Artquiltmaker Blog – Page 263 – Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity

Various & Sundry 2013 #9

Fabric and Tools

Did you see the mini-tutorial that Carole wrote about building an extension table? The super clever part is that she put it up on Flickr!

The Intrepid Thread has dangerous new fabric club options for you. You can grow your stash by leaps and bounds.

Deanna is shedding for different reasons, but I am feeling this urge to lighten the load as well. Piles are making me crazy and I am sewing quick things move fabric along the pipeline to make space for newer fabric so I can see it. I am thinking about it and trying anyway.

A recent Timeless Treasures blog post starts off with the line, “Basics are the backbone of the quilting world.” The post goes on to highlight the different types of ‘solids’ TT makes. It is an interesting post on a lot of levels. First, it is visually appealing and encourages the reader to look at the typical view of a solid fabric and expand on it. It also makes me think back to the Dark Ages when I started making quilts. The Cotton Patch had a whole room full of solids. I think they were there because the bold graphic quality of Amish quilts was so popular. In the mid-late 1990s, solids virtually disappeared from LQS shelves. Now they are back and ‘modern.’ Everything old is new again?

Have you been hearing about ice dyeing on Sandy’s podcast? Here are some great photos of Friend Julie’s fabulous ice dyeing experiments.

There is an interesting discussion going on the Sew Sweetness site about using patterns/books you actually buy to make a project. Sara gifts her patterns and books after she makes the item once (probably not for books) and says she is a process person. I use my books for inspiration for the most part, though I usually do intend to get inspired to make something from each book I buy even if it is not that exact project. For example I have a number of books about antique quilts. They are not project books, but I get inspired by them and may make a block or use a setting from them in a new and different way.

Patterns are a completely different story. If I buy a pattern, and I really try not to except for bags, I intend to make it. I have a number of bag patterns that are lined up waiting to be made, because I am still so enamoured with quiltmaking and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. What do you think? This topic might require more thought and a longer post.

Creativity and Inspiration

Lil Sissy pointed me to an article about creative people. Perhaps this will help you understand me better?

Danny Gregory talks about those evil voices in your mind telling you you are not smart enough, pretty enough etc in a recent blog post. He calls them the monkeys who are holding you back. It is a really good blog post and funny, too. He writes “… holding us back. Your shrink will tell you that we just have to realize that those monkey ghosts are only alive become [sic] we resuscitate them. You can defeat the specters by making stuff, by asserting your talent, by ignoring the grey-bearded monkey ghosts rehashing childhood bullshit. Want to relive an ancient drama? Read Hamlet.” He brings in a lot of interesting things to illustrate his point including The Exorcist, cells not to mention Hamlet. Get rid of those ancient wounds! Worth a read.

By the way, you are smart enough AND pretty enough! 😉

Need to exercise? Can’t get out of your chair because you are too busy sewing? Try the Quiltmaker’s Shuffle! Now there’s even a video to help you learn the steps.

Some thoughts on a well done quilt.

I really like the predominantly pink and yellow color combinations in this post about antique quilts.

If you are in need of some inspiration, take a look a Friend Julie’s photos of Death Valley. And this is not a place with the tarot death of transformation meaning. In Death Valley, follow the rules or be dead. Just saying. The pictures are amazing, though.

Have you seen the Packwood House quilts? The pink, olive and black one towards the bottom of the post is really intriguing! Interesting color combination.

Projects

See the San Mateo County Fair photos, including the ones you have already seen. 😉

Sara at Sew Sweetness has a new bag out, the Lapin Noir bag. Take a look. It is available for download. The first example on her site is just in my colors! I also like the one in Joel Dewberry fabrics.

Visiting

If you are heading to NYC,or live there, here is a list places that sound fabulous to visit. You can relax at several after visiting City Quilter and Purl Patchwork.

Did I point you to this quilt? TFQ wrote it when I was ruminating about how old some of my projects were as I, once again, reviewed the 26 Projects list. I remember reading it and thinking I needed to tell you about it, but I can’t find it on the blog. She wins on the geezer quilt front every time with no quibble from me. She has been quiltmaking longer and sewing even longer.

Weeks Ringle goes to the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in Indiana and writes a heartfelt blog post about it. she includes some commentary on a service project some young Amish people were doing and the converse in her neighborhood. I really like it, especially this quote “I admitted to myself that the pressures of my life have shifted my focus and that I need to shift it back. Like those disciplined horses unbothered by 18-wheelers, I need to not succumb to the pressures of modern life that I don’t or shouldn’t truly care about.” I love her writing, so, perhaps, I am biased?

On the Web

Here are some more reflections of Quilt Market 2013 by Diana at Pink Chalk. You need some fabric, too, right?

Jane Davila is getting a new studio. She has some photos up on her blog showing the beautiful light and windows. The fabulous part is that she will be starting a mentor program for artists. She writes great articles for various magazines about the business of art and I see this as a great extension. I wish I lived close enough to sign up. I hope those of you in the area will take advantage.

Vintage Tuesday #6

This an embroidery that my grandmother made for my wedding and just gave to me.

Frankly, I was stunned because
1. I didn’t know she did cross stitch. Crocheting yes. Cross stitch huh?
2. I have been married for 24 years. Where has this piece been all this time?
3. Where did she find it?

4. How did she find it?

5. How did she remember she had it? (I suspect she came across it when rummaging through something)

Don’t get me wrong, I like it and will probably get it framed. It just seems very strange to me.

Choosing Colors

I want to make up my own Jelly Roll-like group of fabrics for another Super Secret Project #3.

I remembered seeing these fabrics together after I bought them so I pulled them out and started trying to find some mates. I need about 45 strips, which means 45 different fabrics. That is not a MUST, but that is what I am thinking.

I pulled out some batiks and they were fine (pinks and oranges only-photo is of all of the FQs), but not perfect. I think what I saw was too much of a range of color. I need a range for some contrast, but think my mind doesn’t want too much of a range.

I really thought it would be no problem to pick 40 fabrics, but suddenly, I am not so sure. Should I add some red? Some pink? What do you think a Jelly Roll would have in it?

I know you are all sick of not seeing the finished pieces, but I promise that after I make this piece, I will be MUCH closer to showing you what I am working on.

Thoughts on Color & Composition

I got sucked into Anna Maria Horner’s blog the other day as I do when the VIMH#1 wants to come out to play. I was reading about the death of her mother, then her latest pregnancy and found a post about composing a quilt for one of her daughters. She writes

“That particular Kokka piece on the right above not only captured almost the entire palette of the quilt, but the print itself feels like a patchwork so I left it in large whole blocks. I considered the direction I would orient the piece for a while though, in other words, what colored edge of the piece would be adjacent to what other piece of the quilt. When you have a single piece that varies so much within the print, this becomes pretty important, and that decision can really take the whole composition in various directions.“

I am especially interested in the line where she writes “I considered the direction I would orient the piece for a while though, in other words, what colored edge of the piece would be adjacent to what other piece of the quilt. ” I agree that this is important and she says it so well. This concept or idea has been on my mind since I began working on those tiny 4″ Sawtooth Star blocks. I wrote about it in an early Star Sampler blog post. I wrote “I want the stars to be crisp and I don’t want the colors of the fabric in the stars to bleed into the background.” It is the same idea, though AMH takes it a bit farther in that she is using larger pieces and going with the way the fabric is colored in informing her composition.

While this may be a small thing, I find it often important to think about whether fabrics are bleeding into the background and whether I want that look. If your composition wants the fabrics to merge, you can get a soft, smudgy look. It is easier to blend fabrics into each other when they are already merging into one another.

If you want a crisp look, it is important to make the background very different from the foreground pieces. The forethought will make the piece look crisp and defined.

T-shirt Quilt, Finally

I started this quilt a long time ago, so when I pulled all of the t-shirts out last week, I wasn’t sure where I was or what to do next. The top photo shows the pieces to use as a start.

I had already trimmed off the colors, cuffs and backs, so I trimmed the other t-shirts in prepartion for interfacing them. That was a trip down memory lane. The small sizes of the shirts are hard to reconcile with the giant boy-Young Man who lives with me now.

I spent most of the day on Saturday trimming the t-shirts and pressing interfacing onto the back of each t-shirt panel. I chose a grey pebbly print that I bought before the Young Man was born to make the shirts a uniform size. After sewing sashing to a couple of the panels, I found that that technique was not working for me. I decided to just fill in between the panels. I had thought about sashing each panel and making little stars as the cornerstones. I am not sure it is going to work, though. I think I just need to fill in between the t-shirts and have stars quilted into it.

When I cut the t-shirts, I was forced to cut them all to a different size based on the design on the front, which is the main part of the quilt’s design. Looking at the all the designs and brands, while working through this process, made me think of the Young Man’s interests and how they have changed. I do think I will offer to make him another t-shirt quilt to encompass his current t-shirts, which reflect his current interests. However, his size won’t change as much during the 4 years of high school as it did during the K-8 period.

In a way, this quilt is about the fabric. The stretchy t-shirt fabric. It is not terrible to sew once the interfacing has been applied, but the cutting is tricky. I also find that sometimes the design sticks to my sewing table as I sew.

I really thought I had more t-shirts, but I guess I was brutal about the ones I chose. the Young Man also wore a lot of plain colored t-shirts as he got older, which are not interesting in a t-shirt quilt.

I almost didn’t cut up the Winnie-the-Pooh sweatshirt (dark blue, lower right) as it was so adorable and I remember chasing after the Boy trying to put it on him when he was super tiny. There are bits of schmutz on some of them, but I guess that just means they were used and well loved.

The boy came in and looked at the layout Sunday afternoon, as I was working on it. He liked what I had done so far. He did, however, ask me to remove the Blue’s Clues t-shirt, so I will put that one on the back. It is probably a good thing as my design wall is full and I would like to keep the size of the piece to the size of the design wall.

The bottom photo is what I ended up with after working most of the day Sunday on putting the piece together. I am particularly proud of the section with the smaller pieces (middle right).

I feel like I made good progress.

Dark Blue Cat Bed

After trimming all the t-shirts for the Young Man’s t-shirt quilt, my scrap bag was overflowing. The cat beds don’t take long to put together, so I sewed the pieces up and stuffed the bed with shards of t-shirt material and cotton scraps. My scrap bag is nice and clear now and the cat bed only needs a bit more stuffing.

I can’t make the next meeting either, so Kelly and I may meet downtown to exchange stuff for the meeting. The cat bed is heavy, however and I don’t want her to have to haul it around while at the Exploratorium with her daughter, so I may just mail it to Amanda.

Look for the pattern and information in this previous post.

FOTY 2013 – Late June

I am still cutting squares for FOTY 2013. You can see a lot of the squares from the Round Robin piece in this group.

I was trying to put the squares in color order, which is a good exercise. It is also hard if you are working with what you have rather than being able to select specific colors to fill in. I did pretty well, but was having trouble with the pearl Bracelets purple. It is so dark.

See the last group.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30