An Appraisal

Recently I posted about quilt appraisals.  Road to California offers a chance for an appraisal while your quilt is on display there, so I had Peppermint Stars appraised. This is a replacement cost appraisal for insurance purposes,  the cost to have the quilt made again with similar materials and by quilter(s) of "similar skill and reputation." A market value appraisal might be different.

My result is as described by our guild speaker:  the two page report is totally objective, including things like size of blocks and borders, the colors, the patterns, the layout, type of fabric, quilting design, batting fiber, etc.  There are no judge-type comments at all.  The only subjective comment concerns the difficulty of the pieced design and quilting patterns.  As for the value assigned, I'll just say that I wouldn't be likely to buy this quilt!

The up side:  It's gratifying to see a nice monetary value on something you made, and to know that if something happens to it, you've got compensation.  It's also interesting to think that someone actually spent a lot of time examining the quilt.  (The judges apparently did not.)  The down side:  when I sent the quilt to the Smoky Mountain guild show, I insured it for its appraised value.  The resulting shipping cost made my jaw drop.  Homeowner's insurance covers the quilt in the home, but I'm not sure about en route to a show.  Before I do this again, I'll need to find out.

Using Value

I've been having so much fun working on my joke challenge quilt!  Most of the motifs that make up the picture are done now, and just need fine tuning before I begin to stitch them together and do the final assembly.  Then the quilting--like Scarlet O'Hara, I'll think about that tomorrow.

Here you can see my fabrics for this project sorted by value dark, medium, light in the back, with the multicolors on the upper left. I approached fabric choices for this a bit differently.  I chose a color plan, and made a sketch, but instead of planning what color each piece should be, I only planned what value it should be.  I wanted to be sure to get enough contrast in the focal points to let those shapes stand out, and less contrast in more secondary areas.

I found this a very satisfying way to work.  It's somehow simpler to look for a dark fabric than wonder whether I want a blue or a green or an orange, and it makes sorting the fabric easier too when I'm working with a large number of possible choices.  As I went along, I did consider color, making sure that the different colors are spread around in a pleasing way.

By coincidence, Libby of Creative Endeavors has been working with values in her painting projects, and it seems to be working well for her.
We'll see how this works for me, but so far, I'm pleased.

While stitching lots of little letters...

I learned something.  Last summer I discovered that if you hold the bobbin thread when you start to zig-zag, the Janome pulls the knot to the back.  Now I discovered something even better.  If you DO NOTHING, don't touch any thread, both threads and the knot go to the back.  Isn't that great?  The only problem is that I have such a habit of holding a thread, it's hard not to do it.  But I'm learning.  So much faster, which is a blessing for this project.

Also, I'm wondering why Superior Threads makes their Mono-poly thread only in a very dark smoke or clear.  Neither color blends well on a medium fabric.  The Coats and Clark nylon that I no longer use blended better.

Finally, I just wasted some time looking at H of Paducah's on-line sale.  The sale batiks are beautiful.  I know what I said about batiks a while back, but these really are lovely, and with prices going up, it's a good opportunity.  I'm resisting.  I'll use my Christmas gift certificate on wool batting instead, but that's boring, isn't it?

Designing and Decisions

I don't know if I like this stage of a project or not.  Sometimes it's fun--there's a real surge of adrenaline; but then sometimes the decisions just tie me up in knots.

Here's where I am on the joke challenge quilt.  I'm stuck on the background fabric, not able to find exactly what I visualize.  The one on the right seems a bit bright, and also dark enough that having visibility for the center elements may be a problem.  They'll need to be either dark or light, not medium.  The one on the left has a flower sprig, which isn't right for the mood or theme.  I know it is only visible close up, but still it bothers me.  I'm not quite willing to try a couple more fabric shops, but maybe I will.  On the other hand, maybe I'll just say,  "Oh, well," and go with it.  See what I mean about indecision?

This is probably the only post about this quilt since it should be a surprise.  It's hard not to be able to post what you're working on, isn't it?

The retreat was delightful:  a warm, sunny room with a view of snow covered woods and fields, good food,  good company and plenty of time to sew.  What could be better?

I've finished 18 (out of 72)  of the Greek key blocks, and started making some of Mary Lou Weidman's Hoochey Mama blocks.  Her method produces straight edges, which means the finished blocks are more stable than other wonky methods where you just piece and hack.  These are fun, but not particularly fast to make.  I need at least six or seven more to get a good range of color and to make a border of the right length.   So with two unfinished projects, I probably won't be posting finished work for a while.

One thing that is finished, however, is the Interpret This! Challenge.  Debra posted an excellent summary of the project with links to everyone's work, and you can just scroll down and read our final comments too.  I hope you'll visit this site if you haven't yet.

Time to Retreat!

Assuming the roads in Michigan are plowed, I'm packing for retreat.  Here's my project stash:

The batiks in the back are for the Athena's Puzzle block, good for brainless sewing.  The front piles are for a new project, a Mary Lou Weidman style "story quilt".   It's for a guild challenge:  the punch line of a joke.  Now there's a challenge!  But I do have an idea, and while it will stretch my drawing skills to their pathetic limit, I'm giving it a shot.  This weekend I hope to do some of the wacky border blocks, and then develop the center later.

I'm also planning to finish this little thing for Alzheimers'  quilts.

In my stash was a scrap of fabric with faux blue-work flower designs that I've always thought would make a sweet little miniature.  So here it is.  Miniature, or potholder?  Will curved bound edges help, or just add to the potholder look?  You can cast your vote here.

As soon as I finish organizing, I'm off to the grocery.  In case you haven't heard, we've had a massive snowstorm, and I'm afraid the choice of fruit for the fruit salad I'm supposed to make may be slim.  We'll see.

The Batik Blur

I used to love batiks.  When I started making "wearable art" about 12 years ago, batiks were new to me, and they were perfect for what I was doing. 

 The low value contrast and blended colors worked for quilted  clothing, because after all, not many people want to look like they're wearing one of Grandma's quilts.  Some of my batik stash dates from that period, but I've added to it constantly, finding uses for some of it, but always thinking "Some day I'm going to do something wonderful with these batiks!"

In the last few months, it's been dawning on me that I no longer like batiks so much.  They've become much more common, and often are used in such a way that their already blended look becomes just a blur--there's no pattern left in the quilt.  The popular jelly rolls are very much to blame for this.  Many batik jelly roll quilts seem to me like a big smudge of finger paint--pretty colors, but without any pattern definition.  Now if you love jelly roll batik quilts, I know I'm stepping on your toes.  Don't take it personally.  You can still love them.  It would be a dull world if we were all alike, right?

So--DRUM ROLL:  It's time to use up some batiks! ( It's not that I don't like them at all, it's just that I'm not "saving" them any longer.) I'm making Athena's Puzzle, from a pattern I bought at the Chicago Quilt Festival last spring with the aim of busting batiks.  I love the Greek Key design, so that's a bonus, and it's actually just a simple Courthouse Steps block.

I have a retreat coming up in two weeks, so I'll cut this out and sew it there, and will have reduced the batiks stash noticeably.  The quilt will be fairly blurry, but that's okay.  Nine yards of fabric, plus backing and binding will have been finally used.

I keep repressing the voice that says, "You're going to want that blue for sky!  That blue-green has been perfect as an accent.  No! Not that purple!  You'll be sorry."  So far it's working.

It's Still January

Greetings from the tundra.


What's happening:

I'm preparing these three Interpret This! pieces to send to the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative.  Two of them need a sleeve, since I didn't do that when they were finished.  The pink tree has been cut smaller to meet the AAQI size limit, without any impact on its effect that I can see.

The service quilt that was posted last week is quilted, bound, and ready to go.

I've also been reading, finishing the Inspector Troy novels by John Lawton.

  These are an odd combination of police procedural, cold war espionage, and historical novel, since they're set in London at  various times from the Blitz to 1963.  Lawton wrote four novels, the fourth bringing his hero Inspector Troy to the end of his career, and then apparently not really finished, wrote subsequent novels that went back and filled in gaps in Troy's life.  I'd highly recommend these books.  Troy is a fascinating,  not totally likable character; as the son of a family of aristocratic Russian refugees, he's a bit of an outsider in England. There's an excellent cast of supporting characters, as well as vivid descriptions of English society at various time periods.

What's not happening:

I signed up for a Quilt University course, Playing with Paint, taught by Lyric Kinard.  I debated a long time about taking this class, but finally decided it might motivate me to use some of the fabric paint that is sitting on my shelf.  I've bought the paint because other people make such beautiful things, but after the paint comes into my house, it usually sits untouched.

Stupid as it sounds, I just don't like the mess.  Clutter is okay, but I don't like to get my hands dirty, or spill stuff that has to be wiped up, or wash paint tools.  In addition, if there's anything that says "bad art everyday" it's my painted fabric.  I look at it, and think, "Now what?"  So last Friday I downloaded the first lesson,  read it,  and haven't opened a jar of paint!  I will do the class work; I promise.  Just not yet.

Ah, Winter

January

The days are short, 

The sun a spark

Hung thin between 

The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footprints 

Track the floor,

And parkas pile up

Near the door.

The river is

A frozen place

Held still beneath

The trees' black lace.

The sky is low, 

The wind is grey.

The radiator

Purrs all day.

John Updike

Don't be fooled; the vision at my house is much more like the images in the second stanza of the poem than the lovely photo.   I would add to the picture: puddles on the garage floor from snowy cars,  wood trash and ashes near the fireplace, and extra floor mats to prevent those wet, snowy footprints.  I give up.  In addition, it's thawing today: grey mist, dripping water, puddles that will refreeze into sheets of ice, and dirty snow.

I spent the morning going through excess STUFF in the basement around my studio area.  The progress is not even noticeable.  I'll keep going.  The plan is to buy some new storage furniture to neaten it up, but first I had to throw out boxes, shopping bags, and tissue paper saved after Christmas.  And that's just the beginning.

I hope in the time left this afternoon I can do something creative, in the spirit of Bad Art. Everyday.  Click on the button for the link to Libby's blog where she explains this philosophy.  It's not what you think.  Join in!

December/January Interpret This!

Weeds 8" x 10"

Altered image photo transfers, hand dyed fabrics, fibers

Machine applique, machine quilting

The photo for our last Interpret This! photo challenge shows river weeds and grasses.

I wanted to use the yellow flower as my focal point, and also to emphasize the diagonal lines of stems and grasses.  This could have been done with applique, but I thought I'd try photo transfers this time.

I tried many different approaches, and although I didn't use most of them, it was an interesting experience.  I'll summarize some of the things I did, and although they may be familiar to many people, it seems there are so many possibilities with this software that you may find something you haven't tried.

First, does everyone know that if you edit and save an image repeatedly you should not do that in JPG format, but instead use PSD or TIFF?  I found this out fairly recently.  Apparently a JPG looses quality somehow every time you save it.  So do the altering in one of the other formats and then go back to JPG to post.

After cropping the flower section, the first thing I did was clean up the background around the flower by taking out some extra stems and buds.   I used the Clone Stamp tool.  You select that tool from the tool bar on the side of the screen, choose a size from the brush settings at the top, roll the brush circle over a section of the photo that will replace the part of the image you wish to remove, and Option Click.  Then put the circle over the part of the image you want to remove, and click.  The background you have selected replaces part of the image.  You can click repeatedly until the part you want to erase is gone.  It's good to Option Click on a new background occasionally to get a smoother fill.  As you can see from the examples, this is a rather crude method and wouldn't work if you wanted a sharp finished photo, but for most fabric transfers it works fine.

The next step was to make the flower sharper and brighter.  There are several filters that work for this, but I used the Watercolor Filter.  Choose the Filter pulldown menu, and the filter you want to try.  On Photoshop I use the Filter Gallery option, which shows me several filters at a time. (Filter-Filter Gallery-Watercolor) Like all the filters, Watercolor allows you to adjust several different sliders to get the best effect. Just play with it.  After applying the filter and saving it, I chose Filter-Sharpen-Unsharp Mask, and set the radius slider at about 130.  As I understand it, this increases the contrast between the pixels and can make the object stand out brighter.  Here's the flower after those two steps.

The final step is to go to Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturation.  From the pulldown menu at the top of the window, I selected Yellows and increased the saturation by 30%.  The image looks garish on the screen, but because cloth absorbs lots of ink, the extra brightness is needed.  (The version below has also been resized and slightly distorted.)

The background required more trial and error.  I wanted to use actual photos of the background, but the photo was so busy that it didn't allow the flower to stand out much.  There are lots of fills that can change the color, but I wanted to keep the greens.

First I selected the left half of the image, copied it, pasted it in a new layer, and flipped the image so I only had the diagonal stems.

Then I tried different filters to blur or soften the busyness of the background.  Here is a spray filter  (Filter-Brush Strokes-Spray Strokes) with a green fill layer.  Pretty but not right for what I wanted.

Here is the final choice.  It's the stamp filter (Filter-Sketch-Stamp) with the foreground color set to match the darkest green in the photo and the background color set to approximate a fabric I planned to use.

If I were doing it over, I'd make the foreground darker, I think.

For all these trials, I printed a sample on paper to see the general effect, and used the paper copies to plan a layout.  After deciding on a final plan, I upped the saturation (Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturation) and printed on fabric.  I printed the flower on a purchased silk fabric sheet, hoping the luster would make the flower clearer.  I'm not sure it did. The background is cotton pretreated with Bubble Jet Set and attached to a postage label.

Everything I've done here is pretty basic; for this project, I didn't even try some of the various fill effects possible, or the selection tools to cut out the flower from the background.  There's so much trial and error in using these techniques you could spend months doing this.  I'm not sure I want to, but this was fun.

Snowbound Service Quilts

I've been semi-snowbound for a week or so.  I can get out, but haven't really wanted to.  The South Bend area had a record snowfall last weekend, 38.6 inches.  It's snowing again, and probably will for several days. Although there isn't that much snow where I live, (maybe about 20 inches), going anywhere is a hassle.  So I've stayed in,  and done some scrap strip reduction.  Both these quilts are service quilts for my guild; when the second one is quilted, I'll have five to turn in.  

I've been in a sort of brain-dead mode lately, and putting these things together has been just what I need. Bright colors brighten up the winter too!

Observations of a Lurker

I've been doing lots of lurking lately; for whatever reason, I haven't felt very sociable, so I haven't commented (or posted) much, but I do read.  As I read, I started to divide quilting bloggers into categories.   Most bloggers tend to drift and don't fit in the same category all the time, but everyone has a default setting.  See if you agree with my list.

The Neighborly Blogger    Reading this kind of blog is like going back to the old days when you could chat with your neighbor over the back fence or stop in for coffee while walking the dog.  She will show what she's working on, talk about her day, show pictures of her children, pets, or grandchildren.  This is probably the most common type of blog.

There are subtypes in this group: the Bossy Neighbor, who will give you a pattern to follow along with step by step, or the One Up Neighbor who always seems to have a nice new "toy" to play with or have been somewhere exotic or maybe just has cuter grandchildren.

The Trendy Blogger  Here's where you find out all about the latest "in" stuff.  The word of the year, the sketchbook challenge,  the "let's all post the same thing on the same day" sort of game. The beginning of the year is a big time for trends, but many of them fizzle pretty quickly.  Still it's good to be in the know, and if you're in a passive, observing mood like me, watching the world of trends go by is fun.

The Instructive Blogger  Want to learn a new embroidery stitch, how to make a perfect mitered corner, how to make a stencil out of stale bread?  Someone out there can tell you, with pictures or a video, and maybe sell you a book or a pattern too.    These blogs are a service; they're part of what the Information Superhighway is all about.

The Philosophical Blogger  Is what I'm doing Art, or just Craft?  How can I grow on my Artistic Journey? When will fabric reach its deserved place as a Medium?  These bloggers meditate on the Big Questions.  The sub-type of this blogger is someone who disagrees, maybe snarkily, with other bloggers' answers to these Big Questions.  I love these people!  Seriously.  And I really love the snarky ones.

The Informative Blogger  Here you'll find lots of pictures of quilt shows, shops, new fabric lines, or links to other interesting blogs.  These bloggers help spread news the rest of us want to know.  They must be the blogosphere's  gossipy neighbor.

The blogging world has as many different personalities as the real world.  Did you recognize yourself in any of these descriptions? I did.  Sorry, I can't help it if my grandchildren are the cutest!

End of the Year News

Christmas was quiet, filled with excellent food, not too much in the way of gifts.  I made my husband a reservation at Alinea in Chicago, and that's his gift.  I guess it's mine too,  although it's honestly not my thing.  Still, a world class restaurant is not to be sneezed at, so I'm grateful for the chance to go.

This is more my thing:

Our new kitten, Larry.  Larry was rescued as a newborn from a cat hoarding situation: sick, starving, covered with fleas.  He was bottle-fed, given antibiotics, de-fleaed (twice), and is now healthy, happy, and very people loving.  He thinks he is a person, I'm sure.  Our other cat hid for two days, stalked around in fury for several more, and now just stares at him.  He is completely undisturbed by anything she does; he's seen it all.  We're hoping they will eventually be friends, but peaceful coexistence may be as far as it goes.

On the quilt front, I've finished Interpret This! (reveals January 13), pieced one more quick charity top, and quilted and bound this one:

the last finish of the year.

We're going to Chicago for New Year's with my son, daughter-in-law and the twins since we couldn't see them Christmas.   I can't wait!

Everyone:  have a safe New Year's Eve, full of whatever sort of celebration you  most enjoy, and a good 2011.

Interpret This! Progress

After I finished some Christmas gifts yesterday, I was able to start working on my December Interpret This! piece.  I've spent a lot of time playing with Photoshop and learned some more about it.  The results aren't necessarily going to show this, however, since I've discarded a pile of trials.  Not wasted time though, because I enjoyed it, and learning can be its own reward--if you remember it!

Some Finishes

I'm not really hiding from Christmas duties. One of these is a gift, one was finished a while back, and the third--yes, it was an escape. I lied.

1. Lap quilt for son and daughter-in-law. I chose the colors to go with the repainting plan they have for the large living area of their home, and I hope they like it. I like the look of the quilt, but not the feel. The quilting is beautiful, but I've learned to be more careful about choosing the batting, quilting pattern, and thread to get a softer cozier touch for a lap quilt. Wool batting, looser quilting, and a finer thread would be better.

2. Guild service quilt, made from orphan blocks. I posted this before it was finished and quilted, but it is completely done now. Was there a reason I started the alphabet border in the lower left hand corner instead of upper left? I hope so, but I've forgotten it now.

3. Another guild service quilt. I started with pinwheel blocks made from the trimmings of flying geese units. I'd saved them, but hadn't used them because I didn't really want to square them up. But then after reading Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilting, I realized they could be a bit off square, and definitely didn't all have to be the same size. Then I added liberated log cabin strips, and this is the result. I love the freshness of the colors, and the movement the off-center pinwheels give. It definitely needs a bright colored binding to keep the border from disappearing, so I'll add that when I quilt it after Christmas.

It's so relaxing to make something like this! Now to wrap some gifts, and finish the tree.

Help with Binding

I packed up lots of gifts today and took them to the post office, along with my Road to California entry. Now as it's continuing to snow, I'm finishing my last big pre-Christmas project. I was laying the binding around the edges to make sure that the seams didn't hit the corners, and Florabelle came to help, as you can see.

Elizabeth Barton has a post today about quilt cliches, and I know a picture of your cat on your quilt is a quilt blog cliche, but I couldn't resist. After all, cute is cute, right?

November Interpret This! Revisited

Season's Greetings!

Hotel Fabric Art, and a Testimonial for Phone Cameras

In Chicago, we usually stay at one of the Club Quarters hotels. For some reason this chain features fabric art in their lobby. There used to be a silk wall quilt above the desk whose blocks made a subtle CQ logo. It was truly subtle; I saw it several times in Chicago and a similar one in New York before I realized it wasn't just an abstract pieced design.

This new piece, meant to suggest the ripples of the Chicago River, hangs in the remodeled lobby of the CQ on Wacker Driver, also known as the River Hotel.

It's silk, made by something like the faux chenille technique that was fashionable a few years ago. I've admired it several times, and two weeks ago remembered that I could take a decent picture with my new phone.

And also with my phone, I took this stunning photo, looking east down the river from the Wells Street Bridge. The moon was posing for me, I think.

November Interpret This!

Bricks, Boards, and Window Panes

20" x 29"

I stayed away from the detail in this photo and concentrated on the geometric shapes. It was put together using a modified version of Ruth McDowell's technique. Instead of cutting a freezer paper template for every piece, I just divided the design into large sections (door, window, three sections of wall) and pieced each section by rough measurement. Then I used a template to cut the section to size, and assembled the sections. Except for the window section, it was simple.

I blogged earlier about the border fabric problem, but the result is passable in my eye. The holidays kept me from thinking much about how to make this more interesting with elaborate quilting, more thread work, even some embellishments. I just went with the simple geometric patterns.

This is a piece that makes me keep thinking about alternative approaches. For instance, the various textures in the photo are lovely, and it would have been fun to find fabric with textures instead of standard quilting cotton. Perhaps someone else in the group has done that. Be sure and click on the sidebar link to find out.

Fortunately, there's only a couple of the these types at my table. How about you?

Before I start last minute Thanksgiving organizing, here's a few bits of information that are on the top of my brain this morning.

Equilter is having a fabulous Thanksgiving sale, with many fabrics at 50% off. The collection of blenders is particularly wonderful; there's a full selection of several beautiful lines. I know it's ironic that I should post this in light of recent complaints about my stash, but I didn't say I was buying. I'm just sharing.

Kathy Loomis has been publishing a series of posts about the trend in quilt design and art quilting today. Some sacred cows have been gored. Very thought-provoking, whether you agree or not. I do, mostly.

Personal notes: I finished the binding of my IT! piece last night while watching the finale of Dancing with the Stars. Perfect timing. Reveals begin Sunday. And Peppermint Stars is going to Road to California. This was very good news, not really expected.

Finally, Happy Thanksgiving, safe travels, good eating, and pleasant company to everyone.