Continuing

Missed last week's post; I was sick and didn't get on the computer until Tuesday. Didn't really do much during the past weekend, though I did work on my Filigree quilt a bit, and spent some time organizing my embroidery floss. I've started nothing new. Everything is still in progress.

I'm continuing to work on August's Paisley for the 2010 BJP.



My VS1-Filigree is basted and cut, and I've started sewing the main appliqué. I really love how this is turning out!




As you can see, I've sewn down two of the last four accent pieces. I wanted to see how they looked.

I did buy fabric for the second quilt in the Visioning Project series I'm doing, but I haven't done anything more with it yet. Once I get it started, I'll show you a pic.

I'm also continuing work on my bird tote from Terry Waldron's class. I've got my lining fabric, and the fabric for the rest of the tote, as well as the webbing for straps. I've sewn down the body feathers, and now need to cut some smaller neck feathers. They'll be the same yellow as the pieces just over the tail feathers. Of course, he still needs a face and beak, and I'm going to add a top-knot. I want to do a little more quilting in the background, and on his legs, then the tote will be ready to put together. This will be fun. I'm hoping to get this done this weekend, so I can take it to my quilt guild next week.

The I&M Quilters group I belong to is moving along with projects. I have three quilts pinned and ready for quilting, one of which is the Line Art I mentioned in a previous post. Of the other two, one is a Scrambled 9-Patch that we did last year and I never got around to finishing. The other is something I put together from pieces I found in the Quilt Room. There were a bunch of 8" squares, and I put them together and added some borders. I don't have photos of these yet, but will show them to you as I get them finished. All three of these quilts will go in the queue for delivery to either City of Hope or Children's Hospital.

I've joined the L.A. Modern Quilt Guild. I do like the modern quilt look, though I don't think I'll do many of them. What I've seen so far is . . . I don't know how to describe it. They're very clean and very cool, but, like traditional patterns, I can appreciate them, but don't really want to spend time making them. I like a lot of stuff! I do so many different hand and needlecrafts that I want to incorporate them into my art pieces. Modern quilts, like traditional quilts, don't have a lot of stuff on them. Does that make any sense? LOL! As I said, it's hard to describe my feelings. I want my quilts to be beaded, and embroidered, and have a lot of different techniques in them.

Now, the modern fabrics are a whole different issue. I love them! I never really paid attention to fabric designers before, but I do now. Some of my new favorite designers are Carolyn Gavin, Chelsea Andersen and Riley Blake. There are new quilt shops that carry these new modern print fabrics. Sew Modern, which I've mentioned before, is one. Online shops include Fabric Worm and Spoonflower. Yes, you can buy fabric at Spoonflower. It's more expensive, but it's also more individualistic. My Filigree quilt is made with modern prints from Pat Bravo and Art Gallery Fabrics, which I bought at Sew Modern a few weeks ago.

That's it for now. I'm continuing to work on things, and will, hopefully, have something finished next week to show you.

Until next time, take care.

Michele

July 2010 BJP, AVQA Meeting, Terry Waldron, More Fabric

I missed last week's post, so I may not go through the whole two weeks! We'll see. I've been doing a lot of work; I'm really excited! Okay, so what did I miss? Oh, yeah.....

July's paisley is done!

I've now started August, which is red.

I need to start getting the beads for the last four pieces. I need blue-green for September, red-orange for October, blue-violet for November and violet for December. I think I may have some of these colors, but I'm sure I don't have enough, except, perhaps, for December's violet. I love purple, so I should have plenty of purple beads, but I need to double-check. I guess I'll have to make a run to the bead stores in downtown L.A. in the next month or so. Cool!

I finished the appliqué block for AVQA's 2012 Opportunity Quilt. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo before I turned it in. I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished quilt once I get it. I love appliqué! I'm not sure what the entire quilt is going to look like, but I loved this block. It'll be fun to see it all together. I use Geri Richardson's basted needle-turn technique. It's the easiest technique I've found for needle-turn appliqué. She has some wonderful patterns as well. One of my first entries into a quilt show was her Peony pattern.

I started this small quilt at a workshop she gave at our guild a couple years ago. It's 16 3/4" x 18 3/4" and hand quilted. I showed it to my Mom while I was working on it, and she exclaimed that it was her favorite colors! So, it became a Mother's Day gift, and now hangs in her living room. If you see Geri at a quilt show, stop and say hello. Her patterns are wonderful, the fabrics she carries are fabulous, and her husband is so fun to talk to! Geri is friendly, and usually has a piece there to demonstrate her technique.

I also finished the block from the scraps Kay Hague had given us at last month's AVQA meeting. Again, I didn't get a photo before I gave it to Kay. Fortunately, the large majority of the scraps in the baggie I got were rectangles and strips. It came together really easily. I really like this. I may have to do more; I've got plenty of scraps! This would make some really fun tote bags. A lot of people actually finished their blocks and brought them in to the meeting last night. Someone had brought in a small design wall, and it was great to see all the blocks together. Kay's going to take them all and put them together in one large quilt. I'll get a photo once she finishes it.

Our speaker for last week's guild meeting was Terry Waldron. Her lecture was titled "The Art of Doing It All." She's has a somewhat quiet delivery, but her stories are fun. Her attitude about quilting is basically "It's my quilt, I'll do it the way I want." I love that! She uses fabrics from furniture stores, and string from hardware stores as embellishments. Her quilts are fun pieces of art. I'm so excited. I almost feel validated in the kind of quilts I want to make. I don't want to follow any rules but my own. There, I've said it. And, you know what, that's just what I'm going to do! This is my art, and I will do it my way!

Terry's workshop was last Saturday. It was so fun. We did her "Birds of a Feather." It's actually pretty close to an idea I had for one of my Visioning Project pieces. Anyway, here's what I accomplished in class:

Actually, the blue feathers are just cut out, they haven't been sewn down yet. She didn't have a pattern. We all just drew our own birds and went for it. She came around as we were working and made suggestions. She suggested I put longer legs on mine; it really looks much better than what I had! I can't wait to finish this. Of course, I'll be turning it into a tote. I know exactly what fabric to use for the back and sides, and am looking for fabric for the lining, probably something with some cute birds on it, or bird tracks. I don't have any of that fabric yet, so I can't show you anything of it right now, but I'll post a photo as soon as it's done. I plan on having it completed by the next guild meeting, which is March 10.

Terry's best advice was to relax. Who's to know if you make a mistake. Just add some fabric on top, and go on your way! How fun is that?! She is really sweet and we had a great time.

A couple friends and I went back to Sew Modern last week. One of the girls didn't make it on our road trip the previous week, so we went last Thursday. Lauren has every color of Kona Cotton Solids, and they make such a beautiful display! I've had a quilt in mind for a couple of years, but wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it properly. It's basically a color wheel in a quilt, and I wanted at least ten gradations of each color. I now can get them easily! I'm just so excited! I'll collect each color set a bit at a time.

While there, I purchased more fabric for the Visioning Project appliqué quilt. It turned out larger than I expected, and one yard was not enough for both the front and back of the quilt. I decided to use the pink on pink print as the backing. I was initially going to use the pink background for both front and back, but I think I like the print better. It gives it a different feel. Also, the pink dotted background is a heavier fabric, and I didn't want the quilt itself to be too heavy.

I've been working on this piece (titled VS1 - Filigree) for the past couple of weeks. I drew out the full pattern, and transferred it to the back of the background fabric. I then basted the accent pieces on, as you can see here:

It's about 27" square so it's not too large. There are these small accent pieces, then the main appliqué is one large piece, which I'm in the process now of basting down. There are four more accent pieces that will go on top of the main piece.

I'm really excited about this entire Series. The four ideas I have so far for the first photo are really different from each other. Each one stretches my creative boundaries just a little more. I can work on the Filigree piece on the commuter bus home from work each night, so hopefully, it'll go pretty quickly. I'm going to hand quilt this one. The Palm Tree, which will be the second quilt from this photo, will be the one that uses Terry Waldron's technique. That one will be machine pieced/appliquéd and, probably, machine quilted. I'm not trying to think too far ahead, so the other two quilts are just ideas right now. Once I get the Filigree piece done, I'll start planning out the painted window. Once the Palm Tree is done, and I'm working on the window, I'll start planning the landscape quilt of the entire photo. I've pulled out one of the many empty sketchbooks I have, and I'll be using that for my journal.

Okay, I'm going to stop here. There's a bit more happening, but I'll leave it for next week. I can't believe there was so much to write about these past two weeks! How very cool!

Until next time, take care.

Michele

January BJP, Rob Appell, and Reigniting the Passion

Had the flu last week, so, naturally, nothing got done! I did make some progress on my January Bead Journal piece this week. I'm not sure that I'm happy with it; but, I'm trying really hard not to get analytical and/or critical of what I'm doing. I stopped at this point because I found myself analyzing what I had done and considered tearing it out! I was also not really sure where I wanted to go next. Once my left brain kicked in, it was time to put down the needle! LOL!

Rob Appell was guest speaker at our quilt guild meeting last Thursday. He was fabulous; funny, witty, inspirational, and informative. His quilts are beautiful, and I love his Endangered Species patterns. The Bengal Tiger is awesome, and I really like the Macaw, but I absolutely fell in love with the Red Wolf. I absolutely had to have that pattern. He taught his Quick Fuse Seascape class yesterday. I'll post later and let you know how it all went.

This past week I did get a couple of things done. I finished the last two promised items for online trades, which are now very late. The first is a small handbag in black and white.

My sewing machine started choking on thread a couple weeks ago, so I actually ended up doing the entire piece by hand. It's been so long since I've done that kind of handwork that I had forgotten how much I love it! Its dimensions are 6"H x 9"W x 2.5"D. It's hand-quilted, and the handles consist of an embroidered and beaded organza lace sewn on top of webbing. (No, I didn't do the embroidery/beading on the lace.)

The other project I finished was a set of four Shashiko embroidered coasters. They're 4" square, and also completely hand-sewn. I love Shashiko embroidery, and these were a lot of fun to do.

Both of these projects got mailed yesterday! They will also be the last online trades I do for a while. I have a couple of ideas for making a living creatively and I need to focus my attention on them. I want to see if I can get out of the 9 to 5-commuting-business doldrums. I would love to make my living with my own business, doing something fun and creative, and it's time. I've been bouncing the ideas around in my head for several years now, but never felt I was really good enough. But you know what? I am. Something Rob said Thursday really hit home, and it's time to get started. The passion I used to feel for sewing, fabric and needlework had left me for a long time. I thought the fire had died, but there's still a spark. I can feel it. It's time to feed that spark until it burns brighter than it ever had!

More on that later. I've still got quite a few projects going, and even while working on my aforementioned new business, I'll be doing other projects, mostly to work out ideas to incorporate. I've acquired a lot of skills over the years, but there's always something new to learn and share!

Until next time, take care.

January Bead Journal Project

I mentioned in a prior post that I've joined Robin Atkin's Bead Journal Project for 2010. It's a personal challenge for all participants to create 12 beaded pieces (or "pages") in the course of a year. The only restriction is that each piece is the same shape and size. I'm using a paisley shape, and exploring a different color each month. January's color is white, and I've finally started.

I placed my large bead first. It's a Venetian glass bead I bought many years ago at a gem show in Santa Monica, California. It has some pink swirls that resemble roses, and some gold flakes. Although January's piece is supposed to be white, I actually chose the side that has more pink and gold. Don't know why. In placing the Venetian bead, I just let it go where it wanted. I didn't think about it, I just placed it and sewed it down. I added the seed pearls, then the loop of mother of pearl beads, then the glass beads around the Venetian bead.

I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just doing it. Does that sound strange? It does to me. I'm trying Robin's way of working improvisationally, and it's not easy for me. I'm a "follow the pattern" type of person, although I have altered a pattern occasionally. I love algebra, calculus and geometry. I do like organic and asymmetric shapes, but even when designing my own work, I draw it out, plan it out, know what's going where, and how I'm going to put it there. It's too soon to tell how I feel about improvising. Although I am enjoying it, it's still a little scary. Maybe I'll have a better feel for it when February's piece is done!

Until next time, take care.

Michele