Hand Quilting Progress

I've finished the hand quilting around the applique pieces of Rhapsody. I'll be winning no awards for even stitches but with a few exceptions, the eggshell thread blends right into the background fabric so only very close inspection would reveal the inconsistencies.

Now on to the cross-hatching, where I will use masking tape as my guide. I'm having second thoughts about adding this as I now realize how little open space there is for adding it except beyond the central design. Maybe just some echoing would have been a better choice, but I feel committed to this and have carried on.

I thought I would share with you the hoop I am using, my pride and joy: The Grace Hoop - Squared Polymer Pro. I don't exactly remember how I became familiar with The Grace Company, probably through an ad in a quilting magazine, but back in the 1980's I offered to hand quilt the queen size top my mother-in-law had made for one of her daughters. It was the part of the project she dreaded most while I was finding it difficult to get tops made for quilting, the part of the process I most liked. So suddenly I had a quilt to quilt and her hoop on a stand to do it with. It was a rickety affair with the classic round hoop but it was better than what I had on hand. I so enjoyed the process that when we fell into a large monetary gift to split, I opted to use mine for a full-size quilting frame, with the Grace Company's expensive, heavy duty well-made model with unique design features my first choice. And of course, I also opted for the one that could handle up to a king size quilt because, you know, I might regret it if I chose a smaller size. I was not disappointed, and quilted quite a few quilts of varying sizes on this sturdy frame that did not require you to baste your quilt before loading it onto the frame (did I not say it had some unique features?

The 3-rail system allows all 3 layers to be attached to the front bar, the other end of the backing to the second bar and the other end of the top to the 3rd bar while the batting hangs free. Each bar rolls independently to maintain even tension and smoothing, no basting required.

 

That frame got moved many times (being easy to break down into packable pieces), once while I was in the middle of quilting a queen-size quilt (it turned out to be relatively easy to roll the quilt on the three bars once the supporting legs were removed and a startled moving man figured out how to wrap it all in plastic and place it in the truck so that precious bundle would not be damaged), but once I finished that last queen, I was doing more machine quilting of any large projects and saving the hand quilting for smaller ones. I got very fond of my Q-Snap portable square frame. Then my husband died, I moved into a townhouse rental, and found myself with no place to set up the big frame even if I wanted to. I eventually sold it to my quilting friend and neighbor who was keen to have a full size frame and I started looking at other options that would solve the limitations I found myself struggling with using the Q-Snap frame.

Enter the Grace Company once again, as I eyed their latest product sporting more original design innovations incorporated into a quilting hoop on a stand. First of all, a square rather than round hoop, which makes tons of sense, as I'd discovered using the Q-Snap frame. Then it was the material the hoop was made out of, a sturdy polymer with no chance of staining a quilt left in it too long. The stand itself is Baltic Birch plywood, nothing rickety about those hefty parts.

 

But what really cinched it for me, made me think of this as the Cadillac of quilting frames, is this ball mechanism at the base of the hoop. Not only can you turn the hoop as you would a steering wheel, but you can angle it in all directions to get it positioned perfectly for your stitching style. (By the way, those strings of selvage are a tip I ran across for when quilting a large quilt. They allow you to gather up all that quilt beyond the hoop to keep it in check and off the floor.)

The arm that the hoop is attached to also adjusts up and down to accommodate different chair heights you might be sitting in or even your own body height. So easy to customize the quilting area to your needs.

Also included with the hoop are these weighted bars, just in case you need to quilt out to an edge and don't have enough quilt for the hoop to grab onto. I've never used these as I always leave a generous bit of batting and backing beyond the quilt top, but what a nifty idea just in case.

And as if all this weren't enough, the stand is designed to fold up smaller for storage. I even read about one quilter who used this feature so she could bring her hoop to guild when she wanted to work on something there. This is a really well-thought out design. Basically, I just can't say enough good things about the Grace Company and their product.

So I popped into their website thinking I could link to some of these products and features only to find they are now all about machine frames and the machines that sit on them, not a wood product in sight. Well, I suppose that IS the market now, not that many hand quilters out there looking for quality wood frames and hoops. They do sell a few hand quilting items, but not the beautiful wood ones that served/serve me so well. It all made me a bit sad. On the other hand, I'm sure everything they produce and sell now is of very good quality in order to maintain the name they built up starting over 30 years ago.

Aha!

Fiddle fiddle. Shift. Replace. I was getting nowhere on the arrangement of rectangles for the lozenge. Still confused, still questioning, still cutting a few more from my pinks. So I decided to set that aside and work on the partial lozenges at the top and bottom of the quilt. Suddenly, everything fell into place. I went back to the full lozenge, made a few adjustments and was happy. Moved on to arranging rectangles in the strips that make up the partial lozenges on the side. Going like clockwork. No reason to dilly dally, so started sewing pieces into strips, filling in with the background fabric rectangles. So what you see here is 5 strips on the right completely sewn together and 3 strips ready to attach to each other and the group on the right. Progress! And I'm really happy with the way it is looking. Apologies for the uneven lighting and the camera that insists on making those dark pink rectangles look darker and stand out more than they really do. Now I'm enjoying the process and the results. This will be a happy quilt!

BTW, I'm not concerned about having rectangles left over (and there will be quite a few I think) because I have a plan for the backing which will include them.

Organizing Plan

I ran into a bit of a visualizing problem after I got all the background strips for the Kaffe inspired baby quilt cut and started in on my small stash of teal green fabrics. Apparently, just knowing the total number of 5-1/2 by 2-1/2 inch rectangles needed wasn't enough and after cutting up the first fat quarter and counting up how many I got from it, and starting in on some different sizes of scraps, I found myself a bit at sea, confused, needing to step away until I could get a handle on how to work with the design imbedded in long strips since my design wall has too much on it to make room for this quilt. Very different from working with blocks, and in a midnight muse while trying to get to sleep, I hit upon a plan that got me back on track again. It included utilizing this piece of recycled denim padding that had come as packing in an order as an auditioning space.

I also started stacks for each lozenge and partial lozenge, adding additional fabrics until all the teal was cut. Now I could definitely see that I'd need to add some pink fabrics too.

I've never been any good at random placements. I've always needed to have a plan, lay things out, move things around. Now that I have more than enough rectangles cut, there will be some moving around for sure before I am happy with this. I don't have a proper pink that falls between the light and dark ones you see in this photo (the dark pink is reading more strongly in the photo than in real life but it is still darker in value and standing out more than anything else so not sure if it will be able to stay). I'm thinking that when I am happy with each lozenge's arrangement, I will experiment with sewing it together, first the pieces in each strip and then the strips together leaving the beginning and end unsewn so the rest of each strip can be added above and below. Did that make sense?

How To Be a Good Fool

Little interesting to show on the progress of my sewing project so I share with you a couple of non-textile endeavors, starting with this urban sketch. I spotted this tree house down a side street while pausing at a 4-way stop. I'm constantly on the lookout for interesting buildings to add to my architecture sketchbook but am admittedly slow in returning to any to actually sketch. But I was spurred on by a fellow urban sketcher who lives in the Kansas City area and adds to the Urban Sketchers Facebook page such lovely sketches of homes and buildings that, this time of year, she works on while staying warm and dry in her car. I'd commented that she was making me want to join her on some of her drives, as she always adds commentary about the buildings' style or history and that is right up my alley. But she is too far away. But not far enough away to not have some influence on me as she urged me to quit dreaming about sketching my own buildings and get out in my car to do it! Ok, sounds like a New Year's resolution to me coupled with a bit of outside accountability.

So on a recent bright and sunny but still cold day, I gathered up my supplies and stopped nearby to capture this bit of color in an otherwise plain neighborhood. The other side faces toward the lake and mountains and I couldn't help but wonder what the view was out the ample windows, if indeed one would be high enough to see over the houses and catch sight of a bit of blue water.

The other thing I thought I'd share is from June of last year, a bit of multi-media play I never got around to adding here. And it seemed a perfect example of what Austin Kleon recently shared in a post he titled "Learn to Play the Fool." I'd been working on one of the Sketchbook School Revival classes that called for acrylic paint, and I had paint leftover on my brush and palette that seemed a shame to wash down the drain. Early on in my surface design experiments, I'd learned of expending paint onto a piece of plain fabric designated for this purpose. Eventually, that fabric will be covered in paint of various colors that might just provide an interesting background for something. I knew you could do the same onto paper so I turned to the back of the sketchbook and started dabbing paint in no particular pattern. I soon had a page that was nothing but ugly to my eye, and I couldn't imagine how it would serve as a first layer to anything. Random dabbing wasn't working for me like other artists says it does.

So I tried something different, something more in line with my aesthetics and just painted lines down a new page. Ahhhh, now I was relaxed and soothed and enjoying myself, my imagination seeing ways I could add over the top of these - 5 pages worth until all the acrylic paint was gone.

But there was still that ugly page. I'd been cutting out seahorse designs from catalogs and decided those purple and blue dabs that might peek out beyond my cuttings could read as underwater background. The turtles came from a greeting card and I finished off with bubbles added with pen. A good exercise in collaging and in covering up, although I still see more of the ugly background than I would like. But I think perhaps I decided not to post about it because this whole process and outcome made me feel like a fool. Yes, I really don't like it when I don't know what I'm doing. I don't like playing the fool, unless there's a positive result.

 

But in reading Austin's post and the people he quoted, I had the sense that the last couple of years when I've stepped away from textiles, I'd been doing just that, playing the fool, and it was a good thing. “It’s simple,” writes George Leonard in the “The Master and the Fool,” the epilogue of his book Mastery, “To be a learner, you’ve got to be willing to be a fool.”

"By fool, to be clear, I don’t mean a stupid, unthinking person, but one with the spirit of the medieval fool, the court jester, the carefree fool in the tarot deck who bears the awesome number zero, signifying the fertile void from which all creation springs, the state of emptiness that allows new things to come into being."

And here's how the playwright George Bernard Shaw encouraged an aspiring writer to “resolutely” make a fool of himself: 

"You say you are scarcely competent to write books just yet. That is just why I recommend you to learn. If I advised you to learn to skate, you would not reply that your balance was scarcely good enough yet. A man learns to skate by staggering about and making a fool of himself. Indeed he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself. You will never write a good book until you have written some bad ones."

Well said. Indeed, how many people decide not to sign up for a class because they don't know enough about the subject and don't want to look stupid (raising my hand here). 

And Austin himself gave me my answer to why I've been so doggedly trying different things, not really understanding why.

"In Show Your Work I also wrote that mastery isn’t enough for the searching life of the artist. “You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.” (In some cases, literally: I’m thinking of Erik Satie, going back to the academy after he was already known as a composer.) And this starting over, or beginning again, learning something new, requires a willingness to look like a fool, or a “curious idiot.” "

And So It Begins

You have an idea, you pick out a pattern, but the making of a quilt doesn't truly begin until you start pulling and auditioning fabric. And while I'd been going about my business, I realized that in the back of my mind, I was sorting through my stash, trying out different fabrics from different collections (yes, I have what I consider collections that are other than the usual commercial prints, batiks and hand-dyes I've put in a centralized storage system, sorted by color). Not getting in the studio and actually looking at fabrics, but working from memory in my head! Well, time to start pulling for real.

Once I'd charted the design and worked out dimensions of individual pieces, I could quickly figure how much background fabric I'd need, which in turn would determine what colors and kinds of fabrics I might use for the rest. I've been trying to figure out a home for that floral fabric underneath all the rest ever since I finished a commissioned quilt for my niece-in-law's baby back in 2014. It was the lone colorful thing about the quilt, used for the backing and binding, and as it had been hard to track down, I just took what was left on the bolt, leaving a good yard extra when I was done. To be honest,  it's not very me, not a print I would normally gravitate to even though it has colors that I really like, so it's been hard to convince myself to use it in anything. But suddenly, seeing it in a stack on the floor, I realized that if there was enough, this might be the best way to use it up. There is ample, and it may be the case that once cut into strips, I will be just fine with it. That's been the age old wisdom of quilt teachers - if you find a fabric ugly (or not to your liking) just cut it up (preferably small) and work it in with the rest. Well, these won't be small pieces, but they will be pieces all the same and the print has given me a palette to work with. I don't have as many teal green fabrics as I thought but plenty of the orangy and pink ones. I'll have to get cutting so I can experiment with mixing the two together in a lozenge or making each lozenge a single color. Fun soon to commence.

Because that green is perhaps my favorite color, even my signature color as it were, I tend to put these fabrics back in the stash when looking for candidates. You know, "saving" them for something special or just right. I had that slight stutter when I pulled them out, then carried on. I've had these for so long, I'm making fewer quilts than ever these days, and I felt that feeling of their preciousness fall away. For Pete's sake, what's more precious than this new baby, and why shouldn't his quilt have my most precious fabric in it?

Charting

The hand quilting continues at a slow but steady pace in a nothing-to-see-here fashion. I did finish quilting around motifs in the hooped area and shifted the block to an unquilted area, which let me see just how much was already quilted. I wasn't sure how far I had gotten so was pleased to find only about a third left to go (plus around those blue swirls around the outside). In the meantime, the mind keeps playing with the baby quilt configuration and what colors I might choose. Most of all, I felt I needed to pin down the size of the individual pieces, both to double check the finished quilt size and to get a sense of how much of each fabric I might need. I know a lot of quilters might turn to a software program to help them out with this, and I used to too. But sometimes it's just quicker to get out the graph paper and chart things out. So that is what I did this week. Did you know you could download PDFs off the internet for printing your own custom graph paper? Lined paper too.

Having this visual is helping me consider whether or not to shorten and/or widen the quilt. And mapping it out using paper and pencil helped me see the rhythm of the design, the relationship between the pieces. Where for awhile I was letting this idea for a quilt intimidate me, now I have all the information pinned down in a way that shows me it's not intimidating at all.

Rhapsody

Here's the next "finish" project, the one I alluded to as my next work-on-while-watching-the-news handwork. It was started in a Suzanne Marshall workshop which featured one of the blocks from her award-winning quilt "Rhapsody", probably around 2002. I didn't start blogging until 2006, where I found a post about it when the applique was complete and I was readying it for quilting. In that post, I talk about the value of working from patterns, and as I reread what I said, I find I still feel the same and I think it's worth a read. You'll also find links to both Suzanne's website and a photo of her Rhapsody quilt.

https://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com/2006/02/training-wheels.html

The only other post about it is in 2008, where I was planning to take it along to a retreat since I couldn't take my machine. Apparently, I'd not touched it since the 2006 post when I was marking a feather pattern in the corners. They were so faint that I had to find the pattern for the feather so I could remark it darker.

I vaguely remember quilting on it a bit during the retreat but I think most of my time was spent prepping the applique on sashing for a different quilt. I know I quilted on it after the retreat, getting those corner feathers done and starting the quilting along all those applique pieces, but there's no more mention of it in the blog that I can find, although if I wanted to take the time to leaf through my engagement calendars I could track down my progress and the last time I actually worked on it. What I do know is that it has sat in this hoop-on-a-stand in a part of my livingroom with a sheet thrown over it for protection since I moved into my current rental in 2012 - there was no where else to "store" it. So this UFO is not a case of out of sight, out of mind, as I saw it every day, while sitting on the sofa watching tv, passing by it on my way to the front door or the stairs to the second floor. For whatever reasons, lame or valid, it has awaited my return in a patient daily stare. Wait no more.

It has been so long since I've hand-quilted on anything that I wondered how it would go. Would everything feel foreign and awkward? Would I even be able to track down my tools and thread? Turns out the latter was more difficult than to get back into the rhythm of rocking the needle through the sandwich. Were those first stitches nice and even and not too large? Well, of course not! But not nearly as awful as I expected, and getting better with each session. I've gone around those teardrop shapes above the blossoms and up the left side of the stem and calyx of the central flower. When I make it around all the applique, I believe my intent was to fill the background with a 1/2 inch crosshatch. Lots more to do before it's ready to hang on the wall. 

By the way, I have the patterns for all the other blocks in Suzanne's Rhapsody quilt. We had the opportunity to purchase them individually or as a set and the practical part of me said, "You'll never get around to making any more of these, let alone all of them," while the also somewhat practical part of me said, "But if you don't buy them now, there no doubt there will come a day when you regret it, ready to make more and the patterns no longer available!" And truly, I do think the chance of me making even one more of these gorgeous blocks is pretty slim, yet I don't regret hedging my bets.

On Being Creative

Just ran across this short clip on being creative from an interview with cartoonist, musician and the first Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, James Kochalka, and it both makes sense and inspires this person who has such a long creative journey behind her with more yet to come.

And here's a book that might be worth a read: David Epstein’s Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World recommended by my fave, Austin Kleon in this post. I'm drawn to the title because I've always been a generalist, which is often negatively thought of as jack of all trades, master of none. I truly have been proud of all the things I've tried and can sort of to very well do, but sometimes regret the things I did not stick at long enough to truly master (like playing the piano). I realize that my broad scope of skills has stood me in good stead in getting paid jobs when I was still in the work force but a lack of what some might call focus may have kept me from advancing into higher paying ones. At any rate, here is a quotation from the book that Austin pulled out that describes me well:

“[I] realized that I was not the type of person who wanted to spend my entire life learning one or two things new to the world, but rather the type who wanted constantly to learn things new to me and share them.”

And a couple for all of us to ponder and believe in our creative ventures:

“In [Dan] Gilbert’s terms, we are works in progress claiming to be finished…. The precise person you are now is fleeting, just like all the other people you’ve been.”

“One sentence of advice: Don’t feel behind.”

“Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you. Everyone progresses at a different rate, so don’t let anyone else make you feel behind. You probably don’t even know where exactly you’re going, so feeling behind doesn’t help.”

 

All Wrapped Up

Literally and figuratively. Behold my first finish of the year, the mobius scarf I started knitting on Christmas Day. I found a particular daily program I watch that I could also knit to, and on most days sat down with my needles while I watched/listened. This particular pattern has some rounds that take a lot of counting and concentration so no show prattling on in the background, but the rows in between could be knitted almost without looking. I'm just not as good as I once was at splitting my concentration between what I'm working on with my hands and what my ears are taking in, but this worked well and got me into a routine that got this done. It reminded me of when I was hand quilting Masks while I watched a Saturday morning news program. It's encouraging me to find another project to finish that requires handwork that could just as well be done during this hour-long program. I know just the one . . .

 

As you can see from the opening photo, this scarf is quite wide and in fact can also be slid over the shoulders like a wrap (thus the literal all wrapped up) as shown in the pattern above. It's very light and stretchy yet for all the laciness quite warm. Wrap it again to encircle the neck twice and it gathers around it and down the front without bulk and should fill the opening of a jacket quite nicely.

I was excited at how many responded to my question of design layout in the last blog post, and pleased that there was mostly consensus on which one might prove the best for my baby quilt project. I particularly appreciated Kathleen's reasonings for her choice (Jan too). I'm that kind of person who might want to go with my gut feelings but feel better about it if I have an explanation to back it up. I also agree with her that, with tweaking to make the first choice wider and thus proportionately better, it would work as well. I also chuckled at her comment about "fewer pieces rather than smaller" being a good idea since I happen to know how many quilts she has made with truly small pieces. And she wasn't the only one to applaud that choice.

Several also noted that thing about where inspiration and solutions come from. Vivian noted that hers often come when she first awakes while mine often come as I'm trying to fall asleep. Jan hit it on the nose, that subconscious of ours that works away while our active brains are taking care of life in general. I love how the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain school describes it, that the left side thinks it knows everything and is easily bored while the right side is open to all possibilities and doesn't need the left side's input. It's liberated when the left side is busy with, say, keeping track of where you are going when you are out for a walk. Indeed, a lot of my problem solving happens when I take a break and get out walking. It clears the cobwebs in more ways than one!

A Project To Finish

My goddaughter had her baby the day after Christmas so now I feel free to really get going on a quilt for the little boy named Jesse Charm (yes, I'm somewhat superstitious about making a quilt before a baby actually arrives). This isn't starting a new project, in case you might think I'm deviating from my resolution word "finish"), since I'd chosen a design and started working out the size of its pieces a few months ago. I'd not wanted to make my version as large as the Kaffe Strip quilt that had caught my eye, but as I sized it down, the rectangles went from 2 inches plus seam allowance wide to 1-3/4 and then 1-1/2 plus seam allowance wide. Oh how I just wanted to cut 2-1/2" wide strips and subcut to various lengths, remembering how fussy the cutting of the narrow pieces for this baby's sibling's quilt was and how long it took to sew them all together. I was losing my enthusiasm for sure. And then not long ago I had a thought, could see it in my head. What if I didn't make the pieces smaller, just used fewer of them resulting in the same basic design? You can see what I mean looking at the picture above, the dark line outlining one configuration that would give a quilt measuring approximately 30 x 49.

But I think I like this one better and by moving the side lines out a bit, it gives me a better width at 38 inches. Actually I could do the same thing on the first one. It just seems to give a better balance as well as a better width. I could also eliminate the partial blocks and replace those areas with more background fabric. All while giving myself fewer pieces to cut and sew. What always amazes me though is how long I have to let things sit and my mind aimlessly mull things over to, out of the blue, come up with what suddenly seem obvious answers that will make my life easier.

Which version do you prefer? I'm leaning toward green(s) for the background and whatever from my stash looks good with it/them. I still have some cutting dimensions to work out and a design wall with no room to work on, so there's still time for mulling.

What's The Word?

 

When I took a late stroll on New Year's eve, this quite amazing snowman was guarding the mail locker. What a fun surprise to end the year with. And now, here we are in a new year. But in our hearts we know not much will change just because we've put up a new calendar. Many of the same challenges, inconveniences and true hardships from 2020 will still be with us for many more months. But there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel and at least for me, much that can be done to keep one occupied (and perhaps distracted?) while we wait this pandemic out.

Yes, lots on my plate if I wish it, and I settled on my resolution word of the year weeks ago. While last year the word was "GO!", chosen to inspire me to just get into the studio and do something, anything, rather than pass by the door with a sigh. However, I'd say maybe a third of the way into the year, my get up and go got up and went (as my mother used to say). So all those things on my optimistic to do list more or less stayed undone. Yes, I did learn some bookbinding stitches and techniques early on, and participated again in both Sketchbook Revival and Inktober, but there are days and days in my engagement calendar where I keep a record of progress on my arty endeavors that are blank. I don't blame the pandemic at all for this. I just slumped into a long stretch of auto-immune syndrome energy sapping and muscle pains. Sometimes there's no point in fighting back and better to find what you can manage until you have a day when you realize you have energy to spare and/or little pain hampering you.

So with stacks of ideas in the beginning stages, bookbinding lessons to catch up on and UFO's all around me (and several very old ones that insistently called to me from the closet throughout last year), to name just a few things I can be spending my time on, I've chosen "FINISH" as my resolution word of 2021. Wouldn't that be nice to see what clutters my worktable and floor and even design wall morph into things that are done? Wouldn't it be nice to have handmade items ready to give away and art quilts complete in case I decide to exhibit again this year? Wouldn't it be satisfying to be productive again, with that fresh engagement calendar recording near daily progress on my many creative interests? Yes it would! And I've already begun, knitting a little nearly every day on my mobius scarf.

 

I love the "wave" pattern which is easy to do

 

I'd like to end with a sentiment from Michelle GD that came in her New Year's Day note which seemed an affirmation of my chosen resolution word:

"I’ve been thinking about fresh starts being a continuation of something already underway. With this kind of fresh start, there’s no drama, no buildup or let down. Just a carrying-on. I find this comforting."

 

Yes, I find it comforting too. She goes on to talk about the other kind of fresh start, the wiping the slate clean and starting over kind which can be necessary, exciting, but daunting as well. "They can feel like insurmountable hills that you’re too tired to climb," she says, and boy, does that speak to my struggles with my auto-immune syndrome. But the "just a  carrying-on" kinds can be "quiet and soft. Unassuming. Not earth-shattering in their existence or in their beginning." That's for me, I think.

 

At the end of this letter (which is worth reading in full here), she included a more complete version of a quotation which I had run across awhile ago and really spoke to where I'd let myself go and desperately needed to come back from. I wish it for you, my readers, as you face 2021 with renewed hope:

 

"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."

~ Kurt Vonnegut ~

 

_____________________________________

 

Previous resolution words:

2008 - Freedom

2009 - Calm

2010 - Focus

2011 - Refocus

2012 - Balance & Harmony

2013 - Perseverance

2014 - Explore

2015 - Fearless

2016 - Light

2017 - Endure 

2018 - Refresh

2019 - Wing It! 

2020 - Go!

 

Don't Run . . .

 . . . Nay, don't race . . . to the end of 2020. The week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day presents a unique opportunity if one allows it, something akin to when as kids we were home on school holiday with no commitments or homework. And I was reminded of it when I ran across the following:

I realized I'd already started on that list. Christmas Day was an especially peaceful one for me. No interruptions, no frenetic rushing about, perfect easy to fix meals, listening to one Christmas cd after another until capping off the evening watching an old black and white movie like my late husband and I were often wont to do and noting that the promised late night snow had started to fall. And I especially enjoyed starting a knitting project with the yarn my cousin picked up for me on her New Zealand visit. Every year I think I am going to do this on Christmas Day or at least the week following because this is one of my favorite memories from my teens - mom, dad and I sitting by the fire with candles and Christmas lights and Christmas music playing, they reading and me knitting. But every year I "run out of time" as I fulfill other activities I deem important to my day and the week following. Not this year. This year I settled in to start a  mobius scarf for myself and will knit a little on it each day.

I also hope to carve out time for some journalling I've been putting off (that's the "sit quietly in front of your life" part). The current journal is nearly full so I may need to pause to make another one if I have lots to say. The fabric is picked out and it would be a nice end of the year, get the new year off to a good start project. I have a new mug to try out, more suited to tea than hot chocolate, but no doubt the hot chocolate will get made too (with a dash of brandy). The weatherman thinks we'll have a few cloudless nights this week so I'll have to step outside to check out the stars (missed the great conjunction because the skies were overcast, but have seen the planets close on either side of it). And of course, I'll read as I am in the middle of a tale of circumventing Ireland with a donkey!

Won't you join me in keeping these remaining days of a year most would rather forget, really quiet, thoughtful, enjoyable, and magical? Time enough for plunging into another year - see you there!

Wishing You a Peaceful Holiday

The few decorations have been put up . . .

A small representation of my collection of Reed and Barton silver crosses twinkle in a row . . .

And the Christmas cards, well most of them, are written on and in the mail. I'm ready to hunker down with Christmas music, a cup (or two) of cheer, and warm memories of Christmases past as we prepare to kick old 2020 to the curb!

I found this on artist Bobbi Baugh's blog a few days ago, thoughts and feelings about peace and working in the in-between times that so mirror my own that I'm compelled to share it with you. She writes, "We are not always Merry. We are not always Happy. But all of us have deep within, spoken or unspoken, the yearning for peace." But she begins with the thought below which I am also feeling and want to extend to you, my readers, but do click through to read the whole thing:

"There seems to be only one Christmas greeting inside me.

Peace."

One More Thing

Isn't there always one more thing when you think you're done with a quilt? For my Peace quilt, as I finished up stitching down the binding, it was, of course, to add something to the back so I could hang it up. It shouldn't surprise you that I found myself not keen on that something being a traditional sleeve. This won't be in any exhibit requiring the obligatory 4" sleeve, I didn't want to use up any more of this particular hand-dye in a place where it would seldom be seen, and perhaps most of all, I didn't want to put my hands through all that hand sewing. So after thinking about it for a few days, I decided I would be just fine with this simple solution.

This works really well on small quilts and I hoped it would work equally well on this larger one (finished 23-1/2 x 36). I had felt left over, handily a piece wide enough to quickly cut triangles and a couple of strips from. I quickly hand-stitched all in place, cut a piece of doweling and was ready to go. 

This might not have worked as well if I'd used a traditional batting, but the stiffness of the felt is keeping it from buckling between the triangles and tabs. Not a perfect quilt, not perfect corners, but all in all, I'm pretty please, and so glad to have it done. Remember, I started this back in July, thinking it would be done in a week of persistent work, but one thing after another stretched the time frame out and kept me putting it aside while I tended other things.

I'm glad I chose the thread colors that I did . . .

. . . and I'm glad I sent the quilting lines in the directions that I did.

I ran across an article today, "Five Ways to Persuade Yourself to Be More Productive" and nearly didn't read it because I've read articles like this before and pretty much KNOW what I should do to keep from being that petulant child; I just don't do it. But I scanned through it anyway and could see that I actually did use some of these tips as I worked on this quilt, especially toward the end. One is setting interim goals (big goals with a deadline can be too daunting), and in my case, that meant breaking down some of the steps to complete over several days rather than trying to do them all at once. And then there was #4 - Take breaks: the brain and the body are not meant to work non-stop.

“For whatever weird reason, we have the idea that powering through is the best way to get stuff done and a sign of our own virtue,” he says. “We’ve got it upside down and believe amateurs take breaks and pros don’t. Athletes know that taking breaks is not a deviation from performance but is part of performance.”

Boy, is that me . . . or was me . .  thinking I have to power through multiple parts under a general heading all on the same day and without stopping. I still catch myself thinking that way but my auto-immune syndrome has shown me I just can't do that anymore without paying for it. And here's another gem that I know is true but eludes me when in the throws of working; it concerns setting deadlines, which can be a good motivator, but if too severe and "you’re engaged in divergent thinking that requires greater creativity. . .can inhibit your performance instead of enhancing it. In addition, if a deadline is too severe, it can deaden your intrinsic motivation." Been there, done that with show and exhibit deadlines and know that it seldom produces my best work yet I continued to find myself backed into these deadline corners. At any rate, I hope you'll give it a quick read, so you'll be ready when your own petulant child appears.

 

Hoping This Works

So here was my thought. Fuse on the backing and leave enough extra beyond the edge of the quilt to turn that over the raw edge in a back to front faux binding. I don't think I've done this before, but I keep looking for quick ways to get this quilt done, and the thought of sewing on a separate binding was more than I could face. This quilt has GOT to get done before years end! The fusing went flawlessly, and the use of pressing cloth as per the instructions actually worked really well to also give the quilt a good last steaming. I left about 1-1/2 inches extra all round planning to trim it down to one inch.

 

This trimming was fast and easy as I butted my one inch ruler against the edge of the quilt and made my way around with a rotary cutter.

Then I turned the raw edge of the backing to meet the edge of the quilt, taking the extra time to iron in the crease.

No, not mitering the corners. I did think about it but it was more fiddling and work than I was up for. I've bound small wall quilts before with a single fold binding overlapping the corners this way so it's good enough for this one. I swear, I never pick up this quilt to work on it without it presenting another decision to make, and this time it is how to sew that turned edge in place. No, definitely not hand sewing it. Did consider a sort of machine blind hem stitch with monofilament thread, but I think it best to just top stitch along that nicely creased fold. Not with monofilament thread, I don't think, but with either the dark green thread used in the quilting or the dark brown thread used in the satin stitching. Now that it's pinned into place, the brown thread makes the most sense so that's what I'll be doing next. And I'm pretty relieved that my idea for finishing the edges is working.

Where Solutions Come From

 

The Petulant Child has continued to procrastinate, but in a late night search through my fusibles drawer, I went one by one from most preferred to least preferred to see if I had enough of any of them to fuse a backing over the felt with all those exposed thread tails. I really thought what was left of this Wonder Under, part of what I inherited from my late friend Judi, was going to be the ticket, i.e. big enough to cover the entire back. I'm not that fond of Wonder Under anymore, having found Steam-a-Seam that has properties I prefer, so this would be a great place to use it up. To my surprise, the big piece left was not only too short but not wide enough, no additional pieces big enough to fill in the gaps. Boy, I did not want to use up the large piece of Steam-a-Seam I'd bought off the roll at the quilt shop, but if I must, I must. However, I had pretty much the same issue with it. Well, you already know my love/hate relationship with Misty Fuse and I was fairly sure what was in the multiple packages would require the laying out of many possibly long but undoubtedly narrow pieces of it across the back. Plus, in spite of a glowing recommendation about how well Misty Fuse worked fusing backing to felt, I'd already had disappointing results with it; because felt is made up of little fibers, I found that Misty Fuse just pulled away from the felt surface, bringing those little fibers with it. But since this is just for me, if I have to use Misty Fuse, I guess I will.

 

 

Yeah, that didn't exactly make me excited to continue right away, so I left it for a few days until I could get used to the idea, and did the occasional stare-down as if looking at it long enough would change things. Staring at a problem rarely leads to a solution, but taking a walk and letting the brain cogitate, often subconsciously, often does. So there I was on said walk, mostly considering if I should stop in at the quilt shop for more fusible, when the lightbulb went on. Geez Louise, I do NOT have to completely cover the back with fusible, just like quilting doesn't cover every bit of a quilt. If I cut that Wonder Under in thirds, it should cover enough. And I think it does.  

A Day For Thanks

One of my sister-in-laws really enjoys decorating big for all holidays and fixing big family meals. My brother recently sent me a photo of something resting on . . . is it? Could it be? Yes it is! The nod to Thanksgiving tablerunner I made and sent to her way back in 2006. There were matching placemats too, using the Sunbonnet Sue fabric I thought was such a riot and went into the samples I made for a class I taught using Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day pattern for lover's knot placemats and then worked out how to stretch it into a table runner. As funny as I thought this fabric was, any kind of Sunbonnet Sue just isn't my style, so I finished them up for that sister-in-law who I knew would love them. She's had some major health issues lately, is actually 80 now, so is not doing as much decorating and cooking as she once did, and of course, with the covid restrictions in CA where they live, well, they're not seeing nearby family either. Like me, they are planning a day just to themselves and (unlike me) are ordering take-out. And I know it will be eaten on those placemats.

Wishing for you a safe Thanksgiving full of gratitude for what you have and no grumbling over what you may not. I know for those used to big family gatherings, this Thanksgiving may feel like a huge sacrifice to "follow the Fauci", but I would remind you that there are many people like me who have not attended a family Thanksgiving dinner for years, nor gathered with friends locally, nor had anyone in. Don't you dare start feeling sorry for me though, as I rather enjoy celebrating alone. But there will be others who pine year after year for inclusion, an invite, a visit, and receive none. So you miss one year of getting together with family. Small price to pay under the circumstances, and be thankful that in these modern times you can visit over Zoom or FaceTime. In other words, NO WHINING! Remember those less fortunate than you in any way you can. And have a great day full of blessings.

Squaring Up

Like a petulant child unwilling to eat her vegetables or adhere to her bedtime, I've been avoiding the next step on the Peace quilt: trimming it to square. With no true borders or blocks at guide and a size larger than my cutting mat, this was going to be tricky. I'd done my best to make sure the only true lines in the design were centered and smoothed evenly over the felt "batting", even though the satin stitching along the raw edges of the applique had skewed a few places. But the quilting process apparently skewed things some more, and as I measured this way and that and put down a few chalk marks along the sides, I could tell I'd not end up with a squared quilt using my usual methods. Instead, I ended up folding top to bottom (where there seemed to be the least amount of discrepancy), matching those only lines in the design and lining up the folded edge with a line on the mat. Measuring from that fold, I marked the finished length of the quilt and trimmed away. I then trimmed either side before unfolding, measuring from the center of the design. I really had no wiggle room in this since the bottom width of the felt was exactly what the finished width of the quilt would be.

I opened it up and got out the ruler again, only to find that one side from the line design to the edge was narrower than the other. And actually, it didn't line up perfectly square either. I could see my chalk marks clearly on the offending too wide side and they angled nearly to nothing. Well, that's frustrating, and unwilling to fiddle with it more, I quit for the day.

I stepped into the studio today to return my laptop, not even out of my jammies yet, and there it was, taunting me. I was only going to take a picture of how far off that one side was but then started the fiddling, realized the chalk lines were actually correct, realigned my design points, ran my square-up ruler and my long ruler up and down the fold and across the quilt multiple times before I was sure this was right, trimming not just the long side but along the top too where one side was now slightly lower than the other. Although I have not rechecked measurements except to confirm that the space between the vertical design line and the outer edge are the same on both sides, I'm pretty sure it is square now . . . or square enough. The next step better not undo it!

Getting Comfortable With Layering

Here's a little something I tried this week. My worktable is littered with leftovers from completed projects not worthy of being tossed and the end product of experiments I don't know what to do with. They stay on the table so they are only slightly out of sight out of mind. When searching through piles, I come across them and consider what I might do with them, come up with nothing and put them back in the pile or sometimes have a lightbulb moment. But this piece of Kraft Tex left over from a strip cut for a book cover and used to expend paint from a circular dabber I've always known needed more added to it.

Tired of looking at it and having recently gone through my collection of stencils, I had planned to use more paint to stencil something over the circles and was considering colors. I'm drawn to paint for stamping and the like but often shy away because I consider it a messy process that can be wasteful. About the time I decided green was the thing to add, I remembered this art crayon that I'd used so successfully in stenciling a pattern on Kraft Tex for yet another book cover. A slightly stiff brush is all I need to transfer the soft crayon through the stencil, and feeling totally in control (which I often don't with acrylic paint), I spent a relaxing hour working a layer of pattern over the circles.

Layering has never come easy for me. I look at what I have and fear I will ruin, not enhance it with another layer. This often is true when I get ready to add the quilting to a piece, quilt stitches actually a layer of their own adding not only delineating lines but texture that could overwhelm the designs in the top. Occasionally my fears come true, but usually I realize that last layer makes the quilt. As I forayed into surface design, I discovered I had this same reluctance to add layer after layer. Usually pleased with whatever I do on the first layer, it's hard to convince myself that adding something else will improve things, give the piece more depth and interest, even when I see successful examples in other artists' work. So this was a good exercise for me, starting with something I wasn't that enamored with in the first place so not much to lose, and seeing how much this second layer I knew it needed improved it.

You can see the stenciling and pouncing process referenced here at this blog post.

Still Drawing

Once INKtober passed, I found myself automatically reaching for something to draw - the old establishing a habit thing apparently kicking in - but what? I decided to return to something I started back in July, filling one of the stab-binding books with eco-printed covers with drawings of leaves picked up on my walks or right in my yard. This is a continuance of the "Drawn to Nature" class from Christine Elder. Here you see an alder leaf drawn in July and some prints made from it, and next to it, this week's maple leaf and a seed pod. The paper is a smooth Bristol which is wonderful to draw on with pencil which erases well, but is not absorbent. Very easy to get too much ink on the leaf for the print.

Next up, a cluster of leaves from a dogwood bush. Yes, bush, not tree. Two totally different things. We had one of these bushes across the road that ran in front of our house, and it was my mother who told me its name. So imagine me moving to the Midwest and taking my first trip to Paducah for the big quilt show there, by bus with a group of quilters I did not know, and being so puzzled when everyone started pointing and exclaiming over the dogwoods we were passing. I don't see any dogwoods, just these trees with the big pink flowers. Could my mother have been wrong about the name of our bush that only had clusters of tiny white flowers? When I spotted similar bushes in my area here, it reminded me I'd never resolved this issue of who was right. Now I can confirm that there is indeed a dogwood bush and my mother knew what she was talking about.

And here's that sprig from the mountain ash I showed earlier. I was surprised to note that the leaves have serrated edges as did the chokecherry leaf I drew next - I'd never noticed that before on either. This is one of the things Christine stresses in her class, that you need to look closely at what you are drawing, get to know it well, not take anything about it for granted.

That early snow we got put the kibosh on our fall colors which were just starting to tune up. Golds and russets faded to merely faded and dead-looking. A pity, since that combination of golden yellow and russet is a favorite. So it pleased me no end to find this article about the color russet, its history and how it has been used by painters over the years. There's a little tonic in there at the end for our particular times so I hope you will read it to the end.

Russet, the Color of Peasants, Fox Fur, and Penance