June 2015 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Applique’ Task

The Food Quilt #2 still needs a back. I have been putting it off, because I wanted to applique’ the recipient’s name on to a piece of fabric as part of the back. The idea is to discourage theft. We’ll see if it works.

I had a good chunk of time over the weekend. Thus, I spent most of the afternoon on Sunday preparing and appliqueing the name to a piece of fabric.

I accomplished the job, but it was a really big pain and not very pleasant. I fought with the fusible the whole time. It wouldn’t stick and then it stuck too much. I felt the whole process took much more time than it should have.

The picture (left) is part of the work I did. I am not showing the whole name, because of privacy, but you can see the work.

The alphabet is from a pattern called Critters Alphabet. I like it because it is cheerful and different. I used it on another quilt I made for a nephew. I bought the pattern at PIQF about a zillion years ago and I am pretty sure I saw it there last year. I did a search and found it under a new name, Alphabet Critters.

Next time, though, I might try paper piecing for the letters. We’ll see.

BFOL Top Layout

Layout - First Pass — Layout – First Pass

I finally had a large chunk of time to make some good progress on a few projects over the weekend. Yay!

I made really good progress on the Box Full of Letters top. I think I will have a top soon.

As I said before the straight layout of blocks was too boring and it felt too confined or compressed to me. I suppose the ‘modern’ movement is affecting me, because I wanted these little envelopes to breathe a bit as well. I hadn’t any idea what I was going to do with them until I started to put them up on the wall. I had seen a quilt where the blocks were arranged on the diagonal kind of like a rocket taking off.

Yes, I arranged the colors and fabrics as I went along, but not too much.

After I got all the blocks up on the wall in the arrangement above, I looked at them for awhile, moving a few around and trying to imagine the final effect. I decided to go for it and began sewing. I sewed for probably 10 hours on Saturday, which is what happens when I am sew-deprived and finally get some time. I thought I would finish the top on Sunday, but I didn’t quite. I only have a few seams left.

I am more pleased with this piece than I had been. After quilting, I think I will just put a binding on it and leave it without borders.

A Few More Stepping Stones

I thought it had been an eternity since I wrote about this project, but it turns out it has only been about 10 days. June has flown by at mach 10 so I can’t really keep track. Since that last post, I have made at least one more block.

I am liking the blocks better, especially since I am able to see them all on the design wall together. They look ok separately, but the secondary design really explodes into wonderfulness when I put them all together.

I have about 7 blocks now and the urgency of laying them on the bed to see how many more blocks I need to make is becoming more urgent. Why I can’t grab the blocks and walk downstairs with them is a mystery.

The group of 6 blocks together looks really nice. (6 makes for a more even picture than 7.) I am glad I was strict with myself on the colors, because I think it is looking good. There is a rogue red patch, which I don’t understand, but I probably will just leave it.

As usual, despite the wide variety of fabrics, I still feel like I don’t have enough to make the piece look scrappy enough. I probably need to get over myself.

Various & Sundry #8: End of June

Housekeeping

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Try it out! You’ll get a notice of my posts. I am trying to make it easier for you to read.

Websites, Articles and Information

Some of you were kind enough to take a look at my client’s site. She now has her own domain name and moved the site to http://www.eleanorswalks.com/. I hope you will go and visit again.

I checked out one of Mark Lipinski’s posts and really liked it. His conglomeration posts are really like these Various and Sundry posts, but with more photos and fewer words. I really want someone to make me the Samoas (gluten free version) from the recipe he posted. I can’t buy them from the Girl Scouts, because they don’t make a gluten free version. Also, I am lazy and they look like a lot of work (another reason I would happily give my money to the Girl Scouts). Perhaps I’ll get a good book and just take the time to make them some day. Of course, there are a lot of wonderful links and photos in his post, especially the doughnut pincushion, so go take a look.

A few of you were kind enough to go and take a look at my client’s site. Thank you! For those of you who left a comment, she was thrilled. She is moving all the posts to her own domain and will be adding her drawings soon. If you wouldn’t mind taking another look at the work we have done, we both would be very grateful.

Free ebook on selling your crafts. I haven’t read it, but thought some of you might be interested.

Books, Patterns, Magazines & Projects

The Fat Quarterly is back on sale. They have figured out the EU VAT reporting issues and are slowing adding products back into the FQ shop. Go take a look at new issues and back issues.

I love these birds.

I don’t know if you remember Doodle Art? Doodle Art were contained in tubes you could buy. Each tube contained a black and white poster, a set of pens and some other unimportant stuff. I colored many of these posters, including the Ecology poster, in my day for the sheer joy of working with color. Johanna Basford has come on the scene with her coloring books that remind me very much of Doodle Art. She has become so popular that her books were sold out in all outlets. YM bought me one for Mother’s Day, The Enchanted Garden, and it just arrived this week! She also has The Secret Garden out and The Lost Ocean will be coming soon.I encourage you to look at her work and get some pens and start coloring. You can download a free page. You can also read about Johanna’s journey to create adult coloring books. It is very sweet,

Here is a list of 50 books on creativity and design thinking. Some interesting titles. The post includes a hashtag if you want to discuss.

I suppose an e-newsletter qualifies as a magazine or, perhaps, a book. This Quilt insider newsletter is short. It showcases new products and I thought the Robert Kaufman fabrics were interesting. I still have the One Block Wonder using panels on the mind.

The Fat Quarter Shop’s most recent Snapshots QAL charity block is up. You can find this sundae (cute! cute! cute!) block on their site.

Fabric, Tools, Shops, Supplies & Embellishments

All you need to know about pins!

I saw this Robert Kaufman Explore America fabric in a newsletter and really like the vintage look. It reminds me of the vintage posters they have at Disneyland – a 1950s idealized look at the American West. As I said above, I still have the One Block Wonder using panels on the mind, but I am going to restrain myself. If anything, I will buy some of these fabrics for boy quilt backs. We’ll see.

Exhibits, Tutorials & Events

Aurifil has a survey out and they want your answers. I believe it is still open.

Other Artists

I didn’t know about Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday until she contacted me via a post on my blog. She invited me to post about one of my projects, which I did. I was interested to see all the different projects that were posted. I will have to get back to doing more art quilts to linkup there regularly! It is a great way to get new readers and I always like more readers (that is YOU!!!). There are so many of these daily linkup posts that I am sure everyone can find one that works for them.

Creative Prompt #316: Factory

factory worker

Definition: “A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial site, usually consisting of buildings and machinery, or more commonly a complex having several buildings, where workers manufacture goods or operate machines processing one product into another.

Factories arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution when the capital and space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops. Early factories that contained small amounts of machinery, such as one or two spinning mules, and fewer than a dozen workers have been called “glorified workshops”.^[1]

Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Large factories tend to be located with access to multiple modes of transportation, with some having rail, highway and water loading and unloading facilities.

Factories may either make discrete products or some type of material continuously produced such as chemicals, pulp and paper, or refined oil products. Factories manufacturing chemicals are often called plants and may have most of their equipment – tanks, pressure vessels, chemical reactors, pumps and piping – outdoors and operated from control rooms. Oil refineries have most of their equipment outdoors.

Discrete products may be final consumer goods, or parts and sub-assemblies which are made into final products elsewhere. Factories may be supplied parts from elsewhere or make them from raw materials. Continuous production industries typically use heat or electricity to transform streams of raw materials into finished products.

The term mill originally referred to the milling of grain, which usually used natural resources such as water or wind power until those were displaced by steam power in the 19th century. Because many processes like spinning and weaving, iron rolling, and paper manufacturing were originally powered by water, the term survives as in steel mill, paper mill, etc.” (Wikipedia)

The Cheesecake Factory

The Factory (2012 movie)

The Lie Factory

decision factory

Factory Balls 2 at Math Playground

Fear Factory

Mattress Factory – A museum of contemporary art that presents art you can get into. Room-sized environments, created by in-residence artists.

The Old Spaghetti Factory

Torpedo Factory Art Center

Laugh Factory

factory method pattern: “In class-based programming, the factory method pattern is a creational pattern which uses factory methods to deal with the problem of creating objects without specifying the exact class of object that will be created. This is done by creating objects via calling a factory method—either specified in an interface and implemented by child classes, or implemented in a base class and optionally overridden by derived classes—rather than by calling a constructor.” (Wikipedia)

factory tours

factory farms

Factory Design Suite is 3D digital factory layout software that helps you design and visualize more efficient facility layouts before equipment is installed.

Little Factory makes simple, playful, one of a kind items.

Factory Girls is a fashion incubator focused on high-level apparel designers based in the Southeast

factory outlet store

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 get familiar with your blog or website.

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.

We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP

FOTY 2015 – June 2015

Shockingly this is the first FOTY 2015 post. I have been cutting squares and rectangles, but, clearly, have not posted them.

I am not sure why since I have been cutting since late March or early April. I know the problem hasn’t been too much content. I guess I must have forgotten to post.

I have to admit that I am behind in the FOTY projects. This has been a weird year and I am ok with my slow progress. I think I’ll pick up speed later. A girl can dream anyway.

FOTY 2015 - April 2015 — FOTY 2015 – April 2015

I know that you see some food fabrics in the top photo, but not all. I didn’t have enough of some of them to cut pieces. Sad, but not a complete tragedy. I might get more.

Lots of orange and pink, too. Don’t you love it?

Onward!

Flying Geese Again

I have received more Flying Geese and I have made a few more as well. My last update was May 23 and this group doesn’t seem like enough, but it has to be. I am pretty sure I am not behind.

My geese have been a tough group to make. I am having problems with the measurements on the rulers I am using. I don’t know why the directions say to make the small squares one size and then the geese cannot be trimmed to the proper size. I was in a panic and a rush, so I sent them to TFQ anyway. I know she can handle the smaller seam allowance and I will make a few extras down the road.

Still, I am annoyed at the measurements.

Yes, I am cutting the squares larger now, but I have a whole bunch of squares that are just slightly too small. It is very irritating.

Box Full of Letters All the Blocks

I haven’t had a lot of time to sew recently. I was determined and pleased to carve out some time out on Sunday. I was resolved to accomplish something. Thus, I needed the most bang for my buck. I looked around and thought of the Box Full of Letters project.

Perfect.

I got to it and finished the rest of the Box Full of Letters blocks. I know I intended them to be leaders and enders, but bang for buck was foremost in my mind. As an added bonus, it was just the right project, because I didn’t have to do a lot of math or thinking.

There were about 15 left to sew and I did them chain piecing style. Three seams per blocks makes quick work. I only had to rip one out.

I tried to arrange them to take the photo so all of the blocks made from dot fabrics were separated. Therw ere a lot of dot fabrics, so it was pretty tough. It was not a horrendous hardship, however, I have to admit. 😉

Now, ‘the rest’ is relative. In looking at the finished group of blocks, I am not sure that I am done.

As you can see there are an uneven number of blocks. That means that I am wondering if I need to make more blocks. I have 45 blocks total and I am not that excited about making more, but the design has to rule. I don’t want to make an ugly quilt.

The other option is that I have is to arrange them in an asymmetrical manner. I got the idea from a quilt I saw in Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine. It wasn’t this pattern, but the blocks were arranged in an alternative grid and I might just try some different layouts to see what you think.

Stay tuned.

Inspiration Monday

There are some lovely elements about this photo, which was taken in Boston about a week ago. I’d love to know what you think, of what things the photo reminds you.

Thoughts on Solids

Happy Father’s Day to all those fathers, dads, step-dads and all the guys who act like dads and make a difference.

We are not talking about dads today, though, we are talking about fabric. Again. There is no doubt about it. I have fabric on the mind. First, I admonish you to use your good fabric. Now I am talking to you about solids. What is going on?

I guess I have fabric topics on the mind, one of which is solid fabrics

Solids have become popular again (No duh, right?). When I started making quilts, the Amish style was popular and we all bought solids. I was actually kind of scared of prints! My first quilt project was mostly solids, but I did throw some prints in as I became more confident. The Cotton Patch, in Lafayette, California, where I bought most of my beginning class fabrics, had a whole room of solids!! Brands and designers were not important or known then so I have no idea what kind of solids they were. Due to the longevity of the Kona brand, some of them could very well have been Kona.

The brands I have thought about recently are:

American Made Brands
Art Gallery Solids
Bella Solids by Moda
Kona Cotton Solids by Robert Kaufman

Some thoughts on these brands — and don’t get me wrong, I know there are other brands by other makers such as Michael Miller Cotton Couture and the Timeless Treasures Soho Limited Edition solids brand. I just don’t find those in my local area very often. I haven’t used them. I’ll have more to say about the Timeless Treasures Soho after I make the Peacock One Block Wonder piece. I, also, could do an update someday after someone sends me some and I use them. 😉

American Made Brands: the thing I like most about these fabrics is that they are completely made in the US – from growing through processing (ginning?) to weaving. I am not a rampant protectionist, but I would rather pay a little more and know that someone in the US is contributing to their household because of fabric I buy.

There aren’t as many color choices in this line thought they do keep coming out with more. I do love their turquoise!

A color card is available at selected retailers.

The colors also glow. We saw an exhibit of quilts made from these fabrics at Houston and the color combinations were amazing, not because of the fabric choices, but because the colors glowed. It was amazing to see.

The fabric is a little thinner than some of the other brands.

Art Gallery Solids: the brand/collection is sometimes called Pure Elements. They are very tightly woven. They have a beautiful hand.

A color card is available at selected retailers.

While there are some very clear colors, many of the colors are shades of pure colors.

This brand does not fray. Hallelujah!!!!!!

Bella Solids by Moda: Moda is a powerhouse around fabric design. They have the best designers, the freshest colors and the most up to date designs. Their solids are no exception.

There about 400 different solids in the line, with many shades and tints in each hue’s range. There are several different colors of white, making it relatively easy to find the exact color for your project.

A color card is available at selected retailers.

My biggest problem with Moda fabrics, including the solids, is that they fray like crazy. I assume this ‘problem’ has to do with the quality of the greige goods. The fabrics feel good, and the designs are gorgeous (Zen Chic! Bonnie & Camille!). The fraying, however, makes me crazy and I find I hard to keep my work area tidy and to piece with precision. Yes, Fray Check keeps the fabric from fraying, but is messy.

Kona Cotton Solids by Robert Kaufman: these are probably the most popular solids available. Websites match Kona solids to patterns. Playcrafts creates color stories using Kona Solids. Robert Kaufman, via the Kona Solids, has good marketing when they play nicely with other websites, designers and patterns.

The collection currently has 303 different colors. A color card is available at selected retailers.

The fabrics feel thick to me and I like that substantial feel. However, they also fray and seem to be loosely woven in a different way than the Bella Solids. I still buy them, because they sell them at a store to which I can walk and I have the color card.

All of these have uses, especially in the color department. Sometimes you need the perfect color whether it frays or not. I have been experimenting with Soak Flatter and Mary Ellen’s Best Press to see if these products will help with fraying.

Boston Fabric Shop

I was in Boston for the Special Libraries Association conference. On my last day in Boston, I walked over to a fabric store called Grey’s Fabric and Notions. I had looked at their website and saw a number of blog posts on garment making including lingerie, so I was on the fence about visiting.

Building with interesting colored windows

My conference buddy encouraged me so we walked over there together. We got there off of Summer, A Street, 4th and finally Harrison.

Summer Street was a main road and to get to A Street we had to go down a set of metal stairs to the street below. It was kind of like the Stockton Tunnel street madness here in SF. The neighborhood looked yup and coming, but also very much in transition.

It was a bit of a long walk, but we enjoyed it. We took pictures of interesting architecture and things we don’t see at home or interested us. The neighborhood is definitely changing.

Pretty alley housing Grey's Fabrics — Pretty alley housing Grey’s Fabrics

Grey’s was a little hard to find, but worth the trip and in a charming little alley with other art galleries and creative spaces, including a bead and fiber store.

The store itself is great. It is a good size without being huge. They had plenty of quilt fabric; a very respectable selection and I liked what they had. I indulged in a couple of pieces. One will be a dress for a future NSGW event. They had a fair selection of Philip Jacobs (my man!!!), considering the size of the store. They also had notions, patterns, embroidery floss and a lot of gift items.

One thing I really liked was the table in the front with lots of little things, including gifts. If that “Be Nice or Leave” pouch had been a sign I would have bought it. I need to tape such a sign to my forehead.

I bought a piece of flannel to make future receiving blankets. Ashley, the store manager, introduced me to double gauze, which she said fluffs up a little after it is washed. It came up after I told her about the receiving blankets I make as gifts for babies. The double gauze, apparently, makes very soft receiving blankets. I didn’t buy any, though it might be good for lighter weight receiving blankets. They have an online shop and it is made by Cotton + Steel so I maybe able to find it locally as well.

The store had lots and LOTS of the independent pattern company garment patterns, such as Colette. I was tempted by one, but restrained myself because I want to look at the Vogue patterns before I buy any other patterns.

The other thing I saw that I liked were the Sublime Stitching embroidery patterns. Of course, I have heard about them and seen them online, but I have never seen them in person. There was one called Sexy Librarian that would make a great raffle prize for my library association, if made up into a pillow or something.

All in all, visiting Grey’s was a worthwhile activity and I would visit again. I wish it was near my house as I would love to take classes there.

You can find Grey’s Fabric and Notions at:
450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
(617) 338-4739

Creative Prompt #315: Lunch

mid day meal

Definition: “Lunch is a midday meal^[1] of varying size depending on the culture. The origin of the words lunch and luncheon relate to a small meal originally eaten at any time of the day or night, but during the 20th century gradually focused toward a small or mid-sized meal eaten at midday. Lunch is the second meal of the day after breakfast.” (Wikipedia)

lunch break

lunch hour

free school lunch

lunch box

National School Lunch Program – USDA

Lunch bag

Lunch money

out to lunch

eating lunch at your desk

lunch date

“It’s Just Lunch”

lunch meeting

Woolworth’s Lunch Counter – “On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance and peaceful sit-down demand helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South.” (Smithsonian)

school lunch

Naked Lunch (1991 movie)

Power lunch

hot lunch

lunch room

No free lunch

New York & New Jersey Lunch Cruises

lunch ticket

songs from Lunch by Gucci Mane

let’s do lunch

lunch counter

lunch specials

go home for lunch

lunch tray

Lydia Lunch, born 2 June 1959 in Rochester, New York, USA, began her activity in 1977 with Teenage Jesus And The Jerks as lead singer and guitar player.

Lunch – the documentary

Ladies who lunch

Lunch-o-matic – PBS Kids

Healthy Lunch

break for lunch

lunch program at school

We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP

Pinkalicious

I mentioned my new pink journal cover recently with very little detail. Somewhere I also mentioned I was naming it after Pam’s pink mosaic pieced donation quilt. Twitter? Instagram? I lost a week and I don’t think what happened before that is coming back.

New Pink Journal Cover - June 2015 — New Pink Journal Cover – June 2015

What you see above is a journal cover in process. It is long enough and I either need to cut it off or square it off. I want to square it off, but then it will be a little too long. I like the piecing I will have to cut off, though, so I haven’t cut it yet. I have to think about the direction.

What’s on the Worktable?

I have milked the little progress I have made over the past weeks for all they are worth in the past few days and here I am milking some more. I really do need to get a handle on my current/in process projects. This should probably have been a design wall Monday post, but I am changing it up. I thought your head might be spinning, too, and you might appreciate a recap.

This isn’t my normal 26 Projects post as I am not including the UFOs. I don’t want to think about them right now. This is just a post about the pieces on which I am actively working right now.

Box Full of Letters: I feel like I should put a mini-audio setup in this quilt to play the Wilco song on demand. It is a clever and terrifying proposition. This is, so far, a leaders and enders project.

Improv: As mentioned, this is a project that I will give as a gift, which was started in Tina Michalik’s class. It is getting better. The A blocks aren’t where I want them to be, but they are better.

Stepping Stones blocks - June 2015 — Stepping Stones blocks – June 2015

Stepping Stones: I hadn’t made progress for a long time, but did recently.

Field Day Zipper: recent post details trials and tribulations.

Food Quilt #2 Top - June 2015 — Food Quilt #2 Top – June 2015

Food Quilt: top done. Back is holding me up.

New Pink Journal cover

The Octagon Nine Patch is still ongoing. Field Day Zipper usurped it’s place on the design wall so I haven’t worked on it much lately. Pretty soon I am going to need 50 design walls.

If you are asking yourself how I can work on all of these projects at the same time, believe me when I say I am asking myself the same question. I want to get the three quilts ready for the quilter as I want to give them to their intended recipients and move on. Getting the tops and backs to Colleen means I actually have to make them. The backs, too.

I am linking up to Nina Marie’s blog. She has an Off the Wall Friday linky.

Use Your Good Fabric!!!

Here is the short version of this post: Use the Good Stuff! 😉

The other day I posted about the Enchanted Plume panels I bought and SherriD commented that she had a panel she was “saving.” This comment made me think about my fabric, what I have to use and what pieces I love. As I have also mentioned, there is no shortage.

If you use your favorite fabrics, you will see your favorite fabrics more regularly. The yardage won’t be folded up in a cupboard or closet waiting for the perfect project.

If you use your favorite fabrics you will enjoy and use the quilt more.

If you use your favorite fabrics, it will be easier to take pride in your quilt and show it off.

If you use your favorite fabrics, you will want to make more quilts.

Win-win for everyone.

One issue I have run into is needing more of a fabric I love when I want to make a slight variation on the project. This happens a lot with bags, particularly bag linings. Generally, I am out of luck. I do make the FOTY quilts so I can try and figure out if I like a fabric enough to get more before it goes out of print, but, still, generally, I am out of luck.

In 2007 or 2008, I made a quilt called Thoughts on Dots. This is a quilt made from all dot fabrics. I had some beiges that I thought “would be fine” for the back. The quilt lives on my bed and now I have to live with beige. I love the dots on the front, but I don’t like the beige. The beige isn’t even depressing beige, but it is still beige and I would have much rather put a color or one of my Philip Jacobs fabrics on the back. If I had, I would be much happier.

Scrapitude Carnavale, on the other hand, is a masterpiece**. I love the quilt, because I used fabrics I love throughout the quilt. It makes me happy every time I look at it. The back has fabrics I love on it, too, so I don’t mind if the back is showing.

Fabrics get Dated

The sad part of saving fabrics you love is that they will get old and dated and you won’t love them any more. I feel bad about this because I used to love these fabrics so much and now they just inspire a Meh kind of reaction when I see them. I should have used them right away. Live and learn.

There is always more fabric

The good part of using fabrics that you love is that fabric companies are churning out new designs every day and they are bound to have a new design you also love!

What is the Good Stuff?

What the good stuff is depends on you. What do you like? What do you like today? Some weeks ago, I bought a FQ pack of Alison Glass fabric. This pack was not in my normal colors. I thought I had better use it right away in case the colors and designs lost their appeal. Already the love is waning, but the quilt is in process and will be done soon. No problem.

I think “The Good Stuff” changes depending on our mood and influences, though the underlying favorite colors (e.g. turquoise and red for me) or motifs (e.g Dots) will remain consistent. I think we all, at certain points, expand our horizons or veer off in a new direction like I did with the Alison Glass fabrics, but will veer back when push comes to shove.

I have decided that the perfect project never comes along. Projects come along that are more perfect than the last, but I have not yet come across THE perfect project. I think we find projects that are perfect for us at the time. In order to make each new project the best project we can, we need to use our best fabric.

The good news is that there is always more fabric.

**Ok, ‘masterpiece’ is in the eye of the beholder. This quilt will not win best of show anywhere except at my house. I love the colors, the fabric and the quilting, so, for me, this is a masterpiece.