Entering a Quilt Show

September 17, 2011February 24, 2012 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

I haven’t entered a quilt show for ages, largely because I haven’t had time to make a quilt that was quilt-show level. I’ve been making lots of quilts for children and daughter/daughters-in-law and some to throw over our sofa at home, but I always think it has to be a hard-enough quilt to enter a show.

I read the application and they said clearly, “no color correction.” Oh-oh. I’d taken all those photos for my quilt journal, but I had to color correct some to get the gray day out of them. And then they said “no cropping.” So I had to retake them all. I hope the judges enjoy the photo of my garage door studio. I tried to get in close enough, and covered the lock with a tissue (for disguise). Above is Come A-Round, one I’m going to enter. I’ve seen this design before in this show, and they may not want to have it in again. Plus I don’t quilt every 1/4″ all over the top of the quilt (I like my quilts to “move” a little) and that has sort of become popular at this particular show.

But still. I’m going to try. Lyon Carolings, above. This one doesn’t have the garage-door-studio look. I found out a setting on the camera to counteract the grayed photos I’d been getting, so I didn’t think that was cheating. I guess it’s only after-the-fact that they don’t want us messing around in Photoshop.

The last one is I want to enter is All Is Safely Gathered In. It’s harder than you think to get the quilt perfectly squared up in the frame, and it has to do with making sure that your camera lens plane is absolutely parallel to the quilt plane, or surface, and that your camera is also physically level with the center of the quilt. This is trickier than it sounds. (I have seven of this photo to prove it.)

Then I thought about the close-up, and what they’ll do with the close-up. We have to submit digital photos and I just know they are going to get their computer out and magnify everything. Every missed stitch, every unbalanced thread, every backstitch instead of burying the tails.

It’s like looking at your morning face in a 15x magnifying mirror. Frightening! Now to fill the application out, put the photos on a CD, write the checks for entry fees, and wait for the ~~rejection~~ acceptance letters.

Quilts

FSF-Pink Junk

September 16, 2011September 15, 2011 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

So, what I have finished this week? Well, Quilt Frolic quilt top and back, for one. And I cleaned out one of my fabric cupboards as I was trying to put the Amy Butlers back in. It was a mess. Or, as they might say in the art world: I deconstructed it.

And I found this, which I’ve titled: Pink Junk. It is an idea gone south, a cake that fell, a headache turned worse and a sewing idea that never should have seen the light of day. I had this idea to sew strips of pink fabric on a fabric base, cut it out and quilt the jacket and then (horrors!) wear this Pepto-Bismol-Mary-Kay color out in public. (No hate mail. I was once a Mary Kay consultant and even met The Woman Herself.)

I like pink. But I am actually really glad that this is a UFO. I’ve pressed it and cut the sewn parts into 6″ blocks. My plan is to sash them up in some fabuloso fabric. I’ll probably have to find something darker to make the contrast work because all these colors are the kind you would find on Bunny Rabbits in the Easter displays. Come to think of it, maybe that was its genesis? As a planned new Easter outfit?

Saved by inertia.

Today I picked this Kaffe Fassett print at our local fabric shop, as all the Kaffes were on sale. And she kept calling them “Calfs.” (I heard from someone who would know that his name has a long a in it, as in KAYfe.) This is the shop that sends out emails with typos and misspellings in them, but at least it makes the shop memorable. I might have mentioned to her the idea that a spellchecker would help the email writer. Can’t be sure. I did make sure that she wasn’t the writer before I might have mentioned it.

They had a terrific Halloween display up with lots of very appealing quilts and fabrics. This was also on clearance (they had three bolts). I loved it, esp. the group of witches in the middle with the scribble overhead. Maybe they’re gossiping? Trading barbecue recipes?

Lastly, in the back of my now-desconstructed closet, I found this group of fabrics. I remember distinctly where and when I bought it. It was in Amish country, outside Washington DC. Two of the quilting ladies from my guild took me to tour the Amish/Mennonite fabric shops, about 90 minutes from where I lived. This grouping, by Robert Kaufman in a deliciously heavy-weight cotton, was all in a row in the last shop we went to that day. What made this place memorable was the lack of electricity (everything was done by hand, including the ringing up of things) and the black Amish buggy parked just outside. From what little I knew about the Amish, I couldn’t believe that they had a fabric shop set up in the side room, just off the patio. And the woman who helped me couldn’t have been strict Old Amish, because her clothing was more contemporary. It was an interesting day, that’s for sure. About six years ago. And I have no idea what I’m going to do with these ornate cottons, but the stack is too beautiful to leave in the fabric closet for another six years.

I think I’d recently been to Venice, Italy and as I look at it, it reminds me of the Carnivale Masks with their swirls and flourishes and gilt touches, as well as the tightly inlaid marble floors in the Cathedral. Do you ever clean out a closet and come face-to-face with fabric you had to have, for some really pressing and urgent reason, yet now it languishes?

If anyone has any suggestions for this fabric, let me know. Right now I’m thinking quilt backs.

Quilts

Quilt Frolic, some thoughts

September 15, 2011September 14, 2011 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

Home stretch time.

Here’s the quilt top, hanging over the upstairs stair rail.

And here’s the backing hanging over the rail. I’ve spent most of the afternoon on this. Do you sometimes feel that making an elaborate back is as much work as the front? And while I do like the idea of pieced backs (I do it quite often) I also REALLY like it when I can stretch out a swatch of Merimekko fabric and just cut out a back in about 20 minutes. Not 3 hours. I had to add some Kaffe Fasset trees on the bottom of the quilt, as I’m saving some of my Amy Butlers for a travel bag. And the trees were just hanging around and given the price I paid for them some time ago, pretty economical. I really have to think hard when the price tag on a yard of quilt fabric is $12. I must admit, I have walked away more than I might have in the past.

I mentioned yesterday that I would post a chart to help keep straight the cutting for this quilt.
Click here to download a PDF file: Quilt Frolic cutting directions

I am not interested in giving away Ashley Newcomb’s fine design, originally titled “Rubik’s Crush,” so you will find that you’ll need the magazine “101 Patchwork Projects and Quilts 2011” to help you complete the quilt. My chart is ONLY for clarity for those who want to make this quilt. Once the cutting difficulties are figured out (the chart should help) it goes together really quickly. I’m quite fond of this quilt!

Note: if requested by either of the above mentioned parties, I will remove the PDF, and you’ll have to contact me by email for my tips. Leave a comment and I will respond.

Quilts · WIP

WIP–Quilt Frolic

September 13, 2011September 14, 2011 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Thanks to Lee for hosting WIP Wednesday, where we can gather round and have a virtual quilt frolic. Yes. Quilt Frolic. According to the book Wild by Design, by Janet Catherine Berlo and Patricia Cox Crew:

“Numerous early-nineteenth-century diaries refer to the fun to be had at an all-day quilt frolic. We think of ‘quilting bee’ as the term for such an event, but in the early ninteenth century, ‘bee’ was reserved for prosaic tasks, like a corn-husking bee. ‘Frolic’ more accurately capture the excitement and high spirits of a quilting party.”

So, since I’m writing this at night and I’m in my jammies and I can only use a flash in my sewing room, I present to you my slightly less-than-wonderful photo of: Quilt Frolic! My husband left for a business trip and our school has a flex day for the full-time teachers, so I get a free day. And I used it to get this sewn up. My work in progress for this week. So glad to have it at this point. Part of the reason I’ve been sort of hem-hawing around about it is because it didn’t have a name.

Some thought about this “modern quilt,” titled Rubrik’s Cube in the magazine. I hate pressing seams open. Period. Unless I need to control for bulk or for seaming purposes (think “Y” seam), I’m going to go with pressing them to one side. Whether it’s an representation of the Modern Quilt movement currently in our lives or a carryover from dressmaking, I don’t know, but I can’t see the value or it, since it didn’t seem to impact my accuracy at all either. And I missed how the seams “lock” into each other while sewing it (pinning is a pain, but I did it). Since I have some blocks pressed seams to one side and some blocks pressed open I can compare their look on the wall. In this particular pattern I can’t really tell the difference unless I get up close. Can you tell I’ve lived through a lot of quilt cycles and fashions? Yes, I have.

The piecing of the 9-patch parts of the quilt were one demon short of a nightmare. Either there was something wrong in the printed directions, or else the way they were laid out was extremely confusing. Some sort of chart would have been more helpful. I’ll put one on the blog at some point, for those following in my footsteps.

And for those of you readers who skip over all the text and head straight to photos, here’s a close-up, still in “terrible nighttime picture mode.” I had been purchasing lots of Amy Butler and large-scale prints for a long while, and even after I piece the back out of that collection, I’ll still have. . . well. . . probably enough for another quilt or two. Anyone else ever over-buy fabric?

I’m sure that’s like asking if the sky is blue.

Here’s a good morning shot of the quilt–much better lighting.