Yes, this block is very similar to the Split Rectangle 9 Patch. Both are very easy blocks. I am playing with simple lines to make well known blocks a little different and to show you how easy it is to design your own blocks.
I seem to be on a 9 patch jag these days. I have a few more 9 patch blocks up my sleeve. Gear up, because they will get a bit harder.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
The Bay Area Modern Meeting was yesterday and fun as usual. There is much talk of the upcoming retreat and also of the recent Sew Day. 46 people, the most EVER!, attended the meeting and the group had its first ever speaker. Lots of firsts.
A-B-C (A-Z) Challenge
We displayed our A-B-C Challenge blocks. Mine are Jewel Box and Indian.
Jewel BoxIndian
There are about 7-8 participants. Diana just joined by doing one block and Jennifer joined, doing a-J (minus I). I really like this challenge. It is great that I have a reason to make a block every month (not that I really need an excuse).
A-B-C Challenge - All blocks
Angela brought two Hawaiian blocks (far left). I love it that she is doing these blocks in Hawaiian fabrics. Most people don’t use Hawaiian fabrics as regular fabrics for regular blocks.
Michelle is doing her blue and white blocks (also far left). We are getting so far along in the project that not all of us were able to put up all of our blocks and Michelle was one of them. It occurred to me that she might have the hardest job of all since not all possible blocks are suitable for two colors.
Kathleen’s blocks are still the black, white and red ones. She is doing a good job choosing how much print to put into each block.
Jennifer's blocks
Jennifer is using the Lazy Girl ruler for her blocks (middle with all the points). She has just started the challenge and is catching up.
My blocksLynnette's blocks
My blocks are on the top right. Lynette’s are the grey and green on the bottom right. I like the way Lynnette’s blocks have an on point sort of look. Many of them have half square triangles in the corners. She made a Glacier Bay block as well and it is really great to see how different it looks from mine. She uses fussy cutting in her blocks and the technique in Glacier Bay is particularly effective.
Speaker
Joy-Lily Prep
Joy-Lily brought books, Carefree Quilts, and quilts to her talk. The quilts she brought were all from her book, so we didn’t get a sense of the evolution of her work. She organized the talk to coincide with sections of the book, which was a good idea, especially if one had the book and could follow along. A clever portion of the book is that if you make all the blocks you end up with an extra block from each of the projects with which you can make a sampler quilt. Joy-Lily had someone else make the sampler quilt and the maker did a great job. I really like the colors.
Joy-Lily Sampler
All the quilts from the book are all kind of wonky. Joy-Lily doesn’t think that people can do perfect matching seams and has written her book to that end.
Leaf quiltLeaf quilt
The Leaf quilts are very inspired and I think that that block is one of my favorites from the book.
Sewing Time Adrianne was a madwoman (in a good way!) on getting us to our sewing time. We were done with show and tell at 3:05 and everyone started moving tables, setting up machines and working away. I sat with Chris and TFQ and worked on the border test I have been wanting to do for a long time. Chris and TFQ were both working on hand projects. TFQ is handquilting a lovely quilt (which I forgot to photograph) with Perl cotton. Chris is working on an art piece where she is couching down some threads that have, what look like, little flowers on them. Again, I was so wrapped in my own project that I didn’t take a photo. Perhaps she will post to her blog.
I wish I had gotten a photo of the little sewing pod in the middle of the room. Ruth, Adrianne, Kathleen and bunches of other people were set up there. Such a buzz of activity! It was wonderful.
Charity Quiltmaking
Deborah and Jennifer collected bunches of more fabric and quilts and other necessities for the charity quilts the group is making for the NICU at Stanford. I can’t be too upset about the lack of a Cal connection, because it feels good to be helping children and their families in need. I posted the 16 patch blocks I made yesterday. The selection of fabric packets wasn’t stellar, but I retrieved 4 more batches of fabric, but I also spoke to Jennifer about the background. She said any white is fine. I have some white-on-whites that I will use with some of my scraps to make my own blocks. I gave them most of the Pineapple blocks that were the wrong size, so I can, now, cross that off the 26 Projects list.
I realized that one reason I enjoy working on this project with the BAMQG people is that Deborah and Jennifer are so kind and serene about the whole endeavor. I am not sure if those are the right words, but I know that they express genuine gratitude with donations and they do not harangue or guilt people into participating. They are also really well organized and the 16 patch block they selected, as I am sure I have said before is a stroke of genius. I have never felt like I am really contributing to a charity project as I do with this one. I also feel like it is fun. All in all a very good experience.
Jennifer and Deborah have a goal of 24 quilts in mind for this year, but they think they will surpass that. They already have 6 quilts, including one that I donated, the Crazy Quilt Test. I meant to send it to Japan after the earthquake, but somehow it never made it.
I am really enjoying making these 16 patch/postage stamp blocks for the BAMQG Charity Quilt project.The beneficiary of our quilts is the Lucille Packard NICU. Apparently, they use the quilts (and other kinds of blankets) to cover the incubators and keep out the light. Each baby who leaves receives a quilt or afghan or other kind of blanket to take home.
I take as many kits, which consist of 16 2.5″ squares, as I want and sew them together into 16 patch blocks. Last time I only took one, but this time I took 4, which was all the red kits available.
They made great leaders and enders and I really was able to put the blocks together very quickly.
Definition: A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension the term gift can refer to anything that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness.
gift basket
Present
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Birthday gift
gift bag
Christmas gift
“We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.” – John Lennon
gift wrapping
gift tax
gift registry
Give the Gift of Music – iTunes ad
gift card
“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” -Buddha
gift box
“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.” – Albert Einstein
Please post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and/or your blog, and how your work relates to the other responses.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. Are you already a member? I created that spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted.
The angle is off a bit, which put me off adding many more details. I have to ask my mom how to make it better next time. See what you can make of the original prompt.
As usual, I started my Fabric of the Year 2011. I made good progress, but I did not finish.
Before I left for the Retreat, I spent time organizing the patches into color families and then from light to dark. Normally, I figure out the size of the finished piece and do more organizational stuff. No time this year and it was fine.
Once at the Retreat, I spent a lot of time – all day Friday – arranging the color gradations. I got opinions from others about the placement of certain patches. I used my camera to look at the patches in a different way and it was a useful tool in my arsenal of work. Above you can see the progression. The top left is pretty soon after I put all the patches on the wall. The last photo, bottom left, is, basically, what I took home.
I had to pin and wrap the pieces in the portable design wall. I set it up in my workroom and am working on it.
I am glad of the progress I made it on it at the Retreat, but I prefer to work in my workroom. As I started work on Monday, I felt an ease come over me and the work began to go very well. I hope to be done sooner rather than later. Stay tuned.
The CQFA Retreat was over the weekend. It was a relatively quiet retreat. Several people had to cancel at the last moment, which was a shame. Still, we had a good time and people made good progress on their various progress.
My spot with Julie
We were in the same location as last year, which has a separate building in which we are able to sew.
Other sewing space
This was my view as I sewed. Reva does wonderful work and it was wonderful to watch her, Sue and Robin’s work evolve.
Reva’s Black & White Piece
The black and white piece is made from the fat quarter bundle Reva won from the prizes we got from Fabricworm.
Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch
Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch was made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I liked looking at it. I like the pink.
Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch 2
Robin added some 4 patches on the ends to make the piece a bit longer.
Sue’s Scrap Quilt
Sue half square triangle scrap quilt is the kind of project I like to do on the Retreat. Sue had the blocks done and thought to do the rest at home. We encouraged her to use Robin’s design wall to finish the piece. She did so and made good progress. She wanted to use up as many scraps as she could and I think that she did well. Sue is making this quilt for her bed.
Maureen’s work
I think the pink fabric in the middle left looks like the leaves a tree with the trunk being the piece right below. I mentioned it and Maureen said that we all see what we want to see.
Julie made a lot of progress on various pieces. She started some and made progress on others. I was very impressed with her progress.
The Baggo piece is from a challenge where each person receives a bag of supplies from another and makes something out of it. I was particularly taken with the Baggo piece’s eye stamps. I was even more impressed when Julie told me she carved them herself. I really like the images and encouraged her to make more and sell them. I would be first in line for a set although I don’t do much stamping.
She quilted and bound this piece. She was irritated at the binding, which tinkled every time she worked on it, because of the bells she had added. I told her to stop and do something else in between. By the end of the weekend, the binding was done and Julie was not gnashing her teeth.
Julie
We went out to dinner on Saturday night together, which was fun. We had the most wonderful waiter who was kind, didn’t complain about any special requests and gave us each individual bills.
This is similar to a nine patch, but split with rectangles in four of the blocks. You must use two different fabrics in the split patches and they two fabrics should have a lot of contrast.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
I like to think that I am writing a story with my drawings and, as such, one drawing is sometimes not enough for a scene. This response is related to #131: Hills.
I used the Inktense pencils my mom gave me. I thought about add a bit of water to make the sunrise more watercolor-y, but didn’t want to chance it with the kind of paper in the drawing book.
When I decided on this word for the week, I was thinking of the New Year and how it is often depicted as a baby. When I went to respond to the prompt, I could only think of the large prams that one sees in London. Mine looks large enough for quintuplets, but perhaps they will bring use a good year.
Definition: Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquaticvertebrate (or craniate) animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups. Most fish are ectothermic (“cold-blooded”), allowing their body temperatures to vary as ambient temperatures change, though some of the large active swimmers like white shark and tuna can hold a higher core temperature.[1][2] Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. They can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans (e.g., gulpers and anglerfish). At 32,000 species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any other class of vertebrates.[3]
aquarium
fish tank
fish sandwich
freshwater fish
plenty of fish
fishy
fish recipes
fish species
fish games
San Francisco Fish Company
clown fish
Fly fishing
Babelfish
Mary Poppins: Close your mouth, please, Michael. We are not a codfish. (quote)
Did you add links to your art? Contributed to the Flickr Group? Have fun and link to your responses! Ask a friend to join, too! You can do the prompts together.
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and/or your blog, and how your work relates to the other responses.
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. Are you already a member? I created that spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses. Please join and look at all of the great artwork that people have posted. Post yours and get kudos!
In responding to this prompt it occurred to me that just drawing something was not the point and that I needed to, in fact yearned to, immerse myself in the drawing. I found that drawing the details of the cake took my mind away from the place I sat.
I took myself off, with TFQ, to Road to California this past weekend, which is in Ontario, California. I have never been to this show before and it is touted as one of the largest quilt events on the West Coast. I am spoiled by having PIQF in my backyard.
Front of Show
Road to California is a nice comfy sort of show, but more like a large guild show than “one of the largest quilt events on the West Coast”. Also, there were a lot of vendors. I would say 2/3s of the space was for vendors.
Eleanor Burns
Speaking of vendors, Eleanor Burns was there. I actually saw her doing her demonstrations! I chatted with her a little bit in the course of a humming bird demo she was doing. She is not the stereotypical haughty celebrity. She was very nice, smiled for everyone who wanted to take a photo and chatted amiably. She is obviously well schooled to being ‘on’, because I saw her continue to smile and demonstrate while listening to someone who whispered a question into her ear.
Quiltin' Cousins
The majority of the floor space was given over to vendors and the vendor representation was very good. Not only were there vendors I hadn’t seen before, but the vendors were cheerful. I find the vendors at PIQF to be quite surly, so this was a nice change. I was pleased to see Quiltin’ Cousins from Pismo Beach. Shawn, the owner, was really nice and friendly and we went back to her booth a few times to look at everything. We met her at Long Beach in 2010.
Licorice Allsorts
I saw a 1930s book that included a pattern called Cowboy Stars (on that table with the pastel quilt on it), but I didn’t buy it. I hope to find it at the library or find the pattern in one of the Kansas City Star books or in EQ7. It has some nasty diamonds and triangles, so I don’t plan on starting it anytime soon.
TFQ bought a pattern she called “not a pineapple” that was really called Licorice Allsorts (the black background quilt on the left). It does look like a baby Pineapple and I am eager to see how it is constructed.
The quilts were good. Different types and styles than I normally see. TFQ pointed out to me, quite rightly, that the fabrics being snapped up from the vendors – yards of Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs blooms, Moda charm packs and Jelly Rolls, lines of 1930s fabrics – were not represented in 90% of the quilts we saw. We walked back through the show and found the quilts made from solids, tone-on-tones, and batiks predominantly. See if you agree from the photos I took. Yes, there were a few quilts with prints, but very few. What are you doing with those lines of fabric you buy? Do you buy fabrics to collect? What are you using for your current quilt?
There was virtually no representation of Modern Quiltmakers at the show. I have to say that I have used a couple of ‘modern’ lines lately and those quilts will probably never see a show. I am, frankly, too lazy to do the paperwork to enter quilts into shows. I used to do it all the time, but the things they ask seem to pointless and a recent entry found the sponsoring organization to be so disorganized I had to essentially send my materials in twice. Still, I am not seeing the quilts like I make, so perhaps I should carve out some time to enter shows?
Road 2 Calif. Purchases
I bought a few little trinkets. I don’t buy many patterns, so that cut out a whole shopping niche. There were books in which I was really interested, but want to check out from the Library first to see if I REALLY need to add them to my collection. The fabric was a free gift from Quilt in a Day and I think the ruler will be good for making scrap blocks. TFQ bought me a bottle of buttons to replace those I have been using to embellish card holders and Christmas stockings. She said it was part of my birthday gift.
Now for the sentimental drivel. You can stop reading now if you are only interested in quilting. The show was great. Getting away was great, but I was very pleased to come to my dear DH, who picked us up from the train, had dinner ready and made a birthday cake (yes, my birthday was Friday, in case you missed it). I have been sick on and off for a month and am still hacking up a lung. If the trip hadn’t involved reservations and flights, I probably would have cancelled and stayed home. I enjoyed myself, loved the quilts, enjoyed the vendors but was very pleased to come home to my house and my family.
In cleaning up the fabric avalanche, I found a piece of marginally Christmas fabric. It is a little pale to be a gift bag, because eager eyes can see through it, but I made a gift bag anyway.
This made me think about my Christmas fabric and after looking through all that I had, I decided I needed to make bags out of it. My ribbon can is also overflowing. I don’t need anymore gift bags and the family is pretty well set, so I decided to try and encourage YOU to start using gift bags for your holidays. To encourage you, I will offer a prize of a variety of gift bags in November for anyone who participates. Most of them will be Christmas bags, because that is the fabric I have.
In order to participate you must:
sew gift bags. No tape, staples or glue. Any fabric works
post a photo to your blog or Flickr (or other easily accessible web space) of the gift bags you made
put a comment with a link to the photo of your bag or bags in this post or a post related to the gift bag challenge. Each gift bag challenge post will say something like gift bag challenge
I will:
keep track of participants
post a tutorial and ideas for making gift bags
on or around November 15, I will draw a name or names (depending on the number of gift bags I have to give away) of the winners
You may:
enter more than once, but the limit is 10 times, which is about the number of months until November
embellish, embroider to your heart’s content
use any pattern you want including my tutorial
Rules subject to change without notice and my discretion.
