No Trick or Treat Candy!

 I like my new home.  It's a condo of people pretty much my age and no children, not that there's anything wrong with them!  We're not in a neighborhood - we're in nature.  And it's lovely. There are walking paths, and our across-the-street neighbor is the Hilton Oak Brook Hills Resort.  Instead of agonizing over what kind of Halloween candy to buy and whether we have enough, this holiday is a candy-free zone.  A nice change of pace.  One negative:  one more leaves fall I we will be able to see an over-the-top magamansion.  I'll need to keep my eyes in the studio.

I've been working on this, now that it's cool again.  This quilt is based on a pattern by Yoshiko Jinzenji and features bit of favorite fabrics.  There are 6 boxes of negative space, each one with different hand quilting.  Sometimes I can't see for forest for the trees, so I asked John to hang this off the balcony for some photos.  I'm trying to vary the stitching, but it just doesn't show up all that much.  So now?  It's just a matter of getting it done.

Meanwhile I went through my batting scraps and made some presents, both for this house and for others. These bowl cozies are so handy for soups and chili and anything else that comes out of the microwave too hot to safely handle.  Mine are in the bottom right - that black and white fabric I bought in New Zealand and it represents Maori designs.  The colorful dots back with orange prisms?  for Eileen.  The bottom left - very dark blue and a dress pattern print for Sarah.  And there are several for Melissa featuring topographical fabric, Native American design,  and house design plans.  It was good to work on small things that are easy to complete!

For the most part John is appreciative of what I do and lets me hang whatever I want.  However, he looked at this wall hanging, meant for above the fireplace in the dining room, and said he didn't understand how this was representative of Fall.  And this is indeed my Fall wall hanging.  Ill admit it's abstract at this point, but I have stitching plans that I hope will make this piece easier to understand.  And if he doesn't get it, that's okay too.  It's 3' tall and 4' wide.  

This quilt is one I started after fracturing my wrist.  I foundation-pieced selvage strips onto batting.  I could operate my machine and was able to do rough cutting by stabilizing my ruler with my elbow.  Foundation piecing meant that there were no seams to iron.  And its obvious I stuck to lights, greys, reds, and black.  Then I attached each 12" square to a neutral backing.  When it was too warm to work on the above Yoshiko-ish quilt, I worked on hand-quilting these blocks.  31 of them or complete.  I'm saving the remaining 4 for some traveling mid-November, and then I'll connect these blocks using the reversible quilting method.  I know the sashing/binding strips on the front need to be neutral, but I'm trying to decide whether I want to do something different for the sashing/binding strips on the back.  I have a few weeks to ponder on this.  And I'll watch the leaves continue to fall.  Happily.

QuiltCon 2021 - Together, Virtual - and What I'm Learning

 

QuiltCon Together, 2021, wasn't awful and it wasn't fabulous.  While the social component was missing, the content was awfully good.  And it's an absolute luxury to listen to a lecture/workshop at your own time and own pace while doing something purposeful with your hands!

It was a lot of screen time, and most of it was so well done.  This picture oh Heidi Parkes hows how most of the presentations were done - little dot on the screen with the presenter and big screen for demos and handouts.  

For QuiltCon 2020, which I had to miss (broken wrist), I signed up for the Bojagi workshop.  Sarah Evans went in my stead.  And she showed me what she learned.  But...  So I signed up again for Daisy Aschehaug's Bojagi-style workshop.  Simply, Bojagi is a Korean method of joining 2 fabrics with the seam totally encased.  (note:  this is also referred to a flat felled seam - think seams on blue jeans). Daisy uses this method to make linen napkins and disht towels and for on-the-go sewing.  Above is my sample using some leftover shot cottons.  The lower left shows my attempt at following this method. It relies on whip stitching and some serious folding and clipping.  As I made my way though this first piece, I realized something I already knew:  I do not like whip stitching.  I like running stitches.  So I tried a few pieces using running stitches.  Daisy's stitches are almost invisible.  But I like being able to see big stitches.  And in the interest of getting a sample piece to a point where I could put it away, I tried using the machine.  Again, highly visible stitches.  Daisy also taught us how to do a curved piece.  I think  will use whatever leftover bits I have to continue making this sample piece.  So, here's my takeaway.  Bojagi isn't necessarily for me.  I may use this method if I decide to do a light-weight single layered quilt using peppered shot cottons or OakShot cottons, something with a bit of heft.  I'm glad to have this technique in my repertoire.

As I started listening to my other workshop - Improv Instructional Quilt:  Exploring Art Concepts by Heidi Parkes, I quickly realized this wasn't the quilt I wanted to start or even work on.  But I was happy to listen while working on the above.  Heidi mentioned representation in connection to fabric.  And the lightbulb went on:  I've been saving a bag of bits of fabric that I have loved and I have been wanting to use them in a pattern by Yoshiko Jinzenji, Abstract Pathways.  So while listening to Heidi talk about line and texture and unity and balance, I worked my way through the above.  Unity?  Yes, I have had this project in mind since my first QuiltCon!  There's a lot of negative space which will be perfect for hand-quilting, something I learned in my first QuiltCon workshop with Maura Ambrose, @FolkFibers.  

Here's the big thing I am learning:  modern quilting offers such a variety of techniques and aesthetics.  As I slowly find my own way, I know I don't have to do it all.  I don't have to struggle with things I don't find pleasant, like whip-stitching.  I need to keep looking for new things and then adapt them for my hands and my eyes.  This is a nice stage at which to be!

Yoshiko Jinzenji* and Carolyn Friedlander* Walk Into a Bar and Meet Marcia Derse* and Maura Ambrose**

 Several Chicago Modern Quilt Guild buddies and I went to Camp Stitchalot in November 2016.  Carolyn Friedlander, quilter/fabric designer/architect taught a workshop in needle-turn applique.  I brought along some of my favorite fabrics and found some plain open-weave fabric to work on.  Actually I cut the fabric from a panel of Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric.  I am proud of trying needle-turn applique, I'm glad I know what it is, and I also know I will not do it again.  However, I do love these circles.

 After finishing the applique I sewed these panels back into the fabric from which it was cut.  Yoshiko Jinzenji is a Japanese quilter/fabric designer whose aesthetic resonates with me.  The minimalism and whimsey?  Yes, please.  And then some more!  Google her - she does fascinating work.  I was lucky enough to take a workshop with here at QuiltCon 2015.  Read about it here. 

At this same QuiltCon I took a class from Maura Ambrose in sashiko techniques.  And now it's the only kind of quilting I do.  This wall-hanging needed something more, and the circular stitching is perfect, IMHO.
What to back this with? Another favorite fabric - one by Marcia Derse. This fabric has remained one of my all-time favorites.

With this new piece hanging above my sewing machine, I had to find a new home for "CandyLand." It's at the base of the studio stairs. What a cheery piece to see every time I come down the stairs. (and yes, the bottom of the stairs is storage for all kind of stuff...)

Layers on the Design Wall

What does one do with only one design wall? This quilter just layers quilt over quilt over quilt. This top quilt? It's my current hand project - a UFO I started at Glampalot in 2015. It's my merging of Carolyn Friedlander's needle-turn applicate technique (which I'm pretty hopeless at) on a background of Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric. A few weeks ago I woke up in a panic since my current hand project was completed. The next morning I found this neatly tucked away. Since I began this, I have become more proficient in my version of Sashiko, and I'm loving how this is evolving.

Here's a slightly better picture of this piece.

At the June meeting of my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, I volunteered to quilt and bind this charity baby string quilt, a project headed by Debbie Pine.  This is a charming scrap quilt with lots of straight-line quilting, and it washed up beautifully.

Over the weekend I decided I had to make a duffel bag from a pattern in one of Sara Lawson's books.  I love these two books - Windy City Bags and Big City Bags - and have made bags from both of them.  But I couldn't find them.  It took some major putting away and straightening up before I found these books.  One of the things I unearthed is a project I started for John's older daughter several years ago.  Why didn't I finished it then?  Who know.  But what I do know is that this Christmas Tree is perfect for Julie for right now.  She's relocated to Atlanta but will be home for the Christmas holidays.  Perhaps this tree will resolve her decorating dilemma.

And finally what's uncovered is my current project.  More about this in a day or two!

A Design Wall Epiphany

 My quilty friends are the best.  Holly, with help from Sarah S and Melissa, took my money to QuiltCon 2018 and shopped for me.  Holly knows what I like before I even know what I like.  Look at that terrific red print by Brooklyn Mojo. ( I have already ordered more of this fabric.)  And for the past few weeks I've been looking at a collection by Moda called Catnip.  Relax - no cats.  Just a terrific selection of black and white prints.  And Holly gets one (I have since bought more charm packs and one jelly roll of Catnip).

Other booty:  some metal zips, a wonderful blue denim/linen fabric, some great bits of cork fabric in different colors, several terrific prints, a couple of excellent grey textures, a new product Kraft-tex Paper Fabric ("rugged paper that looks and feels like leather but sews/cuts/washes just like fabric").  Seriously.  But what really caught my eye is this panel of fabric that's at the bottom to the left.

This is a yard of fabric by Yoshiko Jinzenji.  Google her for some wonderful images of her Japanese minimalism.  I took a class from her at QuiltCon 2015 - here's a link to that blog entry.  Then I bought some of her fabric, which was all black and white.  This panel that Holly just bought?  Little bits of colors and design - all abstract and whimsical.  So, what to do with this terrific yard?  And I must confess that I have been hoarding the black and white fabrics.  Sometimes pieces are just too beautiful to cut into.

And here comes my epiphany.

 These blocks are 15" square.  And they have each been hand quilted.  There are 14 outer blocks and 6 inner blocks.  But these blocks must now be connected, and I will use the "reversible" quilting method by Sharon Pederson.  I taught this method over 10 years ago - see the blog index for more on this method.  I've been pondering what fabric to use on the front of this quilt.  To use any of the jewel-toned solids from the crosses just seems  too much.  But a light fabric doesn't work for me either.  The answer?  this Yoshiko Jenzenji fabric.  It will be perfect for the front sashing/border for the front of this quilt and perhaps even for the binding.
 

A word about the back of these blocks. The block backs are all scraps from other quilt backings.  Some of these backs are pieced.  The same goes for the batting.  I had lots of bits of wool batting left over.  Most of these 15" blocks have a pieced wool batting.   I feel good about using these leftover bits.  This quilt will be one I will hold on to.  Note:  the other person in this house walked by this design wall and said, "Meh..."  It's okay.  It really is...  We don't all have to love the same things!