Red Sampler Top Finished

I worked hard last week on the Aqua-Red Sampler and got the top and back finished. WHEW! I didn’t fight with it as much as I had over the past month, but it wasn’t all peaches and roses either.

I probably would have made the white border thinner, if I had it to do other again, but I am not ripping it out. I think it works.

I ended up choosing the solid border, mostly because I didn’t have enough of the daisy fabric and I didn’t want to fiddle and fight to make it fit. I am pleased with it.

Grandma’s Tea Towels

Mary C's Embroidered Tea Towel Quilt — Mary C’s Embroidered Tea Towel Quilt

The other day, at Sew Day, I saw Mary’s GREAT quilt and it made me think of some of the tea towels and such that I have that are nicely embroidered.

Yes, we had the Boxy Bag class, but there was plenty of time to work on other projects. I started cutting out the All Rolled Up Tote, as mentioned.

Mary C, a great member of the group, brought a quilt she had made with embroidered tea towels. I have tea towels, pillowcases and a few other things from the matriarchal side of the family. I talked about the parakeet dresser scarf (or similar) in a previous post.

Mary said that she used a jelly roll of 1930s fabrics. I really like the fabrics she chose and think they are a little different than the Aunt Grace style of 1930s fabrics.

This is the first quilt that I have really liked that uses tea towels. She backed the embroideries with ShapeFlex after trimming them. We advised her to just quilt around the embroidery designs and not over them.

Aqua-Red Sampler Top Nearing Completion

I worked hard on the Aqua-Red Sampler quilt over the weekend. It was great to have a nice long weekend. I made a lot of progress and will be glad to get this quilt out of my hair.

You will notice that I rearranged the blocks since my last layout. I also did not include the Cathedral Window block. It was just too thick. I have another test block from this quilt and I think I will make a pillow from the two of them.

I made a new block and needed to rearrange the blocks because of the colors. I didn’t want all the big red dots and daisy fabrics lumped together in one area. This quilt has been one problem after another and I hope that the borders will cut me some slack.

I found a bright white (Pure Elements Snow, which is different from Kona Snow) that picked up and highlighted the other bright whites in the blocks. I tried not to include too much cream where possible. I’m not sure about the width of that white border (2.5 inches). I may rip it off and make it smaller. That is not my first choice.

I thought the daisy fabric would be exciting, but I would have to struggle with making sure I used every scrap if I can’t find the rest of the stash of it that I know I have somewhere. The solid turquoise would be a solid choice. By that I mean that it would work, it would probably hold in all that is going on in the quilt.

All Rolled Up Tote Begins

I started cutting for the All Rolled Up Tote Saturday at Sew Day in between the Boxy Bag class. This one of the projects will not necessarily match my other Crafty Gemini projects even though that was the original intention. I wanted to use some text fabrics, so I veered away from my original idea.

This is sort of the like the Sew Together Bags. I haven’t, however, seen one in person, so I can’t really tell the differences. I do know that it is much bigger than the Sew Together Bag. One website says that the finished size is 15″L x 9″W x 6″T. 6 inches, which is as tall as my square ruler. This will be a large bag. Between this and the Tool Tote, I am not sure how my Go/travel bag is going to change.

There are about 2,000 pieces in this pattern and I only got about 653 cut out. I am happy that I got most of the fabric pieces cut out. What I have left to cut is batting, fusible interfacing and vinyl. Vanessa at Crafty Gemini loves her clear vinyl!

I didn’t print out all of the directions – just the cutting instructions, because I didn’t want to waste ink. I don’t know when I will sew on it, but since I have more cutting to do, it might be some time.

Boxy Bag Class

I took a class on Saturday at Sew Day. We don’t usually have classes during Sew Day, but we had this one. People were still allowed to come to Sew Day if they weren’t taking the class. They could listen in, but I didn’t see any of them trying to horn in on the class. We just aren’t that kind of group.

I did some of the home work during the week. I pulled the two fabrics off my ironing board and the pattern called for pieces almost the size of the fat quarters. This means I won’t have slivers of them in my FOTY 2018 quilt. 🙁 C’est la vie!

Lynette taught the class and she is a great teacher. Here handouts were stellar. Her teaching was really clear. The project wasn’t complicated, but a little tricky in places. She did a great job explaining the tricky parts even when two sets of students diverged when a group went and had lunch while the other group kept working.

I like the way this project came out. It is fully lined and very nicely finished. I immediately wanted to make a bunch of them. I think I’ll finish the aprons first.

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