Kate's Perspective

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Friday, April 29, 2005

Say it ain't so, Jane!

My favorite local quilt shop owner has decided to retire and close her store! The tiny silver lining is the big sale described here. Waaaahh!

posted at 12:11 PM # (2) comments

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Design Wall

I made a little progress on the quilt blocks this weekend. I borrowed a piece of miscellaneous construction material from the neighbors for a design wall. Covered with a piece of muslin, it works pretty well though I need a much bigger piece. These blocks aren't supposed to be adjacent to each other-- they'll alternate with the 36-patch.

Instead of sewing up my blocks, I started fantasizing about better layouts for the sewing room. Before I knew it I was making scale drawings and poring over the IKEA catalog. Stay tuned for big changes! (Well, don't hold your breath... it might take a long time to manifest in this dimension.)

posted at 8:17 AM # (5) comments

Friday, April 22, 2005

Quilt Link of the Day

Quilters' S.O.S - Save Our Stories (at the Alliance for American Quilts)
Go read an interview with your favorite quilter. I'm off to sort my new fabrics for more Gridlock blocks. Happy weekend!

posted at 8:53 PM # (1) comments

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Gridlock

I'm working on a new project: the Gridlock quilt from Glorious Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy. It's a challenge for me, as the contrast is deliberately low and evokes the color changes seen in rug-weaving. (You know, where the coral-colored wool runs out, so the weaver substitutes pale peach for a small section of the design?) I love the rich effect, and am very interested in the way the colors are shaded, faded, and blended together yet remain luminous and bright. See?

[This is the quilt from the book-- you can see this picture and order a kit with similar fabrics from www.gloriouspatchwork.com. No affiliation, by the way.]
I didn't intend to copy the quilt as pictured in the book, but I am finding that it is helpful to mimic the color work as I learn to understand the design. Even with the book to guide me, playing with the many many shades to create one block is exhausting. And I haven't even tried the 36-patch blocks, with their many subtle color shifts. So far I've made two of the framed square blocks. I really like the purple one, but the blue one is a little disappointing. It seems like there are stripes of equal width, and I'd prefer the gradation to be a little more subtle and varied. I'll leave it alone for now to see how it works with the whole, but later I might rearrange things a little bit.

[These look a little rough around the edges-- please excuse my photo editor. He's very sleepy, and I am just grateful that he slapped this up here for me while I type. Thank you, sweetie!]

At this point, I took a break and sparked up the Internet to seek further inspiration. I found pictures of other quilts made from this pattern here and here. I found Liza Prior Lucy's pastel version of this quilt, made for a more recent book, here. And most interesting of all, I found this 2001 interview which specifically discusses the inspiration for and the creation of the original Gridlock quilt.

After a good night's sleep, I'll be ready try some more blocks over the weekend. Good night!

posted at 10:35 PM # (7) comments

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Knitting Pals

It's so great to have knitting pals. I have always wanted to know people who shared my interest (obsession?) in knitting, quilting, what-have-you. And now I not only know people who share my interest, I know EXPERTS! Cindy is a master of the art of Aran knitting. She's always got at least one multi-cabled, heavily textured, wool beauty on the needles and her needles fly along while she talks and looks you in the eye. (How can she do that without looking? Impressive.) And Rosie always has complicated patterned socks on the needles, just in case she forgets her knitting bag which contains an in-progress Koigu jacket made of 4000 multi-colored mitered squares in many sizes and hues. We talk about yarns and patterns and alterations and no matter what your level, there's something of interest. The rest of the gang couldn't make it last night, but Cindy, Rosie and I met up for stitchin' and bitchin'. The weather is so fine here, that we have little to bitch about. Instead I finished the second little baby hat from Rowan Calmer yarn-- and now I have blue and red leftovers to make a third, striped hat. I am not pulling my weight in complicated projects to inspire and awe the masses-- but somebody has to bring up the rear. It's my pleasure to do so when the company is so nice.

posted at 4:40 PM # (2) comments

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Nice Weather = Sewing?

Yes, when the weather is beautiful, I like to sew. (I also like to sew when it snows, but not very much when it rains. Hmm.) Both local sets of grandparents took a turn with Lydia and then John watched her while I worked on a sundress in the sewing room. It was wonderful! I plan to make at least one more of these little pinafore/bloomer sets, just like the ones my paternal grandmother made for me when I was little. Lydia has already outgrown my old one, which was a blue gingham check. It's so much fun to make her tiny clothes. It never occurred to me that some of the details are too small to be sewn on the machine and require hand-seaming.

A few weeks ago I was inspired to work small like Alex Anderson, and then this week Margaret Lutzke brought her large-scale quilts to our local guild and spoke about color and design. I got inspired to work big! Several of Margaret's quilts were based on patterns from two of my favorite books (Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Patchwork and Marsha McCloskey/Sharon Yenter's Blended Quilts) and once again I was struck by the difference between a photograph and the actual quilt. The actual quilts are so much more vivid and exciting than any photographs. The scale (whether large or small) makes a bigger impact in person.

I've been soaking up inspiration from books, lectures, and workshops these last two weeks and I've actually become over-stimulated! My fingers are itching to work. So I'm slowly working away at my 8-year-old hand-quilting project. Give me two more years, and I'm pretty sure I'll have it ready for binding!

posted at 9:25 PM # (9) comments

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Looking forward to...

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival: A Young family tradition since 2002-- Now with more Lydia.
Practicing free-motion quilting. Click here for inspiration.
Two visits from my favorite residents of Washington State... Bridget, and then Tiffany!
The official debut of the Guerilla Drive In.

Spring is my favorite time of year. Here's a fresh color scheme to brighten things up for a bit!

posted at 7:40 PM # (3) comments

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