Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
The Upside Down 9 Patch Columns is suitable for 4, 5 or 6 fabrics. It uses the same pieces from last week’s block. I simply turned the middle column upside down before I sewed it together. I love doing things like that, because playing like that can make a completely different block.
Post your link to a completed block in the comments section.
The Block-a-Long will be on hiatus for awhile. Check back for its reappearance.
This is the 9 Patch Columns. It is suitable for either 2, 3 or 6 fabrics. Please post a link to your blocks in the comments section.
This will be the second to the last block before I put this project on hiatus.
Here are four of the blocks I have made for my Frosted Stars project. There are a couple of things I found and a couple of things I decided.
I found that the red is not working. It is too intense for this project, so I am not going to include any other red in the blocks I have made six blocks so far, which is slightly less than half of what I need.
I also decided that I would use the turquoise primarily for the background triangles. I decided that I am going to include a couple of blocks with the silver for the background triangles. I am also going to include a couple of blocks with other blues. Perhaps I will include only one, perhaps more. I haven’t decided.
My next step is to cut a bunch of background squares so I can put more blocks together. I haven’t worked on these blocks since last weekend as I have either not been sewing, pressing and cutting diamonds or have been working on the Zig Zaggy back.
Like this 9 Patch? I am pretty happy with the color combination. I love that aqua fabric and wish I had bought more. Oh well. Fortunately there is always more fabric.
As you can see, I have included a large print in this block. This is a demonstration of a large print working in this project.
This block is suitable for 2, 3 or 9 fabrics. Think about the look you are seeking.
Note from the Management: Please comment, letting me know if you would like this project to continue or if you really don’t care. Thanks.
This block, Four Columns, is suitable for 2 or 4 fabrics. When you cut the strips for the pieces, you can cut a full strip as you will use it for future blocks.
Note from the Management: Comment and let me know if you are working on this project and whether you would like it to continue.
This is a slight variation of last week’s block, Four Patch Rectangle. It should be very quick to make. Four Patch Columns Instructions is suitable for two fabrics, though you would have to be creative. Four fabrics is better.
These are 6″ finished blocks.
The directions tell you simply how many pieces of which fabric to cut. The instructions use the fabrics I selected, so you will have to adjust if you are using two fabrics.
Enjoy!
I am trying to relate the blocks together. Hopefully, you will be able to see the relationships as I post them.
The Rectangle Four Patch #2 is also not difficult. This block is suitable for 3 different fabrics.
Ta-DA!
Here is the first block for the Block-a-Long. Four Patch #1 is an easy pattern – just 4 pieces. You can use four different fabrics, as I did or you can two. Select and place your fabrics according to any means your heart desires.
I finally decided that I would commit to posting block designs and instructions so we could do a Block-a-Long. What is a Block-a-Long? It is a project to make blocks. Hopefully, they will turn into a quilt, but that is a project for another day.
The blocks pictured are some of the blocks that we will be doing. Each block is 6″ finished. I have designed 40 blocks so far. All of them, so far, are straight line sewing – squares and rectangles. There won’t be any curves in the project, but there may be some triangles.
I don’t plan to give you step by step instructions on how to put a block together, though in the blog post, I may give you some tips and tricks to help you along.
The directions will be from EQ7 and will include a picture of the block, what pieces to cut to make the block and that’s it. Of course, if you have questions, you can leave them in the comment field.
First task: go and choose your fabric. Choose some colors that you enjoy. Select a fat quarter pack you have been saving. Choose a theme such as dots or stripes. Go buy yourself some new fabric (FabricWorm has some great fat quarter and half yard packs that they have put together). Use some color combinations that you have always wanted to try.
I’ll wait about a week for you to gather your fabrics.
I selected my fabric a couple of months ago when TFQ was visiting. I am hoping to use each fabric 3 times in the quilt.
Yes, there are a lot of fabrics in my group. I want my quilt to be really scrappy. You don’t need to have this many. You can always add more later. This is a great project for scraps, so you could just pull fabrics out of your scrap bin. A two color quilt will work well, too, I think, though you may want to use different fabrics of the same colors
I know you have seen the blocks below before. These are some of the first blocks you will be doing. The point is not to make you miserable by posting difficult blocks to struggle through, but to have a little fun and, perhaps, work with color. Have fun!
I felt a bit of freedom in my sewing today. I finished the Blue Janus back yesterday (have to write about that, yes) and didn’t have anything pressing to work on. That left me to see how I felt and work on what I felt like.
I sewed two more test blocks for the Frosted Star pattern. My pattern is much easier to follow and trimming the segments before sewing the block together works really well. I used a mostly monochromatic color scheme for these latest blocks so I can also donate them to the Rainbow project. I couldn’t resist using a bit of one of my Philip Jacob prints.
I think I need to test the 9″ pattern rather than the 12″, because the 12″ is just too big and the 9″ is what I would use in the quilt. I am thinking that I won’t make this quilt even though I like it a lot.
I felt compelled to make a back, so now the back for It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap is finished. This back was less arduous than the one for the Blue Janus quilt. Quite simply, it was much smaller. I also made a big effort to use very large pieces of fabric. Rather than days, it was only a few hours in progress. I am happy that it is done, though I don’t have plans to quilt it yet. I’ll have to see about that.
Making the above back gets me farther along in the various finishing tasks I have to do. I still need to make the sleeves for FOTY 2009 and the Chocolate Box as well as the facing for the Chocolate Box.
I don’t know what is next on the list, but am thinking a tote bag is in order. I have this new black and white fabric that is demanding my attention. Half Moon by Moda will be the bag body with possibly a pink inside.
The Kaffe Fassett dot attracted my attention for handles (I think I may be in a monochromatic phase right now). GAQF only had a fat quarter, but I found a half yard in my fabric closet, which will be enough for the handles. I like the combination of big and small dots.
I am thinking I will use the AMH Multi-tasker tote pattern again even though it isn’t exactly the bag I want. I’ll peruse my other bag patterns first. I do know how to make the AMH MTT and it is a pretty good bag pattern.
Since I am thinking about going out and actually buying special fabric for a project, I thought it might be a good idea to test the pattern to see if I liked it. Since I finished the top and back of the Blue Janus quilt this morning, I thought it was something that I could manage.
I dug out the directions and went to work. I can’t say I was enamored with the directions from the Moda Bakeshop. It really too me a long time to make one block and I had to follow the directions step by step, because there weren’t cutting directions for one whole block at the beginning of the section where the star starts.
I redrew the block in EQ7 just to see what it would take to make some straightforward cutting directions. I can see why Charlie Scott used some fancy triangle tricks. I created rotary cutting directions in 12″ and 9″ (both finished) sizes. These blocks use quarter square triangles and the triangles need to be cut weird sizes, which I know nobody likes. Still, my directions are a lot more straightforward than those on the Moda Bakeshop page. You can cut the quarter square triangles slightly larger and then cut them down to the normal size. I hope you will be able to click on the numbers above and download the rotary cutting directions.
I am going to make another one using my directions and let you know what happens. I am not knocking Charlie Scott. I love the free patterns out there and have a really difficult time following them. I will probably put some borders on the one above and send it to Anna Maria Horner for the Rainbow project.
I have written a lot about the Corner Store pattern from Pretty Little Mini Quilts. This block is very appealing especially since I have been thinking about my scrap pile lately. I bought a large piece of Kona Snow and finally cut into it for the Zig Zaggy quilt and for this Corner Store project. I didn’t cut a multitude of pieces in advance (always a recipe for disaster for me), but I did cut some.
You are probably wondering why in the world I am starting this quilt at the same time I started the Zig Zaggy quilt and am still working on the Blue Janus quilt. Insanity? Perhaps.
The true reason is that the box in which I store the triangles for this project is getting full. Also, I thought I would make a few blocks and see how they looked.
My first step was to ask TFQ for the dimensions. She has the Pretty Little Mini Quilts book at the moment. She emailed me back right away with a 3.5″ size. When I cut a few of the squares I thought that looked terribly small. When I put one triangle on, the block did not look at all like the version I saw in Pretty Little Mini Quilts or on Flickr. I must have misunderstood the size. Again, something that should have been a quick chain piecing and trimming start to a project has turned difficult.
Difficult is a strong word. I have to test different squares sizes to see which one will suit the look I am trying to achieve. I wanted to focus on the Blue Janus quilt, so this was put to the side.
Stay tuned!
You might remember that there was some devastating flooding in Central Tennessee earlier this year. This is Anna Maria Horner’s neighborhood. She created a project, which I talked about on Thursday, called Rainbow Around the Block. Simply, she is collecting 12.5″ unfinished 2 color blocks (e.g. red and white, blue and orange, etc). These blocks will be made into quilts and given to families who lost their homes, belongings, etc.
Last week, she sat down with her children and designed blocks. I think this is a very nice idea. I can picture the children drawing and coloring and talking with their mom about helping these neighborhood families. We have these kind of times in my family where the lull of filling in a spot with color without the distraction of screen noise helps to free the mind from the mind’s monkey chatter and allows people to bring up interesting conversation topics.
She intends to post a version of each child’s work on the Rainbow Around the Block page as a group called The Horner Family Blocks. The first one, The Joseph Block, is up already. It is a simplified version of a Square in a Square block and simple directions are given for sewing it together. I am concerned about the way she suggests cutting a square into the quarters that the quiltmakers will have a lot of bias blocks to work with. Perhaps that is part of the plan? In any case, you can make any block you wish and a variety are already posted for your viewing pleasure in the Flickr Group.
I made two blocks. I don’t normally make 12×12″ (finished blocks) and the pieces seemed so large. I just made them, though, without questioning or quibbling. The first deadline is July 1. Close to 100 blocks have been posted to the Rainbow Around the Block Flickr Group. People have really taken the idea of letting the fabric do the work, that I talked about from the Jane Sassaman lecture, to heart. I guess they got the message sooner than I did!
What will YOU make?
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Rachel Griffith, the power house behind p.s. i quilt has shop with the whole kit available. I have never bought a kit before aqnd am sorely tempted.
Ready for another ride that weaves in and out of the Internet and my mind?
Books, etc
I ran across the notice for Jane Brocket’s quilt book. I stopped reading her blog awhile ago, but was pointed to a link about ribbon, which I have on the mind lately.
A quote from the book via Amazon.co.uk:
“One of the great pleasures of doing anything repetitive by hand, whether it’s knitting, making bread, chopping onions or sowing seeds, is that the rhythm of the action allows your mind to wander.”
I bought this book. The US edition has come out, but I decided to buy the UK edition. I don’t mind those extra ‘u’ added her and there. There is nothing wrong with the US edition. I was pleased to see that the US edition came out relatively quickly after the UK edition debuted.
I bought the UK edition of the Gentle Art of Domesticity and was pleased with the service I received from the Book Depository, so I made my purchase from them again. The cover of the UK edition looks so much better. One fascinating thing about the Book Depository (which LoveAnna turned me on to) is that they have something like a live webcam where you see what books people are buying and where those buyers are from. It is mesmerizing to see people ordering so many books so quickly. I actually saw someone’s purchase of Cello: Grades 1-3 from China!
Embellishments
Anyway, back to ribbon. Somewhere I saw a link to ribbon. I looked at it, which led me to Jane Brocket’s blog, the new book – see above. The ribbon, though was gorgeous. So wonderful for embellishing bags and making markers for journals. LFN Textiles is the purveyor and the website has gorgeous photos. And they have dotted ribbons. What’s not to like?
Pam Rubert of PamDora blog fame recently tweeted a link to Sharon B’s Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework. She has an index on the first page. If you click on one of the links, you see a picture of the finished stitch and where this stitch can be found. She shows step outs of the stitch and gives the reader tips and tricks. If you are browsing, there is a previous/next link at the top of the stitch screen, so that you can just click to another stitch without returning to the index. There are lots of great features of this site and it is great inspiration if you are using handstitching to embellish a quilt.
Journals
If you remember my fit of excitement over the 1000 Journals Project, this information will come as no surprise to you. I found the Artbook Coop via Julie and they are doing a sketchbook project. You can order (and pay for) a sketchbook, which will then be housed in a museum. I am not sure I could finish something like this, but my mind is swirling around it.
Blocks
Brenda Papadakis of Dear Jane fame has a series of block of the month blocks posted on her website for free. It looks like there is an applique’/embroidery block and a pieced block every month.
Media
Last week I had a virus that hit me hard. One day while I was thinking about going back to bed, I stumbled on a blog called Waking Up in Bavaria. It has a really nice clean look and beautiful photography. One of her recent posts is a review of Kaffe Fassett’s Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts. It is hard to read a blog from the beginning when you are years behind. Still I read a bit of her posts from last year and my mind spun into imagination land. I spent a formidable time in my life in that area of the world, though in Austria, not Bavaria, so the landscape is familiar. I also like the clean, spare look of her blog. My mind started to wander around the question of what if I woke up in Bavaria tomorrow?
If you need to organize your studio/workroom, the Quilted Cupcake has a podcast and a long blog post with a lot of resources and pictures of her space. QNN TV also has a segment on organization. The January episodes, segments 1&2, 3&4 take on the topic of organizing your studio from different angles. You have to be a member to watch the videos.
I signed up for QNN TV last year and hadn’t really watched the videos. Last week, while I was sick, I was clearing out my email. Some of the messages in there were notices about new QNN TV episodes being posted. Being fit only to lay in bed, I started watching them. I thought they were very entertaining. They have some cooking segments, which I skipped over, but I enjoyed the episode on specialty threads (January episode, Segments 5&6). They have two kinds of links to the shows. Each episode is broken into about 6 segments and two segments are posted each week. This means that you can watch the different segments or watch the whole episode. I have been watching them in segments.
The January episode takes place in Winterset, Iowa, partially at the Fons & Porter store. They also show the Bridges of Madison County, the county in which Winterset is located. I didn’t know that Fons & Porter had a store, so this was interesting to me. I wish they would have done a tour of the store, but they didn’t.
I really enjoyed the November episode. Jodie Davis hosts with Patrick Lose and they report from Houston Quilt Market. They talk about new products and interview people at the show. I was entertained. I think this was shot while Mark was working out the details of his contract with QNN TV. I thought it would be weird, but Jodie Davis handled his not being there with grace. She made it seem like he would be back soon.
I also enjoyed the February Door Knock episode where Mark interviews Liz Porter. It is great to see that she is real and has a real life. I went away from that interview with a lot more respect for her and what she has achieved.
I wasn’t planning to renew my membership, but I may do it. I will definitely watch the episodes as they come out rather than waiting until my inbox is too full before I get to them.
The Alliance for American Quilts had a contest recently called New From Old. They have posted a series of YouTube videos documenting the quilt entries as they arrive. I thought that was very clever! One of them was by Marie Johansen who sometimes reads this blog. I was pleased to see that Yvonne Porcella entered a quilt, which must mean that she is feeling better. There were a number of Dresden Plate entries and two that could be considered Baltimore Album style. Sunbonnet Sue, Grandmother’s Flower Garden and Grandmother’s Fan also made debuts. Some people put a lot of work into their entries and it occurred to me that throwing something together just to enter wouldn’t work for this contest. Then again, it doesn’t usually work for any contest.
If you ever feel like the quilts or ATCs or blocks or paintings you are making are not fit for the fireplace, take a look at the Bad Postcards site. Looking at the works on this site should a) give you a laugh; b) make you feel better about your own work; and c) make you wonder who ever thought it was a good idea to make matching apron, tablecloth and curtains (you’ll have to scroll down the site to get that one). As a bonus for you fabric lovers, there are some interesting fabrics shown in various postcards. It makes me wonder whether people will be laughing about the photos on this blog in 50 years?
Do artists go under Media or Out and About? I don’t know, so here is Michael Cutlip. Mostly I love his website and the way the gallery is laid out. He is the artist who did the picture in the Decor House, which I wrote about in a post a few weeks ago. The picture I took is crappy, but his work is not, so don’t judge him on my photo.
Out and About
You might have heard (or maybe read it here) that the V&A in London has a quilt exhibit up. They have also the release of a second set of patterns, V&A Pattern Series II. “Like the first box set—which included four books arranged by theme and titled William Morris, Indian Florals, Digital Pioneers, and The Fifties—the second series features four books available individually or as a group: Owen Jones, Novelty Patterns, Kimonos, and Garden Florals. In addition to page after page of color images of the textile designs, each hardcover book includes a CD of hi-res images of the featured patterns.”
Being here in the US, it is hard to get to the exhibit, though I am hoping for some kind of miracle (you know free first class tickets, or something), but until then I have been looking at the videos. My favorite so far is the one with Caren Garfen, which I looked at with TFQ. Her quilt is given a bit of short shrift int he book, but this video makes up for it. I wish it were downloadable to iTunes, so I could look at it again without being tethered to my computer.
My sister gets various creative “notions” in her head and her latest is organza flowers. She saw some she loved at Nordstrom. She said that you sew strips of fabric in a circle to a base down the middle of the strip. Have you ever done this? I may try it.
Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy are having a blog tour. There are a lot of new and interesting blogs to look at.
My friend, Kathy, from Everyday Bliss, has a new blog called Everyday Mommy. It is new so I can’t tell you exactly how it turns out, but Kathy writes “Do you want to be a marvelous parent or just like watching others try? Join Everyday Mommy for a wacky and fun experiment! Each week we will delve into one of the parenting virtues, have some fun and hopefully become better parents in the process!” It is fun to watch my friend delve into cyberspace. I know that sounds strange since the web is not new. Before blogs I couldn’t tell how many emails people were sending or what websites they were going to. With all of the cross linking and comments, as well as FB, it is much easier.
Deirdre sent me a link to Woody Campbell’s Photo a Day blog. His photos are a bit large. Still, I like the photo of the refrigerator. I like the idea of documenting normal every day things. I don’t always do it, but I think about it. I read about a guy who took a photo of the same building across the street from his shop every day at the same time for something like 30 years. Do you ever do anything like that? I thought about it when I took a picture out the window of my workroom, but then I never followed up. I suppose it isn’t too late!
