Category Archives: WiPs

Check-in: How did refocusing go?

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In my previous post, I was talking about resetting and reframing my practice. I’m happy to report, that I feel more grounded and I’ve been excited about things again. One additional thing I did do was reviewed my accomplishments this year and gave myself time to reflect, allowing myself to be in those moments (I forget to do this and it was pleasantly surprising).

This is my Job…

I needed to reframe how I talk about my practice, it is my job therefore I need to treat and talk about it as such. In light of that, I have been having more regular and consistent hours. I’ve been clocking in and keeping a track of activities (hours for making, admin, networking/meetings). I realized other people won’t treat it as a job, if I am not.

What I’ve been working on

I decided to rework a couple of pieces. One I had finished but I’m reworking it for a coffee shop, and the other I had recently tried to rehang it and I was just not feeling it in it’s current configuration.

This second one, will be more than one piece (possibly a triptych) stretch over wood panels that are not lying flat. I’m excited to see how these pieces work together and if how I image them work out. I have hand stitched these quilted panels together and am hand stitching them onto the backing orange fabric.

The last piece I have pulled out from my works in progress is this piece, which has been basted but needs to be quilted. I plan to quilt this and stretch this over wood stretchers too.

In addition to making, there is always so much administration. These last couple of weeks or so, I have:

  • Applied for a project grant
  • Applied to two residencies
  • Applied to two calls for art
  • Collated a list of other applications across calls for art, residencies and grants
  • Sent out a newsletter
  • Worked on new images for prints and greeting cards (with hopes for availability in October)
  • Followed up and organized all the details for a class I’m teaching and for a creative retreat I’m attending

I’ll share a couple of finishes towards the end of the week so stay tuned. Let me know if there is anything specific you’ll like to have more information on. Happy to share.

One of these things {a finish}

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Idea

I have trouble expressing my feelings and thoughts into words and talking about it. This quilt represents my wish that human nature can embrace difference. Different is beautiful, wonderful, inspiring and makes life and things around us interesting. It saddens me that often being different is used to divide us, introduce fear, hate or violence. We need to do better.

Design

The design and name of this quilt was inspired by the Sesame Street Song “One of these things“. It teaches that things are different and says “one of these things doesn’t belong” so are we teaching children that those that are different don’t belong??? I hope we can teach children and people to accept people who are different from themselves and listen, learn and understand each other.

I designed this being 4 panels, 3 being the same and one being different. I choose simple shapes, squares being on the three panels and a circle (quarter of a circle) in the different panel.

The color choices came of the squares and circles being used and reminded me of the childhood toy – Tupperware’s Shape-O Toy. I used blue as the background and yellow as the shape on the 3 square panels and reversed these for the circle panel. The red was added as the border to tie the 4 panels together and used to frame them.

Create

Most of this quilt was simple measurement and piecing. The most complex piece was how to get the large curve (5″ radius in the middle with 15″ on the outer circles. Luckily, I purchased a wood working compass for my husband a couple of years ago. I used this to mark and cut my circles (maximum radius for the compass was 15.5″).

The other big step for creating was matching the binding which I do often. I really like the effect. I matched some of the quilt while adding the red to a blue area. The best tutorial out there for block matching binding is from A Quilters Table.

Quilt

So for each panel I did decide to quilt them exactly the same way.

Outside of the shape – horizontal 1/2″ straight lines
Inside of the shape – vertical 1/2″ straight lines
Shape itself – 1 x 2″ grid lines

There was a bit of effort to bury threads so that you get a neat look where lines stop in the middle of the quilt. See previous post for some pictures.

Details

Name : One of these things
Design: Original Design
Fabric: Kona Cotton (Bright Light, Blueprint)
Backing: Ruby Star, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Stella, Moon Hills (blue and yellow)
Binding: Kona Cotton (Bright Light, Blueprint, Valentine)
Dimensions: 30 x 20 in. (total 60 x 40 in.)
Quilted: Straight lines walking foot quilting, Aurifil #6738 and #2120
Start date: 21 July 2018
Finish date: 21 April 2021

30 Days of Quilting: Week 4 – 5

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I have thoroughly enjoyed quilting these smaller projects, having finishes each week and a chance to experiment – Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3. This project was no different. “One of these things” is a 4 part piece, with each piece measuring 20 x 30 in.

These pieces are minimalistic and geometric in nature. They only have two colors, both being primary colors, blue and yellow. As I thought through the quilting I knew it needed to be simple and complement the elements in the design.

I decided on using 1/2″ straight line on the background aspects of each piece, both horizontal lines and vertical lines. Then in the foreground (the geometric shape) I used a 1 in by 2 in grid lines.

As this is an art piece, I did choose to bury threads to give it a nicer finish. In the picture above you can see all the yellow threads ready to be buried. The blue had already been buried before starting to quilt the yellow. Thread burying for me is a 4 part process: tie the knot as close to the quilt top as possible, trim to have even threads, thread the needle and bury thread, and then cut the excess thread off. I now do each of these steps one at a time to all the threads, so that it is more efficient so I am not switching between needle and scissors etc all the time.

Note, I use multiple methods to check my lines.

  • For the 1/2″ lines, I use the edge of my walking foot as a guide. I also, every 5-7 lines, use masking tape to make sure they are staying straight and are the right distance from the first line
  • For the grid lines, I marked both lines with a fabric marker pen.

I am really liking how the panels look with the quilting. The quilting and the binding are tying them together. Over the last 3 weeks I completed all the panels, so later this week you will get to see the completed piece.

I really enjoyed the 30 days of quilting, and enjoyed not stressing about making the 30 days consecutive. I am definitely doing it again, maybe in June and July. For those who have done 30 days of something what benefits have you received from the practice?

Now, I have 6 quilts to bind, so I will be getting those done over the next couple of weeks. I am excited to show you those finishes. I am thinking about getting my machine serviced, so that will give me a chance to play with piecing a couple of new quilt tops (using my smaller travel machine for piecing).