Debbie’s Departure

You are thinking I never shared her arrival!
We were so busy talking, eating and spending time with friends I hardly took any pictures. Sorry.

My friend Debbie Jones spent a month in Florida teaching her fiber art techniques to many different groups. She is one of the most in demand teachers you will find today. What she has to share is something no one else does anything similar too.
She arrived Tuesday evening and we went directly to Eaton’s Beach for dinner. The wait was an hour (actually I think it was really less). We waited downstairs with a glass of wine from the Beach Bar and enjoyed the lake view sitting right next to the sandy beach…spectacular.
Our dinners were wonderful as they always are at Eatons Beach and we actually we able to get a table right outside, although they did have the clear windows closed to protect us from the wind.

Soon after we arrived home we finished the last two slices of the Key Lime pie I had been saving for us. We talked until the wee hours.
Wednesday we were invited to Beth Sherman’s lovely home for lunch. My “separated at birth twin” Carol Gordhamer also was there.
We had a lovely lunch and we chattered non stop and enjoyed seeing all of Beth’s wonderful new Santa’s and dolls.
From there we went up to the Horizon Center where I was giving a presentation on a very simple way to create a tessellation to the Quilters and Needle Artists group.

These are some of the Tessellations Debbie made. I am quite anxious to see what she does with them. I know I’ll be excited to see the results.
We came home and relaxed a while before heading up to our clubhouse for dinner. The weather was perfect for us to enjoy our dinner outside.
Soon after arriving home I got a text from Drew wanting to come over as he “hadn’t had anything to eat for 3 days”!  Of course it probably had only been 3 hours but he and Andy arrived and I fed them and Drew had his butter pecan ice cream.
Andy was too busy naming and pricing Debbie’s quilts she brought in to show me to even have desert! He’s actually getting pretty spot on with prices after having a bit of experience.
After they left Debbi and I again talked for hours. Knowing Debbie had to get on her way early we did turn in before midnight.
It was hard to let her go this morning as we have so much to talk about and share.
Next year we plan on her spending more time here.
Safe travels, Debbie.
I do want to share her website with you. I know you’ll love her work. If you have a guild in Florida that is looking for a really great class/classes get in touch with here quickly before her schedule for March 2016 fills up.
http://www.debbiejones.com/Home.html
You will find that her classes are really special as is Debbie herself.

Perfection Or Procrastination?

Many years ago I took a fabric painting class from Hollis Chatelain who’s work I greatly admired.

Of course I didn’t want to make quilts that looked like they were done by her.

I wanted to learn the techniques she used.

She was an excellent teacher.

While going through drawers looking for something the other evening I found this piece I started in her class.

I usually work fast, but this technique didn’t allow me to finish this in the class time.

I put it away along with the fabric I had also hoped to paint for the borders and intended to finish painting it.

One of the problems was I didn’t even know what colors I had used. I was concerned that if I used different colors it would be so obvious and take away from the beauty of the piece.

The overall design on the piece is a tessellation I quickly created from an index card.

This close-up shows the area of the tessellated shape you saw in the last picture.

I broke the tessellated shapes into 5 different units. I hope you can see the pencils likes I drew on the fabric in this gray scale image.

When I unearthed this I decided that rather than finish painting this I could combine it with some of my hand dyed fabrics to create a more pleasing composition.

In this photo I am auditioning some possible fabrics I could use with it.

I believe this is going to be something that will take me a while to resolve.

This will remain on my design wall so I can look at it as I am working on other things in the near future.

When I resolve it you will be the first to know!

What Is A Tessellation?

I have done many posts about my adventures with Tessellations. I received a comment this week that made me think this is a  post worth repeating.

She said she NOW understands what a tessellation is after reading this. I hope if any of you are wondering this will clarify it for you too.

Tessellations from The Colors Of My Life series - Rerun

In reality all the quilts in this series qualify as tessellations since they are made up of squares.
One definition of tessellation is fit together without leaving any spaces.
The quilts I will feature are those where the shape of the design element forms a tessellation.
I will also share some where the design element comes close to creating a tessellation but doesn't quite.

The design formed by the four patches of individual colors in this quilt are NOT a tessellation. I had to fill them in with the one patch of a different color.

Each unit of color tessellates in this quilt. Each unit is made up of 18 shaded squares of a color. I wanted this quilt to be square so there are partial units along the edges. I could have continued them for full shapes.

This design is similar to the previous one but the units do NOT tessellate. They had to be filled in with the 4 gray squares.

The simple crosses form a tessellation in this quilt alternating black, brown or gray for every other cross.

When you first look at this you may say the shapes here do NOT tessellate. Keep looking and see if you CAN find the shape. It may help you to see the tessellating shapes if you squint or take off your glasses.

If you can not find it now look at the photo in gray scale and I think you WILL be able to see it. There are light shapes and dark shapes that tessellate with each other.

There are many other ways to create tessellated shapes. You can find some of them on my blog by putting tessellations in the box on the upper left hand corner and clicking on the magnifying glass. This is a fascinating adventure and I hope you will enjoy it.

Tessellation In Progress On Design Wall

When I posted the tessellation tutorial I didn't have a photo of this one at this stage.
I took this photo and you can see what I have done with the shapes I cut in this layout.
You also see the base is larger than I needed, but that is much better than it not being big enough.
I am still not sure this will be the final layout. I will study it some more and possibly will add or change a few things before I finish it.



This closeup allows you to see the design section better.


And because you asked -- A PUZZLE!

Tessellation Tutorial - Preparing Border Fabric - Lesson 10

1. Choose a fabric for your border.
This should be a fabric that sets off the fabrics you have used for your tessellated shapes. Generally it should be a fabric that is not busy and doesn't have too many colors.(This is the fabric I chose.)



2. Cut this the same size as your fleece base.
3. Fuse Wonder Under to the entire back of this fabric.



4. Place border fabric paper side up on a flat surface.

5. Place tesselated shape/fleece piece fleece side up on top of it.

6. Fold back fleece on each side to expose the tesssellated shapes that still have the backing attached to them.



7. Trace around each shape on both sides of the composition.



8. Fold top and bottom to expose those shapes and trace them as you did the ones on the sides.



9. Remove the fleece with the tesselated shapes and this is what the paper on the back of your border fabric will look like. (Of course your tessellated shape will be different than mine so yours will not be an exact replica of mine.)

STOP NOW and wait for Lesson 11.

Tessellation Tutorial - Lesson 9

Once you have ALL your tessellated pieces arranged on the fleece it is time to fuse them down.

STOP*****
Read and study these photos before you fuse them to the fleece as the shapes along the edge will be handled differently than the ones in the middle.


You will only remove the Wonder Under's paper backing in the area bound by the black square.



Draw lines from the corner to corner on the back of the shapes that are on the edge of the tessellated design section.

I have turned back some of the edge pieces so you can see where I drew the lines.
For a larger picture just click on this picture.



You can now fuse all the center tessellated shapes to the fleece. Those that still have the paper on the back will not stick to the fleece.

Leave the paper on the back of those until I tell you to remove it.

Tessellation Tutorial - Finishing With a Border - Lesson 8

On this particular sample which I will use to explain the border process I drew the lines at a 45 degree angle rather that horizontal and vertical as I did in the previous posts for the tutorial.



I wanted to include this picture so you can see the difference and get your mind around what I did before I post the next steps.

What I am about to show you will work with the lines drawn either way.

For those of you who have not been following along with this, it is not too late.
Go to the right hand column and click on Tessellations and you will be able to see all the previous posts.

Stay tuned and you'll be able to add a border, or not - as you choose.

Tessellation Tutorial - Grid - Lesson 7B

The red marks point to the original corners of your square of the index cards before you have cut it into a tessellating shape.

You will NOT mark these on your fabric/Wonder Under tessellated shapes.

It is just important you understand these are the corners.



When you place them on your fleece each of these should line up with a corner of the grid you have drawn.

They will extend slightly beyond the corners on the grids.

That, my friends, is the FUDGE factor - something unique to working with fabric.

If each piece was cut exactly on the lines, you would have places where the shapes didn't quite cover the fleece base. You do NOT want to see the base.

Continue adding shapes to your fleece until you have used all of or as many as you would like to.

If you would like to add more, you still have half of the fabric you chose for this quilt left. You can add Wonder Under to the back of them and cut as many more shapes as you would like.

When you are totally safisfied with the arrangement and design you have created it is time to get ready to fuse these to the base.

Pin them to your base and take this off the design wall to get ready for Lesson 8 & 9-covering borders and fusing the shapes to the fleece.

OOPS - Tessellation Tutorial - Lesson 7A

I realize I left you hanging with my tessellation tutorial I posted some time ago.
Life got in the way.

I am now ready to finish it for you in the immediate future.

It is very important you draw grid lines on your fleece. These will aid in proper placement of your tessellated shapes in your final design.

The size of the grid is directly related to the size of your original square.



We started with a 4 inch square of an index card so we will draw a grid with lines 4inches apart.



In this photo you see the grid with the lines drawn both ways. I have left both of these photos larger than normal so that you can click on them and see a larger photo.

On the next blog post I will show how you use these lines to accurately place your tessellated shapes on the fleece base.

Tessellation Teaser - Lesson 7

I am working on the Tessellation tutorial again after a long absence while I was busy with other things that took on a higher priority.

I have always lived a very serendipitous life. I do not set a life plan or long range goals and when something becomes apparent that I need to do it right then I stop where I am and go to the higher priority task.

That does not mean I don't plan and keep on task. In fact yesterday I gathered up all those slips of paper I had been jotting "TO DO" things on and put them all on one list.
The amazing thing is that by having them all on that one list I was able to accomplish most of them yesterday and today. Yes, I will be adding things to the list, but it is a good feeling to be able to cross things off the list.

I am showing you two photos to get you excited again about the project and hope you will be as excited as I am to work on this again.



This is the master template I cut from my index card pinned to the fleece I have drawn the grid on.
I will be explaining how this is done very soon.



In this photo you see one shape from each of the fabrics I used for my tessellated shapes.

This will all make a lot more sense as soon as I explain it.

I do hope you are up to date on the exercise and are ready for the next part. I certainly have given you enough time!

If you have not been following along and would like to you can find all the other steps by putting Tessellation in the box at the top left and click on the magnifying glass and the first exercises will all come up for you. It is NOT to late to start this and have fun with the rest of us.

Tessellation Tutorial - Lesson 6

If you are working along with me you should have all your shapes traced and cut out.
You have NOT removed the paper from the back.


These are all the pieces I have cut out. I had 10 fabrics and I cut 8 or 9 from each which means I have about 85 shapes to design with.



You will need some fabric to iron to the the fusible side of your Pellon fusible fleece.
(I did not include this in your supply list as I felt if you already are a quilter you probably already have something you can use.) If you don't you will need to purchase something for this.

I like pretty backings on my quilts. I also like fabric that has enough pattern to it that it will hide less than perfect quilting.
This fabric does not coordinate with my choices enough to be used on the front of the quilt, but it makes a perfect back. It was something I had in my fabric collection.

Make sure you follow the directions for fusing this to the wrong side of the fabric and fuse it very securely to stabilize the fleece for the next step in the next lesson.

Sometimes Life Gets In The Way

This post is being written Thursday night to be posted Friday morning.

I had a message tonight asking if I was going to post another Tessellation lesson.

I certainly am. I have a new computer that is being set up and Windows 7 has created a few issues which are taking time to resolve. That has taken the time I could be working on the lesson.

I am sitting here watching a BIG rain, thunder and lightning storm. There is no TV connection available so my entertainment is watching the storm.

The electricity is flickering on and off. Let's hope it stays on and then the only thing I'll have to do is reset a few clocks.

Even with the camera set for night snapshot I can only get almost black photos so you won't be able to see what I am seeing.


After weeks of cloudy rainy weather I knew I needed a bright stylish raincoat. No tan trench coats for me. I made a raincoat out of this bright print and sprayed it with a water repellent. It was really a sharp coat but I gave it away years ago. When I was excavating the attic recently I did find the hat I made to wear with the coat. I had to have made this in the late 70's or early 80's.

The Ultimate Puzzle and Tessellations

I know many of you are disappointed when I don't include a puzzle.

I am challenging those of you who do my puzzles with this one!



I have never used this cut on a puzzle before.



How about this version of the same puzzle with less than half as many pieces?



And now less than half as many as the previous one.

Hopefully I have included something for you, no matter what your skill level.

Two of these puzzles are tessellations. Can you tell which ones are?

Tessellation Tutorial - Lesson 5 - Are you WOI?

In Lesson 2 you saw some of the tessellated shapes I came up with.


This is the shape I decided to use. It is simple enough to be able to trace and cut these out in a reasonable amount of time. It is also complex enough to be interesting.


Before I absolutely positively make up my mind that I will use a shape I draw several repeats of it on paper. If I like the overall design I then go with the shape. If not, I would select a different shape.



Trace this shape on a piece of template plastic and cut it out.




Mark the side of your index card with the lines: This side up on face of fabric.
Turn your template plastic shape over so it is a mirror image and write on it: This side up when tracing on Wonder Under.



Place your template on the Wonder Under and trace around it with your black permanent felt tip pen.



Trace the shape as many times as you can on the Wonder Under backed fabric. Do not attempt to place it on grain. The more variation you have the more interesting it will be. Depending on the size and shape of your template you will probably get between 6 and 9 on each piece of fabric.



Continue tracing you template on each fabric getting as many as you can from each fabric.




Look closely at this picture. You will see the traced line is outside of the template shape. READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO CUT THESE OUT.
You will cut these out OUTSIDE the traced line. This is different that what you normally do when cutting out a traced shape. This gives you a fudge factor on each shape when putting them together.



In this photo I am cutting outside the line.


DO NOT THROW AWAY THE FABRIC YOU CUT AWAY THAT IS BACKED WITH WONDER UNDER. You can find many things to do with these leftover pieces.



These are some of the shapes I already have cut out. The cutting is a good project to do in the evening while watching TV. Pay more attention to the cutting and listen to the TV!

If you missed the previous posts you can find them at:
Supply list: http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2010/06/tessellation-tutorial-supply-list.html

Fabric Choices: http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2010/06/tessellation-tutorial-fabric-choices.html

Lesson 1: http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2010/06/tuesday-tessellation-tutorial-time.html

Lesson 2: http://quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com/2010/06/tuesday-tessellation-tutorial-time.html

In the next lesson you will learn how to put these together and continue creating your personal quilt art piece.

Tessellation Tutorial - Lesson 4

I have a friend who often gives this answer when asked if something is being done.
WOI which means working on it.



You can see I am very involved WOI. This is some of what I have been doing.



It is now time to back each of the fabrics you have chosen with Wonder Under.
1. Cut a piece of Wonder Under 8 3/4 inches by the width of the Wonder Under. Fuse this to a piece of fabric that is just slightly larger than the WU following directions on the package.



2. Do the same thing with each piece of fabric. You will have between 8 and 12 fabrics.



These are the fabrics I am working with. Each piece has been backed with Wonder Under and is ready for the next step.


I have cut at least 30 different shapes which gives me a lot of possibilities.
I found one I really liked and went so far as to make a plastic template for it.





After tracing this shape on the Wonder Under release paper I realized it was more complex than what I was willing to spend my time on.



These shapes are complex enough to be interesting, but not so complex it would take forever to trace and cut them. Of course you only will be using one of you shapes. I am just showing you a variety so you can see some possiblities from the ones I cut.

Review for Lesson 2
1. Back each piece of fabric with Wonder Under. (Do NOT remove the release paper from the back.)
2. Continue cutting more tessellated shapes until you find one that appeals to you and is neither too simple nor too complex.

Stay tuned for Lesson 3.