Pam Holland Designs and Productions

A day in the life of a quilt designer.

4.30. The eyes open and the heart beats a little faster as the day ahead passes through the mind like a flash.

Its clear, colored and I rarely achieve all that I set out to do but its good to have a starting point.

It's raining, not cold just wet. wet. wet.

I lay there thinking. "So much to do and so little time, shall I go back to sleep"  Nup.

 

I'm lucky... I can spring out of bed and hit the floor running.

5.00 am in the studio and I procrastinate on answering emails. I have a phobia  of making phone calls  and emails are not much different, it stems from my "Painfully shy days"

I make a note on my calendar and force myself to make the call before the end of the day.

I'll check the  orders. I know they have to be done. I have to check, check and double check.

5.30 am stop mucking around and quilt. I quilt for an hour on a project.

6.30 am, breakfast, and coffee will do the trick.

7.00 am. Check the latest air flights.... YES,  confirmed now I can play with the hotel bookings.

Book a hotel in Singapore.

8.30 Drop husband to work and then dash to the shops some 12 kms away to buy that last piece of sky fabric for the project in hand today.

9.30, begin the quilt, ignore the computer despite urgent things that need to be attended to.

Get out the pattern. I designed it when I was on the road a few weeks ago.

What does this mean?

It means the big skies, mountains and clouds in Alamagordo New Mexico and its for our up coming event at the Southern New Mexico Festival of quilts.

 

I want to capture the mountains and pine trees, love the lizards,  and the pecan trees that give shade during a hot summer.

The fabric used for the mountains was purchased in Dubai at an Indian shop. Its fine indian cotton, it cost about $1.20 a meter and its just beautiful to use and to illustrate on. The colors are pure and the fabric is almost sheer, but it sure works.

The kokopelli is hand drawn and colored on white fabric. I've laid a layer of purple and then orange as a border to the appliqué.

Of course the kokopelli has to be in there and the colors you see everyday in New Mexico and the train line by the house.!!!!

Stop for an hour or so to have a technician look at my computer.

Then  another stop to go to the dentist to be told I have a problem and need X-rays.

Cook dinner and eat on my own because husband is at a meeting.

Finish the quilt top in between the disruptions

8.30 And put Miss Tidy cleans up ready for a fresh start tomorrow.

 

Tomorrow I'll quilt it, write the pattern and finally send it off the  gals in Alamogordo. This will be one of our classes.

What will you learn?

Well, lets be honest you won't finish the quilt in a day, but like me you can complete the top.

You won't have to go to the dentist, cook dinner and do the shopping in class.

This quilt would look wonderful in wool felt but I didn't have any in the stash.

You will learn how to put the things that are important to you into a quilt and tie the ideas all together.

You will learn how to create your own fabric, how to color it and when to use purchased patterns.

You will learn color balance and design.

You will have fun, I assure you.

 

 

Threadpainting the picture.

Machine quilting, Threadpainting.

It's taken a little while to get this video up... It's not fancy but explains the technique a little.

Machine quilting, Threadpainting.

A lot of work.

I've chosen quite a difficult picture to re-create... however, it's working....

Just one more face to do and then the top part.I still haven't finished the eyes.... the definition is the last thing I do. I will also add more light with the lightest color.

I'm going to put the gem in the middle of the forehead in red.... and I will add red embroidery into the crosshatch for the tiles...

A bit hard to explain right now, but all will be revealed.

Morning everyone.

I'm getting a dab hand at cooking in my small oven... I was able to add some protein to the diet today.....!!!!!

I cooked an egg, added tomato and I feel quite domesticated...

This is a photo of the prisma pencil sharpener I mentioned in the last post... It works well, and doesn't chew the pencils....this one travels with me, I got one for my buddy and I will take one home.

I'm rather fussy about the way my pencils work and as I mentioned I'm taking the ones I purchased yesterday back to Hobby Lobby.

  my working space.

I'm using "Ink tense" (pigment ink pencils) on this piece.

Now some quilters, create the image with quilting first and then almost 'paint' the pencils on.... I prefer to do it differently.

I want it to look like a drawing... I want the colors subtle rather than looking too intense...

In this picture, I colored the image with the pencils and then wet it with a tiny brush to produce the applique.

The photo is behind and the applique in front...it's not bright and garish, but realistic.

I traced my drawing of Minnesota onto the fabric, a tight weave fabric. I didn't wash it prior to use...I need the sizing in the fabric to assist the  smooth flow of the pencil.

On the ink tense site, they wash the fabric prior to using it... can't work that one out, I tried it and it made the fabric harder to use and the ink didn't take as well...

OK, I'm off to check out the quilts stores in the area and then work all afternoon on the book....

Inspiration

Faced with a challenge of creating a quilt, there is always the need to plan. I find my most reflective  time 'in the gap' as my friend Carolyn describes it.... I love that....In the gap.

The 'Gap' in my estimation, is the time when I'm waiting for a bus or plane or when I'm waiting for the tea to cook, and more dangerously, when I'm driving. It's not necessarily designated time.

Reflection draws memories and I begin to plan. For instance, a few days ago, I went to Crafts Direct with my friend Lori.

It's a crafters heaven. I wandered the aisles, looking, touching and designing in my head....I bought a sketch book and began pulling scrap book papers.... Vintage, black and white, egg shell blue, tan, orange and antique letters and notes scribbled on paper.

I've got them out a few times since and laid them on the bed...and a plan begins to take shape... the papers gave me the Inspiration... and the Inspiration came from the colors, the design and the textures on the paper.

Today we went to Andersons Fabrics in Black Duck.... I bought these scraps of fabric, the 3 combined cost me $1.60.... enough for 5 projects of this kind.

The fabric is heavy furnishing fabric and when combined with the other mediums of fabric and paper will make a great 'art' quilt.

The background fabric is a heavily printed pattern of a tree.

I have some silk and combined with the images on the paper, they should blend well together.

The Inspiration came from the paper first.... Now I need to work on the design.

Artistic expression is linked to the things I do, the way I live and the experiences I have as I travel. It is a little hard to explain because its an internal journey, however, it can be learned and I encourage it in my students...

It all comes under the umbrella of Inspiration.

Some 30 years ago my business partner Cynthia and I would view new samples of fabric. I would get excited and was able to look at the fabric and form an idea of a garment. Its the same way with quilts.... I'm sure you have all gone into a quilt shop and  looked at a fabric.... "OOOh I love that," and an idea comes into your head...

It's Inspiration.

The illustration - to quilt.

Textures..... shapes...... color.....simplicity

This is the original photo, I took it here in Alamogordo.

The image above was illustrated and manipulated in the computer... (actually partly in my ipad)

If you enlarge the cactus picture, you will be able to work out layers of color.

Take a look at the background. If I decide to make a quilt from this picture, I will layer the background in two parts and build the other colors on top of them.

If you enlarge it and look closer, there are texture lines which you could use as quilting lines.

Batiks would look wonderful or some of McKenna Ryans graduated texture fabric.

I would quilt the background quite densely and then the cactus would stand out...

The prickles, I think they would look great as one long piece of hand stitched thick thread. They would look like a halo around the cactus.

Both of these images are simple and uncluttered..they would both make great quilts.

Quilting the Quilt.

This is the last video...A little more quilting... it's not fancy... I just shot it in between jobs...



Quilting the Quilt. from holland on Vimeo.

A new Collage Idea.

As a tutor, I need to update my class samples and I just don't have enough hours in the day... however, preparing notes for the collage class I decided to add another dimension to collage and I played around with this quilt.

I created the image of the zebra on paper and made a pattern.

I wanted it to be really bright and in fact I used a bunch of Thai silk fabrics graduating the colors for the stripes... but it just didn't have enough punch, so I used a graduated fabric and I think it looks great.

I had the background fabric in my stash and it was a fluke that the colors matched... so I didn't really have to add a lot of collage pieces to create a picture.

 

This is the way it has to stay until I get back... but it's interesting...

I can do some super quilting on the background.....!!!

A quiet weeked.

I decided to  treat myself to a couple of days of sheer indulgence, I sat wrapped in a quilt on the settee and watched TV and ate too much.

Goodness, I felt like a slug last night, but I guess the body is rested.

I'm cold.... despite the heaters in the house and the studio... I feel the cold terribly, each year it gets worse and I sort of feel like hibernating... that's what happened this weekend.

I've had a frustrating time painting the quilts for the book, I just didn't like them....so I decided to just concentrate on the designing and finishing of the letters.

As far as the Apple tree for the "A" block is concerned, after four or five samples I finally like this apple tree to go into the quilt.

Considering that I've worked on the Apple tree illustration this weekend, I decided to use it as my challenge block for this week.... oooh, how far behind am I.?

At first I added a character in to the trunk of the tree, but it wasn't whimsical enough, he looked a little scary.

So I rubbed him out and created a line drawing.

 
I think it would look nice as an embroidery...

Now I'm going to quilt it.  How, I don't know.... I just think I'll let it talk to me....!!!

Finished.

I've been editing film all day today and the first film is on it's way to the Quilt Show. it was fun to do and made me laugh.....

I've managed to cross a couple of things off the list - whoopee... I Feel so sanctimonious when I get that pen and put a mark through he task.'I had fun doing this... I quite like the effect. It's had a lot of handling and the pencil held up well.