Week in Review 2014 - 05/09

Feeling Groovy
4" H x 6" W

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

The week before I was playing with a new technique. This week I am gently easing myself back to working on items that I am committed to. I have returned to what I refer to as the Zen of quilting. I use the word Zen very loosely here. When I am repeating the same free motion quilting pattern to a point where my mind is both focused on the task and free to wander it is a form of meditation for me. I find myself in a relaxed state of contentment. It seemed that every project I worked on this week brought me to contentment. Ironic how playing with something new can be more stressful than working on pieces with deadlines, but using tried and true techniques.

 Here is what I achieved as I relaxed this week.

Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall
begins to take shape

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Create the blue print for this quilt - Done
b) Start the piecing - Done

This is a huge accomplishment for me since this piece is a commission. The terror of beginning was stifling. Now that I have a formal blue print and feel confident in my fabric palette it is like putting down a 40 pound backpack after a full day's hike.

Watermelon
4" H x 6" W

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Create several small works for the exhibition - Done

I cut up Raspberry Lime Rickey from last week to make several 4" H x 6" W pieces. I will be mounting each piece on an 8" H x 10" W white mat board and framing them in a shadow box frame of the same size. 

3) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - Done

I recently treated myself to a panel of Leah Day's cheater cloth. I thought it would be a fun way to practice the various free motion quilting motifs she demos on her videos. Growing Sprouts was the perfect motif to use in the hair.


4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done

Even the mixed media assignment of the week felt like the Zen of mixed media. Our instructor, Danielle Daniel had us start with a meditation. The goal of the assignment was to create a piece that illustrated the process of taking a moment out of a busy schedule to refresh oneself.

I will be taking several weeks off from working in my studio and writing my blog. When I return this is what I plan to return to:

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Finish piecing the background
b) Start the quilting

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Create several more small works for the exhibition

3) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.


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 2014 - 05/02

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Many, many, many years ago I read an article in a quilting magazine by Katie Pasquini Masopust on how she periodically takes a break from her demanding schedule of lecturing, writing and creating art, by doing a simple no brains required scrap quilt. I believe the method she used to make these quilts is called Mile a Minute, but I may be confusing two articles. What struck me was not the method used to create the quilt, but the need to break out and play periodically. That is precisely what I did this week.

Detail from Raspberry Lime Rickey

I have an opportunity to hang a few small pieces at a local gallery as part of the Wisconsin Visual Artists. The work must be 12" x 12" or smaller. I prefer not to work in this size, so have no pieces available to offer. However, I have been longing to play with Carol Ann Waugh's method of creating quilts with the preprogrammed embroidery stitches on sewing machines. What I love about Carol's method is that it lends itself to creating a piece that can be cut into several smaller pieces. These pieces can be hung separately or hung to form a contemporary style grouping.

Carol gives several great tips in her video on how to do this method effectively. One, is to use a 90/14 needle since often the thread of choice will be thicker than that normally used for piecing and quilting. Two, watch the video to see how she guides the fabric. This helps avoid puckers and bunching that can come from the typical hand position of parentheses around the needle. I would like to add third. When working with metallic threads run several beads of Sewers Aid  down the spool of thread and let it sit a few moments before threading your machine. 

A full view of Raspberry Lime Rickey.
Currently it is 16" H x 18" W.

This week is proof positive that I can stray from my plans. Here is how I strayed:

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Create the blue print for this quilt - Not yet.
b) Start the piecing  - Not yet.

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Determine if any of my free motion quilting samplers could be repurposed to suit - Nope

I decided to use Carol Ann Waugh's method to create a couple of pieces for the Wild Apple.

b) Create several 12" x 12" or smaller works for the exhibition - Started

3) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - Done

The motif this week was Fish Tails.
Must say I love motifs that pivot and echo,
both to work up and visually.

4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done

The only assignment was to watch an interview by Tamara Laporte with Carla Sonheim. 

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label. - Done


Next week is my last week to work in the studio in May. It is also a week filled with non studio commitments. When I do make it into the studio here is where I plan on focusing my attention:

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Create the blue print for this quilt
b) Start the piecing 

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Create several small works for the exhibition

3) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.


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 2014 - 04/25

Ariana's Building Blocks64" H x 49" W

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

It's spring in Appleton, WI, my home town. The birds are sporting their brightest plumage of the year, pairing up and building nests. My husband and I relish this time of year as everything comes to life. We take advantage of the ice free ground and warmer weather to walk the neighborhood, noticing the changes and chatting about this and that. This morning the dominant topic was financial planning for our retirement, still nearly a decade away. What we didn't include in this discussion, but something that I think about is what, oh what to do with all the quilts I have made over the years. True, some like Ariana's Building Blocks have been given to friends and family. A few quilts have been commissioned or sold. However, after making 5 - 6 quilts every year for over 25 years I have more quilts than even the Princess and the Pea could sleep on. My children have not expressed an interest in my work. Who knows about my grandchildren, but I assume they won't my quilts either. I could use some help. What plans have you made for quilts? Any recommendations?

Hip, hip hooray! Ariana's quilt is done. I will send it to her next week. That is one quilt I won't have to worry about  when it is time to downsize. It did dominate my time this week as you can see.

1) Ariana's Building Blocks previously known as Tumbling Blocks I 

a) block and square up the quilt - Done!
b make the binding - Done!
c) attach the binding - Done!
d) make the sleeve - Done!
e) attach the sleeve - Done!

2) Leah Day projects.

Blazing Spiral
A free motion quilting motif by Leah Day

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - Done!

I tried my hand at Leah Day's Blazing Spiral. I found this pretty tricky despite the fact that I am normally comfortable with spiraling in and out of shape. This would be a great motif for tree bark or reptile skin. 

Life Book 2014 Lesson 17
Taught by Tascha Parkinson

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

It was a wise decision to tackle the mixed media lessons in Life Book 2014 this year. Each assignment gives me a chance to explore design principles from repetition to scale. I am also enjoying learning different ways to systematically approach drawing people and animals. This lesson was taught by Tascha Parkinson. Her work features girls with apple kissed cheeks. The lesson gave me another opportunity to incorporate text in my artwork.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.

Now that Ariana's quilt is done it is time to move on to other projects. Here are some of my ideas for next week:

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Create the blue print for this quilt
b) Start the piecing 

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Determine if any of my free motion quilting samplers could be repurposed to suit
b) Create several 12" x 12" or smaller works for the exhibition

3) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.


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 2014 - 04/18

Ariana 

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Sample block for the Community Quilt Workshop

Last week I left you with this cliff hanger: "It is down to the wire for finishing Tumbling Blocks. The big question is what will happen first. Will I finish the quilt or will my grandchild be born?" The answer is in, Ariana arrived on April 14 and I am still completing the finish work on her quilt. Heavy sigh, since I hate to miss a deadline. Still, I am delighted to welcome my fifth grandchild and second granddaughter to our family.

One of the reasons I didn't have Ariana's quilt done before she was born was because I joined a local artisans collective. Their mission was to fill a popup gallery with art, music, poetry and workshops. I am one of the artists, have volunteered to run a workshop I titled "Community Quilt," am organizing the schedule of gallery hosts and of course attending some of the numerous planning meetings. The exhibition is next week. We have built it. Now, fingers crossed, the community will come to see what we are about and engage in the numerous interactive art events. The hope is that this will be successful enough to become an annual event.

Even with all this excitement I did manage to move ahead ever so slightly with my published plans for the week. Here is how it went.

Detail of Tumbling Blocks border quilting - backside

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30 - however, Ariana had other plans) 

a) finish quilting the border - Done!
b) block and square up the quilt - Not yet.
c) make the binding - Started
d) attach the binding - Not yet.
e) make the sleeve - Not yet.
f) attach the sleeve - Not yet.

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - Not yet.

Actually, I was very tempted to do this, but decided to save it for next week when I would need a free motion quilting fix. 

We were encouraged to use puff paint.
I don't own any, so I substituted glitter glue.
I just can't resist all things sparkly.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

Traci Bautista was the teacher for Week 16's lesson, titled "In the Moment." The premise was to create the piece intuitively with each new mark and shape being suggested by what had come before. This is the first mixed media piece I have done where I felt my text work actually enhanced versus detracted from the piece. 

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.

My priority for next week continues to be finishing Tumbling Blocks. I am very confident that I will meet my goal of mailing it to Ariana before I head out in a few weeks to give her the grandmother seal approval, a kiss on that precious baby's head.

1)  Tumbling Blocks I 

a) block and square up the quilt
b make the binding
c) attach the binding
d) make the sleeve
e) attach the sleeve

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.


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.

Weekly Report 2014 - Week 04/11

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Front Side of Tumbling Blocks after
the inner panel has been quilted.
Most browsers will provide you with an
enlarged image if you click on an
image in the blog.

I had forgotten just how heavy, or should I say HEAVY an intricately pieced quilt can be when I am trying to manipulate it under the needle for free motion quilting. At first I thought the heft was due to the fact that I opted to baste the quilt with safety pins instead of hand baste it with thread. However, even after 75% of the pins have been removed it feels just as heavy. True it is larger than I normally work, approximately 70" H x 50" W before it is trimmed. My suspicion is that the weight is due to all those seams, so that instead of two layers of fabric and batting I am really dealing with three layers of fabric.

My tip for working with such a heavy piece - yoga. No other exercise routine I have done over the years has done a better job of aligning my back, keeping metacarpal tunnel syndrome at bay and building my upper body strength. On a previous blog I stated if you only want to learn one yoga posture than chose Mountain Pose. That is great for releasing kinks and bringing down stress levels. If you want to get the benefits I mentioned earlier, then add Downward Facing Dog and a reverse wrist stretch to your repertoire.

This is the back side of Tumbling Blocks. It
is much easier to see the progress I made
with quilting from this perspective.

Despite a week with a few extra commitments I managed to make good progress with my number one quilting project. Of course it didn't hurt that the quilting motif that made the most sense for the majority of the piece was a mid-sized stippling.

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30) 

a) finish quilting the inner section - Done!

Ultimately I opted to quilt on the black and white blocks with a mid-sized stippling. There is so much happening visually with this quilt that anything fancier would just get lost. I didn't quilt the colored blocks in order to give them just a bit more sculptural relief. 

b) finish quilting the border - Started

Close up of the stippling from the back side. 

c) block and square up the quilt - Not yet
d) make the binding - Not yet
e) attach the binding - Not yet
f) make the sleeve - Not yet
g) attach the sleeve - Not yet

I just couldn't resist doing something other
than stippling in the outer border. I purposefully
opted for a blending versus contrasting thread
on the front side so that the eye wouldn't
be distracted from the bold, overarching
pattern of the pieced quilt.

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to 





Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - There was no lesson this week






3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

Tam Laporte taught this lesson on creating a Quirky Animals totem.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.

It is down to the wire for finishing Tumbling Blocks. The big question is what will happen first. Will I finish the quilt or will my grandchild be born? You will know the answer to this either next week or the week after that. Obviously I will be focusing on finishing up Tumbling Blocks next week with brief dips into other projects for balance.

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30) 

a) finish quilting the border
b) block and square up the quilt
c) make the binding
d) attach the binding
e) make the sleeve
f) attach the sleeve

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.


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 2014 - 04/04

Sample quilted with gray variegated thread.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Often, when I meet someone new they ask me what I do. The conversation follows a predictable path that frequently leads to my new acquaintance stating that "I would love to do that, but I just don't have the patience." Do I have more patience than she? Am I more patient than most people? Certainly I can't answer that question. I tend to look at this premise differently. What I have learned about myself and come to accept, grudgingly about myself, is that I am tortoise. I am a slow, methodical person. When I accept this and don't rush, I do better. When I go against my

Sample quilted with jewel toned variegated thread

nature and push to go harder, faster or longer than I am comfortable with - disaster! In fact the longer I am in the business of making art quilts the more I slow down, at least in some aspects of the creation process. I spend far more time these days auditioning fabric choices, designs, quilting motifs and even techniques before I settle in on one or another. For example with Tumbling Blocks I did a fair amount of auditioning the border before I selected the one with the stained glass feel and corner blocks. I also tried out two very different thread possibilities for quilting the black and white blocks. I ended up selecting the gray variegated thread versus the jewel toned variegated thread.

Last week I was wondering whether I could settle down and concentrate this week. I did. As you will see I did 100% of the first item on my list plus a bit more. Yeah!

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30) 

Tumbling Blocks, pieced but not quilted.

a) Finishing piecing the top - Done!
b) Piece the backing - Done!
c) Baste the quilt for quilting - Done!
d) begin quilting - Done!

One of the advantages of testing techniques and other aspects of putting together the current project is that I have practice scraps to do further testing. When I first started piecing the hexagons I did a test strip first. When I needed to test the quilting motif I simply pieced that strip with some black fabric. This way I had something to hold on to and I now have the beginnings of my next sampler to practice my Leah Day free motion quilting motifs.



2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - Done!

Isn't this a fun quilting motif? Leah Day has given it the title, Alien Eggs. Honestly it reminds me of spermatozoa. ;) It could make for subtle commentary on the right quilt.

Leah Day suggests that this motif, Alien Eggs would make
a great sashing motif.

My take on Dyan Reaveley's lesson.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

Our teacher for Life Book this week was Dyan Reaveley. It was listed as a bonus lesson versus one of the more intense featured lessons. All I can say is that Dyan packed quite a bit in for a bonus lesson. One thing I struggle with is how to incorporate lettering/text in my art work. Dyan has a simple solution to this. She had us write out a full page of stream of conscientiousness text on separate page. Next we drew the outline of our shapes, such as tree trunks and flowers on top of the text. These shapes are painted with watered down permanent ink. Finally the shapes are cut out leaving approximately 1/16 of an inch extra. Very effective, don't you think?




4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.

Not a bad week. I have a few commitments next week, but hopefully I won't loose my momentum. Here are my plans for next week and beyond:

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30) 

a) finish quilting the inner section
b) finish quilting the border
c) block and square up the quilt
d) make the binding
e) attach the binding
f) make the sleeve
g) attach the sleeve

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.


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.

Weekly Report 2014 - 03/28

Detail near the center of Tumbling Blocks

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

This week I have been suffering from a severe case of monkey mind. If you aren't a yoga practitioner or don't spend time meditating daily, monkey mind is probably a new term for you. Basically, it means your thoughts are zipping from one idea to the next. The thoughts can be wishful, full of anxiety and cycle through a continuous non productive loop, much the way monkeys swing from branch to branch. When I can't settle my mind, I find it difficult to settle into my work. Fortunately my monkey mind did slow down periodically, so that by the end of the week I had made some progress. Here is how this week went:

Tumbling Blocks at week's end.

 1) Finish piecing Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30) 

I almost finished piecing Tumbling Blocks, but not quite as you can see from its picture  on my design wall. I got hung up on design decisions. I knew I wanted color fabric between two strips of black for the border. The sticking point came with how intensely to piece the colored fabric and how wide each of the border strips should be. I settled on a progressive 1" of black, 2" of colored and 3" of black. Rather than miter the corners I thought I would replicate the three stacking blocks from the inner panel for the four corners. I began laying that theory out on my design wall - DISASTER! The three blocks stack to 4" and the 1" black strip plus 2" color strip cut the stacked blocks in half. Instead, as you can see from the picture, I went with a 1" black strip, then 4" color strip, followed by a 1" black strip. "But wait," you ask, "why is that outer black strip clearly wider than 1"?" That is because for once I remembered to make the outer border several inches wider than needed for ease of machine quilting. 

Appliquéd corner motif

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson. - 

There was no free motion quilting motif to practice on this week. However, appliquéing the stacking blocks was done in a method I learned from Leah. Remember all that English paper piecing of hexagons that I did several months ago? I did a mix of machine piecing the blocks  and then basting the resulting motif over the perimeter of a paper form cut from hexagon graph paper  I gave it a heavy dose of spray starch and pressing before removing the paper. Don't those edges, inside corners and points look nice and crisp? 

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

Life Book 2014 project

This week's lesson was taught by Lesley Riley. Her focus is on transferring images to fabric and paper. She has had a product developed that she refers to as TAP, Transfer Artist Paper. I didn't have any, but I do keep EQ Printables: Premium Cotton Satin 283 count fabric sheets on hand. So, that is what I used to print the picture of my granddaughter, Mikayla, for this week's project.  I feel I am getting the mixed media bug, because I actually felt let down that the assignment required such a simple background. I just used a stencil to apply gesso roses and then painted with diluted spray ink.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label. - Not yet, but there is no rush.



Will I have monkey mind again next week? There is a good chance. What set it off is that one of my two half sisters (the back story can be found here if you missed it ) got in contact with me. We have a date to chat by phone on Sunday. What should I ask? What shouldn't I ask? What will she ask? What should I answer? It is a bit like working out the border of a quilt. In truth, many options work, it is just so tempting to go for the best and always believe that there is something even better out there that remains elusive. The big decision for next week is how to quilt Tumbling Blocks. I am currently leaning towards stippling, perhaps with Xs and Os scattered through out, since the quilt is for my grandchild.

1)  Tumbling Blocks I (Due April 30) 

a) Finishing piecing the top
b) Piece the backing
c) Baste the quilt for quilting
d) begin quilting

2) Leah Day projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.

4) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - a commissioned quilt - On hold until quilts with earlier deadlines are completed. 

Start piecing the quilt.

5) Tickling the Ivories - make and attach the label.


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.