A new year, a fresh start

Happy New Year!

Just a few days until February, so you may think I'm late with these wishes but the lunar year 4715 just started yesterday. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Instead of giving you too much information about last year, though that might slip out, I'm concentrating on the here and now.

And now, I'm in the middle of a terrific online workshop called Photoshop Elements: Essentials 1 from the terrific Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki, aka the Pixel Ladies. Here's one result of the first week's lessons:  

It's a reduced image for posting on the web and it has a watermark. The piece was juried into Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016 at Visions Art Museum, San Diego. 

A much deserved shout-out goes to two machine quilting instructors: Sandra Palmer Ciolino, for setting me on the path of thinking critically about the quilting; and Jenny Lyon, for opening up and narrowing the quilting possibilities. Couldn't have gotten there without them! 

Over the moon

One of my pieces has been juried into Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016! Yay, I am over the moon!

Last fall, after finishing Terra Verde for Color Improvisations II, I was on a roll and kept going by finishing others that had been hanging around the studio for years. Vernal Vortex, formerly nicknamed High Anxiety, will be in Visions.

Here's the top after piecing:

pieced but not trimmed

I blogged about developing the design and piecing it here and here. That was 2012. Had no idea how to quilt it. Later that same year, I focused on fmq and wondered if I will ever get to the stage when I could tackle this. Tucked it away.

Three years later, I had a plan and was ready to tackle it. Want to see how? Here's a detail in the midst of quilting:

small area for quilting redo

All that fmq practice and I'd used a walking foot.

I have a thing about posting the finished piece before it debuts at a show. So come see the whole thing at Visions Art Museum in San Diego. I'll be at the opening on October 15, 2016 and the show runs through January 8, 2017. Otherwise, you'll just have to watch for a post after the opening.

Terra Verde

Color Improvisations 2's opening reception happened on March 11, 2016 at the Tuch + Technik TextilMuseum in Neümunster, Germany. I was there but it came and went in a whoosh. 

Here are images of my contribution to the exhibition. 

Terra Verde

Terra Verde detail

Finally. Six weeks later. But I'll spare you the excuses this time.

The exhibit will travel in Europe. Robert Shaw is working on continuing its tour in the United States starting in 2018. Meanwhile, more information and more photos of the exhibition at Color Improvisations 2. 

Quick burials

Here's a tute on burying your threads in your quilt without a self-threading needle.

All you need: one sewing needle and about 30" of thread. Fine threads don't work well. Use a grabby thread. I use glazed cotton hand quilting thread and a long thin needle with a big eye. 

1. Thread the needle with the thread doubled: fold the thread in half and put either the end loop or both cut ends through the eye. 

2. Pull the thread so the loop end hangs longer than the cut ends. 

3. Optional: on the quilt, pull the bobbin thread up to the top and tie it the top thread. You could bury each thread individually, but then you'll have twice as many to do.

4. Insert needle near these thread ends to be buried and come back out an inch or so away. For a smooth end, I bury it just about in the same place where the bobbin thread came up. Also if I direct my needle back toward the line of stitching, it seems less likely to pull out. 

5. Grab thread ends and pull through the loop. As you pull the needle out, keep threads end in the loop. 

6. Cut excess thread ends as needed. Voila!

After you get the hang of this, burying threads is easy and speedy. And you can make thread starts and stops just about disappear.

After composing this, Cindy Needham made a great You Tube video of this technique. So follow the link. Much better than any photos! 

No more walking

After spending 120 hours quilting one large project, I kept the momentum going. When I ran out of bobbin thread on the bed quilt, I switched to another ufo.

quilting another ufo

Then this thread started running low. I diverted my attention to problem areas. Plenty of bad stitches to redo which slowed my progress while I await more thread.  Here's an area that developed tucks and creases:

unstitched quilting to smooth it out

Quilting lines run on the bias in this area. More basting. Will it behave now?

basted grid

Predicting problems elsewhere, I added more basting there too.  That's when the walking foot fell apart. Spring unsprung!

. . . couldn't put it back together again 

The dealer/repairman had reassembled one for someone else before, but it was fussy and fiddly work. This time they're ordering a new foot. No charge but no walking foot for at least a week. Fortunately threads arrived. Back to fmq on the bed quilt. Saved from housework.

Intense swirls & pebbles

It has been a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of month. Back to quilting the bed quilt. I want to finish and gift it before winter.

Swirls and pebbles à la Angela Walters

There's a reason for those gaps. Filling it completely with swirls and pebbles was so intense. Turning out lovely. But makes me want to tear out the quilting elsewhere.

Working back to normal

Blogging had to take a back seat in the past two years. That period has been all about deadlines. Not only was I immersed in work for Color Improvisations 2, I also filled a position as Program Chair for my local guild, EBHQ. So I had to stay on top of everything.

In those two years I've selected artists for a presentation and two days of workshops to fill 19 months of programming for the guild.

The illustrious guests for 2014 included Pat Pauly, Velda Newman, Sandra Bruce, Suzi Parron, Stacey Sharman, Jane Dunnewold, Jenny Lyon and Els van Baarle.

The lineup continued in 2015: Judy Coates Perez, Terrie Hancock Mangat, Sue Rasmussen, Youngmin Lee, Jean Cacicedo, Jo Fitsell, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Cynthia Corbin and Jiyoung Chung.

Still yet to come in 2016: Leslie Tucker Jenison, Sherri Lynn Wood, Rosalie Dace and Jacquie Gering. Check the guild's website to see who's coming soon.

And the members enthusiastically responded; enrollment averaged 18 to 19 students (out of 20!) per workshop. So if you are considering any of these wonderful people and want to know more, just ask.

My tenure ended on June 1st. After some residual business, I am a free-er and more relaxed woman who intends to post less erratically as well as keep on working in the studio!

in the studio

When the stars align

I remember taking my second workshop at the Crow Barn, before the Color Improvisations exhibition was slated to open in 2010. It was to be a stellar line up - one I wanted to see up close and personal. But that didn't happen: I didn't make it to Europe and it didn't travel to the United States.

Most of all, I wished for an invitation from Nancy Crow to participate in a exhibition. Now the stars have aligned!

I have been juried into a group exhibition, Color Improvisations 2, curated by Nancy Crow and featuring 50 works by 43 artists. I am honored by the invitation to participate, blessed by the acceptance of my work, Terra Verde, and flattered to be included with many acclaimed artists. A sure bet: I'll be there for the opening!

Color Improvisations II
Curated by Nancy Crow

Organized by Ginie Curtze

March 12 - August 28, 2016

Opening reception March 11, 2016 7pm

Museum Tuch + Technik Textilmuseum

Neumünster, GERMANY

Kleinflecken 1
24534 Neumünster
Telefon  04321 559 58-20

http://www.tuchundtechnik.de

detail from Terra Verde

Tat peeps

Showing off our matching tats at SAQA's Fiberlandia

Lost in transition

Done my good deed for SAQA. I finished this mini quilt (thank you, Colleen and Sandy for feedback), completed the participation form and mailed it off with days to spare. It was to be part of the Spotlight Auction at Fiberlandia, the conference in Portland, OR.

Was to be. 

Lost somewhere between the post office here and Seguin, TX or New Braunfels, TX. Probably in Texas (the recipient moved). Three were lost. I hope they have many more for the auction.

This doesn't stop me from going to the conference! See you there?

Update: The other two showed up in time to make it to the conference, but not mine. It showed up at the original address the Monday following the conference.office. Perhaps it was having such a good time going first class,  it wanted to spend an extra month with the post office!

SAQA sent it back to me, nicely matted. Unless it finds another happy home, I'll resubmit it to next year's conference.

Fiberlandia Spotlight

Last year I joined SAQA and attended the quarterly Northern California regional meetings. I even participated in two of the featured programs: one on critiques and the other on long term learning. This year I’m heading to Fiberlandia, the conference in Portland, OR and I've something to donate for the Spotlight Auction. 

Here is it before trimming:

before cropping

It's bigger than the requested size – 6" x 8". I'll crop it, they'll frame it. But which orientation to show in the 4.5" x 6.5" window? 

A: horizontal 1

B: vertical 1

C: horizontal 2

D: vertical 2

After seeing them here, I have my druthers. Then a little more Shiva Paintsticks to finish it off. 

Results may vary

I’m gearing up for major fmq by getting rid of the cobwebs around the hand-eye-sewing machine-fabric coordination. Just stitching samples, four inches squares. Just practice.

Here’re two samples based on an interesting pattern shown on Amy’s Free Motion Quilting Adventures. All straight lines. It’s a stitched version of a Twisted Log Cabin. She has a video showing how she did it.

same pattern, different results

The one on the left was stitched first. No rulers. And other than the perimeter square, no marking – spacing eyeballed. I did turn the square so I am stitching the line straight on from back to front. 

What if I don’t turn it? Thus the second sample on the right. Yeah, I could use more practice stitching in other directions. The lines aren’t as straight, the spacing is uneven, the resulting curve is rougher, and the center is off. 

It’s got wonky charm, doesn't it? 

Gussied up & stepping out!

Plain Jane before:

Plain Jane in 2013

In response to FiberShots Community Challenge: Embellish Your World at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, I gave it a makeover:

Vega Alpha Lyrae

Post transformation, I’ve donated it, as Vega Alpha Lyrae, to the museum. It will be exhibited from March 7 to April 26, 2015 along with many other works to be auctioned off to support their worthwhile efforts.

The museum issues these FiberShots challenges annually. Check them out! Support the museum by starting or adding to your own collection of 16-inch squares. 

Prepared for Pauly

I'm ready with two strip sets for next weekend's workshop.

two strip sets 

Instead of the usual solids, I am using prints in hopes of reducing that print stash. One is a set with five different fabrics. The other is a set with five similar fabrics. Can you tell which is what? Maybe I'm stretching the directions just a little due to limited tolerance for combining prints.

Pat Pauly will teach a two-day Slash and Burn, Techniques for Improvisational Quilts at my guild. This will be the very first workshop I've added as the guild's Program person (I'm now the Program Chair). A two-day workshop is usually a harder sell, but it's full with a waiting list! My critique group will host a dinner for her next Saturday. Maybe she'll share how she does it all - maintains her good humor, her energy and her productivity. Wouldn't you like to know? 

Gobble gobble

Besides the usual squirrels, moles, skunks, raccoons and deer, we have wild turkeys!

Last year a pair were prowling around the hood and were seen hopping off my neighbor's roof. Last week a family of a half dozen congregated around another neighbor's front yard. Guess they're not practicing family planning! This week I captured this one:

turkey on my front fence

They look robust and healthy but I've been advised to avoid these unfriendly creatures.

Pause after battle

taming the bedquilt

Quilting this monster bedquilt was like doing battle: fierce fighting in the middle and a few skirmishes elsewhere.

I'd walking-footed along both sides of major seams and fmq'd in the ditch within each nine-patch triangular block. As Cindy Needham says, stitch E-S-S (every stinking seam).

laid out on my bed for inspection

I've learned . . .

• the open toe walking foot lets me see enough for straighter and truer stitches;

• using the fmq foot is like driving a sports car instead of a moving van; and

• when restarting, take a stitch in place and relax the finger hold so that the first stitch is not tugged awry. 

wool batting puffs up each triangle

Quilting is on pause as I contemplate motifs: may leave the printed triangles as is, and add feathers and swirls in the larger solid areas. 

FMQ inspiration & evolution

Love the patterning on this building spied in an architectural magazine:

rendering of expansion to Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg proposed by Dominique Perrault

Inspired, I stitched these samples as a warm-up for fmq:

pattern evolution from straight lines to s-curves

I find curves much easier than straight lines. Is it that way for you too?

Monster mash

This hulk by the sewing machine is the hexagonal bed quilt. You're seeing the backing.

I wanted to experience how manageable - or not - this bigger-than-queen quilt would be on my Janome 6600. So far not very -  it's like wrestling with a beast!

Stitches waver along the ditch even with the walking foot. Maybe free-motion will be better (ha!). Maybe a new machine with another two inches would do the trick. What I know for sure: un-stitching is in my future.

Record time for re-entry

Last month I started a new project with the intention of putting it in the local guild's quilt show in March. It now needs only hand stitching on the back to be done. Done ahead of time and only two months from start to finish - a new record! Wow! All other projects take years!

entry for Voices in Cloth

A three-day retreat in Healdsburg earlier this month really helped. 

morning view at Healdsburg

I had it pieced and pin basted before I went. Just decided what to do and stitched. Keeping the quilting minimal helped too.

Now comes the tough part: what title to give it? Gotta decide by the January 27th deadline for the submittal entry.

Re-entry

Life has been hectic in the past two months. I've taken two great workshops: Potpourri II with Nancy Crow at the Crow Barn and The New Complex Cloth with Jane Dunnewold at Art Quilt Tahoe. Seen two great international juried fiber arts shows. Maybe I'll catch up and post about these. Maybe not.

For now I'm happily engaged in a new project. Started with the golden pieces from the workshop:

modules from Potpourri II

and made more with some in other colors.

more modules, more colors

Re-arranged the jumbled mess,

more cohesive but flat

auditioned more colors,

looking livelier

resulting in a small half-way decent composition.

a 36x36 composition

Added red, and made more to make it bigger,

a 42x53 composition

but not necessarily better. Why the heck is that?! Needs more work!

It's not too big yet big enough to become my entry for the EBHQ quilt guild show, Voices in Cloth, coming up in March.

Gotta be big enough to hang around all those big traditional quilts.