Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This is a little different than the previous few responses, but in line with some of the earlier ones. I really wanted to draw a threaded needle. I am trying to draw what pops into my head when I think about the word and am ready to draw. Within reason.
The thimble was an afterthought and I can’t tell if the thimble and needle are magically flying through the air or if they look like they are laying on the table.
Check out the original prompt and create your own drawing.
Yes, another element. I wanted to do all of them, but how do you draw earth? I might put it up when I figure that out.
I am not happy with the fire and will have to ask my mom for her tips. I am pleased with the little details.
Check out the original prompt and create your own drawing.
Repeating the flower and the counter after the previous response seemed to be the right thing to do. My kitchen window is similar to this, but looks out on the wall of my neighbor’s house. I’d love to paint a tromp l’oeil painting on the side, but I don’t know how they would react. I wonder if they would notice?
Check out the original prompt and create your own drawing.
I don’t know why I forgot to post this. I drew it the weekend of Hallowe’en and then it languished until today.
I have, apparently, moved to the kitchen. Perhaps it is the upcoming holidays.
Check out the original prompt and create your own drawing.
Earlier this week I wrote the Quilt To Do List, because I had these little things rattling around in my head nagging. Also, I had nothing else to write about having not sewn and already gone on and on about the Spiderweb. I mean how much can you tolerate about Spiderwebs?
I had kind of a brutal week at work. It wasn’t crazy busy, but everything was hard and the most difficult partners and associates were asking me for the impossible. I really wanted to just be at home today and rest. I might be getting a cold, but I feel like I need to rest.
No, I haven’t accomplished the whole list. The Hurricane Sandy blocks for Vesuvius Mama are done. I had to rummage around for some fabric like she wanted and found some very interesting stuff in the process. More on that later.
I had never made a Disappearing 4 Patch before, though I knew the concept from the Food Quilt‘s Disappearing 9 Patch Design, so I knew the concept. This was a good excuse to try out the Disappearing 4 Patch. I don’t remember if I thought the Disappearing 9 patch was fiddly. I thought the D4P was kind of fiddly. I think I like the D9P a little better, but I am always up for learning a new blocks and I think the D4P has some interesting design possibilities. And I can make blocks until the cows come home. I don’t need to like them much to make them. You’ll have to wait for photos as I forgot to take them!
I wrote really small all week and made the last few pages of my journal last. I still have about half a page left. I don’t know whether that is an accomplishment or cramping my creativity. Anyway, the first thing I did this morning was start cutting for a journal cover. I decided that I would make two, then I wouldn’t be behind when I ran out of pages next time.
I had already ironed fabric that I bought for journal covers, so I cut pieces. The journal cover tutorial is now really right on in terms of size. I have tweaked it a bit lately and the covers went together with little to no problems in terms of size. Also, no frustration either. Nice.
I’ll put up more photos and info later. This post was supposed to be a quick “hi. hello” and it is turning into a dissertation.
I really should have made the binding today, because I could have watched TV and sewed down the back. I just didn’t think of it. Perhaps tomorrow.
I really enjoyed working on these small things.
have a drink
cool drink
What do you want to drink?
in the drink
Drink drank drunk
Definition: A drink, or beverage, is a kind of liquid which is specifically prepared for human consumption. There are many groups for drinks. It can be divided into various groups such as plain water, alcohol, non alcoholic drinks, soft drinks (carbonated drinks), fruit or vegetable juices and hot drinks. In addition to fulfilling a basic need, drinks form part of the culture of human society.
hot drink
soft drink
non-alcoholic drink
Drinkmaster
Eat, drink and be merry
Go out for a drink
How much water should you drink every day?
DrinkAware
Take 5 minutes to do any kind of artistic response: poem, doodle, quilt, pastel, pencil. ANYTHING counts. No rules; just do it!
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.
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.
Food and drink
Drink of inspiration
Energy drink
No drinking and driving
drink
drinkabilities
drinkability
drinkable
drinkables
drinker
drinkers
drinking
drinks
nondrinker
nondrinkers
nondrinking
outdrink
outdrinking
outdrinks
overdrink
overdrinking
overdrinks
undrinkable
I finally made the second block for the Stepping Stones test (note: when I say it is a test that means it cannot, yet, be a project). I introduced this project test in a previous post.
I finally finished the second block and it helps me see the pattern starting to emerge. It is very clear to me that the flower print with the grey background is not going to work. It muddies the line between background and the big red blob of squares that will end up center the diamond formed by the half square triangles. I like that print, but I’d like the lines to be a bit clearer than the previous Stepping Stones quilt.
I have to be clear with myself that the pattern truly emerges when the whole quilt can be seen. a few blocks just doesn’t do the thing justice.
“Huh?” you ask. “Why in the world do you need a Quilt to Do List when you have the 26 Projects list?”
“Well,” I say, “there are things on my mind to do that I must write down. Short tasks, nothing big. The 26 Projects list is for big commitments.”
Look at me like I am a lunatic. I don’t care. I AM a lunatic. 😉 These are the small things that I wanted to do over the weekend, but didn’t because I was madly sewing Spiderweb blocks. Why? I don’t know. I am driven to get that quilt together.
The thing about the 26 Projects list is that none of those projects are time sensitive. The projects above are short. I don’t know why I can’t just tear myself away from the Spiderweb long enough to do them. I can’t seem to. I don’t know what will happen when the 26 Projects list is finished.
I have firmly moved into the realm of obsessiveness with this project. I don’t know what got into me this past weekend, but I worked on sewing the blocks for this Spiderweb piece like a person possessed. I had about 7 blocks (sewn in groups of 4) sewn together last week and now I have about 108 sewn together in groups of 4.
By Sunday night I had all of the groups of 4 done and laid them out on the workroom floor (top photo, left). The piece will be large. The original pattern I drew called for a layout of 8 blocks x 10 blocks. I was glad to have the layout and some idea of what I had been thinking except that I ended up with 20 extra blocks.
Hhhmmm. One of the drawbacks for me of leaving a project to languish for so long is that I can’t really remember what I intended. I am pretty sure I didn’t intend to make 20 extra blocks and not use them. I looked at the quilt and the blocks and thought about adding them or making a companion quilt with the extras.
After much thought, I finally decided to add the blocks to the quilt. I couldn’t add them to the side because of my border blocks, so I would need to add them to the middle and make a couple of additional border blocks.
As I may have told you, my workroom floor isn’t large enough (would it ever be?) for a quilt of any size, so I had to take advantage of a half an hour after work to lay the whole thing out on the living room floor. The furniture and life debris still is in the way. The arrows are pointing to the column of blocks I am adding. I am 4 blocks short to complete the column. I will print the foundations, make the borders in between sewing the rest of the new column together in order.
I have to admit that I wasn’t sure my scheme would work. I tried to look at the layout drawing and figure out from that if my changes would work, but I couldn’t tell. I needed to lay all the blocks out.
I can be impulsive. I just started sewing the leftover blocks into blocks of 4 and figured I would work out the details later. This isn’t always the best strategy, though it does makes for some interesting design challenges. Fortunately, as I said, in this case, it worked.
I don’t have all of the leftover blocks sewn together. There is also one block whose seam allowance is a bit off. It is bugging me, so I will need to fix that.
I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough of the background fabric, so I was very frugal while making the border blocks. This fabric is so old that there was probably not even a whisper of a chance that I would be able to find this fabric again. I pieced parts together where I was short. It turned out that I had plenty of fabric in the end, but I am glad I was frugal. I don’t think anyone will notice my frugality.
Because the blocks are different (center and border) as well as oriented in different directions I marked each block with a number in the lower left hand corner. This tells me where to place the block and in what orientation I should position it. I often do this, if I find a layout I like and I want to position certain blocks or colors specially.
In the “Spiderweb marked” photo, you can also see how I added two more blocks to fill in so the gap where the border blocks will go did not look quite so gaping.
I always hope that the quilt will draw up when I sew it together. The blocks have already drawn up a bit, but this will definitely be another monster.
It feels good to immerse myself in this project and I am excited that I have made such progress. I really didn’t expect to have so much done by today. I wish I could just spend a week doing nothing but sewing. I don’t know if that experience would get this mania out of my system, but it might lessen the feelings a bit. Perhaps such a focused time would make the feelings less special. I suspect having a week of time where I didn’t have to do anything but sew would make the mania worse.
I have finished my machine applique’ block for the class with Frances. I had fun doing it.
If you want to make this block, take a look at part 1, part 2 and part 3.
The best part of this was that Frances really had fun doing the block. That made me feel great.
As I mentioned, I used scraps for the leaves and centers.
Next up: curves.
Yes, after YEARS this quilt is finally finished. I love finishing quilts. I love working on them, too, in case you hadn’t noticed, but finishing a quilt is awesome as well. I am pleased with how this one came out.
It is a great pattern and I would encourage you to try it out.
Nothing for years and then a blast of Spiderweb posts. When it rains it pours, right? Thursday I wrote about working on the Spiderweb and how that felt. I mentioned the 7 blocks I had done and thought I should post about those.
From this picture you can get an idea of what the quilt will look like. In order to complete the whole section, I will need 5 more border blocks and 1 center block. I have labelled the photo below so you can see what I mean.
As usual, what I am trying to do is to complete the plates. I want each of the plates to be complete. I don’t want any of them to be cut in half or just show a quarter. There is nothing wrong with those types of layouts, but they are not for me at this time.
Sometimes the border blocks take too long and I need to make some progress, get a little bang for my buck. At those times I grab some center blocks and sew them together. I think that alternating keeps me from getting bored. When I sew some center blocks together, I feel like I am making real progress.
I walked by my Sampler quilt, the first one I ever made and saw the Spiderweb block in that quilt and it made me think that the first Spiderweb block in the Sampler quilt was just a taste or precursor to this quilt. OR I might be getting just a bit too philosophical.
2007 movie
Definition: to speak softly with little or no vibration of the vocal cords especially to avoid being overheard.
Stage whisper
Whisper Club – Philadelphia’s Premier Venue For Upscale Nightlife (Hey! nobody told me when I was there!)
WhisperNet (Kindle)
Whisper is a fixed-size database, similar in design to RRD (round-robin-database
The .338 Whisper is a wildcat cartridge in the Whisper family, a group of cartridges developed in the early 1990s by J.D. Jones of SSK Industries.
whisper sweet nothings
“Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty.” – Earl Wilson
Take 5 minutes to do any kind of artistic response: poem, doodle, quilt, pastel, pencil. ANYTHING counts. No rules; just do it!
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.
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.
“Goodness speaks in a whisper, evil shouts” – Tibetan proverb
“…speaking words of wisdom
Whispered Words, a Slash recommendations database.
When i find myself in times of trouble
Mother mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
etc.
I really hope you can understand this when you read it. I stayed up too late watching the election Tuesday night and, as I write this, the exhaustion is taking over.
The last time I wrote about the Spiderweb was last December. Nearly a year later, something is finally happening. But the worst part of the story is that I started this project in 1998. I looked at the blocks many times and my tastes had changed and I didn’t really want to work with dark backgrounds. The project languished, but the 26 Projects list has forced me to get to it. Forced is a strong word. I could have donated all of the blocks to the Charity Girls and been done with it, but something prevented me from doing that.
I started small by buying some Carol Doak foundation paper. Then I continued by printing the main foundations for the border blocks. Then I started sewing and found I printed the foundations the wrong size, so I started over. Finally, I was able to sew enough to get some blocks put together.
In the process, I found something really remarkable. I feel really good making these blocks. I don’t know why. They don’t seem especially gorgeous, though they are pretty. I get a warm glowy feeling inside each time I work on them. It is so odd.
I have all of the center blocks done, but, like the Flowering Snowball, I needed to make special border blocks so the border plates weren’t cut up. I wanted them to be finished.
In the photo, right, I have put numbers on the border blocks. You can see the differences, if you compare them with the center blocks.
The border blocks are definitely brighter and more cheerful, because of the newer fabrics I am using. I hope there isn’t a big disparity when the quilt is finished.
My biggest problem, however, is that I have nowhere to lay this quilt out. My design walls are full and the quilt, since there is foundation piecing paper on the back of the blocks, wouldn’t stay on the design wall without pins anyway. For the moment it is on the floor in front of a design wall and blocking the closet. This isn’t going to last long, but I don’t have a solution right now.
At the moment, I have 7 border blocks complete and one needing some trimming and pressing. The quilt will be 8 blocks wide and 10 blocks tall. I have about 32 more blocks to make and I hope I don’t run out of the border fabric. If I do, I will have to make the quilt smaller and donate a few of the leftover blocks to the Charity Girls.
I can’t remember the last time I went to a CQFA meeting, which is a very sad thing. I think it may have been May, which is forever ago. It was a great meeting – very well attended. In a way I wish BAMQG and CQFA were not on the same day, but, on the other hand, I get all the driving and being out of the house out of the way in one day.
ATCs
I made really cool ATCs. I saved the mesh wrapping from two different bags of fruit. Limes had a green mesh wrapping. The other was a red mesh bag. I opened them up to flatten them, then placed them in layers over a piece of fabric, which was of an unfortunate design. I tried not to think too much about the choices I made while I was making them. I just made the choices and worked through the design in my head.
I placed the two kinds of mesh over the fabric, pinned everything together and wove eyelash yarn through the mesh over and over using one of my book binding needles. Once I felt like I had woven enough of the eyelash yarn through the mesh, I pinned the backs to the front (which was one piece) and sewed with a straight stitch around the two parts to hold them together. To finish, I satin stitched around the outside.
There were only 4 of us swapping, so I got one of mine back, which I was happy about.
Notan
Julie, Dolores and Maureen set up a presentation on Notan. They did a great job. I learned a lot and can use some of it in my Design Series presentation on negative space in the future.
The thing to remember for me was to the think of the whole design not just the foreground. In the photo of the exercise 2 the white is just as important as the black. The designs are whole and neither the black nor white is more important.
I borrowed Julie’s book, because I couldn’t find mine and am looking forward to reading more.
Show & Tell
I showed the Flowering Snowball, which I finished the other day. No photo yet, but look for one soon. I have to get one of the boys to hold it up so I can take a photo. I am in love with the back mostly because of the large piece of Philip Jacobs fabric I included.
Maureen, Dolores and Bron brought their self portraits (workshop from last meeting), which really turned out great. Maureen wasn’t happy with hers, but I liked it. It didn’t look like the photo she started with, but it did look like a person.
I like Dolores’ self portrait, because it has the essence of Dolores. It has her feeling, joie de vivre and expressiveness without looking exactly like her. I have always thought that getting the feeling of the person right is more important than having the painting or quilt look exactly like a person. I love the way Dolores has used the different fabrics for different parts of her self portrait. The black on white works very well for the hair even though the fabric is numbers. I think it was an inspired choice.
I am not sure that Bron’s piece is a rendition of her grandmother, but I think it is. Many people commented on the background of the piece. The two different fabrics she used for the background are inspired choices. The different scales are good. The gold of the one piece of the background brings out the skin of the figure while the stripes in the left hand background mimic the stripes in the figure’s dress/shirt.
I also really like the scarf. I never thought of adding a scarf, but it really looks great and solves a lot of neck/skin problems. I would have liked to have looked at the scarf for longer to see how it was sewn, but didn’t get the chance.
I am constantly impressed by what CQFA people make and the choices they make within their pieces.