Week in Review 2019 - 1/18

Mid Tide
12" x 12"

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Isn't it great to finish a project? Much as I love delving into something new, I relish its bookend, completion. There is something very satisfying about setting out to do something and accomplishing it.

Mid Tide detail

My past year has been rather topsy-turvy, as we moved from our home of 8 years, in Appleton, Wisconsin, back to our home state, Massachusetts. We are living on the south shore, a region of Boston suburbs south of Boston and north of Cape Cod. It is an area we only occasionally drove through in the past. Everything is new to us. Moving to a new area of the country requires so much, from sleuthing out the best grocery store to finding a dentist. We have been busy moving in. The result is bigger gaps between times in the studio and shorter time spent in the studio during the days I manage to find time to work.

I am so grateful I chose to focus my year on making 12 12" x 12" artworks. It is manageable, comfortable, and I feel zero pressure. I've basically finished my first one. So, now I have 11 12" x 12"s to go.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays. 

Week in Review 2019 - 1/11

Quick reference photo for my first 12" x 12".
Our home overlooks this view.
I've been obsessed with the roof line of the shed
ever since we moved in. 

I don't make New Year's resolutions. I do choose something to focus on each year. In the past I've undertaking various weekly art exploration classes such as mixed media or how to draw. One year I committed to doing something new each week. Another year I made sure to extend an unexpected kindness. This year, I'm back to focusing on art. I have decided to make a different 12" x 12" fiber art piece each month.

Piecing planned designed on EQ 8

Current state of Mid Tide

Cohasset Sunrise is squared up ready for binding

I normally work on mid-size to large pieces. It is the scale I am most comfortable with. So, focusing on something small forces me out of my comfort zone. It also has the advantage of being the required size for two different SAQA projects I plan on contributing to. The first is Massachusetts/Rhode Island's regional trunk show. The trunk show will tour  libraries, guilds and other venues found for it. It is a great way to introduce people to the variety of work being produced by local art quilters. The second is SAQA's annual benefit auction. This is one of the ways SAQA fills the gap between membership dues and annual expenses.

Detail of the free motion quilting of waves
in the lower section of Cohasset Sunrise

I spent the last month of 2018 obsessively free motion quilting Cohasset Sunrise. It is squared up, 84" H x 59" W,  and ready to bound. It has been a long time since I have had the excuse to do some hand sewing. A question I have been asked from time to time, is what is my favorite phase of making a quilt. The truth is I enjoy all aspects. Hand sewing is one of those rare moments in life when one can sit back and let the mind wonder. There aren't enough times carved out for reflection in a day. No wonder slow stitching and knitting have been gaining in popularity. Such peaceful pursuits.

The weather may be turning colder, but I have the good fortune to be able to hunker down in my studio and create.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays. 

Week in Review 2018 - 11/30

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Gwyned's family after a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

 Thursday is my final push day in the studio most weeks. I find writing a blog to be shared on Fridays acts as an incentive. However, there are times when family must take precedence. Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. This was our first home hosted Thanksgiving with both our children, their spouses, and our five grandchildren. Our daughter did the honors at her home. If you are only counting four grandchildren, that is because the oldest preferred not to join us for the family photo shoot. He is in the background, upper left, under the blanket.

I began by quilt gently quilting the sun and intensely quilting
the bits of sky between the rays. This gives the sun a bit
more dimension and puts the sky into the background.

Detail of the quilting motif in the background/sky
of Cohasset Sunrise.

The week of Thanksgiving was spent sandwiching Cohasset Sunrise in preparation for quilting. I used to pin baste my quilts, as my go to method. Then I tried hand basting them with long zig zag stitches. This had the advantage of not catching the safety pins in the quilt roll while quilting. Still, it meant cutting thread regularly in order to avoid having the basting caught permanently under the quilting. I never tried, but was aware of various methods to fuse the front and back to the batting. These included sprays (best done outdoors and with a mask) and a fusible batting. Not for me. I've switched to fusing my quilt sandwich with a fusible web as my go to method. Betty Busby recommends Spunfab from Museum Services Corporation. Apparently this is what textile conservators turn to for repairs. It is described as "an acid free, low melting thermoplastic adhesive in a fine web form. It is a webbing prepared from plasticizer-free copolyamides especially formulated for textile bonding." I like the fact that I can buy it in 60" widths and 10 yard lengths. I find it doesn't change the hand of the quilt. I love that I don't need to stop to unclasp pins or cut threads. 


Now I can go to town on the sky beyond the sun. I find I prefer horizontal, looser quilting works best for skies. I can never resist busting out with a few irregularly placed puffy clouds.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays. 

Week in Review 2018 - 11/16

I take Vinyasa Flow with Mike Birmingham. Fortunately,
he doesn't make us do anything as complex as this. :) 

If you have been following my blog, you know I have attended several yoga classes a week for seven years now. Our move from Appleton, WI to Cohasset, MA, this past May meant finding a new place to practice yoga. Fortunately, there is a studio with a range of classes from Yin (holding poses for 5 - 7 minutes to allow gravity to stretch the body) to Bikram (taken in a room with the temperature jacked way up there) and many between the two extremes, just a mile from our home. In Appleton I took from one teacher. Here in Cohasset, I take classes with four different teachers. The theme this week in all my classes is gratitude. Each teacher introduces the concept in a different way. Nearly all have focused on "heart opener" poses and stretches. I am grateful to have the ability and opportunity to practice yoga with such an inspiring  group of teachers.   

Now that I think of it, piecing the
back to Cohasset Sunrise with
scraps left over from the front
could be my equivalent of an insane
yoga pose. It took years of practice
to be able to whip something like this out.

I'm also grateful to have reached the point with Cohasset Sunrise, where the back is pieced, the batting is pieced, and the quilt is sandwiched. I begin quilting it next week. Hurrah!

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays. 

Week in Review 2018 - 11/09

My third attempt at intuitively
piecing with fused appliqué.

It's been a busy week. I've divided my time between nose to the needle in my studio as I manically create the backside for Cohasset Sunrise and being 52Quilters featured quilter of the week.

Units 1, 2 and 3 are pieced. One more unit to go!

Close to a year ago I applied to a call to be considered to be a host of 52Quilters and was selected. The premise is every week a different quilter takes over the writing of the blog and posting on Instagram (@52quilters). This year it was decided that each month would have a theme. November's theme is being hosted by art quilters. I surmised that the audience for 52Quilters is made up of a majority of newer, young quilters who are versed in traditional and modern work, but with a dearth of knowledge in art quilts. This lead me to writing a series of seven posts on my own journey from traditional quilter to art quilter, those who have influenced me along the journey, and a brief discussion of a different element of art in each post. There are seven elements of art, conveniently. :) Being the over achiever that I am, I opted to follow a very different theme, sunrises, with my Instagram posts. Each day I have posted a sunrise photograph taken by my husband or me around our neighborhoods (Appleton, WI and now Cohasset, MA), along with one of the quilts I have made inspired by sunrises.

No surprise, currently under my needle is yet another sunrise themed quilt, this one titled Cohasset Sunrise. I had the brilliant, but VERY time consuming idea that I would use the scraps from the top to make the back. Much of it is pieced, but I have fused many odd shaped pieces to muslin and anchored them with a stitch designed for stretch fabric. I really like the way my third attempt at this came out. I was very tempted to turn it into a quilt top.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays. 

Week in Review 2019 - 11/02

EQ8 Blue Print

Times like this I question my sanity. Last week I had the ingenious idea of using the leftover scraps from my quilt top to make its back. I loved how this allowed me to be creative and more environmentally friendly. I'm in my element piecing. Clearly, this would be a win, win situation. Not this week. I began the work of laying out the many units I'd created from the scraps and calculating the filler fabric necessary to piece the units together.

Listing of pieced units,
section dimensions, and
and math worksheet.

I began by measuring all the units and listing them by like sizes. Next I went to EQ8, using the Custom Quilt layout, I added blocks matching the dimensions of my units. I had hoped the grid would print out so I could easily do the math to calculate the size of each filler block. Apparently, that hasn't been programmed into EQ8. I spent several hours working it all out the old fashioned way with pencil and paper.

Backside of
Cohasset Sunrise
partially pieced

Finally, the fun, OK with some angst, could begin again. I used my blue print to layout the units for section #1, add the filler fabric, and piece everything together. Not bad. Section #1 and #2 are pieced and sewn together. Next week will be Section #3.

A common comment I receive from non quilters is, "I'd never have the patience to make a quilt." Times like this, I wonder if I have the patience. Then I step back, see what I have accomplished, and think, "Yes, it was worth it."

When I wasn't in my studio working on Cohasset Sunrise, this week, I was putting the finishing touches on my posts for 52 Quilters. I have been asked to be the featured quilter from November 5 - 11. I will be posting on the blog daily and on Instagram several times a day. Most of the readership for 52 Quilters are traditional and modern quilters. Last year the featured quilters mirrored the readership. This year it was decided to invite art quilters to take on a week each for the month of November. Linda Bratten, one of the volunteers for 52 Quilters will introduce the month. After me will come Susan Miller Jones and Sue Bleiweiss.  Do stop by for month of art quilt immersion.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays. 

Week in Review 2018 - 10/26

Cohasset Sunrise

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

After a two month hiatus, when we moved out of and back into our home for a renovation to take place, I am finally back in my studio working. Whenever I am away for a long absence, I find the best way to get back in the practice of creating is to start simple.

When I stopped working I had just finished piecing the top for Cohasset Sunrise. Therefore, the logical next step was to prepare the backing, sandwich the quilt, and start the quilting.  With two months to let my mind wonder I had time to think about the backing and the part of my process that drives me crazy.

Strip pieced scraps

For years I have been storing strips of fabric, left over triangles, and other trimmings of a usable size. I have tried various ways of organizing these leftovers in hope that someday I would I find a use for them. Periodically, I simple clean house, tossing all my leftovers out, along with my good intentions. Not this time. I have decided to randomly piece all these scraps together into units and use them as part of the back of my quilt.

Crazy quilt pieced scraps

The precision cut pieces were easy to pull together. I found combining odd shapes more difficult. Crazy quilts to the rescue. I layered a piece of muslin with fusible web scraps and then topped that with overlapping leftover odd shapes. Once everything was fused, I used an embroidery stitch, slightly more elaborate than a zigzag, to secure the raw edges without building up a lot of thread.

 I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.