Crumb Stars- Second Draft

This is the fabric I really want to use for my crumb quilt- it's the Japanese import cotton from SF that I mentioned in my last post about this project. I only have a yard of it so I have to make the smallest size, 40x48 inches.  That's still a decent throw size for me so that's ok.

I like this one a lot better than the solid navy; the geometric pattern is subtle enough to provide some texture and interest without competing with the crumb blocks. So I went ahead and cut up the yard into the strips I need. Feeling confident!

I may also be done making crumb blocks for this project; I have about 31 made and need 76 diamonds for the project but I can often re-stitch the scraps from a block into new blocks. That's the beauty and the curse of crumb quilting; it's a constantly renewable resource, but you can never use it up. Lol.

Special Saturday: A Guild Meeting & A Workshop

A very rare Saturday treat- I got to actually attend a quilt guild meeting *and* a special workshop.

My guild meets on Saturday mornings via Zoom and since I work Saturdays it's been basically impossible for me to attend meetings. But I asked for a day off this weekend to attend the meeting and a special paper-collage workshop with artist David Owen Hastings. 

Hastings is a Seattle-based fiber artist, gallery artist and graphic designer. The paper collage is one of his signature workshops.

We spent 3 hours stitching paper scraps to paper frames. It was pretty fun. It gave me a lot of ideas involving Christmas cards, maps, various bits of decorative paper I have hanging around. I used to have a stash of decorative paper but I got rid of it when I moved. But you can use anything- envelopes, magazine pictures, whatever you want. 

For my pieces I used a combo of origami paper, pictures from a quilting magazine and even a couple of bookmarks. When you cut the pictures down to small pieces (1/2 inch by 3 to 6 inches) you lose the picture and end up working just with color. It's no different from cutting fabric up into small pieces and getting different effects. 

After the workshop I went through a shoebox of paper stuff and honestly didn't find much I'd want to use. I want to do some kind of project featuring old book covers. I've made jewelry with old bookcovers and that was pretty fun. I can see doing an "art piece" or somesuch.

It was a fun day! Thanks to David and to our guild for organizing it.