Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Nice job, Kathy!
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I stopped by Melanie’s blog and found some great patterns for holiday crafting. “So soon?” you are thinking. Yes, I say. Get moving so you are not up until 3am crafting on Dec. 22. These look fun and very modifiable, only to make them your own, not because anything is wrong with them.
When I saw the printing books (click through to see all the projects), I thought that some of you with wonderful CPP responses could print them and paste to the cover of a journal or print on fabric and make a framed picture.
Of course, if you are not a holiday type, then you could make these for your living room, or for birthday gifts. I am planning a holiday projects post, so if you make any holiday projects, I will link to them in my post. If you use a CPP response in a project, I will put that link on the CPP inspiration page. 
Enjoy!
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Deirdre sent me the link to this entry in Susan Shie’s blog. The post is all about the process of making one of her pieces. I was riveted reading the detail which she includes in her post. Read the post!
Process is something that has been on my mind as I have worked on the Tarts. I used to be only focused on the end product. I found it to be very unsatisfying, because the end product had a short-lived shelf life. What do you do with a finished product? Put in the bed, hang it on the wall and …. There is nothing after that. I would be finished with the piece. There isn’t much more interaction with a finished piece.
It occurred to me at some point that the process was what was important. I have, since then, tried to focus on the process. I wrote about it in blog post on March 14, 2009 and also mentioned process on January 1, 2009 in the 2008 UFO Report.
In focusing on the process, I try to work on what I am working on right at that moment fully and completely. I try not to think ahead to the next step or the next project. This was brought home to me in a big way as I worked on the Tarts. That project required my absolute full and undivided attention. Any time I thought “oh this will be fine” meant trouble and I would end up ripping something out. The lesson was, however, that Lorraine Torrence’s advice about making visual decisions visually was correct. I knew it was, but the Tarts hammered the mantra into my mind.
One of the other things I realized about process is that while I work on something, I am completely engaged with it. I feel the fabric in my hand. I feed the thread into the machine or hand sewing needle, feeling it with my fingers. I am close to the fabric and the project supplies.
Susan Shie’s post goes through her process in minute detail. It would bore me if I had heard it before, but I haven’t. I find everyone’s process to be different and, often, fascinating.
The other thing about process is that a process does not necessarily stay within the bounds of a specific project. A process can continue to another project once I have finished with a piece. Susan talks about making her Kitchen Tarot deck, which is a multi piece project. She is making a quilt for each of the many Tarot cards in a deck. I really admire someone who can commit to such a large project. Her pieces aren’t small either. She has committed to the process.
The Word of the Day for Labor Day, September 7, 2009 was Reverence. My immediate reaction was a sinking heart and steeling myself for a lecture. The reverence that the author talked about was multi-faceted and had nothing to do with a harangue about organized religion. The passage talked about reverence for a process and reverence for materials.
“Everything that we do should be imbued with reverence and so one would think that we should begin with this concept. But no. Reverence only comes with experience and care.”
and
“In our own small way, we must create and bring order to our lives each day. We must be responsible, and at the same time express the wonder of all we know as human.”
and
“The stately determination to make something worthy of the materials and the moment is reverence.”
I think that by engaging in a process, we gain experience. The more time I spend working on pieces the more experience I gain. I also think that being appreciative of the materials and what they are contributing to the process helps me work better.
It seems to me that reverence is part of a process.
In the process of writing this post, I became much more interested in Susan’s work, classes, blog etc. Perhaps there is a class with her in my future?
If I didn’t think Anna Maria Horner was a goddess already, I do now. I spent the day on Sunday, minus a short chauffeuring task, with the Multi-tasker Tote (AMH MTT), a recent pattern from Ms. Horner. As I suspected, I did have trouble understanding the directions. It is the way I learn and not completely about the directions. I do think there were a few tiny parts that could have been clarified just a little bit more. I know they have a certain number of pages they can use to create a pattern and have to worry about font, enough photos, etc, so I really am not going to complain too much.
In all fairness, I think making 20 or 30 of the Eco Market Totes gave me a feel for what should be going on in the tote making process. Doing a multitude of those totes and making little changes in the pattern made me understand the bones of tote-making. The AMH MTT is much different than the EMT, but in the end they are totes and their goal is to carry things.
In general, however, this is an amazing pattern. The way it goes together looks completely mysterious one minute and the next minute it is gorgeous and elegant. I was completely blown away, because it made me think about tote bags in a new way. I don’t think it is a beginner pattern, however I would say that any intermediate sewist who has a few tote bags under her belt could use this pattern to make a bag.
In the above photo, you can see the bit that is folded over to accommodate the straps, including my lovely top stitching. 😉 I haven’t finished the straps yet, so there is another photo of this project to which you can look forward!
One of the steps I had trouble with was step #8. I really couldn’t figure out what the directions were trying to accomplish. Finally, I realized that she wanted me to sew the bottom of the pocket together! To accomplish that I had to pop the pocket (pattern piece is called pocket panel) out a certain way. When you do orient the section correctly, the whole thing looks like the section above.
Remember I mentioned the gusset tutorial in the Bag Bazaar book? I didn’t have a chance to try it out. I found AMH’s directions to be stellar. You press a crease into the side of your bag, then you line up the bottom seam with that crease and you have a perfect triangle. I drew a line (not part of the directions), because of my A type personality. Perfect box bottom. I did it before I realized what was happening and was amazed at the results.
I love the fabrics that I chose for the current tote, individually. I am not happy with the two of them in combination in this project. Too many flowers, I think, which means that none of them stand out. Yes, I will be making another! As I mentioned in a previous post and as you can see from the photos, I used the Denyse Schmidt fabrics as a trial run.
My biggest challenge with this project is the requirement of Pellon Peltex Double-Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer #72. I didn’t have any in my fabric closet, which didn’t worry me. I sewed and fused two pieces of Timtex together and the put Steam-a-Seam 2 on the outside and fused it to the bag. Having a stiff bottom is GREAT! It makes the thing stand up and much less floopy. Using my jerry-rigged method, I could easily see where something already stiff and fusible would be a lot easier. I searched the web and found it by the yard for $10+. I also found a bolt of it for $99+. Huh! I can’t make another of these using my jerry-rigged method, because I am out of SAS2. I have to decide whether to get a bolt (seems like overkill) or pay, what seems like, and exorbitant price for a yard. Anyone of you have any perspective on the price of Pellon Peltex Double-Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer #72?
Kristin LaFlamme reviewed this pattern on her blog as well. It is a very complete review. She mentions a couple of the inconsequential typos I also saw and does some interesting things using recycled materials. Her rendition of the pattern makes me think about adding additional pockets to the outside. Adding a pocket to the outside would be especially successful when I don’t have a focus fabric (as shown on the pattern above) or fabric suitable for broderie perse.
Update: this was given to Dolores as a gift.
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We spoke about a Recycled Round Robin at CQFA, where we bring materials from our stashes and put them together using a piece from other quiltmakers as a starting point. I thought this would make a good result for such a project.
The CQFA met at Always Quilting yesterday. The Always Quilting strip club was also meeting and somehow the space issue got mixed up so we crammed into one of their small rooms to do business, show and tell and swap ATCs. A few of us got in some project work also.
I am working on a deck of creative prompt cards using playing card blanks as the base. I decided that the ATC swap in CQFA would be another way of creating more prompt cards and expanding the Creative Prompt Project. The cards to the left are the ones I created for this month’s swap. They are ok. I did stitch words on them for the prompt and the words don’t stand out very well, which is disappointing. I should have used yellow thread to make the words stand out better. I will try and create more contrast next time.
In some ways this format is too small for me. In other ways, it is a good size, because it allows me to finish something and use up some scraps. I have been using scraps for all of the ATCs I have made so far. I am struggling with creating successful designs give the format and parameters. I am okay with not being as successful as I would have liked with this groupsince I only committed a little time to the project. I want to look at it as a learning experience. I have an ATC book, so I will look in there to get some ideas.
Maureen did a good job organizing the swap. She changed the guidelines a little this time. What I realized, after the change, is that I need to make my two sets of cards using different designs. Some people ended up with two of my cards. Since I used the same design for all they received duplicates. That is disappointing for them. I don’t know if it is better to do multiples of the same or if I should make each one different or somewhere in between? I’ll try something a little different next time.
One of the CQFA members made a little label for her pillows and bags. I saw it when she showed her oilcloth bags and pillows at the last meeting. Something sparked in my mind. I haven’t been putting any labels or anything on my tote bags. I thought this would be a great solution.
Making the labels had been on my mental to do list for awhile, but it was just this week that I was actually able to sit and do it. I used the table function in Word, bu any word processor will do. I inserted the picture, wrote the text, played with the spacing as well as the font size and tested it on a regular sheet of paper before I printed it on a sheet of paper backed fabric. I am pretty pleased with the way it came out.
One of the things that the grid (from the table) did was give me a cutting line. Since the 9K is in the shop again, I had to play around with where the zigzag stitched on the Jem.
The picture is a .jpg of my Avatar. I originally made it on Elouai.com. Their Avatar maker has some fun options as well as the ability to save as a .jpg file.
I think this mini-label will be a good option for bags and pillows and other little items that I seem to be working on at the moment. It might also work for small quilts where I don’t really want to take up half the back with a regular quilt type label a la the Pamela Allen quilts. I’ll have to see.
These are my new ATCs. I was really enamoured and inspired by the various techniques that people used. I especially liked the lower right (#3). Maureen made that and there is a wire on top of the red netting that says create! It is another creative prompt! I had to have it and was thrilled that it was available when it was my turn to pick.
A new person, Sonja, came to the meeting today. Her ATCs were fabulous. She made the ones with the sun and clouds. I really wanted a piece of the sun, but got a piece of the clouds with which I am happy. Dolores’ cards are on the top with the leaves. I’ll have to get one of those baseball card binders to keep all of these ATCs in.
Maureen’s ATCs are in the above picture underneath mine. I love the one with squares on the left, but it didn’t come home with me.
In the group above are ATCs made my JulieZS (top), Linda (left) and the famous, much loved writer Terri Thayer made some, which are pictured on the bottom right. One thing that I liked about Julie’s and Linda’s ATCs was that they both cut up pieces of projects that weren’t working and made them into successful ATCs. Terri is playing with stamps and embellishments in this group as well as the ones she brought to the last meeting.
Above is the second group of ATCs for round 2 swapping.
I never wanted to collect ATCs. I am finding that I do enjoy seeing different techniques which people are using.
As an aside, someone directed me to Teesha Moore for art retreats. Her opening page looks like ATCs
SIL already used up a bunch of the Infinity blocks we swapped to make this quilt. She entered it in her county fair and won third place. I was so pleased for her.
I love the layout as well. Very clever of her to use the various values of the blues to make a design. A you can see from some of my photos, I was thinking more about how the blues and whites touched each other when I put the blocks together.
What I don’t love is that she has already made a quilt and I still have a block or two to go! I had better get busy!
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K. S. Perino is one of the participants in the CPP, so I peruse her blog periodically to check out her prompt responses. As I was doing that this morning, I saw that she had made a pencil roll. I have seen the pattern for pencil rolls on the Pink Chalk Studio website and Julie over at High Fiber Content even made me one for my birthday last year. I really like the pencil rolls and have been contemplating expanding/adjusting the pattern a little to accommodate knitting needles.
This pencil roll is one of the best that I have seen. First, it is gorgeous. Next it is even more useful because of the little zippered pouch that the artist added (note to self: learn to put in zippers!). Finally, the little details such as the fabulous machine quilting and the little charms on the ends of the ties really make the piece.
I am thinking that one of these would be great to replace the ziploc bag in which I carry my PITT pens around.
I received another batch of Infinity blocks from my SIL in the mail last week. Here is the large group (about 31) that I received.
It is so interesting to see her fabric selections and the fabrics she has and compare those two points to the blocks I have made and the fabric I have used. I was also thrilled and amazed to see some of the fabrics that she owns/chose for this project. We get along pretty well, but, sadly, we don’t get to spend very much time together since we live on different coasts. See the bottom right, second block in? That is not a fabric I would have suspected SIL of having, yet I am thrilled that she included it! It shows me another side of her quiltmaking.
After laying these out I decided to lay out all of the blocks I had, so I gathered up the various stashes of Infinity blocks and laid them out on the floor of my workroom.
The above group has about 80 blocks in it. WOW! I can’t believe that we have made that many. I realized that there are a few elsewhere that aren’t included. So, there will be at least one more photo of these quilt blocks for your perusal.
I am glad we are working on this project together. I feel like it brings us closer together.
There is a book called Brain Rules. One of the rules is that the more senses you stimulate, the more people will remember about what you were telling them. Another rule is that vision takes up about 50% of a person’s sense-related brain power.
I had a lot of help on the Tarts as it progressed and one thing that SherriD did was use her Photoshop powers to stimulate my vision sense.
In the first picture, she showed how the quilt would look with some more flying geese in the bottom middle would look. I ended up adding some silverware, but the idea was sound.
Once I definitely replaced the Flying Geese with the stack of cups, SherriD thought it would look better if I had two godl cups there. I wasn’t about to redo another part, but I liked the show and tell.
By the way, there are twenty-three elements (blocks) in this piece. Of the 23, twelve have been redone at least once. rust me, it seemed like I redid a lot more than that!
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Scarlett Burroughs over at Craft Gossip.com has written an article/post about the CPP. I am really excited that the project is getting some traction in various places around the web.
Craft Gossip has different areas dedicated to different types of crafts including felting, crochet, knitting, and many others. Recent articles/posts include book reviews on a metalsmithing book and a post on elf-like Christmas stockings. It looks like she has tutorials, videos and freebies. Go check it out and thank her for highlighting the CPP.
The Creative Prompt Project is spreading slowly to other artists. I am thrilled about this, because part of my goal for this project is to inspire other people to be creative.
My tiny, little sister uses paper and scrapbook pages as her artistic medium. She works in other media as well such as pottery and jewelry. Here is the response that she did for “Remember.” One of the things that excites me about her response is that her piece uses a different media than most of the rest of us use. It shows that you don’t have to draw to respond.
This page is about the Fisher Price barn that sissy had when she was a kidlet. She also had the castle, the house, the village and a number of other pieces of the Fisher Price little people toys. *I* remember how much fun we had creating scenarios with all of those pieces.
Thanks, sis.
Well, my brain seems to be really full these past few weeks. Once again, I am writing another catch up post for you. I know that catch up isn’t exactly the right term, but Full Brain post sounds a little odd to me.
1. Tote bags: Always on my mind. I haven’t made any new ones, but I did listen to a new podcast called the Quilted Cupcake Podcast. Jean, the producer has a very friendly and professional not ditzy style. She is methodical, but not talking head boring about presenting the information she wants to communicate in the podcast, which was easy to follow. The show notes blog is a must, at least for this episode, because Jean packs the podcast full of information, links and tutorials. The episode to which I have linked is episode 11, which is about tote bags. I downloaded all of the episodes that were available, but listened to this one, the most recent, first. I found it on iTunes and you can find it there, via a link from the show notes blog or also on Libsyn at http://quiltedcupcake.libsyn.com/.
Some of the blogs and sites to which Jean links are sites that I already claim to read.
Jean mentioned Rachel Griffith’s P.S I Quilt blog, which has a great tutorial about gussets. I haven’t tried it yet, but will, especially since I am thinking about expanding my bag making horizons. Jean also does a great book review and mentions several tips and tricks that should have been obvious, but were revelations to me.
She also mentioned a couple of books, Sew Sublime Bags and Sew What by Lexie Barnes. I was able to reserve the former at the library, but not the latter. Will have to think about that. I’d like to see it and not buy it at the moment.
I spent some time listening to her earlier podcasts and she has definitely improved her style. Some of her discussions talk a lot about thrift store shopping and saving money. She mentions a lot about how much she spends on things in the course of the discussion. It is apparent that saving money and getting a deal are important to her. My only criticism would be to leave the price tags out.
Her episode on aprons (#5) was really good and I do like her book reviews; they are very complete.
2. Flickr Creative Prompt Project Group: I am very pleased to report that a number of participants in the Creative Prompt Project have joined the group and uploaded their responses. Quilt Rat, SherriD, and Kathy (new member-YAY!) have all joined. Quilt Rat and SherriD have uploaded all of their responses and Kathy has uploaded several photos so 80+ drawings/photos/art are all available to view together. I am really thrilled about this. There is always room for one more, so join in and upload your responses. You don’t have to go back and do them all.
3. Free MOO cards: Get a free pack of MOO cards. There is no free lunch so there are some restrictions, but free is free and the MOO cards are really cool. Thanks to Deirdre for this tip.
4. C&T Publishing has a list of blogs by their authors and fans. Others were new to me, such as Barbara Brackman’s blog, which includes lots of tidbits about quilt history. I also like the logo C&T created for this particular page. the different artistic letters are fun.
5. I am weeding the links. I find that blogs change over time and don’t suit me anymore. If you are using my blogroll as a fave page, you may want to rethink that. 😉
