Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
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I love going to see quilts at the various county fairs in our state. I have been to a number of them, but I would still, someday, like to say that I have been to all the county fairs in the state. One thing I like about visiting county fairs is that I am reminded of how much creativity is going on nearby.
Not only do I enjoy the quilts, but I also enjoy seeing the tatting, the crochet, the tole painting, etc. I am really inspired by seeing the preserves, artistic cakes and the table setting displays.
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Los Angeles County Fair. As I have mentioned previously, I dislike the way they display the needlework. They are all behind glass cases and they often have dress dummies placed right in front of the quilts, which makes the work really hard to photograph. Most of the photos I took are more fragments of quilts rather than the entire thing. Enjoy anyway!
TalisCalifornia has made this very interesting version of the Dear Jane block, Dad’s Plaids. I love the way she has switched the background and the foreground within the block. It really has a nice effect that makes your eye move around the block without making them cross (like certain black and white fabrics would).
The Baby Jane group on Flickr is a testament to hope for the future of quiltmaking. These blocks are not easy to put together and they have really done, and continue to do, a wonderful job. They are moving through all of the Dear Jane blocks and I love seeing the progress.
I ponder doing the blocks along with them! I just don’t want to start another hand project until I make some progress on the Flowering Snowballs and my projects from Pamela Allen’s classes.
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ACCI Gallery | 1652 Shattuck Ave | Berkeley | CA | 94709 |
This is a quilt that TFQ and I saw at the APNQ show. It has been on mind because of the expressiveness of the little parakeets. I think that this quilt tells a story because of the implied movement of the birds. I can appreciate realistic quilts, but don’t always see the point in reproducing a photo in quilt format. This one, however, tells a story.
After magnificiently struggling with the layout for the Bullseye, I believe I have settled on a shape I can live with and one that is successful. The difference between this and the others I have done is that the ‘knots’ I have created are self contained. I keep thinking of them as Lovers’ Knots, but I know that term may confuse people who know the actual Lovers’ Knot quilt pattern.
I have more patches on the wall and am finalizing fabric placement now. I hope to get to sewing today as I would like to have this piece ready to take to the quilter with the Chocolate Box. I am itching to get back to the Pineapple (amazing, but true). I need to move a couple of projects forward first.
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Barsha is an artist I know who is the poster girl for creative play. This stuffed bear is a good example. His story is that Barsha saw the fabric, bought it and just had to make something right away. I think the fabric makes the bear.
We had a long discussion, similar to one that TFQ and I often have, about how people deal with their creativity. We came up with the possibility that people don’t feel free enough in their creativity (pressed for time so everything has to be perfect???) to just play and to make mistakes.
Go forth and play with your fabrics and, yes, make mistakes.
The layout of the rectangles is different than my original design and may give a UFO new life.
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I saw this pattern at the APNQ show, which I promise to write about soon. I seem to be attracted to Jelly Rolls and Jelly Roll patterns lately. Not sure what that is about, but am just going to go with the flow.
I have long admired diamond quilts, but aside from a few 8-pointed stars and a Lone Star center, I haven’t ever made a diamond quilt.
It is appealing because of the way larger diamonds are made up of smaller diamonds. Strip ‘n’ Dip is from GE Designs, an Icelandic company.
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See the website at: http://www.znecon.com/page/page/5942610.htm
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This is a quilt top that my SIL is working on. You might notice, especially from the detail (below) that it looks like the mosaic quilting technique of Shannon Williams displayed on Simply Quilts YEARS ago. the patches that my pieces and Shannon’s pieces use are much smaller, but SIL used the leftovers from another quilt and I think this piece is wonderful. The mosaic patches really add a lot of interest to the piecing.
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Being a block lover, I have, however, always admired the multitude of different looking blocks. Today I saw a Baby Jane grid of blocks on Twiddledetails blog (http://twiddletails.blogspot.com/) made on her blog and was intrigued. So I went to the blog and was pleased to see that the person running the blog really had good directions and for making the blocks.Do a little exploring and admiring.
I still want to see where I can find that grid although it would look pretty stupid with NO blocks filled in.
 clipped from dearbabyjane.blogspot.com
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Deirdre sent me a link to Mimi Kirchner’s blog and it made me start thinking about dolls.
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I have to admit that I have always loved dolls: Barbie and friends, baby dolls that you could dress and feed, soft huggable stuffed dolls.
I loved dressing up dolls. The dolls always looked glamourous and could walk in their tarty shoes, which wasn’t always the case for me! Dolls always provided an opportunity to play house and have things go my way. Dolls are also a great opportunity for creativity. Now I am too old for dolls and they have been replaced by a family of Mr. Potato Heads on my desk. Yes, I dress them up for the entertainment value.
As I have been washing and pressing the fabric from my trip to the East Coast, I have been cutting off schnibbles. I keep thinking to myself what great hair the schnibbles would be, which further makes me think that Art Warrior and Mother Warrior may need a new friend.
Artist Warrior (left). Mother Warrior (right). On display at the last CQFA show.
Mimi’s dolls are really creative and beautiful, and they also have a lot of personality. They are also BIG, and, presumably, huggable.
I am really glad to have the blogosphere accessible to me, because it is just a fountain of creativity that I can dip my toe into whenever I want.
