Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am back from the wilds of Monterey where I was well taken care of, refreshed and rejuvenated.
This is a little scene that I saw at my friend’s house. I loved the machine in front of the thread. She has a wonderful eye and everything in her house is subtlely colorful, beautifully arranged and restful.
Her garden is wonderfully wild. Also restful.
Back soon!
How to Make a Halloween Costume
Supplies and Tools
The Halloween costume, except for some decoration, which are drying, is finished. The Darling Child is happy and I didn’t have to buy anything except 2 yards of black felt. I like using felt for Halloween costumes, because the raw edges don’t ravel. You can also just cut it off, glue things to it and cut strange shapes out of it with no problem. The costumes are a bit fragile and don’t usually last long. You can see the cloak that I made by looking at this picture from Wikipedia.
I didn’t have any white paint, so I used Liquid Paper to create the whorls on the red emblem the Darling Child needed.
I only had enough red to make five of the emblems, so we had to place them carefully for maximum effect.
It is kind of fun to make the Halloween costumes – to make a child’s Halloween dream come true. It is also fun to kind of figure out how to make something work with what you have on hand. I always buy enough felt to get through the main part of the project, but inevitably, I don’t think farther than that. One costume I made needed a fat tail that stood up. I used a paint stirrer to keep it stiff enough. That was before I knew about Timtex.
Here is an update on the progress I made while the 9K was in the shop.
: I made all the blankets I set out to make and then I found out that another friend was having a baby, so I made an additional two as well. I didn’t have the 9K as mentioned, so I just used a zigzag to hem the blankets. Not the way I normally like to work, but I wanted to get them done.
– I made the binding and sewed it on and am almost finished with hand stitching it to the back of the quilt. The sleeve is also made, but does need to be applied.
– The Fabric Queen did this for me.
– This is partially done. I cut some last week as I worked on the most recent Pineapples.
One of the themes I noticed at PIQF was baskets.
There are a number of things I like about this quilt, which I think is unusual. First all of the baskets are unusual. I didn’t examine each one separately to see if they were all different, but I think they might be. In looking at the photo I saw a couple that were slight variations of each other, but different enough to be considered unique. This is the kind of detail that makes quilts great and shows that quick quilts aren’t everything.
Second is the setting. The maker (and if YOU are the maker, I will gladly put your name here). This is a very clever way to setting the blocks. It also gives the quilt a lot of movement without buying into the whole primitive wave that is moving through the quilt world.
Third, is the fabric. Although there is a lot of black in this quilt, it does not look depressing. I also like the fabric that she used, especially the different yellows to sash the blocks. Much more interesting than using all the same yellow. The light colored background in the blocks really makes the baskets show up.
Fourth, the size of the blocks put them almost into the GAL* quilt department, but the details are so finely done and perfect for each block, including not adding them when they weren’t needed, that I think the blocks were done out of love and not because the maker didn’t have anything better to do.
Finally, the quilting is great. I think there is a lot of in-the-ditch quilting to keep this quilt together, but the gentle curves of the quilting that set off the blocks in a subtle way are perfect for the overall design.
This is another basket quilt. As you can see, the baskets are also small, and in this example, very girly. I remember the name being something having to do with girly handbags.
The pinks in this one were definitely the strength of the quilt, but notice the lavender that the maker added as the background for one block. I like it when the maker has the foresight and confidence to add a completely different fabric to the mix in order to add interest to the quilt. I think the brown looks ok, but it makes the quilt, overall, look a lot darker.
*GAL – get a life
I finally found a copy of the latest issue of Quilter’s Home. HOORAY! This one truly has a subscription card in it. I haven’t filled it out yet, but will. I want to encourage Mark who seems to love us, has a great sense of humor and fun, which I think the quilt world needs AND has articles that make me want to move in next door to him and become his new best friend.
The fridge article was a bit weird, but it made me think about what was in my fridge (WAY too much leftover rice). I also thought that there was too much diet Coke in those quilt teachers’ fridges. I love that Alex Anderson keeps face cream in her fridge.
The project for big prints was great and I might add it to my list of things to make.
I wasn’t interested in the Splish-Splash needlework pieces, but that’s me. I really enjoyed the bio of Mark. It was great to learn how he became a dad and that he used to work in a quilt store.
QH isn’t perfect, but the overall entertainment value makes up for the articles that don’t interest me.
I also recently read the quilt issue of Piecework. Sigh.
I used to have a subscription and devour the magazine. I love history and remember one article on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that riveted me. Even the quilt issue is now a pale shadow of what it used to be. The article on Marie Webster’s quilts was pathetic. It has footnotes, but they were all to secondary sources and it just wasn’t long enough to do justice to the woman or her quilts. There are too many projects for a history type magazine, but I guess that is supposedly what sells. One project was for knitting quilt blocks. Why bother? The knitters can wait for an issue while we quiltmakers revel. I just think Piecework has lost its way and its focus. I hope CPS and Quilting Arts don’t follow in Piecework’s footsteps.
Deirdre passed this link on to me. Pamdora has written a post about journals. In it she links to YouTube videos of artists sharing their visual journals. I did look at a couple of the videos.
The videos show page after page of the artists’ drawing books. It is cool to see what they are drawing, because it gives me ideas for what I can draw if I ever become regular in working on a visual journal. I was bolstered in my efforts by looking at Paula Scher’s video, because she draws letters in different ways. She decorates the shapes and encloses them in different vessels. What a simple idea for getting starting on a visual journal journey. Start with the basics!
Her fonts get more elaborate as the video goes on and the audience begins to see the border treatment that she does on the pages of her journal. Her work kind of reminds me of writing your name over and over on your notebook in 6th grade.
Celia Squire, a London artist, does very detailed pictures of what looks like the world around her. The figures are elaborate and rich. The details made me want to look closer. I really like the first page of the woman sitting at a cafe table.
Stefano Faravelli’s journal is wonderful. Pamdora writes “A beautiful travel-style journal that folds out out into one long composition.” Her words do not do justice to the fantastic watercolors on each page or the cleverness of the way the pages fold out to one long painting. I really like the way he has incorporated words into his compositions. perhaps I don’t need a visual journal, because Stefano has done what I want to do!
One of the things I hadn’t thought of until I saw Remy Bardin’s journal were foldouts and pockets. I could make little secret hiding places in my visual journal. Perhaps I should call it the mythical visual journal?
The videos are accompanied, except for Paul Dewis, by a strange clapping/rustling of tracing paper sound. I turned off the sound on my computer, so I could concentrate on the art.
It is obvious that these artists:
There are many more videos of this project. Go take a look. You will be inspired!
What a great idea.
I did not make a Halloween costume this weekend as promised, but did work on the Pineapples.
I tried to get back into the Pineapple groove by taking the baskets down. I had two Pineapples half finished from before the machine went to be serviced. I started by finishing those and make two new ones. Above are two that I completed and two that I started AND completed. YAY! I only have 4 more Pineapples to go!
Border Pineapples 11 & 12.
Border Pineapples 13 & 14.
I cut strips from some of the new fabrics I bought at PIQF and from fabrics that I washed and the Fabric Queen pressed for me. That freshened up the project and livened things up a bit in the fabric department.
Having a break and doing some different piecing was great, but there is no way that I am stopping this project and putting it away. I really had to get back into the groove and remember my little tricks and tips. The first two I was trying to finish felt like a comedy of errors. I kept cutting the strips too short and putting pieces on the wrong side, etc. I got it all worked out, but jeesh! I can’t imagine what would happen if I put the whole project away for a year or two like some of my other projects.
I ran into the Pineapple teacher at PIQF and was glad I did so. I thought I had to trim the blocks to make them fit together, but she said only to trim the corners, which I have not yet applied to any of the blocks. She said to use the bias to get the blocks to fit together. There is a bit of bias on the edge of each block that I can stretch, if I need to.
I would have done more (and started the Halloween costume), but it turned out that we had a family event to attend today. I thought it was next weekend, so it really cut into my sewing time.
So, I am screwed for the Halloween costume and will have to work on it during the week, but it will get done.
As I mentioned yesterday TFQ visited me last week. She LOVES fabric. Not just likes, but truly loves. When together and discussing something optional that we don’t want to pay for (parking tickets, etc), we talk about the cost in terms of yards of fabric. For example, “I had better slow down so I don’t get a ticket; that is at least 35.5 yards of fabric.” I find it to be quite hilarious and would love to hear what someone says who overhears these conversations.
She loves fabric so much that she will press any fabric I have not washed and pressed. ANY fabric and she considers it time well spent as she can fondle all of my fabric. A fabric saint, if there ever was one, though I am not allowed to say that anymore.
Over the past several months I have accumulated new fabric (you can look back through the blog to see what it was). I haven’t been very diligent about washing it. I have washed and pressed some, but most was still waiting to be washed when the Fabric Queen arrived. Now it is all washed, pressed and beautifully folded. TFQ pressed it all (see above). We got home from the show and I started shoving loads in the washer and she started pressing the stuff I had washed and had not gotten around to pressing. I have lots of of new dots to use for the Pineapple. YAY!
One of the errands we ran before we went to the show were to go pick up my quilts from the quilter and other quilts from the photographer. I finally got the Nosegay back and above is a detail of the quilting. I haven’t sewed the binding down yet, but it is in the queue.
SF Girl By the Bay is a homey, nice feeling blog. She has some great pincushions she posted recently and a beautiful lamp made from trash.
Patterns and designs are the basic “food” of quiltmaking. Print & Pattern shows all sorts of different designs from stationary, gift wrap, cards, etc. It has a bit of a Japanesy/cartoony feel, but interesting for inspiration.
Enjoy!
TFQ said that after going to a big show she always wants to go on a diet, which set my mind to thinking about rear ends. Not really what I wanted to be thinking about at a quilt show, after all, but there you have it. As luck (maybe not the exact word?) would have it, three forward thinking quiltmakers made quilts with butts. I would have never thought of rear ends as a design idea, but it is definitely an idea.
Aside from patooties, there were other themes we saw at the show:
There were lots of quilts with sunflowers! They were beautiful and it was amazing to see the artistry and work in some of the quilts. It made me wonder if the Sunflower Council did a lot of advertising in quilt magazines last year?
It was new to see so many males selling in fabric and notions booths. Men have always sold sewing machines, but there they were in the booths selling fabric. One guy from the Apple Scrapyard (see this post to learn more about them-very nice people) wanted to show me how to make a fan quilt. He was adorable and so friendly. I felt bad turning him down, but a big guy sitting in a booth filled with pastel colored Moda fabrics really made me smile.
The sad part is that many booths had only kits (including fabric and pattern) or packs of pre-selected fabric. As you could tell from the photos from yesterday, I had no trouble finding fabrics to buy, but there were many I passed up, because the vendors would not open the pack for me so I could just buy one or two fabrics. I hope the trend, which is obviously moving in that direction, doesn’t end up with having only packs and kits available. Don’t get me wrong, there is NOTHING wrong with kits. It is a good way for a beginner to start, but kits are not for me. There is also nothing wrong with packs. One of my favorite vendors, who wasn’t at PIQF for the second year in a row(!!!), Foothill Fabrics, does FANTASTIC packs. Her fabrics packs are right up my alley: all dots or all stripes or all of a line of fabulously bright colors. I just don’t want to buy packs every time from every vendor. I especially don’t want to buy packs centered around a large scale floral or a conversational print. The bottom line is that I want to choose my own fabric and put it into my own designs. I can certainly admire quilts made from kits and fabric packs, but that is not what I want to do.
Again, there were quilts, clearly made from a pattern, where the pattern maker was not credited. There were even some quilts that were labeled as ‘original designs.’ I think it is wrong to buy a pattern, make the blocks, rearrange them and call it an original design. It is an interpretation of a pattern, but not original.
I know this brings up the subject of blocks, especially classic* ones. If someone else designed the block, can it ever be part of an original arrangement? A complicated question, but I think it can. If you see a quilt, and remake it choosing fabrics as close to the originals as possible, the same setting, quilting and binding, then it is not an original work. If you see a quilt with a block you admire, you make a bunch of blocks in different fabrics and rearrange them in a new and original setting, then it is, if not an original design, an original interpretation of a classic block. I just think it is fair to let the world know where you got the idea. When/if TFQ and I enter the basket quilt into a show, I will certainly say that I saw the quilt at PIQF 2007. If I know the quiltmaker’s name, I will include that as well.
You can find a number of photos from the show here.
N.B. I don’t like the term ‘traditional’ to refer to blocks or quilts, because it seems to imply reproduction fabrics. I like to use classic blocks, but use new and fun fabrics in them.
I spent almost all week engaged in quilt related activities. First, I picked up my Nosegay from the quilter. She did a fantastic job. Photos to follow as it is such a monster I have to move furniture to get any kind of photo.
I also picked up some quilts from the photographer so I can update Artquiltmaker.com. The quilts are older, but it turned out that I didn’t have good photos of these quilts.
I also spent a few days this week at PIQF with the JCN, The Fabric Queen (a new moniker for an existing Artquiltmaker character by request). I took a lot of pictures, which I will share in another post. I didn’t take as many as I would have liked as I was having camera difficulties. We went down early and went to the preview on Wednesday night. The quilts were available for viewing and the vendors were open for business.
I found a couple of fabrics that I can use. The three batiks were just there and gorgeous, but the skeletons are for the Flowering Snowballs quilt (I seem to be getting a sense of humor with the background for this quilt), then, of course, there are dots for the Pineapple.
Additional new fabrics.
We went to Eddie’s Quilting Bee after leaving the show. They moved about three weeks ago and it was right on our way, so we stopped. It is a nice, large, open and light filled shop (even in the pouring rain), but they didn’t seem to have a lot of fabric, probably because most of the fabric was at the quilt show. I found a couple more dots that I can use in the Pineapple. 😉
This is one of the quilts in the show. There were a number of great basket quilts, but one block inspired us to get sewing.
It is pretty much a normal Flower Basket block, but the little Bow Tie in the middle gave it a little extra zing.
Since my design wall is covered with Pineapple blocks, I used The Fabric Queen’s bed as a design wall. The green flannel wasn’t as sticky as I like and the green, though warm, was not that attractive for a background.
Not sure what to use for the background, so I was trying a bit of a print. Not so good, IMO.
I took the Pineapples down (don’t have a cow, they are going back up tomorrow!) in order to put the baskets up. They look much better on white.
Some details of the blocks.
This is how I piece when it is too late at night.
We decided that we would work on this quilt together, so I will take the blocks next time I go up to visit or the Fabric Queen comes here. TFQ is going to work on some alternate blocks in a chain to see if they work. I know I hadn’t planned to start a new project, but it was good to get some baskets out of my system and I am sure I will be refreshed for the Pineapples, which I am reinvigorated to work on.
Apologies for the large photos. I wanted to get something out to you sooner rather than later. More soon.
I forgot to mention yesterday that I bought some more dot fabrics at Stone Mountain and Daughter. At least the bottom two fabrics on the right right are from the Katie Jump Rope collection from Denyse Schmidt. KJR isn’t, IMO, as successful as DS’s previous collection, Flea Market Fancy. A couple of the other dots I have in different colorways. As you know I am always on the prowl for dot fabrics with white backgrounds.
Last time I visited St. JCN, I looked through some of her books and found the templates for this flower in Follow the Dots to Dazzling Quilts (another dumb name) by Joan Segna and Jayme Crow. I traced them and brought them home. Lately, they have been calling to me. After I found a whole mailing pouch full of handmade paper, I knew what was in store. While Darling Boy was drawing I cut and pasted. I am still thinking about this layering business. I guess it relates to quiltmaking. I am also still not knowing what to draw, but I guess cutting and pasting is OK, too. I am thinking about cutting out dozens of these flowers and pasting them all over the walls of my hallway until I can get it painted. It is such a depressing shade of life-sucking beige.
As you may remember from a previous post that I am teaching a class at work (other life). Above is the gorgeous quilt from one of my students. The photo is not so gorgeous, unfortunately. Alice has used all batiks and the quilt just glows.
I got a new phone for work and it has a camera. Danger! Now I have a camera with me AT ALL TIMES. WOW! This is great for me, because every time I see something I can snap a picture. The color isn’t as good as my other camera, but at least I have it with me all the time.
These are tiles I have been walking past for years. Finally, I was able to take a photo. This is a simple tile pattern, but I love the contrast between black and the pastels.
I stopped by Stone Mountain and Daughter to buy some fabric for pants. While, I was there I saw this quilt (yes, I asked and received permission to photograph). It reminds me of the Piece O’Cake pattern (below-pic from APNQ 2006). I like the subtlety of the fabrics that the maker chose.
This is painting by Carolyn Meyer. Ms. Meyer is the Assistant Director of Fine Art at the Academy of Art. The Academy of Art gallery was one that I went to visit a few weeks ago. I went back, because I love this painting. It has some qualities of Wayne Thiebaud’s work, but this painting is very restful to me. It is called Summer and I would love to have this piece to hang in my house. Unfortunately, it is $1900 and I don’t have it to spent on a painting right now.
One of the mosaics in the building where I work.
September and October provide some of the best weather in my area. One day, after work, I couldn’t shake the need to go and sit by the ocean for a few minutes. Despite the weird looks that Darling Boy gave me and the several questions about what exactly this action meant for his future, we went. We went to a place where they have recently remodeled a few benches and a parking lot at the top of one of the cliffs. While there I saw this tree. I couldn’t shake the idea that the trunks would make a wonderful quilting pattern.
I applied some filters to the photo to try and outline the pattern of the trunks.
Rugs – good quilt patterns?
I like the repetition of the windows with the estuary in the background. The color didn’t come through very well, though.
Kuidaore has taken baking to new heights. The artistry of these cakes and cupcakes is amazing. Other posts in the blog show Christmas themed cookies and cupcakes. They look like they cannot possibly be real. The Gilding the Rose cake is a favorite.
