The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, a main artery between the East Bay and the City, closed on Wednesday August 28 at 8pm forever.
Well, sort of forever.
They replaced it and they had to reconfigure the onramps or interchanges or navigation whatevers.
I started ATCs months ago. I just wasn’t excited about it, but I wouldn’t face it.
Finished ATCs
Somehow, thinking about the Bay Bridge closure made me get excited about ATCs again. I found a historic photo of the Bay Bridge, adjusted the size and printed them on fabric.
I added some stitching, including testing out the Aurifil monofilament.
Voila!
While you read this, I will be at a CQFA meeting. I haven’t been able to attend a meeting in a while.
I meant to post this right after the workshop and I even worked on getting the photos in shape to be in the post. Life intervened and here it is late on a Saturday morning and I am just getting to post it. You East Coasters are already off doing whatever it is you do at 1pm on a Saturday. 😉
Bill Kerr Quilts
This is the quilt that we discussed the most and made the idea of choosing fabrics for their role in the conversation stick in my head. The thing about this quilt is that each fabric has a role and is related to, at least, one other fabric and is a bridge to another. I really like this idea of bridging fabrics to each other. Even if fabrics don’t look like they fit together in a quilt, there is a story the maker can tell through the fabric. Read the Fabric Smackdown post for more information.
I have been reading through the color sections of the Bill Kerr/ Weeks Ringle books to try and find a reference to this method, but so far I haven’t been successful. I also haven’t found tow of the books, which I know are buried in one of my quilt book stacks, so stay tuned.
I knew all the names of the quilts after the workshop, but now I don’t. If I get them wrong, let me know nicely and I will make the changes.
Follow the Leader
One of the questions I have heard numerous times in workshops that deal with using fabrics is how to use the fabulous large scale prints that are so popular now. Follow the Leader is a good example of how to use large scale prints. One of the things that brings these fabrics together is the literal connection of the grey bits connecting the rectangles. He still followed the other guidelines we discussed, but that bit of grey (could be another color) adds a connection.
Follow the Leader
One of the things I found in almost all of the Kerr/Ringle quilts was that my eyes moved around. There was interest in the selection of fabrics in the quilts. Their method of selecting fabrics is a lot of work, but, clearly, for my eye, it works.
There was, also, a consistent message throughout the ‘trunk show’. Each quilt provided another lesson in the same things we discussed at the beginning: scale, pattern, role, etc.
In the detail of Follow the Leader, you can see that fuschia-maroon dot on a greyish-beige background (lower right hand corner). We discussed that fabric a lot. It is related to the paisley on the sea green background. The shape of the dots is also related to the green/gold dot next to the paisley. The relationships are some part of why both fabrics work in that quilt. The class discussed that dot a lot, though, because it was an unexpected choice. Not wrong, but it might not be the first choice when choosing a selection of fabrics.
Kid Quilt
We had an unexpected discussion about kid quilts as well. I am sure many of us have made quilts for our kids (see T-shirt quilt, Eye Spy, etc), grandkids, nieces and nephews or even for Project Linus and other kid charities. The default is something like the T-shirt quilt or a quilt using novelty fabrics. They give us a place to start.
As a parent, I have always tried to talk to my kid like a person rather than a kid. I have also encouraged others to do the same. The conversation we had about kid quilts in the workshop was all about kid quilts that encourage play and grow with kid. In other words, quilt as more than a bed covering.
Duh.
Kid Quilt
The quilt he brought to illustrate this point was made from all solids and would be suitable for a dorm room bed as it would be for a toddler’s play mat. The quilt comes with bean bags and Bill said that Sophie made up a lot of different games using the quilt and the bean bags. This quilt is on the cover of Modern Quilts Illustrated issue 6. I presume the pattern is in the magazine, but don’t have that issue.
I know that I could make this quilt with solids I have on hand. It would be great with tone on tones as well. You could try changing out some of the squares for suitable novelty fabric and add to the game playing fun. I wonder how it would look in black and white fabrics with one color?
Sophisticated Easter
Pam has a series of holiday and seasonable quilts going that she uses to decorate. When I saw this quilt, it reminded me of a stack of eggs and I thought it could be used as a sophisticated Easter quilt in the colors shown or, made with pastels, a more traditional kind of spring quilt. I believe they use raw edge applique’ for the construction. This quilt is still available in the Kerr/Ringle Modern Quilts Illustrated issue 2 and there is a much better picture there as well.
Yellow & Grey Quilt
I think that the quilt is interesting, but what I really like is the construction technique. They made it by sewing the grey and white, then cutting the strips apart and inserting the yellows. I thought that was brilliant. Why make yourself crazy trying to piece those angles if you don’t have to? The quilt is in their MQI #3 issue.
I didn’t know what category to put this post in, so I hope it works for those of you who are category-crazed.
The last time I really thought about this piece was back in June and I really wasn’t thinking about this particular piece, but the Round Robin in general and my piece specifically.
Where did you say July went?
I haven’t been to a BAM meeting in forever, sadly, but Kelly has been a great sherpa for me. Yesterday, I sent off my round robin work along with some cat beds and she will, once again, kindly, sherpa them to the meeting this Saturday. Someday I will see the BAMQGers again.
I wasn’t able to finish the orange and grey donation quilt yet. I didn’t really work on it last weekend. I’ll get back to that as soon as I pick out a blue for the sashing. Apparently, that is the hold up in my brain.
Round Robin
I did make some time last weekend, in the midst of the quantity to do some quality.
This is Chris’ piece and when I first saw it, my impression was that it needed some space. I used the white to give it some space, but didn’t want to just put white strips on, thus the corners.
I also varied the width of strips a little bit so it would have a bit of movement, or viewer’s eyes would move around.
Now that I look at it, it kind of looks like a tulip.
I tried to make the white the same white as in the flowery black/white/yellow print so neither would look dirty. The black on white I added is pretty bright. I think it works. I hope it works, at least. Chris makes art quilts, so she can paint over the white, if she doesn’t like it.
This project definitely involves muscles that are atrophied in me. I am committed to working through all of the pieces, but I am not sure about the project. I am anxious about doing a good. My technique will be good. I hope the design will be, too. I am not sure if my design work fits the piece. It certainly isn’t terrible.
The Bill Kerr Workshop was awesome. It came hard on the heels of the Sew Day held on Thursday and there were 35 people there! We didn’t get to see Weeks Ringle or the famous Sophie, who has recently published her first book, A Kid’s Guide to Sewing, but I’ll suffer through.
I said somewhere that I want to crawl inside Bill Kerr’s head and suck out all the information he has in there. It sounds gross, but that is how I feel. This is the second lecture/workshop I have taken from him and this was all new information. Or I wasn’t really paying attention last time and he just got a gimme in me.
He is a very good lecturer, regardless, because even if he said the same things over again, they resonated with me and I want to incorporate them into my work.
The last time I heard him speak was at the Peninsula Quilter’s Guild in 2008. At that time I wrote “I am hopeful that I will get to work with them, because he mentioned that they teach a week long, intensive design course. It is now on my list of things to do when the work situation simmers down.” I remember that a month after i wrote this statement, my work troubles were put firmly on the back burner, because my husband was laid off and it was a year and half before we could even consider something like this workshop. I still want to take the design course, and will still have to inquire, though he said they are still busy, but Weeks has created a Craftsy class with a lot of information and that class has 6,000 students in it. I can’t even imagine having that many students. I know they are not all in a classroom at once, but still that is a lot of potential questions.
My ideal would be to have a once per week class with them where the students, including me, went away, did some work and came back the following week to work with them some more. Since they live in Chicago and I live a few thousand miles from them, I will have to put that on my list of things to do when I win $100,000,000,000 in the lottery.
If you don’t know Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle, they are the owners of the Modern Quilt Studio (formerly FunQuilts). Weeks is the author of the popular Craft Nectar blog. They are the authors of several books:
The workshop was scheduled to last from 6:30-9:30, but we really went until about 10:00pm. At 6:30, Bill bounded, literally, into the room and just started talking to us about color and design and I was, immediately, riveted. I think he really did chat with Rhonda for a minute before he started, but being in the way back of the room, that was my impression. He is energetic and full of life and I know I would gain so much by truly studying with him and Weeks.
He said something that I truly believe. When I looked back at the208 blog post from the last lecture I attended. He said a version of “He suggested that people think you are born Picasso or doomed to mediocrity. He believes this to be wrong and that visual arts take work, like anything else, and that you can be successful if you work at it.” He really emphasized that everyone has an artistic spark and that the owner of the spark has to practice and practice. For us that means making many, many quilts and failing at some of them.
A lot of what I write below is from my notes, so some of the sentences may be just fragments.
Definitions: Hue – what we call color. When I say my favorite color is turquoise, I really should be saying my favorite hue is turquoise.
Value – relative lightness or darkness of a hue
Itten Color Wheel-saturation
Saturation – in-tenseness of the hue – hue in purest form – middle of Itten color wheel. e.g. Pure saturated yellow can never be dark.
Black is the most desaturated “hue”.
The other thing he said that I need to remember for my own work is that it is never, ever solely about the color; it is about the role that the color plays in the quilt. THE ROLE. Fabric is fabric; you can use all types and styles together. There is no quilt police who will look at your quilt and tell you to take some fabrics out. Who cares if it is modern or civil war, etc? If hte fabric has the right role int he quilt and it is a modern fabric next to a Civil War reproduction next to a feedsack, and the piece works, you have succeeded.
Isolate one concept, express one idea:
showcase 1 fabric
showcase 1 pattern
etc.
David Butler/Jo Morton quilt
Above is one of the quilts Bill Kerr brought as an example. It is a perfect example of the above statement. It is a combination of David Butler’s first collection and Jo Morton fabrics. David Butler is Amy Butler’s husband and his quilt fabrics are more ‘modern’. Jo Morton designs Civil War reproduction fabrics. The fabrics work together despite their different styles and, thus, the quilt works. Don’t limit yourself because you think “I don’t do Civil War.”
Drabs work really well with brights. “Drabs” are taupe, putty, some greys, olive green, some browns, etc. Drabs are forgettable. Drabs allow other fabrics to shine. He didn’t have a chance to go into this very much, but he said that a lot of times a drab version of the complementary hue can really spark up another color. Drabs can add some relief, <Jaye editorializing> I think that what Kerr discussed was what is sometimes referred to as “buying ugly colors” or “using ugly colors”. I don’t like to think that there is a hue that does not have a role to play in some quilt (see above in David Butler/Jo Morton quilt). I also like the idea of calling these types of hues “drab” rather than “ugly.”
He also said, and I really like this metaphor, that putting fabrics together for a quilt is like creating the perfect guest list for a party. Think about hue, scale, pattern (like polka dots). Think about eliminating the ‘loud obnoxious guest.’ Think about how the scale, pattern and hues work together as a harmonious whole. I keep thinking back on his comments comparing quilts to a party.
Figure Ground and Illustration Style
Choosing fabrics for a quilt is not just about looking at the circles on the selvedge and picking colors. Figure Ground and Illustration Style are two things to consider.
In simplest terms the figure is what you notice and the ground is everything else…The figure always defines the ground and the ground defines the figure. They are inseparable — you can not have one without the other. If you draw the figure in a composition, you are drawing the ground at the same time… (Daphne)
Illustration Style is the style in which motifs are drawn. Are there light objects on dark field? Are there dark objects on light field? Are the motifs are outlined in black? Are the motifs not outlined? The type/style of drawing, such as the way I draw my CPP responses or a watercolor color style are all examples of illustration style and they are another tool that you can use to choose fabrics.
Bill likes RJR Linen White as a great background. He likes it better than Kona Snow and there was a suggestion that Kona, while dominating the market, ravels too much. The RJR Linen White is very warm.
Other
Every quilt is an opportunity to learn.
Weeks Ringle wrote an article in the June 2013 American Patchwork and Quilting called Stash RX
I’ll write another post about the Fabric Smackdown exercise we did.
I took the day off of work Thursday and went to a BAMQG Sew Day and Workshop. After some personal drama (locked myself out of the house), I got there at 12:30 only to be faced with more personal drama (I forgot the bag that includes my rulers, rotary cutters, mat, pins, etc). Fortunately, I sat down across from Peggy and next to Amanda. Between them and Claire, I was set up to rock and roll the sewing machine.
Sew Day Projects
I WAY overestimated what I could get done. I brought a Chubby Charmer filled with fabric and batting for journal covers, fabric for napkins, flannel for receiving blankets. I brought enough to survive some kind of siege that included sewing.
I really only got to the journal covers and I made the parts of two and finished 3-4.
My problem with Sew Days is that I want to just walk around and talk to people and not sew. If i bring my sewing stuff (and why wouldn’t I since there I have a gene that makes me physically unable to bring sewing stuff with me to a Sew Day). I really should be quite ok with socializing. Socializing is good!
Sew Day Work shot
A number of people had just arrived when I got there, so, despite the lock problem, I wasn’t terribly late, but I am sure I could have gotten all of my projects done had I arrived at 10am. 😉
Still, it was great to be there. I hadn’t been to a Sew Day before and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy hauling all of my stuff, but once set up, I just plowed through [spoiler alert] journal covers. I am glad I got them done and I am well set up for journal covers now.
In the work photo, you can see my stuff bottom right, Peggy top right and several other sewing machines and people towards the back of the photo. It was a great little group in our area. Big bonus? We were right near the iron!
Monkey Dot Cat Bed
The first thing I did was make a cat bed. I figured that anything I made after would contain schnibbles and I could use the cat bed to contain them.
Also, I have four I need to make for Amanda and the homeless cats. I thought about bringing them all as they are quick to make, but decided on other projects.
Jennifer’s Round Robin
Jennifer, who usually photographs the projects at the BAMQG meetings, showed us this hexagon piece. It is a round robin for one of the BAMQG groups. I love the shape! Who would have thought of creating a hexagon?!? Obviously someone did, but it is fabulous. The whole piece looks like a mosaic floor to me.
I am lukewarm on round robins and this makes me rethink that.
Also, I have to give a tiny bit of credit to ‘modern sensibilities’ as I don’t think this would have shown up in other kinds of round robins. I think that if you don’t know you can’t or shouldn’t do something you just try it and there is a lot of that going on in BAMQG.
Yes, Journal Covers
Yellow & Pink Journal Cover
What I really wanted to do with journal covers was use up the pieces trimmed from quilts that I made and had quilted. My quilter diligently saves the batting and the sides for me and one day (I talked about it in the last week or so) it occurred to me that I could use those pieces to make journal covers. This is a great use, actually, because the trimmings are often long enough so I don’t have to cut part of a 1/2 yard and then cut some more, so that I only have a large scrap left.
When I went to Sew Day, I had in mind that I would whip up several of them. What the exercise turned into, even though I did make 3 or 4 was an exercise in design. I learned a couple of things:
I don’t like just having strips of fabric for the journal covers. In the Yellow and Pink journal cover, that strip of pink that reads as a solid really bugs me. Not enough to rip apart the journal cover, but enough to put it on a journal I have already used and not carry it around for 2 months. The remedy is to cut those strips into a few pieces and pieces and piece them back together in a sort of checkerboard.
Batting doesn’t work for me. I took all the small pieces apart and they will go to Amanda’s cat bed project. I need to find something else that gives the cover a bit of body.
Green & Letters Journal
Either I need to do a moderate amount of piecing or just cut a piece of fabric, like my recent Philip Jacobs journal cover and make a cover out of one piece of fabric. I do think patterned fabric, like the green and letters journal cover works. I think it works because there are blocks of color. The blocks of color combined with a bit of piece make the piece interesting. I am not a big fan of that chocolate (though it is chocolate) brown and green and yellow, but I like the letters and thinking about writing letters, or just writing, in general.
Leaders and enders are great. This is old news, I know. I am a big fan of leaders and enders, as my faithful readers know and using leaders and enders in the middle of the journal covers project meant that I had most of a journal cover top done by the time I got home.
Leftovers Journal Cover
The last journal cover I made wasn’t finished at the retreat. I began using the leaders & enders technique to sew bits together as I made the other journal covers, but I only ended up with the piece you see in the photo by the time I left. I don’t need to make sure that the family is warm when I make pieced items, nor is there a shortage of fabric at my house, but I still can’t seem to throw fabric away.
We ended the day with pizza. Usually, not a good choice for me, but there are 5 people in the guild who eat GF diets, so we had the option of 3 gluten free pizzas! The Awesome Amanda went to Red Brick over in San Mateo and picked up pizza for us.
The crowning glory, though the Sew Day was pretty awesome, was participating in the Bill Kerr workshop. Stayed tuned for the notes on that.
I might be back in the blogging saddle. I spared you my Special Whine that I intended to post on Thursday when my frustration level was over the top in terms of computers. I rethought and reworked what I had available to post and now I have my new computer and, so far, so good. It stays connected to my network (yes, first world problem), which is awesome.
I spent the afternoon and evening with BAMQG yesterday at a special event. The day was a Sew Day, then starting at 6:30 Bill Kerr of the Modern Quilt Workshop gave a class. More on that later, but I’ll tantalize you with this: I want everything that man has to sell and then I want to crawl inside his head and suck all the design theory out.
The very first project I worked on was a cat bed for Amanda. I sewed that baby up and then we all used it to stuff our schnibbles in. It wasn’t nearly full enough when Amanda took it home, but she has a lot of schnibbles with which to work, so I am not worried. Stay tuned for more Sew Day fun!
After trimming all the t-shirts for the Young Man’s t-shirt quilt, my scrap bag was overflowing. The cat beds don’t take long to put together, so I sewed the pieces up and stuffed the bed with shards of t-shirt material and cotton scraps. My scrap bag is nice and clear now and the cat bed only needs a bit more stuffing.
I can’t make the next meeting either, so Kelly and I may meet downtown to exchange stuff for the meeting. The cat bed is heavy, however and I don’t want her to have to haul it around while at the Exploratorium with her daughter, so I may just mail it to Amanda.
Look for the pattern and information in this previous post.
Description of May Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting
BAM Banner
The meeting was great. I had fun, people were nice, leadership is getting in the groove of really hard jobs. I got see my pals, pick up a new cat bed and BEST of all, be relieved of my blog duties. Everything seems to be slipping into place. I took several pages of notes even though I don’t have to write up the meeting for the blog.
The blog part is great news. I decided, for various reasons, that I didn’t want to do it anymore about two months ago. The President was finally able to get someone to volunteer for Social Media Chair and, though, I could have stayed on as Blog Manager, I decided a year was a good run and took the opportunity to step down. It is kind of sad that the blog will be used only for meeting notices, especially since I worked pretty hard at putting up good content and trying to build a readership. The new social media chair told me only 10 people were reading, which I find hard to believe, but have no other figures with which to argue. I can, now, spend more time here, if I need to. Lucky you! 😉
All good things have a dark side and the dark side of this is that I have to figure out why I am not getting the Ning notices. All the guild information will be posted there and I would like to keep up.
I really like the banner Kelly made, which is why I put it up again. This time she added to it by buying materials at OSH to make a stand. I love the quilt and library signs int he same photo. I may just photograph it at every meeting from different angles and put it up for you to admire. 😉 Perhaps I’ll sweet talk Kelly into making me one.
There was a lot of interesting discussion about the plan for local modern guilds to join the mothership. The MQG is proposing at $15 per person fee for guilds to be part of the MQG. The mothership will offer some technology solutions and hire staff. I can see the pros and cons of joining and not. I don’t think the value of what they are offering is convincing guilds to join, though. Guilds have until December 2014 to decide whether to join or not. The BAM group will wait until October or November to vote on the decision.
Color group
In the last notes on the April meeting, I talked about my Color group. That turned out to be one of the funnest parts of the month between the April and May meetings. I like the idea of a small group and am, kind of hoping, it will turn into something more than just a guild group. While I enjoyed thinking about about the possibilities, I ended up making the blocks at the last minute and I felt terrible while I was doing them (stomach issues). I am not sure they are my best work, but they were ready. I plowed through and really like the way they turned out.
Color group blocks
I used the pattern I really liked, Chisholm Trail, from the blocks I made for Week 13 of the Star Sampler blocks. The bonus about that block was that I had everything I needed handy and the construction was fresh in my mind. I wasn’t so thrilled with the color choices I made. I don’t hate the blocks or anything, but I liked my blue version better.
Only Chris and I brought blocks for the charity quilt and 3 people from our group weren’t even there. Other members will bring them next time and we will still do the charity quilt. We decided that we would diverge from the color project and do a round robin. I haven’t done a joint project in an age, except with TFQ, so I am a little anxious. I stopped doing them, because I didn’t appreciate bad technique. I am willing to try again with people that I know. I am going to get a set group of fabrics and make a nice center. I need to figure that out soon, since I have very little time to sew and won’t be at the next meeting, so have to get it to someone in the group before the meeting. Eeeekkk!!!
Donations
Cat Bed #2-2013
I have to admit that I did the bulk of the work for the meeting on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I couldn’t get to it sooner, apparently and felt I just had to get my charity projects done.
Friday night, I pinned the first bits of the Cat Bed together so I would be ready to sew first thing Saturday morning. I was able to sew it together relatively quickly. I stuffed it about 1/4 full of my scraps and that was done. It looks very similar to the one I made in April.
Patchwork Wheel Donation top
I had also FINALLY started to sew the Patchwork Wheel blocks together as leaders and enders. Before this last week, I hadn’t worked on them since January.
I wasn’t very organized about it and hadn’t made much progress. Yesterday morning I decided that there was no time like the present and whipped those babies into a top.
Because I was in a big rush, I didn’t put borders on the top and I didn’t make a back. I think it needs to be contained, so some borders would be helpful. I kind of wanted the piece out of my life.
Patchwork Wheel Donation top
It wasn’t all peaches and roses, though and I think the blocks look more like Sawtooth Stars than Patchwork Wheels. I think that there is too little organization in the fabric choices. Still, I like the idea of the pattern and I think this particular top will be very interesting to the Muggle, as Frances says, that will receive it.
I also think that the pattern has possibilities for future donation tops. I didn’t take another kit, because I think i will make this pattern again out of my own fabrics. If I make this pattern out of solids, it will look modern and viewers will be able to see the wheels better. I am thinking of making cool wheels – purples, blues and greens – and warm wheels – reds, pinks, yellows and oranges – and putting them all in the same quilt. I could even use prints, but make each wheel monochromatic or warm or cool so there was some organization. I would also like to try the Triangle Technique to make triangle squares. I know it means there wouldn’t be as much fabric variety overall, but I think it would be ok. Regardless it would be worth a try. If it isn’t perfect, I can try again.
Workshop
The most exciting news is that Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr are coming BAM! I signed up for their workshop, which is on creating palettes. I would sign up for almost anything they did.
Other Work
Leona’s Angela Walters Challenge
Show and Tell is not as exciting as it was now that we have to bring finished pieces. I try to look around and see what people might be working on during the meeting.
One of the reason I enjoy the BAM meetings is that I hear about new things. Leona did show this quilt, which she made in response to Angela Walter’s panel challenge, Make It Right. I hadn’t heard of this challenge. I noticed her project because of the quilting. Leona has a longarm and she programs it using patterns she purchases. I love the combination of pebbles and spirals.
Leona’s Star Block Quilt
Leona brought another quilt, which I noticed first. The spiral with the sun design within the spiral is very appealing for an all over design. I really like it and may show it to Colleen.
I went to the CQFA meeting on Saturday. I had sort of hard time getting there, but I ended up as the second person there, which is some kind of a new world’s record. I come from the farthest away and am always rushing in at the last second.
I had a hard time getting there, because I was reading a good book (an actual print book!) and just couldn’t put it down. I also had to take something to my DH, who had forgotten it and was stranded while his car got fixed. I also kept thinking the meeting started at 1pm. Of course the meeting doesn’t start at 1pm. It has never started at 1pm!
Anyway, I made it. The first order of business was a doll workshop led by Rhonda. CQFA held two doll workshops back in 2001 or 2003, I can’t remember. Out of them came my pieces, Mother Warrior and Artist Warrior. I also left those workshops with a lot of ideas, but haven’t taken the time to make more dolls. I’d still like to make Referencia, the warrior of research librarians, who appears in various forms in some of my creative prompt responses. This was a great opportunity to explore that format again.
I am still trying to catch up from my recent travels, so I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, but I looked through the materials Rhonda sent. Then I did a Google search for, something like, doll patterns and came across a picture of a mermaid. This is a much sweeter mermaid version than I made, but it gave me enough information to get myself together.
I used the same template that I used for the previous two dolls and added a tail.
Mermaid in process, 2013
I sewed body and tail together, using a batik for the tail and a tone-on-tone for the body. I didn’t want to use a flat solid for the body and that tone-on-tone was a good compromise for me. I unstitched the head at one point, then restitched some hair on to the piece. At the meeting I sewed beads on to make a bikini top and added a bead set I had that was a perfect necklace.
I need to put some more stuffing in her and I think her hair is not thick enough, so I will add more hair. I am not sure about additional embellishments, but we will see, especially along her tail.
Mermaid detail
I stayed after with Dolores, Maureen, Sonja and Rhonda and worked on the mermaid for quite awhile. Dolores loaned me her bodkin and it is a really nice wooden piece that felt good in my hand as I stuffed the mermaid. It is part of a set she bought in a class. I may get one as it was very useful.
DH kind of burst my bubble with the piece when he asked what I was going to do with it.
Sigh.
Why do people ask me that? EVER? Nothing! The answer is always nothing. I am going to make it, during which time there will be a much better chance that no acts of violence will be committed, then we will move on to the next piece and the cycle will start again.
Sigh.
Anyway. I may enter it in a show, if and, when I finish it.
There was a little business. The Olive Hyde Gallery fiber art exhibit is opening on Friday. A couple of our members have pieces in the show.
The color challenge will be due in July. I didn’t know about it in person, but only from the minutes. I am not big on challenges, but decided to take a strip and see if I could get inspired. I got a range of purples that are more on the frost/ice/blue side than the red side. I have an idea, but we’ll see if I can execute it.
We will be having another Library Show at the San Francisco Public Library as well. The show will be from October/Nov 2014 – April 2015. I’ll have the exact dates for you when they become available.
I won’t be at the July meeting, because of work, but Denise Oyama Miller, an active SAQA member and part of the Olivy Hyde Gallery will be doing a demonstration that was explained as being like Sue’s fabric paper. This is the first time in awhile that the group has paid for a speaker. I am very sorry to miss it.
We haven’t had any Between Meeting Meetings lately and Maureen, who was leading the meeting, suggested we think about those. Marie brought up the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and there was some discussion of an out there.
ATCs May 2013
ATCs were exchanged, but I forgot mine. I did get one as Maureen had an extra and took pity on me. Rhonda made hers out of the leftovers from her A-B-C Challenge from BAMQG. Dolores made hers int he same style as the piece she worked on at the Retreat.
The sewing time after was only attended by 4 other people, but I enjoyed sitting and stitching.
I know it has been a week or so since the meeting, but I have had a couple of crazy weeks. At this moment, I am enjoying the benefits of a laptop by getting this post done while out of town.
We were back at our old location this time, which was a relief. I enjoyed the location of the last meeting. I thought it was a beautiful space, but felt like I was coming home this time. Everyone else was more relaxed and happy at this meeting, as well, for some reason. Or so it seemed.
BAMQG Banner
Bay Area Modern Banner
Last summer, the Modern Quilt Guild had a block challenge where they were making blocks for charity and for a banner that would be displayed at various events (I guess. Frankly, I don’t remember the details, but I wrote about it). At the same time the BAMQG leadership asked for blocks in the guild’s colors. Kelly has been working diligently on the banner and she revealed what she had so far. She has a bit more quilting to go, but the idea is to display it at the SCVQA show, which is this coming weekend.
Show & Tell
Everything that was shown was great. There wasn’t a lot, though. I showed the A-B-C Challenge. Jennifer has already posted the photos, so here is a slideshow from Flickr:
Color Group
Color Group
One of the funnest parts of the meeting was the color group meeting. My group had Patti, Kelly, Suzi, Chris and Jennifer. This time Joan and Kathleen joined us, so our group is quite large and also enthusiastic.
Color Group colors
At the last meeting, we met with our group and selected a group of colors from items that people brought. Our colors (see right) are purple, pink and chartreuse. This time we were to bring fabric scraps in these colors (I forgot) and decide what project we wanted to do. Others forgot, too, so we decided we would each make 2-8″ finished blocks from our own fabrics and bring them to the next meeting. One of the members, Jennifer, brought a large piece of a green wheel print and we will all use a piece of that in each of our blocks to help with continuity.We will create a charity quilt out of the resulting blocks.
Color Group Fabric
I suppose the blocks have to be ‘modern’. Since I am in the groove of Sawtooth Stars, I may just make some Sawtooth Stars while work on the Star Sampler. I don’t know yet. The fabric is really stiff and I need to wash it before I do anything with it. I don’t think I have any of the fabric in my own fabric closet.
Another group is doing a round robin. Another group is making zipper pouches to exchange. It is an interesting exercise.
Destash Party
Destash PartyDestash PartyDestash PartyDestash Party
I didn’t bring anything to get rid of, but there was no shortage of stuff. I helped get everything out of bags and sort of organized before the contributors were let loose. “Organized” is a lot more generous a term than what we really did. We emptied the bags by dumping them on a big table in a giant mound. I couldn’t really believe how much stuff there was.
I was all for organizing things neatly, but was soundly vetoed. We did put all the patterns together, all the notions together, etc.
They made short work of most of the good stuff and the rest went to charity.
Someone brought 3 spools of Aurifil thread. I was tempted to slip one into my pocket before the frenzy started, but restrained myself.
There were patterns and tons and tons of fabric. Cynthia brought a box she had packed a year ago to send to a friend’s daughter in Japan. The cost turned out to be prohibitive, so she just had the box sitting on a shelf. She brought it sealed and everything. Jennifer A took a chance and got the premium fabric, charm packs and fat quarter bundles. I looked through it and it was a great haul.
San Mateo County Fair
Rhonda brought the applications for the fair for our group entry for the A-B-C Challenge. She was very organized, which was great. I helped her while she was a destashing/restashing by hunting down some of the members and getting their entry fee. I have to get my other entries in as well. I also have to finish the sleeve.
The last weekend was spent at the CQFA Retreat. We go to a small town on the coast about half an hour away. It is perfect, because I don’t have to drive very far and it is beautiful.
Rhonda and Angela came to the CQFA Retreat for the first time. It was great, because they were able to get to know the other members better. As I mentioned CQFA and the BAMQG were on the same day so it was hard to stay and socialize. It was also great, because we got to spend much more time with Angela and Rhonda.
Rhonda brought her A-B-C Challenge and was able to work on it a little bit. It really looks great and the CQFAers loved her travel concept. I really admire people who bring multiple projects to the Retreat and then work on them. I brought two projects for the first and was able to work on both. One of my issues is I can’t organize myself well enough to make sure that I have all of the parts necessary for multiple projects.
Julie, unlike me, has a wonderful spontaneity about her work. As a result, she worked on several different projects. The three parts of this piece are really a good aspect of this piece. Of course, she used her hand dyes.
Dolores’ FabMo Piece
Dolores likes to plan her pieces and does gorgeous, thoughtful work. At this Retreat, however, Dolores was sitting next to Julie and, without Dolores realizing it, some of Julie’s spontaneity wore off (infected???) on Dolores. Dolores took a sample book of linen she got from FabMo and cut the pieces apart. She laid them out on a piece of muslin as a backing and glued them down temporarily.
Her intention was to sew them just enough to hold down the strips until she could embellish them.
The interesting thing about this piece is the texture of the fabric and the fraying of the edges. The colors are earthy with a bit of zing (see the purple?)
Angela’s Table Runner
Angela came with the SCVQA challenge project. They will be having a show in April and the theme is Oh My Stars!
Along with the show quilts, the organization will have a challenge exhibit and Angela brought her pieces along to work on. She brought fabric and thread and ended up with the piece on the left.
This is a miracle, because there were many, many rules to this challenge. I admire Angela for coming up with this gorgeous piece and still working within the rules of the challenge.
Angela’s Table Runner
She decided to use the Gwen Marston wonky stars technique. I love this piece. I love the colors (of course!!! Look at that turquoise). I love the embroidery of constellations she did as embellishments. I would love to see Angela make a similar piece but larger.
Sue’s Flying Geese
Sue worked, again, with batiks. Her piece from last year was just as gorgeous and when you look at them together, they look like a series.
I also like the juxtaposition of the classic Flying Geese with the contemporary look of the batiks. I know it is weird to say such a thing, but it looks so interesting to me and really stands out to me.
Maureen’s Plus Quilt
Maureen started out with this Plus type quilt.
I love the fabrics that she chose. Maureen had a Jelly Roll or strip set with these colors. Instead of using rectangles as some of the pieces Maureen used all squares. She told me that starting with this piece made for a very calming beginning to the quilt retreat.
Maureen’s Fabric Map
Maureen started to have some trouble with her sewing machine so she switched to a hand project.
This piece looked like a map. Maureen did a lot of handwork on the piece and was thinking about others. She added French knots and a lot of couching around the edges of the white and blue areas..
DoloresCalm Basting
This is what Calm looks like during basting. Big Deal, right?
Rhonda’s Hand project
Rhonda took a class on different types of handwork. In the picture above we are helping Rhonda chose the colors for the next set of borders.
Robin’s Indigo Ocean Waves
Robin had some indigo fabrics from her mother. They were from South Africa. She found some great, and perfect, contemporary companion prints to use with the indigos.
The large squares are the contemporary prints. I also like the way these blocks are a bit off. It gives the piece movement.
Sonja’s Bicycle
Sonja was working on several pieces as well. She was inspired by some of the activities she does with her family. In addition to the bicycle, she had a scooter as part of the series. It was such great work; I can’t wait to see it finished.
The CQFA Meeting was actually on January 5th, but I can’t always get to the meeting notes right away.
As usual, we traded ATCs. There were about 7 people participating in the swap this time. It was really great to see all the ATCs that people made.
Mine weren’t my best work. I measured wrong and waited until the last minute. Everyone made the best of my blunder by saying that they were the embodiment of the resolutions of the New Year. They were skinnier than they should have been so they were the butt of a joke about weight loss in the New Year.
The meeting was great. We had the usual business meeting and show and tell after a really nice social. I finished the Garden during this social hour. It wasn’t fun, because I finished the Garden; the social part of the meeting was great because of the opportunity to chat with everyone.
I showed the Spiderweb top, mostly because I had it there and was working on ripping off the paper after I finished the Garden. I also showed The Corner Store. People were very complimentary.
There was show and tell, but I forgot my camera (typical, I know, right?). I love the group, because they do such great work. The piece above is one of Maureen’s and I liked the negative space. I was smack off of working on the Negative Space segment in the Design Series, so negative space in quilts was on my mind.
Ann brought this piece and it screamed Ruth McDowell at me. I think Ann said she took a class from Ruth at some point, but had really just gotten into working with her techniques recently. I thought the veins of this piece were great.
One part of the meeting I didn’t write much about Monday was the party part. Kathleen headed up the party committee and the table decorations and food were amazing.
I really like the vase she and Kelly made. It is modern and fun and just a nice centerpiece.
Enjoying the food
People seemed to like the food. You can see the nice view outside. I really like the trees and the green. The room was a bit warm and the windows didn’t open, but the view was great, especially after the rain stopped.
Great Team!
One of the nice things that happened was that Adrianne acknowledged all of the coordinators. She had everyone who contributed to the success of the guild this year stand up and be thanked. It was an impressive group.
I don’t know how many of these people will continue, but I hope that others will step into their shoes.
Kelly’s big wagon
We couldn’t do it without Kelly’s big wagon. This is a fold up wagon that holds A LOT! At other meetings she has helped me by carrying some of my stuff into the room. She hauled a lot of stuff for this meeting.
People enjoying themselves.
Fat Quarter Swap
I know I did all the fabric-y stuff in the last post. I didn’t have photos of my fat quarters, thought and I wanted to make sure my fabulous swap partner was acknowledged and thanked. Yes, I will write a thank you note, but a nice public note is nice, too.
As I said, I came home with a headache and that ended any thought of additional blog work. I finally did a massive photo shoot and was thrilled with the fabrics that Peggy, my swap partner, picked for me.
Fat Quarter Swap fabrics
She picked out Ty Pennington’s Impressions for me. This isn’t a group I would have chosen for myself, but I like the variety of scales in the pack. I usually don’t buy dark blues, so it is good to see some for a change. My stash of them is low after the Stars for San Bruno quilts.
All in all, a great meeting and a much appreciated guild.
The meeting went well. It was held at a different location, because of the crazy traffic last year. I really liked the space around this Library’s community room. The schedule of the meeting had a lot of different parts.
Fat Quarter Swap Fabrics
One of the activities was a fat quarter swap. I am terrible at wrapping gifts, which is why I use gift bags. I wanted this package to be pretty. I thought and thought and could not figure out how to be a successful gift wrapper. Friday I took the fabrics down, because I was on a deadline. I had to wrap the gift. I looked at the fabrics and realized that I had chosen fabrics that were pretty and cheerful. I went rummaging through my ribbon stash and found this lovely orange fabric ribbon. I decided to use the fabric as the wrapping. For a wrapping challenged person, I am pleased with the way it turned out.
Fat Quarter Swap
Peggy was my FQ swap partner and she bought me a set of blue and green fat quarters from the Fat quarter shop. they are really cool looking. She wrapped my group in another piece of fabric.
The packages looked really pretty wrapped up. People did clever things wrapping. I always get ideas and then I can never remember to use the ideas later.
Kathleen’s Blocks
I showed the A-B-C Challenge quilt and back. A few other people brought their finished A-B-C challenge pieces. Michelle and Lynette both brought their pieces and they did a really good job. A lot of us did similar blocks, but with the different arrangements and layouts and fabrics, they all look different. Others brought their blocks. Kathleen worked on her blocks during the sew-in. Rhonda worked on putting sashing on her blocks. I don’t know if we will have enough to finished quilts to enter in the San Mateo County Fair as a group.
I really like the graphic nature of Kathleen’s blocks and fabric choices.
Donation Quilts
I also showed the cat beds and the Baby blocks quilt I finished for the Charity Girls. I was pleased to see another 6-7 quilts brought in for the charity drive. It is amazing how people keep bringing in quilts that they have finished. It is amazing that everyone works together on getting the quilts finished. I love it.
Corner Store basted
I forgot to bring the Spiderweb to show, but brought all the parts to baste the Corner Store. I decided I wanted to try and quilt it myself. I want to finish it and the only way that will happen is if I do it myself right now. Rhonda and Deborah helped me baste, which I appreciated so much. They are awesome at basting and that quilt looks good. We used every single safety pin I brought. I could have used more, but it worked with what I had. Perhaps I will quilt it while I am off work over Christmas.
I was really pleased to be able to stay for the sew-in for a little while. I came home with a headache, though, that lingered through yesterday.
I can’t remember the last time I went to a CQFA meeting, which is a very sad thing. I think it may have been May, which is forever ago. It was a great meeting – very well attended. In a way I wish BAMQG and CQFA were not on the same day, but, on the other hand, I get all the driving and being out of the house out of the way in one day.
ATCs
November 2012 ATCs
I made really cool ATCs. I saved the mesh wrapping from two different bags of fruit. Limes had a green mesh wrapping. The other was a red mesh bag. I opened them up to flatten them, then placed them in layers over a piece of fabric, which was of an unfortunate design. I tried not to think too much about the choices I made while I was making them. I just made the choices and worked through the design in my head.
I placed the two kinds of mesh over the fabric, pinned everything together and wove eyelash yarn through the mesh over and over using one of my book binding needles. Once I felt like I had woven enough of the eyelash yarn through the mesh, I pinned the backs to the front (which was one piece) and sewed with a straight stitch around the two parts to hold them together. To finish, I satin stitched around the outside.
There were only 4 of us swapping, so I got one of mine back, which I was happy about.
Notan
Notan Exercise #2
Julie, Dolores and Maureen set up a presentation on Notan. They did a great job. I learned a lot and can use some of it in my Design Series presentation on negative space in the future.
The thing to remember for me was to the think of the whole design not just the foreground. In the photo of the exercise 2 the white is just as important as the black. The designs are whole and neither the black nor white is more important.
I borrowed Julie’s book, because I couldn’t find mine and am looking forward to reading more.
Show & Tell
I showed the Flowering Snowball, which I finished the other day. No photo yet, but look for one soon. I have to get one of the boys to hold it up so I can take a photo. I am in love with the back mostly because of the large piece of Philip Jacobs fabric I included.
Dolores Self-Portrait
Maureen, Dolores and Bron brought their self portraits (workshop from last meeting), which really turned out great. Maureen wasn’t happy with hers, but I liked it. It didn’t look like the photo she started with, but it did look like a person.
I like Dolores’ self portrait, because it has the essence of Dolores. It has her feeling, joie de vivre and expressiveness without looking exactly like her. I have always thought that getting the feeling of the person right is more important than having the painting or quilt look exactly like a person. I love the way Dolores has used the different fabrics for different parts of her self portrait. The black on white works very well for the hair even though the fabric is numbers. I think it was an inspired choice.
Bron’s piece
I am not sure that Bron’s piece is a rendition of her grandmother, but I think it is. Many people commented on the background of the piece. The two different fabrics she used for the background are inspired choices. The different scales are good. The gold of the one piece of the background brings out the skin of the figure while the stripes in the left hand background mimic the stripes in the figure’s dress/shirt.
I also really like the scarf. I never thought of adding a scarf, but it really looks great and solves a lot of neck/skin problems. I would have liked to have looked at the scarf for longer to see how it was sewn, but didn’t get the chance.
I am constantly impressed by what CQFA people make and the choices they make within their pieces.
