Feelin’ Blue, Too – Top Complete

Feelin' Blue, Too Top
Feelin’ Blue, Too Top

I finished the top of Feelin’ Blue, Too last weekend. I finally finished the back yesterday. I haven’t applied the label yet. I did something different with the label this time. Mom bought me some printable fabric, so I created a label in Word and then printed it on fabric. I included a headshot of myself! Not sure why, but I did. It looks nice, but feels somewhat odd.

The color of the top nags at the back of my mind again. The oranges really stick out and I hope not too much to take away from the blue.

I haven’t found someone to quilt either of the quilts yet. I have a space reserved with CG, but she won’t be back until the end of the month and I won’t receive them back until August 15. I am amazed that she left right at the time that people would want to have their quilts quilted for the show. Of course, all of those people, myself included, should have been more organized.

The last post about Feelin’ Blue, Too was on July 2, 2005.

Creation Day

Feelin' Blue Blocks Sewn Together
Feelin’ Blue Blocks Sewn Together

Although I just finished the dishes, I spent most of the day being creative. After doing my Qi Gong exercises, I sewed all the Feelin’ Blue, Too blocks together.

Later this morning, my friend PG came over and we worked on our photo albums together. It is what we do together and I am glad that we do it. As a result most of my photos are in order. I have a backlog-from before W was born, mostly, but nothing out of control.

Having the photos in order means that W can look through his babyhood and enjoy the photos, laughing at himself.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to spend really making the pages gorgeous, rich and supple. For me, it is most important to get the photos in order, documented and on the pages. The scrapbook magazines show layered pages with few photos. I find that I need to put many photos on a page and write the stories about the photos. I do some embellishments; I want my pages to look nice, but not like everyone else’s.

Still the album-making is not like quiltmaking. The feel of the fabric is much better than paper. I feel so relaxed when I touch fabric.

Sewing the fabric together and making something new feels wonderful to me.

Feelin’ Blue, Too is typical for me in some ways. There are many, many fabrics and the fabrics work together in a wonderful way. I like using many fabrics, because I never seem to have enough of one fabric to satisfy my need for yards of it. In a way, having many fabrics makes each one special.

Feelin’ Blue, Too 2 halves

Feelin' Blue Two Halves
Feelin’ Blue Two Halves

This is one of the blocks that are scheduled to be sewn together. At the moment only the two halves are sewn together. I do like the way the four patch in the middle looks now that the halves are each sewn together. I think it will look great when the whole block is sewn together.

This is also one block that I thought had too little blue and too much other color in it. It has changed since parts were sewn together. As I mentioned, I think that all the different colors will work out.

I guess I had better get to it.

Feelin Blue detail 2

Feelin' Blue Two Halves
Feelin’ Blue Two Halves

My last little sewing jag resulted in half blocks, as I think I mentioned. Of all the half blocks, I think this is the one that I like best. I am surprised that I like this one best, because it has so much non-blue fabric in it. I just love those yellow-greens. JZS was so right when she said that the non-blue colors would end up looking ok. They look better than OK – they look great!

A Seam a Day….the Quilt Gets Finished that Way

All of the blocks for Feelin’ Blue, Too are sewn to another block, except for the corners. For the most part, I have half blocks now. I did sew one whole block together as a test. It looks great and I am thrilled with the way this quilt is coming out. I love the process and to see the way the quilt evolves each step of the way.

I did find, however, that I need to repress all of the half blocks so the seam allowance is going in the other direction. This will allow me to more easily make the middle seams match up. I know it seems like a small thing and who cares, really, in an art quilt? I care. I want the centers to match and I want to not be embarrassed when I look at it. If all of the blocks aren’t perfect, OK, but I want it to be done right and to have tried my best.

Some people don’t care about technique, especially in art quilts, but I think technique is important. It is important to try and do construction techniques my right way. Because of this, I am kind of being a hard nose on my students, but at least they will have learned my right way. After that, if they choose to do things another way, that is fine. At least they won’t be doing the other technique out of ignorance.

I am amazed at how fast the rows went together. I had about a row done already, but sewed 5 rows total. Each row has 4 or 6 blocks in it. I am thriiled that I am making progress.

Michael Adamson

This link will probably die at some point, but in the meantime, I am glad I found it. The site itself is clean and easy to view art at. Michael Adamson is a Toronto artist. I saw an article in the paper about him, which included a photos of his painting Elephant Walk, which I love. It is happy in a sophisticated sort of way (not a Hello Kitty sort of way). The man looks like he knows how to paint and has a method rather than just slapping paint onto a canvas, because he didn’t want to get a job.

Blog Out of the Closet

Well, I did it and came out of the blog closet to the Mavs. It is cool, actually, because a few people have commented. Now I feel pressure! I had better sew something tonight!

The quilt class is off for tomorrow, so I am off the hook for that preparation, but I would be smart to get my act together early rather than waiting until the last minute. I did pick out other blocks and make some of the handouts, so that is something. I also got some help on the basket block from EQ Tech Support. Penny responded, so I felt really special! I have to look at what she did and see if it will work.

Of course, I could finish the Drunkard’s Path and Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks as examples. I feel a little lame for not having done those blocks yet.

I want to sew some more of Feelin’ Blue, Too (new name after talking to JZS and Aja) together as JZS and Aja are way ahead of me in putting the quilt together.

We’ll see. I may just rest.

Feelin’ Blue coming together

I realized today that the deadline for the Marin show is fast approaching and I had better get the form filled out for this quilt, call the quilter, etc. I have sewn some of it, but not much. I planned to do little bits this week while W was gone, but haven’t made it so far.

I also need to make the templates and cut pieces for the 8 pointed star. My quilt class will be doing the 8 pointed star this week and I want to be able to show them how to do the joins. I need to take a look at Judy Martin’s Ultimate Rotary Cutting Reference Book to see how to use the Point Trimmer to make the diamonds easier to put together. I had a little trouble using the tool on my blocks for the Teacher Pillows, but perhaps I was in a rush?

Inspiration

As I was walking around Toronto a few days ago, I saw this sculpture in the Galerie Christin on Yonge Street.

and the horse

The horse really has a great movement (or shape, maybe??). I love the curve that the artist has captured. I think the horse looks like it will walk away.

I was fascinated by the detail of these sculptures

The pieces look like they are made from found objects. I think that there are some sculptures made from found pieces that are really well done. The face of the mannequin looks a little eerie becuase of the size of the eyes, but there is so much more to look at that you can forget about the eyes.

Feelin’ Blue Layouts

Aja’s blocks for Feelin’ Blue arrived this week and they are gorgeous. I think she must have picked backgrounds, which truly inspired JZS and I to do our best. All of the blocks are gorgeous and together they have the right amount of color with right amount of blue. It is still monochromatic, but not boring. I read or took a class somewhere/sometime and recall the teacher/author saying that you had to add a little of the complementary color to a monochromatic quilt to make it interesting. I’ll have to look up from where I am remembering that comment.

Now my task is to layout the blocks.I have a couple of different ideas.

Feelin' Blue Layout 1
Feelin’ Blue Layout 1

The first one is nice, but unbalanced. Balance isn’t always what it is cracked up to be, but I do like balance.

Feelin' Blue Layout 2
Feelin’ Blue Layout 2

The second photo is my attempt at balance. I am leaning on going with this option. I still may play around with the layout some more just to see what I can come up with.

I am also still fiddling with the placement of the individual pieces. I stare at it in the morning for 45 minutes or so and move pieces around based on different subjective criteria. Two light blues in the middle piece are next to each other and thus make a big light blue blob. Too many oranges in one area. Etc.

Kansas City Star Blocks

Several years ago I bought a book from the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild. It is volume three of a multi-volume set of Kansas City Star blocks. I looked through it recently and was reminded that the blocks make me drool with possibilities. Of course, the blocks would have to be redrafted for piecing. I have to say that the women who made some of the blocks when the blocks were first published were no sewing wimps. Many of the blocks have inset seams, irregular shapes, very thin triangles, etc. In that vein, I began thinking about the newspaper clipping of a Laura Wheeler block (newspaper clipping) and tried to remake it.

Snowball Wreath Pattern
Snowball Wreath Pattern

I didn’t use the templates given in the newspaper clipping, because I only had a picture of the newspaper clipping and not the original clipping. Also, the shapes of the pieces were crazy – at least for my level of skill in piecing! I am pleased with the way my block came out, even though I used different techniques (piecing combined with applique’ than the original block.

Snowball Wreath by Jaye
Snowball Wreath by Jaye

I would like to try again different ways, using different fabrics. I don’t think I got the spacing quite right. There is something not quite right about the newspaper clipping when compared with the actual fabric sample I made. I don’t think it is an easy task to look at a picture of a newspaper clipping and then create it in fabric, but it was a puzzle that I couldn’t put away.

I feel the same way about some of the Kansas City Star blocks. It would be a great project to try and remake them all. What a lot of blocks that would be. Some of them would be fine, but some would be quite challenging.