This morning as I was pulling out samples for my Seeing Value Class on Saturday I was listening to KUOW. They were covering the closing of Easy Street Records on lower Queen Anne. At age 15 I got a work permit so I could work at my local record store, so their expose brought back a lot of memories.
I don’t remember my first 45, but in my rural Michigan town, taking our allowances and riding our bikes to the pharmacy to buy candy was slowly replaced with picking out something from the top 40. Sadly, dancing to 65 Love Affair sticks in my head (but was better than Jolly Ranchers on my teeth) and that the purchase of my first album “Thriller” came much later.
I figured out the last actual album I bought was Bebel Gilberto’s Tanto Tempo, maybe 9 years ago. Since my marriage and move to Seattle, KEXP and my husband have become my music libraries and I don’t think I have to fill you all in on where my mad cash goes.
So what does this have to do with quilting?
Remember the mix-tape (some of you might not)? The idea was to create a play-list of your favorite songs, and if you were good at it, you could fit all your favorites within the 45 minutes each side of the cassette allowed while creating a flow to the music at the same time.
Really not unlike a value quilt in many ways.
You have a certain amount of space you want to fill or a certain size to your finished quilt. Luck would have it that unlike a cassette you can choose your length.
In the case of a value quilt you have many genres of fabric that you love and you need to create a flow to make all those personalities blend.
The common theme, instead of being music is fabric and when the value of the fabrics is precisely placed a flow is created, just like a good mix-tape.
Sometimes, just like a mix-tape, you forget to hit pause in time or in the quilt’s case, you didn’t step back to check in on how values were blending and you lose the flow. That’s what happened in the middle of this zig-zag and I just decided to leave it.
Of course mix-tapes were made for different people and the design layout of Value quilts can reflect the receiver too. Zig Zags aren’t for everyone, just like Pearl Jam.
I won’t even get into low volume, that would be just too metaphoric.
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::Seeing Value Workshop:: $85 Saturday, January 19th from 10am-4pm at the West Seattle Stitch and Sew Studio.
Learn how color value can transform your quilt making design process. Create multiple designs with your newfound knowledge of value and simple half square triangles. All levels of sewists welcome.
::Whole Cloth Quilt Finishing Class:: $85/Tuesdays, January 22nd and 29th at Make*Do*Mend in Ballard. Quilt top, batting, and a backing…baste, quilt, and bind! Learn the essential basics of finishing a quilt without piecing a thing! Create a simple crisp modern baby quilt while learning the process. Quilting designs with a walking foot will be a covered. Walking foot required.
My first 45 was Celebrate by Kool and the gang. My last, hmm, Maybe Simply Red?
Oh fun! What albums?
On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 3:24 PM, SEW KATIE DID
Creative post, Katie. And I LOVE Pearl Jam.
Oh, how I wish that could take your whole cloth class, but I am nowhere near you. Is there a possibility of having it as an on line class? I would like tomwork on one and was wondering if you might suggest some resources to help me. Love your work. Laura
Wabi sabi
great post…thanks!
sme
Sarah M. Ehret
I L O V E it! It is ohsewpretty. I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Kindly visit my blog, and view my Award Category for your nomination. Thanks for always sharing. Mtetar
I’m older than you…my first 45 was “Run Around Sue”. I babysat my siblings and as a BIG treat, my Mom opened an account for me at the local record store. That was before credit cards. Little stores really did extend credit in my small town. I felt so adult! Toni
i think my first record was prince’s around the world in a day. which i might only be remembering as my first album because it was my favorite. but even if it wasn’t my first, it still eclipsed all others the might have come before it. i have no idea what my last album was… probably some riot grrrl something or other purchased in the 90s? i hope to buy more records sometime in the future, though. i miss them.
Thanks so much for this analogy. It makes perfect sense. Who knew a playlist and a quilt could be (practically) one and the same. Thanks. Wendy
My first album was Jeanie C Riley’s Harper Valley PTA, followed closely by Beach Boys, Boots Randolph, and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.
Oh, just love those quilts and the value of them! Wish I were in the Seattle area, I’d be there in a sec to take the class.
My first 45 was Chad and Jeremy. I saved and saved to buy 45’s ~ still have most of them in the little yellow and brown case I bought to put them in!
In the early 80s my friend JohnO (also from Michigan) made me a sublime collection of mix tapes and introduced this MN girl to Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, the Sugarhill Gang, Rick James and the Clash. Like a treasured quilt, these tapes hold many memories and I have them still. I used them to create playlists for my kids–the legacy has been passed on!
Haha! Low volume would be metaphoric… There is a conversation we can have about that soon.
And Thriller was my first album too!
Love these mix tape quilts!
I just LOVE these projects! Thinking of getting my small group to do a challenge project like this! Your work is lovely—really enjoy your blog!