There was, at some point, a placemat challenge issued at CQFA. I don’t normally do challenges, but an idea popped into my head. It stayed in my head until the May 2014 meeting where Jen did a workshop on “from drawing to art quilt” That workshop was also about line. I took a minute to get my idea down on paper.
Sketchbook book lobster placemat
This past week, since we were having a CQFA art show, I started in on the piece. It is mostly applique’ — well, it is all fusible applique’ at the moment, but I am not finished and I may add some piecing around the edges.
Lobster Placemat in progress
I showed it off at CQFA yesterday during the art walk and people seemed to like it. There was some discussion about next steps. Caroline suggested googly eyes for the eyes, but I am not sure that is the direction I want to go with this piece.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, this was the first meeting I attended since April. The meetings are only every other month, so if I miss one, time passes quickly. I like these meetings, because I always go home wanting to sew. I also feel like people genuinely like me and that is always good for my ego.
There were no new members this time, but lots of new faces that were new since I last attended. I also re-met Lynette who I know from back in the dark ages when I first got on the Internet. She hosted a local Bay Area quilt listserve and we met up a few times to put names and projects to faces. Back then we could only describe our work. There wasn’t really any economical way to post photos.
Maureen’s Strata Quilt
A number of the members have quilts in shows: Maureen has a quilt in Strata, which I think is an SAQA related show. Maureen started her piece at the most recent retreat, so I was glad to see what happened with the work. Ann M. will be at PIQF. She has a one woman show there. Dolores has a quilt coming back from a show in Brazil and also sold a piece!
A number of the members are selling their pieces at various local events, too. One is the Book Arts Jam. Because of the bookmaking I have done (and want to do more of), I would like to attend this event. We’ll see if I can fit it in.
As usual, Show and Tell was awesome. This part of the meeting is what makes excited to go home and sew. People in this group are so unbelievably creative! I also sort of feel, sometimes, that I couldn’t do what they are doing. Don’t worry, I don’t let that stop me!
Gerre & Dolores with Peace Monument Quilt
Dolores brought a quilt that was inspired by the Peace Monument in Paris. Some of the fabric for the steps is hand-dyed fabric. She told us that she made a conscious decision to use commercial fabric for the other parts of the quilt. I was really impressed with her people. They are simple, but clearly people, too. The whole piece is simple, in a way, but encouraged me to look and look. She did a great job.
Jen made a piece that made me think of my Change of Seasons piece. I have wanted to do more pieces like this where there are 4 parts of one image. It is on the list. 😉
Jen’s piece
Jen’s piece was inspired by a call for quilts for a show. I am not sure what show.
Jen does spinning so there is often yarn type fiber attached to her quilts. She also does a lot of fabric manipulation: painting, stamping, couching, etc. This quilt is no exception. She painted part behind the tree and the pipes on the left are twisted newspaper, a fair trade product from India. The aerial views behind the tree and the building relate each other IMO, but are not traditional backgrounds. I think the whole piece works really well and it makes me think of my own piece again.
Amy brought one of her nature pieces, this time an abstract artichoke. She had an interesting idea for machine quilting practice: copy part of your piece on to fabric and machine quilt that as practice. Later you can use it as a small wall hanging, cubicle art or cut it up and make ATCs. I never thought of that and thought it was a great idea.
I accidentally agreed to run the ATCs swap. Oops! It went fine and Maureen, who is a real pro, had to do some treasurer stuff, so I was happy to do it.
Top to bottom: Bron, Jaye, Maureen, Nancy
Left to right: Amy, Carol, Diane
My ATCs
I was sad not to get one of Nancy’s flowers, but we can’t have all of them when there are more than 4 swappers. People did nice work.
The December meeting will, again, be at FabMo. Guests can attend for $5. We will bring all of our challenge pieces to show. I really need to get on the placemat challenge and do it. While Maureen was talking about this part, I had a flash of what to use for the actual placemat part of the piece. I hope that means I am closer to making the piece.
It has been awhile since I was able to attend a CQFA Retreat – 2 years, I think. I was so thrilled to be able to attend the current retreat, which was held over Mother’s Day weekend. Isn’t that a great Mother’s Day gift?? As a bonus, I sewed so much!
I feel like I really made some good progress on projects that were languishing:
First of all, I, pretty much, threw projects and parts into project bags starting about a week before the retreat. This helped me not forget critical fabric and supplies. The only thing I forgot was a lamp and my sewing machine’s light kept me from going blind.
Next, I made sure I had plenty of blocks and parts that would make good leaders and enders. Using the leaders and enders technique, I made 20+ Nine Patches for the octagon 9 Patch on which I have been working and 27 (!!!) Box Full of Letters blocks. In addition to significant progress on two projects, I am pleased with the progress I made on the leaders on the leaders and enders projects.
Oliso ironing surface
The other thing I did was try out the Oliso iron I bought. I finally dragged out the June Tailor ironing surface I bought for the Dale Fleming Circle class as well. It was a little different because you don’t set it up on its end, it just pops up away from the ironing surface. Also, the steam and basic functionality are a little different. Friend Julie tried it also (we shared a table and a mini ironing surface) and gave me her feedback as well.
Sue’s Baby Quilt
People made great projects. Bron and Sue were working on baby quilts for friends. I liked the ideas they had and may use the ideas for donation quilts.
Sue’s (left photo) quilt is made from strips and a background. She said she cut strips and then sewed them together in rows. She said she used different widths of strips and I think that gives the piece a lot of movement. Lucky kid, I say.
In thinking of different ways to make this quilt, I could use strips, cutting them as I cut into new yardage. I would save up strips until I had enough and then get Gerre to quilt it. 😉
The other thing I could do it rummage through my scraps and get pieces large enough to do something similar. My mind is reeling.
I didn’t get a photo of Bron’s quilt, sadly, but what she did is wacky sew pieces together, then she cut the pieces into squares and sewed them together with sashing into a baby quilt. She used a white dot on yellow for the binding, which I loved! It would be a good scrap project.
Gerre’s art quiltGerre burning her quilt
Gerre was working on an amazing art quilt. She put layers of fabric together with tulle on top, then quilted it then BURNED it! It was awesome.
Reva worked on a flower quilt.
Angela was doing some improv piecing based on a piece she started in a class.
Julie’s Tumbler
Julie worked on 3 or 4 pieces, including a self portrait and a couple of pieces she started in China. She also sewed rows to her tumbler quilt top, which is nearing completion. It was so great to see her so productive as well.
Rhonda worked on handwork all weekend, including an applique’ project inspired by Kevin Kosbab. She showed me the Valdani Pearl Cotton collection she bought from MassDrop, the temptress! I love Valdani Pearl cotton. I may have to start another quilt like Beach Town. Or just pick a project on which I can embroider. Hhmm.
Maureen’s Mid-Century Modern
Maureen worked on a piece that I thought was made from a pre-cut, but she picked all the fabrics herself. I really think that she should put pre-cuts together for Moda. Her piece looked like a mid-Century modern quilt or painting.
Maureen worked on a plaid piece as well. She found the fabrics at FabMo and turned them into improv blocks which she was playing with when we all had to leave.
Dolores was working on dolls from a class she took with Susan Else as well as the piece from the online class she is taking.
Caroline made pillowcases and worked on a crazy paper piecing project. I think the one section she worked on had 58 pieces!!!
Amy’s Landscape
Amy was working on a kind of landscape with flowers. I loved it!
There was also a “free stuff table” and I picked up a couple of pieces of fabric. There was something about the colors and imagery that attracted me. There were a couple of pieces of Kaffe Fassett and some others. I tried to exercise restraint. It was difficult, but I seem to have succeeded. The purple dandelions were kind of a surprise, but they will come in handy somewhere.
CQFA Retreat Free Fabric
In addition to the sewing, it was great to see other people’s projects and chat with my friends. There was never enough time to find out everything I want to know about other people’s process or what is going on in their lives. I didn’t take nearly enough photos and wanted more time to sew.
Still I am glad I got the time I did, especially at this time of year. I felt like I was really productive and that feels good. I need to sew more.
I did finally do the prep I had been intending to do to make ATCs. I cut two pieces of fabrics about 14″ x 12.5″. I marked the bottom layer of the ATC fabric into ATC sizes. I also cut some layers of Pellon for the middle. Then I sewed along the grid. I cut off 4 ATCs and began to decorate them.
Finished ATCs
I did the sewing in the strip format. Later I hand sewed some stitches using Aurifil embroidery thread before I cut them apart.
I ran into some problems which I can fix when I cut the next strips off. I have a label that I put onto each ATC. I sewed around the whole ATC before I put the label on and that meant that the stitching around the label showed up through to the front. I think that it limits my design ability. I limited that problem by using matching thread and I don’t think the extra stitching shows up on the front.
I won’t design them all at once. I’ll do a few at a time, but I have the basics done.
I am glad I finally got to work prepping ATCs for the next several swaps. I am also glad that I learned something about preparing ATCs in this manner.
I had a great time at the meeting yesterday and it really didn’t have anything to do with the actual meeting.
Gerre’s Collage
After the business and show and tell, we sat down to work on the picture I posted earlier this week as our workshop picture. We split up and added more tables so people had more space to work and I sat with Gerre and Rhonda. Gerre was doing work in her collage book (a giant board book she bought at a thrift store and then gessoed over. Great idea!!!) in colors vaguely related to the picture I posted. I would have taken the picture, but since it was in a book with beautiful collages, I thought it might be rude.;-)
I really didn’t know that Gerre was so talented with collage. I adore this piece and think it would make a great card.
Rhonda was doing her very precise improv piecing in the colors of the posted photo, tending towards the abstract. I was preparing a piece of white fabric for later painting with Tsukineko inks.
I finished my work pretty quickly. It really didn’t go as I intended and I didn’t want to work on it anymore, so I offered to press Rhonda’s strips. She sat and sewed her improv strips and I walked back and forth pressing them and getting more.
Bird Box for Rhonda
After some time I heard Bron talking about folded boxes. Rhonda said she needed some for her niece and nephew for Easter, so Bron and I sat down to make them, with Bron doing the teaching. It is amazing how they go together and I can see many of my wrapping problems evaporating.
Rhonda picked out the bird paper. We made two of the same and this box is about 3″ square.
Folded Gift Boxes
I decided it would be great to make my MIL a box and put a small gift in it for Easter, so we grabbed some sheets of wallpaper and I made a larger box from a 15″ sheet while Bron made a slightly smaller box, perhaps from an 11″ sheet. I ended up taking both home and will give one to someone else soon. I stopped and got some nice soaps to include in them.
Nota bene: We meet at FabMo and we have, pretty much, the run of the materials they have available. We still put donations in their box; we just don’t have to wait until selection day. In addition to fabric, they had books of wallpaper from which we took the larger sheets for the gift boxes. They are nice, because the sheets coordinate, though they are not always large. Some are half sheets or 3/4s sheets, which is why Bron made her box smaller. I thought some wallpaper with stripes would look great, but we didn’t see any in the quick look.
I enjoyed pressing for Rhonda and making the boxes. It interested me more than my Workshop piece.
The meeting went well. We talked about dues. We will be kicking people off the list soon, so people need to pay up. The Retreat is on and full, which si great. I can’t wait to check in and get sewing. I am going to work on the Field Day Zipper (I know! Blast from the past, right?) and the next Food Quilt. I suspect you can believe I won’t be working on FOTY 2014, but it works better for me to take more time and that requires working at home. I really want to get these two quilts done and 36 hours of sewing may be just what the doctored ordered.
The Field Day Zipper will be a gift. The fabrics and partially sewn pieces are clogging up my cutting table and I would like to get it done. I like the colors, but they are not demanding my time or attention. Too muddy. You knew that right?
The Food Quilt 2 will be a gift as well. It will be for a friend of Y.M.’s. We are friends with his parents and every kid should have a quilt. I keep looking at the Y.M.’s Food Quilt and trying to decide if I have cut enough fabric for the blocks I have slated to be made. The pattern is a Disappearing 9 Patch and I have decided that I will make 16 blocks. That means I need 64 food fabric patches (have already cut them), 64 black and white print fabric patches (almost none cut) and 16 purple patches, almost all of which are cut.
If I finish both of these projects, I also have the Box Full of Letters quilt on which to work. That will take come kind of miracle.
Anyway, the Retreat will be fun and I will have a lot to tell you about when I return.
The SFPL show is almost over. I’ll write more about that later. Be sure and go see it.
Rhonda will lead a workshop in June concerned with embellishment and hand embroidery. I can’t wait for that. I used some Aurifil embroidery thread for my ATCs and loved it! I will definitely buy more of that stuff.
Marie chimed in that there is a Stitchery show up at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles right at the moment. Fitting, don’t you think?
Show and tell was fabulous. Everyone does such interesting work and they all said kind things to me about the two pieces I brought: FOTY 2013 and the Hawaiian Donation Quilt. I know I haven’t written about them yet. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on those finishes.
Sonja’s Flower
Dolores and Sonja are taking an online class with Elizabeth Barton. They are regularly bringing their pieces to show us and it is interesting to see the process through which they are working.
Sonja’s piece was a follow-up to a flower she finished a few years ago that took forever. This newest piece was finished within the month.
I love the curves and the lines. The color palette emphasizes the design and there is no distraction from color.
Caroline’s Cypress
Caroline does amazing landscapes and she is nearly finished with another one in her series of Lone Cypresses (Monterey Coast).
She threadpainted the greenery, but a new member showed some cheesecloth she had dyed, which sparked a discussion on the merits of making the greenery with cheesecloth instead of all of that threadpainting. Definitely doable, though different looks would be emphasized, I think. It was an interesting discussion.
Valerie, one of the visitors does amazing work. I didn’t get to talk with her much, but she brought her dyed cheesecloth and embroidery floss as well as a bag she made from hand dyed fabric. I seriously thought about trying to slips some of her embroidery thread into my bag. I restrained myself and decided to make friends with her if she comes back. 😉 She also brought large covered buttons with beading work using seed beads, some fabric postcards and a fantastic name tag.
Valerie’s Postcard
As I said, it was a great meeting. I learned something, got to see my friends and got something to write about for you. The perfect day. 😉
There will be a workshop on Saturday at the CQFA meeting based around this photo, Spring Comes to Humboldt. The name of the workshop is the “Same Design, Make it Mine” challenge.
The guidelines of this workshop are:
1. Look at the photo and recreate the sense of it in your medium of choice.
2. Use your own style
3. Use your own favorite techniques
4. No whining
CQFA Members: bring materials and supplies to the meeting as we will work on our own projects during the meeting.
While this workshop is primarily set up for CQFA and will be held at the meeting, everyone who reads is welcome to play. You can post your efforts to the AQ Flickr Group, or the CQFA Flickr Group, if you are a member. <Nota bene: you can easily be a member for a small payment of dues!> CQFA members should bring their finished or in process works to an upcoming meeting.
HA! I actually made ATCs early, e.g. I wasn’t working on them the night before or the morning before the meeting.
I didn’t use the backing I prepared, but I had a different idea, as you can see, using the leftover tablecloth plastic I used to make one version of the Eco Market Tote. They came out a little bit curly, but I like that I am able to see through them. I did put a label in between the layers before I sewed the pieces together.
This is the first time I have used the roller foot with the new machine. It worked ok. Not great. Not terrible.
The exchange went pretty well. We had 6 people exchanging which meant I didn’t get one of each. I missed one of Nancy’s and one of my own. Usually I don’t choose one of my own, because I can make one for myself if I want one. I would have really liked one of Nancy’s. Oh well. There is always next time.
February 2015 ATCs – all choices
Julie’s (left hand photo, lower) uses some of the supplies we bought at Dharma last Friday. She rushed right out and used the silk thread/yarn I talked about. It looks cool and I really have to try it.
My chosen ATCs – Feb 2015
I am happy with the ATCs I picked. Rhonda’s (lower left) really looks different than the others, though isn’t too far off the one in the upper right hand corner by Bron.
The gold one is by Diane and I didn’t hear how she made it, but I think she must have melted something to give it texture.
I finally made it back to a CQFA meeting! September was the last meeting I attended and it feels like an eternity.
We changed locations and the months in which we will meet. The crowd was quite large – about 25 people. Dues were collected. Retreat monies were collected (if you are not a member and would like to attend, the cost is $107 and there are a few spaces left. Leave a comment and I will hook you up). Lots of announcements were made.
I am in charge of the workshop next time. The title is “Same Design, Make it Mine”. I have to post a photo of the image to our private group before the meeting, then everyone will bring their supplies and ideas and work on their pieces during the meeting. We probably won’t finish, but it will be a good way to work together on our own thing. I had an image all picked out and then I got an different idea during the meeting. We’ll see what I choose.
Workshop
Our Critique Pieces
The first activity we did was to view the SAQA Trunk Show through the lens of a formal critique in order to learn about critiquing art. Maureen secured the SAQA Trunk show and Dolores made up a handout, then presented it, on how to critique a piece of art.
I have never done critiquing and I learned a lot, mostly because there are fact based tasks to perform in a critique before you get to the part where you say whether you like the piece or not.
The moniker we used to remember the steps in critiquing is:
DESCRIBE
E
M
ANALYZE
P
P
L
E
S
INTERPRET
S
JUDGE
U
I
C
Y
The first 3 aspects are essentially fact based: what do you see, what principles and elements of design do you see, what is the work about? The last one starts to get into opinion, but then the last aspect, Judge, is when you get to say whether you like the work and why.
I liked this way of critiquing, because it forces the viewer to stick to facts until nearly the end. By doing that, I found that my emotions about the piece were less important, because I was spending energy is really looking at the piece. There some things that I noticed:
Make an artwork that is appropriate to the size. Some of the pieces had too much going on for the format size (around 8.5″x11″). That is a small piece and you need to focus on using that space well instead of trying to get a complicated message across. We found that the ones that were most successful were the ones that fit the format. There was was one that was interesting, but got lost because of the size. It would have been great in a much larger format.
Knowing the basics of design was really helpful. The most successful pieces adhered to some of those principles and elements. Making a piece – the actual technique – is really fun, but in order for a viewer to get something out of a piece, having some structure is helpful.
Dolores did such a great job on the handout. She really should think about teaching art.
Challenges
Rhonda introduced a new challenge, which was inspired by the book Brave New Quilts by Kathreen Ricketson. We are to make a piece of art inspired by a particular art movement or artist. We will be having a challenge review at our December meeting so we are encouraged to bring past challenges as well as this one to that meeting. I am not really inspired, but I have a book called the Daily Book of Art which I will look at before I completely bail.
Some of the challenges we have had in the past are:
2 shapes
placemats
under the sea
fusible flowers
monochromatic
I have ideas and/or fabric for some of these. I really have a great idea for the placemat challenge and really want to do it. I just need to start designing the shapes, then cutting.
Show and Tell
Show and Tell is, of course, my favorite. I only brought the Pink T Quilt. I’ll post about the finished piece in a day or two. I brought it with the binding half on to the BAMQG Meeting, but Gerre wasn’t there so she got to see it at CQFA, which was great. It isn’t very arty, but people seemed to like it. They asked about the organizations to which BAMQG donates quilts. I didn’t have a great answer, but Rhonda helped out.
I also talked a little bit about the Tsukineko Inks class I took and showed the class samples. I really want to get back to that and do something. I just don’t know what.
Julie’s Christmas Quilt
Julie brought her Christmas quilt, the one we picked up the other day from Colleen (post about that soon as well!). Her Christmas quilt uses a lot of different Christmas fabrics. I have to admire her for having the courage to put them all together. If I look at the fabrics separately, I wouldn’t think they would work, but somehow they do. Of course, the Four Patches are wonderful as well.
Diane’s Silk Piece
I love Diane’s silk pieces and she is always prolific, so she brings, what seems like, dozens. It is amazing how much work she does. I often think she has to have an assistant. My favorites are Diane’s aerial city images. She doesn’t call them that, but that is what I think they look like.
I love this one, because of the swirly quilting. There is also a kind of submarine shape, though I know it is not a submarine 😉 and for the little flecks of gold.
Of course, I also like the blues and greens.
Ann Brook’s workshop piece
Ann Brook brought a finished piece that she started in a Sherri Lynn Wood class.
There were was lots of great work and people were talking about interesting things. So much more that my head is spinning. You should come sometime.
We had a discussion at the CQFA social on Saturday about Workshop projects and how they are not always the kind of projects one wants to finish. There are a lot of variables going into the workshop -the right fabric and supplies, working in an unfamiliar environment, etc. – that conspire to make you learn something, but not always like the end result.
Serendipity Lady – Beginning Work
That is not the case with Serendipity Lady. I have wanted to do this design ever since I made stained and leaded glass panels back in the dark ages. Caroline’s workshop at CQFA last spring (?) gave me the means in fabric and the inspiration to make this dream a reality.
The problem was that my piece had so many small pieces that cutting out the pieces straight from the fabric became an issue. I went back and tried a few times and failed – or didn’t succeed as thoroughly as I would have liked. I didn’t want to simplify the pattern and I didn’t want to blow it up larger either. Struggling with the mechanics of making a piece does not make it fun. Finally, I put it aside to mull over.
This was disappointing, because I came home so jazzed about this project after the workshop. Creating is a struggle, but for this one, I just wanted it to work. Sadly, that is not the way ‘making’ works.
In the mulling process, I came up with the idea of making templates for each piece. I was about to embark on that line of thought using the kind of cardstock (tagboard??) I used to use for cutting the templates for stained and leaded glass panels when I had lunch with Maureen and Dolores.
I mentioned my problem to them and how I wanted to use templates and asked their advice. They both immediately went to freezer paper and patiently explained how to use freezer paper to make the templates. I couldn’t really envision the process in my head. It became clearer when they kind of walked me through the process, reminding me to trace the design backwards.
What Process Looks Like
Again, I was really excited so I came home, taped the design to my sliding glass door and retraced the pattern backwards. Then I traced the backwards pattern on to freezer paper and sat in front of the TV and cut it out.
Again, those tiny little pieces were not my friend. At the moment I have them all paperclipped together, but that is only because I keep forgetting to get an envelope each time I go downstairs.
Serendipity Lady – Weekend Work
Next I started applying freezer paper to fabric. Then the real fun began. I threw out some fabrics after putting them near other fabrics and the picture really started to take shape. I am not done and I haven’t glued down the pieces yet, but I really had a lot of fun making some serious progress.
My mind is whirling with the possibilities of adding a few beads, embroidering the eyelash, etc. Fun!
It has taken me awhile to get these posted, but here they are.
I made them the morning before the meeting after procrastinating for weeks, then realizing I no longer had Friday to scrape something together.
I had the gears from a pack I bought at Beverly’s and scraps and that is what I used. I think I need to get some more of those gears and try another iteration, perhaps with Perl Cotton instead of schnibbles? Braided Perl Cotton?
I have two of the gears left, because I didn’t have time to stitch them down by hand.
As I said in the CQFA Meeting report, I want to do them earlier for January (won’t be at the October meeting) and need to start on the backs. Yes, I said that a week ago and haven’t done anything. First step: make the backs. If I have a lot of backs using a neutral fabric, I can concentrate on making the front awesome. Right?
As I mentioned, the CQFA Meeting was last Saturday. It was followed closely by the BAMQG Sew Day, which meant I didn’t get home until after 6 and dinner wasn’t on the table until 7:30. I thought a lot, afterwards, if I should have spent all day out of the house after working all week. I decided that, though I missed the Young Man, it was really good for me to see my quilt pals. Also, I got a lot done.
We have been having workshops first, but on that day the business meeting was held first as we had to wait for the sun to come out. It was pretty cloudy until after 10am or even 10:30.
During the business meeting, there was a lot of talk about the upcoming show. We are getting to crunch time as the opening day draws nearer. People when off to the other room at FabMo and got help recording their audio clips. The quilts for publicity have been selected (mine was not one of them). I recorded my audio files at home last weekend, so I didn’t have to do it during the meeting. I thought some readers might be interested in hearing what I said about the quilts so I will see about posting them to quilt page for each relevant quilt. I still have to make QR Codes for my quilts.
We had show and tell and there was so much great work. I love show and tell. Everyone was very complimentary about the Wonky 9 Patch. Angela, Ann B and Sonja took at SCVQA class on wonky piecing and two of them showed their quilts. Caroline did a landscape all in black and white and talked quite a bit about framing the piece.
Of course, we had the ATC swap. I got up at about 6:30 and made mine! I got an idea and even though I wasn’t going to, I realized that I would be really sad if I didn’t get to swap ATCs, so I made mine quickly. This is the shortest timeframe in which I have ever made ATCs. I hope not to go up against the deadline like this again.
My ATCs
They aren’t the best art ever, but people snapped them up, which made me really happy. I did use the charms I bought at Beverly’s when I was there with Maureen. I think the charms added interest. I definitely will try adding charms again. I also think that I will put together a bunch of backs, so I don’t have to do that when I am in crunch mode. Perhaps I can make 24 backs in advance and just have to worry about the fronts each month. I won’t be at the next meeting, so I have until January to make the backs and new ATCs. I will try and do them earlier!
The ATCs I selected are shown to the right. (From top left to bottom right, they are by Maureen, Sue, Angela and Nancy). Angela’s were on paper and she got the idea from a painting class she took recently. I thought about getting some paper blanks to use as a base, but haven’t done it yet. Sue used a technique that our former member Debbie did a lot of. It was a blast from the past seeing that chenille technique again.
Angela Demonstrating Sunprinting
When the sun finally showed its face, Rhonda and Angela taught us sunprinting. I didn’t participate; I sat and worked on the binding of the Wonky Nine Patch, watched and listened. I enjoyed watching everyone and talking to people while they worked. I also took a lot of photos for the CQFA Flickr group and Facebook page.
After the meeting I drove over the BAMQG Sew Day with Gerre. She is a new CQFA member, but I know her from BAMQG. She let me use her machine off and on at the last Sew Day where I forgot my machine’s foot pedal. We talked about art quilts and one thing I realized about CQFA is that people talk about their process. People are working through a process and they show the different quilts or surface design or bits and pieces of things on which they are working and they talk about it. The group is very process oriented, which I never realized until today and which I really appreciate.
Last Saturday was the day of reckoning for Primal Green 2 (remember the first Primal Green show?), the show the group has coming up in the Fall at the San Francisco Public Library.
We all had to show the pieces (in progress ok) we were planning on entering. The work was amazing. Some of it came from the various challenges the guild has had and some is new. It was all very interesting and wonderful.
What a fantastic meeting, if for no other reason than the work alone.
ATCs
July 2014 ATCs
Angela wasn’t at the meeting, so Maureen led us in trading. A few more extras were collected for the show. I thought mine were pretty cool until I saw everyone else’s. I need to up my game. More embellishing, more stamping, more beading. More interesting.
Show and Tell
I showed the most quilts, all of which you have seen:
Scrapitude Carnivale (I might have shown this one at the May meeting, but I didn’t remember and everyone was very kind about not pointing out my error, if I did show it)
Everyone showed such great stuff. Jennifer is really having a lot of success sending materials to magazines. Maureen continues to try new dyeing techniques. Carolyn showed the most hilarious, but fantastic fish pillow. People encouraged her to enter it into the show. It would be a great piece for one of the tabletop cabinets.
After Sewing
I stayed again to work a little bit with friends like I did last week and got part of the second apron cut out as well as the Soft & Stable for another Petrillo Bag. I still didn’t tackle the notepad covers or the Day in the Park bag. I guess I need to rethink those projects and why I am not working on them.
Jan Scardina
Jan and Maureen stayed, too. Maureen took a beading class from Thom Atkins and worked on her sampler project while Jan sewed like a demon to finish her quilt for the show.
I think of this quilt as part of Jan’s “Flying over the Country” series, though I am not sure she agrees. She flies to the Midwest to visit her parents and I think she gets inspired by what she sees during the flights. She started a piece at a retreat a few years go with circles, but similar in construction to the piece above. I love that previous piece and egged her on a bit about finishing it. 😉 I was really glad to see her and see her sewing.
The weekend felt short and I think part of that was because I had to work on Friday. Granted I only worked half a day, but it still cut into my free time. I shouldn’t complain since most people have to work all day every Friday. Since I don’t normally work that schedule, I feel I can indulge in a little complaining once in awhile.
Saturday, as I will talk about in another post, was the CQFA meeting. It was packed and busy. A few of us stayed for sewing afterwards. Stay tuned for more on that.
I came home, having declined to join DH for some more Political Wifery, and worked on the blog and some tasks related to the upcoming CQFA show. In general, though, I felt out of sorts. It translated into me not sleeping very well and the monkeys that sometimes chatter in my mind being quite active and irritating.
I woke up late, still feeling a little out of sorts, so didn’t get as early a start to my sewing as I would have liked, but I can’t beat myself up all the time, so I ate breakfast and just got to it.
Four Patches
First, I made some Four Patches for a friend who is doing a Lovey for someone going through a hard time. I will put those in the mail today.
I used the fabrics that I used for the Flower Sugar Hexagon quilt, because they are bright and cheerful and I don’t plan, right now, to use them for anything else. I show some pictures of the finished project when I get them.
Fish postcard
After those, I decided to put the finishing touches on the Fish Postcard and send that along as a little thank you gift for all the work my friend is gong through to get the quilt out. I only had to zig zag around the edges, so that didn’t take very long. I’ll, maybe, do a blog post on the post card later.
Next, I realized that the BAMQG meeting is next week and I promised to do an orphan block project. I decided to make a lanyard. I used the Two Peas in a Pod tutorial with some modifications. I’ll probably write another post about what I did to change the lanyard pattern above.
Orphan Block Lanyard
Following the lanyard, I felt like I had completed all of my obligations and could get on with some of my projects, but wasn’t sure on which project to work.
Eventually I decided to quilt on See to try and get that done. I quilted away for about 4 hours on and off and got another quarter of the quilting done. I am within shouting distance of having this project done, though I do need to face it and put a sleeve and label on it. After mostly not working on it since 2003, the progress I have made recently feels phenomenal.
I had a little bit of a weird food weekend as well. I bought a Milka Hazelnut chocolate bar a few weeks ago and went on a little binge. I just finally dedicated the calories to eating the whole thing over the course of a couple of days.
Done:
Scissor Sheath
Fish Postcard
Orphan Block Lanyard
Machine quilting on See
There is a lot of flux in my life right now, so I think that is part of why I feel so out of sorts. Good thing quiltmaking keeps me grounded!
I thought ahead for once and made these last weekend, except for the finishing. I didn’t really have an idea, so I grabbed some scraps from the City Sampler blocks and started sewing them together. I sewed until it was long enough to cover a piece I had cut for the backs.
I stopped partway through to actually make the backs. I added stabilizer for stiffener. Once the pieced scrap piece was big enough, I sewed it to the backing and stabilizer, cut the piece in 2.5″x3.5″ rectangles and zigzagged around the outside.
Boring.
I like them. They are mostly soothing colors, but they aren’t very arty or edgy. I planned to embellish them with beads, but really wasn’t excited about it, because I often do beading and just wasn’t in the mood. I also didn’t really have the time. It seemed like too much work in an already full week.
As I was tidying the workroom, I saw my alphabet stamps. PERFECT!!! I decided to stamp words on them. YAY! That I was excited about. I ended up not using the alphabet stamps this time, but using some Chinese character stamps I picked up somewhere.
July ATCs, Finished
Mine didn’t end up being that popular this time around, but the others were fantastic. Mine are calm (which I seem to be seeking lately), but the stamp wasn’t large enough to stand out and show the detail. I need to step up my game. I am not done with the stamps yet, now that I have found them again.
I am not depressed, because I know not everything can be fantastic and these small pieces are for play.
The CQFA meeting was last Saturday (May 3) and was quite lively.
Workshop Work
Jennifer is a graphic facilitator/graphic recorder and she led a workshop about “from drawing to art quilt.” I did a graphic recording course with hopes of moving into that profession, but I didn’t pursue it and wish I had the opportunity to do so. Still, my skills came in handy in this class because I can draw basic shapes relatively quickly. I am not sure I got what was intended out of the class, but I did get some inspiration. I have been thinking of the ongoing placemat challenge and I drew out a design that has been in my head for it.
Art Journal Workshop Notes & Sketches
We did some work in our art journals/sketchbooks as part of the workshop and that was fun. I got some ideas down that have been in my head. They are not perfect or fabric ready, but they are down and I can see them with my eyes and not just my mind’s eye. I have a start and can see a little way down the path. Also, I just found it fun to work in my journal. I don’t do it enough.
Art Journal Workshop Notes & Sketches
Jen gave out some handouts and one of them had a quick sketch of mountains, which I found interesting.
She suggested working with fat markers (e.g. see the round arrow) and I found that hard, so I switched to the pens with which I normally write (see purple drawings on the right). She had a point about the fat markers, which was you couldn’t put in a lot of detail and you filled the page faster. Both are true. I still like my thin pen better. I wonder how I would feel with a fat pen if the tip was different?
Of course, we had the ATC exchange, which I talked about.
Marie told us about some upcoming events at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles:
May 18 – Quilt National Opening
May 24 – Royal School of Textiles speaker on dyeing, but not the how-to. She will speak on the societal, social and the geo-political effects on dyeing, how colors came about etc.
June 14 – beading lecture by a pre-eminent beadist (is that a word?).
Marie reported that these events are a way to engage more with members. Some of the CQFA members said that, while they couldn’t always attend the lectures and events, they went to the website more and read more of the emails, which is a good thing. Check the website for more details.
The Library show planning is in process. I have been out of the loop for a few months due to some personal issues and am not quite sure what is going on. I may withdraw my piece. We will see.
Diane Carver Place Mat Challenge
Show and tell was great. Maureen is using a gelli plate to print on fabric and some of her prints were gorgeous. Diane did the placemat challenge and I like the way the pieces stand up from the background.
Virginia is working on her piece for the show and the piecing is amazing. It is large, too.
I showed Fresh Fruit and Fabric of the Year 2012. I worked on FOTY 2012 at the retreat last year and people gave me some nice compliments. Someone suggested that I have a show of all the FOTY quilts when I get a few more under my belt. I would really like to do that. I’ll have to work on it once I get a larger stock of quilts.
