Daily Blog

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Unless you've been absent from TQS this week you already know I'm heading to South Amercia in a few days on a tour with quilters. We have so many of you who are new to TQS, that you may not know there is a set of video travel blogs from my trip to Japan in November of 2007. In addition to all the other fun on our site today, if you're looking for more good TQS fun - and you missed those videos - click here and scroll down to Novemember 8, 2007 for the first of seven videos of the Japanese tour.

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Here are four images of the progress of the Colorful Swoops. First is the original line drawing followed by the partial coloration you saw two days ago. The final two are with solid black lines (which might be easier to have printed) and a version with more subtle, but obvious colorful outlines.

Its unfortunate that you can't see this full size, so here is a detail of it that is a bit more to scale - it's only a swatch. Okay - I'm done - gotta go pack.

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You would think that since I'm leaving on a big trip that I could stop designing and start packing - but when your motivated - your motivated. I did this design as a variation on my colorful theme? I wasn't expecting this to emerge - it just did. Is this a fabric you would like? I'm just putting it out there. Yes? No? Stop? Go?

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The creative process for creating a new line of fabric continues. While I liked the designs that I shared on The Daily Blog earlier this week - - I kept thinking, "the fabric is pretty - but it's just not me." So what defines me? The first answer is color! The second is wild. My hand-dyed fabrics are extremely colorful and my quilts utilize bright colors. So, it was back to the drawing board.

I had an idea to work from line drawings - doodles if you will - a process I'd never done before. I scanned the line drawing into the computer and began using Photoshop (which I always use) to color the designs was very successful.

The first two images are basically finished - and a third design is posted to help you understand the process. In the incomplete design, two 'ribbons' have been filled and one 'swoop'. The black lines of the final design will be altered once all the coloration is done. The process of filling and changing colors and value takes time. Once finished, the black lines will be altered to be colorful instead of black - more like the lines in the previous two images The lines are there to accent the shapes and separate the colors - but in a more subtle way. Your thoughts please.

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Hey everyone. Beginning on Thursday, February 5th and running through Monday, February 16, you can visit the Daily Blog right here at TQS and take a virtual South American tour with me. The daily entries are based on our itinerary - not my actual experience. I won't have any type of connectivity to the Internet during the trip - I don't even plan to take a laptop - so these blogs will be a way for you to keep track of my travels and you will learn a bit about the daily destinations. I've put lots of hyperlinks to web articles and photos so hopefully you'll find it all very interesting. For me, the best part of creating these blogs in advance was that I got to take my own virtual tour of each day and I feel more excited than ever. I plan to take lots of photos and some video. What would you most like for me to share with you when I return?

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A Galapagos Iguana

One week from today Justin, myself, and a host of quilters and friends will be meeting in Miami before heading south for our 15 day South America tour. We'll land in Quito, Ecuador then fly to the Galapagos Islands where we set sail on the Galapagos Legend, a 110 passenger ship and tour the islands for five days. We will visit the Charles Darwin Research Center and swim with penguins.

We have three major destinations - the first being Galapagos. I'm going to pre-blog our itinerary so you can virtually travel with me. It is doubtful that I'll be able to communicate during the tour but I WILL follow up when I return.

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photo by Jeff Bilyeau

Designing fabric is fun - but challenging. I love working with various jump off points and then using Photoshop to see where it can lead. I'm experimenting with designs for my next round with Red Rooster (due out at Fall market and shipping Spring 2010). The designs you see here are manipulated from the designs I painted (nearest me). The one that looks solid (right) is not really solid - it is a textured design created from a photo of mud on the door of a truck. The stripe uses portions of all designs except the pebble-like design. My mug is in the photo so you could see the scale of print. No promises whether these will become actual fabric or not, but I'll keep you posted. What types of fabrics do you like? What do you think are the hottest colors these days?

Back to work - Ricky

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We have two Rhapsody quilts in progress here this week. Karen has succeded getting hers designed as well. Again, one-quarter of the quilt is on the design wall so I've been able to indicate how it will look when it is all cut out.

It is really exciting to see how Karen utilized fun prints and they still work! When you making a quilt from a pattern or book do you tend to follow the style and colors in the book or do you spread your wings and take a risk and blaze your own trail?

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Everyone coming to a La Veta Quilt Retreat is encouraged to come with a hope - a dream - a vision for what they want to accomplish. No two people will do the same thing during the week. It can be a scary thing. Frank came with a goal to creat a Rhapsody. The skeleton came fairly easy, then he had the concept to create designs that represented the four elements - earth, air, fire, water. There was a point where he struggled with his applique designs, but we worked through it and I think you'll agree - he succeeded. He has one quarter of the quilt designed and cut out, which is all I need to create a photo rendition of what the finished quilt will look like.

Here are student comments relating to your questions.

Prior to coming - "Have an idea of what you want to learn. Do not be afraid of doing something "difficult" because Ricky breaks the week into pieces that are extremely doable." - Frank.

Regarding Ricky's coaxing - "He makes you think and reach beyond your boundaries. I came to learn techniques outside of my comfort zone and I did." - Pat

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Well, today it was a first - a first for me to spend most of the day in bed missing quilt retreat. I woke up and soon lost my equilibrium (nausea and dizziness) and for the next 6 hours could not walk, sit up, roll over, ... or fetch - LOL. Actually, my mom has this issue and it's just taken a while to catch up with me. I was able to get vertical and make my way to see all the progress in retreat while I was away. I promise I'll share quilt images as soon as we get further along - and share more answers, but for now I just wanted you to check out the type of tough quilters we have here. Kathy steps outside to make a quick call (cell service is spotty at best) and notice that even though the snow if falling - she is in short sleeves. Now that's a tough quilter! Of course it wasn't long before she came in to enjoy the fire just like Justin and Karen.

At this retreat we have two mother daughter pairs! Do you share your love of quilting with family members?