September Cornucopia

This is the monthly post where I gather together all the links to interesting or useful or educational things that I've read, looked at, listened to or watched during the month.  

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What a beautiful installation by Rachel Hayes outside (and inside too) of the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

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Can visual artists get people to vote? Now that's a good question. The first illustration in the article is of Shirley Chisholm is really a wow! “It’s hard as an artist to not be political,” Aaron Johnson told Hyperallergic. “Your choice to be an artist in the first place, in this society, and what kind of voice your work has, has real political considerations.”

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A new thing for quilters I heard about from Art Gallery Fabrics is something called, Hey Quilter. Which is a super cute name, and yes, yet another email newsletter. But there are prizes, so there's that.

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Sketchbook Revival is already happening, but I think you can still sign up for the free workshops. Very varied and inspiring.

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What a fun idea for a book, Stitching Science. This is me, putting it on my list.

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Yet another article, this time in a scholarly journal about Arts & Crafts being a good thing for your mental health.

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Another free event that's underway already but I think you can still sign up and learn is this year's Gel Printer's Summit.

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Did you know you can take a picture of a piece of fabric and then use it in the EQ8 program? There's a new booklet that they've published that covers this and other things. Thinking about getting it because that's a pretty cool function I had no idea about.

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Back to My City

 

Back to implementing my border plan for My City Sampler top.

First of all a gigantic 6.5" border all around. This matches the block size.

Phew! That took a lot of sewing, but I do like how it looks. 

To the left you can get a little preview of what will be the next border. Stay tuned...

32 Kites

 

Well, all 32 of the "kites" are assembled up to the same point. I'm calling them "kites' because they are vaguely kite-shaped looking, at least they are to me. Before I make any more additions to them, I'm going to put them up on the design wall with the finished Metro Twist top to see if they'd look good at this size flying around in a border. Otherwise, they'll each be enlarged somehow and set into a blue background of all the weird blues I seem to be accumulating lately.

Back to Metro Twist

 I had a lot of fun at a BAMQ Sew Day held yesterday at one of our member's home instead of the usual place we gather. I didn't take any pictures while I was there because I was enjoying talking with people and sewing so much instead. So here's some pictures of what I sewed while I was there up on my design wall at home. I only brought one easily portable project with me that fit in my sewing machine rolling case. Of course that meant I didn't remember to bring my tool bag (d'oh) and thus had to switch up my plans as I had no scissors, rotary cutter or mat. I was originally going to piece together the leftover fabrics from making the Metro Twist quilt top blocks to make up a back for it.

Instead of sewing big pieces and trimming them as I went, I spent my time sewing the rest of the leftovers from trimming the Metro Twist blocks into these kite shapes.

I had done a couple last year so I already knew that they turned into pretty cool shapes. These may or may not end up in their own quilt, or possibly actually go on the back. I could also see putting them into a border somehow too as the Metro Twist top seems a little unfinished without one.

New Tools

 

A couple more things that I've sourced in preparation for doing the Toned-Down Circle Sampler. I now have all of the suggested types and sizes of needles. I'm also giving these two Sue Spargo designed embroidery tools a try, they looked like they'd be helpful with some of the harder embroidery stitches. I'll post about them once I try them out. 

I'm most excited about this Sewline Trio Colors marking pencil that was suggested in the pattern, I think this is pretty brilliant, it writes very easily on cotton fabric, and hopefully wool too. Now to get stitching.

Ready To Quilt

Running Out of Rain Cloud is all ready to quilt.

I used this fun print for the backing (not at all pieced for once!) because it actually kind of goes with the solid colors used. I used fusible Hobbs 80/20 batting as per usual for non-bed-sized quilts. Now to figure out how to quilt this thing. All I know is I'm starting out with hot pink thread...
 

To-Be Embroidered

 

I think I've found my wool for the background of the Toned-Down Circle Sampler. I snapped this up at the local Goodwill shop.

 A very nice quality but small-ish ladies wool coat. Perfect size for my uses.  The front was a bit worn but the back which I'll be using is in perfect shape. It's a good weight, heavy enough but still flexible enough.

I think it looks pretty good with the circles and threads. Now to get cutting to size and get down to start some stitching. And now I'm think how cool this project could be on a coat that someone would wear. I'd love to see that in real life.

Pantone Background

 

I decided to get a bit more of the Pantone Project background fabric to use in-between all the blocks for some "negative space." Friend Jaye found some left at Fat Quarter shop and when it arrived here I compared it to the fabric we've been using on our blocks. And...I think it's a different color.

The new fabric is in the front, and it has a very different hand, even without pre-washing. I thought maybe washing it might fix things up. Sometimes fabrics have chemical brighteners or surface treatments that can alter the appearance or feel of the fabric.

Yeah, that's a really different color, the *official* Pantone Project fabric is on the bottom. One is slightly grey and one is white. The fabric's hand feels a bit closer to the original though. I checked on the fabric manufacturer website and it was never offered in a grey with the white squares. There was a grey but it was much darker and had grey squares. 

I looked more closely at the selvedges and the name and product number do match, but the selvedges themselves are quite different. The new one has the blue line woven in along the edge and the printing of the product information is much lower down on the selvedge. The *original* that we used (and was bought at a local quilt shop) is on the left is still a bit rougher feeling and it sheds a whole lot of long threads on the cut edge. Not a quality fabric I kept thinking as I used it throughout this project. 

The version that I bought from Fat Quarter Shop has a nicer hand and is not shedding threads on the cut edge in the same way at all. Weird, huh? I'm guessing that the manufacturer must have switched which base fabric they were using during production at some point? I remember hearing ages ago that commercial fabric production switches from cheaper to more expensive base fabrics depending on where the end-product fabric was getting sold. So, the same pattern would be produced for different markets, higher-end quilt shop market vs. Walmart or Jo-Anns.  No idea if that's still true or not.

Anyways, I don't know if I can use this new fabric in my Pantone Project quilt or not. My DS said I should dye it slightly grey, but I know that I am not that good of a dyer to match that up or maybe make the situation worse. I think I'll try pinning it up and putting some of the Pantone Project blocks on it to see if I can notice the difference when it's mixed in with colors.

Sister Artists 3

 

I happy that it's time for another Sister Artists collaborative quilt project, this time with beautiful embroideries from women in Uganda. You can also participate by going here and signing yourself up. I participated in two other quilt projects, Sister Artists 2 in 2022 and the original Sister Artists in 2019.

These butterflies are just so beautifully embroidered and I'm really looking forward to featuring them in a quilt design. I think I will do some sample inking of the background fabric so that I can incorporate them into the quilt with more cohesion.

This one has a bonus flower which might be a fun motif to use and repeat in the quilt design.

I love the colors in this one, just looks like he's all dressed up and going to a party.

And then a great yellow grey bird who is either a butterfly predator or maybe just a butterfly admirer. Now to look up birds in Uganda to see if this one is based on a local one. I think that I might make a tree or at least a tree branch that would situate this bird on something solid.

Still Assembling.

Time to put the parts together of Running Out of Rain Cloud on a day where the sky outside is just about this grey-blue color.

Pretty good at the match-ups.

Looks like the upper two sections are going to line up well.

Almost there, but that last section is much too big. So it's time to un-sew, re-measure or re-make. One of the half rectangles was supposed to be smaller than the other but they're the same size for some reason. I want to get this top done so I can start in getting the quilting done.

Circling Round

 

I'm gathering the supplies to make the Sue Spargo embroidery sampler, Toned Down Circle Sampler. I had bought a bag of wool circles ages ago. I used some of these to make my 5-4-5-7 quilt earlier this year. The circles came in two sizes, 1" and 2". The pattern calls for 1" circles so I counted out all the 1" circles required. Almost enough to do the pattern.

I chose four of the 2" circles to cut down to 1", so now I have enough circles for the pattern.  I now need to find a piece of wool for the background to appliqué these onto. The only piece I have on hand is a FabMo sourced one that is a very bright orange and is quite heavy-weight. I haven't gone through my felted wool box yet though. 

I'm trying hard to use what I already have on hand, but as I said earlier I did buy this package of threads along with the pattern. They are a wool-acrylic blend thread called Ellana which I've never used before. The other three spools of Eleganza perlé cotton were previous purchases that happened to match up with the specific colors called for in the pattern. 

I still have to look through the rest of my embroidery threads to make sure I have a good enough assortment of colors and types that will work well enough with the colors of the circles. Hopefully I'll have enough of the embroidery threads of many of the types and weights that are called for. I think I'll likely have enough as I'm not trying to exactly match the sampler pattern. The actual Toned-Down Circles pattern is basically a recipe book of stitch combinations with fairly simple illustrations that refers to the Creative Stitching book by Sue Spargo. That's a book I've had for a while but haven't worked with too much yet. It's a really well-done presentation of a variety of stitches that I've seen but never tried myself.

More On Stamp Blocks

I cut out some new stamp centers for the Stamp Quilt.  It's really fun to fussy cut these great animal designs.

But there are more left to cut, like this lovely owl.

That's enough for now.

Now that I have the stamp centers, I need to cut some more Stamp Stripe fabric. I'm cutting it at 3" wide and making sure I have the "perforation line" as the guide. 

The stamp centers each have to get marked on the centers and corners. I was using a mechanical pencil, but then I later switched over to using a Frixion pen.

Then the Stamp Stripe pieces have to get marked at the center as well. It's a lot of fussy stuff, the cutting, all the marking, but it ends up working just about every time.

And then there's also all the pinning!

I'm up to a whole four blocks whoo hoo!  Elven more are cut out and ready to assemble. Then it will be fun to puzzle out how to put them into a quilt top as they're all different sizes and orientations. I think there will be some filler pieced pieces that I'll be making to fill in the empty spots.

A Mostly Back

 

I was pretty productive at BAMQ Sew Day on Saturday. I got a very good start on the back for my Bohemian Wife quilt. This is what I got done which is 39"x45" completed so far out of the measurement of 64x70" that will be needed.

I managed to piece together all of the "orphan" or extra blocks that I had ended up with when I'd finished piecing the quilt top.

The majority of these fabrics are used on the front of the quilt. There are just a couple that aren't, but I'm not too fussed about that.  I'm glad that these floating blocks are no longer floating around separate. And I managed to stop myself from using the teeny HSTs. I think those will go into a pillow sham or something like that.

Getting Closer

 Running Out of Rain Cloud assembly is continuing.

All the "small" piecing is done now and I'm re-measuring the bigger blocks before I sew them together.

The assembly of the smaller parts into chunks, lining up the connections that are the most important to get right.

Yes, that's good.

Running Out Of Rain Cloud Assemble

 

As of today, all cut out and ready to sew the rest together. The Ruby+Bee challenge quilt is now closer to being an actual quilt top that I can quilt and finish in time to submit. I'm looking forward to seeing the final result. I've decided the title I came up with a bit ago, Running Out of Rain Cloud still works. Rain Cloud is the name of the color of the fabric I ran out of, the grey-blue.

The new fabric arrived and was washed, and after I ironed it to do the rotary cutting. I had a momentary freakout. The fabric looked like the wrong color to me. It looked so much more blue, like light blue, not grey blue as seen here. Not until I held it up to the fabric already up on the wall did I relax. It's fine. It's just the difference in lighting I guess. I was looking at it near the windows which are fairly bright and that changes quite a bit about how we see the various colors. Also, now I have to worry about my new-fangled cataracts, is this where the issues are starting? Hope not!

Border Decisions

 

I think I've made my final decision on the City Sampler border. I'm doing an initial border of the grey sashing fabric at 6.5" wide. Then a pieced border of rectangles in the prints used in the quilt top. Then a final border of the same grey sashing fabric at 6.5". That'll give me the size I want for using on our bed.

Here are the four pieced borders.

Instead of a normal rectangular frame border, there will be a piece of the giant polka dot/black&white print that sticks out all the way to the edge of the quilt. I may use that fabric as the binding as well.I really enjoy working with these prints and getting a chance to use them in different shapes. I tried to have the colors kind of track with the colors of the blocks around the edges of the quilt but it won't be exact. I think I'll pin it up on the design wall before I sew it on.

Now for sewing some very very long seams around the outside of this big quilt top several times.