Possible Posts

I thought I'd have a few of the centers sewn this week but haven't started on any of them. However, it's time to think about possible posts. Of course they aren't required but this block is so pale it seems to need something in the corners. As I perused my board of {mostly antique} applique quilts, I noticed most of them have a secondary design or post in the corners. Even the quilt that reminded me to start this. The change in size looks good to me - like Pies and Tarts.

My first thought was applique. Let's be realistic. I'm unsure I'd finish a multitude of tiny circles in any reasonable time. Crazy! Although sewing a single larger circle might work. {The orange flower was originally cut to be a compass center but might work well as a post.

Posting choices for Shadow Star quilt blocks

Then a regular eight-pointed star seemed like a good plan. It will not work. It's much too heavy for the light and airy Shadow Star.

As a fourth idea I pulled some compass points to see if they could they double as posts? These are a bit wider than they will finish because of the seam allowances. They will sew up thinner and I could cut them even thinner from the beginning.

Red is one of my favorite colors. There's some in the Shadow Star blocks but I'm finding red overpowering as a post. Must reconsider.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Reviewing My Choices

We live in a land made from ideals, not blood and soil. We are custodians of those ideals at home, and their champion abroad. We have done great good in the world because we believed our ideals are the natural aspiration of all mankind, and that the principles, rules, and alliances of the international order we superintended would improve the security and prosperity of all who joined with us.

~ John McCain ~

I miss John's insights, ethics, and patriotism.

I reached the point of diminishing returns with these Shadow Star blocks. There are more than enough for the quilt. {Actually there's enough for two quilts. Sigh.} The extras give me more room to play with the layout but color combinations are being repeated. It's time to stop.

When I started I wanted the squares to fade into the white like these.

Shadow Star quilt blocks

After a while it seemed to need some slightly lighter compass points so I made I few more with the darkest color in the middle.

Shadow Star quilt blocks

Then I realized I'd missed a number of colors and a few lovely prints begged for some fussy cutting.

Shadow Star quilt blocks

Personal issues came to a head this past month so I am mostly off-line. Hopefully short posts will suffice but very little time or energy for responding. Sorry.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Nine Blocks

What God and good luck provide we must accept with gratitude. Our time is our time. It's up to us to make the most of it, make it amount to more than the sum of our days.

~ John McCain ~

What a wonderful precept: make our time amount to more than the sum of our days. It encourages me to think what I can do to make the world better than it was yesterday.


The fabric choices continue. I enjoy fussy-cutting the compass points when I have a large scale print...

although sometimes there isn't enough fabric {like the red compass in the bottom right.}

Even when I like the squares, there are still issues with those compass points. Currently I'm choosing between the dark red and the bright red blow.

In no particular order, here are the nine currently sewn. These are not quick blocks. It takes a couple of days for each one. Of course that includes changing out the fabrics almost every time.

Shadow Star quilt blocks

Figuring out how to best arrange the fabric is also a problem with Trip Around the World and other Trips. Do you have the same issue? I can easily see how strips look next to each other but once they are cut into squares, everything changes tremendously. I always want to rearrange something. So while I'm not working in units like Kaja, this is one of my versions of improvising.

If the blocks are sashed, the "disappearing star points" effect will still be featured. Almost as importantly, the points won't have to match up. Without sashing that effect will be lost as the points touch each other. Of course, sashing makes a lot more white. I'll need to think about posts {for the quilt, not the blog.}

And the compass centers. I don't want to add those until the layout is set. So the blocks aren't really done but they are coming along.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Spring Cleaning

Perhaps because of all the pollen this year, I've taken to spring cleaning with a vengeance. All the pillows have been washed; furniture moved, dusted, and polished; drawers are being emptied, sorted, and restocked. I've even reorganized my fabric boxes. And look what I found: a collection of squares cut for a class last year with Sujata Shah. That was when my family life went to pieces so I didn't take take the class and forgot about them. An easy project to sew this week and part of my plan to build a Parts Department a la Freddy and Gwen.

Fabric for Crossroads blocks

By the end of the day I had these completed.

Crossroads blocks

#AHIQtwoblocks continues Tuesday. CCII/Stacked Bricks needs a border. Might these work?

Possible Crossroads border on CCII

 

The Xs aren't beefy enough to suit; they look wimpy compared to the stars. But the lighter backgrounds give me some ideas. Although these blocks don't work here, more fabric choices have emerged.

I pulled out my stash and set each piece on the top. This is my go-to method to ensure every possibility is tried. Purple is a possibility or perhaps blue?

After a couple of hours, here are the best choices so far.

Fabric possibilities for the next round

Some fabrics might be good colors but are the wrong print. For example, that whale fabric is a wonderful color but the print doesn't work with this quilt. Well, perhaps I'm wrong. {Won't be the first time.} Think seastars rather than celestial stars. There are starfish on that print that could match the red stars.

Testing some light fabrics.

Lavender and white print choices

None of these makes my heart beat faster when placed against the center. I'm going to try more lights tomorrow. If nothing works, a shopping trip may be required.

Enjoy the day,
Ann

AHIQChineseCoins and AHIQ #18

Can you believe it's been a month since we started #AHIQInvitational?

Originally I called this a challenge but there are enough challenges of every sort in the world right now. So, let's call it something friendlier and more inclusive: an open invitation. For the first quarter of 2017 we hope you'll explore at least one variation of the Chinese Coin design. If this is your first visit, refer to the inaugural post here.

I've been working on a Chinese Coin quilt that will be a housewarming present to my niece. As usual, it's a learning opportunity. There are many variations but I felt she would prefer something quiet and restrained. Her colors are light blue, yellow, grey, and white. {Not my typical style. Not my personal choice of colors. A good challenge on many levels.}

In keeping with a quieter quilt, I used a striped effect. Each column was originally composed of a single pair of blue, yellow, grey or white fabrics pulled from my stash. When those ran out, I took strips from the scrap bag. For the final column (far left) I snapped this photo to help decide between the two lights. The top light is too beige so I used the cream with yellow poppies on bottom.

Columns of Chinese Coins ready to arrange

Once the columns were done I had to work out the order and decide whether or not to add sashing. Here are some of the fabrics I tested. The only one that seemed to add anything to the conversation was a dark grey hand-dyed remnant from Jonathan Shannon. Since that has only enough for one or two sashings, this quilt won't have any.

Some possible sashing choices for Chinese Coins

Moving the blue columns further apart while keeping the soft columns on the outside looks better. Although this top was ready to layer and baste, I realized I'd never shown some of the strip sets that were discarded. 

I thought this top was done

All I did was  position a few strip sets on top for a quick comparison. One is the yellow and brown plaid with floral while the other two were still lurking in the scrap bag.

Chinese Coins quilt top
with darker sections laid on it

They are too dark and dull but made me realize I like the way these block sets break up the long columns. Once they were taken off, the quilt looked awkward. Trying to use good art principles, I positioned variations a quarter or third of the way in rather than at the midpoint. But a good plan for a single column makes a problem when several a sewn together. The middle has a "bare" look and the darker blue column on the left and this middle column change colors at the same point.

I also noticed I sewed the right-hand blue column upside down.  {If I'd sewed that correctly it would have added more coin change variation.} Those seams were cut freehand so there's no turning it now.

After an hour playing with various strips {some of which were too short to use} I finally replaced one section of three. It's easier than it sounds. I unsewed the original trio, sewed a new set, pressed both, overlaid the original on the slightly larger new, and cut the new to fit that shape. No worrying about individual strips; it's the final size of the group that matters.

Replacing a section of one column

And here's the result. A very minor change: two whites substituted for two yellows in the middle. But it adds a bit of change in the middle of the columns.

Chinese Coins quilt top, final arrangement

That middle column still contains only three fabrics: blue, yellow and a Marimekko print. I've only reordered it a bit.

Value has been an object lesson for this quilt. Although they don't cover the entire spectrum, the quieter colors still need a range of values. Another discovery is that prints react differently with lower contrast colors. The grey and white column on the right and the yellow floral and plaids {that I excluded} are cases in point. As yardage these prints appear quite different but when sewed, they blended together more. Some were almost mushy. Value is more important than color.

Now I look forward to reading about your projects. Please include your current work, whether or not it's a Chinese Coins project. Everyone is welcome: beginners to experienced quilters. Over the past year we have noticed a wide diversity of construction techniques and specific areas of interest. It's not just a "photo op." Share what you've learned and join our exploration of improvisational and utility quilting.

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.

Chinese Coins Fabric Pull and Spiderweb Back

Sometime in the late 90s I bought a Balson Hercules fabric called Fujiwara by Susan B. Faeder. {Reading the selvedge.} It has always been a favorite, one I intended to use but never have. It was my first choice for the back of the spiderweb because there's over four yards, it was still in the stash, and it makes a statement. At least I will be able to visit it easily by turning this quilt over.

I combined it with some soft blues then added one funky green/black/beige plaid to pump it up. {Who remembers "Pump you up" from Saturday Night Live?} The longer I look at this, the better I like it.

Spiderweb quilt back with
Balson Hercules "Fujiwara" fabric

The quilt was almost completely pin basted when I realized I'd rotated the front ninety degrees. Darn. Another evening spent taking those pins out. Then pinned it correctly. So feather-headed.

It's far enough along that I could start pulling fabric for Chinese Coins. While pondering what tack to take, I read this:

"The next step is to do a pull of all the fabrics I have been aching to use and to see how they look together." Kathy Doughty

What an exciting way to approach a scrap quilt. But, I also need/want to make a quilt for my niece who is decorating her new home in turquoise, yellow, grey, and white. And I happen to have lots of light blue leftovers right now. {Insert maniacal laugh here.}

I pulled these from my stash and {for now} intend to supplement them with leftovers in the scrap bag.

Fabric for Chinese Coins

"Landscapes/naturescapes"

Did you know there's a way to move/regroup photos on your Pinterest boards?  I've been doing a lot of that lately. Creating order by commonalities allows me to think. {That's a geologist for you.}

It never occurred to me to combine a traditional block with a painting until I saw Deb Hyde's work. Someone posted this time lapse YouTube video showing the development of Lucy ITSWD several years ago but few people seem to know about it. I'm awed that anyone could keep two balls in the air -  a specific quilt style and a scene. Definitely one to enjoy over your morning coffee or tea.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The form or the scene? The answer: it depends.

Diane Wright's Thimble Islands shows sea, sky, and islands in blues and browns while Ululu (Ayers Rock) rises in the distance across a wide valley in Ann Bauer's Summer Comes to the Mountain. (It's about the middle of the page.) The regularity and precision of column widths in both makes me think they envisioned this arrangement from the start. In fact, Ann's website shows several works created in a similar style. The phrase "working in a series" comes to life as she develops her ideas.

Diane's free-hand cut coins emphasize waves hitting rocky shores. Ann's straighter cuts create a flat, grassy plain with a hazy distant mountain. By curving the pink fabrics she perfectly conveys a setting sun reflecting on wispy clouds.

On the other hand, I think I'm overlaying the Coin form on the finished quilts of other artists. I could easily be reading more into it than they intended but  I'm struck by how well the Chinese Coin design evokes an impressionistic scene.

From Sue Kelly's previous posts, I know she did not use stacked coins as a starting point. She randomly cut and sewed fabrics until she ended up with her design for Abbott's Lagoon... which just happened to resemble Chinese Coins. Now that she's quilted and embellished this piece, it's even easier to distinguish the tidal flats, mud flats, grassy hummocks, and deeper waters of this lagoon. So much detail.

In a previous post I referred to Kaja's Build Me a Wall but it's still the only scene I've found that's a closeup of a manmade structure (rather than a panorama.) I'm unsure if she started with a Coin format but she wrote about some of her other works recently. They demonstrate how one's starting idea can unfold into more expressive form.

In fact, this Rail Fence began with leftovers from Chinese Coins. I added some darker blues, raided the scrap bag for odd strips of triangles, and worked them into a different form by rotating sections.

Improv Rail Fence built from Chinese Coins

Whether an artist arrives at a Chinese Coin layout purposefully or in retrospect, I'm delighted to find it possible to use a structured form to create a natural scene. Even if you start with some Coins, remember you're the creator of your own quilt. Feel free to change it any way that works for you. Let's celebrate all of us!

Enjoy the day, Ann