Back From The Retreat

I used to go to a quilters retreat every February in Phoenix until I went back to work and got so busy. Now that I am back to working part time I reconnected with my quilting friends and went to the retreat last weekend after a three year absence. It was so wonderful to just be around quilters and not have anything else to do for three days but work on projects, visit and go shop hopping. I really got inspired to begin working on some older UFOs that had been put in boxes and were stacked out in the shed.

I finished my Improv III top but did not take a photo. That is the only regret about the retreat, not taking enough pictures. I did take some which is good. I liked the Improv III so much in the cool colors that I had precut another group of 9 fabrics in oranges and blues. I made the first two blocks at the retreat and love this colorway!

I finished another set of two blocks earlier this week but the circles are more oval than rounded so I will recut the two fabrics and make another set as I really love the colors with the pair above.


When deciding what to work on at the retreat I pulled out blocks I had done on an internet swap quite a few years ago. The theme was to make 12" blocks with stars that had to have more than about 14 pieces. The background had to be Kona cotton in black and the other fabrics had to be at least two different colors of Fossil Fern. I took all my black Kona cotton, the stack of 20 pieces of Fossil Fern fabrics in my stash in a rainbow of colors and the stars. I decided I would figure out what to do at the retreat. I found a design wall all the way across the very large room. This turned out to be a good thing because I could see the impact from a distance. The first thing was to put up the blocks. I was going to do a simple black sashing but decided the quilt needed more so I set to work making sashing useing the variety of Fossil Ferns. I also decided to make the cornerstones 3" nine patches. I had no idea from the onset that I needed a total of 80 sashings and 40 nine patches. I only have about half pieced as of this morning. You can see the photo of the beginings of the sashing and nine patches on the design wall at the retreat. I think I am really going to love this quilt when it is done.

 My friend Suze took a class at the Road to California on painting with Tsukineko fabric inks. She brought her inks and some PFD fabric to the retreat so we could play with them. She had some coloring book outlines which we put underneath the fabrics. I love the technique and will definitely be getting some of the inks for myself. I made this cute little chipmunk painting. I think that the inks will work very well for some future pictorial quilts I have planned.

Since I drove to the retreat I decided on a whim to take this old sewing machine that I got at a yard sale for about $5-$15 in the 1980's. I have been dragging it around for about 30 years now and have never done anything with it. My friend Nyla works on old sewing machines and I wanted her to have a look at it. She gave me some advice on how to clean it up, and get it in working order.  I just love the squared off left side and the vine pattern with the gold and green leaves. It will be fun to see if I can actually get her sewing again.

Improv III started

I have been pretty excited about this project since I saw this site:
The Ripple Effect

Wow what a fun concept and what a dynamic impact without a lot of fussy piecing. With the limited time I have of late to work I decided that this type of piecing was something I had to try. I forged ahead and started with a palate of fabrics in cool colors but have since also decided to make a version in orange and blue with some yellow and reds thrown in just for fun..........in other words I will begin a series with this concept and see where it goes.

Here is the first project in the Improve III series. I am going to call mine wonkey drunken paths as this is really nothing more than a drunkards path block remade to be wonkey and improvisational with a series of curves instead of the one for the original drunkards path.

My palate began with the cool side of the color wheel that includes lime greens, turquoise and purple. I love these cool colors. I cut out one 18 inch square of the three fabrics on the far right of the photo and got started. I used the tutorial from the Quilting Edge. I made my seam allowances narrower than hers at about 1/8" to 3/16" inch instead of the 1/4" that she used as my quilt will be wall art and will not be washed or used for a cover of any kind. In other words it will have a gentle life so does not require the larger seam allowances. This also likely makes the seams lay a bit flatter and allows for more curvey features.

The first thing that I did with my squares was to cut the notch in the top right corner of each as was recommended in the Quilting Edge tutorial. I do not really see that this needs to be done as once I put my first cut in I knew where the bottom left corner should be so in the future I will leave that step out. I laid the three fabrics in a stack and just took my rotary cutter and made a cut that was not a smooth quarter circle. In the photo below you can see the three fabrics with the same cut. Now find what fabrics to pair and get sewing that first seam on all three.

 I decided to pair them so as below. This is the first seam sewn on all three blocks. It might be hard to see as the green one is laid with the blocks on top of each other so it is hard to see they are separate pieces.

 Now I laid all three blocks on top of each other again and cut another wonkey arc with the rotary cutter. I kept the same fabrics instead of mixing things up more with this first set as I really just wanted to see how this was going to work.

 This is that second arc sewn with the purple and the green. The blocks were all laid on top of each other again and another cut was made. At this point you can see that the right side is notched and does not line up exactly. Not to worry these blocks will all be trimmed at the end so that will not matter. I sewed these by laying the two pieces on top of each other and having the inner or smaller part underneath. I just began sewing with no pins and kept moving the top part to line up with the piece underneath. When the seam is finished I pressed the seams towards the center of the semi circle.

Here is the next arc added and another cut made for the last round of this three blocks.

And.................here is one of the three finished blocks. This process did not really take very long. Now to play with the remaining fabrics and cut up 6 more 18" squares and make them into blocks. I have already eliminated and added to the original palate.

From this point on my quilt will not progress as the tutorial as she quilted each of her blocks separately which is a good idea if you want sashing between the blocks. I do not want a sashing and I have a longarm quilting machine so see no advantage to working with each block separate. I do know that I already really like this process and am pretty excited to have a finished wall quilt from these blocks so I am pretty motivated to keep going with this project. I will be teaching a small class on Improv quilting next week at a retreat. This project is one of the things I will be working on at the retreat so I am hoping to come home with a finished top with the cool color blocks. I will also likely begin the next in the series with the turquoise and orange color palate.

Improv II Top Pieced

I finally found time today to get the Improv II top pieced. It is a very rustic piece and will hang as art. This piece was a real learning curve as I have never tried this method before in quite this way. The final quilting and the cropping of the quilted piece will change it a bit but for the most part the feel of the piece will remain.

Now I need to get off the computer and get to some cleaning and cooking so I can be ready for the superbowl later this afternoon.

Next week I will go thru my fabric selections and do another edit for the Improv III piece. I am still trying to come up with the final colors. I am torn between lots of solids in brights vs a mix of solids and prints in the cool colors. Once I figure it out I will be cutting 18 inch squares of 9 fabrics and then will be ready to get cutting and sewing. The Improv III will be totally different from I or II and I think I will end up liking it the most of the three but then until they are quilted, embellished (those that I decide need it) and bound I will not really be sure which will be best. They are all very different and the techniques. Nope..........no hints about Improv III yet!

Improv II All the parts pieced!

I have finished piecing all the parts. Only two of the units are pieced and they are the two dark ones in the first row on the left. The next step will be to sew the vertical units together. After that I will lay them next to each other and again cut them so they are just a bit wavy like the inset pieces. I do not think I am going to make the sides or the bottom straight, only the top as that is where the hanging sleeve will go. Right now uncut and unsewn this is about 37 X 42. It will shrink up a bit with the seams. It will be a nice size for wall art.

I will spend some time now putting away all the mess this little quilt has generated. Most of the little inset pieces came from the overflowing scrap bin............and no I did not make a dent in it at all. Likey it is more as the scraps from the cutting of the yardage will end up in the scrap bin.

I have already come up with the plan and inspiration along with a nice selection of blue, green, and purple fabrics for Improv III.

Components for Improv II pieced

I have been busy piecing dark units for Improv II. They are going together much faster than the first few, as I now have the technique mastered. The hardest part is digging thru the scrap bin finding the little inset pieces in the blues, greens, and purples. This is where  improv really becomes a technique that has no real pattern. I am going to make more units in light neutrals and then I will look at all the parts again and come up with the next step. I am still mulling over what colors the insets for those will be. I do like the jagged top and bottom that these pieces make. I think it is much more interesting than it would be if they were all lined up. The background of the photo is similar to how the finished composition will look in color. I do think that I am going to make this piece longer than wide though, but that will take more study.

At this point I am moving away from my inspiration pieces and will not look at them again as I want the piece to take on its own design. I have no real idea of what the finished piece is going to look like. For quilts like this it is the journey that makes it fun, one step at a time.

I think what I enjoy most about this piece is the surprise of how the units look from the first selection of little pieces and then the finished strip. Since there is really no measuring or precision it is a very freeing way to work. It is also fun to select each new fabric to go with what is already there and see how each new unit changes the feel of the whole.

Piecing component of Improv II tutorial

Here is a play by play of how the parts of Improv II are pieced. There is no exact piecing here. Cut, sew, cut, sew. It is important that the pieces not be square. Wonkey is the best word to describe how this is going to look. For the tutorial I used squares and cut them up a bit but you can just pull stuff out of the scrap bin with non parallel edges as well.

Below is the base piece which is a nice rust to go with the brown theme I chose for the quilt. I auditioned squares of fabric and finally selected the following four. They are positioned they way I would like them in the finished block.

 Beginning with the base fabric (it is important to ensure that you have a piece the size you will need. Cut off a strip of fabric which will be subcut into the pieces that will go between the pieces of fabrics selected above. Think of these pieces as spacers between the squares above.

Below are the spacers subcut and placed between the pieces of fabric. This gives a rough idea of the look of the pieces.

Now comes the fun part of cutting and sewing the above parts together. Remember the look for this is "Wonkey" so the pieces need to be cut so they are irregular. Be careful with this as you do not want to cut too much of an angle of the finished strip will be way to "Wonkey"

Below left you can see one unit sewn together and the parts above and below it have been subcut. Notice that the parts that will fit together have wedges that go at alternate angles. The green piece halfway down angles down to the right. The top of the piece below it also angles down to the right. 

Below right the strip is all pieced and placed on top of the base fabric. With the amount of fabric sticking out on the left where it should be after the cut is made in mind.

At the right you can see the cutting line. With a rotary cutter the line is cut so that it has a nice smooth curve that trims off just enough of the strip so that there are no angles.

At the left is the seam being sewn. Because of the way this is cut it needs a very narrow seam so that it will lie flat once sewn. A 1/8 inch seam is used. The top piece is moved to line up with the bottom piece as the seam is slowly sewn. Once the seam is sewn the seam is pressed away from the center strip. This piece is then laid down on the base fabric again and a cut is made on the right side of the center strip like the photo above.

And.................here is the finished unit! I will sew another part that will be attached to this to make the strip longer. The base fabric will be different but it will use the same kind of piecing. I will make about 5 of these long pieces as each is about 6-8 inches wide. I will make another tutorial to show the next steps once all these 5 pieces are sewn together. I hope that the photos and instructions are clear. This is a variation of piecing methods that I figured out by looking at other similar types of piecing. It is fun and fast. There is not precision.

Begin Improv II

Wow this is a quick pace to keep up! I wish I had more time to work on these improv pieces. I will be teaching a class on improv piecing at a retreat at the end of February and want to have a good body of work to show. I am hoping for about 6 or 7 little pieces with quick demos to get the students familiar with how to work with improv and get them going on their own designs.

I finished the top for Improv I. I do not think that any additional lines will add to what is there so the top is finished. I will quilt this at a later time and there are many directions the quilting can take. But for now here is the finished top:

I decided to forge ahead and begin the next Improv II. There are so many things to choose from that chosing just the right one was hard. I finally decided on a few pieces to be the inspiration, or at least the style of piecing. The first piece is "Risky Balance" by Janet Steadman www2.whidbey.net/jandon The second piece is by Cinda Langjahr and and it is called "A Clearing in the Woods". It can be seen on: http://beadlust.blogspot.com/2009/11/bead-embroidery-quilt-show-bead.html just scroll down the page. There are some close ups of the work as well.

Here is a little project I pieced a few years ago that has a similar piecing style. I am not sure if this will be incorporated into this piece or not.

I began with a palate of browns from dark to lights and then a few other colors (blue, green and purple slipped in as accent colors). This is just a starting point and will be the background fabrics.

 Here is the first component of the quilt. The colorful pieces were gleaned from the scrap bin.......nope not enough to even call it microscopic dent. It is a good starting point to work from. The next steps will be to make more similar pieces and then plan how they will go together. At this stage I am thinking more long lines the first piece "Risky Balance and they will be vertical instead of horizontal. But.................and this is a big part of improv.........that might all change. With an improv piece I never know what direction the piece will take me, I just have to keep up with it and follow where it leads.

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Improv I

I have never been one to work in a series but I think I might give it a try. Sometimes an absence of something give you a new prospective on it. I have been away from quilting and art in general for about two years ago now. I have been drawn to all the new "modern" trend all over the web. This is not a new thing for sure but it has gained in popularity. I actually did my first improv quilt some years ago when I was just messing with fabric. What I like so much is that there is no such thing as careful planning. For me the most important thing is color.

Here is my first Improv for the series. It does not have a name for now so it will just be Improv I for now. I got the inspiration from a piece by Kathleen Loomis on the blog: andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/2012/06/piecing-very-fine-lines.html She has a very good tutorial of the technique she uses and has a gallery of her work useing this great technique. I am also very inspired by the work of Uta Lenk at justquilts.de She has some really great eye candy in her gallery.

For my first piece I decided I need to have a good contrast and what better color palate to begin with than cool colors offset by fushia! I did not have to dig too deep into the stash to come up with some chunks of fabric that seemed to play nicely together. This year by motto is if you like the fabric: cut, cut, cut! No more saving fabric for that special project as the fabric store always has more.

Not to worry about the mess as this is only about color choices and how the fabrics look together. The fushia will be the thin lines so only a little of it will show.

 The next decision is really about the base. I opted not to have lines of the fushia separating these pieces. This is really just about putting together the pieces in a nice arrangement. They will be altered once the lines begin to appear.

 Then a choice has to be made. Where to make that first cut and insert the strip.

 Then the next line is cut. At this point I decided to sub cut just the top part and insert some strips there.

So far so good. I continue to cut and sew until the piece has enough lines. There is no right or wrong. One thing to keep in mind is that there will be some quilting and who knows maybe embellishments added so it needs to be enough but not too much with all that in mind.

Well that is enough for one day. Next time I will show the top with all the lines on it.

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2014! I just know that this year will bring lots of good things. I have been busy working on a few creative things and am ready to really get moving on some new ideas. Each new year I set some goals. I never do resolutions as those always seem to fail so goals are better. 

Here is my list:

First is the fitness and I will be starting an new blog for that.

I want to finish one UFO per month.

I will begin a new series of work and will work start to finish on those.

I want to enter at least one major show this year.

I need to organize my work area as it has been packed away for a couple of years.

Mostly I need to get a list of every thing I have started and catalog what is there.

Below is the final round robin project that has been nesting at my house. I actually finished this some time ago but have not posted the results. The prior post has a photo of how this looked when it arrived. I will be mailing this back to Kim this week and in a way it is a finished UFO for me as I have finished my part in it.

 

 The most fun part of working on this was the squirrels. I think they look like they are up to something and are very playful. I really hope that Kim likes what I have added to her work and will enjoy finishing it off.

This is a round robin project that belongs to my friend Kim. She made a base of the fabric piece. There were two people ahead of me that added to this project. This is what I began with. I have been working on this piece for some time and it is now ready for the reveal before it goes home to Kim. I will take some photos of my additions and post them very soon.

Suze's Landscape

My friend Suze's landscape has been nesting at my house for waaaayyyy! too long. Well after lots of very slow progress I finally got it finished amid trying to get my Christmas gifts crocheted, ferrying kids around, two trips over the holidays, family time and work.

All in all I really love the way this is looking. I made several additions. First I decided that there needed to be more trees so I used Suze's photo and added trees lining the road. I used a lazy daisey stitch to make them. Then I decided to put something in that georgous blue pot in the foreground. After some research on Italian gardens I decided on red geraniums. I used pearl cotton in two colors to give a bit more contrast. They were made using a French knot. I made the leaves out of silk ribbon and did the stems in DMC cotton using a stem stitch. I decided the background needed more so I made some rows on the left in a green DMC that were similar to the ones made on the right in the fields in an earlier round. The piece then rested for some time while I was trying to decide what else it needed. I finally realized the trees I had made had trunks in the photo so I added those. It was a small thing, but I really like how they really came more to life.

Here are the photos of the piece with my additions. I sure hope that Suze likes what I did. First the whole piece with my additions. This time the photo is upright.

 Here are the flowers in the pot.

 Here is the left side with the row of trees I added and the green lines along the field suggesting some sort of crop.

 I am looking forward to seeing how Suze finishes this off. Everyone that worked on it did some beautiful things with it.

 October 5, 2012

Ok I know the picture is sideways! I have been playing with it for over an hour now and I cannot figure it out so I will publish it as it is right now. This is a round robin made by my friend Suze. I have had it WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY to long and it is time to add my embelishments and send it back home so that Suze and put on her finishing touches and enjoy it. In any case this is how it looked when it arrived at my house so this is the before shot (I promise the after shot will be right side up. This is what happens when you take the photo sideways with your cell phone, e-mail it to yourself, add it to your PC photos where it shows up correctly, and then import it into your blog.

So far I have added lots of trees along the brown road. I am not done with all of them and will be adding a few more before I work on something in the empty blue flowerpot. I am thinking of some red flowers with big green leaves.

My absence from this blog has been way to long and it is a long saga since I have posted. I have changed jobs and now have less hours. I also broke my foot last year and had a serious complication, a pulmonary embolism which almost did me in. It has been a road of recovery from that. I am beginning to feel that things are going to look up again as far as being able to create again. I have started drawing alot which has the juices flowing. I also got my Gammil longarm machine going again and will be finishing the little quilt that has been sitting on  it for who knows how long now. It is a whole cloth quilt out of some floral fabric that was in the stash. It will end up being a little throw for the dog and I was making it just to practice my allover feathers. I guess it is good it is only half finished as in finishing it I will be able to warm up and see if my feathers still look good. I do not think Sadie the dog is gonna critique it other and seeing if it is worthy of napping on!