Book Making

Sometimes, very occasionally, my personal creative world and my professional world meet.

Books I Made 3/2013
Books I Made 3/2013

This happened a few weeks ago when the social committee of one of the organizations to which I belong scheduled an outing to the San Francisco Center of the Book. Of course, it was a week where a thousand things were happening and I almost cancelled. I am glad I didn’t, though, because it was a great class and it got me moving in the direction of bookmaking, like the Red, Purple, Well Done and Good Job journals, again.

Until it is in Flame
Until it is in Flame

Not every participant had arrived, so I took some time to look at the exhibit on display. I don’t remember the name of the exhibit, but the books all looked like they had hidden messages.

The piece, Until it is in Flame, is by Beau Beausoleil and Andrea Hassiba. While I do not like the burned and destroyed book, I do like the way a part of the book is hollowed out. The space could hold additional artworks, messages or other books. It makes me think of how to do this sort of idea in the structure of the books I make, but it also makes me wonder whether I should.

Healing Wounded Words
Healing Wounded Words

Healing Wounded Words is a piece about the power of words by Marina Salmaso, a Danish artist from KØbenhavn. I find this piece to be very light, but the words and the red are not boring. I also like the format.

You really have to click the photos to see them larger. The thumbnails don’t do them justice.

Exhibit
Exhibit

Another exhibit was in another room and it was equally as intriguing as the one in the main room.

I really like the variety of different bindings and different types of books. It was so fun to learn how make a few of them.

My Favorite Binding
My Favorite Binding

Rhianna, the instructor, passed around lots of different types of books with different bindings. We did 4-5 separate books and bindings. Of course when I saw the binding on the green book, I immediately thought it would make a fantastic journal binding.

Guess what?

This book was a teaser for another class! I really want to take that class so I can learn how to make the binding. If I made it I can decide whether I can translate the binding/bookmaking type into fabric.

Inside of My Favorite Binding
Inside of My Favorite Binding

From the inside, this binding looks like it would hold a lot more pages than the other types of bindings we learned.

It also looks like one could see some of the fabric through the binding.

Type cases
Type cases

The San Francisco Center for the Book is a great place. It is in a hip, up and coming neighborhood that still has a bit of grit with their Whole Foods.

Type case label
Type case label

There are a lot of interesting things to look at in the facility and it is light and airy as well. The exhibits I looked at were two in a series of ongoing exhibits.

If you are making a trip to San Francisco and want to get off the Fisherman’s Wharf-Ghirardelli Square-Cable Car beaten path, you might want to check out the San Francisco Center for the Book.

Skirts

Skirt Patterns
Skirt Patterns

I have to refresh my work wardrobe. I am at the point where the collars and cuffs of my clothes are fraying, etc, because they are so old. The problem is I dislike shopping for clothes. I have been doing a bit on my days off, but I need to spend more time than I have. I need to replace everything, so this is an opportunity to revamp my entire wardrobe, get a new look and feel better about the clothes I wear.

One of my ideas is to start wearing more skirts. I haven’t been able to find the kind I have in mind. I do have a Study Hall Skirt from Anna Maria Horner, but haven’t done anything with the pattern….yet. I was at Joann buying an Accuquilt Go! mat and decided to look at skirt patterns. I was inspired by reading a Threads magazine that was in my stack from a few years ago.

I found these two patterns. I know they are similar. I don’t know if this style will look good on me, but we will see.

I brought them home without buying any of the notions, because I want to read the pattern and consider before going back and getting zippers, etc. I have enough of some dot fabric (who is surprised? Raise your hand) to make a knee length skirt, so I may only need a zipper. I may make a test skirt out of muslin or something.

I’d really like to find a pattern I can be friends with and make over and over (kind of like the Multi-tasker tote by Anna Maria Horner). I don’t know if these will be it, but we will see.

Photoshop Elements Class

Denver Flower Mashup
Denver Flower Mashup

This Pièce de résistance for the Photoshop Elements class I took yesterday. It is not that useful for quiltmaking, but I am pleased that it came out well and is pleasing to the eye. I also learned a lot in that class and this piece shows a lot of what I learned.

I am so glad that people came out and took the class. I was nervous up until earlier this week when Lynn sent me a note saying 12 people had signed up. I wasn’t sure the class would go forward, but it did. I think everyone learned a lot. I think that Lynn put in the right amount of information.

Lynn Koolish teaches a variety of different classes, but they all seem to relate to printing on fabric, fabric dying and other fabric manipulation techniques. Lynn works at C&T Publishing as an editor. She contributes to the C&T Blog and teaches as well.

One of the things I wanted to learn was how to put multiple images into one space. I don’t always want to load 37 images that you, my dear reader, would also have to load, especially if I really want you to get the flavor of what I am discussing. I learned how to do that and the example above has that technique. In that case, I used the same image and put it into one file multiple times.

I also learned how to deal with layers, which was very confusing to me until yesterday. In the photo above, I was able to flip each image, because they were in different layers.

Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions

The reason the above is called Breakfaast of Champions is because the image started out as a picture of my breakfast. First we talked about various things you could do with color such as replacing color. I changed the colors using saturation and hue, etc so that my breakfast turned lovely shades of purple and blue. We also talked about different filters and effects, which is how I ended up with the spiky kind of image above. It is tempting to think of making it into a quilt, but I don’t know if I have it in me to do the colorwork required. Nice thought, though.

I also learned about adding text to an image. I don’t know why it seemed so scary before, but it isn’t scary.

Denver Flower Mashup 2
Denver Flower Mashup 2

By the end of the class, I felt pretty confident. I am not expert, of course, but I have some confidence, so I changed the frame (from above photo) to see what the difference in look would be.

 

Journals

Repurposed Journals
Repurposed Journals

I am kind of stuck in my ways when it comes to daily writing journals. TFQ introduced to me to the Miquelrius journals and I have never looked back.

I received these journals on the right from DH for Mother’s Day. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at when I opened the beautifully wrapped gift. The spiral with the old book covers did not compute in my mind.

I admire the Art Deco (Nouveau??) design on the cover of the brown book, but really appreciated both when I opened them. The pages of the books have been replaced with blank, recycled paper.

Recycled Journals Open
Recycled Journals Open

There are a few pages from a book in the journal, but mostly the pages are blank.

DH works for a large educational institution and they are constantly having different events. They recently had a Green Fair and that was where he found these. I thought it was very sweet of him to pick journals for me. I guess he noticed that I write in my journal a lot. 😉

Now I have to decide whether or not to make a cover for these when I use them.

Various and Sundry 2011 #2

Media
I received a 6 month The Quilt Show subscription. I have watched 2 episodes and I enjoyed both. I am enjoying watching, but mostly listening to, these online quilt shows. One thing I like about the Quilting Show is that Alex Anderson shows a traditional technique. In one episode she shows how to draw a feathered wreath quilting design. In another episode, she talks about making a LeMoyne and Split Lemoyne block. The episode with Philippa Naylor seems to be available for everyone. One thing Ms. Naylor said is that she considers herself to be a contemporary quiltmaker rather than an art quiltmaker, because her work is grounded in classic quilts. That was a sentence I thought about for awhile. I really like most quilts and have found it hard to categorize myself. I don’t think I need to categorize myself, but like the idea of being a contemporary quiltmaker. Do I need to change the name of my blog?

I also, as I have mentioned, have a subscription to Quilt Out Loud, which I enjoy. It is entertaining, though Mark is a little over the top sometimes!

There is a great post up on another blog, which I won’t name, but will give you a link. Check out the post! I had a hand in the fodder for the post, so perhaps I am not being humble by sending you over there, but I just love the way the writer wrote about the subject matter and I can’t help myself!

Remember the 1000 Journals Project? I wrote about it several times in various posts and Julie and I went to the exhibit at SFMOMA to write in journals ourselves. An artist in NYC has a new project called Eternally Yours. I saw it on Melanie Testa’s blog. She found one of the letters. The artist has written letters and distributed them all over NYC. The include half finished art and the recipient’s ‘job’ is to finish the art and send it back. There is a video to watch as well. I love the thought of receiving and writing letters. TFQ and I do it, but I don’t get many other letters. Very sad. I could get my own letter from the artist…. I hope some of my NYC readers will participate in this project.

Money
I was asked by an organization to allow them to add advertising to my blog. I thought about it. They were paying ok money for the kind of ad they wanted me to host. I decided against it. I could use the money to pay for some Artquiltmaker related fees, but I didn’t like the sound of them. Hope you all appreciate my restraint! 😉

Fabric
It is always, despite my efforts, about the fabric. I want to try to curb my fabric buying this year and clear out the fabric closet a little bit and use all the fabulous fabric I have. I am resolved to do it and then I see Me and My Sister Designs who come out with some fabulous turquoises. And then, they have to go and show them on their blog. I mean, really. The nerve. Sigh.

Fabricworm has posted a tutorial for a quilt they are calling the Five Points Quilt. It is shown on their blog. Birch Fabrics/Fabricworm is a fabric selling enterprise, so they are, of course trying to sell their fabric, but this is a really nice and modern design. I think it is suitable for all sorts of different kinds of fabric.

Inner Critic
I recently read a blog post on the inner critic written by Violette. I love her book, Journal Bliss, so I check in on her blog periodically and looking at her drawings always makes me smile. I have been meaning to pull out her book and look at her directions for faces. All of my CPP responses with people in them have beautiful views of gorgeous hair and no faces. Anyway, her blog post made me think about my inner critic. After some analysis, I am happy to say that I don’t have an inner critic that calls me an idiot or tells me I can’t do something. My inner critic is all about time (and mess, too, but that is also related to time). I often hear the monkey voices in my head saying “you don’t have time for that” or “that will take too long” or “just do that [non-quilt/creativity related] task before you sew” or “that will take too long.” Reading her blog post started to develop an image of my inner critic gremlin. Diana Trout, the writer of Journal Spilling, also talks about creating an image of the inner critic. I think both writers are suggesting that creating an image of your gremlin is the first step in learning to ignore him/her.

Design/Vision
I am reading a book, which I received for my birthday called Quilts Made Modern by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. It is, basically, a pattern book, but they have good things to say about design, color, etc. One of their ideas, which I may have spoken about before is the “Big Idea.” Their Big Idea is a way of thinking beyond the focus fabric. The quilt designer gets an idea and tries to convey that idea in the making of a quilt. The Big Idea could be a feeling or an experience or something like that. I thought of this book when I read this post. I completely agree with the writer. I do agree that perfection is not something to strive for and that design/vision is much more important. I also think that good technique is important. By good technique, I don’t mean perfection. I mean technique that doesn’t distract from the design or vision. I sincerely dislike quiltmakers who claim to be making art quilts, because they don’t know how to bury and tie off their quilting threads.

Out and About
Everyone in NYC and the area should check this out: Classes at the Folk Art Museum. If I lived in the area, I would be taking all of these classes, damn the cost! 😉 The next one is on Feb. 26 with Paula Nadelstern. What a great opportunity. I really hope this whole event will spur other museums to do the same sort of thing. I would love it if the DeYoung would fill their entire space with quilts. I am happy to give them some of my quilts to show. 😉

Confidential to Reva
I was looking on Amazon and a new book, The Big Book of Patchwork, by Judy Hopkins has a quilt that you might want to look at with regard to your Drunkard’s Path Project. It is the 7th photo if you look inside.

New Books & Fabric

Christmas Books, 2010
Christmas Books, 2010

Here are the books I got for Christmas, etc. DH came through with the two books on the left, American Quilts and Sew Serendipity. The American Quilts book is another book Robert Shaw and some of the quilts are the same as those in his other books, but I love to read books where quilts are woven into history. I have glanced through it and read some things that have attracted my attention, but I haven’t delved deeply into it and I look forward to doing so.

Sew Serendipity is a book that has a great pattern for a coat. It is on page 154 and called Classic Tailored Jacket. I plan to try making it from polar fleece, hopefully the two-sided kind that I found once before. My mom said she would help me, but that is all the farther we have gotten.

I heard about Kiss Ass Creativity on Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski and thought it sounded interesting. He has a lot interesting authors on that show. AJA gave it to me and I can’t wait to read it.

Lil Sissy gave me The Apron Book. I think I will have to make her an apron.

Friend Julie also came through with two books, Sew Serendipity and Collage Lab. I am hoping that Collage Lab will help get over my wet, messy at home avoidance problem. Andrea at a Work of Heart has a Collage Lab book club, but it is too far to go on a weeknight when I work.

Finally, I checked the Artist in the Office out of the Library and then I had to buy my own copy, because I needed to make a note on almost every page and the book was a little over $5 (go buy one, you won’t be sorry). I read it and it really made me feel a lot better about my day job. It isn’t inspirational in a sappy way, but gives practical tips about dealing with a day job, thinking about “obligations” in a new way, making choices and getting the work done.

People are so generous! I am so fortunate. Yes, my thank you notes are written. 😉

I am going to write a review of these books so stay tuned.

Martha Negley & Hoffman
Martha Negley & Hoffman

I decided to break down and buy the Martha Negley Grapes in Plum. I tried several places and none of them could confirm the color. One of them said she had no idea what color the fabric was. Huh? That I do not understand.

In the course of my explorations, I emailed Batiks, etc & Sew What Fabrics. They actually emailed me back and weren’t lame! They were able to confirm the color and they answered a question I had about a ruler. I was so impressed with their service. I would definitely shop there again! Customer Service is everything, folks!

As  you can see I also bought some Peppermint from Hoffman. It is a batik and I do like those swirls.

Martha Negley Red & Plum
Martha Negley Red & Plum

Left are the two grape fabrics that I now have. You can see the difference in the colors. They are destined to become bags. Which bag, I don’t know. Perhaps the Jane Market tote? I am in the mood for another AMH Multi-tasker tote, so perhaps one of those. We’ll see.

Dreaming a Work of Heart

"Dream"
"Dream"

Lil Sissy nagged me to go with her to A Work of Heart on Tuesday night. She started last week and kept asking. We had some pending, but tentative plans that fell through, so I was able to go. It was one of the worst weather nights of the year – lost power, water on the road, rain for hours – and the drive was a bit arduous. Still, I am really glad I went. The piece above is the piece I made.

Not a quilt, or fabric related piece, so stop reading now if you are not interested in mixed media.

Andrea, the AWOH goddess, was inspired to make her original piece after reading Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts. This type of mixed media isn’t really my thing mostly because it is so messy and I just don’t have a space to be supremely messy.  I really went to the class to hang with my sister and mom and because I want A Work of Heart to be successful. Also, I need to learn to be more spontaneous.

I love this piece. I didn’t think I would, but I love the end result. I needed a bit more time for the class, but I got done. I just felt a bit rushed. I love the messiness of it. I love the spontaneity of the piece. I love the mix of turquoise and ‘titan buff’ over the ripped paper. I think I would like to do one of these with copies of some of my great grandmother’s letters. She had beautiful handwriting and it would have so much meaning to me.

Dream detail
Dream detail

I feel like this is really a successful piece.

Dream detail 2
Dream detail 2

I didn’t plan to rip the paper, but I saw my sister doing it and copied her. When Andrea mentioned ‘titan buff’ (the beige I rolled over the background with the turquoise) I heard “tight and buff” and we had a good laugh about the implications of  such a name.

SFQG: Christine Barnes Lecture

Barnes' Color Wheel
Barnes' Color Wheel

Christine Barnes spoke at a guild meeting last Tuesday. I got the notice and decided I would attend. My mom is still moving, so she couldn’t go with me. I have long admired Ms. Barnes work. I really enjoyed some work on luminosity done by her students, which I saw at the Monterey Quilt Guild Show. I’d like to sign up for that class. Barnes was teaching it at the Peninsula Quilt Guild last week, but work was crazy, so I couldn’t take off and had to miss it.

At the meeting, while waiting for the lecture to start, I went up to peruse her patterns, displays and other materials. I was impressed with her color work, but also with Ms. Barnes as a person. She came right up to me and started talking to me like a normal person. She came across as very real and not at all egotistical. She wore violet jeans! 😉 We talked about the magazine articles she had written or which had been written about her. One article had a picture of her kitchen, which is white and chartreuse! It was gorgeous. She also showed me a magazine I had never seen before: Fabrications. It is a UK publication and I will have to check it out.

Speaking and Showing
Speaking and Showing

Christine has degrees in Costume Design, Textiles and Journalism. She lived in Palo Alto for years and was an editor at both Sunset Books and Martingale. She has taught and lectured about quiltmaking for more than 10 years, including 7 or 8 years at Empty Spools / Asilomar. She has a new book coming out with C&T called The Quilter’s Club. During her entire lecture, I got the impression that she LOVES fabric, loves making quilts, really enjoys working on her projects and just has fun. I loved that!

She calls the color wheel a magical tool for quilters, because it helps a quiltmaker go past using the focus fabric to add color to quilts. In her travels, she has found that many of the preeminent quiltmakers use a color wheel so often that they have one posted on their studio wall.

“Magic fabric” is a concept that Ms. Barnes talked about and uses in her work. A magic fabric is a fabric that makes blocks glow. They are shot with light, often gradated, create ethereal effects, have vitality and life to them. Often hand-dyes and batiks fit into this category. Chaos can reign if one includes too many magic fabrics in a block or quilt. They are side dishes in your projects, a place for your eyes to rest. She uses magic fabrics as backgrounds pretty often in her quilts.

Elin Noble, of Massachusetts, daughter of Maurine Noble, creates beautiful hand-dyes, which Ms. Barnes mentioned frequently. I had no idea, so I’ll have to go check out her work. We were warned that Noble’s fabrics are not cheap.

She talked about luminosity, transparency and depth as effects. She also gave examples of her use of those effects. Value was something she gave a simple definition for: value is about light, medium and dark fabrics; how light or dark a fabric is. Christine Barnes said that value creates the pattern in a quilt and creates a sense of depth. I have heard value described in different ways. I kind of like this definition, but need to think about it and look at some quilts with this idea in mind. Some other information she uses:

  • temperature: how warm or cool a color is – red, orange, yellow are all warm and come forward. Cool colors recede and include blue, green and violet.
  • intensity: saturated, pure, clear. Not about color.
  • proportion has an effect on the impact of the quilt.
  • Ms. Barnes thinks a lot about how light hits color when she is choosing fabrics.
Wash of Color
Wash of Color

She had some other things to say about fabric, which I thought were interesting:

  • stripes with gradations (especially batiks) can organize a design especially when there are a lot of curves in your block or quilt.
  • woven plaids can be luminous
  • bringing a little color into a neutral quilt can create success;
  • in general, brining in little bits of other colors will make a quilt/project sing
  • when in doubt, throw in some black and white (her friend, Velda Newman says 90% black, 10% white)

Christine Barnes obviously loves fabric. She knew designers and fabric lines. She appreciates hand-dyes, but also uses commercial fabrics. She also knows her way around a sewing machine. She spoke about using partial seams like it was a no problem technique. YAY!

One thing I LOVED about Christine’s lecture was her concept of cheap thrills. One cheap thrill is mitering a striped border so that the corners end up with a chevron kind of look in the corners of your quilt. Another one of her cheap thrills is making large simple blocks and then cutting them up into quarters and put different parts back together in different ways.

Most of the quilts she showed were geometric, but Barnes showed us one quilt which was an abstract depiction of Kilauea volcano. It looked to me like a quilt showing cloud cities. I liked seeing that she was not stuck in her ways and was stretching herself in other ways besides just color.

Her color wheel was made from P&B Basics fabric and has 12 segments. You can buy one from her website.

Speaking and Showing Quilts
Speaking and Showing Quilts

I am really glad I could go to this lecture. I really enjoyed myself.

Knitting Box Fail

I have been trying create a portable knitting bag for my SIL.  The idea is that she can put the loop on the ‘box’ through her belt and the bag/box part will hold a ball of yarn. The point is that she can knit while standing in line and her ball of yarn won’t roll away.

Finished Piece
Finished Piece

The engineering part of this has been a challenge. I didn’t see the one that she saw and only had it described to me. I searched the web for a pattern (didn’t go to the Library and look through their patterns). I wasn’t sure what to call this thing, so searching and looking in indexes was hard. I thought I was golden when I found a truffle box pattern over at Mirkwood Designs (great podcast, BTW).

Various Pattern Bits
Various Pattern Bits

Not only the pattern seem like I could blow it up and use it, thus eliminating the need to deal with proportions, but it also has style. The copy center at work helped me blow it up. Then I traced for the fabric and traced it again for the interfacing pattern and traced the square one more time for some Timtex-like stiffener.  The short answer is that I couldn’t make it work. You should make the designs at Mirkwood Designs as truffle boxes, though, because I am sure they are fabulous made out of the right materials for truffles. Her recipe for the truffles sounds fabulous, too.

I have to admit that not everything works the way I intend it. This is one of those things. I am not giving up, but I have to regroup and start over.

Finished Piece
Finished Piece

I am not sure why it doesn’t work, but it doesn’t. One thing I do know is that the sides aren’t right. The piece has style, but no functionality. The idea was that the curves would slightly overlap the straight edge and keep the ball of yarn in. Alternatively, I thought I could also put a cute button on each side with some ribbon to wrap around it, which would keep the thing closed.

I don’t consider failing a bad thing. I am not happy about it, but failure helps me learn and that is good.

Now, back to the drawing board. Need a failed project?

Dale Fleming Class

Butterfly by Dale Fleming
Butterfly by Dale Fleming

I took the Dale Fleming circles class through EBHQ last weekend. Short Answer: AWESOME.

I was a little skeptical when I saw the supply list and began trying to gather the items required for the class. I talked about this class a few times in various posts in the last few months. The supplies required me to get out of my comfort zone, which is good, but never welcome.

Freezer paper for Background
Freezer paper for Background
Freezer paper on Background
Freezer paper on Background
Background trimmed around Freezer paper
Background trimmed around Freezer paper

The effort was totally worth it. There was nothing on the list that was a waste. This class used A LOT of freezer paper. The above circle steps use two layers of freezer paper and, apparently, I can only use the freezer paper template once, because of something to do with the amount of glue stick glue required for the process. I didn’t really ask, because it was so early in the process I was still floundering a bit. I’ll have to try using the templates over and see if there is a problem.  If I were going to make a circle quilt, as I had planned, I would use TV time to make the freezer paper templates.

Step outs
JL Second Circle

Ms. Fleming was an excellent teacher. I found out later that she has magnificently minded (LD) children so she was very cognizant of the different learning styles a teacher has to teach. She had detailed step outs for each part of the process, to which we could refer. She also explained the process and then showed us the process.

I didn’t find Ms. Fleming to be a prima donna. She was generous in allowing us photograph her quilts, step outs and her demos.

JL Second Circle
JL Second Circle

I feel really confident, after the class, that I can piece a perfect circle. The circle + background above is my second circle and I think it looks great! I used a pairing of fabric that you may be wondering about. I wanted to use fabrics that were really different that I could see well. No, they don’t really go together, but the above block will stay in my class file and not become part of a quilt. Perhaps that circle quilt that has been on my mind for a few months will come to fruition?

If you don’t want to take a class with Dale, or there is not one happening in your area, you can buy her book: Pieced Curves So Simple. If you don’t like that either, check out Becky’s blog where she talks about creating and using a circle stitcher.

JL Waves
JL Waves

Dale taught us a variety of techniques, including hearts (tips and cleavage!), layered circles (see photo below) and waves. There just wasn’t enough time for me to focus on learning all of them. 6 hours was definitely not enough time with her and I really could have spent at least a whole additional day just working on really getting the technique in my mind. I suggested that she have a work day for students who had taken a workshop. She said she had never thought of that, but would contact me if she decided to do it.

One that I tried was the waves. Her version is a lot easier than the version that I learned in 1989 when I was taking my second quilt class at the adult school. It took a lot of freezer paper, but I finally found a use for the freezer paper roll I have had for a long time. Also, it is possible to make the strips on your piece really thin. Borders are rolling around in my head, especially for the Original Bullseye.

Dale said that after making 5 circles, you can make them on your own without notes. I got up to three during the class and in the few days thereafter. I haven’t gotten back to it.

Circle Making Alone
Circle Making Alone

I really like technique workshops rather than project workshops. I like to be able to put a technique into my arsenal and then pull it out when I need it. I think I will be a lot less reluctant to think about adding circles to my quilts now that I have taken this class.

To date, I haven’t gotten back to circle making. The circle above is hanging, all alone, on my design wall. As I mentioned, my original thought in taking this class was to make a circle quilt. I think the above fabrics don’t express the idea in my mind, but I am also thinking that, perhaps I don’t really want to make a circle quilt. I haven’t decided. I think I need to make a few more test blocks just to see. I definitely want to try making a really small circle and see if I can do it.

An unexpected bonus of this class is that I am now not reluctant to change feet.Changing the snapoff feet is not an issue, but changing fee that required the foot holder to be removed somehow stopped me. After putting on and taking off the zipper foot 37 times, I have no reason to worry about changing feet.

Gallery of Dale Fleming Quilts

Butterfly by Dale Fleming
Butterfly by Dale Fleming
Butterfly Quilt by Dale Fleming (detail)
Butterfly Quilt by Dale Fleming (detail)
Waves by Dale Fleming
Waves by Dale Fleming
It's all about the Fabric style by Dale Fleming
It's all about the Fabric style by Dale Fleming
It's all about the Fabric style by Dale Fleming (detail)
It's all about the Fabric style by Dale Fleming (detail)

Notice the slightly wonky sashing.

Circles by Dale Fleming
Circles by Dale Fleming

This was probably my favorite quilt. She did this using a different method than we learned. I tried to understand it, but my brain was very full.

Circles by Dale Fleming (detail)
Circles by Dale Fleming (detail)
Circle Quilt by Dale Fleming
Circle Quilt by Dale Fleming

This quilt was made using the method we learned. After putting on the first circle, the maker uses that piece (circle and background) as the background.

Flower Petals by Dale Fleming
Flower Petals by Dale Fleming

These look like flowers. I really like how the quilts show she is exploring the technique a lot of different ways. I think that shows mastery.

Flower Petals by Dale Fleming (detail)
Flower Petals by Dale Fleming (detail)
Straight Flower Petals by Dale Fleming
Straight Flower Petals by Dale Fleming
Four Patch Circles by Dale Fleming
Four Patch Circles by Dale Fleming

Summary: I highly recommend her as a teacher! Get her book! Take her class! Make some circles!

N.b. I think my camera is acting up, so I apologize for any bleary photos!

More Odds and Ends

Judy Martin Video

I really like Judy Martin and always have. I especially love her block books, but they are old and she doesn’t seem to be publishing those types of books anymore. I love block books, but think I am in the minority. I kind of wish she wouldn’t rush out her books, but she does have to make a living, so I do understand why she seems to produce a book a year. She has finally reached the YouTube age with a new video.

The video talks about how to rotary cut odd shapes, specifically the kite shape for her Kyoto Garden quilt from the new book she just published called Stellar Quilts. I have long wanted to take a class with Judy Martin and this is a great start. The video is filled with good information and I really learned something. It is about 5 minutes long and I recommend it.

Podcasts

As I have mentioned, I really like podcasts. I listened to two episodes from Notes from the Voodoo Lounge recently that I thought were really good. One was an interview with Deborah Rapaport, who talks about style. She talks about wearing things that make you feel good and is adamant that sweats do not make you feel good. She does not talk in a way that made me feel like a loser. She talks in terms of transformation using baby steps and she talks about all of this regardless of a person’s size. I have been thinking of changing my wardrobe and my style, especially since all of my clothes are wearing out (great timing!). Perhaps I will take this podcast as a kick in the pants to go to the thrift store and see what I can find?

I also really liked Rice’s podcast with Diana Trout. I have never heard of her, but I liked the fact that she talked about her workroom being a pit until recently. It was a good reminder that things take time.

Paper Craft

My sister loves scrapbooking and paper crafts.  She does really amazing work. She also has all the toys and has brought them with her while she is up here working. I have had a piece on my mind which was inspired by a piece by Dana Barbieri. I want to make a piece like this to start the process of transforming my workroom into an inspirational space.


CREATE

Originally uploaded by dana.barbieri

My sister has a machine called a Cricut, which I plan to use to cut the letters. Then I will put them on other paper for the background and frame it. I may use bits of wood or foam to make the letters stand out from the background paper. I haven’t decided. Dana used fabric in her piece and I am not sure I will. I’ll have to play around. I am getting closer to execution. My next task is to pick the papers I want to use. You can be sure they will be bright!

Classes

I signed up for an EBHQ class in April. It is with Dale Fleming and s/he will be teaching a class called 6 minute circles. I have had a circle quilt on my mind and thought this might be a good jumpstart. There are a lot of odd things on the supply list that I need to start collecting. I am glad I have time.

Mark Lipinski’s Big News

I have heard rumors about what happened between the publisher of Mark’s old magazine (now run by Jake and Melissa) and Mark (bankruptcy, creative differences, the usual). Now he has landed on his feet and announces his new partnership with All American Craft. I have never heard of them, but they must have enough confidence in his star power, because he will be heading up 3, yes THREE, magazines not just one. Good luck, Mark!

See * Draw * Quilt * Learn

Sarah Ann Smith of  Art & Quilting in Camden has set up a new blog, soon to be a group blog, with the intent of encouraging people to learn to see so they can improve their drawing.

Sarah started the blog on May 5, so you are not too far behind. She mentions The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book as one of the resources. You can add this to your list of drawing sites to review, in addition to Gabi Campanario (who now posts at the Seattle Times site) and Urban Sketchers.

Pamela Allen Class Continued

Summary: this post follows up on Saturday’s post about the Pamela Allen class.

I realized that when I am in a class with Pamela, I do think outside of my own quiltmaking box. I also realized that if I just listen and do what she says  I succeed. I also feel a bit freer in my work. I really have a strong feeling that I need to make a much larger piece in Pamela’s style.

Pamela gave us tips and I interpreted them as:

  • make lots of art because not all of it will be good; small is good
  • your first idea will be crap, so don’t cling to it
  • put the big shapes down first
  • move things around; try a new view
  • if you are bored by your piece everyone else will be as well

We talked a lot about art quilts at our dinner out together. I feel strongly that all quilts need to have a good design. Block type quilts have a basic structure which helps with good design. Most art quilts do not have a basic, inherent structure and some go astray because the quiltmaker doesn’t care, doesn’t know how to initiate and then evaluate a design or doesn’t have the technique foundation. I think it is easy to find out about these things. There are a lot of good principles of design type books, such as Pentak and Lauer’s Design Basics. The basic thing concerning technique in art quilts is that they don’t fall apart upon hanging. Pamela doesn’t have the classic quilt background that many quiltmakers have, but she has learned what she needs to keep the quilts structurally sound and then applied her art and design training. This is the best of both worlds and this is where I really want to be.

You can see from the gallery above how she inspires great and different work. Diane is a wonderful silk painter. She normally paints a whole cloth piece on silk and then quilts it. Her blue trees piece is really different from her normal style and really, truly wonderful. Kristen is very busy with her family and doesn’t have tons of time to sew, but made some fantastic pieces that her children would enjoy. I love that space alien monster! Kristen’s pieces are also cheerful and imaginative and wonderfully creative. Mrs. K’s sauguaro cactus/Suspicion Mountains piece has a calmness to I that I love. I hope she finishes it and hangs it somewhere where it can inspire other people. Everyone really did fantastic work and I am sorry I didn’t take more photos.

Creative Mess #2
Creative Mess #2
Creative Mess #1
Creative Mess #1

We made a creative mess. Mess is the wrong word; we had supplies and we needed to use them. When you only have 15 minutes to make a piece of art, the fabric will be flying and it was. I brought my scraps which kept ending up on the floor. People would stop by, pick up some bit of fabric and ask to whom it belonged. It became quite hilarious. We really couldn’t have done the workshop without Mrs. K. She brought tubs of fabric which allowed us to actually have backs and batting and such things. I seemed to conveniently forget those supplies when I go to Pamela’s workshops! DUH!

Cleaning up the Junk Drawer of my Blog

The title is paraphrased and re-imagined from a phrase that DebR uses on her blog, Red Shoe Rambling. I have a lot of little bits to pass on and thought this would be a good time to do it.

More on Gabrielle Swain

I forgot my camera on the second day of class. Karen, a fellow student in the Gabrielle Swain class, was kind enough to share her photos with me. We had a little session on features of her camera, which was fun and then we took some pictures. Karen let me look over her shoulder while she took photos.


In the above piece, you can see the color placement issue that I described in Gabrielle Swain Class, Day 2. The leaf is made up of separate pieces. If you can see how the veins divide the leaf, know that each of those sections is a separate piece of fabric. In placing the fabric, Swain explained to us how to fussy cut the fabric (using the light box) so that there are no huge breaks in the color of the leaf. I think the above leaf has more color breaks than I would expect there to be in a piece, but since GS did it, there must be a reason.

You can also see the quilting pretty well in the above photo. All of this quilting is done by hand.

I liked this quilt, because of the way she breaks up the leaves and the branches. I also think the few letters add a lot of interest.


My favorite quilt of Ms. Swain’s was called Even Change (not above, click the link). I think the one on her website might be different than the one she brought to class. Still, I like the idea of temperature that she used in this quilt. The idea was that if she used a cool tone on the background, Swain appliqued a leaf (piece of fabric) in a warm tone on top of that background, then she used a cool tone for the veins. Very successful.

Thinking about Proportion

Periodically, some technique that has been rumbling around in my mind as I try and understand it, clicks into place. What is rumbling around in my mind lately is proportion.
TFQ and I saw this class sample at Black Cat Quilts when she was visiting in April. It is from the Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr book, Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop: the FunQuilts’ Guide to Understanding Color and Choosing Fabrics. Gretchen was out of the book so I had to buy it from somewhere else. That meant that we couldn’t look at the book or the directions for the quilt.The pattern is pretty easy, so it doesn’t really require a class or a pattern.

I was shocked when I did buy the book, because 1) the colors were a shockingly ugly combination (TO ME). I have little to no appreciation for the colors in quilts made from reproduction fabrics; 2) they put that ugly quilt on the cover; and 3) how small the blocks actually were in the pattern in the book. The above picture shows blocks that are approximately 8″x4″. It was high up on the wall and there wasn’t a ladder available for me to climb and measure the blocks. Also, I forgot my tape measure. Anyway, in the book the pattern directions tell you to create blocks that are about 3″x5″ (the size of an index card). Huh???

Well, obviously, the maker of the class sample was perfectly able to enlarge the pattern. This where I started to think about proportion. I find that the proportion of the blocks in the picture above to be good. I haven’t made one of the smaller blocks, so I can’t say whether I would like that size.*

My thoughts about proportion, which started with this book/class sample encounter, have to do with how to figure out how to find the right proportions (without a lot of complicated math, thanks) of a block. It is easy to say “ok, the pattern says to make this block 3×5, so it would be easy to blow the block up to 6×10”, but what about if I want the block to be 8x something. I have a little fraction to decimal cheatsheet and I want a proportion cheatsheet as well. Let me know if you know of one.

I do have EQ6 and will probably work on it there.

Note we did get permission to take the photo.

*Aside: the smaller blocks might be a good FOTY project.

Prismacolors

At work and personally, I am doing a lot of self examination. In the course of this, we were talking about Myers-Briggs types and how some types don’t like opening gifts in front of people. That brought up a discussion of gifts and how I would really like a super large set of Prismacolors. Gabrielle Swain suggested getting the large set so that I would have every color I ever needed. I have been using a set of colored pencils that were part of my school supplies list when I lived in Austria. They are a few years old, but they have great names like hellgruen and dunkelblau and they do the job. The friend subsequently mentioned that Aaron Bros was having a monster sale and I could get a set for half off. I went to Aaron Bros last night while I was running an errand at Target and looked.

First, I was shocked at how few art supplies Aaron Bros actually has now. Their whole upper floor was filled with framing services and ready made frames. I had no idea frames were such good business.

Anyway, I didn’t buy any Prismacolors, because the 40% off sale was over. Dick Blick has the set of 132 pencils (list $190.00+) for $89. That seems like a good deal.

Swain also mentioned the Prismacolor Art stix. She made them sound like they were some special/new kind of pencil. I looked at them at Aaron Bros and they looked more like pastels to me. I am not into messy, so I don’t know if they are for me. I think I bought a couple last week and will try them out.

I am also interested in the Derwent Inktense pencils. I suppose I should learn some techniques for colored pencils, so I can really test the various pencils in an informed manner.

Making Many Bags

I figured out why it is a GREAT idea to have multiple tote bags hanging around. To date, I have made 6 bags and have 2 or 3 cut out and the fabric ready for at least one more. I have been thinking, and discussing with TFQ, the point of making many bags. The obvious answer is that it is fun to make bags. It is great fun to use large pieces of different fabrics than I wouldn’t normally use for quilts. It is also fun to buy fabrics, such as the cupcake fabric for a purpose. I came across the true answer last Friday, as I prepared to go on a trip.

The true answer is that you need extra bags so you don’t have to clear out the other bag you haven’t unloaded!

Yes, life has been crazy and I haven’t unloaded the dot/flower bag, so when I went to pack for the trip to the lake, my choices were to unload the bag or do something else. I was, as usual, in a rush and late, so I just grabbed the Alexander Henry bag, filled it up and left. Right now, I have two bags laying on the floor of the workroom full of various activities. I guess I am already packed for another trip!

The dot/flower bag also needs to be fixed. I didn’t catch all of the hem when I hemmed the top, so I need to resew that. I started to unsew it and resew it, but haven’t finished.

Gabrielle Swain Class Day 2

The second day of the Gabrielle Swain class was about the technical steps of putting the blocks together. Swain does all of her applique’ by hand and all of her piecing by machine. She wanted us to follow her through her process, but didn’t care, ultimately, whether we used her process to put the leaves together.

I thought this was an important lesson for me. I often go to class skeptical and with preconceived notions, mostly because I have had teachers who put stupid useless supplies on their list or don’t know how to teach. I am not saying that I am better than them; I am saying that you can’t be a teacher just because you say you are. I have high expectations for teachers. Anyway, when I heard that we were going to do needleturn applique, I groaned inwardly. I was too exhausted to fight and just went with the flow. As the class unfolded, I could see why she makes her quilts the way she does. She has a point and, while I may never make a whole quilt the way she taught us, I am glad I know about it so I have another technique in my arsenal and can choose it among others in the future.

In the first part of the class, GS talked about placing the fabric in such a way take advantage of the shifts in color of the hand dyed fabric. She was basically talking about fussy cutting. You end up with Swiss chees fabric, but she wanted us to understand that by paying attention to the color you could expose light and shadow to make a more interesting quilt. She also wanted us to ensure that we didn’t have big breaks in the colors, that the colors flowed together in a way that looked natural.

Swain also talked about the properties of color. She said:

  • Value: light, medium and dark
  • Temperature: warm (reds and oranges), cool (blues and greens)
  • Intensity: how true or saturated the color is; how much grey is in the mix of the color
  • Hue: more color you get in a quilt the less value

I need to do more research on intensity and hue. I have never really taken a serious color class and cannot vouch for what she said about color and hue.

The other color tip GS provided was not to use equal amounts of opposite colors. I think the ratio she mentioned was 60/40, but it could have been 80/20. Another thing for me to look up. You comments on the color theory aspect are most welcome.

Before we started the applique’, I was thinking that hand applique’ would be too much work. I took an Elly Sienkiewicz class a long time ago and really hand a hard time with the needleturn applique’. I made two blocks in the ES class. One was some kind of flower block and the other was a folded snowflake. I did finish them, but decided that my dream of a full, needleturn applique’ BAQ would never happen in my lifetime. Those two blocks will eventually go into my miscellaneous blocks quilt – a quilt I intend to make from trial, test and class blocks… someday. If I find the ES class blocks, I will post them here.

In order to transfer our pattern to the fabric, we had to ink over the lines of the pattern. I used a Sharpie, which worked very well. I taped the pattern to the lightbox and traced over the pattern straight on to the fabric with a Pilot Scuf pen. GS recommended a Pigma Micron pen, but somehow, I didn’t have the right one with me. The Pilot Scuf worked fine, but you have to make sure that the point is not squished otherwise you will get a very thick line. You have to turn the black line under, so you want it to be as fine as possible.

Before you actually start the applique’, you need to decide which way the seam lines will go once you applique’ them. You start with the piece that will be on the very bottom and build on top of the pieces on the bottom. For the applique’, the supplies recommended are:

  • Mettler 50w thread
  • Thread Heaven thread conditioner (instead of wax)
  • #11 sharp needles (I used a between and it worked fine. I bought some sharps later and will try them outthe next time I work on this quilt)

GS cuts her thread at an angle and threads the cut, angled piece through the eye of the needle. I have never understood this tip and am thrilled that I do now.


She also showed us a much easier way of doing needleturn applique’. After basting the pieces together with junk thread (who really has junk thread???), you hold the pieces in your left hand and scrape the needle above the raw edge you want to hide, towards the unsewn part of the seam, with your right hand. You hold the piece below where you have already sewn with your left thumb. This allows the appliqued edge to be smoother. It also sends the give towards the unsewn area, which prevents ripples, I think. I found it to be much easier and much faster than the way ES taught. I am not saying that the Queen of Applique’ is wrong. There are many ways of doing things and not every way works for every person. It is important to find the way that works for you and if your results are good, then you should continue to work in the method that suits you.

It was readily apparent how you have much more control when you do this work by hand. However, I can also see how, with care, this work could be done by machine.

Gabrielle Swain does a lot of colored pencil and ink work on her quilts. She showed us that as well. You can see my colored pencil work in the purple accent above.

Great class. Take her class if you have the opportunity. This post is a good description, but the real thing is well worth the money.