Sigh...

Dear BC,

I suspect that your definition of "sigh" as it pertains to my snow...

is quite different from my definition of "sigh" as it pertains to the 4 inches of new snow I faced this morning.

It seemed a bit unfair that the sidewalk I shoveled at 8:00 a.m. had the same amount to shovel again at 9:30 a.m., and it was still coming down. Somehow, it just seemed easier to crawl over the snowbanks to the bike trail and walk to church, rather than dig out the car and sidewalk again.

And while Jesse feels quite sorry for you and the rain you will be "shoveling"...


She still wants to know when "Uncle Bill" will be arriving to take over, so that "Mom" will stop making her sit out in the cold. This isn't stopping any time soon!


Sigh...

Texturizing Experiment

I belong to an on-line surface design group that has a New Year's Kick-Start challenge going on right now. Oh, alright, it was MY idea to have the challenge as I really felt the need for any kind of kick-start. I have so many ideas that I intend to try and never do. Sometimes a deadline with a group of people waiting for your contribution is just what I need to get moving.

I chose a technique out of Exploring Textile Arts that texturizes fabric through shrinking. It's a simple concept exploiting a fact that most quilters know: cotton fabric, especially muslins and flannels, will shrink when washed, so if you mix washed and unwashed fabric in a piece, you will get uneven shrinkage and puckers. Of course, if you are making a traditional quilt, you want to avoid this like the plague. If you're an art quilter, you may want to exploit this fact.

I started with a piece of muslin that I'd painted. I'd overworked the blending of colors and ended up with something I didn't like very much. It was an excellent candidate for further play. I layered it with a piece of muslin that had not been washed and zigzagged around the outside and through the middle.

Next, stitching is done throughout the piece. I wanted to see what different effects I'd get with different types of crossed and parallel lines so each quadrant is stitched differently. Here you can see I penciled some guidelines on the back.

With yellow cotton thread in the bobbin, I stitched along the lines from the back. The yellow is already making this piece look better.

Last step is to wash the piece in hot water and dry it in a hot dryer. The unwashed muslin on the bottom shrinks up while the piece on top does not, creating the puckering that provides the texture. This piece started at 15 inches and finished at 14 inches.

I wasn't sure how much the thread would actually show - from the picture in the book, I thought maybe not very much. But as you can see, it does show, so if I were to do this for real, I'd be a little more careful about those straight lines. There wasn't as much texturizing as I had imagined (it looks more so in the picture than in real life), and I'm wondering if curving overlapping lines more closely stitched would do that. Perhaps even a meandering stipple might work. Just stitching the two pieces of fabric together started to pull the piece up and provide a little texture.

This piece isn't done. I think the next step will be to apply more paint - either to pool in the wrinkles or to highlight the ridges.

A Little More Holiday Cheer

Two more presents arrived the other day - the last of the Christmas bounty, I'm sure. I love my friends...they know just the sort of books that will spark my creativity. Journal partner, Judi, sent this one on trees, saying "May you make many more quilts on your favorite subject." A quick paging through it got my imagination going - it is a beautiful book for any lover of trees. I'm guessing a few of these images make their way into my work this year.

I love my relatives...they know just the colors and textures that speak to me. The book is lying on a Tibetan shawl of cotton/silk that my sister-in-law, Karen, picked up at a market in conjunction with a visit from the Dalai Lama himself. It is soft and light and silky and rich and woven with a textural design. I'm sure the Dalai Lama blessed it, right Karen? Well, I'll pretend he did and feel peace emanating from it whenever I throw it over my shoulders.

The Snow

I haven't wanted to complain too much about the snow, but it did seem like I'd been shoveling about every other day since that 16" at the beginning of December. But the weatherman confirmed my suspicions: We had 18 days of measurable snowfall in December, which is close to the record. Usually, it was only a couple of inches at a time, but a few days it was more. There haven't been any warm-ups either, so it has been stacking up. Here's my stubby dog standing in what was a shoveled sidewalk, but now needs working on again because snow has slid off the roof.

I've had a bit of a reprieve - last night's 3 inches was the first since Sunday morning. I hardly knew what to do with myself those three days. ;-) It gave me a chance to dig out around the car a bit. Don't know how long these snowbanks will last. It has gotten above freezing and started raining tonight. I really hate it when it does that.

Treasure Box

I keep my wrapping paper supplies in a cardboard box. At some point, it seemed like a good idea (or maybe the only place I had room) to store this old Lipton "Jewel Casket" tea tin from the late 1960's or early 1970's in it too. For most of it's life with me, it has held the overflow of pens and pencils we seemed to collect. Periodically I go through it to test the pens, tossing any that have dried out and restocking my pen holders around the house. I hadn't looked in it for quite a while, so when the box came out to wrap Christmas presents, I took a few minutes to sort through it again. There were magic markers, pens for writing on overhead projector acetate, lots of free promotional ballpoint pens, and even an old fountain pen that I think belonged to one of my brothers back when he was in high school.

There were surprises. Like a second Shaeaffer cartridge pen. I used to use these in college - I could get refills in pretty colors like turquoise, and I liked the calligraphy-style nib that scratched across the paper. I hadn't used mine for a long time, having run out of cartridges, but I just got more a few months ago. I didn't remember having more than one of these pens. I also didn't remember having this many drawing pencils. I don't know where they came from really. I did take a summer school art course when I was in junior high; could they be that old?

There were a lot of felt tipped pens, about half of them dried up. Do they even make the Bic Banana any more? They were all the rage in the '70's. A few rollerball pens survived as well. As old as some of these pens are, it's a wonder any of them still write.

And after all the pens were removed, here is what was left - lots and lots of lead pencils. This is probably enough to last me the rest of my life, since now I tend to use mechanical pencils. Oh, and there were a few hi-lighters - I got so addicted to them in college and still use them from time to time. You can see the brown fountain pen in there too, and a cheap plastic thing that had a nib on the end to dip in ink, just like in the olden days. This was another fad from the 1970's.

It's New Year's Eve...

...and I need to open some bottles of something so I can put my new wine stoppers to good use!

Brother Mad Max fulfilled my wish for "something made from birch wood" even though he complained that birch does not have an interesting or very visible grain, and is very hard to come by. "I don't care," I countered, "The Birch Lady needs something made of birch!"

He came up with the clever idea of trying birch plywood, and what stunning results that produced. But I like the "plain" one too. Now I have "color coded" wine stoppers - a dark wood one (similar to ones in this post) for reds, and these for whites - Thanks! (Proper hand-written thank you note is speeding on its way via Pony Express...)

And Happy New Year!

December Journal Quilt

Here is the final journal quilt of the year, the last of the series based on themes and quotations from a 2004 calendar entitled "Simplicity: Inspirations for a Simpler Life." December's theme is "Insight" and the quotation from Aldous Huxley: "The smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen." I didn't have to think twice about what I would use to interpret this. I'd saved an article from the September 2007 issue of Quilters Newsletter by Margit Morawietz about "Folds, Pleats, and Tucks" which showed how to manipulate pleats to reveal diamonds of fabric - a little like Cathedral Windows blocks. I didn't expect to see "the infinite" through my "windows" but at least I might gain some insight into a new dimensional technique.

I started by picking two fabrics: the green would be my main fabric and the multicolor batik my contrasting fabric to be revealed. Here also you see the magazine article with Margit's intriguing quilt using this technique.

Her measurements struck me as a bit fussy, so I rounded them off a bit. Essentially, you cut the fabric to be revealed twice the width of the top fabric and add 1/2" for seam allowance. In my case that meant 2-1/2" strips of the batik and 1-1/2" strips for the green. I cut the two outer green strips slightly wider to allow some wiggle room in case things shrank in the stitching.

These strips were alternated and sewn together into what looks like a stripset. I figured accurate straight seams were important, so used my trick of pressing a small PostIt note pad next to the presser foot as a guide.

Next, seams are pressed open. I used another trick of mine - draping the piece over a tailor's seam or sleeve roll. This effectively keeps the seams on either side of the one I was working on out of the way of the iron.

Here's the pressed strip set ready for the next step - folding and pleating.

It's difficult to get a picture of this first fold, but if you look at the top, what I've done is folded back the green strip right along the seam line. Each seam line gets the same treatment.

Now for the pleating. Margit likens this to box pleats you find in skirts (maybe you have to be of a certain age to remember those?). I finger-pressed a short fold on either end of the batik strip to mark the center of it. Then the fold along the seam is brought over to that line and the pleat it forms pressed into place. This was a tedious and time-consuming task, I discovered.

To hold the pleats in place for the next steps, it was necessary to pin, then sew lines of basting across them.

Here is where the process started breaking down for me. Normally, this pleated section would be inserted into a larger quilt top design. In this journal quilt, it WAS the whole design. Before doing the tucking part, I was supposed to "complete" the quilt, i.e., layer it, quilt it and bind it. The pleated section was to have no quilting on it. Well, that wouldn't do, so I set my machine to an undulating decorative stitch, put in some gold metallic thread and stitched two horizontal quilting lines that divided the top into 3 more or less equal sections. I sewed on binding to hold the edges in place, but didn't totally complete it because of the way I print a label and fuse it on as backing once I've completed all the sewing on my journal quilts. I still had technique to work through, so was lacking all the information I would want to put on the label. I also wasn't sure if I'd be doing more stitching all the way through the layers. If so, I wouldn't want that happening over the label and obscuring the information there. I'd just have to hope I could continue on.

Up to this point, the directions had been very detailed, but now that I needed specific information, the directions went general: "Using a thread color of your choice, tack the edges together with a few stitches..." I could see from the photos what I was to do, but there was no suggestion of how to secure those tacking stitches. I tried several things, and eventually realized I could leave the knot on the front because it would be hidden once the tuck was taken and stitched. A backstitch along the side of the tuck followed by pulling the thread through the loop to knot it didn't show much, and I could pull the thread end into the fold. Nowhere could I see that you were to run any stitches all the way through - the entire pleated and tucked section just sits on top of the batting and backing unsecured. I am really uncomfortable with that.

But what bothered me even more was the way the whole piece buckled as soon as I tacked a tuck. My three sections, as you can see below, undulate like swells on an ocean. The thimble placed in one of the "windows" gives you an idea of how deep they are. I don't think this will flatten out with ironing - if it does, I think it will change the look of the tucks to something undesirable.

Bottom line: This is far more dimension than I am comfortable with. It uses a lot of fabric and takes a lot of time to sew and press. And unless I missed something, I can't imagine how you could ever have a nice flat and well-hanging quilt inserting this kind of dimensional accent. I doubt that this is something I will ever use. As always, clicking on any picture will pull up a larger view.

Redwork Cross

When last I reported on this project, I was scrambling to finish it by Christmas, along with the normal holiday preparations. I indeed completed it to present to its new owners on Christmas Day. See these posts here and here, for info regarding adding the borders and the quilting process.

I tried a different way of applying binding that incorporates the pocket as part of the binding. It was devised by Gretchen Hudock and detailed in the September 2001 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. Gads, I didn't think it'd been THAT long since I saved it to try. Maybe I put it aside because most of the quilts I made up until a few years ago were going into shows requiring a 4 inch hanging sleeve. This method produces a narrower sleeve well suited to smaller wall quilts that may be bypassing the traditional exhibit route. The instructions are still available in pdf format on QMN's website here.

Basically, this is a french fold or double fold binding that is cut twice as wide as normal. The extra that ends up on the back doubles as a sleeve, top and bottom. Some quilts benefit from the weight of a rod along the bottom.

The direction said to cut the binding strips 5 inches wide. I would normally cut mine 2 inches although I know many people who use 2-1/2 inch strips. I decided to go with her directions on this trial piece, but I think a 4 inch strip would have been wide enough for me. Press in half and sew on with a 1/4 inch seam allowance as you normally would. Here's a picture of the back before turning the binding over it. It will cover up much of that border quilting.

When the binding is turned to the back, the sides are turned and pinned first, then the top and bottom. This is different than the normal way which folds to reduce bulk at the miters. It is what allows a rod to be run under the binding. The binding is then held in place by stitching in the ditch from the front. This also catches the ends of the binding where they were folded under - see picture below.

The picture also shows the loose flap that results. The directions didn't say to stitch this closed, but I knew from experience this would forever be catching the rod. Since the extension of binding had to be hand stitched in place anyway, I continued all the way up and caught the fold on the underside as well - see below.

It was at this point that I remembered that I like my sleeves to have a little ease in them, not lie flat against the quilt top. Otherwise, the rod can cause a visible lump across the top of the quilt. I decided there was no reason why I couldn't create a little fold by pulling up the binding a little before stitching it in place. Here I have the fold pinned about 1/4" below the edge of the binding. You can make out the top stitching on the right side.

Here's a closer view of the pinned fold.

And here you can see how much of a sleeve it makes and how nicely it lies without pulling on the quilt at all.

I decided not to make the fold on the bottom sleeve. Here you can see how much wider that makes the sleeve.

I generally use 1/4 to 3/8 inch wooden dowels to hang my smaller pieces. Here you can see how nicely this sleeve-in-a-binding works. The angle of the miter leaves plenty of dowel exposed to rest on push pins or nails to hang.

As with most methods, there are pros and cons. You could not easily use this method on a quilt unless there was one side at least 16 inches long. When you join the "tails" of the binding on an angle, that 5 inch width suddenly stretches, and you need a good 10 inches between where you started and stopped stitching to maneuver in. Also, this methods provides no extra protective layer of fabric between the rod and the quilt back. There's always a chance that a wooden dowel will emit acids that will stain the quilt, which is why I usually use a tube-style sleeve. This problem is easily solved though. Gretchen uses fiberglass rods used for electric fence posts which have the additional benefit of not warping.

As for pluses, I felt this did take less time to do than sewing on a separate sleeve and I liked the fact that I wasn't stitching extra layers of fabric into the binding area as some sleeve methods have you do. I encourage you to give this one a try.

Merry Christmas To Me

This arrived before Christmas, a little gift to myself. I was ordering some notecards on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, and popped into the sale page out of curiosity. It is divided up into departments: jewelry, shawls, art books... I certainly don't need more books, but I thought I'd look anyway - they often have exceptional discounts on coffee table books. Once you click on books, you get another page of subdivisions, and there, advertising one of them was this book. I couldn't believe it. I first became acquainted with Signac through an article in the Smithsonian Magazine. This is the painting that captured my imagination and wouldn't let go.

As you no doubt have guessed, it was that background, so reminiscent of fabric, that intrigued me as well as the curving lines. I took it as a personal challenge to test my technical prowess: could I draft and piece a similar background to make a small wall quilt. I used the Hoffman Challenge fabric for that year and submitted it for consideration - but it wasn't chosen. Ah, well, I was happy I made it anyway.

I was in one of my stubborn moods when I made it. Every curve you see, with the exception of the circles, are pieced, not appliqued. One section in particular was nearly impossible to do that way, and to the casual observer, it actually looks to be appliqued. I learned a lesson there about how far to take curved piecing.

I quilted the heck out of it, trying different designs I'd seen used elsewhere, then added lots of beads. The hand didn't get added until after the piece was rejected by the Hoffman Challenge jury. A friend kept insisting I must put that hand in there. Having no faith in my abilities to draw it freehand, I scanned my own arm and hand, then traced the outline from that. At one point I'd considered dangling some of the challenge fabric from that hand, but in the course of making this, it started reminding me of planets swirling in space. I named it "Night & Noon on the Planet Hoffman" and thought of the hand as a great creator bringing a special universe into being. So sprays of beads rising up out of the hand seemed more appropriate.

Since making that quilt, I've periodically searched for more paintings by Signac, without a lot of success. I'm not sure why I am so drawn to his work (what little I've seen), but it speaks to me more than the other impressionists do. When I saw a whole book on him available at less than half price, well, I was willing to take a chance. If nothing else, I knew it had THE picture in it plus a few working sketches to show how the idea developed.

The book is beautiful, I love the rest of his work as much as what I had already seen, and the book also includes works of his contemporaries like Monet and Seurat. I feel like I hit the jackpot!

As always, click on any picture for a larger view.

More Christmas Bounty

Here's another gift, one which wouldn't normally be considered quilt related. The givers might have thought I'd be inspired by the design, but I'm guessing they'd be surprised that my first impulse upon unwrapping it would be to try it as a rubbing plate. Gotta figure out if I can do that without leaving paint on it, because ultimately I do want to use it for its intended purpose - a decorative piece that can be hung outside. It's one heavy sucker - antiqued wrought iron, or something similar. It is beautiful in its form and texture. Thanks!

A Bountiful Christmas

I thought I would share some of the quilt-related gifts I received this year. This gift bag isn't exactly that, but it sure is cute. I'm wondering if my mother-in-law made it - she was toying with a Christmas stocking for an addition to the family, so maybe she got ambitious. She'll probably laugh when I ask, followed by a long, 'Nooooooo!" She used to do a lot of sewing and needlework, but not so much anymore.

Of course, before I could find out what I got, I was distracted by some of the beautiful wrapping paper. The two floral ones look like fabric I've seen (and may even have in my stash...). The red snowflake one has a sheen to it not picked up in the photo.

Two friends took a chance by getting me books that might very well have been on my shelf already. But no, both of these are welcomed additions to me collection.

They are even autographed...Note that the one on the left has a name crossed out and mine written in. There's a story there, but I have to wait until that friend returns from her holiday trip.

I can almost guess what the story is by the second book she gave me - all in Japanese! I'm betting she picked these up at a guild "yard sale." Anyone out there who can translate and tell me the name of this one?

Here's an interesting page from inside, telling how to care for your quilts, apparently.

Ah, the universal language of pictures and illustrations - this book is full of them, making it usable, I think, even though I can't decipher the instructions.

This particular friend wasn't done with me yet. The books were tucked inside this tote bag, which is a bit of a private joke between us. I'd started the block in a workshop with the "Piece o' Cake" ladies who were touting their new line of fabric. We were given kits for the block, and while I loved the brown background squares, I just about couldn't stand the bright striped and dotted fabric mixed with that electric green. I forced myself to finish the block, telling myself it was good practice for learning their unique method of applique (which I really liked), but I really hated everything about it. The pattern style and the fabric just weren't me.

But as you know, I throw nothing away. I kept thinking I'd finish it out into a small wall hanging and donate it to a quilt auction. Yet every time I'd get it out, those colors would turn my stomach and make me put it away. Finally, I pawned it off on my friend, suggesting that maybe she and her mother could figure out some way to save it. Oh, dear. They thought it was as awful as I did! But they didn't give it back, so I was finally shed of it.

Or so I thought. Not long ago, I asked my friend if she'd ever finished out that block. No, she said. She'd been making lots of bags lately, so I suggested she put it on a tote bag and donate it to an auction. She thought that was a great idea. Little did I know she was going to play this prank and "donate" it back to me.

Funny thing is, I think it looks pretty good as a bag. I'm thinking I'll applique some letters in blue along that bottom dark strip - probably to spell out "Spring," and maybe even use it. That is, unless I decide to donate it to an auction...

I also got a fat quarter of motorcycle fabric from another quilting friend who knows how I follow road racing. The way the bikes are arranged, I couldn't help but think of using it in kaleidoscope blocks. It's a sateen, oddly enough, so maybe it would be a fun purse lining. We'll see.

My Condolences...

...to all of you who had to go back to work today. I did not even have visitors, and I am pooped, trying to hold on to the warm glow of Christmas and feeling like doing nothing. Going back to a nine-to-five job has to be a huge shock to the system. It was shocking enough to discover I better get some bills off today - what a reality check!

I have fond memories of "Christmas Vacation" both when I was in school and later when I worked in the public school system. That lovely week between holidays, before the beginning of the New Year, before having to get back to seriousness and commitments, was always full of sleeping in, reading, knitting in front of the fireplace, listening to holiday music. Mom was a teacher so had that vacation too, but Dad only had Christmas Day and New Year's Day off. He worked underground in a silver mine, a physically punishing and dangerous job. That's him on the right, filling in for a shift boss and giving a tour at the 3000 foot level to one of the mine directors (spring 1958). Paid holidays were few, paid sick leave nonexistent. It's no wonder he slept so much on those few extra days off. There were times I could sense the resentment when he had to head back to work the day after Christmas while the rest of us goofed off.

And so it was with great relish that he teased us about having to go to school the day after Easter. Since Easter always fell on Sunday, the mines always gave the workers Monday as their official day off. "What?" dad would innocently ask, "You DON'T have today off?" I suspect he rather enjoyed rubbing it in and having the house all to himself.

In spite of his stressful life (or maybe because of it), dad had quite a sense of humor. When he survived 25 years working for the Galena mine, he tried to brush off the honor by writing a quip on the newspaper article below.

He was lucky to spend so many years underground with only a few minor injuries. He did have a few close brushes with death, and his survival wasn't all luck. I found this 1961 photo with a typewritten note from "Larry" saying, "I appreciate your efforts in keeping your work place with good floors and the necessary safeguards." That's dad on the right.

The mine is still in operation today, men still taking extraordinary risks to support their families. Here's what it looks like on top, no hint as to the dark and dank recesses the miners decend to.

I'd like to think that things got easier for dad as he got older, and we five kids also got older and responsible for ourselves. My brothers are all quite a bit older than me, so I remember many years of feeling like an only child, spending lots of one-on-one time with dad in his off hours. Here we are on vacation in 1968. I think he's trying to suppress a laugh there.

I'd also like to think that he never forgot the good times interspersed with the harsher ones. This is one of my favorite pictures of mom and dad when they were courting in 1937. He was in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Pactola (South Dakota) and she came out to the camp with her church group which put on dances for the boys.

Thanks for indulging me as I drifted off into a family memory. I meant to tell you how I dreamed of spending this week catching up on my reading. like in the days of my youth. But since that isn't going to happen, this little sidetrack was a very pleasant substitute.