Artquiltmaker Blog – Page 355 – Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity

Teaching a Young Sewist

My nephew made this monkey with my guidance.

I first showed him how to use the machine to make the tail.

Next, I made him pin the body pieces together and then I let him sew them on the machine.

Here is the piece after he finished sewing and turning it, but before stuffing.

Amish Abstractions at the DeYoung+

Mom and I had museum day last Friday. We first went to the DeYoung and saw the Amish Abstractions exhibit. This is an exhibit of Amish quilts from the Stephen and Faith Brown collection.

I could look at Amish quilts for years and never get bored. I went to the Esprit exhibit at the DeYoung back in the Dark Ages and I even demonstrated handquilting during one of their free evenings through a quilt class I was taking at the time. That was in the old museum building and before they charged extra for the special exhibits. Times definitely change!

I really tried to look at each quilt for more than 30 seconds (which my mother tells me is the average time that someone looks at a piece of art in an exhibit.

I liked all of the quilts. The ones that particularly stuck in my mind were a small crib quilt with two vertical rows of 3 Jack’s Chains* and a small 6 block crib quilt using a block I had never seen before. I am calling it the “Shutter quilt.” Do you know the name of the block?

The hidden complexity (quilting) in the simplicity (piecing) fascinates me. The piecing designs are often (not always) relatively simple. As the viewer gets closer, s/he can see the complexity of the quilting designs. Many of the quilts had feathers quilted into the border. A quilt using the Bars design had a feather wreath in the middle surrounded by an octagon of straight line quilting design with little quilted clamshell stitching accenting the octagon line. This detail was invisible unless I got up very close to it.

One thing I particularly noticed this time was the deft use of their limited color palette. They use certain colors, which I knew. The glow that I have noticed in some of the quilts comes from the colors and how they were put together. This must seem obvious to you, but somehow it struck me as I was comparing some of the quilts that had this glow to the more subtly shaded pieces. I noticed that the more subtle quilts did not use the salmon, turquoise and lavender colors. I think, based on this quick trip, that this is the case.

I was drawing the shutter piece block from the crib quilt when my mom sat down on a bench nearby and began talking to the lady next to her. My mom talks to everyone. They were talking about a 9 patch quilt made partially from 4patches when I heard the lady said “oh this is the man that owns the quilts.” A nice looking, white haired man in his mid fifties to early sixties wearing a blue Oxford shirt was standing there. Of course, my mom started talking to him!

She started in asking him how long he had been collecting (since the mid-1970s) and how he stored the quilts at home (acid free boxes) and did he display them at home (no). I decided to mention the Jack’s Chain, which was listed as “pattern unknown”. I have had that pattern on my to do list for years and originally saw it at a shop in the East Bay as a class. Even then it was called Jack’s Chain. He said that he would look it up and made a note. This made me think that he provided all the information about the quilts and the museum didn’t do research. I don’t know for sure, however. Then my mom asked me to give him my quilt business card. No, I do not have a quilt business!, but I do have a card that lists my blog address. He actually looked at it and commented on me having a blog!

Marie over at Z Quilts had a long review of the quilts and the exhibit catalog in which she posted some photos. My favorite, though I liked all of the quilts, is the one mentioned above I call the Shutter quilt. The pattern had no name according to the card next to the quilt. I want to look it up in Barbara Brackman’s book, or int he new Jinny Beyer block book, but haven’t yet. Stay tuned for that info.

I overheard some guys commenting that it looked like the shutter of a camera closing or opening. It is the 5th image on Marie’s page.

The museum had a boatload of stuff in their regular gift shops and they had a full shop right outside of the exhibit. One of the items that really drew me were wooden boxes with quilt designs inlaid on the top. They were form Quiltboxes.com (about $125) and were absolutely gorgeous. I liked the one with the Dutchman’s Puzzle design.

After the DeYoung, we went over to the Legion of Honor and saw the Cartier and America exhibit. This was a jewelry exhibit. I enjoy seeing different types of art and craft exhibits because I enjoy seeing the commonalities with quiltmaking. I also enjoy getting inspiration from other media. Of course, the jewels were fantastic. There was one stone that over 143 carats. Can you imagine? This type of jewelry is so out of my realm of possibility that I just looked at the designs and admired the artistry. There was one tiara of which I wish I could have taken a photo. The swirls would have made excellent applique’ designs. That tiara was in the exhibit catalog, which I didn’t buy. I may buy it later and if so, I will show it then.

I was also very interested in the historical aspect of the exhibit. The exhibit cards said who bought the piece, who owned it and, in some cases, whether it was purchased for a gift. Some information mentioned changes to designs with the times. The meager information made me think that such an exhibit would be a good way of getting people into the history of the era. There were obvious changes in the jewelry designs as times changed. Flappers, for example, didn’t need stomacher broaches.

It may be that pieces for the exhibit were selected for their relevance to SF, because there were a lot of pieces owned or purchased by prominent people in local history.

I did, finally, learn what a pave’ diamond setting was. Apparently Ms. Wallis Simpson loved pave’ settings for her panther broaches.

Some of Princess Grace’s jewels were there as were Elizabeth Taylor’s. Sadly, I was very tired after all this visual stimulation, so I didn’t look and read as carefully at these as I would have liked.

I was very annoyed and disappointed with the selection of postcards. None of my favorites were available as postcards. It was probably a good thing as the postcards were poor reproductions anyway. Not the high quality to which I am accustomed. The exhibit catalog was wonderful, but times are tough so I didn’t buy that either. It is on my list. I think you would enjoy it as well!

*No affiliation with this site; I just think the picture of her Jack’s Chain is a good example of the pattern.

Beach Town Finishing

Last Saturday and Sunday, I had a lot of time for the first time in several weekends to work on quilt projects and I completely tanked in that department. Most of the time I sat around and couldn’t figure out what to do. I thought about making another giveaway for OWOH, but was talked out of it. I also just wasn’t motivated to do anything. I have a lot of quilt work to do and I really couldn’t focus.

Finally, on Sunday, I pulled out Beach Town and decided to get the facing on and the sleeve ready so that I could take advantage of some hand sewing time I will have next weekend.

Yeah! Progress on Beach Town! Trimming is easy.

However, after trimming, I found a little section that needed a repair. One of the hazards of working using this free form method is getting too close to the edge. In an effort to avoid that problem, I didn’t get close enough. Yes, I could have trimmed it more, but I didn’t want to cut off any part of the sign.

I had to go rummaging for fabric to find a match. I found some in the scrap bin. Then, I had to carefully lay the fabric and a small piece of batting out so that it didn’t look like a repair (don’t tell, please!). Finally, after it was all laid out and pinned together, I machine quilted the three little sections in matching thread and trimmed it again.

Repaired Beach Town - detail — Repaired Beach Town – detail

One of the good things about this project was that I had to focus my mind on a specific task. One thing I learned was to give the edges a little extra space from important design elements.

I dug out the facing instructions I had made awhile ago and applied a facing to the Beach Town. I still need to practice making more facings. I’ll make another one for FOTY 2010.

Here is the corner of the facing. As I mentioned, I have not sewn it down yet.

I use the Robbi Joy Eklow method of sleeve making. This most excellent sleeve making method method is in her book, Free Expressions. This time I made the sleeve smaller than her directions specify. I hope it works in terms of a hanging rod to fit.

More Inspiration Tuesday

Mark Lipinski pointed me to the Nesting Simply blog and I found these wonderful cupcake photos. Isn’t it a fabulous idea to frost them in different colors? Very creative.

Enjoy and let these photos inspire you to make something fabulous!

clipped from nestingsimply.blogspot.com

Inspiration Tuesday x2

I saw this at a Coffee Bean coffee shop last week and thought that the design would provide good inspiration.

I saw these branches on the ground when I was at the DeYoung last Friday in the park in between the two museums. I thought the lines were cool.

Book Review: An Artist’s Book of Inspiration: A Collection of Thoughts on Art, Artists, Creativity

An Artist’s Book of Inspiration: A Collection of Thoughts on Art, Artists, Creativity by Astrid Fitzgerald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This work is mostly quotations organized into themes. Each chapter has a different theme and the quotes fit into the theme.

The thing that struck me with this book was the preface. Often, not always, but often, I skip the preface just to get straight to the text. In this case, I only glanced through the text and really studied the preface.

I liked the preface because some of the quotes (below) made me think and question what I am seeing:

“Art constantly seeks to redefine itself, to find new and original modes of expression. But have we sometimes sacrificed meaning and essence on the altar of the innovative, the outrageous, and the politically correct?” p.xii

This part of the passage makes me wonder about the symbolism that we don’t understand anymore and whether it is valuable to know it still? For example, in years past, a portrait of a woman may have her holding a flower. Knowing the symbolism or meaning of that flower would give the viewer additional insight into the subject. As well, the items selected for still lives – e.g. the types of fruit – said something about the person who commissioned the work. Have we lost something by not knowing these meanings?

“We live in a postmodern era devoid of artistic standards. The movements of the last thirty years have successfully demystified art and the making of art. The role of art has not been clearly defined in recent times, and artists and students of art rarely gather to examine and discuss the call to creative work.” p.xii

As you can probably tell from my blog, I am glad that the making of art has been demystified and that everyone can make art now. I do worry about what we have lost, however, if anything. I also wonder about what is lost from people not gathering to discuss their calling to creative work? Do we discuss that in our blogs? Is it different from discussing in person? I think I am called to creative work by family tradition and by the need to do something completely different than my day job. I also think that I am called to my work because I can see patterns in improvement and progress, which is not always clear, or acknowledged, in my day job work.

“The art of our time seems to be self-destructive, broadening the gap between audience and the creative output. The eye of the artist has turned to the exterior, to the biennials and the market place, seeing direction, and thus we have art that moves further and further away from our inner nature. As a result, we have art that is based on concept instead of idea and inspiration, art that ends up comment on itself or upon the absence of values.” p.xiii

I find this part thought provoking as well. It makes me want to take another art history course and learn more about contemporary art. I know many contemporary works by their images (Wayne Thiebaud, for example) and not by meaning. A splatter piece of Jackson Pollack’s resides in my mind, but I don’t know the meaning behind it and whether it can be considered self-destructive. I do go to museums on a regular basis and often don’t understand the contemporary works just by looking at them. My impression is that a lot of contemporary work requires study.

This passage also provokes questions. “is art moving away from artists’ inner nature as more artists come on the scene and try to sell their work?” Does some external force (galleries, critics, Marketplaces like Etsy) encourage artists to move away from what they want to make towards what artists think they should make?

View all my reviews

Various and Sundry Sunday

Our Internet connection at home slowly came back up over the course of the week. Hooray! We had one computer working early in the week, but the WiFi wasn’t completely up and running until Thursday. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to post this weekend, so I prepared posts through the weekend, so you wouldn’t feel sad and lonely. 😉 It is a good thing I am resourceful otherwise it would have been 2 weeks between blog post.

Welcome Magic Carpet Riders! If you would like to join the drawing, please leave a comment on the One World One Heart post. I hope you come back frequently and join our little community.

The Magic Carpet Ride/One World One Heart is interesting. I have gotten over 120 comments on the post mentioned above. they aren’t coming as fast or as furiously as they were, but people are still wanting to sign up for the giveaway. Some people just say ‘enter me’ others stay for a minute and tell me where they are from. That is really nice. I have also visited a few of the blogs, sadly not anywhere near all. After leaving a few comments, I can see where typing a lot of info would get hard if you were intent on visiting all the blogs.

I have always liked the name Susanna. There is something about it that makes me smile. The name is what attracted me in the massive list Lisa keeps updating for OWOH. As I look at the list of all the blog participants, I find that I have no way to judge them except by name and that is what is turning out to attract or repel me.

I stopped by Susanna’s Sketchbook and left a note on her OWOH post so I could win. Then I looked around at some of her other posts. The tone is wonderful and she has a list of the Simple Things in Life, which is really nice. One item on her list, which caught my attention was “receiving the daily, 11am phone call from J“. I was reminded (after my rant about Internet access) that there are other things in life for which to be thankful

Another blog I liked was called Coral Seas. Actually, I liked the pendant she is giving away, but I also liked the banner image on her blog. She seems to have a variety of posts from birds to cooking.

Paper from the Heart is another blog I visited. She is giving away layered cards made from different paper designs. She has some interesting Valentine’s cards.

I do think that the people at the beginning of the list get the most comments. Some towards the bottom (700+) haven’t even made it to 100 comments yet. I would never ask Lisa to organize the list, but would love to know which are the sewing and quilt blogs, so I could look at them first. If you look through the list and see any, let me know.

Julie is blogging again! Hooray. She has put up a number of posts this week and it is a pleasure. A number of these pieces were at the retreat and I guess we had too much other stuff to talk about, because I didn’t ask about the stories.

Have you taken a look at SherriD’s blog lately? I really liked her procrastinating post. I am not sure how she can say she is procrastinating when she has so many projects in the works. She has completed another U is for Unicorn block. I am in awe of that project, because of the detail work involved. I like it that she talks about both hand and machine projects. My favorite part of this post was the view out her studio window. Lovely! Thanks, SherriD!

Have you seen the needlecase over at Quilt Rat’s blog? It is a gorgeous black and white piece. I am in awe of Jill, because she says that she just sat down and designed as she went along. Kathy over at Finishing Lines did this with the pencil roll she made, which was also fabulous. I want to be like these women!

Have you see the magazine Quilts & More? The magazine is pretty project oriented, but the projects are pretty good. They usually have a tote bag, which I love! The thing I like about this magazine is the color. Bright, cheerful, happy colors grace this magazine. As you have probably guessed I am not one for murky colors. To each her (or his) own, but they are not for me. Thus, I like Quilts and More.

I am friends with them on FB. Earlier this week they posted a link to their All People Quilt website with photo ideas for organizing your sewing room. Talk about happy colors! The ideas for organization are great, too. They make me a little depressed, because this person’s sewing room must be huge. Their buttons are gorgeous (and organized), they have way less fabric than I do, etc. Still, the colors are wonderful and if I can implement one of the ideas, I will be happy.

My friend, Kathy, of the Everyday Bliss project had an interesting post this week. In it she talks about getting started, about what is art, her own doubts, etc. She posts some interesting works. I think it would give you some food for thought. Go and take a look and leave her a comment. Let me know what you think.

Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust: I am reading it and really liking it. I wasn’t optimistic when I started it after reading the thin Ruth McDowell book. There are a very few elements of dumbing down, but many of the comments and exercises in the book are just fantastic and not complicated. I will definitely do a full review, but thought I would give you a little taste.

I have been listening to podcasts. One of the bad things about no Internet is that I cannot update my iPod. I was smart last time I updated it because I downloaded a lot of ancient episodes. I am getting sick of some of the podcasts, though. Sometimes I can only listen to a few of one and then I need to listen to another producer’s podcast. I haven’t been able to do that so I am just clenching my teeth and powering through. I suppose I could listen to some non-quilt/craft podcasts!

Zazzle

I came across a cool design in Zazzle. The design is screen printed tea cups and I first saw it on a OWOH blog. I like it so I went to look, never having heard of Zazzle before. It looks a little like Cafe Press, but seems to have cooler options on which to print. The purchaser, apparently has some options in the design of the card. Sadly, one card was $4.50, which is a little out of my price range right now. I do have some rubber stamps, however. Perhaps I will get inspired?

I went to the Berkeley City Club on Tuesday night with my family to receive an award. Even though I lived in Berkeley for about 4 years and have been there zillions of times, I had never been to this building. It was designed my Julia Morgan, the architect of Hearst Castle and it is gorgeous! they have lots of meeting rooms, a garden courtyard, a pool, hotel type rooms and also people can live there. Perhaps I will live there when I am an old geezer?

And Now a Brief Aside

For some reason, I wasn’t able to link to this Flickr photo directly, which I much prefer to do. Go visit it and its siblings in their native habitat at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadsidepictures/244926428/

I’ll be honest this is a sign in Las Vegas for a strip club,. However, I like the idea of people celebrating librarians with a neon sign. Let’s just pretend all librarians are knock outs (not just in looks) and people cannot stay away from the library, ok?

Joining the Behemouth?

I joined Amazon Associates to see how it goes. If you don’t have another way of searching Amazon, please use the search box in the sidebar. I will also be adding some specific search boxes for books that I review.

Odds and Ends

Here are some miscellaneous things that came my way. The fabrics were free giveaways at the retreat thanks to Debbie. I couldn’t resist the pink ice cream fabric. I can’t wait to cut up some pieces of it for Cathy’s Eye Spy and Julie’s Tumbler. Perhaps I will make a gift bag out of the rest. We’ll see. that fabric makes me happy to look at.

The Creative Grids Diamond Ruler arrived on Monday. It looks a lot better than the other diamond ruler I have, so perhaps the latter will go to QTN? I haven’t yet tried it out so I’ll have to play with it a bit to see if I want to use it for the FOTY 2010.

Finally, I bought the pattern at Hart’s last weekend. The pictures look different than the model I saw made up in the store. What I saw was more like a little tote rather than a backpack. The store clerks were sure this was the pattern, so I took a leap of faith. Another tote for the list of to dos!

I think I have enough new stuff to play with for now.

My to immediate do list includes a couple of pencil rolls, one for the One World One Heart project and one for a gift. I’d like to get to them this weekend, but we will see.

At some point, I’d like to go to FabMo myself and see the goodies. Not sure when the next open day is and am not sure whether I want to give up some of my sewing time this weekend to do that.

How About Orange’s Birthday Card Directions

In case you were wondering how to make that fabulous birthday I received from Julie, here are the directions and a link to another blog (had enough yet?). I had never heard of How About Orange. I like the title and I like the look of the blog. Stop by and say hi.

clipped from howaboutorange.blogspot.com