January 15, 2011

Robert Kaufman what are you doing to me?

Oh my goodness, Robert Kaufman. Why do you make such beautiful, juicy kona cotton? And why must you have 221 incredible colors to choose from? And why did you tempt me into using them by donating charm packs for everyone in my quilt guild? Did you realize what this would do to me? Don't you realize that it takes me eight whole hours to make just a fraction of these by hand?  Probably not. Are you even a real person, Robert Kaufman?


I'm totally having an existential crisis over this. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just pick fabrics out of a stack and not have to go through all the labor of making my own? It would make the whole process so much faster if I could skip the dyeing step. I wouldn't really say I'm losing sleep over this (it takes a lot for me to lose sleep over something) but I have been chewing on this issue since Thursday. I realized today that what it comes down to is I love dyeing fabric. It is my favorite part of making a quilt. I love making different color combinations, weighing the fabric, figuring out the equations, mixing stock solutions, adding small amounts of dye to a dyebath with a tiny syringe. It's all fun and interesting and always a different challenge. So, yes. It would be much easier to buy these incredible Kona cottons. But it wouldn't be as satisfying, and I wouldn't be in control of the colors, they would always be someone else's.

 

But seriously, y'all. All I could do Thursday night was fondle my charm pack and flip through all 43 little 5" squares, constantly trying to find my favorite in the bunch. These kona cottons are so beautiful and the people at Robert Kaufman are so generous.

January 11, 2011

meep meep moop. sorry for the neglect.

Poor little blog has been sitting here all by herself for months with no Kim. I have been such a strange combination of too busy and too lazy this winter. Everything was going well before Christmas. I was excited to be on winter break and I had a big project to work on (a twin size skyscape quilt). Then some stuff happened that turned me lazy (including snow). Now I only have a week and a half until spring semester and I am freaking out, yet still unable to get off my ass and make something. There are too many ideas in my head and not enough time to execute them all, so I find myself sitting around and looking at Etsy and worrying and watching True Blood instead of just working.

Maybe if I write out my ideas here, that will start something going. Right?
1. More paint chip quilts - focus on color theory
2. Skyscape/Landscape quilts using silk and linen based on my winter sky photos
3. Different patterns (embrace the triangle)

I have been a little productive. I'm re-making the Orange Paint Chip quilt and the Purple/Yellow Skyscape quilt. The tops are done, I just need to dye the backing and binding, and then quilt them. I also made these sketches in Photoshop:
 This one is RGB, the green/blue column is a bit off - too gray.

 Here we have CMYK (but it's really MYCK)

 This is a modified color wheel. I'm not so good at color blending in Photoshop, but the colors are supposed to mix and become more neutral in the middle.

The End. For now, but hopefully not for long.