Quilts

Jazz, Light, Montreal, a Four-in-Art Quilt, November 2014

November 1, 2014November 1, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Jazz, Light, Montreal
#5 in the Urban Series

When the challenge theme was announced, of Light, I started looking and noticing urban light–both that which sheds or projects the light, and that which receives the light. Multi-hued lights intrigued me, as well as light fixtures (as you saw before). I was also interested in reflections of city lights on windows and in rain puddles. But in the end, I went with a memory–the graceful arching lights of Montreal, swirling over the Jazz Festival that was in its final days.

Montreal City Lights

Yet the artistry in that photograph comes partly because of the different widths of the light poles, changing from thicker to more slender as they were sited in the field of view.

I fiddled and widgeted my stuff, moving and trying to get that look but with my bias tape, I could not really manipulate the widths easily, although I tried. So mine resembles a spider the day AFTER Halloween, squished beyond recognition. How appropriate that today’s reveal date is November 1st. Since this little foray into representation is not one of my favorite art quilts I’m not going to do a deconstruction post. I tried out multiple brown fabrics and thought about trying to mimic the interesting placement of windows as shown in the photo above, but in the end, went with one that conveyed the pane-pierced facade. Okay, maybe not so much, but I gave it a try. I fused it on, satin-stitched around it. Sewed down the light posts, then used a zig-zag stitch to quilt clouds into the sky.

In fact, the more I write about this, the more I realize that not every art quilt will challenge me to learn a new technique, which is what I want to do. Sometimes you come to the project tired and worn out and your brain cells look more and more like the spotted building in my art quilt, or perhaps that splayed spider thingie and pulling out the stops means Getting It Done and Moving On.

I do like the back quite well. No complaint about that Anna Maria Horner fabric from eons ago. And ever since Betty started putting labels on hers, I’ve copied her example and now have a lovely collection of art quilts, properly provenanced. The quilt is 12″ square, and I used a fancy little bit for the binding (hoping it would redeem the front?).

But the best thing is the memory of that horribly hot night, sitting on the steps listening to jazz, getting photo-bombed by a tourist behind me who turned out to be a quilter, and we spent a long time showing each other quilt photos from our phones. I look somewhat different now, but it was a great night watching people bee-bop to the doo-wap (try and find them!), sitting under that graceful swirling street light.

Normally we only have four challenges a year (hence, the name: Four-in-Art), but this year we decided to jive up to the calendar year, and so added in this last challenge, making it a #5. In the next cycle we’ll be back to four, and we’re trying something different. Our overall theme will be Literature, but each quilter will think up her own quarterly challenge, instead of having a group challenge. We’ll still reveal on the first days of February, May, August and November. We have also had some subtractions and additions in the last few weeks, so won’t have a full compliment of eight quilters until next February.

Come see what other quilters in our Four-in-Art Group have done!
Amanda at www.whatthebobbin.com
Betty at Flickr//www.flickr.com/photos/toot2/with/12251011196
Nancy at patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com
Rachel at rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com
Simone at quiltalicious.blogspot.com
Anne at SpringLeaf Studio

and please head *here* to vote for Anne’s Cascade quilt, a finalist in the Craftsy Pattern Design Awards!!

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Coming in a couple of days. . .

Circles Block #6!

Quilts

Ralli Quilts and Conversations

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

I was fascinated by all the comments left on my last post about whether to not you choose to answer every comment on your blogs. The trigger, of course, was a couple of articles from 99U which is a site geared toward business types. In talking about this with Cindy, of Live a Coloful Life, we both remember the early days of blogging, where reply comments were not the norm, but instead of replying to a comment, you’d head over to their blog and leave a comment. A couple of comments referred to this, such as this one from Barb: “I also would rather someone comment on my blog rather than spending time replaying to my comment on theirs. That would be a great agreement; instead of replaying, comment more on others blogs.”

Some of you came up with your own name for those snippets of comments. I liked Susan’s observation: “‘Nice Quilt’ is what I would consider a conversation ender. If someone says something like “that’s a really nice quilt, I like the blah feature” then I consider that a conversation opener.”

Nancy echoed many comments when she wrote “I like the interaction between people, albeit virtual, through blogs. I have made some blogging friendships of which I am truly glad. I leave comments about blogs that have given me inspiration, a lesson, beauty, a smile, or something to think about–the start of maybe a brief conversation. I think of blogging as a way to interact with others of like interests. In my smaller physical community, it is difficult to find the more artistic quilters or those who self-design, so I turn to blogs.”

I’ll leave the final word to Claire about our blog reading, as she describes exactly how I feel: “All this assumes a normal day with a leisurely coffee break while I read email and blogs. Other days I skim and probably miss wonders.”

Well said, Claire.

All of these quilts are from an exhibit I recently saw in Utah at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. They are known as Ralli Quilts, and are from Pakistan and India (see map at end of post). I was amazed at all the stitching, the detail, and the colors (like the quilt above–I couldn’t get my camera to adjust to the deep reds).

These were all found by Dr. Patricia Stoddard, a friend of my sister Susan (who tipped me off to this exhibit). The website about these quilts is found *here* and is interesting reading. Her book, a veritable catalogue of the quilts, can be obtained *here.*

I loved the contemporary look of these quilts, many made in the 1970s. There are several sites that sell newer ralli quilts and can be found by a search on Google.

This reminded me of the Trip Around the World Quilts, a sensation on Instagram last year.

Improv piecing anyone? Often the women saved time by piecing printed textiles together, rather than doing their appliqué.

One of my favorites; I put the closeup on Instagram. It was a good afternoon there at the museum, looking at quilts that are out of our quilting mainstream, a good antidote to the quilt market frenzy on social media. Their vivid colors and patterns reminded me that time spent with patchwork and colors can bring a quiet satisfaction and an entry into the wider world of quilting.

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Our Four-in-Art quilt group will be revealing their final challenge of this year on November 1st. Occasionally we have an opening for someone who wants to play along. No shipping required, just a willingness to engage in new ideas, new techniques of your own choosing. Leave a comment and your blog address if you are interested.

And then a couple of days after that, I’ll have my November Circle Block ready to show you, plus a variation that may interest you for the holidays!

Quilts

Thinking about our Dialogue: Comments

October 22, 2014October 21, 2014 Elizabeth E.27 Comments

(illustration from *here*)

Okay, quilters, fess up. How many of you feel compelled to answer back every comment that shows up on your blog, whether it needs an answer or not? Those comments land on our blogs, our IG feeds, and sometimes Flickr posts, then often make our way to our email boxes. Do you need to respond to them? Should you respond to them?

According to the 99U article on being efficient with our time, we should not respond unless there is a question. Yet Seth Godin observes that “many people do, because there doesn’t seem to be a great alternative. It’s asymmetrical, and productivity loses to politeness.”

So according to Godin we choose being polite vs. being productive. You should know that I am the Thank-You-Note Queen of the Universe, taught well by my mother. I try to write a thank you to every gift, or acknowledge some kind gesture. I believe in thank you notes. But the digital universe is not the same thing as the real world. I say, if the the comment requires some response or has a question, I try to answer them. However, I don’t write back to every comment on my blog because some are of the “drive-by” quality: “nice quilt,” or “great colors” or “Awesome!” I’ve left a few “drive-by comments” myself and I’m just acknowledging the blog post or the blogger’s work or the subject, and I certainly don’t expect a response.

In a related article, Elizabeth Saunders recommends that “Before you send a reply, ask yourself: are you responding just to reply, to show you’re paying attention, or just to say “thanks?” If so, you’re typically wasting time that could be spent producing something of value and only encouraging people to respond, thus adding more email to your inbox.”

She has a great point, but some of my treasured long-distance friendships have come about because of the correspondence that developed from their first comment, and I’m loathe to pass up a gold– or a silver — friend. As Scott Belsky says, “My thinking: email may drive us crazy, but it is still a form of communication with people, and communication helps build relationships.” It’s a balance. Often comments springboard me to a new post, as engaged readers have interesting things to bring to the conversation. I often view this whole process as a dialogue, reading each comment carefully, weighing and considering what was written, enjoying our discussion.

What do you do? Do those comments in your inbox nag you until you answer them all? Or do you use Saunder’s advice, responding when needed?

Quilts

Thinking About Light

October 20, 2014October 17, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

The next challenge reveal for our Four-in-Art Group is coming up on November 1st, and I’ve been thinking about the theme and how to interpret it. The year-long theme is Urban, and this challenge is Light, Lighting, Lights. Since we are city- or manmade-based this year, that lets out things like the Northern Lights, moon, sun or stars.

We actually have an art installation here in LA, in the museum of art, titled “Urban Lights,” and it is a series of vintage lampposts ranging from large to small and as early as the 1900s. Scroll quickly through the following photos to see what a magnet this is for Los Angelenos (all taken from Instagram):