Monday, March 23, 2009
The Next Day
I've got some good suggestions for names! Thanks! I'll not be doing the label for a few weeks so that will give me time to decide - and if you have any more good ideas - keep them coming!
I want to stitch some beads on to the dancing folks, which is a "by hand" project. I'll be going to Mom's for Easter so will take it with me and do some handwork there. It will keep me occupied while watching TV - a favorite past time of my Mom.
Between reupholstering some chairs for Eric, which have to be done by the Easter weekend when we will be delivering his furniture (long story, but gee I wish I had me for a Mom!), I also want to start my next quilt, which will be for Pam. Amy gets the dancers. I'll be seeing Pam and Amy when I go for my "girls' weekend" in May to Abbotsford. So that's the deadline for both.
I picked up this Loralie panel (I think - I'll have to check that point). Anyway - I think it's really cute. And appropriate for a "girlfriends" theme. Pam and I go way back to high school in Ottawa - that would be the 70s. So a long time! This one will be "Good Times Girlfriends."
There are actually two panels here. My first thought was to use it all in one quilt - but I think that might be too big and too much. So my second thought is to make two quilts. I'll slice up the individual sections (Kristie would say "fussy cut") and reassemble with some quilt blocks as dividers. Still working on that, although I have some experimental blocks already assembled. Didn't get pix of them, though. Next time.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Under Construction
Then I started quilting... Well this thing is fabric so maybe I could put it in a quilt. For a wall hanging.
I collected some fabric that I thought would coordinate. As it turns out, I think some are a bit bright - but too late now. "Never go back."
I was going for a sort of "random scrambled batik" look. I assembled a bunch of blocks - three different techniques.
It's not finished yet. I'll frame the batik with black then stitch the "quilt frame" to the batik. I want to stitch some beads on it.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Get a Life?
Then I showed her this blog. Her comment: "Do you have a life?"
Well.... I guess this IS my life. Blogging and quilting are the "fun for me" things. But I also work a 40 hour work week, try to make it to the fitness centre two or three times a week, do all the time consuming errands that need to be done to keep things going, have some face time with DH, keep in touch with a couple of adult kids who live in far (one day by car) and very far away (one day by plane if everything works the way it should - otherwise more like 30+ hours) places , and keep in touch with other family and friends.
I expect for most women my age (that would be "middle"), this is a fairly familiar story. We do what we have to do and try to squeeze a bit of "me time" in there somewhere. It's probably what keeps us relatively sane - though there are days when I actually have my doubts about that!
Sew - QUILT AND BLOG ON, my friends! :)
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Sister Shadow Play
In the winter, days are short, the sun is low, and shadows are long, even at midday. DH had given me a new camera, so I was in "new camera testing" mode. As we walked around the bend so that the sun was at our back, our shadows stretched way out in front of us. I said to Carol "stop!" - and she did. I snapped our picture.
The Concept
When I looked at it on the computer, my quilting brain thought it saw a quilting opportunity. Very easy shapes and an interesting concept. So during the weeks that I was working away on Craig's quilt (Sedimentary Dreaming), I was thinking about Carol's quilt - now known as Sister Shadow Play. I must give credit where credit is due. I came up with "Sister Shadows" - Kristie thought of "Shadow Play" - so I combined them for "Sister Shadow Play," which I think is just about perfect!
I wanted the quilt to be "frosty" because it was frigging cold out! I had picked up a 1/2 yard of a funky blue print in the Port Angeles Jo-ann Fabric store that could be interpreted as wintery so I started with that. (A 1/2 yard isn't very much - I've learned when buying fabric on spec, get a minimum of a meter/yard.) I found blue and green with a silver design at Fabricland that coordinated with my Jo-ann's print. So I had my starting point in terms of fabric. I also had some silver piping that I'd picked up years ago because it had been marked down (this will be a reoccurring theme - as I mentioned in my first post - those "cheap" Scottish genetics are hard to overcome!). Silver equals "frosty."
There are three basic areas in the picture: the pathway, the surrounding field area and the shadows. I wanted them to sort of blend, but at the same time I wanted them distinct.
I used a wimpy black Sharpie (I have to get a new one) to outline the shadow and the path on a print of the picture, then traced the outlines (more or less) onto grid paper. This gave me a good visualization of what I was trying to achieve. The field would be one set of blocks, the path another and the shadows would be applique.
Technique
I started to look for a block design for the field. I wanted something reasonably simple, yet something suitable for my "frosty" theme. After much looking, I found a block in 500 Quilt Block Designs, a book I had out of the library.
Here are a few pages as an illustration of the types of blocks this book contains. There are many - but no dimensions - just pix, although there is an apparently suitable grid at the beginning of each section. But I didn't use that - I just went ahead and did what I needed to do.
The block I chose was the top left block on the right hand page, above - # 1693, below. It is called "diadem."
A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by Eastern monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadem_(personal_wear)
Here it is a bit bigger:
I thought this sort of looked a bit like a snowflake or some frosty entity. It is straight lines and in a square. My thinking was that the relatively large square at the centre of the block would maximize the effect of the funky blue print, of which I had very little. I sketched Diadem onto grid paper, then drew the pattern pieces out the size I wanted.
Here is the assembled block with some friends. As I said, this is the "field."
Book Learning
Starting a new hobby means needing info. When I need info, my first strategy is to turn to books. Where do you find books? At the library.
When I type "quilting" into the Calgary Public Library's search bar, a list of 770 titles comes up. Given that number, I've barely scratched the surface! But I'm giving it my best shot to look at as many of these books as possible.
Some I like better than others. I like the ones that have interesting technique and non-traditional ideas for quilting. I'm making a list and eventually will purchase some of those that I want to have on hand all the time. I've actually purchased a few books already, but will continue to add to my collection over time.
Here are some of the books I've looked at in the last couple of months....
The books I've purchased are below. The Art Quilt Workbook: Exercises & Techniques to Ignite Your Creativity by Jane Davila is the one where I first saw the technique I used in Sedimentary Dreaming - wonky blocks and wavy blocks.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Measurement Musing
You'll note that these temperature values are Celsius. This is the metric system (centimeters, degrees Celsius, kilograms). This measurement system was introduced in Canada beginning in the late 1970s (it was a phased process, so not one specific date). I would have been in my early 20s at that time. Prior to that all measurements were given in imperial units (inches, degrees Fahrenheit, pounds).
People my age are rather conflicted measurement-wise. I'm very comfortable in Celsius temperatures because that's what we always hear. Stand outside for a moment and you know exactly how cold "-10 C" is! Same is true for litres - gas is sold by the litre. But for other types of measurements, we often fall back to the old Imperial system.
I'm pretty much "bilingual" when it comes to linear measurement, and tend to jump around between the two systems, so I will sometimes reference in Imperial (inches, yards) and sometimes in metric (centimetre, meters).
So what does this have to do with quilting? Probably not that much.
Fabric is purchased by the meter in Canada, but by the yard in the US. So if you are American and reading about metric measurement, it might not mean too much to you. Similarly, if you're a younger Canadian and not familiar with the old Imperial system (my kids are like this), any references to Imperial measurement may not mean much.
If you are confused, what you need to know is that:
2.54 cm = 1 inch OR 1 cm = 0.39 inches
and
0.914 m = 1 yard OR 1 m = 1.09 yard = 39.37 inches
and
100 cm = 1 m
and
36 inches = 1 yard = 3 feet
So if I start to ramble on about "inches" or "feet" or "meters" or "centimeters" you can come back here to see what I am actually talking about.
Or - if you need even more detail, go to the Metric World Wide Conversion Calculator.