A zen of a quilt

I finished the zentangle quilt last night, while thinking about my DIY challenge. I wish all my quilts came to mind as easily as the zentangle. Usually I have a concept and let it bounce around in my head for a while, getting an idea here, an idea there and then I pull them all together. Sometimes it takes a while.

After finishing the zentangle quilt, I worked a while on another piece, which combines quilting, painting and dimensional applique. And I sewed together the bases for two more potential zentangles (or I might use them for something else.....)

I posted my zentangle quilt to the 3 Creative Studios challenge page. There are some beautiful works already posted, it's always inspiring to see what everyone else is doing.

 Here's the finished zentangle quilt and a couple of details. Time for me to get busy. More later.

A challenge quilt or two

Good morning from icy South Georgia. This is the kind of day that makes me glad I work from home!

one of my zentangles

One of my goals this year is to stretch myself as an artist and quilter. I want to try new techniques, ideas, and materials. One way to do this is with challenges, so I'd planned a DIY challenge for the year. I have three sets of words, including techniques, materials, shapes, colors, moods, subjects and more. When I'm ready to challenge myself, I'll draw one word from each of the three sets and use them as the basis for my work.

I was going to do this on my own, until I found the 3 Creative Studios Journal Quilt Challenge. A journal quilt is a small quilt designed to explore a subject or technique. That's exactly what I want to do, so I'm doing my challenge as a participant in the Journal Quilt Challenge. My goal is to average two pieces a month.

My first words are Metallic, Sunrise and Tech. I'm not sure where I'm going to go with them, but I'm thinking about them while I work on some other projects.


And one of those other projects will actually be my first entry in the Journal Quilt Challenge. I recently discovered Zentangles, a kind of structured doodle. Someone asked about using the zentangles to make a quilt and I just had to give it a try.

pieces cut and swapped

I started with three approximately 12 inch squares, layered them, and cut gentle curves through the entire stack. I stopped at six pieces, because I liked the looks and proportions. I swapped the stacks to get three sets with two pieces of each color, then stitched the new set together. You have to be careful to start seams on the interior of the block, because the curves don't match and you end up with extra fabric when you end the seam.

Press after each set of seams, and give it a good pressing when it's completely stitched (I used a starch type spray before I cut the fabrics, made them easier to cut and handle).  For this piece I then squared the block, layered it and started quilting. Next time I'll mark the cutting lines, layer the batting and backing and baste along the cutting lines before I square it. It's definitely worth basting the edges and stitching along all the seam lines before starting the intense quilting, to prevent distortion.


Then I quilted. I looked through my stack of zentangles to choose motifs for each section, and for this one I thread sketched to fill in the solid areas. I think for the next I'll use paint to fill in the solid areas, instead. I just need to finish the edges on this one and it's done, my first journal quilt of the year!

A quilted zentangle

First finishes of the year

Great day yesterday, despite the cold. I figured out how to set up the Treadlin' Bloggers webring, for bloggers who use and/or collect vintage or antique sewing machines. The first sites have been entered, though at the moment two are waiting for their code so they can be activated.

Then it was into the studio. Forget organization, I wanted to create. First project was to finish my painted quilt. I finished a last bit of quilting, then added a tiny binding matching the border, using my Davis VF to sew it on. The binding would have turned out nicely except that in a moment when my brain was turned off (only explanation) I tried to trim up the batting and backing and cut the binding at the corners. We just won't talk about what the corners look like on the back.

The second finish is a quilted purse. This was another of my demo pieces. I kept adding to the quilting, decided I liked it and then had to design the purse to use the piece at the size it happened to be. Fortunately I had more of the black and was able to quilt an additional piece for the back and flap of the purse so I could complete it.

I know I've talked about how these pieces were started before, but a quick recap. I used some random fabrics to set up sandwiches for my demo at our guild's quilt show back in October. I did free motion on my treadle sewing machine, with no particular pattern in mind, just showing people what you can do. I ended up with about a half-dozen similar pieces that I set aside. Some, which showed up better, had light thread on the dark background, some had used a bright pink, which didn't show up as well as I'd hoped.

Later I wanted to try out some multi-line quilting techniques, loosely based on Patsy Thompson's hyper-quilting (she uses stencils and is very precise, mine is more fluid).  I used a very small piece first, added quilting until I was happy, accented with Shiva paint sticks and was pleased with the result. So I started working on the next piece, which I ended up using in the purse. The painted quilt I did a little differently, because I started with just the demo quilting, then worked out the painting and additional quilting together. For that one I used Lumiere paint.

Now its on to the next projects. I have several ideas competing to be next.

 More later.

Treadlin' Bloggers webring

Calling all bloggers who use and/or collect antique and vintage sewing machines! If your blog focuses mainly on sewing adventures using your collection, or on the hunt, repairing or restoring vintage machines, you're invited to join the Treadlin' Bloggers. Users of treadles, handcranks and vintage e-machines are welcome.

Join here

The link takes you to a page to add your site (your blog) to the ring. Enter the name of your blog,  a brief description and the web address (URL) of your blog. Then give yourself a user name and password so you can log in to make changes to your membership. Be sure to include your name and email so I can let you know if there are any questions and when you are added to the ring.

Then the most important thing, copy the code that creates the "ring" box that goes on your blog, and copy it into your blog. On blogger you do this by clicking on Design in the top right corner, then clicking on "Add a Gadget" at the top of your sidebar. Choose HTML/JavaScript and hit the "+" sign. Don't put anything in the title bar, but copy the code into the Content box. Then hit save.

When I get a submission for a ring, I'll check for the code and approve your blog after I see the code is installed.

More later.

Stuff, stuff and more stuff!

The reorganization continues! How is it that I added 33 linear feet of shelving, added three drawer units, filled all of them up and still have more stuff without a home? Never mind, don't answer!

Yesterday was actually a pretty productive day. I got all the bins of theme fabric resorted, labeled and back on the shelves in the storage room. And all my regular fabric is up on the shelves. I sorted through lots of stuff, got the main room to the point I can work again, got rid of a bunch of nasty cardboard boxes and a big bag full of plain old trash. I also put up some little decorative shelves over the windows (found them cheap at Goodwill) and put some of my decorative pieces on them, freeing more horizontal surfaces.

My biggest improvement is my new art station. This counter had been covered with stuff, with no clear space to work. Now many of my art supplies are in the wire shelves on the left end, sewing supplies on the right end, beads, specialty supplies and scraps of fused fabric in the cabinet on the left end and plenty of counter space! There are a couple of long-finished cross-stitch pieces draped over my design board right now, as a reminder that I need to get them framed. The work station is already getting plenty of workout with my fabric painting and the drawing class/challenges I've gotten into.

There's still lots more to do, of course. The table in the annex (dining room) is piled with empty containers, which will replace yet more old nasty cardboard boxes. A lot of the fabric on the shelves needs to be refolded. And I need to go through the dresser drawers in the studio and figure out what needs to be in them (close to the sewing machines) and where to put the stuff I take out. And I have to figure out where to put a Pfaff industrial treadle. That's a big one.

So I'll be fine-tuning for quite a while. Today's project is to vacuum (now that I can get a vacuum in there) and then I'm spending the rest of the day sewing and creating. I'm nearly finished with my little painted quilt, then I have a couple of other projects in progress I'd like to work on.

We're battening down for the weather here. We're expecting a rain/freezing rain mix tonight and tomorrow. A little snow is fun, since we never get more than a little here. But if anyone knows anything good about an ice storm, please let me know.

More later.

Organizing fabric

How should you organize fabric? This comes up on every quilting list at some time or other, and this time of year even more often. The answer it to think about how you use fabric, then set up a system that will support that. There's a million ways (more or less) to organize.

Since I'm in the middle of a major studio reorganization, here's how I organize fabric.

Sorting into piles. This is just part of my stash

First I separate all theme fabric. My themes are Christmas, other holiday, floral, Oriental, 30s repros, Civil War and other period repros, sewing theme, juvenile, cats, other animals, patriotic, general novelty, batiks, beach theme and solids (prints that read as solid). Most of these are in bins in my storage room. Also in bins are all my cut up shirt fabrics, divided by light, medium, and dark/reds. Any fat quarters and small pieces stay with the bins. And another, giant, bin holds extra-wide fabric and large yardage for quilt backs.

The remaining fabric is divided by color, and will live on my new shelves in the studio annex (dining room). Fat quarters and pieces from about one-eighth yard up to three quarters or so are kept together and sorted by color. Since I use them so often, the batiks and beach theme fabrics stay in this room, too.

Neutrals, greens, blues and blacks on their new shelves.

Over the past couple of years, whenever I've brought in new fabric, I've folded it around by ruler, for nice even stacks, so part of my reorganization will be to refold all the rest of the fabric.

Muslin, white on whites and black (Kona) are kept in separate bins, as is fabric that is set aside for a particular project (I try to keep only a few of these kits).

That leaves the little stuff – scraps. When I finish a quilt larger pieces go back into yardage. Smaller ones are divided up. Batiks and specialty fabrics are left as-is and go into one bin for applique and art quilts. The rest of the fabric is cut into strips or squares, in a modified version of Bonnie Hunters Scrap User's System. I keep strips in 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 inch widths, and squares in 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3.5 inch size. If I finish a quilt and have a lot of odd size squares, I'll put them in a plastic bag, label with size and drop them in with the closest square size. When I get new fabric that doesn't have a specific purpose, I'll frequently cut a couple of strips off of it to add to the bins.

Triangles of any size and bonus or leftover half-square-triangles go in their own bin. Leftover binding goes in another bin. Strings go in their own drawer and crumbs into another. Anything else, slivers of fabric from trimming, thread bunnies, stuff too small or strange to use as a crumb, goes in a big bag. I occasionally rummage through it for things for fabric collage and eventually that stuff is used to stuff pet beds.

I'm excited about getting more of my fabric out where it's easily accessible, and getting each type of fabric together. While my system of sorting hasn't changed, moving some things closer at hand and getting all of each type of fabric together is going to be a big help for me.

If any of these ideas help, let me know!

More later.

Photo Friday

Where ever I go I see things that would make an interesting photograph. But I seldom take the time to stop and get the picture, usually saying "next time." So to encourage myself to spend a little more time looking and taking pictures, I'm going to do a Photo Friday and try to post an interesting picture each week.

This picture was taken last weekend on Tybee Island. This is what I call shell crumbs. At first it just looks like sand, but when you look closely you can see tiny shells, interesting shapes from broken shells and a whole range of colors.

More later.