November 20, 2009
I've moved
There's a podcast on wordpress, and that's where I'll concentrate my show notes from now on. See you at the new place!
http://scientificquilter.wordpress.com
September 29, 2009
1.7 Designing a Well Constructed Experiment
September 28, 2009
1.6 Letting Something Intimdate You
September 18, 2009
1.5 Getting Back on the Horse
August 20, 2009
1.4 Just a few little thoughts on copyright
August 10, 2009
I consider this blog an experiment. After my image frustration with my last blog post, I realized I had a problem with this experiment. This week I also finished a pieced apron I was working on and found it was WAY too big. This reminds me that there are a lot of times in crafting and in science when things don’t go the way you expect.
If you are a fan of Mythbusters, you probably know that things don’t always turn out the way we expect in science. I love their scientific process – I think this will work, I am trying this, no it doesn’t work, what else will make it work? Encountering problems and road bumps is actually great, even though it doesn’t feel that way. Problems or failed experiments don’t make them scientists – it just means that they have to make adjustments to their plan as all good scientists do.
In sewing or crafting, just look at the mistakes I’ve made lately.
The Apron
This is very cute and is what I was wanting in terms of color, but it goes down past my knees close to my feet. It’s my bad for missing a step on the directions. At this point, I haven't made a decision on how to remedy this, or if I even want to do so. It needs a lot of trimming on the sides if I keep it intact.
The Shrinky Dink Pins
I found this tutorial here off of a pincushion blog post for "Shrinky Dink" fabric pins. I thought they would be great. I made some and they didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to look. (I wanted my own version of the flat flower pin for quilting people rave about.) The pin wouldn’t lay flat and in my efforts to get them flat, most of the pins fell out of the Shrinky Dinks. I am unsure if this is a problem of unrealistic expectations, or execution. If it's an execution problem, I should try a few other things: different pins, gluing the pins down in the correct orientation first, different pin widths, location of putting the pins in the Shrinky Dinks, or baking at a different temperature - to name just a few.
My Camera Bag
Let me just say this isn't a complete failure. It holds my camera and I like the colors and fabric used. It is also my first finished project of late. I based the bag portion of the project off of this tutorial. The bag is cute, but there are two things I consider wrong here. I added the straps horizontally instead of vertically (there were no straps on the original project) and so it hangs funny. I also ran a zig zag stitch on my straps over the top of a straight stitch, but didn’t match up the straps all that well.
At this point, nothing has been fixed, modified, corrected, tested, or even really scientifically or artistically analyzed. This is perhaps due to a fascination with "startitis" (wanting to start something new before finishing and correcting something old), or the nature of crafting, or a non-professional (read lazy) viewpoint toward fixing these mistakes.
A true scientist would spend the time and energy towards getting these projects finished, getting a satisfactory result. There is some joy in that, trying to figure out the problems, create acceptable solutions. There is also some joy in letting mistakes happen, and letting them be. A shining example of something that isn't done as eloquently as should be done - something that may show up later as a "look how far I've come now" moment.
At this point. I haven't decided. I do know that I am embarking into another fairly time consuming project starting tomorrow, for which I am excited. For now, I am content for letting some time elapse between the failed experiments and their possible solutions.
August 4, 2009
Post 1.2 Scientific Ideas and Inspirations for Quilts
Anyway, this is a quick post because I am thinking of LOTS and LOTS (okay some) of subjects and things that could bring science into quilting. Let's make lists & try to get pictures & links where they go!
Art Quilt - of the Space Shuttle taking off! Get one of those amazing NASA pictures, get fabric and GO!
Hydrogen & other gas Spectra Quilt - This could be an easy strip quilt, that has a lot of black and bright colors. You could have rows of the different gases, like Argon, Sodium, Neon, Mercury and then colors at about the appropriate locations.Physics Quilt - This has been done and has been featured in the Physics Teacher magazine (I believe). I really liked how the website explains the science of each block. The Quarks and Quilts sampler was done by Julie A. Becker. Beware, science ahead.
Wildflower sampler - This could be done by researching your local state's wildflowers and then developing applique blocks based on the wildflowers of your area - instead of all being sunflowers, tulips and so on. If you were brave (or slightly crazy), would could modify this to include local grasses or trees. Here is one website that shows Kansas wildflowers, and it has a LOT of pictures, even based off of color!
Periodic Table Quilts - I have seen pictures of two different ones, but the blocks of the periodic table really lend themselves to quilting. This is one that has appliques of the elements, while this one is more colorful without the info on it. (I like both!)
Colorful Charts or graphs - Here is a quilt made one that someone liked the chart she walked by in the hallway - “Capturing Phase Dynamics of Circadian Clocks.” - Sleeping rhythms - how cool is that She made a quilt out of the chart and then quilted EEG sleeping patterns for her quilting. How clever!!
The Star Quilt - NOT a "traditional quilt star", but one with circles all over it that are the different star colors, and then you could applique sunspots on one of them, and on the borders have a telescope applique and then a ray diagram for border quilting, while the quilting on the top is the sunspot cycle. Strange - yes I know.
We're going to have to stop here. The Sun picture is not cooperating in moving down the page and it looks like I am going to have to change this website for some better software because in trying to drag the picture to the bottom of the post, my text size changed and a whole bunch of spaces came in where they don't belong, and rather than inspiring, it just frustrated me.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed thinking about science in a different way.