Book Report - 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

Tula Pink's latest book is called Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.

 

The page below is a sample from the book. All of the blocks in the book are 6 1/2" squares.  You can see on the left is the quilt block and on the right is a sketch of how to assemble it. At the end of the book, Tula has great photos of sampler quilts using all 100 blocks.  This is a very well thought out book and easy to use. 

I heard Tula interviewed on Pat Sloan's weekly podcast (listen to the June 3, 2013 broadcast).  She really wants this to be an interactive book.  She left room at the top for you to name the block and make it your own. You see the scribbles that I made? I wanted to double the size of my block because I'd like to make a pillow top using a single block so I was able to make my notes right on the page. As Tula states in the Introduction, "In a perfect world, everyone's book would end up looking like a journal, coffee stains and all." It's a book to be used; just like our quilts.

Below is my block. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This book would be a great addition for any quilter's library.

Sunday's Super Tip - Broken Needles

Yesterday I was working on my coin purse demo. After stitching a seam, I thought that perhaps I'd switch over and try a zig zag stitch. So, I changed the setting on my machine and...you know what happened, don't you...

UGH! The opening on my quilting foot doesn't have the space for the needle to stitch a zig to the left and a zag to the right. So the needle broke.

In addition to getting a new needle, I needed to dispose of the broken one. I keep an old plastic prescription bottle for just this purpose.

I put broken needles as well as bent pins in the container. It has that child-proof lid, so you know they are all safe inside until you can dispose of the container. No need to worry about anyone getting stabbed when the trash is emptied or little toes stepping on the sharp pieces.

Hope you like this idea. Any tip that makes it easier to complete a project is a tip worth sharing!

Design Essentials a la Heather

At the NQA show I was lucky enough to take Heather Thomas' Quick Design Essentials class. If you aren't familiar with Heather, she's a fabulous artist based in Denver.

We spent the day with her learning about design aesthetics. Instead of using fabric, we came armed with white paper, scissors and glue sticks; Heather supplied bits of colorful scrapbooking papers. Different ideas were visually captured by gluing down snippets of the colored paper or drawing free form designs.

In one of the exercises I learned that there are many ways you can look at a design.Here's a composition I put together and is a good example of what I mean:

You notice is that there is an orange paper with a traditional houndstooth design (labeled "1"). However, depending on how the paper is cut, the design changes. With a few snips of the scissors, it looks like an arrow("2"). Angle the scissors over a different portion and you have a checkerboard design.  How cool is that?! So when you look at your fabric, there can be a multitude of different ways it can be applied to your art depending on how you view it.

In this composition I also learned that asymmetrical designs are more visually interesting when you use the rule of thirds to divide the work both horizontally and vertically. Also, by repeating colors and designs between those sections, the viewer's eye moves around the piece.  Maybe if I had been an art major in college, I would have known this but I was in the College of Business and this never came up! (Now I know who was having more fun; that's for sure.)

The class was based on Heather's book: A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design. Unfortunately, the book is currently out of print, but will hopefully be back on  quilt store shelves soon.  Great news is that Craftsy has asked Heather to teach the class for their internet site. It would definitely be worth your while to sign up for that one when it becomes available. In the meantime, you can check out Heather Thomas' website: Wild Heather Designs.

Sunday's Super Tip - Marking

I don't know about you but when I'm sewing something around the edge and need to start and stop at certain points, I tend to be so focused on the sewing that I keep on stitching. Then I have to rip out  - yuck. That is something I really don't like to spend my time doing.

Here's a tip that I try to use...when pinning the fabric I either put two pins right next to each other where I'm supposed to start/stop or I place the pins in a different direction.

You can see in the photo above that not only did I change the way the points are facing on the left and right but I also used a different style of pin. With any luck, this gives me a visual queue that something is different and then the little light bulb blinks on (and usually it's not just a little Christmas twinkle light)  telling me I need to do something different.

Hope you like this idea. Any tip that makes it easier to complete a project is a tip worth sharing!

Quilt Design Challenge!

Modern Quilts Unlimited is a great magazine that I subscribe to.  I wanted to be sure you saw the quilt block challenge that they have going on...

Email photos of your entries by July 31. Blocks must be 12.5" x 12.5". Click here for the official rules.  I'll be sure to share my entry with you in a few weeks! 

Sunday's Super Tip - Labeling

Long, long ago in 2011, I found a quilt in the International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene magazine that I thought would be perfect for our bedroom. It was designed by the talented Ashley Newcomb for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It's slightly wonky. It's got clean lines. It's perfect.

 

I decided to make it in aqua, green apple, and grey. I did the math to convert it from 68"x 81" to king size. I cut 94 rectangles and 190 strips of sashing. I was proud because I was well on my way to get this puppy done.

 

Fast forward one two years...it's not done. For some reason, if I'm not making a quilt for someone else where a deadline looms, I have issues getting stuff done for myself. Yeah, I work on it off and on, but unfortunately more 'off' than 'on'. So this is what I do to save me from sorting through all of the pieces and trying to remember what still needs cut and what doesn't (this is the Super Sunday Tip part): I label everything.

Nothing fancy; I just write on printer paper ripped into strips and wrapped around the blocks, but it works. Baggies are another option, but because of the length of my blocks I don't have to fold anything so there's no re-pressing involved. I can put everything away when another project captures my attention and then pull it out and pick up right where I left off without resorting through the blocks.

Hope you like the idea. Any tip that makes it easier to complete a project is a tip worth sharing!

 

What's It Wednesday

Inspiration can come from anywhere; perhaps the colors of a flower or the design from shadows on the wall.  Here's an example...a friend of mine went on an archaeological dig. In an area she helped excavate, some ancient tiles were uncovered that had been part of a dwelling. When my friend got home she designed a sweater that included a pattern she had seen in the tiles. You see; she was so inspired by what she had seen in the design that she converted it into a piece of wearable art.

Well, to elaborate on that concept, below is a close up photo of something I find inspiring and would like to know if you can tell what it is before you scroll down  the page.

Here is a cool geometric. You can see on the left there are triangles that morph into hexies and then a diamond pattern. Any idea of what it actually is?

It's the space on my laptop below the keyboard! The way the light hit it one day, I thought that it was a great example of how different geometric shapes can work together.

 

Hope you enjoyed the challenge.  Be sure to look at the world around you everyday and see how you can incorporate it into your art!

Sunday's Super Tip - Tension

Today my friend Angela from Blue Tree Studio ran a class on free motion quilting. It was a great session and I came away with new ideas and confidence that 1. I am trainable and 2. can therefore quilt a pointed design like the lightening bolt on Harry Potter's forehead without explaining that I really wanted the wonky shape.

As a free motion class should, we talked about needles, thread, and tension. Rather than trying to remember how the stitching looks when the tension is too loose, too tight, or juuuuust right, Angela had this great visual aid that she shared.  She wrote Top Tension Tight and Top Tension Loose with tight and loose tension in her machine. Visually it provides help that says 'if your stitches look like this, you may need to adjust the tension because...'. And of course Balanced Tension is what you want to see. Here's a photo of the front and the back of what Angela shared: 



Front

Back

If you've ever had tension problems before (and nothing personal, but I hope you have), you know that sometimes the problem is a bigger issue on one side of your project than the other. Having a tool like this handy will help you know if the tension needs adjusted up or down.

Polly had a great tip in the class too; when you get a new specialty thread, stitch with it on a piece of fabric from your project. Stitch an inch or two with different adjustments to your tension and you'll be able to see how your machine should be set for the best stitch. And if your machine is like mine, it resets itself to the default settings every time I turn it off and on. This sample piece will help remind me of the tension setting I need to use.

Hope you like these ideas. Any tip that makes it easier to complete a project is a tip worth sharing!

Fun, fun, fun at the NQA Show

 The National Quilting Association's annual show is in Columbus so since it's in my backyard, I'm lucky enough to get to attend without much travel. There are several reasons why the show is fun.

For one thing, I volunteer to help hang the quilts. I get to see them up close and personal (even if it is from five feet off the ground on a step ladder!) and meet other quilters from around the country.  This year I worked with women from Iowa and Idaho. The quality of the quilts this year was fabulous. It's hard to tell why one piece wins over another (Ricky Tims' quilt received an Honorable Mention); sure am glad I'm not a judge.

The show also has classes you can attend as well as free lectures.  Some classes are technique based and others are hands-on at a sewing machine. This year I was in Heather Thomas' Quick Design Essentials class. I'll write another post just on the class, but for now let me just say it was excellent. Last year I took Susan Cleveland's Piping Hot Curves class which was great too.

Then the show always has vendors' booths. I like to see if there is a tool that I haven't seen before and can't live without. There's always a great selection of fabrics and notions as well. (First time I've seen Three Stooges fabric!) It's a great way to add  some interest to your stash. Among other fabrics, I was able to nab a fat quarter selection of Brigitte Heitland's Comma fabric line, and the cute fabric you'll see below which is white with blue sparkle-y crowns.

 And, I got a couple pieces of fabric designed by Yoshiko Jinzenji. I have a feeling these will be the fabrics in my stash that I just can't bring myself to cut.

 

 

 

I got these at the Fiber Art's Fabric booth. I went online to see what else they have and found a really nice selection of fabrics. You might want to check  out their website Fiber Art Fabric.

 

Last but by no means least, I found a nice selection of specialty threads and yarns. Several months ago I learned how difficult they can be to find, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to stock up.

 

 

 

 

 

Now comes the fun part...figure out what to do with all of my new goodies!

 

 

 

Welcome to My Blog

To sum it up in a word, my plan for this blog is to inspire. I hope to look at the things around us in a way that can inspire. It might be a photo, a book, or something on another blog. Anything that inspires quilting, painting, writing, or daily life. I hope it'll be a fun adventure for all of us!