My Quip - Our Quilts and Afghans in Progress - An Ancient Internet Speak

Good Day,

It is a wonder that humans are good at deciphering pictures on a cave wall.  And now we have to learn on old form of Internet-speak.  I was pretty good at it some 30 to 40 years ago, and I am wondering if Google will add it to it's Translate application.

Quilts - 25; and Afghans - 3; update and progress continues.  Here is the quick info on 10 of our current projects.

Hexagons for Tampa Kaleidoscope are all spread out in the design room. The colorways have been sorted into piles of shades.

The Amulet is loaded to the longarm. It is now basted. We are examining ideas for quilting, all-things-being equal to compliment the geometric form of the quilting.

The component parts of Astro-Physics are now being pieced together. Five of 15 have been completed.

A design quilting pattern is being developed for our in progress Equality Quilt.

New Damask and Native American fabrics has been received with thoughts of a couple more kaleidoscope quilts.

The completed blocks for our Jacob Ladder Pants quilt have all been moved to the design room.

We our thinking of deconstructing our work on the blocks of the Batique OM quilts.

And we are learning a new language once again, LOL.  Rnd2: Ch2, hdc in each hdc around, working 3 hdc in 2nd hdc of each corner, join with sl st in 2nd ch of beg ch-2.  This house now reads and and tries to speak English, Spanish, French, Latin, Twitter, and Crochet.

The first composition of a crocheted afghan, dark rose, almost burgundy and buff, is now 48" in width and 15" long.

And the sugar cane yarn is now in house. Exploring ideas.

This is not a complete list of all our work in progress but just a quick note of that which we are immediately working on.

We need to explore redoing our Quilts SB site. Stay tuned.

Check with Quilts SB for routine and regular updates.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip – Progress – Tampa Kaleidoscope – And The Thought of Two New Quilts

Good Day,

All 1,368 equilateral triangles for Tampa Kaleidoscope have been cut and all 456 half-hexagons have been completed. Now, and I sound a wee bit like Professor McGonigle, the sorting begins.

The component parts of our Tampa Kaleidoscope are three colorways of the KMIS Tampa fabric: light, medium, and dark. The first stage of the sorting process is now to separate the possible hexagons into varying degrees of shades. It is delightful and extremely interesting how the hexagons, even though they each have the element of the Tampa fabric, through deconstruction, are transformed into something completely different.

Even the afternoon sunlight streaming through the blinds create designs on our Tampa Kaleidoscope.

Bruce Seeds is definitely correct when he states “the quilts are the result of a process, not a pattern… And each step builds on the previous one. It’s only when I get to the very end that I can see each quilt for what it wanted to be.” And Maxine Rosenthal writes, “This is a serendipitous and adventurous approach to design. One piece of fabric does all the work, because the fabric contains all the colors and all the design elements.”

Andy and I cannot wait to see what our final creation and design of our Tampa Kaleidoscope will turn out. This is definitely another step in our education and learning of the world of quilting.

We have also now acquired some new fabric to attempt two more new Kaleidoscope quilts. Stay tuned to our work and progress. Make sure you follow our Quilts SB: Site; Google+ Page; or Facebook Page.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip – Tampa Kaleidoscope – Progress On Colorways

Good Day,

Well as we continue our work on our new quilt, Tampa Kaleidoscope, we are getting more and more excited as a totally random design erupts on our quilt wall.

108 pre-constructed hexagons have been completed from the light colorway. This means that two sets of three equilateral triangles have been sewn together. The two half-hexagons are then pinned together to create what will eventually be the final hexagon. Andy has also completed the 72 triangles of the darker colorway and is now working on the medium colorway.

I have been randomly, with some sense of color degree composition, pinning the to-be completed hexagons on the quilt wall. The result, at this point, definitely does not resemble the original Tampa fabric print. But, as we are so familiar with the original print we can see what the deconstruction has been doing to the outcome.

The above images are preliminary of our Tampa Kaleidoscope design and at this point in time, we cannot say exactly what the final quilt design will turn out to be.

Once again credit for the process and construction is due to Bruce Seeds and Maxine Rosenthal.

Stay tuned to our progress and updates.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip - Update - Tampa Kaleidoscope

Good Day,

Well 216 half-hexagons for our Tampa Kaleidoscope have been completed.

The fabric is the same Tampa fabric as presented in our postings of April 30 and May 2.  From the three colorways we hope to create 228 hexagons.  Will we use all 228?  Not sure, that will depend upon the creative design.  The above images are two sample hexagons created from the Tampa fabric.

We are absorbing the work of Bruce Seeds and Maxine Rosenthal. There is definitely a creative freedom in the concept of the construction of a kaleidoscope quilt of this process.

We have also created a fabric wall which should give us the opportunity to visually display our design ideas and thoughts.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip - EssbeeCon Awarded Judge's Choice at Denver National Quilt Festival VIII

Good Day,

Andy and I just found out that our EssbeeCon quilt has been awarded a Judge's Choice Ribbon at the Denver National Quilt Festival VIII.

Needless to say we're tickled pink.

The Denver National Quilt Festival is being held from yesterday through May 5 at the Denver Mart in Denver, Colorado.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip - Progress Report - Tampa Kaleidoscope

Good Day,

The work is continuing on our new and experimental quilt design, Tampa Kaleidoscope. All-things-being-equal this quilt will be one-of-a-kind.

In the the process of our education, the experts who have completed similar type of construction projects indicate that a kaleidoscope quilt can be completed with one good printed fabric. Well of course, Andy and I are trying something a bit different, which does not mean that it hasn't been done before. We have decided to cut the basic equilateral triangles, for the construction of hexagons, from three blue colorways of the same Tampa fabric.

Our first run of our design will require 1,128 equilateral triangles cut from all three colorways.

All-things-being equal, our Tampa Kaleidoscope, when completed will approximate 93" (236 cms) by 98" (249 cms). This means that this could be the size of a queen sized quilt. And of course, this does not account for any border design at the present draft.

Keep tuned to Quilts SB for updates and our progress of Tampa Kaleidoscope.

Enjoy,

Jim

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My Quip – A New Quilt Experiment and Learning Process – Tampa Kaleidoscope

Good Day,

Andy and I have started a new quilt experiment and learning process – Tampa Kaleidoscope. This is something we've wanted to try especially after seeing the work of quilt artist Bruce Seeds. And Bruce recommended Maxine Rosenthal’s 2005 book, One-Block Wonders – One Fabric, One Shape, One-of-a-Kind Quilts.

Following the idea and both Maxine’s instruction and Bruce’s encouragement, we have started on this new quilt. This is another experience in our quilting journey.

One of our earlier quilts – Tampa Window (Q8), completed in 2009, was created with the Tampa fabric.

This Tampa fabric was commissioned by a local quilt store, Keep Me In Stitches. The fabric design was printed exclusively for Keep Me In Stitches by Hoffman International Fabrics. And we have had a fair amount of the Tampa fabric stored in our reserve.

And so this new journey has begun. Repeats of the print design have been aligned and lined up. Triangles have been cut and stacked in preparation of the creation of individual hexagons.

Stay tuned for our progress and the steps of our process as we create our new Tampa Kaleidoscope. The adventure of this new quilt will be the construction and the design as we are able to experiment and tryout newly learned techniques.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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