Yes, I’ve been AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave) again…..  I plead the holidays, kids, exhaustion, and needed to re-charge.  So what does one do?  Quilt of course!  I spotted the panels for this quilt on eQuilter a while back and loved the motifs so much I ordered up a set.   Then in late October I saw a quilt in the Maine-ly Sewing booth at a small regional show made with them and decided that’s what I needed to do…make a colorful lap quilt (like we need another for the sofa…NOT! …but when does that stop a diehard quilter?).

So I bought a bit of fabric from Maine-ly Sewing.  Then I saw more of the line at Alewives Fabric, and bought MORE.  Ahem.  I had some serious “Visa Accidents” this past 45 days….. books and fabric!  (like I need more books and fabric…NOT! …but when does that stop a diehard quilter?)  So just before Christmas, to prevent implosion and breakdown, I started!   Thinking to make a quilt similar to one I saw at Alewives, I cut MANY 2 inch squares, thinking I’d make two rows of checkerboard sashing between the blocks.  It turns out the blocks are a weird size, so I edged them in the perfect hand-dyed rusty orange I had, but decided they also needed a SECOND fiddly, skinny outline in black.

The checkerboard:

UGH.  It was even worse the more I added……

So I looked at what fabric I had, and said “green it is!”

I went out and bought minkee (a lovely creamy yellow) for the back.  THen discovered I had only one quilt batt anywhere near big enough, and that one I needed to save for something else.  So I decided to quilt without a batting…just the top and the minkee.  To compensate for the slipperyness of the minkee, I spray basted a bit heavier than usual.  Mistake.  Even though I used a combination of threads that has been flawless in the past, I had snarls and fits everywhere with the black thread quilting.  I tried every trick in the book.  I changed needles, I changed tension (top and bottom), I changed the placement of the thread.  I still got the occasional thread clots.  I gave up and just kept quilting.  This is clearly NOT going to be a show quilt!   But it will be snuggly despite the appearance of some not-so-nice moments on the back.  Of course, I haven’t taken a picture of the finished quilt, so that’ll come later…

Happy New Year Everyone!   May the good stuff from last year continue, may the icky stuff go away…as simple as that!

Someone on the QuiltArt list asked what our “word for the year 2010” would be.  I’ve not really done that before—I tend to be NOT introspective and don’t make specific long-term goals, and quit making resolutions years ago.   [I resolved that I would no longer make New Year’s Resolutions, but instead would make them when they needed making!  I’ve done that, and it is the first New Year’s resolution I’ve managed to keep for years!]

Anyway, after thinking, de-clutter, de-stress, and a few other similar concepts, I came up with

Simplify.

I need to simplify what I do, how I do it, and reserve more time to make art and allow myself to re-charge.  Since I got back from Houston in late October, I’ve been playing a catch up game, feeling that I’m in a fallow period for art.   I need time to restore myself, so I’ve been reading novels, spending time with family, and generally trying to not kill myself with work!

Along with the theme of simplify, I thought I’d share these fabric postcards, many of which I make for an online swap.  The theme was Art Nouveau/Art Deco, and I think the design is nice, straightforward, and fairly simplified!

Here’s how I made them.  First I carved my own stamp, based on a design from a Dover book (copyright-use OK).  I simplified the design which was too intricate for carving in a stamp that is just under 3×3 inches, then added a frame of vine-branches. You can see some test-prints on paper, and some test-swatches of the paints…mostly Jacquard Lumiere and Setacolor Pearlescents.

I printed onto my own hand-dyed cloth with Ancient Page archival ink:

The cards were then quilted and painted:

Next, I painted some of those leaves.  It actually took longer to paint the leaves than to quilt the cards!

Finally, I added a couched yarn edge-finish:

Here’s a close-up of two of the silvery-white roses, one with just the pale green-gold leaves, the other with two-tone leaves:

I have mounted three of these cards and will be offering them for sale, but need to take pictures.  Hopefully I’ll get those posted soon…in the meantime, welcome to 2010, to the snow that is falling turning the view out the window into a white and grayscape wonderland, and to making art!

OH MY!   It isn’t often that I get a book and immediately want to go run dig out my dyes and cloth and start playing!   The sad news is that three-plus months later I STILL haven’t had time (and now it is winter, the basement is too cold to dye, etc), but boy do I want to!  That is what Melanie Testa‘s Inspired to Quilt has done to me, and that is a very, VERY good thing!  You can order it from Melanie, Interweave or Amazon.

I’ll also be honest… Melanie’s art and quilting inspire me, blow me away, make me think—all of these are wonderful things!  The book, published by Interweave, is well laid out, with great page layout, graphics and color inside, truly enhancing Melanie’s work, words, and instructions.  No boring white pages here, but creative inspiration all around.

One of the things I need to do a lot more is play, work in a sketchbook, and suss out different ideas, images and concepts.  I am usually so overwhelmed with stuff “to do” that I never give myself this freedom.  It is work, Work, WORK all the time, and then scramble to make any quilts at all.  Mostly for the past couple of years it has been samples for the book or classes, and not nearly enough creative development time.  Now that this book has sat for a while waiting review here, I think I need to go through it again, inspire myself all over again, and more than anything, follow Melly’s example and work with my sketchbook. The book covers:

• The Fabric Foundation
• Technique Application
• Creating Quilts Inspired by your Journals
• Sandwiching and Quilting
• Embellishment
• Finishing
• Smallworks, Series, and Exploration

One of the things I like best is how the illustrations show how Melly builds her cloth and designs, from white to finished, as in the example above of the leaves.  The same goes for this bird, where progressive washes of color create the image, just as she did in her sketchbook:

I love that she shares her notebooks and sketchbooks:

One of Melanie’s signature techniques is to screenprint and dye a sheer overlay fabric to work with the base fabric.  She has detailed information on dyeing, printing, creating stamps and screens–plenty of information to get you going without having to buy a separate book on surface design (tho it may whet your appetite for more!).  The photo below shows four steps in creating the transparency layer that brought the sketchbook work on the left to life…

There are several projects that are just plain fun (merit badges for grown ups, including one that is a hippo–I love it!) and help you try out these techniques on a small scale to get a feel for them. I particularly like how she combines hand stitching with machine, and there are also many examples to inspire.

In sum:  If you are or want to be an art quilter, and are willing to just do it on your own, this is a great book for you whether you are a beginner or moving on to (or at) advanced!  There is plenty of instruction, more than plenty inspiration.  If you want your hand held…well….. buy the book anyway!  Be inspired, find out if Melly is teaching anywhere that you can reach, and give it a go.

Definitely need to put this one back on the (re-) read pile by the sofa before tucking it onto the shelf….or into the DO NOW pile!

Yippeee!  It’s time for the winners of the Double-Giveaway here and over at Susan Brubaker Knapp’s Blue Moon River blog and website.  Yesterday, Paul’s minor surgery  (the reason for the delay) went well, we got home last night, he’s doing great, and this morning I asked both him and our younger son to pick to a number between 1 and 64 (the number of comments by deadline time yesterday).  Eli was first, and he picked the number for Carolyn who therefore wins Applique Petal Party

Carolyn wrote:

“I have been crazy in love with her bohemain bouquet for a long time. I may just have to take the plunge and go for it! Love the new petal party as well. I would be thrilled to win any of the great give aways! Keep up the good work!”

Paul came downstairs next, and he picked the number for Jane who will win Susan’s Pinata Purse pattern , who wrote:

quiltsmiles.blogspot.com

“Love her Bohemian Bouquet pattern, and I thank both of you for your generousity. Love your blog and I do enjoy stopping by to see what you’re up to. Thanks for sharing.

Jane”

I agree with them both…Bohemian Bouquet is one of my favorites of Susan’s, along with Round Red Barn and Glasgow Rose… I love more traditional quilts that combine circular designs with geometric/squared.  I also LOVE LOVE LOVE that quilt she is wrapped up in for her photo on her home page…great photo, great quilt!

Susan has picked the winners over on her blog, and I truly hope the winners enjoy ThreadWork Unraveled and my Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul pattern.  The prizes will be in the mail post haste!

A quick note:  due to life happening, I won’t be near my computer and therefor won’t be able to do the drawing for Susan’s pattern and pattern-book until Thursday morning….  I’ll restrict the drawing to those who left comments before noon on Wednesday!   Thanks for understanding and stay tuned!