Inspiration – Rusty Gold

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Chris

In our little trip to Southwest Michigan, we found rusty gold and more!  A quirky antique and junk shop right off the main drag was full of colorful treasures – and we didn’t even set foot in the shop!  (The sign on the door said “hours: hit or miss”)

Cabinet with the hint of the original aqua paint

This appeared to be a child's dentist chair. The turquoise was amazing.

Red ladderback chairs - the seats are in terrific shape

Primary colored plates - this shop had MOUNTAINS of dishes

See - what did I tell you?

Cabinet with blue glass - a steal at $165.

A cutie blue concrete elephant!.

See the grass chess board? So fun!

 

Love the navy!

Remember S&H Green Stamps? Maybe not - that goes back a ways

Just for fun - propane tank goblins!

The owner obviously enjoyed a good joke - here a little doorstop doggie does his thing.

Cool white teapots and cups - maybe from closed restaurants? I can think of dozens of things to do with 'em . . .

This Detroit Jewel stove was at a different shop. Magnificent.

Oh, and a quick picture of the lakeshore:

I love Lake Michigan -

All the best – Chris

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Improvisation and a Method to the Madness

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Chris

This month started off kind of tough creative-wise.  I’d taken down my exhibit at the Church and was feeling a little directionless.  I started what I thought would be an improvisational quilt complimentary colors – purple and yellow – and hit a wall with that too.

Then along came Sherri Wood and her fabulous blog “daintytime,” and especially her link about the myth of randomness in improvisational piecing.

In a comment, Sherri encouraged me to create some “limits” which could help guide me out of my funk.

Setting limits has freed me from the lock jaws of indecision and frozen inaction!

So what started as a cross quilt in purple and yellow has morphed into two separate quilts.

The cross quilt is still a cross quilt, but now it has a few more limits.The limits are:

  • Center square block with sliced-in off-kilter cross.
  • 12 blocks with a 4×3 layout
  • overall goal size (before borders) is 42″ x 56″ (each block about 14″ square more or less)
  • 2/3 of total fabric is shades of purple and  1/3 of total fabric is shades of yellow
  • Using strips measuring 1″, 1 1/2″ and 2″
  • At least part of each block will be “wonky-fied”
  • Made a fourth “fabric” of stripped purples

In the last picture, the on-point squares have been set aside – it doesn’t fit with my composition, and that’s OK.

In addition, I have a lot of bits left over and have started another improv quilt with a slightly different set of limits:Here the limits are:

  • same 2/3 and 1/3 ratio of purple tones to yellow tones as cross quilt
  • no set block size, but nothing smaller than 10″ x 10″.
  • no single piece of fabric wider than 2″ nor longer than 8″.
  • borders will be strip pieced shades of gray – purples and yellow will “leak” into the gray borders.

Am not sure what the overall size will be yet.  I find larger quilts (minimum of 45″ x 60″) more useful, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to set myself up on that yet.

It’s amazing how freeing these limits have been!  Honestly, I can’t stop making or rearranging the blocks, thinking about what might happen next.  I try not to pick apart too much – that’s hard to do because I am a serious second-guesser.  I don’t have a clear vision of how it will turn out, but each session is exciting and engaging to see what happens next.

FYI, I’m going to be in and out a bit of the blog this summer – I have so much I want to post, but the summer outdoor weather beckons, along with the visits to friends and family that are so much nicer when the weather is decent.

All the best – Chris

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Ode to a Scrap

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Chris

My friend, my constant companion in the scrap boxes.  Its hard to believe that we’ve been together this long – has it been 20 years?  I purchased you when I first started my quilting journey, when all of the “quilting cottons” filled a whole row at the local fabric stores.

Now there are entire stores – hundreds of square feet of retail space – and so many online stores that it is impossible to imagine that offer dizzying arrays of quilting cotton and supplies – anything beyond my imagination at the time you came to join me.

You’re not the fancy-schmancy finely woven delicacies of today’s cottons.  It’s obvious that you’re of a courser hand, one that doesn’t press complacently, but insists on defiantly standing up to the hottest of irons.

You knew I wasn’t your type, yet you patiently waited, year after year, biding your time, waiting for those rare instances where your periwinkle blue/ultramarine self could add just the right purple-y calm to screaming yellows and to energize lackluster blues.

Never did you play the star of the show – and it seems that wasn’t your “role.”  Rather, bits and pieces, trimmed away year after year until all that’s left now is a sliver – a chunk, if you will – barely large enough to save.

You are parts of so many projects, I can’t even count.  A star quilt for DS #1 when he was a toddler, a wonky log cabin that pads picture frames in the storage chest, a smidgeon here, a sliver there -I can still find you in so many places.

Most of your contemporaries didn’t end up like you.  Given away or – horrors! – tossed away because of a stubborn refusal to press flat or hold color when washed.  But you endured.

Your exotic grid pattern with micro-paisley designs confounded my earliest attempts to incorporate you into my life.  More than once, I pulled you from the bin, only to put you back because you weren’t quite “right.”

And now, as I piece an improvisational quilt, I find that I wish there was more of you.  Why did I whittle away over the years – decades – when now I find you’re the perfect complement to a wonderfully wonky confection?  I’m so much more confident now, so much more appreciative of your quirks and imperfections!

Your grid doesn’t annoy me with it’s inability to stay straight on grain.  The ultramarine that seems to jump to the front of my line of vision rather than playing nicely by staying in the background is what I need now!

I know that you didn’t want to end up in the Goodwill stash, that your purpose was to stay with me and endure.  You have personality and are just enough “off” to be interesting but not weird – and I will miss you.

All the best -

Chris

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Back to Work! (Kind of)

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Chris

After a glorious week in Asheville, NC – during which I did NOTHING!  ZIP!  ZERO! NADA! on either my sketchbook or anything remotely creative – I came back ready for a fresh start.

So in a fit of undirected energy, I decided to yes, start some new stuff.

Thus, here are . . . .(drum roll, please) . . .

POTHOLDERS!

Even better, I gave them to DS #2 for his 22nd birthday.

Am I a just an awesome mom or what?  What 22 year old guy WOULDN’T want cheery plaid potholders from his mom?

(I have to give DS #2 credit though – he was careful to hide the eyeroll until he thought I wasn’t looking.)

I used a tutorial found here and pieced together some bits and ends and leftover wool batting from my stash.   It was satisfying in a way to completely finish a project in just under an hour.

In another flurry of yes, almost spastic energy, I made a little series of greeting cards using painted silk scraps.My basic tutorial is here.  Several of them are on their way to friends and family as we speak.

Does any of this look like progress on either my improvisational piecing project or my queen size quilt?

Didn’t think so either.

I will say that I got a really helpful suggestion on my improvisational project from Sherri Woods, who write an inspiring and ultra-cool blog named Daintytime.

I think somehow she must have sensed how dissatisfied I was with my purple and yellow color “study” and suggested that I set some additional “limits” – her blog link for a thorough discussion of “limits” and how it applies to improvisational quilting is here.  In fact, she has an entire series of posts on Improv Quilting that is really thoughtful and interesting.

I felt like Sherri was speaking to me when she discussed the Myth of Randomness of Improv Quilting.  I think it might be time to jump back in to the Improv Pool (maybe dipping my tootsie in a bit more?) then look for the inspiration that I’m craving for the queen quilt . . .

(Maybe Mom needs some new potholders for Mother’s Day . . . you know she does . . .)

All the best – Chris

 

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Mid-Century Modern Glue Resist and Back to the Sketchbook!

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Chris

I am meeting with a library nearby to share some of my smaller pieces in the hopes that they will display them in their gallery sometime next year.

The display area is too small for even lap quilts, so I’m pulling out some of my smaller quiltlets to show – so maybe this and this and this.  It will be fun – the sale of any of the pieces will benefit the library foundation!

Here’s my little Mid-Century Modern House made using glue resist painted fabric and bobbin work:If this looks familiar, you’re right – a part of the Pretty Houses project (which will be in my UFO stack FOREVER, I’m afraid!)

In other news, here’s a peek in my sketchbook:The sugar skulls are part of my planning for painting the Chucks that I’ll start soon.  Most of the sketches will be too large to properly register on sneaks, but I need to get the muscle memory going and ideas flowing!  Paisley are just plain ol’ fun to draw.

I hope you all have a creative weekend!  All the best – Chris

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Exercises to Tweak the Quilting Inspiration

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Chris

After feeling a little drained and idea-less, I’ve started experimenting with three exercises to get things flowing again.

Fused Applique:  I followed a month long Quilt Along With Melody (QAWM) hosted by Melody of Fibermania.  I made the water-y mountain-y flow-y piece above – it hasn’t yet been quilted, but it was enough to prod those thoughts of color and lines to the surface again.

Simultaneous Contrast:  In an article in April/May Quilting Arts magazine about Alicia Merrett, she discusses “simultaneous contrast.”  If you get a chance, scare up that article and take a read. (Her quilts are magnificent!)

In effect, each color looks stronger and more intense and brighter when paired with it’s complementary color – even just a little green in a red field will make the red appear stronger and brighter.

Well, what about yellow – and purple!

I admit, I’m not much of a purple girl.  But the violets are out, the irises are threatening to bloom and shoot, the lilacs are well on their way.  And I need a color jolt!

Improvisational Piecing:  No method, no grand plans.  Just wacking away at my fabric choices.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:I’m not sure where it’s going, but that’s OK for now.

Since I’m certain that I don’t have enough purple, I think I’m going to have to mosey into other, more “berry” shades.

Does that mean I veer into the “greener” shades of yellow since I’m tip-toeing into the redder shades of purple?  We shall see – only one guiding principal:

Must. Not. Buy. More. Fabric.

I don’t want this to be too large.  It’s just an experiment with color and freedom – controlling one and letting go of the other.

And critics are everywhere:Happy Easter!

All the best -Chris

 

 

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Naval Gazing and Chucks

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Chris

“What do you do with your quilts?  Do you sell them?”

“No?  Why not?  What do you do with all of them?”

I’ll answer a million questions about construction techniques or why I chose a color palette – all day long.  Its these purpose-driven questions that throw me.  Every time.

You’d think that while these questions (along with the one I REALLY hate “how long did that take you?”) would be easy.  If I were smart, I’d have a canned answer all ready to go.

But really – why?  What am I trying to do here?

If I’m not making them to sell, then surely there’s some other reason that I make quilts?

I imagine that personal coaches would counsel “do what you love” – but do I want to stake my livelihood on quilting?

Or is just doing making quilts and writing about them enough?

Do I have a book in me?  Patterns?  Tutorials?  Teaching?

What am I doing with all this anyway?

So sad to  disassemble my gallery display at St. Lukes – it was so much fun to have people that I know and love see what I do – and most everyone really seemed to appreciate it!  I put out business cards – almost 50 over the course of a month – and only one remained on Thursday when I packed it up.

So what?

To make it seem cosmically important to sit here and contemplate my life purpose (ugh!), I read an excellent post by Lynne at Lily’s Quilts.  Top that with a Problogger post on transitioning from a hobby blog to one that earns money (which, frankly, is the whole jist behind the Problogger Bog, I get that) and all of a sudden I feel rudderless.

I don’t know the answers.  I don’t even know where to go to get ideas for the answers.

Then pops up my youngest sister, Amy, with a request for two pairs of custom painted Chucks.

Here are some pictures of what I’ve done before:

I couldn’t have asked for a better project.  Just enough to keep my hands and head busy instead of ponder the quality and quantity of lint in my naval.

Thank you, Amy.

I believe that it will work out – that I am quilting and blogging for a reason, but I’m not sure what it is right now – or even if now is the time to put anything I could come up with into action.

I have a lot more quilts in me, and I’ve hesitate starting anything big because I just came off of a monstrous mega-quilting jag.  A smaller, cutsie project like this is p.e.r.f.e.c.t.

Wishing you clarity and purposefulness in your thoughts today . . .

All the best -

Chris

(BTW the clever answer to “how long does it take to make this?” is “30 years” – because, in truth, I can’t make what I do today without having done what I’ve done over the past 30 years.)

 

 

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Black & White Optics Finish and Thoughts on the Next Up

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Chris

Truth be told, I have yet to put the binding on this, but I’m calling it a finish.  The other little truth is that I’m immensely glad to be finished working in black and whites.

This quilt is 70″ x 90″ and I used QAYG (quilt-as-you-go) to manage the size.  I read somewhere that QAYG isn’t necessarily simple; you’re just exchanging one situation (squashing a huge quilt under a 6″ harp) for another type of situation (joining blocks after quilting.)

Basically, it’s pick your poison.

I figure that anything I can do to keep my free-motion quilting from going to h*ll, I’m in.  Quilt ‘rasslin’ is something that causes my patience to unravel, my neck to freeze up and as a result, the quality of my stitching falls to pieces.

Boredom is another huge deal breaker, and unfortunately, one downside to QAYG and large quilts in particular is that I get bored.  This quilt is a good example of that.  I think it will be fine once I wash it (it’s amazing how many boo-boos can be hidden by a serious run through the washer and a dry in the dryer on “high”) but I dislike that feeling of settling for second best.

My mistake was tackling a second Optic Squares quilt so soon after the completion of my first.  I did it because a commenter asked for a tutorial – and I couldn’t leave well enough alone.  That, and I was sort of on overdrive for the  gallery show with a smidge of panic thinking I wouldn’t have enough to show in the gallery.

So, instead of kicking the dead horse, onward!  (RIP)

I’ve decided to make a new quilt for our master bed.  Here’s what is there now:I made this quilt in 2003-ish and it has become threadbare.  Here are a few options I pulled quickly from my stash – not much thought, just pulled on first inclination:I really like the second option but I only have 3 fat quarters of the floral.  Three fat quarters does not a queen size quilt make.  So here’s some other quick pulls:The advantage of the yellow florals is that I actually have yardage to work with (both are Kaffe Fassett prints.)  An advantage not to be discounted.  A couple more Kaffe Fassett fat quarters.   I love the colors with the grays – maybe I’ll work these in – they’ll go with a lot of other choices.

Finally, I want to show you the cutest pants I bought this week from Susie Blair, who runs an Etsy shop called Urban Prairie Girl.  She had one pair with a 33″ inseam and I snapped them up:I had a tough time taking a picture – I think they’re really cute in real life.  Here’s a close up of the fabric:I am looking for alternatives to shorts for this summer – I won’t wear capris or cropped pants (the proportions on me stink), and frankly, skirts aren’t much better.  I may be tall, but my legs are pale (except for the blue veins) and I’m just so over it.  These are lightweight cotton and I think I can make them work.

All the best – Chris

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Finishing the B&W QAYG Border and So Ready to Start New Projects!

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Chris

My star magnolia is getting ready to bloom! In March!

I admit, I was a little afraid to look at my stats.

I enjoy seeing all you folks that have stopped by, where you are from, and the kind of pages you looked at.  It’s not like I get a lot of visitors, but each of you are precious and interesting, and I want to know more – and the kinds of things that interest you.

But it has been a couple of weeks since I posted, and that previous post was a long while coming too – and no new stuff makes for a boring blog!

I can blame it on the adrenaline rush and resulting let-down after all the work it took to get my St. Lukes exhibit planned and prepared.

Or I can blame it on the unusually mild and lovely spring weather that we’ve had.  (March magnolias?  In Indiana?  Are you kidding?)

Or it could be hormones (most everything is.)  Or a weekend visit with one of my sisters.  Or a million other excuses.

Suffice it to say that my accomplishments recently have been . . . not much.

Well, I did watch “The Voice.”  Oh, and a few episodes of “Top Gear” (both the British and US versions, thank you very much.)  (Oh, and sorry, I like the UK version better.)  Ummm . . . and maybe I’ve eaten most of a Peanut Butter Pie.  I did clean out my black and white scraps . . .and sorted out my sock drawer . . .

But not much sewing.

Worse yet, here is my sketchbook:I haven’t even had the heart to do ANY sketching.  No sketches = no fresh ideas.  No fresh ideas = peanut butter pie.

Not all bad, but it doesn’t make for a updated blog.

(BTW, it was a SKINNY peanut butter pie.  And it was heavenly.  One of those pies that you want to make the second one immediately after the first one is gone because you just can’t bear NOT to have more.)

I guess I did put the block borders on the black and white optic squares quilt, but I admit I’m having problems getting motivated to get it finished.

So, lets take a look at that:

border and corner block

I’ve added the herringbone borders and have started quilting them – I’ve finished two sides of the border quilting and have only two more to go.

I think I can finish quilting in less than 3 hours (very easy wavy lines), then an hour to machine bind it and I’m DONE!

I have to say, I love using block borders.  There’s really no measuring, no horsin’ around with getting things even and straight like I do when I use pieced borders or strip borders..

One comment about finishing up this quilt:  I bought some bamboo/cotton batting because I started this quilt with the leftovers from another bamboo/cotton batt before I decided to add borders.  The chemical smell from these new packages of batting is unbelievably bad.  Considering that they advertise that bamboo/cotton is supposed to be good for baby quilts, etc., it’s pretty overwhelming.

There are now two compelling reasons that I won’t buy this type of batting anymore:  it washes up VERY floppy (and not in a good way) and I’m not dealing with the stink.  I’m sticking with cotton or wool from here out.  (Wool only stinks when it’s wet – and it’s a little like a clean, wet sweater smell, not chemicals.  When it’s dry, there’s no stink and lots of loft.)

This quilt will look really cool, but as I said, I’m so over working in black and white.  If you look carefully, these are COLOR photos.  They don’t look like it do they?  Here it is on my machine:Isn’t it strange how the red almost looks fake?

I think my next project will be for a new bed quilt for our room.   I’m debating about trying an improvisational pieced top, but what if I hate it?  Then its a queen-sized boondoggle.

I need to put together my inspiration board on this one – in COLOR!

(O00h – and I found a recipe for Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheese Frosting.  Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day to go with our corned beef and cabbage!  That sounds inspirational, doesn’t it?  And I really need to control my looks at that blog.)

Until then, all the best!

Chris

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Whew! Exhibit is up and there’s nothing else I can do -

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Chris

It’s sort of an out of body experience.

Until now, my quilting is something I’ve pretty much kept to myself and my closest friends.  And I admit, I’m a little uncomfortable with the exposure.   But it’s good to take a step out of my comfortableness.

And I’m so happy with the result!

Here are some pictures of the gallery -

When you enter the church, you can see the gallery in the mezzanine (the sanctuary is to the right):As you get closer, you can see the quilts at the top of the stairs:Here is a shot of the corner at the top of the staircase:And here is a view from the staircase to the other side:

I’m so pleased, and I’ve gotten really great comments so far.  But more importantly, I hope that a greater good will emerge – art is that sort of thing.  I don’t know how, but that’s not my job right now.

Thanks to all of you, my bloggy friends, for giving me the confidence.

All the best – Chris

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