Blocks for Boston

I know I've been away for a ridiculous amount of time, and I will catch up with a full report soon.

For now I need take a minute to tell you about a project called Quilts for Boston. Like everyone else I was heartbroken to hear the news of the bombings last month, and waited with baited breath to hear that the one person who I knew was running was safe back at his hotel. I also followed the news closely to hear that the bombers were no long a threat.

Then, like most quilters I began to wonder if there was something I could do. Quilters are like that. When something bad happens we want to wrap everyone up in a warm and lovingly made quilt. Not that a quilt will make everything better, but that the thought and caring that goes into the making can help; Help for those injured by the tragedy, and for those who are witnesses.

Fortunately I belong to a guild - the West Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild - and one of our members has close ties to Boston. In no time she had us on track to help the Boston Modern Quilt Guild with their project. Now nearly a month later I am sending off two blocks - one orderly and one not so much - in some of the colors they requested. Just in the nick of time since blocks need to be in Boston by the end of the week.

I hope that those assembling these quilts feel the same sense of community that I felt making them, and that the gift - wherever the quilts finally make a home - bring peace to those who enjoy them.

The Larkspur Quilt Project Continues

What I’m now calling the Larkspur quilt is progressing, though not as fast as I’d like.

Remember the first block?

For a while I wasn’t sleeping well and I now understand what researchers (and new Moms) mean when they talk about sleep deprivation. One day I spent an hour trying to scrounge up enough material to fix a mistake I made in cutting. Funny thing is, it turns out that I never made the mistake in the first place. I just didn't remember that I had already made those blocks and they were sitting in a stack on my cutting table. I’m never sure when people ask how long it took me to make a quilt whether I should include those little side trips in the equation.

Yes, the top was all nicely pressed before assembly.
Afterward I folded it up  and let it sit for a few days.
Looks like a mess but it will be fine.

But alas, the top is pieced, the quilt sandwich is lined up and pinned, and I’m ready to quilt. If I only knew just how to approach all that negative space. Though I couldn’t make it too the Modern Quilt Guild’s QuiltCon event in Austin this year, I have been enjoying hearing some of the talks which Craftsy.com has made available online.

Watching those talks with all the amazing quilts used as examples gave me ideas, but I was especially taken with Angela Walter’s talk about machine quilting of modern quilts. If you aren’t familiar with her work, take a look at her portfolio. The woman is absolutely fearless with a longarm. Now I don’t have a longarm quilting machine or even a great setup for free motion quilting on my home machine, though rearranging some tables might help.

Layering and pin basting on a small table

Like all quilters who work in small spaces carved out of a busy home, I also don't have a great spot for assembling the quilt sandwich for a queen size quilt like this one, so I use Wendy Butler Berns' binder clip method on my cutting table. She explains it in detail in her machine quilting class on Craftsy.com.

Anyway, after looking at some of her designs, I’m determined to be bold. Lots of quilting. Lots of motion. I might even try to work in a few flowers and birds. I’m itching to start, but making myself wait until I can devote a whole day to working on the quilting. I know I won’t get it all done in one day, but starting when I can only spend an hour seems like it would be too frustrating. Soon though, soon.

Scale

I’ve been playing again.

I’ve been making smaller versions of the Sugar Block of the Month Club blocks. This project is partly inspired by fact that Amy Gibson has left final quilt design up to each quilter. That set me to thinking about how I could do something different and interesting with twelve pretty basic blocks. Around the same time I took a look at the March lesson from the Craftsy Block of the month, and Laura Nownes was talking about drafting and using it to resize a block.

Though I’m pretty comfortable with quilt math and don’t generally bother to draw everything out, this seemed like a good exercise to work on in front of the TV. The drawing above is for the quarter size block. That is, I reduced a 12 x 12 finished block to a 6 x 6 finished block.

Here is the same scaled down version of the January block.

Apparently some quilters are afraid of drafting, and that’s a shame because it can hold you back from designing your own quilts. The truth is, if you can draw it on eight to the inch graph paper, you can figure out how to cut it out with a quarter inch seam allowance. If you have never attempted drafting, just take a look at the March installment of the 2013 Craftsy Block of the Month. You will be surprised at how simple it can be. Then get busy thinking up your own blocks.

I kind of thought I was done with this experiment, but then I got to doodling and decided to draw a  3 x 3 block.

It seemed doubtful that I could manage crisp points on something so small, but voila! I think it would be fun to use all twelve blocks in three different sizes with quite a lot of negative space in between them all. It sure could lead to interesting quilting possibilities.

March On

It has been a gorgeous early  March day here in Atlanta and I've spent as much of it outside as I could manage. This morning our sweet Lady and I had a long walk around the neighborhood. She was determined to prowl a run down street at the edge of the neighborhood where she is likely to uncover discarded chicken bones, but I prevailed and kept us on prettier streets.

Then a wonderful friend who helped me to learn all about native plants and gardening in the South came to visit. We walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch, and had a peak at my sad post winter garden. The weeds are thriving from winter rains and a singular lack of attention on my part. I love gardening and especially like to watch the spring garden come to life, but for now at least my passion is focused in the studio with fabric and thread.

Which leads me to my third outdoor pursuit on this beautiful day. I photographed some quilt blocks. Following lessons learned from Caro Sheridan's Craftsy class "Shoot It! A Product Photography Primer", I found a spot with bright shade and an interesting but non-distracting background, hung up my closeline and went to work.

This is the Craftsy 2013 Block of the Month for March. I love the way the reds and oranges play off each other to create an optical illusion of  three dimensions. 

here is a closeup of the fabric which is from Robert Kaufman's Spot On collection, 

And this is the March block from Amy Gibson's Sugar Block Club.

Each of these blocks is so crisp and dramatic, it's hard to imagine what the finished quilt will look like. Amy is leaving the final composition up to each quilter. I have some ideas - thinking about making lots of additional blocks in quarter size and then using them as sashing. As my mother would have said, "We shall see".

And this is a good example of why you need to be aware of shadows and sunlight. It's a terrible product photo, but it does give you a sense of what a great day we had going on. Spring really is the best season Atlanta has to offer, and I'm going to have to find a way to balance outdoor time with my desire to be in the studio. Did I mention the studio is in the basement? And it has small little windows? Right. 

Catharsis

Do you remember when I was whining about my overflowing stash of remnants? Even after making

a Quilt

a bag

and a mug rug

I still had all of this left from the Ella’s Wish line.

Well I have just two words for you…

Charm Swap!

There goes the last of the green from that project,

and the greens from the Off Center Baby Quilt,

and a bit of the green from the Amy Gibson Craftsy Block of the Month.

Wow. That was kinda cathartic. We're going to have to do this more often.