Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Here are some more Patchwork Wheel blocks. I am a bit stuck on the last few, because I misplaced a stack of fabrics. Sigh. I hope to have found it and be back on track by the time you read this.
I am having fun with Ribbet. Sometimes I don’t want to deal with the formatting of multiple photos and Ribbet is a good alternative. I can do some quick collages, basic editing and pull from Flickr. It is free, you don’t have to register (though you get more, if you do) and it is relatively quick.
As mentioned in a recent post, there is a project to collect pillowcases for the kids at Sandy Hook Elementary in CT. Making pillowcases was on my radar, but I had to get through Christmas first, with lots of baking and cooking, family and friends. I wasn’t putting those in need behind my real life. I really wanted time to work with the pattern and make sure the pillowcases were well made and of good quality. The way Twiddletails shows the cutting doesn’t mesh with my thought processes, so I have to really think about it and focus if I don’t want to waste fabric.
I like that pattern, though, because once you get past the first stitch line, you have only two more stitching lines to complete the pillowcase. I also like it because there are no raw edges due to the French seams.
The Mexican food fabric (with beige and green backgrounds) had been languishing for quite awhile and it was time to use them. As you might remember, my intent was to make teenage boy/older boy friendly pillowcases. I know the kids at Sandy Hook are on the younger side, but perhaps there are 5th or 6th graders who are past cheerful trucks and dancing animals who will like them. I find it so easy to find fabric suitable for toddlers, but not so much suitable for teenaged boys.
You might have noticed that some of the pillowcases have a green in them that is slightly off. I found this fabric in my green bin when I was looking for something to go with the Mexican food fabric. It yelled out “I am dream fabric and perfect for pillowcases” to me when I saw it. Sadly, I used most of it for something and barely had enough for half a pillowcase much less a whole. I decided to use it for the trim. Yes, the color is a bit off, but I want these pillowcases to induce sweet dreams and be infused with good energy, so I put a little bit in. The viewer can’t see the clouds in the finished pieces, but I know they are there. I really wish I had enough for whole pillowcases.
I pulled out a bin I had noticed when I was rearranging and cleaning up after a fabri-lanche recently. It had multi-color fabrics in it. I didn’t remember buying most of the fabrics and they are not fabrics I would buy now, but were very cheerful and GREAT for kids.
I was especially pleased to find this circus print, and enough of it to make a pillowcase and a cuff, as it demands to be left in large pieces rather than cut up. Notice that the cuff is a companion print. At one time I also had the star companion print, but couldn’t find it. I must have used it.
I sent the pillowcases off yesterday and the postage was $12.00+ for parcel post! I forgot how heavy fabric is. That is done and today I am on to something else. Stay tuned!
You might als0 be interested in the following posts:
I am redoubling my efforts to do good with fabric. To that end, I am thinking that I would like to finish the Patchwork Wheel blocks before Christmas and, thus, I need to think about layouts.
I mulled publicly sashing this piece in the last post and was pleased to receive an email from SherriD with her Photoshop handiwork allowing me to see the effects visually.
I like the space between the blocks that the sashing provides and I have plenty of Kona Snow to make sashing. I am not quite sure if Kona Snow will match the background used in the blocks, though, and that might be an issue.
The sashing-less version is much more chaotic, but it does look like roads winding through a town.
Thanks, again, to SherriD for taking the time to create this image for me.
I saw this on Mark Lipinski‘s Facebook page. Thanks, Mark, for being in the loop and sharing this great opportunity.
Here is YOUR chance to help the families in Newtown…
Becky at Quliter’s Corner quilt shop in New Milford, CT is collecting pillowcases for the children at Sandy Hook School. She is trying to collect around 600. Please pass this message to any sewing friends. Pillowcases can be mailed to her at Quilters Corner, 312 Danbury Rd, New Milford, CT. 06776.
HOW TO MAKE EASY, FAST PILLOWCASES: http://yhoo.it/Uq5AHj
Here is one way to help the students at Sandy Hook Elementary. I have written about pillowcases in the past. The pattern I like to use is the Twiddletails pattern. I like it because of the French seams, but the pattern can be a little tricky to understand.
What fun fabrics do you have that could help to brighten a child’s day? I have some Mexican food fabric that is great for boys!
I am continuing to work on the Patchwork Wheel blocks. As I have said, I need 20 and I have about 12, so not much more work. There are a few seams in these so each one takes a bit of time.
These are very bold blocks. I am just using the kits I was given. I may add some solids or some tone-on-tones to the last few blocks. I could scatter those as yet unmade blocks throughout the quilt top and perhaps they wouldn’t look too out of place.
In a way, this is my first truly modern quilt. I assume all of the fabrics are considered modern fabrics. I don’t know really as I am not an expert on modern fabrics.
The combination is really bold. The choices the person who prepared the kits made a lot of bold choices with these fabrics.
I’ll have to think about whether to put sashing between the blocks or preserve the interesting secondary source that is produced when the blocks are set right next to each other.
Housekeeping
Sadly, someone has somehow hacked into the Google search results for my site. I am working on it, the webhost is working on it and Deirdre is working on it. It appears to be different from the regular Pharma{}Hack, which is causing diagnostic problems. Here is how you are affected:
So sorry about this nonsense. I hope it will end soon.
Doing Good
A month has passed since Hurricane/SuperStorm Sandy hit the Northeast. It is so easy for us here in the West to just go on with our lives and forget what others are going through, because we were not affected. The Red Cross needs donations. Use an official site or envelope to donate; don’t give to random people who ask you for money. If you want to contribute to Hurricane Sandy quilt efforts, the Vesuvius Mama blog (the blocks I made have already arrived.) and eQuilter are both coordinating efforts for quilts for Hurricane Sandy victims. You can see some of Vesuvius Mama’s quilts on a later post. Other types of crafters need supplies, too. Thanks to Deirdre for the link to CERF + Exchange Artists Relief effort.
Victoria Findlay Wolfe has also started collecting quilts and store bought blankets for her neighborhood, Rockaway. You can read her blog post for details.
My local guilds are working on quilts, etc, too, so…
Go out and do some good!
Quilts Around the Web
The Blogger’s Quilt Festival has been a treasure trove of quilts. I have been particularly interested in the various Jelly Roll quilts or Jelly Roll looking quilts that I have seen. The Something for Nothing blog had a Jelly Roll quilt that is one of the most successful I have seen. I like the way she has added a solid Jelly Roll to the print Jelly Roll.
I like this Spiderweb as well. I like the way she used one print for each pointy piece.
If you are not reading the Sweet Dreams by Sarah blog, you should. She has a great voice. Not funny so much as it makes me smile.
Quilt World News
City Quilter in NYC was closed for several days due to Superstorm Sandy. They are back in business after their water and power was restored. No damage and their employees are all fine. Hooray!
Sad news that has nothing to do with Superstorm Sandy. Kindred Quilts in New Jersey is closing. Toby wants to spend time with her family, so the store will be closing before Christmas. They will be having a massive sale, so go visit, if you live in the area.
SherriD is writing letters. Did you see her post? Will you write letters, too? I have 4 letters, yes real letters with handwriting and stamps, that need responses. I spend too much time sewing!
GenQ magazine is doing a survey. It isn’t a terrible survey. I think they ask some good questions, but they don’t give opportunities for essays. I always like to give people my opinion. I just like to do it in my own words. When you create a survey, make sure they is space for essays and ideas.
I thought about putting this story about Idaho inmates making quilts into the Doing Good section, because they are doing good, but there is a different tone in that section today. I like the recycling and making do aspect of this project. I am also thrilled that the project is doing the inmates some good.
Amy Butler has launched Blossom, her “visual journal, which is all about loving your life and living it fully and authentically.” The first issue is free.
Patterns, Ideas and Inspiration
Here is a hand sewn hexagon sewing caddy/pincushion tutorial. Pam of Hip to be a Square podcast fame made one from the Sew Mama Sew line.
I found a great use for Pinterest: shared boards! TFQ and I are planning a project. I think we will each work on our own, but do the same pattern. We were emailing links and photos back and forth and I was creating a Notability notebook, but then I thought I would create a board on Pinterest when I started to bump up against my limited Notability skills. TFQ saw that I created a board and wondered if she could add to it as well. I checked around and found that we could both contribute! Now we are both adding ideas for quilts to the board. We are having so much fun PLANNING and talking. It is just what I was imagining when we started talking about it.
The project above started when I started hearing the podcasters, such as Pam, Sandy, Daisy, Nonni, and Katie, talk about Bonnie Hunter’s Easy Street Mystery quilt. They and a number of listeners are working along with Bonnie Hunter on this latest mystery quilt pattern. Apparently she does one every year. This one has been going on since 11/23. The podcasters started a Flickr group to show photos and encourage each other. Despite all this support, I am not much into mystery quilts, so I decided to download the patterns and see what I need to do before I commit. It isn’t like I have a shortage of projects to work on, you know. Have you seen the 26 Projects list? 😉 You can still get started and play along.
Along the Easy Street lines, Daisy of Lazy Daisy Quilts has a Flying Geese tutorial for the second part of Easy Street. This is similar to Deb Tucker’s Wing clipper method, but you don’t need the ruler. The method works with a regular ruler as well.
Pat Sloan has a machine binding tutorial. I haven’t had a chance to review it, but I want to after my attempt at binding a quilt by machine.
A week or so ago, I posted about a pattern I called Stars & Stripes. I couldn’t find it in EQ7, but I also didn’t look very hard. One of my fabulous readers, Mrs. K wanted the pattern and I got some others who were interested as well. I drew it out quickly and am posting the Stars & Stripes Foundation Pattern and a rendition of the Stars & Stripes Foundation Sample Quilt for your sewing pleasure. Note that you need 4 of the foundation patterns to make one entire star.
Pat Bravo has her own blog now. I would have thought she had one for a long time, but I guess not. Her first post is filled with luscious inspiration from her trip to Paris. I want to go and buy some of those cups.
Do you EQ? Here is a blog post that gives some tips and trips about importing doodles. You know you want to machine applique‘.
In the same area, there is also a BlockBase sew-along, which gets you sewing and gives lessons on using BlockBase (and by association, EQ). If you want to stretch, this is your project!
If you haven’t been following Sandy’s Total Color Tuesday posts, she just posted a new and fun one this week. These are a good group of posts to read in order to learn about color.
In looking for the Original Bullseye, I came across two other projects. One was additional blocks for the Spiderweb. Those are going straight to the Charity Girls at BAMQG. I am not working on anymore of those blocks. I also found several Stars and Stripes blocks.
This foundation pieced pattern was given to me by a guild – the San Francisco Quilt Guild, I believe – a long, long time ago. They were collecting blocks in blues with white centers for some kind of quilt around 1997. I had a tiny baby, a new house, a new job and a DH with a new job at the time so my memories are little foggy. I don’t remember and I don’t know if I took a photo. I remember making at least one block to donate, but I really became enamored with the design of this block. I began making it in pinks, oranges, reds and yellows.
Then something happened and I lost interest. Actually, I think “lost interest” is a nice way of saying that I made some bad design choices, and started to dislike foundation piecing. The combination became deadly.
This was about the time I started the Spiderweb. I loved the possibilities of foundation piecing at that time. I still like the possibilities; I am just less enamored with the foundation piecing part. I couldn’t fix the design issues without redoing a lot and I abandoned the project. I have decided that it will stay abandoned. Not the pattern, because the pattern is cool, but this particular rendition of the pattern.
I know that this will make a really bright and cheerful donation quilt, so I don’t mind giving it away.
Much.
I always have a pang of regret every time I decide to abandon something. I feel bad that I don’t want to finish something, but frankly, I feel like I can’t finish everything, especially the projects that are so old I barely remember starting them. I can move through projects, even complex projects, much faster now, so there is less figuring and testing.
Once I get through the 26 Projects List, I don’t intend to let projects linger or put them away for ‘later.’ Famous last words. Stay tuned to see if I live up to my intentions!
I made two of these as I worked on the Spiderweb. I have made 6 total and I need to make 14 more. I don’t know if I will be able finish all of them before the December BAMQG meeting, but I will try.
I am not 100% sure about the fabrics. The blocks are made from kits, so I am using the fabrics given. The blocks have a very 1970s look to me. I don’t think they look chaotic, necessarily, but these aren’t fabrics I would have chosen to put together. Still, they are VERY interesting to look at and the eye does move around the blocks. It is a stretch for me to use such fabrics and that is a good thing.
I have done two cat beds already. I made the second one last night. They are pretty easy, as I have said in previous posts. I think it is good for me to work with different fabrics and different feet as well, just to improve my skills in other areas. I made a Polarfleece robe once and it was a major challenge, because I had never worked with Polarfleece before.
I really had to make the red cat bed on Monday night, because my schnibble bag was overflowing. I could not fit one more slice, shard or schnibble into it. I filled the red cat bed with those from the bag and it is now a quarter full. Amanda has lots of other schnibbles so she can fill the rest.
I didn’t realize I had taken two cat bed kits, but I was glad I did. The cat beds don’t take very long, so in between pie baking and house tidying, I was able to get in a little sewing and I always feel good when I can work on a donation project.
Sadly, though, I was unwilling to pull schnibbles out of red Cat Bed to fill this one even a little bit, so it is very flat and sad looking. Again, Amanda can make that better.
Finally, I made four blocks for Vesuvius Mama’s collection of blocks for Hurricane Sandy victims. I think I said somewhere else that I am not that fond of this block pattern, but it is interesting and you do get a lot of bang for your buck.
Have a great day!
Earlier this week I wrote the Quilt To Do List, because I had these little things rattling around in my head nagging. Also, I had nothing else to write about having not sewn and already gone on and on about the Spiderweb. I mean how much can you tolerate about Spiderwebs?
I had kind of a brutal week at work. It wasn’t crazy busy, but everything was hard and the most difficult partners and associates were asking me for the impossible. I really wanted to just be at home today and rest. I might be getting a cold, but I feel like I need to rest.
No, I haven’t accomplished the whole list. The Hurricane Sandy blocks for Vesuvius Mama are done. I had to rummage around for some fabric like she wanted and found some very interesting stuff in the process. More on that later.
I had never made a Disappearing 4 Patch before, though I knew the concept from the Food Quilt‘s Disappearing 9 Patch Design, so I knew the concept. This was a good excuse to try out the Disappearing 4 Patch. I don’t remember if I thought the Disappearing 9 patch was fiddly. I thought the D4P was kind of fiddly. I think I like the D9P a little better, but I am always up for learning a new blocks and I think the D4P has some interesting design possibilities. And I can make blocks until the cows come home. I don’t need to like them much to make them. You’ll have to wait for photos as I forgot to take them!
I wrote really small all week and made the last few pages of my journal last. I still have about half a page left. I don’t know whether that is an accomplishment or cramping my creativity. Anyway, the first thing I did this morning was start cutting for a journal cover. I decided that I would make two, then I wouldn’t be behind when I ran out of pages next time.
I had already ironed fabric that I bought for journal covers, so I cut pieces. The journal cover tutorial is now really right on in terms of size. I have tweaked it a bit lately and the covers went together with little to no problems in terms of size. Also, no frustration either. Nice.
I’ll put up more photos and info later. This post was supposed to be a quick “hi. hello” and it is turning into a dissertation.
I really should have made the binding today, because I could have watched TV and sewed down the back. I just didn’t think of it. Perhaps tomorrow.
I really enjoyed working on these small things.
As usual, the meeting was great. Lots of people, quilts and a good demo. For some reason, my camera does not want to take photos when I am out and about. The battery (not fatal) ran out at CQFA and I forgot the spare at home, so I only took a few photos with my phone. Something has to be done about this camera. Perhaps I just need a few new batteries?
Pincushion Swap
I decided to participate in the Pincushion Swap after I spoke with Joanna Figueroa at PIQF. Once I had the pattern and the know-how I picked out the most modern fabrics I could think of and really had a good time making it. I am going to make one for the raffle basket that will be given away at the Holiday party.
There were a lot of really great pincushions. One I was particularly enamored with was a Cathedral window pincushion. I never thought of that pattern before, but a pincushion seems doable. I am not going to make one, but I admired it. There were probably a dozen that were given in. It will be interesting to see what the Kansas City Quilt Guild sends us back.
Donation Quilts
I finished another donation top and back. I had the blocks done over the weekend. When I had a day off on Wednesday I put all the blocks together. I have used sashing before, but I decided to just put all the blocks together next to each other. I like the way it turned out. I like the movement of the squares of color. I almost randomly picked the border fabric, but not quite. I am pleased with how it turned out. It looks cheerful and happy.
For the back I used some more golds. I wanted to make one side a bit calmer. I hope it isn’t dour.
I was hoping for calm, as I said, but I also picked some fabrics that had a bit of color. It is a really different back that front.
I also wanted to clear off my sewing table. I need space next to my sewing machine, which I will probably fill up with other fabric “junk”. 😉 I had cut up a bunch of 2.5″ squares for future donation quilts. I have several left, but am kind of done with the checkerboards. Perhaps not completely, but mostly. I made some blocks with some of the parts I had and will give those to the Charity Girls.
They are kind of fun, but I don’t have enough parts to make a whole quilt with any of the colors. Peggy took them as well as some 2.5′ squares, so it will be interesting to see what she does with them.
I kept enough background fabrics in both grey and white to make another top, but I don’t know what fabrics I will use for the foreground. Jennifer saved me some kits for the Patchwork Wheel block and the next charity quilt I make will be from that pattern. Change of pace, you know.
I posted about the Patchwork Wheel blocks I made a few days ago. I realized as I was packing for the meeting that I had kind of a lot of donation quilts to give in. I posted about the quilt I bound and the Pink & Green donation top I made a week or so ago. It is a good feeling to give.
Peggy made this Cross/Plus quilt for the charity effort as well. I was told that we are up to 99 quilts for the year. I don’t know if the one I turned in bound was counted.
The colors in the photo don’t do it justice. The quilt is a really nice combination of turquoise and scarlet.
I believe that Kathleen made a quilt like this in a swap earlier this year. These may be the leftover or reject blocks from that quilt. If they are rejects, they are perfect in this quilt. I am partial to the color scheme, but I still think that some youngster will like it.
Show & Tell
There was a lot of great show and tell in addition to the pincushions. One of the quilts that I really liked was a from a pattern called Sparkling Cider by All Washed Up quilts. The fabrics used for the packaging doesn’t do it justice. Mallory used Tula Pink’s Plume Collection from a few years ago. I always liked the larger prints in this collection, but didnt’ buy any because they were too large. I am not scared of really large motifs, but I have a lot of them and they are hard to use. there are two blocks in this piece and you can turn the block with the smaller Sawtooth Star different ways to create more movement and achieve balance. One thing I like about the Sparkling Cider pattern is that the blocks are large, but the quilt design is not boring. I am way past large squares in my quilt life. There are some nice renditions on Flickr.
Adrianne saw an advertisement for modern Amish quilts that were needed for a book. The deadline was very short and since publishers require that a quilt not be published anywhere else, including on a blog (I am so totally screwed on this front) that many quilts people had already made were in eligible. Adrianne got inspired and started work on this quilt. She said she didn’t make the deadline, but she finished the quilt and it is a really interesting piece. The negative space is a really interesting shape. This could be made with the Fons & Porter Pyramid ruler.
I know you can see it, but the quilting is horizontal lines across the whole quilt, which looks great.
Alison brought a baby quilt made from fabric from a Malka Dubrowsky’s first hand-dyed looking line, A Stitch in Color. I really like the way it came out. It sounded like she said she did a sort of Jelly Roll technique, but I think she managed it more than the directions for a Jelly Roll Race quilt.
She added in the parallelograms to break up the fabric motifs as well. I like those parallelograms; I think they add a bit of stability to the design as well.
Sew Time
A few of us stayed until the bitter end. Only Alison was doing anything remotely related to sewing. I don’t know what my problem was, but I forgot to bring a hand project. Alison was basting another baby quilt. That girl makes as many baby quilts as I make donation quilts! Rhonda and Kathleen chatted about what items to put in the raffle baskets at the next meeting. Alison and I chatted about the house she is selling in LA (in Glendale) and I put my two cents into the raffle basket conversation as well. It was very pleasant.
Not a lot of people are staying for sew time, which I don’t understand. I love the social aspect. I get a few things done and it is usually pleasant. I think it is a pain to bring the machine for only a couple of hours, but there is plenty of cutting to do in a project, so people could do that. It will be interesting to see if this is just because of the busyness of Fall or if it is a trend.
I decided to try out the 3rd quarter blocks (though I thought they were for the 4th quarter. I am behind – whatever), Patchwork Wheel, for the Charity Girls at BAMQG. The kits I picked up made 2 blocks each and they are quite…exciting? Loud? Wild? blocks. I don’t know which. I kind of like their exhuberance, though.
The square parts were already cut, but I had to make the HSTs. No problem. They included the fabric cut the parts and I drew a line down the middle and sewed. Worked like a charm.
I have to say that I did start putting these together stupidly. Instead of waiting to finish the HSTs and then put the blocks together in 4 patch segments, I sewed allt he squares together and had to put them together in rows. Yes, I could have unsewed, but I didn’t.
They came out well. There is nothing hideous about them.
When I saw the four of them together, i decided I wanted to make an entire top from such blocks just to see how it would turn out. Jennifer is saving some kits for me, so I can make more blocks and sew them together in a quilt.
Yes, the fabrics are wild and crazy, but I think they will be perfect for some kid with a wild streak in her. It hought of making some HSTs for the the project using my Triangle Technique but I am not sure if that would be helpful. Each pair of squares makes 8 HSTs and I think the blocks look better scrappy. I’ll have to see.
I wanted to finish another top before the next meeting , as a result, I have been making yellow and pink checkerboards.
These blocks are really cheerful and I am enjoying making them.
I am doing something a little different with these blocks. After the mosaic result of the pink and green blocks, I decided to be a little more choosy about the pinks and yellows I chose. The pink with the gold rings (upper left block, lower left corner, last row, 2d patch) is about the darkest pink I am using. All of the yellows are light and cheerful. I weeded out some of the Pat Bravo yellows-tending-towards browns for this particular project. There are a couple of pinks that are a bit too light and some different pinks that blend a bit with one of the Pat Bravo yellows, but all-in-all I am happier with how this project is turning out.
At the moment I am out of yellow and need to cut some more before I can make more blocks. I do have some that I sewed together randomly to white, black on white, etc. I could rip those out, but I don’t know if I am that ambitious. We’ll see.
I want to clear off my sewing table of 2.5″ squares and pink and yellow were what I had left. Good thing they go together. I might give away the rest of the squares and move on to something else. We will see.
Finally, I took a photo of the back for the Pink and green donation quilt. These colors are a little darker than the fabrics on the front of the quilt, but they are first quality fabrics that I was not going to use in my own work. I really liked some of them, but the pattern or the colors prevented me from putting them into a quilt. I hope someone will enjoy this back.
Jennifer told me today that the group has made 93 finished quilts for charity this year. I think the one I put the binding on might be 94. I would love to believe that is some kind of record for a guild. Probably not, but I like to think this program was a success. Jennifer and Deborah are rock stars.
I have been, as they say, feeling the love for making donation quilts. I have talked about how good it makes me feel to make the various donation quilts I have made such as the pink and green one shown here.
I recently had the opportunity to actually finish one of the donation tops someone else (or multiple someone elses) made for the group by hand stitching down a binding. It felt like such a small thing to do, but then I had the opportunity to give one of these quilts to a child in need. I asked, the guild leadership agreed and the quilt is in transit to provide comfort to a girl who doesn’t know what her body is doing. I felt so good knowing one of those quilts is being sent to someone I know.
I am a sap, I know, but sometimes I need to be reminded why doing good is important.
The binding I stitched down is for a quilt made from the checkerboard blocks the guild did in the first quarter of this year.
I don’t know if I made any of these blocks, but I recognize some of the fabrics. Perhaps they used fabrics I donated? I don’t know.
I have to say that there is something to be said for using blocks of many colors. My versions with the sashing and monochromatic color scheme have a very different look. Mine are bigger also, because of the sashing and borders. I don’t think I have seen one of my tops completed by someone else yet. I am scared and eager to have some of them go out into the world.
The binding uses leftovers, which was interesting. I tried to line up the colors in the quilt with the binding colors. It worked ok, but did not match exactly all over the quilt. That is ok.
Whoever did the quilting did a great job. The hearts are subtle and I hope they convey love.
UGH! I am making myself sick now. This post is DONE!
If you are wondering WTF? then you are with me, because I keep looking at this quilt thinking “what was I thinking?”
This is NOT a horrible quilt. I am not embarrassed to give it to charity. It is not ugly. The workmanship is excellent. Not trying to be arrogant, but I do my best to make well made quilts. One of my biggest pet peeves, in case I didn’t mention it before, is bad workmanship. I could write a whole dissertation on THAT subject, but will spare you at the moment.
I have to admit, though, that it is not my best design work. The problem was I couldn’t figure out completely what was going on. I knew:
Other than that, I was stumped. Then I listened to Sandy’s podcast on space with her guesthost: ME and think I figured out the problem.
An aside: I listen to all of the podcasts that Sandy and I record. I am cringing less and less. I want to hear what you hear. This episode on Space was a mind bender, even for me and I had been living and breathing the content for months.
Listening to the episode clarified the concept and I was able to figure out the problem with this quilt. In the episode I said that definition of space is “the area the design occupies”(for purposes of the design series) of space. I used the example of a 4’x3′ piece of fabric as space for a quilt. On that background or Picture plane or Space, the maker places his/her objects.
In the case of the donation quilt, the space, which is supposed to surround the objects (shapes in a piece), is confusing. If I had chosen all the same pink fabric, it would be clear that the pink was the background/space in the quilt. Same with the green. I didn’t do either. I just put a bunch of pink and green squares together and sewed for broke.
The donation quilts, such as the pink or the blue or the yellow, where I used the black on white background work a lot better, because it is clear to the viewer what fabric constitutes the space. Even though the black on white fabrics are different prints, it is still clear that those fabrics are the background/space.
I am ok with the quilt, especially now that I think I know the problem. The quilt will still keep a little missy warm. Live and learn.
When Amanda had the new kits out at the BAMQG meeting earlier this month, I wanted to take them all. There were about 6, but I restrained myself and just took one. These cat beds are really easy to make and as an added bonus, I get to dump my schnibbles into the center as filling when I am done.
I had to do a bit of unsewing on this cat bed, as I put the wrong tail on the outside when sewing. You have to put the end you want to hide on the outside when sewing the middle strip to the ovals so that when you turn the cat bed right side out, the hemmed end will be on the outside. I started to unsew the entire thing and then realized I only had to unsew the ends. I did the unsewing then re-sewed and have another great cat bed for Amanda and the Homeless Cat Network.
One of the things I like about this project is that I can put my schnibbles in it.I save, as I have said, the bits that are really too small to save. I used to throw them out, but putting them inside cat beds is better. I had the ends of a quilt (that get cut off after machine quilting) that I also cut up and put inside this one.
The second photo shows more of the frog fabric used for the side. I hope the cat likes it.
I know you must all be bored of seeing these checkerboard blocks put together one after another with little variation. I have to say that I am getting a tiny bit bored, but the color work is still interesting enough for me to keep making these pieces.
This quilt is taking me longer to get done. I am not sure why, aside from reasons I have discussed, and the usual busyness, but it seems to be taking forever. I am not working on a piecing project at the moment, so can’t move this quilt along using the leaders and enders technique, so that must be the problem.
I am pleased with the way it is coming out in general, though I do see some specific problems. Nota Bene: I really don’t want sympathy. I am learning by doing and reporting on what I find.
I don’t know why I chose this color combination. It is fun and kind of a trip down memory lane to the late 80s (??) and the Preppie Handbook. I almost never use green, so I needed to use some up. The back will be green as well. I also was kind of feeling like I would scream if I had to sew another black on white square to something else. Good time to take a break.
SIL pointed out that these blocks no longer look like a checkerboard. She is right. I paid special attention to only using the lighter pinks in this piece. I didn’t like the darker batik pinks mixed with the lighter pinks in the Pink Donation quilt. The values of the pinks and greens are mostly the same. That muddies the design. In some cases, I put in some darker greens and they stand out. If I were to make a pink and green quilt like this again, I would use the lighter pinks and darker greens. I might even use the same green for the ‘background’ squares.
I am now putting the blocks together. I sashed them all on Sunday, so it shouldn’t take me long to do the rest. I just didn’t feel like it.
One thing I did differently was cut the sashing down to 1.5″ finished (2″ cut). That means I had to cut .5″ off all of the sashing strips and cornerstones. The leavings will be stuffing for cat beds.
I think the slight change in with enhances the overall design. Small detail.
Perhaps when I make the perfect donation quilt, I will then move on to another pattern!