Who Am I? – Artquiltmaker Blog

Who Am I? Top & Back Finished

As mentioned the other day, I did a marathon and was able to finish the top and back and binding of Who Am I?

I am not sure the bottom adds heaviness, but it does break up the ‘sweetness’ of the dots. I wanted a little sweetness and I also wanted some consistency. I want the focus to be on the words and not much on the background. That’s why I didn’t introduce another fabric to the mix.

In the photo above, you can see the whole design, even the ME that is part of the background.

One thing I have to think about is quilting the borders. I used some batting to stabilize the center of the quilt for applique’. It wasn’t a great choice, but Julie had some and was willing to share at the time. I need to talk to Colleen and see what she wants me to do. I could use batting tape to connect pieces of batting to the center. I could also have Colleen use a super thin batting, which would mean the center was double-batted. We’ll see what happens.

The back is simple and went together relatively easily, which was a relief.

My reward for finishing this is a straight piecing project, but I think I will work on some bags first.

Who Am I? More Progress

Who Am I? has been hanging on my design wall for weeks and I am really sick of looking at it. The concept was stellar IMO, the design choices I made were good, so I really don’t know what the problem was.I don’t know why I didn’t want to work on it, but I didn’t. The other day, I finally forced myself to work on it.

I was tempted by other projects, but I forced myself to stay focused. I know I need to enjoy my quiltmaking, but I do not enjoy having quits languishing.

I thought about adding a small dark border so the first thing I did was try that. I had some Tilda charcoal I am going to use for Stay Tuned, but I have enough to use for for this project as well. Also, since I know what it is, I can always buy more.

As an aside, the Stay Tuned fabric palette has not been decided, so I may as well use fabric I have for projects that need it now.

Who Am I? - making visual decisions visually — Who Am I? – making visual decisions visually

I wasn’t sure the charcoal would work completely, but I kept on. I added some further border strips using the dotted background fabric (colors on white).

Putting a little of the white dotted fabric up gave me more confidence that I was on the right track. I decided my ideas were good ones, so I started sewing.

Who Am I? - more borders — Who Am I? – more borders

I wanted to frame the center, but also smooth out some of the wrinkles from the applique’. I carefully measured and put on side pieces that helped to square everything up. I don’t think the quilt is completely square as I couldn’t cut much off of either side.

Laying out the whole charcoal gave me the idea of doing something a little different on the bottom. I wanted to anchor the design a bit and I thought making the bottom a little heavier would work.

I worked on this for about 8 hours the other day. I was able to get it done and get the binding made.

Who Am I? Artquiltmaker

Who Am I? in process - full — Who Am I? in process – full

At Sew Day, I worked on creating the letters for Artquiltmaker. I thought this was a good task for Sew Day. I had a big table and could spread out all sorts of papers, tools and implements so I could work efficiently. It took me the better part of 3 hours (maybe 4) to get the words out, but I was able to get it done.

The letters are not quite as good as I wanted. For one thing, the A is backwards. I don’t know how that happened. I have very high standards and I decided to be satisfied.

Friend Julie liked them and she is much less judgemental of my work than I am, but would tell me if I was off track.

After I cut them all out, it took me a little while to place them.I wanted them at a certain angle, so I fiddled a bit to get them right.

Then I fused everything in place and they were ready to stitch.

Once they were placed and fused, I spent some time satin stitching them down. I didn’t stitch the entire word down. I needed to take a break and was hoping to finish a bag on which I am working.

Hooray for progress!

More Who Am I? Updates

Who Am I? - January 2023 — Who Am I? – January 2023

I made more progress. I am seeing light at the end of this tunnel.

Do the little that I have done really feels like a lot of progress. Of course, it is taking me forever to do a little.

I am happy with what I have done and am already thinking about quilting options. Shocking! I know. Who knows why quilting is even entering my mind, though this is an art quilt and there are things I want to say with it that I think I will say with quilting. More accurately, Colleen will say with quilting. 🙂

Who Am I? - January 2023 detail — Who Am I? – January 2023 detail

I did the line that says ‘Julie’s Friend’, using some Tula Pink ribbon I had. I used a lot of pins to keep it in place until I could sew it down. I think it looks pretty good.

As I mentioned, I had planned to do the last three lines using bias tape, but ‘Paul’s Wife’ put me off that idea. It’s disappointing, because I do like bias tape, especially the stretchiness of it.

More satin stitching comes next.

Who Am I? Continuing On

Who Am I? Progress - Dec 2022 — Who Am I? Progress – Dec 2022

I continued to work on Who Am I? over the winter break. I wanted to finish it and just be done, but other projects and resting prevailed. Still, I was able to add another line of text to the piece.

I used bias tape to add Paul’s Wife to the piece. I had good luck using bias tape in the Red Scribbles quilt and also when I taught my students how to make bias tape and use it. Thus, I thought it would be easier than it was. I think the loops and swirls were smaller than my previous works. I used 1/4 inch bias tape, which is the smallest I could make. Still, I am happy with the result.

Two more rows to go!

As an added bonus, I used my new Daylight light table** for the first time. It is awesome.

**Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

More Who Am I? Progress

I really made a lot of progress on Who Am I? Despite taking a day off of my winter break to do other things, the quilt is looking good.

I added ‘Paul’s Wife’ using bias tape and it took me just as long do straight stitch down those letters as it did to satin stitch the two other lines. I didn’t enjoy it and don’t think the bias tape worked as I had hoped. I think it looks fine, but I probably won’t use more of it for the other lines.

Who Am I? Progress!!!!

I made some good progress during my winter break from work. Can you believe it? It wasn’t even that terrible. I worked pretty quickly, which meant I got almost all of the satin stitching I needed to finish done in one afternoon. It was amazing. Again, I was kind of shocked at why I was balking at ….sooooo muuuuccchhh saaaatttiiinnnn stiiiitccchhhiiiing…… It wasn’t super fun, because there were a lot of loops and swirls to stitch around and I am out of practice. I had to go over some spots a second time to smooth them out but, all in all, it went relatively quickly. Now it is over.

I am using a variety of techniques in addition to the satin stitching.

Who Am I? Progress - detail — Who Am I? Progress – detail

The black letters are attached using a straight line, raw edge applique after I fused them to the background. This quilt will not be washed, so that type of treatment is fine.

The two parts that have been stitched down for a long time, ‘Mary’s daughter’ and ‘William’s Mom’, are sort of couched. I pinned ribbon into place, then stitched it down. I made some 1/4 inch some bias tape that I will use for one of the other lines.

Hooray for progress!

Who Am I? Returns

While this quilt has been on my mind, I only thought about it. I didn’t actually take it out and look at it until I finished Creamsicle.Now it is on the design wall and I am thinking harder about specifics.

I need to find the notes so I can be reminded of my ideas. It has also been 4 years since I even looked at this project.

I may have worked on it since the Rosalie Dace class, but I have no notes or blog posts unless they are well hidden and unindexed.

Progress on RD Piece

I carved out about 6 hours yesterday where I just sewed. I finished a donation block and started another. I started and finished a Color My Quilt shard. The biggest deal was that I worked on the Rosalie Dace piece I started in Sisters. I haven’t really worked on it since the trip, but my mind has been working on it. I finally cleared off the big design wall enough to get it up there.

Who Am I? - early August 2018 — Who Am I? – early August 2018

I thought I would keep adding letters, but the number of pins in the piece (a problem at Sew Day I can talk about later) and unfused bits flailing around demanded a different course. The quilt really wanted me to sew down and fuse down letters so I did.

The two sets of ribbon/trim letters are sewn down using a zig zag stitch in varying widths. It really took forever because I sewed very slowly, but I am pretty pleased with the way it came out.

Mary's Daughter - early August 2018 — Mary’s Daughter – early August 2018

For the ‘mary’s daughter’ piece, I used an Aurifil violet-ish color on the top and the bottom.

For ‘William’s Mom’, I used clear Auriful in the top and an an orange 50 wt in the bobbin. I started out with orange in the top, too, but it obscured the circles that are part of the design of the ribbon.

I feel good about the work. I am so pleased to be making progress.

Sisters Retreat-Class Day Three

Wednesday – Day Three of the Rosalie Dace class

I started out the day with the ribbons applied.

Construction again. I drew out some letters and started cutting them out of fabric on fusible.

I am pretty happy with the letters. I started out with a ‘J’ I found on the web. I wanted all of the letters of my name to be beautiful. I didn’t have an entire alphabet, so I extrapolated out from that one ‘J’. I used the slant and thickness of the letters to make up the other letters. I also used the stem of the ‘J’ to make one stem of the A. I don’t know if they are beautiful, but I think they are beautiful.

I wanted some, not all, of the letters on the overall piece to be beautiful.

I started working on the letters. And also the placement. The last day was much slower than the other two days. I made good progress, but the pieces were smaller and more detailed. I worked on the placement of the Jaye and the Anne. I thought my names would be the first two lines, then I realized that I was my mother’s daughter before I was anyone else’s anything.

I used fusible, ribbon and some zig zaggy trim for the various letters. Each group of letters required at least one ‘rewrite’.

Sisters Retreat-Class Day Two

Tuesday – Day Two of the Rosalie Dace class

I got the background done pretty sharpish when I got to class Tuesday.

Yes, this is the background. It is the essence of who I am. I guess. I am not exactly sure why this is the background.

The biggest problem with art quilts is construction. To achieve the design goal, the construction can be challenging. the background you see was pretty basic piecing except for the spot where the top of the M comes together at an angle.

For the moment, I am leaving the -v- for later. Rosalie said that she couldn’t see it, so I decided not to worry about it right at the moment.

The next step was to get the ‘ladder’/grid motif appliqued on. I tried strips of fabric, but eventually landed on some ribbon that I have been saving for …something. This is the something. I laid out the ribbon where I thought they should go and looked. I moved them around and looked some more.

Again construction was an issue. The first piece, a piece of thick ribbon that looked like mosaic tile, went on like a dream. The next piece, which was much thinner would not go on. It bunched up, slid around and was generally a pain. I finally put batting on the back and sewed through the ribbon, the background and the batting. This is not ideal, because I have to worry about when to put a backing on and how to quilt it all again. Still, I was in class and had to make do.

The grid, which is kind of like a second background, came out ok. The ribbons aren’t perfect, but they fit with my design.

I got back to my schedule and finished the ribbons by the end of day two. Next up: letters.

Sisters Retreat-Class

Sisters High School / Quilt Class Retreat Center

Monday started in bright and early with class. Julie, Kathleen and I all took the Rosalie Dace class. I signed up when Kathleen and Julie did because I was OBE. I really had no expectations.

This was a three day class with the title “Word for Word.” I brought some text fabrics and threw in some greys and a large piece of a dot print as well as some embellishments, ribbon and some fancy sewing machine feet.

This was one of the best classes I have ever taken.

First, we talked. Rosalie showed us slides of art that included words. There were quilts (think about the Temperance movement), graffiti, one piece that depicted the words escaping a box and many others. She talked about creating and design. The talk went on for awhile, but the most helpful thing to me for my design was when the students introduced themselves. We had to say why we were in the class in one sentence. People talked about their names as well, but I can’t remember if that was part of the question or just evolved. One fellow student talked about how she had many names – nicknames, names she called herself or wanted to be called, names others called her. She has a long and girly name, so the permutations are endless.

This got me to thinking about my name. My name has no nicknames. None. That made me think about my roles. Even if I have no nicknames, I have roles. I decided to use my roles as a basis for my piece.

This idea gelled into place so quickly that it was frightening. Because of the speed, i was really unsure of the whole concept. I talked with Rosalie about it and she loved the idea, so I went for it. Every staged gelled, so I just kept working.

I don’t agonize over my pieces constantly. Yes, I do agonize a bit , but in this case, I kept asking for a bit of feedback from Rosalie and moving forward.

I got the background almost done on Monday. My goal was to get the background done On Monday. I know that if I get a lot done I can continue when the class is over. I needed momentum.

I had only two more seams to go on Tuesday to finish the background.

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