Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I got a brief glance at my Improv Round Robin piece before Ruth whisked it away to work on.
More of the Philip Jacobs print is showing up and that is creating some interesting results. I do think the piece needs more space, so I will add more solid or, perhaps, someone working on it will add more solid.
I came across the mystery quilt I made at the BAMQG retreat a few years ago. When I found it it was in pieces. I decided I would put it together and give it to the Charity Girls. I sewed 2 seams max, put it in my bag for the meeting and handed it in. I love the fabrics, but they didn’t work out very well and I was glad not to have another UFO to clutter up my mind.
This mystery quilt was not successful for me. That statement has to do with me not with the designer of the mystery quilt or the organizer of the BAMQG mystery quilt project. It has to do with the fabrics that I chose. I wanted bold fabrics. I chose bold fabrics, made bold choices. They didn’t work. I’ll try again
I spent last Sunday finally working on the Cutting Corners donation top. I was fiddling around not knowing what to do. I pulled out a piece of Dear Stella orange dot fabric and was inspired to use it as the sashing. Off I went.
The Cutting Corners ruler is not an easy ruler to use, especially for someone like me who is pattern reading challenged. I finally got the critical information and worked on the sashing. The picture above shows the first steps of creating the lozenge shape.
I am not sure this is the easiest method to create this type of sashing.
I am having problems with the corner triangles. The directions for the side triangles are ok. The corner triangle directions are abysmal. There is one line about how to make the corner triangles. I have been emailing back and forth with Mrs. K, but I think I am going to have to call her and get more info.
I probably would have used a different sashing fabric if I had been thinking more. I went with my intuition, though and I kind of like the effect of the orange.
I hope to be able to finish at least the top soon. Perhaps this weekend.
N-Trance – British rock band
an act of entering, as into a place or upon new duties.
Disneyland Park Entrance
The goal of entrance counseling is to help you understand what it means to take out a federal student loan.
entrance mat
entrance fees
Definition: “the place of entering like a gate or door, or the permission to do so.” (Wikipedia)
“Entrance may also refer to:
ENTRANCE is a subtle psychological thriller centered upon Suzy (Suziey Block), a young woman in Los Angeles who can’t get comfortable in her own skin.
Entrance (2012 movie) is about the limits of our perception, how the things lurking on the periphery of our lives can lead to horrific conclusions; about how she fell out of love
entrance exam
EnTranCe is the hotspot of applied sciences for businesses and innovations.
In Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches, an entrance is a procession during which the clergy enter into the sanctuary through the Holy Doors.
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and get familiar with your blog or website.
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP
Housekeeping
Thank you for leaving a comment. I really appreciate it. If you have never left a comment, I need to approve it. Recently, a kind person named Jen left a comment adding to the list of QuiltCon posts on the last V&S post. I could not approve her post, because, though it seemed real, she did not leave an email address or a website so I could check. This information, when you register, is not shared. Please do not leave fake addresses. I do appreciate your comments, but I need to confirm that you are not a spammer. Thanks!
Other Artists
I finally took a look at Melissa Averinos’ website. Her quilts are colorful, but have an element of sadness to them IMO. Her blog has a lot of OMG in it, but I think a lot of good has happened to her recently, so understandable.
Libs Elliott posted a great manifesto of sorts on Instagram. She posted it during the dark time on Instagram, so I am not sure how many people saw it. Take a look.
Exhibits & Events
The Monterey Peninsula Quilt Show is coming up on the weekend of April 9. Entry is only $5 according to their website!
Winners of the Lancaster AQS Show have been posted.
Piecemakers Legacies of Love Show will be held in Fremont July 16 & 17, 2016. Check the website as the date gets closer for more details.
Fabric, Tools & Supplies
I was directed to the Okan fabric shop. They have mostly indigos and other Japanese fabrics. After buying a lot of Japanese fabrics early in my career, I have sworn off them. The colors and clear designs are VERY hard to resist, though, and you should indulge. 😉
Yes, I have many of these low volume prints, but I will take the ones I don’t. Thanks.
Sew Mama Sew had an article recently called 12 Places to Donate Fabric. I was kind of disappointed, because it wasn’t a list of, say nonprofits, that actually take fabric; it was a list of places the might take fabric. We all know that many of the organizations that might take fabric are overwhelmed with generosity and usually don’t have the capacity to take it. Jenelle Monitlone wrote in a comment “Here’s a resource I pulled together which will allow you find Creative Reuse centers like SCRAP across the country and around the world” Jenelle’s list looks much more useful. Other suggestions include:
Take a look at the article as the ideas in the comments are more specific and useful.
Articles & Information
Frances has written a very good essay on why quilts matter. If you have listened to her podcast you know that the PBS series by the same title didn’t provide satisfaction in telling us why quilts matter. Frances picks up the slack in a well written and articulate piece.
I found an article about a mathematician who is also a quiltmaker. The article describes her method of ‘tube piecing’. The writer does not seem to have done any research into the current information, blogs, magazines about quiltmaking, because there is a tone of ‘awe and amazement at this little known artform’ (a description of my impression). I was also kind of surprised at the phrase “strip piecing, a technique developed by Ernest Haight in the 1960s and ’70s. ” I have never heard of Mr. Haight so I did a little digging and found an IQSCM exhibit featuring his work as well as a QNM article.
Frances has some thoughts on why the 16 billion dollar quiltmaking industry appears to be invisible.
Reminding you of a theme at QuiltCon, which was to learn what you can from classic quiltmakers, I wanted to share a blog post on borders with you. Jinny Beyer has always had an interesting take on borders and you might be be able to incorporate some points into your modern quilts.
Websites
TFQ told me about a color activity. Try it out. It tests your color acuity.
Check Sizzix’s Pic-a-Day post.
If you want fantastic soaps, check out my sister’s shop, Wooden Heart Soaps, on Etsy. If you see soaps in the shop, buy, because they are fantastic and made in limited quantities. She also has a Facebook shop where she posts tidbits of information.
I saw a post by My Creative Corner and took a look at her blog. I like her style of writing.
Now that Instagram is changing to a ‘relevant’ sort (a la Facebook) in the feed, are we all moving to Ello?
Patterns & Projects
Clue #3 has been posted by Charlotte of Scraptiude fame. This is for her latest mystery quilt Scrap in the Corner. Leave a comment if you are making this project with a link to your progress. I’d love to see how you are doing.
I made more progress on the Carpenter’s Wheel project over the weekend. I worked on this one in between working on the Cutting Corners donation top. I put in some newer fabrics and that makes me very happy. I am totally in love with that flower print I used for the center. It is by Studio E and that blue is fantastic! Especially since it is not turquoise. 😉
Now I have a dilemma. I now have 10 blocks. That is a very awkward number with which to lay out a quilt. I am going to look at the blocks and see if I can eek out two more unique layouts. If not, I may make two more of my favorites. I will also try to lay the blocks out in different ways to see if there is an interesting layout which will work for this piece.
At the EBHQ Show the other day, I noticed a lot of quilts that were made because the artist had something in his/her fabric stash already. There was a lot of “I made this quilt because these blues had been in the drawer for awhile” type of descriptions.
So, you made the quilt because you had some fabric laying around?
You didn’t like the pattern you selected?
There was no challenge in the technique?
You weren’t inspired by the blue of the sky and sea and picked appropriate fabric that you already had?
I don’t think it is wrong to use fabric in your fabric closet. I don’t think it is wrong to be inspired by a fabric line. If I did think that you would all call me out and you should!
Often, I am in the process of making a quilt and not at all inclined to go out, buy some fabric, wash and iron it before being able to finish. By that time it is time to cook dinner or someone needs my attention and the quilt will languish. I like having fabrics on hand with which I can work.
I do wonder why anyone would make a quilt solely because they had certain fabrics? Where is the fun in that? Quilts require a lot of effort so to have one aspect be the sole reason you make one seems a little odd to me.
I applaud using what you have, but let’s think about the whole process and not make the process solely about destashing. Process is really important to me. Some questions that float around in my head are:
Quiltmaking is not a life or death situation and if people want to make a blue quilt because they have blues in their stash, at least more quilts are being made. I hope that quiltmaking will keep my brain pliable and active as I age. I hope that all the different aspects of quiltmaking will provide a variety of opportunities to continue learning and growing.
Why do you make quilts?
Darla, of the Scientific Quilter, is hosting the #March-a-long event. The short version is that you do something quilty for 15 minutes per day. I failed last week, but was doing pretty well especially since I have a lot of ironing of fabric to do. After ironing comes cutting and that means more FOTY fabrics. Yes, I should starting putting FOTY 2015 together. I haven’t quite gotten to it, but soon.
I have cut a number of patches for the quilt and it is interesting to see the themes that crop up in my patches.
That purple on the bottom looks a lot better cut into smaller pieces. I pulled it out to cut and wondered what I was thinking when I bought it. Good thing I have no problem cutting up fabric.
Someone asked a question in a comment this week about organization. This sent me back in time to review my posts on organization, as it is always easier to point someone to a previous blog post than to write the whole thing over and over. Not that you aren’t worth it, of course. 😉
I am not sure I ever said, but I store most of my fabric, primarily, by color in plastic bins. Occasionally, I will put a special group of fabric together. For example, I have some silk fabrics in one bin (bottom right). I can’t buy those bins anymore, which is too bad, because I like the flat tops, but in an ideal world I would have some other system where the fabric wasn’t confined like it is in the bins. I am grateful to have the bins, but if I need light blues, there is a lot of manhandling that has to happen before I can get that bin out.
Some fabrics have spilled over to other parts of the closet, so I can’t just look in the orange bin if I want orange fabrics. I also have a drawer system, holds a lot of my dots. Not all, but a lot.
TFQ helped me pick out this as well. I like it and it holds a lot.
One issue I have is non-fabrics and non-patterns. I have pre-cuts waiting for me to make my intended project. I have blocks from the City Sampler project. I also have blocks from the quilt class with Frances. These are still a problem I haven’t resolved. I put them where I can find some space. This isn’t an ideal solution. The pictures in this post from 2008 make me sentimental for the good old days when this closet was clean. At least, I am continually removing fabric I no longer want to use for my own projects and making it into donation quilts or giving it to the guild. I am also paying more attention to fabric I buy so I don’t buy things that will end up in a donation quilt sometime.
One of the posts I wrote talked about organizing projects in project boxes. I have a couple of project boxes like the ones pictured and I don’t use them for projects. I want to use them for projects, but they take up more space than file folders. In my current space, with the current furniture, etc, it isn’t possible. The ones I have I use for patterns, especially bag patterns. And they are full, which means that I have to start churning out bags. HA! We’ll see since I have two bags on my to do list and all of those patterns are bags on my ‘someday’ list.
As I mentioned in another previous post, I still use the hunting and gathering method to make quilts. At the moment I am hunting and gathering for at least the following someday quilts:
There are other patches as well such as 2.5″ squares (you just never know when you will need some), donation patches, random HSTs and others.
I still use the scone boxes for hunting and gathering, though that trickle of new boxes has slowed. The company changed the cranberry orange scone recipe 🙁 and they just aren’t as good as they used to be. Not bad, but not worth the 360 calorie commitment. The scone boxes are a good size, but they have some issues. The rounded edges don’t poke me, which is not. They also don’t stack very well because of those rounded edges. Also, being disposable, the plastic is pretty thin and tends to break easily. Still since they come into the house filled with something rather than empty, they are economical.
Of course, I probably shouldn’t stack them 8-10 high. Fortunately they don’t open and spew fabric patches everywhere when they do fall. One thing to think about would be not to have so much hunting and gathering going on all at once.
I have a few miscellaneous plastic, former food containers as well. Good ones, for me, come from chocolate covered cherries and spinach.
At some point, I plan to replace these with more stackable and sturdier boxes.
There is a lot of other stuff to organize in my workroom, but it is all badly stored if adequately organized and I don’t want to show you photos. I really want better shelves or something for my books, embellishments, etc. I think I will be able to work better and get more day.
Off to buy a lottery ticket!
I didn’t mean to have two donation posts in a row, but it was more about poor blog post planning than not knowing I was going to sew.
Gerre and I spent the day together chatting and making another donation top. I had cut the backgrounds for a T quilt a few months ago, but didn’t finish the foreground cutting. I brought what I had and my bin of orange fabrics since sewing together is way more fun than sewing alone.
It was great. Gerre was kind enough to listen to a couple of sad tales of woe. After that was over, I started in on cutting foregrounds while Gerre set up to sew. Pretty soon she was sewing as I handed her packaged sets of ready-to-sew patches. We both pressed. It took us about 4 hours to make the top back and binding, but we had lunch in between and I wasn’t caught in terrible traffic on my way home. All in all it was a pretty leisurely schedule. Satisfying to finish a top and back as well.
These aren’t great photos, but you get the idea. The top is about 45″x45″. The binding will be random bits of leftover fabrics.
It was a great way to spend the day and I really needed a day of sewing as it was a stressful week. Also, we were able to do something good for someone else.
After this one, only 10 more prompts!!!
Project Dragonfly, at Miami University, promotes inquiry-driven reform, reaching millions of people worldwide through learning media, exhibits, and education programs.
From Luke Burns Enterprises: Dragonfly is a very small and compact browser. It uses very little disk space, but is capable of visiting any Web site on the Internet.
DRAGONFLY, a metabolic farm for urban agriculture 2009
The Dragonfly tube set was designed to build the lightest possible bicycle frames without sacrificing stiffness, durability and ride quality.
Dragonfly Symbol Native American Indians had a highly complex culture, especially those who lived on the Great Plains.
Definition: “A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, suborder Anisoptera (from Greek … anisos “uneven” + … pteros, “wings”, because the hindwing is broader than the forewing). Adult dragonflies are characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, sometimes with coloured patches and an elongated body. Dragonflies can be mistaken for the related group, damselflies (Zygoptera), which are similar in structure, though usually lighter in build; however, the wings of most dragonflies are held flat and away from the body, while damselflies hold the wings folded at rest, along or above the abdomen. Dragonflies are agile fliers, while damselflies have a weaker, fluttery flight. Many dragonflies have brilliant iridescent or metallic colours produced by structural coloration, making them conspicuous in flight. An adult dragonfly eye has nearly 24,000 ommatidia.
Fossils of very large dragonfly ancestors in the Protodonata are found from 325 million years ago (Mya) in Upper Carboniferous rocks; these had wingspans up to about 750 mm (30 in). About 3000 species of Anisoptera are in the world today. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions.
Dragonflies are predators, both in their aquatic larval stage, when they are known as nymphs or naiads, and as adults. Several years of their lives are spent as nymphs living in fresh water; the adults may be on the wing for just a few days or weeks. They are fast, agile fliers, sometimes migrating across oceans, and are often found near water. They have a uniquely complex mode of reproduction involving indirect insemination, delayed fertilization, and sperm competition. During mating, the male grasps the female at the back of the head or on the prothorax, and the female curls her abdomen under her body to pick up sperm from the male’s secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen, forming the “heart” or “wheel” posture.
Loss of wetland habitat threatens dragonfly populations around the world. Dragonflies are represented in human culture on artifacts such as pottery, rock paintings, and Art Nouveau jewellery. They are used in traditional medicine in Japan and China, and caught for food in Indonesia. They are symbols of courage, strength, and happiness in Japan, but seen as sinister in European folklore. Their bright colours and agile flight are admired in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the prose of H. E. Bates.” (Wikipedia)
The Dragonfly Foundation
Opera Dragonfly — our fully-featured suite of developer tools, designed to make your job easier.
The Dragonfly generates a silky extended top-end, contoured midrange and a bump at the upper end of the lower frequencies that thickens thin signal sources by Blue Microphones
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and get familiar with your blog or website.
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP
This is the next Carpenter’s Wheel. I almost finished it in between this week’s donation blocks and the Peacock blocks. I have one more seam.
The green is a bold choice, but I only have a couple of small pieces of the chair fabric left and I wanted to use it
As I said yesterday, I spent Sunday making the Peacock blocks. In between I made donation blocks. I had taken 3 kits from the BAMQG meeting on Saturday so I made those up first. Those blocks are the 2 on the right and the one on the top. After I was done with those, I made up a few more from my own fabric. I sewed them as leaders and enders in between the parts of the Peacock hexagons. I used them to keep track of the various parts of the blocks. They are all the same colors, so it is easy to mix of pieces. And the bonus was all the donations blocks I finished as well.
I do intend to make more donation blocks.
The change to Daylight Saving Time is a nightmare. What a dumb idea or an idea whose time has passed. I changed the clock by my bed the night before so when I woke up, I saw that it was already later than usual. For some reason I felt awful. It might have been the dread of knowing that I had lost an hour. I got up and got some caffeine and went up to my workroom.
I needed to just sew, so I looked at the projects I had that were at the rote sewing stage. After a very short deliberation, I pulled out the Peacock blocks and started sewing.
I don’t remember how many sets I cut up at the Retreat, but the prep I did there allowed me to just sew pieces and parts together. I now have about 40 blocks. When I say blocks, I mean two halves of blocks because I can’t sew the pieces of the blocks together until I lay out the entire quilt. Once I lay it out, I will sew it together in rows.
It was great to just sew. I only had to sew straight seams. I didn’t have to make a lot of decisions beyond how to press the seams and the stack of blocks got bigger and bigger.
I wanted to do more, but don’t I always? That was the kind of sewing that I needed. I finally feel like I am making progress.
I had a pretty good weekend sewing. It started with my return from the BAMQG meeting (post on that later). I was so fired up to sew. This was also pent up energy from not sewing for a few days. As soon as I arrived home and dumped my stuff, I sat down at the sewing machine and sewed the cat bed I got from Amanda at the meeting.
I like the fleece fabric Amanda picked out. It is really fun. And cheerful (though not in a pink kind of cheerful way). I like those seahorses.
I needed to make another cat bed, because my bag of schnibbles was starting to scare me. I should have taken two, but I wasn’t thinking.
I wonder if seahorses will be the next big thing. I saw a paper pieced project of a seahorse on Instagram recently.