Breakfast Is Served

This week I’m starting a new feature on the blog – Bill's Photographs.   He keeps getting better as his cameras become more expensive – that’s the desirable progression, I believe.  As nice photos come along, I’ll add them to a special page dedicated for that purpose.  If a picture is extra special, it’ll go to the top of Fiber Vibe.  We’re starting this week with a picture of one of our resident backyard quail.  We have several pairs, and soon this year’s chicks will be emerging from their nest beneath the tall junipers.

 

We had a four-day weekend for Memorial Day.  A long weekend usually means I don’t get much sewing done.  Nevertheless, I had expected to complete the four golden trout blocks for the bottom of the quilt.  But no; this technique is trickier than I thought.   There have also been senseless setbacks such as throwing away my freezer paper templates because they looked like little scraps.   Here is an example of what I did accomplish.  There are four fish in this incomplete condition.   For now, I’m calling them the “headless trout.”  They look good enough to eat.

I was lucky to find a piece of fabric that looks like it is meant to be a trout.  It was right in my own closet!   Choosing only the areas I want means turning the fabric into Swiss cheese.

Today’s quilt, Planetary Collision, was made using a technique by Louisa Smith called Strips and Curves.  First you sew a few dozen thin strips of fabric together, and then cut out curved shapes that fit together to make blocks.  Louisa suggests that the blocks can be put together without a plan.  Indeed, her books are filled with such quilts.  I was excited by the idea of letting go of my need for precision,   and letting the quilt happen on its own.  After my blocks were on the design wall, I stepped back to admire the results.  Instinct kicked in.  “I must move that piece.  It can be changed with that block.  Oh, look, that one seems odd there.”  And on it went, until I had a perfectly orderly quilt.  I guess you can’t fight your true nature.   I spiced up the design by adding some blocks I’d made previously… in an orderly fashion, of course.

Until next time…

Looks Fishy To Me

I hope my readers are patient people.  It took longer than expected to finalize my drawing – that pesky inability to draw – and it’ll surely take awhile to figure out how to put everything together.  Meanwhile, additional prep work is keeping me busy.

The picture has to be enlarged to 60” x 72”.  With borders, the final quilt will be approximately 72” x 90”.   I put the drawing into Adobe Photoshop Elements, overlaid a grid, isolated one-inch squares and printed them as eight-inch squares.  I can’t simply assemble these pieces to use as my final pattern.   The thin pen line, enlarged by a factor of eight, is 1/16” wide and not  exact enough for my needs.   I’ll have to assemble the 8” squares into groups and trace the pattern on larger pieces of paper.

The sliding glass door makes an excellent light box!

I need practice turning my pictures into straight-line drawings and sectioning them into patterns that can be sewn together easily.  I smile because I know “easily” isn’t the most suitable word for this undertaking.  The bottom border of the quilt will feature life-size golden trout.  These fish will serve as my skill-building project.  Better to make a mess out of a small fish and try again than to risk defeat on the big picture.

Several years ago, my father took us on a walking tour of the old homes in downtown Sacramento.  An adorable Victorian on F Street caught my eye.  The high rise buildings in the background created such a nice contrast of past and present. 

 This tiny quilt (19” x 21”) was my first attempt at a realistic building.  I call it "Dollhouse In the City," but think of it as “Not Your Grandfather’s Small Town Anymore.”  My paternal grandfather, who had hoped to settle in Lodi, thought Sacramento was way too big for his taste.  He had to compromise, though, when he was offered an office job at Pacific Gas & Electric.

Until next time… 

Step By Step

There are two immutable laws that affect every project I attempt – I can’t draw and I can’t follow directions.  I must find my own way.  My first task is to turn the small photograph into a line drawing, approximately 60” x 72”.   I can trace a small drawing from the photo and Photo Shop it into the desired size, or enlarge the photo and use the result to make a full-size drawing.  I chose the second option.  This worked very well for the building with its distinct geometrical lines, but the landscape is a blur.   Look at this picture – too much information, if you can read it.  Maybe that’s why Cynthia England didn’t even mention enlarging the photo as an option.  Do you think?  

So, I made a small line drawing, adjusting for the new rectangular shape and cutting out some of the foliage to show more of the building.   I have some concerns about the composition and will be consulting with my mother-the-artist this weekend.  Sorry it's hard to see; it's still in pencil.  

It is never too soon to start collecting fabric, and I have a few already.    I’m not committed to any of them yet, but I’m in love with this pond water batik.

Architectural quilts are among my favorite types of projects.   It all began some ten years ago when a friend and I took a class from Freddie Moran.  Freddie was then in vogue for her brightly colored house quilts.  (See a picture of her book Freddie’s House on Amazon.)  I never use bright colors and went to the class only to sew houses for my friend.  I amused (annoyed?) everyone by announcing, “These bright colors are giving me a headache!”  But by the end of the day, I had begun asking myself, “Why don't these homes have garages?  Where are the people, the animals, the street scenes, the landscaping?”  Before the week was out, I was sewing brightly colored houses for myself.  The result is this quilt, “Community” which won a blue ribbon at the Nevada State Fair and a People’s Choice award at a local show.  Since then, I’ve been working toward ever more sophisticated houses.


Can you find the postal cluster box? the fire truck? the duck pond? the airplane? Betty Boop? three cats and one very large fly?
Until next time…

We Begin

Welcome to my new blog, Fiber Vibe.  The purpose of this blog, initially, is to document the process and progress of my latest quilting adventure.  If you read my profile, you learned that one of my favorite activities is to sit and stare.  I’m hoping that you, my audience, will provide me with the incentive to sew more and stare into space less.  You want results and I don’t like to disappoint.

The plan is to design and assemble a pictorial quilt featuring the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery in Independence, California (www.mtwhitneyfishhatchery.org).  My mother-in-law, Barbara, who volunteers at the hatchery, asked me to make a quilt as a fundraiser.  I am thrilled to use my skills to benefit such a beautiful and historical place.  This will be Barbara’s and my second fundraiser.  The first was a small wall hanging called "Concert In the Rocks" for the Lone Pine Film Festival, an event that also enjoys Barbara’s dedicated volunteerism (www.lonepinefilmfestival.org).  

The picture you see here will be the basis for my design.  The photographer, Keith Krejci, has given me permission to use his photograph to guide my composition.  “Thanks, Keith!”  Keith and his wife, Brenda, also are bloggers.  They write about their travels as full-time RV’ers and Brenda reviews casinos along the way.  They do a wonderful job of getting to know the places they visit and of conveying information to their readers.  Please visit them at http://dnpc.blogspot.com.  You may get some ideas for your next vacation.

Now, you may be asking yourself how I plan to make such a complex quilt.  I asked myself the very same thing!  My first thought, always, is to look through my extensive, twenty-five-years-in-the-making quilting book collection.  It turns out I have three books on pictorial quilts.  I chose Picture Piecing: Creating Dramatic Pictorial Quilts by Cynthia England, published in 2002.  I know that I have looked through this book many times thinking how much I would like to try the technique, and its time has finally come.  If you want to see some of Ms. England’s amazing work, you can visit her website at www.englanddesign.com.

I thought you might like to see my most recently finished quilt.  It was made for my sister-in-law, Cindy, using a pattern called Celestial Garden by Dereck C. Lockwood of Chico, California (www.lockwood.quilts.com).

Until next time…