Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
My sordid quilting past
I thought I'd thrown out all my truly awful quilts when I moved (...I'm averaging one move a year, I don't know why I have so much stuff), but after today's QuiltArt thread about old work that is so bad it should never see daylight, I checked my boxes and found "Two polar bears in a snowstorm." I thought I was being clever--it's a total of five traditional bear paw blocks with very pale blue for the paws and scrappy white-on-white backgrounds--but it's just BAD. The "whites" are all various tints of blue, pink, yellow, brown and look gross together, and if you get more than two feet away there's no contrast at all, just a big dingy blob on the wall. The quilting is straight-ish vertical lines that don't follow the blocks at all--what the hell was I thinking?
I actually exhibited this monstrosity in 2001 at a guild show. I'm embarrassed now.
I hung it on the wall of the sewing room (where I will never see it, because 60-hr weeks at work start tomorrow). It's approximately 51" square (although I'm sure no two sides are the same length) and all plain-woven cotton so I suppose it would make a great blanket for homeless animals, but it could be interesting to remodel it. And by "remodel" I mean "utterly destroy."
If it's still on the wall when I move again, I will give it to the no-kill shelter.
NO, I'm not posting any pictures.
I actually exhibited this monstrosity in 2001 at a guild show. I'm embarrassed now.
I hung it on the wall of the sewing room (where I will never see it, because 60-hr weeks at work start tomorrow). It's approximately 51" square (although I'm sure no two sides are the same length) and all plain-woven cotton so I suppose it would make a great blanket for homeless animals, but it could be interesting to remodel it. And by "remodel" I mean "utterly destroy."
If it's still on the wall when I move again, I will give it to the no-kill shelter.
NO, I'm not posting any pictures.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Radish Flix
I started a new blog, Radish Flix, to keep a record of what I'm watching while I do hand-sewing.
Nothing exciting, just hexagons.
Nothing exciting, just hexagons.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Six inches square
My best friend Chele sent me some pictures of "boxed art" on sale at Target for $19.99.
I scoffed.
So then she told me to make some--just the quilt part, she'll take care of the box. Then she requested "beige, brown, gold..." Not my usual palette.
But anyway. These are six inches square. I've been thinking quite a bit about a) the principles of design and b) one of the properties of fabric (as opposed to, say, paint) is that it frays.
I scoffed.
So then she told me to make some--just the quilt part, she'll take care of the box. Then she requested "beige, brown, gold..." Not my usual palette.
But anyway. These are six inches square. I've been thinking quite a bit about a) the principles of design and b) one of the properties of fabric (as opposed to, say, paint) is that it frays.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
More ass in chair
Still on the 3.5" pineapple blocks, but also pulling out scraps and fabrics and arranging them in pleasing combinations, so something may happen this weekend. I'm thinking a lot about the principles of design, after some discussions on QuiltArt; I'm confident I can use value, balance, etc. well, I just don't know where to start.
Also signed up for the Tiny Treasures challenge on QuiltArt.
Major weirdness from my furry roommate, though. Every time I sit down at the sewing machine and turn it on, he sits on the table, whines, then bites my left arm. To get anything done, I have to throw him out of the sewing room and close the door (which sucks because the the apartment is cooled by a wall unit in the living room--it gets hotter'n blazes with the door closed) . When I emerge for more soda he runs back in and sits in the window like nothing ever happened....until I sit back down, then he bites my arm again.
We've been here almost two months. When I worked on Ron's quilt he would sit on the table and watch or play with the binding. He only started biting when I started the paper-piecing. I guess he doesn't like pineapple quilts.
Cats, sheesh.
Also signed up for the Tiny Treasures challenge on QuiltArt.
Major weirdness from my furry roommate, though. Every time I sit down at the sewing machine and turn it on, he sits on the table, whines, then bites my left arm. To get anything done, I have to throw him out of the sewing room and close the door (which sucks because the the apartment is cooled by a wall unit in the living room--it gets hotter'n blazes with the door closed) . When I emerge for more soda he runs back in and sits in the window like nothing ever happened....until I sit back down, then he bites my arm again.
We've been here almost two months. When I worked on Ron's quilt he would sit on the table and watch or play with the binding. He only started biting when I started the paper-piecing. I guess he doesn't like pineapple quilts.
Cats, sheesh.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Daily blog posts are SO Web 1.0...
Why blog post frequency doesn't matter. Whew!
I have nothing new to report today. I dyed some fabric yesterday but I don't like it...I may or may not take pictures. It might be a better use of my time to go sew something instead of documenting the unsuccessful.
I have nothing new to report today. I dyed some fabric yesterday but I don't like it...I may or may not take pictures. It might be a better use of my time to go sew something instead of documenting the unsuccessful.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Ass In Chair
I'm having trouble thinking up a new project to start, and the frustration of not having any ideas is making it harder to come up with new ideas. I need a mentor or a small group...
This week I've been practicing the ancient art of Ass In Chair. The idea is that if I'm creating something it will be easier to dream up new things to create; if I'm covered in little thread snippets it will be easier to get started than if I'm just staring at the thread box.
Fortunately(?) a few years ago I started to make 3.5" (floppy) pineapple blocks from tiny scraps, and I kept the patterns and the yellow centers in the same baggie. This is about six hours' worth of paper-piecing (maybe I should have tried making one block before I committed to making 300):
I'm finding some real forgotten treasures in the scrap bins. I've even found a use for the leftover Cheefs fabric! It's not so awful on such a small scale.
This week I've been practicing the ancient art of Ass In Chair. The idea is that if I'm creating something it will be easier to dream up new things to create; if I'm covered in little thread snippets it will be easier to get started than if I'm just staring at the thread box.
Fortunately(?) a few years ago I started to make 3.5" (floppy) pineapple blocks from tiny scraps, and I kept the patterns and the yellow centers in the same baggie. This is about six hours' worth of paper-piecing (maybe I should have tried making one block before I committed to making 300):
I'm finding some real forgotten treasures in the scrap bins. I've even found a use for the leftover Cheefs fabric! It's not so awful on such a small scale.
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