Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am making good progress with FOTY 2019 once the pairs were sewn together. There is a lot of sewing, but the larger the chunks I have to sew, the faster it goes. I am hopeful that I will be done with this soon and can move on.
Despite fighting with my blog technology, it hasn’t really stopped me from sewing. Even if I can’t talk about my project, I still want to make the projects. I am happier when I can talk about the projects, but making them is primary.
As a result, I have been working hard on FOTY 2019.
Even if I have only a few minutes, I have been sewing a few squares together. I have most of the pairs sewn together and will work on sewing the pairs into 4 patches over the weekend.
I arranged the squares for Fabric of the Year 2019 to the point where I felt I could start to sew.
I started in the bottom left hand corner as I thought the dark part was mostly to my liking.
I wasn’t 100% happy with the center and the photo shows that I cleared out all of the Slate Grey squares in the center. I thought it might look better, but I am not sure I will keep it that way.
I finally had a good amount of time to work on Fabric of the Year 2019. I had to redo the math. I spent a lot of time on Saturday sticking squares up on the wall, adding rows and trying not to fall of a stool.
This was really the first time I had gotten on a stool since my foot injury. I have a very stable step stool, which made things easier.
As soon as I got going, I really made a lot of progress and I am happy about that. I still have to rearrange some of the squares, but all of the squares are on the design wall so I am much closer to sewing than I was. Perhaps later this week?
It has been a little while since I worked on this, but I finally got back to it. I had to do the math, which I was trying to avoid. Finally, I just did it.
That gave me a structure, so I started putting all the squares up. I had to redo the bottom left hand corner to add some greys that were hiding. I had to remove some duplicates. I still have to rearrange a bit to add more pink and a bunch of purples that came out of hiding as well. Still, I am making progress and will soon be able to put this piece together. YAY!
I finally felt well enough to do some work on FOTY 2019.
The first thing I did was start to move the whole piece down and over so I could reach the top better. I also needed to make the top slightly wider to accommodate the various pieces. I am not quite sure how many rows and columns I need since I didn’t do any math around this piece yet.
After move what I had down, I started to add more of the colored squares to the design wall. I am sure I will have to cut more greys, but I haven’t done that yet.
I went into a presentation yesterday with the fabric in the photo on my design wall. This was not my intention and I was, frankly, embarrassed that I didn’t have more on the wall when I went into the session.
Life sucks sometimes and this is what I had to work with. Life throws curveballs sometimes and we have roll with them.
Fortunately, I have been in CQFA long enough that people know I am not a slacker and we had a good discussion regardless. Also Maureen was great. She was very encouraging and not judgmental at all, so I didn’t feel as bad after talking to her as I did before.
My curveball was a torn ligament in my foot, which resulted in lovely new footwear. it also resulted in me spending a lot more time on the couch with my foot up. It could have been much worse, but I can’t help still feeling somewhat disgruntled.
I recently saw a post by Jolene over at Blue Elephant Stitches called The Secrets of My Fabric Stash. I thought she had a good idea and I am always looking for content, so I am writing a similar post. I did change the name of the post, though I wanted to have a link to her post. I don’t like the word stash. I am, after all, not a drug dealer. I also feel justified in having supplies on hand so I can do my work. I have, however, lost the fight in the quilt world to call my fabric a palette.
How you select your fabric for your projects is correct. I am going to describe the way I do it, but that doesn’t mean your method is wrong.
Jolene said that she gets asked two kinds of questions and writes in her post”… how I choose fabrics for a quilt, and the other one is how I choose fabrics from the store to add to my stash. ”
Ignore Trends
I have been buying fabric since the early 1990s, so I have a lot. I was influenced back in the day by stupid ideas like “buy ugly fabric” and “always use a fabric you dislike in your quilt.” I say unabashedly that these are stupid ideas, because they aren’t good advice. It isn’t fun to use ugly fabric, so why do it with an activity I love? I dislike brown and beige intensely, so I feel justified in refusing to use them. They do not make me happy when I use them and they do not work in my quilts. I may use fabrics that I don’t like as much as others, but I have given up using fabrics I actively dislike. The other thing is that ‘ugly’ is subjective. What is ugly to me may be gorgeous to you. The concept just doesn’t work.
I always have to remind myself that a group of fabric on display on a website or in a shop is not going to look the same when I get it home. I love the look of French General fabrics. I love the dream of what they represent, but I almost never buy them. They won’t look right, or the same, as they do in the shop with the fabric I have at home. My fabric has a brighter, clearer tone than these fabrics. I know I won’t use the creams and dustier tones included with these fabrics. I might as well not buy them.
Fabric Shopping
I really enjoy fabric shopping in stores. I like to see the fabric. Having enough money to buy whatever I want is wonderful, but I have to save my pennies and be aware of storage space in my workroom, so I am very selective.
When I shop in stores, I am generally not looking for something in particular, e.g. more of a specific background fabric. Usually, I am just looking, getting inspired, hoping to see something that will work for a project I didn’t know I was making.
If I shop online, it is very dangerous. I have found that when I shop online, I am either tempted by something or feeling bad and need a pick-me-up. Neither mean I made good fabric choices. I am a visual person, so I take cues from the size of my stack of bolts. It is easy to just keep adding things to my online cart without realizing just how much I have purchased. It isn’t always so easy to remove the fabrics from that same online cart. I can easily end up with a lot of fabric coming to me in the mail and not realizing exactly how much I bought.
Also, I have a hard time judging the scale of prints. I like having a variety of prints, both in scale and color. In online shopping, those things are hard to judge because they depend on things out of your control. Some shops have rulers showing the scale, but that doesn’t always help me. In the end, it is a crap shoot and I try to shop in person. During COVID-19, that is impossible, so I am happy to have enough fabric on hand.
Like Jolene, I almost never buy a complete line of fabrics. I have in the past and have been sorry. I also have been happy. If I buy a full collection, there are prints that languish and I eventually end up using those prints for gift bags. They frequently go to the guild free table or end up in donation blocks. Sometimes, like the recent purchase of a line of fat quarters of Alison Glass/Guicy Guice, I have been happy. These were tone on tone fabrics that I can use for a variety of projects, though there were some colors (like that orangey-brown) that I probably won’t use.
The other reason I don’t buy (and use) a full collection is because of variety. There usually isn’t enough variety in scale of prints or colors for the full collection to be useful. I remove a certain number of prints from the full collection and replace them with other fabrics that will add contrast and interest to my quilt.
Even with my man, Phil (Philip Jacobs of the Kaffe Fassett Collective), I don’t buy all of his fabrics. Some of the colors are not colors that I would use and a recent horse print he designed was not a favorite. I stick to his large flower prints, because I do love those.
Now, I only buy what I like AND what I think I will use. I don’t have a collection. My fabrics are there to be used. In the past, I bought fabrics that I loved and saved for the right project. Now, I feel kind of ‘MEH’ about some of these fabrics. That is so sad to me, because when I bought them I adored them. Now I try to use beloved fabrics right away. It is awesome to see them in a quilt, especially one that I use.
I have found that I there are fabrics that I decline to buy even though I like them, because I don’t think I will use them. If I can’t envision them in a quilt, I don’t buy them. I also don’t buy fabrics, even if I like the print, if they fray too much. Fraying fabric = imprecision and problems with fitting. It also means I have to pick threads out of seams continuously. That makes me crazy.
Access
Access to your fabric is important. If you can’t pull down your bins or reach your bolts easily, you won’t use your fabric. I use the fabric I can reach most. Climbing up into the top of my fabric cupboard is a production and even though I don’t want to, I avoid it.
Jolene has a much nicer fabric storage solution than I do. Her cupboard is really nice and I would love to have something like that. My fabric closet is larger. 😉 If I won the lottery, I would redo my fabric closet in such a way that all my fabric was out of the plastic bins and I could rifle through it more easily. Still, I can see the amounts that I have based on the number of bins. Nobody who reads this blog regularly will be surprised that I have 3 bins of turquoise.
Storage is an issue. As I said, I have a large fabric closet, but even that is overflowing. Using 100 yards per year is not a whim. I want to use up fabrics, so all of my fabric fits in my fabric closet and I can reach it.
I also want to use my fabric so it doesn’t go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill when I die.
Fabric Selection
First and foremost, I use fabrics that I like. If a pattern calls for a blue, then I will probably chose a turquoise rather than navy.
Pulling fabrics for a quilt happens in two ways: proximity and value. I will often start with fabrics I have close at hand, especially if I am starting a project without planning. Generally, however, I start by devoting a project bin to a potential project. I toss in the pattern, or the drawings or inspiration pages, and fabrics I want to use. Everything – pattern, fabrics, drawings, special ruler, etc. – gets tossed into the project box. When I am ready to work on the project, I have a starting place.
Once I decide on a set of colors, I will go hunting through my stash to find other colors that are similar, but with different prints. The photo (above left) shows this technique very successfully with the red-violets and somewhat successfully with the turquoises. This is a technique I learned from Mary Mashuta back in the dark ages of quiltmaking. Basically, you use different fabrics in the same value to add interest. I don’t really use neutrals, except occasionally, but I have expanded this concept and use it in the foreground and the background. This allows me to use the smaller pieces of fabric, like FQs, I purchase without a plan, scraps and other pieces leftover from other projects. I don’t have to commit to several yards of a fabric I don’t know how I will use. I think quilts look more interesting with a variety of different fabrics. Also, viewers (at a show, for example) get a reward by taking the time to look closely at a quilt when they find you have used many different fabrics.
I used the ‘pushed neutral’ technique for the background of this quilt. I go back, over and over, to Scrapitude Carnivale, because this is the most perfect fabric selection I have ever done. It is not completely perfect, but mostly perfect. Every time I look at it, I am happy. After several years, I still like it. This quilt made me realize that looking at a favorite fabric in a quilt is much better than seeing it unused on a shelf.
The other important aspect is lighting. I live in a place with fog all summer long. That means I have to contend with grey days frequently. Sometimes I can’t see across the street. If I have quilts on my design wall that are too dark, I start to feel depressed. If want to make a purple quilt, I do it is January when the light is clear and there is no fog. I am currently working on a black quilt and that was a poor choice for this time of year, because that feeling of sadness keeps creeping up on me. Most of my quilts are bright, light and cheerful, because it is grey outside my workroom window and the bright colors reflect light back around the room.
More about brown: there is one brown I have found that works for me. It is a rich chocolate brown, slightly darker than milk chocolate, but not quite as dark as 80% dark chocolate. I have found that using a little of this color with turquoise does work and I don’t want to throw-up when I see it. I don’t use it a lot, but sometimes I’ll add it in. I used it in Calm and liked the effect.
This is Personal
Jolene writes “This is something that is very personal, but I’d say it’s a better idea to buy fabric that works with the quilts you want to make, rather than make quilts that fit with the stash that you impulsively purchased. (speaking from experience).” This is true, which is why I think more about the fabrics I am purchasing now than I did when I first started quiltmaking. I also remember that there is always more fabric and I will like the new fabric as much or more than the fabric I see on the shelf but can envision using.
That being said, I still buy some fabrics that I just like without knowing why I am buying them, without a project in mind and not even sure IF I will be able to use them. This piece of Field Guide: to Art History 101 By Marcia Derse from CURIOSITY. Marcia Derse has an edgy, urban quality that I can’t stay away from but also don’t use much. This print may be telling me to make a drawstring bag from Jeni Baker. For what, though?
I hope this gives you some ideas on my thought process. I am not telling you to go out and buy more fabric. I am telling you what makes up my fabric stash/palette and how I use my fabric. I hope this gives you some insight and helps you with your fabric buying as well.
I wrote on this topic back in 2010.
Work is closed for summer break this week. As a result, I worked like a demon all week and was able to finish the FOTY 2018 top and back. I didn’t need to finish it. Since I was taking quilts to Colleen today, I decided taking four quilts is better than taking three.
The quilt wasn’t difficult to piece since all the squares are 2.5 inches. The difficult part was keeping the pieces in order as I sewed. After I got pairs sewed together, I started using the opposite side of the quilt as leaders/enders and that made the process go faster. I also had a lot of time Wednesday to sew.
This isn’t exactly the way I imagined it to come out. I kind of wanted it to be more like Ellsworth Kelly’s piece. I think to achieve that, I needed more black.
Add the black has kind of reinvigorated my interest in this series. I might continue after FOTY 2019. Stay tuned.
Spectrum of Colors Arranged by Chance is a 1951-53 painting (oil on wood) by Ellsworth Kelly. I saw it at the SFMoMA when Julie, DH and I visited a few years ago. I have been wanting to use the idea in a quilt for awhile. Last week, I started on FOTY 2018, which will be my piece inspired by Kelly’s work.
Spectrum of Colors Arranged by Chance is a 1951-53 painting (oil on wood) by Ellsworth Kelly. I saw it at the SFMoMA when Julie, DH and I visited a few years ago. I have been wanting to use the idea in a quilt for awhile.
Last week, I started on FOTY 2018, which will be my piece inspired by Kelly’s work.
I have to say that putting the pieces on the wall has been a joy. I feel much closer to it with my new design wall. I also really like the white interspersed with the color. It is making me think of doing one with white squares as well as the slate grey I have planned for 2019.
I am also apprehensive about adding the black. We will see, though.
I am also really excited that I am working on a true UFO!!
I finished all the blocks for the plaid donation top. I rummaged through some older fabric and found a large-ish piece of plaid I will use for most of the back. The leftovers, of which there are still a few, will make up the rest of the back. I think this will make a great boy quilt.
In the course of my rummaging, I found some baseball fabric remnants and will use them for another donation quilt. Stay tuned for that one.
I am determined to use up the plaid. I used a good deal of it for the Plaid Block Party quilt for my cousin, but I still have some. Thus, I am making another donation top with the rest.
I am using the same Block Party pattern. I am using that pattern because it is easy and I had a number of leftover pieces that I wanted to use. I haven’t had much time to sew during the week, so I only have parts made. I am using these blocks as leaders and enders while I work on the Inside Outside Pouch.
As I mentioned when I received my first subscription box, Modern Handmade is one of my favorite shops. Because of shipping delays, I received another box a few days ago. I really wanted it to come and couldn’t really wait. I don’t know how I will wait until the end of June.
I am much more enthusiastic about this box than the first one. As soon as I opened it, I saw the coneflower fabric and was excited. I loved the previous version of that fabric, especially in flannel for receiving blankets. The fabrics are from Anna Maria Horner’s Conservatory and Hindsight collections. The colors are mostly, not colors I would choose, but I like them. I especially like the combination and may need to add some solids or tone on tones to use them together.
2 3/4 yards of fabric must be added to my spreadsheet, but I like this fabric and am already trying to think of a use for it that I will enjoy. Perhaps I will center one of the coneflowers on a Cotton Candy pouch? It is a good pattern for showcasing large motifs. I need another pouch like I need a hole in my head, but at the moment I can’t think of another project that would showcase the fabric.
I usually drink hot cocoa in the afternoon (I would be an awful Englishwoman!) when I want a hot drink. I will have to switch to tea to use up some of the teas I have been receiving in these boxes.
The quilt patterns are good for using up large prints, but they are not very interesting. I’ll have to look at them more closely and see if making a quick quilt with some of the fabrics would be satisfying. I don’t want to use up the fabric just to use it. Some of it I really like and would like to be able to see it in my house.
The Market Bag is interesting. I have one in my Minikins patterns, but it might be worthwhile to try it for one of the raffle baskets. It takes a 1 1/2 yards, so it would offset some of the acquisitions I have been making lately.
It is fun to receive a box like this even if I don’t need the items in it.
Modern Handmade is one of my favorite shops. It is relatively local, too. When this whole pandemic, shelter-in-place started, I wasn’t buying a lot, because it was so stressful to try and buy food. Also, I wanted to save money in case I get laid off.
Once I got over myself, there were a few things I wanted or needed so I worked at buying things from small/local companies. I decided that it was important to me to help quilt shops stay in business. I can’t support all of them, but I can do a bit. Thus, I subscribed to the Modern Quilter’s Box from Modern Handmade.
I have been leery of these boxes. First, they may have stuff I already have. Second, they automatically add fabric to my Fabric Usage Report every month, which means I have to sew at least 2.5 yards extra every month to make up for this incoming fabric. Third, what if what I get is icky or I don’t like it? Still, I wanted to support this shop and for a limited time, this is a good way to do it. Friend Julie also subscribed, so we can talk about the boxes that come. She wrote a nice, positive post about receiving hers. Also, it is kind of a fun surprise to get something new and exciting that I might not have seen before.
The box came late since distribution was limited during the first part of the S-i-P. This means I’ll get two in May!
Since this is my first one, I don’t know if this is how they will come or if I will get the same sorts of things. The second photo, left, is what the contents looked like when I opened it. The card on top tells about all the things inside the box and gives a brief overview of the designer of the pattern, Nancy Scott from Masterpiece Quilting.
The card also talks about the notion, Purple Thang, and has a brief mention of the tea and snack, a Stroopwafel, which also came in the box.
They sent out a survey after I received the box and I told them to forget the snack. It looks yummy, but it isn’t gluten-free so I can’t eat it. Give me more fabric or quilt related stuff not snacks.
In general I can use almost everything in the box. The pattern is sort of interesting with the added Flying Geese element. I probably won’t make it, though, so I’ll give it away. Some of the fabrics aren’t those I would buy, but I do like Art Gallery fabrics, so I am sure I can use them. I have them out so I see them as I move around my workroom. I am thinking about what to make with them. I like that pink the best so far. Are you surprised?
I think I will put the Purple Thang (sincerely dislike that name!) into my Go Bag. I tried it out when I made my most recent face mask. It worked pretty well for poking out corners and flattening the inside of seams. Apparently, while I have one, I haven’t used it before. Or I haven’t used it recently.
I bought a 6 month subscription. If you try it out, I am curious to know what you think.