Hexagons & triangles on the walls

After all that fmq obsession, I was itching to get back to designing and piecing. I decided to start BIG with a queen size bed quilt I've procrastinated about for a long time.

Making something for a friend can be tough - especially when it's a surprise.  Add a restrictive palette in prints and I'm stressing. But this year I intend to buckle down and not put off until tomorrow.

I've nearly decimated my stash of blue prints to make this stack of triangles.

360 equilateral triangles

Doubts and repetitious cutting almost did me in. Then hexagons morphed into triangles on this not-big-enough design wall:

an oblique view due to light fixture & worktable

Nothing like a project to get motivated with the next phase of the studio move. Picking up from half a year ago, I used velcro Command Strips based on this tutorial from Marianne of The Quilting Edge to put up an 8 foot square design wall from two 4x8 sheets of 1" thick foam insulation:

new design wall in new studio

The top and bottom seams mark the middle five-foot height within which I don't have to get on a step stool nor get on down on the floor. Here're the hexagons and triangles on the new wall:

 no obstructed view (yet) on the new design wall

It's not queen sized but with only one triangle left, I must've miscalculated.

That's okay. Instead of buying more fabric and cutting more triangles (ugh!), I'll go modern and add solid negative spaces. Wonder if there'd be enough leftovers for a baby quilt for the first grand nephew due in May.

Turning green

I am envious of artists with multiple design walls in a large studio. Look at Judy Martin's! Oooh! I covet such a gallery!

I have two design walls: main one 7x7 and another 5x5 that's a bit removed and used like a bulletin board. In the middle of attaching the sleeve to Neutra House, I want to take photos. Before I forget. Before it's too late. I must roll up the ribbon quilt out of the way first.

Hmm. This reminds me of another reason why I don't work concurrently on multiple projects. Not enough wall space. Well, not the entire story. True confession: I am a studio slob. My studio overflows with stuff; all horizontal surfaces covered. I am quite content as long as I have enough space to keep working and enough floor space to maneuver.

I was once obsessive about housekeeping. Somewhere along the line I picked up some of my ex's non-existent housekeeping habits. Now I am just as bad particularly with my own space.

Every so often, I do major clean up. But it's not enough. A total redesign and reorganization is what I really need. What's that story about a cobbler whose own children have no shoes?

On the wall

Look what's on the walls and ceilings of my family room/studio. Knotty pine paneling. Hanging flannel over this just won't work. This is my former design wall which now hangs over a loveseat. It's 60x48: two 30x48 stretched canvases screwed together, covered with white felt, and hung with picture wire. It just wasn't big enough. Here's the new design wall naked before I dressed it.
The East Bay Depot for Creative ReUse in Oakland is a treasure trove of materials for artists and crafters. Stock there changes quickly and everything is priced to move. Better waste management through re-use. I just love shopping there and have scored some great finds!

There I found six 40x30x1/2" foam core boards formerly used as signage at some medical convention. They were covered with heavy vinyl coated paper on one side and black construction paper on the other. Stacked them against my patio doors for a while and the two sheets warped - dang! To flatten, I peeled off the papers on both sides to expose the black foam core. You can't see these two sheets in the photo, they're on the bottom.

Halfway through joining them together, it hit me that I haven't figured out the logistics of handling and hanging the whole wall. It had to be a one-woman job.

Used my driveway to lay it out. But the whole thing couldn't fit through any door. Let alone stretch my arms wide enough to carry it. It got complicated. Won't go into details here.

Much later, after trips to the hardware store and many climbs up and down a step ladder, I have my wall. And can now pat myself on the back because I put it together all by myself! Yeah!

Here's my design wall looked like yesterday with my main project – the ribbon quilt from Nancy Crow fall workshop. The colorful ones on the left including four new ribbons made since I got this new wall up three weeks ago. Yeah! The ribbon I'm working on now in the middle. The strip pieces I will make into ribbons to the right - including that bossy green one. And all the neutral ribbons on the far right.