Weeks wrote “Think broadly. Don’t get hung up on labels; you needn’t adhere to making one type of quilt—even though we consider ourselves modern quilters, there’s something to be learned from every genre of quilting. Which types of quilting could you learn from?”
You might like bright fabrics like me, but it won’t kill me to look at a quilt made with Civil War fabrics or a quilt splashed with house paint. I like to keep an open mind when looking at quilts. I have come across quilts that I thought were hideous. Nonetheless, I looked at them and found something I could use. It might have been a spark of a color or a little block or piecing trick or some clever embellishment. By taking the time to look, I saw.
I think I can learn from all types of quilting, even those types that I wouldn’t want to do myself.
*No copyright claimed on Modern Quilt Studio image. thanks to Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle for allowing me to use it. See the original blog post on the Craft Nectar blog.
I did something a little different for this week’s blocks. I didn’t have a lot of time last weekend, so I cut the pieces for each block out in advance and had all the pieces on the design wall ready to sew. I did this, because I thought I might have a few minutes here and there to see, but really I only had various bits of time to cut. I didn’t have any sewing time until late in the day on Friday. I am not sure if cutting in advance made any difference.
I added in the Michael Miller teal dot fabric, which I also used on the sewing machine cover I made a couple of years ago. I needed some more dots and I really wanted to use this fabric in a quilt I could admire regularly.
At least I thought I cut all the pieces! Part way through I realized that I still needed to cut out the last star.
Aunt Addie’s Star
Aunt Addie’s Star looks a little backgroundy to me, but I think it will be ok. What does “Backgroundy” mean? I think it means that that big square in the center gives a look of a lot of background and not too much star. I think it is fine, but I will have to look at it in context and see if I need to make others with more background or that see through look. One of the Rising Stars has background in the center.
I do have all the stars on my design wall and think they are looking fine together.
Taj Mahal Star
The Taj Mahal Star will go really well with the Austin Star from last week. It has, as you can see, the same kind of corner treatment. I need to find one more block or make another one of these two so the quilt looks on balance. I like, as I have said before, to use threes – three of the same blocks, three pieces of the same fabric, three design elements, etc to make the quilt look right. You can use 5 or some other odd number, but I use three as my starting point. I am pretty sure I talk about this concept in more depth in the Design Series. Perhaps the episode on Balance?
Square in a Square Star
Finally, I made the Square in a Square Star. While I was cutting for it, I was thinking of the green dot I talked about in the last post about the Star Sampler. I decided to use it in the center of this star. I wanted to make sure that there was enough of it in the quilt so one or two pieces didn’t look weird. It works GREAT, because it is enclosed and not touching the background.
This year’s shape is a 3.5″ square and I have an idea to do a kind of waterfall effect. Stay tuned to see what actually happens!
I had two fabri-lanches in the past few days, so I finally started pressing fabrics and cutting the squares for Fabric of the Year 2013.
There are fabrics for projects in process and also fabrics that just came up on the ‘to press’ pile. I might need to take a day off work that I dedicate to pressing fabric.
I just realized it has been about two weeks since I posted about the Star Sampler. The last post was March 10. It is not an abandoned project and I have been working on the blocks. I know the week of March 11 was really busy for me. I had two meetings in the evenings that week and must have gotten off track with writing about the blocks.
Hourglass Star v.2
The first thing I did last week was redo the Hourglass Star block. The previous version didn’t work. I used that great yellow-green dot for the arms and it was too light. I had two of the centers, so I used the same center and just put a Michael Miller Dumb Dot as the arms.
I think that yellow-green has to be contained on the inside of a block. I think it is too close to the background to work effectively next to it.
If I keep screwing up blocks. I’ll have a second quilt on the back!
Checkerboard Star
I included some of the yellow-green in the Checkerboard Star and you can see how well it does enclosed by other fabrics. I have to keep that in mind as I move forward on the rest of the blocks.
I saw TFQ’s version of this star on Flickr and noticed that she lined up the fabrics she used for the arms so they were the same.
Plaid Star
I like the Plaid star. I like the look of the piecing. I am not 100% on board with the fabrics I chose, but I don’t dislike them enough to re do the block right at this moment. Also, I chose the colors to go with the Bard of Avon block. I didn’t want the Bard of Avon to be sitting out there with these fabrics alone.
I do love that turquoise I used for the arms, though. It is hand-dyed or some kind of special surface design by Stitch ‘n Dye fabrics. It is a very special fabric, but I thought I might as well use it. I am pleased with how it looks with the other fabrics.
Austin Star
Someone pointed out on Twitter that the Austin Star block looks really different from the others. The squares in the corner are quite prominent. They enhance the X effect of the block. I haven’t decided if this rendition of this block will make the cut for the final quilt. It is a little on the dark side. I know there is another block similar in layout that might make this work.
Basic Star
I am playing with lavender/purples since I ran out of that perfect lavender with white dots by Lakehouse. This one is pretty good since there are a number of different dots made up of different colors.
I am really enjoying working on this project with someone else. Seeing the placement of fabric and fabric choices some one else makes is so interesting. It also inspires me to think a little differently.
I finally crawled back on the donation bandwagon. This isn’t an organized donation project, just my own personal desire to be of service. Part of my problem was missing too many BAMQG meetings, but also I had too many other projects and keep forgetting to sew the Patchwork Wheel blocks together. I still haven’t sewn them together, but I have a goal of getting them together before the next BAMQG meeting. The illness in February didn’t help things either.
My scrapbag runneth over
I had to do something, though, because my scrap bag had reached critical mass and was overflowing. I even got a larger one to accommodate all the scraps I had accumulated since December. I still couldn’t cram any more scraps into the new, larger bag. I use the scraps, as you know, to fill the Cat Beds Amanda collects for the Homeless Cat Network. Often, because I had been sewing one to two cat beds per month, I didn’t have enough to fill an entire cat bed. I would just put in as many as I had and Amanda would fill up the rest of the cat bed to ultimate comfy-ness.
This time I had tons of scraps. I created a lot of scraps in December, January, February and part of March with all the projects I worked on. Remember? I was off over the holidays. I was almost able to fill up an entire cat bed. I’ll give it to Amanda and let her decide whether the scraps I put in are enough. She has tons of scraps and can fill up the bed to capacity, if needed.
Sewing this cat bed together was exciting, because she used some very soft and slippery fabric for the sides. It is like Minkee, I think, but I don’t know if it is actually Minkee. It was a little fuzzy, too and got everywhere. That was no problem, because now I keep a masking tape roller in my workroom and that tool cleaned me and all the other Minkee-ified surfaces right up.
Cat Bed March 2013
I sewed it almost as soon as I got home from the meeting, because the magnet holding my scrap bag to my cutting table was not designed for the weight of fabric and it kept falling off.
See how fat and comfy it looks? I am sure it will make some cat very happy.
You can see the pattern for the cat beds in a previous post.
I am continuing on with the QuiltCon Homework that Weeks Ringle issued in February. Number 4 is ‘Reflect’. Weeks wrote “Reflect. Who you will be tomorrow as a quilter doesn’t have to be who you were yesterday. What would you like to learn?”
I want to continue to explore my quiltmaking as an expression of my creativity. I could do anything to express my creativity, but quiltmaking is what is making me happy (as Tanesha at CraftyGardenMom says) right now. I don’t expect that to change, though I am having fun with my little forays into bookmaking, Tsukineko inks, scrapbooking and journal making.
Mark Lipinski has had several good episodes of Creative Mojo lately where he talks with other artist quiltmaker types and the things they say really spoke to me on a “what to do next level.” The guests said things like reorganizing their fabrics so it looks different; getting rid of things (old news, moving on), making a creative block day a “writing day”, thinking about things differently, making an effort at self-care. All of these things are real food for thought for me. I don’t spend much time in the creative block zone, but it happens. Having options is a good thing. Ice cream, too.
tomorrow, I want to be a quiltmaker who doesn’t have to classify herself as a modern quiltmaker or a traditional quiltmaker or an art quiltmaker. I want to take the best of all of those and move my creative life forward. I want to bring my quiltmaking more into my daily life. that will be a challenge, since I sew as much as humanly possible, have projects everywhere ready to pick up at a moment’s notice and will cancel plans in order to sew. I guess I will have to stop tidying up the house and get someone to do that for me. Any volunteers? 😉
I also want to continue to learn and evolve. I want to adopt new tools and techniques and continue to improve the quality of my work. I’d like to sell a quilt to a collector (that is a secret wish, so don’t tell) and I’d like to stop being lazy and enter more shows.
What about you?
*No copyright claimed on Modern Quilt Studio image. thanks to Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle for allowing me to use it. See the original blog post on the Craft Nectar blog.
We have reached 200! Amazing. Thanks for reading and playing along.
Sunrise, sunset – from Fiddler on the Roof
magazine – your guide to living in the west
The Sunset – Neighborhood in San Francisco
Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal. Elbert Hubbard
Inner Sunset, San Francisco
Sunset Hills to be named to the National Register of Historic Places (article)
St. Anne of the Sunset, Catholic Church in San Francisco (love the name and the church is beautiful)
Sunset Marquis, a boutique hotel in West Hollywood.
1988 movie directed by Blake Edwards;with Bruce Willis, James Garner, Malcolm McDowell, Mariel Hemingway. Tom Mix and Wyatt Earp team up to solve a murder
Sunset grill
Walt Whitman: Song at Sunset
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” quote / Rabindranath Tagore
Definition: Sunset or sundown is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the western half of the horizon, i.e. at an azimuth greater than 180 degrees, as a result of Earth’s rotation.
The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon. The ray path of light from the setting Sun is highly distorted near the horizon because of atmospheric refraction, making the sunset appear to occur when the Sun’s disk is already about one diameter below the horizon. Sunset is distinct from dusk, which is the time at which the sky becomes completely dark, which occurs when the Sun is approximately eighteen degrees below the horizon. The period between sunset and dusk is called twilight.
Locations north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle experience no sunset or sunrise at least one day of the year, when the polar day or the polar night persist continuously for 24 hours.
Sunset creates unique atmospheric conditions such as the often intense orange and red colors of the Sun and the surrounding sky. (Wikipedia)
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
Weeks writes “Challenge yourself – if you could only make one more quilt, what would it be?”
I would make something really hard, some quilt that would make people stop in their tracks and would make their mouths hang open. It would be a completely insane quilt with thousands of pieces or something so difficult that people would not know how it was put together.
If I had to pin down a pattern, I would choose the Double Wedding Ring. I don’t know why as I think there are harder patterns out there, but it sticks in my mind.
I hope I never have to choose. I have so many ideas in my head and I want to make them all.
How would you answer this question?
*No copyright claimed on Modern Quilt Studio image. thanks to Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle for allowing me to use it. See the original blog post on the Craft Nectar blog.
I still think the next projects on the list will be harder, especially since I haven’t worked on them, except for the Aqua-Red Sampler. They are older, in some cases, or VERY unfinished. I am still hopeful.
The Tarts Come to Tea: I still haven’t worked on this since April 2011, though I did think about working on it. Does that count for something? I really do need to get back to the quilting. I am mad at myself for making such good progress and then getting sidetracked. I thought quilting the Whole Cloth quilt would get me back in the swing of quilting, but apparently not.
Pointillist Palette #4: Fourth is a series of 6 quilts; needs tiny square patches sewn together. Mrs. K. gave me more PP fabric and I won some from a giveaway. I still think it is a sign that I need to work on this. Leaders and enders.
See: needs satin stitching. Small, also a possibility for finishing. I really have the feeling I came so close to working on this project this month.
Self Portrait: started in 2006 at a class at Quilting Adventures in Richmond, Virginia. I like the piece, but don’t know where to go from where I am. Mouth? Hair? The attitude I need to have is that I can’t ruin it; there is always more fabric.
Under the Sea: class project; like the design, but not the colors much.
Flower Sugar Hexagon: I thought about sewing more hexagons together. Although not difficult, sewing Y seams is a bit of a chore, so I get tired of doing it after awhile. I could, perhaps, use leaders and enders to get this piece moving?
Young Man’s t-shirt quilt: have cut up the t-shirts and am still in the process of applying fusible. He cleaned out his drawers and found some more t-shirts to add to the quilt. Oh Yay! <– just a bit of sarcasm. He asked me again for another quilt, so I think this one is next in line. I plugged in his heating mattress pad, though, which should keep him quiet for a bit longer.
New: FOTY 2012: top, finished, though I can’t decide if I need a quilting border. Working on the back.
I still have a few more WIPs than I do finished projects. Again, I have made progress on clearing out old projects and I am pleased.
Spiderweb: Top is together, binding is made. This is at the quilter.
Please note that even if you combine the two lists above, I do not have 26 projects on this list anymore. That is something, IMO.
In the Finishing Process
Abandoned
Nothing so far for 2013
Hunting and Gathering
Spin Wheel: really not started, but supplies gathered. Cutting fabrics as I go. TFQ does not consider this a UFO and made some good points to that end, which is why I have moved it to the Hunting and Gathering section. She says, and I have to agree, that quilts are not ‘projects’ until the sewing starts. OK. I’ll go with that.
Stepping Stones #2 using Bonnie & Camille fabrics Bliss, Ruby, Vintage Modern: made two test blocks, but still in the thinking stage while I decide on the background colors. I want the contrast to be good.
As I mentioned, I am still trying to think of a new focus for this list for 2013. I feel that I made progress on the most ancient and difficult projects and I want to honor that. I won’t give up working on the projects on this list, but I also will not allow the list to prevent me from starting new projects in 2013. What else?
I finished Calm last week. I had quilted it Friday a week ago and then spent some nights last week sinking threads and stitching down the binding. The quilting part was a little troublesome and I think it needed more basting.
I hadn’t been to a BAMQG meeting since the meeting at the beginning of December. It felt like a thousand years ago. I was actually a little reluctant to go because it has been so long and I can’t decide if I am having a relapse of the dread illness. This was, pretty much, my first weekend outing since our trip to the North Coast. I promised I would do a sleeve demo, so that motivated me to go.
I was glad I did. I talked to a few people who were glad to see me, which was very nice. It is a different crowd than CQFA and there are different quiltmakers there I like. Ruth of Pippin Sequim is now the president and due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, sometimes we meet at a new location. I love the new location. the light and colors are gorgeous! There is a little space around with waving grasses and the Bay Trails are nearby. It is also a gorgeous branch library (YAY! Libraries!) with elements of the Monterey Bay Aquarium embedded in the decor. There are lots of rounded corners, sea colors and an overall feeling of calm. Loved it.
I was a little late today, so I sat in the back, but that was ok, because I felt safer (from being away) and Chris sat next to me. BTW, she showed the top from her 2/3 blog post at the meeting and it is great.
The meeting was jam packed.
Charity
Kits were available for the new blocks. There are two: scrappy Trip Around the World and postage stamp. April 20 is the Charity Sew Day. 10-5 will be charity sewing and after 5 people can work on their own projects. It will be held at the Los Altos Public Library.
Cat Bed kits were also available. Amanda had some with some really soft (and slippery and shed-y!) fabric. I had a big bag of scraps from the past 3 months of sewing, so I took two. Look for a post about the one I finished soon.
April Meeting
The April meeting will be back at the Main library and there will be a destash party. the information will be posted on the BAMQG blog closer to the meeting date. Everyone participating is supposed to bring stuff they don’t want and there will be a race to get the good stuff. People should bring fabric, notions, patterns, magazines, scraps (organized in ziplocs only). I have never seen it done quite like this, but people who are not participating will organize all of the bags of stuff, then people will line up at the starting line. The starting judge will yell “Ready Set Go!” and there will be a big scramble to get to the stuff first. People are not to bring stuff they would throw out (no stains, stuff beyond repair). Upholstery fabric is ok. I don’t know if I will participate. I can’t think of anything off hand that I have to get rid of. I don’t want to bring used stuff into the studio really.
Klippies
The group is doing Klippies in a new way. There are teams. I didn’t really collect the Klippies last year and have already missed too many meetings this year to really understand what is going on. I did notice that there were a lot of opportunities to collect Klippies this time, so that was good.
Modern Quilt Guild Membership
Apparently, the MQG has opened up memberships to chapters. The Board is going to review the materials sent out. They will do a cost benefit analysis and prepare a presentation for the June or July meeting so the group can vote. Ruth didn’t want to start a discussion before all of the information was in and the Board had a chance to review it, so she didn’t provide a link to the original presentation. All she said was that the cost would be a significant part of our budget for the year, which sounds a little ominous. I immediately wanted to see the link and see what was up, but then I decided I had enough on my plate and it really didn’t matter to me. If the cost of membership goes up enough to make it untenable, then I won’t rejoin. I might be gone at both those meetings as they are around the time I travel for work. I need to sync up my calendar. I have to trust that the group will make the right decision. Are any of your guilds discussing this?
Retreat
The retreat is coming up. I am not going, as of this moment. Again, I have to sync up my calendar. I think that may be the weekend I get to go and be political wife with DH. If not, perhaps I will commute there. They don’t have any single rooms left and I don’t know anyone well enough to want to share.
Activities
Swap: Joy-Lily organized a fabric swap and people exchanged bags of fabric. I am not sure what that was about (again, I was gone, so missed the detail), but people seemed to enjoy it.
Color Group: Ruth had asked people to bring colors to the meeting. I wasn’t sure what she meant when I read it in the blog so I didn’t bring anything, expecting not to participate. Ruth organized it so that everyone could participate, which was great. I am in a group with Suzy, Kelly, Patti, Jennifer, Chris. I wasn’t really in the mood for any agonizing, so I suggested a couple of the colors from the group that people brought. Nobody objected, so we are using purple, pink and bright yellow. Next month we need to bring fabric scraps. I meant to get mine in order yesterday, but really didn’t have a lot of time, so need to get that I my agenda. I don’t want to be doing it at the last second before the next meeting. Then we will decide what we will make next. We have a tentative plan to make blocks and make them into a charity quilt and also a plan to make tote bags. We will see.
Madrona Road Challenge: I missed this, but I thought the fabric was ugly anyway. I was mightily impressed with the bags that people came up with for this challenge. Really great work and a good use of the fabric. People took the best parts of it. Apparently, Ruth did a great zipper tutorial at one of the recent meetings and people really used that tutorial to enhance their bags.
BOM: The Block of the month is still going strong. Joy-Lily (who must have taken over as BOM coordinator (?), swap coordinator (?) or something) did a demo on this month’s block, which is Snail Trail. I started to watch the demo, but drifted away when I saw how she was doing it. It isn’t a hard block. Joy-Lily doesn’t do matching of points, so she showed a method of putting on a larger piece and then lopping off part of it. I know how to make a Snail Trail and I wanted to talk with Rhonda.
SCVQA: Kelly has done an awesome job of organizing the exhibit of Modern quilts within the SCVQA show. I should enter. I meant to talk with her about it, but forgot. I guess I will send her an email.
Sleeve demo: I did the sleeve demo using the method from Robbi Joy Eklow’s book Free Expression. [<– If you buy from that link, I get a small amount of money.] I had made the step outs that were coded to a very detailed handout, but when I went to look for the handout, it was nowhere to be found. I probably saved it in some weird location on my computer and it will show up in 3 years. People had a few questions, but they told me that they liked the demo and I think I convinced them that the double-sided sleeve was the best idea. I hope I made sense.
Show & Tell
Show & Tell was a little paltry IMO. The new policy is to only show finished things. That made it a lot shorter and fewer people participated. I had 3 quilts to show, but a few other things in progress I didn’t bring. I showed Calm, which is finally finished and I have posted the Finish post here yet, FOTY 2011 and the Stepping Stones quilt. Calm and Stepping Stones now need to be sent off. I don’t think the new policy is good for encouraging quiltmaking. I was really inspired by Mallory’s top and made Sparkle Pink as a result. I am not in charge, though, nor do I want to be in charge, so I am keeping my mouth shut.
San Mateo County Fair
It is coming up. You can enter online; no photos required. There is a big reward for entering even if you don’t get a prize: free passes to get in and a parking pass. That is at least $35 for entering. Rhonda will coordinate entries.
If you are not local, look into entering in your local county fair. You do great work and people want to see stuff like you make. Trust me.
I was glad to see some people that I hadn’t seen in awhile. It looked like a smaller group than the December meeting. I didn’t see Kathleen and I missed her. I had a little chance to talk to Adrianne about her studio reorganization. It was great to hear that Alison sold her house in LA and now will be looking for a place here.
I [tried to convince] told Kelly about the Petrillo Bag-a-Long that Pam from Hip to Be a Square Podcast and I are doing. It will be starting on about March 23. You need to buy the pattern now, because there are some specialty supplies you need to probably get online. It is only $8 and downloadable. Pam talks about the Petrillo bag challenge in episode 121. I’ll write a blog post about it soon.
Weeks writes “Aim high and ignore what other people are doing. Following the crowd will not teach you as much as figuring out how to combine you interests with your skill set. Where do you want your quilting to take you?”
One of the best things about quiltmaking is figuring out how to get something done. once I had to figure out how to put beads on a quilt — a lot of beads. I also had to figure out the best way *for me* to attach French ribbon to the quilt. I didn’t know of a class; I didn’t think to look on the Internet (though I think I started that quilt before blogs were prevalent. Not sure about that) and I was confident I could figure it out.
I want to make a kind of curved Pickle Dish, Double Wedding Ring looking quilt. I saw a picture of a little part of a quilt in a magazine. I cut it out and will try and make it someday. I won’t buy the the kit because I want to use my own fabric choices. I like making hard blocks and hard quilts. I don’t necessarily want to do it all the time, but I want to make things that others think are impossible.
Image Courtesy of The Modern Quilt Studio, Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle; *No copyright claimed to Modern Quilt Studio’s chart of points.
WOW! I have reached over 90,000 visitors to my blog! Not unique visitors (don’t have really sophisticated software monitoring), but people coming by to read. Thanks for reading!
Special Notice!
My mom, Mary Carroll, will be teaching a Color Class called COLOR MATTERS on March 22, 2013 at QUILTERS QUARTERS 4343 PACIFIC AVE., STOCKTON (209-462-0161).
Learn how to get away with almost anything in color! Using the five primary color system developed for fabric and yarn make your quilts zing! Mary is an artist, quilter and teacher who recently relocated from the Bay Area. Join her in making a colorful wall hanging which you design yourself!
Call now to sign up! 209-462-0161
What I am reading: I just finished The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley. It is the second time around for me with that book and it was like reading comfort food.
Current Project(s): finishing up Calm, more blocks for the Star Sampler, getting ready to do some cat beds.
Software & Technical Stuff
Join in on the National Quilting Day Sew-in on Twitter today. Quiltin’ Jenny is the hostess.
In time for National Quilting Day, the Quilt Index now as an iTunes/iPad app in the App Store. Cost is $0.99 and the proceeds support the Quilt Index, which provides thousands of quilt images online and, now, at your fingertips. Can you say “inspiration in your pocket?” I tried to download it, but it didn’t work. I’ll have to try again later.
Barbara Brackman has a mini tutorial on how to use Blockbase to see how a block would look in a quilt. Great feature. It is a good day when I learn something new.
Threadbias has posted some tutorials for the new design tool they announced at QuiltCon.
Darla, over at the Scientific Quilter, is doing a March-a-Long, which is 15 minutes of quilty stuff per day. Yes, it has already started, but you can still join in. She has some great graphics in the post and there will be prizes. I wonder if washing and ironing fabrics count?
Do you have monkey mind before bed? Lisa Fulmer has some ideas for quieting an overactive mind before bed.
Lazy Gal Quilter has a post on Quilt Mush. It is, essentially ,about color and how to make a quilt where you can see the parts. Well worth reading.
She Can Quilt has the winners from QuiltCon, parts 1 and 2.
Quiltin’ Jenny has a short review of the Crafty Garden Mom podcast. That is one of my favorite podcasts, but I haven’t taken the time to write a review, so I am glad Jenny did!
Great Projects
Have you seen Little Bluebell’s Swoon bag? I love the colors and the fact that she resized the block to make it fit her project.
I need another bag pattern like a need a hole in the head, but I don’t think I can resist the Petrillo bag by Sara Lawson at Sew Sweetness. It is a ~12″x15.5″ vertical bag, which I have been looking for. The blog post shows the bag in a number of different and very current fabrics. I am thinking it would look great in a Philip Jacobs print. I wished she showed the inside and asked about that. Sara ran outside and took some photos of the inside and emailed me back right away. GREAT customer service. As an added bonus, Pam over at Hip to be a Square podcast liked the bag, too, so it looks like we will do a Bag-a-long. Head over to Sew Sweetness and buy the pattern if you want to join in.
Jill, over at the Quilt Rat (and sometime participant in the CPP) has been snow dyeing. She dyed some thread as well as fabric THEN she made a project with it. She made a gorgeous Dragonfly pillow. I love the design of the dragonfly. It is stylized and has a kind of Aztec (?) or Art Deco (?) look. I am not sure, but I like it. I am wishing ‘Dragonfly’ had been the prompt last week, because then I could take some credit for Jill’s project’s gorgeousness. I can’t though. Jill is an awesome artist without me. 😉
Fabric, Rulers, Tools and Notions
Aurifil Club Offering
I joined the Quilt Bear Aurifil Club. That gives me two spools of thread each month. I have asked for brights, because I don’t want a hundred spools of beige. this month I got a green (#2892) and a yellow-orange (#2145). I wasn’t sure how I would like it, ,so far, I am really enjoying it and find that it is well worth the $20/month. The Quilt Bear folks always send a little treat with the thread. This month it was a yellow-green fat quarter. The packaging is also very nice.
Hey! Nobody told me Moda was coming out the Nancy Drew fabric! I loved Nancy Drew as a girl. Who wouldn’t love a girl who was smart and independent? I had to find out from Quiltin’ Jenny. Good thing I read her blog, do you? She is part of a Nancy Drew blog hop and shows the two great projects she has made. I don’t know what I would make with Nancy Drew fabric, but I have to make something! I have patches and things from when I was a kid. With thos random memories, I was thinking of making a quilt called “My Life as a Quilt”. Perhaps the Nancy Drew fabric would work on the back? This means, of course, that I actually have to make the quilt!
Simple Sew made a wonderful dress form out of the Nancy Drew fabric. I would love one of those, but have no horizontal space, so I am glad she posted it and I can admire it from my computer screen.
There were a lot of totes that I saw on this blog hop. One that I liked was from Sewing by Moonlight. She made a normal looking tote except one side had some Nancy Drew fabric and the other had, what looked like, a paper pieced book block! Great!
While looking at the Nancy Drew projects, I saw this wonderful bag. Mostly I love the white on red dots. The combination of the red and white dots with the yellow is a very effective combination.
Camille Roskelley’s Scrumptious
And if all that weren’t enough. Camille Roskelley has shown her new line, Scrumptious. I wish I had designed these fabrics. Just getting bundles and bolts in the mail would be so exciting!
She and Bonnie are back to their Ruby feel. They got rid of that dark blue, which makes me happy. This will be shown at Spring Market and available in September. If you didn’t get me a birthday present, September is not too late. 😉 Otherwise, I’ll have to save my pennies.
Bonnie & Camille’s Scrumptious dots
Part of this line includes a fabulous set of dots. Don’t tell me I have enough dots. One can never have enough dots and I am making an effort to use them this year. [As an aside, I’d like every project I make this year to include enough dots for people to day “Hey! Dots! Cool!” It isn’t really a goal or resolution; just something in the back of my mind.]The color combinations in this line might be her best combination ever. It is hard to say, but it is a thought that occurred to me.
Quilt World News
Today is National Quilting Day. Quiltin’ Jenny and the other Tweeps are hosting giveaways and a sew-in. Use #nqdsi as the hashtag. Check out Jenny’s post with all the fun and games. To add to the fun, The Quilt Show is offering 140+ shows for free this weekend. I am not sure of the link, but try this one. Otherwise just go to the Quilt Show and I am sure you will be able to find it there. The shows are good. I don’t watch them as often as I would like, but I always learn something.
The quilting world lost one of its favorite stars: Patricia B Campbell, beloved teacher and appliqué artist recently.
The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles has a new lecture series called FiberTalks, which will benefit the museum. Join in on March 24 from 2pm to 4pm for: Inspiration! How the Fabric of Ethnic Culture inspired my Quilting. Yvonne Porcella, a Quilter’s Hall of Fame artist and legendary quilter, will show slides of her work and be in conversation with Lilia Aguero, Director of Education at School of Arts and Culture. Select pieces from the collection will be on view. Porcella is Founder and served as President of the Board of Directors Studio Art Quilt Associates from 1989-2000. She was also a 16 year member of the Board of Directors of Alliance for American Quilts and served 2 terms on the Advisory Board of the International Quilt Study Center, University of Nebraska. Yvonne is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. In 1998 she was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in Marian Indiana and she was the 5th recipient of the Silver Star Award at Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. Michigan State University selected her as a Quilt Treasure for an Alliance for American Quilts documentation project archiving the history of American Quiltmakers. She was filmed for a one hour segment honoring the 2010 quilting”Legend” by The Quilt Show, hosted by Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson, shown on their subscription internet program. A major retrospective exhibition of her art work shown January to April 2012 at the new Carnegie Art Center in Turlock, CA., curated by Rebecca Phillips Abbott showcased the depth of her artistic endeavors.
Other programs will include:
Sunday, June 23, 2 – 4pm Roberta Horton and Mary Mashuta, Internationally Recognized Quilters
Sunday, September 29, 2 – 4pm Leilani Bennett and Marcia Manzo, Wearable Art Creators Sunday,
December 1, 2 – 4pm Pam Moore, Artist and Lace Knitter
Each program: $20 Members/$30 Non-Members/$15 Students and Seniors Member’s Discount: $65 for the entire series if purchased by March 24. No refunds, No exchanges. rsvp@sjquiltmuseum.org / 408-971-0323 x. 14 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=3850cd
Nota bene: The museum is in dire financial straits and needs a significant infusion of cash by the end of this month. Please give as much as you can. They have posted a link to information about the museum’s situation.
Other/Personal
Kathleen, over at California Doodles and Designs, has posted 2-3 times about her adventures at QuiltCon. She writes well and has some interesting observations. Go take a peek. You might have to scroll down.
I celebrated my 24th wedding anniversary (DH did as well) a few weeks ago. We didn’t do anything super exciting. I was still suffering from my infection, so we just went out to dinner at a local restaurant that we like. We took the Young Man. He was home and we like him and he needed to eat, so what the heck? I think he came with us last year as well. I was thinking about how fortunate I am have to have such a great husband. It isn’t always easy, but we have worked through the hard parts. I like to think of our relationship as him walking down the street with a big red balloon (me) in his hand. I float and bounce around and he keeps me anchored. And there is a brilliant blue sky behind us.
Hope your day, week, month and year are going well!
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.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
: to bring a bodily part into contact with especially so as to perceive through the tactile sense : handle or feel gently usually with the intent to understand or appreciate <loved to touch the soft silk>
2
: to strike or push lightly especially with the hand or foot or an implement
3
: to lay hands upon (one afflicted with scrofula) with intent to heal
4
archaic
a: to play on (a stringed instrument)
b: to perform (a melody) by playing or singing
5
a: to take into the hands or mouth <never touches alcohol>
b: to put hands upon in any way or degree <don’t touch anything before the police come>; especially: to commit violence upon <swears he never touched the child>
6
: to deal with : become involved with <a sticky situation and I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole>
7
: to induce to give or lend <touched him for ten dollars>
8
: to cause to be briefly in contact or conjunction with something <touched her spurs to the horse> <touched his hand to his hat>
9
a (1): to meet without overlapping or penetrating :adjoin(2): to get to :reach <the speedometer needle touched 80>
b: to be tangent to
c: to rival in quality or value <nothing can touch that cloth for durability>
10
: to speak or tell of especially in passing <barely touched the incident in the speech>
Not on original list
