On the Move.....

After weeks of work and lots of help from Deirdre, Artquiltmaker Blog is on the move. I am moving the blog to my own domain with a new look, new features, a new layout and continuing the creativity and quiltmaking.

Come and join me at my new blog: http://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Blues are Back

Remember the Hop, Skip and Jump pattern I tried in December?

I thought I was, but I am, apparently, not done with the blues. And there is that rectangle shape again (2.5'x4.5, FYI). While the Tarts Come to Tea has been on the design wall, these blue rectangles have been up there, too. They are actually taking too much space (both physically and mentally), so they are coming off the wall and will go back up later.

Last weekend I had a little time and wasn't organized enough to work on an actual project, so I cut blue rectangles. I have to be honest, though. I was trying to prevent a fabric avalanche and decided to fill in some space in the fabric bins. It is much easier and more accessible to stack fabric up on the sides of the closet. Sadly, four foot stacks eventually end up in fabric avalanches. Appropriate for this time of the year, though...

A fabric avalanche was definitely imminent and by moving fabric around and pulling out the blues, I felt like I was actually working on a project rather than organizing.

Some of the fabrics I cut from the scraps that appeared after I made the back for the Crazy Test . It was interesting to see some of those older fabrics mixed in with the newer turquoises.

More about Machine Quilting

One of the things I did to prepare for my longarm day was to doodle. I got out the sketchbook and did some doodling in it. It wasn't true doodling, because I used some reference materials, including some designs from a Melody Johnson class I attended in 1999 as well as some worksheets and the book from a Sue Nickels (nice little bio) class I took sometime later, perhaps around 2002 or 2003. This was all before Diane Gaudynski exploded on to the scene.


The paisleys and little 3-petal flowers would be too difficult for me at this stage, but perhaps later. Still, the whole idea is to get your muscle memory into shape. That flowing doodling kind of motion is what you want to achieve when longarming.


You can see how into those sashing curved designs I was. I really wanted them to work. I may still use them in another quilt even if they aren't perfect.

One of the things I did when I was in the machine quilting groove was make a worksheet of designs for my quilt class. It has some basic designs and ideas on it. I still need to make the other class information, but at least this part is done.


I know I haven't mentioned it in a while. Frankly, they all kind of bailed on the basting part and I don't know if they will continue. It is a little disheartening, but I have an idea in my mind to teach a class like this elsewhere at some point (no plans at this time), so perhaps the work won't all be wasted.

FOTY 2009

The FOTY 2009 block has been selected. It is from a quilt called Zanzibar by FunQuilts. You can find it in their book, The Quiltmaker's Color Workshop, a book I highly recommend for the in depth discussion of putting colors together.

TFQ and I are going to make the same block and see how that goes. I made these first two thinking that I would use each fabric twice. I want to see a bit of the fabric, so I will use each fabric for the outside of one block and inside of another. I am interested to see how that idea works out.

I also am thinking that I will continue with the "waves of color" Jag I seem to be on and put like colors together. This may prove a bit of a challenge and I will have to change later, but for now that is my idea.

These blocks go together very quickly as each patch is 3.5".

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I read Dear Abby this morning and Abby had printed a letter from Eric, which really made me happy. Remember those beautifully decorated boxes with the little slit from first grade? Eric's letter made me remember how nice it was to look through the Valentines.

Coffee Sketch

Nina Johansson is another sketch artist whose work I am admiring lately. I have a soft spot in my heart for coffee cups and hot drinks. I really liked this drawing. It is one I would buy a card or print of if offered.

clipped from 3.bp.blogspot.com

Illustrated Journals

clipped from gabicampanario.blogspot.com

Words are important to me. I like to use the correct word for the correct item, thought or feeling. "The quilt on the back of the couch," for example, is much better than "the thing on the back of the other thing."

TFQ and I had a discussion about visual journals a week or so ago. A lot of stuff had been rattling around in my brain. She was obviously thinking about these issues as well, because she clearly and cleverly articulated what I was thinking. There were some of the central points of our discussion:

• Both of us have writing journals, which we use to rant and rave and explain and digest.
• Neither of us wanted to try to express our feelings in art in addition to doing it in the journals mentioned above.
• We agreed that we both wanted more of a daily art practice.
• Both of us want to try different techniques that we read about in blogs and magazines. We don't always know how to do these techniques.
  
• We are both having trouble getting started.

The conversation, a subsequent letter to TFQ as well as a variety of comments I have made in my journal have all been working towards getting myself started and clearly articulating the issue. It has all been the product of stuff floating around in my mind as I try and resolve this issue for myself. I have decided that what I want is not to do visual journaling, which for me means explaining or working out my feelings and commenting on my life using media other than words. I want to illustrate my journal - or a journal. By illustrated journal, I mean that I want to sketch little vignettes or paint scenes that have nothing to do with my words. I want to do this to inform my quiltmaking and to inject more creativity into my life.

I use the sketch above from Gabi Campanario as an example of my idea. He sketches what is around him. His sketches don't seem to have anything to do with how he is feeling. He obviously has taken it to an art form, which I am not planning on doing. I want to test ideas and sketch for myself. My quilts are really for others.

My biggest issue is starting. I need someone to hold my hand. I thought that decorating the box would kick start me into shape. No dice. It was hard, it took a long time and didn't dry very fast. I did enjoy making it, though.

I thought getting some creative prompts, like from the Creative Mom podcast, would jumpstart the process.
No dice.

Finally I told Julie that I needed her to hold my hand. We haven't set a date yet, but I am hoping we will both have time soon.

In the process of this handwringing, I have identified a couple of issues:

• My stuff for non-quilt creativity is everywhere. I have to haul it out in order to do anything.
• I have supplies that I don't know how to use.
• I don't have a messy space in which to work (and it is Feb and raining outside).
• I still want to focus on quiltmaking and fiber. I want this endeavor to be a little extra.

I did some sketching in 2008, but stopped for some reason, so I guess I could consider this small amount of work the start, which means my real problem is continuing....

Anna Maria Horner and Blogging without Obligation

You may have noticed the little badge I added awhile ago from TartX. The Blogging without Obligation badge is a reminder to myself that if I don't post every day, nobody will die and the world won't end.

To that end, I try and be patient with people who don't post as often as *I* would like them to post. Thus, I was thrilled today when I saw a couple of posts from Anna Maria Horner. She obviously reads her blog comments, because her post is answers to a number of questions that came up in comments when she posted her multi-tasking bag -soon-to-be- pattern. I really liked the post. I clipped a little piece of it to get you there easily, though I really wanted to clip the part about the patterns and couldn't.

clipped from annamariahorner.blogspot.com Tuesday, February 10, 2009 oilcloth: Is being rolled onto bolts as we speak which is fabric talk for the last thing that happens before it ships to stores. You'll have to check with your shops to ask if they're carrying it, as I'm not sure that every store who has my quilting cottons will also have these. Though I know they've been popular picks. We'll also have them listed in the shop in precut 2yd quantities as soon as they get here. They're 55" wide and I think will be retailing for 19$ or so a yard. AND GUESS WHAT? YOU DID IT! You banged your pots and pans & helped me get 3 MORE prints of Good Folks sent off to the mills for more oilcloth varieties! Yay you! It will take a little time to print and coat the wider goods, but you have this, this and this one to look forward too.

Inspiration Thursday

Julie said that this photo had the structure of my quilts.

Look for this image in the future...a taste of what is to come.

Inspiration Tuesday

A great example of adding art to your life.

Inspiration Monday

Inspiration comes from everywhere and I found it on the Blog. freepeople.com site, which I had been looking at because of a cool bookmobile. These little vignettes are hilarious. The post links to a Flickr group for more.

clipped from blog.freepeople.com plastic life

Quilting By the Sea #2

The second CQFA Retreat was the weekend of January 25, 2009 (read about the first retreat here). What a great weekend for sewing. You have already seen my completed top, FOTY 2008, but I thought I would share some of the highlights of the trip and other people's projects with you. I highly recommend going on a weekend retreat once in a while, especially if you normally don't get several hours of uninterrupted time to do your sewing.


On Saturday, I went out for a walk and to get some food and saw this flower, which I thought might make a nice sketch or a "Big Idea" for a quilt.


Terri, a talented writer whose books you should go out and buy right now, is also a talented quiltmaker. Above is her Kaleidoscope project. Since I had recently completed the Eye Spy top, I gave her some unsolicited advice on putting the top together. One of the things that I enjoy about the retreat is that I like seeing what people are making. Terri uses a very different color palette than I do, but it was great to see how she worked on the hexagons.

CQFA has a free fabric connection. Julie went and got some free fabric and made the above couch throw out of it. I love the cabbage rose feel that this top has, mostly because it is not too sickly sweet.

I didn't crop the photo above, because I wanted you to see the set up. Julie and I were working at the table on the left side of the photo. You can see FOTY 2008 on my portable design wall in the background. Dolores was working on the right. We had nice big tables to work on.





Dolores, the organizer, had a goal of getting to know everyone better. Last year people did introductions and everyone talked about how they got into quiltmaking. This year she asked everyone to talk about what inspires them. Above is a picture of everyone gathering around one person's work.

Debbie talked about taking a summer course at Cabrillo College with Richard Elliott. The class was called something like Frankenstein Fabric and they learned to manipulate fabric in new and interesting ways. The fabric above has been manipulated so that it has little puffs all over it.


The fabric has a high polyester content. Debbie does really interesting things with fiber and is very involved with SAQA.

All in all, the weekend was a big success. I certianly got a lot done and was pleased to be able to spend some extra time with Julie.

Longarm Day of My Own

So, yesterday was the big day. I went to Always Quilting and quilted a quilt on my own. The short version: it was good, it was hard and I needed help.

During this foray into the world of longarm quilting I was able to complete the quilting for a quilt and a practice piece. I am thrilled to haven gotten this far on a quilt on my own! It has been awhile since I quilted anything larger than a journal sized quilt.

One experience/feeling I wasn't expecting was that I felt like I learned a ton! I always feel that it is a good day when I learn something new and this was an even better feeling, because I learned something related to quiltmaking. Neither of these pieces will win any prizes, but I really feel like the experience was successful.




Above are the two finished pieces. They were sewn together to make it easier to get them on to the longarm machine. I cut them apart before I came home. I sewed the top patchwork piece to the quilt (bottom) in order to have a practice piece to work on before I got into the quilt itself. I always warm up when I machine quilt at home and I didn't think this longarm adventure should be any different.

For the practice piece, I pulled out some old blues and sewed them together. I do like that Nancy Crow leaf fabric, but was never very successful at using it in a quilt.



Two details of the Crazy Test quilt. The line of stitching you see at the bottom (upper photo) is basting and I will need to pull it out. I think the flower stitching on the bottom photo looks ok. It is an all over pattern, but I don't think it competes with the sashing or the blocks. In the blocks, it is nearly invisible.

Above is a detail of the first bit of quilting that I did. I quickly learned that this kind of fabric has two problems:

1. I couldn't see the stitching as I sewed
2. I still can't see the stitching

When I have someone else quilt a quilt, I focus on the piecing. I want the quilting to blend in and not take away from the piecing. Thus, I was surprised to find that I wanted to see the stitching. It makes sense to be able to see the stitching as you actually stitch! I found that when I was done with a section, I wanted to be able to see what I had done. Above, I don't think the stitched flowers, as a design element, look that good on top of the leaves. The two design elements compete with each other.


The stitching in the leaves is the stitching that I also did in the blue and white striped fabric at the top. It shows up a lot better on the black and was a lot easier to see as I stitched over the Nancy Crow fabric. I had planned to use that pattern (from a 1999 Melody Johnson class) in the sashing. I like the way it came out, but if you examine it closely, you will find that the lines are not parallel and the 'legs' are different sizes. I think I will have to practice more before I can use that one on a real quilt.

Contrary to the flowers over the leaves that I mentioned above, I don't mind the parallel lines over the leaves in the photo above.

My general preference when viewing quilts is to see the quilting compliment the elements of the quilt. For example, I usually like to see different quilting in the sashing than I do in the blocks. What I found after yesterday's session was that those differences in the quilting pattern require lots of practice. Longarming in general requires a lot of practice. If you think you can go and buy a longarm and start quilting for other people, more power to you. After doing some of the math, I fiure that I can quilt 10-12 quilts for less than $500. This means it would take me years to pay off even a Handiquilter, which runs about $8,000.


After realizing that my planned designs were not going to work, Kit suggested a flower pattern. The bottom section is the all over flower pattern that I decided would be fine for my first longarm project. The section in the blue RJR Christopher Columbus fabric (bottom left, above) is the right size. As you can tell from other photos, I stitched smaller and smaller motifs as I moved through the quilt. As a result, the quilting took a lot longer than I anticipated. I think the flowers show up pretty well in the photo above. This was my first attempt at them. Somethings I had to think about while learning this process and trying out a new pattern:

1. Consistent stitching speed - the more variable your stitching speed the more inconsistent your stitch size would be
   
2. Don't get caught in a place you can't get out of
3. Try to stitch within an imaginary triangle
   

I like the above photo, because it shows the quilt rolled up on the machine. You can also see the flowers pretty well.