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Sunday, December 28, 2014

Fugitive Flower Quilt, on the outset

I promised you a look at my final project for my Color Theory Class, and here it is:


I call it, the Fugitive Flower, because... well, each block is a flower, but joined together in groups the larger secondary designs take over.

It's 30" square and cut from paper (and paint chips for when I couldn't find suitable paper) it's at least 320 colors, though it may be more. The assignment was to use a single design on a 2" square, and then, by repeating the design using different colors, changing the emphasis (so, 225 individual squares). Many people managed this with much less ambitious projects. Mine was, I think, the second most ambitious in the class, and I estimate it took around 60 hours? I initially expected it would take 100 hours, but I managed to save some time when I stopped working on it block by block, and started to fill in swaths of either foreground or background:

filling in the background approaching 150 squares.
And it shows the shreds of paper, where each piece had to be fitted individually.

This next one is similar, but one of my favorite pictures of it, also taken at school in daylight, so that's a plus. Most of the pictures I took of it were Midnight in the Basement pictures.


Anyway, as I'd been posting it to Instagram, everyone kept asking if (or when?) there would be a quilt, so, here you are, here's an answer: Yes, there will be.

I'm working on a Kona 303 quilt (luckily I had some PFD white stashed), and I spent Christmas break labeling the 302 charm squares I'd purchased (actually, with duplicates, there's more than 302...) Then sorting them by color.


And starting to pick out the background:


And making paper pieced templates to use to make the blocks:


This one was a test, to be sure that they could be done with charm squares, and there is easily enough fabric for the 4" size, except in the background where there is only just enough fabric, well, there's a little wiggle room, you can mess up one corner, but one only, just as long it's not one of the larger ones.

I have picked out petal colors, but pairing them to the background and choosing stem fabrics is something I am going to put off until all the petals are complete, because I want to work with the fabric in my hands, rather than using color cards.

So, I'm all set to go! Though there are a few things I should take care of first, like getting my two quiltcon quilts out the door.

And there will be a pattern! I just need to finish selecting the colors, which clearly I'll be doing on the fly. So, it may be a few months... but hopefully worth the wait?

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Many Days of Organization

My school semester was over on Monday, I had two projects due and an exam. Afterwards I came home to my sewing room and just walked away again, because the place was a mess!

I'd bought a few things, and taken out many fabrics off my shelves and left everything in piles on all the surfaces, although my friend pointed out that at least the floor was clear... small victories....

On Tuesday night, I started in to actually sort and put things away. And on Wednesday I began the long process of wrapping fabrics on comic book boards, and by Thursday finally began to reorganize my drawer unit of small cuts so that all the solids could be together.

And on Friday, I had enough room to cut on the cutting board and iron on the ironing board, so I made some pillows, which is the easiest thing, but satisfying, especially after weeks of not having time to sew:


They are this fantastic Rashida Coleman-Hale print on the front and plain old Essex Linen on the back.

Other organizing has been labeling my Kona charm packs:


Currently, I have three packs out of eight done, but it's easy enough sitting in front of the tv work.

And I also made a color card from my RJR cotton supreme fabrics using glue (mod podge) and bristol paper, and the handy labels that Pink Castle provides on their solid cuts:


This is about five or six Color Inspirations bundles worth of colors, plus a few colors I got yardage of (Battleship, guys, so good), so I guess I have a long way to go still! I haven't been in the club, but have been picking up the odd spare bundle from the shop, but I am planning to join in the new year and getting all the bundles! Next year's line up looks very exciting.