I am still in overwhelm mode. It was AWESOME!
I just got back from 10 days of everything quilt related in Sisters Oregon - the 40th Anniversary of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and Quilter's Affair.
I flew into Seattle and BFF Bobbie and I packed up her car (full!) and headed south to Sisters. Of course we had to stop at a few fantastic quilt shops along the way to collect the Row By Row patterns and buy a scrap or two of fabric. I started collecting gray fat quarters for a new quilt called Gray Matter.
The scenery on the trip was breathtaking - especially as we crossed Mount Hood National Forest. The air smelled fresh and clean - like the pine trees that lined the mountain roads.
Our condo was at Eagle Crest Resort near Redmon Oregon. This 2 bedroom unit would give the four of us plenty of room to sleep, eat and sew during the week. Deer wandered in and out of sight of our back deck and the hot tub was heavenly.
The 3 classes I took were outstanding. I learned so much from talented teachers Barbara Shapel, Tula Pink, and Hilde Morin. More detail about my classes in a later post.
The piece de resistance of the week was the outdoor quilt show on Saturday. The town of Sisters is festooned with quilts - every building, porch, store front, as well as the inside of stores were covered with quilts. I've never seen so many quilts hanging in one place. More to come.
In addition to all the great quilty stuff, The four of us - Bobbie, Cyndy, Sammie and I, had a great time together. Laughing, talking, sewing, snacking, shopping - we had so much fun.
Stay tuned for details!
I'm feeling stuck - paralyzed. I go down to my sewing room and scores of projects call to me, but I just don't feel like working on any of them. I don't really even feel like starting a new one. Maybe I'm sick or depressed. Or maybe I need a break. Or maybe I need a nudge.
I've always been a bit of a procrastinator, but not usually in quilting. Quilting is fun, it's interesting, it's challenging. There is usually no pressure - except from myself. So why am I feeling stuck now?
I usually have a few little tricks to get me going. Tricks like prepping the night before, prioritizing about 10 or so projects to work on first, looking at Pinterest to get inspired. I also sometimes use an accountability buddy - decide what to do and tell my AB what I'm going to do and then let her know when I'm done.
Maybe I should try a new trick - put the names of all my projects in a jar and work on the one I pull out of the jar. That actually sounds kind of fun.
I could also tidy up some. I've been working on a very detailed applique pattern and I have scraps of fabric and bits of fusible all over everywhere. That doesn't sound very fun but it's probably needed.
OK, so what do you, my quilting friends do when you are stuck? Do you ride it out, or do you have a trick to get going again?
Help!
Curious about procrastination in the quilt studio.
Tula Pink is a fabric and pattern designer I have been following for a couple of years now. Her patterns have a simplistic, modern sensibility to them and I would describe her fabric as whimsical with juicy colors. When I saw her book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, I knew I wanted to made them. Every. One. Of. Them.
So I asked members of my quilt guild - Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild - to participate in a sew along. Best thing ever! We started in January (see my earlier post from February 3, 2015) and have taken off like crazy. We just met last month and I am amazed at the beautiful blocks that people are making. So I though I would update everyone with some pictures and descriptions of ideas and tips folks have shared.
I think three of our group - Kathy, Sandy, and Barb, have all 100 blocks done.
The rest of us are either racing or crawling along as our schedules allow. I have to admit I am one of those who are crawling. I think I only have 13 done. But I do have my stuff organized - I've made stickers for each block and have a list to keep track of all the I have finished.
Joyce is using the blocks as a background for her original applique designs. Taking her experience one step further, she made 4 of a block and sewed them together into something totally new.
Cindy is using Asian-inspired fabrics and antique kimono fabrics.
Shari is using black, white and gray fabrics.
Kim R. has focused on blue, green and red fabrics.
Joy T. is following Tula's color choices.
It is so cool to see the blocks in such different colors and prints.
A couple of months ago, we decided to make extra black, white, and gray blocks so that we could make an opportunity quilt in the future. We are really coming along. We have 46 blocks committed to!
It is so fun to watch everyone share their blocks and see how the same block is transformed by different fabrics. Next meeting I hope to take pics of everyone's block 1 - more if I can.
So this week, I am going to get going on MY Tula blocks. I'll shoot for at least 8 of them.
Our little group has a FB page. Check out Kaw Valley Tula Pink 100 Modern Block Sew Along.
Staying Curious about Tula!
I love foundation paper piecing! It is the best way (IMHO) to get accurate points and seams especially when working with small pieces. What is it? Sometimes called sew and flip, it is the technique of sewing fabric directly onto a printed pattern and the flipping it over and sewing another piece to cover the raw edges. Usually you can just follow the lines on the printed side so it is really easy. The hardest parts are getting your fabric pieces the right size and shape to cover the shape you are working on, figuring out in which order to sew the pieces, and working upside down and backwards. For a more comprehensive description and instructions check out this YouTube tutorial from Connecting Threads.
I do foundation piecing almost exactly the way Karen (from the video) does with a few exceptions. Instead of pinning I use either a dab of glue stick or a piece of blue painters' tape.
Additionally, instead of paper or vellum, I have recently been using a foundation product that doesn't need to be taken out - Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly. I think both foundations (lightweight paper or Stable Stuff) are good it just depends on the final product. I really don't like removing papers, so this works for me.
I'm working on a couple of foundation pieced projects at the moment. Sedona Star, a BOM from Sarah Vedeler, and Enchanted Forest, a BOW by Janeen Van Niekerk of Quilt Art Designs. I'm loving the Enchanted Forest (I added the adjective enchanted - it fits), I keep thinking about painter Bob Ross every time I piece a little critter (remember? "its your world, you can put little squirrels and rabbits anywhere you like").
Janeen is the QUEEN of foundation piecing. She has patterns for animals, cars, dresses, traditional blocks and anything else you can think of. Check out her Pattern Shop at Craftsy. She also has BOM and Quilt Alongs on her website every year. Enchanted Forest is the Art Quilt Along for 2015.
To make Enchanted Forest, I've needed green fabrics - lots of different greens! Lime, Avocado, Olive, Kelly, Moss, Forest, Spring, Hunter, Spruce, and Blue-Green. And lots of different prints - Solids, Tone on Tone, Textures, Dots, Stripes, Foliage, Swirls and more. It's been fun looking over the green Fat Quarters in the shops I've visited. Of course I also needed blues, reds, yellows, browns, grays, and oranges for the critters.
So, I've finished week 5 of 12 - some sky, sun, flying geese, 3 trees, 3 birds, and 1 lizard. I hope to catch up - Janeen has been sending out a pattern a week and I am 4 weeks behind.
Janeen lives in Pretoria South Africa. I wonder how many people from different countries are participating in her Quilt Along.
So, if you are at all curious about foundation piecing, check out Janeen and Quilt Art Designs. They are terrific!
Well, the Kaw Valley Quilt Show is over and I feel I can take a few deep breaths and figure out what to do now. It almost feels like one of those dates like New Years, Birthdays, First Day of Spring - you know, those days when you think about resolutions and new habits.
I have started reading a book Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin; it's all about starting (good) or stopping (bad) habits. So, being the quilty person I am, I thought about quilting habits.
I have gotten into some pretty bad habits over the last few years. Habits are bad if they cause problems and I have several bad habits in my studio. I also have found there are things I don't do (like quilt documentation - the Quilt Show really pointed that out to me when I couldn't remember who had quilted some of my earlier quilts) that would really make quilt life better if I did them.
So here is my list of Starts and Stops. Most of them are obvious to quilters.
Start . . . Stop . . .
Securing starts and stops Snacking while quilting
Trimming threads as I go Buying "unallocated" fabric
Tidying at the end of each session Leaving scraps all over
Prepping for next session
Documenting my quilts
Blogging more consistently
Reading more blogs
What good habits do you have in the studio? I'd love to hear them!
Curious about habits,
Four months sure went by fast! The Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild Annual Quilt Show is this Saturday and Sunday and I'm almost ready.
I have the privilege to be this year's featured quilter. Over the last several months I have felt excited, scared, overwhelmed, frustrated, ready, not ready and absolutely exhausted. Tonight I am excited and exhausted.
In the morning I am leaving for LA on a short trip, and I'll get back on Friday afternoon just in time for final set up. Thankfully my friend Shari is hanging the majority of my quilts for me.
I'm hanging 15 quilts and then showing 9 more that we didn't have space for (but really I didn't have time to sew on a hanging sleeve). Then I'm doing something a little different - at least I think it's different.
I'm going to show and talk about some UFOs. When people display quilts at a show, we see beautiful, finished quilts, and then I usually assume that the featured quilter has it all together - all their quilts represent a theme, they are all perfectly finished, including labels and documentation. OK, so maybe they aren't as "perfect" as I am imagining. But it sure looks that way.
I plan on showing the more everyday, human side of quilting - the early practice pieces, the "can't wait to start" but don't finish quilts, the not so beautiful quilts, they are the ones I'm most excited about. I'll also have a display of some workshop projects that I'll eventually finish. I have learned so much about quilting over the last several years, and I've learned a lot about myself and life.
So, I'm still working on the details, I'm sure I will be down to the wire (like a lot of quilters). I'll be giving a short talk at 1:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. I'll be at the Mea Bernina table on Saturday and hanging around with my quilts on Sunday. So please come down to the show at Crown Toyota and visit with me. I'm sooooo excited!
I've started lots of new projects this year and today I am happy to say that I finished a long-time UFO. Last year (or was it 2013? or 2012?) I took a class with a great teacher and friend Kathy Pflaum at Stitchin' Traditions in Topeka. We made a wall hanging from the book 3-D Folded Blocks by Geesje Baron and Esther Vermeer. And today I finally finished it - quilting, binding, hanging sleeve and all.
The blocks look like regular traditional quilt blocks. But they aren't! Each of the shapes in the block is achieved by folding fabric into squares, rectangles or triangles and layering them. It was really fun and a very unique way to make blocks. The shapes are layered and sewn together around the outside edge of the block.
For example, in this block, the shapes would be sewn together about where the cream border is. Then the borders (cream and green) were added, and then they were set with the red background. One very important tip for the folded blocks is to really get a good, sharp crease. I used Faultless Extra Crisp Magic Sizing and I really like the result. It's a bit hard to find here in Lawrence, so I order it by the case.
I decided to quilt this myself. One of my favorite quilting motifs is pebbles (are pebbles?). I started quilting this at a Stitch On retreat last year (or the year before? I see a pattern emerging here - I can't remember stuff!). Pebbles take a lot of time for me, as well as a lot of thread. Luckily I kept the thread with the project so I could complete it with the same thread - at least on the top! One would think after doing this many pebbles that I would be good at it. No such luck. My pebbles are still irregular and my "sew-overs" aren't exact. I'm not good yet, but I'm better than I was!
I really enjoyed these blocks and I imagine that some day I might make a sampler from all 71 different folded blocks in the book.
Keeping Curious!
I flew into Seattle and BFF Bobbie and I packed up her car (full!) and headed south to Sisters. Of course we had to stop at a few fantastic quilt shops along the way to collect the Row By Row patterns and buy a scrap or two of fabric. I started collecting gray fat quarters for a new quilt called Gray Matter.
The scenery on the trip was breathtaking - especially as we crossed Mount Hood National Forest. The air smelled fresh and clean - like the pine trees that lined the mountain roads.
