Fast challenge quilt

Well we have our challenges for this week. It is fall colours and a dimensional element. I’ve got lots of ideas already, but I don’t think I have much appropriate fabric. I may have to get a shopping trip in before I can work on this. Still I like pressure right. The earliest I am likely to be able to get supplies is Tuesday, but I should have the design worked out by then.

I am feeling very pleased with myself today. I have finished my tax return. It is the first one I have had to do since I became self employed, so it was a but nerve wracking but I feel great now it is done. Even better, it looks like they owe me money. Yay. On the other hand I am quite looking forward to the time I have to give them money as that will be the point i have made a reasonable profit. Still right now I will look forward to a rebate, and get planning this quilt.

Woo Hoo, one of my quilts is going to Houston!

OK, it sounds great and it is true, but… The quilt that will be there is Unraveling, the quilt I made for Ami Simms Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts Auction. Ami Simms is taking a whole load of quilts along to sell at the show, and mine happens to be one of them. I am sure I shouldn’t be so pleased, but I am. It is the next best thing to being there myself. I really hope it will sell and add to the very impressive amount Ami had already raised. If any of you go and manage to get a picture of it on the stand I would love to have a copy.

Head work

I like to be able to show you folks what I am working on, but at the moment a lot of my creative work is going on in my head. I’ve been thinking about ways to make a trellis quilt with a rose on it. I want to use three dimensional roses so I have been thinking about ways to do that. Also I do like to speed piece so I have been trying to plan clever ways to put the lattice work together. I’ve been trying to work out whether to shade the vines of the roses, as I am shading the trellis to make it look more three dimensional. I guess the reason this is all done in my head is that I can’t draw it to my satisfaction, but I can imagine things very well. I’ve also been thinking about various car designs. I think I’ve got a couple of quite abstract designs from cars, and they need me to work on them soon.

I am also taking a class at Quilt University at the moment. I keep an eye open for new classes there as I find them very inspiring. Although I have to admit to being one of those students who often doesn’t learn what is being taught. I often find my inspiration in a sideline or a throw away comment. I don’t do it on purpose, and I think for me it is a positive thing, I always seem to get something out of a class. The class I am taking at the moment is called ‘Ladders and Crystals’. It is primarily a design class, and it is great. I love being able to look at the work other people are doing too. I was hoping it would help me come up with some simple designs, but as the tutor warned me, the designs are more complex than I predicted. On the other hand they are really fun and I will be making at least one of them.

It is dawning on me as I write that I am living the ‘if you need something doing ask a busy person’. I have so many things to do already but this week I have signed up for a QuiltArt challenge. It is a speed challenge, on Friday we will be given a theme to work to and we have until the following Saturday to make something. I think it will be interesting to see what I come up with when I don’t have time to really consider the design before I start.

For anyone else looking for Popular Patchwork magazine, it doesn’t look like W.H.Smiths sell it anymore, but Borders do, as of course do many independent newsagents.

Digital Rainbow

Sorry for the interlude folks, I’ve been rushed off my feet the last few days. For someone who didn’t think they would like this blogging lark, I’ve really missed it.
Since I last blogged I managed to post my entry for the Innovative images on fabric (or words to the effect). I did decide to go for very simple quilting in the end so people can play guess the object more easily, besides it stands well without intricate quilting. I had never thought about how people made this sort of quilt. The ones where sections are held together on tapes. I now have a new respect for them. It is surprisingly tricky to persuade them to hang well. If there is anyone reading that has done it I would love to know how. I tried to lay it out on my cutting board, using the grid to align everything but when I held it up it didn’t hang at all well. I had to fiddle a lot with the tapes once it was on a hanging rod to get it mostly right. I am sure there must be a better way?

Also I was going to tell you more about the gallery. The short version includes, dogs are loyal, cats are up to no good. Just go look at the paintings, it is so true. People painted an amazing number of dead fish. It is OK to have the back end of an animal facing the viewer in a painting but not in a photograph (anyone know why?). Rubens was so amazing because he painted women, not men with udders. I had seen pictures of his paintings and thought they were good, but when you see them in the context of what other people were painting at the same time they are truly amazing. Oh and the old picture frames are just fantastic. I spent at least as much time looking at the frames as the pictures. I would have bought the big guide book if it had shown the frames too, but it didn’t, not even on the shaped paintings. I will have to go back and sketch some of the frame designs.

I suppose I should now be thinking about next months gallery visit. Any suggestions? I am slightly tempted to go back to the National Gallery, as they didn’t have the modern painters on display this time and they will have by now. Alternatively I could try somewhere else. It does need to be somewhere on the tube ideally, I think I should do the London galleries first as they are supposed to be pretty good and they are on my doorstep so to speak.

First monthly gallery trip

Yesterday I went on the first of my monthly gallery trips with Nat. I chose the National Gallery, for no reason except it was the first with a good web site that google found me. I suppose that is one liberating point of knowing nothing about art, I don’t think I dislike anything.

The National Gallery is in a great location, in Trafalgar square. It was a warm sunny day and the square was really looking good. In the square there are four large plinths with sculptures. Three of the plinth have traditional dark sculptures on, but the fourth has a modern piece. I remember hearing all about the selection process on the news, and the outcry about the final choice. The modern sculpture is in pale marble and of a naked, pregnant disabled lady. It is by Marc Quinn, who took casts of her body and then passed the model onto Italian sculptors to make the marble. Having seen it I can see why people were concerned about it standing out, it does. I’m not sure I think that is a bad thing, maybe people would pay less attention to it if it was dark and fit in more. However I don’t think the subject of shape of the sculpture is in anyway ‘wrong’ for the venue. I’m pleased I had the chance to form my own opinion about it.

The gallery itself is in a magnificent building. By the time you get to the first of the exhibits, the building has put you in the right frame of mind, with it’s ornate ceilings and mosaic floors. We decided to start with the earliest paintings and work forward. I found it very interesting how the subject matter changes over time. I hadn’t realized how many of the paintings in the 1200-1500 date period would be religious. It was also interesting how much brighter and more lively the pieces from monasteries seemed to be. In several of the paintings angels were shown with coloured or patterned wings. I’ve never come across that before, when did it become the norm to paint angels with white wings?

As we moved on towards more recent work we got to see two incomplete paintings by MICHELANGELO. These were fascinating. I must admit I haven’t given a lot of thought to how paintings are put together. Where do you start with some of these huge and intricate paintings? I was surprised to see how complete some areas were when right next to them was nothing. I got the feeling that areas were painted in as they took his fancy, rather than in any proscribed order. Maybe this is my lack of understanding showing, but that is how it looked to me.

The next painting what really leapt out at me was The Ambassadors by HOLBEIN the Younger, Hans. I’ve seen this many times in books, and I have always liked it, what I wasn’t ready for was the size. It is one of the problems with only seeing art in books. You just don’t get a good feel for scale. For me reading the measurements doesn’t help, I don’t remember size without seeing it. This painting is big, the figures are probably half to three quarter size. The detail is just amazing, I spent a long time looking a the globe. You can tell what things are, but it is very different to artists impression of a globe today.

When I was at school we only had school trips in the summer term just before the long summer holiday. Apparently that has changed. There were several groups of school children visiting the gallery. We stopped to listen to one of the talks they were having. The painting they were studying was The Supper at Emmaus by CARAVAGGIO, Michelangelo Merisi da. Apparently the teacher had asked for paintings with food and drink in and this one has a wonderful fruit basket in it. I was fascinated by the way the staff member was leading the children through the painting. Taking about who might be in the picture and what was happening. There was a whole story that I don’t think I would have guessed without some guidance.

Throughout the trip I became increasingly aware that I really like pictures of architecture, especially when they are very detailed. One artist who seems to constantly produce this kind of work is CLAUDE. I loved the fact that I could keep looking and finding new details. My favorite artist of the day does much the same things, in his pictures of Venice. CANALETTO. I was captivated by two paintings of the regatta. They are essentially the same view but painted a few years apart. There were many subtle changes. I liked the energy of all the people in the pictures, I could feel the excitement of the crowds. In the distance you can just see the end of one of the traditional tall bridges, and as you probably know I do like my bridges. Nat on the other hand preferred one of his other paintings. It was a similar canal scene, but much calmer and quieter.

I would love to carry on with this report, but it is getting late and I am tired. I’ll post the rest tomorrow.

One down, one to go.

Well I’ve just put my entry pack for Road to California in to the post. It will be on it’s way first thing tomorrow. It’s a bit scary, I’ve been and looked at last years winners and they are amazing. I can’t see any of mine getting in. On the other hand if I don’t try I won’t ever get in. I also think I need to find somewhere inside, well lit with a plain background for me to photograph my quilts. I just can’t trust the weather. Today I was just getting everything together to go out I caught the weather forecast. We were going to be hit by sudden strong gusts of wind. Great, just what I didn’t need. The camera came out unscathed but I have plenty of bruises and scrapes from grabbing things that were being blown about. Still if I hadn’t given it a go today I wouldn’t know what I have to improve. I am hoping I can find a way to hang digital rainbow inside and light it for it’s pictures. Really it is the lighting that is the hardest part.

Woo Hoo, what a start to the week.

This morning the post brought me the latest issue of Popular Patchwork Magazine (Autumn 2006). Nothing odd there, I subscribe so I expect it to turn up, but the cover tells me there is coverage of the ‘Charmed I’m Sure’ quilt challenge. This is the contest Penny entered, so maybe her quilt is in the magazine. I turned straight to the contents page to fine the article. I am not in the habit of squealing like a girl, but I made an exception, there was my red nude on the contents page. Wow! For the first time I noticed how much care they take over placing page numbers on the images they use. Funny how a personal involvement makes you pay attention isn’t it. Anyway, composure regained and indeed Penny’s quilt is in the item about the show. Page 13.

Now I had to find the article my quilt is advertising. It is the review of the Festival of quilts by Gillian Cooper. I am so thrilled with it. The picture of the ‘Nudes Triptych’ is really good, and they have mentioned the photographer who took the picture I used, Alex Treacher. I guess I will be getting a couple of spare copies this month, as my copy was pretty beat up by the time it arrived, and I think I will be looking back at this article a few times. So for those of you in the UK (does this magazine make it out of the country?) it’s a neat little review of the show, and has the first installment of pictures of the challenge quilts. Also there is a very good article about making landscapes in contemporary quilts.

Responsible pet ownership

I am a little late posting an update because I am a responsible pet owner. So when my cat calls me over to inspect it’s new toy and I find a newt, I have to take the newt to a place of safety. The cat’s have only brought in common newts, but even so. I like newts and I would like to see them thrive. Having talked to the RSPCA the first time it happened we now take them to the local park and release them there.

Before the feline intervention I made pretty good progress. I’ve now got all the rows of ‘Digital Rainbow’ sewn. They do indeed look much better more random. I have to confess my rainbow has six colours not the seven in the normal list. The problem is blue, indigo, violet isn’t actually a very big range and it is pretty much impossible to get three clearly different rows, especially with the dulling of the colours caused by the printing technique. So either I had three rather scrappy looking rows or two great ones. Two great it was, and it is obviously a rainbow.

I’ve now moved on to considering the quilting. I was going to quilt each row with the colour thread that it represents using the name of the colour repeating. The problem with that is it would hide some of the details of the pictures. Given people seem to have a lot of fun trying to work out what they are, I don’t think that will work. So I may just stitch in the ditch between each of the blocks. It isn’t terribly exciting, but does it need to be? I think the design will stand just as well with the very simple quilting. I’d be interested to hear what you guys think.

‘Wait’ – Latest quilt from my longarm

I’ve spent the day slaving over the longarm. I know I should take things slowly, have breaks and all the good stuff, but once I started I could see it was going to work and I just had to finish it. You might have to click on the picture to be able to really see the quilting. The applique itself is quilted to enhances the contours of the body. On the three lighter colours I used a light thread, on the three darker, a dark thread. I like to use the thread to help blend the colours of the fabrics together. Now my machine is behaving itself I can use really quite thin cotton threads with it. So I get the subtle quilting I am looking for. On the applique the quilting lines are very close together and I don’t want too much thread build up.

The black is quilted using masterpiece thread in black. This is my first serious ruler work. It was a bit nerve wracking learning on a real quilt, but I never seem to get a technique if I just practice it on test pieces. It isn’t perfect, but I am happy with it and don’t feel I need to take it out and try again, so I call that a win. The lines are about quarter of an inch apart, not something I think I wiil be doing in a hurry on a larger quilt.

I am however having problems with this wadding and the black fabric. I am finding the wadding migrates very badly. I am going to be spending several hours with tweezers making the quilt less fluffy. I am sure it isn’t a needle problem. I’ve tried several of different sizes and brands, it doesn’t make any difference. I think I just have to accept that the slightly loose weave on this black fabric and this rather tricky wadding don’t mix.

Digital Rainbow

This is the first time I’ve been able to see the rainbow I am making from my photographs. I think it will work. As ever the camera picks up things that aren’t obvious to the eye. In this case the fabric they are pinned to shows through a lot in the picture but very little in real life. I think this also makes the whole thing look a little grey, but that will go away when I sandwich it. Hopefully the white wadding will brighten it in the same way the check pattern dulls it. When I was laying this out I tried to sort the fabrics in each stripe. I’m not sure that adds anything to the design. The colours in each set are so similar it isn’t clear that I have tried to sort it, so I think I am going to just shuffle them and see how that looks. I think a bit more chaos might add some zing.

My board only has space for me to lay out 17 patches in each colour. I think I am actually going to use 20 on the finished article. I have plenty of spares that I would like to put into the quilt. I am planning on making each colour a separate bound sub quilt then mounting them all on tapes so there is a space between the colours. I think black bindings and tapes will work well. After a glitch with the printer, I now have all the fabrics printed. Most of them have been set and are cut, so all being well I should be able to assemble this tomorrow.

In the process of making this I seem to have developed a game. People just seem to love trying to guess what all the pictures are. Given I took them in some very different places I think it will be hard for any one person to get all of them. Some are really obscure, except to those who work with the things I was photographing, and some even to the people who own them. It’s great fun listening to peoples guesses. I even have a few I can’t remember, they are really weird.