Feelin’ Blue, Too and The Eye of God are both at the quilt show. I delivered them on Monday. This means that I finished them both! YAY. The quilt show starts tonight with the preview party, so I will get to see all the winning quilts. Aja did not finish hers. She was very upset when I talked to her, but I told her it was no big deal and that we will show all the bullseyes together at some point. I hope the show goes well.
Tag: Feelin’ Blue
Quilts will be Quilted
Finally, the indecision is over and I will be taking the quilts, Feelin’ Blue, Too and The Eye of God to be quilted tomorrow.
I need to figure out how to quilt them as well. I have some ideas, which I have not drawn out, but should. I also can’t decide whether or not to have them heavily quilted. They are the squarest quilts I’ve made, but are still a bit off. Having them heavily quilted will make them hang better. Still, I am not sure the design requires it.
I was promised that they would be back by August 15th. Assuming that date, I looked at the calendar and that gives me two full weeks to get them bound and sleeved. Though enough time, I will be a lot better off if I get the sleeves and binding ready in advance. I’ll find out the timing for sure tomorrow. And for better or for worse, that is the plan.
I took the measurements today and found the last bits of purple fabric for The Eye of God, so, theoretically, I should have no problem making the sleeves and the binding before the quilts come back. I MUST work on this project every night so I am not ripping my hair out at the last second. I probably will be, though, as I always do. I swear not to, but it never works and it is something I need to work on. I have lots of other issues to work through, however, but I’ll put this one on my list.
I was reading in Robbi Joy’s new book, Free Expression: the art and confessions of a contemporary quilter (BTW, the website is a little unwieldy, but you can find the book on page 5 of the book area), and she has a different technique for creating sleeves. She makes the sleeve doubled and then does some kind of folding trick which prevents the hanging rod from bulging out. I do that, too, but not in such a sophisticated manner. I like the idea of making a doublesided sleeve. Even if I can’t figure out her technique, I can use the doublesided sleeve regardless.
I will have to review before I try it. IF I try it. We will see.
No Progress on Feelin’ Blue, Too
I am worried about the quilting. My quilter is gone until the end of the month and I am anxious that I won’t get the two quilts back in time to bind and sleeve them for the show. I am so worried that I have been contemplating quilting it myself. Not sure the body can handle it, though, so I haven’t actually committed to the quilting process. And before I decide, I have to doodle my quilting idea for awhile to see if it will actually work.
My mom assured me that she would help me finish the quilts no matter what time it got back. Why can’t I have faith? This is a theme lately and it tells me that I am in the wrong space.
Sitting down and doodling the quilt design, working on the sleeve and the binding would all help me move forward. I need to break the process into baby steps and JUST DO IT. I could also decide to forget the whole thing.
Feelin’ Blue, Too – Top Complete
I finished the top of Feelin’ Blue, Too last weekend. I finally finished the back yesterday. I haven’t applied the label yet. I did something different with the label this time. Mom bought me some printable fabric, so I created a label in Word and then printed it on fabric. I included a headshot of myself! Not sure why, but I did. It looks nice, but feels somewhat odd.
The color of the top nags at the back of my mind again. The oranges really stick out and I hope not too much to take away from the blue.
I haven’t found someone to quilt either of the quilts yet. I have a space reserved with CG, but she won’t be back until the end of the month and I won’t receive them back until August 15. I am amazed that she left right at the time that people would want to have their quilts quilted for the show. Of course, all of those people, myself included, should have been more organized.
The last post about Feelin’ Blue, Too was on July 2, 2005.
Feelin’ Blue, Too 2 halves
This is one of the blocks that are scheduled to be sewn together. At the moment only the two halves are sewn together. I do like the way the four patch in the middle looks now that the halves are each sewn together. I think it will look great when the whole block is sewn together.
This is also one block that I thought had too little blue and too much other color in it. It has changed since parts were sewn together. As I mentioned, I think that all the different colors will work out.
I guess I had better get to it.
Feelin Blue detail 2
My last little sewing jag resulted in half blocks, as I think I mentioned. Of all the half blocks, I think this is the one that I like best. I am surprised that I like this one best, because it has so much non-blue fabric in it. I just love those yellow-greens. JZS was so right when she said that the non-blue colors would end up looking ok. They look better than OK – they look great!
A Seam a Day….the Quilt Gets Finished that Way
All of the blocks for Feelin’ Blue, Too are sewn to another block, except for the corners. For the most part, I have half blocks now. I did sew one whole block together as a test. It looks great and I am thrilled with the way this quilt is coming out. I love the process and to see the way the quilt evolves each step of the way.
I did find, however, that I need to repress all of the half blocks so the seam allowance is going in the other direction. This will allow me to more easily make the middle seams match up. I know it seems like a small thing and who cares, really, in an art quilt? I care. I want the centers to match and I want to not be embarrassed when I look at it. If all of the blocks aren’t perfect, OK, but I want it to be done right and to have tried my best.
Some people don’t care about technique, especially in art quilts, but I think technique is important. It is important to try and do construction techniques my right way. Because of this, I am kind of being a hard nose on my students, but at least they will have learned my right way. After that, if they choose to do things another way, that is fine. At least they won’t be doing the other technique out of ignorance.
I am amazed at how fast the rows went together. I had about a row done already, but sewed 5 rows total. Each row has 4 or 6 blocks in it. I am thriiled that I am making progress.
Feelin’ Blue coming together
I realized today that the deadline for the Marin show is fast approaching and I had better get the form filled out for this quilt, call the quilter, etc. I have sewn some of it, but not much. I planned to do little bits this week while W was gone, but haven’t made it so far.
I also need to make the templates and cut pieces for the 8 pointed star. My quilt class will be doing the 8 pointed star this week and I want to be able to show them how to do the joins. I need to take a look at Judy Martin’s Ultimate Rotary Cutting Reference Book to see how to use the Point Trimmer to make the diamonds easier to put together. I had a little trouble using the tool on my blocks for the Teacher Pillows, but perhaps I was in a rush?
Feelin’ Blue Layouts
Aja’s blocks for Feelin’ Blue arrived this week and they are gorgeous. I think she must have picked backgrounds, which truly inspired JZS and I to do our best. All of the blocks are gorgeous and together they have the right amount of color with right amount of blue. It is still monochromatic, but not boring. I read or took a class somewhere/sometime and recall the teacher/author saying that you had to add a little of the complementary color to a monochromatic quilt to make it interesting. I’ll have to look up from where I am remembering that comment.
Now my task is to layout the blocks.I have a couple of different ideas.
The first one is nice, but unbalanced. Balance isn’t always what it is cracked up to be, but I do like balance.
The second photo is my attempt at balance. I am leaning on going with this option. I still may play around with the layout some more just to see what I can come up with.
I am also still fiddling with the placement of the individual pieces. I stare at it in the morning for 45 minutes or so and move pieces around based on different subjective criteria. Two light blues in the middle piece are next to each other and thus make a big light blue blob. Too many oranges in one area. Etc.
Feelin’ Blue
I am working on the third in a series of bullseye quilts. All of them have been group projects and this is no exception. The most recent two, Seeing Red and Feelin’ Blue, have been made with two friends, JZS and Aja. Feelin’ Blue is quite monochromatic in feel and may work well in our bedroom.
This is a photo of how it looks on the design wall without Aja’s quarter blocks.