Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am slowly getting a bit of the FOTY blocks done in between the Christmas gifts. I am branching out a bit as well and not putting same color with same color all he time. For some of the color combinations it just didn’t look right. Not sure how I will handle that choice when I start putting together the whole quilt, but I am sure that it will work out one way or another.
Cutting FOTY strips and putting blocks together is my main project for next week
I took a small hiatus from putting together the FOTY 2009 blocks (Zanzibar from Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle) for a number of reasons. First, the 9k was in the shop and I wanted to use the same machine to sew them. Second, I didn’t have the right fabrics to combine. Third, I was working on other projects. Etc.
Here are the latest iteration of this simple block. I did a bunch of fabric laundry and am nearly done, so now it is on to the pressing, cutting and sewing. I have only 2.5 more months to get the fabrics taken care of as I am planning on putting this quilt together at the CQFA retreat in January.
My warm up for Sunday turned out to be some FOTY blocks. I have not been diligent about pressing and cutting up my new fabric. I have fabric I washed a month ago still sitting on my chair. It isn’t as if I haven’t been in the workroom, though. I will get around to it eventually. These were the fabrics that were already cut up and ready to sew. I sewed them up and now have additions for the FOTY pile
Here are the latest FOTY 2009 blocks. These blocks are so easy to make that they are like candy. You can’t make just one.
I am thinking that I will use these fabrics, except the bright white circles fabric, for a Yellow Brick Road type quilt. I wrote about these fabrics on January 17, 2009 and on February 23, 2009.
The FOTY 2009 block has been selected. It is from a quilt called Zanzibar by FunQuilts. You can find it in their book, The Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop, a book I highly recommend for the in depth discussion of putting colors together.
TFQ and I are going to make the same block and see how that goes. I made these first two thinking that I would use each fabric twice. I want to see a bit of the fabric, so I will use each fabric for the outside of one block and inside of another. I am interested to see how that idea works out.
I also am thinking that I will continue with the “waves of color” Jag I seem to be on and put like colors together. This may prove a bit of a challenge and I will have to change later, but for now that is my idea.
These blocks go together very quickly as each patch is 3.5″.
I have mentioned dozens of times that I have been working on and off on the FOTY project all year. That is sort of the idea of FOTY (Fabric of the Year). You work on it all year, especially cutting fabric. In my case I also sewed some of the patches together. Now the top is finished and I will soon be moving on to FOTY 2009.
Basics of the project:
2.5″x4.5″ rectangles
Cut one patch from each piece of fabric purchased in 2008.
I did find one fabric that was missing and that was the purple vegetable fabric I used to make the eggplant/lemon tote. I have a little piece of the veggie fabric that I will put on the back, but I would like to make another tote with that fabric as the one I made didn’t quite come out the way I wanted. Sadly, I don’t have a large enough piece. Gladly I will be able to admire it on the back of the FOTY 2008 quilt!
This project was a joy to work on during the retreat weekend, as I may have mentioned. I didn’t realize how much fun it would be. Partially, it was one project to work on so I could focus that alone. Partially, people made really wonderful comments on how cheerful it was and what a good job I was doing, which boosted by ego a bit.
One of the huge things I decided not long before leaving for the retreat was to change the direction of the project. I started out with the idea that the patches would be oriented in a rail-fence type setting, like I show in a post from August 18, 2008.
After playing around with that stack of blues over the holidays, I was really inspired by the different blues next to each other. I played around with the unsewn patches I had madly cut in January. Trying the layout of the patches out the new portable design wall sealed the deal. I decided to work on more of a blended / color wheel type look to the quilt. That is what necessitated all that ripping. Three days worth, to be exact, though to be honest, it was all day, every day.
That brought to mind the challenge of the FOTY projects. The fabrics purchased during the year may not necessarily go together and there has to be some way to make a cohesive project. At least for me, as I didn’t want to make a project with no design cohesion. TFQ solves this design challenge by adding in other fabrics for the background.
Above are all the pieces that were not sewed together. I put them all up on the portable design wall to look at them. It looks like a jumbled mess here, but that is part of the design process. 😉
The above is an in process photo. I don’t, wherever possible, like to sew tops together in rows. The seams never seem to line up and that frustrates me. Good technique and well sewed quilts are important to me. It really depends on the piece as to how I end up sewing it together. Generally, I go for chunks, as TFQ calls it. She suggested the technique to me and I have embraced it. On this piece, I started in the upper right hand corner and sewed two rectangles together and did that all the way across the quilt. One thing that always fascinates me is the way the top shrinks as I sew. I know it is the seam allowance, but to see the big space appear as the piece goes together just amazes me for some reason.
Above I was working my way across the quilt sewing 2 sets of 2 rectangles together to make a chunk of 4 rectangles.
In the above photo, you can see that I have made larger chunks. Eight pieces are sewn together by now.The process was:
2 rectangles sewed together
2 sets of 2 rectangles sewn together = 4 rectangles
2 sets of 4 rectangles sewn together = 8 rectangles (like the above photo)
So, the top is complete. I am feeling like I can plow through some backs this weekend, so making labels is on my list. I am thinking that this might be a quilt that I can machine quilt on the longarm. I’ll let you know after Friday’s session.
I am plowing through the massive amounts of fabric that I bought and here are some from which I have already washed and cut a Fabric of the Year patch. They still need to be sewn together.
I have to admit that I am already thinking about the FOTY project for next year. Something with a 4patch, I think.
I sat down today and sewed together all of the FOTY pieces I had cut. I had two batches from a number of sources. The one belowwas from my Memorial Day Weekend travels. The rest of the fabric was from a rip or wo to new Pieces, the fabric I bought while TFQ was here for EBHQ in April and miscellaneous online orders.
The above batch is much more cheerful than the group below.
Now I am only behind on the fabric I bought in Seattle over the weekend. At least it is washed.
PS I don’t know what is going on with the size of my photos. Ever since I got the new version of Photoshop Elements, I can’t adjust the size like I used to be able to in Photoshop Elements 3.0. I may have to breakdown and buy the book THEN go through it. I’ll work through. Thanks for your understanding.
I decided to do the fabric project that I discussed in two previous posts here and here. This project uses fabrics I have recently purchased in some project right away.
This is the fabric I recently washed (a light load). They are arranged in no particular order. I cut the pieces and slapped them up on the wall.
Above are the fabrics after I rearranged them a bit and sewed them together. You can see the test block in there as well.
I did run across a few situations I had to decide about as I pressed the fabric, so here are the complete new rules:
I did find it to be fun, as TFQ said it was. I did find one fabric that I really didn’t like and will put in the Freecycle pile.
Needing some retail therapy this week and still having Friend Julie’s post on my mind drove me to the Artgirlz site. I was amazed to find that the creativity pack and the rubber stamps came within a few days, even though it was sen from Rhode Island. Nice service! The thing I have to figure out is how to mount the rubber stamps. I know how to mount them, but don’t have the mounting thingies. Perhaps there is a rubber stamp store somewhere where I can buy some. Artgirlz have some, but they have a variety of sizes in one pack and not enough of the little ones.
A few months ago when I was really trying to get inspired to do some visual journaling, I bought a few writing/drawing instruments to inspire me. I finally tried these NeoColors last week. They are like crayons, but more waxy. I wasn’t that impressed as I was looking for something softer. I probably won’t be buying more of them.
Finally, there is good news and bad news on the Cross Blocks (Flowering Snowball). The good news is that I finished another block. I have been working on this one for several weeks, which means that it was mostly languishing in my handwork bag. It is displayed above with some new fun fabrics.
The bad news is that I seem to have lost the templates. In a frenzy of tidying, the stack where the templates lived for months was swept away and no longer exists. The templates are gone now, too, and I can’t think of where I might have put them. Darn! I wanted to cut some more pieces. I can reprint them and start over, but I don’t want to get into a problem with piecing (I have had enough of that!), so I will look for them some more. Cross your fingers that they show up.