Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This concept makes me wonder if we will be moving to more on demand printing of fabric? Jane Sassaman mentioned putting her more spooky designs up on Spoonflower to make them available and not scare people!
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By the way Pam has some FABULOUS pictures in her blog post, so take the time to take a look.
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The other day I was looking around the web to see if some company made solid charm packs. My mom is making a food quilt and wants to use the Corner Store design from Pretty Little Mini Quilts. I think that design must have another name, because I wasn’t able to find any photos of it by that name. I knew that one of my contacts had a photo so I have used that to show you the design. I have a lot of pattern names to look up!
Anyway, I feel like I have a long history with solids. In my first quilt class, the teacher sent us out to buy fabric. She told us to purchase a light, medium and dark from the same color (I chose blue) and a few other colors to go with it (see the pink, green, purple and muslin above?).
I was pretty overwhelmed when I arrived at the quilt store. Even back in the dark ages, there was a lot of fabric to choose from. The shop I visited had a room, yes an entire ROOM, full of solids. I chose solids for my first project to kind of keep the noise level low. You might notice one print. I went back later and got that print when I felt more confident and decided I kind of liked this quilting thing.
I have used solids on and off since I made the above sampler, but have never done a whole project with solids again. TFQ and I did an exchange where we would send each other a block. I made blocks in solids and she made blocks in tone on tones. This exchange was a good learning experience for me, because I learned how to use tone-on-tones and could compare the interest level in a block made with tone-on-tones versus one made with solids.
The fresh modern quilts seem to rely on, at least, some solids.
Cherri House (don’t you love that name?) has also come out with a book on using solids and their blog is filled with glowing quilts using solids. The Stash blog reviews it here. I need to reserve that book at the library and take a look. Pat Sloan interviewed Cherri House on one of her Toginet Radio shows
In my search, I found that Kona, which came out with a zillion solids a few years ago does have charm packs of their solids. They actually say on their website that they have 221 solid colors. I recently heard about Bella Solids from Moda (love the aqua, green and jade, BTW). P.S. I quilt mentions the Bella Solids, so they are definitely out there.
I think visiting the Amish Exhibit really put solids back on my mind. They had been rattling around in the back because of the Fresh Modern quilts, but now they are firmly ensconced. As I mentioned, those quilts glow. I haven’t decided whether I want to make a whole quilt with solids, but I think I would like to get them back into my repertoire. I did use one solid in one of the teacher pillows as a border. That is a start. I need to practice so I can make solid quilts that glow. I have a large piece of Kona Snow and, perhaps, that is a good place to start.
I am thrilled that solids are out there again; that people are paying attention to solids again. I like having a wide variety of colors, and the subtle variations, to choose from. I’d love to have 5 yard cuts of each of the Bella and Kona solids. Wouldn’t it be great to have that many colors to choose from? Of course, I would need a fabric HOUSE to deal with all of those cuts.
What is going on? What is it with solids all of sudden? Everything old is new again? I am interested to see where this is all going and what people will do with the solids.
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Rachel Griffith, the power house behind p.s. i quilt has shop with the whole kit available. I have never bought a kit before aqnd am sorely tempted.
While TFQ was visiting, we had to attend a family event. She was invited, but declined to attend, so she stayed home and rested. One of the things she did while resting was iron the fabrics that I had washed, but had not yet pressed. TFQ is one of the fastest pressers I have ever seen! She made a neat pile for me and I needed to cut various pieces from them. The pile got moved a couple of times during the week because the ironing board needed to be used for the actual pressing of clothes!
I was feeling a bit better on Sunday, and I didn’t want to have repress any of those fabrics so I went to work and cut various patches I needed from these pieces. The main shape I need is diamonds, as you know, for the FOTY 2010 quilt. I also cut some Tumblers and Eye Spy pieces and a few food fabric pieces for my mom.
This is the biggest group of diamonds I have added to the pile thus far. I have to say that there are distinct advantages to cutting into the fabric shortly after I buy it. I have mentioned that it is helpful to know that I like a fabric so I can go and buy more before the fabric manufacturers stop producing it.
The other advantage I found this time was that I know immediately if I don’t like a fabric. There are several in this group that I really don’t like. I have decided that I don’t like little tiny splotchy dots. It could be that the colors of the fabrics with those types of motifs in this group are not my colors. I might feel differently if they were turquoise and hot pink.
I have also been testing the ‘white water’ by buying more fabrics with white backgrounds. I have also decided that there are some fabrics where the ratio of white is too much. I love coffee fabrics, but the coffee cup fabrics above with the white background are really not my thing. Something about the orange and icky green combined with the white do not make me happy.
I also have to admit that I am a little scared of this year’s FOTY quilt. How am I going to do the edge? I don’t want to cut off diamonds, so I’ll have to cut half diamonds of some border fabric and do a self bordering type border. Will I need to organize that well before the CQFA retreat? I think so! Can I do it? I hope so. Yikes! What was I thinking?
I have been trying to clear out my email.
One of things I do with my email is that I use my Inbox as a To Do list (one of them). I get notices of happenings in the quilt world and leave them in my email Inbox until I deal with them. If people email me, I keep their email until I can craft a thoughtful reply. I get notices of new uploads to various sites. When I go and look at the site, I delete the email. I joined QNN TV last year so I could watch Mark Lipinski. I have found it hard to allocate the time watching the videos so the notices of new episodes have been stacking up. I spent some time watching some videos the other day and found some really interesting.
In one episode Jodie and Mark interviewed Gail Kessler, a designer and Marketing Director for Henry Glass about fabric design and Michelle Bencko of Cicadia Studios. They talked about fabric design including numbers of fabric in a collection and how to get started. Gail Kessler said that she gets contacted every day by people who want to design fabric. She said that the first thing she asks is whether they are famous.
I was shocked, initially, but I think it was a way to get people’s attention; to make them pay attention to the realities of the business. What I understand she meant by her comment was that she has staff to design fabric. I think it is a valid point when she says that what sells fabric is the name on the selvedge and she wants -needs – to work with people who are out there teaching, writing books, writing a well followed blog and willing to help market their fabric via those outlets. Fabric is tough business.
Thinking in terms of business, this makes sense. It is easy to think that something is easy and lucrative. Nothing is ever as easy as it looks and we often don’t know what people do all day when they go their jobs. I think that Kessler’s comments are good. There are a lot of talented people out there who have great skills in design. They can be in house designers for fabric companies and churn out designs that the fabric companies can sell. The missing piece is the marketing and that is really important. If people don’t buy fabric designs, the fabric companies won’t make fabric and won’t stay in business. I think Kessler is right that names sell. It makes sense.
I know I haven’t shown Sorbet in awhile. I had a number of different issues and it wasn’t working out as the mind sorbet that I needed. I think what I determined is that quilts are not mind sorbet if I have to amke a lot of decisions. Bags and pencil rolls are mind sorbet.
At some point I got some creativity energy behind the project and decided to make some blocks. My laptop, with EQ6, where all of my design ideas were) crashed and died. I had the basic measurements, so I thought I could plunge on, but then the finished blocks went missing. That sealed it for this project for the time being.
Time went by and I found the blocks! I put this project on my list of TFQ to dos. One of the many good qualities that TFQ has is that she is more than happy to paw through the fabric in my fabric closet. What we did was look at all of the fabric I had set aside and then all the fabric in the pastel/Easter/sorbetish colors that might work. We also figured out that we needed a few more stripes and some graphic designs.
The fabrics above are all put aside to possibly use for the project. Nice, eh?
One of the reasons I buy fabric specifically destined for and make gift bags is so that I don’t have to wrap gifts using paper. I also like to have an excuse to buy holiday fabric that I know I will never use for a quilt. FabMo has created a whole new aesthetic for me for gift bags.
At the last CQFA meeting, Bron brought a few pieces of FabMo fabric and I scooped up a couple. You’ll see some of them soon, but I already made the gift bag.
This fabric is some kind of velvet like material and it changes the whole look of the gift bag. I didn’t take any chances when sewing it. I used the new open toe walking foot because I am not familiar with how this fabric acts in the sewing process.
The ribbon is also from another gift.
It is an odd shape, because I just used the shape of the sample and folded it in half. The edges were serged and I wanted to maintain that integrity.
One of the things I like about it is that it looks really special. That is a good reminder for me that the fabric really makes the piece – especially in other types of sewn accessories that don’t have the opportunity for quilting or embellishment, etc. I realize that the maker could do both on a gift bag, of course, if the design were different.
I actually think that gift bags would be a good way to try out new techniques, feet, stitches on your sewing machine, free motion quilting, etc.
Here are some supplies I bought recently. The Jelly Roll on the left is for the Happy Zombie/Oh Fransson quilt that I am gearing up to make. The other Jelly Roll I bought on spec. I wasn’t sure which one I would like better based on the colors on the screen.
The Tarts are ready to quilt, so that foot is an open toe walking foot, which I am going to use. Just need to baste.
The circle cutter is for the Circles class I took with Dale Fleming. I tried hers and it works great.
The Dresden plate ruler is what I will use to cut the New Wave quilt pieces. I have marked the bit on the ruler with a post it, so I know which line I am using.
The food fabrics are for a quilt my mom is making. She is down in SoCal taking care of Super G, so it is not high on the priority list. I am still collecting and cutting for her. I need to get some more of the potato chip fabric as Super G wants that used for her walker caddy. I never thought she would request that fabric. I had picked out a gorgeous hydrangea fabric that is very elegant and Super G wants the potato chips!
The dots are staples in my dot box and the Philip Jacobs fabric will end up being some kind of bag.
I am unfamilar with that thread, but loved the colors and thought I could use it to embellish parts of Flower Garden, which is high on my to do list.
Janome
One of the great things about being a fan of Janome on FB is that they interact with their fans. I love that. I love it that they actually answer questions. Periodically I have a question about a foot or something. If I post it on their wall, they get back to me/the other fans quickly. So much better than email! It is wonderful.
I am preparing for a class this weekend with Dale Fleming. The supply list has some odd things on it and I have been working on collecting them. Good thing I started early. One of the things on the supply list is a zipper foot. I have a zipper foot for my Janome 9K. It is, however, a heavy machine to take to class and I was hoping to be able to take my Jem Gold to class instead. The Jem does not have as many capabilities, but it sews great and is much lighter. I didn’t think my question through very well, so they didn’t have enough information to answer my question exactly, but they did point me to a GREAT blog post about putting in a zipper. The Dale Fleming class isn’t about putting in zippers, but I can still use this information.
I tried the zipper foot on my Jem and it doesn’t work, so I will be hauling the big machine to the class.
Later, Janome posted a sewing machine cover project. They actually tell you how to make the cover fit your sewing machine rather than giving a pattern for one size. I have been using a plastic bag and I am definitely going to make one of these covers. I know not all of you have a Janome, but you can certainly use the projects they post and the information they offer with your own tools and supplies.
Giveaway
Did you sign up for the giveaway? C’mon, you know you want that silk. You can do it. I don’t mind taking your one last braincell to sign up for the giveaway after the fight you broke up between the kids, the dog running away, dinner not ready when you got home, that lost thing at work you just had to stay behind and find. I really don’t mind. Check out that blog post, leave a comment here and JUST DO IT!
Podcasts
BryeLynn over at Sew~Stitch~Create found 3 new podcasts:
Around the Web
Sew Mama Sew posted an interview with Denyse Schmidt on her blog. They talk about her workshops and a new book coming out. There are really nice descriptions of her various workshops offerings and some nice photos to illustrate the various points in the interview.
An additional interview was posted with Nancy Crow on the Quilting Arts website. A lot of the answers really talk about the creative process, space and how it impacts production of quilts.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Happy Zombie blog. I went back there yesterday looking for the post about the New Wave quilt to show my mom and stumbled on to her enthusiastic and excited post about her new fabric line from Lecien. One of the things she showed was a color card. I clicked on the link because there were LOTS of dots and I cannot resist dots. Lecien has a great selection of dots on their site.
I was pleased to see a link to my blog on the blog A Stitch in Time. One of the things that interested me were Carol’s digital photography lessons. In the post that I read, she talks about and shows a lot of examples of light. Remember when I went to the scrapbook day and talked about the video I saw on improving digital photography?
Mark Lipinski posted that he needs a kidney transplant on his blog earlier this week! It made me think about a lot of things. One of the thoughts was about how much we don’t know about people out in cyberland.
Rice Zachery-Freeman (Freeman-Zachery??) of Voodoo Lounge and Creative Time & Space (this book is in the AQ Bookstore, so if you want to buy it, it is just an easy click away!) fame and podcast had a really interesting post about an quilt project author who wrote a magazine article. In the article the author claimed that, according to Rice, the most interesting part of the article was a “trade secret.” Not only was the post interesting, but the comments brought all sorts of other issues surrounding writing. One issue was should craftpeople write for free? My favorite was is everyone who claims to be an artist an artist? Another issue was whether the editor should have worked more with the author on that “trade secret”.
I am not saying what is right or what is wrong, but I like it when people call writers and editors on things that the reader may not find right. I am not advocating violence or antagonism, but a good, healthy, respectful debate.
As I said, I am not sure if I know the article in question, but what struck me was the sentence (FYI: third hand via Rice) “it is a trade secret.” While I am not a lawyer, I do work with a bunch of lawyers and I see what it takes to deal with the law. Time and money, first and foremost. I don’t like it when people throw around legal terms, which seems all to prevalent in the craft/quilt world these days. Everyone is entitled to their copyright. Still, there are rules about how people can write about your copyrighted materials. Everyone is entitled to trademark their logo or design. You have to do the work, though; you can’t just say that you have trademarked something. It takes a lot of research, effort and some cash (or credit, as the case may be). Trade secrets are whole different ball of wax. I don’t work with lawyers that ask me much about trade secrets, but I am pretty sure you can’t just say that some process you have thought up is a trade secret.
Anyway, check out Rice’s blog post about this issue. I am sure she would love to know what YOU think.
Life on the Edge
I am looking for a nice pattern for a walker bag. My granny, who we are now calling Super G, fell over the weekend and now has to walk with a walker. I think a walker bag would be handy and make it look pretty. I haven’t trolled the web, but will. If any of you have found a good pattern for a walker bag, please leave a comment and let me know.
Have a great day!
I did the One World One Heart blog round robin thing, as you probably noticed, back in February. I had hoped that people would take some time with their comments, and join the CPP. I see a lot of new readers, but not many commentors and no new CPP participants. That is ok with me as I write the blog for other reasons that for readers. I just love it when I get comments. I also love it when people post their creative prompt responses.
So, here is my latest scheme to get some participants in the CPP: a giveaway. Yes, I am going to be giving away some SILK.
I am giving away luscious silks from a tie factory that used to be near me. I have about 15 bundles of approximately 10-20 10″ squares and I am giving them all away. There are rules, oh yes, but I am giving them all away and I have a bin full of them. What I will do is keep track of who complies with the rules and if only one person follows the rules then one person gets the whole big box of silk.
Notes on the silk: it frays a lot; one of the bundles will be one square short, because I used a piece for the Petal Apron. The patterns are all subtle and color coordinated within the bundles.
Rules:
1. To get an entry you must leave a substantive comment. It may not say “please enter me in your giveaway.” You can say that, but you won’t get entered. I am the arbiter of substantive, but it basically means, read a post and comment or ask questions about what I wrote. Let’s have a conversation!
2. To get TWO entries or TWO additional entries you must create a CPP response starting with last Friday’s Prompt. Follow the CPP guidelines to post your link.
3. If you want to leave a comment on this post telling me your thoughts on silk squares or what you would do with them, you will get an entry, too.
4. No whining or snarky comments!
5. You can enter as many times as you want.
6. I reserve the right to change the rules at any time.
Don’t get your hopes up that I will be dong a giveaway every week, because I don’t plan on it. I am not ruling out future giveaways, but they are not a goal. As a result, this may be your only opportunity, so join in!
As I mentioned the other day, I enjoyed the Jelly Roll, because I was able to work with a wide variety of coordinating fabrics. I think my favorite in this set, though I do like them all, are the pieces with holly and ornaments. I also liked the diagonal striped fabrics as well.
Aside from the grain problems, the Jelly Rolls provide a quick start for a quilt. I am not saying that this quilt is quick since you haven’t seen the finished piece yet! I don’t really believe in the concept of quick quilts/Quilt in a Day for myself. I think process is important and I think that quilts take longer than a day. Why do you think I make receiving blankets as baby gifts?
I have worked with my child a lot on learning styles, and strategies for successful learning. I have learned a lot from his teachers and the other professionals that work with him about learning styles, which has made me examine my own style of learning. I know that I learn best by someone showing me what to do and then doing it myself. I also learn okay from looking at pictures/diagrams. I don’t learn well by reading instructions. This is probably one reason why I don’t use a lot of patterns. It takes me too long to decipher them.
First, I sorted the strips into sets of two. I decided which strips I wanted to be in the same block as package and bow.
I cut pieces, as designated by the pattern, from the Jelly Roll strips and then I needed a way to keep them together. I don’t have the clips that Fons & Porter use, so I used my machine quilting safety pins. They are pretty sharp so they went through 4 squares, 3 rectangles and two strips pretty well.
I had large pieces of leftover strips and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. I went back to the directions and, finally, figured out that I needed to cut more bow and package pieces. From each strip needed to be cut enough pieces for a bow and a package.
I did that extra cutting (more TV watching!) and then rearranged the new strips so that they had different mates for the second round of strips.
One step in the process is to put the bow together. This step involves triangles, but uses the square-into-triangle method to create the triangles at the top of the package.
The directions show the following:
I think it is pretty hard to show this step in directions, especially for someone, like me, who doesn’t use a lot of patterns. I don’t know all the conventions that have been established.
First, I marked all the squares so I would know where to sew. This was part of the meditation of this quilt that I alluded to in the previous Jelly Roll post. This kind of step can really get on my nerves. I didn’t let it; I just sat there with my pencil and ruler and drew lines. I didn’t mark all of the squares at once, but did them in little batches as I needed them.
One thing the directions do not show is that the square will overlap the middle rectangle when you lay it out to make the bow. The directions above show that the square fits exactly over the outside package rectangle. I worry about this kind of thing, because I expect directions to be accurate. Now, I don’t know the limitations of creating drawings in a pattern (on my list to find out about!), but words can certainly be included to explain that layout information. This is not a criticism, just an observation based on my style of working with patterns.
In real life, above is how the directions say to add the triangles to the corners of the package part of the block to make the bottom of the bow. TFQ and I talked about this strategy when I first bought the pattern. I think this technique makes it less intimidating for those afraid of bias. I was a little lazy and just did it this way.
One problem I found with working with THIS pattern using a Jelly Roll is that I only had a certain amount of fabric. When I cut something wrong, I was short. This happened twice. Once with these triangle and I was able to use the Omnigrid triangle ruler to cut some triangles instead of squares, which gave me enough fabric to finish. The other time I just had to add a piece to another piece to make the strip long enough. Working through the process.
There is a lot going on in the photo above. First, even though I tried to mix up the fabrics for the second round of block making, I did keep some the same. The two above are an example of how the blocks looks when you just switch where you put the fabrics.
Second, I had to pick the quilt up off the floor earlier in the week where it was laid out while I pieced various bits. Since it is a scrappy quilt, I wanted to make sure that all the pieces stayed in their place. I drew a quick sketch of the block layout and then made numbers to pin to each block.
Third, not all of the sashing parts were sewed together so I sewed all the sashing squares (cornerstones) to the sashing strips and then pinned the larger pieces to the quilt blocks in such a way that I will know how to sew them when I get to that step.
Why, you ask, were these on the floor and NOT on the design wall? Because the Tarts are still on the design wall! Why didn’t I set up the portable design wall? I don’t know; I didn’t think of it. Yes, those are my toes in my orange wool slippers and, yes, I am standing precariously (joke!) on an IKEA stool (highly recommended for their stability) to not succeed in taking a photo of the whole quilt for you.
I needed a fast project, some quilt sorbet for when the Sorbet quilt wasn’t working.
I have had a Sandy Gervais Merry and Bright Jelly Roll for a long time. This past weekend, I decided it was time to take the fabric strips and make the It’s a Wrap quilt. I had some other things to do, but I spent a lot of time just sewing and learning.
It was a somewhat strange experience. First, someone said they couldn’t believe I was using a Jelly Roll. I was hesitant to tell them about the pattern. I did tell her for shock value and I thought she would keel over. Sometimes, I think, by limiting choices, a quiltmaker can focus on other elements of the process. That is what I was doing, even though I didn’t start out with that intent.
One thing I learned is that there is value in trying things out: different fiber content, different construction techniques, different tools, etc. Having a pattern and the fabric choices taken care of gave me fewer decisions and I could focus on learning the pros and cons of the Jelly Roll.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Moda Bakeshop offerings are a brilliant marketing scheme. My biggest confusion with the one Jelly Roll I had was that many of the pieces were cut off grain. Nadine Ruggles mentioned this in one of her blog posts, but I got to experience it first hand. This means that my strips weren’t straight, but bowed – tending towards Cs and Ls rather than Is. This phenomenon was frustrating, but I also learned a lot about strip cutting and grain. I know that I need to line up the selvedges and trim the sides to make a straight cut. Seeing the bow in the the Jelly Roll strips made me understand (in an embedded in my mind sort of way) what cutting off grain does to strips.
I don’t have a Jelly Roll book, but I would like to know if they address that problem in the directions of the various projects. Nothing was said on my pattern.
The things I liked about the Jelly Roll:
I saw this quilt on a blog called Sister’s Choice Quilts. She also used the Merry and Bright fabric line. I have always loved the Chinese Coins pattern and the combination of Chinese coins and 4patches make this a winner. I love seeing the same fabrics in different patterns and similar patterns in different fabrics. That concept is one of the things I really like about quiltmaking.
Joyce, my fabric temptress, and owner of Quilting Adventures, showed me this fabric, which is gorgeous. I think I might have to have some. It is called Fizz from P&B. See also the P&B page for this line. Call or email Quilting Adventures to purchase. Thanks, Joyce! (I think!)
Here are some more diamonds for the FOTY 2010.
