Art Muses/Art Musings

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Elizabeth E.

Everyonce in a while it’s good to leave your tribe and take a look at what other artists are doing. It also helps to be in recovery from shoulder surgery so when that rabbit hole in Instagram opens up, you ~~have too much time~~ are free to follow where it leads.

Photo: Polly Apfelbaum assembling “Mojo Jojo,” Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2013. (from DrawingCenter on IG)

I first followed the Polly Apfelbaum hashtag. She is an artist about my age, and still producing interesting and thoughtful works of art, many which seem to intersect my world of quilting. I grabbed this screen shot from DrawingCenter, who also had a series of quotes from her, which I loved:

“Her interdisciplinary approach is most notable in her floor pieces that she refers to as “fallen paintings,” the series of work that she best known for. Laid on the floor in intricate and somewhat psychedelic patterns and forms, the paintings are made of fabrics that have been dyed brilliant hues. The striking use of color aligns her work with abstract expressionism, but rejects the hypermasculinity of the style through the use of fabric and horizontal orientation. Apfelbaum explains that “[the] floor was a place that was inclusive but I could also be reverent.” By installing on the floor, viewers are able to walk around the art making the piece more fluid and approachable.”

She goes on to say “that she wanted “a relaxed sense of form, a form that was more abstract, a form that could kind of be chameleon-like, it could go from talking about minimalism, but could also talk about maximalism…and to craft.” Indeed, the dialogues around her hybridized work are wide-ranging and include feminism, religion, outsider art, and domesticity.”

Loved the “hypermasculinity” idea, reminding me of when I proposed a show of quilts to my Art Professor in college. “Over my dead body,” he said. It was then I realized that quilts were essentially, in his mind, NOT art, but I daresay they might be called “hyperfeminine” with the use of fabric, of soft construction.

Polly Apfelbaum_2

Apfelbaum also works by creating shaped woodcuts, which are then inked in vibrant colors, then placed in a design. Of course I think it looks like a quilt. More images, below:

Polly Apfelbaum_3 Polly Apfelbaum_4 Polly Apfelbaum_5 Polly Apfelbaum_6

This last one is especially quilt-like, I think, in terms of the shapes. Is the quilting world is having an impact on others? They probably don’t know we exist, but I do believe in the idea of cross-pollination:

Luis Zerbini2.jpg

Luis Zerbini.jpg

These last two are by Luis Zerbini, a Brazilian artist. The second one is definately an Orange Peel block, or a Wedding Ring variant, if you ask me. Even housework can inspire art:

Lynn Aldrich‘s Coral Landscapes made from house cleaning items; the one on the left is titled Marine Preserve. I wonder if the one on the right is a wannabe Lynn Aldrich?

from OpEdgeArt

Anyone for some Nine-Patch? With pieced sashings? Start cutting up your solid scraps into squares.

The art world can also be an interesting way to learn about value, a classic part of creating an interesting quilt. I’ve tried to include the sources so you can go and have a look:

Bringing this to a workshop would certainly get everyone’s attention about the impact of using those light-to-dark values.

I’m pretty sure she does this with make-up.

A screen shot of my Saved images from this morning. I’ve started making categories and put some of these in the Random Color/Art category of my saves. Just after you hit that little ribbon to save, the prompt comes up: Save to Collection. Tap that, and then either direct the save into a category, or make a new one. It helps in finding things.

You might want to try to what I call “focused browsing” if your eyes are glazing over after looking at three billion quilts in your feed, and you’ll scream if you see another heavily curated shot with threads and scissors everywhere where you feel like you are trapped in the Dungeon of Cute.

a screen shot of the #colortheoryandaffect hashtag on IG

Some of the hashtags I followed were #gridart, or #hardedgepainting, or the names of the artists themselves. @DurhamPress also had some interesting images. Sometimes I would go to an artist, click on the name of the gallery they were showing at, then look at what the gallery had.

Yes, a little focused browsing might just clear the mind a little.

from @gorkiegork

Queen Bee for Gridsters 2019

Posted on February 1, 2019 by Elizabeth E.

(see below for the winners of the Temperature Giveaway)

gridsters 500 with label

February is my month to be Queen Bee, a phrase I picked up from hanging-out-across-the-ocean with Susan of Patchwork and Play (she lives in Melbourne). I’ve gone through about a million different permutations, but in the end, I’m playing it safe and asking my beemates to build me a series of little houses, like the ones I saw as a teenager in the Daly City area, near San Francisco.

daly city

We’d drive up the newly built 280 freeway, look out through gaps in the trees and see the houses like zippers in the landscape.

dolores heights sf_2

There are lots of houses also in Dolores Heights.

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But the USA doesn’t have a lock on houses crammed together: the first photo with the red house was from one of the villages in Cinque Terre, and the one just above is Porto Venere, Italy.

Dubrovnik, Croatia.

little houses

We’ll see what my beemates come up with. I’ve mailed them all the pattern, and look forward to seeing their creations!

Thank you to all who entered the Giveaway for coldest and for hottest place you’ve ever been. I started out by reading all the coldest, then had to go and put on another sweater; so many referenced the brutal cold the Midwest is experiencing. Our hearts go out to you.

Although I was shivering by the time I finished Celia’s story of walking in the snow in ballet flats, the winner of the coldest packet is Susan Shaw, with her story of sledding with her brothers:

Coldest Day.png

I used to live in Wisconsin, and one summer we moved to Texas. The A/C broke and my children and I sweltered in 100+ hea for week. We’d gone from wearing our winter coats to the 4th of July parade to two weeks later, melting in the home.

So many of you had great “hottest” stories, but I totally related to Beth, who had to endure no A/C with all her little children:

Hottest Day.png

I hope you all stay warm…or cool, whatever the case may be! I’ll be in touch via email to notify the winners. Thank you all for entering!

Temperature Quilt & Giveaway

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Elizabeth E.

temperature quilt_10

I’ve jumped on that colorful bandwagon and am making a Temperature Quilt, or as my scientist husband likes to refer to it: a Heat Map. ~~And, I’m hosting a~~

~~…so keep reading for how you can win. Teaser:~~

No, it’s not a Featherweight…

Giveaway now closed.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

screen shot 2019-01-25 at 8.03.43 pm

Here are some examples of heat maps:

World Touristiness: in other words, where the most photographs are snapped.

Gym locations in Washington DC

Gas Prices 2014

Tornado Watches, 20 year average

heat map_australia 2017 feb

And one we are most used to: temperature heat maps. By the way, between the polar vortex and Australia’s heat waves, the heat maps this year are really getting quite the range.

Over the space of a few days, I’d looked up the range of temperatures in my area, chosen my colors, and then set to choosing colors. I had bins of my favorite solid fabrics: Painter’s Palette by Paintbrush Studio and what I didn’t have, I found at the Pineapple Fabrics booth at the Road to California, which just happened to be open this week. (See below for more information and the giveaway). temperature quilt_1 temperature quilt_2

This swatch line-up is mostly accurate, but I have made some changes, reflected in the chart, although I did swap out Beryl 095 for Agave 094.

I made myself a preliminary chart, but by looking at Weather Underground’s calendar for this month for my city, I could see I would need to add a couple more lows. The chart on the right is the final one, and I added a color for rain, since that’s a Big Deal around here. Here’s the website for my city; you can type in yours and get your own calendar.

I was following along with Michonne’s Instagram posts for her Temperature Quilt last year. Like me, she’s not a fan of the heat (she lives in a hot climate, too) and since I didn’t want a whole quilt of reds and oranges, I switched up my colors. I don’t think it matters what you do, just keep a chart and be consistent.

temperature quilt_3

Because I recently had rotator cuff repair surgery (aha! you knew it had been quiet around here…well that’s why), I was back to drawing lines on cloth and cutting them apart with scissors. It’s my right arm that’s out of commission, so no rotary cutting for me for a while. temperature quilt_4

I put them all in little baggies, labeled with their place in the chart, the color number and name, and the temperature degrees spread. I went with a three-degree spread because I wanted a lot of variation and colors. temperature quilt_5 temperature quilt_3a temperature quilt_6

I only made a few of this color, because if it’s over 115 for too many days, I don’t know what I’ll do.

temperature quilt_7b

If the day is warmer than the day before, the middle arrow points upward.
If the day is cooler than the previous day, the middle arrow points down.
If it’s a tie, I’ll look at the day’s low temperature and let that be the deciding factor.
If everything is a tie, then it stays pointing up.
Rain triangles always go on the left side of the big triangle when it’s pointing up (even if it is flipped around). temperature quilt_8

I penciled in the date in the seam allowances. temperature quilt_8a

It’s interesting sewing with the dominant hand mostly out of commission. I’ve gotten better at wrangling the iron left-handed. And I iron in steps, as shown above. Everything is s l o w e r.

temperature quilt_9

I was excited to get this to use for tracing around for cutting, but whoops. This just won’t do.
I corresponded with the company and apparently I need to iron the seam allowances toward the smaller triangles to make it work. I haven’t done that. Those of you who are long-time readers know I appreciate the sculpting that can happen with the direction the seam allowances are pressed. Because I want the larger triangle to pop, this won’t work, but I’m keeping this ruler around anyway. (I ended up using a smaller 4 -1/2″ ruler with a rough undersurface to help things from slipping around.) [And no, I’m not obsessing if the tip of a triangle is cut off a bit. There’ll be over 365 of those in this quilt, and since I’m working left-handed, it’s a miracle they are even sewn.]

temperature quilt_10

And so here I am on this nearly last day of January. I planned this so I’d have pinks in the scorching temps and lots of blues in the moderate temps, but was surprised at the combination of oranges and greens in January’s temps.

It reminds me of the citrus bushes next to my driveway (kumquats) and if you ever drive by, you are welcome to pick some. It’s citrus-picking season around here (Valencia oranges come on later in the season). But no worries, I’ve lived before in Wisconsin in during one of the coldest-it’s-been-in-80-years winters, so I am familiar with how it feels be up North. Obviously their temperature maps this year will be blasting open the lower ranges of possibility:

(By the way, more than happy to see the National Weather Service and NOAA back up and running!)

Pineapple Fabrics is the place where I buy all my Painter’s Palette. (If you use that link, you’ll be taken right to the place to purchase the fabrics.) There are several of us who are total manaical fans of this fabric and after you try it, you’ll be converted. Linda has written about why you should try this fabric; I’m in love not only with the colorfastness, but the silky hand and fine weave.

I’d like you to be able to try some. Because I can’t get to the Post Office (not cleared for driving yet), and because my husband is the one doing all my errands, I’m going to limit this to U.S. readers only.

And you’ve got to get your quilts quilted, right?

Colorwheel Blossom_quilting

Quilting _Annularity4a thread

When I did the top quilt, all in a rainbow, Magnifico was just new on the market. Some of those sections are Magnifico, some are So Fine, both threads by Superior Threads Company.

But when I quilted my two most recent quilts: Northern Lights Medallion and Annularity, it was Magnifico all the way for one reason: it makes your quilting look great. Superior Threads has graciously agreed to give away some thread, too.

tempquiltgiveaway_2

If you want to win this bundle, leave me a comment about the hottest day you can remember and where it was.

tempquiltgiveaway_3

If you want to win this bundle, leave me a comment about the coldest day you ever lived through and where it was.

Both bundles have one spool of Magnifico Thread, and two yards of Painter’s Palette Solids. Yep — you have to choose: either the Hottest or the Coldest. If you write for both (always interesting) I’ll use the first comment you left for your entry. If you are a follower, you get two double chances. I’ll close the giveaway February 1st.

And many thanks to our donors:

superior threads

pineapple fabrics

Leave me a comment!

Giveaway now closed. Thank you for entering!

Gridsters Blocks (January 2019) and Affinity software review

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Elizabeth E.

gridsters-250-buttonx

The Gridsters are starting on their third year, and it’s been a delight to discover the variety of styles and choices each member puts forward for us to make for them. Carol was our Queen Bee for January, and she asked us for blocks designed by Kristina of Center Street Quilts.

gridster jan sewing gridster jan2019_1 I chose Geometric Christmas Tree and Mod Tree, and mailed them off a few days ago.

before

I still haven’t settled my sewing room yet after last fall’s room switchearound, but in the meantime, I’ve been trying to get everything off the floor and into some semblance of order. sewing room_2 sewing room_3

My husband and I needed only two trips to IKEA to make this one work. sewing room_3a

We purchased a new light from Lowe’s Hardware that goes under the bookshelves, and boy, does it blast the lumens into the room. I love it, and love that it is an LED which doesn’t give off much heat nor consume as much energy. And I can see everything in my tiny sewing universe when I turn it on. sewing room_4

The ironing board gets set up in front, so the iron is parked on the right. In the first bin on the top of the shelves, I put all those mini charm packs, and other random charm packs. I don’t buy many precuts, and so they all fit in there. The second shallower bin holds Featherweight Sewing Machine Stuff, as I purchased another Featherweight this fall when a neighbor cleaned out her mother’s storage unit and discovered that her mother had collected all these old sewing machines. I’d also gone to a garage sale, where they had a box of feet and attachments; they appear to belong to the Featherweight, but I’m still researching. One woman’s trash is another quilter’s treasure.

And I’m still trying to make the bins useful, so this will change as I work in here. Right now the upper left holds stuff for Bee Happy, a quilt that my friend Leisa and I chose to do as a long-term project. And as she says, “No deadlines. If it takes us two years, so what!”

merrionsquare_1

Been working on this, both in cloth and in pattern.

Affinity Apps.png

I decided to try to upgrade my pattern-writing skills, unsatisfied with my Microsoft Word approach. I’d been using Affinity’s Photo and Designer software, which everyone knows is sort of a replacement for the Adobe Creative Suite. I didn’t want to join in the subscription plan that Adobe wanted me to, so found the Affinity (all 20% now for Christmas–so that makes it around $40 for the Photo and other software in their store–quite a difference from the Adobe prices!).

Affinity Publisher Beta.png

This past fall, they released the free beta version of their Affinity Publisher, which I couldn’t wait to try. They’ve had two upgrades since I started playing around with it, and each has improved the flow and workability of the app. I can’t wait for it to be released in its final version. I also tried to contribute to their Bug and Help forums, you know, to be a good brownie. It wasn’t hard to come up with things to say, because I was working on patterns, but really, at this point, it’s almost ready for launch.

affinity pattern making nlm

I used screen shots from QuiltPro for the basis of my artwork, as they were perfectly sized, then modified them in Affinity Photo, then saved them as illustrations. I opened Affinity Publisher Beta, watched all the training videos (taking notes) and dived in. I finished up one pattern earlier this week, did the pattern for my turn next month as Queen Bee for the Gridsters, and am still working on Northern Lights Medallion (NLM). I’m sorry for the lateness in getting NLM out, but I’m learning as I go, and I wasn’t satisfied with how the templates laid out on the page (exported from QuiltPro) so it’s back to more learning, more Asking the Internet. I’ll get there–thanks for your patience.

new software

Up in Smoke

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Elizabeth E.

Burning LA Library 1

The Los Angeles Central Library was set ablaze by an arsonist on April 29, 1986, an event captured in an excellent recent book by Susan Orleans. The photo above shows the library on fire, and below, a glimpse of the burnt stacks, showing charred remnants of books.

Burning LA Library 2

Librarian Glen Creason writes about that day:

“Even after total resurrection in 1993, when those who stuck it out returned to dear old Central, it seemed like a terribly unreal nightmare. Just to ponder 200,000 books destroyed by the act of a madman is bad enough, but to have worked with and touched these objects created by deep thought and intellectual struggle makes the sadness all the more haunting.

“Irreplaceable numbers of hard copy periodicals, drawings from patents, historic maps, fine art prints, photography negatives and newspaper archives were turned into ash or mush by the water that inexorably seeped down the stacks and into the basement. The bottom floor of the venerable landmark became a waterlogged graveyard of collections.”

What does this have to do with us quilters today? Because recently someone set fire to our collective digital library, also known as Craftsy.

Unlike the LA Central, Craftsy (which as of today is changing its name to BluPrint) has no funding from any state or local governments. It is a business, and in that sphere, money — or keeping your business viable — reigns. So while it’s not surprising that they might make changes to keep it profitable (and no one begrudges them that), too many of us, when looking for our favorite patterns this week saw this:

Craftsy Oops.png

A friendly, grandmotherly tone with the “Oh Dear!” but because of the lack of punctuation, the sympathic murmuring we all say (“Oh, dear!”) was turned into a dimishing description. They can get us back on track, they claim, as “things aren’t going as planned.” No kidding.

It’s my turn coming up on Gridster Bee and I was reviewing past bee blocks I’ve seen and made for others, trying to audition one for this month. Time after time, I clicked on the links I’d carefully imbedded in blog posts, only to see the Oh Dear! Craftsy notice.

I had earlier received the notice that I was one of the designers they decided to keep, but waited to see what would happen. My collection of nearly 15 patterns was reduced to this one pattern:

craftsy ese oops

I had some revisions in process, so was able to upload them, but doubt I’ll be allowed to do more. But more importantly, some of my favorite pattern makers are gone:

This one was mine.

I would have liked some notice that they were going to ransack our digital library, burn the books and torch the shelves. I imagine some of you would have liked that, too. Couldn’t they have tagged our patterns, letting us know they were headed for the dustbin, and then a week later, we could have taken them off the site ourselves? Would it have been feasible for them to start charging us and letting us keep our “store”? I would have been fine with that, for of course we should pay our way.

And…why did this happen the week before Christmas? It felt like one of those “release-the-horrible-news-on-Friday-and-maybe-no-one-will-notice-by-Monday” sort of things.

payhip_logo-small

For awhile I’ve had patterns up on PayHip, which also satsifies the VAT issue payment. To search PayHip, use Google. Type in “quilt patterns payhip” and you’ll see a large listing of creatives already on that site. Another way to the patterns is through direct links, such as the one to the right on my blog.

PayHip OPQuilt site

For now the takeaway is: download anything you like for, without warning, it may suddenly go up in smoke.

from here

Postscript regarding Craftsy/BluPrint: I have created a folder on my own hard drive, and downloaded into one place all the patterns I’d purchased on Craftsy which I also uploaded to the Cloud (I use Dropbox). I’d suggest doing the same.

A Bit Frosty this January

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Elizabeth E.

1shinecirclesquilt

Remember this?

Shine_Quilt Top Final800

And this?

This is Shine: The Circles Quilt, and I started it as a English Paper Piecing project, putting the free patterns up on this blog, beginning in 2014. I also have a page dedicated to these blocks, giving out the patterns and tutorials for each, until the last four (which used to live on Craftsy, but that’s another blog post. Coming soon.)

And then this new year, I opened up mail from one of my heros, Becky Goldsmith to see this:

Goldsmith Circles1.jpg

and this:

Goldsmith Circles2.jpg

all advertising her newest endeavor.

As near as I can tell, she has no idea I exist. She is not copying me. She has fancy borders, and has done the quilt twice. I think this is a classic example of what the German’s call “der Zeitgeist” or “the trend of thought and feeling in a period.”

But I am a bit frosty about this, for one reason only: she has a megaphone, and I have only this blog. I used to have a blog and a Craftsy site (!), but I guess I also have Instagram, which might have a zillion followers if I unblocked all those creepy men or Quilt-Content-Thieves. But is it really “frosty” or is it more that I’m jealous? I think the latter.

I still have my Shine patterns here, but really, I have to yield the selling floor to the firepower of Piece O’Cake Designs, in making a quilt with a grid of paper-pieced circles based on the traditional style of a compass rose. I don’t have her readership, her TV show appearances, her mailing list. She’s a tsunami. I’m a wobbly sprinkler on the back lawn. To be truthful, Goldsmith earned her tsunami status through hard work over many years; again, she did NOT copy me at all. I have all of her books, and have made a couple of her designs, so you do have to put me in the category of Total Admirer. But that’s not the issue here.

My takeaway: when quilters come up with designs similar to one another, it’s not always a copyright issue, which is the usual scream that emmanates from the collective online voice. Sometimes it just is the Zeitgeist.

Sometimes the Sew Together Bag is merely a copy of her grandfather’s toiletries kit (this fact mentioned to me while we were standing in line together at Market in Salt Lake City), and my Mini-Sew Together Bag was a version I was working on when I didn’t like the bulk of the original, and my Smile Bag came before byAnnie’s Clam Up bag and perhaps we were both inspired by the bag for the First Class United Airlines customers, and perhaps they were inspired by some ancient Japanese zakka. That’s how these things go.

Edvard Munch’s The Scream

Okay, I feel better now.

Updates to original post are in black text.