Quilting

Thu - June 30, 2005

Birds 6 (plus a Ghost)

Here are June's 4 blocks, all 18 fabrics are new additions.

That brings totals to 78 fabrics, 28 blocks. Sorry I'm not showing them all this month - my dining room table is covered with black and red fabric bits for the Threads of Malice quilts.

As an added pic, tho, I've attached one of Ghost. He likes boxes. A LOT.

Posted at 09:52 AM |

Wed - June 15, 2005

Angie #1

A couple people have asked to see the current QIP. I'm basting today, so... here's the stretched (but not yet basted) quilt.

I've changed the original pattern slightly, making all the pinwheels spin the same direction and making the non-yellow bits random. There are two blocks that are sideways (I didn't notice until yesterday when I finished putting on borders), but it's not obvious so I'm not going to change them. Can you spot the two mis-aligned blocks?

Posted at 12:13 PM |

Sat - June 11, 2005

Passions, Opinions, and Things

I'm not very opinionated lately. Bill would say I'm never opinionated - ha ha - but he usually is. He's good at it. He's a very decisive man. Let the chips fall and all that jazz. I, on the other hand, like to make nice. That's a lot of the reason I'm trying to stay out of the RWA flack. Honestly, I don't know anything about it other than what I've read in blogs. I don't know if it boils down to "keep out erotica", or Government regulations, crushing of free speech, religious uproar, or the panty hose patrol deciding that anyone who dares to go commando must be stopped.

Since I don't know, I don't feel qualified to state an opinion. Since I tend to not get polarized over organizational issues, I don't join organizations. It's fairly simple, at least for me.

I do, however, get passionate about things.

Like quilting. I am definitely passionate about fabric. Addicted junkie is probably pretty accurate. Do they have a 12-step program for fabricoholics? Drug therapy? Disability coverage? When a person can't walk by a fat-quarter table without rationalizing that they're only two bucks apiece and surely they have two dollars in change in the seats of the car... you just might have a problem with fabric.

Oooooh! Look! Red with orange polka dots. I need me some of that!

I have that fabric, btw, so I'm not making a joke. Well, not completely.

After the edit last weekend (153k words in three days) I had the couple hours of excitement for having completed the project well and ahead of schedule. Happy happy joy joy. Then I had two crappy days of weepy blues. Curl up in a ball and shudder blues. Why? I dunno. Always happens. I send a project out into the world then I want to crawl away and bawl my eyes out. There's a Big Dark Hole where the project used to be. I suck, everything sucks, I'm not worthy! Waaah!

I couldn't write on the new project - tried, died, and it did nothing to help my mood - so I spent a day playing with fabric. Dug through the books, magazines and patterns, dug through the stash - ooh look! pink butterflies and feathers! forgot all about that one! - and I figured out what I wanted to do. Mood improved drastically. Spent a good hunk of the next day perfecting the stash, choosing what fabric in what size, cut everything... I was skipping around the house chipper as a squirrel.

I do love fabric. There's just something about it, the tactile feel, the smell, the colors... I don't know for sure, but the best way to improve my mood quickly is to send me to the fabric store. Bill knows this. It's why I have such a diverse stash. Honey... is Hancock's having a sale? Zoom! Out the door I go.

So, opinions.

In the quilting world there is a never-ending debate on whether to pre-wash the fabric or not. I feel qualified - and justified - for weighing in on this debate. I understand the issues, they affect me directly, and I have a definite preference (even though, as a professional fence straddler, I understand both sides).

I don't pre-wash.

First of all, in about 14 years of quilt making, I have had only two, yes TWO, fabrics bleed. One was a hand-dyed fabric I made (and got lazy during the rinse phase) and the other was a hand-woven black and green plaid. I have spot-tested various fabrics at various times (a small piece of the fabric in hot soapy water, let soak and check both the water and the fabric itself for dye transfer) and, so far, I continue to have had two bleeders.

Two. Out of I-don't-know-how-many-hundreds of fabrics.

Now if I had a problem with the fabric sizing (some folks are allergic to the finishing chemicals) then, yes, I'd probably pre-wash. I don't have a problem, haven't had bleeders... and it seems like a waste of precious fabric enjoyment time to me. To properly pre-wash, after washing, the fabric must be pressed and, since it loses the sizing, is often starched to make it stiff enough to cut well. Ug. I'd rather play with it, thanks anyway. Mary Ellen Hopkins (a master quilt maker if there ever was one) says, "Get a bleeder? It's a great excuse to just make another quilt!"

Makes perfect sense to me.

I'm also all for assembly chain piecing, archival applique methods, 100% cotton goods, signing and dating the quilts, storing fabric in the dark, embellishments, and machine work.

Not every quilter is. We don't always agree, and that's cool.

In prose, I don't like passive voice. It works in some places, some instances, some methods... but often it just seems like lazy writing (to me). If other folks like it, that's fine. I don't like adverbs (especially in speech tags). Again, sometimes they work well but I try to avoid them. I like archetypal characters, to a certain extent, but I also like to twist them up. I don't do much pre-plotting (but I do do a lot of pre-work, just in other areas than the plot). I don't think about conflict on every page. Weird, I know, but here we are.

I have opinions on those sorts of things, but only as they pertain to me, how they work - or don't work - for me. If you want to use adverbs in speech tags or prewash your fabric, that's cool. Just don't expect me to, because they don't work for me.

Live and let live. I'll keep my machine piecing/archtypes and you keep your pre-washing/pre-plotting, and everyone will be happy.

Because, in the end, does it really matter? As long as the finished quilt/book is compelling and memorable... who cares about the nuts and bolts? Only the person wielding them, or whoever is trying to insist someone else follow a pre-ordained set of rules. The person receiving the quilt, or reading the book, is oblivious. If it's a good quality product that showcases the creator's talent well... the rest is immaterial.

At least to me.

Posted at 04:09 PM |

Tue - June 7, 2005

Angie #1

I bought 2 yards of a kid print the other day for Angie's baby quilt, enough to use for the backing, borders, and some piecing. Yesterday and today I dug through my magazines and patterns and catalogues, looking for inspiration. This is what I settled on:

It's a modification of a traditional pattern in this month's American Patchwork and Quilting (mag courtesy of PBW, btw)

I'm modifying it further, making it completely scrappy and adjusting sizes to finish at 42 inches square. I've decided to use yellows for the pinwheel backgrounds (I've chosen 8 from my stash) and a variety of whites and colors in the checkerboards.

On top is the kid print, and on the bottom... 60 different fabrics. 26 whites, 26 colors, and 8 yellows.

Now I have to cut 52 2"x8" strips (one from each of the whites and each of the colors), plus 48 3-7/8" squares (24 yellow, 24 colors - I'll use every color once except the blacks and each yellow three times).

I know it probably seems like fabric overload for a quilt that's just going to be pooped and peed on, but I like scrappy quilts. Sometimes structured color is needed - like the quilt I made for Holly or the Threads Tour Quilts. Each quilt is different and I choose fabrics and design accordingly. Comparatively speaking, this quilt is "cheap". I spent about $10 on the kid print and bought a polyester batting for $3. (I usually use cotton battings but baby quilts seem softer with poly). All of the rest of the fabrics came from my stash.

Posted at 10:15 PM |

Sat - May 7, 2005

Birds 5

Block of the month weekend again! This time they gave out a fabric that looked a lot like lilacs (except it was red not purple). To that, I added 10 more fabrics from my stash. Here are all eleven new fabrics.