This is what I was working with last weekend. Remember when the blues were a problem? Well, at the point I took this photo, the yellows and greens were giving me fits and I could tell the pinks were next.
FOTY 2010 - 2/13/2011 det.
It is very difficult to figure out where the pieces are going to end up when the piece is done. At some point last week, I dug out my Ruby Beholder (which required quite a bit of searching and some tidying) and tried it to see if it works. My values are all the same – or similar, so it didn’t help much. I am glad I know where it is, though.
FOTY 2010 - 2/13/2011 det. 2
At this point, I realized that I had too many diamonds and might need to add another row. This was weird, because of all the math we did to get the layout correct. I think EQ should add a function where you tell it how many patches you have and it tells you options for different layouts.
FOTY 2010 - 2/20/2011
After a really busy week last week and a day of quilting on the Tarts (Friday), I got back to FOTY 2010. I’d like to get this to the quilter and move on.
The reds and oranges are getting in order in the photo above, but the pinks and reds on the bottom are starting to really be a problem.
FOTY 2010 - 2/20/2011 - det. pinks
The above is me working on the pinks and whites. Lots of rearranging was happening as I was trying to figure out what patch went where. I think, after this project, I will have diamonds out of my system. Perhaps not, but I am thinking yes.
FOTY 2010 - 2/20/2011 - det. pinks, reds
See that big space towards the top middle? I didn’t know, at the point I took this picture, whether that was a space from seam allowances shrinking or was a space because I had arranged fabrics wrong.
FOTY 2010 - 2/21/2011 - Where I am now
When I left the piece yesterday to go do laundry, make dinner and all that other stuff, the above photo shows the state of the piece. That space I described above shifted to the middle of the left side. Sigh. That one means I really don’t know if I am missing pieces. If I need to cut more, I am resolved to do so. The other space resolved itself, so I have hope.
Almost all the pieces are sewn to some other piece, which is good. I did add an additional row, so there could very well be some extra space I need to fill in.
Sonja gave me these pieces of fabric for my birthday. She brought a big bag of them over to my house and let me choose. I think I took all of her best ones. I tried to take a few, but she insisted that I take 6 pieces. She makes them with a soy wax resist (don’t ask me anymore questions about the process, because that is all I know!) and they turn out to be gorgeous. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful and talented friends.
I hung up FOTY 2009 in my hallway yesterday. It can be seen when people walk in the front door. I received a ton of compliments on it, which was very kind of people. I was planning to take it to work, but needed to solve a quick decorating dilema and decided to keep it at home for awhile. I have to think of something new to hang in my office as I am getting tired of seeing Seeing Red when I walk in.
In the meantime, I am still working on FOTY 2010 steadily, though I wasn’t able to do much more than unpick a few yellows this past week.
FOTY 2010: Where I started
Pretty much, this is where I started this week. There were still lots of gaps in the blues, but I had started to piece the smaller pieces into larger. One can ‘chunk‘ this type of quilt in the piecing process, but not as easily, or for as long, as when piecing square or rectangular patches. At some point I had to piece long rows together.
Part of this has to do with the arrangement of this particular quilt. The colorwash type arrangement doesn’t lend itself well to piecing the patches into chunks of four patches, as I was able to do with the Eye Spy quilt.
FOTY 2010: Processing Blues
Aren’t the blues behaving nicely? The placement is not ideal and I would do it differently if I had unlimited tints, hues, values and shades, but my FOTY rule is that I have to use what I have, and so far I am happy.
FOTY 2010: Section Pieced
You can see, above, the whole blue section pieced.
FOTY 2010: Where I am Going
I am heading towards the pink on the bottom. Now that the blues are behaving nicely, the pinks are becoming little brats. It reminds me of the Mandrakes in the book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. That big gap has reappeared in the pink area. Grrrr!
I have been contemplating the yellow and pink sections and doing a bit of playing with their arrangement. I am not terribly fond of a big line of greens or yellows or pinks slashing through the quilt. I prefer more of a blob arrangement (like the pinks are in the above photo – more of an organic shape). I am not sure at this moment how I will have them blend into each other – the blue to pink – if I do the blob arrangement. I don’t have enough yellows, greens and oranges to wash very completely. I think the green to yellow to orange is much easier, but there is a space consideration up towards the top. I’ll have to play around and see what works.
The fabric I ordered with my Fabricworm gift certificate arrived about 2 days after I ordered it. This is a different look than I usually buy, but I like it. Not sure what I will make out of it. I am thinking I will use it together, but we will see. I have to finish FOTY 2010 first! You can see it all at the Piece O’Cake website fabric page. There is a wonky 54-40 or Fight quilt on their home page today. I don’t know how long the links will work, though.
As soon as I arrived home from the retreat, I put up the portable design wall and organized the diamonds. They were pinned on the design wall, so I didn’t have to do much for the part that was already sewn. All the unsewn diamonds were just in the bag of pieces.
Progress 1
My next task was to put all of the reds and pinks back on the design wall. Above, I have put all the diamonds I could fit back up on the design wall.
Progress 2
I was really trying to fix that bottom right hand corner, which meant working on the blues.
Progress 3
The blues are getting better. I am making progress.
Progress 4
But not all of the blues are cooperating.
Progress 5
I felt like I needed to take a lot of pictures, so when I have succeeded in a section I have a record. I am nervous that I will need to recreate it if the diamonds get rearranged. I live with creative people and sometimes they think they are helping by rearranging things.
Progress 6
More with the blues.
Progress 7
Minor changes, but the piece is looking better.
Progress 8
Trying to make the leap from blue to green to yellow is proving to be a challenge. I don’t think there is such a thing as a dark yellow and that one green (smack in the middle of the photo above) is really sticking out and doesn’t seem to fit anywhere.
I figured out why the other layout didn’t look right. In very tiny writing at the end of the first instruction, the pattern said “repeat for side 2.” I generally skim directions, so I didn’t see it the first time around and had to carefully read every word to find that crucial piece of the process. I am glad I did!
Sugar Pop Side 2
I picked out a dot to go with these fabrics. The charm pack didn’t have quite enough squares for the pattern, but that shouldn’t be a problem. However, I didn’t finish FOTY 2010 at the retreat, so I will have to put this on the back burner until I do finish it.
TFQ and I think exactly the same on most fabric related subjects. As a result, we got each other the same exact gift card for Christmas: Birch Fabrics/Fabricworm. I couldn’t decide what I wanted so finally bought the bundle on the left. The funny thing is that it immediately caught my eye when I went to the site and then I saw TFQ bought it, so I hesitated. I finally gave in. I really like it and can’t wait to fondle some fabric.
Here are the books I got for Christmas, etc. DH came through with the two books on the left, American Quilts and Sew Serendipity. The American Quilts book is another book Robert Shaw and some of the quilts are the same as those in his other books, but I love to read books where quilts are woven into history. I have glanced through it and read some things that have attracted my attention, but I haven’t delved deeply into it and I look forward to doing so.
Sew Serendipity is a book that has a great pattern for a coat. It is on page 154 and called Classic Tailored Jacket. I plan to try making it from polar fleece, hopefully the two-sided kind that I found once before. My mom said she would help me, but that is all the farther we have gotten.
I heard about Kiss Ass Creativity on Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski and thought it sounded interesting. He has a lot interesting authors on that show. AJA gave it to me and I can’t wait to read it.
Lil Sissy gave me The Apron Book. I think I will have to make her an apron.
Friend Julie also came through with two books, Sew Serendipity and Collage Lab. I am hoping that Collage Lab will help get over my wet, messy at home avoidance problem. Andrea at a Work of Heart has a Collage Lab book club, but it is too far to go on a weeknight when I work.
Finally, I checked the Artist in the Office out of the Library and then I had to buy my own copy, because I needed to make a note on almost every page and the book was a little over $5 (go buy one, you won’t be sorry). I read it and it really made me feel a lot better about my day job. It isn’t inspirational in a sappy way, but gives practical tips about dealing with a day job, thinking about “obligations” in a new way, making choices and getting the work done.
People are so generous! I am so fortunate. Yes, my thank you notes are written. 😉
I am going to write a review of these books so stay tuned.
Martha Negley & Hoffman
I decided to break down and buy the Martha Negley Grapes in Plum. I tried several places and none of them could confirm the color. One of them said she had no idea what color the fabric was. Huh? That I do not understand.
In the course of my explorations, I emailed Batiks, etc & Sew What Fabrics. They actually emailed me back and weren’t lame! They were able to confirm the color and they answered a question I had about a ruler. I was so impressed with their service. I would definitely shop there again! Customer Service is everything, folks!
As you can see I also bought some Peppermint from Hoffman. It is a batik and I do like those swirls.
Martha Negley Red & Plum
Left are the two grape fabrics that I now have. You can see the difference in the colors. They are destined to become bags. Which bag, I don’t know. Perhaps the Jane Market tote? I am in the mood for another AMH Multi-tasker tote, so perhaps one of those. We’ll see.
This fabric was included free when I ordered the Mexican food pillowcase fabric from Whichway Quilting. It is beige/taupe/tan (no info on the selvedge on my piece) so I wasn’t very excited about it. However, when I washed and pressed it, I noticed the incredible dimensionality. It made me think that this fabric would make a really cool journal cover or pencil roll. I only have a FQ, so the project would have to be small. Also, it isn’t as if I don’t already have a thousand projects on my to do list. We’ll see.
These diamonds could also be called Late Early December Diamonds. You pick and I’ll go along with it. I am nearing the end of my pressing and cutting. I don’t think I have anymore fabric enroute and I plan on keeping it that way. Famous last words, right?
That stripe at the top is my committment to making another Interlocking Triangles quilt. I have the Mixmasters Fizz and the P&B Fizz which are destined for that type of quilt as well. I worked on a design, but am thinking I may just use the same design I used for Spiky Stars. It is a good design and will look different with different fabrics. We’ll see.
Shall I make a New Year’s Resolution to that effect? I never make New Year’s Resolutions, so that would be new. We’ll see.
I am working on a, as yet unnamed, purple project using the fabrics on the bottom of the photo to the left. Those fabrics are from a Birch Bundle I bought at the end of the summer. The project is based on a picture I saw on Flickr and posted here in September.
I was cutting the rectangular patches for the piece in a random manner as I pressed fabrics, but wasn’t really ready to get busy until this week. I ordered some possible fabrics and got busy sewing yesterday.
I thought the Crocus (on the right, above) would be perfect. I picked it out using a color card that TFQ brought with her when we went to PIQF. I finally got around to ordering it. When it arrived, I looked at it in various lights around my house. Then I laid it out with the other two solids: Violet (left) and Deep Violet (middle). the two additional purples are from Free Spirit.
The Crocus is too grey/dusky for my project. That was clear from looking at it. That left me to decide from the two other choices. I think this experience is a good reminder for me to remember that a piece of fabric that looks good in a small piece may not be as perfect when I see it in a larger piece.
Violet as Piecing Possibility
In order to make the choice, I laid out some of the pieced rectangles on the Violet. The photo above looks a lot more red than the real thing. Still, I should consider that the red may show up more in certain lights. The quilt will be going to live in a much different lighting situation.
Deep Violet as Piecing Possibility
I am liking the Deep Violet. There is a lot more pink in the above piecing that I intend in the overall quilt. I need to stop the random cutting and be more organized about my cutting now that I am serious about piecing this.
Recently, I was thinking about scraps. Part of my thought process stemmed from a discussion I had with a New Zealand quilt friend, another part had to do with the completion of the Cheerful Baskets quilt and, finally, looking and thinking about some of TFQ’s quilts and process.
For me, a scrap quilt is a quilt made from many, many different fabrics. The fabrics do not have to all come from my scrap basket. Cheerful Baskets is a scrap quilt, because many fabrics were used. Most of the triangles are different. The triangles, for the most part, did come out of my scrap basket. The baskets did not, but are mostly different. We purchased a small piece of many of the yellows based on the exact shade of the yellow. There are many different prints used as the background.
Cheerful Baskets is a thoughtfully made quilt, not just in the piecing, but also in the color selection and placement. I do not think that any old scrap should be placed next to any other scrap. Scrap quilts, for me, are not a jumbled mess.
I don’t have a large scrap pile, because I either toss the scraps or use them up. I don’t like to waste, though, so periodically my scrap basket overflows.
Four patches
One thing that I do is plan a bit ahead for my projects. I have list of pieces I need to cut for scrap quilts. One shape I am cutting now is 2×2″ squares in turquoise and purple. I am making some four patches from these pieces. I put these through the machine in between other chain piecing, so they act as leaders and enders a la Bonnie Hunt (she mentions this technique in a recent post, but I think she goes into more detail in an older post). This type of in between piecing/leaders and enders also is great to warm up your sewing muscles when you start a sewing session.
Along these lines, I also cut squares of various sizes and keep them in a bag for when I need some squares. This is not a well thought out plan and I should probably cut squares all the same size and put them in bags according to their size. I haven’t gotten that far yet.
The idea is to cut regular sized pieces so that you have a selection to choose from when you need some shapes for a project. You can also cut different shapes such as triangles with an eye towards half square triangles, rectangles, etc. This is also a good task when you don’t know what else to do.
The Fabric of the Year (FOTY) quilts are, technically, scrap quilts. They are also charm quilts, but scrap quilts do not have to be charm quilts if you are working TJW. As you know, for the FOTY quilts, I cut a piece from each fabric I purchase or use throughout the year and then make a quilt top from those pieces in January. This concept can be used in general as I am with an upcoming pink quilt and an upcoming blue quilt. I am cutting 2.5×4.5″ rectangles of all of the pinks I come across, either newly purchased or from my stash. When I have enough I will arrange them on the wall and sew them together. I am doing the same for blues.
I don’t do this, but I think it would be useful to sort my scraps by color. I don’t think I have enough scraps to sort by color. I don’t want to devote fabric space to scraps, so I try and keep the scrap pile manageable.
Corner Store block and patches
I found a new source for scraps when I started the FOTY 2010 project. I use a ruler when I cut the diamonds and end up with two triangles. After seeing the Corner Store project in Pretty Little Mini Quilts, I decided I could do that with the triangles. The block is shown in the middle. The triangles are added to a square of Kona Snow and then trimmed to size. The triangles are all slightly different sizes and I am trying to take advantage of the wonkiness. The nice thing about this project is that the triangles never even go into my scrap basket. They go into a separate pile and are sewn on to the squares.
The Red Journal is also a scrap project. As longtime readers know, I have been sewing together little slivers of red fabric for awhile to make a new piece of fabric. The technique is called Mosaic quilting, a concept developed by Shannon Williams. It has all the qualities that work for me for scrap quilting. The maker sews random pieces of like colors together to make new fabric. I do this with red and want to do it with all of the colors, but haven’t gotten to it yet.
I think there are a lot of ways to think about scraps. Above are a few of the ways I think about and use scraps. Hope it is useful.
What are you doing? Reading your blogs, of course! I, on the hand, and slaving away cooking for the, approximately, 30 people who will show up and demand food tomorrow. My mom is helping. Mostly we are making pies, which will be done soon, if all goes well. If you want my attention, you have to wait. 😉
It is getting to be the time of the year where I need to hound you about making gift bags out of fabric rather than buying gift wrap. I should have hounded you two months ago when you weren’t panicking about how fast the holidays were approaching. I do dislike being a nag, though. Lynn left a comment last week, so I went to peruse her blog and came across a tutorial for gift bags. She makes a casing and uses a clever method for not threading the ribbon through later. I’ll have to try out her tutorial. I’ll let you know if I can do it!
Look for a couple of upcoming giveaways. You know substantive comments and creative prompt responses are my thing so start preparing! One giveaway will be a bunch of selvedge edges. I have been saving them and thought that might be a nice little treat for one of you. Another will be a book. I just have to write the review. Stay tuned on that front and don’t say I never gave you anything!
I am fortunate to have 2 dads. One of them is VERY handy. He used to have a handyman business and can really fix anything. He fixed my old iron! the cord was severed and he soldered it together and I have been using it again. YAY!
I followed a link from one of the Quilt Market blogs and found the Sew Serendipity book on clothing sewing patterns. The clothes look interesting and wearable. Am I going to start sewing clothes? I don’t know.
I ran across a new way to look at fabric over at Glorious Color. The method they are showing is not about the pattern, but about the color. If you need a certain color, click on that color and the site shows you the fabric that is similar to that color. I think it is a great way to fill in holes in a quilt project.
A Work of Heart has a video up on their blog that shows the Spontaneous Scrap journal (remember mine?). It is a quick and fun video. Once you look at that video you can link out to YouTube and see the other videos by the artist, Mary Ann Moss. She shows a variety of journals from other people. I enjoyed the video and journal about Carol’s Istanbul journal.
I know you are thinking about pie and have completely forgotten about the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Did you see the winners? I can never enter. I love the quilts I make, but these are so totally out of my league. How about a category just for me? 😉
12 Days of Christmas Selvedge
Isn’t this a weird selvedge? There are 12 little bubbles, but most of them are white. I thought it was strange to have that many different colors of white (not that white is a color, of course).
I am always looking for inspiration. You have been the beneficiary of some of my musings in the form of photos I take as I travel through my life. Recently I saw a blog post interview with Kate Spain, where she talks about her inspiration and how it leads to designs. I thought the interview was lengthy enough to get some meat out of it and interesting enough to keep me reading.
Not that I need anymore projects, but I went trolling through Judy Martin’s site and saw her Blustery Day pattern again. Love it! She periodically puts up free quilt and block patterns. Nice!
WTTW out of Chicago has a video about the blankie collaboration that FunQuilts works on with developmentally disabled adults. If the link doesn’t take you immediately to the video, check the scroll bar for the correct video. The navigation from the link was a little funky.
Don’t you love the red/pink and turquoise combination? I got a great idea for my red/aqua quilt. I love the quilt I saw on Flickr, but it didn’t feel right. I was thinking that I would do it, because I hadn’t found anything better.
Yesterday I was Internet-free (not by choice), but saw a new pattern by Fig Tree Quilts before the Internet died. 60 degree equilateral triangles hang down in one of the versions. This pattern caught my attention, but I didn’t really think much about it until later. Then I saw a few more quilts using this triangle on some taped Fons and Porter episodes using the same type of patches. One was called Kalamkari Strippy (#1307). I am feeling more excited about this new idea. I am also so interested about how the colors on my design wall and these two types of media came together to inspire me.
Here are the fabrics donated by the FABULOUS Birch Fabrics/FabricWorm for the CQFA ATC Raffle prize. I was so pleased that Cynthia agreed to donate a prize and even more pleased when I saw the grouping.
I didn’t know what to suggest she send, so the black and whites will be perfect for such an artsy group. I wouldn’t like to presume to know the colors that everyone likes. Black and whites will go with any other fabrics that people enjoy.
People really came through and we collected at least 30 ATCs, as well as a few postcards, for the show. I was so pleased.
This drawing, which I thought would be the highlight, turned into a minor detail at the meeting. The meeting was completely action packed. Nancy moved things along. We did get to do regular show and tell, which I always enjoy. C&T Publishing Marketing Manager, Lisa Fulmer, came and brought a bunch of prizes as well. It was a wonderful meeting and I was so pleased to see new faces and so pleased that everyone stepped up to support the show.
