Artquiltmaker

I am wasting time again and went over to see if Jan at Be*mused had posted anything lately. I was rewarded to find some bits and pieces of lovely, cheerful sewing. She also mentions Liberated Piecing a la Gwen Marston, of which I am huge fan. Jan’s fabric combinations are gorgeous and, did I mention, CHEERFUL?! I love the blocks and pieces that she has made and can’t wait to see the outcome.

I found a blog today through the Dear Jane Flickr group. Jean is participating in the DJ challenge. I like her writing style and her attention to grammar and spelling.

The owner of this website stopped by Artquiltmaker blog and left a comment. In turn, I went to her website so I could respond. I was thrilled find this gorgeous piece on the front page. Take a look through the galleries as well. Quilts, paper and paintings, I think. They all seem to be informed/influenced by classic quilts.

I notice a gift bag theme starting. I got the Janome newsletter and they have a pattern for Bottle Caddy. It is a gift bag with a bit of dressing up.

Bottles seem to be popular items to wrap in gift bags. he shape definitely lends itself to wrapping in fabric. Weed whackers: not so much.

The one pictured is beautiful. It seems to be fairly complex as well – too complex for me to make by the dozens, but I may expand my theme to actually trying these patterns. Let me know if you make one.

I have to admit I am losing my mind a bit over these Dear Jane blocks. Not so much that I have run upstairs and started sewing, but enough to keep posting here about them. I can’t stop being in awe of what the makers have accomplished.

Page 10 of the Dear Baby Jane pool (http://www.flickr.com/groups/dearbabyjane/pool/page10/) blew me away. The blocks on that page all looked like they were made out of batiks and hand-dyes. They were almost all brightly colored and caught my attention. I guess I am like a bird – attracted to brightly colored and shiny patchwork.

I have posted a few of the blocks, but go take a look at the page.

Deirdre, who finds everything and then sends it on to me, pointed out these gift bags on Lazy Girl Designs. WOW! They are amazing and definitely not as quick to make as mine, but they are gorgeous!! I would love to see one up close and personal and hope someone has made one that I can look at at PIQF.

I was avoiding work and browsing the blogs. I clicked on Pink Chalk Studio and came across this photo of, what looks like, fabric selection during the design phase. I admit, I didn’t read the post…yet. What struck me about this photo is that it is my ideal way of picking fabric. I would like to have the space (physical and brain) to heap up fabrics and look at them kind of jumbled together. This photo of these jumbled together fabrics give me an idea of how they would look in a project.

The problem comes in the actual execution. Sigh. I know that if I take these fabrics out of the closet and jumble them, I will most certainly have to refold and put half of them back.

I know I have to do something like this (make visual decisions visually), but I seem to have a brain block. Perhaps I need a studio assistant? HAH!

I have been, as I may have mentioned looking through the Dear Jane blocks various groups of Janiacs have posted on Flickr. The two largest groups are the Dear Janes and Dear Baby Jane (http://www.flickr.com/groups/dearbabyjane/). It is amazing how many blocks these ladies have created.I am in awe of them. I admired one particular member and found her blog. She has some history of her Dear Jane work, a link to which is below.

Deirdre sent me a link to these weird and wonderful “wearables”. They are really creative and inventive, but I don’t think that they are truly wearable. I really admire people who think outside of the box in such a way that they can come up with an outfit for a sumo wrestler type. Enjoy the inspiration!