Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
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EBHQ Show April 12-13, 2008
The East Bay Heritage Quilters held their bi-annual show last weekend at the Oakland Convention Center. The best part of the weekend was that TFQ came down to visit and go to the show with me. As usual, I took a lot of pictures. TFQ has a new camera, so her photos are included in the group, which I have added to Flickr.
The show was well hung with plenty of room to look and photograph. The lighting was excellent and while well attended, it wasn’t so crowded that we had to fight with people to see the quilts. The disappointing part of the show was the brown. The overall impression of the show was that there was a preponderance of quilts made from brown or beige or some equally depressing color. These were not the rich chocolate browns of dark chocolate, but the sad, world weary browns of a country/area that is sad.
The above quilt, by Carol Lee Blangsted, a former president of EBHQ, was probably my favorite in the show. The fabric didn’t make my heart sing, but the design was wonderful and the quilt was well executed. Ithought it was a good design for the lovely large print fabrics available now.
The shopping was ok, but there weren’t nearly enough vendors selling fabrics and there were barely any fabrics from any of the new groups that have come out recently. Their loss was Black Cat’s gain.
We spent a lot of time at Black Cat chatting and looking at the fabric. We didn’t get as much bang for our buck, but the fabric choices were fantastic.
I did buy a few fabrics at the show, and one booth, a friend of TFQ’s, had luscious ribbon (see right side of picture above). As you can see dots are still the rage in my life!
I was also on a button kick. The totes require a button and I have been at a loss to find the right ones for various projects. I stocked up at Britex on Friday and partook of one booth’s antique buttons at the show.
The above fabrics were a gift from TFQ. YAY!
I have been driving around and seeing all the cherry trees blooming and never have my camera with me. This is a photo by my friend, JeanneN (aka TFQ!). I though I would put it up to keep up the tradition of welcoming spring and celebrating these beautiful cherry trees.
This photo, also by TFQ, is the historic dome in the San Francisco Center. It used to be above the restaurant in Emporium Capwell’s. You can see some information about the raising of this dome when the SF Center was remodeled.
We stopped by Black Cat Quilts to look at their fabric.
This is a quilt we saw there. Apparently you can find the pattern in Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: The FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics. TFQ commented that the above color choices were better than the one on the cover of the book.
I also finished this bag. It is a gift, but I am making a similar one for myself.
This is the inside of the bag. I love the stripes! In being with TFQ this weekend, we realized that a pocket for a glasses case would be really useful. I may try and add one to the next bag.
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TFQ has made a wonderful bag. It is very happy. You can also look at TFQ’s Flickr page.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought fabric to make a bag for my SIL for a gift.
TFQ and I were emailing back and forth about the EMT bags and she mentioned an easier way to make the straps. The method she found on another pattern has you make them quadruple the size of the finished strap, fold in half, open, fold each raw edge towards the middle and press. I used this method for making straps for my latest bag (above) and after about an hour of work I am ready to apply the large outside pocket and sew the bags together. The straps are on the outside, the pockets are positioned. TFQ’s method, while using more fabric, made the process amazingly fast. I didn’t think that the process explained on the pattern was terrible, but making the straps was terrible and this is much better. I think I will have time to make a couple of other bags for people I will visit this summer. YAY!
This is a good example of why collaboration is so important. As you can see, I have made a lot of progress on the project.
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Here are some recent fabrics that I bought from Fabric.com. The bottom fabrics are all home dec fabrics. I am going to use them to make another Eco Market Tote. I have a running list in my mind of bags I’d like to make for friends, so this is crossing the first gift off the mental list. I may have enough to make a dotty bag for myself. I had planned to use the stripe as the outside, but DH said that he thought the blue dot outside would be better, so that is what I will do.
The violet dot at the top was me attempting to replace the fabulous violet dot I got somewhere about a year ago. The color is absolutely right, but the weave (what is it with the weave thing I have going??) is really thin and the violet bleeds into the white dots.
Note to online retailers: don’t buy thin fabric and sell it as first quality quiltmaking fabric. Thanks!
In the previous post about making bullseyes, I left you ready to sew the circles on. Tips on appliqueing the circles to the background:
Then you sew. Once you sew the circle on, you get the finished product pictured above.
To cut out the back, carefully separate the top and the back of the block. Pinch a little bit of the back, inside the sewn line about a quarter inch from the sewn line. Make a small cut, being careful not to cut through to the front. Cut around the inside of the sewn line. I use a pair of applique scissors, which help to protect the front from cutting through.
Here is a block once I have cut out the back.
Here is a close up of the sewn line and the cutting line.
The view above was what I could see as I ate breakfast. It is the interior of a fabulous breakfast cafe called Boulette’s Larder. Boulette’s Larder is in the Ferry Building and sort of hidden in the back.
I went to Boulette’s last Friday in an effort to jumpstart my attitude. The lingering effects of the malaise that I described in Second Cup of Tea are still with me and it was getting to the point where I wasn’t drawing anymore. Boulette’s Larder looks out over the Bay Bridge and has a wonderful atmosphere. I walked in, a little unsure, and the proprietor came over to me and asked me if I wanted to sit in the restaurant with them or outside at a little cafe table. I thought being around some people would be good so I sat at the big farmhouse-ish table inside. I had a nice view outside, of interesting jars on the wall and of the activity in the kitchen. I was interested in the fact that the stove was right next to the table and there was no yelling among the staff. It was a very calm and pleasant atmosphere.
By doing something out of my routine, I realized that I was no longer able to see anything new in my regular route and my muse was getting dried up. I needed to get out of my routine and do something different.
Here is the latest installation of the Flowering Snowballs project. I think that the green (upper left) is a feedsack fabric. I have only a small piece of it and the weave doesn’t seem to be a modern weave. Not that I know anything about feedsacks or the weave of fabric and whether it can be tied to an era!
Julie has her Bullseyes up on her blog. I am amazed at how similar they look to mine, but still different. I do like the target motif (left towards the bottom) in Julie’s Seeing Red and will have to try that out when I get my current bullseye squares back.
