Thoughts on Not Matching

I grew up in a matchy matchy household.  My mom was very conscious that we had a rust-colored recliner and that determined all of the rest of the living room decor.  The couch was rust and cream plaid and the rug had rust and green and navy in it.  Over time she tried to bring out the navy and fade the rust out.  Now she has a navy, tan and brown living room.

I'm not good at matching sewing projects to my furniture or anyone else's for that matter.  But I still started out with fabrics that generally matched.

(Yes, this one is still in progress....)

But then I changed after I received my first string blocks from the green bee and added more blocks of my own.  I stumbled on a new (to me) lesson in quilt design.

If I made each block out of just the Nicey Jane fabric line, then it was easy to glance at it and then move on. Once I added a few blues and greens from other lines that were just a shade or two off of a match with Nicey Jane, then it made the blocks more interesting.

I also found that the more I tried to balance out the colors within each block, the more boring the quilt top was as a whole. Once I started grouping a bunch of lights or darks together and making each block uneven and a little "odd" to the eye, that was when the quilt top as a whole looked more interesting to me. 

The same thing happened when I started breaking up the diagonal lines with some bits that "didn't fit." (see the top right corner block below)

That was when the quilt seemed to come alive and my eye felt like it needed to flit about to examine the imbalance.  If my eye could find a definite pattern, then my brain would categorize it easily and my mind wanted to move on.

I decided to take this further with contrasting colors and contrasting fabric design styles within each Farmer's Wife Sampler block. 

I wanted each fabric within the block to show up and then I chose a setting so each block itself could shine on its own.

I would purposely looked for awkward combinations because sewing those fabrics together in one block could make the block more interesting.

Then, with some luck, when you sew a whole slew of blocks together into a top, those may be the blocks that really shine.

 
And then I went one step further last year.  Before, I never would have put white, cream and ivory background fabrics in the same quilt. Nor would I have used charcoal, dove grey, tan, ecru and slate together.  

Those tones don't match per se, but they sure do make for some interesting neighbors in a quilt top.  By pushing the boundaries of pretty and ugly at the same time, I think these blocks really make your mind think about what shades exist.  If it was just one shade of navy, one brown and one white, it could be more easily dismissed.  

I am no expert on color theory by any means.  These little tidbits are things that I've just stumbled upon.  Do you have any thoughts about matching or not matching?  How do you work to make your quilt tops more interesting to the eye?

Farmers Wife quilt top

The top is finally done and I could not be more happy.

(All of the pictures of the completed top are by Jessie Aller)

I love love love my Farmer's Wife quilt.  It is such a big project to take on.  The book has 111 blocks.  I chose not to do a couple of the blocks from the book, but then I added other sampler blocks until I had 121 blocks total.

I opened up my entire stash to be used in this quilt.  I started it with the idea that I'd use my very favorite fabrics.  That way, even if the colors are a jumbled mess, I'd still love it.  The finished quilt top has 354 different fabrics in it. 

I decided to omit browns and dark cream fabrics and any fabrics that had heavy brown tones.  Sometimes choosing what you leave out helps the other colors come together more.  My stash is heavy in greens and aquas and lighter in yellows, oranges and purples, so you'll see that reflected in the quilt, too. 

When I was deciding what fabrics to use in which blocks, I would spread my stash over the floor and surfaces in an entire room, pick one fabric that I loved and then pick another fabric or two to go with it and then I'd look through the book to find the right block to go with those fabrics. I'd do it again and again until I had the combinations I liked for 5 to 40 blocks.  After that, it made the most sense to me to do all of the cutting in a night or two.

And then I'd wait until I had the time and patience to sew the blocks and I'd do that for a few nights in a row.  I paper pieced only 3 blocks out of 121.  Otherwise I did the quilt math or used the templates from the book.  Because so many blocks were heavy in pieces cut on the bias, I starched my fabric pieces and blocks like crazy!  Some of those blocks could nearly stand on their own.

I've been thinking a lot about how to quilt this.  The finished top is 106" square.  I know I can't handle that on my machine and I've been pondering different ways to have a long armer help me, but I'm not sure that I can.  This one is so precious that can't really hand it over to anyone else.  So I guess I'm going to hand quilt it.  It may take me a few years, but I think it will be worth it.

"I think I like you"

I'm so happy that I'm finally making a quilt for my husband.  He puts up with a lot of nonsense from me and he's extremely supportive of my quilting habit.  I tend to hog my summer blanket, so it is about time I made him one of his own. 

Each block is 10" and the finished quilt is seven blocks wide and nine blocks long, so it is roughly twin size. 

I'll use bamboo batting again to make it a nice, lightweight quilt.

In case I forgot to mention earlier, the pattern is Boy's Nonsense, a tutorial by Leila of Where the Orchids Grow.  It is a really striking pattern and I love how much she taught me about value in the process of picking out fabrics for these blocks.

My parents are visiting this week.  My dad is 6'1" and he still had to stand on a stool for the photography session.  He was just as patient as Ben is when holding quilts up for the proper photography :)

This quilt is called "I think I like you" and is named for a song that we both like.  The quote, "I'd watch C-SPAN with you if you asked me to," always cracks me up.  Isn't that what like/love is all about?

Digging, finding, sewing, packing, etc.

I'd like to start by thanking all of you for sending me good thoughts about packing and moving.  Henry is adapting fairly well so far, though we can see the effects of the change of routine.  We are making steady progress on the house, but Friday is coming up very quickly.

The very hardest room to pack up has been my craft room.  I tend to have too, too many ideas.  I make a lot of piles of random supplies with big, big plans in my head.  And then the piles beget more piles.  I feel like it was an archeological dig down in my basement to some of the ideas I had when we moved in six years ago (or before).  Anyway, in order to tie up some loose ends, I ended up sewing and cutting a lot more in the past two weeks than I had planned on.


I cut up all of the fabric for Ben's quilt and then packed it up.

I cut up some squares for a patchwork muted red, white and blue quilt.  I've had this idea swimming around in my head for 3 years and I finally collected enough fabrics for it.

I had one starter block received from the 3x6 bee (mrssorrells2009 on flickr) and a stack of fabric that this block inspired.

I started by cutting the fabric into strips to make one large log cabin block. Then, instead of folding up the strips and putting them away, I just sewed them all into a quilt top.

I look forward to getting a batting and backing on that after the move.

I also dug up some quilt as you go squares from the Mother's Day retreat with crazymomquilts and I finished quilting all of those.  I hope I can get some of them sewn together on the car ride.

As I've been packing, the mail has been coming in with ornaments in the Trim the Tree swap.  I'm a lucky, lucky swapper this year!

Oh gosh.  I'd love to chat more and show off more fabric and quilting and project pictures but I really have to get back to cleaning and painting and bubble-wrapping everything.  I have big craft plans for the drive and for the first couple of weeks before the boxes arrive by moving truck.  Cross your fingers that all of the knitting and hand sewing projects I have in my head will fit in our tiny little car.

Block in progress

I was a sewing madwoman last night.  I was tossing scraps around, ironing like a crazy person, and digging in my newly organized stash.  All for this block.

This one is for the Pastiche Bee.  The theme for February is Alice in Wonderland so I chose painting the roses red.  The block still might need some top stitching, but it is exciting to get a bee block together again. 

I felt a little rusty before last night.  I haven't designed a block from scratch since early November.  But, you'll see a lot more designed blocks this year.  I'm in the Cocorico Bee, Pastiche Bee and I was invited to join the Ringo Pie Bee.  I'm super excited to be surrounded by so many talented sewists.  The inspiration in these bees is unparalleled.  So far I'm drawing blocks for a John Keats poem and a theme of Pippi Longstocking.  I can't wait to see what comes next!

One pincushion down, two to go.

I got so excited by the number of comments on my custom pincushion giveaway, that I decided to make three of them.  Well, I have one finished now.  Charise requested a "C" in red, aqua and/or mustard.

I used a mix of paper and improvisational piecing.  Straight paper piecing will give accurate results and a clean finished project, but I'm often too lazy to go to the copy store to reverse my drawing and also too lazy to wrestle with the paper for the tiny piecing.  So, first I start with a detailed drawing. 

Then I make at least two regular copies of my drawing (my copier at home can do this much) and I cut out piece 1 like a template and I cut out pieces 1-7 all joined as a second template. 

You'll see that pieces 6 and 7 have extra hash marks because the red fabric has to be joined to the aqua background fabric before joining it to piece 1.   So, next I prepare pieces 6 and 7 by sewing two small strips of the two colors together.  Then I use my template of piece 1 to cut the aqua background fabric adding a 1/4" seam allowance all around.  Next I sew pieces 1-7 together and use the 1-7 template to trim off the excess fabric (remembering to add a 1/4" seam allowance).  Then I continue piecing 8-16 on.  Then I trim that to a square and make it into a pincushion.

I don't know if that clarifies anything, but I thought I'd try to explain my process a little.  Someday I'll have to remember to take more pictures when I'm in the midst of this piecing.  (I think I turn into a sewing/cutting/ironing whirling dervish when I'm in the middle of making these blocks, so the photos may be awhile.)

I placed some plain white fabric behind the front and back squares of the pincushion before sewing them together.  I stuffed this pincushion with crushed walnut shells--otherwise known as "lizard litter" at the pet store.  Then I whip stitched the opening closed.

Okay!  This will be on its way to Charise soon!
I have a "V" and an "S" pincushions left to do for the giveaway, so stay tuned. 

For those of you that want to try paper or improv piecing and designing your own blocks, I highly recommend practicing with letters of the alphabet. Especially L, T, H, V, M, A or a squared-off O. Then you can try curved letters C, U, D or a curved O.  I'd save a curved S, B, G, Q, R and lowercase e and g for last.  I did other posts here and here about my designs for a couple of other letters.  Good luck to you!

Cocorico blocks for October and November

I was behind in making blocks for this bee, but I plugged away

at these two over the weekend so I could catch up.

For the month of October, Annabel assigned us a 12x16" block with an orchard theme.  When I think of orchards and pick your own fruit, I think of my canner and jars.  I love picking my own fruit but my eyes are bigger than our tummies and my time is never as big as our pantry.  So I have to limit myself to picking only as much fruit as I'm able to can or freeze in a half of a day.
I came up with this block sketch:

 

The canning jars intimidated me, so I took my time and pieced
the canner and the bowl of apples first.
 

I used freezer paper to do the canner lid curve and I embroidered the handle and the lip of the lid.  I used fusible web and raw edge applique to do the apples.  I don't know the name for the technique I used for the bowl.  Can I admit that I feel like a hack when I use a process and I can't even put it into words?  But when I learn more about it, I promise to do another post explaining it.  okay?

Anyway, I used the mystery applique technique for the jars, too, and then put them on with some white thread.  Then I did some thread sketching in blue for the jar details.  On a whim I picked out two blue colors for the sketching and I thread them both through my needle and stitched them at the same time.  Kooky, I know, but it worked like a dream, so I'm sticking with it.

Here is the finished block.  I wish I hadn't let it intimidate me so, but I'm pleased with the results.

.................................

And, now on to the November block.  Krista and her family are big skiers, so she requested 10 to 14" blocks with the theme, "Let's hit the slopes!"  I don't downhill ski, but I do love cross country skiing.  I learned to ski from an old housemate that also taught me how to knit.  Both will forever be linked in my mind,
so I had to sew a ski sweater.  Here is my sketch:

I started with piecing a snowflake out of the tiniest HST's I've ever done.
Those blue and white squares are only 5/8". 

Then it was on to tiny flying geese, a Y-seam at the collar and embroidering a zipper.

Lastly, I had the task of making the sleeves "jaunty" (as Krista put it) but not too silly-looking.

I must admit that these blocks are hard ones to tuck into the mailbox  :)

Well, thanks for letting me ramble on and post a ridiculous amount of photos for only two blocks.
I LOVE reading process posts by other quilters because I learn so much.  But I'm also a bit shy about showing my sketchbook and partial block photos.  I hope you don't mind the peeks into my process.

Giveaway Winner(s)!!

I had such a tremendous response to the initial letter giveaway.  42 comments?!  This was so great that it was hard to pick just one.  So, I let the random number generator pick three instead. 

So, the winners are...

#15--Vanesa

#11--SoSarahSews

and #28--Charise

I'll be working on some fabric picks and block designs just for you.  Please be patient as my sewing table is always full of projects.  Three pincushions will be on their way soon!


In the meantime...here is a shot of my latest block design/work in progress for the cocorico bee:

Cocorico bee block for September

Lauree asked for "kitchen couture" blocks for her month of the cocorico bee. 

I started with a pencil sketch.

Then I used this tutorial to thread sketch the wire whisk attachment.
I also used foundation paper on the back and drawing paper on the front while I stitched it.
I had to use a tweezers to get some of the paper out but it turned out okay.

To make the mixer paddle I used this tutorial to piece the background fabric into the gray and then used it again to piece the gray into the background again.  (does that make sense?)  I hadn't planned on thread sketching on this portion of the block.  But, the gray needed to stand out from the background fabric more and the sketching did secure the piecing better.

I paper pieced the dough hook. 

Then I improv pieced the tops of all of the attachments and improvised connecting them all into one block.  Lastly, I did some thread sketching on the dough hook to tie it all together.

Sooooo...that was my process for the September block. October's month is "all things orchard". I've got some ideas brewing. Stay tuned...

A little off balance

I have set myself a huge challenge for the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long.  I've opened up my entire stash to this project so I can sew with whatever inspires me.  I have a lot of difficulty visualizing modern fabrics while I'm looking at the dusky colors in the book, so that is an extra layer of difficulty.  I'm also figuring out the math for the block pieces so I don't have to use the templates. 

And, lastly, I'm trying to make the color and fabric combinations in my blocks not match.  This is hard work!  I have to fight my natural impulse to grab the matching fabrics and purposely make myself uncomfortable.  I have a mix of text fabric, modern designers, Japanese fabrics and 30's reproduction fabrics.  I admire the modern quilters on flickr that put different fabric lines and colors together that I'd never think of.  So I'm trying to imitate that by shaking up my own style and pushing my own boundaries.  I hope that mixing these styles in lots of different blocks means that the whole top will come together better.  We'll see....

Anyway, here is my next batch of Farmer's Wife blocks:

(I wish that reds, oranges and purples photographed better with my camera.)

 

So, that is the task I have in front of me.  How do you like to play with color?  

How do you challenge yourself?

I really am curious.