More Quick Satisfaction

Well over a year ago, I wrote here and here about ideas for using up some of the stash of selvage edges I've been collecting. 

Way back in February 2013 I got them all color sorted

I decided to make a long narrow wall hanging to replace this painting, which I kinda hate. It's boring and mundane and I was pressured into buying it at one of those art by the yard house parties. 

Voila!

Now that it's hanging in that little piece of wall space between two doors I kind of wish I had added more neutral border at the top and bottom, and then added a dark narrow border to frame the whole piece. Ah well, next time. This went together so quickly - probably a total of five or six hours over two days - so I may well make another one soon. I am loving these quick projects.

To make one of your own, select the selvage strips you want to use overlapping the finished edge on top of the raw edge of the piece below. Sew the strips together, sewing a scant 1/4 inch from the finished edge. Cut a couple of pieces of background fabric that are the height of your selvage collection and the desired width to go on both sides of the wall hanging. Now lay these strips on each side of the selvage collection overlapping by about two inches. Use your rotary cutter to cut a wavy line through both, and discard the scraps. Now pin, pin, pin those curved edges and sew the sides on. Clip the curves and press the seams towards the center. That's it. 

Quilt and bind to suit, including either a hanging sleeve, or corner pockets for a hanging rod. I've been using this method with corner pockets and a simple piece of dowel from the hardware store lately. Easy Peasy. I hope you decide to make one and if you do, please leave a comment here with a link to where we can all see it.

A Gaggle of Geese

I might have mentioned that I've been a bit obsessed with hexagons. Well add flying geese to the list. I'm working on a block quilt where each block is made up of a different design using flying geese - those cute triangles that veer in one direction and another.

I've also done quite a bit of experimenting with making the geese fly in a circle and paper piecing is my savior. I made three gifts with a similar theme for three friends who had birthdays in January and February.

Jim was gifted with a two bottle wine carrier and a pouch that holds a reusable ice pack in case the wine is white - or in case room temp is just too hot as is often the case of a Southern summer.

Alice, an inveterate knitter who seldom ventures out without a project, received a project bag along with an accessory pouch to hold all the etcetera that usually floats around in the bottom of a craft bag.

Here is another view that shows detachable shoulder strap.

And Joan received this table topper/hot pat/wall hanging. Yeah, I know, but it really could work as any of those. It has pockets for hanging, is insulated, and could be just decorative on the table.

Each of the circles is made up of four paper pieced sections, and though it looks a bit complex, it really is easy peasy. Paint by numbers for quilters!

Here you can see how the sections were assembled for each piece.

This is the template I drew up. I made my template at 6 1/2 inches so that the finished circle would be 12 1/2 inches, but you really could make it any size. Feel free to reproduce it either by copying the picture and inserting it into another document or application, or by using this as a guideline to draft your own.

And if you aren't an expert paper piecer, by all means take Amy Gibson's free class on Craftsy.com. In the 2012 Block of the Month class she gives and excellent explanation of how to paper piece. 

The only thing I would add to her instructions relates to perforating the paper. Amy recommends that you use your sewing machine without thread to quickly perforate the paper along the seam (and future tear) lines. While this works really well, it is hard on the sharpness of your needle. 

I recently learned a new trick and now I use my tracing tool to quickly perforate the seams. I like this one from Dritz. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

More Selvage Talk

I’m working on ideas for that wall hanging made of selvage strips. Something long and narrow to hang in this space,

Because, really, that painting that I got talked into buying at one of those art-by-the-yard house parties doesn’t do anything for me.

I can’t decide if I want to try for a conscious color scheme or just make it a jumble. Here are a few of the combinations I’m auditioning

The orangy, yellow, brown, red pile in the background probably works best in that space to compliment glimpses of adjacent rooms. It will hang in a hallway. But I’m so drawn to blues, limey greens and aqua lately. I might just have to make both.

This leads me to a question for my quilting friends. Someone asked me the other day if I sell my quilts or if I have a warehouse someplace. He obviously thinks I’m far more prolific than I really am, but still it’s a fair question.

I have to make at least one example of everything I design just to have pictures for the pattern. Some are destined to be gifts for family and friends.

Some we use every day,

and still others sit on shelves and in trunks hither and yon.

I’ve never tried to sell my quilts, and I’ve only sold bags when they were commissioned in advance. Often enough I hear that the quilt market in the United States has been ruined by cheap imports from overseas. Do you sell your quilts? Leave a comment and let us know your secrets of success.

Ansel Adams Tribute 2

I’ve been away for a bit and (arrgh) the posts I cued up to post while away didn’t. So it goes. Where was I? Well this might give left coast folks a clue

  

Yes. That’s part of the view from our hotel room balcony in Hollywood.

We also took in an baseball game between the Anaheim Angels and New York Yankees on September 11^th, with an inspiring pre-game remembrance ceremony.

Now I’m home and back in the studio to finish off the second in my series of Ansel Adams tribute wall hangings. This one was inspired by "Church, Taos Pueblo" by Ansel Adams 1942 (photo from the National Archive).

Unlike Tribute One, which was predominately developed with fabric and paint, this new work uses heavy thread painting over just a few large fabric pieces to provide depth and texture.

It’s a technique my machine and I are still learning. I need to work on basic drawing skills to improve perspective and color (or shades of gray) values, but I don’t hate the result. 

As with Tribute One, I began with a photo-shopped cutout, though with less detail this time.

Next time I think I'll try a piece where I draw the basic shapes directly onto one large piece of fabric and start thread painting from there. I also need to experiment with stabilizers so that the areas with heavy thread work don't draw up and distort the overall image so much. But it's all about the adventure for me. I just love trying different techniques - even if I do end up reinventing the wheel on occasion. I learn so much from my mistakes! What new thing did you teach yourself lately?

Pattern Shmattern

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a quilted wall hanging I was working on and this past week I finished it! Don’t you love quick projects? It helps that this project is small – about thirty two inches square. But the real difference is in the process. I thought some of you might find a bit of explanation helpful.

Usually when I design a quilt, I spend quite a lot of time on “quilt math”. I calculate the exact dimensions (with seam allowances) for each square and triangle, and also calculate the most efficient way to cut out those pieces to use the least amount of fabric and time. I end up with cutting directions that look something like this. Of course this is very helpful if I am later going to write up this design as a pattern. But I didn't do that work this time. This time I decided to wing it. You see I’m trying to walk away from the idea that the end result must be 100% what I envisioned in the beginning.

This time I did start with a drawing which I showed you here. 

Instead of the laborious effort to calculate every angle, I decided to blow that drawing up to the actual size of my planned project, take just a few measurements (which I scribbled right on the drawing), and start cutting.

Mentally I broke the design down into a few logical components. The top and bottom borders, center block and the four “corners”. This drawing demonstrates the component break-out, but I actually put this together after the fact for demonstration purposes.

I took rough guesstimates at the dimensions I needed for each piece and then cut everything a bit larger than needed. As I assembled each component, I trimmed off excess.

I made all of the curved pieces as appliqué and in some cases used my handy dandy circle cutter. I’ve been wanting a project to use that tool J.  

For the points, I cut a long strip, folded it over and cut 2 inch lengths. Then I folded the corners down to form the point and sewed them in place.

Making the off-center triangle border was a bit interesting without calculating all of the angles. I cut out one of the diamonds and taped in on the back side of my ruler. Then I made a border strip consisting of a center white strip with black on the top and bottom, lined up the template and cut away. Once the diamonds strips were sewn back together with a narrow spacer piece in between, I trimmed off the excess black fabric at top and bottom and I had my border strips.

Throughout the process I kept laying out the finished components against the drawing to see where something was off or might need to be re-worked. This might all seem like it makes extra work and wastes fabric, which is true. But the process is much more akin to improvisation without any rehearsal. I found it both challenging and fun.

Did the project turn out exactly like the drawing? No, but I like it all the same, and I think as I perfect the array of techniques used in this type of quilting the results will just look better and better. 
Conclusion: Be fearless. It's only fabric and time. Just start cutting and sewing and see what happens!

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

I often look at objects I find appealing and wonder how I could translate the essence of that piece into a quilt. Since visiting Acoma Sky City in New Mexico in 1992, I’ve loved the pottery of the region. When I visited it was on one of the rare days when cameras were allowed on the mesa if you purchased a permit. I had some fabulous photographs of this community that is perhaps the oldest continually inhabited city in North America. Sadly, all of those photos were lost in a flood many years ago.

These black and white images byAnsel Adams taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s don’t do justice to the astounding contrast of china blue sky, creamy adobe structures, and the smiling faces of local women making and selling fry-bread.

I appreciate both vintage works and some that are more modern.

The modern piece at left by Theresa Garcia-Salvador is a favorite of mine.  The artist is just a bit younger than me and is a member of the Red Corn Clan from the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. The paints she uses are all natural pigments from the earth. You can see pottery by many Acoma artists here.

 Of course there are other pots I admire, and which may inspire future projects, but when I saw some of the new Kaufman Kona Solids in warm earth tones along with stark black and white at a Whipstitch, a favorite local shop, I knew I had to make something that evoked these beautiful pots.

I’m still working on the design for this wall hanging, but the drawing gives you an idea of where I’m headed. I suspect the final project will include less solid black and more thread painted lines. The finished piece will be roughly 28 x 32 inches, which is fairly small and manageable on a standard home sewing machine. The real challenge will be figuring out which sections to piece and which to appliqué, but what fun it will be – mixed with a bit of hair pulling I’m sure.

Tell me. What inspires your art?

Autumn - What a Long Strange Trip it's Been

A few years ago I bought a skein of yarn. It was probably at one of those lucky duck sales they have at my favorite yarn shop. You load up your basket and then pick a rubber duck out of the tub to see what discount you’ve won. Never thinking of any particular project at those things, I just pick a little of this and a little of that.

After returning home, the colors in this ball of yarn really started calling to me. It had blue, green, mauve, red, and gray with every shade in between, and got me thinking about little blocks of color marching along together. The ball of yarn was on my mind and whenever I saw a fat quarter that fit, I bought it. I hate to think what I’ve spent on this piece, just $2 at a time.

Eventually I had three times the fabric needed for a small wall hanging, so I cut little squares, laid them out on the dining room table and started stitching. My thought was that I would quilt an interesting abstract design, and then crochet a border from the yarn.

I even made a long chain and felted it in anticipation. Ultimately I decided the colors were too muted to enhance the wall hanging, but I love the nubby texture of this rope and I’m saving it for some yet to be revealed project.

After I assembled all the blocks I toyed with quilt ideas. First I thought I would stitch some space age flowers in silver and red metallic thread. In a word – yuck.

Next I took the piece to my computer sketch pad. How about the sun, the moon and the stars? Definitely not. 

After careful study, I was sure I saw an old gray barn sitting in Red Rock Canyon. I actually picked out all of the metallic flowers and stitched a good bit of this design before it too was abandoned. You can kind of see it though right?

Finally I did the right thing and put it on a shelf. A year passed. One day last fall I pulled it out and knew exactly what this piece wanted to be. It's all about autumn and falling leaves. I quickly sketched the bones of a tree, and cut out the appliqué from bits and pieces of brown fabrics I had sitting around the studio. 

Then I set up my machine to stitch a zillion little leaves. Some still clinging to summer green and more falling in drifts to the ground. Some swirls stand in for puffs of wind blowing the leaves, and there it is. 

For now it’s hanging on the window in my office to keep me company as I write. It’s kind of calling for companions though. I am put in mind of a favorite poem that might need to inspire a quilt...

I meant to do my work today,

But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

And all the leaves were calling me. 

And the wind went sighing over the land,

Tossing the grasses to and fro,

And a rainbow held out its shining hand,

So what could I do but laugh and go?

.... by Richard LeGallienne