Craft Night was last night. Although I was hostessing I was able to finish another block. A little at a time.
Here is the block I finished last night. I am trying to make sure that the backgrounds are all different, especially since I have enough now. When I started the project in March I only had a few of the black-on-white backgrounds, so some of the early blocks have more than one of the same in the same block. I think that once there are many blocks, that nobody will notice.
I am also trying to ensure that all the foregrounds are not only different colors, but also different values and different motifs. The motifs piece is a little tricky, because you have to worry about size, shape, relationship to other motifs in the same block as well as color. Still the tricky bits are the fun parts.
I am finding that almost every block has some turquoise in it. I have to watch that. Perhaps it could be a unifying element?
I need to work on rooting out more fun prints that I probably wouldn’t use for any other project out of my stash so that they see the light of day at least once. I have a little stack of the corner/foreground pieces that I am working with now, but will root out some others when that stack gets smaller.
I now have 8 blocks, shown above, and the pattern is starting to emerge. I wanted to see them all together and think that they look great. The secondary patterns that are developing are interesting. The colored corner pieces coming together are what you would expect. What I didn’t expect was the secondary pattern from the black-on-white background pieces. They look a bit like petals, which is wonderful. I think when I have four more blocks completed you will really be able to see them well. I am finding that working with these patterned fabrics and bright colors is really fun. I feel like I can use the conversationals and patterned fabrics effectively, which I normally wouldn’t use.
I originally thought I wouldn’t use black in this piece, except for the centers. Never say never. I found a piece of some fun beach fabric with pails on it. Unfortunately, it had a black background. I put one piece in to see how it looks. The pail makes it work, but I don’t think I will be including anymore pieces with black backgrounds. Famous last words.
One of the Craft Chicks started her own blog. It is primarily about knitting, but she talks about various events and other crafts as well. You can check it out at: http://craftchicks.blogspot.com/.
This is a fantastic post by Tanya. I think everyone who receives a handmade gift should read this. It makes me think of the gifts that children give us.
The writer of Be*mused is off on her adventure, but before she left she posted some of her Whirligig blocks. I love these! I think the previous photos are better, though. I may have to try this block, once I get some of the other projects out of my system.
Yarnstorm and Be*mused (I have added them to the Blogroll) are my two new favorite blogs. I love their work, their photographs and, occasionally, their writing. Yarnstorm finished her Allotment Quilt, which is gorgeous.
I had nothing to do with this project, but went to visit my friend from High Fiber Content and found out that she has been holding out on us on her blog. I took pictures of these blocks she got through a swap. I thought they were really a good group.
This is one of my favorites.
I like the color combination of this block as well.
Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors have merged with or been bought by Interweave Press. Apparently, I am the last to know. I read a brief blurb in QNM of all places, then Nina directed me to the blog entry over at the Quilting Arts Blog. I hope Interweave Press doesn’t ruin QA and CPS like they did to Piecework.
In the meantime, Pamelala is busy creating some gorgeous stuff. She posted a ton of pictures of postcards to her website. It is great to see a bunch of her work all together. Then, as an added bonus, she has put together a little online demo showing how her postcards (and, I assume, her quilts) evolve. You can actually see them come to life.
So I am a few days late. It is never too late to think about how to make life better. Luana Rubin writes eloquently about her thoughts for the new year.
APNQ, Seattle, August 2006
EBHQ, Oakland, March 2006
PIQF, Santa Clara, October 2006
San Mateo County Fair, San Mateo, August 2006
Not enough, obviously, but they provided plenty of fabulous inspiration. People are still really pushing their machines to the limit.
St. JCN suggested that I put up pictures of the quilts I liked best from these shows and I think it is a good idea.
Rules:
1. My opinion is the only one that counts on this blog. You are welcome to post your opinion in the comments.
2. I did not visit every quilt show in the world, so these are the best quilts that I saw.
3. I did not take pictures of quilts that were not interesting to me, so these are the best of the quilts that I photographed.
4. If one of these is your quilt, I will be THRILLED to post your name, and, possibly, a link to your site or blog (at my discretion).
5. I probably would have picked different quilts if I had chosen them right after I saw the shows. As it is, I am at the whim of colors from a camera and the computer.
6. Subject to change at any time.
APNQ
Piece O’Cake pattern
Yes, this is made from a Piece O’Cake pattern. I don’t care, I love the pattern and the rendition this quiltmaker created is wonderful.
Piece O’ Cake pattern detail
Here is a detail of the border, which I also love, because it reminds me of Mary Engelbreit designs. Don’t you just love the dot flowers? Great use of fabrics as well.
Best use of puffy paint I have EVER seen. The fabrics are fantastic and used well also (look at this quilt with your head tilted to the left)
Candy Wrappers
I like this one, because it is different. I could do without the brown, but I love the blocks. The person who made this made an effort and made a quilt that is different.
Pineapple
I am a sucker for Pineapples and this is an excellent use of the Pineapple pattern. It looks like some of the silks that I have.
Special Exhibit quilt
This was part of the Beverly Dunivent special exhibit. I bought this pattern (reprinted by her) a few years ago after seeing it (and her) on Simply Quilts. I love this quilt. I don’t know if I will ever make it, but I love it. (look at this quilt with your head tilted to the left)
EBHQ
One thing I like about the EBHQ show is the way the members use clean lines and simple shapes in their piecing patterns wih interesting fabrics to make engaging quilts. It was very hard to choose the ‘best.’
Mary Mashuta Baskets
I love basket quilts. I am pretty sure this quilt is by Mary Mashuta and she is a genius with stripes. the quilt does have that sweet look she uses so often. I guess it is the soft/pastelly colors.
I think of Christmas applies when I see this. I like the scarlet used with the lime/icky green. I also like the fact that the quiltmaker added some oranges and pinks into the quilt to add interest. I would like to see how this color scheme worked with different patterns.
The blocks are very sharp. I also like the use of color. It reminds me of Colorblocks 2.
Fun and cheerful. May be a Freddy Moran or it may just be by someone who took her class or read her book. This is a fun link as well to Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran quilts.
Whimisical and I like the shapes of the various flowers. Great use of color and fabric.
Excellent repetition.
Icky colors, but fantastic quilting. See the detail below.
I like the individual blocks more than the overall quilt, but I do like the color scheme, because it is restful.
The blocks just suck me right in.
The triangles come across as really interesting shapes here. Reminds me of earthquakes as well.
PIQF
Each basket had a different flower in it. I believe that this one was done completely by hand. The attention to detail was wonderful.
An old Piece O’ cake pattern that I love. The signs on the houses and buildings were done in Spanish.
Fantastic water effect.
Wonderful colors and details.
I love Mariner’s compasses.
I also saw this at the San Mateo County Fair. I love the use of black and white.
Wonderful star pattern.
Matador Garment
I am not one much for garments, but this piece is wonderfully funny. I am really glad it won a prize. So often, judges have no sense of humor.
I like the way the stars overlap and contain little surprises in the center. I would love to see this done in brights and black.
Ronda K. Beyer, It Ain’t Easy Being Green: Love the colors; the quilting was fantastic. It won one of the prizes.
I love the wheel patterns. Again, kind of muddy colors, however.
San Mateo County Fair
The San Mateo County Fair’s quilts seem to be populated in large part by the Peninsula Quilters Guild. The piecing, in large part, is wonderful and there are a lot of quilts that display excellent piecing skills as well as a good use of color.
This is probably my favorite quilt of the year. The pattern is simple, yet complex. It really is a good use of dotted prints. The variety of fabrics and the way it is not easy to tell how the pattern was put together makes for a quilt. I couldn’t stop looking at.
DebR over at RSR didn’t really ramble when she talked about creativity today. She really put together a classic post that should go into the BLOG OF CLASSIC POSTS. She explains her modus operandi in the creativity department and shows a great way of looking at creativity, which makes creativity accessible. Be creative and the art will come. RSR makes a good point about observing patterns and having them come together at some point through work on your own or by chance so that you have enough information to create. I think her discussion also shows that you can’t just sit down and create something. You have to gather the materials in one way or another. They may be ideas in your head, they may be mag pics in a folder or images in a folder on your desktop. At some point there is enough so you can get to work. I like this process as well, because it means that genius takes work and what I am doing is right.
Kathan Brown is a printmaker and author of a book called Magical Secrets about Thinking Creatively. She is also the founder of Crown Point Press. At the de Young, they had an exhibit of Crown Point Press prints. On the legends I noticed some of the magical secrets, which made some sense or were interesting to think about so I started to write them down. I stopped when I found a brochure. The Magical Secrets are listed at www.magical-secrets.com.
Seeing these ‘secrets’ made me think that creativity is a lifetime experience and that you have to work at your creative work.
I like the idea of Magical Secrets of Creativity. It makes me wonder if people have their own ideas about creativity and where people’s ideas intersect. I want to think about Brown’s ideas and see if they work for me.
Stephanie Metz makes really interesting felted wool statues. She is having an opening this weekend.
My favorite piece of hers is Meditation. I think it is unbelievably beautiful. Unfortunately she sold it before I could buy it. Oh well; it wasn’t meant to be.
Here is a notice about the opening from Stephanie herself. __________________________________________________
This coming weekend I will be participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios, a Bay-Area wide program in which artists invite the public in to see their creative process, their works-in-progress, and recent artwork.
Once again this year I will be showing my work at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto along with nine other artists—a group location right in downtown Palo Alto, with ample parking across the street. I will be on site and available to chat and demonstrate wool felting from 11am till 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, May 6th and 7th.
Along with a selection of paintings, prints, and drawings that will be available for sale, I am also pleased to offer a first look at a still-in-progress new body of work: a series of felted wool teddy bear skulls based on a variety of ‘breeds’ of teddy bears.
For a preview of my work and links to the other artists at this location, please visit my web site: www.StephanieMetz.com.
For more information and a directory of artists and locations participating in Open Studios, please see http://svos.org/
The Pacific Art League is located at 668 Ramona Street, Palo Alto, 94301; their phone number is 650-321-3891, and their website is www.pacificartleague.org.
I first saw Kay Khan’s work about a year ago. I can’t remember what led me to it, but I was enamored with the shapes and fascinated with the fact that she used fabric to create three dimensional objects. Vessels and bowls seem very feminine to me.
I have been thinking of fabric bowls lately, but also of vases and other types of vessels. Recently I was informed that the Marin Needle Arts Guild will be having a Craft Fair in the autumn to raise money for the guild (they will not be hosting a show this year and need to raise money to keep their programs going. You can find out more by contacting them directly at the URL above). Perhaps making a fabric bowl or vessel would be a good donation? We’ll see how the time until autumn shakes out.
In the meantime, I am admiring and being inspired by Ms. Khan’s work.
The sun out and the sky is blue. It is still long-sleeve cool, but the sun being out makes all the difference in my mood. This is the second day! Is the rain gone? I don’t think so, but perhaps we will get a few days of spring before the descent into fogbound summer. Whatever the weather drama, I am determined to be grateful for the sun we get and appreciate it while it is here. If it rains tomorrow, so what? It is sunny now! YAY!
I look out for eyes wherever I go for Pamelala. This one was found in the Starbuck’s right in my neighborhood!. I don’t why I never saw it before. I go to that Starbuck’s at least twice a month. I saw it and then had it on my to do list for, what seemed like, months to go back and photograph the eye. I finally did yesterday. It is a nice eye and I like the way it is in the teapot.
This is the arrangement that I laid out, serendipitiously, before the three additional blocks were added. I was thinking that I would need to do something more interesting than a 4×4 or 5×5 square arrangment. This layout just put itself up on the wall. I would fill in the blanks needed to make the thing square with blank blocks. I refuse to make a weird shaped quilt to give to someone. I don’t think I will need this arrangement now as SLB is taking some of the blank leftover blocks down to SoCal to have other people decorate at another shower. We’ll see how they end up before I decide.
I now have 8 blocks, shown above, and the pattern is starting to emerge. I wanted to see them all together and think that they look great. The secondary patterns that are developing are interesting. The colored corner pieces coming together are what you would expect. What I didn’t expect was the secondary pattern from the black-on-white background pieces. They look a bit like petals, which is wonderful. I think when I have four more blocks completed you will really be able to see them well. I am finding that working with these patterned fabrics and bright colors is really fun. I feel like I can use the conversationals and patterned fabrics effectively, which I normally wouldn’t use.
I originally thought I wouldn’t use black in this piece, except for the centers. Never say never. I found a piece of some fun beach fabric with pails on it. Unfortunately, it had a black background. I put one piece in to see how it looks. The pail makes it work, but I don’t think I will be including anymore pieces with black backgrounds. Famous last words.
