Melons for Jane

C6 - Ashley's Aura

B12 - Starflower

Last week, I completed this Dear Jane block, B12 -Starflower. Had I made this block years ago, I would have created the "melons" as an applique. However, the Dear Baby Jane group just finished a couple blocks that created circles with a piecing technique taught by the group leader on her blog, Dear Baby Jane: A Quilt Journal. I adapted her machine-piecing technique for hand piecing. That experience gave me enough confidence to try hand piecing these melons and, I was very pleased with the result.
Years ago, I appliqued this block, C6 - Ashley's Aura. If I made it today, I'd hand piece it as I prefer the depth created by piecing -- versus the effect of melons floating on the surface. Hand piecing also creates much sharper points. As I recall, Jane's version of block C6 was pieced. O well. This is still a nice block.
PS. I redrafted Ashley's Aura several years later -- read about it here. 

See more melons on May 2.

Multi-Directional Scarf

I made this scarf in 2007 and then decided I had too many scarves and wanted to sell it, so I posted it on the e-bulletin board at work. A friend who works in the the same department bought the scarf as a Christmas present for his wife (also my friend). The photos were taken by my cousin at her art reception this winter. It's made of a self-striping Noro yarn; I think it's 100% wool. I love working on multi-directional scarves especially out of self-striping yarn. It's fun to watch the triangles form, the stripes evolve, and the colors interact.

Abstract Sedar 2

This is another image cropped from Sedar Fantasy and then edited on IrfanView. The original has even more luminescence in the light area at the top than shown here.

Passover ends tonight at night fall.

PS. (Tuesday, April 29, 5:30 PM) Based on the comment (below) I missed the end of Passover by one day! O well. Tonight I'm having pasta, for sure!

Stone Pharaoh Experiment

Yet another edition of the Stone Pharaoh edited on IrfanView. Earlier images are here and here; poem is here. This is probably the calmest of the pharoah images. I do like this much better than the earliest post -- those giant leaves took more away from the composition than they added. I think this one looks like we are viewing the pharaohs between two columns.

Perhaps I should rename this the Pharaoh of Broken Matzo! It's really torn paper, but this morning, before I've eaten breakfast, while I daydream of matzo brei, the torn paper looks like matzo to me! Better yet, maybe I should call it Matzo Brei Pharaoh!

This evening will be the last night of Passover. I've been busy with quilting projects. Maybe I can post some of that this coming week along with other projects that did not get posted while I was doing the Adar project.

Matzo Abstract 3

Still playing with IrfanView using images from the Sedar Fantasy. I'm thinking these matzot are starting to look like pyramids! Just by cropping away the bottom corner of the matzo, it takes on a three-dimensional character. If you let the constraint of scale slip away, this can be any size and the matzo in the background becomes the desert floor. Or, moving back a step further, it reminds me of a topographical map. This image saved at only 31 KB. I'm guessing that' why it will not "blow up" and the image is so small. I'm disappointed as I really like this image blown up and wanted you to see it that way.
As a bonus, I've added the purple matzo. Wouldn't you know, this one did post as a large image!

Sedar Close-Up

Yet another image from Sedar Fantasy; edited on IrfanView.

Abstract Sedar 5

Yet another IrfanView edit of a cropped image from the Sedar Fantasy.

Opalescent Pharaoh

I continue to play with the phararoh images. I discovered something tonight -- cut and paste! LOL! I've been playing with IrfanView for several months now. These pharaoh images were frustrating because some of the components were in the "wrong" place compositionwise. So tonight I tried cutting and pasting different parts of the images. I even copied portions from another image. This is so primary that I'm sure someone is having a good chuckle right along with me! Maybe some day I'll get PhotoShop and learn how to use it! Meanwhile, I'm having fun! Remember, if you want to see the details, just click on the image.

Abstract Sedar 4

This is yet another cropped image from the Sedar Fantasy -- an image posted on Sunday, April 20 (the first post of that day). This image was edited on IrfanView.

Sedar Fantasy 13

This weekend, I had a lot of fun editing the Sedar Fantasy on IrfanView. At this point, I think the original is too busy but, I really like focusing on different parts of it and making them each into their own little composition.

Stone Pharaoh Collage Revisited

Second Post of the Day
This morning, I created at least 30 new images from the Stone Pharaoh collage and the Sedar Fantasy. This afternoon, I took the Stone Pharaoh collage and removed the large paper leaves and their real stems. I found their stark color and form distracting against the more organic shapes and colors. Next I took away some of the plant-matter components that seemed misplaced.

I took this stripped-down version of the collage and started to play with it on IrfanView: recropped the image so that it seems we are viewing the two lefthand pharaohs between columns or the trunks of date palms. However, that may be less apparent now that I've made some color changes.

After removing the plant matter, the section below the two lefthand pharaohs is more noticeable. For me that's good because I like ambiguous images and that section looks like at least three things: water, stairs, and cracked stone. While playing on IrfanView, I accidentally figured out how to do something new (new to me) that gives me much more control over the image changes . . . and voila!

Sedar Fantasy

24" x 18"
First Post of the Day
I created this image a few years ago using the same "stamps" as the Passover Pillowcase -- plus a few more. The frog is one of the 10 plagues. The dots near the center did not turn out as I had hoped. During the sedar, we remove a drop of wine as the name of each plague is read aloud to symbolize not taking pleasure from the suffering of our enemies. I wanted the drops on this image to hold their shape the way they do as I place them on the edge of my plate. I also wish the frogs did not look like they are smiling. That line was intended as a demarcation of their head but it looks like the frogs have been drinking too much wine! If I used that stamp again, I will paint in the line to soften the effect.


As often happens, I prefer a cropped section.

The sepia tone makes the matzot look very real.

Don't miss this link: the very creative Knitted Sedar!

Stone Pharoah

Stone Pharaoh

And, the stone pharaoh broke free
of the ancient mountain
that held him prisoner for so long.

The stone pharaoh broke free, like a golem.
He was bigger than life – much bigger than life.

Yet, far, far overhead,
the giant date palms rose higher still
as they spun like dervishes,
so fast their fronds rose to the sun
while the colors of the twentieth century
glittered at the banks of the Nile . . .
small . . . quiet . . . and alive,
feeding life into the reigning date palms
in the ancient land of the stone pharaoh.

Each year at Passover, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the Exodus story and its allegories. Thus, my focus today is Egypt, the narrow place. What better time to share a poem about a pharaoh? I wrote the poem in Dec 1995. It was inspired by a very vivid, Technicolor dream. The palms were the height of skyscrapers.

The image is an edited photo of a collage I made to go with the poem. The collage was always disappointing but today I edited it on IrfanView and cropped it severely and I like it much more. The collage was made with paste papers, foil, photocopies, and plant matter.

For more pharoah images, visit my Passover set on Flickr.

Visit this link to see how I reworked the pharaoh image a day later.

If you're wondering what a golem is, this link brings you to Wikipedia -- they had far more to say about golems than I ever knew.

Passover Pillowcase

In getting ready for Passover, I pulled this pillowcase out of the linen closet. During the Passover seder, it's a tradition to sit on a cushion because when we were slaves that was something we could not do. Much of the sedar is created to raise questions that allow the story of the Exodus to be told. I decided my pillow should have a cover with a Passover theme.

This image was transferred from paper to a pillowcase by Original Works. They created a Purim pillowcase for me, too.

The image was a painting/print first. Only today, did I notice that the subtle vertical watercolored stripes in the background also look like matzoh ridges as if to say that the story of matzoh/affliction is all around us. It's the fabric of our lives. What we make of that "fabric" is our choice.

The orange matzoh balls were stamped onto the paper with sponges cut into circles. The matzoh was a stamp, too. I cut a square from a styrofoam tray and created the lines with a pounce wheel that belonged to my father.

My Father's Pounce Wheel
This was my father's pounce wheel. I googled the name on the wheel handle and discovered that it's a Grifhold No.10 Pounce Wheel.

Before he became a photographer, my father tried a number of professions. This pounce wheel was a remnant of his foray into the world of textile cutting. Neither of my brothers heard any stories about my father working in textiles. One thing no one will contest is that my father worked for his father who was a furrier.

I tried to find something definitive about how to use a pounce wheel. No luck. On the Internet, I learned that it can be used on a variety of craft projects to mark curves on uneven surfaces. This is what I remember from somewhere: run the pounce wheel along the paper pattern's seam lines to create perforations; place the paper over your fabric; pounce it with a chalk powder to create markings; sew along the pounce lines. Perhaps it's my adaptation of what I saw in the movie, The Agony and the Ecstasy, when Michaelangelo tranferred his drawings onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It seems to me that if you wanted to mark lines on leather or wood, you could use the pounce wheel with carbon paper or not as the tiny pin holes would be sufficient markings.

Dear Jane and Teddy Bears

Here's an interesting seque from a Dear Jane block made with a teddy bear fabric to Leonard in his new hat and updated sleeping bag. The moths just loved Leonard's hat too much. So a few months ago, I made a new hat out of an old sock. Meanwhile, I sewed up the bottom of the sleeping bag. Here's a picture of the previous hat. The block is called H11 - Piercing Rays. If you click on the block, you will see that the bears have red eyes and mouths. There's that red and pink combo, again. I love the shapes in this block; they have a lot of movement in them -- and it uses straight lines to suggest curves.

More Dear Jane Animals

I planned to blog about something else tonight but the photos I shot earlier today came out too grainy. I'll have to reshoot them when I have more light and more time . . . jury duty continues. I did get up early enough today to draft the two templates needed for my next block and cut them out of Gridded Template Plastic. I'd like to write a post about drafting some day when I have photos to support the text. Meanwhile, here are two more blocks made of animal fabric (plus two other fabrics): D6 - Challenge (with a bird) and M12 - Hopscotch (with the tortoise and hare). Both were done by hand. Challenge was done as an applique. It looks a little wonky here but that's because I did not photograph it straight. As for Hopscotch, the story of the tortoise and the hare might provide a little inspiration for all Janiacs including this one!

DJ Animal Blocks

D4 - Crystal Star (with elephant and monkeys) and J13 - Pam's Bells (with tiger) are among my most favorite blocks. They are from the same fabric which has at least one other elephant on it. I would like to make another block with the fabric but I need to wait until I am doing a block near the bottom of the quilt so that the color distribution is even -- since row D is near the top and row J is near the middle of the quilt.

I'm having a hard time doing much of anything tonight. Maybe tomorrow, I can work on drafting the next block and getting the pieces traced and cut out. I need to really stay focused so I can keep up with the Dear Baby Jane group. We may stay with row B and that means I cannot rely on blocks that I made years ago.

I probably won't have any new photos until the weekend. Natural light seems to be the best way to photograph the quilts and blocks. By the time I get home from work it's dark (or it's getting dark and I just want to eat dinner).

Tonight, I drove a great distance to buy food for Passover. I was hoping to find shmura matzot but the store did not carry them this year. Shmura matzot are made for religious reasons but one reason I buy them is because they are more rustic looking and they have a lot more substance to them. Next year, I think I will mail order a box so that I don't miss out, and that way I can even get whole wheat shmura matzot. In my opinion shmura matzot are to other matzot as homemade bread is to Wonder bread. Here's an explanation and photos of shmura and regular matzoh.

Dear Baby Jane Group - First 12 Blocks

I joined the Dear Baby Jane Flickr group in hopes of getting some outside motivation and support to complete my Dear Jane quilt. This week, our leader tantalized us with a prize, a really great pair of scissors. (A quilter can never have too many scissors!) To enter the drawing, we had to complete all 12 of the group's first blocks. For the names of the blocks, visit this Flickr page. If you click on the block names on that page, it will bounce you to a close-up photo of the block.

This week's challenge motivated me to start (and finish) B4 - Chris's Soccer Field. I worked on it off and on all day yesterday. First I redrafted it; Brenda's draft seemed slightly different from Jane's block. I made all the striped pieces the same width because I was afraid if they were different widths, it might look like a mistake. The hand piecing was slow going but worth the effort.

I actually want to redo the four corner blocks because their colors are off but have not gotten to that yet. Between taxes, five weeks of jury duty, and a big project at work, I'm proud to have successfully completed Chris's Soccer Field. This is no time to sit down and relax -- like every other week, we will have two more DJ blocks to do . . . and, I got word on Saturday that an art quilt I made has been accepted into a June quilt festival! This will be the first time I put one of my quilts into a show! I need to put some finishing touches on that project; June will be here before I know it!

DJQ Mosaic 4

This is the last of the mosaics (for now). For the names of the blocks, visit this page on Flickr. If you click on the block names on that page, it will bounce you to a close-up photo of that block. This mosaic feels washed out. I think that's because many of the blocks are done in pale pastels and there is no pink to contrast with the greens and yellows. I plan to redo the blocks done in pale blue, loud lime green, chocolate brown.

I11 - Coyote Chase, a hand-pieced block, is one of the keepers. I find the shapes of the pieces so pleasing. The fabric is not a plain weave but a sateen giving it some lustre. It's a bit dark for this quilt but the green is right-on, so I will use it in additional blocks in hopes of improving the overall color effect of the quilt.
The fabric for E9 - Quilt Jail is a bit loud but I love the bees. I've given this block two new names -- Bee Jail and Fly Swatter! It was hand pieced and then the jail bars were appliqued. It's not perfect but it has a lot of charm.

DJQ Mosaic 3

Like yesterday's post, this mosaic is also a mix of keepers and "off-color" blocks; the latter may not end up in my final Baby Jane quilt. For the names of the blocks, visit this page on Flickr. If you click on the block names on that page, it will bounce you to a close-up photo of that block.

I've not yet decided if I will re-do the low contrast blocks (done in pale pastels with ivory.) This purple block, E13 - Moth in a Web, will be redone in another fabric. It's sad. I chose that fabric because it has butterflies that go with the pattern (click on photo for a close up), but I've finally figured out that until I get the colors right, this quilt will annoy me. I don't want to put a lot of work into this quilt and then hate it because the colors are off. I hope to find a fun way to use all my DJ rejects. In and of themselves, I like the blocks with "off colors" but they just don't go with my idea of a pastel Dear Jane quilt.

H12 - Hannah Lou's Hearts is a keeper. I like the whisper of red in this block. (Click on it to enlarge it.) Since I've now decided I will repeat fabrics, I should start using this Japanese fabric in some of the other blocks. If I study this block too long, I may get hung up on how it's really coral. But, sometimes, when a color is standing out, using more of it can fix the problem. This fabric might work that way. On the other hand, repeating the red, forest green, and purple fabrics might make the quilt "work" but, it would no longer have the feeling of lightness that comes from a quilt done exclusively in pastels (with maybe a hint of red here and there). I've certainly learned my lesson to get my colors "right" before I start cutting fabric.

When I first tried to make one of the nine-patch blocks (I can't remember which one -- either J7 - Chicken Tracks or C12 - Family Reunion), I made several tries and they were all wonky. (I'm not the best at sewing a straight seam on a sewing machine.) Then, someone taught me hand-piecing. That's when I starting making lots of Dear Jane blocks -- nearly one a night, sometimes two. Now, I may redo Family Reunion one more time because the lime green is screaming out at me. It's a yellow green and many of my other greens are more from the blue family. Family Reunion is a challenge. It's made of 49 and the finished block is only 4.5 inches. Those little pieces are 1/2 inch square (the part that shows); if you count the seam allowances, they are 1 inch.

The backs of hand-pieced blocks fascinate me. To be continued . . .

DJQ Mosaic 2

This mosaic is a blend of definite keepers and a few "off color" blocks that may not end up in my final Baby Jane quilt. The reds and forest greens are out -- or will be moved to the border. Per my current thinking, red fabrics should be combined with pink ones (rather than ivory) since that combination was my original color infatuation (see April 9). Because red is such a "loud" color, I think on this pastel quilt, it needs to appear in just tiny little snippets. I'm still thinking about how I will accomplish that. I'm torn about the mustard and tan blocks.

For the names of the individual blocks, visit this page on Flickr. If you click on the block names on that page, it will bounce you to a close-up photo of that block.

Keepers - DJQ Mosaic 1

This week, I took the photos of my 90+ Dear Jane blocks, selected 25 favorites, and made them into this mosaic. All of these are keepers. Note: Red is just a whisper (in only two of these blocks).

I think this mosaic demonstrates how the "Trip 'Round The World" arrangement (concentric diamonds of color) is obscured by the sheer variety and busyness of the DJ blocks. I like the fact that this mosaic includes my first Dear Jane block, B-1 Bachelor Buttons (second one in the second row -- see April 8 for a close-up), and my most recent block, B-13 Four Corner Press (see close up below) completed March 31, 2008. Four Corner Press is unique; it's the only block that Jane made without the white/ivory fabric. I chose my fabrics for this block to echo Jane's choices: four fabrics, darkish fabric in the corners, and horizontal stripes on the sides. When I visited the original Dear Jane Quilt in October 2011, I discovered that this block was actually made of cheater cloth -- it is not pieced at all! So, I guess you could say this was a redraft!

For identification of each block in the mosaic, visit this Flickr post. If you click on the block names on that page, it will bounce you to a close-up photo of that block.

Colors for Baby Jane

As I mentioned yesterday, when I made my first Dear Jane blocks back in the late 1990's, I had no intention to make the whole Dear Jane Quilt. Over time, that changed.

Some time after that, I recognized Jane Stickle's "trip 'round the world" (TRTW) color arrangement (concentric diamonds of color). I'm not the only one who did not notice this immediately. (Check out the photo in yesterday's post to study the TRTW pattern.) I think it's because of the variety among the blocks -- variety in the fabrics (a different one for each block), and the difference between the blocks themselves. The first overall impression is the sheer variety among the blocks. Anyway, I liked Jane's TRTW plan but, by then I had made some choices that ran against such an arrangement (if I was going to keep each block in the the same position as Jane's blocks.)


Inspiration
Meanwhile, I fell in love with this fabric. It reminded me of mother-daughter dresses that my mom sewed when I was about 3 years old. I loved those dresses. It was so fun to have a dress that matched my mother's! That 1950's dress fabric had a white background but something about the shapes and colors of the flowers in this inspiration fabric reminded me of those mother-daughter dresses. The colors that really caught my heart were the red, pink, sage green, and lemon yellow. Another draw was the red and pink combination -- a mix that reminds me of things Japanese. Somehow, the periwinkle never really registered in my head; that's a bit odd since periwinkle is one of my favorite colors.

I think I made two mistakes with the color: (1) I used all the colors in the fabric for my Dear Jane blocks and (2) I forgot that I was adding another color that was not in the inspiration fabric -- ivory.

How Many Fabrics?
Jane Stickle used a different fabric for every block in her quilt. (Where did they all come from?) I started out planning to do the same. That lead to using fabrics that strayed away from the inspiration fabric. I now have over 90 blocks and I have already repeated several of the fabrics. At this point, I've decided that I will repeat fabrics in the remaining blocks for this quilt. Color is that important to me. This is necessary because when it comes to fabric, all colors are not created equal. Some colors are easier to find in a store while others can require weeks or months or years of hunting. This was a hunch that was confirmed when I took a color theory workshop with Jane Balshaw this winter. Balshaw and I agree on something else -- the colors in the fabrics are coming from the three color "families." Some have a yellow base and others have a blue or red base and that is what's making it all feel "not quite right."

To be continued . . .

Dear Jane Quilt

Background Some time in the late 1990's I fell in love with the Dear Jane Quilt, a sampler quilt made of 225 different blocks. The original was made during the Civil War by a Vermont woman, Jane Stickle. This is a link to the official Dear Jane website. To learn more about the Dear Jane Quilt, scroll down this page; below the Dear Jane Quilt icon (on the right), you will find a collection of Dear Jane links.

Minka Meets Jane I hesitated to buy Brenda Papadakis' book, Dear Jane: The Two Hundred Twenty-Five Patterns from the 1863 Jane A. Stickle Quilt. After all, why did I need one more book in my house? Eventually, I gave myself permission to buy the book even though I was not going to make the quilt and even though I was more interested in contemporary art quilts than historic ones. I just wanted the pleasure of looking at Jane's quilt, her blocks, and other people's copies of same (aka Baby Janes). I had no idea that this book had created an international craze/cult and that I was about to become one of many Janiacs! Even when I looked at the photos of Japanese interpretations of the original, I did not understand the impact of Jane Stickle's quilt upon quilters around the world. Nor did I notice that the book was then on it's 4th printing. My most favorite Baby Jane remains the blue one from Japan on page 46.

Yet Another UFO? One thing lead to another. People kept suggesting I just make a few blocks. Eventually, I made my first block, Bachelor Buttons. (In her book, Brenda drafted and named each block.) This was also my first attempt at fussy cuts. One block lead to another, and somewhere along the way, I got hooked! I made more and more blocks. Over the years, I made over 90 blocks, then I took up painting leaving little time for quilts. After dealing with breast cancer in 2000, I got back into making Dear Jane quilts for a while. I believe I put this project down in 2003 and did not pick it up again until at least four years later, and that was just briefly. Now I'm back again -- thanks to Flickr.

Enter Flickr Or more accurately, enter Minka into the world of Flickr. I tripped over one group after another. And then discovered the Dear Baby Jane group which was working on the quilt together. They had just started and I had made most of the blocks they had already done, so it was easy to catch up. Actually, I'm a few blocks behind but, now that I'm done with taxes and the Adar series (on this blog), I am ready to get going! The group has a blog, too.

Trip 'Round the World -- Or Not? I have a few design problems that I'm working out. When I made my first blocks, it did not matter what colors they were since I was not going to make the entire quilt. It took me a while to realize that Jane's blocks are arranged by color in a "trip round the world" pattern -- concentric diamonds of color. I wanted to follow Jane's lead but that meant either re-doing some blocks or moving blocks to different locations. [I'm working on giving myself permission to move a few blocks.]

Color Issues The color issues are bigger. To fully appreciate them, view this Flickr photo. To be continued . . .

Pastel Sea Life

Close up of image first posted on March 30; edited on IrfanView.

The Warholizer

Today, I discovered the Warholizer. Sounds futuristic to me but not as far out as the Orgasmatron in Woody Allen's movie, Sleeper. Anyway, I decided the goat photo would be a fun choice for testing the effects of the Warholizer. This image is a fitting choice since I've been getting back into quilting after a lengthy hiatus. I wonder. Did Andy Warhol make quilts? Did he consider his paintings to be quilts? Perhaps I can make more bridges between my quilting and painting.
The goat and gragger hat were first posted on March 28.

More Sea Life

Close up of image first posted on March 30; edited on IrfanView.

Adar II 29

Close up of image first posted on March 30; edited on IrfanView.
And so ends Adar. I considered going back to the Adar posts (daily for the last two moon cycles) and adding videos with the sounds of each noise maker, but decided enough is enough. This is a new month and there are lots of things I have not been posting because I wanted to stick exclusively to Adar. Maybe the videos can be next year's Adar project.

Adar II 28

Continuing with the Adar theme, here's another version of the Sea Life image which has been posted throughout this week. Tomorrow will be the last night of Adar.

In the spirit of the fun that is Adar, check out the
Altered Signs Flickr group, a group of photos of signs that have been modified to convey a message other than originally intended.

Yet another noisemaker photo because very soon it's going to be very hard to come up with a reason/excuse for all these noisemaker photos...Adar is nearly over! It's taken me two months to realize that I can share the sounds of each noisemaker with you if I get them on video. My plan is to add a video of each gragger/noisemaker in my posts made over the past two month. That's an ambitious project and may take a few weeks. Come back and check it out.
Skeleton gragger (first posted Feb 22); edited on IrfanView.