(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Trying new techniques on a couple of quilts for this great project.

More inspiration...

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These are the kind of easter eggs I made growing up. They're called pysanka and they're a traditional Ukranian art form. I'm an only child and my mom was mostly at home with me when I was growing up, so I got to do a lot of stuff that would have been too difficult with more kids. These eggs were one of those things.

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You make them by carefully applying wax from a stylus, which you hold over a flame to heat. When you apply the wax it masks off the area it covers so that part won't dye any more. You move from the lightest color to the darkest and then at the end you carefully hold the egg by a flame and melt off all the wax to reveal the design.

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Many of the traditional motifs bear a strong resemblance to quilting designs. These are up there with middle-eastern architecture as far as inspiration goes. I never thought I'd want to embroider or hand quilt, but I'm going to JoAnn's for a hoop later today. I think that's where the design demons are leading me...

Laptop Sleeve

Today was a remarkably unproductive day as far as making the necessary revisions to my thesis. I procrastinated by watching the latest episode of Mythbusters and making a protective sleeve for my laptop. The fabric is from the Legacy Studio Fresh Fusion line and I love love love it. I already made myself a pillow case out of the same fabric and went back to buy more, plus coordinates. The laptop case is a tight squeeze, but it fits. I'm using over-all snaps to make a removable shoulder strap (not attached in the picture.) All in all, it was a successful, academically-unproductive day.

Border audition

A completed draft of the thesis is done and my poster presentation session was this morning so I did some celebratory sewing this afternoon. I am still cutting 2.5" squares out of every mostly-solid-colored fabric I can find. In the process I kind of went nuts on my stash. There were fabric piles on every surface. I cut a lot of selvages off and they are heading off tomorrow to Jacquie who recently made a stunning selvage quilt. I have 73 squares cut. I strip pieced them all onto the white fabric and pressed them flat with my mini iron. Even though I still need 27 squares, equivalent to one whole side of the border, I had to array them and put them up to see how it looks so far. There are a lot of placement problems to solve, but I think I like the way it looks. At first I wasn't sure. Maybe a thin dark border to separate the center from the border? I'm not sure.

I also did my first paper piecing today - those circling geese you see at the top of the wall. There were 8 goose and 12 goose varieties of that block. I decided to start with the 8 goose block, which I think was a pretty wise choice. That one is done in some scraps as a learning piece, but I have plans to make quite a few of them to go with the striped diamond blocks. I'll give you a hint, I'm calling it "Kites and Geese" for now.

Going through a phase...

When I start to get the itch for a particular design idea I go looking for pictures that inspire me. The 'quilts' file on my computer contains nearly 400 photos. I have 20 photos of various bargello quilts, for instance. Right now I'm still stuck on middle eastern designs. Today while waiting for my research poster to print I spent an hour and a half searching for more images (see my first post) of Arabic architecture and decoration. The geometric designs appeal to me most, but the intricate, swirling floral designs are a close second. I'd give anything to be able to quilt like that. I think it would be the most beautiful, dense, artistic quilting I can imagine.

This particular line design, with the stars, seems to be very very common in various iterations. There are versions with six pointed stars, eight pointed stars, and even more. Some have hexagons in the negative space and some have 5 pointed stars. I'm completely fascinated by the complexity and the variety. This is definitely something I'll be experimenting with in my quilting. Since it's all straight lines I know I can do it with a ruler and fabric marking pencil.

I would like to make quilt patterns based on these type of wood panel designs. I had expected that someone would have done it already, but for the life of me I can't find it! Last night I finally found one picture that appears to be a variation of the same stars pattern, but it's only of a portion of the quilt and I haven't been able to find anymore. Still, it's extremely helpful to see how it might be done. I'm not sure how or when these designs will be realized in actual quilts, but it's definitely going to happen.

Not really a color person...

Until recently, if you'd asked me I would have told you that I'm not really a "color" person. I prefer browns and neutrals, in fact the only color I really am drawn to is blue. Nearly everything I own is blue - which can make coordinating outfits a problem. So, I don't know what the deal is, but scrap quilts seem to be bringing out my colorful side. First there was the whirligig quilt and now this rainbow string quilt. Strangely enough, I'm really loving the color!

I've been stitching on this whenever I got stuck on my thesis. I had the idea to sash it the other day and I definitely think it was the right choice. It's not done yet - I think the border is really going to put this one over the top. Before I can make it I have to cut a 2.5" square out of every fabric I own, no repeats! I think I need about 100 different squares. This is going to be a gift to my scholarship donors. I had another larger, in my opinion much nicer quilt for them nearly finished when it ended in a tragic quilt-tastrophe which I will tell you about another time. I hadn't been able to summon up the will to make another for them, but time is getting short and I think they'll enjoy this one almost as well.

On the home front, the thesis is coming along. Most of the hard work is done, whoohoo! I feel pretty awful today. The blood work indicated that my ferritin was low so I am taking a high dose of iron supplement. I had been taking an antibiotic for my cold but last night I started having a bizarre and painful reaction to it (at least let's hope the nurse was right and that's what caused it, otherwise I'll be heading to the urgent care clinic). So no more antibiotics; my stuffy nose and achy head linger on. Ew.

Back to the Grindstone...

I had grand plans for my days off from school. Unfortunately, an unforeseen sore throat and cold sabotaged my plans and I barely managed to get the monster basted today before I have to head back to school tomorrow. I'm going to be in full-swing thesis-finishing mode for the next couple weeks. I really need to have it done on Tuesday. As in 7 days from now. Geez.

I went to the doctor this morning to try and get some answers. I get one cold on top of another, and even when I'm in between sicknesses I often have day-long spells of lethargy, full-body muscle ache, and stale head aches. The doctor said "Yeah, unfortunately that's kind of normal for people your age." Really?! Because I live with a bunch of people my age and none of them are nearly as sick as me. Anyway, they ran a blood panel so maybe that will come back with an explanation.

The bargello quilt won't be going back with me since there's no way I can quilt it there. I wanted to get in a trial run, but didn't, so I'm still not sure if I'll be able to quilt it at all. That remains to be seen. I basted it the way I've done the past couple pf quilts: by pushing back my parents living room furniture and rolling up the rug. I tape the quilt back (right side down) to the floor and then add the batting and top. I pinned it moving in rows from one side to the other. I rationed my pins because I was afraid I would run out and ended up with leftovers. The pinning isn't as dense as I usually use, but I think it'll be okay.

I may post some more older projects, but there should be no more new progress on the sewing front until I dig myself out of thesis hell sometime next week.