Slice and Dice, Part 2

My first "art quilt" is finished. I really think of it as a practice piece more than anything. I learned several new techniques doing this project, and it was fun. The most amazing thing I learned was that it is possible to make a quilt without following any of the rules!

Ta da!

After I finished quilting the piece, I spent some time thinking about how to finish it. I thought that if I used a print for the binding it would look too busy. If I used a solid color, it would take away from the dramatic effect of the purple horizontal lines. My friend, Nan, had mentioned facing to me as another method of finishing. I decided to try it.

I spent a few days thinking about what fabric to use for the facing. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the backing fabric left for the facing. I wanted to find something that would co-ordinate nicely with the backing fabric - probably a solid. I wasn't convinced that it would look good to have a wide solid border around the back, but I told myself it would be on the back, not the front, so it would be okay.

As I was about to run over to the fabric store, I was struck by an inspiration. What if I used pieces of The Secret Garden for the facing? I had used it for the front, so why shouldn't I use it on the back? I didn't have to go to the fabric store after all!

I made the facing, and sewed it down by hand with a blind hem. It resulted in a rather thick edge, but it actually gives the piece a little more stability, so it is not a problem for this type of project.

I wanted to try out the monogramming function on my new machine, so I decided to add some monogramming to the facing instead of making a label. I thought maybe I would do it after the facing was sewn onto the edge. I don't know why. I think I was worried about placement if I did it before adding the facing to the piece. That was probably not the best way to approach it.

The back, with facing

I stitched a sample of the title, and it looked okay, so I stitched it on the facing. (Well, to be honest, it looked "okayish." My machine is not one of those embroidery machines. It can do monogramming, but it is not terrific.) As I was adding the monogram to the facing, it looked like the fabric was not feeding through the machine in a straight line, so I pulled on it a little to keep the letters in a straight line. Hah! That was a bad idea. The letters got scrunched up and turned out too close together. I had to do it over three times. It was a real pain to rip out the monogramming, but I didn't want to have to rip out the seam holding the facing on. It didn't come out as straight as I would have liked, and the fabric had some holes in it where I had ripped out the monogramming, but it's only the back, right?

Then I added my name and date to the other side.
After finishing the facing I started thinking about whether I should make a hanging sleeve, and how. Alas, my research revealed that it is better to think about this before you sew on the facing. Oh, well. Live and learn. 

Now that I know what I am doing (sort of), I will think more carefully about what fabrics I will use before starting a future piece.

Lessons learned:

• When you select a backing, make sure you have enough for a facing or binding, or else have a clear idea of what you will use.
• Plan your hanging sleeve BEFORE you do the facing or binding.
• Practice the monogramming, and don't try to pull it straight if it seems to be going crooked.
• Think outside the box!

What if . . . ?

Day 3 of the workshop. I'm tired, but excited to find out what is in store today.

Today's theme was Jump-Starting Your Art Quilt. First we talked about how different emotions translate into colors or shapes. Then we had about 10 minutes to sew something that reflected an emotion. Most people chose happiness.

I wasn't pleased with the one I did. My sewing machine started acting up as soon as I started sewing. It wouldn't stop sewing when it was supposed to. Perhaps some of my frustration was reflected in my "happy" piece.

The next sewing exercise involved mind mapping. We had to free-associate words and then make something reflecting the last word. Don't ask me to explain my progression of words, but I started out with "pants" and after about twenty words I had something that had no relationship to "pants."

Can you tell what this is? The answer is at the end of this post.

We had a limited time for this, so I didn't bother to change out my foot to allow free-motion stitching. In other words, I could make better spirals than this if I wanted to. ;) I do like this one, and it taught me that I can quickly come up with something if forced to. 

I can't say I like the idea of deciding to make a quilt when you don't have an idea for it. Maybe if you had some really great fabric and you didn't know how to use it, this would be a good way to go. It makes more sense to me to have an idea first and then decide to make a quilt based on your idea. But that's why I'm taking this class - to learn new approaches to creativity, to move outside of my comfort zone. If you know me, you know that I am excellent at following directions, but not proficient at working without directions.

Next, we had time to finish the project started late yesterday. The prompt was to make something with  three colors. It didn't have to be two neutrals and a color - just any three colors. I like this type of prompt. It is enough of a guideline to make me feel like I am following directions, but enough of an open-ended assignment to make me feel like I am stretching myself to be creative.

I'm still not sure about putting emotions and feelings into a quilt, but I wanted to do more with "design" than stripes. I decided to work on scale. I had some 5" squares that I bought in Hawaii - at Hilo Hattie's, as a matter of fact. (Hattie's was nicer than I expected it to be. Yes, a tourist trap, but they had a lot of things you would actually want, including some gorgeous Hawaiian quilts.) I hadn't been able to figure out what to do with the squares, so I decided now was the time. I took my three colors from one of the Hawaiian squares.

Here it is on my design wall

It turns out that it is quite tricky to sew a lot of shapes together when they are different sizes. I didn't get to finish this project, but I got a few of the pieces sewn together and I have an idea how I am going to do the rest. I will add a blog post when it is finished.

One of the class members works with sun prints and she brought some treated fabrics so that we could all try it out. I had forgotten to find something interesting at home last night, so I decided to use a phone cord, thinking I would get some nice swirly shapes. (It didn't work so well because the cord would not lie flat. I didn't want to tape it down or put a rock on it, because that would become part of the print.) I think if I cut it up, I will have some interesting pieces of fabric. 

Sun print of my phone cord

Some of the prints made by others were much better and more imaginative. Here is a piece Nan made using sun prints of a rotary cutter blade, a pair of scissors, and shibori, which is similar to tie-dye.

I loved many of the projects made by others in the class. It was so interesting to see what they came up with. I took a few photos, but did not have a chance to obtain permission to post them on my blog. (There's a lesson on time management there.)

Lesson learned:

I think the most important lesson I learned from Rayna is to say "What if . . . ?"

What if you moved that piece over here?
What if you added more blue?
What if you made a place for your eye to rest?
What if . . . ?

You can say "What if . . . ?" to other people in all sorts of situations. You can even say it to yourself. It goes way beyond quilting. It doesn't sound like you are being criticized or corrected or told what to do. It sounds like the speaker is thinking out loud with you and inviting you to join in. I love it! Rayna said it a LOT during this workshop.

Nan and Rayna

All good things must come to an end. What if I finish the three pieces from this weekend? What if I make another art quilt, without a safety net? What if I stop telling myself I'm not creative? Thank you, Nan and Rayna!




Answer: I ended the mind map with the words "cocoa," and then "steam." My piece is probably too literal, but at least I came up with something in a very limited time, and at least I left out the mug because I realized that would make it more of a picture and less of an idea.

Reinventing the Secret Garden

In 2014 I did a BOM called The Secret Garden. I started blogging about it in 2015, and I actually haven't finished writing about the process of finishing this project. I have covered 11 of the 12 blocks. I haven't written anything - yet - about the sashing.

If you have followed my commentary on the monthly blocks you probably realize that I don't like this quilt very much. I especially didn't like it after I did the sashing. I will write about that eventually.

But I am going to skip over that part for now, and talk about Day 1 of a 3-day workshop I am attending. The instructor was Rayna Gillman, from the East Coast. The name of the workshop is Cinderella Quilts! Reinventing the UFO.  (Quilters tend to have a lot of UFO's - UnFinished Objects.) As soon as I heard about this workshop, I knew I wanted to learn how to take unfinished projects and ugly projects and turn them into gorgeous, finished pieces of art. Rayna's work is beautiful, and I would like to try to tap into my artistic side (if I have one) and see what I can come up with. As Rayna says, if you don't like it, it can't get any worse, so don't be afraid to cut it up and experiment.

Rayna shows us how she made some of her "What-was-I-thinking?" blocks into fabulous pieces

I started with three blocks from the nearly-finished Secret Garden

The first step is to fearlessly grab your rotary cutter (by the handle, please) and slice up the sacrificial blocks. There are no rules, no measuring, no using a straight edge. Just start cutting.

This wasn't a photography class, and so I did not learn how to take photos with accurate color values. What you see below is not very true to the actual colors, but you can get the idea.

The first few pieces go up on my very first "design wall."

More pieces

Starting to sew the pieces together

There are 4 strips from Secret Garden lurking in here

After sewing all of the pieces together I squared it up a little and thought about what else it needed.
















I decided to cut it into thirds. After the shock of cutting up a block I had spent time on and effectively ruining the whole Secret Garden quilt, it was not as awful to cut up the piece I just made. I  tried flipping one of the pieces but I didn't like the way that looked, so I kept them with the same orientation but shuffled the order. I think that added a LOT of interest and movement to it.

That's as far as I got. It was a long day. Tomorrow I will decide how it should be finished how I want to finish it. No rules, remember?

And I will start on a companion piece.

Rayna has all kinds of helpful tricks. I'm not going to give them all away. You'll have to take her class or buy her book. Link to Rayna's Book

So many opportunities to recycle