Knitting

I have three knitting projects going right now.  One is hideous, one needs more yarn (which I'm bidding on on ebay), and the one pictured below is from a cotton-linen blend in whites, greys, and purple.  It's very springy for a fall knitting project but I like it a lot.

I collected these lantern-like flowers today and strung a bunch onto some thread.  I'm not sure how well it'll hold up but it's pretty.  In this photo you can see the flowers, my knitting, my green quilted bag, and my grandma's quilt, which I've been taking outside with me to make my sitting more comfortable as my recovery proceeds.

WIP: Art Quilt: Space and Time

I've finally started quilting this one: one of the first things I ever started working on when I took up quilting.

I'm pleased with the way the design is turning out but I'm unhappy with the quality of my quilting technique.  I suppose I ought to give it time.  This quilting thing is much harder than it seems, especially when using a regular sewing foot rather than a walking foot or a quilting foot.  I'm planning on getting those soon though.

The batik is inspired by outer space, which you can see from my computer desktop, is generally an ispiration to me.  I plan to quilt around the shapes in the batik as well.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the fact that this quilt has two fronts.  Neither is a back.  I think it is meant to hang from the ceiling in a hallway so that it is viewed on one side while walking one way and the other when walking back again.  Now all I have to do is find the hallway.

Quilted name tags

Here's the post (Announcing the Name Tag Challenge Winners!) on the Austin Modern Quilt Guild's blog that has the photo of my name tag that I stole to put in this post because I'm too lazy to take my own photo.  And by lazy I mean that I just edited and uploaded dozens of photos to my other blog of children's birthdays and what not - so, the kind of burnt out lazy.

It's not the most flattering photo but I'm pretty darn proud of my name tag.  I'll try to document it better later when I'm not so burnt out on blogging and photo editing.

Process and Identity Crisis

My process seems to go something like this:

• get an idea
• throw myself into the project without much planning
• find I need to stop and do some planning
• plan
• new idea
• a little planning
• throw myself into project
• find I need more planning and/or creative block
• newer idea
• throw myself into this project
• feel bad that I have too many projects and never finish anything
• go back to the first idea (or one of many unfinished other projects) and work on it
• feel satisfied with finally making progress on something
• finish a project that has a deadline
• new idea
• etc.
• you get the idea

My workroom is starting to overflow with unfinished quilt projects.  I was starting to feel really like I really couldn't do it because I could never finish anything.  Although, I did finish two nametags for the AMQG meeting.  I'll post a pic of the second one, the one I really like and wore to the meeting, sometime soon.

I also started to have an identity crisis.  Am I a modern quilter or an art quilter?  And if I'm an art quilter than who are my people?  Because it seems that modern quilters are not art quilters.

So, I decided to be a modern quilter this week.  I finished the top for my daughter's quilt.  It's not really like the photo I took earlier because I needed to make it simpler.  I really like it though.  I have the bottom laid out on the floor and I'm taking a creative lunch break to mull it over.

In the end, I think I can be both a modern and an art quilter.

WIP News Anchor

As if I needed to say "screw you" to my last post, I went and made an art quilt tonight last night this past week.  This quilt is not great by any means and the technique just plain sucks but it really needed to be done.  I was so focused and it felt so good to do it.  It was a release, like something I really needed to get out of me.  It took a total of about two hours to do as much as you see pictured.

I realize that I need to just keep going and make as many quilts as possible in order to improve.  I need to practice both my technique with cutting straight lines and sewing quarter inch seems as well as expressing myself in non-traditional ways with this new medium.  There's nothing like pumping out tons of crappy work to move one towards something worthwhile.

I was inspired to do the drawing after watching this clip about an overweight news anchor who was harassed by an anonymous viewer about her weight.  I didn't intend to make a quilt... I just grabbed my black paper and oil pastels and did a quick gesture drawing of her face as I was watching the video.  I have not been drawing at all so it's not my best work but, again, it's necessary to do the bad drawings in order to get to the good ones.

For whatever reason, I decided to sew the paper onto the red fabric.  And then I grabbed some black scraps, sewed them together and sewed the red onto that.  I didn't press or measure a single thing for this whole piece.

I threw together a quilt sandwich - top, batting, backing - and pinned it in a few places with regular safety pins.  I knew this wasn't the correct way to do it but nothing I'd done so far was correct so I just kept on going.  I can't have (or don't have, I'm not sure) a quilting foot to do free-motion quilting so I had to use my regular sewing machine foot.  It was hard, but doable.  I need to find or get a quilting foot before I try anything too difficult or important though.

After quilting the drawing and the black thread down, I put the red thread down and started quilting the flower pattern out from it.  I didn't have a plan beyond the flower pattern (which I'd done on a quick sample piece just prior) but I just kept on going and going and eventually the whole thing was quilted.  It doesn't lie flat because it wasn't pinned properly but I like my quilting pattern.

A closeup of the thread quilted onto the top piece in the center of the flower

You can see the pattern a little better on the back.  It's difficult to photograph black on black.  This is the best I got.  The backing is just plain felt. I don't think it's a traditional backing material but I really liked it.

I started putting a binding on the edges today.  I think I'm going to fill it with stuffing so it's really puffy and odd.  I don't really know what I'm doing but I don't think it matters.

I started a new art quilt today as well.  It's from an old, stained, men's, button down, white shirt  and scraps. I'm not sure if I like it.  I think it might need some paint or dye.  Or something.  I don't know.  But I need to keep producing and practicing.  Practice makes progress - as they say in my daughter's school.

Shifting aesthetics

This post comes from a conversation that I had with hubby this evening.

The more I get into quilting, the more I find my aesthetics shifting in ways that I never would have expected. Quilt tops that in the past I've not quite understood or have found down-right ugly are now growing on me.  It's a little bit scary.

It came up for me in this same blog post that I linked to previously where the woman's husband says: 

"You put such unusual colors together..."

That's how I often feel.  I don't understand why people would put such unusual colors together.  And I especially don't understand why they would put such crazy patterns together.  But now, as I start really looking at my daughter's quilt and the things I've picked out for the christmas project, I see myself doing the same thing.  I love what I see but I also wonder "what the hell are you thinking?!?!"

I'm glad I'm gaining insight into the quilting aesthetic and more of an appreciation for the technique behind it but hubby brought up the other thing that I worry about: losing my artistic edge and letting myself get boxed in by the conventional notions of quilting.

I think there's a balance to be made between learning the craft - and the aesthetic - of a new process while still bringing a new, fresh, personal edge to it.  It's a balance that  I mostly failed to do as an art major in college.  I had all sorts of new, fresh edginess - or so I thought - but now I just look aback and see poor technique.  There are quite a few photos that are horribly blown out (which was my aesthetic at the time *rolls eyes*) that could have possibly been pretty great if the technique and the aesthetic appreciation for the work that goes into a fine print had been there.

Every time I look at my name tag I feel kind of bad.  I like my aesthetic but I really dislike my quilting technique.  It could be so much better.  I'm not going to redo it before the next meeting (or possibly ever) but it bothers me.   I still love it but I hate it too.

The other night while I was moping around being sad about the fact that I am not yet an expert quilter hubby pointed out that I shouldn't even want to be an expert already.  Where would the challenge - and therefore the achievement - lie if I were already an expert.  There would be no room for growth.  This is about growth and learning and being okay with doing it poorly while I learn.

Still this is something I struggle with - something I've struggled with for as long as I can remember.  I'm used to things coming pretty easily for me. I did well in school with relatively little effort.  I never did great, though.  I also did similarly well in music and art but I've never reached my full potential because I never learned to have the will power to push through the hard parts where things aren't working out well so that I can learn and improve myself and eventually master a new technique and hopefully really be great at it.  I hope to maybe learn a little more of that as I learn the craft of quilting... while, hopefully, retaining my aesthetic.

WIP My daughter's quilt

And here are the photos I promised.

I'm trying to use fabric that I already have instead of buying more.  I don't want to have too big of a stash, after all.  So I thought it would be fun and interesting to have these two purples as the background for the blocks.  (It really is purple, I just can't get the white balance quite right and I want to spend more time quilting and less time photographing and writing about quilting.)

I just remembered how it's going to lose width when I cut it apart and sew it into the seems that will be necessary to fit the blocks into the background.  Therefore, it might not be the size I'd like in the end.  I'm not sure what to do about it.  I don't really want to add a border and I'm running out of fabrics that are the same as the ones I'm already using.

Similarly, with the back, it will get shrunken when I piece it together with these scraps (which may not be the final design, I just laid something out as a start.)  What to do, what to do?

I guess I'll go start on the Christmas project and let this one simmer for a while.

Addendum: I just found another long, thing strip of black fabric underneath this big piece so I'll have no problem getting what I need out of the two pieces.  Still need to figure out the front though.  Later...

Seams, Shelves, Paper project

Not exactly the photos I promised in my previous post, but something nonetheless.

It's the little things that really make me happy.  I finally feel like I am getting a handle on pressing seams.

Here are my latest pressed seams.  I use my fingernail to separate and pre-press each seam, which makes it easier to get to with the iron.  It's probably all second nature for experienced quilters but it's all difficult and new for me.  I have trouble pressing my work pants, much less 1/4 inch seams that are two inches apart and don't want to lie flat.

My lovely husband got this shelf out of the studio for me.  He's working on clearing out the studio a bit so he was able to consolidate some of the other shelves and clear this one off.  It's pretty much perfect.

This is a closeup of the two paper quilting samples that I've done so far.  I would like to try some double thread or thicker thread sewing as well.  It's nice that it's subtle like this and people will get a surprise as they got close and notice the sewing but I'd like there to be at least one line of sewing that shows up from across the room and draws attention - makes people wonder.

Feedback

I crave feedback... but I like it to be gentle and generally positive.  It's not that I want people to lie to me but I'd like them to be reasonably not mean or too critical.

So, of course, I ask my husband for feedback.  This hadn't been going so well.  He wasn't really understanding this whole quilt thing.  But then I had him read a section out of Spike Gillespie's book Quilting Art: Inspiration, Ideas & Innovative Works from 20 Contemporary Quilters.  The particular artist that I picked is also a full-time software engineer (which is my husband's profession) and I feel like she spoke about quilting art in a way that would get to him.  And it seems like I was right.  He still doesn't quite "get it" but I can see that we're making progress.

One of the things that made it especially obvious was his feedback on my current quilt top (which I will post pictures of later).  I was stumped.  I had sewn strips of different fabrics together and I'd planned on cutting out the letters of my daughters name and piecing them into a quilt top.  It just wasn't right, though, and I couldn't tell exactly why.

When I showed the pieces to hubby, he immediately got excited and asked if I was going to cut them up again and make a checkerboard type grid thing with them. I explained how that wouldn't work because the strips weren't equal sizes (which he realized immediately as well) but talking about it like that made the lightbulb go on for me and I figured out what I needed to do.  I did cut them up again and sewed them together upside down and rightside up and slightly off from one another, still with the idea of cutting them into letters.  Finally I realized they should stay as blocks in a plain fabric background and I could find something that worked better to piece her name with some other day.  It was such a ureka moment!

I wouldn't have thought to write about this except that I read this blog post at Blue Elephant Stitches which talks about her husband's feedback.  The woman at BES talks about her husband not thinking about his taste in color and design and (to me at least) seeming to say that he doesn't really have good taste.  I hear this all the time about men but my husband has excellent taste in color and design and thinks about it a lot.  He also seems to have a better ability to distinguish color than I do (something else BES complains about with her husband.)  It worried me slightly with this project for my daughter because there are some similar colors in it that I wasn't actually sure looked good together.  I don't trust myself.  But, hubby seems to think they look good so I guess it's alright.  I know he'd tell me if they didn't - in a nice, gentle, not-mean sort of way.

So, as much as I sometimes crave another quilter's opinion, I'm super grateful to have hubby around to tell me what he thinks, even if he isn't quite as enthusiastic as I'd like.

Batik trials and Savers score

I had a magnificent success with this glue/bleach batik method once... but only once. I'm trying it again anywa.  Here's the first step, making designs in glue.

This particular fabric, not satin like the rest, really soaked up the glue more than the others.  I'm really curious to see what happens with the next step - painting it with bleach water and then rinsing.

This is what my son was doing while I was making glue patterns and photographing the fabrics below.

He's my little green eating machine.

(This is a very wide angle shot, the container isn't really that big - it only looks like he could fit in it, but he can't.

This is one of the quilts that my grandma made.  It's mostly polyester.

It has a lot of tears like this that I'd like to fix but I'm not sure how.  Any suggestions?

I'm starting a flannel collection, mostly made of men's XXL shirts, that I'd like to make a nice warm (probably ugly) quilt out of.  On Thursdays at Savers all the tags of a specific color are only $.99 no matter what the price tag says.  Today's color was orange.

I've been looking for polyester to fix grandma's quilt and I've also been looking for modern red patterns for Christmas stuff and this skirt fit both items so, even though it was more than one dollar, I got it today.

More of the orange-tag $.99 clothes to add to my black pile.

And something new: bright, spring colors.  I have no idea what I'll do with them but I couldn't resist.

The orange and yellow fabrics are actually fabric, not clothing, and they were more than $.99 but I decided it was worth it after looking at prices of some fabrics online.

The whole lot of them.

It was a good day.

Quilted name tag

I finished my quilted name tag last night.  It's this month's assignment for the AMQG and I was feeling like I really needed to get it done.  I probably should have waited until I figure out what's going on with my sewing machine.  I probably should have taken more time and worked on my technique.  But it feels good to be done.

So... the loops on the top are both decorative and functional.  They can be used to hang it up (as I've done here) hang it from a necklace or lanyard, or hang it from a belt.

I actually love the back so much more than the front.  This was originally my front but the other side is a much more traditional looking front... and it has my name on it.  I was going to applique my name onto this side so it could be a reversible name tag but I can't bring myself to do it because I think it is perfect.

Detail of my quilting and embroidery.  I definitely  need to work on my technique with both but I'm still pleased with it.  Especially with the tension or timing screwed up on my machine right now.  I just can't bear the thought of being without my machine so that it could go get fixed but I probably should do that while it's still under warranty.

The multi-strand line of quilting just above my name isn't a mistake.  I like quilting over the top of lots of threads to make this effect.  I think it would work better on a less busy background but I still like it.  It's all about learning at this point.

And another photo of my works in progress (and my son and his WIP too).  I have finished piecing the red and purple one and I'm putting the backing together - it's in the bottom right corner on my desk.  My other big project is the photo paper sewing (not quilting because it doesn't have three layers (yet)) project hanging up on the left side.  I hope to get these and more like them in a gallery show sometime soon - like in the next year or so.

W.I.P. workroom

Today I spent an hour or so getting my new workroom in a reasonable semblance of order.  I'm waiting to get some shelves before it can really be organized, but now, at least, I can find my chair again.

I had to use a wide angle to get the whole room in so it looks a little funny.  My iron isn't really bigger than my sewing machine.  The shelves will go where the orange box thing is currently sitting.  I plan on putting fabric bins like the green one next to the desk (under the ironing board) on the shelves to hold my fabrics.  I currently have a pile of them under the ironing board.

You might notice the low chest of drawers on the right of the photo (or not, it's hard to see) and the tall, light green dresser on the left.  They are mine and my son's respectively.  When we rearranged the rooms we didn't have enough space for these so they ended up in my workroom, which was supposed to be my husbands office too.  But he's still out in the livingroom with his desk and computer and my space does double duty as a dressing room too.  At least I can easily press any clothes that need ironing!

I just strung up the WIP area.  It makes a big difference.  I feel like I have an idea of where I'm at with all my little projects when I can see them and I feel like I know what I need to do next.

It's interesting to see what stands out to me in the photo vs what I notice in person.  Just looking at this photo makes me so excited.  I'm actually getting close to finishing my name tag quilt for the next AMQG (Austin Modern Quilt Guild) meeting and I feel like I finally know what I'm doing with the one on the right, which is the first one I started.

Here is the back - that's right, the back, not the front! - of my name tag quilt as I'm cutting and laying out the pieces.  It's mostly just to prove to myself that I can actually cut straight lines and do a 'normal' patchwork piece.  We'll see how the sewing goes.  The front is a scrappy, artsy little piece with lots of stuff hanging off of it.  I'm toying with the idea of putting my name on both sides so I can have a reversible name tag.

Embroidery

Lest you think this is a blog solely dedicated to quilting... I give you: my first ever embroidery:

This is the blanket I knitted for Petunia.  I always intended to put her name and some other decoration on it at some point. So, I think the embroidered name and design are perfect.

I chose colors to match the design that I knitted into the bottom right corner.  That design is abstract but is reminiscent of a wave or a bird.  Petunia really liked the colors.  After I finished Petunia's name in pink, I knew I needed to add some blues to go with the knitted design and it made sense to me to do the swirly design below it that was similar to the design on the blanket.  When I asked Petunia what she thought of it she said "It's water."  And then she went on to tell me that there needed to be a cloud up above with rain coming down to make the puddle.  I'd planed on putting stars or circles or spirals or something but her logic was flawless, really, so I did what she told me.

I'm not super happy with the cloud.  I kind of just wanted to finish it before the weekend was over so I could sew it onto the blanket and send it back to school.  Unfortunately, despite my rush job, it still didn't make it back in time.  As I was embroidering the rain, it was raining for real here in Austin and the blanket was out on the line where it was supposed to be drying but was actually becoming wet and musty.  In my hurry, I threw it in the dryer and ended up felting the wool parts of the blanket - those being the darker gray stripes and most of the pink and blue design.  I think the felting looks and feels cool but it makes it so the blanket will never be flat again.  Oh well.  It's clean, dry, finished, and photographed now so it can go back to school tomorrow.

Capital of Texas Quilt Fest

I took my four and a half year old daughter to the Capital of Texas Quilt Fest yesterday.  This is my photo journal of the day.  It is not a complete overview and I don't even include credits for most of the people who made the quilts.  It really is just my visual notes.  Not to mention that taking a four year old to a quilt festival makes it difficult to see everything or be overly serious about the thing.

At the door they suggested that we head directly to the kid's booth.  After a minor meltdown due to the overwhelming nature of the event and a lack of food (which was remedied) we made our way over there and Petunia (which is what I call my daughter online) got to draw on fabric and received a "Future Quilter" pin.

The amazingly lovely lady named Victoria who was, at least partially, in charge of the kid's booth made this quilt.  I'm particularly taken with the quilting that she did on the black fabric. 

Again, I'm drawn to black fabric and these leaves with their multi-dimensionality and haphazard balance, which really impressed me.

And then, because of the black fabric and bright color but, more personally, because of all the cancer that's been in my family, including my own, this was my absolute favorite quilt at the festival.  There is a letter 'U' actually sewed into the quilt underneath that asterix, which is pinned over it.

You can see a detail shot below this.  I am not super impressed with the quilt itself in any way but I love the idea of doodling on fabric and making it into a quilt.  And, thanks to Vicky at the kid's booth, I know how to make that happen.

There were a number of quilts that I wasn't so into but Petunia LOVED and insisted on having a photo of.  This would be one of them.

On the other hand, I LOVED this one. I hope to make quilts like this some day.

I also loved this and the following.  I have a thing fro bright, kid-themed things.  And I have a thing for space.

This one appealed to my photographic self and my more subtle self who also enjoys mono-chromatic color schemes, not just bright, bold, and obnoxious ones.  I might save the crazy quilting technique for when I have a little more time on my hands though.

Bright, bold, 3-D.  Not my favorite but I like a lot of different aspects of it.

Same with this one.  I like the beads.

And I love the colors and techniques in this one.

This was a cute Noah's Ark quilt.  I wanted to remember this quilting design with the circles and waves.  I also wanted to remember what the rainbow thread looked like.  I've been wondering

Petunia and I really liked the bright quilt behind her.  I also liked the dragon even though, as an artist/drawer, I feel like the dragon could have been depicted better.  Maybe I just don't like that particular look for a dragon.  But I love dragons.

Gorgeous art quilt.  Need I say more?

I imagine I would make things like this some day.

This one blew me away.  It's more of a non-traditional approach to traditional patterns I think and I love it.  I hope to make quilts like this too.  I also hope to make batik fabrics like the ones used in it.

Closeup of the awesome quilting and the artist statement.

I saw a number of different variations on this sun theme that I absolutely love and must do something with.

I liked this one even though I don't like pink or florals very much.  Petunia LOVED it.

Harry Potter themed quilt.  Yes, I'm that type of geek.  I love it.

Those suns I was talking about.

This will have to be part of my outer space series with which I intend to begin my quilting obsession.

My favorite colors.  And I just love these abstract quilts.  Oddly enough, I wasn't as taken with the peace symbols in the center, which don't show up distinctly in the photo as they did in person.  I prefer completely abstract.

I'm not 50 yet, I've got a ways to go, but this quilt spoke to me nonetheless on many levels.  And I think it's beautiful.

I felt like I needed to document these techniques even though I thought this was too over the top, even for me.

Um, yeah.  Petunia loves the pink, floral quilts that I find somewhat repulsive.

I was drawn to this quilt even before I read the artist statement below.

I love the modern edginess of this one even though I find the colors and patterns jarring.  The fact that I find it jarring and a little hard to look at might be part of the reason I like it so much.  I feel like it pushes my boundaries or something.

I really love this pattern even though I don't particularly care for the colors and fabrics used.  It doesn't look nearly as lovely in the photo as it did in person, by the way.

Again with the suns. And the batik.  And the cool quilting.

I LOVE this quilt.  I really love all the white on black quilting details.  Detail shots below.

Black and white seems to be a thing with modern quilters right now.  I approve.  

At the same time, I have mixed feelings about this quilt.  It's the problem that I have with many quilts.  It's just too busy and repetitive.  I love the individual squares.  I love the offsetting of the rows.  I just wish there were places for the eye to rest.  Some large black sections would be great.  An entirely white vertical row.  Something.  But still, I like it.

You know how I said that printed fabrics didn't inspire me?  Well, I'm eating my words now.  I bought four fat quarters at the show and a jelly roll of hand-dyed batik with a free pattern.  Two of the quarters were for Petunia, she picked them out.  The blue stars and blue Christmas pattern are mine though.  There are a few prints that I'm a total sucker for and these are them.

We took a break and visited the splash pad near the Palmer Event Center.

The lady who took this seemed surprised that I would want a photo in front of a quilt whose owner I didn't know but I thought it was really pretty and I think it made for a great photo.

Again, a little too busy for my tastes overall but a beautiful quilt that matched Petunia well.

I liked the colors of this one and Petunia wanted her photo with it.

This one caught my eye almost immediately and we had to go back in a third time specifically to take a photo of it.  I feel mixed about it but still love it, if that makes any sense.

Right before taking the photo of the rainbow quilt above, Petunia had forgotten the rule and touched a quilt.  She was very anxious about having broken the rule and ran and hid here behind the pillar.

The solution to her anxiety was to unfold and fold our fat quarters over and over.

This is the jelly role that I purchased.  It was an impulse purchase brought on by the fact that the vendor didn't take cards for purchases under $20.00.  Plus, I really liked the free pattern that came with it.  I have ideas for changing it up a little bit but even if I don't, it will be good practice for me to just put a nice big quilt together for the first time.

Overall, I'd say the quilt fest was a great experience.  I'm glad I attended.  I'm even more excited about the International Quilt Fest in Houston coming up in November now.  I think that this was just a small taste of what that will be like and I'm super stoked.