Questions and Leftovers

You have questions, I finally have some answers. 

Earlier this summer I wrote about making some simple ice cream sandwiches. I used Cool Whip and some low fat strawberry yogurt. I mixed them together and spread them between two crispy chocolate cookies and put them in the freezer. The important thing is to find a variety of low-fat yogurt you think tastes good. Otherwise, why bother.

When I was making the backing for the Early Morning Quilt, SewGirl asked if I kept the extra bits of quilt backing that got trimmed off the final quilt. The answer is YES. I save everything, and often reuse it for just what I did for this quilt backing - I add it to the outer bits knowing it will be trimmed off later. Sometimes those extra pieces get added into quilts.

I had so many blocks for the Nightingale Quilts that I decided to join them together to make slabs and then cut them into triangles. I have another black scrap slab triangle quilt shaping up in my mind. Scrap Slab Triangles are a terrific way to use up scraps. You can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Oatmeal and a Question

 

I have oatmeal for breakfast each morning. But not just any oatmeal. I like steel cut oats. I don't like mushy oatmeal. Every night I put a cup of water in a small pot and bring it to a boil, then I add 1/4 cup of oatmeal, cover the pot, take it off the heat and set it aside overnight. In the morning I'll cook it over low heat for about 20 minutes. I'll top it with a teaspoon of maple syrup, some fresh fruit and sometimes a little bit of nuts. 

I do this every day. I have three one quart saucepans so I don't have to wash the same one every day. There is always a a clean one. 

The problem is I like to keep the counters clean, or at least not cluttered, but it's kind of a PITA to go hunting for the 1/4 cup measuring cup every evening. WHERE could I put it so it would be handy, but not lying around on the counter all day long?

SOMETIMES I find if you ask a question, the answer pops right up. The measuring cup isn't stainless steel, so it sticks to a magnet. I don't remember how I figured that out, but as soon as I did I knew what to do. I remembered a pack of business card sized magnets I have with adhesive on one side. I stuck one to the inside of the cabinet door. Problem solved.

This works for any kind of problem, but you have to formulate a question first, Normally if I've got a problem rattling around in my head I will ask the question before I go to bed at night. I generally have an answer when I wake up in the morning, or shortly thereafter.

Questions & Answers, Part Two

Yesterday I shared some of my responses to comments about my Early Autumn quilt. Here are more.

Jean wrote, "Since you like to be closed in by evergreens, you should enjoy western WA or western OR. Over the Cascade Mountains on the east side we seem to be able to see forever!"

This is Mt Hood in Oregon.

Actually Jean, I have family in Hood River Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. It's one of my favorite parts of the country. Driving east along SR14 on my way to visit the Maryhill Museum, I got a glimpse of those vast expanses you mentioned. And being able to see Mt Hood from... everywhere? Priceless.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Robby wrote, "[You] got me thinking about light in the forest. If you make one of those background trees in that block lighter or partially so, will it look like the sun streaming into the forest?"

Well Robby, the answer is a big "maybe." Look at the picture above. Look at it QUICKLY, then look away. What part of it did your eye go to first? It went to the lightest white tree in the middle right part of the picture. You can argue you didn't notice it first, but you are MISTAKEN! It is the way the BRAIN works. You have no control over it. Your eye (anybody's eye) will be drawn to the area of highest contrast first. Artists know that, and they use that to manipulate what your eye goes to first when it looks at something.

There's one tiny problem though. A very bright area surrounded by much darker stuff can occasionally look like a hole. That is bad. So the artist has to be very careful with the placement of "the lightest light" in a piece of art. In my quilt, I wasn't interested in how the light looks as it is filtered through trees in a forest or the woods. I simply wanted green and color. I was not interested in creating a three-dimensional space either. I just wanted to play with the repeating tall triangle shape of the trees and the colors of fall to suggest "Early Autumn."

Notice I said "suggest." I didn't want to hit you over the head with it. I wanted to capture the feeling of the woods in early autumn. I didn't need the "gimmicks," the pumpkins, corn stalks, or cabins in the woods. That would have weakened the graphic quality of the quilt and made it "cute." For the record, I hate, loathe and despise "cute" (except where small children and my granddaughter are concerned). I do not make "cute" quilts. Cute is for six year olds and I am not six.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Three days into my work on this quilt, Rita commented, "I love tree quilts very much. When I look at this one it is, I'm afraid to say, depressing. It is the colors; the trees are mostly dark..."

Rita was right. It WAS mostly dark, but three days into this I had not yet found my feet, and did not know where this was going. My immediate reaction to this comment was, "Rita, gimme a break, I haven't got started yet." Sometimes there is a point in the creation of a piece of art that it just looks like crap and doesn't seem to have any potential whatsoever. That's not a bad place for me, because it's at that place where I do my best creative thinking. My breakthrough came three days later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Alice wrote, "I do hope you will do a tutorial on this one. Will put it in my "definitely want to try."

Dear Alice, making free pieced trees is pretty easy and I'm betting you could find a how-to on the internet without too much trouble. After making this quilt and hearing how everybody likes my overlapping trees... I think I will write a short tree-making tutorial that will include how to make overlapping trees. However, do not expect full blown instructions on how to make the entire quilt.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Yesterday Sue asked, "If you use it as a tablecloth do you use batting? And is it flat enough to put glasses and such on it?"

Yes, Sue, The quilts I use as table covers all have batting and are quilted and finished like normal quilts. I have one of those plastic flannel backed tablecloths underneath the quilt, to protect my mahogany table from spills. Sometimes I use coasters underneath glasses and I have been known to use placemats on top of the quilt if I am really worried about something spilling or staining.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the very first day I blogged about making a tree quilt, my pal Julie wrote. "I am VERY sure that your tree quilt is going to be a knockout!"

My first thought was how nice it was that my best friend had such faith in me. Then I thought, oh hell, how am I going to that?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love reading all your comments. They tell me whether what ends up in the quilt is what I had in my head when I conceived it. Just because I think it's there doesn't mean it really is. I need to see it through your eyes. Thanks.

I Love My Readers

Oh dear Readers, how do I love thee?

I love you LOTS, let me tell you! You never let me down. I wanted your answers and you were wonderful enough to take the time to share them. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've got a lot to say about them and it may be a bit disjointed, so bear with me.

I think the best answer is to set up a page on this blog and devote it to things like "Straight of the grain - why you need to pay attention," "Oh those damned seams in the back!" "Positive and Negative" "What the selvage is (and isn't) good for." Then I can simply refer readers of the tutorials to those pages, which frees me from having to repeat myself.

My niece, who, one-handed, learned to make free pieced letters faster than anybody I've ever met.

I don't like the idea of classifying my tutorials as "Beginner," or "Intermediate" or anything. I feel that if students think something is "too hard" they'll shy away from doing it. So I don't like to prejudice them. When anything you want to do or learn becomes important enough, you'll find a way to do it, come hell or high water. I WANT my students to take giant leaps into the unknown, and that takes a certain amount of courage, or just a lot of faith.

Seriously, it's not rocket science. It's not brain surgery. It's taking two pieces of fabric, slapping them together and then sewing a straight line to join them. This is not life threatening stuff. So you might waste twenty bucks of fabric. Big whoop. What is that, fancy coffee for a week?  You should go read this post, titled "If He Can Do It..."

You all know I believe in what I call "Quilting Without a Net." I would love to get rid of patterns and templates and anything paper pieced. I love to see students take risks, because I've seen how when they take them wonderful things happen. If you've been in my class you've heard me say, "Look, I'm pretty sure you all got yourselves dressed this morning without any help. You can make successful color choices on your own."

Anybody who's ever been in one of my classes knows I'm a "take-no-prisoners" kind of teacher. I will pester and cajole a student any way I can to get them to let loose and put those "little gray cells" to work. And I don't molly-coddle my students either. In my class, you WORK.

I often ask, at the beginning of a class, "Do you want me to prevent you from making a mistake, or do you want me to let you fail and learn on your own?" They always ask me to prevent them, and they claim it's due to the time restraint of a six hour class. They all know if they screw up on their own they will DEFINITELY learn that lesson, but hey, nobody wants to fail, at least in public!

The back of Snow Day, once I finally figured out how to press those seams.

 I didn't say so on the blog, but the slab triangles I made in the first two Scrap Slab Triangle quilts (Fruit Loops & Treasure Trove) had way too many pieces in them and pressing the rows of blocks was a royal pain in the butt, and frustrated the heck out of me. Treasure Trove was particularly painful, with those points matching. Even Snow Day gave me trouble, until I figured out I should press the seams between the blocks open, and we all know how much I like THAT. (Answer = Not.)

Some part of me thinks anybody who wants painstakingly detailed instructions just wants a crutch. My eyes just cross and glaze over, but then, I've read a LOT of badly written instructions.

OH! And whoever said to one commenter, "Are you a slow learner?," deserves to be shot, in my book. What a thoughtless thing to say to a student. Everybody learns differently and it's a [good] teacher's job to be able to explain it so every student can understand, even if the teacher has to explain the same thing twenty different ways. It's the TEACHER'S job to teach, dammit.

I've read that if a middle-aged woman had to learn to walk she'd never do it, that the fear is too paralyzing, and I think that sounds about right. What the hell is it that happens to us as we get older? Fear of failure? I see it all the time. Over-thinking? Damn, I see that all the time too. Sew the seam already! The faster you make your first ten thousand mistakes the faster you learn your first ten thousand things.


And ask any damn question you want, no matter what the price, no matter how silly or fearful you feel about it. When you ask questions, I learn something. I'll learn it, then I'll share it.

Ladies, and Gentlemen, Put that pattern down. Toss out that kit. Get rid of all those foundation papers. I'm here to tell you that you can make spectacular quilts, and I'm here to show you how.

Have I told you all lately how much I love you?

Now I Have Some Questions

 OK, everybody, LISTEN UP!   One of my esteemed proofreaders has asked me some very pointed questions about what quilters really know, and how much should I explain, and I need some answers from YOU!  Yup, I really do, because I don't feel the need to explain Every. Little. Thing. That most quilters know just from making quilts.

So answer these four questions for me, please. If I am wrong and you really DON'T KNOW, then I get to eat a whole lot of crow and I have to go back to the drawing board and completely, and fully explain the following concepts:

1. So if I show you this picture and I mention that all fabrics in this photo are the same color, do you believe me, or do you think I am crazy?

2. If I tell you to be careful about making slabs (that are going to be cut up later) with too many small pieces because you'll have to deal with a lot of seams, do you know why? Or do I have to explain it in painstaking detail?

3. How much to I have to explain the "straight of the grain?" Do you understand when I tell you that all these triangles, and the slab from which they have been cut are all made from strips and pieces that have been cut on the grain? (Actually the base of the triangles are all on the straight of the grain. The other two sides are on the bias.)

 

4. Do you know what "Negative Space" is? And do you understand that in THIS example, it's the black, because I've flipped the values here and the white diamonds are the "thing?"

Look, the tutorial is pretty good, and these questions are things that beginning quilters may not fully understand, but my tute isn't written for rank beginners. I'm assuming that the quilters who read my tutorial aren't hung up with perfectly 'matchy matchy' fabrics or colors; know what the straight of the grain is, and to handle triangles cut from fabric carefully so they don't get distorted. I don't think I need to explain (much) about why you should cut away the selvage before you make blocks and that you know that having lots of seams in a block means it's going to be a bitch to press so it lies flat. I assume you know the difference between Positive space and Negative space (Hint: Positive space is the thing. Negative space is the space around the thing.)

That's it.

And yeah, I guess you could say I've got my back up.

Thanks!

Got Questions?

When I made the scrap slabs for my scrap triangle quilts, I didn't make enormous slabs and then cut them down. It didn't take me long to figure out that I only needed to make them taller than the triangle. But sometimes I'd make a slab it would be too small. 

So I cut some triangle shapes out of scrap fabric (the light fabric here) and moved them around on the slab to figure out the most efficient way to cut my triangles. In the example above, it looks like I can't get two full triangles without adding something to one edge.  But a little creative thinking proved me wrong.

I just flipped the triangles, and was able to cut two of them out of this slab as it was.

That's two great hints. What else do you want to know? You've all watched me make these quilts since last fall. I know what I think I want to say, but my readers always have really great questions I would never have thought to ask.

So here's your chance. What do you want to know? If you could ask me a question about how I make my quilts, what would it be? Leave it in the comments and I'll try to answer.

Thanks and have a nice weekend.

Questions... I Have Answers...

It has been the most ridiculous summer. I haven't had much time to just settle down and sew. I am teaching a letters class on August 13 at Quilted Threads and will be speaking at the Soo Nipi Quilt Guild in NH on August 18. So instead of sewing, which I would really much rather be doing, I am preparing for those two events.

Now, for the questions and answers...

Nobody asked, but my Mom and I thought last year's AQS Syracuse show (2015) was better. This year we thought there were a few quilts that were just awful that won ribbons, and a few that were so damn perfectly perfect that didn't. I really hate overquilting and overembellisment and overstuffed. There was a lot of that. There was one quilt that absolutely creeped me out. It was a trapunto and applique beast with so much stuffing and quilting it looked like bugs crawling across a quilt. Yuk.

We also think the AQS's method of hanging the quilts (in numerical order by section) did the show a great disservice. Artwork in an exhibit should be hung so the work makes sense as you move through the gallery, as ideas flow together, and compliment each other.

Some beautiful quilts were in shadow, where it was too dark to fully see them or appreciate them, and some were under lighting that was too harsh.

Quilters are lovely people. There wasn't anybody we spoke to who wasn't friendly, kind or cheerful.

My pal Julie knows I have a thing about bowls. This is the birthday present I received from her. It's sixteen kinds of terrific and I love it.

Yes Cherie, I will undoubtedly have to make the pink barn sitting in three dimensions. Of course I can do it, but since I generally hate pictorial quilts (I mean, if I want to paint a picture, I will use paint, not fabric), I have to figure out a way to do it without trying to carve too much of a 3D picture space.

Dear Selvage Fairy & Sandi, I did not get close enough to the pink barn to see what the various doors, windows, and signs might have said. The barn was on private property with a house nearby and I did not want to trespass. I shall have to use my imagination. Oh gee darn.

Ducky, in real life the WOWs don't look so bright, but when they are under a direct light like the one in the photo, it does look overpowering.

Nancy, I got the Pink Lemonade cake to go as dessert at Man of Kent. They make all their own cakes, so I went for it. It was lovely.

They never had signs like this anywhere when I was pregnant. I think it is a terrific idea.

The Grand Baby is now officially due at any time. I spoke to my son earlier and he was very specific that I NOT announce the baby's birth until my entire family had been notified first.  I listened with one ear. I'm three thousand miles away and even if I don't do EXACTLY what he wants there's not much he can do about it. I have Mom Armor.
 
Sales of the Bird Tutorial have exceeded my wildest expectations. To all of you who purchased a copy, thank you so very much. It's nice to hear the compliments. I worked very hard on it.

I'm definitely going to have to make a smallish quilt that says I AM NOT PAPER PIECED. Too fun an idea not to. Another quote on the must list includes this one: CHANGE PARTNERS AND DANCE.

I had my OB/GYN visit today and the nurse who took my information before I saw the doctor said something that would make another good quilt: GRAVITY IS A HARD THING. When you're my age with osteoporosis, it surely is.

Between planning the class and the talk, I'm going to be very busy, so I may not post much in the next three weeks. Please don't think I'm ignoring you. I've decided I've tried to do too much this year. Next year I'm not going to make more than two trips. One will be a trip to Colorado to visit my furniture-making brother. The other will likely be a trip to California. I may take smaller trips locally (less than 4 hours driving: I want to visit Kathy in Belfast Maine again), but by and large I'm staying home. You'll find me in the sewing studio.

So OK, I did the bird tute. Anything else you would like to know how to do? I'm open for suggestions.

thanks, see ya!

Valerie Has Questions... I Have Answers

The internet can be a wonderful place. I met three of my best friends over the internet, from all over the country and the world.  It's also where I meet quilters I have inspired. This is the most wondrous.

One of them is Valerie from Purple Boots and Pigtails. She wrote me a letter about a year ago saying I had reawakened her love of quilting. You can read it here. Someday I gotta meet this girl.  Valerie is the quilter I made the Kona solid word JUNGLE for.

Anyway.

 
On yesterday's post, Valerie asked a few questions and they made me think. Although I showed you how I designed the quilt, I didn't show you how I made it.  So here are Valerie's questions.

 "...are you planning to have a straight edge for binding or leave all those delicious diamonds as they are?"
 I'm planning on having a straight edge. I plan to cut it outside the vertical rows of small diamonds.

"Which leads me to ... if you square it off, will you cut it before or after Chris works her magic?"
I'll cut it off after Chris quilts it. I find that it helps to not make a decision to trim a quilt before it's quilted. Chris often makes magic happen where I didn't see it earlier, so I don't rush. I can always trim a quilt down, I can't add.

"This top will be super stretchy with all those bias cuts, so I wonder if trimming after might be helpful?"
Absolutely. In fact Valerie's most recent post talked about a quilt with mitered corners that got stretched out.  My quilt is made with a few hundred diamonds and each piece has two bias edges. I don't want it to stretch, so I haven't showed it off to anybody because I don't want to stretch those edges. Right now the quilt is folded up so it can't stretch. I won't be holding it up until it's quilted.

"I like the back, it reinforces that my eye is drawn first to all the littlest diamonds that act like stripes. Those are the colours in your backing fabric."
It's funny, but that's what good design does. It makes you see connections. The colors of my tiny diamonds are actually all colors - yellow, orange, red, hot pink, purple, blue, green and teal.

"Glad you steered away from the predictable creams, yellows and golds...much too matchy matchy."
 Me too. As I've said before, the quilt usually tells you what it wants, and if you're smart, you'll listen. This quilt did not want yellow or anything tiny.



 "Lastly, did you have a 60° diamond ruler or did you cut with a straight ruler?"

 I used this ruler, which is the one you used to make your Gravity quilt. I used blue tape to outline the 4" diamonds and the 2" diamonds. I ordered a 4" diamond template from another company online, and it never arrived until after the quilt was finished, so I cut all my pieces - one by one - with this template. It was a royal pain in the patootie. For the small four patch diamonds, I sewed together a pair of 2-1/2" strips and then used the template to cut pairs which I then sewed together.

I only had a yard of this fabric, and couldn't get as many perfect diamonds as I needed, so for a couple of them, I pieced them together, matching the pattern.

You all watched as I designed the quilt on the wall, putting something up, stepping back (with my glasses OFF so the fine details wouldn't distract me, but so I could still see the masses of color. I tried to avoid "blobs" of  dark areas and "holes" of too many light ones. I tried to distribute the colors and not make things too repetitious. I inverted some of the fussy cut blocks so they all wouldn't point in the same direction.

I literally cut one piece, put it up on the wall, stepped back, decided if it was OK or not, and then cut another. When the fabrics I had pulled looked too dark, I went through my stash to find something better. Piece by piece the quilt grew. I didn't get too bogged down with details, and tried to keep it fresh and vibrant. It didn't need to be perfect, and yet I think it is.

I am really, really happy with it, and am looking forward to making my next quilt, and hope I can keep it as loosey-goosey as this one.

And Pat, I find if I know I'm making a quilt to give away, I don't get attached to it.

Valerie, thanks for the questions. I enjoyed answering them. Anybody else?

You Got Questions, I Got Answers

Kathy and I did some sewing. I made this pinwheel from made fabric. (After I made the made fabric.)

OK, The RED fabric is "made fabric." It was bedtime, so I just grabbed some yellow to finish the block. See, I want to make one of these...

and it's made from made fabric...

Terri wanted to know what kind of red flower was in this photo:

Kathy actually had the tag that came with it. It's a Begonia "Encanto Red." Isn't it a beauty?

Sharon asked the name of the quilt shop. It's Fiddlehead Artisan Supply.


I do not, however, have the answer to this question (and neither did the waitress at the restaurant...)

Does it really cost $54 to add tofu to any salad?

Dear Anonymous

To all of you with questions...

Anonymous*:
Vermilion has one "L". Here is the Wikipedia post about Vermilion. I studied Fine Arts in college, then for a while I worked as a buyer for an art supply store. I can spell vermilion. Yes, some color houses spell it with two L's, but in all of the literature I have ever seen, it has one. I checked before I started sewing it up. It's also worth noting that chef Maneet Chauhan, who is currently competing in the Food Network's The Next Iron Chef, is the executive chef of Vermilion in New York City and Chicago. One "l."

*note to Anonymous: If you're Canadian, and you spell "vermillion" with two L's, I get it. Every individual's own language has to take precedence. After all, to the Brits, "color" is "colour." In these cases, neither is spelled incorrectly.


Teresa:
I didn't plan on making all nine-letter words when I started this. It just worked out that way for the first three words, and I thought it was so much fun I decided to stick with it.
Karen S:
The "M" in Champagne was completely, utterly, totally, 100% the trickiest letter I have ever made.


Joyce:
The "A" was one of the easiest letters, actually, after I realized the letter is a 60-degree triangle. However, I did have to rip it apart at least once.


Janet, Derby & Ducky:
Yes I know Champagne is bubbly and has lots of curves, but these letters are made without patterns or templates (one of my rules) and I thought mine just looked lousy. Since I make the rules, I can break them.


Anonymous 2:
Yeah, the champagne glass shape would have been good, but I didn't have any letters that could use it, and since the quilt will be only letters and nothing else (no hearts, butterflies or other elements) I had to leave that idea out. But yes, I did think about it.


3anklebiters:
I studied lettering in college, and it's nice to hear from somebody else who understands about kerning. Making letters out of fabric, however, makes kerning really tough (seam allowances get in the way), and sometimes I just say "to hell with it." I do the best I can.


Tonya:
Hawaii-Five-O is only good for occupying the mind while ironing, otherwise I agree with you, it's rather mediocre, and I'm already getting tired of the variations on "book him, Dano."

On Project Runway, Gosh, I can't stand Gretchen. I think they screwed up there. I found a PR fansite and 78% of voters thought she shouldn't be going to Fashion Week. Needless to say, I'm one of them.