Saturday and Sunday, when I wasn’t working on Michelle’s IRR piece, I was working on the Improv Quilt. I know both are Improv projects.
Improv Progress, September 2015
The last time I made any progress on this piece was over a month ago. That progress felt forced and unsatisfying even though I didn’t know it at the time. I had the piece up on my design, which meant I had to look at it and that frustrated me. Frustrated me, because I wasn’t happy with the work as well as frustrated because it was taking up my design wall. I need to learn to make smaller quilts.
This weekend’s progress felt good. It was fast and intuitive and right. The piece is starting to look like something I won’t hate looking at.
I am not sure the blocks will end up where they are placed now, but there is a good bet some will stay where they are.
Improv Corner Block
One thing that happened to jolt me ahead in the process was that I laid in bed one night, trying to get to sleep. I spent the time thinking about this piece and made a plan. I decided I would cut a big piece of red to use as a start to make some corner blocks.
I wasn’t completely on board with making ‘B’ blocks for the corners, so I made corner blocks, which are similar to the ‘A’ blocks. I did what I thought would look good. I can always make something different, right?
I like the corner block shown at left, but I wish I had varied the length of the neutral strips more. I did a bit, but not enough. It will be fine once the rest of the quilt is done and I am not going to worry about it right now. I do reserve the right to change it if the design needs it later.
New ‘B’ Blocks
I did sort of learn from this block and the first two ‘B’ blocks. I didn’t want all the ‘B’ blocks to be heavy, so I varied the length of the strips to give them less weight — or less perceived weight. I also made the centers a bit more interesting. I want people to be interested in looking at the piece.
I have about 7 more blocks to make on this monster. I have some slim hope I can finish it by next week and take it to be quilted. I am laughing, but you can stop. 😉 I know it is a pipe dream, but I would like to move this project along.
As mentioned the other day, the IRR is going well. I worked on Michelle’s piece on Saturday. It is, as also mentioned, a 20 minute exercise, so I worked on it early and got it finished.
Michelle’s IRR Start
I started with Michelle’s piece, by putting it on the wall and looking at it for a few days. That tactic would have worked better if I had taken a look at the fabrics she included. 😉
I decided, however, that I was going to work on it on Saturday and get it out of my hair.
I did loosen up a bit on Michelle’s. Even I can admit that mine was a bit more uptight than improv. I guess that is part of the process.
Once again, I have a shortage of design wall space. I really think I need a whole room with movable design walls all over it. OR I need to clear my mind of the jumble of projects in it. My mind is an insane mess right now.
Michelle’s IRR with my contribution
I should have balanced the piece out by putting my contribution on the bottom, but I wanted to continue those dark solid lines. I really do like the strips of bright. the top of the piece is very happy.
Twitter pal, Kitty Pearl, has a pattern available, Saguaro Sunset. Take a look.
I recently saw this article in the ResearchBuzz newsletter “Zooniverse is going beyond nature to a new crowdsourcing project: AnnoTate. “In addition to creating art, many artists wrote diaries and letters and made sketchbooks that contain rich details about their lives and creative processes. Help transcribe documents from the Tate collection, and reveal the secret lives of artists.” You may remember I mentioned a similar Smithsonian project last year. This latest project is even more relative to us as creative people because the insights gained from the journals might give his insight into our own work.
Despite being overwhelmed with new fabric, I was needing some friends around me after dropping the Y.M. off at college so Julie and I went to lunch. Right near a quilt shop. Of course. While there I saw the Basket Weave pattern by Pam and Nicki Lintott. There are a few renditions around the web and Connecting Threads has a pseudo tutorial. I didn’t buy the pattern, but think it would be a great Christmas quilt, which was the coloration for the sample I saw. I’ll have to see if I can borrow the book, New Ways with Jelly Rolls, from the Library. Of course, I also have to have time to make this! Have you seen my dream projects list?
We are approaching the end of National Sewing Month. What did you do to celebrate? Lindsay of Hawthorne Threads wrote an interesting blog post about it, which is also her picks for the month. She is a shop owner, after all. I really liked the picture of the french lady’s dress. I’d love to see that baby up close!
Jackie or Gretchen turned me on to Sue Garman. Apparently she posts once a month and the post I saw showed a gorgeous, absolutely stunning Baltimore Album quilt. This site is more in the classic quilt area, but the quilts, regardless of style, provide excellent inspiration. I know that Julie will like the trick or treat quilt Sue shows. There is also a tutorial on using applique’ patterns, which is useful. This is a super long post that I would have broken into several, but to each her own. Worth a read.
Tweet Button
I have added a tweet button to the site to allow you to easily tweet about a post you like. Check the sidebar to try it!
Aurifil has a Top Ten Tuesday post. I enjoyed one from a few weeks ago that was described on Twitter as “a fun collection of free tutorials”. The tutorials are about labels (put a &^%$# label on your quilt!!!), folding quilts and storage (always need more!)
I also enjoyed the Christmas edition. Mostly I want people to just give me the projects so I don’t have to make them. 😉
Butterflies are everywhere! One of the best patterns I have seen was on Instagram recently. This pattern was originally posted on the Lillyella blog and there are a few variations (check the wing tips). You can download the paper piecing patterns on the site. She has a number of other block downloads available as well.
Fabric Tag Cloud
The Petite Sewist shared a cool, cool tag cloud site. I tried it out using the fabric link from my tag cloud. I adore the tag cloud I made. I would like to make some merchandise from some tag, but the licensing prices are not in my budget at the moment. If you want something with the image above, let me know and if I get enough interest, I will buy the license.
Amanda of 3and3quarters.net posts a lot of video tutorials. She has a YouTube Channel to which you can subscribe and her tutorials vary from blocks to the Poppy ANZAC Broach. In September she worked on posting everyday. Take a look at what she is doing.
QuiltingHub is a site that I wish I had found before I went to Portland. I did a search on Portland to San Francisco and found that my own planning was pretty good.
If you need graph paper, Daisy pointed out a site, which can generate different types of graph paper for you to print for your designing pleasure.
Articles, Classes and Information
This was posted a few weeks ago on the The Quilt Show blog: “Eleanor Burns had heart surgery, Monday Sep 14. Orion (her son) says she is doing well. Let’s cheer her up with cards of appreciation and good wishes. Let’s stuff her mail box with cards and quick notes to:
Eleanor Burns
c/o Quilt In A Day
1955 Diamond Street
San Marcos, CA 92078
Eleanor has given so much to the quilting world. She has an amazing story. It’s worth seeing again, but if you haven’t heard about her journey, it’s a must see.” The Eleanor Burns Quilt legend show is one that is free to all on the TQS site. Go and take a look! I sent a small card with dots and just told her what I was working on. I enclosed one of my cards in case she wants to take a look at FOTY 2014 or my other work. You never know. 😉
Sara Lawson, who told me about Annie’s Soft & Stable recently posted a review of Pellon’s Fusible Felx Foam to her blog. In that post, she answers some of the questions running through my mind, namely would the bag be crinkly after using a fusible. I am not always happy with fusible in a finished piece because of this. All the work that goes into a bag only to have it look amateur makes my heart jump.
We are almost at the end of National Sewing Month. Stashed! from GenQ magazine reported a number of ‘Doing Good’ type patterns when they wrote “… September is National Sewing Month, there are links to many resources, including free patterns to make in-demand items such as chemotherapy turbans, walker caddies, wheelchair totes and the “anti-ouch” pouch for mastectomy patients.” These are good patterns to keep handy in case you need to make some quick charity projects.
You might remember my review of Sara Lawson’s Big City Bags book. In that review I talked about what great tips she had on zippers. She recently posted zipper tips to her blog as well, which are worth saving for future zipper related needs.
I was kind of surprised to see that spray basting had such a large following in the results of a poll by TQS on their blog. If you have heard me talk about the allergic reactions when I use unwashed fabric, you might be able to imagine the reaction from the smell of spray baste, so it didn’t occur to me that others would love it so much. I suppose that is a very tunnel vision view! It is easier except, of course, for not basting at all and having someone else load your quilt on to the longarm, which was my answer. 😉
Exhibits & Events
The Board of Directors of San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is delighted to announce that Joan Phillips will become its new Executive Director, effective immediately.
Joan has her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and her Arts and Cultural Management Masters in Professional Studies degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She has been working in the not for profit sector since 2003 and has held senior leadership and executive roles in other arts organizations.
She plans to continue building relationships with key community organizations and stakeholders and to focus on the fundraising plan and programs that she implemented over the eight last months as the Museum’s Interim Executive Director.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, she decided it was time for a change of scenery and in September of 2011 moved to California to begin working in the San Jose arts sector; where in the same year she was voted as one of San Jose’s Emerging Arts Leaders by genARTS Silicon Valley. Joan currently resides in Fremont where she recently finished her creative coaching certification, creates mixed media art and is an enthusiastic baseball fan.
College Hallowe’en Pillowcase #1College Hallowe’en Pillowcase #1
I got a bug in my ear to make Hallowe’en pillowcases for the YM and his roommates. I bought some panels at the Fabric Depot when I was in Portland. I spent some time on Thursday finally finishing them. They are ready to go.
I am not exactly sure why I decided on panels, but they are bold and not cutesy, which is good for boys….uh Young Men.
The top one came out pretty well. I like how the orange and black stripe lined up pretty well along the edge.
College Hallowe’en Pillowcase #2College Hallowe’en Pillowcase #2
The second set is much the same as the first. The orange stripe came out pretty well on this one, too.
I bought about 6 sets of panels as I needed two sets for each pillowcase. Sadly, one panel was just a bit short of the 27″ measurement I use for the pillowcases.
College Hallowe’en Pillowcase #3College Hallowe’en Pillowcase #3
I like the way the skull is placed on the back of the 3rd pillowcase.
They are all made from the same fabric and not appreciably different. I don’t know if they will use them. It will be a little connection to the YM after college. Or they will throw them out and that will be that.
The basic idea is that you spend 20 minutes on each round, including the start. I had to pick out fabrics and a signature fabric. I used Queen Street by Jennifer Paganelli and my signature fabric is a Philip Jacobs. You can see my signature fabric on the bottom of my starting piece.
The signature fabric is a fabric that we add to each piece we work on to know that we worked on it. I just had to use a Philip Jacobs as it is uniquely distinct to me. Many of the other modern quiltmakers don’t use Philip Jacobs fabrics that I have seen.
Wanting to try for a piece that was not square, I made my piece long and thin. Cutting is difficult for me at the moment, so I gave myself a bit more time on that piece, but then sewed like a demon so as not to break too much of the rules.
I kept looking at the Flying Geese TFQ and I have been exchanging. I decided to incorporate some of them into this piece, but the rest are just squares and rectangles. The solid is supposed to be the background.
IRR Start with Michelle’s work
Michelle was kind enough to send me a photo of my start since I, apparently, forgot to take a photo of it. She also sent a photo of what she added to the piece, so I can see how it is progressing.
I like that more of the Flying Geese have been incorporated.
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
TV Show
Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area
where a king and queen live with their princes and princesses
Neuschwanstein
Hearst Castle
Castle provides information and links for candidates preparing to take certification and licensure tests.
Definition: “A castle (from Latin: castellum) is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.
A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. These nobles built castles to control the area immediately surrounding them, and were both offensive and defensive structures; they provided a base from which raids could be launched as well as protection from enemies. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures also served as centres of administration and symbols of power. Urban castles were used to control the local populace and important travel routes, and rural castles were often situated near features that were integral to life in the community, such as mills and fertile land.
Many castles were originally built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, and lacked features such as towers and arrowslits and relied on a central keep. In the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire. Many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castle’s firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, and inspiration from earlier defences such as Roman forts. Not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, and devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape.
Although gunpowder was introduced to Europe in the 14th century, it did not significantly affect castle building until the 15th century, when artillery became powerful enough to break through stone walls. While castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of mock castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture, but they had no military purpose.” (Wikipedia)
Loire Valley “castles”
Pink Castle Fabrics
Blarney Castle
Castle Heavy Metal Band
North of Manhattan, the Castle Hotel & Spa sits majestically overlooking the Hudson River on sprawling acres of manicured gardens, etc
Durham Castle
White Castle – the first hamburger chain, started in 1921
Castle is a Chicago nightclub and multi-venue home to weekly shows from global superstar DJs and a premier private event space in the heart of Chicago.
Edinburgh Castle
Boston University’s historic Castle is an extraordinary Tudor Revival mansion on Bay State Road
Castle Crashers – website for the award winning 2D arcade adventure from The Behemoth!
I joined the Improv Round Robin at the last BAMQG meeting. I was really busy last week and didn’t get my stuff together until the morning of the meeting. I forgot the crucial thing: my starter piece. DUH! Fortunately everyone is really nice and I wasn’t the only one. I took Jen’s piece to work on and Michelle and I met near my house and we exchanged starters.
Jen’s IRR Piece
After the meeting last Saturday, I came home and worked on Jen’s piece.
I thought there was no possible way she could have made her piece in 20 minutes (more on that later) until I saw that some of her piece looks like piecing, but is really part of the fabric. So that was her trick. 😉
I added the bottom, which I curved on one end to give someone else the opportunity to do some curved piecing. They may just cut it off or do an angle, which is OK, too.
One of the things about this project is that we each have to have a signature fabric that we add to all of the pieces. I had to use a Philip Jacobs print! It is the green and purple fabric on the right hand side. We are assured that everything will go together just fine.
Jen’s IRR piece before trimming
I added some more piecing at the curve, but cut it off. You can see what I did in the bottom photos.
You can see the kind of wonky piecing, which is what inspired me to cut off the end. I added the left side as well.
While I was trying to decide what to do, I pieced some strips of Jen’s fabric together. I ended up just putting them in the bin without using them. I kind of like the thought of adding something that someone can springboard off of.
Suddenly it is September and I feel like Christmas is looming. Like a giant black raven waiting to peck my eyes out.
Anna and Elsa Pillowcase
Fortunately, I want to stay away from nasty imagery so I went full force in pillowcase making department. The Anna and Elsa pillowcase is now done, which means I can pack up one family’s pillowcases and prepare to send them off around Thanksgiving.
I also cut two other Christmas pillowcases and 3 Hallowe’en pillowcases. I have a number of other Christmas fabric in the pipeline ready to go.
I cut a piece of the Anna and Elsa fabric for FOTY 2015, but really tried to avoid the faces. They aren’t creepy or anything, but I don’t want Anna or Elsa looking at me until FOTY 2015 disintegrates.
After a break to rest my arm, I needed to get busy with the last side of the Food Quilt #2. The YM’s friend headed off to college on Saturday and I wanted to make sure he took it with him. He won’t need it for a few months, but I’d rather he had it at school than sitting around my house.
Food Quilt #2: Finished
I brought the quilt over Friday night and the family held it up for me. They are not experienced quilt holders, but I am pleased I was able to get a photo. It is a large piece, but I tested it on the very tall recipient and it fits him fine.
I always think striped binding looks good, so I was pleased to see that it actually does look good on this piece. I always buy stripes for binding. Now I’ll have to remember to use it more often.
Food Quilt #2 Back
I have appliqued the recipient’s name on the back to prevent theft.
After whining a bit about this project, I got back in the saddle and sewed a few 9 patches. I had to cut more grey, but that was easy enough and I took the opportunity to cut some grey for the Flying Geese swap as well.
19 9 Patches
Once you start, it is hard to stop. The good part was that I needed leaders and enders for the FOTY 2014 project and these were handy and required. I scavenged leftover foreground squares and made these 9 patches. I don’t know how many I will need to complete the Octagon 9 Patch top, but these will certainly help.
They also helped complete the FOTY top. Yes, it is done. I still need to do a few things, which will need to be done this weekend, but between the donation blocks and these 9 patches, I had plenty of leaders and enders.
I am in view of being able to put this project back on the design wall and I can’t wait to see it up there again and decide on next steps.
I made more donation blocks last Saturday as I worked on sewing together the FOTY 2014 patches. I thought green would be good and chose a lot of medium greens, though I had to use some darker pieces as my green scrap basket dwindled. I used, mostly, grey for the background. As you will, a little pink and some other colors crept in.
Using the leaders and enders technique, I just kept sewing the 2.5″ squares in between the FOTY 2014 patches and came up with all of these donation blocks. I joked about making enough for a whole quilt, never thinking I would be able to do it. I am close, though, especially with the blocks from the other day.
I saw a quilt on Valerie’s Twitter feed that has these blocks with Flying Geese on the outside to make them into stars. I am sorely tempted, but I have so many projects that I am going to force myself just to turn these blocks in and let someone else make a pretty quilt.
I am very pleased that this will be a quilt (or quilts) that will make someone happy.
Transcendent Man is the documentary film that introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the world offering his vision of a future in which we will merge with the super-intelligent machines we have created and can live forever?all within the next thirty years.
Sovereign man
9-man: An award-winning sports documentary about a streetball battle in the heart of Chinatown.
Yes Men
Third Man Records
Kennewick Man
Isle of Man
Cafeteria Man shows us that improving school food isn’t about nutrients and recipes — but vision.” – Jane Black, Food Writer (movie)
Medicine man
man down
Definition: “A man is a malehuman. The term man is usually reserved for an adult male, with the term boy being the usual term for a male child or adolescent. However, the term man is also sometimes used to identify a male human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as “men’s basketball“.
Like most other male mammals, a man’s genome typically inherits an X chromosome from his mother and a Y chromosome from his father. The male fetus produces larger amounts of androgens and smaller amounts of estrogens than a female fetus. This difference in the relative amounts of these sex steroids is largely responsible for the physiological differences that distinguish men from women. During puberty, hormones which stimulate androgen production result in the development of secondary sexual characteristics, thus exhibiting greater differences between the sexes. However, there are exceptions to the above for some intersex and transgender men.” (Wikipedia)
Museum of Man: Anthropological museum containing artifacts, folk art, and archaeological finds.
Ant-Man (movie)
Spiderman
Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015 movie)
No Man is an Island
Man Booker prizes
young man
Lindow Man
origin of man
Man Bartlett is an an artist living and working in New York City. He is known for drawings, collages, videos, and online performance that often uses social media.
Man is an industry leading alternative investment provider offering a comprehensive range of transparent, dynamic and thematic trading strategies across the …
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
In between other stuff, I spent a lot of time over the weekend sewing the FOTY 2014 patches together. This quilt top has been languishing much too long. I felt like I had a layout that I liked.
There are over 350 patches that have to be removed sewn and put back in order to keep the piece in order. I put a leader/ender in between each set of patches to make it easier to keep the FOTY patches straight in my head.
In the course of sewing the patches together, I also made 19 Octagon 9 Patches and 14 donation blocks. Not shabby for ‘found blocks’.
FOTY 2014 – Patches in 9s & 12s
I thought it was impossible that I would get it done. I got to the point where all the patches were sewn into sets of 8 and I was very happy with that. The other night I sewed those sets together, which took much less time, but required much more fiddling, because of the nesting of seams.
The piece looks together now, but it is in sets of 9 or 12 patches. I am carefully chunking all the sets in order to avoid those long seams and to nest the seams more precisely. My goal is to get the top done before Saturday, so I can show it off at the BAMQG meeting. Wish me luck!
I finally finished Pinkalicious over the weekend. I am happy with the front cover and the overall look of the piece. I am not happy overall. There are small seams close to the edges and that makes pressing the edges into a crisp line. It also makes it hard to sew the edges closed.
I tried a lot of things when I made the Orange Crush Journal Cover and I guess I wasn’t thinking about the things I learned. I drifted back to small pieces and put them too close to the edge.
Sewing is like that. It takes awhile to get things down and in the case of mosaic piecing there is some reliance on the size of the available scraps.
Pinkalicious Open Back
Fortunately, these journal covers are a good way to practice mosaic piecing and a great leaders and enders project.
I don’t know what the perfect mosaic pieced journal cover is. I don’t if there is such a thing, but I will keep looking.
