Week in Review 2016 - 02/26

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Two "Spike" triangles sewn
together to form a rectangle. The
spike is 30 degrees.

Early this week I had one of those all too rare lightbulb points. I made a discovery about how to consistently and accurately piece fabrics that had been cut at the same "tricky" angle. If you are a precision piecer you will understand that matching seams of two fabrics that butt up against each other is simple when the fabrics are to be parallel to each other and of the same length. An example of an easy seam is when two same sized squares are sewn together. A tricky seam match occurs when a 30 degree angle must align with a 60 degree angle to make a 90 degree and the two pieces must result in a rectangle. Doreen Speckmann  wrote a whole book on the topic called Peaky and Spike. There are several rulers on the market designed to make the cutting and seaming of just these two angles simple. So, you can imagine my delight at discovering not only could I consistently sew 30/60 seams together, I could sew any angle combination that added up to 90 degrees with no pinning and no special ruler. Pictures are essential, perhaps even a video to share my discovery. Hopefully, I will have time to put together a sharing/tutorial on the topic soon.

I have been intuitively piecing the water portion of
Sunrise Abstraction. I wanted to create the feel of
windswept water with all the whitecaps and eddies.

This leads me to the current book on my iPod, Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World by Adam Grant. What grabbed my attention is the premise that being OPEN to doing something in a way that it hasn't been done before is what makes something original and creative. 

I worked on my usual array of projects this week as you will see:

Free motion quilting play with
a woodgrain pattern from the latest
Whirls 'n Swirls video.

1)  Finish Reflection #2  - Create and attach the label either when needed or when I have a second label to print at the same time. - Still on hold

2) Work on Sunrise Abstraction - Done!

This is where I had the eureka moment. Do take a minute to study the angles I created when piecing the next segment of Sunrise Abstraction.

3) Free motion quilting practice - Done!

Once again I turned to Tracy at Whirls 'n Swirls for inspiration. She has just started filming and sharing her latest free motion designs. I've always been partial to the look of woodgrain as a stitching design and I even had the perfect variegated gold through warm brown thread to try it out.


4) Do some surface design work - Done!

Surface design experiment
using a mini hexagon gel plate.

This week I decided to use my mini hexagon gel plate. I really love how I could create a honeycomb pattern with it. I explored masking on the yellow, blue and green fabric. Before I began printing/stamping I cut up a freezer paper scrap in random curls and ironed it to the fabric. I discovered some strips held better than others. I just went with the serendipity of it. When ever a piece curled, I removed it. I knew I didn't want to leave the pure white spaces left behind, so I stamped them with the stamp I used to create texture on the gel plate. 

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open - Done!

Another surface design experiment using the mini
hexagon gel plate after first masking off
sections of the fabric. This piece has whole cloth
quilt possibilities, I think. 

There are different ways to shut down. I learned this week that it can be as simple as assuming just because I have always done something one way, it needs to be done that way. Good thing I was open to testing my theory on piecing angles when that spark of an idea came. :)

I am looking forward to a more of the same next week, which is why the game plan looks exactly the same as this week.

1)  Finish Reflection #2  - Create and attach the label either when needed or when I have a second label to print at the same time.

2) Work on Sunrise Abstraction

3) Free motion quilting practice

4 Do some surface design work

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open

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