The Texture Challenge -- Project Quilting Season 8

This week's challenge for Project Quilting is TEXTURE.

In the interest of personal calmness and minimizing stress, I've decided not to participate by making a piece.  It's an interesting challenge but right now I can't devote the time to it that I would like.

That being said, I realized on my walk late yesterday afternoon that I am participating to the extent that I'm observing "texture" and contemplating how I might achieve it in my quilting. 

I'm a nature enthusiast -- I peruse nature through birding and walking and a bit of photography.

So I'm going to share some photos from my "nature" gallery that were taken specifically for inspiration.

This is the bark of our native sycamore tree -- they are common along streams and in wet areas.

It's a stunning tree in the winter as it sheds the outer layers of bark to reveal smooth white to pale green layers of new bark.  Look at all this texture -- just waiting to appliqued!?!

These fan shaped fungi are common in mature woodlots and while the colors are typically subtle, I always think it would be fun to depict them with layered Dresden-plate style fans.  This one was particularly striking with the white outer borders.

The witch hazel shrub by my back porch never fails to enchant me -- it will be blooming soon!  One of it's charms is that it blooms while it's snowing and leafless here.  Ruth McDowell has actually pieced witch hazel  -- you can find pictures of it HERE on her website!  It's stunning!!

This field was filled with the webs of orb web spiders and they glowed in the early morning light because they were covered in dew.  There were literally hundreds of the webs and it was fascinating to see.  I've used the inspiration of these webs for a quilting design several times.

Last spring during a visit to Northwest Ohio, we walked through a marsh with a thriving population of leopard frogs.  These were the common frogs of my childhood but I seldom see them in my part of the state these days.  What I love about this photo is the blades of grass cutting across my view.  What do you think -- piece a frog with an oozing muddy background fabric and then slice it to inserts blades of grass?

Finally, I found this photo I took while camping with my family last August.  It's one of the hackberry butterflies that was hanging out in our campsite.  The shades of gray of the gravel is such a good background for this creature.  Will it inspire a pictorial rendering or perhaps a color scheme?

And then there is this beauty -- I stumbled onto this "still life" last fall while walking in the local park -- it's so lovely.  The colors, the arrangement -- perfect!!  It could have been "staged" by someone but if it was, I'm grateful that they shared their artistry!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's experiments with textures when the voting begins on Sunday (2/5) over at Persimon Dreams! 

Hoping you have a stitchable weekend!!

Mary



Project Quilting Season 8

If you could see my "blog planner", you would know that today's post is not in the plan -- it came out of nowhere and surprised me.  When that happens, I'm grateful because it often gives me some breathing space when I'm flailing around for topic inspirations.

This picture from my post earlier this week may have piqued your curiosity -- it certainly did mine!

Over the New Year weekend, I stumbled into information about Project Quilting, the brain child of Nikki at Persimon Dreams -- it will be easier for you to just jump over THERE and read about it for yourself.   There are already over two dozen finished projects posted in the linky at the end of the post.

If you are new reader from the Project Quilting "linky", thanks for visiting!  I'm Mary Huey, I quilt in Northeast Ohio and have a long history as a quilt maker -- teaching, owned a shop, and now blogging!

 The above diagram was included in the first challenge -- "eight is great" -- guidelines.  I was intrigued, as I am with all things "star", and a coloring session (unusual in itself) helped me dissect the sphere and experiment with color and value options.

The basic unit of the block is the "kite" shape associated with 8-pointed stars!

I teach with Marti Michell's Multi-size Kite Ruler so I used the largest kite to draft a pattern for a 17" block.  It's a little hard to see my diagram but as a result of becoming reacquainted with paper piecing last year, I decided the quickest way to achieve the dissected kites would be paper piecing.

I made 5 copies of my patterns -- one to use as cutting patterns (check out this post for my previous comments about this) and four for stitching.  I'm always challenging myself to use my expansive stash and this time, I elected to try interpreting a contemporary color scheme (aqua and red) with older fabrics.

Once the pattern was organized and the fabrics picked, it didn't take long to settle in at the machine and of course, I found a chain-piecing aspect to the process!

Once the paper pieced kite units were stitched, I used Marti's ruler to trim them to the perfect size. 

During the cutting process, I decided to piece the alternate points without paper (seems quicker in my mind).

After pressing the seams, I centered my pattern on the fabric, set the kite ruler on top of it and trimmed them to size. 

I opted for a single background fabric to maintain the clean line of contrast and they are actually simple right triangles (though they appear to be otherwise in the original drawing). 

I made them slightly larger than necessary to give me a cushion or float around the finished star.

Here are the two finished units ready for the final construction of the star.

Of course, it's a y-seam but piecing those are easier than you are thinking thanks to the "set-in piecing simplified" technique which I have been teaching for the past 4 years (thanks to the insight of Mary O'Keefe in Watertown, NY.). 

How many times have you read my rhapsodizing about this technique?

Are you curious yet?

Time to buy my PDF teaching guide, Set-In Piecing Simplified, and quit avoiding y-seam piecing!!

You'll have it in a week.  It takes 30 minutes to view (though I recommend doing it in two sittings with some trial stitching after the first segment).  With some practice, you'll soon be able to apply the idea to any y-seam block working with any of the many tools currently available. 

My final decision was to square up the block with the slightly darker background fabric.  It was in the running for framing the star, but it softened the edges of the star too much so this was a perfect way to get it into the finished block.  Those background pieces are half-kites and easily cut with the Multi-size Kite ruler.  I just had to be sure to cut each pair together with the fabric right sides facing to guarantee the necessary "right" and "left" orientation.

I love the block and I can see it as the center of a fabulous medallion but part of the challenge is to finish within one week -- a completed piece!! 

As I finished the piecing, I considered my options -- small quilt, pillow cover, table topper, tote bag.

The colors don't work in my home color scheme which revolves around neutrals and greens so using it for a "good deed" quilt was the best option.  But finishing a quilt in 4 days (during the designated week of deep kitchen cleaning) was not the best option.

And I don't like to make tote bags.

If you follow me on Instagram (@hueymary), you know this is where I headed out to shop (vegetables and bird seed) because I was struggling to decide how to finish it. 

On my rounds, I stopped at a local park for a (birding) walk and came to the conclusion that making a tote bag to donate during my church's annual Lenten collection for a local young families support ministry would be just the thing!

Rather than dig or search for a specific pattern, I cobbled together a large sturdy lined bag that I hope will serve as a cheerful tote for a young mother with limited resources.

The lining and this whimsical fabric for the pocket came out of boxes of fabric I culled from my stash last summer.

I'm not even going to show you how I constructed the bag -- there are so many great tutorials and patterns from stitchers who enjoy making them! 

The lines of the original grid drawing inspired most of the quilting and were done with the walking foot.

And here it is.  I'm pretty surprised with the results!?!

All linked up with the others, too!!

The best part was making it quickly -- four days -- and responding to lots of spontaneous ideas. 

When I got stuck, I stepped away and let the ideas sort themselves out.

Are you interested in the pattern drawing (just the block) so you can make your own version?

It finishes at 18" square with the final wedges. 

I'll organize a PDF to post on Craftsy this weekend.

I still think it would be a terrific medallion center block!

There are five more challenges during the three month run of Project Quilting.  I'll miss one while on vacation but I look forward to the discoveries waiting for me in the other four!

In the meantime, I need to finish a UFQ this weekend!!

How about you?

Mary

If you can't find Marti's Multi-size Kite tool locally, send me an e-mail.  I keep them in stock for workshops even though I don't have a selling website.

maryhueyquilts@hotmail.com

    



Heads-up!! An FYI list!

With the impending arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere, I have lots of little traditions to follow.  First, I must look for skunk cabbage in bloom -- found it yesterday!!  I don't have to look very hard now that I know where it always can be found. 

This is the "flower" -- the leaves come later. 

I heard the neighborhood black-capped chickadee singing his territorial song at dawn this morning so I'll need to get the nesting box that he prefers cleaned out and ready.  He has apparently lost his mate over the winter and I hope he's able to attract a new one.  I do love having them nest close to the house and wake up to their morning conversations.

Then there is the spring cleaning ritual.

Not quite as much fun as chasing down wildflowers and watching birds.

And it's not so much of a ritual as it once was -- probably because I'm out chasing nature.

But the carpenter called yesterday and he'll be here Tuesday morning to start replacing the windows in my studio, soooooo -- guess what I'll be doing this weekend.

Happily, I discovered that Cynthia over at Quilting Is More Fun than Housework is hosting an Orphan Quilt Project Giveaway Link-up on March 18, 2016 -- click HERE for all the details.  While I'm prepping for the carpenter, I might as well try to let go of some UFQ's.

We could work together and challenge one another to clear out 10% of our orphans and UFQ's? 

Isn't that scary!!!

 

But if I have 40 UFQ's, that's only four.  Hmm, that's not so scary.

Well, we'll see if I can pull it off.

 

Of course in a perfect world, there would be no UFQ's or orphan projects.  Then we would all be able to answer Stephie over at Dawn Chorus Studio's question, "How long does it take to finish a quilt?"  She began a series based on interviews with three of her favorite quilt makers and picks their brains about their approach to their work.  Here's a link to the introductory post and there will be three more installments during March. 

 

I don't know about you, but I can always use new insights into maintaining my work momentum and inspiration.  This quilt behind me is muttering something about it taking me thirteen years to get around to quilting it.  Blah, blah, blah . . . . .

No doubt, I'll make progress on it this weekend though -- anything to put off the cleaning!!

 

Hope you get all the stitching time you are dreaming of this weekend!!

 

Mary Huey

Moments to ponder . . . .

One of my current goals is to post regularly to this blog -- Tuesday and Friday mornings.  I have a notebook with all the dates entered for the next couple months and I try to plan at least of half of my posts so that my brain and my hands can be working towards those topics.  Every now and then, there is a blank space or my brain just can't get "into" the intended topic. 

Today is one of those days.  I woke up feeling dull.  I hate feeling dull. 

There is a topic in my planning notebook, but it didn't work out -- perhaps because I was feeling dull yesterday, too?

So the question on days like this (as you know) is how to shed the dullness and get oneself moving in a positive direction.  I'm quite introspective and understand that there are two thought routes open to me -- go deeper into the dullness or lift oneself out of it.

I'm going for LIFTING!!

It's cold outside (17F) but my bird feeders are busy and I'm noticing that the tufted titmice are singing their territorial songs and the male goldfinches are showing little patches of yellow -- spring is just around the corner!

The office and the studio are drowning in clutter I haven't put away (yet) but I changed all the quilts in the living room from Christmas to the blue (winter) set -- my kind of redecorating -- no messing with paint!! 

 And there are two projects moving along at a steady pace in the studio!

Smitten is my APQ Resolution project for February -- don't you love the fabric combination in that one on the lower left?!?

The value palette of this "giant rick-rack" quilt is a challenge for me but my younger daughter requested a quilt specifically for her guest room -- how marvelous that after all the quilts I've pushed at her and her family, they still want another one!!

Both of my workshops at the Lake Metroparks Farm Park quilt show have reached the minimum enrollment!!  Good news for me and my students!!

(It's not to late to join one of them!)

And not only is this hexagon mosaic quilt no longer just a "wishlist" project, it's a ribbon winner! 

A great compliment. 

I happened to be standing around the corner from it last night at the show opening when a couple judges were looking it over -- they were surprised that it is entirely machine-pieced. 

"Aweeeesooome" as my grandchildren would say!

Mission accomplished!!

Okay!! 

Feeling much better -- thank you for providing the incentive to lift myself up this morning!

Today will be just fine!!

Reflect on all the love you get from YOUR people this weekend as we celebrate Valentine's Day!!

Mary Huey

Inspiration?

Most of us have no trouble finding lots of inspiration for our quilting.  There are so many magazines, books and patterns, we can hardly keep up with all the good ideas. However, as we grow in skills and confidence, it's fun to look around at a wider variety of sources for inspiration.

 

I've just returned home from my first trip to New York City.  When friend and I discovered we have been avoiding NYC for the same reasons (fear of it's bigness), we joined a Road Scholar tour, Five Boroughs in Five Days.  The tour leaders were all long time NYC residents and we had a wonderful overview of the city and learned how to get around like a local (walking and using the subways). 

Usually I look to nature for quilt inspiration, especially in terms of color. 

But during my visit to NYC, I found some inspiration in the buildings which far outnumber nature.

 

The first examples that caught my eye were the mosaics in the subway stations.  This is just one of the dozens that I saw -- most date to the early 1900's and all had some extra embellishment reflecting the skill and artistry of the long forgotten workman.

That won't be the case with this new installation on the ceiling of the newest subway station in NYC which opened just last week as the east/west line through midtown Manhattan moved further west towards the Hudson River.  This artist created two large pieces that won't escape notice. 

(And people think we are nuts when we chop yards of fabric up -- these tiles are 1/2" squares.)

There is a great deal of stone work scattered around the city from the early 1900's -- this motif on a grand arch in Brooklyn caught my eye -- applique would be a perfect way to render it's beautiful organic symmetry.

Trinity Church sits at the end of Wall Street and as we passed through it . . . .

I had to pause (and backed up the line behind me) to grab a quick picture of this geometric tile floor (pardon the feet).

And when we turned the corner into another area, there was another one!!  I could do this!! The current building was completed in 1846 but there have been many upgrades and additions to the interior over the years and I would guess these floors date to the turn of the 20th century.

I also found inspiration in the ceiling at St. Patrick's Cathedral which is all spic and span for the visit of Pope Francis this week.  Look at those 8 pointed stars in grid -- it was a tough picture to take -- such a high space.

And there in some of the intersections were these lovely morning glory inspired motifs! 

One of our walking tours passed through a housing development from the early 1900's in Harlem.  The area is experiencing a renaissance and rediscovering the beauty of it's architecture.  This building had these delightful cornices on all the street level windows -- lots of quilting inspiration for sure. 

One of the last places we visited was Wave Hill, a NYC park centered at an estate along the Hudson River in the Bronx.  This unusual water plant is the mosaic plant (ludwigia sedioides) and is native to the northern part of South American.  This doesn't just inspire my quilting juices, I think I want this plant in my little pond next summer (not hardy this far north)!  A Google search for images of this plant produced some stunning close-up photos.

 I've printed out these pictures and pinned them up on the bulletin board in the studio -- it will be interesting to see if anything comes out of all this inspiration in my future work.

 

How about you?  Do you find inspiration for your quilting outside of the fabric shop!

Mary Huey