Holy Ruler, Batman!

WELL!!!

I sure as hell didn't expect the comments I got yesterday. Some of them, maybe. And I think a few of you missed the "Come back tomorrow and I'll show you [how I cut my strips]."

57andfemale couldn't wait to hand me my butt. Not so fast sweetie. Patience is a virtue and because of all the comments you are all going to have to wait another day to find out HOW I cut my strips and WHY.

Let's go in order, shall we?

earthmotherwithin: You have a good point Lynne. But I have sore hands, and the Accuquilt system is great for me, even though it means that I have to channel my creativity through the spectrum of the dies I own or am willing to buy.

Lynne: I surely get it. I have arthritis in my hands too. I'm all about the fat pens and the special tools and knickknacks needed to open things like pickle jars and some highlighters. You've been a reader for a long time, so I know you have heard me say "Do whatever works for you" more than once.

Helen Howes: I have had a set of these for many years, but don't use them much. Creative Grids in the UK used to offer them and I have found them good for "live" teaching.

Lynne: Helen, you made me laugh, but I'm a little confused. What do you mean, good for "live" teaching?  "Live" as opposed to, what, exactly?

Kathy: I had a set of clear ones back in the dark, beginning ages of rotary cutting, too. So easy to use but not clearly marked like your new ones. What a great way to go!

Lynne: I was overjoyed when I saw how big the markings for the size were. The older I get, the happier I am with stuff I don't have to squint to read.

57andfemale: ...Your templates (those are templates, not rulers)...

Lynne: That's an issue of semantics. I think of a template as something I trace around. I don't think template is any better a word for them than rulers, but long and skinny and my brain thinks rulers. Use whatever term floats your boat.

57andfemale: But I teach beginning quilters, and I stress safety when cutting. Keeping your fingers from the edge of a small ruler is difficult and dangerous, and there is less control of the ruler...

Lynne: You don't know how I cut. You don't know why I do what I do. The answers will come tomorrow. You know what they say about assumptions.

 

57and female: I teach how to use a regular rotary cutter ruler... A regular rotary ruler is the best tool.

Lynne: Regular readers know I used the two rotary cutters I bought in 1983 for over thirty some odd years before I replaced them two years ago... with standard rotary cutters.

57andfemale: I would also say that it's easier to line up a line from a traditional rotary cutter ruler against the raw edge of the fabric, than lining up the edge of a template.

Lynne: Again, you're making assumptions. Why don't you wait and actually see what it is that I do?

the Colorful Fabriholic: I find it helpful and easy to mark my ruler with blue painter's tape at the width I to cut. As an added benefit, the tape on the underside of the ruler snugs up against the previously cut edge of the fabric.

Lynne: I'm pretty sure I introduced blue painter's tape to the quilting community back in 2008. You don't have to convince me. I've used it more than once to mark a line on a gridded ruler.

Judy in Michigan: You are amazing - I would like to see 3 rulers taped together - just to see how it looks - the taping - how it stays together. Thanks. Interesting posts and so true about misreading all the lines on the ruler.

Lynne: Thanks Judy! When you tape two rulers together, the edges have to be absolutely straight, sharp and square. I usually lay them next to each other on my worktable, and them tape them to each other crosswise at the top and bottom. I've been known to jam heavy things on either side to make sure there isn't a gap between the two strips before I lay down a wide piece of blue tape on their long edges. And then I measure to make sure the width is the same from top to bottom. I can't tell you how much I hate misreading the lines on those rulers.

JustGail: These are very cool and I like that the whole, halves, and quarters are color coded AND clearly marked.

Lynne: They ARE cool, and I also love that they are color coded and clearly marked.

JustGail: What do you do if you need 1.75" strips, or are some not in the photo?

Lynne: I forgot to order the 1.75" one, dammit. But I have a 1" one and a 3/4" one from 1983, so I'd tape those together. hee hee hee. Or I'd break down and use a gridded ruler and swear.

Exuberant Color/Wanda Hanson: Those were available in the early 1980s when there was only one company making a rotary ruler. Seminole patchwork was popular back then and the strips worked better than a wide ruler for that. They weren't marked with size though like yours so I used a black marker. As more companies got into the rotary ruler business the plain strips lost popularity, mainly for storage reasons. Rarely did anyone have a studio in the 1970s and 80s. A corner of the dining room or bedroom was the usual creative space and storage for tools and fabric was limited. Now with more people dedicating a space for sewing storage isn't as much of a problem and more than one cutting aid is the normal.

Lynne: What Wanda said. But in 1983, I did have a quilting studio.

GrammaBabs: I for one , relate totally to your point of view... care to share where one can find something like this?..

Lynne: Thank you, and I have to imagine there are people out in the quilting world who make templates.

OK, that's it. When I wrote this post there were nine comments, so those are the ones I addressed. I tried real hard to keep my temper in check and not be snarky. Seriously, though, I am not sloppy, reckless or careless with a sharp rotary cutter in my hand. You will see that I care about accuracy, consistency and safety. But I am also interested in working efficiently with no wasted energy. I am good at what I do. My quilts are neat, my threads are trimmed, my seams are pressed, and the backs of my quilts are lovely. My quilts are square and lie as flat as a pancake. That does not happen if you are cavalier about your work.

There's a lot of talk about "precision piecing" but "precision cutting" is just as important.

See you on the flip side, ladies!

What I Will and Won't Do

Yesterday, what I didn't show you was this photo. I didn't show you because I didn't like it. Readers told me they liked the beige.

Well that's nice, but it just doesn't work. For one thing, do you think that beige looks strong enough to hold up that barn? Nope, it "reads" as a hole." It is too wimpy. See that window over on the left? Does it look like the background? Like you are looking THROUGH something? It does not. The beige is too insubstantial and not strong enough. Not physically strong to appear to be sitting on the ground and supporting the roof and other elements. It looks flimsy. You can disagree all you want. You will still be wrong. Don't bother trying to convince me otherwise.

It's kinda funny. I tell folks that I have no interest whatsoever in making pictorial quilts because dammit, if I want a picture I will paint one. Because, yeah, I can do that. And I know how to draw too. (See the photo of one of my drawings on this page if you don't believe me.) So I balance a fine line when I choose to interpret a real barn in fabric. Intellectually I know it won't match what's in my head, but when what comes out in fabric doesn't match reality some part of me rebels.

I will tell you that I have no interest in making a 100% accurate representation of my brother's barn. And yet, I want to come close, but I don't want this barn to look like it came out of a kid's coloring book. (I like to think I'm more sophisticated than that.)

It occurs to me that I have never spoken about two (ok, three) absolute rules in my quilts that I always follow.

1. Use the fabric as it is. Which means I will use fabric I can buy somewhere. I can fussy cut it or use the wrong side, but I will not dye it or otherwise tinker with it. That makes it all the more challenging. If I run out of something, I will search through my stash to find something else that can work as well in its place, not whine that I can't finish because I need more of the exact same fabric.

2. I will not paint or dye my own fabric. Why? Because, what the fart? If I want to paint, I'm gonna PAINT!

(begin rant)
 Frankly, I feel that a perfect patchwork pictorial or painted quilt is a misapplication of the medium. What that means is that I think it's a waste of time and materials. Because if you want a picture, paint one. I cannot tell you how many pictorial quilts I see (and many have prize ribbons hanging from them) that have bad drawing mistakes. Mistakes in proportion, in shading and composition. Bad, bad, bad. And I am not impressed with a quilt that has been traced from a photo, hand colored and quilted. Again, so what? Don't bother arguing with me about this either.
(end rant)

3. Patchwork only. No applique, no embellishments. Frankly, limiting myself to patchwork is more challenging, more technically demanding and more interesting. I love the Baroque style, but I hate the Rococo. If you can tell the difference, then you'll understand. Applique and embellishments are just too much. Yeah, I know I go overboard with ideas, but I don't go overboard with frou-frou busy junk all over my quilts. (My apologies to all you talented applique artists out there. You do great stuff, but it just isn't my thing.)

4. I quilt by check, which means somebody else quilts my quilts. Which means they do what I want. My patchwork is the STAR OF MY SHOW. I don't want somebody else to muck it up with cutesy crap. I do not ever want anybody to look at one of my quilts, and think the quilting is the best thing on it. That's like saying the frame is better than the painting in it. So "threadwork" is a no-no in my quilts. Are you making a quilt or doing embroidery? Make up your mind. They both don't belong in the same place.
(Yeah, I know this is four. I can count. I'm an artist, not a bean counter.)

Opiniontated little sh*t, aren't I?  Yeah, I know.

So where does that leave my barn? Well, this is what I am currently leaning toward...

.
here is a closeup

and that comes from this...

Yup, I cut 1-1/2" crosswise strips of this fabric and then sewed them so the stripes did not align.

I originally planned to use this as the shingles on the wall above the barn door, but they were too busy for an area that needed to be dark.

This is the kind of thing I keep talking about in my Make Your Fabric Work For You tutorial,
how to pay attention to what your fabrics can do for you by looking at them in fresh ways. Like I tell my students, "don't be so literal" when choosing fabrics for your barn block. Just because you see fabric that looks like siding doesn't mean you can ONLY use it as siding or fencing. Stripes and ruler fabrics can work just as well.

WELL!! I certainly didn't know ALL THAT was coming when I sat down to write about where I am in this barn block. You'll see more, because my self-imposed deadline is to have this barn block panel finished to show at the next Build A Barn class at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH on July 22. That class is sold out, and there is a waiting list for another class that will be scheduled later.


But hey, you'll get to see all the steps from now until I get something I like, and as usual, I'll tell you what I am thinking, and how (and why) I get from point A to point B (and B-yond).

(I love a good pun.)