Category Archives: Journey

Community {Part I}

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Sorry for the leave of absence. No excuses here, just life getting busy. I come back with a conversation dear to my heart, that I want to explore more with you all. Community.

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Quilting has provided me with an amazing community which I did not have before. I am extremely lucky to have a great group of women around me who I call friends. They are there to listen, offer support and laugh or cry. These women are not just local to me but are also people I met virtually online.

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Isn’t it funny how some things have changed but others have not. Quilting not only has bought me my community but think of the quilting bees/circles of women who have come before us who also found community. You can easily find photos of women, in the past, sitting on front porches hand stitching and making quilts. It has been such an iconic past-time that a movie was made about it “How to make an American Quilt” (based on a book by Whitney Otto), then more recently, finding community via quilting has been the center of Frances O’Roark Dowell’s audio book (Quilt Fiction podcast) “Friendship Album 1933”.

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Looking back has made me ask questions about my experiences such as;

How did I become part of community and how did it start?
What have I contributed to the community? What can I do to give back?
What makes community strong and keep them going?

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I don’t have all the answers yet (and likely never will) but over the next few posts I would love to explore and share my own community experiences with you all. Also, I would love to hear from you all about your own experiences. Let’s explore similarities, how did you find your community, share things that worked for your group, things that didn’t work out (without it being at someone’s expense – always be nice) or are you still looking for your people?

Correlation {a finish}

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I am not very good at following through on activities that require something every day, whether its following a diet and tracking, or doing a 30 day or 100 day challenge. However, I was given an opportunity to participate in a 100 day showcase, and decided to take it. I had this idea that had been percolating for a while.

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The idea and initial limits were:

  • Use a variety colored angled blocks together in one quilt
  • Use of two colors and white per block
  • Angles for each color were cut without planning (improvisation).
  • Use my Denyse Schmidt Free Spirit solids box that I had been saving in a draw for years.

The process of creating blocks was very interesting and a few additional design decisions were made along the way:

  • By day 20, I already felt overwhelmed by the angles and color and thought it needed more balance. So, single white blocks were incorporated into the design to provide much needed negative space. I think this is a great example of how to use negative space and how it can interact and be part of the overall design.
  • I added two additional block modifications. I included 3 blocks with one color and white, more as accent pieces. I also included 3 blocks with just two colors and no white.
  • I alternated the direction of the blocks to create some great negative space designs.
  • I also started positioning them on a diagonal gradient like a scatter plot / correlation (hence the name and relates to my day job).

I loved how it turned out. I love the color, the balance and the fact there’s always something to find in the blocks. Check out #100daysofcoloredangles for progress shots.

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For the quilting, I knew I was going to use straight line quilting. I also though about the quilt as a single block, so the quilting was done at angles like one of the original single block designs. I taped out the angles I was going to use, and leveraged the 1″ think tape as border lines for the 1/2″ quilting lines. In each area the lines follow various angles. IMG_5156

The binding was matched to one of the accent pieces, which I am super pleased with how that turned out.

I have multiple ideas now for additional quilts of this nature and will probably make one or two more. It was fun and very happy to add the easier negative space blocks to the quilt. It made the 100 days much easier to complete.

Details

Name : Correlation
Design: Design by myself
Fabric: Kona White; Denyse Schmidt, Modern Solids, Free Spirit
Binding: Kona Aruba
Dimensions:  55 x 60″
Quilted: Straight Line 1/2′ quilting with Aurifil 2021.

 

Book Journey {an update}

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Back in December, I started letting you all know about the my goals and timelines for my book. Well, let me tell you I am really impressed by those that can get a book together in 6-12 months. Let me say with full-time job commitments, family life, other quilt project deadlines and teaching events, giving the book the priority it needs has not been easy.

As I am writing this, I am telling myself constantly that it is ok. As my lovely editor says “Your book will be ready in August”. August when, who knows. Obviously not 2018. I hope it is definitely 2019.

The biggest discoveries I made:

  1. That to have a book the projects really need to be finished, before you can finalize content.
  2. Support from your circle is important. In June, I was able to share more of my ideas and direction with my inner circle helping on the book. It was good to get feedback and reinforce the direction is going the right way…..no matter how slowly.
  3. This touch point was fantastic, and I feel it helped clear my mind somewhat and refocus.
  4. Capturing good notes now as I develop each quilt, has been extremely important in telling the story for each project.

Where am I at, you might ask….

The Introduction – Notes and Outline are complete, photography concepts included.

Tools chapter – Notes and Outline are complete, photography concepts included.

Project 1 – Manicured Gardens quilt is complete, I’ll post about it shortly. Graphic Design/layout rough draft reviewed.

Project 2 – Group quilt binding is underway. This will be for a side bar; group activity segment.

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Project 3 – Rotating Spokes Quilt is being quilted.

Project 4 – Art Deco Medallion quilt is being pieced. Friends are helping out with some of the hand work based blocks.

Project 5 – Broken Trellis Quilt is being pieced. Friends are helping out with some of the  block piecing.

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Project 6 – Coliseum quilt top is complete.

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Project 7 – Cairns quilt design is complete. This was a major break through this past weekend and inspiration from Leon Polk Smith’s work helped this go in the right direction.

Project 8 – 12 are still percolating and evolving.

A list of photo shoot places is underway (though some maybe wishful thinking ;-)):

  • Downtown Apex at the white brick wall
  • Biltmore Estate Gardens (visiting in May next year)
  • Yates Mill Historic Park
  • Rome (Coliseum) / back up location would be the ruins in Beaufort, SC
  • NC Old Barns both wood and corrugated iron backgrounds
  • Lisbon, Portugal (just b/c its my favorite place)

To keep this project moving forward I need to set a couple of goals for the rest of the year. So, I want to do the following and have these goals done by the end of the Christmas break:

  1. Finish first draft for introduction chapter
  2. Finish first draft tools chapter
  3. Touch base with my editor and graphic designer.
  4. Complete Project 2 (1 3/4 sides of binding to go).
  5. Complete Project 3 (Quilting and binding)
  6. Complete current border for  Project 4.
  7. Complete Project 6 (basting, quilting and binding)
  8. Project 7, trying out the design concepts on a test project.