Talking point for March

I thought for this month's challenge/talking point I would invite you all to share a favourite source of inspiration.  I'm thinking of that sort  of a book you flick through when your brain needs a kick start.  I have a couple I often turn to,  not so much looking for something particular, but more to keep my quilting brain stimulated.  

One is the catalogue of an exhibition of Anni Albers work, held at the Tate in London in London in 2018.

Here are a couple of pages, taken at random, one of a drawing/plan for a piece and the other a textile.

If you want to see more, a google images search turned up lots of great photos of the exhibition. 

This is a good example, since it isn't a book about quilting, and her beautifully precision doesn't translate directly into the sort of quilts I make, yet looking at it always leaves me inspired and full of enthusiasm for the act of making.

The other book I tend to leave through in a similar, slightly aimless way is this one.

I am drawn, in these pages to the simplicity and beauty of traditional blocks but I also love to pore over the extraordinary quilting.  In fact, it is the one thing I would love to be able to reproduce.

Of course, inspiration is personal, so fr you it may not be a book, it might not be textile.  It might be a website or web page, it might be calligraphy or costume design or poetry or your garden.  No rules, just share what you love to look at.

Ukiyo - the Quilt

Ukiyo is finished.

(noun "living in the moment, detached from the bothers of life")

55" x 71"

This was the second quilt as part of the 2021 AHIQ Symmetry or Not challenge.

(the first quilt top was Pandemonium - later donated to Mercyful Quilts by way of Alycia during Hands 2 Help 2022)

No outdoor photos - just too darn cold thanks to Winter Storm Elliott.

I do love the binding (cut lengthwise from KF yardage).

Here Ukiyo is laying on the floor in the sunroom with late afternoon sunshine.

Quilted with Glide in Pink Rose using my liberated all over spiral fans.

Quiltdivajulie

Two Prompts Behind!

So this is where I am on the Hourglass prompt. Hey, only a year late! It's taken me forever to find time for this new project after I ditched the hourglass units on a previous effort. With all the little units joining up right next to each other, naturally it's going to be obvious when they don't meet up perfectly at the seams.

Adhoc. Improv. Hourglass

This is something that I considered and then decided to leave be {not trim to an equal, exact size} so as to emphasize the fact that they are in fact, separate units. This should result in a more 'human touch', utilitarian look which of course is something I adore. Knowing the limits of my sewing accuracy, I normally would never even attempt this hourglass unit method for this sort of design effect! I'd much rather cut out the squares and then add quarter triangles in order to have a much, much better chance of getting things to look sharp. That being said, if I'm going to be coming at it from this particular angle {Adhoc Improv.}, then I'm not going to stress over the sashing unit 'squares' not being square. Does that make sense? We'll see how it ends up. I'm hoping for a nice, cozy looking quilt!

After this quilt top is finished, then I will deliberately turn to the Positive Thinking prompt once again. Lots to love about that project and I feel about ready to try once again. For the past several months {year?}, it's been hard to focus on the positive and this was unfortunately an easy project to blissfully ignore.*sigh  As I am two prompts behind now, I've made the executive decision to delay starting the brand new strings QAL until I'm more caught up. Will be watching and enjoying everyone else's growing string quilts with envy!

AHIQ Prompt January 2021: String Tuliip QAL

A new year means a new promt. As always, many ideas run through my mind but something different kept coming to the top. Repeated comments about the angled strings and the tulips gave me the idea for a quilt along instead of a prompt. So this time, let's have an Electric Socket Shock QAL. I was asked if there's a pattern. Answer: Of course not. I was making it up every step of the way. But it's a simple variation of a string quilt and those are always useful for clearing out the scraps. And it will force me to write something down.

Electric Socket Shock quilt

I'll start writing guidelines for us and we'll head out. Remember, they are merely suggestions. Change anything you want or go in a completely different directions. That's why we love improv.

Interestingly the tulip quilts were constructed like kawandi. I started with the border and worked my way in. So we will do the same with this QAL. We will start with the string blocks and then move to the string tulips. You can make one or both parts and add your own variations. 

String Tulips quilt

My previous quilts are about 40" square - baby quilt sized but you should choose a size that works for you. The final size will determine how many blocks you need to make. And BTW, my blocks were 5.5" unfinished/ 5" finished. Feel free to change those up, too.

You'll need assorted strings and scraps, about 2/3 yard for the background {more if you make a larger quilt}, and some leftover binding for the tulip stems. Or you can pull from your stash. Or go shopping. I also used newsprint for a base. You can do that, or nothing. If you sew with a fabric base, you should increase your seam allowances due to the extra bulk.

This is posted here and on FretNotYourself. Are you in? Let me know in the comments. If it's a go, we will start sewing next month and continue monthly.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Living life in the moment

I forgot that I came by, read a couple of posts, got distracted, and didn't respond. Sometimes I do things in my head (only) and in my head that thing is done. Of course, the rest of the world can't know what's in my head. (It's best for the world that things stay that way.) 

So here I am, much later, and I've caught up with all of your beautiful projects. Here are a few of my own projects. The first two were completed tops that have been waiting their turn on the long-arm for quite some time.

These two are more recent makes. Tops made in 2020. Both are improv quilts for different reasons. This first one found its positivity in that it's a donation quilt. The money from its sale will go to my guild and some boy will be happy from its warmth.

This quilt. I didn't know what to do with this insane thing. One day I just tried something new and voila! I loved it. Getting everything to go together was a bit of a struggle but also a celebration when I figured it out. It's my favorite quilt... until the next one. 

Most of my days the last month or so have been spent crafting small items to put in a craft booth at a local artist market. I can't even explain what's happened with that endeavor, but I'm enjoying the short break from quilting "ALL THE TIME," according to my family. 

Thanks to everyone who responded. It's wonderful to know that all are well. 

Hourglass challenge update

 I started this quilt in a Sherry Lynn Wood workshop back in November. Since it was a two day workshop, I brought home only the beginnings of something. 

See me pondering what that something was? Let's just say I was not impressed. And things didn't look better when I got home. All I could think was that I had the bare bones of something.

In January I challenged the Cotton Quilters' Guild to bring a difficult unfinished project to the next meeting. At that time we would each present the project and tell the group what our challenge was. 

In March we were to bring the project to show. The beauty of the idea was that everyone got to choose her own piece and decide for herself what she would try to accomplish. 

At some point I combined that challenge with the AHIQ hourglass challenge. It really began morphing at that point, and I decided to try a Chinese Coins setting. AHIQ might save me a second time, right?

And this, dear friends is where we are now. So onto the longarm it goes. Hopefully this week.

Ruby Snippets a finish for 2020

This quilt is titled Ruby Snippets. I have no idea why, that's just the only thing that I could come up with. Regardless, it about as improv as a quilt can be. I started with beige scraps and intended that would be the quilt. But just beige didn't work, it cried for some color.  So I relented.

And voila. I'm not sure I can explain my process. Mostly I have a short attention span, when I get tired of something, I make a change. In this case I added red. You remember the red challenge? Well, so did I. What better way to solve the blahs, right?

I do most of my deciding standing in front of the design wall. That was certainly true in this case. These pieces are just that, pieces. Big chunks of squares and rectangles--before I added the larger neutrals. I added those just as I would for HST, except I cut everything into rectangles about the same size. I drew diagonal lines and sewed on either side, then cut on the lines. In every case I pressed toward the solid piece.

The next feeling of "ahn, enough of this" I dug out some larger pieces of beige and used them to turn what was (for the most part) rectangles, into right triangles.

It was while I was trying to figure out how to arrange the new diagonals that I hit on creating these bold lines with the red pieces. In some ways it's meant to look like a log cabin on the diagonal. But I may be the only one to see that. 

I finished it just in time to enter it in the Gulf States Quilting Association's biennial show.

Checking In

Playing With Scale #2 is done and dusted! It's a concept that I have no doubt will continue to show up again and again in future quilting efforts. Am still very intrigued by free-cut strips too. There's just something about the off-perfect lines that appeal to this utility-look loving quilter! You can read more about this quilt at my blog if you like. Overall, I'd say this quilt idea was a success. I'm always happy when a fun stack of fabric winds up being turned into a spunky looking quilt!

Second time around

Also, I recently posted the update on this U&U interpretation project. It's the base inspiration for the #AHIQFlowers prompt. I'm leaving it up on the design wall until all the little pieces are decided on and sewn together. It may take me clear till the end of the year, but this one is going to be moved along one way or another.

U&U Interpretation quilt for #AHIQFlowers challenge

Was working late into the evening the other day, fiddling and fiddling and fiddling. Then finally something sort of gelled for me and the entire quilt started making sense. For the left side of the quilt I had only been focusing on getting the shape and spirit of the quilt to shine through. Now, it's slowly starting to become 'my' quilt and I can see bits and pieces of my own quilty voice coming through.*sigh  FINALLY.  

I'll show pictures when it's finished, but I just wanted to be on record that I am working on this quilt though progress is oh-so-slow. While process pictures are usually interesting, this quilt is not very receptive. I'm too 'in the moment' to want to disrupt any important thought process and derail an entire evenings momentum! One thing I got rid of was the big chunk of yellow numbers fabric in the bottom right corner. Just too distracting. Also, I changed out the peachy fabric in the upper right for something a bit stronger looking. Same color, just a bit bolder. Little changes. It's all good. Gonna turn out just fine in the end I think.

The Beginning of Something

This is the first part of my interpretation of a U&U quilt that caught my fancy. It's also my response to the 'flower' prompt given out earlier in the year. For some reason, this has been an especially difficult challenge to meet.

The first section completed

After thinking about it for awhile, I've come to the conclusion that the reason for that is very simple. I make a lot of flower quilts and so thinking up new flower ideas is something that happens around here on a regular basis! In my head, a challenge should take me out on a limb somewhere uncomfortable and definitely somewhere outside of my normal comfort zone! Regardless, I have kept after it and finally came up with the idea to try an interpretation of a old scrappy 'make-do' sort of quilt and incorporate a 'difficult' flower element into the quilt. 

Add caption

The flower will be the Lemoyne start shape in the far right bottom corner of the quilt. It's a pattern that might be easy for you to piece, but has always caused me no end of troubles. Plus, this time I shall be trying to re-imagine it as a flower! lol  

Yep, it's an idea that's been simmering for a couple months and not once have I soured on it. We shall see where it ends up, but for now, I'm very happy to have it started and now be fully 'committed' to moving on with the adventure. Points for starting out with a floral fabric. That has to count for something! You can read more about the making of this first section over at my blog if you'd like.

Red is a neutral challenge MET!

Yes, done. Finished. Complete. Thank goodness.

But it's now Another Red Feather. You can read about it on my blog, Fleur de Lis Quilts.

Update on my "Red as a Neutral"

I'm not sure that's going to be the title, but right now it's all I have. I'd love suggestions. This is where I was this morning...

  and this is where I am now....

The only thing left to add are the borders. I've decided on a five inch border all around to add more red. 
Yes. More. Red. It's a neutral, you know? Plus the quilt needs to be a little bigger, and I am tired of making these fiddly blocks. So borders it shall be. It's about 48" square. I've cut out some five inch strips, so that will add another eight or nine inches overall--just about right. 

Overlapping Octagons with red centres

As I haven't posted here for some time I thought an update on my Overlapping Octagons was due.  This is a lap quilt inspired by a photo in the book "Unconventional and Unexpected, quilts below the radar" by Roderick Kirakofe The original quilt was made around 1950 in New York by someone associated with the garment trade who used off-cuts of shirt fabric. It was pieced by hand. In line with the invitation to use "red as the new neutral" I used red for the block centres, and neutral, as any other colour in the frames to the red squares.

This is the last photo of my Overlapping Octagons before the final Y-seams to bring it all together.

This has certainly been a challenge reproducing a historic quilt but using a sewing machine. The challenge is not yet over! Because a photo is flat it's difficult to show how the triangle sections between four red squares are refusing to lie flat.

bubbly triangles!

I have re-sewn some of the seams in the bubbly triangles; the rest I'll try to tame by hand when I finish joining all the columns. I think I probably have more control over the fabric when hand sewing, like the original sewer.

Much as I like the effect of the vertical white fissures in the first photo, they are not a design feature; my next task is to join columns 1 and 2, and then to join that section to columns 3 and 4. Lastly I'll be joining the seams between columns 4 and 5. Somewhere along the line I see I need to add a couple of small triangles in the edges, and to add triangles to three of the four corners. I haven't yet decided whether or not this quilt is calling for a border. What do you think?

Happy sewing

Marly.

Oh, the guilt!

I am feeling a bit guilty about not posting in such a long while. Or reading in weeks. Or commenting on anything I have read. But I try to keep guilt at bay. Life is tough enough at times without adding to the difficulties. So the guilt is really not that bad.

Anyway, I've finally put together some idea of what I could be doing with the Red Is a Neutral challenge. It's taken me a while to get here, but now that I'm on my way, I'm enjoying the challenge. My traditional quilt guild is working on a block of the month sampler quilt. I tried to go a couple of different ways with it: scrappy, then controlled scrappy. Nothing working. Then I ruined the couple of blocks I had made when I power-washed the studio. I figured it was a sign.

That's when it (finally!) occurred to me that I could combine the sampler and the challenge into one awesome project. These blocks are the first five of what I think will be 18. Each month two or three guild sisters present a block for the sampler quilt. We get to see a finished block, get show and tell instruction on how to make it, and get written instructions to take home. The following month we should return with, you guessed it, two or three completed blocks. We started in January. We should finish in July. The quilts are supposed to hang in our guild show in September. Everyone laughs when I say this out loud. Why?

I think I have enough red for a complete quilt. I know there is not enough of this gray and black, but I plan to add more of those colors as needed. I also plan to wait before sewing the blocks together so that I can mix them up enough that the grays and blacks look like they all belong.

The blocks are 12" square except this last one. It's 15" because I messed with the instructions. Nonetheless, this block will be in the quilt. As my mom loved to say, "Somehow. Someway." I guess I'll just figure it out as I go along. Momma used to say that, too.

More about the beginning of this project on my blog, Fleur de Lis Quilts.

My First Attempt at Red is a Neutral!

I've finished with all the Lattice blocks now and am attempting to figure out the proper layout. You can read more about this quilt over at my blog. This particular quilt is a combined effort of trying to play with the 'Red is a Neutral' and also the UandUQAL challenge of making an Unexpected and Unconventional inspired quilt. 

Throwing the first blocks on the wall....

I feel that there will probably be another Red is a Neutral quilt some time after this one. Sometimes there just needs to be a starting point to get the mind going in the right direction!

Improv Hand Piecing

These blocks began with my need to empty the bins of scraps I have accumulated over 25 years of quilting. I'm determined to get them done and into another quilt. This is a sample of where I am so far. 

Block construction was completely #improvquilting and they took on a life of their own. I apologize for the distracting background in some of these photos.

 As you can see,these blocks are wonky!

I began incorporating orphan blocks as I found them.

Some blocks have curved edges and are not scare at all.

Orphan chunks of fabric such as these curved edge pieces from the Klassen Forest Fire Quilt.

  

Randomly pieced and I am keeping to 100% cotton and some washed rayon and linen have found a home in these blocks. 

I intend to redo an old quilt that has been a favorite wieght of a sleeping quilt for both of us. I will redo it by simply making a new top and backing and then quilting it with more random machine quilting on my domestic Janome.

Some of the "circle blocks" made in 2017 have walked on in too! Do you do random hand piecing using an improvisational way of putting even tiny pieces into the mix. Please share if you do, I'd love to see them and maybe even I can find a new hand piecer on Instagram.

I have made over 40 blocks so far over about two months of my hubby's surgery preparation and his recovery period that started Dec 6,th. Our Christmas was a quite one with our sons and girlfriend helping out, it was lovely.

So, here is a sneek peak of my newly purchased mannequin.I just love upcycling my clothing too!

Thanks for popping into my little corner of the world! Happy quilting whereever you are!

Caroline from Good Earth Quilting.