So, my computer monitor is on the fritz - as of yesterday, it comes on for about 1/4 of a second and then the screen goes blank. I suppose the problem could be the video card for the computer, but... I tried hooking the monitor up to my work laptop yesterday and had the same problem, so I think it's really the monitor. Which is better, in a way, as I am more confident of my ability to replace the monitor than I am of my ability to replace the video card. But, still annoying, as I have photos to upload -- the Year of Scraps top no. 1 is pieced! -- and fabric to look at ;-), and this is NOT how I want to spend my January play money.
There are some flat screen monitors sitting forlornly in the IT work room at the office -- abandoned after people upgraded to larger monitors recently. I'm going to see if I can buy one for cheap -- because no matter how inexpensive a new one is, it's still a lot of yards to fabric to buy one. Cross your fingers and hope for me...
In other news -- I changed my normal gift certificate behavior and used a Christmas gift as soon as I got it -- ordered several pieces of the new Daisies and Dots collection as soon as Fabricworm got it in (I got the first cut off the bolts!) It arrived today, and it's all as bright and cheerful as it appeared on line. The scale of the prints is rather larger than I anticipated, though. It seems that more and more of the fabric lines coming out are medium to large scale -- the better to be used for garments and tote bags, etc., I suppose, but a little difficult for me to work with, since I tend to find a 4" square of fabric to be really really big. This stuff is really cheerful, though, which is what I want right now, so I will make it work!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Resurfacing
I probably should not have tried starting a blog in the fall, which is typically the busiest time of the year for me at my day job and especially as the Northwest days get shorter, the time when I have the least amount of energy and stick-to-it capacity. Since my last post it feels as though all I've done is work, and more work, and yet more work.
But I did get a chance to do some traveling that involved quilts and fiber. In October, I made my annual trip to California to visit Jaye and go to PIQF. I think it was a pretty good show this year, although I have to admit that there is no quilt in particular that has really stuck in my mind as some have in previous years. The fiber viewing highlight of that trip was the visit I made to the deYoung museum to see the exhibit titled To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color. The exhibit is about paste-resist dye techniques around the world -- everything from Japanese shibori to Indonesian batik to Ghanaian adinkra to Peruvian and Mongolian textiles. I was enthralled with the sense of richness achieved with the various techniques, all so very different from what I am seeing in the quilt world at the moment. The only thing I didn't like about the exhibit was the lack of a catalog! Unlike other museums I've visited recently, the deYoung does not allow photography in the textiles gallery, so I have pages and pages in my journal full of sketches from the exhibit, but black pen on white paper doesn't really evoke the depth of color I was seeing. The exhibit is only on through next weekend; if you have a chance, you should most definitely go and see it.
Last month I traveled to the East Coast to conduct a training, and then spent a few days in New York City. I had a chance to see friends that I hadn't seen in awhile, but also had time to myself, during which I made visits to Purl Soho and ABC Carpet and Home -- more for inspiration than to purchase anything -- and also visited the Whitney, the Metropolitan Museum, and both branches of the American Folk Art Museum. The AFAM is celebrating the Year of the Quilt, during which they will be displaying numerous quilts from their collection. Some of the masterpiece quilts are currently on display at the 53rd Street branch, and there is an exhibit of star quilts at the Lincoln Center branch. I assumed they would not allow photography, so I didn't even try to take pictures, but Rita over at Red Pepper Quilts was there shortly after I was and was able to build a nice set of photos which you can see on her Flickr site. I came back from the museums itching to get back into the studio. All around my office people have tacked up that "Keep calm and carry on" poster, but I'm more in the mood for the Matt Jones' "Get excited and make things" version.
So, I'm actually looking forward to the next couple of months when it is still too cold and wet to be in the garden - time to get back to playing with fabric. Wheeeee!!!!!
But I did get a chance to do some traveling that involved quilts and fiber. In October, I made my annual trip to California to visit Jaye and go to PIQF. I think it was a pretty good show this year, although I have to admit that there is no quilt in particular that has really stuck in my mind as some have in previous years. The fiber viewing highlight of that trip was the visit I made to the deYoung museum to see the exhibit titled To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color. The exhibit is about paste-resist dye techniques around the world -- everything from Japanese shibori to Indonesian batik to Ghanaian adinkra to Peruvian and Mongolian textiles. I was enthralled with the sense of richness achieved with the various techniques, all so very different from what I am seeing in the quilt world at the moment. The only thing I didn't like about the exhibit was the lack of a catalog! Unlike other museums I've visited recently, the deYoung does not allow photography in the textiles gallery, so I have pages and pages in my journal full of sketches from the exhibit, but black pen on white paper doesn't really evoke the depth of color I was seeing. The exhibit is only on through next weekend; if you have a chance, you should most definitely go and see it.
Last month I traveled to the East Coast to conduct a training, and then spent a few days in New York City. I had a chance to see friends that I hadn't seen in awhile, but also had time to myself, during which I made visits to Purl Soho and ABC Carpet and Home -- more for inspiration than to purchase anything -- and also visited the Whitney, the Metropolitan Museum, and both branches of the American Folk Art Museum. The AFAM is celebrating the Year of the Quilt, during which they will be displaying numerous quilts from their collection. Some of the masterpiece quilts are currently on display at the 53rd Street branch, and there is an exhibit of star quilts at the Lincoln Center branch. I assumed they would not allow photography, so I didn't even try to take pictures, but Rita over at Red Pepper Quilts was there shortly after I was and was able to build a nice set of photos which you can see on her Flickr site. I came back from the museums itching to get back into the studio. All around my office people have tacked up that "Keep calm and carry on" poster, but I'm more in the mood for the Matt Jones' "Get excited and make things" version.
So, I'm actually looking forward to the next couple of months when it is still too cold and wet to be in the garden - time to get back to playing with fabric. Wheeeee!!!!!
Year of scraps
As mentioned back in October, I've been feeling the desire to work my way through some of my accumulated scraps. While the blog has been silent the past months, I have still been sewing... a little. The blue solids in this first quilt top are from a fat quarter pack of Kona cotton solids, but all the other fabrics are from my scrap bins.
Quilt top for Margaret's Hope Chest - 45 x 60.
Center square log cabin blocks - warm color scraps. These will finish to 3.75".
Center square log cabin blocks - cool colors. Same size as warm colors. This piece is what I've been working on this weekend. There is one more row of very dark blocks to add to the top and two down the right side. It should finish to just over 55" square, unless I decide to add more rows to the top and bottom and turn it into a rectangle. I'm pretty sick of working with 1.125" cut strips, so making it into a rectangle seems pretty unlikely!
Quilt top for Margaret's Hope Chest - 45 x 60.The blocks below are made entirely from scraps...
Center square log cabin blocks - warm color scraps. These will finish to 3.75".
Center square log cabin blocks - cool colors. Same size as warm colors. This piece is what I've been working on this weekend. There is one more row of very dark blocks to add to the top and two down the right side. It should finish to just over 55" square, unless I decide to add more rows to the top and bottom and turn it into a rectangle. I'm pretty sick of working with 1.125" cut strips, so making it into a rectangle seems pretty unlikely!Sunday, October 10, 2010
Blue Plus Sign progress
Went straight into the studio when I woke up today and worked on the blue plus sign quilt top for a few hours, stitching the top together. I am a big proponent of sewing one's tops together in chunks instead of rows, and even though this design is laid out in rows, there are a few opportunities for breaking it up into chunks.
You have to pay close attention to what you're doing, though, and I didn't pay close enough attention, so there was a lot of sewing of long seams going on.
When I had the top laid out unpieced, I liked the way some of the plus signs were extending out into the border area because I hadn't cut all the pieces to size, so I left them that way as I pieced. I don't have any extensions at the top or bottom, though, and it feels unbalanced to me. I can add some to the top and bottom or I can unpick the sides and take out the pieces that are extending into the side border area. I'm trying not to let my decision be driven by the reality of which approach will take less work.
Taking Jaye's advice to "avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry," I am going to go away and eat dinner and see how I feel about it then!
You have to pay close attention to what you're doing, though, and I didn't pay close enough attention, so there was a lot of sewing of long seams going on.
When I had the top laid out unpieced, I liked the way some of the plus signs were extending out into the border area because I hadn't cut all the pieces to size, so I left them that way as I pieced. I don't have any extensions at the top or bottom, though, and it feels unbalanced to me. I can add some to the top and bottom or I can unpick the sides and take out the pieces that are extending into the side border area. I'm trying not to let my decision be driven by the reality of which approach will take less work.Taking Jaye's advice to "avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry," I am going to go away and eat dinner and see how I feel about it then!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Weekly fabric 1
Patty Young: Flora & Fauna/Dandelion in Stone (Michael Miller)Not my usual taste, but for some reason I couldn't resist this.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Center Diamond Leftovers
I have a lot of scraps. A LOT of scraps, which make me very happy. At one point, they were all contained in an Ikea wire basket system and a bunch of plastic storage bins
- nice and tidy, yes? Ha! The scraps have way outgrown this space, and much as I love them, I want some shelf space back. And floor space. So I'm into round five or six of "My Scrap Bag Runneth Over," my work series dedicated to making quilts that are not only scrappy-looking but really made out of scraps.
This week's project -- using up some of the scraps left over from the Center Diamond One of Each 6" fabric club I belonged to for several years - lots of 2"x 6" and 2" x 4" pieces. This "plus sign" design is perfect for using these, and I got on a roll on Friday night, staying up into the wee hours laying out this:
I'm pretty happy with it, but debating whether that white/blue leaf print in the middle stays or goes. Is it jumping out too much? Do I take it out, or try to find another couple of white background prints to scatter around the top? Decisions, decisions...
- nice and tidy, yes? Ha! The scraps have way outgrown this space, and much as I love them, I want some shelf space back. And floor space. So I'm into round five or six of "My Scrap Bag Runneth Over," my work series dedicated to making quilts that are not only scrappy-looking but really made out of scraps.This week's project -- using up some of the scraps left over from the Center Diamond One of Each 6" fabric club I belonged to for several years - lots of 2"x 6" and 2" x 4" pieces. This "plus sign" design is perfect for using these, and I got on a roll on Friday night, staying up into the wee hours laying out this:
I'm pretty happy with it, but debating whether that white/blue leaf print in the middle stays or goes. Is it jumping out too much? Do I take it out, or try to find another couple of white background prints to scatter around the top? Decisions, decisions...
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