Divas and Digs

I wish there were more progress to report on Lida Luna, but Lida the moonbird is proving to be Lida the Diva. I was so sure that metallic silver thread, bright and blingy against the medium-gray fabric of Lida's shoulders, would be the best choice for the scallop stitching on her feathers. Wrong-o. Unless the light shines on it at one particular angle, the silver thread doesn't even show. The scallop stitches (one of the rare instances I'll be using a built-in machine stitch on an otherwise free-motion landscape quilt) will have to be black, and fairly shiny.

The good news is, after 3 separate backorders totaling a 6-week delay, the carpet is being laid in the new studio this morning. A sort of oatmeal shade that goes by the inexplicable name of Lovesick (who names these colors, and what are they thinking?), it will be a nice, neutral, light-reflecting backdrop for all those colorful fabrics, paints and threads. Never have I been so happy to hear hammering and stapling at 8:00 a.m. For a little perspective on just how happy, here's a photo of what I've been waking up to every morning for the last few months:

That's because my 10' by 12' bedroom is also the studio. It started out lovely and non-cluttered, but that was before a second sewing machine, four drawer units, more design boards, and several tubs of fabric were added--all necessary and well-organized, but increasingly invasive. So much so, it's really begun to cramp--make that kill--any real creativity. Several times lately, I've walked in here to work on something, only to turn around and walk right back out. I'm a bit of a neatnik, after all, and this is the kind of scene that can send me over the edge. The only thing that's kept me from turning into a raving lunatic is knowing that this will all soon change. Thanks to my very handy and hardworking husband, and the son who moved out last September, by lunchtime today there will be, for the first time in nearly 40 years in this house, a room dedicated to nothing but designing, quilting, embroidering, and fabric painting. Oh hallelujah, glory be, and happy day!



During renovation (old carpet still in place)



There's a bathroom up there, too. Aside from the obvious advantage of that, I'll be able to paint fabric right over the bathtub and then rinse away the mess. For a neatnik, it doesn't get much better than that!







Tomorrow, after a bribery brunch (just kidding, they'd have done it for nothing), my two wonderful, strong sons will move the heavier items up to my new digs. Then comes the fun part: arranging and organizing. And last but far from least, quilting!

To read about someone who is making real progress with her free-motion project(s), head over to Leah Day's FMQ post. For added inspiration, check out the other blogs hooking up with her at the end of her post.

Also hooking up with Sarah for Whoop-whoop Friday, because she asked what made us dance the happy dance this week. If a new quilting studio doesn't qualify, I don't know what does. And check out all of her hookups!

And here's wishing a happy Mother's Day this Sunday to all of you moms!

Linda

Color Me Crazy (and Sometimes Crazy Works!)

Last week I was in a bind, so to speak, over what color of binding to use on my little 15" x 22" landscape quilt (see Voting Day in the Stew-dio). I asked for 'votes,' and several kind folks chimed in with their favorites of the three colors under consideration, all of which I had presented by photoshopping skinny borders onto a photo of the quilt. Counting the blog responses, my husband's choice, and the votes on the Facebook page, green got 7 votes, magenta got 6 (along with several second-choice votes), and black got 4. (Warning: you're probably going to get sick of seeing this quilt, but as any quilter knows, the point here is noticing what effect the potential binding colors had on the quilt colors.)

After the votes, I was still torn, darn it!...so I went on and pulled fabrics in all 3 color families. So much for that "saving time and cuticles" theory ;). Anyway, that was where magenta fell out of the running, because it turned out that the closest colors I had were a deep red-violet (left) and a medium rose (right). The red-violet immediately brought all the purples too far forward (which one voter had said about the magenta) and the rose just looked wimpy.


Then I auditioned the black fabric at left. Amazingly, instead of simply complimenting the black satin-stitching, it visually sucked a lot of the deep greens out of the quilt! It also looked a bit stark and lifeless against that pale sky fabric.


 So out came the greens, below. Being a landscape quilter, I have lots of greens--batiks, leaf prints and tree prints. And while the dark- and medium-greens looked nice, they didn't make the quilt 'pop' as much as I'd expected.

That is, until I saw this next one, where just for the heck of it (you know how you start getting desperate and reckless after a while?) I'd thrown a somewhat wacky mottled yellow-green onto the design board. Mind you, I was only comparing these two greens at first, for the potential use of one or the other.

But something clicked. I took the dark green off, and tried the mottled green by itself (no photo of that, aren't you glad? ;). But, no go. It looked too busy and it made the prints in the quilt recede and blend. So I put the dark green back on, and then started moving the two greens around to see which one looked better on the sides, which one looked better next to the sky, and which one complimented the print in the foreground. The sky looked better against the mottled yellow-green; everything else looked better against the dark green. But putting the dark green on the sides and bottom, and the yellow-green on the top only, just looked weird--like I had run out of dark green.

 So below is the solution I came up with--and the finished quilt. Green not only won, it triumphed, with not just one shade but two! Fence sitting is a habit of mine that can drive me crazy, but in this case it actually worked out...I think. Maybe we should vote? Just kidding! :) What's done is done.

 

 

Oh, and I promise never to post another photo of this quilt on this blog again. :)

Linking up here with Leah Day's FMQ Friday. Check it out; she's got 3 beautiful free-motion projects going AND, come Wednesday, will have her newest Craftsy class, Free Motion Fillers Volume 2, up and ready!

Linda

p.s. Thanks again to everyone who voted. I'll be glad to return the favor any time!

Voting Day in the Stew-dio

Yep, I'm stewing in my studio, and I could use some input. Continuing my self-assigned 'color therapy' project this week, I'll at least have some progress to show over at The Free-Motion Quilting Project on Friday. That's assuming Leah Day isn't knee-deep in bathroom tile at the time. The woman amazes me!

I'm also linking up with http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com/2013/04/100th-post-anniversary-design-wall.html, where you'll see hand-dyed and handstitched books made of felt...they're gorgeous!

As mentioned in my April 12 post titled A Change in Scenery, I had just on impulse pieced a colorful, 15- x 22-inch quilt top. What I didn't mention was that April 12 happened to be my dad's birthday and, as he passed away a year ago this week, it was probably more than just some color I was needing when I pieced this. I was trying to boost my mood. 

It worked, thanks to some vivid, jewel-toned batiks and the distraction of starting something new. (I think Dad would understand, having been an artist before he ever became an Air Force Staff Sgt. mechanic and then as a civilian took on a maintenance supervising job that left him little time for drawing or painting.) The April 12 photo of this piece showed the black lines drawn on a vinyl overlay, and the 'stained-glass' look of those lines and colors really got my attention. Now the vinyl overlay is off, the black lines are free-motion satin-stitched in Isacord 40 weight thread, and the quilting, also free-motion, is done. All the piece needs is trimming and binding. But here's what I'm stewing over, as usual: binding in what color? And should it be a print or a solid?

 

 So today I did what I always do if that decision isn't made by the time the quilting is finished: cropped this shot to appear as if the quilt were already trimmed and chose border from the editing options, which allows me to put binding-sized borders in any color around the photo. I picked 5 or 6 different ones, saving each newly bordered photo under a different file name and leaving the original photo as is. The whole process took about 5 minutes.

 

I really don't think there's any faster way to see what binding (or border) color is going to make your quilt pop! Then you can start pulling actual fabrics in that color family, and you've avoided a lot of wasted time auditioning colors that won't work and having to put all that fabric away again. (I don't know about you, but that's a big deal in my current studio, where the drawers are so stuffed you can barely fit your fingers between fabrics. You should see my cuticles. Ugh...and ouch!)

 

After weeding out a couple of the photos, we're down to three choices for the binding: a medium-to-dark green, black (to go with the satin-stitching), and a magenta shade. Here are the three candidates (I'd line them up to make it easier, but there isn't room):

At this point, 'votes' would be more than appreciated. Then, after deciding on a general color, I can audition both prints and solids in that family. I'm hoping you'll take a few seconds to chime in with your opinion. Thanks so much!

Linda  

A Change in Scenery

It's Free-Motion Quilt Friday over at Leah Day's website http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2013/04/fmq-friday-put-smile-in-it.html and she's wondering what we're free-motion quilting this week. Well, Lida Luna (see my post titled Moving Ahead before Moving) finally got sandwiched, basted and onto the machine, and by Sunday I managed to free-motion stitch the whole thing (minus Lida, the bird, who is really the focal point). My biggest concern, other than just how Lida herself would eventually be quilted and embellished, was stitching over the sheers I'd used for the first time ever in a quilt--a layer of white tulle over the moon and two layers of black organza over the tree reflections in the water.

  

Turns out Joyce Becker was right: no worries. They stitched like a breeze, no snagging and no thread breaks, even using mono-poly thread. What a relief! I'll be much more willing and far less terrified to use sheers from now on. In this case, the tulle overlay on the moon was a must. Serving to corral the occasional runaway Angelina fiber, it also added a subtle halo, the diameter of the tulle circle being roughly two inches more than that of the moon. (If you click on the photo below, you can see it.)

As the background came close to being finished, I thought I'd be anxious to get Lida on the quilt, but instead I found my focus and enthusiasm oddly waning. Two days later, it hit me. Outside my window, color had recently appeared everywhere--daffodils and hyacinths blooming, the tulip poplar tree and forsythia hedges bursting with blossoms. Lida Luna is essentially a monochromatic piece, lots of black, grays, silver, an extremely deep purple and some midnight blue, and I'd been looking at it in my cramped little studio for weeks. What I needed was some color!

I didn't want to start another large project just yet, so Tuesday I decided to piece one of those fun, multi-hued and multi-hilled landscapes I've seen in landscape-quilting books, using this little sketch I'd made on a notepad a couple of weeks back.

After scanning and enlarging it on 4 sheets of printer paper, I traced the sketch on clear vinyl and laid it over a piece of muslin. Out came the iron, all of my paper-backed fusible web, and a drawer full of batik fat quarters. I wanted lots of jewel-like colors and maybe even a sort of stained-glass look for this little piece. By Wednesday evening, I had a quilt top temporarily fused (and pinned when I ran out of Steam-a-Seam2) to the muslin on my design board. Remember, the black lines are actually on the vinyl overlay. But I like them so much that I'm considering black satin-stitch on all the raw edges. It really does make it look a little like stained glass!


  




It's amazing how color can perk up your mood. This is only about 15" x 22," so it won't take long to quilt. I guess it's one of those unplanned little bonuses you get when you act on impulse--a change in scenery, a boost in energy, and an item to add to your inventory if you sell your work (which I do) or give as a gift. Having spent only a few very fun hours piecing this, I'm not emotionally attached to it, so it won't be hard to let it go once it's quilted and bound. And it's small enough that if I do decide to hang on to it, wall space won't be an issue. Especially in the new studio. (Which, by the way, is only waiting for new carpet--which we ordered from Home Depot with the exciting prospect of quick delivery and installation. Nope. Turns out the factory was fresh out of that color and it would be another 3 weeks just to get it milled and delivered to the warehouse. Then we'll schedule the installation. So, maybe next month. Crossing my fingers.)

Be sure to check out the quilting blogs that are linked up to Leah Day's post, using the link above. Better make a cup of coffee or tea first, though. These folks do amazing work, and you're going to want to settle in for a while to peruse it all. Have fun, and if you're a free-motion quilter and blogger, be sure to link up yourself!