June 2010

hexatrix

Jun 9 2010

I've put some craft time this week toward Hallie's hexagon project, which I nicknamed "Remixed." I teased Jeff tonight that I wanted to sit down and actally sew something, so I could say that I was finally making progress on the quilt project. Everything I'd done so far felt more like deconstruction than construction.

Here's a recap, if you're not familiar. Hallie has a lot of quilt pieces she inherited from either her great-aunt or her great-grandmother. I worked up the first set into a quilt a few months ago, and agreed that at some point I'd tackle the second set — the hexagons.

I photographed all of the full and half hexes some time ago, and played around with them in Illustrator to get some idea of what I wanted to do.

['Items Not To Scale[tm]']

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Personal media blackout?

Jun 10 2010

Have you ever done a personal media blackout? I'm curious, because a quick tweet I sent out this morning made me wonder if perhaps I wasn't the only person feeling less enriched by, but instead more burdened with, the knowledge I was seeking out about the world around me. I've done minor versions of such blackouts before, with my biggest ones taking place during collegiate finals weeks to ensure I focused on my studies, but that was at least three lifetimes ago. Years later, information presses in even more constantly and subtly. It used to be that our sphere of knowledge coincided with our sphere of influence, but now we hear, actively follow, and care about occurrences that are far beyond our ability to influence, much less control.

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wherein our intrepid author needs a new pair of pants

Jun 14 2010

I present the following to you without explanation or context. It needs neither.

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blogiversary ten

Jun 15 2010

An odd realization: this blog, as of today, is ten years old. I'm not sure I ever expected it to hit this mark, given that I've been pretty quiet the past couple of years, but it seems to be finding its footing again as a place I can show photos of what quilts I've been working on.

Much has changed in ten years. It's chronicled my shift from early 20s to early 30s. Births, deaths, and everything in between. Somewhere along the way my cats went from peppy youngsters to opinionated middle-aged brats. I'm totally okay with that. After all, Tenzing and I have learned to compromise.

['Compromise is the key to not killing your cat']

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GTFO. Ahem.

Jun 16 2010

There. Two quilts out in two days. No, I didn't complete them, start-to-finish, in two days, but they're leaving my house within 48 hours of each other — and yes, Tenzing is royally displeased. How did you know? Oh, previous photos. Right.

So here's the wrap-up on two quilts:

['Get thee hence!']

Crayon Box heads to South Carolina, to live with Scott Johnson. He had a good bit of input into its final construction; he chose the size as well as the backing/binding, a very dark, foresty green color. It goes in the mail this afternoon, so I feel pretty justified in calling it "completed" on the quilts page.

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There is An Unspeakable Thing.

Jun 18 2010

Short version?

['SSHHHH SECRET', user rcanine on flickr]

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The quilt list: antique, vintage, resale?

Jun 20 2010

A couple of weeks ago, when I asked Catherine E. what kind of quilt she was interested in, she told me she loved the look of Dresden Plate quilts from the 1930s. I started researching it, and discovered something I really should have predicted, but had not: many things on places like eBay turn up from estate sales, and quilt pieces are part of estate sales. I've been staring in fascination ever since.

What I realized: if you're looking for the right type of item, it is possible to pick up actual antique unfinished quilt pieces for less money than it would cost to pick up the same amount of reproduction fabric representing the same period, and make the pieces yourself.

Discretion is required, obviously. I've seen some real nightmares up for sale:

(I should note that there's a question coming at the end)

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