2011 Retrospective

I guess it's about that time again, to look back at what this year held.   It's been a busy year, and I didn't do as much quilting as I'd hoped, but having a wedding thrown into the middle of the year is a pretty good excuse, I think.  I took a lot of classes.  I think classes are important  for me to learn anything and everything I can - every different style, approach, method.  Attending QSDS was a huge step for me and gave me a great opportunity to meet a wide range of art quilters.

Classes I took:

May 8-9, 2011  - Janet Fogg Workshop "Unexpected Combinations."  I'm still excited about the project I started in this class although it  has never gotten past the full scale cardboard pattern and selection of fabric.  I hope I can still remember all her techniques when I finally get back to it.  That would be a good "real" art quilt to tackle this year. 

May 13, 2011 -  "Liberated Log Cabin" with Gwen Marston - I am just this week finishing the quilt made from the pieces I created in her class.  I'm doing a more dense all-over pattern that is getting me away from my tendency to stitch in the ditch.

Janet Fogg

Gwen Marston

June 11 - 15, 2011 - "Favorite Places," with Valerie Goodwin at QSDS Symposium
October 10, 2011 - Karla Alexander, "Stack the Deck" quilts via Moonlight Quilters.
December 10, 2011 - Jan Hudson, "Needle-turn Applique."

Goodwin

Looking only at things that are totally completed, i.e. hanging on the wall, ready to be hung, sold, gifted or used, here are my accomplishments:

Functional Stuff - Quilts
1.  "Stolen Moments" was my biggest project, first full-size bed quilt, and winner of a nice blog prize. It took most of my time during the first three months of 2011.

2.  "Organic Waves" is the couch-throw size quilt that came out of Karla Alexander's class.  Fabric selections, cutting, class, and finishing occupied October and half of November. I wish I had not used cheapo poly batting.

Functional Stuff - Other Stuff
3.  Katie's placements.  This was fun. I enjoyed the intuitive piecing process and learned about color, value, and how to or how not to mix prints.

4.  Cora's apron - was pretty quick and easy.  I was glad to be able to do something for Elisabeth as she's always ready and willing to help me out.
While I did learn something from these functional pieces, a goal for next year is to resist the temptation to make modern quilts, home decor or other accessories and to focus on art quilts.


Art - FFFC Pieces

5, 6.  Sadly, I only fully completed one piece, #56 and that was the Goldsworthy ephemeral piece, the nature of which was to self-destruct. I hereby resolve to finish at least 6 next year! I thought about them all anyway.  Sigh. The only other one I even started, was #52,  Marriage.  (Color Field Theory) I loved the idea, hated the result.  I'm thinking some paint or other surface texture might help it.  Note:  Forgot that I also completed the Celtic Knot piece...   The Art Deco and Notan pieces are more done than not, and could get finished fairly easily, now.  So that's really five that were completed at least to a postable stage.  Next year I'll finish those as well as the challenges.

Art - Other Stuff
7.  The Bird Brain shop hop block.  Fun.  Pulled me into doing more embellishment, something I keep saying I want to do, but don't end up doing.
8.  The Acropolis, from Valerie's class.  Greatly expanded my comfort level and familiarity with more surface design techniques.  I hope that next year I will focus on the map quilt idea and try to develop a "body of work" or at least explore a concept in more depth.

I've spent a fair amount of time in the first three or four rounds of the Moonlight Round Robin too, and will end up with some sort of finished piece at the end of that. My contributions so far include hand stitch, beading, words, and felt+button flowers. My favorite was the experimenting with "Words." This is a theme I'd like to pursue more next year.


The other goal will be to either finish the UFO's or accept them as practice and decide not to spend any more time on them.

Maybe I can finish one more piece before the stroke of midnight on 12/31/11?  The log cabin piece is basted and ready to quilt.  Edit: quilted about 1/3 of it last night.  It's slow going with the walking foot, but I'm not yet fluent in free-motion.  Another goal for 2012!

Organic Waves Finished

Here is the finished quilt from Karla Alexander's class.  Sorry for the terrible photo.  I stuck it up on the wall in a hurry before I took it to show and tell at the guild meeting Monday, and this is the first chance I've had to post it.    


Overall I'm happy with how it turned out.  I'm not thrilled about using the cheapo fluffy batting, but when I realized I didn't have anything else big enough in the house I went ahead with it.  It's not something I'm going to love forever, and at least the poly stuff is warm. It looks nice on the couch.   I learned a lot from this quilt about color and value.  That even when you combine twenty greens, they don't all play nicely together.  I thought from the start that the light yellowy one with the olive leaves on it stood out too much, but I did it anyway.  Mistake. And the mossy green in the dark group is too light and stands out too much.  But still - overall - it's fine.  


I quilted in the ditch on the squares and on the wavy lines.  If I'd had thinner batting I would have done more dense quilting, but I had enough issues with the backing getting folded and puckered.   I was able to get almost all the quilting done on Saturday and finish the binding by Sunday night.  I did both sides of the binding by machine.  I really don't mind the look of this for regular, functional quilts.  I used all dark fabric to bind, to sort of provide an edge or frame, then used dark thread on the top side, and light on the bobbin.  


I think I'll go curl up on the couch with it right now!

Somersault Quilt

Here are a few pictures of the progress on the Karla Alexander class quilt.  It is So interesting to step back and see it on the wall.  I am able to get about 13 feet away, which meets Karla's "ten foot rule."  But I discovered taking a photo and looking at the photo is an even better way to get a fresh look at the overall composition.  

It was so exciting to be able to put the squares up on the design wall!

Not sure if you can tell with this photo, but there's a small glitch in the upper right corner.

Last night I just put the pieces up following the book design, not worrying about which particular fabric went where.  (I looked at a couple other possible patterns that could be made, but decided I like this one best.  Especially since I'd already put on all the little squares.)   Tonight I have a shopping outing planned, but tomorrow I will start moving them around so that the different fabrics are more randomly distributed.  And figure out what to do with the glitch.  It's only a minor glitch.  I sewed a few too many little squares on, and don't have enough plain ones.  So I can rip them off or maybe use a couple slightly off-size blocks that I've set aside.  Or make a new block.  There was plenty of fabric left over, but somehow the idea of stepping back to make another block instead of moving forward is sort of unappetizing.

I'm really pleased with the visual quality and excited to see this thing put together an draped over the back of my couch.  While trying to get motivated to wake up this morning I was contemplating quilting designs.  I am still a "stitch in the ditcher" when it comes to skills, but I really admire the look of the more densely quilted "New Modern" quilts I see on line.  So maybe I'll add some diagonal lines?  Maybe in the opposite direction from the pattern...?

Workshop Planning and Organic Quilt

I haven't been blogging much. I've been completely absorbed in and obsessed by Pinterest.  It's a familiar pattern.  I find something new and different, and can't tear myself away.  Then I get bored.  I'm now bored with Facebook, thank god!.  Pinterest is different, I can browse images, mostly of art quilts, for days.

I'm starting to get serious about getting ready for the Nancy Crow workshop in February.  This involves buying lots and lots of fabric.  My estimate is I'll need to take at least 80 yards of solids.  I've never bought many solids, so there's lots of shopping to do.  I don't want to be limited  by my fabric choices, but at $7-8 a yard... well you do the math.  This week I ordered, and received (IN TWO DAYS!) a 16-yard Kona Cotton sampler package from Pink Chalk Fabrics.  It's beautiful!  I love to look at it.  Of course there's also the tuition, meals, and housing.  But I'm totally psyched, thrilled, and a bit scared.  I hope I have some decent work to take with me.

That leads me to wonder why I'm spending time on the Karla Alexander quilt project and not the art quilts I always think about but too rarely work on.  But it's good sewing practice, and I need that! I'm calling it "The Organic Quilt" because that's the term she used.  I didn't really get it because we are all cutting the same curvy blocks.  But everyone else did blue or purple like the example.  I did green.  And mostly earthy greens.  To match the NEW COUCH!.  Anyway, I enjoyed the class.  It was low stress and enjoyable, and the quilt's coming along well - since we cut blocks prior to class we could actually achieve something in the 6-7 hrs. we were there.  It sure goes fast!  I have all 70+ blocks cut out, sliced, shuffled and reassembled.  Now I need to trim to size, add the accents, and figure out the layout.  Karla says to do the layout before adding the accents, but my NEW DESIGN WALL isn't quite big enough for that.  I guess I'll do what I can.

I should have posted about the design wall last week.  Having a DH at home between jobs sure is a blessing! He built a removable styrofoam wall that is about 7 feet wide, and 4 feet tall.  7' because that's the space we have between light switches.  And 4' because that's a standard sheet of insulation.  I LOVE it!

Here's the finished version, with the fabric somewhat  permanently attached.

Yes, that's just blue painters tape.  But I will probably change this white flannel to a piece of batting at some point.

Fabrics bought and cut...

This is what I've come up with so far.  I need 9 darks and 9 lights.  There are 7 good light fabrics, and two questionable ones.  I might keep searching for those.  I can always find some other home for the rejects.  In the dark group I've cut up 10 options. I'll probably eliminate the blueish black one on the right side.  It looked more green IRL.  The photo below is after desaturating it - taking the color out to see pure values.  Interesting, I think.  The two questionable "light" ones are even more questionable.  I think if I pair with something even darker they might be okay, but not sure if I want two "bad" ones.  Need to find at least one more light piece.  

Starting Another Project

What am I thinking?  I tried so hard to resist signing up for another class.  But when I heard at the guild meeting that there were still spots left in Karla Alexander's Class scheduled for October 10 I weakened and put my money down.  We had the opportunity to choose between several projects, and although I liked another one better, I decided to stick with this - as it is less complicated, and thus easier to actually complete - I hope!  

Source: softexpressions.com via Sharon on Pinterest

I first tried to select fabrics in a terra cotta tone that would go in the new living room, and contrast with the color of the couch.  But there just was not enough available within the range I wanted to make the design work.  So I shifted my emphasis to green.  The green throw on the green couch with the green wall behind it could be a bit much.  Oh well.  I thought of trying two colors - dark browns and light greens but I think it would loose it's charm that way.  What I like most is that there are some fabrics that are go both ways.  

On the other hand, you don't want to have too many middle values or the design becomes muddy.   My darks were all sort of middle-darks so I have to go looking for some more lighter lights.  Also not sure if they MUST all be batik.  I don't want any obvious prints of course, but maybe some marbled or painted-looking stuff would be good.

Stay tuned!