Various & Sundry #10

The Short Version

What I am Reading: Ties that Bind by Marie Bostwick.  I gave up on reading (with my eyes) the Age of Innocence. I loaned my Kindle to a family member who is at home for the next two months. I bought it on audio and will start listening soon.  Creating Time: using creativity to reinvent the clock and reclaim your life by Marney Makridakis is still languishing.
Audiobook playing on my iPod: The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey; just finished Shine Shine Shine, by Lydia Netzer.
Project on which I am Working: The Infinity blocks are put together, back is done and ready to go to the quilter. I am calmly making Swoon blocks and thinking about what comes next.

The Long Version

As you may have guessed from my recent habit of posting info about what I am reading and/or books to which I am listening, I love to read. I actually don’t care about the actual act of reading, but I love the stories. Audiobooks are perfect for me, because I get the story without having to sit or lay somewhere turning pages. I am not good at sitting around. I like getting sewing and reading done at the same time. 😉

Recently I saw a word cloud in the shape of the UK with the names of British, Irish, Scottish and Welsh literary personalities. This tickled my fancy. It is amazing to see how many great writers came from such a small geographic space. Something in the water, maybe? There is also a US version. Somehow it is not as impressive, but we Americans haven’t had as many years to write.

Housekeeping

I have the best readers (pat yourself on the back (or the head or the hand – whatever works). I have been getting so many great comments lately. I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to comment. You make my day!

Around and About the Web

I saw a notice of a new collection of photos at the Library of Congress recently. I always like to test these photo sets using the word ‘quilt’ or ‘quilting.’ I retrieved a few images. If the 2d link doesn’t work choose the first link and put USF33 and quilt in the search box. the thing that I noticed about these quilt photos is that none, but one, have piecing on them. They also don’t look like whole cloth quilts. I am wondering if they basted the quilt upside down? Let me know what you think or know. If you take out the phrase USF33 and leave in quilt, you will get photos of all the quilts in the photograph collection at LoC. Yes, another web time waster, but inspirational!

From ResearchBuzz: “The New Museum has a new Web site with what sounds like intriguing archives: “The Digital Archive has a searchable database of over 4,000 artists, curators and organizations, plus around 8,000 written and visual records. …
Additionally, the site’s new Art Spaces Directory helps artsy travelers gain an insider’s knowledge of alternative art spaces in spots from Cameroon to Vietnam.”

Perhaps I am not done with diamonds after all. Two large-ish quilts (FOTY 2010, Renewed Jelly Roll Race) made with diamonds should be enough, but the project Be*Mused is working on looks very tempting.

Here is a really good circle tutorial.

Bonnie Hunt has a tutorial/chart on Square in a Square. Thanks to Pam at Hip to be a Square for pointing it out.

The fabulous Lisa Fulmer  helped Andrea Currie win the episode of Craft Wars that aired on Tuesday July 17 on TLC.  They have been interviewed about the experience on Fave Crafts. some of the Craft Wars episodes are available on iTunes for free. Check out the episode with Lisa and Andrea! Congrats, ladies. BTW, Lisa is currently adding select crafty clients to her Marketing A list. If you need help with Marketing, Lisa can be your best ally. contact her via the link above.

I love Be*mused’s work, so I have to show you this Trip around the World she made for her daughter. What I like about is the “if one fabric is good, 40 is better” sensibility. I also like it that she shows you what works and what she thinks doesn’t. I am also posting this for TFQ’s benefit, in case she didn’t see it.

The next bit is crankiness, pure and simple. I hope that you can all, gently, tell me that I am off base. Jackie from Tall Grass Prairie Studio talked about improvisational piecing in a recent blog post. She talks a lot in this post about wanting directions for improvisational piecing. She talks about the books she looked in. Not once does she mention Gwen Marston. Gwen Marston has step by step improvisational piecing (called Liberated Piecing, though) directions in a number of her books. Gwen Marston writes those instructions in such a way that they are the launching pad for the readers own work. Gwen Marston, however, does not have a robust web presence. Does that mean, in the modern quilt world, that she doesn’t exist? As a librarian, this makes me crazy. There was life before the Internet, you know. ERGH!!! Here is a brief take on the “everything is on the Internet” idea.

Penzu.com is an online diary or journal. I am an inveterate journal keeper. I have kept some kind of journal since I can remember. Penzu.com might work for those of you who don’t want to keep a paper journal. I like the idea of being able to add photos from Flickr. $20/year is very tempting for the pro account. I wonder if I would have the time. I do find that actually writing with my hand works well for me. I really don’t need more computer work either. Sigh. The video showing their concept is cute and worth 2 minutes of your time. More details are available on their products page.

Alex Anderson has an exhibit at the new (??) Accuquilt Gallery. Read the press release.

Shopping
Are you thinking about Christmas yet? Get going! August 1st marks the slow slide until Christmas and other gift giving holidays. You probably want or need to make some small gifts. Here is a new product from Hawthorne Threads that will make your life easier. In their latest newsletter, they write “NEW SCRAP PACKS! Here’s a great way to have a beautiful sampling of the highly coveted Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt at a great price! We’ve assembled our remnants into scrap packs like these seen above. For just $9.99 you’ll receive 2 yards worth of fabric by weight, ranging in size from just under 1/2 yd to 1/8 yd cuts. These remnant packs would be great for sunglasses cases, clutches, pillows, quilts, and more. If you’re hard pressed finding time to sew, these can provide some great material for a quickie project. These are limited release so once they’re gone, they’re gone!”

BlockBase from EQ is BACK!!! If you don’t have it, run out and get it. This is one of the best quiltmaking investments you will make EVER. Over 4300 block patterns that you can adjust and resize. BlockBase is a stand-alone program so you don’t need EQ to use it. This is not an update, so if you have BlockBase, you don’t need to buy it again.

Donations/Charity

Last Four
Last Four

As you know, I have been on a donation quilt bender. Not a bad bender to be on, if you have to go on a bender. 😉

I love that 16 patch block to which the Charity Girls introduced me. I saw a version on Camille Roskelley’s blog that shows how some different fabrics would look. I didn’t buy any of the Summersville fabric, but this quilt top is a great example how that block (hers looks a little larger-more squares, I think) and can be so versatile.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

4 thoughts on “Various & Sundry #10”

  1. I share your crankiness with some of the Modern Quilting movement. Nancy Crow is the first person I know who did improvisational piecing. I’m not sure when she started but since she taught Denyse Schmidt that technique it’s been quite a while. Again Nancy like Gwen doesn’t have a big presence on-line. She’s busy teaching classes and making her art. I agree that there are quilters whose work was/is pioneering but it seems if you don’t have blog you don’t exist in some circles…

    I think that many people don’t really understand improvisational piecing – there’s a lot more ‘there’ involved than so many realize. If you don’t understand what makes a good composition, your quilt isn’t that attractive. Some people seem to intuitively know how to create good compositions and others need to learn from books and/or classes.

    1. The key is the word ‘improvisational’, right? Improvisational means *to me* that you figure it out as you go along. A pattern seems antithetical to me. I think I need more respect for the modern quilt movement and they need more respect for what came before.

  2. In defense of the “if you’re not on the internet you don’t exist” people, I think there’s a difference between “you don’t exist” and “I can’t find you.”

    Of course there are so many fabulous things that don’t have a strong internet presence; on the other hand, things that are fabulous tend to get talked about on the internet even if the creator doesn’t start the conversation.

    I don’t know about other public libraries, but mine has a shortage of craft/quilt/fabric books that were written in this century.

    1. Jenny: thank you! You make a good point about about not being able to find something on the web. Everyone thinks anyone can find anything easily on the web and it just isn’t true. I send a librarian to a conference specifically geared towards finding hard to find tidbits on the web. I appreciate the reminder.

      My library has a dearth of recent quilt books as well. Almost all public library funding has been cut in California. I am trying to remedy that by donating review books to them after I write the review and also through monetary donations. I am also trying to get my guilds to donate money as well. Small steps.

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