It turns out that I love these Various and Sundry and Odds and Ends posts! I can collect a bunch of stuff I find interesting and then post it here for your enjoyment. The last one I wrote got a lot of interesting comments. Thanks, everyone!
Searching
I read a blog called ResearchBuzz for my job. I often find interesting tidbits that allow me to find more quiltmaking resources on the web. I also find that testing using quilt terminology is a lot more interesting that my work subject matter!
Recently, ResearchBuzz talked about the reorganization of photos and graphics at the Library of Congress. She writes “Oh wow, I was SO glad to see this article in the Library of Congress Blog yesterday. The LOC has an incredible archive of prints and photographs (over 1.25 million!), the but nav for them has always been icko. The blog announced a new version of the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, now available at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/.”
Of course, I did a quilt search and came up with some interesting photos. On the first page, there were a few from Gee’s Bend, one of Calvin Coolidge’s shoes, bathrobe and quilt! I noticed a number of the photos were taken by Dorothea Lange.
Fame and Fortune?
I mentioned that my blog was mentioned by Linda Poole on Pat Sloan‘s podcast. That was right after I received two books from Lark Books, so I was feeling pretty high on the hog. Today I was listening to the Sew~Stitch~Create podcast (#41, if you care) and BryeLynn mentions that she heard about me on Pat Sloan’s podcasts. She raves about my website and mentions the blog TWICE!!! I need to redo the website and am slowly (like a snail, actually) working on that. I thought it was really nice that she liked my quilts. Also, she thinks that Pat Sloan should interview me! I laughed at that, but am also very flattered. I am not a fabric designer and I only teach beginners at work. The plans I have are still plans, so I am not sure what Pat would ask me. She did talk about using the Creative Prompt Project for writing prompts for her daughter, which I think is awesome! What a great use of available resources. I can’t wait to see what her daughter comes up with! Finally, Brye thinks I should start my own podcast. We all know that is not going to happen. I like you thinking of me in one of those cute 1940s style suits with a smoky voice and would hate to ruin that illusion. 😉
On the Web
Have you looked at the Quilt Index lately? I am friends with them on FB and get a notice of their Quilt of the Day. I liked this quilt, Thomas Sykes Album quilt, that showed up last Thursday as their Quilt of the Day. they have new functionality where you can zoom in on quilt. They also put as much information as possible into the record associated with the quilt. I like to read that and think about the people making the quilt. Meg Cox, the new president, was on Pat Sloan’s podcast recently and discussed the project and programs. I’d love to have my quilts included!
Spiderwebs seem to be popular again. Oh Fransson has put up a small quiltlet with 4 Spiderweb blocks in it. She has such a wonderful sense of color. While her choices aren’t my style, I do like the combination. I have had in the back of my mind that should finish mine this year. Cross your fingers.
Jen of Quiltin’ Jenny is a new reader and one of those who commented on my Various and Sundry Thursday post from April 1. I went to take a look at her blog a few days ago and found that she does something called Wordless Wednesdays. One of the things I love about the web is that people are so clever and I get to see their cleverness. WW is a photo that she puts up with no words. I might try that instead of my Inspiration [insert day of the week here], except that then I would be stuck with only posting inspiration on Wednesdays. Hhhmm. Perhaps I will leave that great idea to Jen!
I went back a few days ago to see what was up and found that she had just finished a DENIM quilt. I am not a big fan of denim since I made the denim bag for my stepdad for Christmas (my mom calls it his man-purse!) and broke two needles in the process. I also don’t own jeans that I wear. I have a pair that I love, but they don’t fit anymore. 🙁
The other cool thing that I found is that I WON A PRIZE. WOW! I can’t believe it. Go take a look at Jen’s blog!
Reviews
Lark Books gets kudos for updating their Pretty Little Mini Quilts record on Goodreads to include a photo of the book. I use Goodreads to post reviews here, because it kills two birds with one stone and makes the reviews attractive.
I had emailed the lark Books people about the photo when I notified them about posting the review and never heard anything. I went last week to update my review with a photo. Having that big “photo not available” was unattractive and had been bothering me, so I finally went to do it. On a whim I checked to see if Goodreads had received a photo before I did the HTML work on my own and voila! they had received one from Lark Books. The update when much faster than I had anticipated.
Fabric Doing Good
Here is my excuse to finally try out making a pillowcase. I have been thinking about it for a long time and just never get around to it. American Patchwork and Quilting and AllPeopleQuilt.com have launched a project to donate 1 million pillowcases to a variety of causes supporting cancer patients, foster kids, domestic violence victims and nursing home residents. Jean at the Quilted Cupcake blog and podcast asked all of her listeners to make 5. She had a good reminder and that was that boy themed projects are less common than cutesy pie girl projects. I will commit to making one boy pillowcase and see how it goes. I was rummaging around in the bins in the back of the fabric closet on Monday and found a couple of large pieces of fabric that would work well, so I am all set.
You can download instructions to make a pillowcase embellished with leaves from their site.
Making
The members of one of the guild meetings I attend exchange ATCs. We invited some new folks one time and a few of them did not know what ATCs were. I found this guide on how to make them, which gives the basics.
Industry News?
Need some textile industry news? Want to know what is going on in Congress? Textile World is your place to go! Someone who I know from a work related endeavor who is not crafty or quilty sent this to me. The fun thing I saw when I looked at it yesterday was that the town I lived in in Austria is having some kind of textile industry event.
I have been, slowly, responding to ancient emails and dealing with setting up my computer again as I try to recover from the crash. Below is a lot of different things that I have been thinking about or looking into.
The exhibit was called Modern Materials: The Art of the Quilt and the interviewee was Jill Rumoshosky Werner. She was the curator. I also saw a Flickr group of some of the quilts.
I thought the comments Jill made about her process and the different pieces included in the exhibit were interesting and thoughtful.
I wrote about the Apron contest/exhibit that Jennifer over at CraftSanity is having. I was pleased to see her mention my blog in her blog. Her husband made a funny YouTube video to entice people to take up the challenge. If any of you saw her blog post and came here, leave a comment and let me know.
Patterns
I am apparently in hunting and gathering mode. I am gathering supplies and fabric for a number of projects (and the class I am taking later this month). I don’t know if I will make all of them, but I am gathering. In a comment from the Happy Zombie blog post I made SherriD suggested a quilt-a-long. I have the supplies coming. Anyone else want to make their own version of the Oh Fransson/Happy Zombie quilt with me?
The other is the Basketweave Baby Quilt. I saw it again the other night when I watched a repeat of the Fons & Porter episode featuring the Basketweave Baby Quilt. This is part of series 1000. I wrote about this before and thought I would get over my obsession with this pattern, but when I saw the episode again I realized I haven’t. I got a piece of paper and made copious notes on making this quilt. Later, I went to their website to find the project notes/instructions. No dice. They don’t have the sizes or anything on their site. So, I went to see if I could order the magazine that included the instructions. Again, no dice. It is a Jan/Feb 2007 issue of Love of Quilting magazine and it is out of stock. I emailed them to ask about getting the back issue and didn’t hear back. I also looked for websites or information from the designers, Betty Hufford and Jean Nolte. I didn’t find anything there useful there either. I have looked at the library to which I have a card and I haven’t been able to find it. I can’t say that I explored every nook and cranny of their site. I find the Fons & Porter site difficult to navigate. If any of you have this issue and would be willing to loan it to me, leave a comment in this post’s comment area.
I feel a bit stuck, but I also think that I can draw out the design on paper and use that to make a sample. We’ll see.
Podcasts
I have been listening to Pat Sloan’s podcast while I sew. For some reason I don’t download her podcasts to my iPod. Not sure why. Perhaps the Toginet ads intersperse in the podcast is why. Not sure. Anyway, the interviews are really good. So far she has interviewed quiltmakers I haven’t heard before. One podcast that I really liked was with Bonnie Hunt of Quiltville. I had never heard of her until the podcast. One thing she said was that people who use steam when pressing have problems putting their quilts together. I don’t know if this is true or not. I have always used steam, so I decided to try this out. I have, mostly, not been using steam when I press blocks and elements for a quilt. It is an interesting experiment. I don’t know how long I will do it or if I will never go back to using steam. Some of the things I have found:
pressing wrinkles out of recently washed fabric needs steam
adhering fusible interfacing to fabric needs steam.
I don’t see that pressing seams need steam so far.
I don’t have any other feedback at the moment, but I enjoy the opportunity to try something new. Do you use steam or no steam?
My mom mentioned using Mary Ellen’s Best Press. She said that it really made cutting easy. It might be good to try, but I don’t feel like buying it right now. Mom is going to bring me a sample from her work. The owner offered me one. YAY!
Another Pat Sloan podcast I really liked was the episode with Linda M. Poole. I enjoyed it because Linda was an excellent interviewee. Pat asked her one question and Linda was off and running with interesting comments about her life, family, business and teaching. Linda was well spoken also. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that Linda mentioned my Creative Prompt project. That isn’t the only reason I enjoyed the podcast! 😉 I did see a small spike in comments after that podcast, so, thanks, new readers!
The information related to Pat’s podcast is hard to navigate, though. She doesn’t have much information in iTunes or on her blog about which episode includes which quiltmaker. I had to go to the blogs of two quiltmakers mentioned above to find out which episodes they appeared. I like to have the information right in iTunes.
Inspiration & Momentum
Fabric Closet, Working
I had a fabric/project avalanche in my fabric closet last week. A bad sign was that I shut the door and haven’t really gone back in. I haven gone in, looked at it and left again.
I felt like I was losing my sewing momentum last weekend. I am not sure why. I had very little time on Sunday and I just couldn’t get going. I have to try and take my own advice about dealing with these issues. Part of it may have been that I was sick last week and am still feeling the last bits of that illness. I am blaming my malaise on that illness. I think I need to read a trashy novel.
Someone came in my workroom last week and started asking me about the various piles. I sincerely dislike that. Some are projects in process (yes, I need bins for them). Some are just piles of stuff I haven’t put away. Some are hard to explain. Regardless I don’t like justifying my piles. I work better with an organized sewing area. I need and want to build on the reorganization that TFQ and I did on the fabric closet some years ago. I need and want to reorganize and make beautiful the rest of the room – paint, shelving, the works. There are nice ideas at HGTV that I can use for inspiration. It all takes money which I don’t have right now. I can think about and plan for what is next in this room:
Bookshelves without a doubt! Bookshelves with LOTS of growth space!
Last weekend (Saturday) I went to a scrapbook day with a friend and worked on my Austria album. One of the things we did, aside from cut and glue down photos, was watch a video on how to be a better photographer by Nick Kelsh. I thought for sure the video would be on the web somewhere, but all I could find were clips. Look at Nick’s website for clips on using your digital camera to get better photos. I tried his techniques out a bit this week. We’ll see if my photos get better. I’ll let you know when I post them.
Shopping
I went to Jo-Ann a couple of weeks ago to get a “June Tailor Cushioned Square ‘n Blocker” for a class with Dale Fleming I am taking with EBHQ in a few weeks. I mentioned this class briefly a few weeks ago. I am interested in making a circle quilt and I thought it would be a good idea to learn a different technique. My other option is to use the technique Ruth McDowell teaches in her AWESOME Piecing: Expanding the Basics book. The quilt I am interested in making looks similar to the one that Malka Dubrawsky made that was published in Quilting Arts magazine some time ago. She dyed hers and I plan to piece mine. Why, you ask? Who knows? I may make three blocks, realize I had lost my mind and move on. We’ll see.
Anyway, I hadn’t really planned on buying board, though I knew it was a possibility. I wanted to see what it was and what it looked like. When I asked the price, the retail assistant told me and mentioned that they had 40% off coupons in the front of the store. I grabbed one and then went to grab the coupon. I was able to buy the board for about $10.
I barely ever go to Jo-Ann and I hadn’t been there in a long time. While I was there I noticed they had all of the Fons & Porter notions the two show on their Love of Quilting show. They also had a really good selection of rulers. No Creative Grids, but lots of other brands.
I was in a bit of a rush that day, so I just glanced, and left. Or so I thought. I went to the checkout line and found that Jo-Ann has a HUGE selection of craft magazines. They had some quilt magazines that I had never seen. I picked up the newest issue of Art Quilting Studio while I was there.
Since I just did a rush visit the first time, I went back on Monday just to look around. In addition to the other projects I have in mind, I have to gear up for Teacher Pillow time, so I am starting to gather materials. Finding affordable pillow forms is paramount. The cheapest one Jo-Ann had was $6.99. $6.99 x 5=too much. I also wanted to look more at their various rulers etc. I saw a Simplicity Studio Ruler Simpli-EZ Tri mate. I never knew that Simplicity made rotary cutting rulers. This caught my eye, because of the shape. I wonder if it will help me, more easily, create the setting triangles for the FOTY 2010 quilt? I’ll have to bring the diamond ruler there sometime to compare and see if I can tell.
I was drawn in by some of their fabric designs.I saw some cherries on pink background that were CUTE! And the prices are great. However I felt the fabric, which I always feel compelled to, and didn’t like the feel of the fabrics, so I passed.
Magazine News
The Jo-Ann magazine selection was as good as ever on my second trip there and I saw the new Quilt Life magazine by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. I haven’t heard good things about it, so I didn’t pick it up. TFQ said she would send me hers to look at, so perhaps I will do a review after I read it.
Bad news on Art Quilting Studio. They have a new editor who said the magazine would be going on hiatus. I don’t think the new editor shuttered the magazine, but I am guessing that Jenny Doh didn’t want to be associated with a failure. I guess we didn’t give enough support to the 3 issues they did put out. Issues of the latest AQS issue were still available when I was at Jo-Ann the second time. I really enjoyed the first issue of that magazine. I thought the second issue had more of the Somerset look and design – muslin, lace, buttons – and I wasn’t enamored. I did like the in depth interviews with quiltmakers. Denyse Schmidt was in the first issue and Susan Shie in the latest. I am happier with what I saw in the 3rd issue, even though I haven’t read through the whole thing yet. Well, if you like that magazine, write to Somerset.
Finally, I got the latest issue of Quilter’s Home. I was really unhappy with the last issue, which was the first without Mark and the first with the new editors, Jake and Melissa. They did a poor imitation of Mark’s style. I had planned to cancel, but I’ll see how the next issue is before I decide. I am happier with this latest issue. I particularly liked the article about blogs and will try to get ArtQuiltmaker into that list.
Resources
I received the Edward R. Hamilton catalog the other day. If you have never seen their catalog, get them to send you one. They have an online presence, but I really enjoy looking through the catalog. I was really pleased to see the book American Quilts: The Democratic Art, 1780-2007 listed in the ART section. It is also only $27.95. I’d like to look at it before I buy, but if it were $10 I would have scooped it up. I love those books which are combinations of history and quilts, but I don’t want to buy a book with a lot of quilt photos I have in other books.
I decided that I am going to make this pattern, It’s A Wrap Pattern by Sandy Gervais, this weekend. We will see how much of it I get done and if I am able to actually follow the directions. Wish me luck. Hopefully, this will cure my malaise or make it go away long enough for me to make some other things.
I know I have said some things about patterns. I guess I am getting over my snobbery. Hope you won’t hold it against me. I think what I mean is not that there is anything wrong with patterns, but that I like to be able to analyze a quilt and make it by myself without using a pattern. I realize that not everyone has that spatial acuity and that pattern designers have to eat!
Around About Town
Last Friday I had to pick up some tea and return a library book, so I stopped in a little mini-downtown section of SF called West Portal. I parked, walked to the Library, crossed the street and found a newspaper/magazine stand near the place I buy tea! I love those shops where you can see about 300 magazines all at once and buy one issue of foreign home dec magazines as a treat. I have been up and down this street a multitude of times and never seen this place. It may be new. They had a wonderful selection of quilt and craft mags. I had to buy an issue so I picked up an issue of Quilt Mania. I was pleased to find an article about Judy Rothermel and a couple of blocks that were very inspirational. I didn’t know JR designed Civil War fabrics as well as her signature 1930s lines.
After I drank my tea I headed back to the car and saw a handwritten sign in the window of the bookshop saying they give knitting lessons. Hhhmmm.
Our Internet connection at home slowly came back up over the course of the week. Hooray! We had one computer working early in the week, but the WiFi wasn’t completely up and running until Thursday. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to post this weekend, so I prepared posts through the weekend, so you wouldn’t feel sad and lonely. 😉 It is a good thing I am resourceful otherwise it would have been 2 weeks between blog post.
Welcome Magic Carpet Riders! If you would like to join the drawing, please leave a comment on the One World One Heart post. I hope you come back frequently and join our little community.
The Magic Carpet Ride/One World One Heart is interesting. I have gotten over 120 comments on the post mentioned above. they aren’t coming as fast or as furiously as they were, but people are still wanting to sign up for the giveaway. Some people just say ‘enter me’ others stay for a minute and tell me where they are from. That is really nice. I have also visited a few of the blogs, sadly not anywhere near all. After leaving a few comments, I can see where typing a lot of info would get hard if you were intent on visiting all the blogs.
I have always liked the name Susanna. There is something about it that makes me smile. The name is what attracted me in the massive list Lisa keeps updating for OWOH. As I look at the list of all the blog participants, I find that I have no way to judge them except by name and that is what is turning out to attract or repel me.
I stopped by Susanna’s Sketchbook and left a note on her OWOH post so I could win. Then I looked around at some of her other posts. The tone is wonderful and she has a list of the Simple Things in Life, which is really nice. One item on her list, which caught my attention was “receiving the daily, 11am phone call from J“. I was reminded (after my rant about Internet access) that there are other things in life for which to be thankful
Another blog I liked was called Coral Seas. Actually, I liked the pendant she is giving away, but I also liked the banner image on her blog. She seems to have a variety of posts from birds to cooking.
Paper from the Heart is another blog I visited. She is giving away layered cards made from different paper designs. She has some interesting Valentine’s cards.
I do think that the people at the beginning of the list get the most comments. Some towards the bottom (700+) haven’t even made it to 100 comments yet. I would never ask Lisa to organize the list, but would love to know which are the sewing and quilt blogs, so I could look at them first. If you look through the list and see any, let me know.
Julie is blogging again! Hooray. She has put up a number of posts this week and it is a pleasure. A number of these pieces were at the retreat and I guess we had too much other stuff to talk about, because I didn’t ask about the stories.
Have you taken a look at SherriD’s blog lately? I really liked her procrastinating post. I am not sure how she can say she is procrastinating when she has so many projects in the works. She has completed another U is for Unicorn block. I am in awe of that project, because of the detail work involved. I like it that she talks about both hand and machine projects. My favorite part of this post was the view out her studio window. Lovely! Thanks, SherriD!
Have you seen the needlecase over at Quilt Rat’s blog? It is a gorgeous black and white piece. I am in awe of Jill, because she says that she just sat down and designed as she went along. Kathy over at Finishing Lines did this with the pencil roll she made, which was also fabulous. I want to be like these women!
Have you see the magazine Quilts & More? The magazine is pretty project oriented, but the projects are pretty good. They usually have a tote bag, which I love! The thing I like about this magazine is the color. Bright, cheerful, happy colors grace this magazine. As you have probably guessed I am not one for murky colors. To each her (or his) own, but they are not for me. Thus, I like Quilts and More.
I am friends with them on FB. Earlier this week they posted a link to their All People Quilt website with photo ideas for organizing your sewing room. Talk about happy colors! The ideas for organization are great, too. They make me a little depressed, because this person’s sewing room must be huge. Their buttons are gorgeous (and organized), they have way less fabric than I do, etc. Still, the colors are wonderful and if I can implement one of the ideas, I will be happy.
My friend, Kathy, of the Everyday Bliss project had an interesting post this week. In it she talks about getting started, about what is art, her own doubts, etc. She posts some interesting works. I think it would give you some food for thought. Go and take a look and leave her a comment. Let me know what you think.
Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust: I am reading it and really liking it. I wasn’t optimistic when I started it after reading the thin Ruth McDowell book. There are a very few elements of dumbing down, but many of the comments and exercises in the book are just fantastic and not complicated. I will definitely do a full review, but thought I would give you a little taste.
I have been listening to podcasts. One of the bad things about no Internet is that I cannot update my iPod. I was smart last time I updated it because I downloaded a lot of ancient episodes. I am getting sick of some of the podcasts, though. Sometimes I can only listen to a few of one and then I need to listen to another producer’s podcast. I haven’t been able to do that so I am just clenching my teeth and powering through. I suppose I could listen to some non-quilt/craft podcasts!
Zazzle
I came across a cool design in Zazzle. The design is screen printed tea cups and I first saw it on a OWOH blog. I like it so I went to look, never having heard of Zazzle before. It looks a little like Cafe Press, but seems to have cooler options on which to print. The purchaser, apparently has some options in the design of the card. Sadly, one card was $4.50, which is a little out of my price range right now. I do have some rubber stamps, however. Perhaps I will get inspired?
I went to the Berkeley City Club on Tuesday night with my family to receive an award. Even though I lived in Berkeley for about 4 years and have been there zillions of times, I had never been to this building. It was designed my Julia Morgan, the architect of Hearst Castle and it is gorgeous! they have lots of meeting rooms, a garden courtyard, a pool, hotel type rooms and also people can live there. Perhaps I will live there when I am an old geezer?
And Now a Brief Aside
From Flickr's Roadside Pictures
For some reason, I wasn’t able to link to this Flickr photo directly, which I much prefer to do. Go visit it and its siblings in their native habitat at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadsidepictures/244926428/
I’ll be honest this is a sign in Las Vegas for a strip club,. However, I like the idea of people celebrating librarians with a neon sign. Let’s just pretend all librarians are knock outs (not just in looks) and people cannot stay away from the library, ok?
I have to admit that this week has been a challenge and I am pretty exhausted. I felt this way on Wednesday and just had to power through the rest of the week. It was tough! Boys are gone and I am supposed to go to a party. I am tempted to blow it off, but I have gotten a lot of emails asking me if I will be there. I also really like the people who are giving it. We’ll see.
I’d like to get some sewing done as my brain is starting to wonder what that is. I feel like it has been an eternity since I have been at the machine.
I went to the Timberlake Quilters Guild Blog, which is called Fiber Whimsy and saw some lovely photos from their string piecing workshop. One of the photos was a Spiderweb! They seem to be popping up all over. I guess this is message to get back to mine. I think it is one of the projects I want to work on in 2010. Stay tuned to see. Love the red background on the one pictured in the photo.
Tagging this Blog
As a librarian, you’d think I would have all the answers about tagging, but I don’t. I have been thinking about whether or not I should add a tag for the name of each project so you (and I!) can click on the name of a project and see all the posts about that project. I am not sure I could back and tag all the old posts unless I was laid up in bed for a period of time, but I could do it going forward. Let me know if you think that would help you. I would also like to k now what you do in your blog, if you have one.
I helped my mom download iTunes and subscribe to some podcasts. We listened to a little of the Cast-on podcast and she loved it. I can’t wait to hear whether the whole premise works for her or not. She has really gotten into Cat Bordhi, a knitter, lately so I downloaded some interviews to which she could listen as well.
Laura Wasilowski class "Flower Garden"
Laura Wasilowski left a comment encouraging me to finish the piece that I started in her class. I took a look at it again and realized that the handstitching makes the piece look really spiky and unfriendly. I think I need to add some petals to the flowers and see if that makes it look more friendly.
You can see a watercolor painting that usually hangs in my dining room. I love this painting. It makes me feel calm. I just generally love beach and water scenes. That thought makes me wonder if that is why I like turquoise so much? After the painting project, the art is not back up yet. We may rearrange the art. However, as I seem to never be home, we haven’t discussed it yet.
Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! blog has a laptop sleeve tutorial on Sew, Mama Sew! While I am not fond of beige, I do like the swirly motifs on the fabric. This would make a nice gift. Yes, I am thinking ahead! I would probably add a strap or a handle, however. I have to admit that I find it hard to navigate that site, but sometimes the effort pays off and here is a list of a year’s worth of Elizabeth’s projects just for you.
Oregon Fabric
My sister received Lakers v. Trailblazer tickets for Christmas from her boyfriend. Our dad lives near Portland, so I think they went together. While she was there she took the opportunity to raid and scan our childhood photos. In the course of that project she went to a craft warehouse to get supplies. While she was there, she found some fabric that she said was for me. YAY! I haven’t received it yet, but presume I will soon.
She has sent me some scans of my 5 year old self, which are not new, but still entertaining.
I saw a post on Twitter to a Detroit artist who is doing interesting things with blue. Steven Magsig has a blog called Postcards from Detroit where he posts paintings of little areas of the city and buildings in the city
I seem to remember mentioning that I spent an hour and half last Saturday talking to the CQFAers about developing a creative habit. I got lots of good feedback. Here are some tips from my talk:
Use what you have at hand
Use materials you feel comfortable using
Tools (KISS)
paper
pen
Start small
Acknowledge your distractions
Be process oriented not goal oriented. The goal will be achieved if you engage in the process
Develop a daily practice that works for you
Surround yourself with inspiration
I am thinking about something bigger with more detail on this subject, so am just giving you an overview.
My Tivo is taping Fons & Porter periodically. I didn’t ask it to do so, but it started doing it on its own and then I started to watch them. It is nice to be immersed in quiltmaking for a few minutes and get a different perspective. Recently, they had a show on a baskeweave quilt. The photo is from their website. I love the idea of this quilt, because it is not simple patchwork done in rows. The maker has to insert pieces into the middle of already pieced rows in order to get the basketweave effect. The project was originally published in February 2007. I would like to see if it is actually make-able. It looks pretty straightforward on the show and the video, but you know how that goes. I’ll have to look around at the library to see if they have it. I found that with my Quilt Out Loud membership, I was able to log into the Fons & Porter site, so I have to look around there as well. If I ever had that magazine, it is long gone.
Clipmarks and my Internet security system are not liking each other, so I will have to try and explain about Bemused and the online Quilts Japan preview rather than show you. I was reading the Bemused blog and she mentioned her love of Japanese quilting magazines. She also mentioned that Quilts Japan has an online preview. That means you can page through the new issue. YAY!!!
As soon as I remembered to click the page LEFT button, it worked great. Remember? They read towards the left.
My regular podcasting people, Jennifer at CraftSanity, Amy at the Creative Mom podcast and Annie Smith of Quilting Stash/Simple Arts, are not producing podcasts fast enough for me. At the rate I consume them I could go through about 3 hours of them a week. Of course, I can’t whine or complain (I am certainly not whining or complaining, just stating a fact) since the podcasts are FREE, the hosts work for free and I guess don’t get paid. Not having new episodes each week, however, means that I have nothing to which to listen. This has forced me to search iTunes for new material. I found some interesting works. IMy two current favorites are CastOn by Brenda Dayne and An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory.
One of the things I like about Brenda Dayne’s podcast is that it is about fiber and not just knitting. I wouldn’t call myself a knitter, though I do know how to knit and I admire knitting and would like to knit more, yet, Ms. Dayne does not bore me with the minutiae of knitting. She does talk about the minutiae of knitting, but I am not bored by it. She talks about other things, too. And the way she talks about things is not boring, it is professional, and, real sounding. She squeals with delight in a professional sounding way.
Danny Gregory, author of An Illustrated Life, Creative License and dannygregory.com did a series of podcasts in conjunction with the publication of An Illustrated Life a few years ago. I talked, briefly, about that book here on the blog in the past, but didn’t review it thoroughly. His podcasts are about 30 minutes long. Longer segments are broken in two parts. He has a wonderful voice and his conversations with artists who contributed to the book make me appreciate the book a lot more. Perhaps I will look at it again and give it a thorough review.
So far, I have listened to Danny talk with Peter Arkle and Roz Stendahl. I also listened to the Voodoo Lounge interview with Roz and I, now, want to be her. She is amazingly creative and practical in a way where she seems to use every moment of her time and get a lot done. I liked her interview with Danny Gregory, because she says that shopping (e.g. going and looking for the perfect pen to sketch with, or, in my case the perfect green fabric) is not a substitute for creativity. I think she also inferred that you cannot count shopping as part of your creative time. She has a follow-up to that comment on her blog.
One of the things I like about these non-quilt podcasts is that I get exposed to other artists and start thinking about creative things in a different way. I am not going to give up quilt podcasts, don’t worry.
I have never heard of Peter Arkle before. Peter Arkle is a commercial artists/ illustrator. He also does something called The Peter Arkle News. It is a newspaper containing stories of his everyday life. I love the idea. He started it just out of college (??) to show potential employers he could create and idea and follow through on it. It is now an occasional publication, which he calls ‘wheneverly’. As a librarian, I’ll have to use that instead of ‘irregular.’
One of the things I love about podcasts is how I get to hear the story of people’s lives. As I listen to more and more podcasts, I find that listening to professional radio is starting to be a bit boring or….not as interesting. I always liked Terry Gross, but now I’d rather know about her life than listen to her interview people all the time. I am interested, usually, in the people she interviews, but would also like to know about her. I like stories about people. I like to hear about the wonderful things ordinary people do. Have you done an StoryCorps interview? Take your grandma or your dad out to a StoryCorps booth and do one. Or use your new Flip. What is your story?
I love this tree quilt. It is one of those Miami Christmas quilts. I admire the way she put together the fabrics. I found this blog when I was working on my end of the year post and I was looking for the name of a pattern I bought to make the “It’s a Wrap” quilt by Sandy Gervais (obviously, I found it!). Not Your Run of the Mill blog seems to be associated with a shop, but I wasn’t able to find a direct link to the shop, though it looks like she has some interesting things.
My guild, CQFA, is doing a creativity project in 2010 and I am the first presenter. I did a lot of legwork in anticipation of the prep meeting in November and then was unable to attend. Dolores, from CQFA met me about an hour south of here on Thursday. We had lunch, looked at quilt and creativity books and talked about what I would talk about. I feel much more prepared for my presentation than I did before. I, frankly, had no idea where I was going or what I was going to say. Dolores is extremely creative. Sadly she has no website and no blog, but you can see some of her work that I have posted. Perhaps I will post notes or something on what I talk about. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with things that people expect me to do lately. Not to mention the pressure I put on myself! I think I will have to practice the word ‘NO’ in 2010. We’ll see.
By the way, the Dynamic Quilt link in my sidebar provides a list of my delicious quilt bookmarks. If you have any interest in what quilt sites I am looking at, click there and you will see some of the sites I have bookmarked.
Matt Sparrow is talking about creating a TMZ type quilt website. It should be interesting to see what comes of that. I wonder if there is enough quilt news and gossip to make it worthwhile?
Christmas Fabrics
Nobody can tell me that I do not have the best MIL in the world, perhaps the universe. I love my MIL. She told me recently that I was the best daughter-in-law.;-) I was helping her wash silver after Christmas dinner. I don’t think the dishwashing was the issue. I like to think she just likes me. Anyway, part of my MIL’s fabulousness is that she gives us money every year for Christmas. I used to spend a weekend gift shopping with her, but she is no longer interested in shopping, so she gives each of us, usually, a magazine and money. If you do not select a magazine, you get some soap or something “to open”. Usually, I hoard my money jealously and wait to spend it. This time, I spent it almost as fast as I could on the fabrics in the photo when I was at Back Porch fabrics. I bought some more pieces of the Lonni Rossi fabrics. I used most of the FQ pack I bought on Marilyn’s Multi-tasker. I have another project in mind for them and wanted to include some in my FOTY quilt. I may wait and include them in FOTY 2010 as I still have a lot of fabric to cut and wasn’t sure I could commit to washing and cutting and sewing all of those additional fabrics before midnight on 12/31. As I write this, it didn’t happen.
For FOTY 2010, speak of the devil, I am thinking of doing another one patch, specifically diamonds. I like what I learned from combining fabrics when I make the Zanzibar blocks. I know I told myself I would create a design that used new and old fabrics like TFQ does and I do see the value in that. As the year came to a close, though, I felt quite stressed about this project. I wanted the cutting and piecing to be done by the end of the year and it just didn’t happen. It was totally my fault for leaving the washing, ironing and cutting until the last second, but still. I have to have fun with my quilt work, so I am cutting myself some slack.
If I do diamonds, I just have to decide what size. I almost bought some diamond rulers at Back Porch, but resisted until I could see what I already owned in the diamond arena.I was thinking of something like a 60 degree ruler.
As of January 4, 2010, I will be working more hours. For various reasons, I have always worked part-time since I left graduate school. My husband, however, has been our house-husband for the past year (almost). Sadly, I cannot afford to pay him at all, even though he does an excellent job. There are just things we need more money to pay for such as healthcare, so more hours at the day job for me are required. I am VERY fortunate that the work is there and the company is willing to allow me to make the change. I am sad to be giving up some of my free time, which I love. I don’t want to make changes in the blog in terms of posting less, but we will see. I haven’t gotten many comments in the past 1.5 months, so perhaps I don’t need to post as much? Again, we will see.
Although, New Year’s Day was yesterday, I want to wish all of my readers a great day and may 2010 be MUCH better than 2009!!!
There is a lot going on. I realized at some point over the weekend that I had not really inventoried what I for gifts. This year will be a much leaner Christmas even than last year, but I still have a few things to buy and a lot to wrap. There is a lot going on at work and I have just been ignoring everything, and focusing on the gifts I need to make. I got myself in gear, did an inventory and started working on my Christmas shopping.
I am an inveterate cyber-shopper. Before the web had stores, I would spend the Friday after Christmas with all of the catalogs I had been hoarding on the phone ordering via phone. Since I do mostly online shopping, I inevitably find other sites that might be of interest.
Liesl from Oliver + S pointed me to her free mitten ornament pattern. It can be used for gift tags, winter decorating, tree ornaments or an advent calendar. I could see where the maker could have a nice little reminder of favorite fabrics from the year by using project scraps for the mitten cuffs. Thanks, Liesl!
Liesl pointed me to Alabama Chanin. I like the look of their blog, which they call a journal. I believe they are a clothing company. They do sell scrap bags of organic cotton fabrics. I saw an interesting jacket on the cover of one of their catalogs via their blog/journal. I am thinking about renewing my wardrobe, but want classic pieces with interest which look good on me. That is a project for much later, but it is on my mind.
I was pointed to the Running with Scissors Blog for an interview of Susan Shie. She talks a lot about her airpen work and how it has changed the pace of her work (she can do a lot more). She is doing less hand work, but I don’t know if she has completely stopped that. She also talks about spending the day with President Obama sitting by the side of a river and talking with him while they eat cheeseburgers. It is a very sweet image. After the debacle with the White House party crashers recently, I was thinking that it would be nice if a “regular Joe or Jane” was invited to every White House event. It is, after all, our tax dollars at work.
Also, some time ago I took a class at the Marin Needle Arts Guild weekend retreat from Gwen Marston. It was a two day class and we learned Liberated Quiltmaking. I ended up with my quilt Women’s Work 1. I used her technique to having making a lot of different house blocks.
I found a blog called Block Party and they show a tutorial for making star blocks similar to the ones that Gwen Marston teaches. I thought you might enjoy making a few. As I scrolled through the blog, I found they had tutorials for other blocks as well.
Somehow I found my way to a Dutch site full of Mariner’s Compasses and other round designs created by Jacqueline De Jonge. I have linked you to the English version. De Jonge’s work reminds me of Judy Mathieson and her work looks similar to Barbara Barber‘s circular work. I took Barbara Barber’s class at PIQF once and should be able to make these without another class, but De Jonge’s quilts look so cool, I would happily take a class from her as well. There is a review and picture of a great block one of her students made. You can buy the patterns and fabric collections at BatiksPlus. I was surprised at the cost of some of the patterns ($46), but I think it would probably become clear once I actually saw the complexity of the pattern in real life. Not all are that expensive. I think I would rather have a class form her or a book and do the drawings myself.
If I had unlimited money, after I bought the diamond earrings, I would buy the Aurifil Suitcase. Have you seen this? If I bought it I would probably never use any of the thread, because I wouldn’t want to break up the set! The colors are luscious. I love the thread and having it in a suitcase keeps the dust away.
Spiderwebs are all over the place. I saw another one on Oh Fransson’s blog. Her spiderweb has her signature colors with a tinge of Christmassy-ness and grey centers.
Janome has a content running called “Pass it On“. You answer some questions about where you learned to sew and are entered to win. Your entry and photos become their property and will not be acknowledged or returned blah blah blah. You can win a sewing machine, serger or big pack of thread. How did you learn to sew and who taught you?
A lot of brain dumps lately, I know. Hope you are keeping your inspiration high during this busy time of year.
I am on a trip to the Midwest so I wrote this post in advance so you would have something to read, and, hopefully, enjoy, while I am away. I’ll be back tomorrow and the Creative Prompt will be posted tomorrow like normal. Sadly, as it is a quick trip for a board meeting, I doubt I will have time to check out any quilt stores while I am there.
1. I am a fan of the Electric Quilt on Facebook (and in general, of course!) and was directed to a blog called Piecemeal Quilts via the EQ Blog. The linking sounds complicated if you are not on FB! Sandi, from Wisconsin writes the blog. She has a number of free pattern downloads, paper piecing patterns and examples of EQ work. She is also ‘man enough’ to keep a quilting resources list! It is a lot of work to keep such a list up to date and, from what I saw, it is pretty complete.
The thing that really drew me in to her blog was her writing tone. I seem to be noticing writing tone lately, for some odd reason. She has a nice, friendly and intelligent, but not goofy or insipid tone to her writing. I enjoyed her post on books. I like the books that she likes and thinks that she and I may have the same tastes.
2. When I mentioned Quiltposium on my blog last week, MavMargi pointed me about another online magazine called Sewn. I took a quick look and it looks interesting. Sewn is out of Australia. The styling is very Heather Bailey/Anna Maria Horner. They have patterns and a gallery as well as a fabric search function. I immediately put the Botanical Pop fabrics I still need in and got an email back pretty quickly. Worth a look.
I am not that enamored with online/digital magazines, because I can’t read them in bed (I don’t want to hear from you people who take your laptops to bed!!!) or on the train. However, I do recognize that I will have to get with the program at some point, because more and more stores are ceasing to carry magazines. 🙁
One of the sites that was a link in Sewn was called Modern Textiles. The Modern Textiles site has lots of navigation choices. I looked at ‘Sewing Patterns’, specifically the Melly and Me Bags. These are really unique bags. The combination of fabrics are quite bright and cheerful, but the styling is also very different from other bags I have seen. I really want to see the Bon-Bon bag, because I have never seen anything like it. I would like to see the inside of it in order to determine how useful it would be.
I did find that the pattern list did not have many alternate photos of the bags, but that information may be on the main Melly & Me website.
3. It looks like our financial situation will stay the same through the end of the year, so I am gearing up to make some of my Christmas gifts this year. I don’t know if I will have time to make it before Christmas, but I bought the Pencil Roll pattern from Pink Chalk Studio. Julie made me one for my birthday last year and I have started to carry it around in my clear tote. There are a few free patterns for pencil rolls out there on the web, but this one looks like the best in terms of functionality and styling. We’ll see how difficult the pattern is when I get it.
Perhaps I’ll get good enough to modify the design like in Kathy Perino’s version, which she showed on her blog a few weeks ago, and which I wrote about on August 30.
4. Pam Rubert of the PamDora quilts fame has redone her blog. She writes a really great post about the process, and her thoughts, about the changes in the blog world. She talks about circular writing and I think her thoughts are right on point. It seems that the web is leading us around in circles. (ever notice how I link back to previous posts? I am trying to give you the whole picture, but it ends up being circular, in a way) I haven’t played around with some of the things she discusses, but hope to do so in the future.
5. Want free Moo cards? Check out this link for a free pack with your own images. They have advertising, but free (you do have to pay shipping) is still cool. Thanks to Deirdre for the link.
6. I saw a video on the Craft Zine blog for a new book called Bent Objects. it is about the art of a guy who bends wire. There is a hilarious video on the Craft site that is well worth a look. It does explore a bit of the darker side of crafts, which we all know can be the hilarious side of crafts. Take a look.
Its a Major Award
7. On 7/29/2009 Quilt Rat left a comment saying that she had given me an award and I should go look on her blog. Jill’s comment about the inspiration in my creative prompts was really sweet and made me feel great. Despite the fact that almost 2 months have passed, I am still really thrilled to have received the “It’s a Major Award.” Thanks!
Can you tell I am just desperate to catch up on everything? All of my posts lately are entitled “Various and Sundry.” I hope it gives you an idea from the title what kind of post it will be.
I am doing a project (another one? you say) called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. You can find it and play along at ProBlogger. I am already 3 days behind, so we’ll see how it goes. When I first saw the ad for this project, I was arrogant enough to think I didn’t need such a thing. Immediately after that thought, I signed up, because thinking I couldn’t improve Artquiltmaker blog is a sure sign I need help. If I can make a few improvements, I’ll be happy. If I learn, I’ll be happier.
Reviews and comments about Handmade Nation are all over the blogosphere. I would like to see it as it sounds interesting. I haven’t, however, seen it playing anywhere nearby. I’ll keep looking.
Be*Mused had a lovely array of colors up on her blog the other day. She and I are thinking along the same color lines. Here color palette is the look I am going for with the fabrics that I bought at Always Quilting. I want to add something a bit dark just to take the edge off the bubblegum-i-ness. Not sure what, but I’ll have to look around.
I started listening to another episode of the CraftSanity podcast today. It turned out to be a joint podcast with Jennifer and Sister Diane of Craftypod. Essentially the two podcasters interviewed each other to give tips and pointers on starting your own podcast. Listen to CraftSanity podcast #14 and Craftypod podcast #24 to hear the different takes on the same discussion/interview. I love this kind of collaboration facilitated by the web.
I am cutting 6.5″ squares of blue fabric (like the Thoughts on Dots project) for a project and I have lost about 3/4s of the ones I have cut so far somewhere in my workroom. They will turn up, but it made me realize that I need to have some way of organizing projects that are in the germination stage. There are a number of projects for which I need to gather fabrics while I prepare to sew. I want a system where I can put fabrics and supplies in one place until I am ready for them to be front and center. I am envisioning a system like Jan at Be*Mused put up. She used IKEA’s Expedit shelves. I am not sure these shelves would work for me. I also need a bed in my workroom for guests, so I think my ideal would be the IKEA Billy system with a bed somehow integrated into it. In the meantime, I may just get some POTs and use those.
Finally, Retro Mama made a pattern f or fabric eggs and put it up on her blog. I love these eggs and want to make some to decorate for Easter/the Spring. It won’t work for this Easter, but I could make them for next year. We will see. There are just so many wonderful blogs out there!
Another crazy post about a variety of random topics from while I attempt to find my time management skills and tell you all the various things that have been happening.
Infinity Blocks
I showed these blocks yesterday, because I went to Always Quilting today to see Terri Thayer speak and do a book signing. I took a look at the quilts on the wall and found out that this is an Always Quilting exclusive pattern that they call Crazy Eights. I kind of like what the name Infinity suggests, so I will have to think about what I am going to call my quilt and the block.
Terri and I had a tentative date to go out and talk about writing. I was pleased that we were able to go and have a quick coffee. I like Terri, because she is very approachable and willing to talk about her writing process. We ended up talking about writing and migrating blogs, book promotion and other time management issues.
Terri’s new book, Ocean Waves, is out. As soon as you are done reading this post, go and buy it. 😉 Terri will be at the Chicago Quilt Festival in a couple of weeks. You can buy it from her directly there and get it autographed. Of course, you can buy it from Amazon as well. Just buy it. Supporting local authors is how we get books that have to do with quiltmaking. Terri is in the process of negotiating for the next contract for books in the Dewey/Quilter Paradiso series.
I heard about Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy on the CraftSanity podcast. Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood has interviewed Ms. Paulson twice, once in episode 17 and again in episode 91. She has several things on her blog and website that I like:
Posie Gets Cozy has a list of links to articles and blog posts about Ms. Paulson. Making Things for a Living by Becky from the Hidden Pearl blog is an interesting post/article about Ms. Paulson. The photos on this page are wonderful and I especially like the washtub of fabric flowers. I am also rather fond of the green on the walls behind the Posie letters.
Ms. Paulson has a webstore, where she sells the thing she makes. In it is a Gallery of Sold Things. I like the very appealing layout of the this page and think it shows the wide range of crafts she makes.
Finally, she has a close-up of one of the fabric flowers. I really like this one (it has dots!) and my mind is exploding with ideas for attaching them to tote bags. Or making bouquets that don’t die!
I have been working on the Tarts. It is slow going. My latest task is to find the right color for the tea kettle block in the lower left hand corner. I did the design last week, but haven’t put fabric to machine yet. Photos soon.
And finally,….
2009 Cherry tree
As I mentioned I headed south over last weekend. While driving I found that the cherry trees were in gorgeous bloom all along the highway. The color of the flower petals seemed darker than the petals falling to the ground already in San Francisco. They may be flowering quince or some other flowering tree. I don’t know for sure. I just know that love the cheerfulness of the trees and how they make the City look when they all come into bloom at once. I, finally, had the opportunity and the time and the camera and the tree all in the same place at the same timeand was able to snap the picture above.
My sister is a very talented scrapbook artist and these are some pages that she made for us.
Baby, It's Cold Outside PageChristmas With Page
Yes, the ‘t’ is missing, but I found it and glued it back on the page. Now, all I have to do is fill the pages with pictures.
I thought today, with people out of the house, would be a good day to catch you all up on what is going on. It isn’t going to happen completely. I am going to do a quick update and promise more later. Promises, promises, I know. I have missing my blog writing, though, so you are not the only ones who are suffering.
I have a lot of photos to post and they take time to process. I don’t just want to slap a bunch up there. I have some fantasies of someone from a card company looking at my blog and then hiring me to share my photos so they can make a line of cards out of them. We can all dream! I know I still have a lot to learn about image processing before my fantasy will become a reality, but I do know how to crop, so I am going to do it.
I also have the Creative Prompt drawing to post for March 27 as well as a bunch of inspiration photos. Yes, I finally got my annual photo of a cheery tree in bloom with some wonderful closeups.
FOTY Late March Blocks
I have been working on the Zanzibar blocks for FOTY 2009. I cut the pieces for these a week or so ago, but just sewed them this morning. Some of the pieces were too long as I sewed them together, so I have to check my cutting and make sure I am not getting sloppy. That project progresses.
Infinity Blocks
I decided to call the above blocks (from the project with SIL) Infinity blocks because they look a bit like an infinity symbol. I haven’t been able to find a name for them, but may when I go to Always Quilting tomorrow. I used the scraps from the most recent tote bag I made for one set of the blocks. I heard from SIL, too, after sending her a sample, that the block looked fine.
If you didn’t listen to This American Life this morning (or whenever the most recent show is aired in your area), go and listen to it. The show is all about the effects of the current economy and stress. I like this show, because they seem to talk with regular people. In order to get away from my stress briefly I went south last weekend to visit my sister. Ostensibly we were going to update our scrapbooks; really we hung out, went to scrapbook and quilt shops and visited the Granny. I was able to sort photos from a trip I took that I want to put in an album. I am ready to start putting them in an album. YAY! I am going back on the weekend of May 1 to start work on the project.
Treasure Hunt Fabric
One of our stops was at the The Treasure Hunt, a shop the size of a small suburban house (NOTE: not one of those monster houses, but the kind your grandma bought in the 1950s and you visited all the time when you were a kid). It is located in Carpinteria, California (Treasure Hunt Country Crafts – www.carpinteriaquilts.com 919 Maple St, Carpinteria -(805) 684-3360). It is truly a not to be missed shop. Not only does it have a satisfying selection of quilt fabric, tools and supplies, it also has a knitting section and two small craft supply rooms. They have cheerful fabric there. There wasn’t much, if any, Civil War-baby poop brown-depressing fabrics. The impression I got when I walked in was CHEERFUL. Fabrics are organized by line or by type. Want to see all the colorways of a fabric design? They are right next to each other. They also had a dots section and a stripes section. It would be hard if you were looking for blue of a certain shade, but I loved-loved-loved the look of the store. The people working there were very helpful. They didn’t have the turquoise/azure blue Windham Botanical Pop fabric I need, but I would definitely go back there again. I may post some photos later. The ladies were anxious about giving me permission to take photos, so they said they would ask their boss and get back to me. We’ll see.
Blue Island Quilts is also nearby, but I didn’t go there. Maybe next time.
When I got the above fabrics home, I laid them on the floor and think I will use all of those in the bottom row except for the black-on-whites in one project. Not sure what yet, but something. I love the way they look together. It is also a different color scheme than I normally work with. I’ll probably have to add more fabrics to it (a lavendar, maybe?), but it is a wonderful and inspiring start to a project.
As of yesterday, I am also no longer a small business owner. This means that I only have one job after 7 years of consulting alongside my regular job. I finally got a full night’s sleep last night (the stress was really doing me in), which is exciting in itself. I am excited to work on what comes next…writing?? quilt project designs??? I am wanting to get back to my career counseling to move the project along. That will have to wait, but I will do my exercises and make progress. You can bet that whatever it is will involve more quiltmaking!!!
Color Me Quilts fabrics
After the sale, I stopped in at Color Me Quilts (Color Me Quilts & More, 37495 Niles Blvd, 792-6567), which was in a perfect location to relieve some stress yesterday morning. I bought the stripe to go with the fabrics from The Treasure Hunt for the pink and brown project. The dots are, well, dots and how can I pass them up? I think they will go well with the cherries for the blue and pink project I am also planning. the blue dot will work well in Patrick’s quilt and the Pineapple. Cheerful, cheerful fabrics.
It is never too early to be thinking about gift bags, so I found some Christmas fabrics on sale and bought some of those to make gift bags for the holidays.
Future Bags
I am not a huge fan of Laurel Burch, but I don’t dislike her fabrics, either. The colors are a bit nontraditional, which I like. I saw a lovely white Christmas fabric, but it was too see through to effectively hide gifts, so I passed on it.
For now, thought I have to go sew a bit and get ready for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks for reading and for your comments!
If you didn’t see the Cost Plus ad in the Sunday newspaper yesterday, go take a look. They are getting ready for spring and it is a very cheerful ad. They even have a grouping of Adirondack chairs that looks like my banner. Guess they’ve been trawling the web for ideas. 😉
Journal from Annie Smith
Recently, I received an email from Annie Smith, yes, podcasting Annie Smith. In better times, I left a few comments on her website and also gave a donation. She contacted me, because she felt bad for not responding to my comments. I try to respond to comments on my blog, but it isn’t always possible and I certainly don’t expect any other blog authors to respond to my prattling. Still, she contacted me and wanted to send me something, because she hadn’t responded. I told her it wasn’t necessary, but she sent me the journal above anyway. As I have mentioned, I write in a journal nearly every day. While this is not the style of journal I normally use, it might be nice to try something different. Regardless it was very thoughtful.
Failure!
I wanted a sturdier tote bag to carry around. I decided to try to make a bag out of the clear tablecloth covering type fabric (is it really fabric??). I thought it would also be cool to have a clear plastic bag even though I would have to be careful what I put in it! I felt justified on this thought during the past week when I was carrying about my soaked flower bag. As you can see from above, I haven’t, yet, been very successful completing the clear plastic tote. The problem is that I cannot sew this tablecloth fabric on my machine 🙁 . I tried it normally, but the feed dogs wouldn’t feed. I tried backing it with some slightly heavy tissue paper, figuring I could rip it off later and he machine still wouldn’t feed. I even asked at the store where I bought the fabric and they said it should be no problem. Above is a picture of me failing at sewing the clear plastic bag. Unless any of you have any brilliant ideas, I am going to buy some colorful staples and staple it together. Not sure how sturdy it will be, though, and I am concerned that the backs of staples catching on things.
I realized that I hadn’t posted or written about the Flower tote. At least I couldn’t find any reference to it.
Flower Tote
I finished this tote at the beginning of January. It is the first tote that I have made using one different fabric for the side so the pocket fabric stands out. I am pleased with that way of highlighting the ‘main’ fabric. It is a pretty easy way to do so. Basically, I cut the same numbers of fabrics out of two different fabrics as normal. Then I used one side piece in the flower print for an inside piece and one blue side piece for the outside side piece that gets the pocket attached to it.
Flower Tote detail
From the City Quilter Newsletter: “If you or any friends will be in New York City the weekend of March 21/22, I thought you’d like to know of a wonderful quilt show put on by the major Manhattan guild, Empire Quilters. It is entitled Urban Inspirations, and takes place at the the Fashion Institute of Technology, a major teaching institution, which is just around the corner from us.” If you would like to subscribe to the City Quilter newsletter, email them at: info@cityquilter.com I can’t attend this year, but would love to see photos you take from the show.
Words are important to me. I like to use the correct word for the correct item, thought or feeling. “The quilt on the back of the couch,” for example, is much better than “the thing on the back of the other thing.”
TFQ and I had a discussion about visual journals a week or so ago. A lot of stuff had been rattling around in my brain. She was obviously thinking about these issues as well, because she clearly and cleverly articulated what I was thinking. There were some of the central points of our discussion:
Both of us have writing journals, which we use to rant and rave and explain and digest.
Neither of us wanted to try to express our feelings in art in addition to doing it in the journals mentioned above.
We agreed that we both wanted more of a daily art practice.
Both of us want to try different techniques that we read about in blogs and magazines. We don’t always know how to do these techniques.
We are both having trouble getting started.
The conversation, a subsequent letter to TFQ as well as a variety of comments I have made in my journal have all been working towards getting myself started and clearly articulating the issue. It has all been the product of stuff floating around in my mind as I try and resolve this issue for myself. I have decided that what I want is not to do visual journaling, which for me means explaining or working out my feelings and commenting on my life using media other than words. I want to illustrate my journal – or a journal. By illustrated journal, I mean that I want to sketch little vignettes or paint scenes that have nothing to do with my words. I want to do this to inform my quiltmaking and to inject more creativity into my life.
I use the sketch above from Gabi Campanario as an example of my idea. He sketches what is around him. His sketches don’t seem to have anything to do with how he is feeling. He obviously has taken it to an art form, which I am not planning on doing. I want to test ideas and sketch for myself. My quilts are really for others.
My biggest issue is starting. I need someone to hold my hand. I thought that decorating the box would kick start me into shape. No dice. It was hard, it took a long time and didn’t dry very fast. I did enjoy making it, though.
I thought getting some creative prompts, like from the Creative Mom podcast, would jumpstart the process.
No dice.
Finally I told Julie that I needed her to hold my hand. We haven’t set a date yet, but I am hoping we will both have time soon.
In the process of this hand wringing, I have identified a couple of issues:
My stuff for non-quilt creativity is everywhere. I have to haul it out in order to do anything.
I have supplies that I don’t know how to use.
I don’t have a messy space in which to work (and it is Feb and raining outside).
I still want to focus on quiltmaking and fiber. I want this endeavor to be a little extra.
I did some sketching in 2008, but stopped for some reason, so I guess I could consider this small amount of work the start, which means my real problem is continuing….
I realized this morning that I had about twelve browser tabs open, many with sites that I wanted to share. This is a post that is all about cleaning up my desktop.
Jen made a comment on my blog that got me to thinking about a problem I was struggling with. Her profile led me to her blog, A Quilting Jewel, which I mentioned in a previous blog post. Jen quilts with her aunt and she is very prolific. I like the way she shows her work in process.
Notebookism is a blog about notebooks and journals. I write every day and go through several journals a year with just writing and a couple of others with notes and drawings for quilts. I was led to this site somehow after looking at the Myndology website. They have some interesting finds in the journal department and they don’t seem to post much.
Michael Nobbs, a Welsh artist, started following my Twitter stream. I always wonder why people follow my Twitter stream because I don’t say very much on it. I certainly don’t say anything very relevant. Perhaps that is the whole point? Anyway, I went and looked at his stream and found some interesting sketches that he is doing and others to which he links, like Seattle Sketcher, which I mentioned he other day. As a result I decided to follow his Twitter stream as well. I think the Creative Mom podcast, as well as my thoughts on a Daily Art Practice, are turning my mind towards sketching. Don’t worry! I am not abandoning quiltmaking. Quite the contrary; I think that viewing sketching sites can inform my quiltmaking. When he received the notice that I was following him, he sent me a message thanking me and a link to his website. On the main page he has a drawing of a teapot, which immediately attracted my attention. There is also a link to his blog.
Matt Sparrow has some interesting quilts and information about thread listed on his blog. I like the batik star he posted. He said the pattern is called Enchanted Star. It looks like an Ohio Star with some 4 patches thrown in.
The Fresh and Modern Quilt Pool at Flickr is really inspiring. Not only are many of the quilts interesting, but the photography is inspired as well. I found this pool by working my through the Denyse Schmidt pool, also on Flickr. Some of the quilts are in both pools. There are lots of simple patterns and the use of fabric is really good. I particularly like the way people have used the large scale prints. One nice thing about Flickr is you can blog straight from the image (if you have set that up) and it makes a very nice layout on your blog. You can see an example in the New Star Block from Flickr post.
As I may have mentioned, the Creative Mom podcast has a bunch of associated sites including the CMP Circle Flickr Pool where members and listeners post their various projects.
Finally, Deirdre pointed me to the Quilt Show blog. I am a little annoyed at the Quilt Show,because of the way it has changed Alex Anderson’s podcast. I liked the way she interviewed people in the past. Now she just goes on and on about the Quilt Show. I am sure it is a great, but I don’t watch it, because I don’t have time and I don’t want to pay for something I don’t have time to take advantage of. I know things change. Blah. Blah. Blah. Anyway, the blog, even though it has a lot of ads, has a lot of nice quilts pictured. There are a variety of different topics also: block of the month, process of fabric design, guests on the show, etc. It’s worth a look.
It is entirely possible, though kind of unbelievable to me, that I haven’t breathed a word of the Cross Blocks (Flowering Snowball) since September.
This is the block that I finished this week. it is the first one where I took the Child’s advice and used some calmer fabrics.
The two above were taken on 9/29, but I didn’t see them posted. There are some calmer fabrics in them and I like the layout of the block on the right better than the the layout of the block above. It looks more balanced to me. How do you like that handbag black and white fabric I found?
And on another topic….
Following up on the longarm demo CQFA had earlier this month, my mom came over and showed me what she had done. She went to a friend’s house. The friend has a Handiquilter and they worked on the HandiQuilter.
This is the quilt top Mom quilted. She has no idea where she got it, but it has a wide variety of fabrics. Some of them are not 100% cotton. There is a lot of interesting texture. I ended up sewing part of hte binding on for her on Pie Day.
Here is some of the quilting she did. Mom said that she spent all week, while on public transportation, doodling and that really helped her feel comfortable with the motions of the machine.
Flower motif. Little house. She had some issues with the tension here, but was able to figure out what the problem was. Mom said that she is not going to take the longarm class at Always Quilting; that she is just going to use her friend’s machine. I am still taking the class on Jan 9.
It was very interesting to scan this visual journaling image, because I wanted it to be big so you could see it. I scanned the entire page (from my journal) at 600 dpi and that was too big! It was interesting, however, because I could see the strokes of my pen and that was cool to look at. I rescanned at 150 and that is ok. I don’t want you reading my ruminations until I am dead, so I cut all the writing out. 😉
So, this is the second visual journaling exercise I have done and I am pretty pleased with the pillow on the chair. I think I was able to look at the little scene better. I also think the perspective is a bit better (but still needs a lot of work) and that I was able to cut out some of the extraneous stuff – you don’t have to draw it all – in order to keep the drawing from being cluttered. Onward!
Nobody really noticed the new look of the blog around the New Year. I had been thinking for a time that I needed a new, cleaner look. The opportunity presented itself when I copied something in the template and, then, proceeded to paste over the entire blog code. To add whipped cream to the cake, I, THEN, saved. What a total big DUH! I like the new look, but it is very hard to read on my laptop. I was pleased to see it on my desktop, because I was worried that you, dear readers, would not be able to see the links.
Well, stupidity rears its ugly head again and I had to rebuild my Blogroll. Again, my copying and pasting got out of control and poof! my sites were gone. The worst part was that I didn’t even notice right away. Most are back, but I will have to add the others back in as time passes.
I sewed some more corners to Pineapples and made two baby blankets, but other than that no sewing has occurred. I am going to a retreat next weekend, so afterwards there should be plenty to talk about. I am planning to make the Chocolate Box blocks then. I need a treat that it will be a good opportunity to bang those out. If I have time, I will cut some of the center squares and strips so I can hit the ground running, so to speak.
Friend Julie suggested that I bring the Pineapples to see if anyone there had any brilliant ideas for fixing my problems. I will do that and we will see. Remaking them is looking more and more like the possibility. That does mean, probably, another year of work, though. We’ll see what the gang says next weekend.
The organizers want people to bring something to share: book, technique, etc. I am planning to bring my Tsukineko ink CD to at least watch, if not to share with others. I think I will also bring my Painted Quilt book, which is a feast for the eyes. I got it from Powell’s with a gift certificate I received for Christmas. Review to follow!
