Design – Page 5 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Tarts Milestone

I have a box of Recchiuti that I have been slowly savoring as I work on the Tarts project. The box is almost empty and, TA DAH, I have reached a major milestone in the work on the Tarts project!

Your eyes do not deceive you. The Tarts Come to Tea top is completely sewn together. I had some bits of time over the weekend and used those bits to work on the Tarts. I really need to get this piece off my design wall and work on something easy. I resisted the urge, especially after all this time, to just throw the thing together. I really looked at it as my last opportunity to fix any despicable design decisions.

My first order of business was to replace the yellow cup.

I like the cup itself and am pleased with the fussy cutting and satin stitch quality. As part of the complete Tarts Come to Tea design, it didn’t work. My eye kept jumping to it. While I want the viewer’s eye to move around the piece, I didn’t want it to be glued to the yellow cup.

TFQ suggested pie. Since I was thinking along the lines of a pastry or tart as well, I appliqued another piece of pie. I used the same design as the original piece of pie.

The problem was that they were too similar. I didn’t make enough changes to the design, even though the colors/fabrics are different. The similarities are highlighted because the two elements are close together in the piece.

I resolved the issue in my mind, however. I am going to applique’ some whipped cream on top of the new piece of pie, and perhaps a cherry. It will overlap on to the blue block above it. I planned to do it before the entire piece was sewn together, but I got caught up in the excitement and focus of the sewing and forgot. I’ll add it later this week or on the weekend.

I had already started to sew sections together last weekend when I tried to tell myself I was finished. Still, there was a lot of piecing to do, so I got too it.

One thing I forgot about improvisational piecing is that one has to add bits and pieces in between. I really didn’t want to do much of that, because I liked the look of the blocks being next to each other. That meant some trimming and adding little bits, which I did, and which will, hopefully, be mostly hidden once the piece is completed. I couldn’t avoid adding some bits and I had to pay attention to the checkerboards, because I didn’t want to cut them off in the middle of a square.

There were a few places where I couldn’t trim and augment. Those spots should be readily apparent from the photo. In general, I am pleased with the way the piece turned out.

Quilting is next, of course. As I mentioned in the last post about the Tarts, I seriously thinking about quilting the piece myself. I want it to be done a certain way. I don’t think I am good enough yet on the longarm to quilt the detailed design I have in mind. I really want the cups and pastries to stand out. More thinking on this is required.

I can’t really believe that it is together. It has been such a long process!

Quilt Layout Inspiration

The picture is of wrapping paper covering the door windows of a studio space. I saw the paper and thought the design would make a good quilt layout.

I noticed the four patch-like red block alternating with the slightly tilted asterisk. I think that once could alternate the asterisk with a star block or some round design.

Small Tarts Change

I have been staring at this quilt on my design wall for months. I am glad it is progressing; the end is finally in sight. I will be very glad when I get it sewn together and off my design wall!

I made one tiny change to the arrangement of the Tarts Come to Tea. Can you identify the change? You can see the previous iteration on the June 4th, 2009 post. What do you think?

OK. I won’t keep you tortured in suspense. I moved the china cups up. I am still considering their new spot. It is less fabric and seams next to the twirly handle coffee pot. Also, it is fewer cups next to each other. The heart makes a bit of a break for the eye for the middle cups. My eyes were looking at all of those cups in a row and wondering if they would fly off the quilt.

Tarts Update

Most of the work on the Tarts has been mental lately. Those of you thinking mental case, may be right. 😉

With all of the rote sewing I have been doing lately I haven’t made the time to sit down and do the next drawing, which will be another pastry.

I am liking this layout. I think it adds a bit of movement at the top, though I am not sure why. I like the vertical checkerboard next to the tea kettle and will put a piece of it above the tall frothy drink as well. The orange squiggles between the red cappucino cups and the tall frothy drink will probably be replaced by some vertical silverware. Onward!

Pamela Allen Class Continued

Summary: this post follows up on Saturday’s post about the Pamela Allen class.

I realized that when I am in a class with Pamela, I do think outside of my own quiltmaking box. I also realized that if I just listen and do what she says I succeed. I also feel a bit freer in my work. I really have a strong feeling that I need to make a much larger piece in Pamela’s style.

Pamela gave us tips and I interpreted them as:

make lots of art because not all of it will be good; small is good
your first idea will be crap, so don’t cling to it
put the big shapes down first
move things around; try a new view
if you are bored by your piece everyone else will be as well

We talked a lot about art quilts at our dinner out together. I feel strongly that all quilts need to have a good design. Block type quilts have a basic structure which helps with good design. Most art quilts do not have a basic, inherent structure and some go astray because the quiltmaker doesn’t care, doesn’t know how to initiate and then evaluate a design or doesn’t have the technique foundation. I think it is easy to find out about these things. There are a lot of good principles of design type books, such as Pentak and Lauer’s Design Basics. The basic thing concerning technique in art quilts is that they don’t fall apart upon hanging. Pamela doesn’t have the classic quilt background that many quiltmakers have, but she has learned what she needs to keep the quilts structurally sound and then applied her art and design training. This is the best of both worlds and this is where I really want to be.

You can see from the gallery above how she inspires great and different work. Diane is a wonderful silk painter. She normally paints a whole cloth piece on silk and then quilts it. Her blue trees piece is really different from her normal style and really, truly wonderful. Kristen is very busy with her family and doesn’t have tons of time to sew, but made some fantastic pieces that her children would enjoy. I love that space alien monster! Kristen’s pieces are also cheerful and imaginative and wonderfully creative. Mrs. K’s sauguaro cactus/Suspicion Mountains piece has a calmness to I that I love. I hope she finishes it and hangs it somewhere where it can inspire other people. Everyone really did fantastic work and I am sorry I didn’t take more photos.

We made a creative mess. Mess is the wrong word; we had supplies and we needed to use them. When you only have 15 minutes to make a piece of art, the fabric will be flying and it was. I brought my scraps which kept ending up on the floor. People would stop by, pick up some bit of fabric and ask to whom it belonged. It became quite hilarious. We really couldn’t have done the workshop without Mrs. K. She brought tubs of fabric which allowed us to actually have backs and batting and such things. I seemed to conveniently forget those supplies when I go to Pamela’s workshops! DUH!

Pamela Informs the Tarts

Summary: This post talks more about how the Pamela Allen class with CQFA will inform the Tarts Come to Tea.

I find that a good class will inform my work in a way that other experiences don’t. I don’t see quiltmaking in a vacuum. I see it related to other art and that is one of the benefits of taking a class from Pamela Allen. She really brings her training in art to the quiltmaking/fabric collage world. Her comments about artists in other media really enrich my quiltmaking experience.

After sleeping on my class experiences I went up this morning to look at the Tarts. There are things I like about it and things that really need improvement. I actually wonder if I should just start over and make the piece in the style I worked in over the past couple of days? I am loathe just to toss all the work I have done, so I came up with a different solution.

When working with Pamela, she suggests putting a background down (which has already been layered with a back and batt) quickly and then cutting pieces to put on top of the background. One of the things that I liked about this method is the layering. I have had layering and the way it creates textures on my mind lately and the class experience solidified some of what I was thinking about.

With the Tarts, I think I will finish my plan so that I have a solid top. Instead of, then, sending it out to be quilted, I will put some kind of stabilizer, or additional stabilizer on it and then add another layer of fabric to the top in the Pamela Allen style. I think that will add movement to the piece and make it more interesting.

I have always wanted to add some stitching and embellishments and will do that after I get the piece quilted.

The Tarts, as they are now, reflect my A type personality and I want to move the piece beyond that buttoned up feel to the piece. The motifs are interesting and the fabrics are fun, but it really needs movement. I took another photo of the entire Tarts and plan to print it out. Once I do that I can take notes on how I want to add layers.

The AHA Moment

I have been in class for the past two days with Pamela Allen. Pamela is much more than a quilt teacher. She is truly an art teacher who works and encourages work in fabric. I had THE Aha moment in her class today and it really thrilled me. I could feel the difference in my work after that moment.

As you may have read, or noticed, I felt crappy all week. Barely any blogging got done even though I have a pile of sticky notes with reminders of things to tell you. My house is a wreck and my to-do list is still long. A cold was really beating me down and I was doing everything I could to conserve energy so I could go to class. A good move on my part was to take Thursday off of work rather than working straight through and then going directly to class.

I have taken several classes with Pamela. The first one I took was in Richmond, Virginia at Quilting Adventures. I actually took two different classes in one weekend. The first was a self portrait class and the second was on composition. I started one piece in each class.

Pamela also came to California in 2008 to teach at EBHQ. I took her class there as well. I don’t think I ever wrote a blog post about that one, but Julie wrote one, which is probably what I would have written anyway. 😉

The quiltlet, House and Garden, that I did at EBHQ has been worked on more since the class and I am almost finished with it. Maureen sent me a link to facing directions from Jeri Riggs site and I plan to use them to make a faced edging as soon as I finish the beading.

I brought all three of these pieces to the workshop with the intention of working on them and not starting anything new.

The first exercise was a monochromatic exercise. I didn’t do it. Don’t worry! I warned Pamela that I was planning to bring projects from previous classes. I did enjoy the pieces that others in the class made.

I worked and made progress on the Garden. I am actually ready to handstitch on it, though I do still have a bit of piecing to add. I am really pleased with the work I did on the Garden. I think it looks very different from what it was when I started. I also think it looks a lot better.

I am really pleased with the petals that I added. I wanted to create a little more interest in the space where the blue petals are now.

In the bottom part of the piece, the flowers were all middle ground. Pamela helped me create a foreground by putting some darker blue behind the red flower with the petals. I also created a little bit of a different foreground with the flower in the bottom right hand corner. I was thinking of it as kind of a coneflower, but some people said that it also looked like the petals had dropped off. I have a little work to do on the bottom. During the critique, Pamela and the other students suggested that I extend some of the stems to the bottom of the piece and make the bottom of the piece longer as well. They also like the brown border. That brown is currently the back, but I will cut it off and add it to the new front, but only on a couple of sides.

I didn’t succeed in doing my own thing. Pamela is such an engaging teacher that it just wasn’t possible for me to ignore her completely. She did help me with the projects I was trying to work on, though.

After a quick litle quiltlet exercise (15 min), she gave us a piece of fabric and we had to make something with it. My piece was brown. No other colors. None of my colors. Bleah!

The exercise was about accentuating or extending existing lines in the fabric she gave us. I liked the idea of the exercise.

This is the piece that came out of it. The colors aren’t me, and you can see that I injected quite a lot of blue into the surface.

Today, we worked on critiques and one piece using stripes and prints to create movement.

This piece brought the AHA moment for me. The AHA moment was a point where I finally got all that I have been learning from Pamela. I finally understood about the background and how to put stripes and prints on the piece in different ways in order to achieve movement and the illusion of something. I am really pleased with this piece and think it is very strong.

I can see how some of what I learned today will help me with the Tarts. I am going to use some of the techniques and thoughts to get that piece finished.

Thanks, Pamela!

Inspiration Wednesday: Mosaic Tiles

These tiles are on the stairs of a house on 21st Avenue in San Francisco.

Thanksgiving FIRST, please!

I am a huge advocate of Thanksgiving. I like it because there are no presents to manage. I don’t like the virtual lack of craft opportunities associated with T-day. So, despite the fact that Christmast is months away when I saw this great tree, I had to share it. I love the way Kathy at Pink Chalk Studio blends her colors and fabrics. I really like this tree and it looks like a project where you would get a lot of bang for your buck. Check out her blog.

clipped from pinkchalkstudio.com

Candy Corn to Blue

In a recent post I told you about some blue fabrics that had caught my attention. I have been working my way through a couple of different groups of photos on Flickr (the Denyse Schmidt Pool and IQFH). I saw this quilt by Two Dogs and a Quilt in the DSP and thought that it might make a good pattern for those blue fabrics. I’ll have to dig out the dimensions from the DS book I have. If the pattern isn’t in there, I don’t think I really need one anyway. 😉 See it on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24268088@N08/2948711943/

Picking Fabric

Avoiding work, I was browsing the blogs. I clicked on Pink Chalk Studio and came across this photo of, what looks like, fabric selection during the design phase. I admit, I didn’t read the post…yet. What struck me about this photo is that it is my ideal way of picking fabric. I would like to have the space (physical and brain) to heap up fabrics and look at them kind of jumbled together. This photo of these jumbled together fabrics give me an idea of how they would look in a project.

The problem comes in the actual execution. Sigh. I know that if I take these fabrics out of the closet and jumble them, I will most certainly have to refold and put at least half of them away.

I know I have to do something like this (make visual decisions visually), but I seem to have a brain block. Perhaps I need a studio assistant? HAH! Or just continue to work on cultivating enjoyment of the entire process.

clipped from pinkchalkstudio.com

Repetition: One Element of Design

I have been attracted to repetition lately. I seem to pick up cards with 9 pitchers or, of course, fabric with dots. When I saw this railing, it appealed to me for that reason.

Thinking about Borders v.APNQ

Quilt shows are a good place to try and work out a quilt puzzle because there are, generally, more quilts at a quilt show than any other place you normally inhabit.

I wasn’t really trying to work out a problem, but the idea of borders was rumbling around in the back of my mind.

I sincerely dislike borders t hat have no good DESIGN reason for being there. I don’t like borders that are just slapped on because the Quilt Police say you need a border or the quilt wasn’t quite large enough. I have engaged in this behavior, much to my chagrin, and endeavor not to do it anymore.

Thus you can imagine my delight when I saw this light and airy border on a Mariner’s Compass quilt. I LOVE the idea of giving the Mariner’s Compass some boundaries without hemming it in with a heavy and long piece of fabric. While it is not as cohesive as the self bordering technique can be to the design, I still find it to be very successful.

Cleaning up the Junk Drawer of my Blog

The title is paraphrased and re-imagined from a phrase that DebR uses on her blog, Red Shoe Rambling. I have a lot of little bits to pass on and thought this would be a good time to do it.

More on Gabrielle Swain

I forgot my camera on the second day of class. Karen, a fellow student in the Gabrielle Swain class, was kind enough to share her photos with me. We had a little session on features of her camera, which was fun and then we took some pictures. Karen let me look over her shoulder while she took photos.

In the above piece, you can see the color placement issue that I described in Gabrielle Swain Class, Day 2. The leaf is made up of separate pieces. If you can see how the veins divide the leaf, know that each of those sections is a separate piece of fabric. In placing the fabric, Swain explained to us how to fussy cut the fabric (using the light box) so that there are no huge breaks in the color of the leaf. I think the above leaf has more color breaks than I would expect there to be in a piece, but since GS did it, there must be a reason.

You can also see the quilting pretty well in the above photo. All of this quilting is done by hand.

I liked this quilt, because of the way she breaks up the leaves and the branches. I also think the few letters add a lot of interest.

My favorite quilt of Ms. Swain’s was called Even Change (not above, click the link). I think the one on her website might be different than the one she brought to class. Still, I like the idea of temperature that she used in this quilt. The idea was that if she used a cool tone on the background, Swain appliqued a leaf (piece of fabric) in a warm tone on top of that background, then she used a cool tone for the veins. Very successful.

Thinking about Proportion

Periodically, some technique that has been rumbling around in my mind as I try and understand it, clicks into place. What is rumbling around in my mind lately is proportion.
TFQ and I saw this class sample at Black Cat Quilts when she was visiting in April. It is from the Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr book, Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: the FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics. Gretchen was out of the book so I had to buy it from somewhere else. That meant that we couldn’t look at the book or the directions for the quilt.The pattern is pretty easy, so it doesn’t really require a class or a pattern.

I was shocked when I did buy the book, because 1) the colors were a shockingly ugly combination (TO ME). I have little to no appreciation for the colors in quilts made from reproduction fabrics; 2) they put that ugly quilt on the cover; and 3) how small the blocks actually were in the pattern in the book. The above picture shows blocks that are approximately 8″x4″. It was high up on the wall and there wasn’t a ladder available for me to climb and measure the blocks. Also, I forgot my tape measure. Anyway, in the book the pattern directions tell you to create blocks that are about 3″x5″ (the size of an index card). Huh???

Well, obviously, the maker of the class sample was perfectly able to enlarge the pattern. This where I started to think about proportion. I find that the proportion of the blocks in the picture above to be good. I haven’t made one of the smaller blocks, so I can’t say whether I would like that size.*

My thoughts about proportion, which started with this book/class sample encounter, have to do with how to figure out how to find the right proportions (without a lot of complicated math, thanks) of a block. It is easy to say “ok, the pattern says to make this block 3×5, so it would be easy to blow the block up to 6×10”, but what about if I want the block to be 8x something. I have a little fraction to decimal cheatsheet and I want a proportion cheatsheet as well. Let me know if you know of one.

I do have EQ6 and will probably work on it there.

Note we did get permission to take the photo.

*Aside: the smaller blocks might be a good FOTY project.

Prismacolors

At work and personally, I am doing a lot of self examination. In the course of this, we were talking about Myers-Briggs types and how some types don’t like opening gifts in front of people. That brought up a discussion of gifts and how I would really like a super large set of Prismacolors. Gabrielle Swain suggested getting the large set so that I would have every color I ever needed. I have been using a set of colored pencils that were part of my school supplies list when I lived in Austria. They are a few years old, but they have great names like hellgruen and dunkelblau and they do the job. The friend subsequently mentioned that Aaron Bros was having a monster sale and I could get a set for half off. I went to Aaron Bros last night while I was running an errand at Target and looked.

First, I was shocked at how few art supplies Aaron Bros actually has now. Their whole upper floor was filled with framing services and ready made frames. I had no idea frames were such good business.

Anyway, I didn’t buy any Prismacolors, because the 40% off sale was over. Dick Blick has the set of 132 pencils (list $190.00+) for $89. That seems like a good deal.

Swain also mentioned the Prismacolor Art stix. She made them sound like they were some special/new kind of pencil. I looked at them at Aaron Bros and they looked more like pastels to me. I am not into messy, so I don’t know if they are for me. I think I bought a couple last week and will try them out.

I am also interested in the Derwent Inktense pencils. I suppose I should learn some techniques for colored pencils, so I can really test the various pencils in an informed manner.

Making Many Bags

I figured out why it is a GREAT idea to have multiple tote bags hanging around. To date, I have made 6 bags and have 2 or 3 cut out and the fabric ready for at least one more. I have been thinking, and discussing with TFQ, the point of making many bags. The obvious answer is that it is fun to make bags. It is great fun to use large pieces of different fabrics than I wouldn’t normally use for quilts. It is also fun to buy fabrics, such as the cupcake fabric for a purpose. I came across the true answer last Friday, as I prepared to go on a trip.

The true answer is that you need extra bags so you don’t have to clear out the other bag you haven’t unloaded!

Yes, life has been crazy and I haven’t unloaded the dot/flower bag, so when I went to pack for the trip to the lake, my choices were to unload the bag or do something else. I was, as usual, in a rush and late, so I just grabbed the Alexander Henry bag, filled it up and left. Right now, I have two bags laying on the floor of the workroom full of various activities. I guess I am already packed for another trip!

The dot/flower bag also needs to be fixed. I didn’t catch all of the hem when I hemmed the top, so I need to resew that. I started to unsew it and resew it, but haven’t finished.

Gabrielle Swain Class Day 1

Another teacher to add to your ‘must take’ list. This woman knows how to teach! She knows her stuff, has confidence in her teaching and has an opinion, which I like. I don’t have to agree with the opinion, but wishy-washy “well, what do you think, dear?” kind of comments from a teacher, make me crazy.

Above are the fabrics that I brought to class. Not being a hand-dyed girl, I chose batiks in a palette that I like. Her suggestion of 3 yards was a wild shot in the dark, IMO. I would improve the supply list by asking for 20-30 FQs evenly divided among all the colors. In this case, I was able to find some fabrics out of my small batch to work with, but other people were having a really hard time. Even people who had brought a lot of fabric with them.

The first part of the class was all about design. No sewing. Some people were completely mortified. I was thrilled. I actually got to spend time on my design and try out a couple of different things. One thing that Swain said, which resonated with me, was that people find their materials first and then try to find a design to fit the fabrics. I Think it is true in a lot of cases, but I don’t think it is true, mostly, for me. It is definitely something to consider and keep in mind.

The theme of the class was leaves. Mom went through my inspiration file and pulled out many of the pictures containing leaves. Talk about a hero! I went through the pictures a few times before I started the design and whittled down the group. I finally settled on a Georgia O’Keeffe postcard of a painting called Yellow Leaves (bottom left). Apparently the real painting is at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In surfing the web, I found an image of another of her leaf works that has to be in the same series called Pattern of Leaves.

Swain gave us large format patterns, which we could have also used, but I don’t think anyone did.

This was my first attempt and , frankly, it is pretty much a copy of the O’Keeffe work. Swain said to add another leaf (rule of odds) and turn the leaves so they were going in different directions. I had a hard time understanding what she was suggesting. She ended up explaining it by saying to align the leaves so they hit various points on the letter C. Finally, I got it and set to work.

This was my second attempt. After finishing the draft, I was concerned that not enough of the two upper leaves were showing.
I traced my second attempt, but shifted the paper slightly to modify the spacing. It ended up with too much spacing.

Above is my fourth attempt, which I liked. Again, I modified the spacing.

This is the final design for my project. It is the third drawing, which Swain thought was better than the fourth.

I think the above process is a good example of why spending the time on the design is worthwhile.

My first thought was hat I would make each of the leaves out of a variety of different fabrics. Above is my first pass at fabric selection. I was thinking that more fabrics would add interest.

Here are my choices with the background.

This group is good, but Swain was concerned about the strong print on the middle fabric. She thought, when cut up, the petals of the sunflower would draw the viewer’s eye in an unintended direction. She is very much about careful choices in both fabric and seam lines. There were a lot of things she said that reminded me of Ruth McDowell’s work with seam allowances.

Here is my final selection. I guess it is ok. I may work on it a bit more later just to make sure I am happy with it. I like the fabrics, but the combination as leaves is a bit of a stretch. I am, however, willing to work with the colors to see how Swain’s advice works. Here is one example Swain had for a design principle. Think of a tic-tac-toe board. Put an x in the middle, because you don’t want to put anything exactly in the middle. The Os at the intersection of the squares are where she suggested we place our images, if doing this kind of a design.

Julie’s fabric selections and pattern. Julie is Swain’s star student as Julie took her 6 month creativity class earlier this year. Sadly, none of the glow is rubbing off on me. 😉