Mom has been busy making more stars. She is trying different patterns, which means I never know what to expect from her! On another note, I told her to start showing some of her 19 (!!!) works in progress on her blog. I can’t wait to see what she has started.
The paper pieced block in the upper left hand corner was made by Maureen. It is really a perfect combination of colors. I know Maureen from CQFA. She is wonderful dyer and fabric printer. She does a lot of really good work in fabric manipulation with dyes, paints, etc and is an inspiration and teacher to others in the group in this area.
Mrs. K's handwork
Mrs. K came to a party yesterday. She lives 4-5 hours away from me and prepared these reverse appliqued blocks for the drive down the mountain. The stars are reverse applique’ and then she has tied some French knots in each inset of the stars. You can just see them in the photos. I will have to take out some of the basting and trim the backs, but that is ok. I would rather do it when I am ready to sew than have the edges unravel or fray. I know Mrs. K from an online quilt group and we have gotten together several times. She loves handwork and crazy quilting. She taught hearing impaired students for many years in public schools. I really appreciate her effort on these blocks.
Crazy Quilt Cookie
Mrs. K also made me a cookie. Check it out! I think I need to have a cookie baking and decorating session with Mrs. K!
We now have over 50 blocks!
Want to help? 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: TBA, probably around the end of March. We can’t do it without you!
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
When I started this blog, I posted a few photos of the view I look at when I am writing. The other day, a very beautiful sunset caught my attention as I keyboard pounded.
Sunset 2011 #1
Then a minute or so later, a new view:
Sunset 2011 #2
The camera had a hard time with the screen and most of what you can see of my neighborhood is my chimney cap. Still, the color is beautiful.
I hung up FOTY 2009 in my hallway yesterday. It can be seen when people walk in the front door. I received a ton of compliments on it, which was very kind of people. I was planning to take it to work, but needed to solve a quick decorating dilema and decided to keep it at home for awhile. I have to think of something new to hang in my office as I am getting tired of seeing Seeing Red when I walk in.
In the meantime, I am still working on FOTY 2010 steadily, though I wasn’t able to do much more than unpick a few yellows this past week.
FOTY 2010: Where I started
Pretty much, this is where I started this week. There were still lots of gaps in the blues, but I had started to piece the smaller pieces into larger. One can ‘chunk‘ this type of quilt in the piecing process, but not as easily, or for as long, as when piecing square or rectangular patches. At some point I had to piece long rows together.
Part of this has to do with the arrangement of this particular quilt. The colorwash type arrangement doesn’t lend itself well to piecing the patches into chunks of four patches, as I was able to do with the Eye Spy quilt.
FOTY 2010: Processing Blues
Aren’t the blues behaving nicely? The placement is not ideal and I would do it differently if I had unlimited tints, hues, values and shades, but my FOTY rule is that I have to use what I have, and so far I am happy.
FOTY 2010: Section Pieced
You can see, above, the whole blue section pieced.
FOTY 2010: Where I am Going
I am heading towards the pink on the bottom. Now that the blues are behaving nicely, the pinks are becoming little brats. It reminds me of the Mandrakes in the book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. That big gap has reappeared in the pink area. Grrrr!
I have been contemplating the yellow and pink sections and doing a bit of playing with their arrangement. I am not terribly fond of a big line of greens or yellows or pinks slashing through the quilt. I prefer more of a blob arrangement (like the pinks are in the above photo – more of an organic shape). I am not sure at this moment how I will have them blend into each other – the blue to pink – if I do the blob arrangement. I don’t have enough yellows, greens and oranges to wash very completely. I think the green to yellow to orange is much easier, but there is a space consideration up towards the top. I’ll have to play around and see what works.
This was a hard one. Who thinks up these prompts anyway? 😉 I took the easy way out and went with the magazine. I made an effort to do a good job on the background.
My favorite cafe’ makes a reappearance in this response to Froth. I think it is my favorite, because of the Yergacheffe ad. Have I told you about that? I saw a poster in a Starbuck’s with a similar image. I took a picture of it for a friend who loves imagery of eyes. Somehow that image has stuck in my mind ever since. I love being inspired during my normal travels through my day.
This one was a challenge. I had the idea right away, but then didn’t get to Google very timely to find a picture of that machine they use in eye exams. I finally did, but the boys kept bumping me while I was trying to draw, which made me very growly. I was pleased they wanted to sit with me. 😉
THEN I didn’t know what to put on the bottom of the picture so I just left it blank. If something comes to me, I’ll add it in and repost.
Kiss.com – the original picture personals dating service
Keep it simple, silly! (acronym for writing and life)
Definition of the physically affectionate act: A kiss is the act of pressing one’s lips against the lips or other body parts of another or of an object.
Have fun and link to your responses! Ask a friend to join, too! You can do the prompts together.
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/or your blog.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. Are you already a member? I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted. Post yours and get kudos!
I know some of you are mad at me for pandering to the St. Valentine’s Day crass commercialism. Just go kiss someone or kiss your beloved pet!
I finished Passionate Purple in December, but didn’t post it for some reason. This is the latest in a series of Bullseye quilts. You can see Seeing Red and Feelin’ Blue on other pages. The information about this project has its own page under Series quilts.
The fabric I ordered with my Fabricworm gift certificate arrived about 2 days after I ordered it. This is a different look than I usually buy, but I like it. Not sure what I will make out of it. I am thinking I will use it together, but we will see. I have to finish FOTY 2010 first! You can see it all at the Piece O’Cake website fabric page. There is a wonky 54-40 or Fight quilt on their home page today. I don’t know how long the links will work, though.
Media I received a 6 month The Quilt Show subscription. I have watched 2 episodes and I enjoyed both. I am enjoying watching, but mostly listening to, these online quilt shows. One thing I like about the Quilting Show is that Alex Anderson shows a traditional technique. In one episode she shows how to draw a feathered wreath quilting design. In another episode, she talks about making a LeMoyne and Split Lemoyne block. The episode with Philippa Naylor seems to be available for everyone. One thing Ms. Naylor said is that she considers herself to be a contemporary quiltmaker rather than an art quiltmaker, because her work is grounded in classic quilts. That was a sentence I thought about for awhile. I really like most quilts and have found it hard to categorize myself. I don’t think I need to categorize myself, but like the idea of being a contemporary quiltmaker. Do I need to change the name of my blog?
I also, as I have mentioned, have a subscription to Quilt Out Loud, which I enjoy. It is entertaining, though Mark is a little over the top sometimes!
There is a great post up on another blog, which I won’t name, but will give you a link. Check out the post! I had a hand in the fodder for the post, so perhaps I am not being humble by sending you over there, but I just love the way the writer wrote about the subject matter and I can’t help myself!
Remember the 1000 Journals Project? I wrote about it several times in various posts and Julie and I went to the exhibit at SFMOMA to write in journals ourselves. An artist in NYC has a new project called Eternally Yours. I saw it on Melanie Testa’s blog. She found one of the letters. The artist has written letters and distributed them all over NYC. The include half finished art and the recipient’s ‘job’ is to finish the art and send it back. There is a video to watch as well. I love the thought of receiving and writing letters. TFQ and I do it, but I don’t get many other letters. Very sad. I could get my own letter from the artist…. I hope some of my NYC readers will participate in this project.
Money
I was asked by an organization to allow them to add advertising to my blog. I thought about it. They were paying ok money for the kind of ad they wanted me to host. I decided against it. I could use the money to pay for some Artquiltmaker related fees, but I didn’t like the sound of them. Hope you all appreciate my restraint! 😉
Fabric
It is always, despite my efforts, about the fabric. I want to try to curb my fabric buying this year and clear out the fabric closet a little bit and use all the fabulous fabric I have. I am resolved to do it and then I see Me and My Sister Designs who come out with some fabulous turquoises. And then, they have to go and show them on their blog. I mean, really. The nerve. Sigh.
Fabricworm has posted a tutorial for a quilt they are calling the Five Points Quilt. It is shown on their blog. Birch Fabrics/Fabricworm is a fabric selling enterprise, so they are, of course trying to sell their fabric, but this is a really nice and modern design. I think it is suitable for all sorts of different kinds of fabric.
Inner Critic
I recently read a blog post on the inner critic written by Violette. I love her book, Journal Bliss, so I check in on her blog periodically and looking at her drawings always makes me smile. I have been meaning to pull out her book and look at her directions for faces. All of my CPP responses with people in them have beautiful views of gorgeous hair and no faces. Anyway, her blog post made me think about my inner critic. After some analysis, I am happy to say that I don’t have an inner critic that calls me an idiot or tells me I can’t do something. My inner critic is all about time (and mess, too, but that is also related to time). I often hear the monkey voices in my head saying “you don’t have time for that” or “that will take too long” or “just do that [non-quilt/creativity related] task before you sew” or “that will take too long.” Reading her blog post started to develop an image of my inner critic gremlin. Diana Trout, the writer of Journal Spilling, also talks about creating an image of the inner critic. I think both writers are suggesting that creating an image of your gremlin is the first step in learning to ignore him/her.
Design/Vision
I am reading a book, which I received for my birthday called Quilts Made Modern by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. It is, basically, a pattern book, but they have good things to say about design, color, etc. One of their ideas, which I may have spoken about before is the “Big Idea.” Their Big Idea is a way of thinking beyond the focus fabric. The quilt designer gets an idea and tries to convey that idea in the making of a quilt. The Big Idea could be a feeling or an experience or something like that. I thought of this book when I read this post. I completely agree with the writer. I do agree that perfection is not something to strive for and that design/vision is much more important. I also think that good technique is important. By good technique, I don’t mean perfection. I mean technique that doesn’t distract from the design or vision. I sincerely dislike quiltmakers who claim to be making art quilts, because they don’t know how to bury and tie off their quilting threads.
Out and About
Everyone in NYC and the area should check this out: Classes at the Folk Art Museum. If I lived in the area, I would be taking all of these classes, damn the cost! 😉 The next one is on Feb. 26 with Paula Nadelstern. What a great opportunity. I really hope this whole event will spur other museums to do the same sort of thing. I would love it if the DeYoung would fill their entire space with quilts. I am happy to give them some of my quilts to show. 😉
Confidential to Reva
I was looking on Amazon and a new book, The Big Book of Patchwork, by Judy Hopkins has a quilt that you might want to look at with regard to your Drunkard’s Path Project. It is the 7th photo if you look inside.
As soon as I arrived home from the retreat, I put up the portable design wall and organized the diamonds. They were pinned on the design wall, so I didn’t have to do much for the part that was already sewn. All the unsewn diamonds were just in the bag of pieces.
Progress 1
My next task was to put all of the reds and pinks back on the design wall. Above, I have put all the diamonds I could fit back up on the design wall.
Progress 2
I was really trying to fix that bottom right hand corner, which meant working on the blues.
Progress 3
The blues are getting better. I am making progress.
Progress 4
But not all of the blues are cooperating.
Progress 5
I felt like I needed to take a lot of pictures, so when I have succeeded in a section I have a record. I am nervous that I will need to recreate it if the diamonds get rearranged. I live with creative people and sometimes they think they are helping by rearranging things.
Progress 6
More with the blues.
Progress 7
Minor changes, but the piece is looking better.
Progress 8
Trying to make the leap from blue to green to yellow is proving to be a challenge. I don’t think there is such a thing as a dark yellow and that one green (smack in the middle of the photo above) is really sticking out and doesn’t seem to fit anywhere.
I received these 9 blocks from my SIL on Thursday. I was so excited. We are now at 41 blocks! I didn’t think we would make 30, but people have been so generous. It warms my heart. Now my goal is 60 blocks: 20 for each of the 3 quilts.
As reminder, 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.
Want to help? 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 or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March. We can’t do it without you!
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
Have fun and link to your responses! Ask a friend to join, too! You can do the prompts together.
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/or your blog.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. Are you already a member? I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted. Post yours and get kudos!
I went to a quilt retreat this past weekend and was thrilled to receive 8 more blocks!
Bron’s Retreat Stars
Bron is a star herself and came through with 3 more blocks. These are her best yet, I think! I am fickle, though, because every time she gives me more blocks I like the new ones best.
I like the fabrics she chose. The stars are really bright and cheerful.
I brought some fabric to the retreat to make it easy for people to make blocks. It turns out that I didn’t have much of the really dark blues, which I was hoping to use in the background. I also brought Around the Block to help with the patterns. I thought about reloading Judy Martin’s Star block add-on to EQ7 on my computer, but I didn’t get around to it before I left for the retreat. It ended up not mattering, because people didn’t use the fabric to make blocks anyway!
Diane’s Friendship Stars
Diane also made some pieced and appliqued Friendship Stars. She got up at the crack of dawn yesterday and beavered away on these. I have talked about Diane before. She does wonderful silk painting, but not much piecing beyond borders. I talked about her pear ATCs, which I just love. She said she struggled a bit with the piecing and ended up appliqueing 3 of them. I thought it was very clever! Her blocks are great.
I have been promised some more blocks, so perhaps we are starting to get attention and will have enough to make some nice quilts.
Want to help? 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 or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
My retreat project, as you know from all of my preparations, was the Fabric of the Year quilt for 2010. I had high hopes that I would get the whole thing pieced. I enjoy doing the colorwork at the retreat, because I can get a lot of different opinions and I like knowing what other people see. Also, I feel like I have more space to spread out.
FOTY Start
Above is the way I started the FOTY on Friday afternoon.
FOTY 2010 Right Corner detail
Above is the dark corner. Again, I was trying for the a colorwash kind of look across the quilt from right to left.
FOTY 2010 – more of the dark corner
As I laid out the piece, it was interesting to see, visually, the amount of darks and colors.
FOTY 2010 – Dark Corner washing towards Red
This was the first layout. You can see a bit of the red next to the purple. Eventually, I took all the red off of the design board and put blue next to the purple. I did a backwards ROY G BIV working from right to left, though if you look at it when it is finished, the ROY G BIV will read correctly (see below).
FOTY 2010 – Whole Piece in Progress
Above, you can see that I have changed out the red for the blue in the center and put the red on the left edge. Most of the diamonds I have to work with for this project are blue. The design wall was not large enough for me to put up all of the patches, so the reds and pinks only got a representative sampling to begin with. As I worked through Friday afternoon and evening, then Saturday, I came to the realization that this piece was going to take longer than I thought. Putting it together was a lot more of an intellectual exercise than I expected. Part of the reason, I think, was that I wanted to put it together in chunks, which made the spaces created by the sewn seam allowances end up in strange places.
FOTY 2010 – Center detail
Those seam allowance spaces became unexpectedly large as I sewed, which turned out to make keeping track of where pieces went really difficult.
FOTY 2010 – Blue detail
One challenge was the different amounts of colors I had. Another challenge was that the fabrics mostly did not consist of only one color. I tried to block out all but the background or dominant color in my mind in order to place the patches, it wasn’t always possible.
FOTY 2010 – Blues washing to Yellow
Above, which is the upper left hand section, is the least formed part of the quilt, and still, in the photo above, in quite a bit in flux.
FOTY 2010 – Putting the Piece Together
In some ways putting the piece together got easier as I sewed larger chunks together. In other ways, it got to be more of a problem, because the spaces, as I mentioned, between the chunks got larger.
FOTY 2010 – Moving Across from Right to Left
The bottom left corner was really my big problem. I don’t know what happened, but something happened early on and I still haven’t completely resolved the problem in that corner. I am working through it, but as I don’t seem to have a photo of the whole piece after I moved the red, it is proving to be a challenge. I am having to lay out that corner again as I go along. Lots of unsewing is required.
FOTY 2010 – Top Right, Middle
Are you bored yet?
The top right and middle were ok and I was able to sew some large chunks together.
FOTY 2010 – Bottom Right
No matter what I did with that bottom right corner, there still seemed to be large missing chunks of patchwork. Sigh. At this point, in addition to taking big deep breaths, I realized I wasn’t going to get the piece finished. Not what I wanted to face, but I wanted to do a good job and that was the reality.
It was a bit liberating to admit that, because I felt like I could look at the piece and didn’t have to rush straight to sewing.
FOTY 2010 – Moving to Pink
I was able to put a few pinks up as the seam allowances shrank the whole piece, leaving more space. I had faint hope that some miracle would occur and I would finish the piecing.
FOTY 2010 – Adding the Reds
I was also able to add some of the reds that didn’t fit when I started.
FOTY 2010 – details of placement
The large seam allowances seemed to keep moving as well.
FOTY 2010 – Good Behavior
This was the well behaved part of the quilt right before I took the whole thing down so I could go home.
FOTY 2010 – Orange and Yellow
IYellows and oranges were ignored, for the most part.
FOTY 2010 – Virginia’s Picture
Virginia took this picture while she was visiting. It is really helpful to see what other people see in my pieces.
FOTY 2010 back at home
Julie helped me roll up the piece in the flannel of the portable design wall so I could bring it home and set it up again. My plan is to chip away at the rest of the layout and piecing. Not finishing puts me behind in my mind’s quiltmaking schedule, but I am sure there is a reason that I didn’t finish. I certainly didn’t expect the intellectual piecing challenge of this project. I am sure it is good for me.
