Artquiltmaker Blog – Page 386 – Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity

Stars for San Bruno Stragglers

Last call for Stars for San Bruno netted a bunch of blocks! In addition to those I talked about last week, I received 4 more over the weekend. These two beauties are from Julie. She sent me a little note with them wondering if I would be able to use them.

YES! Most definitely yes. I think they look like jewels, like the stone in a ring that sparkles elegantly. They are all applique’ and I think they will make an excellent addition to the quilts.

One of the things I like about the blocks people are sending is that they are all different in some way. Yes, Sue and SherriD both sent groups of similar blocks, but there is something different about each block. Many of the people who have contributed do not normally make block quilts, so I am especially touched.

As soon as I finish this reorganization, I am going to start piecing. My mom is out of town without her sewing machine, so she is off the hook for now. Perhaps I’ll get her to make the backs. 😉

Want to help? I am still accepting blocks. Leave a note on this post to let me know they are coming.

The background for this project is: that one family we know from school and my husband’s cousin were affected by the September 2010 San Bruno fire. We are making 3 quilts: one for our cousin and his wife, one for my son’s friend and one for the parents of my son’s friend.

I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?

All star blocks are welcome!

Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished (8.5? unfinished) or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!

Deadline: End of March 2011, but I can only piece one quilt at a time and all blocks will be used.

Spring Cleaning

Push finally came to shove in my workroom this weekend and gave up actual sewing in order to organize and tidy up. It was funny that I was listening to the Creative Mojo episode that included a discussion with Carolyn Woods, the author of
Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter: An Illustrated Guide to the Space of Your Dreams. The library doesn’t have that book, but I have suggested that they order it.

I filed things. I threw things out. I made files for quilt projects that are still in the cogitating stage. I worked through my “I have to do this on the Internet” list. One thing I did do, since I knew I wouldn’t be sewing was to allow myself to press and cut fabric when I needed a break. I cut some hexagons out and put together some pillowcases and that was good. I still have a bit to do on the room, but when push comes to shove on Tuesday night, I won’t pile everything up neatly, hoping it won’t topple over, as I stress out once again.

Rainbow Cart Double - 16 x 10.8 x 26.5 inches

Some time ago I mentioned ordering a cart to organize my scraps. I did actually order it, DH helped me put it together and I took all of my scraps out of the overflowing basket and sorted them by color into the drawers of the cart.

So far it has proved to be a boon to my mosaic quiltmaking. I am working on a journal cover made from scraps and I save so much time by just opening the drawer of the color I want and pulling out a piece. I don’t have to rummage through an overflowing basket. I am not depressed by my scraps anymore. I am so thrilled with this new system.

What I wasn’t thrilled about was the temporary location. I hadn’t made the time to put the cart into the place I intended it to live. It had been floating around my sewing room. I liked it in the middle of the room because it was convenient for grabbing scraps. I didn’t like it in the middle of the room, because I kept tripping over it. It also became a dumping ground and was generally not attractive in the middle of the room.

Today I cleaned out the corner, which was to be the new home of the scrap organization system, and relocated it. I thought it might be inconvenient, but it isn’t. I am really happy.

The rest of the room is still a bit of a mess. You know that old adage “it looks worse before it looks better.” I have to clean up the fabric I have been throwing on the floor and reorganize everything else that got displaced, but I am really happy with the day’s work.

Quiltmaking in the Funniest Places

At work the other day, I received an email from a vendor someone who wanted my input on some upgrades they are making to a product we use. This happens periodically, so I skimmed through the email intending to respond “later.”

However, I was brought up short by the last paragraph in which the author called me a ‘talented and prolific’ quiltmaker and went on to talk a little about her own quiltmaking. She also pointed out the photos she had attached. It is always nice to find a personal connection with people with whom I work. It makes the work so much easier and more pleasant. Until now, I have only found a couple of needlepointers. While interesting, it isn’t my main focus. As a result of the extra mile, Lisa got her meeting with me, we had a lovely exchange of emails about the quilting process, I pointed her to some other quilt groups in her area and she gave me permission to post the photos she sent.

Above is a log cabin in process. I think the grey and the blue work very well together in terms of color/value temperature. It looks like a more pleasant version of my neighborhood in the summer: fog and ocean! The yellow centers and scrapiness are great, too. Lisa said this will be a Cal King size!

Cute baby, eh?

The star quilt was a gift for one of Lisa’s nephews. I love her bold use of pattern in this project. I also like the fact that she used different backgrounds and ties the quilt together with the sashing. I did that with my Sampler quilt and think the design technique works very well.

The quilt’s yellow sections makes the eye move around the motifs. As a result, I see a four patch peeking out from the center of one of the stars. I love four patches.

Also, I am a total sucker for star samplers. I see some Sawtooth stars in different sizes. I like the Sawtooth star on point (top with red triangles and patterned center) as the block pattern looks so much more complicated than it really is once it is positioned on point.

Again, Lisa has demonstrated her fearless use of pattern in this ninepatch quilt. The pattern on the fabric doesn’t overwhelm the design, because she has chosen a relatively simple block pattern. I also like the variety of backgrounds.

Thanks for sharing, Lisa!

Sugar Pop CC

I still have a bit of handsewing to do, but I want to bring this to the meeting this weekend, so I am considering it done. 😉 As Margi says: My quilt, my rules.

This is a great pattern. Once I sat down, focused and stopped with my own creative drama, it really came together.

I know now why one should use the fusible fleece. It is much stiffer and makes the bag stand up very well. This one is a little floopier than my first Chubby Charmer. My closet is a bit emptier because I used batting I already had.

Red and White Quilts

If you haven’t seen the Red & White quilts at the NYC Park Armory and you are within commuting distance, go see them! Admission is free!!!! A couple of friends have gone to see them and have said that the exhibit is amazing. It is only there for a few more days. Make the time!

3/31/2011 Update: Here are some (there are many, many articles on this exhibit) news stories about this exhibit:

Financial Times: Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts, Park Avenue Armory, New York. By Simon Schama
NYCtheblog: Amazing Display of 651 Red and White Quilts by Paolo Mastrangelo
New York Times: Finally, Mrs. Rose (and the Public) Can See All Her Quilts by James Barron

Bright Spring Journal Cover

Perhaps this is more summery than springy?

Perhaps I should have used more blues and greens and held on to this for summer? Nah! I was ready for some cheerfulness after the unbelievably grey skies of the past few weeks.

My plan worked. My plan was to alleviate the depressing grey that was shrouding my town. It worked! Today was beautiful out! Blue skies… no clouds. It was gorgeous, even from the window of my office. And, peeking out of my bag was this cheerful (bordering on loud and obnoxious??) journal cover. It made me smile every time I caught sight of it.

I used the Philip Jacobs fabric I bought at Always Quilting after PIQF 2010. I still want to make a bag or something larger, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.

I didn’t plan on centering the flower, but it was a pleasant surprise.

I used a bit of hand dyed fabric for the inside and added a little to the edges of Philip Jacobs fabric to add interest.

I have finished all of the pages my current journal, which has the Innocent Crush cover. I am sorry to be finished with that journal, because I wanted to carry it around in the Innocent Crush Flea Market bag. Adrianne brings her Flea Market bag to the BAMQG meetings and I admired it again at the last meeting. I wasn’t happy with the way my bagn turned out so I took it apart – not the whole bag yet, but the straps. You can kind of see the unevenness in the photo (the one I linked to above). I like the fabric and the design and didn’t want to just abandon it. When I made the bag, I was not able to sew the straps smoothly which meant that I tried to ease the handles together, which, further, left tucks in them. I didn’t like the way the tucks looked. I have unsewed the handles and am working on lining them up better. I haven’t done any further sewing on them. We’ll see.

Yes, I can reuse the Innocent Crush journal cover and I might do that. For now, though, I am loving the cheerful and fun Philip Jacobs cover.

This is a quick project. I made the journal cover in about a half an hour on Saturday morning.

Various & Sundry 2011 #5

Media
I listened to an episode of Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Radio with Amanda Herring of the Quilted Fish. She described her new fabric line from Riley Blake. It is called Sugar & Spice. THEN the Fabricworm sent out a teaser a week or so ago and I can’t get the fabric in the teaser out of my head. ERGH!!! Those fabrics would go perfectly with my red & aqua quilt even though I am not buying them.

I heard about Matt and Shari on Mark Lipinski’s Creative Mojo and was so impressed with all the information on their website. They have all sorts of different projects, info about color, lighting, etc. They have a section on framing a quilt block, which includes the book I learned to quilt with, Diana Leone’s The Sampler Quilt. I have the original edition, which I still use for the binding lesson and the newer edition, which has great blocks.

Creative Mojo is growing on me. Mark is interviewing a lot of interesting people and telling me about a lot of interesting books. I hope I can meet him someday and have some of his fortune rub off. 😉

I was looking at my Google Reader for once since it was pouring rain and I didn’t want to go out for my usual lunch time walk. I saw a post from Fresh Lemons showing the Sugar Pop line of fabric. It looks so much better in her photo than it does in my workroom and I am starting to think that if this rain lasts much longer, I am going to have to breakdown and paint over the life sucking beige that still exists in my space.

Bari J, who is getting lots of press right now for her relatively new book, was the guest hostess on Wednesday Night Live with Lisa Fulmer of C&T publishing. She was demonstrating embroidery stitches and tools. There is more information on Creating the Hive.

On My Mind-Revisted
A few weeks ago I made a list of projects. I did that because those projects were cluttering up my mind. They are, with their status:

Sugar Pop Chubby Charmer – squares sewn; need to make straps, lining and line with batting
2 Martha Negley totes – already cut out; ready to sew
Grand Revival Flea Market bag in light violet with green dots – need to pick and cut out lining
Grab Bag- push out corners, press and top stitch
Finish testing hexagons
Corner Store – thinking about making the blocks 4″ instead of 5″, which means unsewing a lot of blocks, trimming and resewing.
Grand Revival Flea Market bag in violet Innocent Crush – unsew, fix straps and resew
Back for FOTY 2010
Bubble pillowcase
Zig Zaggy back – make it a bit longer
Stars for San Bruno – still need blocks, will put together starting in April
Block for Modern Quilt Guild

Other things I finished recently:

binding for FOTY 2010
binding for Frosted Stars
binding for Frosted Stars leftovers
Grab Bag for Grama – finished, mailed and sent

I am not bragging, really. I seem to need to feel like I am accomplishing something!

Shows
I am so sad that I am not rich enough to run off to NYC for the weekend, because I will be missing the Red & White quilt show at the Armory. The Lizzie B Girls have a great post with lots of fab photos on their blog about it. If you go, tell me how you like it.

Doing Good
Last call for Stars for San Bruno! I know the Sendai and Christchurch earthquakes have overshadowed the fire in San Bruno, but any contributions you make will be greatly welcome. See more information on my 3/24 post.

You can also help the modern quilt community with relief for Japan. Check their new site. Tamiko is also doing her part. You only have until the end of the week, so click this link now!

Making
Here is a tutorial for making wonky cross blocks. You never know when you might want to make wonky cross blocks!

Need some kimono?

Project Selvedge
I saw an ad for a Michael Miller contest for fabric design. I have the perfect design, but I uploaded it too late. The directions said it could be done through 3/24, but on the West Coast, we often get shortchanged on the timezones. Oh well. Perhaps next time. I did put it up on Spoonflower, but can’t sell it, because I haven’t ordered a swatch.

Grama’s 2d Grab Bag

I finally finished Grama’s 2d Grab Bag. She lost the first one, perhaps I mentioned it? I am really sad she lost the first one, because I really liked that one. Oh well.

I wrote (sewed??) her name with my stitch letters in the handle, so perhaps the next finder will return it to her. Perhaps I should start the next one? 😉

I used Aurifil thread and two different light fabrics for the inside so she could see what was in there. The leaf fabric is one I have had, but since I hadn’t used it, I thought it would be fine to use for this project.

Hope she likes it.

Book Review: 12×12

Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge by Brenda Gael Smith

This is another book I received for free, presumably to review since the letter included wasn’t very clear, from Lark Books. It is really nice of them to send me books, especially ones that I like.

The book starts with an introduction by Diane Perin Hock, the Healdsburg, California fiber artist who created the textile artist group described in Twelve by Twelve. She discusses how the group started, what inspired her to choose the other artists and how the group works.

It is an interesting group, partly because it is international, but more so because they came together as a result of Ms. Hock’s simple inquiry. They didn’t meet in person first. Some of the members have, since, met each other, but an entire group reunion/retreat is still a dream for them.

There are a lot of images in this book, which is wonderful! Each page has at least one, if not two photos. The visuals are wonderful, but it also makes the layout interesting.

The how-to segments are out of the ordinary. There are no quiltmaking basics (YAY!), free motion quilting or cutting rules. The ‘projects’ in this book are, for example, titled “finding inspiration online,” “creating time and space for art,” and “starting your own challenge group.” I really appreciate this publisher allowing the author to think outside the box on this book.

The book is organized around themes and each theme has its own section of the book, where it is explored completely. When introducing each theme, the name or theme word is clearly shown along with a gallery of all of the responses. The artist who thought up the theme has space for a bio, discusses creating her piece and provides information about exploring the theme.

The artists’ profiles at the end of the book give context to and additional information about the artists in the book. Amazingly, these profiles do not overlap with the bio information in the theme section. Some have children, some don’t. Some have pets, some don’t. Some have pets and children. All say that fiber, textiles or both came in to their life and had a positive influence. One theme among the artist profiles was the way they talked about traditional quiltmaking. There was a lot of disdain for matching points and no acknowledgment of the beauty of the geometry of classic blocks

YAY! An index! YAY! Some photos of real, working sketchbooks!

There is a lot to like about this book. it is written for grownup quiltmakers. There are lots of pictures. Personal stories and descriptions of process abound. Thanks to Lark Books for having the courage to publish this book, which, I hope, is the first of its type.

Buy it and be inspired.

View all my reviews, including non-quilt related reviews

BAMQG Exchange Blocks

A few weeks ago I talked about the blocks I was planning on making for the BAMQG challenge. Here are the first two. I had an idea for these blocks, but I also had a couple of obstacles to the finished pieces.

First, I had to find the rotary cutting directions. I tried to draw the blocks on EQ7 and wasn’t, initially successful. Through a series of weird coincidences, I found a block in the big Jinny Beyer block book and had a pad of graph paper near handy, which allowed me to visualize the grid. Once I had that, I was able to draw the block in EQ7 (I was surprised not to find it there already there) and EQ7 generated the rotary cutting directions for this Courthouse Square block. Update 10/9/2011: I found that this block is Brackman Number: 2815A. You can see an antique example of this block in a quilt at the Quilt Index.

I used the fabrics I showed in the last post and am pleased with how they came out. I was a little nervous about using the Michael Miller fabric, because I have it slated for another project. I slapped myself and used the fabric since I hadn’t used it in that other project yet and it isn’t as though I have a shortage of fabric. I think the block looks great.

Two blocks wasn’t enough and I still had some fabric, so I looked at the gallery (I apologize if you can’t open the link) that Adrianne made.I found this one in Jinny Beyer’s book also. It is called Multiple Square Quilt and is from a 1953 issue of the Kansas City Star. That book is a useful resource if you love blocks at all.

I am thinking I will make one or two more, but I made a list of all I have to sew this weekend, so we will see how much I get done.

It is kind of fun thinking about blocks in a different way and trying to make them modern. I still have more fabric, so I may make a few more blocks.

JayeL on Cool Four Patch Fun QuiltedSunday, October 4, 2026
We missed you at Sew Day yesterday. Thanks for your kind words and for reading.
Eleanor Jackson on Cool Four Patch Fun QuiltedSaturday, October 3, 2026
FUN! Thanks for sharing.
JayeL on Various Piecing SundayWednesday, September 23, 2026
It is so great to share your love of quiltmaking with your neighbors!
Eleanor Jackson on Various Piecing SundayWednesday, September 23, 2026
WOW, Jaye.. It is wonderful that you are doing so much with leftovers. I have a new neighbor and they…
Sherri D on Another Remembrance of September 11Saturday, September 12, 2026
Thank you for sharing your works for 9/11. I still remember when you first finished them and showed them. Very…