Friday, May 31, 2013

Rejected!

It came in an email today:

"Dear Lynne,

Thank you for submitting your work for the "What's My Line" exhibit. We regret that the work was not accepted for inclusion in this particular exhibit. The jurying process was indeed challenging due to the superb quality of the art quilts submitted. The quilts were chosen based on technique, quality of workmanship, relation to theme and visual appeal..."

I admit to being disappointed, but I was never sure either of the quilts I submitted was entirely appropriate to the theme.  I submitted The Quick Brown Fox,


and the Black Rules.


The jurying was done from digital photographs, and I know mine aren't great.

I won't know where I went wrong until I see the actual exhibit. My gut instinct is my quilts really didn't take advantage of the theme, i.e., I didn't play a lot with the concept of the "line."  That's a fair criticism. 

Bright lights, big city. That's the way it goes. No harm, no foul.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

A Pair of Boxes

Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to do it, but I did. I re-made each of the letters in BOX, including the X.


Much, much better, don't you agree?

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Big Bird


This bright bird flew onto the design wall with the bright crayon letters and made himself right at home.

Monday, May 27, 2013

The Bright Crayons

So this is the first go-round. This one is ALL brights, all very intense colors. Believe it or not, this isn't "normal" for me. I do make adjustments.  I will make a version of this quilt as I normally would, it will use all the colors in the box (note this one doesn't use brown, grey or black) and it will use high-key as well as low-key colors.


I thought since the box had ALL the colors in it that the B-O-X letters should be made from fabrics that have all colors.  Unfortunately these look a bit disjointed and muddy. These will get remade, but otherwise I'm pretty pleased with the bright version.


Sunday, May 26, 2013

More Colorful Crayons


I am liking this more and more. Since I got most of the housekeeping chores done on Saturday, I will have a lot more time to sew over the long holiday weekend.

Of course, I will also be watching the tennis at Roland Garros.

Saturday, May 25, 2013


Gosh, I love mixing fabrics together when I make letters.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Bright Crayon

The light isn't very good here. The "C" is red-violet, the "r" is really a blue violet. The "s" will be red. That's all I know so far.  While these letters are made of only one fabric each, the others will be made from multiple fabrics. I have a plan. Sort of.

Which is just the way I like it.

Actually, that is always the way I like it. I hate being nailed down to one concept, I hate being made to follow a strict guideline. I see those complicated paper pieced compass roses (you know the ones that everybody does) and all I can think of is how I would do one differently. How I would break the rules and blow the whole concept to hell, yet make it knock-out awesome.  How would I do that?

I dunno. I'd figure it out.

Heh.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Low Key... NOT!

OK, now that I'm done with the mashed-potato-bland Over the Edge Crayons, which variation do you think I'll be doing next?


Three guesses, and the first two don't count...

..

...

This one ain't gonna be subtle.


Oh, because Julie asked, the low-key crayons flimsy is 30-1/2" x 45".

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Over The Edge

Okay. Here are the low-key letters on a cream background. I like to push ideas around, and in this example, the idea went right over the edge. I wouldn't classify this experiment as successful, but some elements of it are. In that regard it holds some good lessons.

When this is photographed in good light, against a white background, the colors will show up better, but they'll never really "pop." There just isn't enough contrast.

Sure, this would all work if the fabrics were all pastels, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. I wanted to see just how "pale" the fabrics could be before they disappeared into the background. These same fabrics might show up more if the background was white, but again, that wasn't what I was looking for.

Monday, May 20, 2013

A Little Bird

A low key quilt needs a low key little bird, and who was I to resist?

I am already working on a plan for a reverse low-key crayons quilt. Something like this.

Sorta.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Low Key Crayons

I have been busy cleaning the house after I neglected it all winter while I was writing. My cat Millie has been spilling the beans if you want to read all about it.

I am sewing up my low key letters, and hope to have the flimsy complete in the next few days. I decided I needed a few little "extras," so they are in the works.

Yes, I have a few variations on this theme planned....

Monday, May 13, 2013

Purple Lilac

The purple lilac is the state flower of New Hampshire, and they are in bloom now. These came from my back yard and are currently filling my house with their wonderful fragrance.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day.

This is my Mom and her DH along with my quilt, Laughing Out Loud. It's really cool to have a Mom who totally "gets" you.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

What If?

A few weeks ago I mentioned that if it hadn't been for my cat Millie, I wouldn't be a quilt blogger. I wouldn't have met my friend Helen, who lives in Australia. Back in 2010 Helen and I did a private quilt swap. I sent her this, which got me started on a series of Rules quilts.


Well, Helen wrote to me the other day asking where in the US I lived. (Helen and I figured out we live 14,500 miles away from each other.)

I live in the Northeast, an hour's drive north of Boston MA.

Helen wrote that she and her family were considering a trip to Disneyland and wondered if I were close by so we could visit.  As you can see from the photo above, I don't live anywhere near either Disney park.

However, if Helen is going to travel 11,500 miles to visit the US, I am more than willing to travel 3,000 miles to meet her.  We don't know if this is going to happen, because the timing of the trip is a big factor, but I hope we can pull it off.

Like I said, you never know what can happen if you step out of your comfort zone and try something new.

**OKAY! I screwed up. Disneyland is in California and Walt Disney World is in Florida. I made the little labels wrong.  My son lives in LA so traveling across the US to meet my friend in California is not a bad deal since I get to visit my son at the same time. And seriously folks,  if Helen and her family are willing to travel 11,000 miles to California, I am not going to ask them to travel any farther to Florida.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Not Quilty

This is all the sewing I've done in the last week. It's a curtain on the porch door in the hallway of my building.  The last one was all faded, dusty and dry. Now it makes me smile whenever I walk by it.

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning and doing normal boring junk, like cleaning out the freezer. It's amazing how much better I felt after that was done.


I also planted some pansies and wave petunias in pots and set them on the porch so I could see them from my dining room.

It's going to continue to be a non-sewing week. My office desk is piled high with paper, and that has got to go.