At-Home Quilting Retreat - Days 6 and 7

Cadenza quilt top in seven rows

Saturday I sewed black strips to the four-patch blocks (sampling above).

Today I cut theme blocks and sewed black strips to them.

Look carefully to see double rows of stitching on some of the colored patches. Took deeper seams to take up excess width.

Tonight I sewed rows. Tomorrow I will join them together, then attach a border of black treble clef fabric.

I was hoping to get the Cadenza quilt finished by the end of the weekend, which is also the end of my at-home quilting retreat. But I was pretty tired after playing four shows (Pirates of Penzance) in two days, and spent some quality time on the sofa watching TV or napping. I'm still proud of what I accomplished during the week, having started the quilt from scratch on Monday.

I should be able to get the quilt done this week.

At-Home Quilting Retreat - Day 5

Sampling of four-patch blocks

I played two showings of Pirates of Penzance today - one in the morning and one in the evening. I had a break of several hours between shows, so I went to Jo-Ann's and got some batting and backing fabric (same off-white leaf print as the background for the music notes). I picked up some lunch and headed home. After lunch I took a nap, then went back and played the second show.

Once I was home from the evening show, I sewed up 18 four-patch blocks (samples above) for the Cadenza quilt. These will go in alternate rows between the music notes rows. I'll put in some plain blocks of mainly music-themed fabric, and insert narrow black strips between blocks. I hope to get the alternate rows done before I leave for the matinee showing tomorrow. There won't be much of a break between the end of the matinee and the beginning of the evening show, so I'll find dinner somewhere nearby. I can sew some more after I get home from playing the second show.

At-Home Quilting Retreat - Day 4

Pairs of fabrics for four-patch blocks

Today I spent much of the day in rehearsals for the musical I am playing the piano in this weekend. I didn't do any actual sewing today on the Cadenza quilt, but I did a lot of planning. I figured out how many four-patch blocks I need to make, paired up fabrics for the blocks, and mapped out where to place each block (more on that on a later post).

I expect to get the four-patch blocks sewn tomorrow and begin sewing them together into the alternate rows between the music notes rows (see earlier posts for photos).

Back Stage

I spent a good part of the day in rehearsals for Pirates of Penzance, a musical by a local high school that is being performed at our junior college. I thought I'd share some pictures from the orchestra point of view. I hope you enjoy them.

Modesto Junior College

Music Building is where I spent two years as a piano student and accompanist over 30 years ago. Many good memories flood my mind as I walk past. Large building in background is the auditorium where we are performing Pirates of Penzance.

Standing on the stage, looking down into the orchestra pit. You can see my music stand with MJC stamped on it. Orange tape on the stage floor is to warn the cast not to go any farther. It's quite a drop.

Still on stage, looking down at the piano. The music stand belongs to conductor Janine R., whose head sticks out above the stage floor. She can see what is going on in the show to give the orchestra cues, and can direct the singers when necessary.

Down in the orchestra pit - under the stage

The view from the percussion section

Opposite side of the room - the view from the woodwind section

My view from the piano

I can't see anything on the stage or in the audience. Orchestra members probably will get a DVD of the show so we can find out what we missed.

The show opens tomorrow. There are four shows over Friday and Saturday. It should be fun.

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.