Artquiltmaker Blog – Page 318 – Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity

Food Quilt

This quilt is all about the fabric.

I started cutting when I found myself starting to wash and iron food fabrics AND when I started to run short of leaders and enders.

As you know I made an effort to get the Farmer’s Market fabrics put out by RJR. I was able to buy a nice selection in Pennsylvania. I also scrounged a bunch from my mom when she was done with her food quilts.

After that, it was time to do a test. I want to do a Disappearing 9 Patch. I saw Robin doing one at the CQFA 2011 Retreat and she got a lot of bang for her buck. I want something that won’t take forever, but won’t be boring. First, though I wanted to try it out.

I am thinking I will make the real squares 6.5″. I didn’t want to commit that much fabric to a test, so I made the test group much smaller. The squares for each part of the test 9 Patch are 2.5″ cut. The above shows you the look I am thinking of using: food fabrics in the corners, white on black print on the middle outsides and red in the center. The Young Man gave his seal of approval, though wanted to know where the pizza fabric was, so I’ll have to rethink not including pizza fabric (it isn’t part of Farmer’s Market).

The blocks look good and I think my idea will work. As I said the real blocks will be on a much larger scale. I think that the rearrangement of the blocks in that kind of infinity pattern will look good as well. Things to which I need to pay attention:

not to many green food fabrics in the same block
cut up lots of reds and blacks, if I really want to get moving

This is another way I could arrange the block parts. It has kind of a self sashing thing going. I don’t think I would want to do this unless I added more sashing to the center, which would be a lot more work. I don’t see any reason to cut up the 9 Patch in the Disappearing 9 Patch manner if I am just going to add more sashing to the middle. I might as well cut squares and sash them.

I really should have put a quarter or a dime next to these blocks so you can get an idea of how large they are, but I didn’t think of it before I took the photos. As a result, I don’t know if you will be able to to tell how large the final cut patches are?

As I iron fabric, I cut these large squares out and set them aside. I was finishing up Stars for San Bruno #2 when I first cut these, so I didn’t cut any black/whites or reds. I’ll get to it.

Various & Sundry 2011 #13

Quilt World News
Ardis James died on July 7, 2011. She was a pioneer in the quilt collecting realm, at least in my opinion. She, and her husband, Robert, were pioneers in antique and contemporary quilt preservation as well as quiltmaking traditions. Ardis and her husband helped establish the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska. Thank you, Ardis, for your generosity. Rest in Peace.

Quilter’s Home will also die. It is being killed, actually. I am a subscriber and received an email on Friday saying subscriptions will be replaced with Quilters’ Newsletter. Sigh. I wonder if the change from Mark was just too much for people?

Out and About
A librarian friend sent me a link to an online lace museum called the Virtual Museum of Textile Arts. I am not that interested in lace, but I am interested in the history of the work of women’s hands. This is an Italian museum or related to an Italian entity, so there are some unique spellings on the site. There are multiple ways to search – by date, period, technique. I found some records and each of the records seems to have a photograph associated with it. There are videos and tutorials, which I didn’t look at.

Projects
I have a lot of projects going on, but I also have ideas swirling around in my head and supplies that suggest projects. I bought a couple of fun and cheerful charm packs recently and am mulling over making another 1-2 Chubby Charmers. My hesitation has a couple of stems:

how many Chubby Charmers does one person need?
are there quilts or other projects that would interest me enough to use for the charm packs? If so, what are they?

I posted FOTY 2010 to the “Linda M. Poole I made a quilt for me page on FB” and got a lot of nice comments about it, including one from Michele Foster of Quilt Gallery fame. She pointed me to a page on her site showing the designs for the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi, Russia that look similar to my just finished FOTY. Trendsetting, again?

C&T Publishing had an interesting bag project posted on their site (I actually saw it on Creating the Hive). I like the shape of the bag.

I have started to listen to Katie’s Quilting Corner Podcast. I like her confidence and it is fun to hear what other people are doing. Katie has a good way of organizing her show notes with her podcasts. This comment could be down int he Media section, but one project that I really liked was Katie’s Mondo Bag. It is a postage stamp sort of design and I really liked the shape.

And, if the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt-a-Long and the various other quilt-a-longs going on in the summer weren’t enough, Fresh lemons and two friends are doing a Summer Sampler Series.

Media
Frances has been suggesting the Crafty Garden Mom podcast for months and I have been resisting. Before I left, I thought I would need some extra listening so I downloaded an episode and listened to it. As I said in a previous post: Love it! I just listened to a few more episodes and they are equally as good. Tanesha is a good storyteller.

Did you sign up for the Giveaway from Lark Crafts? It is still going on, but you do have to follow the rules.

I was desperate for some podcasts, so I downloaded a few from the Pioneer Quilter. One was an interview with Leah Day. I really learned a nice amount about her work and her site as well as the products she offers. I was interested to hear about how she works. There was a lot of background noise and a pretty big disparity in the loudness of Kelley’s voice and Leah’s voice, which meant I had to have the sound very loud to hear Leah and then I would get my ears blasted when Kelley asked a question. There was also some repetitive thumping int he background and occasionally some jangling that distracted me. I know next to nothing about podcasting. I greatly admire podcasters who take time away from their quilting to podcast. I love hearing about people’s projects. I do find that the sound is important, though and hope that Kelley will go back and see if she can edit this podcast a bit. I the information is excellent and the sound problems distract from that.

Fabric

I didn’t realize (well, I probably did, somewhere in the back of my mind, know it was a possibility and just didn’t think about it) that I could get myself into trouble with fabric just by attending a BAMQG meeting. Well, now I know. 😉 Angela bought a healthy stack of fabrics from the Intrepid Thread. Since Julie attends the meetings, she brought the stack to the meeting. You know how I am attracted to bright colors and shiny objects (magpie principle), so I had to take a look. I really prefer to see the fabrics than to buy them sight unseen online. Above are the fabrics that I bought. The conversationals were little treats that Julie included with my package. Have you seen how Julie wraps up her sales? It is like receiving a gift. I don’t need to receive my fabric that way, but it does make me feel special. 😉

Business
I really did update my Cafe’ Press store. I enlarged the selection of products and changed the image on the Jacket, cards, and tote bags to the FOTY 2010 image. Yes, a jacket! Don’t you want to wear a quilt around? I think I am going to buy one to see how it fits. If you missed the Seeing Red products, sorry, but I did warn you. I need to pay for high school so I hope you will take a look at what I have to offer. Thanks!

When I received a Kindle as a gift, I bought a cover from Elizabeth David Designs and really like it. She recently sent out a free shipping notification, so you might want to check out her Etsy Shop. She is using some lovely fabrics for her covers.

Hexagons
And for your hexagon inspiration: This little mini quilt is from Malka Dubrowsky.

Now go forth and be inspired to do great work!

Inspiration Tuesday

There was an electrical fire in the building where my hairdresser has his chair. The shop is completely destroyed, but the fire alarm was called shortly after the fire started so it was contained. Nobody was injured. He was able get his appointment book and his scissors out, but lost his clippers, blow dryer, color, shampoo, etc.

As a result of this excitement, he is working from a temporary location. As I walked up the street I saw this mosaic tile art in the doorway of a Victorian. Hopefully, it will inspire you and your hexagons.

New Journal Cover

I needed a new journal cover, but I also made this with some scraps to comply with Sandy’s Stash Mystery challenge. I tried to do her gorilla challenge last summer, but never got to the stitching. I still would like to finish that, but it isn’t high on the priority list.

Anyway, I heard her talk about the challenge and then I went to look at the requirements. Knowing I had to make a new journal cover and it would fit the rules, I used the requisite number of fabrics and made the journal cover.

I have already been using it for a few days and I don’t know what I was thinking. Have I made one of these before? It certainly doesn’t seem like it. I had problems with the stitching and I forgot to put interfacing or batting on the inside, so it feels really weird.

I started out with the wild dark orange with blue, yellow and orange print. It is an older fabric that I have had for awhile. I pulled that out when I was making the Lovey blocks, but ended up not using it. The piece of the crazy print I had was nearly exactly the right size for a journal cover, so instead of putting back in the orange bin, I used that for the basis of the journal cover. I used some other small pieces, as I mentioned. The colors are good together except the white in the dot print really screams.

I may switch it out for one of the other journal covers I have already made or I may make a new one and put this on an old journal. I just don’t like the way it feels. I use these journals for 2-3 months and I don’t want to be thinking “I don’t like this journal cover” every day. We’ll see.

Really Finished Bag

You might remember this bag from the end of 2010. I finished it, but wasn’t really happy with the way it came out. For some reason, I couldn’t move on from it, so a few months ago, I ripped out the straps and then left it to languish. Yesterday evening, I redid the button loop and redid some of the top stitching. Then today, I finished the top stitching and sewed on a different button. It isn’t perfect, but I am much happier with the result. Before I was a little embarrassed that I had made the bag and now I don’t mind saying that I made it.

After finishing Stars for San Bruno #2, I feel like I have a little bit of brainspace. I feel like I can do a few small finishing projects. I need to piece some batting. I need to make a binding. I need to make sure the back for SfSB#2 is large enough (mom made it before she went on vacation and before I had finished the top), etc. There are those things that I would assign to an assistant, if I were a fancy enough quiltmaker to have an assistant. Since I don’t, I’ll just do it since I am in the right frame of mind.

Have a great weekend!

Everything a Masterpiece?

I was listening to Mark Lipinski’s Creative Mojo episode from 6/29/2011 the other day. He was interviewing Lesley Riley, who I thought was really good. She is the creative force behind TAP and a creative mentor/coach. She said that people often don’t do anything creative, because they have forgotten how (we are all born with the ability to be creative, according to Leslie), or we feel like we don’t have time or we feel like everything we do has to be a masterpiece, because we don’t have time to screw up.

The masterpiece comment really struck a chord with me.

It made me think about the quilts I have made where I feel like I have really struck gold. I have had Fabric of the Year 2010 on my mind lately, because I really feel like I struck gold with this quilt. This conversation, further, made me think that there is no predicting whether a quilt that will have the it factor.

I feel like I have two or three quilts that are truly excellent quilts. This is many fewer than the number of quilts that I have made. I asked myself if I was ok with that and I am. I am because the other quilts are not horrible, ugly or hideous. Most of them are good work and make me happy. They are nice quilts, but just don’t have the “it” factor.

I am going to keep making quilts and I’ll nail another one sometime. I don’t know when, but if I stop working, because each quilt isn’t a masterpiece I will never find that quilt with the ‘it’ factor, but more importantly, I won’t progress. I believe that my truly great quilts are great, because I keep making quilts.

I make blocks to try out color schemes before I commit to a whole quilt, sometimes. I make bags and other small objects to try fabrics and techniques that may not be suitable for quilts. I go to A Work of Heart and play with paint and ink, paper and gesso under the watchful eye of Andrea, a creative genius if there ever was one. It feels good not to be making all the decisions all the time.

I also look at my quilts, once finished, and think about what I could have done better. I worked hard on FOTY 2010 based on what I had seen in FOTY 2008 and FOTY 2009.

And I just keep making.

Stars for San Bruno #2 in progress

The ‘paint was barely dry’ on SfSB #1, but I got busy putting the Stars for San Bruno #2 quilt together on Sunday. I had done a few smaller projects on Friday and Saturday afternoon and decided that Sunday morning was the day for SfSB #2.

Putting all of the blocks on the floor and looking at them worked pretty well last time, so I did that again. I found that they logically divided themselves into 2 groups (generally right and left of the photo). Most of the blocks on the left are Sawtooth Stars and I decided to group them into one quilt. I saved the Stars on the right for the last quilt.

Once I had selected the blocks, I laid them out on some fabric that Sandy sent just to get an idea of what I was facing.

I could see right away that there would be a lot more open space in this quilt, because I didn’t have as many blocks left. This looks more like a starry night sky, I think.

The quilt didn’t really end up like this at all, but it was a starting point.

I could see from the layout above that I needed some of the blocks with the light background in lower corner.

More rearranging…

This is a technique that I call improvisational piecing. TFQ and I have used this process when working together on a quilt called She had to have her Latte, which was kind of a precursor to the Tarts Come to Tea. Isn’t it strange how I can relate all of my quilts to each other?

I kept rearranging disparate sized blocks and adding coping strips, corners and strips until the pieces fit together. This process is not for the faint of heart.

I decide where I am going to start and then march down or across the quilt.In this case, I started from the top and moved towards the bottom. I decided to put almost all of the blocks on point, so I added triangle corners to them. I also filled in the spaces with large pieces of fabric.

I was able to finish the top last night. I wanted to get the parts off of my design floor and I didn’t want to have to remember what went where. There was a lot of partial seaming, so it was important to me to get the pieces together correctly.

As you can see, I added a few pinwheel blocks in different sizes. I was inspired by the very center of TFQ’s block (upper right), though I realized that I didn’t make them exactly like hers.

My first thought after sewing on the last line of blocks (right) and looking at the whole piece was that it needed a border. Sigh.

Pavers

Pavers is ready to quilt. I am not sure the name suits, but that is what it is. It will be a gift.

This pattern is based on a photo I saw on Flickr from Green Couch Designs and related to the Purple quilt I finished a few weeks ago. Both on the Purple Quilt and this quilt I wanted to work with asymmetrical borders. I wasn’t happy with the border on the purple quilt, so I tried again on this one. I think I want to work with the border a little bit more and will make one more quilt in this pattern.

This is an easy quilt to make and I basically finished all of the blocks by using them as leaders and enders.

The photo above has that lovely pink post-it on the top as a direction to the quilter. It just says what I have designated as the top. I do that for the back, too.

Above is a picture of it laying on my ‘design floor’ before I put the borders on. I was amazed at how much better the piece looked sewn together. The duplicate fabrics near each other didn’t seem to matter and the whole thing just came together.

This quilt was made from a group of fabrics I bought from the Fabricworm.

Finished: Stars for San Bruno #1!!

Yes, I really did it! I made the first quilt in this series and it is finished. I have brought it around to CQFA and BAMQG and shown the contributors in those groups. I want as many people as possible who contributed blocks to see it before I give it to DH’s cousin.

Now I have to call the cousins and arrange to bring the quilt. I am nervous, since I don’t know them that well. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Nota bene: the Block-a-long will return next week.

More Lovey Blocks

As I mentioned last week, a friend asked for lovey blocks for a mutual friend who needed some quilty hugs. I showed the ones I made, but decided to add some Double Four Patches in as well.

Yes, I went a little crazy with the red and orange. Doesn’t this one remind you of those popsicles with the twin sticks and two flavors? I love that red.

I think it is Fossil Fern or Impressions, but it is not quite rose red and has no black in it. Just gorgeous.

I wanted to coordinate the new blocks with the stars I made last week, thus the paisley again.

And I just lost it with orange. I pulled out my orange bin and went crazy. I don’t know what got into me.

I think they look nice together. What do you think?

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