Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Primal Green is a show of environmental art quilts at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library.
The Wallace Stegner Environmental Center is one of the special collections at the Main Branch and, after a year of work with the Library, CQFA has over 20 quilts hanging. The quilts all have an environmental theme. The show will hang until July 31. Hope you can stop by and see it. Check the library’s website for hours.
I was also pleased to receive a block from Carol of a Scot in Tennessee. I bet she has the greatest accent!
Carol is a contributor to the Creative Prompt Project. She also does color exercises on her blog. I am not sure how often, but every time I look at her blog, I see one. Carol’s block is raw edge applique’. I love the simplicity.
Mom the Energizer Quilt Bunny brought two more stars over yesterday. She is amazing! these are definitely for the kid quilt. All those food fabrics scream ‘kid.’ Do you like those potato chips?
We now have over 50 blocks!
Want to help? The background for this project is that one family we know from school and my husband’s cousin were affected by the September 2010 San Bruno fire. We are making 3 quilts: one for our cousin and his wife, one for my son’s friend and one for the parents of my son’s friend.
I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished (8.5? unfinished) or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: Still TBA, but the end is nearing. I am still thinking it will be around the end of March, though I am not sure I will be ready to piece quilts by then. We will see.
Still…
We can’t do it without you! Please contribute some blocks.
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
Yesterday, after spending the morning with the Young Man at an appointment , I met my mom and we visited to the biannual San Francisco Quilters’ Guild Show. The show is held South of Market in a funky, old building. There is parking and the space is large so the show never feels crowded. The light has been a problem in the past, but this year the quilts were well lit. The last of their shows I visited was in 2007. I think I was too lazy to go in 2009. Sewing calls, you know.
It was great to spend the day with my mom. We always get into discussions about color at quilt shows and I think we see color very differently. My mom is a teacher of the Munsell color system. I have never studied that system of color theory and have decided I will have to read up on it. I always find myself at a disadvantage when talking with her about this topic. I should at least understand, on an intellectual level, what she is talking about. I told her to write some Munsell color theory posts on her blog.
We did agree that Sunshine over Aquamarine was our favorite quilt. I even filled out the Viewer’s Choice slip for this quilt! First, the pattern is simple. The fabrics are scrappy, but work really well together. The maker paid careful attention to the colors and her work paid off. The ratio of yellow to aquamarine is perfect. Also, the quilting fits the quilt very well. The photo above does not do the quilt justice.
The above photo is very close to the color of the quilt. The center looked more yellow than beige. I liked that none of the wide variety of fabrics really stuck out. When viewed from far away, they all worked in harmony. I also liked the squares and rectangles combination.
The photo above is a bit dark (no flash), but I wanted to get a clear photo of the quilting. I think this type of quilting would work very well in the Zig Zaggy quilt. There were a number of quilts where I thought the quilting overshadowed the piecing. I am a piecing girl, though, and I am sure that the makers of those quilts had good reasons for the quilting added to their pieces. The quilting in the quilt, above, is perfect for the piecing. The quilt has a strong, if subtle, horizontal line and the quilting accents that without overpowering it.
I really enjoyed this quilt as well. It appeared to be a group project, though members seemed to offer more support than blocks to each other (they all made their own quilts). Each person made an 18″ block (comprised of smaller pieces) every month for a year until enough blocks were accumulated to make a quilt.
Again, I liked the ratio of green and yellow to black. Also, the greens and yellows, mostly, seemed clear rather than greyed out.
There isn’t too much black in this piece, which means that the other colors aren’t overwhelmed.
This star is similar to the stars I used in the Frosted Stars quilt.
The guild was having a special on memberships – one year membership for$10 during the show only. I bought one. The lady at the membership table was very enthusiastic and very friendly. I said I had belonged before and, when pressed, mentioned that I felt the guild was too clique-ish last time I was a member. They acknowledged that as a problem and said they wanted to have a meeting for new members to get to know each other. They also want to form some new small groups. I am interested in a small group, but will wait and see how it goes. If I go to two meetings, like I did last year, then it will be worth it. I have to get back on the list for their meetings as I have not received an email about their topics or speakers in a few months.
We also visited with Colleen of Sew Little Time Quilting, who was vending at the show. She has just come out with a new book, Circle Quilts. She was giving a demo just after we saw her, so we headed over there to watch. All of the patterns are for paper piecing. From my glance through the pages, the directions are very clear and there are full sized patterns in the book. I like the Liberty Star. Mom bought the book.
Many of the quilts in Colleen’s book are round. Round quilts are a pain to hang. Colleen has solved that problem with Quilt Shaper.
This is a piece of stainless steel that you insert into the quilt to help it keep its shape. There are full directions inside. One of the reasons I have never made a round quilt is because hanging is less than stellar. Why make something that will look terrible hung on the wall? This product makes me actually consider making a round quilt!
[NB: I did not get discounts or anything free to write about the above book and product.]
We also saw a demo of the Accuquilt Go. I think this machine would be great for my mom, but they are pricey. The woman demoing works at a quilt shop 12 miles from where my mom lives and invited her to come to their bee. I was pretty happy about that, because mom has been missing her friends since she moved.
We had a good food experience with the deli as well. We were contemplating the choices for a gluten free meal. When the chef heard us talking, he came up and offered to make something special for us. We both had salads with meat, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, etc. I would have been a cranky and irritable mess if I hadn’t eaten and really appreciate the chef reaching out to us.
All in all, it was a good day. Fun to hang with mom, nice to see some quilts. I’ll put the quilts up in a Flickr set, but it will take me a few days.
I bought a lot of food fabric fat quarters (say that 3x really fast) for my mom last spring while she was taking care of Super G and trying not to lose her mind. This is one of the blocks she made with those food fabrics. She made a lot of blocks like the Corner Store pattern I talked about in the review of Pretty Little Mini Quilts, then she didn’t like them for the food quilt, so she redid them and this is block one of the result. Check her blog for progress.
Sonja gave me these pieces of fabric for my birthday. She brought a big bag of them over to my house and let me choose. I think I took all of her best ones. I tried to take a few, but she insisted that I take 6 pieces. She makes them with a soy wax resist (don’t ask me anymore questions about the process, because that is all I know!) and they turn out to be gorgeous. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful and talented friends.
Crafts
Since it is never too early to start making gift bags, especially since you can use them for birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Groundhog Day, etc. Here is a video gift bag tutorial for another way of making gift bags.
Time
TedTalks is back with a great audio essay on work life balance. That term “work-life balance” always makes me laugh. People take time for their lives in the midst of work here in the US. IMO, of course.
Media
I went to the C&T Publishing Digital Lounge, which is hosted by Lisa of LisaLizaLou, on a recent Wednesday. There were two video demos and a chat portion. Lisa did one demo of TAP and Liquitex products, while SuziBlu did a demo of working iwth the canvas book. She isn’t an artist with whom I was familiar, but it was interesting. Links to the products used:
You can watched the archived replay as well. Lisa received an award at CHA and you can pretend you were there by watching the video.
I ran across Judy Nolan’s blog post on sewing notions. There were some listed that I thought would be very helpful to quiltmakers, including the Cotton Mills Treasure Markers. In the course of the post, she also gives a brief history of Nancy Zieman, of Nancy’s Notions fame, and her career.
Adrianne keeps pointing me (and her other blog fans) to the Fat Quarterly Magazine/Newsletter. I love the idea and think the articles and information would be right up my alley. I don’t love the online aspect and I can’t see myself printing 70+ pages on my little inkjet. I don’t enjoy reading in bed with my laptop. Perhaps with the iPad, but still, I really like the old print versions to read at night. Not sure what I will do, except not buy it at the moment. New business model: printing and binding online mags for people for a reasonable price on a subscription basis.
In some part of Fat Quarterly that I, as a non-subscriber, could access, I was introduced to Modern Day Quilts, a Tumblr blog that showcases one quilt a day. When I went to look I saw one that looked like the mosaic piecing from a recent issue of the AQS magazine and the art glass type quilts by Julie Hirota. It was made by the writer of PinkPlease! blog. Apparently, though, the artist is calling it a ticker tape quilt from a tutorial.
Be*mused has a set on Flickr of quilts from the Tokyo Quilt Festival this past January.
I haven’t always loved video, but I am liking it more. I didn’t used to watch much TV and the video was jerky and weird. Now, there are so many videos on subjects in which I am interested (such as quiltmaking! Embellishing! Piecing! etc) that it is great to watch little bits of videos and learn something. I just found that Laura Wasilowski has a video on making French knots. It is a little over a minute long and well done (except for the wooshing sound in the background). Viewers also get to see one of her fabulous whimsical pieces.
Shows
I’m part of Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artists (CQFA) and we’ll be exhibiting “Primal Green: Environmental Art Quilts” @ the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library (5th fl) from March 1 – July 30. Artist reception will be held on April 17th @ 1pm. Hope some of you can come! Check out our link for more info: www.cqfa.org/shows.html
Projects
The Young Man keeps asking for his annual quilt. Huh? He recently told me he wants a food quilt. Mom has a lot of food fabric that I bought for her. Robin, at the recent retreat, was making a disappearing 9 patch, which is stuck in my head. I was thinking of working on one of those using food fabric for him. Recently, I talked to my mom and she said that she was thinking about making a disappearing 4patch. I looked up the directions to which she pointed me and it looks interesting, too.
Machinery
I know BryeLynn of Sew*Stitch*Create has had a lot of problems with her Janome 11K, but I would still like to upgrade to one. It isn’t going to happen until we get the Young Man off to college, but that doesn’t mean I am not tempted by ads that Janome currently has running.
I received these 9 blocks from my SIL on Thursday. I was so excited. We are now at 41 blocks! I didn’t think we would make 30, but people have been so generous. It warms my heart. Now my goal is 60 blocks: 20 for each of the 3 quilts.
As reminder, one family we know from school and my husband’s cousin were affected by the September 2010 San Bruno fire. We are making 3 quilts: one for our cousin and his wife, one for my son’s friend and one for the parents of my son’s friend.
Want to help? I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8″ finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March. We can’t do it without you!
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
The CQFA Quilt Retreat was this past weekend. Dolores did a great job organizing it. We went to a new place and it was wonderful. There was a bakery nearby which baked gluten free pastries in addition to regular pastries. That was a really nice treat!
Above is my workspace, which I shared with Julie. You can see FOTY 2010 in progress. Sonja and Debbie were in the back. The share table is in the middle.
Sue set up in a corner and made a whole Moon over the Mountain quilt while Terri worked on a Ricky Tims style quilt.
It never ceases to amaze me how much of a mess I can make when given the opportunity. My workspace is right at the bottom of the photo. I worked hard over the weekend, so it must be ok. Dolores was in the far corner with Maureen and Robin at the table between Dolores and mine.
Bron and Virginia couldn’t stay and work with us for the weekend, but they did come for the group dinner on Saturday. I love this picture. It shows what lovely people they both are.
At the same time I cut the FOTY patches all year, I have also been cutting Tumbler patches for Julie. I think she mentioned liking that shape and I took it upon myself to cut patches for her. I don’t remember exactly how it all came about, but it sounds like something I would do.
It was fun to see the same fabrics that I was working with on my project. Julie worked on sewing rows of her Tumbler quilt together. She is making it for her bed. At one point she laid it on the floor and we laid down on top of it to test and see if the size was large enough. No cameras were available to catch that moment. I was hoping she would sew all the rows on, but she got tired of it after awhile and worked on some different projects.
We declined to have Julie crawl on top of table or chair to show the whole piece. It is quite large and above is a different view.
Nancy was making a needle felted scarf. I don’t know if she finished, because I don’t know that much about needle felting. I really liked the design she was working on.
Julie also gave me some birthday gifts! We spent a happy hour looking through the two books and talking about the craziness of some of the piecing. She gave me a really nice card, too. 😉
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I saw this project on Fons & Porter the other day and had to go and watch it again, so I could get more details. It is show #1607 of the 1600 Series.
They don’t provide measurements on their show, because they want you to buy the magazine. Like the Corner Store project, I thought this would be a good scrap project. Frances, of The Off Kilter Quilt podcast, talked about having too many scraps and composting them in a recent podcast.I think Frances should do mosaic quilting, but I’ll bring that up another day. I already inundate her with all of my advice.
I don’t want to compost my scraps, but I do want to use them. I though this block would work very well. I have the Pyramind ruler and I thought I could use the Kona Snow as the background and then just cut appropriate sized scraps to the right size and make blocks until I have enough….for something.
This project doesn’t look like it would work well for chunking, but it does look like an interesting project. We’ll see.
This is one I found on the web by Kehoeta. I like the use of the black triangles. I was thinking of that idea as well. I only saw this one example. It looks like she used a lot of scraps, so I am heartened that my idea isn’t stupid.
The photos are bad, because I paused the TV and snapped photos of what was on the screen.
Some of us are having issues getting our prompt responses out. SherriD is not one of them. Check out her recent responses. She is doing a number of responses in FABRIC on one piece and it is wonderful.
How will you respond?
Did you join the Flickr group?
…and some thoughts on donation quilts are posted at Mary’s Art Musings. Mary makes some really good observations about the repair of a quilt and has some great tips on making donation quilts. We will definitely be taking these into consideration as we make the Stars for San Bruno quilts.
I saw something on my blog dashboard that I had never seen before: a way to see who was linking to my blog. Here are some of the latest:
Quilt Rat celebrated my 100th prompt. She also posted her response.
Kathy from Finishing Lines talks about getting her quick sketch prompts from AQ.
Sweet Leaf suggests you find creative prompt inspiration here!
Vicki’s Field Tripping the Web celebrated the finishing of the Cheerful Baskets, , the finishing of the Chocolate Box, and the finishing of the Fabric of the Year 2009 quilt.
Vicki also posted about my Zig Zaggy tutorial, which I greatly appreciate.
Thanks for the links, all!
I started another piece of scrap fabric in anticipation of making another journal like the Red Journal. It will take while to make a big enough piece from scraps, but a person has to start somewhere.
I went to CQFA and the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild Meetings today (total quilt extravaganza!) and had a great time. As an added bonus, I increased by Stars for San Bruno collection of blocks by 2! The top two are from Bron. She has upped her contribution to 4. Yay and thanks, Bron!
Adrianne is the owner/author of Little Bluebell. She also contributed 2 (the bottom ones) blocks to the SFSB cause. She came to the end of the meeting just to give me the blocks. I met Adrianne at the first meeting that I attended back in December. She told me about attending Market on a press pass. She also made a Flea Market Bag, which inspired me to make mine. Thanks, Adrianne!
We now have a total of 14 blocks, which is a great start. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique)
Block size: 8″ finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
I love my Tivo. It is a relatively cheap date in terms of entertainment and after YEARS of never being able to watch a show all the way through, I finally can. The problem turned out to be, over the holidays, that we watched all of our shows. We were home a lot, and working on Christmas projects in front of the TV. Many of the shows we like were pre-empted by holiday specials. I was able to watch a lot of Fons & Porter and partially clear out that playlist.
Still I was looking for something else. I am not much for watching YouTube and other videos on the web, but I saw that Laura and Linda Kemshall now have Design Matters TV. I watched one of their free shows where Laura shows how to use photocopies in your sketchbook. I really liked the episode which was called “Those Shoes.”
First, Laura is a very calm presenter.
Second, she talks through the whole process, including tips and tricks about the paint and the process. I am not a confident art journaler and watching this video made me think that I could do what she is doing. I really think that using photocopies is a great idea.
Third, Laura is confident in a way that makes me feel confident that I could do the same thing.
Finally, the show is well produced. I don’t mean shiny and fake, but edited appropriately, no wobbly camera and good information.
There was a project in one of their Thr3fold Journal issues using a photocopied hand on a bag, the Hands on Bag project, and seeing the project with the shoes makes me want to use the shoes on a bag as well. There is a list of shows on their site. I haven’t decided whether to subscribe (cost is about $35 for 3 months). I have renewed my Quilt Out Loud subscription and was given a The Quilt Show subscription. I haven’t watched either. I wish I could watch them on my TV and that they provided a list of shows I could tick off so I didn’t have to start them and stop them when I found I had already watched one.
I also adjusted the Tivo search I have set up for quilts and am now recording Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day program. It doesn’t come on as often as Love of Quilting, so I don’t have as many. The first one I saw was about 2 star blocks from her Victory Quilts book. The stars were Army Star and Hope of Hartford. Army Star has a Sawtooth Star in the center and she showed her quick way of making Flying Geese. I liked her show, which I don’t remember seeing before, because she gives the dimensions, so I can go up to my workroom and make the blocks. I tried the Sawtooth Star bit of the Army Star and found that I couldn’t finish the last bit because I don’t have the specialty Flying Geese ruler Burns uses. I also think the measurements she gave or the Flying Geese must be finished sizes, because they seem too small for a cut piece.
Stress has been a constant, and not so welcome, companion for the past few months. I have been seeking ways to reduce my stress and this article on the effects of stress on creativity make me all the more determined to accomplish that goal. I certainly don’t want my creativity affected by work!
Lisa F from C&T publishing has a new blog called “My Blissful Lack of Focus.” I really like the layout. She talks about her creative adventures for 2011. I wish the CPP were included, but, as yet, I haven’t been able to persuade her to take part. Will YOU take part in the Creative Prompt Project this year?
The Pantone color of the year is Honeysuckle. It just looks like a warm pink to me. You can download palettes for the Adobe Creative Suite application, FB ‘like’ it, tweet it, etc from the above referenced site.
We are making 3 quilts for victims of the San Bruno Pipeline explosion. I have been trying out different quick methods of making Flying Geese with minimal success (see above re: Eleanor Burns).
I was trying to avoid the bias and get really nice crisp stars, but as you can see, I am a bit stymied in the process due to not having the correct specialty ruler. I have to decide whether to buy that ruler or just try to cut them and see what happens.
I saw Jo Morton on Fons & Porter one day and thought I would try her method of making Sawtooth Stars. Of course, Fons & Porter does not include measurements in their show or on their site (mostly), so I went searching for a pattern/directions for the Flying Geese method, which eventually renders a star. I found one called Jamestown that had her method explained. I know that she wants to sell her books, but this was a hard method to find.
The directions were part of a pattern for the whole quilt, so my star didn’t come out the way I needed it to for the San Bruno Stars quilts.
I’ll use it on the back.
Finally yesterday, I dug out my copy of Around the Block and made them the old fashioned way.
These look pretty good. I plan to make more and perhaps put them down one side of the quilt. I like them in the on point orientation.
I have to kind of see what other blocks I receive before I can decide how to use them. I also have to make more than 2. These are 6″ blocks.
I need a lot more blocks, so if you would like to contribute one, three or ten 😉 the parameters are:
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern)
block size: 8? or less (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
The Young Man has to do 2 hours of art at home every quarter if he wants to get an A in the class. That isn’t difficult since my mom is an artist and she ADORES doing art with him.
Getting him started in the hard part. Once he gets started, he can create and create and create. He is like me in that he needs space to create.
These turned out especially great. I would love to see them as fabric. Do you hear me fabric companies? The squiggles could be separated out and be a companion fabric.
These are also a test of the media he was using, apparently, and warm-ups. The xes could also be companion fabric, perhaps resized a bit?
And, voila! The piece de resistance! It looks like spin art, but no machinery was involved. I see an additional stripe as a companion print as well.
As I mentioned, I opened a Cafe Press store around Thanksgiving (http://www.cafepress.com/Artquiltmaker). I was thrilled to check on the sales and had two sales after only two days. AWESOME! if you are reading this and you bought something, thanks! I know it doesn’t sound like a lot to you big time retail executives, but I am excited. Don’t worry! I am not going to harangue you with sales pitches all the time, but won’t you go take a look and buy?
The Henry Glass Designer Holiday showcase of Project Goodness (or whatever it is called) just ended or is about to end. Linda Lum DeBono (Mark Lipinski’s friend) started out the first day with her blog post. She showed the picture above and I thought it was very like It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap, but much cuter. Is there another Christmas quilt in my future? I don’t know. I’ll buy the magazine, though. In general I found this blog hop confusing and gave up after a day or two. I did enjoy seeing the artists’ work.
Heather Muldur Peterson is also on the Project Hit Parade (or whatever it is called) and she has a great project in her blog post using her new fabric line called Artful Home. I like the way the stripes work in the piece. The colors are very vivid. She must have great light (or a special secret) for photographing. Her project is a dish passer, which I needed the other night. Perhaps I will make one. I assume I will have to make one for each of my baking dishes, so perhaps not.
I joined Creating the Hive when Lisa F of C&T Publishing invited me. I don’t do much there except repost my blog post and respond to comments. I was thrilled when my Red Journal post was featured last week! It makes me feel like all this writing is valuable! If you want an invitation, leave a comment and I will invite you. I think you can join without an invitation as well.
Last week I talked about the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting I attended. At that meeting, Adrianne brought a bag she had made. I really liked the bag and was thinking that I should buy the pattern. I thought I might have bought it already as the Grand Revival name rang a bell. I did a search in my blog to see if I had bought it and found that I had THOUGHT about buying that exact same bag pattern, but apparently didn’t. I wrote a blog post about it back in September. Perhaps that is a sign that I should actually buy the pattern, which I didn’t. Yes, I am still lamenting hte fact that I have so many bag patterns and haven’t made many fo them.
I did see a free bag pattern from Rebeka Lambert of Artsy Craft Babe, which might satisfy my urge for a new bag pattern. I really want to make some gifts for the holidays, but time is slipping and I am only wishing. We’ll see. Not having to wait for a pattern to arrive buys me time.
Somehow, in clicking around, I ended up at Kathy Loomis’ blog. She didn’t have a lot of pictures and sometimes I am too pressed for time to read a lot of words (I should remember that when I am going on and on, right?), but her post about taking a leap in art quilt imagery was interesting. I don’t know if I agree with her completely, but it was interesting to read some writing about going beyond the “bad, citing “clunky, obvious images” and “sappy, crappy ugly quilts or embroideries or puff-painted sweatshirts.” I think I got a glimpse of reaching beyond during the fabric exercise at the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting. I have been struggling with putting fabrics together and that exercise (which I am more and more in awe of as time goes by) really helped me. I don’t want to make representational quilts or quilts about AIDS or depression or the impending train wreck that is environmental disaster. I do want to reach beyond what I am doing now. I am not sure what that means quite yet, but since this quilt adventure is a process for me, I am sure I will reach and find it.
REACH BEYOND
I saw a feature story on the web about a grave in Massachusetts on Andi Stern’s blog with a really interesting carving of a cephalopod on it. Cthulhu was in the title of the story and I didn’t know what what it meant so I looked it up on Wikipedia and found some clarification on some other aspects of the story. Regardless, the image looks like a cheerful beast and I thought some child might like it on a quilt some day, so I saved the photo to my inspiration file.
Finally, support some artists at USA Projects. See information about the project in the Next Web Social Media blog post.
