Writer's Block

I don’t know where or how to start.  I’m having a bit of writer’s block, but I promised a friend so I have to….

Maybe if I just type as if I were talking to someone, eventually something will come out that is interesting!

Part of my problem is that I keep trying to photograph (more accurately trying to REMEMBER to photograph) some recent projects.  I don’t get the picture because I got home to late (dark), or it was raining, and then say to myself that I’ll take the pictures the next day and write then, and the same thing happens.

I am still plugging away at my project box.  I’ve actually been very good!  I haven’t started anything completely new; I’ve only been working on projects from the box and planned/ongoing Block of the Month types of programs.  Two of those have recently begun, but I have given myself a permanent pass on starting as many as I want.  Block of the month programs are a huge part of my social life and completely necessary for my sanity.  They fill a huge gap – I get out, I meet with people, there’s a common subject, etc., etc.  I would actually really love to organize and lead a monthly program myself.  Maybe someday…..

Projects Completed:

Disclaimer:  completed means top, not necessarily all the quilting and binding.

Note:  Pictures WILL be taken in the next day or three and added to a new post.

Quilting Queens Challenge

This is the yearly project / challenge for my quilt group.  To be honest, I’m very disappointed in this program’s state.  When it started in 2008, the group was slightly larger and more people participated.  Besides actual participation, the projects themselves were more.  I can’t think of a better word than more actually.  More of them, more detail, more complicated, more variety, more fabrics, more interesting, more more…. 

This year, there were about a dozen projects and the vast majority were simple.  I’ll say no more than that, least I insult my readers – some of whom are in this group.  There were NO full sized quilts; the two largest pieces were my table topper and a doll quilt.  I’ll admit that I didn’t put myself whole heartedly into it either; a past disappointed has affected me.   I didn’t find the events and projects to be anything noteworthy in any way.

A couple years back, I told my husband that I would continue to do the challenge as long as it was fun for me.  And, I will state – honestly – that this year’s project was fun for me.

I have an additional hobby.  I discovered glass fusing a couple of months back.  This is my QUILTING blog, so I’m not going to talk about it much (I derail easily…. J ).  I’ll simply state that I find a lot of artistic similarities between glass work and quilting.  Since the challenge is about just that – challenge – I set a three way challenge to myself:

v  Stay true to the colors (ok, didn’t have a choice there, that was decided for me with the rules of the challenge.  Note, the challenge was using two colors randomly assigned (mine were a blue and an orange) and a set third color(yellow))

v  Use several techniques

v  Make a fabric piece and a glass piece that went together.

The end result was that I made a table topper and a six inch plate to be displayed on the topper.  For my quilt pattern, I chose a 30 inch Mariner’s compass pattern as the basis.  I set the completed compass circle into the same fabric as the background of the compass.  Then, for additional techniques, as well as challenge across the complementary hobbies, I appliquéd random small circles onto the background.

This is a diagram of the compass patterned used.  Imaging the points in blue and orange, and the background is basically the same yellow. 

Imagine it set into something like this….

Last, I did a couple of fun things with the quilting.  I ONLY quilted in the very center, and on background pieces of the compass; I didn’t quilt on any of the points.  I put a very small meandering stipple in the yellow – all of the yellow and only the yellow.   I did do a little stitch in the ditch down the center line of the large points to avoid gaps and shifting of batting.  This method really made the points pop out.  I then did some even lines from the corners and center sides to the edges of the compass setting.  This juxtaposition of styles of top stitching draws the eye in to the design even more.

My complementary glass piece is simpler, and basically looks like this:

Scrap Tamers Mystery

Remember my stories about accidentally cutting the fabrics for the mystery twice?  I followed BOTH the stash cutting and the planned cutting directions, not realizing that they were alternate methods and yielded the same pieces.  I did NOT cut the background twice; there was only one set of directions for those pieces!  When I realized what I’d done, and not wanting to waste a bunch of specialty cut pieces, I picked out a vastly different background and proceeded to make a second quilt.

Both quilts utilize red and black plucked from the “smaller pieces” section of my stash and both quilts have the SAME blacks and reds. 

Quilt #1 – the planned mystery (for lack of a better term), has a background that is a grayish white fabric with some black ornamentation on it.  It’s a dull fabric, meant only to be a vehicle for the blacks and reds.

Quilt #2 – the accidentally mystery, has  background that is a bright, garish lime greenish/yellowish fabric.

Both tops are completed.  However, they aren’t full bed sized and I’m currently deciding if I’m going to add a border and what to add if I do.

The most interesting point to me about my study in color is the opinions.  The white background seems to make the blocks pop a little more.  Those people in my group that I feel are more traditional quilters, and some of the more experienced memember of the group, like that version best.  However, the artists that I know (including myself), like the bright green/yellow fabric better.  The difference in backgrounds is sublte; there isn’t much background and the pieces of it are small, yet that simple color change makes a difference!

Small quilts from box

I’ve completed several pieces from scraps and bits that made it into my project box. 

Projects In flight:

v  MN Quilters’ Challenge – the one that I made too big.  I’m still trying to decide what to do there….

v  Glacier Star (Glacier Canyon) – a six month, meet once a month for a work session, project at Glad Creations.

v  Ranae Merrill Dream Catcher Spiral – an online block of the month program

v  Jo’s Little Women club – a monthly program at Glad Creations.  The projects are small quilts and the program is named Jo’s, for Jo Morton, a designer of civil war replica fabrics.

v  Twin City BOM – Year 2 of the monthly program at the shop.  Year 1 project was compelted

v  Storm at Sea – a project from a class taken

v  Lemoyne Star  - a project from a class taken