Huge Challenge: Making a Whole from the Parts

In the previous posts, you've seen the individual blocks I've been making, 61 of them, for my Travel Diary 2014 quilt. Each block is quilted, bound, and embellished... each a mini-quilt. The difficult challenge was how to put them all together into a whole piece.

This is one of the 61 blocks.

My original thought was to stitch them together into a wall hanging, something like the arrangement below:

No way! As I played with the arrangement, it was obvious that the results were "muddy," confusing, and "busy" from close up... and boring from a distance.

So then, I spaced them apart, like in a photo album, not touching, something like this:

Nope. That didn't work either... still too busy, muddy, and boring from a distance. Akkk, what to do???? Sleep on it!

Next morning, the solution came to me upon waking! Sew them together in clusters, and mount the clusters on a back-quilt!

To see how the idea would work, I grouped the blocks on a piece of fabric from my stash, each cluster representing a whole (or segment of a) trip. This is how it looked:

The idea of clustering worked! Yay! Instead of 61 different things to view, there were now only a dozen or so. And from a distance, the shapes of the clusters against the pathway of background color made an interesting pattern.

What color would the back-quilt be, and how would the clusters be attached, I wondered? After stitching the clusters together, I took them to the quilt shops in Anacortes to find the a fabric for the back-quilt.  It had to be a read-as-solid print, one that wouldn't distract from the clusters, in a color  that contrasted in value with the over-all value of the clusters. I soon found that either too much or too little value contrast was not good. Two green prints and a light coral print came home with me as possibilities.

That evening, after trying all three of them, I decided to go with one of the green prints. The clusters seemed to "pop" nicely on it!

However, the next morning, when I viewed it in daylight, the green seemed just too cool. My travels were warm (at heart) and wonderful...  I wanted the quilt to have visual warmth. Back to the drawing board. I made a "help!" call to Lunnette, my quilting friend and travel companion on one of the trips, who came over and agreed that the green was good... except for the important consideration of "warmth." While trying various possible fabrics, she happened to mention that red is sometimes considered a neutral color, which made me look at the red/rose fabrics in my stash with a different eye. When we put the clusters on a piece of medium-rose batik, we both knew instantly we had found the back-quilt fabric!!! Whooo-hooo!

Next was the matter of how to construct the back-quilt and how to attach the clusters. I made all the mini-decisions on an "as needed" basis. Here they are in order:

1. quilt the names of the people I spent time with on these travels on the back-quilt (picture shows one quilted line, and two lines written in chalk to be quilted)
   
   
2. use the same color thread as the fabric to quilt the names, so they are there, but do not distract the viewer from the clusters of blocks
3. make the edges of the back-quilt irregular
4. bind the back-quilt edges, and then whip stitch the binding with pearl cotton, the same as the individual blocks
   
5. sew the clusters onto the back-quilt on the top edge only, allowing the cluster to be lifted to see the backs of the blocks (all different fabrics, carefully chosen for the subject of each block), and giving a place to sew a label identifying the location, people, etc. in the photos of that cluster
6. use a double row of hand-stitching along the top of each cluster to support the weight
7. make a small identifying label for each cluster
   
8. sew a small, and very personal, embellishment on the back of each cluster, something I know is there but that most people won't see (or know the meaning of if they did see it)

And here is the finished quilt. It's 37" wide by 43" tall. Even if you click-to-enlarge, this picture does not do the quilt justice... So, if you'd like to really SEE it, come to the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum during April (April 1 - May 3), when it and 29 other of my beaded objects and quilts will be exhibited!

What did I learned making this quilt? Whew... probably more than you'd want to read... The most important thing was a reinforcement of the "just do it" approach to original art, an approach that works so well for me with my bead embroidery. Not stressing over all the decisions, not needing to have all the answers in hand before starting, is a hugely enabling gift to the creative process!

New Fabric Storage System

My Christmas present to me... no more lifting heavy tubs of fabric in and out of the closet!

The way it was:

• fabric stored in large tubs, each weighing over 30 pounds 
• tubs stacked on the floor in a closet located in my office/computer/sewing-storage room 
• when I needed something, I had to lift the tubs out of the closet, find the one(s) that might have the desired fabric in them (always on the bottom), and then carry the tub(s) to my studio, where I have table space and can sort through all the fabrics
• back breaking, daunting, not fun at all

The side-to-side measurement of the closet opening is about 70 inches. There is a shelf and clothes-hanging rod, which I want to keep, in case the room needs to be reverted to bedroom status again (its original use). The shelf is 65 inches from the floor. The depth of the closet is 24 inches. This space, where all the tubs and totes were stored previously, is shown empty, ready for the new system.

After thinking about what to do for many moons, my idea was to buy some sort of shelving units, like bookcases, and place them two-deep in the closet. The rear units would be bolted to the back wall of the closet, side by side. The front units would be on castors, so they could be moved out of the closet for access to the fabrics in the rear units.

An internet search followed, and turned up 4-shelf, composite-material bookcases, in white, by South Shore. Available from Target, they were exactly the right size, and the price ($56.99 each, with free shipping) was right too. I ordered them! I don't know how long this link will last, but here's where I got them.

I hired a good handy-man to help me get the shelving units ready for my fabric. The rear units are bolted to the back wall of the closet. We fortified the front units by attaching quarter-inch plywood to the back and adding wood blocks under the bottom shelf, to which we attached the castors. We also added handles to use when I am rolling the units.

Now for the fun (and hard work) part. For four long days, tub-by-tub, I emptied my fabrics onto my studio tables, sorting and organizing them into stacks. I ironed each piece of fabric and folded it into a specific size, the size you get when you fold the 22 inch length of a fat quarter in half and in half again, and then fold that in half along the 18-20 inch width. The result is roughly 9.5" deep by 5.5" wide, perfect for shelves that are 11.5 inches deep.

I have a lot of half-yard and fat quarter pieces. This folding system works well for them. Fabrics of 1 yard or more, I folded into a larger bundle, stacked separately, as you can see in the above photo (right side of both shelves). Note that you can see the handles (for moving the shelving unit) at the top of the photo.

It works!!! I am delighted to be able to see my fabrics easily, without lifting, carrying or rooting through the tubs!

Here's how the rear shelves look. (I haven't finished putting things that go here on these shelves yet.)

Here's how the front shelves look when they are in front of the rear shelves. The fabrics I use most often, cotton batiks and prints, are here, easily available to flip through when I need something.

This is what it looks like when the front units are rolled out. They are pretty easy to roll. As you can see, I've tried to keep more weight toward the bottom. My handy-man is concerned about earthquakes, and wants to figure out a system to attach the front units to the rear units. I'm thinking a couple of simple door hooks on the sides would work.

The curtains close to prevent light damage to the fabrics and hopefully keep the dust off them (partially closed above). I've been thinking about using Velcro to attach clear plastic over the shelves of the front units, but maybe it's OK with just the curtains. Any thoughts about that?

Nearly finished now... just a few odds and ends to fit into the system, and plenty of space to do that. I thought I had a ton of fabrics, more than I'll ever use... and probably I do. But, for better or worse, there is now room for more. Yikes!