BQF: liberty and justice and whatnot {roygbiv}

As I'm at a real risk of oversharing this one (...again), I'll try to keep this post brief. 

My first entry into the Spring 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival? "Liberty (of London) and Justice for All."

For reasons that are likely already apparent to my followers, I'm entering this quilt in the ROYGBIV category. 

And for those of you who are new around these parts, I've assembled a compilation of sorts with you in mind :) 

You can find out more about my process in these (teaser) posts:
*something old...
*something new.
*something borrowed... (which, incidentally, didn't make the cut for the DWR challenge quilt)
*something hued.

...And then there's the post-finish hooplah:
*liberty (of london) and justice for all (if you click through only one of these links, make it THIS one)
*oh dear, what to do with these diamond wedding ring remnants? (asked and answered:  the king version is back in play and in the works!)
*...no way.
*...in modern patchwork(!)

And that's not even counting my experimentation in tiny piecing last summer...  (See why I'm reluctant to get into too much detail here?!)
*diamond dresden
*tiny-ness take tw:  round vs. square? (spoiler alert:  "round" wins)

And that (I think/hope!) just about does it.  Thanks for stopping by, and please take a look around the other categories in the show!
 

{mini}{small}{large}{applique}{art}{hand quilted}{home machine quilted}{modern}{original design}{ROYGBIV}{scrappy}

While you're off doing that, I'll be trying to decide which one to enter next :o)  Scrappy?  Original design?  Mini?  Help!

midwest quilter meets west coast guild

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end beginning.

:o)

I recently returned from a whirlwind weekend in Orange County, CA and I have to say it was unexpected in the most wonderful of ways.  I flew out early (as in, #neveragain) and basically time-traveled back to daybreak as I made my way west.  When we landed I was greeted by the incredibly welcoming program director Gail, who treated me to breakfast (and coffee!) before we made our way to Hoffman Fabrics' warehouse for a tour with the vibrant Michelle.

After a quick stop by the hotel I was off to dinner with some members of the guild before heading to the meeting that night.  Aside from the fact that I hadn't sleeved any of my quilts, I'd say the lecture went off without a hitch ;o)

My workshop the next morning was all about diamonds.  And amethysts. And citrine. And blue topaz...

Mad photo props to Anne ;o)

And wacking out any frustration (and seam bulk!) along the way.  (All credit goes to Jean for sharing that now-indispensible notion.)  Also, batiks make for some pretty gorgeous stones!  I'm seeing sapphires and sandstones in my future thanks to Michelle and Hoffman ;o)

Some goodies from my field trip! More on my challenge concept to follow :)

I'm also happy to report that that night Anne and I had quite the friend date for Valentines' Day:  strolling on the beach at sunset, perusing local art shops for my (now) two year old, talking about our dream futures in this community-based industry, and treating ourselves to some zesty Mexican food with a side of homeopathic (also, useless) allergy medicine.

Saturday's session got a little loopy as attendees pieced arcs,

played around with backgrounds,

...I really should have taken more pictures. (Yep! Most of these are courtesy of Anne, too!)

and started stitching towards the class sample.

Credit:  Resident photographer Anne, of course!

That night, Jean—my raison d'être for being in Southern California to begin with—took me out and about before my flight home.  As I write this I find my fingers pausing for the right words to describe this woman to whom I owe my maiden foray into guild speaking and teaching.  Jean is a mother, a wife, a business woman, an artist, a teacher, a giver, and above all else an incredibly warm soul.  Though our paths crossed for only a brief moment in the grand scheme of things, I can already tell she's going to be an amazing source of inspiration and support as I continue to find my way in this creative world.

Suffice it to say, by the time my flight crept up on Saturday I was full of a joy, gratitude, and a wealth of self-reflection to build upon my craft and my career.

...And I may or may not have been a little ecstatic to have made a new (in real life) friend in Anne.

We really should have used her camera for this one though.

(Clearly I'm not the most photogenic, which explains why the expression I'm making in both of these photos happens to be pretty much identical to my old law school ID.)

:o)

oh dear, what to do with these diamond wedding ring remnants?

***FYI:  I've updated the main DWR post with (proper) photos***

After spending every waking (…and sleeping) hour working away on my NYCMQG dwr entry, I can promise you one thing—I've got more to show for it than this:

Much more.  In fact, five times more, to be exact.

As some of you may know, I originally envisioned this as a king-sized, 8x8 ring quilt (64 in all).  I don't know if it was tunnel vision or merely blind optimism, but until Sunday afternoon I persevered, up to that point having cut 7776 pieces from about a dozen gray oakshotts,

pieced said oakshott confetti into 648 diamond eighths to yield 81 round cut gems,

Yes, lots of the 'shotts were lost in the seams.  The silver lining?
Their thin weight actually lends itself quite well to small-scale paper piecing ;)

cut background pieces and "letterpressed" a select few of 64 centers,

(Sidebar:  The letter-pressed element was lost in the challenge quilt.)

cut 1728 A, 576 B, and 576 (of my own) C template pieces from over 200 liberty prints,

I sorted the arc wedges by value to ensure plenty of glow (with the lowest value prints bordering the diamonds).

pieced 288 arcs,

pressed 288 arcs,

Tip:  Even if you're piecing the arcs, do yourself a favor and get the solid arc template, too.
You can use it to trace "cheat lines" onto an old ironing board cover for simple, accurate pressing.

and assembled nearly every last one of 144 "melons."  At which time an unfortunate light bulb went off in my head:  there was absolutely no way I could quilt and bind a king-sized top in one afternoon, let alone assemble said top.  Gasp.  How could I have let months of planning and preparation result in such so-close-yet-so-far failure?

After all, I had known about the competition since first stumbling upon Faith's post in July during a study break from my con law outline.  And then during a September trip to England, I hijacked any sightseeing plans my husband potentially had in mind and replaced them with (my) high-priority supply trip to Liberty and Shaukat (fortunately my husband, cousin and her boyfriend were all uber-impressed with Liberty).

The fix?  Use 24 of the 144 melons (three from each colorway) to piece a 3x3 ring design, maintaining the integrity and spirit of the original concept without the excessive (albeit symbolic) number 8.

But you already knew that (hence the entry post and opening photograph).  But what you likely didn't realize before reading this is that I have 120 (24x5) pieced melons leftover from this madness (15 each in 8 colorways:  hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, violet).

Which means I can:

(1) make a queen-size quilt (7x7 rings) without have to cut into any more fabric
(2) replenish the melon supply using some leftover arc wedges and move forward with the king quilt as previously planned
(3) make several more smallish quilts to (a) giveaway as gifts, or (b) sell to recoup some of my outlandish material costs.  ...No joke.  I'm aware that all sorts of talented and lucky bloggers get free fabric delivered to their doorstep these days, but I can assure you I am not one such individual (yet).  (Hey, a dreamer can dream, right?)

So.  What do you think I should do? 1? 2? 3? None of the above?  Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated :)

Linking up with Lee!

liberty (of london) and justice for all

Without further ado, here is my entry for the NYC Mod Quilt Guild DWR Challenge {traditional category}.

Massive thanks to Amanda for helping me get these (much-improved) photos :)  AND for sharing her gray lipari F8s :o)

I actually used the EZ templates and I have to say they made this challenging design quite approachable (…and then I went and overcomplicated things by swapping the squares for 96-piece ~4" diamonds).

Simple ¼" quilting with Aurifil. (I'm waiting for AW's sewdown Nashville session before attempting anything more daring.)

The arcs are pieced entirely from Liberty of London {tana lawn} fabric (each hue represents one of the eight stripes in Gilbert Baker's original 1978 pride flag design).  And quite serendipitously, this awareness campaign was circling the streets of London during our fabric excursion to Liberty and Shaukat in September:

The background is a variety of Oakshott and text prints (but because I wanted to very much be in control of what that text was saying, I opted for fabric printed with the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's ever-still-relevant Gettysburg address (I, too, believe Goodwin got it right.  Edited to note:  Turns out others, including the President, agree.)).

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . . 
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. . . ."

I want to add that if you disagree with or question the inspiration for this quilt, I would encourage you (as no doubt my former Law & Social Change professor would) to reflect on why it is that you feel and react the way you do.  And to those of you who see the hypocrisy of a diamond-studded quilt being paired with the notion of "liberty and justice for all," I can tell you I struggled for months over whether or not to include the stones.

But I will say that one thing that helped to allay my concerns about the conflict surrounding the diamonds was finding a fabric whose namesake prides himself on ethically sourced materials: Oakshott.

For me, knowing these shimmering gray shades were handwoven by cooperative weavers made the choice to keep the design concept an easy one.

Edited to add photos and this note:  I left out a very important detail when I posted this the other night.  Above all else I want to acknowledge my husband for his support and (enduring) patience when it comes to my creative endeavors.  (And all other impossibly zany facets of my being.)  One might say that the strength of my own marriage was the true seedling for this design.  After all, when you're blessed with the lifelong partnership of someone so remarkably genuine and thoughtful (...in his own forgetful way), it's impossible not to insist on that same opportunity for any other loving couple.

More. 

:)

something hued.

#ithinkicanithinkican

Just add diamonds...

And subtract sleep.  

;o)

Linking up with Lee :)  

P.S.  Only days left till this WIP needs to work its way into a finish, so keep an eye out!

something borrowed...

Rossie's Painted Pebbles tutorial + Avenir Black Bold =

When I think about weddings, one of the first things that comes to mind is the crisp simplicity of letter-pressed invitations, announcing the wondrous news to loved ones near and far.  ...And we didn't even have letter-pressed invites ;)

Nonetheless, I could think of no better way to tip my hat to that sentiment than to add a typographic element to this Double Wedding Ring quilt using a slightly modified version of the-one-and-only Rossie's reverse appliqué method:

…To be continued! ;)

(P.S.  Rossie has a tip jar in case you, too, find yourself inspired by her creativity.)

something new.

After months of saving up to order fabric from England planning, the pieces are {figuratively} starting to come together...

studying + study-breaking + sketching + scheming = sparkly oakshotts ;)

So the DWR design insanity is (sort of) officially under way, but one question remains:  traditional or modern?

Lucky for me, there's nearly a month left to decide while all the (tiny) pieces literally come together ;)

And okay, obviously it's not so under way that the diamond shape is set in stone.  If by chance seeing this has changed your mind since that little old "round vs. square" poll, please (please!) chime in!  Or, if you stand by your round cut vote, speak up, too. ...If only so that I have some positive vibes to keep me going when I'm on the 40th of eighty-one 4⅛" diamonds.  ('Das right, CRAZY's in da {house} :D).

Linking up with Lee ;)  Happy Wednesday, friends!

P.S.  Thank you all for your overwhelmingly kind comments about my muted forest quilt, which mysteriously slipped through a linky loophole over at Amy's Creative Side and wound up in the Viewer's Choice vote.  (Pinch me!?)  I have massive respect for the 23 other artists whose work is hanging in that group, and I do hope you'll head on over to peruse the offerings and cast your vote for the pieces that catch your eye.

...Oh, and it's a slightly addicting showcase, so be prepared to stay awhile ;)

something old...

Because who can pass up this challenge?

T-minus 40 days and counting!  So tell me, will you be DWR'ing by December 1st, too?  Who's with me?!

;)

back to linking up with Lee!