At the meeting the other day, everyone doing the IRR challenge got together and we swapped pieces. We changed things up and I now have Angela’s IRR piece. We were not originally in the same group. Her group was small and everyone had worked on all of the pieces at least once. I didn’t have one to work on so I volunteered to work on Angela’s.
The pieces are getting quite large. I quickly put a signature strip on the side and then started thinking about what I could add that would look great. I liked the castle fabric, but wasn’t sure about just putting in a big strip of towers.
The diamond motifs caught my attention and I started working on adding free form diamonds.
Free Form Diamonds in Process
I have a hard time being completely free form/improv-y, but I did my best. I tried to make the diamonds not in alignment. I didn’t like the way they looked. I sewed the diamonds to backgrounds and played around with them a bit.
I looked at the piece and saw that dark grey kite fabric. I played around with that fabric and came up with a kind of checkerboard effect.
Finished Angela’s Piece
I like the way it turned out. I think the dark fabric adds a bit of a frame to the piece and sets off the diamonds as well. I also like the visuality of the dark fabric going around the corner.
Maureen had a great idea, which was to bring all of our challenge and swap pieces, regardless of level of finishing. The idea was show the pieces off in groups. I wasn’t sure how it would all work out, but it turned out to be fantastic.
Lobster Placemat in progress
First, this idea inspired me to work on the Lobster Placemat (for the placemat challenge), which, as I said, had been on my mind for awhile. I really felt some freedom in making this piece. It was fun to work on layering and also to work on a more casual applique piece. I am looking forward to getting back to it and adding some embroidery and other embellishments to it.
I am thinking of using small black fused fabric for the eyes, but may do some fancy embroidery. In order make a good eye with embroidery, I would need to use a satin stitch or something similar and I don’t have much experience with those types of stitches. We’ll see.
Amy’s Response to the Pink Flower challenge
Next, the idea worked out really well. We had some time while we enjoyed the snacks everyone brought and took the time to look at the pieces. We were able to take our own time as well as informally chatting with others about the pieces.
Amy’s response to my Pink Flower Challenge is fantastic. Her piece looks like a Ruth McDowell piece and I couldn’t get over how great the piece looked. Her work is so amazing. I have seen such growth in her work since the first Primal Green exhibit.
Next, also, we sat down together and, with Amy’s guidance, we went through each piece and discussed our thoughts on the pieces. We were able to ask questions of the artists as well as explain our thoughts on our own pieces.
Finally, seeing all these pieces together and talking about them with the other members really inspired me to get back to some art quiltmaking. I’ll work on the Lobster Placemat and, perhaps, get back to the Serendipity Lady.
The meeting on Saturday was long and fabulous. I can’t write one post on all that happened. It is too much to include.
We had a short business meeting, then everyone put their challenge and workshop pieces up and we all walked around and looked at them.
Nancy, Virginia, Angela, Jaye (Top left to bottom right)
While this was happening, some of us exchanged ATCs. Virginia, Angela, Nancy and I were the only ones who made ATCs. This was a GREAT batch, though, and I love the ones I received, including one of my own.
I almost never get one of my own, mostly because I don’t make an extra to keep. My own fault, but it is nice to get one once in a while.
I spent part of the day, and most of the evening, Friday making my ATCs. The big piece of ATC backing that I made at the beginning of the year to help make the ATC process progress more quickly has disappeared (sigh), so I had to start at the beginning. Part of this process was clearing off my cutting/worktable. I had things in progress there, which took up space, so I cleared them off, made the backs of the ATCs and then started in on the fronts.
I used scraps, mostly. I also decided to try using some of the sheer ribbon I save from gifts for gift bags as a starting point. I enjoyed using it as it gave the piece a bit of a sparkle, but I think I should have used a darker fabric if I wanted the ribbon to show up more.
Jaye’s ATCs in progress
I usually make the 4 ATCs as one big piece and then cut them up. It makes for less fiddliness. This time I was smart and left a little bit between each ATC so I had room to cut them apart. You can see the stitching lines around each 2.5″x3.5″ rectangle. This rectangle is my canvas and helps me remember that whatever is between those two lines will not be seen.
That blue thread is very thin and almost looks like a length of single crochets. I carefully placed it next to the stitching where I stitched down the ribbon and sewed it on with a straight stitch. I bought it and a few other colors on a card that had 5 different types of embellishing thread in about 2-3 yard lengths. I use them periodically for ATCs.
In the evening, I added french knots using several blues, greens and purples from the Anna Maria Horner set of Perl Cotton I bought some time ago. I also put beads on each card, using a Bead Soup selection. I love doing the handwork, especially as it gives me something to do when I watch TV that makes me feel like I am making progress. The handwork was a little hard on my hand. I need to think about that next time.
Angela’s ATCs
Angela told me that she took a class from Valerie Goodwin and used the techniques of blending and adding sheers for her ATCs. The sheers are a similarity between Angela’s and my ATCs.
Virginia’s ATCs
Virginia’s ATCs felt like they were painted on paper, though mine has part of a leaf under, what looks like, a piece of decoupaged tissue paper. There is some stitching as well. Virginia is immensely talented and I am continually in awe of what she makes.
Nancy’s ATCs
Nancy used a printing press at work for a project and was inspired to come home and do some printing with glass sheets. I really like her designs and kind of wish she would upload them to Spoonflower and make the designs available as fabric.
One of the things I like about ATC swaps is the opportunity to play a little bit. Of course, I could do that all the time, but I don’t. This is a deadline I can use to make a little piece of art.
As I mentioned the other day, I had Rhonda’s piece and I worked on it very quickly, then sent it off to Cheryl.
Rhonda’s IRR piece – November 21, 2015
When I got it from Rhonda, it was getting to be quite curvy. There is a lot of nice piecing and I did not want to touch the bottom portion (ignore my slippered feet!) as I didn’t want to ruin anything.
I took a leaf out of the notebook I used in a class at Fort Mason. Sonya Lee Barrington taught a beginning quilt class and one of the techniques I learned was called “Curved Strip Piecing.”
Rhonda’s IRR with my signature fabric
I laid the piece over my signature fabric and cut along the edge. I made quick hash marks across the two fabrics and pinned them together. It made it easier to sew the curve, which came out mostly flat. My addition came out super bold. I hope people know they can cut off my signature fabric.
My contribution to Rhonda’s IRR
For the rest of my addition, I used some piecing that was already done. I added some more and then sewed what I made to the piece.
I would have never thought to put half a piece on to someone else’s round robin, but I saw Michelle do it and decided it would fit with my timeframe. Again, I used some curved strip piecing to help make the piece fit.
I the original idea for this IRR was to exchange the pieces at the meeting. Our group has been exchanging like crazy for the past two months. I have worked on several as you might remember from the series of blog posts.
I think it was the first time our group had been together since the initial start. We looked at all the pieces and traded them around. Some people changed their boxes to bags for easier mailing. We took the opportunity to exchange IRRs again and we got to see the work that has been done on the various pieces of our IRR exchange.
My IRR piece – November 21, 2015
I was thrilled when I saw the work on my own piece. People used the solid turquoise as a background, which was my intention. This gives the whole piece a cohesive look. It is also mostly a square and getting to be quite large. I think I I’d like this piece to be in the bed-sized range.
People have not continued the Flying Geese after the first round or two, which is a little disappointing. There are a lot of rectangles, which I know are much easier than anything else. Hope springs eternal.
Michelle matched the motifs on the pink and blue fabrics in the left middle area beautifully.
Diana’s IRR – November 21, 2015
I was very pleased with the work I did on Diana’s. I saw that round motif and couldn’t get away from the idea of fussy cutting it. I wanted to make it more elaborate, but I waited until the the morning of the meeting. I made a cutting mistake, which kind of prevented me from doing what I wanted. I am also not sure my skills were up to the task. Diana loved what I did to her piece, which pleased me.
Rhonda’s IRR piece – November 21, 2015
Rhonda had her piece at the meeting so I grabbed it. She has tried to jump to another group, but we aren’t letting her go. I am supposed to send her piece to Cheryl after I am done. Other Club Doodlers are clamoring, so we will have to see.
The BAMQG Meeting was Saturday and it felt like an eternity since we had a meeting. We really just missed the October meeting (because of PIQF). Still it was too long. I enjoyed seeing people and the show and tell was amazing.
Going to the meeting
This is a photo of what I took to the meeting. Fortunately I didn’t come home with nearly that much.
As a result of missing October, there was a lot of business to cover. The question of the month was good but hard, because the “low hanging fruit” was taken right away: For what are you grateful in the quiltmaking realm. Some of the answers were:
Time to quilt
Rotary cutter
Eleanor Burns
People who accept and love quilted gifts
Design board
Internet tutorials
Online buying opportunities
Playing with fabric
Electric sewing machine
Organized charity function
Designers
Modern fabric
Space to sew
Creative inspiration
Kelly, who went first since she is the boss lady, said she was very grateful for all of us. She said in such a sweet and sincere way that we were really touched. At least I was. Many people agreed that the guild was a great group.
To Do List
QuiltCon entries due November 30. Kelly encouraged everyone to enter. While I want my quilts to get in, I think that everyone’s work is spectacular and high quality enough to get in.
Reimbursements
Claire talked about reimbursements.
Charity
The charity Sew Day was a success. About 10 wheelchair quilts were completed and will be donated to a local nursing home.
The guild has donated 65 quilts to local charities this year, which is so fantastic! This is less than last year bit many of those were larger quilts than were donated last year.
Opportunity Quilt
Winning ticket was drawn and someone in Pacifica won.
Cat Beds
Are back! The kits I cut and packaged joined the kits that Amanda brought and were all swept by willing members. She gave a little presentation on making cat beds, which I think got people excited about it again.
Challenges
New one due in January using Carol Van Zant fabric. I received a piece of fuschia. I don’t know what I will make, but perhaps a simple journal cover.
MQG
The guild will not renew the guild’s membership. The board decided that the promised technological infrastructure, other promised features and functionality, especially roster management, had not been realized. The board wants to focus its resources on local activities and members. Members were encouraged to join the MQG individually since the benefits are much more robust for individual members. The guild will pay for Mike’s membership and he will continue as MQG liaison for guild members. He will also advise the Board on MQG matters. The group will reevaluate MQG membership in the future.
I plan to join as an individual member for at least one year. We’ll see if I renew in 2017.
Membership
Alison will be transitioning membership function to Annemarie.
Swaps
Favorite blog swap coming to an end and Joy-Lily will produce a paper and virtual list for everyone.
2016 Speakers
Angela Walters cancelled her workshop with us, because she no longer wants to do 2 day trips. While I didn’t know this workshop was coming, it is huge blow to Amanda who has been working on getting AW to us for 2 years. It makes me upset that she would just cancel like that without consideration for the work Amanda put in.
Officer Elections
Nobody has stepped forward to be president so Ruth and Joelle will share the role of point person this year and a Mistress (or master) of Ceremonies will be selected for each meeting. Lynette and Gerre will be co-VPs. Claire has agreed to continue on as Treasurer. Angela will be Workshop Coordinator and others will take on other roles.
Next Meeting
Winter Extravaganza swap and party is December 12.
Presentation: Ruth’s Scrap Management
Ruth gave us a presentation about her use and management of scraps. She called it Scrap Magic and talked about her system of scrap organization.
Scrap Organization
Scraps can be better used if they are organized. Everyone’s organization system will be different and personal to them and how they work. Remember mine?
She uses scraps as soon as she is done with the quilt so that she doesn’t have to file the scraps away. This is a little ambitious for me since I am usually sick of the fabrics by the time I am done with a quilt BUT they are exciting again after they have sat for awhile.
She said that using scraps adds interest to your quilts. I agree! I never thought of this, but her view is that making scrap quilts is like getting a free quilt. Since you don’t have to buy the fabric for the new quilt, the quilt is free.
Advantages:
faster to sew into quilts
saves space
Makes quilts more interesting
Disadvantages:
can lose possibilities because you cut to a certain size.
Organize what you keep so it will be useful. Identify your scrap limits before you start to organize:
Size – is there a size that is too small for you to use?
Personal taste – do you like the fabric enough to keep it around?
Quality – is it good enough quality to continue to use?
Shape – is the piece a weird shape or a shape you don’t want to keep?
If your scraps are still overwhelming you, your limits might be too low.
Ruth talked about cutting scraps to defined sizes. She, mostly, doesn’t do it, because she feels it limits her options. If she cuts a 4.5″ scrap down to a 2.5″ square, she has lost an inch or so of fabric that could have been used when a larger piece was required.
Nota bene: I cut defined pieces if I have a project in mind for them. I wrote a post on scrap organization, which will give you other ideas about cutting to defined sizes.
Ruth also curates her scraps. When she chooses fabrics, including scraps, she has an idea of the color scheme or motifs she wants to use. She tries to avoid the Scrap Vomit look. She selects parameters to create cohesion. Not everything works well together, despite what some experts say.
Scraps are good for paper piecing.
You can cut pieces to add to a pre-cut project
replace unsuitable charms or strips
add darks or lights as needed to a fabric line
Start by selecting yardage and then bringing in scraps to add interest.
I thought the presentation was interesting and a good addition to what has already been posted here about scraps.
More progress has happened on the BAMQG Improv Round Robin. I worked on Cindy’s and then handed it off to Michelle. Jen posted in the guild forum that she worked on mine.
Cindy’s IRR Before
The first thing I did with Cindy’s was look through all of the fabric she provided with the piece sitting next to me.
I thought it had a lot going on. I decided to use the turquoise solid (shown at left) as the background with my signature fabric to continue the Flying Geese motif already used a couple of times by other contributors. With a vague plan in place, I got busy cutting and piecing.
The piece I made was a little too short so I added a pink square. There was a pink solid in the group of fabrics, so I used that.
Cindy’s IRR After
I really did, mostly, cut without a ruler, but my piece looks very precise compared to the rest of the sections. I know that my arm injury is affecting my cutting. Mostly I have to rotary cut much slower and, apparently that equals more precision.
I like my part. It balances the turquoise on the left side and the Flying Geese do bring repetition and continuity to the piece.
This is also a good exercise in what I can do in 20 minutes. I am not counting cutting, because of the injury, but sewing and designing. I think looking at the fabrics first was a good thing to do. I think it helped jumpstart my process.
My IRR after Jen’s work
Jen posted about my piece. Michelle had worked on it and made it into a L. I was a little concerned about that, but only a little. I knew my Club Doodle (the name of our group) pals would come through for me. Jen did with flying colors.
It is still keeping that turquoise background feel, which I am happy about. There are more Flying Geese, which I am also happy about.
I am also glad that the Queen Street fabric is finally getting its day in court.
In terms of administration, I have worked on Jen’s, Michelle’s, and now Cindy’s. I feel like I have worked on more of them, but, perhaps, that is because I also worked on mine. I need to work on Claire’s, Diana’s and Rhonda’s.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, this was the first meeting I attended since April. The meetings are only every other month, so if I miss one, time passes quickly. I like these meetings, because I always go home wanting to sew. I also feel like people genuinely like me and that is always good for my ego.
There were no new members this time, but lots of new faces that were new since I last attended. I also re-met Lynette who I know from back in the dark ages when I first got on the Internet. She hosted a local Bay Area quilt listserve and we met up a few times to put names and projects to faces. Back then we could only describe our work. There wasn’t really any economical way to post photos.
Maureen’s Strata Quilt
A number of the members have quilts in shows: Maureen has a quilt in Strata, which I think is an SAQA related show. Maureen started her piece at the most recent retreat, so I was glad to see what happened with the work. Ann M. will be at PIQF. She has a one woman show there. Dolores has a quilt coming back from a show in Brazil and also sold a piece!
A number of the members are selling their pieces at various local events, too. One is the Book Arts Jam. Because of the bookmaking I have done (and want to do more of), I would like to attend this event. We’ll see if I can fit it in.
As usual, Show and Tell was awesome. This part of the meeting is what makes excited to go home and sew. People in this group are so unbelievably creative! I also sort of feel, sometimes, that I couldn’t do what they are doing. Don’t worry, I don’t let that stop me!
Gerre & Dolores with Peace Monument Quilt
Dolores brought a quilt that was inspired by the Peace Monument in Paris. Some of the fabric for the steps is hand-dyed fabric. She told us that she made a conscious decision to use commercial fabric for the other parts of the quilt. I was really impressed with her people. They are simple, but clearly people, too. The whole piece is simple, in a way, but encouraged me to look and look. She did a great job.
Jen made a piece that made me think of my Change of Seasons piece. I have wanted to do more pieces like this where there are 4 parts of one image. It is on the list. 😉
Jen’s piece
Jen’s piece was inspired by a call for quilts for a show. I am not sure what show.
Jen does spinning so there is often yarn type fiber attached to her quilts. She also does a lot of fabric manipulation: painting, stamping, couching, etc. This quilt is no exception. She painted part behind the tree and the pipes on the left are twisted newspaper, a fair trade product from India. The aerial views behind the tree and the building relate each other IMO, but are not traditional backgrounds. I think the whole piece works really well and it makes me think of my own piece again.
Amy brought one of her nature pieces, this time an abstract artichoke. She had an interesting idea for machine quilting practice: copy part of your piece on to fabric and machine quilt that as practice. Later you can use it as a small wall hanging, cubicle art or cut it up and make ATCs. I never thought of that and thought it was a great idea.
I accidentally agreed to run the ATCs swap. Oops! It went fine and Maureen, who is a real pro, had to do some treasurer stuff, so I was happy to do it.
Top to bottom: Bron, Jaye, Maureen, Nancy
Left to right: Amy, Carol, Diane
My ATCs
I was sad not to get one of Nancy’s flowers, but we can’t have all of them when there are more than 4 swappers. People did nice work.
The December meeting will, again, be at FabMo. Guests can attend for $5. We will bring all of our challenge pieces to show. I really need to get on the placemat challenge and do it. While Maureen was talking about this part, I had a flash of what to use for the actual placemat part of the piece. I hope that means I am closer to making the piece.
As mentioned the other day, the IRR is going well. I worked on Michelle’s piece on Saturday. It is, as also mentioned, a 20 minute exercise, so I worked on it early and got it finished.
Michelle’s IRR Start
I started with Michelle’s piece, by putting it on the wall and looking at it for a few days. That tactic would have worked better if I had taken a look at the fabrics she included. 😉
I decided, however, that I was going to work on it on Saturday and get it out of my hair.
I did loosen up a bit on Michelle’s. Even I can admit that mine was a bit more uptight than improv. I guess that is part of the process.
Once again, I have a shortage of design wall space. I really think I need a whole room with movable design walls all over it. OR I need to clear my mind of the jumble of projects in it. My mind is an insane mess right now.
Michelle’s IRR with my contribution
I should have balanced the piece out by putting my contribution on the bottom, but I wanted to continue those dark solid lines. I really do like the strips of bright. the top of the piece is very happy.
The basic idea is that you spend 20 minutes on each round, including the start. I had to pick out fabrics and a signature fabric. I used Queen Street by Jennifer Paganelli and my signature fabric is a Philip Jacobs. You can see my signature fabric on the bottom of my starting piece.
The signature fabric is a fabric that we add to each piece we work on to know that we worked on it. I just had to use a Philip Jacobs as it is uniquely distinct to me. Many of the other modern quiltmakers don’t use Philip Jacobs fabrics that I have seen.
Wanting to try for a piece that was not square, I made my piece long and thin. Cutting is difficult for me at the moment, so I gave myself a bit more time on that piece, but then sewed like a demon so as not to break too much of the rules.
I kept looking at the Flying Geese TFQ and I have been exchanging. I decided to incorporate some of them into this piece, but the rest are just squares and rectangles. The solid is supposed to be the background.
IRR Start with Michelle’s work
Michelle was kind enough to send me a photo of my start since I, apparently, forgot to take a photo of it. She also sent a photo of what she added to the piece, so I can see how it is progressing.
I like that more of the Flying Geese have been incorporated.
I joined the Improv Round Robin at the last BAMQG meeting. I was really busy last week and didn’t get my stuff together until the morning of the meeting. I forgot the crucial thing: my starter piece. DUH! Fortunately everyone is really nice and I wasn’t the only one. I took Jen’s piece to work on and Michelle and I met near my house and we exchanged starters.
Jen’s IRR Piece
After the meeting last Saturday, I came home and worked on Jen’s piece.
I thought there was no possible way she could have made her piece in 20 minutes (more on that later) until I saw that some of her piece looks like piecing, but is really part of the fabric. So that was her trick. 😉
I added the bottom, which I curved on one end to give someone else the opportunity to do some curved piecing. They may just cut it off or do an angle, which is OK, too.
One of the things about this project is that we each have to have a signature fabric that we add to all of the pieces. I had to use a Philip Jacobs print! It is the green and purple fabric on the right hand side. We are assured that everything will go together just fine.
Jen’s IRR piece before trimming
I added some more piecing at the curve, but cut it off. You can see what I did in the bottom photos.
You can see the kind of wonky piecing, which is what inspired me to cut off the end. I added the left side as well.
While I was trying to decide what to do, I pieced some strips of Jen’s fabric together. I ended up just putting them in the bin without using them. I kind of like the thought of adding something that someone can springboard off of.
It has been awhile since I was able to attend a CQFA Retreat – 2 years, I think. I was so thrilled to be able to attend the current retreat, which was held over Mother’s Day weekend. Isn’t that a great Mother’s Day gift?? As a bonus, I sewed so much!
I feel like I really made some good progress on projects that were languishing:
First of all, I, pretty much, threw projects and parts into project bags starting about a week before the retreat. This helped me not forget critical fabric and supplies. The only thing I forgot was a lamp and my sewing machine’s light kept me from going blind.
Next, I made sure I had plenty of blocks and parts that would make good leaders and enders. Using the leaders and enders technique, I made 20+ Nine Patches for the octagon 9 Patch on which I have been working and 27 (!!!) Box Full of Letters blocks. In addition to significant progress on two projects, I am pleased with the progress I made on the leaders on the leaders and enders projects.
Oliso ironing surface
The other thing I did was try out the Oliso iron I bought. I finally dragged out the June Tailor ironing surface I bought for the Dale Fleming Circle class as well. It was a little different because you don’t set it up on its end, it just pops up away from the ironing surface. Also, the steam and basic functionality are a little different. Friend Julie tried it also (we shared a table and a mini ironing surface) and gave me her feedback as well.
Sue’s Baby Quilt
People made great projects. Bron and Sue were working on baby quilts for friends. I liked the ideas they had and may use the ideas for donation quilts.
Sue’s (left photo) quilt is made from strips and a background. She said she cut strips and then sewed them together in rows. She said she used different widths of strips and I think that gives the piece a lot of movement. Lucky kid, I say.
In thinking of different ways to make this quilt, I could use strips, cutting them as I cut into new yardage. I would save up strips until I had enough and then get Gerre to quilt it. 😉
The other thing I could do it rummage through my scraps and get pieces large enough to do something similar. My mind is reeling.
I didn’t get a photo of Bron’s quilt, sadly, but what she did is wacky sew pieces together, then she cut the pieces into squares and sewed them together with sashing into a baby quilt. She used a white dot on yellow for the binding, which I loved! It would be a good scrap project.
Gerre’s art quiltGerre burning her quilt
Gerre was working on an amazing art quilt. She put layers of fabric together with tulle on top, then quilted it then BURNED it! It was awesome.
Reva worked on a flower quilt.
Angela was doing some improv piecing based on a piece she started in a class.
Julie’s Tumbler
Julie worked on 3 or 4 pieces, including a self portrait and a couple of pieces she started in China. She also sewed rows to her tumbler quilt top, which is nearing completion. It was so great to see her so productive as well.
Rhonda worked on handwork all weekend, including an applique’ project inspired by Kevin Kosbab. She showed me the Valdani Pearl Cotton collection she bought from MassDrop, the temptress! I love Valdani Pearl cotton. I may have to start another quilt like Beach Town. Or just pick a project on which I can embroider. Hhmm.
Maureen’s Mid-Century Modern
Maureen worked on a piece that I thought was made from a pre-cut, but she picked all the fabrics herself. I really think that she should put pre-cuts together for Moda. Her piece looked like a mid-Century modern quilt or painting.
Maureen worked on a plaid piece as well. She found the fabrics at FabMo and turned them into improv blocks which she was playing with when we all had to leave.
Dolores was working on dolls from a class she took with Susan Else as well as the piece from the online class she is taking.
Caroline made pillowcases and worked on a crazy paper piecing project. I think the one section she worked on had 58 pieces!!!
Amy’s Landscape
Amy was working on a kind of landscape with flowers. I loved it!
There was also a “free stuff table” and I picked up a couple of pieces of fabric. There was something about the colors and imagery that attracted me. There were a couple of pieces of Kaffe Fassett and some others. I tried to exercise restraint. It was difficult, but I seem to have succeeded. The purple dandelions were kind of a surprise, but they will come in handy somewhere.
CQFA Retreat Free Fabric
In addition to the sewing, it was great to see other people’s projects and chat with my friends. There was never enough time to find out everything I want to know about other people’s process or what is going on in their lives. I didn’t take nearly enough photos and wanted more time to sew.
Still I am glad I got the time I did, especially at this time of year. I felt like I was really productive and that feels good. I need to sew more.
I had a great time at the meeting yesterday and it really didn’t have anything to do with the actual meeting.
Gerre’s Collage
After the business and show and tell, we sat down to work on the picture I posted earlier this week as our workshop picture. We split up and added more tables so people had more space to work and I sat with Gerre and Rhonda. Gerre was doing work in her collage book (a giant board book she bought at a thrift store and then gessoed over. Great idea!!!) in colors vaguely related to the picture I posted. I would have taken the picture, but since it was in a book with beautiful collages, I thought it might be rude.;-)
I really didn’t know that Gerre was so talented with collage. I adore this piece and think it would make a great card.
Rhonda was doing her very precise improv piecing in the colors of the posted photo, tending towards the abstract. I was preparing a piece of white fabric for later painting with Tsukineko inks.
I finished my work pretty quickly. It really didn’t go as I intended and I didn’t want to work on it anymore, so I offered to press Rhonda’s strips. She sat and sewed her improv strips and I walked back and forth pressing them and getting more.
Bird Box for Rhonda
After some time I heard Bron talking about folded boxes. Rhonda said she needed some for her niece and nephew for Easter, so Bron and I sat down to make them, with Bron doing the teaching. It is amazing how they go together and I can see many of my wrapping problems evaporating.
Rhonda picked out the bird paper. We made two of the same and this box is about 3″ square.
Folded Gift Boxes
I decided it would be great to make my MIL a box and put a small gift in it for Easter, so we grabbed some sheets of wallpaper and I made a larger box from a 15″ sheet while Bron made a slightly smaller box, perhaps from an 11″ sheet. I ended up taking both home and will give one to someone else soon. I stopped and got some nice soaps to include in them.
Nota bene: We meet at FabMo and we have, pretty much, the run of the materials they have available. We still put donations in their box; we just don’t have to wait until selection day. In addition to fabric, they had books of wallpaper from which we took the larger sheets for the gift boxes. They are nice, because the sheets coordinate, though they are not always large. Some are half sheets or 3/4s sheets, which is why Bron made her box smaller. I thought some wallpaper with stripes would look great, but we didn’t see any in the quick look.
I enjoyed pressing for Rhonda and making the boxes. It interested me more than my Workshop piece.
The meeting went well. We talked about dues. We will be kicking people off the list soon, so people need to pay up. The Retreat is on and full, which si great. I can’t wait to check in and get sewing. I am going to work on the Field Day Zipper (I know! Blast from the past, right?) and the next Food Quilt. I suspect you can believe I won’t be working on FOTY 2014, but it works better for me to take more time and that requires working at home. I really want to get these two quilts done and 36 hours of sewing may be just what the doctored ordered.
The Field Day Zipper will be a gift. The fabrics and partially sewn pieces are clogging up my cutting table and I would like to get it done. I like the colors, but they are not demanding my time or attention. Too muddy. You knew that right?
The Food Quilt 2 will be a gift as well. It will be for a friend of Y.M.’s. We are friends with his parents and every kid should have a quilt. I keep looking at the Y.M.’s Food Quilt and trying to decide if I have cut enough fabric for the blocks I have slated to be made. The pattern is a Disappearing 9 Patch and I have decided that I will make 16 blocks. That means I need 64 food fabric patches (have already cut them), 64 black and white print fabric patches (almost none cut) and 16 purple patches, almost all of which are cut.
If I finish both of these projects, I also have the Box Full of Letters quilt on which to work. That will take come kind of miracle.
Anyway, the Retreat will be fun and I will have a lot to tell you about when I return.
The SFPL show is almost over. I’ll write more about that later. Be sure and go see it.
Rhonda will lead a workshop in June concerned with embellishment and hand embroidery. I can’t wait for that. I used some Aurifil embroidery thread for my ATCs and loved it! I will definitely buy more of that stuff.
Marie chimed in that there is a Stitchery show up at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles right at the moment. Fitting, don’t you think?
Show and tell was fabulous. Everyone does such interesting work and they all said kind things to me about the two pieces I brought: FOTY 2013 and the Hawaiian Donation Quilt. I know I haven’t written about them yet. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on those finishes.
Sonja’s Flower
Dolores and Sonja are taking an online class with Elizabeth Barton. They are regularly bringing their pieces to show us and it is interesting to see the process through which they are working.
Sonja’s piece was a follow-up to a flower she finished a few years ago that took forever. This newest piece was finished within the month.
I love the curves and the lines. The color palette emphasizes the design and there is no distraction from color.
Caroline’s Cypress
Caroline does amazing landscapes and she is nearly finished with another one in her series of Lone Cypresses (Monterey Coast).
She threadpainted the greenery, but a new member showed some cheesecloth she had dyed, which sparked a discussion on the merits of making the greenery with cheesecloth instead of all of that threadpainting. Definitely doable, though different looks would be emphasized, I think. It was an interesting discussion.
Valerie, one of the visitors does amazing work. I didn’t get to talk with her much, but she brought her dyed cheesecloth and embroidery floss as well as a bag she made from hand dyed fabric. I seriously thought about trying to slips some of her embroidery thread into my bag. I restrained myself and decided to make friends with her if she comes back. 😉 She also brought large covered buttons with beading work using seed beads, some fabric postcards and a fantastic name tag.
Valerie’s Postcard
As I said, it was a great meeting. I learned something, got to see my friends and got something to write about for you. The perfect day. 😉
I finally made it back to a CQFA meeting! September was the last meeting I attended and it feels like an eternity.
We changed locations and the months in which we will meet. The crowd was quite large – about 25 people. Dues were collected. Retreat monies were collected (if you are not a member and would like to attend, the cost is $107 and there are a few spaces left. Leave a comment and I will hook you up). Lots of announcements were made.
I am in charge of the workshop next time. The title is “Same Design, Make it Mine”. I have to post a photo of the image to our private group before the meeting, then everyone will bring their supplies and ideas and work on their pieces during the meeting. We probably won’t finish, but it will be a good way to work together on our own thing. I had an image all picked out and then I got an different idea during the meeting. We’ll see what I choose.
Workshop
Our Critique Pieces
The first activity we did was to view the SAQA Trunk Show through the lens of a formal critique in order to learn about critiquing art. Maureen secured the SAQA Trunk show and Dolores made up a handout, then presented it, on how to critique a piece of art.
I have never done critiquing and I learned a lot, mostly because there are fact based tasks to perform in a critique before you get to the part where you say whether you like the piece or not.
The moniker we used to remember the steps in critiquing is:
DESCRIBE
E
M
ANALYZE
P
P
L
E
S
INTERPRET
S
JUDGE
U
I
C
Y
The first 3 aspects are essentially fact based: what do you see, what principles and elements of design do you see, what is the work about? The last one starts to get into opinion, but then the last aspect, Judge, is when you get to say whether you like the work and why.
I liked this way of critiquing, because it forces the viewer to stick to facts until nearly the end. By doing that, I found that my emotions about the piece were less important, because I was spending energy is really looking at the piece. There some things that I noticed:
Make an artwork that is appropriate to the size. Some of the pieces had too much going on for the format size (around 8.5″x11″). That is a small piece and you need to focus on using that space well instead of trying to get a complicated message across. We found that the ones that were most successful were the ones that fit the format. There was was one that was interesting, but got lost because of the size. It would have been great in a much larger format.
Knowing the basics of design was really helpful. The most successful pieces adhered to some of those principles and elements. Making a piece – the actual technique – is really fun, but in order for a viewer to get something out of a piece, having some structure is helpful.
Dolores did such a great job on the handout. She really should think about teaching art.
Challenges
Rhonda introduced a new challenge, which was inspired by the book Brave New Quilts by Kathreen Ricketson. We are to make a piece of art inspired by a particular art movement or artist. We will be having a challenge review at our December meeting so we are encouraged to bring past challenges as well as this one to that meeting. I am not really inspired, but I have a book called the Daily Book of Art which I will look at before I completely bail.
Some of the challenges we have had in the past are:
2 shapes
placemats
under the sea
fusible flowers
monochromatic
I have ideas and/or fabric for some of these. I really have a great idea for the placemat challenge and really want to do it. I just need to start designing the shapes, then cutting.
Show and Tell
Show and Tell is, of course, my favorite. I only brought the Pink T Quilt. I’ll post about the finished piece in a day or two. I brought it with the binding half on to the BAMQG Meeting, but Gerre wasn’t there so she got to see it at CQFA, which was great. It isn’t very arty, but people seemed to like it. They asked about the organizations to which BAMQG donates quilts. I didn’t have a great answer, but Rhonda helped out.
I also talked a little bit about the Tsukineko Inks class I took and showed the class samples. I really want to get back to that and do something. I just don’t know what.
Julie’s Christmas Quilt
Julie brought her Christmas quilt, the one we picked up the other day from Colleen (post about that soon as well!). Her Christmas quilt uses a lot of different Christmas fabrics. I have to admire her for having the courage to put them all together. If I look at the fabrics separately, I wouldn’t think they would work, but somehow they do. Of course, the Four Patches are wonderful as well.
Diane’s Silk Piece
I love Diane’s silk pieces and she is always prolific, so she brings, what seems like, dozens. It is amazing how much work she does. I often think she has to have an assistant. My favorites are Diane’s aerial city images. She doesn’t call them that, but that is what I think they look like.
I love this one, because of the swirly quilting. There is also a kind of submarine shape, though I know it is not a submarine 😉 and for the little flecks of gold.
Of course, I also like the blues and greens.
Ann Brook’s workshop piece
Ann Brook brought a finished piece that she started in a Sherri Lynn Wood class.
There were was lots of great work and people were talking about interesting things. So much more that my head is spinning. You should come sometime.
It was a good meeting last Saturday. Friend Julie and I had signed up for a design class with Joe Cunningham, but it was cancelled at the last minute. I didn’t really see any advertising for it and I wish they had let me know sooner so I could have rounded up people. The effect of that cancellation was that I got to attend the BAMQG meeting. I was really sad that I was going to miss it and was really wanting to be in 2 places at once.
Mike gave us a tour of one section of the MQG. The goal is to get us more familiar with the benefits of that site since our BAMQG membership includes an MQG membership.
Karen, the 2015 Challenge Coordinator, gave us a small lecture on “What is Modern?”. Stop with the eye rolling! It was interesting and a little off the beaten track. She took some principles of ‘modern quilting’ and showed us these elements in modern quilts as well as ‘non-modern’ quilts, including quilts from the 1980s and 1990s as well as vintage quilts. It was a cool presentation! Some of the elements she included were:
Improv
Pictorial
Graphic
Negative Space
Bright Colors
Alternative Grid (drop an element to mess up symmetry, space elements oddly, irregular spacing between element, etc)
I added in Text during the discussion.
The result of this fabulous presentation is a challenge quilt due in July (??) using an alternative grid.
Some of the Hawaiian quilts are finished. Angela handed out binding and talked about the quilts. I think she got some other people who couldn’t attend the Sew Day to take some pieces and parts and finish them.
I got a colorful binding, though Gerre tells me the quilting is still in process. No problem. I am still working on the binding for the Pink T quilt, though I am nearly done.
Joy-Lily is the Swaps Coordinator and the first swap will be in April. We are each to bring a quilt book with which we have finished and trade with someone else for one. In the future, there will be a ‘Sew As You Go” bag swap.
Upcoming events:
Amish Exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles ends 2/28/2015
Manteca Quilt Show, March 7-8, 2015
SCVQA Show-March 14-15, 2015
Playcrafts has a challenge going using the Pantone Color of the Year, Marsala
Binding Bee
After the meeting ended, a bunch of us sat around finishing up the binding of the guild’s opportunity quilt. The quilt is a monster, but it is also an amazing monster.
Ruth designed it and it is a very unique design that will be appealing to modern quilters, at the very least. Marci Gore designed the quilting and stitched it out on her computerized longarm.
There was some discussion about what the guild would do if we were asked for a pattern. There is a lot of creativity in the guild so I suggested created a pattern and posting it on Craftsy. There are a lot of steps before we can do that, not the least of which is get our nonprofit status finalized, but it is in the idea hopper.
2014 BAMQG Opportunity Quilt
The first opportunity to buy raffle tickets will be at the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association Show. It was fun. People would walk up and comment that it was just like an old fashioned quilting bee.
The next Sew Day will be at The Intrepid Thread, which will be dangerous. 😉
