The camera as a quilting tool, part 2, and crowd sourcing

Cell phones with cameras and social media as quilting tools-- not very traditional, huh?  But I'll argue that it's just a new way of doing what quilters have always done -- tapping into collective thinking. 

Quilting is interesting in that it is both a solitary pursuit and a social endeavor.  The social part used to look like quilting bees where all the pioneer ladies gathered round and plied needles while gossiping (and presumably sharing sewing tips).  Now that interactive piece is expanded to include blogging, youtube videos, online tutorials, and Facebook. 

Yes, Facebook is a quilting tool for me.

Here's one example. 

I was making a quilt for a friend, and I was at that dangerous point where I was frustrated with it and losing the love.  The risk that it would end up in a ziplock baggie in the back of my closet was high.  I had a lot of blocks made up, but none of the arrangements I had tried so far was making me happy. I was doubting the fabric choices (vintage scraps given to me) and feeling like the 5 inch blocks were too big and graceless.

I photographed my various block layout options with my cell phone.  A quick photo is a great way to track back to a previous arrangement without having to rethink it all from scratch again.

I still didn't love any of them.

Mulling didn't help. 

So I posted on Facebook, and asked my 238 friends for input. Strangely, some of them didn't have anything constructive to say, possibly because I befriend people who are not necessarily quilting enthusiasts. 

But several useful things happened:

• There was a consensus of opinion that one of my layouts was more appealing. 
• The friend for whom I was making the quilt  (as a surprise) commented that she really loved the colors and the design and that she admired my crafty skills and wished she knew how to make quilts. . .
• When I saw the thumbnail photos, I realized that I needed a frame of darker blocks.

Now, as it happens, I didn't personally like the design that everyone else liked (#6) but all those votes for it helped me realize that my friends were all wronge, and that I was right, so I stuck with my original preference, which was #1.

The biggest benefit to the social media input was the fact that my friend commented that she liked what she saw on the design wall.  See, I don't love that color palette, and I found myself doubting and second guessing constantly -- hence the high risk for ditching the whole project.  But when I had good reason to believe that it was, in fact, just the kind of color scheme and design that she would really like, I had the motivation and energy to finish it up in time for her birthday. 

And here's a photo of the completed quilt:

The camera-- a quilting tool

Throwing a bunch of photos all into one post.  Should I save this for a Wed. post and call it Wordless Wednesday? Nah. These are mostly design wall shots of works in progress.

Scrolling through my dropbox files reminded me of how important a camera is to me as a quilting tool.  Here are just a few of the ways I use a camera (often just the one on my cell phone) as a tool for my quilting.

• I often photograph fabrics I've just purchased.  It's super easy to put that photo into Evernote along with a notation of the yardage, manufacturer and fabric line, price, source -- and my ideas for using it.

• I photograph a specific piece of fabric to help with finding a matching or coordinating fabric (though colors can be tricky).

• I photograph my blocks up on the design wall -- something about seeing it on a screen makes it easier for me to pick out mistakes in orientation or problems with color distribution. 

• I also use the photos on the design wall as back up documentation.  Nothing is more annoying that having the perfect arrangement only to lose it to a gust of wind or an annoying cat -- photo to the rescue.

• I photograph my finished quilts, and again make notes on Evernote to keep track of what batting I used (and if I liked it), thread and needle issues, things I wish I had done differently and will remedy next time (ha!), stuff like that.

• And I like to take a finished product photo, ideally in natural light, in a cool setting.  Many of my quilts are gifts, so I like keeping an array of photos so I can continue to enjoy them.  I sometimes use close ups of the quilting as my background on my computer, or as my header on Facebook or Flickr. I've used photos of quilts I've made to create greeting cards. And I've gotten in the habit of putting together a photo book every 2 or 3 years documenting my quilts. Nothing fancy, and not very expensive when you use one of the frequent promotional special offers.

Ok -- so to the photo dump:

Hmmm.  I spotted a couple of UFO*s there.  Maybe this will motivate me to pull them out and give them the use-it-or-lose-it treatment.

What about you?  Do your camera and your sewing machine support each other? Do you find your cell phone and aps are useful quilting tools?

Using Pinterest

Quilters and Pinterest are made for each other.  Sort of.  I think sometimes Pinterest distracts and discourages and gets in the way of actually making something, but that's a rant for another day.

This post is about the ways I personally find Pinterest useful.

There's the obvious use-- I see something I like online, and I pin it. To keep it all manageable, I've come up with subgroups of boards that make sense to me. I have a collection of half square triangle quilts that I find intriguing -- HST board. 

I also collect by a specific fabric line or designer sometimes; for example, I love Kaffe Fasset fabrics, but I'm sort of stumped on how to use them in a quilt.  When I see a design that just nails the use of lavish color and pattern, I pin it to the KF Quilt Plan board.

Pinterest also works brilliantly for collaborative efforts.  When a group of women from my church wanted to put together a quilt for a friend, I created a group board where everyone could post suggestions for quilt patterns, fabrics, and color stories.

I use Pinterest as a way to keep track of my work for the year -- Finished Quilts 2013. I usually share photos on Facebook and Flicker, but it's easy to lose track of the photos -- some are on my phone, some on an ipad, some from a camera. And as many of my quilts are gifts, I like keeping a photo record. My Pinterest board serves as a quick year's summary of my work.

Lastly, for today, at least, Pinterest is a great way to create a wish list. I have a hard time coming up with suggestions for Christmas and birthday gifts, but pinning things, from books to gadgets to fabric lines or sewing machine accessories on my Pinterest list makes it easy to not only recall the items, but also serves as a good start to locating a place to buy it.

How about you?  Do you Pin?  Do you have reservations about the very nature of a social media/shared venue?  Are you one of those people who blocks their Flickr photos from being pinned?  Asking in all curiosity--why? What did you do to keep track of brilliant ideas and patterns before the advent of Pinterest?

Sometimes a sale inspires

My design wall is not a cohesive space.  My Max and Whiskers jelly roll quilt is up there this week, as are these Dresden plate blocks, made with a very different pallete.

I had 2 charm packs* of Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille somewhere deep in my stash, and I always thought they would make a nice quick baby quilt with just basic squares.  But then two sales happened.

JoAnn had a 50% off quilting tool sale, and for some reason I felt compelled to buy an EZ Quilter Dresden plate ruler/template because a) I don't have one and b) it was only $5 and c)I've never even liked Dresden plate blocks, so it makes total sense that I would get one, right?

The other sale-based inspiration came from scrolling through the 50% off fabrics online and seeing some yardage that I instantly recognized as Vintage Modern.  This pattern-recognition super power of mine is both an asset and a curse. But once again -- 50% off?  Obviously I need to buy some to make a completely awesome matchy matchy all one fabric line quilt. And what better pattern to use than the Dresden Plate, since I've got that new ruler thing.

Problem is, I don't like matchy matchy, and while this fabric line does have some really fun color pairings, it looked almost "canned" and mass-merchandise to me until I pulled in assorted fabrics from my scrap pile. So about 30 % of the spokes are miscellaneous fabrics.  Even when the color is slightly off, I feel they blend ok, since each individual piece is quite small.

I've got spokes enough for 12 plates, which, when assembled with sashing and borders, makes a good sized twin quilt.  I reserve the right to do something entirely different once I get all the blocks assembled.

There's something about the traditional Dresden plate arrangement that just feels too predictable and prissy to me, so I may have to do something different-- stay tuned. This constitutes a cliffhanger in the world of quilting.

Design Wall Today

This is a quick and easy quilt made with a jelly roll* of Moda's Max and Whiskers line.  I picked it up because it was on sale, and at the time I thought it would be fun to try a jelly roll race**.  But then, after looking at the strips and watching a tutorial on jelly roll racing, I had doubts.  A lot of the fabrics are directional -- the dogs and cats definitely have an up and down orientation.  Looking at a whole bunch of google images for jelly roll race quilts clinched it -- I don't think that this line is one that is best suited to a happy end result for a JRR.

So, Max the dog and his little friend Whiskers languished in my stash for a couple of years.  I pulled this jelly roll out because I wanted to steal some of the distressed white and black fabrics for another project, and while I had it out, I decided this jelly roll had moved to category Use-it-or-lose-it status. Life's too short and my space is too small to keep everything forever.

Here's what I've come up with -- I sewed all the strips together, alternating the direction of my sewing to avoid excessive bowing of the strips. I made sure to keep all the little dogs and cats oriented the same direction, and tried for an even distribution of color, but I didn't overthink fabric placement.

 It would have been a good thing to press after each seam, but I didn't -- I just pressed when the entire thing was assembled, and it turned out well enough.

I folded the pieced strips into quarters and smoothed it all, squaring as much as possible on the cutting board and sliced off the selvedge edges. Then I made a cut 10 inches in from the left edge.  I cut a long 10 inch panel from brown fabric I had in my stash, which will be inserted between the cut strips.  On that panel, I'm adding applique petals which echo a print in the fabric line. Each petal was cut from the jelly roll strips which read as solids--I reserved from the pieced portion.  I'm still working on spacing and orientation of my petals, but I've got my general concept figured out.  I'll probably machine applique, since that's a technique I need some practice with.

Oh-- here's my super precise method for making petals.  I had to work with 2.5 inch strips, and I didn't want the two petals end to end to exceed the 10 inch panel, so that defined size.  I cut a piece of construction paper to 2.5 x 5 inches, then folded that in quarters and cut a smooth curve.  Unfolded, it ended up as the blue shape on the right.  I used that as my template to mark petal shapes on water-soluble interlining (looks like regular light weight non-woven interfacing, sold in the notions department). I stitched on those lines as I sewed the interlining to the jelly roll strips, with right sides facing.  While waiting in pick up line at my son's school, I trimmed all the shapes with a very narrow allowance, then sliced the interfacing carefully and turned the shapes right side out.  A quick smoothing with a blunt plastic knitting needle  yields shapes ready to applique.  When I wash the quilt the first time, the interlining dissolves completely, leaving me with appliques with smooth, secure edges and no extra stiffness.  It's a nifty applique technique.

I'll post when done with this one.  While I've had my doubts about it numerous times during the construction process, I think it will end up being a cute toddler quilt.

* Jelly rolls are collections of 2.5 inch strips cut from the width of fabric, so 42 inches long. They usually include 42 fabrics from all the designs and colorways of a single collection.

** Jelly roll race -- the speed event in competitive quilting. You can google and see lots of video and photos. I've never done one. I'm not very competitive. And while I don't spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about fabric placement, I do like more control than the completely randomized JRR method.

Why?

It's not a new idea to quilt for the therapeutic benefits, and there are plenty of quilt bloggers who play off the addiction /therapy/illness meme.

There's also the vision of quilting as a charitable endeavor, with lots of worthy organizations setting out to blanket the world in lovingly-placed stitches.

Then there is the school of highly skilled artisans and crafters who wish to be recognized (usually in monetary terms) for their creativity, and who produce patterns, books, tutorials, tools, oh, and sometimes quilts too.  And they calculate the costs of every piece of material and tool and tally their hours and conclude that that baby quilt has a value of $400.

I'm not any of those quilters.

I'm a cognitive surplus quilter. I quilt because I like to, and yes, I have been heard to say that while quilting is an expensive hobby, it's cheaper than therapy. I do give quilts to worthy organizations and auctions and various people I  love or like.  I don't devalue my skills (which I rank as better than intermediate, but less than master-craftsman/woman).  But I have no aspirations to write a book or monetize my hobby, nor do I make quilts for sale.

So what am I doing with a blog?

Well, I think there is room in the world of quilting for people like me.  But we're under-represented. And because by definition the cognitive surplus quilter is not out there promoting that mindset, there are a lot of quilters who end up feeling like they're not doing it right. 

So why do I cut up perfectly good pieces of fabric and then sew them back together again?

Because I can.  Because it makes me happy.  Because I end up with cool things that are unique, and people (usually) like.  Because this is how I choose to use my cognitive surpluss. *

I'm going to post photos here because in my real life I have a shockingly limited number of people who appreciate the needle arts.  This probably has something to do with being the mother of 4 boys. And I will share techniques and links, because I always appreciate finding a blogger who is generous with the "how-to"s.  If I review a book or a product, I'm doing it because I have an opinion -- no affiliations or sponsors here.

So -- that's me.  Quilting with the smattering of brain power and small chunks of time I carve out of a busy life.

* Cognitive surplus = the leftover brain cells and time that you have after doing and thinking what is essential for survival.  You have cognitive surplus (even when you have no discretionary time). Everyone has CS. Lots of people use theirs watching TV or surfing the web. If the concept interests you, read Clay Shirky's book.