My Olympic Connection

If you aren't living under a rock, you've seen at least a little bit of the Olympics, or at least if you are a quilter you've been alerted to the official Olympic patchwork quilt of Sochi.
 

Very beautiful. And the purple one opened up all the way! (Just a little opening ceremonies glitch humor.)

 A few of you who know my patterns have brought to my attention that it looks remarkably similar to Diamond Dazzle, one of the patterns originally used as my January online group project several years ago.

It's like twins separated at birth with a splash of navy thrown in.

 Remarkably similar? Absolutely. A copyright infringement? Absolutely not. I didn't even think it for a minute, and I doubt anyone else did either, but just in case, I needed to assure you all that I have not been up all night every night trying to figure out how to get my fair share of the Olympic action.

In truth, if that action involves dual toilets, I don't really want any anyway.

The world of quilt design is one part joy of ultimate creative expression that we get to share with the world, and one part terror that someone else has already come up with the cool design that we just invented. I would even venture to say that every quilt design any of us ever comes up with has an almost twin somewhere else; there are just too many of us out there creating, whether we do it simply for fun or also for profit, to not have any overlap on the Venn diagram.

While no one wants to accidentally blatantly copy another designer's quilt pattern, the truth is that it is just about impossible to do so.  I like to think of it as great minds thinking alike.

So what is the point of a copyright? When I copyright a design that I have turned into a written pattern, I am copyrighting the method I used to make the quilt and my words that explain how you too can do it. My copyright states that I, and I alone, have the right to stick that pattern in a photocopier and distribute the patterns amongst my friends, or attach it to an email and send it to everyone I know. And even I don't do that because that would be bad business. If I'm giving patterns away, I give away actual patterns printed from my printer because they look way nicer.

Does this mean I am encouraging everyone to just go take their favorite quilt pattern and rewrite it in their own words? I am NOT. There is huge debate and discussion in the quilt design world about how much of a change constitutes a new design method for a pattern, and it just is not worth having one of us contact you to tell you to cease and desist.

What it does mean is that we as designers and we as quilters who create on our own without patterns shouldn't get ultra-caught up in "Am I the only one ever to come up with this idea?" Your time would be much better spent creating, sharing, and enjoying your designs. If you are going about this honestly, you know it. If you truly are stealing from other designers, you know that too. And hopefully if you are, you wake up and cut it out.

So back to the Olympic quilt. It is gorgeous. It is enticing me to maybe whip out my Diamond Dazzle pattern and make one in purple. And since I love knowing how a quilt came about, I read all about it on this site, and am sharing my favorite parts.


"Our goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and feelings, connecting concepts like Motherland, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism, Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride, Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality, Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.
Every region in the world is proud of its unique origins, and it is no different in Russia. That is why there are so many different local traditions, songs and crafts that highlight the individuality of their creators, each valuable in its own right. Bosco had a wealth of choices to represent Russia’s rich diversity, but in the end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.
In the concept design, every patch was infused with the history and personality of traditional crafts from each of Russia’s 89 regions: in a single tapestry we combined Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and the flowers of Pavlo Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns, fabrics of Ivanovo and other distinctive Russian patterns. That is how we arrived at a modern, distinctive and unmistakeably Russian Look of the Games.”   - Source, graphicnews.com

You know what I did when I created Diamond Dazzle? I sewed some strips of fabric together and experimented with what would happen when I cut them apart. There was no conference amongst my shareholders about what emotions and feelings were to be included. If so, we'd have spent way too much time debating whether "Olympism" is a real word and how to pronouce "Uftyuhskaya." So anyway, I'm pretty sure no one copied my ideas, because I barely remember what they were myself.

But hey, if that quilt inspires you to make something similar, I happen to know where you can get a great pattern! 

Hop Til You Drop

 

Michelle at Quilting Gallery loves a good party, so it's that time again. I'd suggest that she wants to save money on party favors by making us bloggers provide the prizes, but I'd hate to sound like I think that isn't brilliant.

Welcome, Quilting Hotties, one and all! As the tagline reads, it's not a look, it's an attitude, and therefore no one is disqualified due to leg length, hair length, or even stitch length. I embrace my hottie side by keeping it light, keeping it fresh (both in projects and attitude) and keeping it real, and I hope you'll consider stopping in again and again to recharge your own hottieness.

Depending upon what time you read this on November 21, I may well be sewing my head off at my guild's Open Sew, where I will be running a dumbed-down version of my "Round Robin in a Day" workshop with a few friends. After a day of epic block fails yesterday, I actually just finished my center block they'll be starting with, and I just love it.

Isn't it fun how the design wall is just like a gigantic used lint roller?

This class is great fun to facilitate, and even more fun to participate in, and I am so pumped to not only be creating and designing all day tomorrow as I add to three other participants' quilts, but also to be the one screaming "WE HAVE 10 MINUTES LEFT IN THIS ROUND! NO MORE TIME! GET IT DONE! NOW!" like a lunatic. Time will tell how much the other ladies appreciate my candor and inflexibility in relation to clock management.

Half the fun of this class is the prep, not only in making a cool center block, but also in rolling around naked in your stash to find all sorts of yardage to bring along for everyone to work with during the day. I found this baby and really hope it gets used!

I only wish I had more. And that trees really could be polka dotted.

I always suggest quilters bring only about 4 yards total of fabrics they would like to see in their finished round robin because we don't have room for everyone to bring their entire stashes, but you know no one listens. I kid you not, the last time I taught this class, this was Judi's work area.

There's a show-off in every crowd.

In truth, I WAS jealous of the cart.

We'll see how well my victims fellow participants follow the guidelines tomorrow. Knowing a couple of them as I do, I have little faith that we won't have at least one overpacker.

Even if you read this early, I am excited that I can come back and update with a photo of the finished round robin after the class. It will be "summerweight," as the class only guarantees leaving with a top, not a finished quilt, but I promise the transformation will be amazing. If it isn't, you'll pretend it is.

Update: We didn't quite finish. I blame the facts that I couldn't be an effective whip cracker while sewing myself, and I was working with some of the most perfectionist, most amazing quilters I know, who would not be rushed. But who cares? The results are gorgeous!

The bottom two will be completed by our guild meeting in a couple of weeks. But they've started strong.

Besides workshops and my rather hilarious and awesome but I really shouldn't say that as it sounds kinda boastful trunk show lectures for guilds and other groups, I am a quilt designer for myself and various publications, creator of "Drop and Give Me Twenty", organizer of one or two group quilt projects through this blog every year, and a mom of three girls way too young to drive themselves anywhere and who never all want to be in the same place at the same time. I'm also currently developing a new attraction coming to QHH in 2014: "Hottie Hotseat" - A monthly post highlighting an industry professional in five hard-hitting questions or less, several of them guaranteed snarky. You'll hear about it all here at QHH, and I hope you'll pop in and participate in some or all of it! 

And now we come to the goodie bag goods. To celebrate the blog hop, I'm giving away the items pictured in this oh-so-professional-looking photo. I live in the northeast. We have like 4 hours of daylight this time of year. Forgive me.

Items pictured are way more awesome than they appear.

Should you be my big winner, you will receive:

• One copy of "Diamond Dazzle," an original booklet-style pattern by moi. Five sizes, cool border options, great fun.
• Six fat-quarter-ish orange and teal modern prints. I received these from Lemon Tree Fabrics, and they are ends of bolts. They are awesome, although slightly oddly sized. You will undoubtedly deal because they are so pretty.
• Five spools of Mettler thread in various shades of pink

To enter, please leave a comment telling me your favorite appetizer or pie. Recipes not needed, but I'd never turn it down. You'll be helping me greatly as I prepare to contribute both next week to the day of merriment, thankfulness, and sheer joyous gluttony we call Thanksgiving.

For an extra entry let me know if you follow Quilting Hottie Haven. And if you don't follow, I'll need a two page single-spaced essay explaining why not.

Kidding.

Good luck, and happy hopping!

 

Happy Hour just got way happier

Oh my goodness. I just found out that apparently my little blog was selected this afternoon as "Blog of the Week" by the American Quilter's Society. I am amazed and astounded that such a group took the time to read a few entries, and yes, AQS Facebook team, I do insist that you send me a photo of all of you - and your American Girls, if applicable - hanging out in your jammies and sleep masks soon. Thanks for the shout out!

So those of you who may be new here thanks to their post - WELCOME! It won't take long for you to learn I don't take myself or the techniques side of quilting terribly seriously. I'm in this business to have fun and to make sure everyone else does too. I hope there is something for everyone here, and I hope everyone can find something to make them smile.

• Does your husband have absolutely no inner GPS when it comes to locating objects? Scroll down just a bit to the post called "You Can Lead a Husband to Your Stash...." I think you'll find yourself nodding in agreement.



• Ever wanted to know exactly how hard it is for a fairly computer illiterate to create a her first pattern using EQ? Check out any of the posts with "Diamond Dazzle" in the title from February to April 2011. You too may need a Motrin after reading.



• Have small children that prevent you from quilting as much as you like? Check out "Mother Nature, You're Killing Me" wherein I give up and cry uncle to winter and snowdays.



• Ever decided to teach a too large group of children anything at all? Then you must read the "Fun With Fabric" posts in October and November 2010. They will cure you of any thoughts of ever trying such a thing again.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope to see you back soon!

Diamond Dazzle Part 4 - It's Sneaky Peak Time!

Or it will be if I actually was successful in converting that pdf to a jpg online. But what the hell. It's 10:30pm, I have nothing better to do than wait to hear a little 'beep beep' in my in box to see if it worked, so in the meantime I'll spend some time with all of you and update you on the lengthy ridiculousness of this project.

When we last left each other in the saga of "Beth attempts to use EQ7 to design a quilt", I was nursing a mostly dead all day computer - forcing me to face the learning curve of converting all I had done already to my laptop; I was sewing the Diamond Dazzle group quilt together and wasn't quite done yet; and I was completely dumbfounded as to how I was supposed to convert the template xps files to anything usable. All this while still maintaining my constant elegant demeanor of a 1950s housewife and making sure the children didn't go more than 2 hours without snacking on something. It's really been quite exhausting.

Suffice it to say the learning curve was steep but I am now on the downside of it, the group quilt is together and gorgeous and has even made it's debut in several trunk shows and a private viewing or two, and Andrea Bishop at EQ is a goddess on earth for putting up with my questions and issues with the xps thing. The bow in my hair and cold martini glass weren't always quite as starched or frozen when Joe came home from work, and the living room may have turned into a Formal Laundry room, but by God, the children had a snack every 2 hours. I'd say overall it was a successful month with a good outcome, if a bit long in coming.

Having sent Diamond Dazzle, which in it's infancy was an 8 page normal sized pattern and grew up to be a 16 page full color 8.5" x 11" booklet, to the best printer for these needs in the world (http://www.smartpress.com/) and with the expectation that a big box of patterns will arrive here on my doorstep at any moment, and there has been that 'beep beep' in my inbox I was waiting for, I now feel I can reveal, here for the very first time, the front and back covers. So Ta Dah:

The front:

If you can't enlarge it, that box under the title says "A ten carat quilt in five sizes with two finishing options". I debated on the size of the rock, but nine carats seemed two small and eleven was just gaudy, so ten it was.

And the back, which I honestly love for all the cool quilts on it:

Every time I look at any part of this thing I feel like I deserve champagne. It was that painful and I am that proud of it. As for the rest of it - well, you'll just have to wait a few days to request one of the very first, hot off the press copies.

One more thing, though, that might be of interest before I leave you to find my bed, is that the table runner in the lower left corner of the back, the blue/greeny one, will be showing up on my EPQD facebook page next week as the April Giveaway in my 2011 Giveaway Extravaganza, and all likers, new and old, will be able to qualify to win that very table runner as long as they play by the rules of the contest, which will be forthcoming mostly because I haven't figured them all out quite yet. That's how I roll, hotties.

Thanks for hanging in there as I have squirmed and complained and fretted and moaned and generally acted like the first designer ever to design a quilt. I'm hoping all the drama will qualify me for Quilt Diva-hood soon.

Diamond Dazzle part 3 - Kickin' it Old School

This past weekend I finally got to start putting together the Diamond Dazzle group quilt. If you've been with us now for 8 weeks or so, you will know what I am talking about. If not, go right ahead and check out the Diamond Dazzle part one and part two updates, along with the announcement of the group quilt project back in January/Feb timeframe. The rest of us can wait.......

While we are waiting for the newbies to catch up, can I just be really uncool for a moment and admit that it gave me a small thrill to have Mark Lipinski comment on my FB status the other day? The man has 5000 plus friends, and I am such a nobody compared to him; really, I just felt very special and this paragraph has proven I am a total geek with possible stalker tendencies.

Everyone all caught up now? Okay then! So for several weeks now I have had all these gorgeous diamonds hanging out in my house, as well as being the caretaker of a lot of gorgeous diamond blocks, and have been so busy writing the pattern, dealing with a mostly dead all day computer (a Quilting Hottie pin to the first commenter to correctly identify that movie reference in the comment section) and attempting to decipher the new carseat guidelines that I just have not had the chance to devote to sewing together my share of the close to 500 blocks total I was sent for this project. A crying shame by any stretch, I tell you. But last Friday I finally decided the time had come, and come hell, water in the sump, or a non-napping preschooler, I was going to start it.

The first thing I did was to go through all the envelopes and grab one of each unique set of diamond blocks (you may recall if you read for content that each participant was to make me four sets of blocks - if you didn't read for content or just pretended to read at all, well then, don't yell at me if you are confused). This alone was enough to send me into fits of ecstacy as I once again got to see how gorgeous all these blocks were. I lay them out on my living room floor because my design wall wasn't nearly large enough for the size quilt I was clearly going to get, which I would like to technically refer to as "big-ass". It's actually somewhere between full and queen, but isn't big-ass more to the point?

The next step was to sew the rows into strips; this part always goes really fast and gives me false hope that I can finish the entire thing by dinner. In reality, it's still not quite put together several days later. It was really fun to play a little game with myself as I sewed and tried to guess who had made each block based on style and fabric choices alone. I was about 75% right, which is pretty cool considering I only know about 25% of the people who contributed blocks. Call it more proof of my stalker-esque tendencies if you will, but I prefer to call it photographic memory mixed with exceptional name recall.

At some point during the day on Friday, my four year old non-napping preschooler who goes variously by Monkey or Greta to her face and Your Lovechild when we are passing the childcare buck, came walking by the layout on the floor and randomly announced to me "Mom, that's old school." I truly have no idea what the heck she meant by this and couldn't ask because I was too busy drying my tears from laughing so hard. Did she mean the colors? Did she mean because I couldn't fit it on the design wall so I was reverting to the floor, as in the days of yore? Did she simply mean to try out this phrase Daddy says all the time? In any case, it was highly amusing for it's complete randomness and she may have named that particular version of the quilt.

Old school or new school, I have to say the thing is stunning. There are so many fabrics in there that your eyes just keep moving, searching for

your new favorite every few seconds. One of my personal favorites is this pink and orange floral fabric, which has a little silvery thread thrown in to give it a fun metallic edge. But the most shocking thing about this fabric is....the maker of this block bent the rules and used (gasp!) FLANNEL! Yes, it is flannel. And while it wasn't in the rules as to whether or not flannel could be used, if I had been asked, I likely would have said no, please keep it all quilting cottons. But then I would have missed out on this awesome fabric which I absolutely love. Maybe being a controlling psycho for this project wasn't the best attitude to take after all; thankfully I was saved from myself just by being kept in the dark.

I also love this blue swirly fabric with a little teal and lime thrown in. While it reads a little lighter than the medium blue I specified for this project, I love that it lightens things up a little in its corner of the world. In fact, there was enough straying from the base colors of hot pink, orange, and blue into the worlds of lime, yellow, teal, and even a little purple that at first I was concerned about the overall effect, but once I put the top together these extra colors really became total poppers! Just another happy quilting accident.

Once my strips were together I had to determine fabrics for the framing diamonds and the borders. I had shopped for some basics in blue and orange prior to getting the blocks back, so really the biggest thing to decide was which fabric would be for which quilt element. I decided on the dark blue flowers ("Nobu" by Kona Bay) for the framing diamonds, and the dark orange mottled (Robert Kaufman "Marblelous") for

the border, and set about adding them to the strips so I could sew them together. And look at how well they came together once the strips were sewn together with the most perfect 1/4" seam allowance at the points! It's almost like I am a self-proclaimed professional or something.

So where is the photo of the entire quilt top, you find yourself wondering I am sure. The answer is: I am not showing it to you. That would necessitate that it be completely done and I don't want to have to admit to you that it is not completely put together yet and is still missing a very important element. So we are all going to pretend together like you have seen all you need to see and are incredibly impressed with my progress so far. And look at it this way - it leaves the door open for Diamond Dazzle part 4.