Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This project makes me feel like I am beating a dead horse.
I kept making Flying Geese to turn the 16 patches into stars and putting them up sort of higgeldy piggeldy on the design wall. Suddenly, I saw I design that was better than the straight set I had been planning.
I am not sure about the fifth block. If I keep it, where will it go? If I chuck it out, will there be too much white space? The white space will be background fabric – plain white.
Bloomston got an assignment from an art professor to go and make a secret piece. The class was to do it and not tell anyone. They weren’t to turn it in or ever talk about it. Having and keeping the secret was the assignment. Having a secret doesn’t mean going and destroying some public property and then never telling anyone because of the guilt. Guilt is not involved. Having a secret in this context means finding that the “reward is inside us” (pg.70). If you are doing your art to get attention or to post on Facebook, then this spark is for you. Don’t make things because you think they will sell; make things that come from your heart.
I decided at some point that I would create this blog for myself 1) as a chronicle of my quiltmaking work and 2) as tool for practicing my writing. It isn’t a secret since, presumably, you are reading it. While I adore comments and interactions with my readers, if I only wrote the blog for you, I would have stopped a long time ago. I don’t get enough comments to get motivated to keep writing. I do refer back to old posts often enough to make it worth it for me. My blog isn’t a secret, but I have gained the benefit of the secret status because I really do write it for me.
There is something about having a secret project to work on. “Your own creative voice can get a bit clouded by all the other voices you hear from peers and teachers. It can become confusing and difficult to listen to your own voice.” (pg.70). No Instagram comments saying followers “LOVE IT”. Nobody has to get it. Just you.
Journals are often very private. My husband knows I keep one, but he has never read it. He can read them all when I am dead.
Nota bene: we are working through Carrie Bloomston’s book, The Little Spark. Buy it. Support the artist. There is a lot more to each spark than what I am writing and the original chapters will help you. Go buy Carrie Bloomston’s book, so you get the full benefit of her fabulousness! You can see my book review, which is what started this flight of fancy.
You can find the last spark on the blog a few weeks ago.
I am slowly working on the Stars donation quilt. I have a few full stars made and am working on the others.
I am working on these as a leaders and enders project in between another project. The other project has a lot of applique’ so I don’t always get to piece the stars. Still, the stars are appearing.
Due to the fact that I still have not set my large design wall back up, I am using an inadequately sized design wall. This means that pieces get overlapped and crammed together, which can be annoying, but can also be inspiring.
I was determined to do a 9 block baby / small child quilt for donation. Upon seeing the stars partially made and crammed together, it occurs to me that there are other design options. I think I will make more of a free form layout rather than a straight set. It will be more interesting and have a bit more negative space for someone to express their quilting artistry.
I have been able to come up with a few donation blocks, despite the many leaders and enders opportunities.
I am particularly fond of the block in the upper left hand corner. Something about the combination of bright blue, turquoise and pink is very appealing.
The Peacock is finally finished. Technically, it was a challenge.
I was able to add a lot of fabric to the fabric used column of my spreadsheet.
Still, I am not a fan of this quilt. I am not sure why, but I just don’t like it. I don’t hate it and am really glad it is finished. It just didn’t turn out like the vision in my head.
I already have someone who wants it. We will see.
I liked the previous Star Donation top so much that I decided to make another one. As I have mentioned, I have a lot of leaders and enders opportunities, so I am not making as much progress on donation tops and blocks right at the moment. Still, slow progress is better than no progress.
At the moment, I have the blocks done. I will make Flying Geese to add to make them into Sawtooth Stars.
Not all of the blocks have black background patches, but I did try to keep the background patches dark so as to continue to explore that look.
I also decided to make this one larger – 9 blocks instead of 4. Still, looking at it makes me think I could make two donation tops with these blocks for the NICU, if I wanted to make them smaller. I will see what I think when I finish making the blocks into stars.
Have you been enjoying Palindrome Week?
I went through the blogs on my blogroll and found that many of them have not been updated in months, some for a couple of years. I guess I will be finding some new blogs to include. Any blogs that you particularly like?
Tell Your Friends
For Sale Items: Take a look at fabric, a design wall and more! Buying helps me get a new design wall. 😉
The Quilt Class page has been updated. Have you made your sampler yet?
Tools, Fabric, Products and Notions
Doug Leko has a new-ish ‘folded corners ruler‘. I believe this is similar to or the same as the “flippy corners” method. I am not 100% sure and haven’t watched the YouTube video to be able to say for sure. Scott of Blue Nickel Studios posted about it.
As I have mentioned, Gen Q Magazine has notebooks with a No Quilt Bullying message. I can’t think of any good reason for quilt bullying or meanness.
Books, Patterns, Projects & Tutorials
Have you seen this birthday cake block by Handmaiden? It is free download from Craftsy. I have a thing for cakes, so this is right up my alley. I am trying to think of ways to use it.
I had seen the New York Beauties and Flying Geese book briefly somewhere, but didn’t pay much attention until I saw mention of it again on the Sew Sweetness blog. Sara has a sample block posted and it looks fantastic. Of course, a lot of it is about the fabric, but the designs are great. I am sad that none of the three libraries to which I have cards owns it.
I mentioned a few V&S post ago that Judy Martin has launched a new eBook venture called Judy Martin eBooks. I am delighted to be a new Judy Martin Affiliate. I love her patterns and books and, most importantly, her sound quiltmaking techniques. I have a goal to take a class with her sometime. This means that I will probably have to travel to Iowa since she rarely teaches outside the area anymore. Did you take a look? She already has a number of her eBooks up on her site. Purchasing eBooks saves pace on your bookshelf. I encourage you to look through her offerings and purchase some. Yes, I will get a very nice cut of your purchase if you click on the links listed, but you will also be directly supporting her hardworking family. Links:
Quilt Rat has a post about embellishing ready made fabric and clothing. She talks about the importance of testing and shows her process.
Exhibitions, Projects & Events
QuiltCon Registration for the general public started July 8, so spread the word to your quilt family and friends. I will be attending and would love to see you there. There are many open sessions as well as more public social events than ever. Hope you can make it.
The MQG Exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is on display until July 16.
Are you doing ICAD from Daisy Yellow? Friend Julie is and she has some great pieces that would make wonderful fabric. I hope she puts some on Spoonflower.
Linda M. Poole mentioned The Big Beach House Quilt Retreat hosted by Charlotte Agnotti in Corolla, NC, Feb 19-23, 2018 in her blog post.
I wanted to remind you that the Quilters Take Manhattan (QTM)event is a three-day event Sept. 15-17 that includes garment district tours, museum and gallery exhibitions, a night on Broadway, a vendor hall, silent auction and raffle prizes. The QTM 2017 keynote speaker is Sherri Lynn Wood, author of The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously. QTM sponsor Quilt Alliance recently posted an interview with Sherri on its blog.
And this year at QTM, attendees are invited to participate in the Fashion Challenge, By making garments and accessories featuring fabric from the Quilters Take Manhattan collection available at Spoonflower, they have a chance to win prizes.
QTM is an annual fundraising event for the non-profit Quilt Alliance which works to document, preserve and share the stories of quilts and quilters. (thanks to Stashed for the tip)
The non-profit Quilt Alliance is conducting a membership drive through August. Established in 1993, the Quilt Alliance documents, preserves and shares the American quilt heritage. Individuals as well as guilds and small businesses can join. (thanks to Stashed for the tip)
Tips & Tricks
Vicki Welsh has a blog post about stapling your quilt to your longarm’s leaders and enders. Her method makes a lot of sense and you don’t get stuck with pins every 5 seconds.
Inspiration
I am behind in my House Beautiful reading, so I was pleased to see a blog post pointing me to the book, Colorstrology. Mostly, I love the cover and the name. I am not sure I need to know what my birthday says about me in terms of color. 😉
I am still cutting for FOTY 2017. It’s only halfway through the year, so why wouldn’t I be?
When I went to crop the photo, I saw that it was sideways from the orientation in which I had photographed it. Since I intend to arrange the rectangles in a horizontal orientation, I thought I would display the latest additions in this orientation, so you could tell me what you think. Lots of greys since I am working ona grey background right now.
I still have some of the pressed glass photos from my trip to Indiana and wanted to try a few more palettes. I thought this color scheme would be an interesting challenge.
The default was, of course, in Jaye-world, not to my tastes. It isn’t horrendous. The Silver and Pewter, as well as the Primrose are all nice. The Cayenne adds some zing.
I did think it was interesting that most of the circles were clustered in the top of the photo. Not all, but most.
It is a little dusty for my tastes – the colors are not clear. It is good that I could try again.
The second palette, the first where I moved the circles, was much more focused on the reds. I intentionally kept the circles to the top row of vessels and tried to get as many reds as possible.
As you can see there is a Peach, Pale Flesh and Spice, which are tones and shades of red, but not strictly red.
There might not be enough contrast in this palette for a quilt where one really wanted to show off the piecing, but for a subtly shaded quilt, it would be great.
In the third palette, my second, I tried to go for bright and cheerful.
Success! The combination seems cheerful to me and all of the colors go together.
This palette also has Peach in it and I noticed that the peach looks very different next to the Butterscotch than it does above next to the Sienna. I have always wanted to play around with putting one color next to a bunch of different ones to see the effect of the different colors on the one. Someday, perhaps.
My third, the fourth total palette, uses the middle of the image. This is a challenge on a couple of levels based on the question “what color is clear?”. Well, our eyes say something different than the Palette Builder tool. The Palette Builder tool has to assign a Kona fabric color. I knew that this palette would be wintery.
It is. The greys and blues are colors I would use for a snowy landscape quilt. Some of the darker greys are a little depressing for me, but I do like the Silver and the Oyster is okay, too.
I wanted to see if I could make a very different palette in the same area of the photo. I ended up moving the circles down to the next row on the photo.
My idea didn’t work very well. The two palettes are very similar with the addition of Bison (hilarious name if you have ever seen a Bison).
Stone shows up, which is repeat, as does Ash, which is not. Ash is another one of the Konas that I really like.
I was running out of photo, but I decided to try with the white and clear pressed glass one more time and see what I could come up with.
Another wintery landscape palette with some more blue tints added. Some of my favorite Konas are included: Ash, Snow and Silver. The Shale was an unexpected addition. I think the Shale gives the whole palette an icy feel.
I think I went in with a different mindset this time and was much more openminded about the palettes. The Palette Builder is a great and fun tool. Try it out! Let me know if you make anything with any of these palettes.
I went to Craft Night with dark blues and text fabrics in hand. The event was at SIL’s and she has the Peaky & Spike die. I planned to cut up the Peaky and Spikes I needed for the next step in the En Provence quilt.
I accomplished my goal. These are supposed to be purple, but I am not using purple in this quilt. I find purple to be a depressing color when I use a lot of it in a quilt, so I tend to shy away from it.I don’t hate it, I just have other favorites. Since I used blues in the recent 4patches, I am using a dark blue to go with those pieces
I had to dig through a lot of my fabric to find these dark blues. I used up most of the my dark blues on the Stars for San Bruno quilts. I don’t use dark blue that much, but I am finding that it comes in handy periodically. Not all of these blues are super dark. They are, however, different and darker than the blues used in the four patches.
I have started to sew the Peakys to the Spikes, but haven’t gotten very far. Small accomplishments.
Net Neutrality means that everyone receives the same treatment. My content is delivered just as fast as a movie from Comcast. Unless I am doing something illegal, no ISP can slow down what I serve up as content to you. Content providers cannot pay an ISP to provide their content faster than mine.
I am a content provider. While I may not provide content that everyone likes, I am able to provide content.
45’s appointee “Ajit Pai has proposed a reversal of these regulations, which he’s said unfairly burden the ISPs and are archaic for relying on utility-style regulation.”
Allowing ISPs to slow down content will affect public libraries, companies whose product interferes with a product owned by the ISP, schools and more.
Send a comment to the FCC and to your Congress person telling them to protect Net Neutrality. Do it now.
You can find more information on these sites:
This is not a left or right political issue. This is about innovation and fairness. It was a hard won battle to get Net Neutrality. Let’s keep this as a right.
Occasionally I knit.
I learned in Austria when I lived there and have made a sweater, a vest and a scarf that I can remember. Now I just knit scarves, though I am tempted to knit a skull cowl for the YM.
I haven’t for awhile, but when I saw the colors of this yarn, it drew me in and the softness sealed the deal.
It ended up that the different widths of the yarn were really a pain, but I am pleased with how the scarf turned out. Knitting and listening to audiobooks is a great activity for airplane trips and you all know I had enough of those in the past few months.
Once I got the hang of knitting again, I went to town and was able to finish this scarf in a few months. I found that I liked purling better than knitting, which my SILs think is a scream, so the scarf I am working on now is all purling. I think I will do the next one with 4 purls on the edges and knits in between.
I might enter this scarf in the Fair. I made it for me, so it will be around the house. I may, however, make another that is better. We’ll see.
As I implied yesterday, I was part of a group making the Tula quilt. The group, I think, really struggled with what blocks to make. I don’t think people were reluctant to make the blocks. I think we were just having a hard time getting inspired. If there had been a theme, like stars or Flying Geese or something, it might have been easier. Still we all came through with flying colors! There was some cohesion in the blocks that were contributed, which was fabulous. Of course, the Tula fabric help make them all hang together.
Amanda and Gerre worked on the layout, but I think the block makers feeding off of each other made it easier. The large Flying Geese type panels can certainly bookend any other layout. Cheryl’s castle is a great center.
I am so pleased with how this all worked out.
Back in the Spring, I received an email about contributing to a lovey quilt for a friend moving to Scotland. She is a Tula Pink devotee and that would be the theme. Of course I wanted to participate, but I am not a Tula devotee and I only had one Tula fabric as far as I knew.
I went online and bought a couple of pieces. I didn’t want to buy a lot as it isn’t really fabric I generally use. I was pleased to find a fat quarter pack of Tula solids. I knew I would use those, so I scooped them up with a couple of the more Tula-esque prints and started thinking about a design.
This was to be a modern quilt from Tula fabric and I really was at a loss about what to make. I would normally default to Sawtooth Stars for a lovey block as they are great all around and work well with fussy cutting. They didn’t seem right for this piece.
I needed to get busy as the deadline was approaching and my work travel + Grand Parlor were all coming up quickly. I decided on a modern house block a la the Clerestory quilt.
I wasn’t really excited about the house block and hadn’t started yet when I saw another member of the group working on hers at a Sew Day. She was making a Pineapple block. This made me think that a house block would be hard to fit in, so I decided that a wonky log cabin would work better. I am not a huge log cabin fan and wonky log cabins are worse. However, I could fussy cut the special motifs and work around them in a way that would really scream ‘TULA’. That is what I did. I am pretty pleased with the blocks. They didn’t come out exactly as intended, but they look nice and people seemed to like them.
A few weeks have gone by since I finished this top. I am not sure why I didn’t post it, but I am now.
The piece, as I have said a million times is HUGE. This means that it is hard to photograph. It further means that you get a glimpse of some of the furniture that needs to be recovered in the photo. 😉
I am pleased with the way it came out. The back is done (no photo, sorry), the binding is done and I am working on a sleeve.
I made The Peacock sleeve this week and thought it would be great to just make the Carpenter’s Wheel sleeve as well. It would be ready for hand sewing and I wouldn’t have to stop what I was doing to make a sleeve. I haven’t completed it yet, though it is in process.