White

Of all the modern quilting trends, the concept of needing to use more white in quilts was one I hadn't grasped whole heartedly yet.  Sure, I've used white in quilts, but I think I'm still at that "learning about color and balance" stage in my quilting.  I go back and forth between wanting to do color studies and wanting to just dive in and create with whatever fabric is in my hand.  Let's just say I'm not always so confident in the "planning" stage-- I'm much more of a "Let's wing it and see what happens next" type quilter.  (Incidentially, I'd like to know, which one are you?)

So as my SV quilt progressed, I naturally started thinking I needed a bold or dark border to "tone it down" a bit.  But I don't have a big stash of solids and every dark print I held up just added more to the chaos.  And I began to wonder if I could make the whites in the centers of the A block pop a bit more if I used a "white" border.. This off white mushroom print that I brought back from Japan in '07 (yes, I still have most of that fabric horded..) went perfectly with the blues in the A block, so I decided to go for it.

Once the borders were on, I had a breakthrough-- the white border actually made the entire quilt look brighter.  And I couldn't believe I almost darkened the whole thing with a colored border.  Who would have guessed?  I always opt for a dark border.  I think this may be a breakthrough..
I'm still going to put a pieced outer border on to make it twin size, but I am very happy with it so far.

question

While browsing pinterest today, I found a link to a tutorial for an improv block.  Maybe you've seen it, it is done with the stack & whack method and reshuffling the fabrics.. the quilter made a really cute quilt from it, but my question is..

If there is a pattern, is it still an improv block?

(I am absolutely not intending to cause drama or criticism, just throwing an honest question out there to quilt-blog-land.. I know "improv" is "modern" but has the word taken on a new meaning while I was off line and busy sewing quilts?)

improv-- a 6 minute circle story.

I'm working on my submission for the NYC Metro Mod Guild show (read more about the traveling show here, you may be able to see our quilts in a town near you!), and I hit a snag when I realized that I couldn't get as many words on it as I had originally planned..
Wait, let me explain-- the theme of the show is "What does Modern Quilting mean to you?" and along with the quilt, we all must submit artist statements detailing our personal beliefs on Modern Quilting and how that ties into our show quilts.  I, of course, wanted to write all over mine, in pieced letters.  Like, all over it, but I realized that my design space is much much smaller than what I wanted to say.
My quilt is split into two parts, with writing on both but using different background fabrics.
The bottom letters are 3" tall, and the quilt must be 15" x 20" to be included in the show.. I knew I could make smaller letters, but didn't want to try to piece itsy bitsy fabrics to make my "b" "g" and "a" look curved.  So, I got creative and tried something new.
Ages ago I saw the 6 minute circles technique on a blog somewhere (I think it was this one), but just filed it in the back of my mind, not needing it until last week..
I drew up some tiny circles, followed the directions, and gave it a try.

On my first attempt, I removed the freezer paper before stitching as the directions suggest, but my "circle" wasn't really round. 

For all subsequent attempts, I left the freezer paper on as a sewing guide and my results improved.

Yay!  I had little circles, which I then pieced into letters measuring just under 2" tall.

Now for a bit more applique and hand work, and my tiny quilt top will be ready for basting.

Couldn't help adding in some EPP..

What I learned:
This is a great method, and I think it will experiment more with this type of freezer paper piecing for letters.  Of course, with the success of my first 4 circles, I got a little over zealous, and ambitiously tried to use the technique to piece other shapes..

The hearts worked great! until I got to the accute point at the center of the top.. um, no.  physically impossible.  But, I improvised and just needleturned the points by hand.  I still got an awesome heart, just half pieced, half appliqued. 

It looks better than a raw-edged machine applique, and faster than hand appliqueing the whole thing.  I'm pretty sure I'd do it again.
(Btw, heart blocks are for the 15 minutes play Scrap bee.)

Embrace what you have

And love where you are in life.
I had a very wonderful day yesterday doing all sorts of things I love and as we drove home (singing along to the radio) I realized there's no place in the world I'd rather be than here, nothing else I need in my life than what I have around me.  I haven't felt so peaceful and satisfied in a long time. 

But there's more.  It's about embracing what you have.  Using the things and fabrics you love.
I had the chance to sew with Victoria for a few hours after our meeting yesterday and I limited myself by only bringing an armload (I was going to say "handful" but that's a lie) of fabrics and working from there.  I didn't know what I was making, I just pulled and cut from these fabrics that I had been hoarding.  fabrics that I feel capture my personality, express where I am now, and really represent me as a quilter.  Some of these precious fabrics have been holed up in the closet for years.. enough.  When I look at the quilts on our beds I think what I love about them is the fabrics.  So the quilts I want to be making have to be made of something I already treasure, treasure so much that I am willing to take time to transform it into something useful, something new to have and hold. 

I don't know where this piece is going, and it probably won't go anywhere for a while (I really need to buckle down with that school work..) but I'm glad I had a chance to spend time, sit and get to know another quilter a little better.  There's an awful lot behind the quilts, behind the blogs, that can't be gained without real interaction.  I have felt puzzled lately about the role the internet is playing in society these days, and on a personal level, the ways in which it has shaped my life over the last 10 years  (college reunion coming up.. is this why I'm all the sudden so reflective?).  Of course it is a way to connect with people-- new friends and old, but so many of those "connections" are just superficial.  It really takes effort to push beyond that, building friendship still takes time.  I think the internet, the sheer vastness of it, enables people to spread themselves too thin.  To try everything, to read every blog.. what are we left with?  To many ideas and a stiff neck.  I feel better since I've pulled back in the last 6 months, selectively reading and participating (in quilt blogland mainly, and other social networking as well).  Trying to find focus that makes my time online more meaningful to me.  It's nice when someone mentions drama in the online quilting community and I'm completely oblivious.  (Yay~ I didn't waste my time with that headache!) but I digress..

When you spend time with people and learn what is important to them, it gives you a lens through which you can take another glance at your own situation.  A guild meeting and a few hours spent with V, and I have gained a new appreciation for all the mundane things that my life is made up of.  Thanks guys.

collaborative quilting

As much as I love this aspect of  the "modern" quilt movement, with all the virtual bees and group projects in guilds, today I want to show you a much more personal type of collaboration where two people work side by side to create one project, a little bit at a time. 

Removing pins is one way that George contributes to my process. Sure, it slows me down some, but sometimes it's nice to go slow.

And this is what we were working on (crappy pic, the sewing room gets terrible light in the afternoon).  These are my blocks for the Rosey Little Bee.  I had January '11 and so far I got back 8 blocks from the participants (there are 13 of us, so 4 more should be coming).  My favorite block so far is by Pam. Awesome, no?  This was a UFO I started last year sometime, inspired by a quilt I saw at the 2009 Empire Guild show in Manhattan (read more here).

I like how it's coming along.  I've got a handful of half-finished blocks that I've been working on slowly.  The one George and I finished today is the middle one on the right side.

31

Ok, before I get into the body of this post, today is my birthday and I'm 31.  After a discussion at the Metro Mod mtg yesterday, I'm curious to know how old you are.  Please take a second and post an anonymous comment with your age only.
Just trying to get a grasp of blog-reader-demographics.  please play along :)
Ok, now on to the fun stuff..

How wonderful it was that the NYC Metro Mod guild meeting happened to fall on my birthday weekend!  So I baked these, which were so yummy.  The quilting was amazing, as usual.  I am continually amazed at the versatility of these quilters.  One meeting it's EPP hexies, the next a super huge log cabin, and another time it's a totally modern free form block of solid strips.  (Yeah Mary, it's all you).  I love learning about these artisans through just a glimpse of what they choose to share at each meeting.  It's like reading a really good book but you only get to read one chapter every 2 months.  It's not so much drama and suspense, but getting to watch the relationships form and creativity unfold.  I don't think there could have been a better birthday present..

Lisa and I covertly planned to wow them with two finished spiderwebs side by side.  To our surprise, Carol had one to show too!

Nicole's medallion.  Excellent placement of values..

Kim's hand applique.  They give me free-time envy..

I remember discussing this quilt at 15 mins play a few months ago, but I was stunned to put two and two together and finally see that the quilter was Margaret, OUR Margaret.  It was so cool to see this quilt IRL.

Mary's finished quilt from the Threads Together Bee.  I love seeing Bee blocks reach the "finished quilt" stage.

And here's how our scrap challenge project is coming along.  In May I took home a bag of Janet's scraps.  I made a bunch of "housetop" blocks and showed them off at the October meeting, but didn't know what to do with them after that.  Andrea quickly volunteered to add on to it, and we passed it on to Victoria yesterday.  So it has become sort of a collaboration/Round Robbin by accident.  Love it!  Can't wait to see what it looks like by February.  If I had to guess Victoria's path, I'd say she'll either slash it, or add on to make it king size.. what's your prediction?

notes on blogland

So with Bloglines disappearing in a couple of days, I've been slowly going through all my saved posts over the last 4(!) years to download my favorite inspiration pics and revisit links to good information one last time before they're tossed out into the internet again. A librarian once told me (in 1999) that the internet is like a great big library where all the books are scattered on the floor. I agree, and bloglines was a really excellent tool to help me organize the masses of inspiration and information that quilt-blogland provides. But my trip down memory lane had other effects as well, and I started thinking about how quilt blogland has changed in the last few years..
First off, there are so many more blogs out there! True Up entered the scene, then there was the Modern Quilt movement, Spoonflower, the Blogger's Quilt Festival, online bees, and the bizarre shift to "follow my blog and I'll give you fabric" and what seemed like a runaway obsession with giveaways. I think I passively witnessed the birth of the one-designer-only trend and as I've mentioned before, that's getting a bit old. Of the blogs I've read, many seem to be more focused on showing finished quilts with only a hint of the story and construction, but well recorded details of the designer fabrics used and the online shop she purchased them from.

When I started blogging there was a trend that if you had a quilt/craft blog, you must also sell your "stuff" on etsy. Then there was a movement to Use What You Have (I really liked that trend, btw). At some point I started following more quilt focused blogs and less crafty ones. For a while there was a "community" of people blogging about quilting and I felt I knew or had at least heard of everyone. Then overnight there were all these new quilt bloggers, and they were selling patterns, offering tutorials, and actively shaping the Modern Quilt movement. I was like, "who are these people?!?" and felt a little bit left back in their dust. There seemed to be a split between "people who quilt and blog about it" and "people who write quilt blogs and quilt because of it." The former group (to which I belong) included people working full time and stay at home moms, people quilting because they loved quilting, blogging included or not. These people would post when they had something to share and you could really get a glimpse of their lives. The other group seems to be driven by some unseen force, posting 3-4 times a week if not daily, spitting out patterns, tutorials, sponsored giveaways, and offering up advice that they don't always have the experience or "internet cred" to back-up. (no offense, just an observation)
I admire the ambition (and envy the free time) of these bloggers, but more than once in the past year I've read something and caught myself saying, "Is she serious? How can she write that? Doesn't she know about X, Y, or Z (i.e. famous quilter, well known technique, etc)?" Or I feel like I'm being talked down to, marginalized, or somehow left out of the "in" crowd. Now I don't mean to be that one quilter in your class who thinks she knows more than the teacher, but I find that this type of blog is not worth my time to read. BUT, you almost have to in order to know what's going on in quiltland (internet based and IRL). Somehow these people (and their followers?) are shaping the community to which I belong and I can't say I'm always happy with the shape it's taking..
So back to the point of my post. I'm going to try to resist following all of the quilt blogs in Google Reader. In fact, I'm going to try really hard not to sign into Google Reader at all. I have pasted a list of my favorite quilt bloggers on my sidebar and I've switched to "following" other blogspot blogs through blogger.com. I do want to know what's going on out there, but I need to be more selective and not get swept up in the drama and the urge to leave a comment just incase I might get lucky and win that jelly roll!
I am going to quilt, whether there's a quilt-blogland or not.  I really do enjoy sharing my efforts and getting feedback or making connections with other women who love to stitch and are also part of the online quilt community.  I feel I need this online community to back me up a bit when I walk into a real life quilt guild meeting, still usually 20+ years younger than everyone else, and try to hold my ground with the quilt police or as I try to make a name for myself in that community.  I value the vast resources available to quilters on the internet and want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write a thoughtful post or share a quilt or inspiration source.  Thank you again if you take the time to read my blog and comment once in a while.  I think the support of blogland has helped me focus my creative energy and become a productive, happy quilter.  I am curious to see where the current trends will lead and what the future of quilting will look like.