Some great blog entries

Thanks to Google for Google Reader! I follow several dozens of blogs now because, using Google Reader, I can skim through new entries in a relatively sort period of time and easily find which ones I want to read more thoroughly.

I'm spending a quiet morning going through new blog posts (I got a bit behind so GR informed me I had over 100 posts waiting for me to check them out--not as overwhelming as you'd think when I can just scroll down through titles in one window to find the ones I really want to read). Figured I'd share a few particularly pertinent ones with you:

Mary Lou Weidman's Ode to Color (Related to my recent podcast episode on color inspiration--see all the places you can look?)

The QuiltRat Uses Lutradur (Another way to use Lutradur--gorgeous!)

Elizabeth Barton's blog on composition (A great blog overall on applying art principals in quilting--but this particular entry has a nice outline of some composition principles, something I wish I was much more conversant in.)

By the way, I'm probably going to hate myself shortly. I'm not quite done with the EQ6 class with Quilt University--I've got my last class to finish this week and it looks like a doozy--and I just signed up for two more classes, one of which started three days ago. So I'll have to catch up with that first class this week. But I couldn't resist--it's a class on color. Had to be done. The other class starts June 11 (on design and composition) so although I'll once again be doing two classes at once for a week or so, it shouldn't be as bad. That's the beauty of online classes--you can fit them in whenever you need to, even at 11p in your jammies!

My sister and I are heading off to the Craft Antique Co-Op for a morning of poking around the booths. Nice way to spend a vaction day!

It's a Play Date!

My sister arrived last night around 7p and we sat up far too late into the night catching up. And then, of course, my body just wouldn't let me sleep in this morning--wide awake at 6a. Go figure. I brewed extra coffee--and not just because of my sister being around--and sat with a quilty magazine for awhile until my sister wandered downstairs as well. My son is house-sitting for my in-laws, and my husband had driven my daughter up to spend the weekend with another of my sisters and spent the night, so it was just my sister and me this morning--a nice, quiet entry to the day.

Then we got rolling. I'll post pictures of the process later--or, at least, what I remembered to take pictures of. For now, suffice it to say that my hands are stained all sorts of colors; both my sister and I have decided we're not keen on gesso; I've got my creativity challenge project in pieces and laid out on my cutting table waiting for me to make more decisions in the morning; I got to play with my sister's serger and made myself a tablecloth (more stashbusting); and just to cap it off, I pulled out my angelina fibers for the first time in over a year and just had fun melting different colors together. For no purpose, really. Just playing. And I got the backing pieced for another charity quilt. Just have to hit it with some spray baste and it'll be ready for quilting.

Oh, and I've now ordered myself some Golden Digital Grounds as per Heidi's advice. I should have it in a few days. I have high hopes.

So, altogether a very relaxing day, a productive day, and fun! Hope you're having a nice Memorial Day weekend as well!

Listener Photos--"Stepping Stones Echoes"

Listener Kris shared with me a photo of a project she's working on to teach herself more about working with value in fabrics. I'm posting this now, with her permission, because guess what my next episode  is on? Value! So check this out to get yourself in the appropriate frame of mind for listening to the episode--I'll be posting the episode later this afternoon.

Notice how the placement of darks and lights can significantly affect how the block appears. What part of each block jumps out at you first? My next episode will explore more about value--why it's important, and how you can work with it to affect composition in your quilt.

Thanks, Kris! Can't wait to see it when you're done!

Virtual Quilting

Haven't had a lot of time over the last several days to do any *real* quilting--you know, with actual fabric, thread, and a whirring machine--mostly because I've been having to play catch-up with my Quilt University class on EQ6. I got myself two weeks behind so I had to do three weeks of lessons in one week.

Fortunately, Fran Gonzalez, the instructor of the class, does a great job at outlining each step exactly and in a way that makes a lot of sense. So although it took me several hours over the period of a few days to catch myself up, I was able to do so with a minimum of frustration. There's only one step that still isn't working for me--I ultimately ended up skipping it and moving on. I understood the concept--just couldn't get it to work for me at the moment. I have some setting turned off that's supposed to be turned on and I haven't deciphered which one it is yet. I'm going to go back and mess with it again a couple of days from now when my teeth don't start clenching the second I look at the block I was supposed to be drawing.

I thought I might get my hands on some fabric tonight but allergies are in high gear (dang cottonwood) and I was suddenly more in the mood for a girls' night out with my daughter at the mall than I was sitting in my slightly stuffy sewing room. She and I had a very nice night. And the fabric will still be there tomorrow.

I think I'll spend the rest of the evening playing with some of my newly-learned EQ skills. I also think I'll be upgrading to EQ7 in the near future. Now that I actually feel like I'm starting to know what I'm doing--the possibilities are intriguing! (Thanks, Fran!)

Playing with Lutradur, Part 2 (and other life)

I actually did the photo printing several days ago but it's taken this long for me to have a little time to post the pictures. I'm not entirely satisfied with any of these prints but, frankly, I had no particular use in mind when I did them so I still plan on using all three of them in some way.  The images will guide me. And no, this isn't my creativity challenge project--I'm saving writing about that until I'm done. (Just for the surprise factor.)

So here's the original photo I used for this experiment. This is one of my ancestors--a wonderful photo of a woman named "Babette." I love that I have an ancestor named Babette. Especially one with a photo like this. Worlds different from most of my other ancestor photos which are a little dour and very, um, shall we say, plain looking? Then, into the photo album springs Babette in all her glamorous beauty. Funky.

First, I printed Babette onto plain, untreated Lutradur. Nice effect, but a bit ghostly.

Sorry about the image--it was incredibly hard to get good photos of these in the lighting I had available to me at the time--and the flash completely wiped it out. I did a little bit of adusting for brightness and contrast so you could see anything at all, but I didn't want to do much because it would misrepresent the effect.

So, meet Babette the Ghost.

Next, I printed Babette onto the Lutradur treated with medium matte gel.

Again, just a hair of adjustment for brightness/contrast for the sake of a photo for the blog, but not much. In this case, Babette worked pretty well on the version with matte gel. It's still a little on the translucent side, but also clear enough that you can see the actual image.

Finally, I printed Babette on Lutradur coated with gesso. I thought I had saturated it pretty well, and had used my fingers to work it in the way the Quilting Arts Workshop video with Lesley Riley had suggested, but clearly I needed to do more. You can see the streaks.

However, that in itself could be a fun technique to play with. Underlying streaks create their own textural element. As they say, "it's not a mistake, its a design opportunity." Babette actually looks a bit like she's sitting behind a sheer curtain or something, with those streaks.

I was surprised--I'd have thought the gesso version would be the most clear in terms of detail, but I actually find the matte gel version to be the most clear in this case. That being said, if I'd really saturated that gesso and used a photo with more defined edges and detail in it, I'd probably have very different results.

Of the three versions of this particular photo, I like the matte gel the best. That being said, I'm still remaining open to playing with all of them in projects. I'm now in search of Golden digital grounds (I don't think I have the name right but don't have time to check right now) that Heidi recommended--that may give very different results.

My sister is coming up to spend the weekend over Memorial Day and she's a talented artist. When she emailed to ask if it was a good weekend to visit, I said, "Great! We can play with Lutradur--you're going to love this stuff!" I've laid in some more supplies and expect to have great fun, and probably make a terrible mess. She'll push my creativity, I'm sure.

In terms of other quilty projects, I'm still finishing up the last details on my pocket organizer that I started at the quilt retreat. It worked ok but not my favorite project. Very basic, relatively fast, low satisfaction except "another project done." This was a pure stash-buster project--I have more charm packs than you can shake a stick at, although why you'd be shaking sticks at charm packs is beyond me.

Not completely digging the way the colors worked, and there was some puckering along the edges when I put the binding on (which I didn't realize until after I had it done). I still have to hand-stitch the binding to the back, but to all intents and purposes, it's done. I had originally planned to make another of these for my daughter's room with another charm pack and a couple of fat quarters--not sure at the moment whether I'll still do that or not. It wasn't a hard pattern by any means, although there were a couple of details left out. And making something the second time always turns out better because you know what tricky points to watch out for. But I also hate doing the same thing twice, LOL.

Now I need to spend the next couple of days catching up with my Quilt University class on EQ--I'm two lessons behind!--then I can get back to working on some other projects on the docket. Somehow I suddenly got very quilt-busy!

The Process Pledge

I followed a link tonight and came across http://r0ssie.blogspot.com/, and ended up taking "the process pledge."

"I, __Sandy____, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there."

Rossie seems to be part of the modern quilter world. I'm not a modern quilter, but then I'm also not NOT a modern quilter. I defy categorization, LOL. Actually, I just like playing with fabric in pretty much any mode. But I agree with Rossie's comments that just seeing pictures of people's finishes isn't always enough. I like to know why they chose certain things, what their inspiration is, etc. Even if it's just to say, "These colors are purdy."

We don't always have to be deep. Too much pressure.

The main thing that Rossie seems to be promoting is not waiting until the end to post about a quilt project, but to be more cognizant of posting things in progress, talking about where we've been, where we are, and where we're going. I'm game.

BTW, Rossie's blog has an interesting conversation going in the comments section about what defines "modern" quilts, what's considered "art," and the like. Considering I posted a question in the BigTent group for "Quilting...for the Rest of Us" a few days ago asking, "how do you define your own quilting: as art, craft, or hobby" (or some wording to that effect) and spurred a great conversation there, it's apparently a hot topic. I'm still undecided. I think I don't like to label myself because that would imply there are things I don't want to try. And so far, I've wanted to try it all!

Playing with Lutradur, Part 1

Have you heard of Lutradur yet? Pretty cool stuff. If I recall the story, it actually started out as roofing material but pretty soon some enterprising person decided to play around with it as textile art and an entire new industry was born. We probably pay more for it than roofers did, too, although it's surprisingly inexpensive. (Cheaper than fabric!)

Lutradur comes in two weights--one slightly heavier than the other, although (for comparison) both lighter than that really stiff interfacing you use for fabric bowls and the like. You can print on it, sew through it, glue it, use it with angelina fibers, paint it, dye it, melt it to make it "lace,"....the sky is the limit!

In January I was in Columbus, OH, and with a little free time on my hands I visited Quilt Trends quilt shop, which is heavy on art quilts and materials therein. Lots of embellishments, funky fabrics, and rolls of Lutradur. I was intrigued. Bought a yard or so of the roll, which gives me plenty to experiment with, and the book Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur, by Lesley Riley. A couple of weeks ago I downloaded a video on it, also by Lesley, from Quilting Arts Workshop. I couldn't wait to start playing! Decided today was the day--no sharp objects involved at this stage so my cold meds shouldn't be a problem.

To begin, I'm experimenting with photo printing. You can print photos directly on the Lutradur, but you get different effects if you use different "primers" as well.

I'm testing out three methods: one printed on plain Lutradur,

one with gesso applied,

the other with an acrylic matte gel.

I used a large foam brush to apply both--washing thoroughly in between, although I don't suppose there's a huge problem if a little of one gets mixed with the other. I'm not conversant with art materials so I don't really know.

You have to do this on plastic--laying cloth underneath would absorb the primer out of the Lutradur, making you have to use twice as much.

And now I have to let it dry for 24 hours before I can start printing, although I can at least do the plain Lutradur print tonight. I have to change my ink cartridge, though--and will probably go through another one in this experiment. My printer chews up ink cartridges like nobody's business!

I'll post the side-by-sides when I've printed the other two versions. I'll also post pics once I've done something with these experiments. This isn't a tutorial--I'd have to actually know what I'm doing for it to be a tutorial. It's just a "follow along as I play" kind of thing. So, more later~