Tag: Other Artists

Will You LOOK at those Dots???

The Quilting Stash podcast host, Annie Smith, interviewed Mary Lou Weideman in April. The show is really great, interesting as well as entertaining. I just listened to it this week and finally went to look at Mary Lou’s quilts. I have one one of her books, but the photos of these quilts are so cheerful. I think she is one of my new heroes!. Will you look at all of the dots she uses?

I was interested to hear, in the interview, that MLW creates her borders first. Look carefully at the witch quilt’s border. It amazes me that she can make the border first when it is so intricate. Definitely a technique I want to try.

clipped from simplearts.com
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Trivial Pursuit gets Personal

I was leafing through a recent (ish) issue of Quilting Arts and was able to read Patricia Bolton’s editorial before I dropped off into a dead sleep. In it she describes a game board she made for in-laws for their 50th (WOW!!) wedding anniversary. Sadly, there were no pictures and my dream of websites launching in midair (remember that delusion I described sometime ago? I tried to find it in my blog, but couldn’t. If I do find it, I’ll edit this post to include it) didn’t happen.

Today, I emailed Ms. Bolton on Facebook and asked her about the photos. She pointed me to her blog and there are the photos. This gets counted in the cheerful quilt department. I am also impressed with the different techniques that she described. The idea of using those little felted things as laggers is great, too. All around a wonderful idea.

Gameboard
Raw_egg_2
With_eggs
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Denyse Schmidt Returns with more Fabric

TFQ sent me a notice about this post on TrueUp saying that Denyse Schmidt is coming out with another line of fabric. This time it is home dec fabric and it looks like she is repurposing some of of her other designs. You know what? I am fine with that as I don’t think Flea Market Fancy stayed around long enough and wish it would come back.

clipped from www.trueup.net
denyseschmidt-countyfairstack

Denyse Schmidt’s County Fair line is being introduced at Quilt Market next week and will be in stores in June. In addition to favorite designs from her Flea Market Fancy and Katie Jump Rope lines, there are a couple new small-scale geometric patterns and a cheater print called “Patchwork Promenade.” All are on 54?-wide, home dec weight cotton canvas. Patchwork Promenade will make a quick and easy quilt, but that’s not its only application, as you can see below.

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Some Not Like the Others


TFQ put this together a week or so ago. It is small. I think it is has a lot of movement and a lot of possibilities. The movement is created (or at least facilitated) by the variety of colors that are close to each other…or complements.

TFQ’s project has a a lot of possibilities as a jumping off point for a series.

  • How would this look with different colored circles on the same background?
  • How would this look with these same circles on a different background?
  • What if you created circles all one color and put them on a very active background?

The possibilities are endless.

Thanks to TFQ for sharing! Ready? Set! Go! 😉

Leaves

The Gabrielle Swain Workshop I am taking in May is about leaves. I, amazingly, looked at the supply list tonight (rather than the night before the workshop) and found that out. Now I have leaves on the mind! I think this is a great piece and I think the hanging rod and the dangling bits work for this piece. I don’t like cutesy hanging rods, or dangling things if they aren’t part of the design. I think they work with the overall design of this piece.

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Making Bullseyes, Part 2

In the previous post about making bullseyes, I left you ready to sew the circles on. Tips on appliqueing the circles to the background:

  • use a quarter inch foot.
  • start sewing less that a quarter inch from one of the folds. This ensures that your stops and starts will be covered when you sew the pieces of the bullseye together later.

Then you sew. Once you sew the circle on, you get the finished product pictured above.

To cut out the back, carefully separate the top and the back of the block. Pinch a little bit of the back, inside the sewn line about a quarter inch from the sewn line. Make a small cut, being careful not to cut through to the front. Cut around the inside of the sewn line. I use a pair of applique scissors, which help to protect the front from cutting through.

Here is a block once I have cut out the back.

Here is a close up of the sewn line and the cutting line.

Making Bullseyes, Part 1

Yes, I am experiencing a period of creative lack of focus. I am all over the place, working on lots of different projects, starting new things and thinking about new ideas…and not finishing anything. Normally, this behaviour makes me crazy. I like to focus and really delve into a project and think about it hard, but at the moment I am happy to just be working on something creative. This will create a creativity chaos later, but I keep telling myself that it will shake out… later and I will be able to pick up the pieces and create order…later.

As mentioned in my Second Cup of Tea post, I am back to working with Julie and Adrienne on our Bullseye project. There are links to previous quilts in the project, so go look at that post if you have no idea what I am talking about.

I finished sewing the circles on to Julie’s backgrounds yesterday. Nothing like people relying on you to get me going. Now I am I working on cutting out the backs of the circles before I send them off to Adrienne for the next round. Above are Julie’s squares with my circles on top. These are not all of them as they would not all fit on my design wall.

These are Adrienne’s backgrounds

Above are Julie’s backgrounds, which you can also see above with my circles on them. If you want to make bullseye blocks, first you find two friends, then you cut 9″ background squares. We actually cut them 10″ inches so we can trim them to the correct size later. I am a big fan of trimming after working with TFQ on many projects.

This ends our agreed upon instructions. What follows is how I make them. Whether or not this is correct, I don’t know. It works for me. If you want another opinion, take a look at Mary Tendall Etherington and Connie Tesene’s book, Quilts from Aunt Amy. It has all the sizes and the original inspiration.

After you have cut the background squares, fold them in quarters and press, then send them to your friend. Once that is done, you need to cut the same number of 8″ squares. Then press in quarters again. Pressing in quarters helps you line up the circles on the background. Aunt Amy doesn’t tell you this as far as I remember.

Above are the 8″ squares folded and press with one of Julie’s backgrounds.

I have paper templates from the previous bulleyes- one for each size of square. I place the 8″ paper template, folded, on the folded fabric square, being careful to line up the openings and folds of the paper and the fabric.

Then I cut…
Once the circle is cut, I open it up, line up the pressed fold lines of the background and the circle and, voila’, the piece is ready to sew.

1000 Journals Project

I just finished reading Jennifer New’s book, _Drawing from Life: the journal as art). Thank you, Pam Rubert! I love this book. It has lots of great inspiration and knowing about why people create visual journals provides the background that my brain needs to do it myself.

In DFL, New talks to Brian Singer, the creator of the 1000 Journals project, which can be found at the website below. The 1000 Journals project is project where Mr. Singer sent 1000 journals out into the world to inspire average people to rediscover their creative selves.

Unfortunately, Mr. Singer has only received one journal back and he says that the odds of getting one to work on is like winning the lottery. As a result, he has created a new project, the 1001 Journals project and one of the subprojects is possible.

I would like to create a journal, which people who read this blog work on. I would like to fill it up with your art and send something to Mr. Singer that reflects the tone of this blog and its wonderful readers. If you are interested in participating, make a comment on this post and leave some way for me to contact you (not your snailmail address-I’ll get that from you later). If there is enough interest, I will work something up.

clipped from 1000journals.com

The 1000 Journals Project is an ongoing collaborative experiment
attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels. The goal
is to provide a method for interaction and shared creativity among
friends and strangers.

Those who find the journals add something to them. A story, drawing,
photograph, anything really. Then they pass the journal along, to a
friend or stranger, and the adventure continues.

Unfortunately, you’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery, then
of getting a hold of a journal. That’s the problem when there are only
1000 of them. Now, you’re best bet is to check out 1001 Journals where you can sign up for a
journal, or launch your own traveling, location, or personal journals.

You can also check out the new book, which contains entries from
journals around the world. It looks just like a journal, has these
crazy stitched pages inside. Check it out on Amazon.

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Quiltmakers, I’d like to Introduce you to the Librarians

Kathy over at Pink Chalk Studio made a small comment on her blog that made my day. Go visit your public library!

I check a LOT of books out at the library. Bless the librarians that pull the
good stuff and put it on display. Here’s some photos from the book href=”http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YG0EVK/?tag=wwwpinkchalks-20″>The American
Quilt by Roderick Kiracofe. Everything old is truly new again.

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Switchplates….

I have been looking at my switchplates and cringing…well my whole house, actually, but the switchplates are totally doable. I happened on to PCS and found this post. Thanks!

clipped from pinkchalkstudio.com

Switchplates

Switchplates were the March 2008 theme for my Out of the Box creativity challenge. I took some in progress photos but not a full-blown tutorial. I even forgot to take a stylized photo of the one I traded that night, very unlike me! Fortunately making these are extremely addictive so I had plenty more for that purpose. Guess which is Leil’s and which is Caitlin’s?

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