Tumbling

I love participating in Kate North's "Another Little Quilt Swap" as it challenges me to finish a cute quilt to send away and in return I get to treasure someone else's lovely work.  Yes, it really is a little quilt swap.  This year's swap, the seventh one, has a required size of 12" x 12".  Anyone can join in -- no pressure other than to finish your quilt and send digital photos to Kate by the announced deadline.  Everyone who gets their digital photos sent by the deadline is then eligible to make a "wish list" from the posted quilts.  Kate has the fun task - first of posting all of our photos and descriptions, then of sorting out all the wish-lists and figuring out who will get which quilt.  Of course she also must send us each the name and address of who our quilt is going to (we like to make it a surprise reveal!).  She monitors that all quilts are mailed and received (a few have taken very circuitous routes to their new homes - perhaps traveling around the world on a slow mail-boat), then posts the "grand reveal" on the ALQS blog.  That post won't be up for sometime as we are all busy wrapping and packing our little quilts to send off now.

Without further ado, here is "Tumbling" - my little quilt made specially for the ALQS7 swap this year.

Tumbling was made in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.  Think Pink campaigns are everywhere (in the USA) and I hope to encourage everyone to have annual mammograms as well as to do monthly self-breast exams.  Early detection (gulp) leads to a tumbling of emotions but also has a higher cure rate!  This piece began as a design exercise, inspired by directions given in Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust.  The addition of borders helped the piece grow to the required 12" x 12" size.

In the detail view, you can see that the quilting is very geometric and linear in the background, but gets funky and twisty in the tumbling blocks.  Additional twisting and turning ribbon-thread embellishment is couched on top, adding to the tumbling sensation of the entire piece.  Rather than binding it off in traditional quilt fashion, a slip-cover pocket was sewn to the back which converts the quilt into a pillow.

I am packaging up my little Tumbling quilt/pillow and will soon be mailing it to its new home .... to be revealed later!  Hopefully someone will be very pleased to discover this in their mailbox....

Click here to see the original post about Tumbling in the ALQS blog.

Waves ...

This is a small piece, approximately 12" square.

I started this piece years ago, when my Beyond the Borders bee spent time exploring exercises from Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker.  My plan was to finish this aging UFO for the upcoming ALQS#7 swap (whose deadline is fast approaching).

This detail shows the echo quilting of the seagulls far off in the distance.

This detail shows the rippling waves both in the applique shapes and the quilted lines.

Upon seeing this finished piece, my husband promptly claimed it for his office.  So this small quilt will not be appearing in ALQS#7 after all.  I must look at the other design studies from that day with BTB to see if there is another one that I might finish for this swap.   I plan to explore more of the exercises described in the book, too.  Masopust and Barker have devised a simple 9-patch system to teach composition.  I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring color and composition found in all quilts, both traditional and art quilts.

For more on this book click here. 

Note:  It is available in digital versions, too.

Exercising ... keeps you fit & trim ...

I've found a great way to exercise ... invite a friend over, select a design workbook, then proceed to work the exercises described in the workbook together. Naturally you can invite more than one friend, too. If you are more organized than me, you will have the materials prepped and ready before your friends arrive so that you can begin immediately. Pause only for water and bathroom breaks. The best lunch is one of fresh veggies and fruit, with a slice or two of cheese on the side. Healthy diet with some mental exercising.

Sound like fun? I guarantee you that it is! The exercising? It's not a physical exercise program, but rather one focused on expanding your designing and creativity. We exercised our mental muscle ... our brains!

When my friend Sara Sissenwein comes to play, we exercise. We are currently working through the lessons in Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker. Sadly, I did not take photos of our blind contour drawings, but believe me, drawing a still life of 3 fruit (we used an apple, banana and orange) sounds simple enough until you try it without looking at your paper and drawing a full 25 minutes. Before you say "I can't draw," try this. It is OK how it turns out, as you can always say "I wasn't looking." Doing this with a friend helps prevent you from bending the rules too much and you will really like your results -- or your friend will. This is the importance of group exercise: the company and the encouragement! My one tip: slice at least one fruit open - this reveals more details to examine as you draw, which helps to fill that long spell of 25 minutes.

Next, we tried the Composing with Line exercises. Using solid colors (I used blue on muslin, Sara followed directions, using black on white) sliced in various widths, we created these compositions.

Here is an Asymmetrical design next to a Vertical design.


We used more straight line cuts to design these.


Notice the difference between this set and the first set above it -- every line is set at an angle, none are parallel to the sides of the white background block.










Two radiating designs.


For this mind-stretching exercise, we cut curved strips in the darker fabric, again in various widths but keeping "line" shapes.

The end result here is a framed border and a vertical design.

The last exercise was to use the leftovers of both the straight and curved lines to compose a new design.
These exercises were quite fun to do, especially with a friend. My favorites are Sara's and she likes mine!
Since we each made six, our next task will be to complete these, either putting all six into one quilt or making six separate journal quilts or any other variation.

Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker.
I highly recommend this book and these exercises! There is much more detail and lessons to learn than these dozen photos can show. Lucky for me, my local library has a copy -- but I need to own my own as I have paid for one with my late-fines for keeping this one overdue too often. I look forward to completing more of these exercises with Sara and will share our results with you.

Try this newest fad in exercising -- to keep yourself fit and trim and ready to create new original art. You will be glad you did, promise.

P.S. You can order an autographed copy of the book on Brett's website (click on "About the Book") and check out Katie's website too ("Books Supplies").