Color Journals: Orange for Patti

Orange! I was a little surprised that somebody else picked orange, but happily so, since it gave me the chance to work in my favorite color. Patti asked us to make a page that would inspire her to work in different directions, so I decided to create a hard-line geometric page. I had been doodling on my triangle graph paper trying to get the look of ribbons woven through one another over the isometric grid; I realized that elongated hexagons in Y-shapes would do it.

The next challenge was to scale the design so it would work on an 8 x 10" page, so I used PowerPoint to draft the two shapes, scaled so the tiny triangle was 0.5" high and 0.58" wide. I basted three colors of oranges (light, medium, coppery dark) in sets of three, then sewed the Ys together. I didn't wrap or sew the white triangles until I had determined how many I would need to fill the space. I originally intended to embellish the Y intersections, but once I finished the hand quilting (not masterfully done, but let's call it a "wabi sabi" aesthetic...) it was done. I like that the small scale of the piecing remains central.

Orange journal page for Patti.

Wrapping up my holiday Stitchapalooza

The spring semester starts tomorrow, so my non-stop four-week stitchapalooza has come to a close. Not a bad run, really -- I made three quilt tops since Christmas, and I can't even remember how many little projects. Today I used the playoff games to finish all of the quilting on the Tangerine Tango sampler blocks that I made for the Craftsy 2012 block of the month. I quilted them one at a time, so I still have some assembly to do, but the strips for that process are already cut and waiting patiently in a tiny bin.

I didn't take time to try for really nice photos, but a few of the snapshots came out pretty well. I am really pleased with those curved feathers in the grey backgrounds.

Tangerine Tango sampler

Tangerine Tango sampler

This photo came out pretty well - bubble quilting in the flower center on the Tangerine Tango quilt

The bubble quilting looked pretty cool on the back of the block too.

I finished the last block with literally inches of orange thread remaining on the spool. The bobbin alarm sounded just as I turned the last corner on the last border of the last block. Let us all remember that sometimes serendipity favors us.

Oh no!!

Tomorrow I return to my regular multi-tasking schedule of homeschooling, housekeeping, teaching geography, and learning Spanish. This means limited time for stitchery, but the time I do have will be used for designing and making my friend Aimee's t-shirt quilt (which has been on my shelf since Thanksgiving), and for quilting the Chopsticks and Cheddar, No Crackers quilts that I basted this morning. The machine is all cleaned out and ready to go!

Chopsticks quilt, pin basted and ready for quilting

Cheddar, No Crackers quilt, pin basted and ready for quilting. The Tula Pink charms look so pretty in the vibrant pink field.

Dance the Orange!

After the successful River project, our journal art quilting group has begun a new project that will take over a year to complete. Each one of us has chosen a color (and some have added a theme as well); using that color, we each created the covers of a journal that will be passed around for the others to make the pages.

I considered a few other options, but ended up with my best beloved after all...Orange. I decided to create the entire book as a big hexagon, which meant custom cutting some art boards to the right shape for the covers. The whole thing is about 14" wide and 15-16" high. I couldn't resist doing a little more micro-(not nano-)hexie piecing for the spiral on the front cover...but these are about twice the size of the river hexies so it felt like it went very fast. The tiny gold beads at the hex intersections gave just the right amount of glitz, and the bee just looked at home there in the middle of the honeycomb spiral. Plus, bees do something called a waggle dance when they get back to their hives, and that seemed like yet another layer of meaning for this project that I have entitled "Dance the Orange" after one of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus.

Front cover of my "Dance the Orange" journal.

Inside front cover, with complete text (different translation than the link above) of the "Dance the Orange" passage from Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus.

For my sample page, I used a few of the Renaissance drawings that my friend Deb gave me, covered with sheer orange organza to warm them up for this project. The adoring look on the woman's face seemed perfect with the poem. The six-petaled "frame" shape around her picture is based on the shape of the symbol for the orange chakra Svadhisthana. To make the tabs that hold the page into the book, I cut up a little orange leather swatch that I got at Crate and Barrel when we were considering some new chairs a few years back. Perfect use for a 4" swatch! Finally, I added the leaf on the right just because I loved how the warm copper reflected the orange glow of the page. 

Sample page

My nine-year-old let me use his typewriter to type Alicante (in the original French!) on a pretty packaging ribbon.

Alicante, by Jacques Prevert

I sewed a tiny booklet and stitched it into the inside back cover for signatures and comments. (I can't wait to read this at the end of the project!)

Inside back cover

Isn't this notebook paper fabric perfect as a booklet?? A single fat quarter makes an eight-page 5x7" booklet. I had a tiny bronze D-ring of just the right scale to make a closure tab with this little piece of ribbon.

Inside back cover, booklet opened.

Again, the boy let me use his typewriter to add the typed text (on orange typewriter fabric! how delightfully meta!):

Inside back cover (close-up)

Our meeting of this project was on September 17, so I have already passed this along to someone else to make the first page. I haven't decided yet if I want to see each page as they are completed, or wait a year and a half to see it again -- what a wonderful and difficult choice!

In the meantime, I currently have Polly's purple journal to work on...the first of many challenges over the next year or two!

Tangerine Quilting: Blocks 1 & 2

I got a nice start on quilting the Tangerine Tango blocks this weekend. These 18" segments are just the right size for really detailed custom quilting...I'm thrilled with how they're coming out! I'm especially pleased with how the feathers look curving around the grey corners; I'm going to do the same motif in every block. After I sew the blocks together, I'll put some feathers in the smaller grey segments too.

A little pseudo-McTavishing in this wonky log cabin. The smaller strip of grey will be in the corner,  so I quilted it before attaching this block to the others.

Teensy stippling and infinity spirals in the tic-tac-toe block. I haven't decided yet whether to add quilting in the black strips.

Tangerine Tango Sampler setting

Ready to quilt! I used, for the SIXTH time, Maple Island's BQ setting for last year's Craftsy sampler blocks. I love the way this pattern lets the blocks remain center-stage, but with just a little extra something going on between them.

I'm using a really dark steel gray as the background, with a print from RK's new Architextures line (love these fabrics!) as the rings.

This awesome print is even named "Tangerine"!!

Yesterday I cut all of the strips and started assembling the segments; after my class today I jumped right in on the final seams and...voila! I'll start quilting (one block at a time -- another reason I like the BQ pattern is that it works well with the QAYG technique) tomorrow.

2012 Craftsy blocks, ready to quilt! The colors aren't perfect in the photo (taken at night with a flash), but the hue of the lines in the ring print is a perfect match for the vibrant Tangerine Tango blocks.

Scrappy Travels

In a desperate attempt to tame some of the scrap bins (again), I have started cutting strips to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt. In working my way through the green bin, I cut 55 strips already. Not a bad start. Now that I have the fabrics for finishing last year's Craftsy blocks, it's time to get started putting those together!

Stay warm, my fellow snowbound New Englanders!

Final Craftsy blocks

A little paper-piecing and POW! I have finished all twenty Tangerine Tango blocks from the Craftsy block-of-the-month class! Here are the last two:

19. Scraps from the owl quilt that I finished earlier this year made a nice circle of flying geese. (How is it that I never posted photos of that one?!? I will have to correct that.)

20. At the eleventh hour I realized that I didn't have a lot of red or pink, and I like how those colors look with this vivid Tangerine Tango.

And here they all are, in all their Tangerine Tango glory! These will sit and brew for a while, as I ponder settings and possibly making a few other blocks. I am considering making a whole side border that says "Pantone 17-1463"...subtle, huh?

This has been a great class, thanks to Amy Gibson and the Craftsy crew. I really like their model for online learning, and I hope they host another block-of-the-month program next year.

Metropolis blocks assembled

Back in August I whipped up a batch of super bright Metropolis blocks using a rather unusual color combination.

I made a few fabric changes after this point in the block assembly; replaced the batik with a chestnut, and finished with a shimmery light turquoise.

I started with the neat mosaic print that runs vertically between the dark brown bars in the photo above. I have had a yard of this sitting calling to me for years. I think I might have actually bought the fabric before I even started quilting. Weird. I love the combo of orange, purple, and turquoise, and this fabric combines those with chestnut and gold accents. I am always drawn to oranges, especially oranges that don't specifically scream "Halloween!!" (Not that I don't love Halloween - I do! - but I appreciate orange in a much broader context.)

Anyway, these blocks have been in a bin for almost three months largely because I haven't been able to decide what I wanted to do for the sashing. Although the blocks are predominately orange (with purple accents, even!), I didn't really want to end up with a Halloween quilt. I tried dark purple, ivory, chocolate, peach, navy, black...but a bright solid turquoise won the day. I picked some up on my trip to Salem last week and finally have a complete top:

Metropolis quilt (top), 75 x 75". Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

This pattern is a great one for working in a tricky multi-color print that you have sitting around. You can combine several different vaguely coordinating prints with a few solids (or near-solids) to pull them all together. And, at this size, you don't really need too much of any one fabric. In the book, she gives yardage requirements for the blocks AND the back, which is a terrific effect for a reversible quilt, but if you ignore the back requirements, it's a great way to use small pieces of a group of lovelies. I don't have the math right in front of me, but I think 6 of the 9 block fabrics use less than a fat quarter.

Toodle-oo September!

Even by my standards, I had an incredibly productive weekend. (This was helped by the fact that I have a head cold and am just congested enough that sitting down for a long time results in compromised respiratory functioning.) Brace yourself for this...here's what I accomplished:

I completed all of the quilting -- wavy border lines and 30 (!) embroideries -- on the Beatles quilt. However, I did have to remove one of the embroideries due to tension problems. I'll restitch this one and bind it up later this week, after I replenish my black Aurifil. That stuff lasts forever -- I use it for all my piecing, and it worked great in embroidering these quilt motifs -- but I burn through it!

Quilting the Beatles!

I made and attached binding to my cute little Pink Rink quilt, which by tomorrow night will be in the "Finished in 2012" list. I'll post finished photos when the binding is stitched down.

I quilted and bound the mini "Fire Drill" from Modern Patchwork. I'm not terribly in love with this one; I was experimenting with softer colors than the ones I prefer. Lesson learned.

"Fire Drill" mini (binding is still loose in this photo)

I quilted my orange squares for the Rainbow Scrap challenge. (I was thinking this was the only orange project I finished this month, but I guess the autumnal Rapid City started as an orange buster too.) I have eight of these finished now:

Simple spiral quilting on the orange squares.

Finally, sometime mid-week I realized that September was nearly over but I hadn't made anything for the Color Palette challenge. I really love this month's photo:

September photo for Judy Laquidara's Color Palette Challenge

I pulled my bins of appropriately colored scraps and got to work. The boys noticed that the colors are very similar to the colors in April's challenge (remember mine?); I agree -- I actually thought the moldy pie reminded me of the springs and pools at Yellowstone. Inspired by Elizabeth Hartman's new version of her Glam Garlands quilt that she's been working on this month, I decided to use my Wing Clipper ruler to make a version with a bunch of flying geese. Here's what I came up with:

Garlands of Geese (42 x 52"). Completed for September Color Palette Challenge.

A new habit that I'm trying to develop is to prepare the back at the same time that I complete a top; I'm thinking they're less likely to languish in the UFO bin if both pieces are ready to go when I'm ready to baste something. Here's the back for the September geese:

Pieced back for the Garlands of Geese quilt.

And it's only 7:50 on Sunday. What to do, what to do...