New Squirrel in the Studio

Last week I took an all-day virtual class

called Coming Full Circle with Sarah Bond.

(she also taught the virtual class that led to Pizzazz)

While there were three different components to the class

I focused entirely on the first one - paper pieced string fans.

Here is that same quarter circle with the excess trimmed away.

Sarah taught paper piecing differently than

any other class I've taken through the years.

I quite like her approach as it slightly more liberated

than the rigid add-a-quarter-inch ruler method.

I'm intrigued enough to continue on.

Of course, there is still that dreaded paper removal 

process waiting in the wings - but Sarah also shared

a couple of her "tricks" to make that easier.  

(time will tell)

I made a total of five quarter circles by mid-afternoon.

(and my brain was already engaged in layout mode)

I've chosen a layout used for New York Beauty blocks.

NYB is the ONLY quilt I've ever been willing to paper piece -- 

 

I used the Fickle Pickle design to create Colors of Joy (2005), 

Spirit Song (2010), and a wallhanging named New Crayons (2006).

AND, thanks to the Bernie-wants-to-retire 

Needle and Foot shop closing sale,

I scored this terrific yardage at a good discount.

It really seems to suit the emerging personality 

of this project and may well become its backing.

(proper name is still TBD)

Since this project was NOT on my radar

guess who I'm going to blame . . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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“I saw a sunset in Queretaro that seemed to reflect the colour of a rose in Bengal.”

Jorge Luis Borges

Pizzazz - the Flimsy

Pizzazz is a quilt top!

It will finish at approximately 51" x 60"

(Since I have extra strata /light background strips

I'm considering adding another row

which will make the top 51" x 70" - we'll see)

Made during a Diamond Stairsteps online Zoom class 

with Sarah Bond (Philly MQG) during a

virtual  Mancuso Quilt Show.

(she is very active on Instagram)

Here is the top from another angle 

with the backing fabric in the background.

And just for giggles, I turned the photo upside down . . . 

* * *

My biggest takeaway note -

When cutting background fabrics

cut an extra WOF strip  in order to be able to 

trim off the selvages and still get enough strips.

You can see how the selvages distort the outer edges.

They'll be trimmed away after the top is quilted,

but in the meantime they'll allow for

less stress when squaring edges and preserving points.

And I have NO clue how I'll quilt this.

Quiltdivajulie

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“For me, the summer will be pure gray – mother-of-pearl gray, very pale gray.  To me, this is the big statement for summer.  Then we have light blue, light turquoise, lots of pink.”

Gianni Versace

Introducing Pizzazz

My class with Sarah Bond happened on Wednesday.

(photo taken during our lunch break)

By the end of the day

I had completed all eight of my strip sets

and learned the remaining steps needed to

 transform them into a Diamond Stairsteps top.

This photo shows my two background fabrics

with a strip set laid in between

and the backing fabric along the left edge.

On Thursday, I sewed the first horizontal row together

and laid it out with the background for what will be 

the adjacent row as one final double-check.

I'm winging it in terms of how large my quilt top will be -

Sarah's has more color strips per width (10 or 11 to my 8)

but I don't want a quilt that is 60+ inches wide.

My quilt will be named Pizzazz - 

"an attractive combination of vitality and glamour"

(term said to have been invented by Diana Vreeland, 

fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar in the 1930s)

AND . . . DH's birthday is Sunday

with our 46th anniversary on Monday

(hence the flowers)

Because our reserves in the freezer were getting low,

DH baked a double batch of Vienna bread

to go with the double batch of sandwich bread

he had baked earlier in the week.

It is all SO good.

Quiltdivajulie

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“Color is all.  When color is right, form is right.  Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration.”

Marc Chagall

Drama Queen and Recent Musings

Drama Queen with all of the 

bright on black blocks on the design wall.

Drama Queen with ALL of her blocks on the design wall.

I'll let this arrangement sit for a day or so  

as I make sure there aren't any  adjacent blocks 

with the same upper or lower edges touching.

Then it will be time to web the top together.

Since January when Ann issued the

current AHIQ challenge with appliquéd tulips, 

I've been thinking a lot about the fact 

that I have categorically refused to learn

how to properly hand appliqué.

(I do have arthritis in my right thumb joint

but if I'm careful I can manage limited amounts 

of hand work, just not for hours on end)

I'm tired of not having that tool in my skill set

and, in all fairness to myself, I need/want to learn.

Even though I seriously doubt I'll ever adopt

hand appliqué as my method of choice,

at least I won't automatically run for the door

 when hand appliqué is mentioned. 

To that end, I have signed up for Irene Blanck's 

Matilda class during the upcoming

virtual Vermont Quilt Festival.

(that's her Matilda quilt above)

My goal is to complete one flower grouping

before I decide whether or not to make more.

I will also be watching and possibly playing along 

with Jo Avery's upcoming quilt along.

Her Bedding Plants design includes

machine piecing, foundation piecing,

curved piecing, and hand appliqué.

I am not planning to make the whole quilt

but I do want to play with parts of it.

Along this same line of thinking about

major techniques that are missing from my toolbox . . .

I have developed a strong dislike of paper piecing

stemming from one of my earliest LQS classes.

When I took the virtual Ricky Tims Quilt Luminarium,

I learned that he uses a product called Stable Soft.

(the paper part dissolves in water 

and only the very thin webbing remains behind,

leaving the quilt soft and supple

with NO paper tearing/removal issues)

I have a package of Stable Soft now

so I'm going to test it in June during a live online class

with Sarah Bond called Coming Full Circle.

(samples of one block from the class above)

I'll let you know how it goes.

Finally, for those of you who have been 

getting my posts in your email Inboxes,

I'm testing out the new Bloglovin widget 

as a possible alternative for the Feedburner widget 

that is going to cease working soon.

To help me test this new widget

(look at the top of the sidebar)

I hope you'll subscribe AND then

let me know how it works for you.

Thanks!

Quiltdivajulie

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“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”

Georgia O’Keefe

Bits and Pieces

I buckled down and made all of the ties

for 11 more lined drawstring bags.

(ties get done first because they are the most time consuming)

Six of the eleven are in greens from RSC March

and five are in blues for RSC April.

The main bag sections are sewn together

 ready for pressing the next time I turn on the iron.

I spent two evenings stitching up 

forty five more blocks for Hoppipolla.

(blocks will finish at 3")

RSC colors this month are light and bright blues.

So far I've made 113 blocks of the 320 needed.

The whole goal of this project is to use up 

some of the bits and pieces left behind

after the Dumpster Diving quilts . . . 

ten more color groups with twenty blocks each 

should give me plenty to work with for a scrappy layout.

(see links to both series later in this post)

On a whim, I signed up for 

an all-day "live" virtual Zoom class

with Sarah Bond (@slbphilly on Instagram)

during the late April Mancuso Online Quiltfest.

The supply list called for a jelly roll and two different backgrounds.

Shopping my stash, I chose the two backgrounds (left) and I

cut a "Julie roll" from my stash of Kaffe Collective yardage.

I'll use Kaffe's Banana Tree yardage to back this one

whenever this project reaches that stage.

I've named this quilt-to-be SASHAY which means

"a journey taken for pleasure."

(I'm hoping the name is prophetic

since the quilt involved strip pieced diamonds

similar to those in a Lone Star quilt)

After weeks of mental wrangling, 

I've also made another decision.

I had planned to make twelve Dumpster Diving quilts

with the final one using reds with brights on blacks.

But I have not been able to bring myself to chop 

these long strips and smaller pieces of yardage into

into short little segments only to spend weeks 

pairing/sewing/pairing/sewing over and over.

I still love the process but

I'm tired of the huge amount of prep work.

So . . . I'm going to formally end 

the DD series with DD 11 - Mischief Maker.

This means I'll repurpose the boxes 

of reds/brights on on blacks 

into a scrappy quilt that will be 

part of my Et Cetera series.

Finally, with the Easter decor packed away 

this is our mantel's look until late June.

(those are white fairy lights tucked along

the mantel's back edge - so pretty after dark)

Our elder son's/DIL's 15th anniversary,

our eldest nephew's/wife's 15th anniversary,

my sister's/BIL's 40th anniversary,

our 46th wedding anniversary,

Mother's Day and Father's Day, 

plus a 40th and a 69th birthday 

will happen between now and then.

Lots of chances to use my stash of

colorful lined drawstring gift bags

as we celebrate those family milestones.

Quiltdivajulie

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“I was very against pink and purple when I was young, because they were girls’ colors.  But that was only because I didn’t want people to write me off for what I can do.  When I got into my 20s, I decided that was stupid.”

Danica Patrick (NASCAR driver)

Catching my Breath

I've sewn the second round of strips on the blocks for Nubilous,

my Log Cabin Loonies project.

There are two more rounds to go.

I'm aiming for one round per month.

Once the 20 blocks are finished,

I'll figure out what kind of layout I want to create.

Back in late January, Lynne sent me an amaryllis.

I've been watching her's and Wanda's

and so many others across blogland . . . 

she decided it was time for me to have one of my own.

This was the first fully-open bloom (February 16).

The two stalks will eventually have produced a total of ten blooms.

The first two have faded and been trimmed away

but there are still several buds showing color

that are not quite ready to open.

So beautiful!

I registered for two virtual classes  with Christina Cameli

during last week's virtual QuiltCon event.

I love Christina's teaching style and her gentle approach to free motion quilting.

I definitely learned a few new things during the on demand classes -

mostly to relax, slow down, and trust my own instincts.

I liked being able to start and stop the class as real life dictated.

I also liked being able to watch the classes more than once

to capture the little things that are so easy to miss

during a live class.

I also liked being in my own studio without

travel or  having to stitch on a machine unlike my own.

I missed being able to see what others were working on,

the exchange of ideas between instructor and students,

and the energy of a real-life classroom.

* * *

I spent a bit of time viewing the quilts in the exhibit.

Since I identify as an "independent" / "liberated" quilt maker

the whole "modern" movement/vibe doesn't excite me

the way traditional/vintage scrappy patchwork quilts do.

I am most grateful that the quilting universe is large enough

 for so many different approaches to exist simultaneously - 

allowing each of us to honor our own style of making.

I also spent time poking around the virtual vendor mall.

(definitely not the same as browsing in person

but with the definite side benefit of less impulse-buying)

* * *

Would I go to a future QuiltCon in-person event?

Probably not.

I might browse through their 2022 offerings

to see if there are any virtual offerings that intrigue me.

Time will tell.

* * *

I'm curious - have you taken any virtual classes

during these months of COVID-cancelled in-person events?

If you did, do you feel they were worthwhile?

Quiltdivajulie

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“The man who can see all the gray, and red, and purples in a peach will paint the peach rightly round, and rightly altogether.  But the man who has only studied its roundness may not see its purples and grays, and if he does not will never get it to look like a peach . . . ”

John Ruskin

 

Don't Make Me Break Out the Flying Monkeys

Who remembers the flying monkeys

 from The Wizard of Oz movie?

I was afraid of them when I was a child.

Honestly, they still creep me out.

* * *

In 2008 I was part of Tonya Ricucci's online Summer class

where our challenge was to make a two color quilt.

I struggled for weeks to come up with an idea.

On July 11th during a perfectly awful day at work

I realized exactly which phrase I would create

with free pieced letters on my class quilt.

It didn't take long to decide on my two colors

(a multi color dot on black and a collection of yellows)

and get the first few words pieced.

I also started testing potential border ideas.

By July 21 all of the words were pieced.

I shared this photo of a sketch showing 

my asymmetrical border plan on July 24th.

The inspiration for my borders 

came from Collaborative Quilting

by Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran.

I had made lots of piano key borders 

but this was the first time I'd added 

one of Gwen's serpentine strips.

This photo of another border's design

shows the black background print really well

as well as some of the many yellows.

I had nearly 6 yards of that background when I started

and only very small scraps when I finished.

So typical for liberated free pieced quilts -

ALWAYS buy more background

than you think you'll need.

At least twice as much and more if you can.

A double row of broken dishes blocks

created an interesting secondary design

for the quilt's top upper edge

and it helped balance out the large 

monkey wrench blocks at the bottom.

I debated about adding a third color

since it was a two-color challenge

but since the quilt NEEDED the pops of red

and we all know I'm not all that good

about sticking to "the directions or the plan" . . . 

I shared the finished flimsy on August 24.

It measured 61" wide x 86" long.

I then handed the top and back off 

to my good friend Chris

for custom free motion quilting.

I shared the completely finished quilt on October 1, 2008.

(that's just under three months from idea to completion)

Here's how Chris quilted the serpentine border.

And here's how she quilted the broken dishes border.

The custom work she did on this quilt

was light years ahead of what she had been doing . . .

I don't know which of us was the most thrilled!

In November, I shared the quilt during the 2008 edition

of the annual Davies Manor Quilt and Fiber Arts show.

And in December, DH hung the quilt 

in our newly-painted foyer.

(the door trim wasn't even installed at this point)

* * *

Fast forward a year or so . . . 

Tonya Ricucci was in the process of writing a book

about liberated letter making.

She had already asked to include my quilt

from her 2007 First Ever Online Class

AND SOMETIMES Y.

(you can see "Y"in this photo

taken during AQS Nashville 2008)

Tonya sheepishly asked if I would be willing 

to also let her include The Flying Monkeys

and, of course, I was happy to say YES.

Both quilts were shipped to her publisher in January 2010.

In October of that year, The Flying Monkeys

traveled to the Houston Quilt Show where 

it made an appearance in the Martingale booth.

Look closely and you can see Tonya holding the quilt.

(she was so surprised at how large the quilt was)

The quilt also travelled to The Quilt Show

when Tonya made an appearance there

to promote her book's upcoming release.

(episode 907)

My quilt was too large for the stage set

so this impromptu photo was taken

of Tonya (and someone else) 

holding up the quilt backstage.

Both of my book quilts came home on December 9th,

eleven months after leaving Tennessee, and

my copy of WORD PLAY QUILTS arrived on December 14.

What a happy day for liberated letter makers everywhere.

(this photo really illustrates the scale of the letters)

* * *

So I'm sure you're wondering why 

I am sharing this particular post today . . . 

Lynne has been telling the long and winding story

 of our friendship in a series of posts on her blog.

(look for Julie and Lynne - Our Story in the sidebar

below the SSOBB logo and before the Labels list)

Last week she shared her 2013 photo 

of The Flying Monkeys hanging in our foyer 

and we both discovered that I'd never 

put together a comprehensive post for the quilt.

This post was the closest I'd come.

The oversight has now been corrected.

Enjoy!

(and you can see more of my liberated letter quilts HERE)

Quiltdivajulie

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“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.”

Karl Menninger