Fun with Short Rows

I've just finished knitting the Multidirectional Scarf using 3 balls of Noro Kureyon and size 10US needles. 6"x6 feet.
I learned some new stuff doing this scarf and will immediately before I forget it all, use this knit-knowledge to design a sweater using multiple panels joined with a three needle bindoff. The narrower the panels the more triangles are formed as one travels upward.

And if you make a glaring mistake it looks like it was part of the plan. On the upper part of this picture I changed direction halfway and didn't notice it for hours, and miles of knitting. It didn't seem to make any difference so I decided to leave it in. The mistake made me think about using this again to form many irregularities in future diagonal strip knits.

The blue end is the beginning and the pink triangle on the left is the end, the bind off. I didn't like the ending directions so I made up my own. Mostly I did this because I wanted to try ending straight in case this would be a shoulder on a sweater and then it could be staggered to slope. That could be done with short rows too. I'll have to play around with that idea.
Noro Kureyon is self striping as you can see, and I plan to use multiple yarns on the new short row strip sweater I have in mind. All color all the time; how could it be any other way for me?

Another Reader Named Curious

I always answer questions that begin with flattery:

Hi Melody,
I was looking at your beautiful quilts, and I am wondering do you use only fusible material?
I guess I am wondering do you sew at all? I am not a quilter, I am curious. I may just give this a try.
I just don't like to sew much anymore and this seems like fun.

Dear Curious,
It is fun and I do sew. I made four skirts recently. I stitch (quilt) my fused quilts, by hand or machine, but as for constructing them, I just fuse.
I know I could piece some of these designs, but am too lazy, plus I really like the way the quilt looks when it is fused...FLAT.
And I really like the fact that fusing directly to the batting eliminates pleats and puckers, not to mention basting.
If you want to fuse a quilt, go right ahead. If you have 'real quilters' as friends, be prepared to defend your work. Then get over it.

My friend Laura Wasilowski decided to try quilting way back in the late 80's and fused right from the start. Her first entry into a quilt show was Quilt National and she was accepted!!
She skipped all the supposedly necessary rites of quilt passage, piecing, applique, hand quilting, bed quilts, etc and went right for the fun stuff.
It has not held her back. Buy her new book.

Friend and Fellow Fuser Frieda Anderson also has a new book, and she both fuses and pieces, proving that it CAN be done. She just won a major award with her pieced quilt at Paducah this year.

NO. I do not have a book. I have a blog. I advertise for my friends. It is good karma.

New Blogger and Fellow Fuser Anne Lullie is fusing big time while she is off work for the summer and just posted a large dramatic hand dyed quilt on her blog. She is arriving any moment here at Chez Johnson for tea and hand holding whilst she applies the Escape Hatch Finish on her huge new piece.

I am not leaving this post without mentioning Emily Parson, who not only fuses massive award winning quilts, but manages to do it with three kidlets under five. And if your real quilter friends wanna call her a slacker, she also has a knitting blog! Just thinking about it all makes me wanna go back to bed.

We are awash with quilt rebels. I hope you now have enough encouragement to run out and buy some Wonder-Under ( really the best and cheapest) and some hand dyed fabrics and take the plunge. You'll feel great!

Fused Backs?

Dear Melody,
I'm curious - - what do you do on your pieces that are entered in shows? Do they have fused backs also? I seem to remember something about a pillow case finish. What about the bindings? Judges in shows around here would be VERY unhappy that the quilting doesn't go all the way through to the back. They complain when the mitered corner of a stitched on binding isn't tacked down - I wonder how they would respond to a fused one? Cardiac arrest for sure.

Dear Curious,
The fronts or the art side of my quilts are all fused. I don't fuse the backs onto my competition quilts, just the slit where I turn them inside out is fused. See the link on the sidebar, The Escape Hatch Finish. I don't do bindings, so there is nothing available for a judge's comment. So far it has not been noted, but then, honestly, I toss out the judge's comments without reading them.
I am content just to have the ribbon and the check. If those are not included I am, how shall I say this?...Pissed!

More to the point, I am very careful about what shows I am entering and make sure that the show has a non-tradtional category. There would be no point in competing against those who are making something law-abiding quilt-wise.

On the other hand, sometimes a quilt like mine, or from other non-traditionalists needs to be seen in tradition bound venue, if only for the sake of education.
Those who have a need for something different need to know it is out there and can be done.

Releasing the Creative Block Samples

The structure of the class is as follows. Everyone gets a hand dyed fabric kit which they will fuse, and then they will decide upon a simple block such as the example below. They will make multiples of this same block in three sizes. Using this block, plain un-pieced fabric, and strip pieced fused fabric, they will construct small combinations, or compound block sets, such as pictured below.







From those compound block sets one can build larger compositions, using the initial sets as the theme or using several in combination.
Click on any image to view larger version.















Note how these sets are integrated into the final composition. Look for the original small block repeated throughout this quilt.
I have also used it in this quilt too, but many fewer of them and much more plain fabric. The idea is that we have a starting point upon which to build a series of works that feature similar shapes in many different combinations.









This quilt uses an alternate block to support the new arrangement of the original block into a four patch version.














And here is another quilt from that same series. In this quilt I have used three sizes of the original block and played them off against larger swaths of plain color for contrast.















These last two are using a different initial block, using the theme block in two very different layouts and colorways.

Driving School for Bad Girls

Dave did not get a ticket.
I did. It was in June and it was a speeding ticket, for doing 50mph in a 35mph zone. I decided to take the drivers class to keep the ticket off my record and insurance.
I must be there at 8 am or be locked out, and it is 7am now. Am I ready? No. Am I blogging instead...obviously.
There has been a lot of fabric dyeing going on around here and hence no art content. But I have plans and I will have a new piece this weekend. I promise.

But very good news for us here in the Midwest, and for those who like to visit us.
Next year, November 9-12, 2006, right after the big Houston International Quilt Festival, the Mancuso's are holding a big quilt show in Schaumburg IL, about 30 minutes from my house (even if I do the legal speed limit). Frieda and I are both going to teach there, yippee! At last I can say I am teaching in IL! This is going to be in a brandy-new-spankin' convention center and Renaissance Marriot Hotel. And it's all right next door to IKEA!!!

Off to the shower and driving school for me.

A Turning Point

My husband never reads this blog unless I have revealed something that I shouldn't have. It never fails.

I wrote:

He can spend hours on Ebay and Autotrader looking at cars and never buying one.

Well, shut my mouth, or the keyboard clicking equivalent.

Yesterday he left early and a few hours later he called asking me to go to the bank and get a cashier's check and meet him in Naperville at the BMW dealer. I dropped everything, and did as he asked.

It was pouring rain all the way home and I gallantly gave up my spot in the garage for the new (2002) baby. I regret not being able to stand far enough back to get the nose in this picture, so here it is in detail.

I believe the color is SCREAMING RED!

BMW Z3 3.0 I with all the goodies that come with it. Including heated seats and mirrors. Not that we currently need heated seats, but this being Illinois, we will.

Last night we went out looking for someone to show it off to, and our first stop was Frieda's house, but they were out, no doubt celebrating the release of her new book!! Our next stop was Laura's and they were home. Steve, her husband made all the requisite approving sounds and took it out for a ride while Laura and I visited. We stayed up late and never got around to eating anything, so at midnight we got home and had ice cream for dinner, on top of the evening's wine.
O my head this morning.
At 4am Dave woke up and remembered that he hadn't cleaned out the console on the truck. Among other items, his prescription glasses are in there! Luckily we still had one key for the truck in our possession so he decided to hop in the Beemer and beat the traffic to retrieve the goods.
Naperville is over an hour and a half from our house, and as he says, this car is a speeding ticket just waiting to happen.

I will leave you in suspenders as I await the jail house call.

Quilting Today

I have a book on tape, and it is way cool in my studio, as compared to the 100+ degrees outside, so I will be snug as a bug at the machine today. I find machine quilting to be mind-numbingly dull, but necessary.
Dave returned from the BMW Nationals in Lima OH and because he took the truck, having sold his Beemer, he came home with everyone's leftovers in a cooler in the back. A half bottle of black rum, another half bottle of merlot, three bottles of lemonade, and a big big bottle of Coke Classic. I can't believe that anyone still drinks this stuff, and how in the world will I get rid of it? Don't suggest mixing the black rum with it, or my teeth may rot.
He also managed to get a large wedge of Parmaggiano Reggiano cheese home in very good condition, still wrapped tightly against the melting ice in the cooler. That was a gift!

We have mega basil in a pot on the deck, red ripe tomatoes and pesto in our future.

My diet has gone to hell.

That is the summer for you. All the bounty from the garden and new plates to eat it on. Sigh.

Now that Dave has had his vacation, we are faced with keeping him occupied in retirement. I am suggesting getting a sportscar to replace the huge unnecessary truck in the driveway, which is too large to fit in the garage and casts a perpetual shadow on the flowers in the box next to it.
He can spend hours on Ebay and Autotrader looking at cars and never buying one. Not exactly a hobby, but it keeps him clean and amused.

How to Make a Pattern

1. Make the quilt
2. Trace the quilt
3. Get the tracing copied
4. Write the directions
5. Take the cover photograph
6. Copy everything
7. Wait for back-ordered packaging envelopes for two months.
8. Quilt the quilt.
9. Name the quilt
10. Put the quilt on the patterns page of the website

Ok. I did #1 and #9.
It took 11 hours to make the quilt top if you count transpired time, which includes dawdling, eating, making coffee, emptying the dishwasher, opening and closing the door for the cats, and of course playing on the internet.

Things I just had to look up on the internet:
Yarn sales
Ebay: Conversion Vans ( Nevermind. I'd rather stay in a hotel)
Art quilts (looking for ideas in vain. Nobody has already made my quilt for me to copy)
Chicken recipes
Latest episode of This America Life on NPR
knitting patterns for capelets (another wacky style that will surely be defunct before I make one)
Karen Stone (for border ideas. For. Get. It.)
Jane Sassaman ( just to make myself miserable)

Then finally I got to work. Actual time to make the quilt top, 2 hours, in increments of 10 minutes, with 60 minute breaks.
It's not that it was difficult, but, well, it was difficult. I had to work without YELLOW!

This is new for me. I have grasped that there is a huge amount of yellow in my work and I have vowed to curb my enthusiasm for it. You will note, there is some yellow, but not as much as usual. Really.

I substituted ORANGE.

Brilliant! A Stroke of Genius! Revolutionary! Fill in appropriate triumphant phrases. I think this has altered the mood of the piece somewhat. I wouldn't go so far as to call it subdued, but it definitely has a Southwestern flair. I call it Fern Fiesta, which is probably a tiny bit dopey, but it is short and will fit nicely across the top of the pattern envelope.

click

Fern Fiesta

18x 24" Cotton Special Edition Fabric

The Ferns


and the dots (must have dots) .

The space for fancy quilting. I swore I would leave out that space for fancy quilting, but it needed open space really badly.

This is how I make my designs. First I draw the whole thing, and then I trace it using the Wonder-Under release paper (what is left after I have fused the web onto the fabric). The I cut out the shape with paper scissors and place it face down on the fusible side of the fabric.

Using the tip of my iron on a stick, I fuse the paper pattern in spots, rather than pin it. Then I cut around the paper, not through the paper, and make the piece slightly bigger than the pattern. There are lots of other ways to do this, but this is the one that works for me. Frieda Anderson uses a Sharpie marker to draw the pattern onto the fusible side, but that means that she has to cut off the markings and that seems too hard for me. I am lazy.

The leaf shape that I cut out is then placed on fabric that will contrast nicely and fused into place. All my fabric is already fused, so the fabric it is placed upon is then cut slightly larger than this rib shape and that is the backing for the top. No other supporting fabric will be used. I will overlap the leaves and use bits of underlapping fabric to fill in the voids and when that is finished, it goes directly onto the batting. Sigh. Then I will quilt it. Tomorrow.

Tonight I am knitting!

All is Right with the World

At last I have run out of excuses and am back at work in the studio. I had a few interruptions like washing out dyed fabric and sending off patterns and running to the copy place and cooking all those chicken breasts en masse for my chicken and salad diet, but finally by three pm I was actually cutting into fabric.

Immediately a sense of well being came over me.

I must say that all those interruptions actually were part of the design process. Several times during the day the lightbulb went on and my art plan changed for the better. I should insert here that I am remaking a quilt in a smaller size to make a new pattern for sale. I could have just reduced the original, but I thought I could improve it and yes, make it a bit easier to do for beginning fusers. However, it has now become much more involved, but will require no fancy quilting, so that is a plus.
When I make a quilt for myself, I like to leave some wide open spaces where I can quilt nice designs, and be a show-off. But as I often tell my students, not every quilt needs fancy quilting.
This one will suffice with quilt-in-the ditch, and no one will mind, or even notice.

Most, no, all of my other patterns are really applique looking designs and I thought this time I would make one that is pieced. Fused-pieced, I mean. There are parts that are appliques but the thing is really going to be closer to patchwork, more than pictorial. This is an experiment, since I don't know if patchwork type patterns sell as well as applique things, so I am compromising and including both techniques.

I think it is boring to talk about what I am going to do. I am just going to go do it and get back to you later.

For a really interesting blog, read this guy's.

The Talent Come to Lunch

Frieda and Laura came to lunch today. It is July and this is their first visit this year, as I live 20 minutes away, and they must pass through the town of Algonquin. The only purpose of this town is to make it difficult to go North. Otherwise scads of people would be dropping by my house and I would never get anything done.

Laura has dimples.

It rained again today and the gals took off their shoes, and put on my recently finished hand knit sox. Frieda has a new bracelet of beads she got on Ebay, and strung herself.

Here she poses with the sock and her bracelet after only one sip of margarita.

The beads and the lavender wire she used to string them. This will be replaced with elastic soon, she said.

Laura and Frieda proving that margaritas improve muscle flexibility, and instill a sense of well being.

Dimples can be taught, says Laura.

When can we eat?

Can there ever be enough stripes?

Merely the toppings, roasted poblano peppers, red ripe tomatoes from Paducah KY, Kalamata Olives, Shredded Monterey Jack with Jalapenos, chopped Vidalia Onions, all to top the Green Chili...

Recipe follows.

We had salsa music playing and Laura wants you to know that she was drinking virgin Margaritas, which just goes to show that she doesn't need any help to swang that thang to the beat. ha cha cha...Ole!

And no party is complete without a hostess gift... how thoughtful!

Green Chili

Pork Shoulder Roast

Place in a covered roasting pan and add water to cover.

Bake at 325 degrees until it falls off the bone.

Allow to cool, transfer meat to a large bowl and strain broth. Remove fat and bone and shred meat.

Place meat and defatted broth in large pot and add one large can of pinto beans, and one regular size can of refried beans, plus 4-8 cans of roasted and peeled and chopped green chilis. If you like it spicier, add a few cans of roasted chopped jalapenos too, although they aren't that hot anymore.

I like to add a few chopped up garlic cloves too. Simmer until your mouth waters.

Serve in bowls or wrapped in flour tortillas and topped with a bit of broth. Yummamente.

Yesterday's Output

Two Views of the same box of fabric. The Darks are multicolors mixed with black dye. The rest are the short run gradations. Ten sets (half yards) of eight each. Of course I want to keep them all for myself.

This piece shows how the gradations flow from one color to another within the same piece.

Getting to the Art

Dear Melody,

Reading your blog makes me imagine that between the sewing and dyeing and knitting there must be quite a buzz about your place. How do you manage to balance the things in life that NEED to be done, and these wonderful, creative, expanding things that WANT to be done? I have a sketch book full of ideas, but they seem to be atrophying as the rest of life takes over--you know, service the car, schlep the kids to their activities, meals (oddly, the family wants these), care for the pets, pay the bills, etc, etc... I never seem to have the time to let go and be creative--to feed the part of me that's trying to take herself seriously as an artist. How do you and your compatriots do it?

The real truth, vs the pretend truth, is that many things are not done at Chez Johnson. We have no kids so that gives me an extra five hours to start. I get up with the cats/birds/sun/when my bladder insists and that starts the day. While my eyes are still semi-shut I wander into the laundry room and throw in a load of dyed fabric, pour yesterday's coffee into a cup, put it in the microwave while I wait for my laptop to boot. Then I read and answer all the email and try to think of a blog entry (thanks for this question BTW) and then by 9 or 10 start the rest of the day.
Before I fell asleep the night before I planned what I will do the following morning. Today I have two or three more dye runs to make to use up the yellow dye...perhaps something like forest green fading to light mint...
I have ideas for quilts in my sketch book but I promised myself that I would come up with two new patterns which means making smaller versions of some existing quilts; 18x24" versions.

Dave left a day early for the BMW National in Lima OH, a motorcycle rally and now I have five whole days to myself. FIVE! I still want to wait on him and pay attention to his needs while he adjusts to being retired. And in the meantime I will figure out a way to be an artist with a husband in the house.

I never even contemplated any artwork this past week which is why I resorted to dyeing fabric. When in a space where nothing else can be done, DYE. It is always a good way to help me get back in gear.

One of the reasons I love this blog is that I was perpetually alone in this big house. I don't like the phone so I don't call and chat, and before his retirement my standard quip was, " I live alone, except for my husband". Now those days are over.

In the past I would have come on so superior and said " You must declare to the family and pets and household chores that I AM AN ARTIST AND I MUST WORK."

Ha! I laff at me now. I am standing in my own path, preventing myself from this type of thinking. I want Dave to know that I am supporting him in this transition, and now that he has left for this planned vacation, I think we have reached a good spot for me to revert to my old self centered imperious I am the only one that counts in this house behavior.

I will wander around a bit, and think, which is sorely needed. In past days when the studio was messier than it is now, I would clean up a bit and that would lead to something. Now I have a clean studio (lack of artmaking) so there is no barrier to beginning.
Note to Me: Find those sketchbooks and choose which project to make again.

Frieda's found the perfect gift for me and Laura. They are new keys for our computers. O how I wish they really worked.

I am up to my ears in washing and ironing of newly dyed fabrics.

80 Special Edition Cottons

108 Rainbow Stripey kit cottons, dyed beautifully by my workerbee Angie.

80 Short Run Gradations. These are something Frieda is providing her classes in addition to her regular rainbow kits (all of us at the Chicago School of Fusing provide rainbow kits). Short run gradations are two to five colors in smooth transitions the full width of the cut. For example:

Yellows to lime to green to aqua in this set. I decided this was a GENIUS idea and just had to make some for my classes. At the moment I haven't yet designed a project that uses them, but hey it will happen.
Starting Thursday, Dave, the recently retired husband is going on a trip to Lima OH for four days, with his motorcycle buddies and I will have the house to myself and the bad cats.
Look for artwork to magical appear, after I am done with all the washing and ironing and dyeing.

I just decided to drag all the platters out to the deck for a quick non-electrical dry. The weather has cooled off a bit, but have no fear, it will get hot any minute. While these panels are drying I will run to the library for a book on cd, so that my brain doesn't totally atrophy while I iron all day.

Aren't they yummy?

Process? O, I get it!

I do understand about process. I knit sox for heaven's sake.

Why would anyone in their right mind spend $15 to make a pair of socks like these? Oooh, I've answered my own question!

It is the process. It is making the thing, not the end product that matters, in this case. I have ripped this sock out several times to ensure that the pattern is correct. It is the challenge of doing it that keeps my interest. Not that I won't ever wear this pair...I might. They have an April Fool's Day quality about them.

Process or Product?

I am going to get myself in trouble today.

I was browsing the newer blogs on the Artful Quilters Ring and came across Rian's Pages. She is making a wonderful design based on a leaf and is struggling with sewing many pieces together so that they lie flat and continue the lines of the design.

Now, I can tell that Rian really knows how to sew, can make a perfect seam and can design beautifully. What I am wondering is, why is the process so important (and difficult) that she must struggle and fuss when she knows she can fuse this piece so quickly and efficiently and still have the wonderful finished product she designed in the first place?

I am not picking on Rian, I am merely observing a 'thing' that I see happening all over quiltdom.

We are somehow stuck in the process.

Which is more important? The process or the final product?

The beautiful design will be the end result and the way we get there shouldn't matter, should it? Are we trying to prove that we can sew?

We KNOW we can sew. Big deal.

I know, I have been there. I struggled to make seams line up and points match perfectly, but in the end, I quilted over the thing and that caused stress and distorted things to the point where the design was altered and it lost the pristine qualities of the orginal design.

Once I switched to fusing, I was able to keep my design flat and lined up and just as it was in the original drawing...all without pulling out my hair. And a lot quicker too.

I guess we have to ask ourselves, are we seamstresses first or artists?

Rian's initial drawing tells me that she is an artist. Sewing shouldn't hinder that fact.

If this weren't a wall quilt, I wouldn't have commented on it at all. Functional quilts are entirely a different thing. They should be sewn, and should be admired for the workmanship involved.

Workmanship often comes up when we talk about quilts, but what about design? Which is more important? In my mind, the design is paramount to the technique. Whatever it takes to arrive at the perfected design is LEGAL, and needn't be painful.

OK, I am ready to be run out of town.

Patio Picnic

I made a declaration that I was really going to start getting serious about my diet again, as my shorts are a bit tight. Never say never. The evening was so sultry and breezy and we took a walk around the block and came back to the deck and thought about having a little something.

Nothing good in the house, but pesto leftover from yesterday, and some grapes. I volunteered to run to the store, since it was past dinner time and would be slow on a Saturday night.

Dave brought out the radio/tape player and inserted Frank Sinatra, with a Tony Bennet tape as back-up. He is trying to get that damn candle lighter to work, which never did, and he resorted to long matches.

Fruit would certainly not be too un-diety, and I dunked the peaches, cantaloupe and apples in lime juice for a Caribbean touch. Above are the kalamata olives and the pesto made from my home grown basil.

We lucked out on the brie, on sale because it was due to go out of code tomorrow. Instead of $10 for the wedge, it was $1.99. Brie doesn't go bad. I got fresh mini loaves of French Bread for Dave and some Il Primo Genoa Salami, Chicago Style Pastrami, and Capricola spiced ham.

Dave said this calls for a bottle of wine,

"You like merlot don't you?"

Dave has spent a few hours getting a pink glow and wants to show me his tan lines...yeah, right!