Four in Art- Second Quarter

Time for the second quarter reveal for the Four in Art group. This quarter's theme was Colour: Music, an easy theme I thought... I had an idea right away but in the end I really struggled to bring it to life.

As soon as the theme was revealed, I thought of a quote I had heard years ago, about how the colour purple might be described to a blind person as the deep notes of a trumpet. I searched for the quote and couldn't find it but the image was quite visual to me, with purple sound waves emanating from a trumpet in profile. (I had a hard time getting the colour to show up as the purple it is so you'll have to take my word for that. After weeks of sunshine today is grey and dark so hard to photograph true colours).

I made three different attempts to realise my idea and am still not at all happy with the result. In fact I'm feeling quite embarrassed having to publish my effort... but the idea of the group, for me at least, is to stretch my creative muscles in making something to a theme within a timeframe and to try to identify what makes something work or not. So I'm trying to hold it lightly as a learning experience. Maybe you can help me identify what would have made it work?

I like my profile trumpet which I cut out and fused to the background. I like the idea of the sound waves, but they're not quite right. I tried ribbon on another one and I've tried different colours and shapes. Perhaps the wave form is not right across the space? I quite like how they're fading out, but maybe the zigzag needed to be denser?

Or they needed to be altogether fatter? Or the waves all needed to match and echo one another?  I tried different waveforms but couldn't decide what worked. Perhaps the problem is with the negative space? Definitely the quilting is a problem. My initial idea was to echo quilt the waves and I tried more colour with lines in a lightly variegated purple thread- lots of unpicking after that...

In the end I ran out of time- there's learning in that; but don't seem to have had much success on trying to start earlier- spent plenty of time reading this and this and this...so now I'm all sorted!

My daughter has it worked out, she said sometimes creative projects just don't work and you probably should just scrap it and try a new idea- yeah- that one! But I would actually be interested to read your comments as to what would have improved this one, coz I feel like success must be in there somewhere trying to get out.

You can see how the others in our group interpreted the theme; we have a blog, Four-in-Art Quilts, but you can also visit the rest of us here:

Betty         https://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2

Catherine    http://www.knottedcotton.com

Elizabeth    https://occasionalpiece.wordpress.com/

Janine         http://www.rainbowhare.com

Nancy        http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.co.uk/

Rachel        http://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Simon         http://quiltalicious.blogspot.com

Susan         http://patchworknplay.blogspot.com

Busy Bee

If you're a regular reader you'll know we're on the brink of moving overseas, so our house is on the market and we're busy doing all the sorts of things one has to do to finish off life in one spot before taking it up again in another; so consequently I have little time to sew at the moment.

However I did finish off a few bee blocks lately for The Simply Solids and Do. Good Stitches groups I'm part of.

This was November's Simply Solids block. Everyone had been sent the same background fabric and added a coloured solid from our stash.

I was rushing to make a couple of wonky cross blocks in "manly solid colours" for Do Good Stitches November. I wanted to get them done and put the machine away and generally tidy up for our open home so I was doing these before breakfast, thinking Oh this'll be easy, just smash them out...

Never a good plan - ended up misaligning the block on the wrong line when trimming to 12 1/2" and suddenly it was 11 1/2"! ***# never mind sew it on again, by the time it's with the others and quilted no-one will notice...!??

then didn't quite have enough fabric for the other one so was a bit loose with instructions and ended up with this wonky cross interpretation.

The Anna Maria Horner feathers blocks for Sharon for October's Do. Good Stitches were a bit of a fiddle, but fun to do.  Quite happy with how they turned out; although there's always something... I didn't notice until I'd uploaded my photos that the filaments on one feather were upside-down!

Great to be able to use pieced trimmings from my Wrenly runner and my (so far) unresolved Oakshott experiment.

The last block was for Tracey for October's Simply Solids bee.

She asked for us each to choose a block from the Summer Sampler and make it up in summery colours. I chose this Rocky Road to Kansas which is a paper pieced block.  I quite enjoy paper piecing. I haven't done heaps, but I enjoy the precise results and have gradually evolved a way which works for me to minimise the fiddling.

I can't remember where I came across the various tips which make it easier but thought I'd share the one I find the most helpful tip:

When you've put your first two pieces right sides together behind the paper I like to trim my seam allowance first. So- find yourself a(n appropriate!) postcard and line it up with the seam line and fold the paper back along the seam line.

Trim 1/4" along the line.

This is how it looks from the other side.

 Then sew and do the same for the next side.

I find it makes it easier to neaten up and I can sort of see where I'm up to somehow.

Do you have any favourite paper piecing tips?

Slow Slow Quick Quick Slow

Things have been kinda slow over here. 

My work's been a bit slow, which has been good coz it's the school holidays.

And it's been good to be about with the kids, including the oldest home from NZ for Uni holidays, hanging out with his brother in the kitchen in these photos, evidence for the fact that he even cooked us a few meals while he was home :-)

We're sorting out towards a move back to NZ at the end of the year. 

That's a slow process. 

I'm in the midst of instituting a new and efficient filing system (hmm I fear in my secret self that however good the system is, it's the filer here who's not so efficient) and going through every cupboard and drawer. Sorting out's been slow, I'm not good at making long term decisions about what to chuck out. I've been burnt in the past by chucking out things I shouldn't have and consequently now probably keep too much. That, and I'm super indecisive and can't bear to waste something that might come in useful later. It probably won't, but as soon as I chuck it out I'll think, now where's that little box that'd  be perfect for this....!

We also have to prepare the house for sale, which means means tons of little jobs, yet keeping the big picture in view, so not being too detailed about it.

Even tho' things have been slow, time's going fast somehow and I don't want to live towards next year while I'm preparing. We're here now and I want to savour it. So in a way I want to slow down.

I've been slow sewing and blogging too.

I'm still playing with the Oakshotts and ideas are synthesising for a quilt with them. I have some sketches, but really I just have to take the plunge with my idea. I'll show you bits soon.

Altogether I'm slightly stuck in my creative decisions...

This quilt which has been stalled for ages at the quilting stage is finished except for the binding, but now I've decided (almost) to remake it!

I think I've been stuck with the quilting, not so much because I got bored with doing it, as because I'm disappointed with the quilt as a whole.

I love that feature 60s floral so much that I didn't want to cut it up too much. Liz made a stunning quilt with big pieces of Japanese fabric which inspired me- here's just a section of it

But even though  I love I'm happy with the back of my new one and even the quilting in the end...

It just doesn't do it for me. Last weekend I finished the quilting and then straightaway I SOOO nearly cut it up to make this inspiration of Ashley's.  

From Ashley at Film in the Fridge

Which I'm sure is a much better use of the lovely big scale. I'd convinced myself to cut up the finished quilt to make it quilt as you go and just add a new backing over the top of the old one and stitch in the ditch around the hexagons. But...then I waste the strip of floral on the back. I suspect the solution is to unpick the quilting and re-make it properly. Not sure I've got the energy for that yet, having just finished all that quilting after so much procrastinating; so maybe I should just bind it and use it and re-do it down the track?!

Do you ever have dilemmas like this or is it just me? 

I have made the July block for the Simply Solids Bee

And I've started on the July do.Good Stitches Drunkards Path blocks

Just as well there's a Slow Blogger linky to join!

Well You Learn Something Every Day!

I was really enjoying seeing my paper piecing come together this weekend.

So good to begin to see the pattern emerge. Above I hadn't quite trimmed the central piece to the pattern up the top. But so far so good...

But...

When I laid out the quarters it looked a bit strange. Two looked smaller than the others.

Never mind, must be an optical illusion I said to myself; it will be OK when I sew them together...

But no, two really are smaller. In disbelief I compared the torn out paper from two centre pieces and there's 1/2" difference!

I printed two and then another two and I'm pretty sure I checked, at least for the second two that there was no scaling and it was printing at 100%, but maybe I didn't check for the first two.

Groan!

I'll call this process and have another go. This was going to be a cushion. Do you think it's still worth sewing on borders in the shot cotton so the edges of the block aren't too obvious and then squaring up? Maybe it'll be hard to tell on a pillow form by the time it's curved. Can't quite face binning it...!