The Tale of the Nesting Spiral Design

I don't know how much I'm allowed to discuss about other people's quilting.  However, since it's a published book, and much is online, I'll tell you my latest fascination:

RaNae Merrill has published a book called "Spiral Quilts".  Here's a link to her site:  http://www.ranaemerrillquilts.com/home.  In this book, she discusses her spiral method, gives patterns for projects and also gives templates for different sizes and shapes of spirals.

The Project Idea

The quilt on the front of the book is NOT in the book as a full pattern.  This presented a challenge to me!  I decided that I wanted to take her method to heart, but also to create a unique quilt of my own design.  I began with the different shapes of her spirals (three sided, six sided, etc.) and manipulated them in a program I have.  Plug to Visio here.  It’s not a quilting program, but a flow chart/network design/etc., program.  As I am part computer geek, have a mind that functions exactingly (graph paper is my friend) and all about creativity – it is the perfect tool! (added bonus – it’s always part of the computer builds that I have at work so I can sneak in a little creative experimentation when down time hits!)

After several sessions with various shapes and colors, I decided upon a pattern.  I am not going to picture it here for potential copy write issues.  There is a center piece surrounded by twelve smaller pieces – all spirals.  I’m going to use a five inch roll of fabrics that I got at a show this year.  The fabric starts at beige, go through a brownish red, and then into browns.  I’m also going to introduce a second color family – sage to dark grey green.

I printed the side pieces on my ink jet printer.  I also have a laser printer – which I prefer for paper piecing as it’s cheaper and toner is nicer than ink with fabric – but the pieces were too large for it.  My ink jet is an Epson large format printer.  It can take 11 x 17 sheets of paper and the sides of these pieces are ten inches.

Now, the center piece.  Arghhh…. a real challenge.  It’s a hexagon, with ten inch sides.  Even if you don’t do the math, you understand that that is getting quite large.  I printed it on an 11 x 17 sheet and then took it to work to enlarge.  Yes, I know, I shouldn’t use work related equipment and supplies for quilting…..  In my defence, I bring my own paper, don’t charge for some of my work time and all my work mates have received quilts.

Try #1:  So, I enlarged it quite a bit, and got the sides to the right size.  I printed more than six copies and brought them home to cut and paste together to the proper piece.  Easier said than done.  Those pieces just didn’t seem to fit together right.

Try #2:  We have a plotter at work.  It prints something like 42 inches wide.  I work 10-12 hours a day and am often there after everyone else is gone.  I can’t bring my own paper for that machine, so I asked the admin who guards it what to do.  This is where being the “go to” person at work pays off.  “Mary, with all you do around here, I encourage you to print what you want.  Just don’t do too much and don’t let anyone see you”.  Now, as she is the admin to someone very important at work, I took her at face value.

But…. Obstacle number 99 or so to this…. My work machine has a windows 7 image on it and we don’t currently have a printer solution for the plotter for Win 7!  Today, I had an opportunity to do some testing on an older machine… and XP image that CAN print to the plotter. SCORE!

I am now in possession of a plotter sheet with my center piece pattern in all it’s glory!

Now, if I can only find where I put the other pieces last week……

Preview of Next Post

With any luck, I’ll have some in progress pictures of this for you in a couple of days!

The Start of Something Great!

It is a Friday night in June.  It is raining.  I'm exhausted after a 55 hour week at work.  Despite all that, I'm making a New Year's resolution (yes, a little late).  My daughter Ana has been after me for a while to start a blog about my quilting.  Today is the day!

Background One – Why

I like to quilt.  More than that, however, I like to be appreciated, to share, to help others and to feel good about it all. 

At work the other day, someone asked me what I wanted in exchange for providing some fantastic help.  What I asked for was an email sent to my management acknowledging my actions.  The person was a little shocked; she was willing to buy me lunch, coffee for week, or anything else!  She was surprised that all I wanted was a simple email. 

Truly, it isn’t that small to me.  The email was a validation to myself that I was valued.  Some people may view my request as wanting to get recognition and make other people know what I did.  It’s not that, really.  I’m insecure in many ways.  I need to know what I’ve done is worth.  I doubt myself and I need to have reassurances from others.

With my quilting, the mere fact that my 23 year old daughter thinks I should write a blog shows me that she sees value in my art.  Her compliments are far more valuable to me than anything else!

Background Two – About My Quilting

I do not have a Style and I do not have a color preference.  On the flip side, I have several styles and several color preferences.  I like to do simple things, and complicated things.  Traditional patterns appeal to me, non-traditional patterns intrigue me and designing my own patterns in important to me.  I like to do small piece, and large pieces are a particular favorite.

So – translation:  I am all over the place.  Basically color and creativity call out to me and I start there.