This month's FREE pattern is for the "Rocky Road" block. Considering that Laura Ingalls journeyed by covered wagon almost 2000 miles by the time she was 12, there is very little in terms of rocky roads in the Little House books. But there are muddy wheels, river crossings, and tall grasses.
"Day after day they traveled in Kansas, and saw nothing but the rippling grass and enormous sky. In a perfect circle the sky curved down to the level land and the wagon was in the circle's exact middle....The wagon kept on jolting, the canvas top snapped in the wind. Two faint wagon wheel tracks kept going away behind the wagon, always the same." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie, Ch. 1 "Going West"
"The only noise was the horses' feet clop-clopping and the little creaking sounds of the wagon. One little jolt is nothing at all...but all the little jolts from sunrise to noon, and then all the little jolts from noon to sunset, are tiring." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, By the Shores of Silver Lake, Ch. 5 "Railroad Camp"
This is in the block in the four Blendables colorways, (top row) Carnival in Rio, Land of Enchantment, (bottom row) Heaven and Earth, and Polynesian Paradise.
Want to find out what Ricky's Legacy Quilt Club is all about?
Saw this guy at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. We aren't sure if it's the oldest quilt block design, but it looks like the Log Cabin pattern has been around a while. What do you think?
Thank you to all those who left comments on the Anna & G On The Road. There doesn't seem to be a way on this format to respond but,...I love your support and ideas and those that are traveling I hope we run into each other stitching on the road!
I have heard of a pattern called The Haunted Quilt, it was Halloween themed. And, I have read a book that made reference to a haunted quilt...but, it was fiction. And, I remember reading a historical fiction in which one of the characters actually wanted to curse the other one's marriage and she sprinkled grave yard dirt on the batting before quilting her wedding gift...oh brother! I did a little research and there are references to haunted quilts but it is because they were found in a haunted house. So, I was surprised on this road trip to hear about a "Haunted Quilt" in the family.
G's family history is woven with many wonderful hand quilters and I was expressing to his uncle that I sure wish I could have one of those family heirloom quilts. His response was that if he could find it, I could have the one made for him...an appliqued butterfly quilt or...there is also the "Haunted Quilt." What??!! Do tell... When he was a young man, he worked on a crew building an interstate and shared a house with three other guys. The house belongeds to one of the guy's mothers who had passed away. Weird stuff happened while they were there..stuff misplaced...midnight walking...candy in shoes and the fire pot being stock with a blazing fire in the mornings. Now, I know it was because that woman was beside herself with four guys living in her home and not picking up after themselves. After a while they decided to move because too many strange things were going on. The son told G's uncle to go pick out a quilt from the pile of quilts his mother made...and, a "Haunted Quilt" came into G's family. Strange things started happening when it was laid out on a bed! Grandma complained that she could hear spools of thread rolling across the wooden floor. So, now it is folded away in a drawer waiting for someone to set it free, LOL. I don't want that one...I want the appliqued butterfly quilt!
I have been doing some stitching while on the road and if I am in a spot more than two days I bring out the featherweight. It is really challenging to stitch when the outdoors is calling my name!!!
The best part of goal setting is you get to be kind to yourself...so, you didn't met the goals you set down...they are just guidelines and I love having them but what I want you to know, is anyone who cares about you is not going to judge you and those that do...well who needs them! I learned that goals on the road are entirely different than goals at home. The terrain on the road is so different and it is hard to stitch when your mouth in hanging open as you look at the beautiful scenery. Plus, stitching while being a passenger in an RV is totally different than trying to stitch while a passenger on a quad-runner, LOL. I looked back as my March Goals and realized I may have had Buffet Quilt Syndrome...you know...you see a buffet and you think you want to try it all then when you sit down you can't finish it. Which brings me to April's Goals...I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...
The Libby Lehman Auction has Begun and You Can Join in the Fun!
Be the first person each day to find Alex Anderson or Ricky Tims hiding on a page on the Libby Lehman online auction website and WIN an Annual Star Membership (a $49.00 value).
Each day during the auction (March 28 through April 12) at 8:00 AM CDT an image of Ricky or Alex will be placed on one of the pages on the site. The first person to find Ricky or Alex and email auction@benefitbidding.com with the location of the page that they found Ricky or Alex hiding, will win!
You can only win one time and only one winner per day!
Between takes on The Quilt Show set, Karen Kay Buckley sat down and talked about how she juggles work and her creative endeavors. She also talked about the studio that she added to her 1840's home.
Planning a visit to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's farmhouse in Cumbria? Well, now when you tour the lovingly preserved home, you'll get to see a beautiful quilt created by none other than Michele Hill, author of Stitching with Beatrix PotterfromC&T Publishing! Michele created a copy of the the quilt that sits on Beatrix Potter's bed.
Click on Learn More to read the whole story behind the making of the quilt.
Form in the simplest terms is a three-dimensional figure (i.e. cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, etc.). Form has length, width, and height. Think of it as something you can pick up, set something on, or casts a shadow. Form can bear weight due to it being three-dimensional, while two-dimensional Shape cannot. Let's look at our basic house illustrations. The house on the left is the shape of a house, while the house on the right is the form of a house. The flat house on the left cannot be lifted, create a shadow, or have anything placed on it. The house on the right can be lifted, casts a shadow and, could support a chimney along the roof.
Let's look at a few excellent examples of form depicted in quilting:
Notice the shadow created under each apple in Valentina's piece as if there is a light shining on them from the top right hand corner of the quilt. Susan Brubaker Knapp's (Show 1709) pumpkins seem to be pushing their way out of the quilt.
Velda Newman (Show 903), known for her oversized subject matter, expertly uses a combination of subtle hand painting and shading for this grouping of shells. But it is the machine stitching that emphasizes each shell's form and realistic hard edges.
Upon closer inspection, each individual three-dimensional cube of Marci Baker's (Show 1810) Hollow Cube is actually constructed using a combination of diamonds and triangles.
Using thousands of printed photos that finish at 1", fiber artist Deborah Langsam (Show 1710) creates a three-dimensional portrait entitled Every Woman.
Understanding space and form allows the quilter to manipulate patterns to create stunning effects. British quilt artist Peter Hayward shares how his love of optical illusion led him to create a unique interwoven designthat combines color, shape, and form using a traditional quilt pattern. The resulting Lone Star Explores Space is truly a fool-the-eye experience.
Creating Ilusion with color
By Peter Hayward
I began designing "Lone Star Explores Space" knowing that I wanted in some way to give the traditional lone star pattern a new 3D look. I am a big fan of the optical illusions that typified the Op-Art movement in general and the works of Victor Vasarely in particular. The key to success is the use of strongly contrasting lights and darks, that is what makes the shapes leap out at you.
I had already chosen the collection of ombre fabrics I knew I would need--it had to have a wide selection of pure colours with a slow and steady gradation. Though it might sound obvious, it is crucial for me to find fabrics I really like, to the point where I am actually prepared to modify my design a little to suit the requirements of the fabric if I have to. The collection was called "Pointillist Palette" by Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka for Robert Kaufman
Though the next stage in the process is not one I am aware of anyone else doing it is the absolute key for my computer-free technique. I photocopy the fabrics and though the quality of these photocopies does not have to be great, it does incur a small expense. This is, however, a lot cheaper than cutting up your precious fabrics and then wishing you hadn´t!
The basics behind the effect I am trying to create are relatively simple--the eye assumes that small and dark areas are further away than light and large ones. With this in mind I cut up the photocopies, stick the bits of paper back together and see what I think of the result. The early attempts almost always need several adjustments before I am happy that I am getting the maximum 3D effect in terms of the correct colour contrasts, both within an area and between neighboring areas. As a rule I like to place opposing colours next to each other to enhance the contrast.
At all times, however, it is important to bear in mind how you are actually going to make the quilt once it moves on from the design table. In my case, I had chosen to use interwoven strips of fabric, so there would be no point in coming up with some spectacular design that was incompatible with that technique of confection.
As well as contrast, my rather OCD mind enjoys symmetry and logic which means that once I find an effect I like, then I play around to achieve its opposite. Thus the orange and blue tubes that come out from the centre of the quilt are covered whilst the red and green ones are hollow. The left and right pyramids go up and up whilst the top and bottom ones start by coming up but then turn round and go back down. The spheres and crosses inside the corner boxes are actually made of identically shaped interwoven strips. The only difference is that the diagonal areas of the spheres are light whilst those of the crosses are dark.
The design process is actually my favourite so I don`t mind that it takes me a long time before I end up with a full size version in paper. In the case of Lone Star, out of the seven months, which the quilt took from start to finish, I spent a full two on design. But I think they were far and away the most important two.
Practice Exercises:
Op Art Cube:
Print out a pdf template here or draw your own here.
Create a design for each area of the cube. Once completed, fold and glue together your cube. Make several to display.
Op Art Checkered Sphere:
Try your hand at making an optical illusion drawing following the instructions below.
Tracy Mooney from Generation Q Magazine, and roving TQS reporter, talks to Mattie Haines of Quiltsmart about their Marie Webster Series of patterns. Quiltsmart teaches "classic quilts, modern methods" and Mattie shows you how easily the Marie Webster appliqué quilts can be put together using Quiltsmart products.
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