Stones

Since the retreat, I've been working mostly on compositions with rectangles from my hand-painted fabric. Here's a version of the composition I did on the Friday morning of the retreat, putting something together in time for Bill's critique. See more versions and comments over on my StudioNotes blog. One thing I asked Bill about was the size of the composition. I was inclined to add lots more rows and columns, but Bill suggested keeping it the size it was. You'll see that he was correct!

waves in the water

I'm starting a new quilt that involves two streams coming together to form a river, ending in a small waterfall, with a pool / lake in the foreground. I am trying to decide whether to piece the streams and river or to make bias strips and applique them. I liked Penny's inset gentle curves, particularly the ones where she made small sections and then recut them into other larger pieces. However, I would like to make my river into a series of even more-curvy ripples. Any suggestions? gini

Dressing up my kitchen table

I have made cloth napkins for everyday meals for many years, but I've never used high-quality fabric for myself. On a recent trip to Pieceful Heart, armed with a generous gift certificate, I splurged on good fabric to replenish my currently tattered napkin supply. When I got home, I thought, "And those fat quarters I bought at the retreat from FunQuilts' 'Wild Bunch' line--they'd make great napkins too!" I didn't have a quilt in mind when I bought the fabric--just couldn't resist. And now I can see it on my kitchen table regularly.

Even though I love the look of the wide hem and mitered corner that Gini demo'd at the retreat, I don't think I can wean myself from the quick-and-dirty hemming on these napkins. I just eyeball a 1/4" turn under (turning under once and then again), and then I topstitch all around. Some corners are neater than others, but I never notice them once they're done. I don't bother ironing these either--just smoothe them out when they come out of the dryer. Here's a couple of good corners:
Size: I usually cut these 17-1/2" square, so I get two out of a half-yard. My sister, a regular recipient, likes hers larger, so I cut hers 21".

Hi this is Kathy. This is an old UFO. Nice to have it finished. If you click on the image, you may see more detail.

Pictures of Habitat for Humanities Quilt

These are the pictures of the Habitat for Humanities quilt that Dorothy collected blocks for at our last retreat.

Thank you from Habitat for Humanity

Thank you for your great participation in my Habitat for Humanity quilt project. This is my first attmpt at posting and I can't see how I can put a picture in this posting. Oh Dear. I wanted you to see the quilt we gave in December and the family opening the package. pictures of a quilt made with the Nine-patch squares you gave me last year at our get together. We have finished another quilt with the rest of your blocks. (Well, almost...It is at the quilter now.) I will bring it with me this year so you can se the results of your good deeds.
I have Penny's instructions in my hand and I'm looking for the right icon.... but nothing is helping. I'll attempt to put this out and see what happens..
Dorothy

Overcoming reluctance/fear to work on "big idea" projects

I know I'm not the only one who struggles to bring myself to work on the quilting projects that involve my own design work—even though, at some level, these are the ones that I most want to work on. I think I understand why this is. It's much scarier to work on a project of one's own design. The risks are bigger, there can be many dead ends, and if the end product is not up to expectations, it's hard not to feel that it's a personal failure. Much easier, and more immediately gratifying, to work with someone else's pattern, play around with fabrics, and get predictably enjoyable results. And I get a lot of pleasure from doing just that. So, I understand why it's a challenge to turn myself to the "big idea" quilts. But I really do want to work on these projects also, and they are often in my thoughts and sketchbook. Earlier this week I figured out a way to get them into my hands as well—here's what I did, in case it might help someone else.

1) I set out two different color index cards. Blue for "big idea" projects and yellow for the others (patterns or just playing around). I wrote a descriptor at the top of the card and then penciled in a list of the main things involved in doing the project. I pinned these up on a 20x30 piece of foam core (the photo above). Just having these written down where I can see them is a help, relieving me of the continual mental inventorying that I'm otherwise prone to.

2) Using a white 5x8 card marked with daily blocks for a month, I wrote down for Tuesday two things I wanted to work on that morning. And then I did them!


Somehow the little act of writing it down helped me act on the intention to get back to the quilt on "shelter" that I've been thinking about for two years. I don't want my quilting to become like the work for my job--dominated by timetables and deadlines. On the other hand, I need some mechanism to help me face the scary projects. For a week now, this has been working. I think the key elements are:
--writing down the intention
--limiting the number of projects to work on in any one chunk of time
--deciding on a daily basis, not trying to make a plan for a week or more

With this in place, here's what I've worked on this week:
Tuesday: Stones (a 4x4 coaster with stones from painted fabric) and maquettes for Shelter
Wednesday: same as Monday
Thursday: Painted fabric. Doing the series of maquettes on Monday and Tuesday led me to try out a new direction for fabric for Shelter.
Friday: Blog entry; read on mixing colors for painting

I was interested to see that I didn't put any "play" stuff in this week. I had anticipated doing one "big idea" and one "play" thing each day. But it feels good to get some momentum going on the Shelter project, so I've focused on that. I expect to put in play stuff next week.

About the blocks of time: I am fortunate that I am now working just half-time, and for the next several months I anticipate a schedule of being at home in the morning and at work in the afternoon. So my project schedule is for blocks of time each morning. If I were working full-time, I would still do this same kind of schedule, but the blocks would be fewer and shorter, in the evenings and on the weekends.