Tag: Other Artists

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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Ode to Pamdora

Sometime ago Pam RuBert, who has a new blog address BTW, recommended the Jennifer New book on journaling.

I probably went on and on about how I couldn’t find it at the library in a previous post, so I won’t bother here. I solved the problem by finally biting the bullet and buying it. While my flight was delayed I started to read it and it is a GREAT book. I almost like New’s words better than her illustrations, though the pictures of the journals are great, too. One of the quotes that I REALLY like is “journals are the working stiffs of creative life.” That phrase totally makes it ok to just mess around in a journal. I really like it.

Here is a brief review:
Drawing From Life: The Journal as ArtDrawing From Life: The Journal as Art by Jennifer New
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The best quote I have come across in this book is one that says “the journal is the working stiff of creative life.” This quote lends the journal (visual journal or art journal or text based journal) an air of humanity. It lends the feeling that it is ok to cross out bits and pieces, to rip pages out, to start over. It gives me the okay to just do whatever I need to in my journal and use it to work out ideas and improve my ideas. I finished this book and felt a sense of relief. Not relief that I had finished it, but a sense of excitement and a new beginning. Imagine letting out a huge sigh of contentment and that is how I felt. I was particularly enamored with the 1000 journals project and wished that New had had more of Denyse Schmidt’s journals. I loved reading about the various artists, especially in the creativity section and felt very inspired by their work. Read this book, it is fantastic!

View all my reviews

 

Updated 20 August 2025

Whirligigs and Pinwheels

You may remember the Whirligig/Wheel of Fortune/Whirling Star/Whirligig blocks that Jan over at Be*mused posted in June 2007.

These were on my mind when I went to Seattle in February. When I got there I saw that TFQ had played around with this pattern after I posted and came up with the following


The above pattern scheme came about because she wanted dots, but didn’t want it to scream dots. So far she only has been playing with the project (you saw the other stuff she has been working on!) and who knows where it will go, but I hope it goes somewhere. I also can’t wait to see what Jan from Be*mused does with her blocks. Read the post, because she gives some good tips on piecing when using templates, as I mentioned before.

Inspiration and Kaleidoscopes

I saw this orange dotted champagne flute (plastic) and thought that it would be a great idea to have a really nice glass in the bathroom. I, of course, also liked the dots. This is a little more Halloweenish than I think I could look at every day, but a champagne flute I could go for. Unfortunately, I have no counter space in my bathroom, so I won’t be wasting my money on a champagne flute that will get knocked off in a day and a half. I did like the reflection from the flash on the wall, the bubbles in the water and the dark spot next to the water glass.

Here is the Kaleidoscope baby quilt that TFQ made. She and I talked about the method of making Kaleidoscope blocks that I learned in a class a zillion years ago. She ended up just using one of the Kaleidoscope rulers. I think it is very fresh and pretty. Lucky baby! It is being machine quilted by Angie at the Quilting Loft.


Below is the propeller quilt again, which TFQ made from the leftovers from the Kaleidoscope blocks above. She said that the blocks needed a little something so she hand appliqued the dots over the centers. I think it looks similar to some of Be*mused‘s quilts, but this one is very cheerful, more cheerful that the quilts that Jan from Be*mused has been posting lately. Ingenious use of the leftovers as well.

More detail below. You can see the fabrics pretty well. Notice the different prints. TFQ said the use of fabric was inspired by my use of fabrics in the Flowering Snowball (Cross Blocks) blocks. It makes me feel good to know that I am inspiring someone else. 😉
Below is one block. The centers were made in the Yo-yo fashion. After the fact, we discussed using buttons instead of applique’. It would make for a different look and might be fun for a slightly older child. One would need a lot of large-ish cheerful buttons.

Inspiration and Thoughts

I have been to Seattle on trips when the weather has been challenging: pouring down rain and a flat grey sky. This trip, however, displayed really beautiful weather with a lot of opportunity for nice shadows in the photos.

This was a door we walked by. The door grille/safety gate is a really interesting design and it made a great shadow. The circles make me think of bubbles and I like the way they are contained in that oval shape.

TFQ’s block of choice for her 2008 Fabric of the Year project is a Shoo Fly variation. She doesn’t necessarily use only fabric she has bought this year. This makes sense to me, since her blocks are much more complicated. She puts the new fabric in the corners, the triangles and the center and then chooses something else, which could be from her existing fabrics to go with the new fabrics.


The three below are very sherbety looking. I love the way this project illustrates how different blocks can look just by using different fabrics. A person can learn a lot about color from piecing the same block over and over. I have done this (though not to the degree that TFQ has done it) and think it is more exciting than it sounds. TFQ could speak to this point much better than I can. As you can see, there is one Economy block, on the right, from her FOTY project last year. Below are more of the Economy blocks. Again, we put them up on the design wall in groups and took photos of them.

Below are blocks made with mid-century fabrics: 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. TFQ also used fabrics that look like mid-century fabrics.