Optical Illusion 2 Finished

If you work with your hands you're a laborer. If you work with your hands and your head, you're a craftsman. If you work with your hands and your head and your heart, you're an artist. 

~St. Francis

Quilting

Of course it's spiral quilted because very little shows on printed fabrics and the spiral strengthens the spherical illusion.

Optical Illusion 2 quilt

Look how different this quilt is from the first Optical Illusion. Same size and blocks; the only difference is the values themselves and their order.

Optical Illusion 1 quilt

As I wrote before, the sashing and border took about a yard of fabric. I was hesitant to use the same fabric for both but am exceedingly pleased with the result.  The binding is a diagonally printed plaid purchased for another quilt. Despite being certain it was the solution, it never worked. These strips have been hanging around for years. Finally, some of it has a use. 

Optical Illusion quilt 2, front and back

The back is the bird fabric with a yellow strip to add width. It all looks very soft and sweet. I may make another when enough lights fill my scrap bag. 

Quilt Specifics

Size: 44" x 44"

Design: String quilt

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Premium Natural Cotton

Thread: Aurifil blue cotton thread

Quilting: Spiral with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 6.5 yds

Previous posts:

1. Optical Illusion 1

2. Building the strings

3. Optical Illusion 2 top

4. Choosing the backing

FUR (Fabric Use Rate)

With very few finishes this year, I haven't kept up with the count. August used 7.5 yards for a total of 40 yards this year... I think. Wow, that's not much for what seems like a lot of work. OTOH several quilts are "in progress" and they don't count until they are completely complete. 

Reading

Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir

Since reading The Martian I've looked forward to each new novel by Andy Weir and finally got Project Hail Mary. Ryland Grace wakes from a coma with amnesia in a spaceship with two dead bodies. His memory returns in flashes so the story follows two lines of current and past events. The ship is in the Tau Ceti system to find a way to stop solar dimming on earth. An exciting and interesting read. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Fabrics for the Back of Optical Illusion 2

The game isn't over till it's over.

~Yogi Berra

Quilting

Remember this top from spring? It’s a game that isn’t over even though it was “rain-delayed”. I meant to quilt it immediately but got sidetracked by finding all those Ocean Wave units. Who’d have realized it would take all summer to finish one OW quilt? And it's still not done; the weather is simply too hot to work on it now. 

Junk lying around bothers me. Unfinished projects and excessive amounts of materials become junk. Yes, I’m a minority voice but stuff that’s not being used weighs on my soul. So the OW quilt is folded but visibly present so I'll restart it this fall. Meanwhile, there are other projects to push over the goal line. 

For this quilt I had to dig through the boxes to find something for the back. A soft, pretty front calls for a congruent back and these birds fit the bill. Needing more width, I chose this soft yellow. It’s new fabric I purchased on sale because I was completely out of yellow. It was difficult to use something that haven’t been “aging in place” for year but I really want a pretty back, too.

These are now sewed together and the layers are pinned. Quilting next; most likely a spiral. Let’s see if I can whip this out before then end of the month. No rush. I’m saving this quilt for family: they’ll like the soft colors; I like the illusion.

Why is there so little work this period? Mainly because another Christmas stocking was needed. They seem to get more colorful over the years. (That black thing at the top is a comet.) It still needs jingle bells but they haven't arrived.

Each stocking takes about a yard of fabric and hours of work. This is the eleventh I've made. I'm wondering who in the family will continue these? A devious plan is forming in my mind. When they come for the holidays, I'll set them to beading some of the simpler shapes. Next year they can learn how to sew the stocking. Bwaa-ha-ha.

Reading

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

During these hot summer days I read two "library" books. In The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore, a young librarian starts an impromptu book club with an elderly patron who's become almost bedridden. As more misfits join, they rediscover the book that resonates in each of their hearts. 

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

I purchased Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, illustrated by Yas Imamura, for my grandchildren and of course read it first. Maggie tells how her grandparents met in the library of a WWII incarceration camp. The afterward shares historical information and photos. We should all read it.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Optical Illusion 2 Top

Obsession is a substitute for talent.

~Steven Martin

Quilting

Perhaps my repetition of specific ideas is a form of obsession but I prefer to consider it working all the angles. 

The result is better than expected - despite using only scraps. The design pulls the white center into a slightly curved shape and the subsequent rows and sashing enhance the effect. The blue corner has the best value progression. The corals (lower right) jump a bit more than ideal but I love the colors. As stated, I used fabric on hand, mostly from the scrap bin although some was pulled from my stash {which was already pretty depleted.} Remember how I worried that the sashing would disappear? It turned out a delight. 

The remainder of that original yard of fabric makes the outer border. Another choice of which I was originally uncertain. Finally I realized it could be cut and removed if it didn't work. It's not like I've never wasted fabric before. No seam ripping here!

Now to quilt it. 

Reading

How have I missed reading Firoozeh Dumas all these years? Her humorous stories comparing her Persian heritage with California life illuminate our universal human condition. Her stories of life with her extended family remind me of Erma Bombeck. She had a column in our paper when I was growing up. Who else remembers her? 

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Second Optical Illusion Quilt

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.

~Jules Verne

Quilting

Happy Pi Day! Every year more and more people notice this mathematical celebration for 3.14. (It's easier to remember using the American date notation.. which I've always thought awkward. Most everyone else orders from smallest to largest units day/month/year.) That aside, this day is the perfect excuse to look for  circles. Here I go again. 

Since finishing the first Optical Illusion quilt I've been wanting to try it again with lighter fabrics. What if I switched values using lights for the background and dark sashing? Problem 1: none of my darks interest me or they are too busy in print or value. Eventually I decided to try a blue and white stripe as sashing. However, I'm concerned it won't show against light background. 

I also want to see if I can play with values to make the center pop up even more: lightest in the middle and darkening as they extend out.

The quilt is semi-improvisational or perhaps simply my own style of improvising. I get an idea, tinker with sketches, pull fabric, mess around, sew some stuff, make changes, etc. But they are always mathematically-based. This time the blocks are foundation pieced. I sketched the sizes by imagining a plaid then cut them to size from newsprint. The main diagonal took about three-quarters of a yard and is pinned in place. Yes, I marked where it should fall but realize it will move a bit and the angles won't always match up since the block sizes change. {Go talk to your geometry teacher for a more detailed explanation.}

Here's a vignette of some stages of my progress running from top left to bottom right. The strips are sewed to paper foundation; that's what makes the corners white and sometimes kept me from understanding the color progression. 

Building colors on this Optical Illusion quilt 

The center four blocks are all white but the subsequent blocks are {supposedly} darkening from center to edge. With all these pastels and limited values {because I'm using only scrap bag fabrics,} it's hard to get the progression correct. So I've been laying strips in the general area and photographing to see what they look like. Lots of moving going on. 

I'm having fun and taking it slow. And... chicken pot pie for us today. What about you?

Reading

Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow enters the life of Alice Stern on her 40th birthday as her father lies dying in the hospital. After a night of drinking, she awakens on her 16th birthday in her childhood room. What, if anything, can she change that day to alter the outcomes of both her life and her father's? 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Optical Illusion Quilt

Faith grows when faith is all that’s left. 

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quilting

 

As I wrote a few weeks ago, this particular plan came from a talk Sarah Nishiura gave at the Iowa Quilt Museum. She didn't show her finished quilt - or at least I didn't see it. I assume she made one since she has a series of quilts with grid changes. In the talk, she gave general instructions to "make each row narrower" so that was what I did. {Well, I chickened out on the final row but went back and remade it.}

Optical Illusion baby quilt

But the idea has been rolling around since I saw Ancient Directions by Allison Goss at a Festival in the 90s. Additionally, Margaret Miller wrote about warping blocks back then, too. Blockbuster Quilts addressed it a bit and I believe she wrote another book with more detail. But it took Sarah's offhand comment to get the match lit under my tail. So, thanks to all these quilters for the inspiration. I hope they help you, too.

Blockbuster Quilts by Margaret Miller

The green main diagonal on my quilt is not a solid. It's remnants of a tone on tone print that was the back of my Wheels quilt. Because of that, most of the scraps and strings are much darker making this a very dark but dramatic baby quilt. A narrow border keeps all the bias edges in line. It's a print with sea turtles. One of my favorites. The back is four quarter- to half-yard pieces that have been hanging out in my stash for much too long. Since they needed to be a bit wider, I added a grey across the middle. 

Once the top was complete, spiral quilting was the only way to go for me.  

Back of Optical Illusion baby quilt

Quilt Specifics

Size: 44" x 44"

Design: String quilt

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Premium Natural Cotton

Thread: Aurifil blue cotton thread

Quilting: Spiral  with walking foot

Approximate yardage: 6.5 yds

Previous posts:

1. Working with strings
2. Adjusting the final row

FUR (Fabric Use Rate)

My tracking has been lax {nonexistent} this year but through June, I've used 39.5 yards.

Reading

When a friend told me about this book, it sounded interesting. Then I realized it's an earlier book by Rachel Joyce. I'm probably the last person to read The Unexpected Pilgrimage of Harold Fry but I've enjoyed it tremendously. 

Harold receives a letter from a former co-worker telling him she is dying. He writes a short note in response but on the way to mail it, finds himself choosing to walk across England to visit her in person. 

Parts of the book reminded me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but Rachel has a kinder heart and a talent for misfits and ordinary people with sad, lonely lives. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

An Optical Illusion

At a time when so much evil exists, we have to take good care of love.

~from Seaside Hotel

Quilting

Haha. It worked pretty well. All except the outer round. Each round is narrower than the previous but I thought the last round would be too small so I repeated the size of the penultimate round. Mistake. Not terrible, but it loses some of the effect.

With much grumbling, I found just enough of that green to create a smaller round. Do you see the difference the new final row makes? All the greens curve inward instead of having the final round seem to curve outward {although it doesn't.}

The discards are set aside for a future play date. There's no more of the green center string so I'll have to get creative. 

Reading

Interfaith minister Barbara Becker who volunteers with hospice and helped her parents through their final days, wrote about "living with the end in mind." Recognizing we will all die can help us live our lives more fully and remain connected to our loved ones. It's a thoughtful book that I found worthwhile. 

Enjoy the day, Ann