inspiration

Grey/Gray

So, I spent a day organizing my fabric. I'm still not done. But I did get through the main stacks and all my bins. What remains are the scraps, selvages, and ongoing projects.

I organize everything by colour. And I had to get a new bin for one colour. It seems I've been on a bit of a grey kick lately. These fabrics range from almost beige to nearly black. Some have more blue than brown. I love the way they vary. The entire stash reminds me of a pile of rocks.

The vast majority of these fabrics have been purchased in the last 6 months. Yikes! I'm in love and almost ready to start cutting into these. Almost. There are a few projects in my head.

And I'm going to share that cutting with you next Friday when I'm part of Pat Sloan's Double Blog Tour for the Sullivan's Edge Rulers.

But first, I want to know, how do you spell grey/gray?

Pink

I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I'm kind of digging pink lately.  I find myself drawn to pink images, and especially pink fabric. Maybe because it feels indulgently girly? Or simply because it makes me smile.

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, courtesy of David Lebovitz. It tastes exactly like my summer berries and cream.

Binding one of the last doll quilts. Thrilled with that Amy Butler as a binding.

Hanging on to late summer evenings and celebrating Smilosaurus' new obsession with a pony tail (this is as good as that gets).

Baking pies with my girls, still in their PJs on a lazy weekend morning.

Experimenting with some new low volume ideas.

In love with my new, custom necklace from SuLu Designs. In love more that the girls notice it when I wear it and tell me how much they love it too.

And where do you see pink today?

Nadine's Bookcase Quilt


With the last stitches going in this morning to the strain of Dinosaur Train and a hot mug of black tea by my side, this commission baby quilt is finally complete.

Made for an old book club friend - can you tell my inspiration? - to welcome her new baby girl. My instructions were simple: very bold, very bright, modern, and girly. We collaborated on the main fabric selection, but otherwise she left it up to me.

Although I've long been a fan of the Fun Quilts design that mimics Library books, and the subsequent one in The Modern Quilt Workshop, it was a design that I was never motivated to make. Perhaps because I felt it to be too popular, or the fact that it simply isn't my own? But when my friend asked me to make her a quilt it was the only design I could see myself doing.

With her request for a bold fabric on the quilt though, I had to rejig the concept. Instead of bright/dark on a light background, I went for low volume fabrics for the books on a wild background. It makes me think of a bookshelf backed with wallpaper. 

The quilt measures at a slightly odd baby size - 40 by 60. But I felt the size was necessary for the overall effect I wanted. And to show off that amazing fabric. but it will transition well to a toddler bed and a child hood nap quilt. I do hope her sweet girl cherishes this for a long time.

Commission quilting is still new to me and I did learn a valuable lesson here: pick an easy quilting pattern! A fellow modern quilter at the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild helped me decide on a pattern of overlapping rectangles. I loved it and it really is perfect for this piece. But boy, was it time-consuming.  All that stopping and started! Worth it for the overall look, but not smart from a financial perspective.


When we were picking fabrics I had three choices for the front. We both loved the final choice the best, but the 2nd and 3rd place choices were also well loved. Needless to say, I decided to showcase them on the back. Two Kaffe Fassets with that strip of cherished Denyse Schmidt barbells. 

And now the quilt is washed and packed up, ready for it's journey across the country.

PS  If you are joining me from Amy's Creative Side, welcome! I was honoured to be nominated for a Blogger's Quilt Festival Feature.

Concept Evolution

One of these days I will actually have some quilt stuff to share with you. Just haven't felt much like playing with fabric lately. But I have sketched. Afterall, I have those wonderful markers to play with.

I wanted to share with you the evolution of a design today.

We live rather close to the Rocky Mountains, I can see them if I'm in the right part of the city and the weather is right. And they are less than an hour's drive away. Sadly, though, we only get there every couple of months. But they are there, taunting us with majesty and the possibilities of fun (I used to mountain bike and until recently, ski).

On a trip to Banff last year, for work of all things, I snapped a couple of photos. The colours and details on that trip were very inspiring in the face of a boring work trip. In the 9 months since, ideas and colour and shape percolated though my head. That trip may have also started my fascination with grey and the accumulation of grey fabrics in my stash!

The Rocky Mountains are young mountains, formed when shifting continental plates pushed the layers and layers of sedimentary rock up. As your drive through them you see, literally, folds and thrusts of rock. You can see layers, where millions and millions of years ago there was once water flowing, depositing the silt to create the rock.

Up close, you can see the shards of shale, the moss growing, the bits of life that emerge from a rocky landscape. From a distance you are awed and made to feel miniscule in the grandeur. Up close it is a slow fascination with life.

So those ideas bubbled around and I finally sketched them out on our recent road trip. Strong diagonals, layers, loads of grey and that little bit of orange. To be honest, I don't know when I'll ever get around to fabric with this, or if I ever will. But the concept evolves.

Just Playing

This has been a rough few weeks for our house. As a result, not much quilting is getting done. I just can't motivate myself. I'm picking away at commissions, but I hope the recipients understand. Did I mention its been a rough couple of weeks?

Two weeks ago we had to leave town for a funeral and that necessitated a 2 day road trip, in each direction. Just prior to leaving, feeling the need for some retail therapy, I went shopping at an art store. I'd decided it was time to get some dedicated sketching materials that were all mine. Up until now, if the notion of a quilt came into brain it was usually sketched in black pen on whatever paper I could find, or with my daughters' markers on their craft paper. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it will still always happen. But it was time to treat myself a little.

And boy, could I have treated myself. I had no clue that fancy markers cost so much! I had it in my head that I would be able to get a set of about 50 colours for a pretty reasonable price. Uh, no. At least not at the store I went to. I had to settle for a set of 20, decent quality markers for a good price. I really wanted more colours, but I couldn't justify the expense, no matter how bad of a week I was having.

In the end, this was a good purchase. A smaller set means that it it all transportable. And all I really want to be able to do is to capture a notion of the idea in my head, not a precise pattern. Besides, nothing can replace actually playing with the fabric.

Then, this week, I was at the grocery store and saw a pack of 50 markers for less than $10. At first I sighed in frustration. But I've realized that the best part about my markers is that they are mine and all mine. The girls know they can't play with them.  That means I will never run out of the red.

All Organic

Well, I caved and bought more fabric. Not a good idea with some major changes facing our family. I just felt, however, that this project needed something specific. That is, I needed to use more organics to combine with my Daisy Janie fabrics.

I've got the design sketched out and I will test the technique this weekend. First, though, I need to source some organic or sustainably made thread. Any sources out there that you know of?

A New Project!

It seems like forever since I started a new project. I'm almost finished with the doll quilts. And the Blog Tour this week is making me desperate to try some new, graphic designs. Alas, I have one more commission quilt to get done. It's okay though, I am really excited for this one.

A few months back one of my old book club friends contacted me. She's moved away and is now expecting her first baby. I was lucky, she said she loved my style and asked if I would make her a quilt. She gave me free reign after asking for something bold, bright, modern, and just a bit girly. I knew immediately what I wanted to do. This is my initial fabric pull, and more to join in soon.

Tomorrow I have the WHOLE day to myself. Hubby is taking the girls out, then the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild is meeting. Nothing but sewing, and maybe a little nap. Now, if only would come clean my house for me today so I don't feel obligated to do that too.

City Quilts - Welcome to the Blog Tour


Welcome to the first stop on the City Quilts Blog Tour! And welcome to Naptime Quilter for all you new visitors. I am extremely pleased to be joining the rest of the blog tour crew. And I am very excited to share this book with you.

If you haven't had a chance to pick up City Quilts yet, make sure you enter here and everywhere else on the tour for your chance to win a copy. One copy at every stop, courtesy of C&T Publishing! And fabric too, courtesy of Robert Kauffman!

City Quilts is a really interesting book. Cherri House takes her hometown, Houston, as the main inspiration for the projects in the book. But with her work being exclusively in solid fabrics, there is a distinct Amish/Gees Bend influence. City Quilts is a fantastic example of modern quilting with a very strong grounding in tradition.

To be honest, I expected it to be a book of patterns only, but I was more than pleasantly surpised to read so much more. Incredible discussions on inspiration, colour, process, and the melding of traditional and modern/contemporary. I found these discussions detailed and informative. And when it came to the patterns, I loved reading about Cherri's original inspiration and how she translated it into the pattern. Finally, Cherri encourages her readers to play, to try new things and adapt her patterns into their own ideas. As someone who doesn't follow patterns (much) I appreciated this encouragement. And now I have more than a few ideas percolating based on Cherri and her inspiration.

Cherri and I had the opportunity for a little interview. I'd love to share that with you.

What marked the transition for you from a hobby quilter to a professional quilter?
It wasn't a particular accomplishment, it was my work, City News to be exact. It was hanging in Robert Kaufman's booth at Portland Spring Market 2008, and I knew I had done it, I knew the quality of my work surpassed anything I had done before, and that I was in new territory. It was a game changer for me.

Do you think you would be the quilter you are without the internet and blogging?
Yes, absolutely. I had been quilting since the early 80's, always trying to push myself, and improve my skills. What the internet and blogging has brought to me is the quilting community. I'm a pretty solitary person in terms of my quilt work, the term social butterfly would never apply to me. So, having the internet and blogging has given me a group globally that I haven't cultivated locally.
My LQS carries my patterns, and my book. Plus, I have taught locally for years, mostly privately, but I have started teaching at my LQS, which has been really exciting! Yes, having an online pattern business has been wonderful... the other night I filled orders for customers in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Canada (!), everywhere... Through the internet having a worldwide audience is possible, and attainable for my book and patterns.

City Quilts is great at documenting your inspiration. Once you have your inspiration, what is your process for translating that into a quilt?
After I have the inspiration, it is a matter of finding or creating a quilt pattern that will translate and mesh with the inspiration. the quilt City Circles was inspired by city traffic, but in a quilt book based on squares and rectangles, an actual circular quilt pattern wouldn't do. The Shoo-fly quilt block is made with squares and rectangles but appears circular, so it was the perfect fit. The actual block patterns are the vehicle to translate inspiration into a quilt.

When does the colour scheme/picking fabric come into the process?
There isn't just one answer for me - it's kind of a 'chicken or the egg thing'. Sometimes I want to make a green quilt, so the color/fabric will come first, everything else will follow. Other times I will design what I think is a great quilt, and with EQ6 I'll try different colorways to determine what looks best. If I'm working with a manufacturer or magazine, I may have very little say in the matter, and I create something within the parameters someone else has set.

Have you ever considered sharing that process or profiling it on the blog, a la the Process Pledge?
I've read about the pledge process and I've thought about participating, but then I think, "would someone care, would someone be interested in why I chose orange over red?" I'm happy to share whatever is going on with my work, mistakes and all. Holy crap - as embarrasing as it was, I freely admitted to falling in the lake trying to take a freakin' photo of a quilt. A core belief I've always had, is that I'm not competing with anyone but myself. I'll never be able to knock out as many quilts as ________, my machine quilting with never match ______. All I can do is better than the quilt before, the pattern before, the book before - it is a journey and through blogging I am able to share that journey.

There is a lot of discussion these days online and in print about the modern quilt movement. You are a member of the Modern Quilt Guild and City Quilts is undoubtedly considered a modern book.  Do you make this distinction yourself, between modern and traditional?
This is a touchy subject for me, which seems kind of silly. Yes, I am a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, I started the Houston chapter. Yes, City Quilts is considered a modern book - which is great! But where I get a little iffy is the "modern" thing - what is modern? If I'm asked to identify my quilting self, I say that I create 'contemporary' quilts. I don't say 'modern', and I don't say 'art', I state that I make contemporary quilts based on traditional patterns. Everything about what I do is traditional in the terms of piecing, and technique. Maybe I'm an orphan quilter, I don't belong with the traditional group, and I'm not sure if I belong with the modern group. Seems silly to be at such a loss for a definition but there it is.

As I mention in the book, my first appreciation of solids was through an exhibit of Amish quilts at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. That a solid colored fabric could produce quilts that glowed was mind blowing to me. I also had a huge appreciation for the timelessness of Amish quilts. There are quilts from the 1800 and 1900's that look like contemporary works of art.

In regards to the simple block construction in the book, I have a passion for helping quilters to understand that simple doesn't mean boring. There are many books and patterns for beginning quilters that are a complete snoozefest! There is no need for that - we need to elevate quilting, and elevate our work. 

Thanks Cherri, for a very interesting and inspiring book, and a great interview.

To enter the draw for the prizes - a copy of City Quilts courtesy of C&T Publishing and a Fat Quarter Stack of Kona Solids from Robert Kaufman - please leave a comment on this post. Only comment once please, and make sure you have an email attached to your comment so I have a way to contact you. I'll keep the draw open until the end of the blog tour, that's on July 24, midnight MST.

Don't forget to visit the rest of the hosts for more from Cherri and more chances to win.

July 15  Pat Sloan
July 16  Spool 
July 17  Robert Kaufman
July 18  Fat Quarterly
July 20  Sewer/Sewist
July 21   Jaybird Quilts
July 22   Spun Sugar Quilt
July 23  Juicy Bits
July 24  Kim Kight

Enjoy the tour, and City Quilts!

Stitch

This week marks the return to reality. Hubby and I ventured East for a wedding and a bit of a holiday. A much needed holiday. I took no laptop, no sketch book, no crackberry, no little hand project. We didn't even take the girls!

This Mama needed a break from it all. 

Imagine my surprise when in the tiny, tiny village we were staying in I come across a fabric store just a few doors down from the cottage we were in. And get this, I managed to stay away from it for 2 whole days!

I am so glad I finally broke free from all that napping, reading, and cuddling to visit. I ogled the yarn (I still can't manage to knit), browsed the small but varied selection of Lecien, reproductions, 30s, French General, and visited with Jocelyn, the owner. And yes, I bought a few things.

Isn't this the sweetest looking quilt/yarn store ever? This is Stitch.






PS Don't forget to be here on Monday. I'm the first stop in a blog tour for Cherri House's City Quilts. I will share with you a special interview with Cherri, and there will be an opportunity to win both a copy of City Quilts and a special fabric treat from Robert Kauffman. And after me comes a great line-up of hosts. Stay tuned!

Prepare yourself, I'm contemplating making a quilt from a single fabric line.

Shocked, aren't you?

You see, I won this gorgeous Daisy Jane organic fabric from the Blogger's Quilt Festival. And when it arrived I got to thinking about making a solely organic piece. I know I could mix in some other lines, or at least some solids. It would be a bit of a statement, and somehow it seems wrong to mix it with the conventional stuff.

Kind of like getting organic, local strawberries and making shortcake with Bisquick mix.

Sigh


While you are enjoying the mediocre quality of the photo above, let me start my rant about iPhone photography. Just because you have an iPhone and you can get all the apps, like Camera Bag, to apply filters to your photos does not make you a creative photographer. Nor does it necessarily make you a good photographer.

I feel totally justified in my rant today because I broke my camera on Friday. An hour before The Monster's birthday party I dropped it. Sigh. So today I confirmed that the camera isn't worth fixing, the replacement one I wanted is currently sold out, and the SLR I really want is currently out of the budget. As I am completely incapable of living without a camera we picked up a little point and shoot.

Can I admit that I feel like kind of a loser with my little camera? Yes, I am that snobby. It feels like the camera a teenage girl usually has. Oh wait, that's not true. She has an iPhone and thinks she is some kind of photographer.

Now, I don't claim to be a great, or even good photographer. But I do love to try and learn with every time I turn on the camera. So, if you notice a change in the photos here, you know why.

In the meantime, the photo above was taken with my Blackberry. I had to snap the picture because I was in love with the colour combo of my outfit (royal blue and turquoise) and the necklace I picked up at Market Collective that day. Thank-you to White Owl Porcelain for this gorgeous sea urchin necklace. So delicate and pretty. It might make up for the broken camera.

More on Process

It is wonderful to me to see the momentum around the Process Pledge. As of this morning almost 150 people have taken the pledge. Now, I have no clue what percentage that is of quilters online - small, I'm guessing - but it is quite heartening to see more and more embrace the notion of sharing our process to the advantage of us all.

Make sure you check out the post with all the links. And if you see someone sharing process but they haven't made the pledge, pass on the link. I took a little time this morning to browse the links. I want to share with you some good posts that really demonstrate the spirit of the Process Pledge.

Lulubloom shows us not only the challenge of sharing process, but an honest account of the questions we often ask as we work out a project. She hasn't shown us an update of where this project is heading, but I'm looking forward to it.

Over at Kate Conklin Designs she has shared a few projects now that outline the process. Her most recent post is in the spirit of the Workshop where she is seeking feedback. I want to give her credit for this post in particular because Kate is a pattern designer, but she is still sharing sketches and the development of the design.

I love, love, love this post. It is always a treat to see the questions asked as we stare and play at our design walls (or floors, or beds). A Prairie Home Quilts really captures this well with her Liberated Amish project.

"Taking the process pledge has made me realize that I would like to become more aware of the things around me that inspire," says Penny at Sew Take a Hike. Right on! Process isn't just about sharing how we cut our fabric or even how we picked it.  It starts right from the inspiration.

While most of us have been to Elizabeth's site, Oh Fransson, I adore that she has really taken the Process Pledge to heart. I'll be honest, hers is a site where I get frustrated at her ability to post so many finished projects. But since taking the pledge she has been sharing the details and process of almost all her quilts. And its been fascinating!

Make sure you check out all the links. I've discovered some fantastic, new-to-me blogs.

Chicken and the Egg

So, which came first? The chicken or the egg? In my case, was it the quilt or the bike?

Talk about life imitating art! Hubby bought me a bike for my birthday last week. I'm not allowed to ride my mountain bike because of my still bad knees, but a cruiser was given the OK by my physiotherapist. We walked into the bike shop and I knew immediately which one I wanted.  Thankfully it actually felt pretty comfortable to ride.

But if I didn't know any better, I would have guessed I made the quilt after I got the bike!

The only problem is that I don't think my yellow helmet with bongo playing skeletons is much of a match for the bike.

I am ridiculously happy to be moving on the bike.  I rode in the evening sun, drinking in the colours and smells of our neighbourhood - a riot of spring. Movement has never made me so happy.


Roots


Roots
May 2010
Approximately Twin Sized
100% cotton, original design

Here it is, aptly named, my Dad's quilt: Roots.  Roots for the garden growth that sustained my Baba and Dido as well as our family.  Roots for the foundation of where we come from. Roots to acknowledge such an important part of our family legacy.  Roots to impart growth the the family as the next generations arrive and thrive.


This was a true family project. My sister and sister-in-law and I pieced together the top, with a few helpful hands from my daughters and husband. Hubby and my brother watched the 6 kids so we could get that done, while my Mom kept the secret and took care of my sister's dog when she was away to get the top done. Then my brother and sister-in-law found the fabric for the back (so much Mark Lipinksi Krakow - how appropriate). They, with their kids, basted the quilt. I quilted it, again with input from Hubby and help from the girls. Here are my brother and I putting the finishing touches on the quilt. Me, the binding, and he, the label. (This picture entertains me so, the surgeon doing hand stitching.)


Here is a broader view of the quilt, off the back deck of my brother's house.  A house my Dad built for them. My Dad is a builder, always has been. He is one of those guys that doesn't know how not to work, so he is always happy to be putting something together. Of late, he's been spending some time with crochet hooks instead of hammer and nail. 

Now, some details. This is part of the flower patch. A 2 inch checkerboard, with free motion quilting. See those little flowers interspersed here and there?

This is the house. Baba and Dido's house was this tiny house that my Dad himself help build, probably back in high school. It was probably less than 500 square feet. It consisted of a sitting room, an eat-in kitchen, one bedroom plus another sleeping area, and an entry/pantry. At some point my Dad added on another room, creating two bedrooms in total. And I still remember, back in the 80s, when the bathroom, and running water, was added.

It was quite a shock to the system to visit the house - we were suburban kids. I hated using the outhouse, and our arrival meant sleeping in stuffy beds, listening to the drinking and yelling of Ukrainian visits. Even to this day, it shows me what one can do in a small house.

On two sides of the house was a boardwalk made of wood. A small forest was on the back side, and a small lawn on the front.  Otherwise the house was surrounded by garden.

No Ukrainian garden would be complete without dill and onions! Each of the veggies in the garden was quilted individually, with some brown, tight stipple in between.  In fact, looking at these close-ups, you will see that each section was quilted individually.  I would say I used at least 20 different threads throughout the quilt. Time-consuming and frustrating at times, but worth it.
The white picket fence that led up to the house was a perfect spot to really personalize the quilt. I practiced my cursive writing and put the family's names on the fence. This frames the yard with the picnic table, complete with a box of drying onions on it.

This Toe-Catcher photo shows the slough/dug out at the front of the property, complete with the little dock where we stood to gather water for the garden. Or where we caught frogs to freak out my Mom.

This is the label for the quilt. My brother is a label star. He found the grain elevator image. It was perfect because both my parents grew up across the street from the grain elevator. He played with the image, adding the town name and the necessary details about the quilt.

And here we are sharing the quilt with Dad, at a family brunch. It was presented with little fuss, but we all spent a lot time pouring over the details. I didn't see any tears from my Dad, but that isn't surprising. He's a gruff, tough man. But he knew what it was right away and definitely appreciated it. I only hope that it keeps him warm for all his upcoming naps on the couch.
(This quilt shared as part of the Spring 2010 Blogger's Quilt Festival.)


New Inspiration


For Smilosarus' birthday the other day we got her some Crayon Rocks. Hubby was very skeptical about my on-line purchase from Stubby Pencil Studio.  You see, we have a ridiculous amount of markers, coloured pencils, and crayons all over the house. 

Markers and crayons, however, cannot be used without supervision because a certain small, smiley girl will either write on the walls, eat them, or break them. And there just doesn't seem to be enough satisfaction for her with the pencils. I figured it couldn't hurt to try these Crayon Rocks.

What a huge success!  They are perfect for little hands, easy to clean up, and not one has made their way into a mouth yet. And the colours! True and lovely. She handed me a pile of them yesterday and I was struck by the random combination in my hand.  A new project?

Workshop in Progress - May 12

Let's change things up a little bit, shall we? The Workshop in Progress has always been about sharing our works, asking for advice/opinions. Following on the dialogue that started and you can follow here and here, I've decided we should expand the WIP to include more on process.

By process I mean sharing our ideas from inspiration to completion.  This will include things like sketches - as seen above - picking fabric, playing with layouts, challenges with piecing, and even the finishing touches.

I feel like I've been doing this on the blog for quite a while, but I am committed to a much more conscious effort on this. That's why I've included the sketches today.  I have a few commission orders on the go and these were my sketches and notes on my ideas to fill the orders. 

As you can see, sketching is not my forte. But a couple of quick squiggles with a set of markers that are just mine and a few notes and I can capture the idea as I see it. While I do have a notebook that I carry around with me for anything and everything, it doesn't get a lot of sketches into it. Most of my sketches are either like above - on office paper, made at my day job desk - or they are quick scratches in the back of my work notebook. Yes, I do seem to get most of my ideas in the midst of my day job.  Daydreaming? So I make a two minute sketch, set it aside, and resume my work.

How do you capture your ideas?

Speaking of branching out and learning something... Okay, that was a horrible segue. But we do need to share Lesly's latest quilt top.  She's brought it to the workshop before and it is great to see the progression on this piece. This time she is looking for opinions on the appropriate back - one that compliments the front and makes her feel good about the piece.

And here's a technical question for you from Nichole.  What needles do you use? (Schmetz here, size depends on the task and thread at hand.)

So, let's see your process posts.  Don't be shy. Learning how others approach their projects is eye opening and refreshing. Sharing your process is liberating.



Torture


As you read this I am busy inspiring (hopefully) and being inspired by Mark Lipinski, Cathy Tomm, Sharole Lawrence, Fran Lauzon, and so many more during the Professional Development Conference at Quilt Canada. That is not the torturous part. The torturous part is that I know that this quilt is sitting at home, waiting to be quilted. I've never wanted to quilt a quilt more.

But Quilt Canada should be an invigorating and exhausting week.  I predict a million more ideas in my sketchbook!

Have a great week everyone!

(And how appropriate that my brother picked out a bunch of Mark Lipinski fabric for the back of my dad's quilt, without even knowing the Quilt Canada connection!)