Week in Review 2013 - 08/30

Adoration

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Remember the baby in Adoration? That's Andrew, my first grandchild. He started first grade this week. Many people's lives revolve around the school year be they students, teachers, school administrators, school bus drivers, maintenance staff or parents. This has me thinking about the importance of learning and how to continue to learn even when we no longer attend a brick and mortar school. An on-line place that provides excellent quilting classes is Craftsy.com  . 

What I have done the past several years is a more self directed education versus signing up for particular classes. This has been thanks to the Visioning Project on SAQA.com (Studio Art Quilt Associates). You do have to be a member of SAQA to participate in the Visioning Project, but the project itself is free. The Visioning Project has you set a goal/project that you would like to achieve between October 1 and September 30. The first year I did a weekly lesson from Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. It was a great way to gain confidence with my drawing, especially developing a more whimsical versus representational style. This past year I committed to working in my studio for 120 full days. Now I am deliberating about where to apply my focus for next year. 

If you were to sign up for the Visioning Project what would you take on?

Enough blathering. Time to check in and see how the week went.

Companion Oysters is nearly done.

1) Companion Oysters 

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters. - Done!

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it. - Started.

I did soak Companion Oysters to remove the basting glue, marker and water soluble basting thread. Surprise, surprise when I drained the water from the tub there were a few cat hairs that hadn't been in there when I filled it with water. The quilt is now blocked and dry. It could be my imagination, but it looks a tad brighter, too.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Mostly done.

The assignment from last Thursday was to create a section of the goddess's hair in Express Your Love from log cabin blocks created directly on a foundation. This proved to be a most frustrating experience for me. Leah's method of filling in the gaps between blocks just wasn't registering. It was far more complex for me than create a fabric from log cabin blocks and then cutting out the portion I wanted to use, much the way Michael James used to work. I didn't bother taking a picture of the debacle in progress. I am hoping that when it is finally finished it will make more sense.

Bellybuttons

Tuesday's assignment was another free motion quilting motif. Leah named this one, Bellybuttons. 

Another practice piece is full. Note how Bellybuttons
is basically the same pattern as Missing Pieces
(lower left squares) only the shape is different. Can you find where
I tested some ideas for Companion Oysters?

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon." - This will be an assignment for some distant future date. I keep listing it because I don't want to forget it.

I am taking a week break to celebrate my 120 studio day goal being met. When I return I plan to spend the week attacking the following:

1) Companion Oysters 

a) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it.

b) Face Companion Oysters

c) Make and attach the sleeves.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments

 
Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Week in Review 2013 - 08/26

1) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

Detail from the backside of Companion Oysters

Whatever was I thinking? Although the deadline is not officially here, I am officially opting to let it slip by without finishing Companion Oysters. I could obsessively work every waking hour and some sleeping hours to finish, but where is the joy in that? Instead I have learned (not for the first, second or perhaps tenth or twentieth time) that intense, detailed free motion quilting takes far more time than I ever book for it, but it is worth it. Companion Oysters is coming alive with the attention to detail that the quilting is giving it.

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters. - Started.

Detail from the front side of Companion Oysters
The more intense quilting surrounding the seaweed
helps create a sense of depth when seen in person.
I opted to quilt a horizontal pattern to enhance the
feeling that the shells are on a beach.

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it. - Not possible.

Another detail from further away of Companion Oysters.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments

Express Your Love II covered with a plastic orientation
sheet that helps with positioning where various pieces that
will eventually be appliquéd to the background will go.

It can be tempting when I am running behind on my exhibition pieces to skip the assignments that Leah doles out weekly. So, why don't I? The answer is simple. I find that her assignments sharpen my skills and give me new techniques to add to my tool box. I can honestly say that it is making my way through these assignments that has given me the confidence to make quilting as much a part of the design as the image when creating my work.


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. 

There were two assignments this week. The first was a new foundation style based on triangles and rods. I used it for the tress on the left in Express Your Love II.  I am really curious to see how Leah will recommend that we attached the seven pieced tresses to the quilt.

Detail from Express Your Love II. This week the "tress"
on the left was added. Note how triangles alternate with
rods versus the tress on the right which is primarily
skinny "wobbly" slivers.

The second assignment was a new free motion quilting motif Leah dubbed, Missing Pieces. This didn't grab me when I saw the demonstration video. However, I found it both very easy to stitch and I rather liked the pattern as part of the sampler of free motion quilting patterns I have been testing out recently. I even found it was not that difficult to fit around other motifs.

Practice sample of Missing Pieces.

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon." - Some day.

I suspect I won't finish quilting Companion Oysters next week. However I am willing to give it another shot. 



1) Companion Oysters 

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters.

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. 

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.