52 weeks of surface design: weeks 8 and 9: relief printing and embroidery

the last few weeks have been very busy for me, and i have not have much time for printing or painting. boo! hiss!

i’ve been working very, very hard, finishing up a series of memory quilts dedicated to my father, who passed away due to pancreatic cancer in 2015. i plan to gift them to my brothers, mother, and another family member for xmas, and the holidays are fast approaching…

however, i did sneak in a tiny bit of work on things relating to the 52 weeks project, before i got in over my head with the memory quilts (i’ll blog about them very soon!)…!

i took an evening and hand quilted the striped mini quilt seen at the top of this post, adding contrasting and complimentary colors to the printed lines. this mini was an experiment; i wanted to see what kind of effect i would get if i added another element of surface play to my printed motifs. i want to make a series of larger quilts with this added stitching, perhaps leaving some motifs unstitched and/or only stitching some motifs and see what overall effect it produces.

on that note: i recently took a few days on the early end of the last two weeks and printed the half oval striped motifs seen above. it’s more relief printing, a foam image on a scrap of wood, and a variety of fabric screenprinting inks, half of which are neons. i’m printing the motif on three sides of a 6” block and i plan to tesselate them in an attractive way, and hand quilt only some of them. i want to make a mini version first to work out my idea.

do you ever make mini quilts or pieces in order to work out larger ideas before jumping into large, complex quilts or works? i don’t always take the time, but do i find the process making small quilts to be helpful when i do. plus, there’s the added bonus of much more instant gratification… :)

#52weeksofsurfacedesignweek 7: dyenaflow drips and swipes, and screenprinted layers

this week was, again, a busy one. my daughter had veteran’s day off from school, and i was busy toward the end of the week, doing some volunteer work at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. the air quality here in my corner of california had also been pretty awful, as a result of the devastating Camp Fire, so spending a lot of time outside printing in my garage seemed like a bad idea.

but i did manage to squeeze in a very tiny bit of play before things too bad. this time i was inspired by some techniques with dyenaflow paint i spotted in Lynn Krawcyzk’s Intentional Printing: a drip motif using a a pipette, and swipe painting, using a foam brush. both techniques are pretty straightforward.

i ordered the pipettes from good old Dharma Trading, and poured a small amount of dyenaflow (from one of their larger size bottles, also from Dharma) into one of those tiny disposable bathroom /dentist(?) water cups and sucked the paint into the pipettes from there rather than straight from the bottle. then it was just a matter of slowly dripping the paint on to the fabric, moving around to make sure the drips were splashed around in a balanced and interesting manner.

the swipes are pretty easy to do as well. i used a dry foam craft brush and worked quickly, making arcs in all directions. i found that as the paint in the brush dries or gets used up it makes a lighter mark on the fabric, which i actually like, because it makes for more variation in value. i used a different disposable cup and foam brush for each color (they are cheap, and i have a huge number of them) when i applied more than one color to a piece, that way i didn’t have to wet and clean the same brush over and over again. i really enjoyed adding more than one color to a piece and layering colors and seeing how different colors interacted with one another to form secondary colors.

while working on white or light neutral fabrics keeps colors pretty pure, it can be kind of boring. it’s fun to use colored fabrics and apply paint on to those fabrics and see how the paint works and layers over that base color. as with the spray painting from week 1, lighter, pastel tones work best for layering colors if you want them to stay fairly pure in tone (like the purple fabric seen in the grid above).

it was also really fun to mix drips and swipes, as seen above. this provides variation in shape/form and keeps things more varied and interesting. plus, drips happen when swiping inadvertently anyway, so if a few happen, there’s no need to panic, just add more and voila, design element! you meant to do it! :)

also! i went through my pile of previously printed, dyed, and painted fabrics, looking for pieces that needed some extra love, with the idea of adding more layers of color and pattern.

i decided to add more layers with some screens i had from my lillstreet residency days, featuring some of my hand painted patterns (i painted them with india ink on vellum, and then burned them on to the screens). i like the juxtispostion of the painted and printed motifs, the organic lines of the paint versus the relatively sharp edges of the screened motifs, the varying levels of opaqueness and translucency of the screenprinting ink, and the paint or dye, and again, those unexpected colors that form when two colors meet and mingle, and the illusion of depth that’s achieved with the layering of color and motif.

i’ll definitely be revisiting this kind of thing…i want to see how much layering i can manage without making the fabric into weird muddy soup. :) it’s fun figuring out how far i can go, and when to push forward and when to pull back, searching for the line. if there is one…

#52weeksofsurfacedesignweeks 5 and 6: fabric painting with #dyenaflow

Dye-Na-Flow is a free flowing, super watery, concentrated liquid fabric paint that acts like fabric dye, or somewhat like a watercolor paint, manufactured by @jacquardproducts. i started buying Dye-Na-Flow at my local blick (when i lived in Chicago and had one conveniently located by my grocery store!), but now that i live in the middle of nowhere, i order it online via dharma trading company.

this year I’ve been working through the possibilities with this paint, seeing what it can do: splattering, flicking, making quick concentric circles and stripes with a big brush, and have even put it in spray bottles and sprayed it on to the fabric as well.

i usually start with dry cotton fabric (mostly Kona Snow), and work on top of a blue tarp from Home Depot, which I can easily clean with a wet sponge or baby wipe between pieces. i then quickly start applying paint, without letting colors dry, which leads to a bleeding and blending of colors that i really love.

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with the concentric circle pieces, i often splash a contrasting color over the top for interest, and then hang the pieces to dry, which adds to the blending of the colors and gives the circles a “splat” like appearance.

over the summer i completed two quilts with these circles, playing on the drunkard’s path block. various other quilts featuring stripes and splatters are still in the works.

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an unexpected and fun variation arose out of the discards and offcuts of the painted striped fabric: a raw edge appliqué motif that suggests the overall idea of a woven piece. when i was prepping pieces paint them with stripes, i simply tore the pieces and got to work. after i was done and the pieces had dried, i started cutting of the edges, thinking it would make piecing easier. but i couldn’t bear to throw the fun offcuts away, so i started playing around! i took a small piece of Kona Snow, sandwiched and quilted it, and then started applying little scraps to the surface, temporarily adhering them with a glue stick, and then a simple top stitch. i’d eventually like to make this quilt again, but on a larger scale.

#52weeksofsurfacedesign: weeks 3 and 4: relief printing! 

i am combining weeks 3 and 4 due to a family visit and a long-awaited 20th wedding anniversary trip to Vegas with my partner @osi_ ! 

#reliefprinting has been my jam for a few months! some of my blocks are cut out of legit lino block material, but most of them are quick and dirty stamps made from adhesive #craftfoam and scraps of wood (scroll to last photo). for inks i’ve been using fabric screenprinting inks like those made by @blickartmaterials @prochemicalanddyeand @speedball_art — i apply it using a small paint trim roller like the ones used and recommended by @jenhewett.

i also use a padded printing surface, which consists of a piece of plywood, a thin layer of carpet padding, covered with a stretched piece of canvas dropcloth. if anyone is interested, i may be able to do a DIY on how i made said printing surface. it’s modeled after the print tables i used at @textilesatlillstreet.

i have made all kinds of motifs but i have found that simple shapes hold a tremendous amount of possibility. it’s incredibly fun to layer simple shapes and colors and see how said shapes and colors interact with one another and with the base fabric to which they are applied. to simplify and limit my play, i’ve been cutting out stacks of 6” blocks with my @accuquilt Studio cutter and have been applying my motifs in different places and arrangements and seeing what results.

52 weeks of surface design: week two: ice dyeing!

have you all ever tried this? it’s so fun!

this week’s surface design experiment was inspired by my online pal @apriltwoeightyquilts who makes stunning quilts and home accessories out of hand dyed fabric. she graciously and generously shared some of her tips on ice dyeing with me over the past few weeks. her tips, coupled with a tutorial on @dharmatradingco website (this tutorial in particular) had me ice dyeing in no time.  i had tried it once when i was the resident artist at lillstreet in chicago (using snow!), but it had been a few years and i thought i’d give it a shot as a part of this 52 weeks project.

it’s a pretty easy process. basically, you need ice, powdered fiber reactive MX dyes, a bin with sides, and some sort of rack to sit in the bin on which your fabric will in turn sit, allowing dye and water to precipitate through as the ice melts (the rack keeps the fabric from touching the puddle of melted ice and dye in the bin below). make sure to soak your fabric in a soda ash solution first, pile on ice, sprinkle on dye powder...and wait for the ice to melt. voila!

i found that the ice took a long time to melt, longer than one might expect. i got everything set up in the afternoon, and let all of them sit more or less overnight, washing the fabrics out in the morning. the first time i played with ice dyeing, last week, i used two colors i had on hand on each piece of fabric. the second time, i used only one color of dye per piece of fabric. what’s fun is that you can really play around…keeping the colors you use limited or playing around with more than one color, seeing how they colors mix and react with one another as the ice melts. it’s a really serendipitous, surprising process, you never know exactly how a finished piece will look, and i think that’s the fun of it. all of the fabrics seen above were dyed with only one color, and the fabric below is a mix of yellow and green.

places to find procion MX dyes and auxiliaries:

dharma trading company

pro chemical and dye

i’ve been thinking about doing a daily or weekly project for some time now. lots of artists i admire have taken it upon themselves to commit to these projects. i love seeing the results of others explorations and watching them grow and progress in their art/craft through these projects, sometimes creating a body of work, and almost always finding that new avenues of artistic growth have been discovered. so i decided to make a commitment to my own project: 52 weeks of surface design.

i have been playing around with surface design on textiles for several years now (really, since college, many many years ago); more recently i’ve been exploring the possibilities of the same on paper. I wanted to make a commitment to myself to keep experimenting and trying different techniques and permutations and see what comes of it in a year’s time.

i chose surface design because i feel like the possibilities are so endless: painting, dyeing, screen printing, relief printing, and more.

i thought 52 weeks seemed the most realistic; every day seemed unrealistic given the demands of life and parenting. a week gives me plenty of time to find the time to explore a technique in the dibs and drabs of time that i have. sometimes i may even get a small project seen through to fruition! some weeks will likely be in-process ideas and experiments, others, finished projects. 
this here? i imagine some weeks i’ll be more productive than others, and that is a-👌.

i plan to blog about this project weekly, as an impetus to give this fairly dormant blog a kick in the backside ☺️ #accountability

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what’s seen here? week 1: spray and splatter painted fabric!

a veritable rainbow of vintage and new solid fabrics i sprayed with fabric paints — some i painted last year at @textilesatlillstreet but more than half of this color wheel is from this past week, the results of multiple hours in my garage studio. 

a fun and fast technique that i’ve been playing around with for about a year. it works best if you start with fairly light, pastel colored solid fabric, as you can add color and build up as you go. if the base fabric is darker, the added colors will likely blend in and not be as visible. i like to start by adding monotone and analogous colors, and then add contrasting colors for zip and interest. you can vary the way the spray looks by varying the distance of the bottle to the fabric. if you hold the bottle further away, you get more of a fine mist, and if you spray closer, you get rings or large splotches or dots. i also like to open the spray bottle and shake the tube inside to get large drip marks. pipettes (you can get these from @dharmatradingco) might also be fun to experiment with; i bought some last week for a different project, i’ll update with the results i the future. i also put some DyNaFlow paints by @jacquardproducts in spray bottles and it worked beautifully as well; the paints are very watery and thin and penetrate through the fabric like dyes.

when i’m done painting a piece of fabric, i hang the fabric to dry and then throw the pieces into the dryer for an hour on high to heat set.  you may want to use a pressing cloth when ironing your fabric; i noticed some transfer to my iron’s soleplate when i was pressing my fabric after heat settling. nothing that a little soleplate cleaner won’t fix, though!

the paint i used: @marabucreativeusa Fashion Spray and @ilovetocreate Tulip Fabric Spray Paint. i’ve also had some luck with diluted @jacquardproducts fabric paint and travel spray bottles from @target — Marabu can be found at @blickartmaterials or @dharmatradingco and @ilovetocreate can be found at @joann_stores.

if you give this technique a shot, let me know!

I was invited to play around with the machine and explore all it’s functions and features, on the condition that I’d pen a review of the machine when I was done.

The opportunity to review the this machine came at the perfect time: I was (until very recently!) in between zig-zag machines and actively looking to buy a new one. So, suffice it to say, I was more than happy to oblige re: writing a review, in exchange for the chance to play with a brand new sewing machine!

During the trial period, I decided I would commit myself to using the Janome MC 6700P exclusively, in order to see what it could for me and how it would handle the types of things I typically like to sew (quilts, mostly, but also the occasional piece of clothing.

I used it piece three quilts, do some raw edge appliqué, make a quilted needle book, and sew two garments.  I also made a few samples with scrap fabric and interacting and batting, so I could test out the oft-touted AcuFeed walking foot as well as the buttonhole foot.  

A few of the items I sewed on the 6700P can be seen in the photo below (fused appliqué piece on top left, the linen dress on the bottom right, precision piecing on a letterpressed text quilt, and some improv piecing, in progress, toward the bottom of the photo).

After two weeks of play, here's my take on what the MC 6700P has to offer:

The team that designed this machine really thought about what today's serious sewing machine buyers/users REALLY need and want, and delivered. I'd like to give them all a big hearty handshake and a hug for not going overboard with this machine!  

It's simple, sturdy, and thoughtfully designed, marrying a myriad of practical features with the right amount of modern can't-live-without-em features  Every single feature makes sense and has a purpose.  

It's a freakin' dream to sew with, and here's why...

-Solid METAL construction and a super strong motor: The bed of the machine and most of the body of the machine are white powder-coated metal.  The weight of the machine cuts down on vibration. This machine isn’t going anywhere! Better motor equals more torque, which means the 6700 has more power to punch through multiple layers of fabric.

-Harp Space: GENEROUS. 10” from the needle to the right side of the machine, people.  This alone makes me absolutely GIDDY. Plenty of room to pass a big old quilt through with ease!

-Stitches:  It makes a beautiful, balanced straight stitch and zig-zag stitch right out of the box.  Selecting stitches is easy: you select the Mode on the bright, digitized LED screen, and then toggle or use the number pad to select your stitch. Adjusting the length and width of the stitches is very easy as well, you just spin the dials on the right side of the machine to locate the stitch length and/or width you desire. The 6700P has a max 9mm stitch width and comes loaded with 200 stitches AND 5 Alphabets. This breaks down to a healthy amount of utility stitches, a variety of buttonholes and eyelets, and a thoroughly reasonable amount of decorative embroidery stitches. Janome has also included detachable stitch chart you can pop into a little holder on the back side of the machine, for those times when you want to see the complete list of available stitches at a glance.

-Feet: The machine comes with their AcuFeed Flex walking/even-feed foot, there’s no need to buy one separately. It also comes with an overlocking foot, zipper foot, appliqué foot, buttonholer foot, and a variety of darning/FMQ feet…17 feet total. Most of the feet are of the snap-on variety, you press a lever on the back of the foot apparatus to release a foot, and lower the presser foot lever on to a new foot to attach it to the foot apparatus. You can store all the feet andother accessories that come with the machine in the cute little plastic box that also comes free with the machine.

-Speed Control: This machine can stitch up to 1200 stitches per minute! You toggle the speed with a simple slider on the left side of the machine. ZOOOOOM!

-The securing stitch, needle up/down, reverse and the scissor/thread cutting buttons are conveniently located on the left side of the machine. All these functions work in a reasonable amount of time, unlike other machines on the market. I have made a lot of use out of the scissor function, it is a HUGE time and thread saver. There’s also a manual thread cutter (one of those tiny enclosed razor blades) on the left side of the machine, for those instances where you need to manually cut thread ends. The needle stops in the down position, which is also great.

-Presser Foot Lever: THEY LEFT IT ON THE MACHINE. I know it sounds odd, but some manufacturers have computerized the lifting and lowering of the presser foot (they make you press a button), and it drove me bonkers (gives the side-eye to Bernina)...THANK YOU FOR LEAVING WELL ENOUGH ALONE, Janome!  :)

-Interchangable Stitch Plates: Three of them! THREE! A straight stitch plate, a zig-zag plate, and a HP (High Performance) plate. The plates are easily popped in and out with a button on the bottom left side of the machine, and the plates themselves pop into place on the bed of the machine with minimal effort. There are no screws to loosen and/or lose when you want to get into the bobbin area for cleaning! Markings for seam allowances are clearly etched into the stitch plates.

-Bobbins: The 6700P has a drop-in style plastic bobbin, and the bobbin area is covered by a clear plastic window, which is easily removed to change out the bobbin as necessary. The clear window allows you to see when a bobbin is getting low. They’ve also included a small, easy to decipher diagram on the clear window to remind you of how to set and thread the bobbin. LOVE that little reminder because I swear I forget how to thread the bobbin every time!  LOL!

-Threading:  A diagram of the threading order is printed on the surface of the machine, and there’s a needle threader for those in need of a little more help.

-Spool Holders:  There are two very large spool pins on the back right top corner of the machine, along with a thread stand, and the spool pins are able to accommodate a variety of thread spools, even large thread cones.

-Bobbin Winder:  This winder is on a separate motor, meaning you can wind a bobbin with an extra spool of thread on one of the two spool pins without having to unthread the machine.  Brilliant!

-Needles: The 6700P uses Universal type needles. Janome recommends Organ Needles, but I assume other easily obtainable needles like Schemetz may work as well?

-Oiling and maintenance: The machine is self-oiling! Sweet!

-Extension table: the machine comes with a plastic extension table, so again, no need to buy one separately.

-Lights:  It has 6 LED lights in three locations around the machine. They are SUPER bright! Good for those of us whose eyes are aging or who sew in darker environments, like yours truly.

-Flat-bed:  This machine does not have a free-arm feature like some domestic sewing machines.  A free-arm may make it easier for some to sew tight areas like armholes, and the like. I have used flat-bed style sewing machine for many years (a Juki TL2010Q), so I am used to maneuvering work under the needle with this style of machine. It’s not a deal-breaker for me (in fact, I kind of love it and prefer it), but might be for someone else, so I figured I'd mention it...

A few words about the cost of the Janome MC 6700...

This machine is not cheap.  It’s the newest member of the Memory Craft line and and sits at the top of that line, and as such, is priced accordingly.  My honest take? The 6700 is not a budget machine, and I’d argue that overall, it’s not really geared for the occasional sewer. 

Overall impression?

This machine is more an investment machine for a serious, every day sewist, someone who sews for a living/professionally.  It does what it does exceptionally well, providing rock solid fundamentals and just the right amount of extra features.  The machine feels like it’s built to last.  

I loved having the opportunity to play with this machine!

So much so, that right after I made plans to send my tester machine back to Janome, I ran down to my local Janome dealer here in Chicago, and sprung for one of my own! 

Some months ago,  I took a pile of thrifted scraps, some newer prints and solids, and started cutting the whole of them into strips, freehand, with my rotary cutter.  And then I took to joining them mostly randomly, making interesting clashes of patterns against pattern, and throwing at least one solid in with every group of 4-5 strips.

I started by making what my friend Sherri calls "strip sheets".  And then started working through the permutations, letting one idea flow into the next idea organically.

I first started by making opposing stripe blocks (where you lay one set of stripes one way, and another set the other, and sew around the perimeter, and then cut the block into quarters on the diagonal.  This is the block quilt you see at the top of this post...it's riotous and fun.  Each time I opened up a block after sewing and cutting, I would gasp with delight at what would result with each random pairing.  The quilt is crazy, but has an underlying structure that gives it a cohesiveness.

I also sub-cut the strip sheets into smaller strips, and have joined these smaller strips with varying shades of grey.  This idea came to me in a dream; the grey is a fantastic counterpoint to the riot of colors.

Submitting the strip sheets into smaller strips got me curious about what would happen if I sub-cut the sheets into Dresden Plate wedges...the result is pretty fun!  I need to consider what I'll appliqué them to, and what fabrics or fabrics I will appliqué to the centers of the blocks.

The last few show what happens when I cut the strip sheets into blocks, and cut them in half to make HSTs.  I threw a log cabin block I had made for other purposes in the center, and I REALLY like the result.  The blocks of this one might just have to be set on point; the diagonals are really dynamic.

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I have a lot of strips left...and many more ideas.  Looks like I have a series on my hands.

My quilt was in a gallery show this spring!

Hosted by Gallery EOSS at Watermark Gallery in East Providence, Rhode Island, the exhibit showcased the quilt art of ten artists (including myself).  Quilt collector and author Bill Volckening of Portland, Oregon curated the show.

The show featured quilts made by Melissa Averinos of West Barnstable, Massachusetts; Teresa Coates of Portland, Oregon; Lynn Harris of Chelsea, Michigan; Mandy Leins of Saratoga Springs, New York; Tricia Royal of Chicago (that's me!); Denyse Schmidt of Bridgeport, Connecticut; Maria Shell of Anchorage, Alaska; Gail Weiss of Portland, Oregon; Victoria Findlay Wolfe of New York City; and Sherri Lynn Wood of Oakland, California.

The exhibit was on display from March 18th to April 10th, 2016.

I flew out to Providence to attend the Friday night opening.  Melissa and I did an unplanned but fun Q&A toward the end of the night about our quilts and answered questions about our art/quiltmaking practice with the folks who came to the opening.

It's the first gallery show that my work has been in and it was a real honor to have been included amongst such a fantastic group of women artists.  

Big thanks to Peter Cameron of Watermark Gallery, Mark Goodkin, and Bill Volckening!

 i called this one handy andy, as it's an oversized interpretation of a classic quilt block by the same name..

the made fabric is scraps of vintage fabric that i picked up in paducah, kentucky, during quilt week 2014.  the national quilt museum was holding a fundraiser in one of the vending halls, where they were selling gallon sized ziplock bags crammed full of old fabrics for about $1-$3 a bag.  since i am a fabric hoarder/collector and can't not adopt wayward old bits of fabric, i bought about 20 ziplocks and hauled them back to chicago (in my dear friend erika's honda CRV), with much glee and very little shame.  i paired the vintage bits with vintage solids i bought from a vendor at the randolph street market.  the really bright green that forms the cross that seems to overlay the quilt is a really fun, electric, minty linen i found at the textile discount outlet in pilsen.

one of my favorite things about this quilt is how that minty green seems to hover above the other elements...another quilt that messes with your mind and creates a weird but intriguing depth.  it's like a blown up grid and cornerstone, elements in quilt making that have been obsessing me lately.

i don't plan a lot before or very much as i'm working on my quilts.  images like these seem to emerge slowly as i plod along and make decisions about what feels right as the quilt making process proceeds.  i surprise myself with the final outcome almost every single time.  i'm just letting it happen...and this is what seems to come out of me.

this was another quilt longarmed by the talented frank palmer, of orlando, florida.  he used three shades of neon thread to quilt the quilt:  pink, green and yellow.

in a previous post i was blathering on about bindings and not always wanting to use them, saying it depended on the quilt.  this is one i felt needed a binding, and i envisioned using one as soon as i decided to put the red square of vintage fabric in the dead center of the quilt.  the binding matches that red square...in my mind, there's a relationship between the center and the binding and it makes absolute perfect sense because it ties everything together.

this here quilt is "spiders on acid".  the title of which is me being cheeky:  a spiderweb quilt in acidic, bright colors.  

the name is also a half-assed reference to this video i saw a few years ago, showing the effects of various illicit substances upon spiders (spoiler:  they apparently weave different webs depending on the substance to which they are exposed):

the desire to make my own spiderweb quilt started with an obsession with the two quilts above, which were featured in one of my favorite books, the oft mentioned (by me) roderick kiracofe tome unconventional and unexpected.  i loved the optical movement that happens with the circle shapes, created by the triangles joining together to form squares.  it looks more complicated than it is.  i found it to be an easy quilt to make, but one of the most time consuming quilts i have made, to date.  there's a lot of work in joining all the strips out to the points of the triangles.  i thought the piecing stage would never, ever end!  freakin' tedious!  and i am not one to shy away from a lot of work.  i'm a fiber person, for chrissakes, everything i do seems to involve a lot of labor and i actually love it.  but whoa.  in the end, it was worth it, for the effect.

the fabrics are a mix, as they always are.  vintage, new, whatever.  dunno if anyone notices, but i often throw a little marrimekko fabric and a little tasteful batik into most of my quilts too (the bold stuff, like those designed by malka dubrawsky).

the colorway/design story goes a little something like this:  i started with one color of yellow for the triangles.  then i thought it might be interesting to add a few other varied shades of yellow, and yellow green.  and since purple is the compliment to yellow, i thought it would make an nice contrast with the yellow, both in hue and value.  as for the strings, the reds and greens are also compliments, along with the yellows and the purples, and orange is thrown in for more interest.  i had started with just green, red, and yellow strings, but the addition of the purple added the right amount of "jazz" to the whole color play, and just felt "right" to me.  i like the surprise of adding all the variations and the little bits of purple and orange.  it's the unexpected, the extra little something and keeps the whole quilt from being a bore.  the colors are crazy, but i like crazy.  i AM crazy.  maybe i'm a little like those spiders on acid...doing what i do, but maybe i'm a little tweaked?  have you heard of people saying you should be careful using complimentary colors in your work?  whateverrrr.  i say bubkis.  BUBKIS!!

i started out hand quilting this quilt, but decided i would rather machine quilt it.  so i used my 1980s berninamatic 910 to finish it off with straight lines on the diagonal, using a yellow variegated thread 100% cotton thread.  faced it, rather than binding it.  again, i'm digging the look of no binding or "frame". 

nothing fancy as far as the quilting goes, just straight lines for miles, but i like that minimal look.(AND...ummm, walking foot quilting is pretty much all i can do well, machine quilting-wise, truth be told).

one more in an ongoing series of log cabin quilts (see this previous post for more details)!

i called this one two sides to every story, because each log cabin block in the quilt has a solid fabric side, and a printed fabric side.  some fabrics show up more than once in the quilt, but each block is different.

one of the inspirations for this quilt was a log cabin quilt i saw at the from heart to hand show at the de paul gallery here in chicago in 2014.  the quilt in question had prints on one side of each log cabin block and prints on the other as well.  i liked the idea of that, and used it as a jumping off point for my own experimentation.  the inspiration quilt had a more improvisation ally pieced, organic, wonky feel, while mine is more precice.  

the fabrics within are a mix of new and old/reclaimed, as is my usual M.O.  

i consciously placed the solids together in groups that form a diamond, which i think gives some structure to the quilt.  the shapes formed by the groups of solids and prints and all the colors and value changes throughout seem to play with the eye a bit, which was not conscious on my part, but i love that it had that result.  when i look at it, i see an X form in the middle of the quilt.  (

i really, really want to make a sister quilt to this quilt where only the X shape is apparent, and the rest is solids, to make the X stand out prominently.  when i get around to it.... (haha, famous last words!)  *grin*).  maybe later this year (2016).  when/if i get around to it, i'll let you know.  :P

the quilt was longarmed by the fantastically talented frank palmer, in orlando, florida.

this quilt is faced.  it just felt right.

the title 9 patch is apropos...because fundimentally, the whole quilt is just a 9 patch of 9 patches. 

i started with the made fabric, which was cut into 6 inch squares, and then rejoined into nine patch squares.  the cross blocks have made fabric blocks in the center, with prairie points pointing out of all sides.  the fabric is a mix of stuff, as usual, mostly newer bits.  the black sashing is black kona.  the peach and green are vintage solids from the 1970s.

adding some kind of dimension to my quilts has become increasingly important to me.  sometimes this just means the impression of depth or dimension via value changes and/or colors, sometimes it means the illusion of depth through devices like overlaid grids, and sometimes it means texture...actual factual tactile texture that you can see.  things that stick up and off the surface of the quilt.  quilts are typically very flat, in my observation.  it can be fun to play with the surface and do something unexpected.  i like the push and pull.  if you look it's almost like the black grid is floating above another grid that appears to be formed by the green solid crosses.  this wasn't anything i really planned from the outset but a design that came together as the quilt itself came together.  typical of how i usually make quilts.

my use of grids and my obsession with them comes from two distinct inspirations:  one, the quilts of australian quilter judy hooworth, specifically her book razzle dazzle quilts.  i found a copy of it at a chicago-area thrift store, and fell in love with her contemporary use of sashing and cornerstones.  two:  a number of the bold improvisational sashed and cornerstone-ed quilts in roderick kiracofe's book unconventional and unexpected.  it's something i want to explore more in other quilts going forward.

frank palmer, of orlando, florida, longarmed this for me.

here we have "full circle," so named because though it was partially pieced in 2015, it contains bits of patchwork i made in and around 2009 and 2010, some of which became one of my first quilts.  and it's fully covered in hand-quilted circles...duh!  *grin*

the fabric in both that early quilt and the similar bits in this quilt are solid colored silks, cottons/blends, linens, cords from my scrap bins.  i've been sewing for a dog's age...mostly clothing.  almost 30 years, if my math is correct.  and i've been hoarding bits of old fabric for nearly as long.  so once upon a time, my fabric collection skewed more toward garment fabrics.  it seemed like a natural thing to me to use those kinds of fabrics in a quilt, especially when i was just starting out.  

to be honest, i still think it makes sense!  you use what you have and what you know, and mostly it will work.  i like the different textures and sheens that other kinds of fabrics can bring to a quilt or work of fiber art.  sometimes you have to stabilize certain fabrics to get them to play nice and you may have to handle or care for the quilt in different ways.  and i am down with that, with the experience that i've accrued, it's not so difficult to manage..  but having been around in the quilting world for a while now (at least peripherally), i gather that quilting-weight cottons are the alleged "gold standard" amongst most quilters these days.  quilting cottons are what everyone wants to use and thinks they should use.  that's cool.  i just like being a little experimental, i guess.  trying stuff and seeing what works and what doesn't.  i'm not really comfortable working in a box or limiting my choices.  rules-shmules, maaaaan!  the "quilt police" (modern or otherwise) can step off!

anyway...back to the quilt in question, no?  the circles were hand quilted with a heaver weight black perle cotton, at the intersection of blocks.  there are two layers of batting:  a thin layer of warm and white cotton, and a thinnish layer of mountain mist poly batting, to give the hand quilting some loft and puffiness.  the resultant quilt is a bit thicker than a cotton batting only quilt, but it's slightly puffier which is a nice change.  the combo gives it more of both a literal and visual weight.  it was a combination i read about in my friend sherri lynn wood's recent book.  this quilt happens to be the first quilt i've completely hand quilted.  i am really proud of that...i want to use the batting combo in other quilts and also hand quilt more of my quilts as time allows.

this quilt is also faced, rather than bound in a more traditional manner.  i bound it using this tutorial from the silly boodilly.  i've faced a lot of quilts lately.  i'm liking the option not to have that line of color or pattern framing a quilt.  sometimes you want it to be about the face of the quilt and not have that line box the work in.  other times a binding can really work.  depends on the quilt, and the quilter.

If you've known me a while or are just poking around, it’s probably obvious (or increasingly obvious!) that I prefer saturated colors, and what some might think are “challenging” color combinations.  I like my color like I like my music:  loud, in your face!  Bombastic.  Like rump-shaking bass and beats.  I love old-school hip-hop, drum and bass, and house.  I want my quilts to look like those genres of music sound!

Saturated colors feel really energizing and exciting to me.  Candy colors, like I could almost eat them.  Graffiti is a major inspiration behind my color sense.  The colors of spray paint, of street art.  Think of the acid and neon colors of the 70s and 80s…those are some of my most favorite hues.

I like to literally play with color and choose my colors on the fly.  I don't overthink or overwork.  I generally don’t do a lot of planning when it comes to the colors in my quilts, preferring to work in a more intuitive or immediate manner, as opposed to a controlled, premeditated manner (choosing them beforehand and using what was planned).  What feels right as I go and at a given time, is right, for me.  I like my colors to dance, vibrate, and give off an energy.  I am consciously playing with the color wheel, and I tend to favor complimentary or clashing pairs or groups, so you'll likely see a lot of reds and greens, oranges and greens.  I also like to play with saturation, and value.  I do use neutrals in my work, they are needed for interplay and repose.

***

On the matter of fabric..

Yes, sometimes I buy new fabric.  But I am not precious about it.  I'll buy things when I see them, if I happen to be at a quilt shop somewhere and I've got access to the "nicer" stuff.  But as a rule I generally don't follow designers, mostly because I honestly have a hard time keeping up with who does what  There's an awful lot of noise out there in the fabric world.  Some of it appeals to me and some doesn't.  I'll buy what does but I have a hard time associating a particular person with a particular line.  It's overwhelming to me. Chicago, big city that it is, doesn't have a whole lot of choices in the city limits for fabric, so I get fabric where I can find it.  At shows, at regular fabric stores like Jo-Ann's, and like I mentioned, rarely, an actual quilt shop (there aren't but maybe two in all of Chicago proper).

My greatest and most favorite and preferred resource for fabric is secondhand. Old scraps of fabric jammed into plastic bags, cut-up secondhand clothing, old household textiles like curtains, sheets, tablecloths, or really whatever.  I find this fabric at thrift stores, antique markets, and on Etsy.  I think of these kinds of places as my art supply stores, and they help me construct my palette.  I prefer the serendipity of finding my materials, wherever I can find them, and then recontextualizing the fabrics I've found, in a way that makes sense to me, in my quilts and other fiber pieces.  This relates to the post-modern notion of collage and bricollage.  Taking what a lot of people might consider gross trash or castoffs or ugly stuff and trying to make it beautiful in my re-contextualization via fabric play.  The idea of buying a whole line from a hot designer and using it in one quilt is really unappealing to me....they've done the work!  I would prefer to do the work of putting and pairing things together, instead.

I have a thing, a strong obsession, for adopting and hoarding old stuff, fabric and other textiles. Partially, this is because I honestly feel sorry for the things that have gotten dumped off at the thrift!  Like it's a living breathing thing, almost!  I want old things, old fabrics in this case, to be loved again and have a home and retain some use.  

We as a culture throw so much useful and I'd argue, beautiful, stuff away.  Just because it's old doesn't mean it's less valuable!  It makes sense to me, in general, to be resourceful and attempt to use what’s already out there, rather than generating a lot of new stuff to add to the milieu of stuff that already clogs our world.

***

Why do you use the fabrics you use?  

this quilt is called a kiss for paul.

paul is my dad, who passed away in october 2015, after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer.  this quilt will always remind me of my parents, and mostly, of my dad.

i started working on this quilt, doing the crazy, improv piecing when i was down in florida, staying with my parents, about two christmases ago.  i was sitting around bored and decided to go to the local joann's for quilty provisions.  so a lot of the fabrics are new, and most of them aren't fancy stuff.  maybe there's some denyse schmidt?  that yellow on yellow calico?  i'm not sure.

the X block i used throughout this quilt is from victoria findlay wolfe's book, 15 minutes of play, and really, the piecing technique is also borrowed from that which she details in said book and in her workshops.  the craziness of made fabric, as a concept, has really resonated with me, and i've used her method to make a lot of made fabric over the last few years.  i'll always and forever be indebted to victoria for her aesthetic and technical inspiration and encouragement in that regard.

so, why didn't i just use one color to frame each X throughout the whole quilt?  to that, i say, why should i?  i like the idea of surprises in a quilt, and i've come to believe that surprise in art and, by extension, quiltmaking, is what gives a work life and energy!  why not throw in some blue green fabric somewhere, even if it appears nowhere else in the whole quilt?  why use all the same yellow fabric throughout?  why not use a fabric that has texture, like a flannel?  why cut fabric on the straight of grain?  why not cut it off grain?  why are there so many damn rules?  why not break them and see what happens for the hell of it?  so what if it doesn't work out.  and what does "working out" really mean?  beauty (and ugliness) are in the eye of the beholder.

why does it remind me of dad?  my father was a super snappy clotheshorse, and wore color fearlessly.  he stood out in a crowd.  maybe some of the blocks in this quilt do too.  maybe the whole damn quilt does.  i'm down with that.  it's how i roll.

this quilt was longarmed by frank palmer, of orlando, florida.  note all the opposing lines in the Xs and the blocks that hold them.  lines for days.

***

incidentally, this quilt has a lot of purple in it.  purple happens to be the color for pancreatic cancer awareness.  it wasn't intentional, but in retrospect, it's fitting.  

RIP, daddy.

***

 i found out this afternoon that it was accepted to hang at Quiltcon 2016, in pasedena, california.  

finished this quilt top at the beginning of december!  woohoo!  truth be told, this quilt has been about 1-2 years in the making.

i learned how to english paper piece a few years ago, maybe the beginning of 2014?...with the help of my CMQG friend holly, and katy jones on her QNN show quilt monkey (episode link).  i spent many a night on my couch (or parent's couch, when i was there visiting), or at stitch, bitch and brew, over the last few years, diligently hand sewing each hexie diamond you see here.  

my idea from the outset was to join random hexies together, not overthinking the pairings, combining what some might deem as "mismatched" or "ugly" fabrics, and see what the results might be.  i grabbed a bunch of disparate fabrics from my scrap bins and cut out 6 inch squares with the help of my trusty GO! cutter, and then machine appliquéd each diamond, set on a diagonal, on to the 6 inch squares with a rainbow of threads, including some neon threads.

and then i joined all the blocks, at least taking care to at least not let any two similar 6 inch squares touch.

that's it, really.  

i'm REALLY pleased with how it turned out.  controlled crazy!  i'm all about the controlled crazy.  about setting some limits or parameters but not overthinking everything to death.  it's very liberating.  try it!

my plan for quilting this beast has not been finalized, but i'm thinking i'll probably echo quilt the seams, maybe in neon thread (because i like me some neon, dammit), and then hand tie each diamond in the center with wool yarn, and face the quilt (rather than bind it, because i'm all about that right now too).  and then wash the quilt so i can get felted doodleballs!  because why not, and how fun would that be?!  DOODLEBALLS, y'all.  (h/t to sherri lynn)

stay tuned, i'll update when it's finally finished!

-we bought a condo in chicago!  in april 2015.  it's the first home peter and i have ever bought, after about 17 years together.  we had moved ceaselessly throughout the last decade and a half, and after coming to chicago in 2011, we decided to finally put down permanent roots.  we picked a winner:  we have the bottom two floors of a brand new 3-unit building, with lots of space for our little family, space for visitors, and even a nice little white and bright studio for yours truly, tucked away in the basement.  it's right smack in the city, on a fairly quiet street, accessible to and minutes from pretty much everything, and close to work for peter, and school for poppy.  it even has a cute park about 5 minutes away, a perfect place to play and enjoy the weather, when it's pleasant.  it's my urban oasis, and i am so happy with the choice we made.  let's ignore the fact that it's still in the process of being decorated...oy, that takes a while, doesn't it?  i hope to get the house more shaped up as we ease into 2016.  i promise photos when i get off my can and get around to getting things to fruition!

-my little girl turned seven, and i turned 40.  what the WHAT??  i am still trying to wrap my brain around that number.  where does the time go??

-my dad, paul, passed away in mid-october, after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer.  his loss is still fresh for myself, and my whole family. i can hardly believe he is gone, though i was there with my mom and brothers when he passed.  

dad was one of my life-long inspirations and a fantastic role model:  a hard worker, an honest man with strong values.  he was also a fantastic chef and extremely stylish person with a penchant for bright color and bold, yet classic clothing, in the preppy, ivy-league vein.  my love of color, my utter fearlessness with it, is but one of the traits i inherited from my father.  he showed me how it was DONE.  before he died, we had a short conversation on the phone (before i was able to go down to florida to be with him and the rest of my family in his last days), and he told me he loved me and that i was a "creative treasure."     i'll treasure those words forever, and of course, mourn his loss forever as well.  a piece of my heart is now gone, and a hole remains.  rest in peace, dad.

-on a happier note:  i managed to get a bunch of quilts finished this year!  so even with all the upheavals (moves, dad's passing), i managed to find time to be creative.  it's been quite a balm for my soul, really, through it all.  i'll post images of this years' efforts in the weeks to come....stay tuned!

if you follow me on pinterest (particularly my colorful amazingness board), or have just been following me for a good long while, you might be aware that i am very inspired and influenced by 20th and 21st century abstract/geometric art.  i love learning about and enjoying that visual art subspecialty to enjoy the works as they are, but i also find there's a lot of fodder in the annals of that aesthetic to loosely inform an infinite number of my quilts or other artistic expressions.

on the long list of artists whom i admire is the painter/printmaker frank stella.  i love his exuberant use of intense, saturated color coupled with minimal form; the coupling creates a maximal visual impact.  a couple years back i found a few books about him and his work at a local library, and fixated upon a series he did that included this work of his, concentric squares, that's has rainbow bands of color that in one half go from red to violet on one half, and bands going from violet back to red on the other half.  very impactful in it's bold simplicity.

very log cabin-esque, right??  of course.  so i figured i'd make a quilt based off of this work (and the others very similar to it in his body of work), but in a way that suited me and my tastes:  it's four giant log cabin blocks in a simple grid format, and there's some texture and visual interest in the way of the fabric choices, as i used dupioni silk for some of the concentric squares, and subtle striped and polka dotted fabrics for others.  binding is a flaming hot pink dupioni.  i did diagonal straight line quilting across the body of the quilt, in bright yellow 40wt. aurafil thread.  

with regards to the quilting thread color choice: i've come to think of yellow as a great unifier, kind of a neutral, when quilting a quilt that's got a healthy amount of bright, saturated colors, often the best choice.  using white or off white or something else just wouldn't work nearly as well, i'd posit, at least with this quilt.

***

does your taste in art influence the quilts you make?  in what way?

i've had a thing for log cabin blocks and log cabin quilts, even before i started getting really serious about quilting.  

variations of elements of the structure of the log cabin block provide an infinite array of resultant permutations...change the size of the centers, the size of the logs, use "traditional" or "modern" fabrics or maybe both at the same time, make it "wonky", use different shapes like rectangles, triangles, or hexagons, make one side lighter in value, and the other darker, use a lot of colors and/or patterns and make it scrappy, or limit the colors and make a really graphic or even minimal statement...and so forth and so on.  the variations appear to be as unique and at least as numerous as the number of quilters who attempt to make one.  i don't think i'll ever tire of playing with or looking at log cabin quilts!

i've been working on a loose series of log cabin quilts using a large variety of solid fabrics for a couple years now.  

it kind of all started with this quilt that i made in 2012:

i got a little over-zealous with the cutting of "logs" when i made the aforementioned quilt (that happens A LOT, i get carried away, playing with the colors and thinking and cutting...!) and had a jillion of them left over.

so last year (2014) i rediscovered the stash of extra said logs that i cut, and decided to make the sashed quarter square log cabin you see at the top of this post.  the green sashing fabric was part of a huge stash of 60s/70s/80s fabric i bought from a vendor at the randolph street market (said to be the collection of a now deceased but avid sewer, an alleged relative of a friend of the vendors who sold me the fabric).  

something about the green fabric and how it sits with the log cabin blocks and the other colors feels really electric to me.  i love how the top turned out!  now i just have to settle on a way to quilt it!

my most recent log cabin exploration is this one:

which was made from still more leftover logs from the two previous log cabin quilts (plus heaps more logs i cut as i was making these blocks!).  the photo above is from when i just got started...i played with "sunshine and shadow" variations and "courthouse steps" variations in the individual blocks, and had an almost criminal amount of fun making each and every block, pitting various colors off against one another and just seeing what happened when i did.

...and then i just kind of laid them out but didn't overthink that layout and just sewed it together.  wheee!  i'm still pondering how to quilt this one, but i am SERIOUSLY considering hand quilting it with circles and perle cotton.  last week i made a small sample quilt with some leftover blocks i had from making this top, plus a layer each of cotton batting and thin mountain mist poly batting, and i seriously like the fluffy, puffy results (it was a combo i read about in sherri lynn wood's new book, thanks sherri!)...see below:

i have at least three more quilts in mind that riff off these quilts and attempt to take it in other directions.  i want to add in prints, and add in other dimensions, too.  you may sneak a (vague) peek below (grin!)...amongst other WIP bits on design wall.