At-Home Quilting Retreat - Day 3

Cadenza Quilt in Progress

Rows of music notes in eight large sections

Black strips represent bar lines between measures

This week I'm off work while I play the piano in an orchestra for a local high school musical. Rehearsals have taken place in the evenings, and I've spent much of my non-music time working on Cadenza, a music-themed quilt. On Monday and Tuesday I created units that look something like music notes, attaching a strip of background fabric (spacer) to separate the notes. The spacers are in varying widths to create variety.

Today I took all 64 music note/spacer units, put them in a box and mixed them up.

Without looking, I drew 16 strips per row, placing them in the same order that I drew them. Above is the first row.

I used the Random Sequence Generator at Random.org to scramble numbers 3-13. I followed the results to place narrow black strips to the right of units 3-13, two or three strips per row.

Notice on the bottom row there is a black strip next to a black music note, creating a shape I don't want.

I switched the black music note with a yellow one beside it. I like that look better.

I need a black strip on the right side of the quilt.

Added another strip to the bottom row, which helped.

Now the strips on the far right of the bottom two rows seem too close together.

I removed one of the strips from the third row from the top. I like that pretty well. I've also moved a few music note units around, trying to maintain the randomness as much as possible.

 

Decided rows should be 52" finished, so there should be two sections at 26.5" unfinished. Sewed the first section - right on the money! Not every section came out like this. Most ended up too long, so I'll adjust them by removing or trimming spacers, taking a slightly wider seam, etc.

First music notes section

Once again, the music notes sections

Tomorrow rehearsals begin at 1:00 and last until 9:00. I'll have a couple of hours in the morning to sew. I'll begin making four-patch for the spaces between the music notes rows.

At-Home Quilting Retreat - Day 2

Music notes/spacers units - production of the day

Design notes

Today I finished the music notes/spacers units. There are 64 units, to be distributed among four rows at 16 units per row. My idea is to throw all of the units into a big box, mix them up, draw 16 units for each row and place on the design board in the same order they were drawn. I will try to limit the number of re-arrangements and accept the random order as much as possible. The desired effect is a series of multi-colored notes that dance up and down in each row, just as real musical notes on a page would do. Later I may need to add background fabric to the edges of the rows to get them to the right width. Additionally, I'm thinking of placing one or two narrow black vertical strips in each row, to represent bars between measures.

My idea for the spaces between the music notes rows is to make a bunch of four-patch blocks, 4" finished, then adding plain 4" finished blocks of mostly music-themed prints to play them up. I may add narrow black vertical strips to divide each unit, as well as thin black horizontal strips to divide each row.

My plan for tomorrow is to make the four-patch blocks and plain blocks, then experiment with the layout for the music note/spacer units. It would be nice to begin sewing rows together, as well.

At-Home Quilting Retreat - Day 1

Photos above show what I got done today.

Background fabric (bottom) is cut 13" x half width of fabric (WOF).

Colored strip is 2.5" x a bit more than half WOF.

Decided not to cut the colored strips unevenly, and to make vertical cuts truly vertical, not angled. Music notes won't be as wonky as I first envisioned, but construction should be easier and quicker.

Colored strip laid over background piece

Background sliced in half diagonally with colored strip between

Colored strip sewn to background pieces

First four sets

Spacer strips to go between "note" strips

Cut 12.5" x 1.5"-2.5" for variety

Strips paired up, held together with pins

Pairs of strips placed in box, to be drawn at random

Getting ready to cut set into 2.5" vertical strips

Strips cut. About 14" tall, will trim to 12.5" tall after spacer strips sewn on.

First three strips

Another view

Spacer strips sewn on. Sets will be trimmed even with spacer strips.

First eight strips with spacers, trimmed to 12.5".

Close-up

First two sets of strips/spacers

Four sets/spacers done

Four sets ready to be trimmed and cut, with two black note strips in the center.

Design notes

I'm happy with what I got done today. I'm pretty much making up this quilt as I go along, so I'm not positive how it will look at the end. But it's kind of fun, adventurous and a great exercise in creativity. Tomorrow I'll get the rest of the strips/spacers done, which I hope will be enough for four rows of notes. I'm thinking about four-patch and plain blocks to go between the rows of notes. In addition I'm considering throwing in some narrow black strips to divide the rows, and to represent bars between measures. Also, I have in mind to use a border of the black treble clef fabric to finish off the quilt.

At-Home Quilting Retreat Begins

Music Themed Fabrics, mostly from stash

Background fabric

A few fabric possibilities

Cadenza Design Sketch

I'm off of work all this week. My big event this week is to play the piano in the orchestra for the musical Pirates of Penzance for a local high school. Most evenings will be spent in rehearsals, with performances on the weekend. With no day job to go to this week, all I have to worry about is getting to my rehearsals and performances on time. I did the same last year and it worked well for me.

Also, like last year, I'm spending the non-music hours doing an at-home quilting retreat. As it so happens, I'll be working on a music-themed quilt that I've named Cadenza. According to Merriam-Webster, a cadenza is "an impressive solo part usually near the close of a musical composition." Typically the orchestra or pianist/accompanist stops playing while the soloist does his/her thing. My joke definition for cadenza is "Italian for showing off."

My idea for the quilt is to have several rows containing sprinkles of wonky squares that represent musical notes. The squares would be scrappy while the backgrounds will be all the same fabric, a tone-on-tone off-white leaf design. Between the rows would be big chunks of scrappy fabrics, a few of them music-themed.

I already had a bag of fabrics set aside for a music-themed quilt from last November's quilting retreat in Pacifica. I'm using a lot of those, and I pulled more from my scrap collection and stash. So far I have bought just three new fabrics, so much of the quilt will be from stash.

I intend to work on the quilt each day of my vacation, and hopefully have a finished quilt by the end of the weekend.

Linda's Plaid Quilt Finished

Linda's Plaid

For co-worker Linda P.

Patriotic Plaid Block

Original Design

51" Square

Completed 4/29/2012

Close-up

Plaid squares have colors of neighboring strips: Green/Green, Red/Red, Green/Red.

Background rose print refers to Linda's love of roses.

Inspiration: Linda's shirt that she wore to work

Original coloring based on Linda's shirt

Changed coloring after conversation with Linda, who has burgundy and green in her home.

I just finished Linda's Plaid, for co-worker Linda P. The inspiration is a plaid shirt that Linda wore to work. The quilt is a surprise, a belated birthday gift. Linda knows I want to make a quilt based on the shirt, but she has no idea that the quilt is for her.

After a frustrating attempt to mimic the plaid, I chose Patriotic Plaid Block. Originally I had planned to make a quilt in a similar color scheme as the shirt. I started wondering if the color scheme would work in her home. So after a sneaky conversation with Linda, I found out that she likes red, but has more burgundy in her home, as well as green. She also loves roses. Immediately I changed the color scheme to burgundy and green. While shopping for background fabric, I found the white/black/red rose print, which I also used on the back of the quilt. I used three plaid fabrics to go in the intersections of the different colored strips: green/green, red/red and green/red.

I'm on vacation this week, so it will be a week before I give Linda the quilt. I hope she'll like it. She definitely will be surprised.

Update: I gave Linda her quilt on Monday, May 7. She was surprised and seemed to like the quilt. Enjoy, Linda!

Calling the Quilt Top Done

Linda's Plaid Quilt Top

I just got the red border sewn to Linda's Plaid quilt. I've decided not to attach the wide green border. It looks fine as it is, and leaving it off will save me a couple of hours' work for tonight. Also, I think that leaving off the green border will keep the quilt from going more Christmas-y than it may be already. It is not a Christmas quilt.

The finished quilt will be about 51" square, kind of a small throw. However, Linda is about my height (very short) so it shouldn't be a problem.

The back will be made completely of the rose print. Linda loves roses, so she should love the abundance of them in the quilt.

My intent is to finish the quilt completely tonight, but my Plan B is to tie enough knots to hold the layers together so I can take it to church tomorrow to show quilter friend Judy P. I can finish tying knots later in the day.

Linda's Plaid Blocks Done

Blocks for Linda's Plaid quilt - Patriotic Block

Last night I finished the last of the blocks for Linda's Plaid quilt. I'd really love to finish the quilt before I go to bed tonight so I can show it to quilting friend Judy P. at church tomorrow. 

Finishing Linda's Plaid will free me up to start the next project, Cadenza, a music-themed quilt that I'll be working on during my vacation week that will officially begin after church. I plan to do an at-home retreat most of the time. Most weeknights will be spent in rehearsals for Pirates of Penzance, a local high school musical that opens next weekend. I am playing the piano in the orchestra for the musical. If I am disciplined I should get a lot of quilting accomplished during my non-show time.

Marysville and Yuba City

Last Saturday Sacramento Modern Quilting Guild met in Marysville, CA. It's a long drive from my house, so at guild member Kathryn T.'s invitation, I drove to her home near the Sacramento Zoo, then we rode together to Marysville Public Library. Our group was small but we had a good meeting.

Sew So Shop in Yuba City

Gotta Luv Books, across the parking lot from Sew So

After the meeting most of us drove to nearby Yuba City to Sew So Shop quilt store. It's a nice store, and well worth visiting. I picked up a yard of a cute Paris/Rome theme print; I have no idea what I'll do with it yet, but I love things Parisian, so I couldn't pass it up. I also picked up a couple of fat quarters, one with Roman Numerals that will go into my next quilt.

Kathryn and I went across the parking lot to visit Gotta Luv Books, a used book store. I picked up three inexpensive books, including It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. My granddaughter Reghan likes to watch Charlie Brown shows, and I have several on my DVR, including the Great Pumpkin. Reghan will enjoy the book, I'm sure.

Casa Lupe Mexican restaurant

Look carefully in the shade between the bushes to see one of The Wild Chickens of 99.

On a recommendation at the quilt store, Kathryn and I went to Casa Lupe for Mexican food. While I was trying to get a photo, Kathryn and I heard chickens nearby. I hung around for a few moments and saw this rooster. I learned later from co-worker Liz M., who knows the Marysville-Yuba City area well, that this is one of The Wild Chickens of 99. Many years ago a local stockyard closed down, leaving its chickens behind. They wander up and down Highway 99, which can be seen in the background of the photo. Amazing! See a news article here.

The Cookie Tree bakery

After a wonderful lunch at Casa Lupe, Kathryn and I drove back near the quilt shop to visit highly-recommended bakery The Cookie Tree. I bought two snickerdoodles, a peanut butter, a lemon shortbread (I love lemon!) and two chocolate cookies. The chocolates were for my daughter-in-law Laurie and granddaughters Reghan and Piper, all of whom love chocolate. I intended to give a snickerdoodle to my son Robbie, but it fell apart before I got home, so I gave him a peanut butter.

A day after I gave the cookies, I remembered that Robbie likes chocolate chip. How could I forget that? We always had a package of Chips Ahoy in the pantry just for him. Bad mommy.

I had a fun day with Kathryn and it was nice to get to know each other.

WIP Wednesday 4/25/2012

Four Patriotic Plaid Blocks

Linda's Plaid Quilt

I've sewn four of nine Patriotic Plaid blocks for Linda's Plaid quilt. I like the way the quilt is looking. I should have the rest of the blocks sewn in a couple of days. I'm not going to be able to get the quilt to co-worker Linda P. before her Friday birthday. Normally I could bring it on the Monday after, but I'm off work all next week. So I'll get it to her when I return to work. The quilt is a surprise so it won't hurt to get it to her after her birthday.

I'll be close to home next week. I'm playing the piano in an orchestra for a local high school musical. There will be lots of rehearsals in the evenings and performances on the weekend. During the day I plan to do an at-home quilting retreat, during which I'll create a music-themed quilt that I have named Cadenza. The inspiration came to me a couple of days ago while I was walking through the parking lot into work.

Hopscotch Blocks

From my April 2009 quilting retreat in Pacifica, CA.

My idea is to create several horizontal rows of Hopscotch blocks (from the book Quilters Playtime by Dianne S. Hire), which should look sort of like music notes on a page. I'm thinking of an off-white plain background, with wonky squares of solids and tones-on-tone in black, brown, blue and rust. Between the rows would be some music-themed prints. I already have a grocery bag full of fabrics, just waiting for inspiration, which arrived just in time.

WIP Wednesday 4/18/2012

Springtime - Mixed Media Quilt

This week I created Springtime, a mixed media quilt. I started with a greeting card and added fabric, lace, beads, stones, glass and silk flowers - most of which were found on-hand. I like how the little quilt turned out. I have it on display at my desk at work.

Electric Quilt sketch of Linda's Plaid

Background fabric for Linda's Plaid

Linda loves roses and this fabric fit the bill.

Plaid fabrics for intersections of color strips

Left: for intersection of red/green

Center: for intersection of green/green

Right: for intersection of red/red

Fabric collection for Linda's Plaid

Linda's Plaid is a quilt for co-worker Linda P. The inspiration for the quilt was a plaid shirt that Linda wore. I found out recently that Linda loves roses. I was hoping to find a white-on-white rose-themed fabric for the background of Linda's Plaid. I found one possibility at one store, then tried another store. On the third pass-through of the second store I spied the white/black/red rose print which told me it wanted to be in the quilt. I bought a couple of yards. The next day I went back and found three plaids to go in the little squares where the color strips meet. I prefer the clean look of nearly solid background, and I was a little concerned about the busyness of the rose print. However I think the strong lines of solid green and burgundy will help create the graphic feel I like.

I'll start working on Linda's Plaid in a day or two.