New Year's Resolution 2008

At the risk of breaking my streak for random mid-year New Year's resolutions, I have made my New Year's resolution for 2008. Rest assured that this does not signal a departure from my refusal to base resolutions on the whims of some 16th century Pope. It is just a coincidence that I have my resolution ready by the first of the year this time around. I like resolutions that are like assignments. They give you structure that gives you the opportunity to practice a skill without other stuff getting in the way. It is like working in series or on a theme.

Anyway, I have resolved this year to focus on improving design, particularly incorporating quilting in the design process. I tend to think about quilting after the top is done and I should really be thinking about it earlier in the design process. The theme this year is bad luck/good luck. So here is the assignment:

The quilts all have to be the same size. I'm thinking 91/2 by 12.
Quilting lines must be incorporated into the drawing/cartoon of the quilts.
At least 75% of the quilt should incorporate stuff my stash.
The quilts should look like they go together. The design of each quilt should consider the design of the other quilts.

As for the the theme, the subject of the quilts will be things that bring bad luck or good luck. Not every superstition, but ones that have been handed down in my family or amongst my friends. Speaking of which, I've got my black eyed peas going (the food, not the band). We always eat them on the first of the year for good luck. Happy New Year.

In The City We Keep It Rocking

I finished the quilt, “I Let My Thimble in El Segundo.” This is the quilt that required no planning or design on my part. I did it to clear the cobwebs after working on a few big projects. It is inspired by the song, “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” by A Tribe Called Quest. I like to make quits that are inspired by food or music because they are both things that tap into sense memory. They both have the ability to stir up vivid memories and powerful emotions. And the benefit of using food as a subject is that things that come from nature are already complete in their design. An artichoke comes out of the ground with the perfect balance of line, texture and color. All you have to do is pay attention.

It is a little more challenging to translate music into a visual format. Especially when you are trying to not only communicate the piece of music, but the memory and feelings it evokes. So I was riding in the car one day when “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” came on and it took me back to college. It reminded me of the music I listened to back then, the dances I went to, and driving around the Bay Area. And it’s a better subject than say, “Baby Got Back” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. To get all of this across, I wanted the quilt to be bright, to vibrate ever so slightly, and to be just a little bit askew. To me, this is what it was like to dance to this music and to ride around Oakland and Berkeley with the radio on.

I pretty much accomplished what I set out to do. I think the blocks could have been a little more askew so that you know it’s supposed to look like that. I think it might look like I can’t sew straight. It doesn’t really matter. The quilt is going on the wall of my sewing studio to make me happy. To remind me of the smell of eucalyptus, the taste of good Chinese food, and a time when jumping up and down was a form of dance. And I feel like I can exhale. I pretty much finished what I started this year. And I have some cool ideas about what I’m going to work on next. I’m getting excited about next year’s New Year’s Resolution project. More on that next year.

What A Difference A New Rotary Blade Makes

Every few quilts, I find it helpful to clear my mind by making something that requires no thought whatsoever on my part. No planning or design, just cutting and sewing. I find the techniques in Karla Alexander’s “Stack the Deck” books especially well suited for this exercise. It is also a quick way to make a quilt if you don’t have babies and husbands and jobs. So I have spent the last few days working on a quilt that required absolutely no brain power on my part. I didn’t even pick out the fabrics. I used a pack of 10 ½ batik squares. All I had to do was remember how to change the blade in the rotary cutter.

I started with the squares.

Then cut them into 9 roughly equal squares.

Shuffled the squares and sewed them back together.

Cut the 9 patches into 4 squares.

Shuffled the squares and sewed them back together.

Now I just have to sew the blocks together. I’m getting excited about quilting and embellishing this one. I’m feeling like this quilt wants lots of purple thread. I also feel like I have a clearer idea about what I want from my other projects. I work on multiple projects because I have lots of ideas and I can’t do just one thing at a time. I really like working this way, but sometimes the synapses get all clogged up. I think you can work on multiple projects as long as you are able to maintain focus. Without that, you just have chaos, and my studio is too messy for that. So when I start to loose that focus, I do one of these projects to reboot the system. Now I can get back to my artichoke, which has been languishing. And I have new ideas for the weeping quilt. And I finally have a vision for a pomegranate that I’ve been struggling with all year. Now if I only had 20 more hours in my day.

Where were you September 18, 2006?

Today is my baby's first birthday. A year ago today, I woke up and jumped out of bed at 4 am when my water broke. Quite an achievement considering how ginormous I was. Fourteen hours later I had a c-section. The kid was not making his way towards the light. Well it turns out he was well over nine pounds. Significantly heavier than the seven pounds my gyno estimated a few days before. So an hour later he made his appearance. Happy and healthy. And everyday this year he's been a big old bundle of joy. And I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

So this post isn't completely off topic, at this stage, John loves to look at quilts. I actually took him on the shop hop when he was about 4 months old and he seemed to really enjoy it. I also used to take him to guild meetings. He loves the attention he gets from quilters. I'm doing smaller, faster quilts because they are easier to work on with him around. I've also discovered a new benefit of hand piecing and quilting. Portable and easy to pick up and put down. And I think I'm adding more textural elements to my quilts because of him. He likes to touch the fabric, beads, threads and jewels. I find myself adding more texture to engage him in the quilts. Yes, I let him touch my quilts. Fabric is meant to be touched and I can't think of a reason to make a quilt that can't be touched.

Thank You Ms. Beyer

One of the current discussion threads on the Pickle Road yahoo group I belong to is about books for hand quilters. I mentioned my two favorites, "The Perfect Stitch" by Roxanne...something, and "Quiltmaking By Hand" by Jinny Beyer. My apologies to Roxanne, but I'm too lazy to go upstairs to look at her last name on the book. The Perfect Stitch book is great for technique and the Quiltmaking By Hand book is inspirational to me on a deeper level.

I found the book at Jinny Beyer's store in Virginia during the shop hop out there. I was a pretty discouraged hand quilter at the time. None of the magazines or books widely available addressed hand quilting. I couldn't find tools or support. The books I had focused most of their pages on machine quilting and just a few on hand work. Nothing I could really use. I thought maybe people didn't do handwork and I should just give up and start using the machine. I was sad about it because the only machine I had at the time was an old Singer and it was packed in a box somewhere, plus I really liked hand sewing. And then I shop hopped my little butt into Jinny Beyer's store. The book had just been released and the quilt that's on the cover (I forget the name and I'm too lazy to go upstairs and look at the book) was hanging in the store. She made it in commemoration of 9/11. It's huge and it's gorgeous and it is entirely hand pieced and quilted. I bought an autographed copy of the book and it totally restored my faith in hand work. It reaffirmed my opinion that hand work is easier and faster in some cases than machine work. And there is something about working with a needle and thread. That book made me want to be a hand quilter. And even though I do work by machine, I consider myself a hand quilter.

I think the point is that you get what you need when you need it. You can never see the big picture. You just have to have faith that things will work out the way they are supposed to work out. When I design a quilt, I don't expect the final product to look exactly like the sketch. I start working and I change my mind, things go wrong, I forget what I was supposed to do and do something else. I once had a piece of fabric facing the wrong way when I started cutting. You know what? It's cool, man. It's just a quilt. It's going to be what it wants to be. That's life.

So here are two quilts I've made entirely from Jinny Beyer fabrics. They are hand pieced and quilted. The first is called Blue and Gold Mills quilt and it was made on the occasion of my 10 year college reunion. Jinny Beyer actually helped me pick out the fabric for this quilt. It doesn't look anything like my original design even though it is a one block quilt. The second is called Ms. Beyer's Garden Maze. It is a traditional pattern. It looks exactly like the original design. I like both of these quilts because you can't really tell where the blocks begin and end. I know what the blocks look like, but I can kind of let that go and find other patterns. I like quilts where you can squint and turn your head and see different things. That's life too.

Just Do It

I've been spending my time lately endlessly pondering my blog. What should I call it? What service should I use? Blah, blah, blah. I do the same thing with quilt designs. Then I reach a point where I just kick myself in the butt and do it. The blah, blah, blah is just a form of procrastination. If you never start something - never cut the fabric - you never screw stuff up and embarrass yourself. And you still look like you're doing something because you're considering all the angles. Whatever. I recently took a class from quiltuniversity.com where we were forced to cut into our favorite fabric that we had been squirreling away for that perfect project. It was a terrifying exercise. But liberating at the same time. Here is the fabic I chose for the exercise:


It is in that spirit that I started this blog. Plus I made a New Year's resolution to add new skills to my quilting know-how (more on that later). The purpose of this blog is to journal my progress as a quilter. There's a lot that goes through my head during the quilting process. I take notes and keep a journal of all of the quilts I make. But it's private. I don't actually like to show my quilts to people. Here is something else I need to get over by just doing it.

So here's a little bit about myself. I've been quilting for about six years but collecting fabric since college. I am mostly self-taught, though I've taken lots of art classes. I am mostly a hand quilter. I think hand piecing and quilting is easier and more relaxing than doing work on the machine. That said, I am improving my machine skills. I actually have two Baby Lock sewing machines. A big momma that stays in the studio and a little one that I can use in other areas of the house. I have an 11 month old son and husband so I like to hang out with them when I sew. I have multiple projects going at once. I'm a fast typist and an atrocious speller. I find cutting pieces out tedious. If I were a master artisan, I would have my apprentice do all of the cutting. I hate binding. I love everything else about quilting.

By the way, here is the little quilt I made of that fabric I had been afraid to cut.