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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Need a break :)


Hello friends,

Long time, no see!!

And it may be a while until we see each other again :)

Lately I have lost my sewing mojo... I have been finding more creative joy in drawing in my planner, coloring, cooking, making bread and focusing on trying to reduce the amount of "things" I have around me.

Thus, I haven't been creating much with fabric, and I have lost my motivation to come here on this blog to share my creations!

I have been sewing a bunch of things to help me with the "reduce my waste" journey (like fabric tissues to replace paper towels, produce bags to replace plastic useless waste, cloth pads to eliminate even more plastic waste and reduce consumerism, etc), but I have not created any quilted project in quite a while!

I plan to come back here eventually to share all the ways I have been working on using my fabric stash and unfinished projects (as I have not bought a single piece of fabric or sewing notion in more than one year!) but for now, I hope you all have a wonderful 2019 and I will keep following all my quilty friends journey and be inspired by the amazing artistic talent that you all have!!

Until next time...

Ciao ciao!!
Alida


Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash


Friday, November 9, 2018

Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - DAY 5


Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...

Very talented quilters are going to take us through a journey with this theme...

DAY 1. Here are today's amazing pieces!
"Monet Mosaic" by Melva
Inspired by the work of Claude Monet
by Barb
Inspired by the work of Giovanni Paolo Panini
by Anita
Inspired by the work of Linda Woods
by Alida
Inspired by the work of James Luke Burke

Make sure to click on each picture and visit the blogs because these wonderful artists shared their story, inspiration and useful tips that can help you create your own beautiful art pieces!


Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - Ultraviolet

To the Moon and Back (20'' x 20'')

As the host of this blog hop, I have decided to share two pieces with you today!
One was created for a different event earlier this year, but it is in my Favorite color (theme for the blog hop) so it still counts ;)

The second one, is not finished, but I hope it's inspiring and interesting anyway! :)

Let's get back to the main theme of the blog hop!!!

My favorite color is...
PURPLE... or VIOLET... or ULTRA VIOLET 

The art part, comes from the fact that I was inspired by the amazing work of James Luke Burke (JLBCreativeCo) and created for the Cherrywood Prince Challenge
Raw edge applique and some interesting quilting/thread sketching for texture and fun.
This mini was not accepted for the Cherrywood exhibit  :( :(  I thought it was a clever design for the theme of honoring Prince's iconic look with the interpretation of James's original drawing oh well, if you don't try you will never succeed, right? 

Detail to see the texture...

And the fun back! I think this is the best fabric ever designed...
"You've got to be kitten me" :) :)

----
Inspired by the work of Sol LeWitt (Wall drawing #542 et #462).


And again my favorite color Ultra Violet...

And a theme that is really close to my heart: people, acceptance, diversity, inclusion, human rights.
Do you know which color is composed by mixing Blue and Red? Purple.

This to me represents the harmony between opposite parties and world views... instead of being divisive and aggressive, we could all embrace more purple and be more open and accepting and kind and loving.
Unsurprisingly Violet is also the color of Spirituality. It is the color of people seeking spiritual fulfillment. Purple represents transformation, creativity and spiritual awareness.


And the WIP :)

This piece also allows me to acknowledge the fact that while Purple/Violet is my favorite color, I really love them all!! :)


These are the amazing artists that are featured today with me:


Thursday, November 8, 2018

Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - DAY 4


Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...

Very talented quilters are going to take us through a journey with this theme...

DAY 3. Here are today's amazing pieces!
"Midcentury Modern Peels" by Wendy
Inspired by the midcentury modern style
by Bea
Inspired by the Monochrome painting style


Make sure to click on each picture and visit the blogs because these wonderful artists shared their story, inspiration and useful tips that can help you create your own beautiful art pieces!


Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - DAY 3


Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...

Very talented quilters are going to take us through a journey with this theme...

DAY 3. Here are today's amazing pieces!
"Tessellation" by Janeen
Inspired by the work of MC Eschers
"Nature's shades of grey" by Carol
Inspired by the work of  Andy Goldsworthy
"A White History of Art" by Andree
Inspired by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Make sure to click on each picture and visit the blogs because these wonderful artists shared their story, inspiration and useful tips that can help you create your own beautiful art pieces!


Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - DAY 2


Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...

Very talented quilters are going to take us through a journey with this theme...

DAY 2. Here are today's amazing pieces!
by Susan
Inspired by the work of Bob Ross and Melissa McKinnon
by Terry
Inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian
"Poodle with a Pearl" by LeeAnna
Inspired by the work of Johannes Vermeer

Make sure to click on each picture and visit the blogs because these wonderful artists shared their story, inspiration and useful tips that can help you create your own beautiful art pieces!


Monday, November 5, 2018

Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - DAY 1


Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...

Very talented quilters are going to take us through a journey with this theme...

DAY 1. Here are today's amazing pieces!
"Big Red" by Heather
Inspired by the work of Mark Rothko
by Tami
Inspired by the work of Greta Freist
by Moira
Inspired by Fractals
by Marian
Inspired by The Purple People Eater

Make sure to click on each picture and visit the blogs because these wonderful artists shared their story, inspiration and useful tips that can help you create your own beautiful art pieces!


Sunday, November 4, 2018

Art with Fabric blog hop - Fall 2018 - DAY 0


Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...
This theme will feature each artist's favorite color, or just the color they are favoring at the moment!!
As a quilter, my favorite color is ALL THE COLORS... but I will pick one for my piece :)

The blog hop starts tomorrow, but today I want to just feauture the summary of all the past edition of this blog hop!!

You can read more about each individual piece by clicking the link on the event page
http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/p/art-with-fabric-blog-hop.html


Make sure to come back tomorrow for the beginning of an inspiring week of creativity!!

Monday, November 5th, 2018

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

Thursday, November 8th, 2018

Friday, November 9th, 2018

Sunday, September 23, 2018

More mindful living (?)

Hello hello! Long time no see... well, long time no post! :)

I haven't being sewing this summer so I didn't have much to share... but now I started sewing again, and I have several plans for the months ahead so probably you will read more about me from now!!

First, let me start with some updates on sewing projects, followed by some life reflections :) I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, so if you feel in the mood, leave me a comment so we can interact!!

--1-- Art with Fabric blog hop (Fall 2018)

It's back! From November 5th, every day few inspiring artists will share a piece inspired by an art piece featuring their favorite color! This is the current line up, so make sure to be on the look out for some amazingly creative pieces!!

Monday, November 5th, 2018
Heather: http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
Tami: https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/
Moira: https://quiltedsnail.blogspot.com/
Marian: http://www.seamstobesew.com

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018
Susan: https://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/
Terry: http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/
Janeen: http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/
Lee Anna: http://lapaylor.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018
Bea: http://www.beaquilter.com/
Carol: http://www.quiltedfabricart.com
Andrée: http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 8th, 2018
Irene: http://Irene.grimes.wordpress.com
Wendy: http://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
Judith: http://www.frimart.ch/

Friday, November 9th, 2018
Melva: https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/
Barb: http://www.bejeweledquilts.blogspot.com
Anita: http://quiltlovefordomesticfelicity.blogspot.com
Alida: http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/

--2-- Finished projects


Assembled blocks: I had the quarters pieces ready to be assembled so these were fast to complete!

Rainbow cascade blocks, designed by Jennifer, each 10'' x 10''


--3-- Mindful living?

A couple of months ago, I caught a mild head cold... and one time I was blowing my nose in a tissue and I suddenly had a thought: "Why am I doing this?"
This may seem a weird question... but it is changing the way I do everything in life :)
First of all, I ask the same question putting emphasis on a different part of the question... in specific:
- WHY am I doing this? ... well in that situation, I had stuff in my nose and I was trying to breathe better, so that was an easy "why" to find :)
- why am I DOING this? ... let's really think about what I was doing... in details I took a paper tissue from a box that I purchased a while ago, I used it to clean my nose once, bunched up the tissue and threw it in the trash, where it will be taken out in a plastic bag by a person, then on a truck, then on another truck, etc... I guess you can see where this is going :)
- why am I doing THIS? ... like: have I considered all the alternatives to the actions that fulfill my why? Or am I going around the world just mindlessly doing random actions? If you are reading this, you may now that I am a quilter... I have fabric... so have I considered alternatives that are totally more accessible and better for me??
- why am "I" doing this? ... like: of course if I have a serious illness and I don't want to reuse a fabric handkerchief that's fine... but I have a strong immune system for now, and cleaning my nose in a fabric handkerchief is not much of a big deal for me! I have done it for 90% of my life...


It's even more absurd to think that I use paper napkins to clean my mouth from food traces! Seriously?!?! I am not that bad at eating... some grease on my lips can be cleaned with a fabric napkin, reused several times and then washed with all the rest of my laundry! I was used to do all this when I was in Italy, why did I become such a wasteful and disposable-prone person??!? In my view, there is nothing wrong in using disposable things when you have to, like in hospitals, or if you have a disability or impairment (temporary or permanent), or if there is no alternative... but in the past years, I have been just so mindlessly guided by the consumerism and disposable environment around me, that I am shocked!!

I have stopped buying fabric, subscribing to many memberships boxes and used crochet make up remover cloths from the beginning of the year, but now I am trying to be even more conscious about all the small and big decisions I make every day! So I am on a mission of using up my stash of cotton, cloths and other materials around my home to make cloth feminine pads, fabric napkins, fabric tissues and other less disposable options for everyday tasks (like reusable bottles, etc).

I will keep buying things that I need (and fabric will be one of the purchase I will make, of course), but I will just try to be more mindful and only buy when I cannot reuse or upcycle something that I already have! Creative thinking is one of the things that I enjoy the most, and to me finding ways to use something that I already have it's so satisfying!


So have you ever had a similar experience? Do you see things happening around you that you used to do and now you change your way of approaching the world to be more mindful and thoughtful about what surrounds you? If so I would love to read it!!


Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Quilters Meet & Greet


Few months ago Benita @ benitaskinner.blogspot.com invited me to join this fun Meet & Greet blog hop, so
HELLO, I am so happy you are here!!

Make sure to visit the other participants (links below)!




If you are new to my blog, WELCOME, in this post you will know a little bit more about me!! ;)
If you are returning visitor, THANKS for your support, as I haven't been posting much lately, but hopefully I will get back into sewing and sharing from now on!!


But enough rambling, let me summarize my take on quilting/blogging:

  • I am a computer science researcher that in 2012 discovered the great world of sewing... never touched a sewing machine before December 2012...
  • I am not a "traditional" quilter (nor a traditional person, I believe), but I am probably not a "modern quilter" in the "traditional" way either... I am just a person that likes creating things with fabric, and I don't like labels :) :)
  • Over the years, I have been passionate about all kinds of techniques, but mostly obsessed with Foundation Paper Piecing. But again, not "traditional stars/compass" PP blocks... but fun FANDOM blocks (see below if you don't know what I am talking about)
  • I cannot work on one project alone, I must have multiple projects going on at the same time... possibly at different stages and with different techniques (embroidery, chain piecing, PP, BOM, ...) because if I don't have variety I get bored and then nothing get finished
  • In my time as blogger, I have participated to several BOM, challenges, Blog Hops, etc. The most recent ones are the Art with Fabric Blog Hop (which I host twice a year), the Teal Mini Swap (hosted by Beth, to raise funds and awareness for ovarian cancer), and 70273 project (hosted by Jeanne, to commemorate 70,273 physically and mentally disabled people murdered by Nazi)
  • I moderate comments to avoid spam, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment on my post, I love to hear from you but don't worry if it does not get published immediately :)
  • I like lists and bullet points ;)


Some of my completed quilts

I am fan of many things (from books to tv series) and my passion for quilting was born when I found the amazing "Fandom In Stitches" website! After a couple of blocks made from there I started designing my own quilt (note: I had never touched a sewing machine before, and I managed to make pretty "complex" paper piecing blocks... so FPP is NOT hard, you just have to find blocks that you are passionate about!)
This is my first quilt (ever... and it is stitched and designed by me), inspired by my all time favorite Disney movie "The Sword in the Stone"
More pictures and all the blocks patterns are available on this page.

One more recent Fandom quilt is my version of a fun QAL that was hosted on Fandom in Stitches a while ago. I added few blocks I designed, and I set the blocks in a fun layout, to form a quilt on a quilt :) The binding is a fun two colors binding, following Susan's tutorial
After washing it, the quilt is sooooo soft and scrunchy because I have high loft batting!!!

Even if my blog is called "Tweety Loves Quilting" I actually don't like the quilting part of the process :) so I have many big projects in unfinished stage, but I also like to create small finished decorative mini quilts, here two most notable projects.

"Vincent", created for Tiny Quilt Challenge (2017)

Inspired by Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and the amazing work of Adam Lister (adamlistergallery.com). Raw edge applique and thread painting were used to reproduce the rough and irregular look of the original impressionistic painting. The irregular edges of the different pieces, combined with the irregular crossing of the quilting makes the piece really "impressionist". I didn't want to add any distraction with the binding, so I used a pillow case method to finish it.
And this mini WAS ACCEPTED in the 40 (out of 230 submitted) minis for the Road to California exhibit!!


Inspired by the amazing work of James Luke Burke (JLBCreativeCo) and created for the Cherrywood Prince Challenge. Again raw edge applique and some interesting quilting/thread sketching for texture and fun.
This mini was NOT accepted for the exhibit :( :(  I thought it was a clever design for the theme of honoring Prince's iconic look with the interpretation of James's original drawing oh well, if you don't try you will never succeed, right? 
What I don't like about these kind of challenges is that I don't get any feedback from the judges... I guess that one would learn how to improve if you enter enough contests and exhibits, but this is not my main job so I guess that just keep making small things for fun is a better use of my creative energy ;)

Work in progress


Few big projects that are in the "I finished the blocks but I don't want to quilt them" stage :)


My version of the The Splendid Sampler (with some fun postage stamps filler blocks)

The QAL I run on my other website in 2017: some of these blocks have actually some sashing attached, but I stored them away in some box and didn't compled it yet...

20 of the 22, 12''x12'' blocks of the 2017 Growing up QAL event I hosted...

...
and the QAL I am currently running (Starry Bright Sky QAL, 2018)
16 of the 22 12''x12'' blocks of the 2018 Starry Bright Sky QAL event I am still running...

...
...

and now that you know everything about me... go and meet other inspiring quilters and don't forget to enter Benita's giveaway for the chance to win amazing prizes (follow the links for details and instructions).


Monday, August 20, 2018

Lesson learned (made fabric, and much more)


Hello!
It has been a while since my last post... and it's because I haven't been sewing much these days!!

Work, life and other creative outlets (like journaling, planning, coloring, etc) took over and I haven't feel like sewing. But I have been slowly going back to enjoying some sewing time, so I want to share a big accomplishment: I used up all my dark blue scraps!!

Back track...

I am running a QAL on my other website (alidatweloqdesigns.blogspot.com) called Starry Bright Sky QAL. As a free side event, every month I have been trying textured blocks from Teresa @ SewnUp.
I modify her blocks to finish at 6'' and I set them into 4 patches with "made fabric" blocks...

This is where my dark blue scraps come into play.
I started with the idea that I wanted to use up this packed bag of random crumbs

Note... this bag is tightly packed and I took this picture after I used up some fabric already :) It was full and overflowing...

It may look that there is not much fabric... but what I ended up creating over the past several months is 40 (FORTY) 6.5'' x 6.5'' improv blocks!!


Few lessons I learned along the way:
  • you must must must use a shorter stitch length, but not too short, otherwise your machine may try to eat the small corners or weird pieces :) I typically use 1.6 or 1.4...
  • you must must must press each seam open... unless you have a "heavily pieced" section on one side and a single strip on the other... only in that case, you can let the seam be pressed toward the single fabric side. If you carefully press each seam open as you go, the finished piece will not be bulky, it will be as light and flat as any regularly pieced block in your quilt, and you won't have issues of broken needles, hitting bulky folds, etc.
  • you must must must have a Clover Finger Presser (which is a little plastic tool that helps open and press your tiny seams)... technically you must have this only if you want to keep your sanity :) if you want to use your fingers you can, but you may lose your sanity after 1 block :)
  • it would be best if you split your crumbs by size (more or less). This is not really necessary, and you can choose a more organic approach of sewing whatever you randomly pick from the bag... however doing that, I ended up with blocks that are composed of 5 pieces (because at the beginning I wanted to be fast) and then blocks that contains more than 100 pieces (I counted them...). The crumbs will be smaller and smaller, so if you do some pre-planing and you consciously try to avoid the short cut of assembling the big chunks just to be fast, the final blocks will be more uniform, and you can avoid spending an entire morning assembling a 100 pieces block because you want to use up all the pieces in the bag :)
  • have a consistent target size, and a consistent plan in terms of fabric use (color, designer, ...). Having the simple goal of using only scraps from the dark blue bag helped me cutting down on decision time, and be fast in simply sewing up the crumbs. Plus I had a 6.5'' x 6.5'' ruler so it was easy to understand when I had enough material to trim down a completed square.
  • have fun!! and take your time!! yes, some of these blocks take time to stitch up, but it is very meditative and freeing to ignore patterns and just go with the flow!! I also had the goal of only assembling 4 blocks a week... so it took a while to finish up the bag, but this was just a background project, so I wasn't really trying to complete a quilt in a specific time frame! Also you could use these as "leaders-enders", so no matter how you choose to approach this, just don't put yourself into too much pressure: one piece at the time and eventually your scrap bag will be empty!
  • this is the perfect project if you are in a sewing slow mood!! No pressure of completing a project, just mindless sewing that uses up what you already have around... cleans up the space, creates beautiful unexpected results and without spending any money!
Example blocks... with more than 100 pieces (left) or with just 5 pieces (right)

So my plan is to do the same with all my scrap bags and then decide how to assemble the blocks. 
No need to decide right now, just having fun creating these improv blocks!!

How about you? Have you ever created these kind of blocks before? If yes, do you have any additional tips to share? Please write them in the comments below!!

Until next time... hopefully not too far in the future...
Happy sewing!!!


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