The Design Wall Limitations

The design wall in my studio is 64" wide by 83" tall. When I show you photos of what's on it, I generally crop out the floor, and extra stuff around the design wall, like the door at left, the wall of the bookcase at the right (that's a long green cutting mat that hangs on the side of the bookcase) and the area above the design wall.

I also try to straighten the photo. This one, above, is a bit crooked. And I usually move the stepladder out of the way.

BTW, Thank you all for caring so much about my safety. I do indeed have to be very careful with the ladder. I have osteoporosis and arthritis and at my age balance is definitely an issue. It's why I am taking Tai Ji Quan, for better balance. It's not the "normal" Tai Chi. It's is designed for better balance. My Mom asked me the other day if I noticed any changes in my body seven weeks into the class.

"Well, my body hasn't changed. I haven't lost weight and I'm not any thinner, but the other day I put a sock on one foot while standing on the other, and no, I wasn't holding on to anything." Granted I was right next to the bed, but still. And it's only one foot. I can't do that quite as well on the other foot, but I'm better.) A few months ago I would never have even TRIED to balance on one foot. So the Tai Ji Quan class is working for me, although the change is gradual. But I am not going to risk anything on the ladder.

The Pastel Macnas quilt uses blocks that are 2-1/2" x 4-1/2". My design requires 30 of them in each row.

30 x 2.5" = 75”. Note my design wall is 64" wide, so I could only show 25 blocks across, like in the photo above. I needed to sew a lot of blocks together to make room for the extra five blocks to fit on the design wall.

Sewn together, those 30 blocks equal 60.5", which will fit just fine.

But trying to tinker with that many blocks while on a ladder is indeed foolhardy, which is why I have not bothered to fill the design wall with blocks. I'm working as high as I can comfortably reach while standing safely on the floor. Then I'll sew that all up and move it higher on the design wall and work below it.

In the photo above, you can see sorta how I'm working my way along. I've also been working to sew blocks together so I can have enough empty space on the right side to continue to add those five extra blocks to the design.

Is this ideal? Hell no. But needs must.

The size of the blocks definitely makes a difference. In the Dancing Jewels quilt, above, the top row of blocks is eight inches tall, most of the blocks are six inches wide and there are only 10 blocks in each row.

There are tricks. You might be able to see a thin sliver of silver on the green cutting mat in the photos above. That's a thin 24" long metal ruler that hangs on the same nail the long mat hangs on. If I want to remove a high block from the design wall, I just grab the ruler and slide it under the block. This disturbs the surface tension and the block loosens from the wall and flutters down to my feet. (It would be nice if I could catch them, but no such luck.) 

I also know better than to go anywhere near the stepladder when I'm tired.

Finally, Nancy: I used to be a 2D artist and I worked on paper. That means I'd put hundreds of hours into a piece of art on paper, (see the first photo in this post. )so I long ago learned to keep foods or liquids of any kind FAR AWAY from what I was working on. My cup of hot chocolate NEVER sits on my sewing, cutting, or ironing tables. I don't eat in my studio either. Snacking is also forbidden. In fact, I make sure to wash my hands BEFORE I got into the studio and get to work.

 

Blue Ice Becomes Making Waves

 I always tell my students to push beyond something that they think looks good.

Breaking apart the central medallion style of one version yielded something interesting.

The nice thing about digital photography is that you can take pictures to store an interesting variation for future review. I really liked this, but didn't want to make a lot more blocks to fully explore the idea so I cheated (improvised). 

This is not my design wall. I took pictures, then printed them on paper, made copies, cut apart the blocks and started playing.

By the time I got this far I knew it was a design I would sew together.

This arrangement is a bit too "regular" for my taste. I will have to break it up a bit more, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm still wrestling with how to arrange the fabrics, but I know I don't want something with this much contrast. When I feel ready, I will go in the studio and start cutting up fabric. It's been cold lately and being in there when I am cold is not much fun.

AT ANY RATE...

I can hear some of you.. "BUT LYNNE, you were thinking about long rectangles, and blue ice. This is squares and it looks like waves of water..."

And this is when I tell you to STOP BEING SO DARN LITERAL and to GO WITH THE FLOW. Just because you started with one idea, doesn't mean you're married to it. You should see what happens when you play. You find a new direction and follow that. It is called being creative. Do I know where this will lead? I do not. Do I worry I will screw up? No. What if it doesn't work? I will fix it. I will come up with another idea and try that. Does this frighten me? No. Will I waste fabric? That depends on your definition of waste. If it helps me figure out where I am going and I end up making a killer quilt, working up to that idea will not be wasteful, so my answer is no. Your fabric isn't doing you any good on the shelf.

WHAT I WILL PROBABLY DO... Is just play with these ideas, and then put them all away and start cutting fabric and making blocks and putting them up on the design wall and go from there. I don't want this to be overworked and too fussy.

Loose Ends!

1. The replacement 3' x 4' mat arrived today.

2. I will never, ever, ever use EQ to design my quilts. I can design quilts without it. Besides things look different on a design wall to scale that a computer image cannot duplicate.

3. The fabrics for the 58 Carats quilt were collected over a period of 30 years. They come from different designers, different manufacturers and many of them are in the 10 - 30 year old range. They are not available now, and most certainly do not come in "a set." There are Philip Jacobs, Kaffe Fassett and Tula Pink, along with a host of others I do not know. Most are unavailable now.

4. The Waltzing Matilda quilt will eventually live with a friend in Sydney, Australia.

Snaps

After the Petals quilt and the Diamond Jubilee, I wanted to make another stashbusting quilt. Looking at my stash, I could see WAY TOO MANY creams. So I knew the next quilt would have creams. Creams with what? I decided to use pinks and oranges.

During one of our marathon telephone conversations, my best pal Julie decided she'd like to play along with pinks, oranges and creams too. You can read about her journey here.

I pulled some fabrics and then set out looking through my books for an easy quilt to make.

I found "Snaps" from this book.

I rejiggered the block sizes so they'd be a lot easier for me to cut, and we all know I wouldn't be working in solids.

After figuring out my sizes and the number of blocks I'd need, I started cutting. It's amazing to think this fabric will make a quilt 54" x 72". It didn't make much of a dent in the stash.

The blocks are very easy. One block has five pieces, the other is just one.

So I made a few blocks and threw them up on the design wall*** and promptly decided they were boring as all get out.

Time to go to bed. I'd worry about what to do later.




*** PS, Nancy J, I haven't forgotten you. My design wall is 65" x 83" (165cm x 210cm), and it isn't bigger because that's the only place in my studio where I had a flat wall. My design wall is covered in a couple of big pieces of Homosote, or pressboard. It's often used as a bulletin board. It's 1/2" thick (1.25cm) and it's painted white. Mine is screwed into the wall. I own the house, what the hell. On top of that is white flannel, stapled tightly over the pressboard. The nice thing about this is that not only do things stick to the flannel, but I can hold something up with push pins if I need to, and once quilts get big, you need help getting big pieces to "stay". You can read more about it here.

Design Wall Done!

The design wall is done. Finally.

I had forgotten the new wall is wider than the old one, and I got it 3/4 stapled to the wall before I realized it. I decided not to take it down and sew an extra piece down one side.  To do that I'd have to not only take it all down, but find a big (clean) flat spot on the floor to lay it all out and cut and trim, etc., etc.

I decided I could live with it, especially as the seam didn't run smack dab down the middle. I also had an electrical outlet to work around.

It's done, and it's fine. It's also slightly more complicated than it looks.

Underneath it all, stapled to the wall is a 1/2" of homosote. It's pressed cardboard, and works as a bulletin board, so this design wall has the advantage of having push pins stuck into it too. This is great when you want to get something big to stay up.

On top of that is that plastic tablecloth material that has flannel on the back. (Some years ago I bought a 25 yard roll of the stuff. I can't quite remember why.) Anyway, that's stapled up there on top of the homosote. The nice thing about it is that it is white, and you can't see through it.  On top of that I stapled the white flannel of the design wall. Because two flannel surfaces are touching, they stick to each other, making my design wall very smooth and flat. And because I've got that extra layer of white back there, you can't see through the thin flannel.

Boy, am I glad THAT's done!