Back to the Pinwheels on Off the Wall Friday

 

So does everyone have that one big project that just seems to go on and on with no real end in sight?  My English paper pieced pinwheels is that project.  It's been going on for ...oh I don't know... 13 years now??  I know I started it in a weak moment.  I had finished the 4,200-piece tumbling blocks quilt and thought "Gee I haven't EPP in a while".  What happened if I did an improv EPP using just one shape but played with value.  At that point I never saw an art quilt improvisationally English paper pieced.  13 years later, I now know why.  It doesn't help that it's been an on-again... off-again kind of project. In fact, looking back over the years in this blog, it's a bit embarrassing how long this project has gone on!  With all this hand work I've been doing though, I've decided it is once again...on again.  

To catch you up, I've been making these little 6-piece pinwheels out of trapezoids in basically values of light-light, light, medium, dark, and dark-dark.  I chose a palette of cool colors plus magenta.  After many false starts on an exact layout, I decided to let it grow organically.  I started piecing the pinwheels together by value in big "clumps".  Then this week, I started arranging some of the bigger clumps together to make the beginning of an actual top.  Let me repeat that...a beginning of an actual top.  (I know I didn't believe it either).   

So this is as far as I've gotten. For the most part, that big island there is all sewn together,   I do have several ziplock bags of pinwheels to sew into clumps, but at least now I can somewhere plan it out...a bit.  Just gettin' the dang thing started was hard!

Making life easier is changing the thread I was using to piece it with.    I've been using Wonderfil's decobob now instead of Aurifil 50 wt cotton.  Wowsy, do the seams go together much smoother and the little stitches disappear.  I did try the Invisifil but I found that the 100 wt was not strong enough and sometimes break with a good tug through the seams.  It's crazy the love affair I've started with these two threads though.  I even got them their own little thread boxes so I can stop hunting around looking for them.

So I got another night or two to work on these before the fourth installment of the Block of the Month comes out.  Wouldn't it be cool to get both quilts done this year?

Under things I Like...

I want to remind everyone that when shopping for your supplies, take a little time and surf the web.  It came up again this week when I was looking for the little thread packs of DecoBob.  Thread has gotten outrageous anymore like everything else.  On the official Wonderfil website, the pack I wanted was $23.10 .  But I found it on Amazon for $19.20.  While on Amazon, I picked out my Dritz thread boxes for $5-$7 each (depending on when you look - pricing on there is so weird right?) AND  a magnetic thread wand for 2 bucks.  Am I the last person to own one of these?  Why in the world did I not buy it sooner.  Wave it and magically it picks up all my pins from the floor...from my table....from my blanket...you get the drift!

Ohhh and even though we did manage to get 3" of snow on Tuesday, my crocuses did come out in full bloom.  With the snow coming and going this year, we've been able to enjoy them a lot longer than normal!

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20 Min Sewing Sprints on Off The Wall Friday

 

So I started to do my twenty min sew sprints on my pinwheel quilt this week.  I have a goal to finish it by next September so I can enter into the fair.   They have a category for all by hand made quilts.  Nothing like a deadline to get things done.   I've decided to do them in bunches and then visually lay out the bunches making the bigger and bigger.   If I need some transitional wheels I can make them up.

It's slow progress but at least its progress.

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EPP According to Tula Pink on Off the Wall Friday

La Passacaglia, Tula Pink Style, 2016

So yes, it's true.  My English Paper Piecing bug has been reawaken and has been taken to new heights.  I knew that my creative juices would start to flow again...sooner or later...but I would have never guessed that a simple EPP kit in little girls colors would spur it!!  While I finished up the 40 little umbrella blocks of the Abbie quilt I'm making, I started to think what next?!  As usual I started

researching what other people are doing currently with EPP.  Well, apparently, while I've been in my Menofog....there have been truly creative artists dragging bringing the technique into the 21st century (who knew?!  apparently not me...but yeah I'm always the last to know).  And what they are doing with the technique is

  A-Mazing!

One of these artists is Tula Pink.  Now...she.... I have heard of. She's an illustrator, fabric designer, author, quilter etc. What I didn't realize though is that not only she is crazy talented  but she's crazy funny and not one to hide that light of hers under a bushel!! Her designs are featured on all sorts of creative things plus she has sponsorships for Aurifil and Bernina.  Let's just say that Tula is one smart chick that has put the B into Branding which is exactly what every artist should be doing!

What finally put her on my radar though is when I took time to watch her EPP  videos she put out on YouTube in conjunction with the Fat Quarter Shop. Not only were they super informative without a lot of fluff (OMGosh am I the only one that hates fluffy videos?!?!) but they were FREE!  The set of videos were truly informative AND entertaining.  I highly suggest them for anybody doing EPP.  If you're interested in her creative process, you can get a nice glimpse of it here!

That all said ... coming from her videos  ...  I thought I would share some words of wisdom she's gleaned over 15 yrs of doing the technique. 

On Time Management . . .

"I have a lot of quilts to make before I die, so I have to get through them as quickly as possible"

"Maximum Impression. Minimum Effort. My goal every time"

On Perfection . . .

"Striving for perfection is admirable.  Achieving perfection is super boring and never gonna happen."

"Don't try to be perfect.  Put your effort into hiding your mistakes."

On Quilt Sizing. . .

"If I can't fit myself under a quilt, I'm really not interested"

On Friendship. . .

"Anybody who judges you by the back of your quilt, and not your front isn't your real friend."

Upon Thread and Glue Use . . .

"We are not in a thread drought.  Please do not sew till the last inch or two."

"The glue does not need to survive the apocalypses"

Tula teaching during her video

I'm sure I missed a bunch more but I was stitching and listening so I'm sure you understand!  I'm quite sure that the world today needs more people like Tula Pink in it  ... interesting... creative...smart & Fun!

It's amazing what inspiration you can find online!!  We are truly blessed by those that share!!!

hmmmmm... there is a segue in there somewhere ....

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Guilty Pleasures on Off the Wall Friday

 Yes, the umbrellas are continuing to take up all my free time and I can easily say that I've become addicted.  It's been so long that I've done this much hand work its so much fun albeit slow....I mean really....slow....so slow that I've only gotten about 12 blocks done.  Still the collection is starting to shape up!!  I have really love playing the pattern and color.  Some umbrellas make bold in your face

statements while others have soft edges that kinda just melt into the background.  Funny how this little block becomes an exercise in value and color.  

I decided to do each individual block at a time that way I don't get sick of doing them.  It's taken a while but my fingers are remembering all my many hours of hand applique.  It's gotta be over 15 yrs since I did any real applique even though I really love it.  I absolutely LOVE using my collection of Bottom Line bobbin because it does work amazing on making the stitches sink in.  Not to mention I have a TON of Bottom Line that I don't use often enough.

Speaking of which....that brings up a topic that came to mind while I was stitching....

Guilty Pleasures!!

Everyone has them and this week mine really showed themselves.  

CHILDREN'S MUSIC!

I love children's music.  I became addicted when we listened to XMKids every morning during our school commute.  The more I  think on the quilt design, the more I want to base it on one of my favorites...It's Mary Kaye's Rain. (Take a listen - its less than 2 min)  Listening to the song again....also reminded me that I always wanted a good pair of rainboots.  I bought those too since they were on sale !

Anyways....I decided I'm going to design this quilt as I go basing it on the song...and since Rebecca Grace is exactly right....I  will show all the ups and down of the design process.  Also this song is on my spotify Playlist.... Kid's Music Adults love too! in case anybody has kids in their lives!

ROMANCE NOVELS!

So what has kept me going through all this hand stitching???  I rediscovered romance novels where the girl always has great sex and gets her man in the end. I haven't read them in so long, it's like revisiting a long lost friend.  I ended up getting Audible Escape so I could listen to some of the older romances I loved (a lot of the romances today are just a bit too wild for my tame self).  Don't get me wrong, most are ridiculous but they make me smile and what more can you want during a global pandemic?

FABRIC COLLECTIONS!

If you let me I would buy every print of my favorite fabric collections in every colorway.  I'm not quite sure if this obsession with the Umbrella quilt is because I love the handwork or it gives me an excuse to play with Sue Daley's Abbie collection!  It took a while but I tracked down another set of fat quarters plus yardage of some of the other prints so I have plenty to work with.  I'm quite sure I won't NEED all of this ...but I WANTED it all! Not to mention I want ALL the colors of my favorite thread collections 

(hence my TON of the bottom line thread!)

Normally, I live a pretty discipline life but this week it seemed all my guilty pleasures collided!!

Okay 'Fess Up....WHAT ARE YOUR GUILTY PLEASURES!?!?!?!?!

 

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The Boredom of the New Normal on Off the Wall Friday

 I truly want to just slap the person who coined the phrase, "The New Normal".  There is nothing normal about what the country is going through right now .  Not to mention when your days are filled with social distancing nothing "New" ever really happens.  A trip to get groceries feels like your big day out!

I blame this for the reason I broke down this week and pulled out a new project without really finishing any of the ones I have going.  This spring I saw on ebay where a widowed husband was auctioning off

the over 200 quilt kits of his late wife.  (Yes...200....!!!!)  Of course, I had  to help the gent out, saw Sue Daley's Rainy Days and bought it for myself.  Don't ask me why I fell in love with it.  Must have appealed to the little girl in me!!  Not to mention, it was a stroke of genius to put it all in this nice little suitcase that can be repurposed later!  So there that suitcase sat in my bedroom for months just tempting me to start it.  Since I was bored.....I did!!

Wow....I've said it before but doing kits really is a good idea.   It not only to helps you learn how to think like the pattern designer but it also gets you to  create in a way you wouldn't normally create in. The quilt combines beginner piecing with beginner English Paper Piecing.  Easy right????  Well,  I don't think in my 28 years of quilting have I ever used a plastic template to rotary cut around something over ....and ...over.....and....over. (I knew I bought that tiny rotary cutter for something!)  Sue also shows how to glue baste her her pieces instead of thread baste which I plan to try.  I like the planned layout but I still think there can be more to the quilt so I think I'm going to hunt down more fabric and add a bit more piecing to it.  I mean ...well... more is more...right?!  

Anyways, I spent the week trying to figure out exactly what Sue wanted me to do.  Then I spent hours cutting everything out and hopefully next week I'll have more to show!

Under this week's things I like.....

I taught myself how to order progressive glasses online and I'm all proud.  For years, I've been too scared to try and I honestly didn't think it would work.  Well, what better time to try it than during a global pandemic?!  A few hours later...and  for about $100 I have an excellent pair of new glasses.  I would say I save myself $200 but since I plan on buying a couple of pairs more...it would be a lie.  But gosh, I always wanted to have glasses to fit my moods and now I can!!

I got them at EyeBuyDirect probably because they were the cheapest and have a great reputation.  But there are a lot of perfectly good sites out there to try.  I highly recommend you get brave and give it a try! 

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Flossie Teacakes' Guide to English Paper Piecing on Off the Wall Friday

Summer time has finally hit the banks of Lake Erie.  With that, we are having a mini heatwave, where it's more fun to stay inside and stitch than go outside in a mask.  And really where would they let us go anyways???  So, I've been spending time in my air conditioned bedroom suite working on my English Paper Pieced  Pinwheels quilt and listening to audio books.  There is something really soothing about making a one patch quilt into something interesting and beautiful.  But still....I thought maybe you could EPP something more complicated.

And with that thought....down the rabbit hole I fell.  Of course, I wasn't the only person that had the idea of taking EPPing farther  There are more than one ridiculously patterns out there based on I believe tile work.  That might be fine for some, but if I was going to  spend hours and hours and hours following someone else's pattern to do a by-hand project....I would still be cross-stitching!!

That's when I stumbled on Florence Knapp's amazing Flossie Teacakes' Guide to English Paper Piecing.  Thanks to Amazon, I had the book in a day and what a book it is!!  Just when you think you've read every variation on quilting, a great new book comes along.  This is not your average How-To book....ohhhhh noooo.  Knapp manages to put not only the history of EPP, but the psychological and social  influences of the technique.  THEN, she finishes the book off in a very thorough instruction on the technique (complete with excellent photos).

Knapp included two of her own patterns highlighting how to combine fussy cutting with EPP to get a very cool Kaleidoscope...Moroccan tile  kind of look.  Her work is breath taking and it's the kind of thing where you wonder....how did she do that?  Well she shows you!!

What I like about the whole thing is that you can really combine the zen of piecing  which is quiet, repetitive and soothing with the creative flair that will keep your imagination going through out the process.  Just amazing.

The book itself is nicely published.  There are a ton of wonderful photos and its laid out nicely.  The
only thing I would have liked is a bigger font for these  aging eyes.  sighhhh  But the book is so pretty and feels so pretty that you just want to flip though and pet the pages....I know you know what I mean!!

Honestly, I would say this book is a must for any serious EPPer.  I mean even if you didn't want to do all the fussy cutting, it still will give you an idea of how far this simple technique can be taken up to new heights.

But yeah....I promised myself to finish the pinwheels BEFORE starting another quilt!!

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Tumbling Blocks

"You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together both outwardly and inwardly. You have One faith, One Master, One baptism, One God the Father of all, who rules through all, is present through all, and works through all. Everything you are, think and do, is permeated in Oneness." Ephesians 4:4
Have you ever had a project get out of hand? This one did. That seemed funny since the whole thing is made by hand from beginning to end. What started out to be a simple millennium quilt ended up being a 5 year lesson in patience.

So in 1999, quilters online were all trading little 2.5" squares. You would cut up so many charms and then send them out to other quilters all around the world. We were all trying to get 2000 of them and make a Y2K quilt. I loved trading. It made every day a good mail day. I really wanted to decide a nice quilt to put them in. At the same time, our guild had had a program that taught us all how to English paper piece. That's when you use some sort of template (most of the time paper) and you baste the fabric to the template. Then you piece all the pieces together and take out the paper. A lot of Grandma's Garden quilts are done this way since hexagons would be so hard to piece traditionally. I decided to challenge myself and use English paper piecing to make a tumbling block therefore, skipping the hassle of inset seams. I wanted the pieces to be nice and little and the quilt completely by hand. Plus it would be a nice study in value.
I drafted the pattern on my computer and printed out hundreds of the paper templates. They all needed to be cut, then the fabric basted on, then pieced into little Light, Medium, Dark tumbling blocks. Once I got a ton of those done I started to put them all together. I played around with different sets but saw one in a book that I might want to modify to my taste. Little by little the quilt started to grow. My daughter was a toddler then and there was time here and there to do hand work. Soon all the Y2K charms were used and I thought the quilt looked too little. So I drafted it out bigger and reached into my stash of sample fabrics squares I had been hording. Well. . . . .You'd think that with an engineering degree I might have figured that making the set a little bigger would increase the number of square dramatically. But no. . . .I didn't figure that out until the end (five years later) when I counted over 4200 of them in it. When finished, I was tired of the project and was glad to get it done. It ended up being 65" by 95". I said never again - but never say never. This year I started a pinwheel tessellating quilt all done by hand. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhh. . . . . . . . . .