Getting From "A" to "B"

When viewers look at my quilts, I am often asked "How did you come up with that idea?,  "Where did that come from?"

I often struggle with an answer, not because I don't have one, but because I am amazed that people struggle with ideas.  To me, ideas are all over the place - my problem is choosing ONE to play with.

I'll talk about getting ideas later, but for now, I want to explain what got me started with the Black Box quilt.  In other words, I want to tell you how I got from "A" to "B."

At work I often work with the Accounting Team, and frequently voucher the invoices.  I look at a LOT of invoices.  Just after the first of the year, one of our vendors changed their logo and the new logo for Index Packaging had this image of an open box.  I thought it was interesting, but didn't think much about why it attracted my attention.

Between making my unique quilts with letters and houses I make fairly straightforward quilts. (Insofar as The Red Sticks and Laughing Out Loud are "straightforward") Mostly it's just a way to relax.  Right after I started working on the Red Sticks, I wrote a blog post about getting to work. It was "Pick Up The Pencil."  Shortly afterward I was reading Twyla Tharp's book, The Creative Habit. I'd had it for years, but this time when I picked it up the title of Chapter 5 really hit me.

 A box! I thought of the logo for Index Packaging... that open box! (We get invoices from Index Packaging about once a week, so that open box registered in my brain on a regular basis.) What was different about that image was the fact the box was OPEN and you could see INSIDE! When I think of a box, I think of a package that gets delivered by the post office or UPS. I think of a brown carton, sealed up, closed. THIS BOX was OPEN, indicating things could come OUT of it!  BINGO! Two separate things - the quote and the image of the open box, now fit perfectly together.  I drew this in my sketchbook:

As soon as the idea was on paper, I knew this would be my next quilt. I didn't have the whole concept clear in my head. I knew the box would be slightly wider at the bottom, to be reminiscent of a magician's hat. I knew the words "out of the box" would be in an arc above the box. I knew the box would be black, and I knew the box should be coming out of the dark somehow. I also wanted the flaps to look like a real box.

I did not have all the answers, but I wasn't worried, because I knew that ideas get generated through the process of working. A few days later I wrote a post about the new quilt, and I've shared the process of creating and making the quilt over the last few months.

Remember though, a great idea is only an idea until you make it real. Having an idea is nice, being able to execute your idea is good, but having the confidence to keep pushing through roadblocks is vital.

The first step, the idea, will "hit" you in an AHA moment when you least expect it, but only if you've been "collecting" things that inspire you.  More on that later.

Finishing Up The Black Box

I've prepared the backing and the binding for the Black Box quilt. Here is the backing I have selected:

I bought it this past summer when I was thinking of magic and a theater as a setting for the Black Box.  It's probably not what I might have selected now, but I love the fabric, and it will be great.

For the binding, I found this:

I don't want the binding to be an edge around the quilt. I want the binding to practically disappear.

I want to make a hanging sleeve before I send the quilt to be quilted. It's nice to have everything ready to finish it up when the quilt comes back from being quilted.

Then I did this:

I cleaned the studio. I can't tell you how good this makes me feel!

As You Wish

The Black Box, about 82" high  x 65" wide. Original design, made by me, Lynne Tyler without templates, patterns and NOT paper-pieced.

It also exhibits one of my most profound beliefs, that you should leave the evidence of your hand in your work. You do not want anybody to think it was made by a machine. Sometimes if it's too "perfect" it's boring, static and mechanical. One of the things I like best about "free piecing" is that it keeps the energy, the verve, the spark, the liveliness, intact.

I know there are lots of quilters who disagree, but I came from the Art world, where the purpose of Art is to elicit emotions, and I try to bring that to my quilts.



**btw, I've disabled (finally!) the Lightbox feature so when you click the photo, you can then click again to enlarge it and see the details.

Sleeping with Quilts

I sleep with all my quilts. (Doesn't that sound suggestive?)

The Black Box Quilt is finished. It has reached "flimsy" stage.  It's about 65" x 82", and I am very happy with it.

Do you want to see a picture?  (I mean a big picture of the finished flimsy.)

Almost There....

Everything in this photo is all sewn together.

If the photo isn't as sharp as it could be, remember I am taking the photo standing on a ladder, holding the camera out at arm's length, trying to take a picture of the quilt on the floor, lit by an ordinary ceiling fixture hanging a few feet to my right.


(sound effect of Lynne dancing the happy dance of joy)

Halleluljah! We Have a Box!

Hallelujah!

The box itself is finished, and the whole panel lies FLAT!  It's not perfect, but it's perfect.  It's what I wanted and I am very, very happy.  Finishing the quilt will be very easy from now on, and I can't wait!

Woo Hoo!!!!

The Box is Black

While this doesn't look like much, it's actually the result of quite a lot of work. I've revamped the way the rays attach to the box on the left side. I've replaced the very decorative box fabric with my original fabrics - a solid black and a black-on-black. I've re-made most of the flaps on the box, and the fabrics surrounding them.  I've re-sized the box. (This one is shorter.) I've modified the rays at the bottom of the box.

I'm not finished - the center seam is not sewn up yet.  My body ran out of gas and my back was hurting, so I had to stop for the night.

In THEORY, sewing the center seam of the box last will allow me to keep the panel flat and also allow me a bit of "wiggle room" if I need it.

We'll see.  When I finish this panel, I'll sew it to the "Before you can think" and the "you have to start with a box" panels and... the quilt top will be finished!

Which will be pretty cool, considering I started working on it eight months ago.

The Black Box Returns!

It was a rough day at work yesterday. (Insert rant here)...

Anyway, I decided that I really really really needed to get myself in the sewing studio and let the creative act wash away the dust and detritus of, well, you know.

The arcs now lie flat, as does the opening of the box.  Rejiggering that caused the sides of the box to flatten out, which is not what I want. No biggie, I can fix that.  The really amusing thing is, if I had stuck to my original plan of assembling the quilt... well, I wouldn't have had any of these problems.

Speaking of which, I might just toss that really nifty box fabric completely and go back to my original idea of black. This box is too tall anyway, and I want a bit more rays coming out the bottom than what I ended up with back in mid-September. Sometimes it's good to step back for a while.  It gives you the resolve to make wholesale changes for the better.

Black Box Update

I found Millie napping on the Black Box quilt. I've tried to keep it someplace where she can't get on it, but obviously I failed.

I have been working on the quilt. I didn't like part of what I did the last time I worked on it, so I took that out.  I realized I put the left side of the box and rays together differently than the way I put the right side together.  So I've taken it apart and will get it back together the "correct" way.

It isn't that I've been avoiding this quilt, it's just that I've been named project manager of the renovation of our primary conference room at work. This means I've been on the phone with the contractor, electrician, designers, and technical folks for hours each day.  It means I've been the go-between between the CEO and CFO and everybody else on the outside. I've been shopping for conference room chairs, reviewing rug samples, soothing ruffled feathers and getting to know some really wonderful painters, plasterers, and carpenters.  It means I've got to work early to meet workers, and left late (after getting my own work done).  I even spent a few hours at the office last weekend while a two foot wide by ten foot long trench was jack-hammered out of the concrete so we could run electrical, network and telephone lines under the floor so they could come up through the bottom of the as-yet-to-be-selected ultra-mega-cool conference room table.

Everything that -was- in the room is going.  The wallpaper was stripped, and the condition of the wallboard underneath was not good. The walls needed two days of prep work before the custom designed, custom printed wallpaper could be hung.  Tomorrow the very last of the wallpaper will be hung, and the "jewelry" will be installed. What "jewelry?" A 60" flat panel TV, a ceiling mounted projector, a new speaker system, and an almost four foot by eight foot interactive whiteboard.  Running these goodies will be not one, but two computers.  We're getting a 3D version of our corporate logo installed on one long wall (they call it "branding") along with some large images of the products we manufacture. (I've had to oversee the choice of those photos too.)

So not only have I been getting home late, but I've been pretty well zonked. That and the fact that my son is traveling on the West Coast (two weeks ago he was in Mexico, next week he'll be in Yosemite) and has been calling me late at night to talk have all contributed to make me spend my evenings sacked out on the couch with a book instead of in the sewing room making magic.

Fortunately the "heavy lifting" part of the project is complete, and I'll be able to get back to sewing soon.

I can't wait.

A Hole In One

Some of you know how much I love to watch tennis. During long matches, one always hears that the winner will be the one who "wants it more." This is balderdash. Both players want it. The winner will be the one who prepared himself well beforehand. He or she will be the one who did whatever was needed to ensure a good result.

I like to make quilts that "knock it out of the park," that "blow people away," or are thought to be "awesome."  You don't get a quilt like that if you settle for less. I want this quilt to be a knockout. If that means I have to remove something and do it over (and over and over), then that's what I have to do.

Box, Updated

I did some work on the box. Trimming that left side made a big difference, but I'm still working on the long diagonal on the left.  That will affect the lower left flap - which I'm still working on.

It's coming along.

Rip Rip

I ripped out the bad seams in the Black Box quilt last night.  It's funny to think of taking something apart as "progress."

Theory and Practice

In Theory, theory and practice are the same. 
In Practice, they are different.

This photo of the box in the Black Box quilt is proof. I knew how I wanted all these components to fit together, and in theory, they were supposed to fit together perfectly. However reality got in the way.

For some reason, the left side of the box is 1/4" too big. That's the THIRD time I cut that piece.  Partly because it is too big, I've got bubbles in two places where the quilt won't lie flat.  I'm going to have to rip that seam along the box, trim it down and resew it. I've also got to rip out the long diagonal seam from the box flap alongside the gold ray on the left.  I'll have to do some finagling there to get it to lie flat.

If I'm lucky fixing those two seams will get rid of the two bubbles. If I'm not, then I've got more tinkering to do.  I've been working on this quilt full steam ahead for the last two weeks, and it's kind of worn me out. I'm going to take a little break from it to regroup.

Silver & Gold Asterisk

I won't be making more of these gold and silver asterisks.  The gold fabric, even with a new needle, had lots of pulled "threads". 

After I'm finished the Black Box quilt, I'll do a tutorial on how to make these asterisk flowers.

Sun Rays

Oh boy!

This is the layout of the rays that will surround the black box. I had to sew them up this way first before I could add them to the quilt.

Of course, there are a couple of finicky things I have to work out before I add them to the box...

Make It, Break It

To make "Made Fabric" you have to have scraps.

  You can probably do it by cutting up yardage, but I think it's fun to use scraps.

So aside from scraps, where did I get the bits to make the Made Fabric?

 First, I collected all the pieces I wasn't going to be using in the quilt.

 Then I cut what I need away.

Now I have a pile to play with.

 Like this!

Old Box, New Box

Judy in Michigan wondered if the white inside of the box was a moire fabric.

Nope.

It's the same White on White as it was in the original box.

See?

Whatzit?

 Can you guess what these funny, fussy triangles are for?

If I turn them on their sides, you can probably see right away..

It's the new black box.

To

I hadn't planned on hiding a cat in the Black Box quilt, but when I saw this white cat washing herself, I just couldn't resist making it the center of the "o" in the word "to."

I am going, too.

I am going to visit friends and will be away for a few days.

Do I Have To?

One of the things that happens when you do "something, anything" to dislodge a stuck idea is that you see things in a new light.

Last week when Julie recommended I use my dud letters as "placeholders" in the design of the Black Box quilt, I had no idea I would like what I saw. Now, there's no way I'm going to use these letters like this, but as soon as I put them up, something about their recklessness appealed to me. They reminded me of  the cut up, mismatched letters in ransom notes.

I have decided to include that concept in the letters in the Black Box quilt.  The brilliant "out of the box" letters will stay as they are, but many of the other letters will be mismatched, and made of fabrics that could be described by some as "fugly."  The ambiguous A / E from Monday's post is an example of what I mean.