Category: Creating

Creating · Something to Think About

Orvieto, Austria and Quilting Designs

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

I’ve been working on posting to our travel blog (The TraveledMind.com) some photos from a trip we took to Italy in 2007 (I know, I know).  And given that my last post was about a contemporary artist who inspires me, I thought I’d mention that many old architectural sites inspire me too.

This is a pillar on the front of the Duomo (cathedral) in Orvieto, Italy.  Can’t you just see some of these very old (13th century, some of them) inlaid mosaic designs being made into a quilt?  Just simple shapes, really, but really fun to think about. Here are some more shots of that cathedral (it’s what the town is known for).

I love digital cameras.  Before I’d be whipping out my sketch book to take it all down for a future quilt, rather than waste my film (always limited on international trips).

The one on the left is from a trip to Asia (my husband is a scientist and has spoken at seminars all over the world.  I try to go along when I can).  The sketchbook on the right is from a vacation to England long, long ago.  I think I was sketching the armor patterns from the Tower of London.  Of course sketchbooks are always handy when The Powers That Be won’t let you take photos.

And this one’s from my honeymoon with my scientist husband.  I was a single mom with four children and he married me us, then took me on a honeymoon to Austria (hence the notation above of “Wien” was Vienna).  Yep.  He’s a gem.  We just celebrated 22 years together–it took us that long to get all the children raised and out on their own.  And I’m still grateful to my parents for watching the children so we could start our married life in a memorable way.

This post has taken a bit of a detour, but sometimes when I reflect on the path that has brought me to where I am, I marvel at my good fortune.  It has not been without difficulties, like many of your lives, but we are very fortunate to be at a place in time and space where we have blogs, and lots of access to fabrics and sewing, and have the ability to make quilts, both for art’s sake and for use in our lives.

My road has taken me to many places, but I’m always happy to come home, unpack the bags and take up the reins of my life again.

Clothing · Creating · Textiles & Fabric

Dusky Tones on the Comeback Trail?

Elizabeth E.Leave a comment

Over Labor Day weekend, I headed up to my nephew’s wedding and was completely entranced with the flowers on our tables.  No brights anywhere.  Dusky hydrangeas, mossy-textured greens that were soft as baby’s ears, pastel roses, grayed down tones everywhere.  The bridesmaids’ dresses were a pinky-tan color.  The bride was in a rich ivory dress.  This is a couple who is on the cutting edge of everything, including fashion and design. Now consider this:

This is the latest from the Moda design team and the collection is entitled “Little Gatherings.”  While the tones and colors are similar to what I bought in the 1970s, what I noticed was the design: little bitty designs.

So the question that some are asking around on the blogs, as they drag out those uncompleted quilts from the 1970s is: are the dusky tones from that era making a comeback?  I would have said yes to the colors and the tonality but no to the itsy bitty calico-type prints, until I saw the Moda line above.  So, are we returning to that era?  Have we tired of the brights and bolds and large scale prints and heading back to the 1970s? 1880s?  If we look to fashion for inspiration, it’s often said that short skirts are a sign of a healthy economy and that long skirts indicate that we are all in for tough times. Since our economy is pretty much in the tank, I wonder if we can make the same predictions based on fabrics.

And by the way, here’s a view from the runways.  Even those with shorter, body-conscious clothes had a few longer skirts in their line-up.  In many shows, that’s ALL they had.  And judging from some of the fabrics being used, looks like we’re still in love with large-scale prints, although in fashion, I think only those who are 6 feet tall pull them off really well.  That lets me out.  And the colors?  They trended to the dusky, darker tones, but hey–it is the FALL fashion shows, which of course will be shown in deeper-toned fabrics. (Designers’ names are under the picture, newspaper-caption style.)

L’Wren Scott

Chloe

Vuitton

Missoni

Missoni

Creating · Quilts · WIP

WIP–Halloween Quilt

Elizabeth E.4 Comments

So this is the plan.

Our little Quilt Group (Good Heart Quilters) wants to do an exchange of fat quarters in October of Halloween Fabric.  I’ve already got mine ready to go, but then I thought–go where?  So I got out my quilt program and cooked up this little house quilt.  This is digital–I’ll be working on mine for the next month, but I can see someone appliqueing ghosts coming out of doors, embellishments, witches riding in the sky.

I made up the plan for this quilt.  I call it “The Plan” because I couldn’t figure out how much bigger to print it out to make it real, honest-to-goodness templates. So, in case you want to make yourself a quick little Halloween House Quilt, here is a free PDF file for download:

halloweenhouseCORRECTDownload

Warning — it’s an oldie (but goodie)! I also envisioned using this paper as a place to lay out your cut pieces, so you know you’ve cut the right ones.

Please use the dimensions given to cut your pieces, as believe me when I say I doubt very much it will print to the right scale.  Forgive me, I didn’t take that class in college.  This post is to get you thinking about what fabrics you’ll use, and how you’ll use them.

I’ll have more later on about construction, but tomorrow I’m getting on an airplane and going to my nephew’s wedding in Salt Lake City, Utah and plan to celebrate some newlyweds.  I will have a post on FSFriday, so you can see what I finished this week, and when I return I’ll start into the fabric cutting and piecing for Halloween House Quilt.

I used to link in to this WIP every Wednesday.  This post was one of them.