More Movies, and Quilting

The sci-fi marathon has continued. I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which was more about wonder--or possibly obsession--than science, and not very thoughtful) and Forbidden Planet (was everything that cheesy in the 1950s?). I also saw Annihilation, which was fascinating, thought-provoking, ambiguous, and beautiful. It got a lot of bad reviews, mostly from people who thought it would be a conventional action movie (with aliens) or who like everything neatly explained and clear at the end. I can see why the trailers try to paint the movie as a fast-paced action/thriller--they want to hook people in--but it misrepresents the film. It is always easier to do conventional genre films, sequels, and re-makes than original movies. You have a built-in audience; people know what they are getting and there is a sort of comfort in that. With Annihilation you definitely don't know what you are getting. And even after watching it you aren't quite sure about what exactly happened--I found that intriguing instead of frustrating, though, so I liked the film.

This week I have been working on more dresden plate blocks. I had enough blocks for more than one quilt, but I wanted to experiment with different shapes so I made a hexagon template and am combining the hexagonal dresden blocks with equilateral triangles.



The triangles form star points and allow you to piece the quilt in rows without a lot of set-in corners. The color seems a bit off in this photo, in real life the triangles are periwinkle (halfway between blue and purple).

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I'm also working on a quilt that uses partial seams to create a herringbone-type design; I haven't tried any patterns that use the partial seam technique before (where you sew part of a seam, then go back later on and sew the rest of it). This is what my sewing room looks like in the midst of a project.



I like piecing this one, it's like a puzzle. There is a pattern to it, it is almost like interweaving strips together. I made some mistakes at first and had to rip out a few seams, but I got the hang of it.

Slow Sci-Fi Movie Marathon

So, a friend loaned me 2001: A Space Odyssey.
And I watched it.

It was long. Very long. And slow. I am not really sure if it is a movie at all. It dispensed with common movie elements (such as plot, a narrative thread, character development, etc). The cinematography was amazing, though, especially considering it was filmed in the mid-1960s before any kind of computer special effects. It seemed more like a piece of conceptual performance art than a movie. It made you think about afterwards, though. Which maybe makes up for some of it's flaws (one Amazon reviewer called it easy to appreciate but difficult to enjoy).

So that started me on a drawn out slow sci-fi movie marathon (which has already stretched out over weeks). So far I have watched (or re-watched) Moon, Contact, Arrival, Interstellar, Oblivion, and Wall-e. I am trying to lean more towards thoughtful sci-fi (so no Star Trek or Star Wars, although space opera can be fun too sometimes). I think of the ones that I watched so far, Oblivion was probably the most conventional (and least interesting). Up next on the list are Annihilation, Gravity, Passengers, AI, Ex Machina, ET, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In between watching sci-fi movies, I have been quilting. I pieced this modern quilt earlier this year, experimenting with minimalism and limiting my fabric choices. This is inspired by a Nancy Purvis quilt in her book Quilting From Every Angle, but I changed the pattern design and measurements so it isn't really the same quilt, it's more like a cousin of her quilt.

I started machine quilting this dresden plate variation, based on a Jenny Doan tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Co. I used a template ruler to cut the pieces and then cut the circular blocks into squares. I am still experimenting with quilting designs for the setting squares, so I stalled out a bit on quilting this one.

This modern quilt top is based on using improvisational piecing (it has been informally dubbed the eye doctor quilt...all those Es). Some of the triangles came from scraps of the first quilt above. Sewing this top was a slow process, it sat on my design wall for a couple of months. I was experimenting with not using rulers to cut when I made the blocks, so nothing was square or a consistent size. I cheated a bit and squared some things up as I sewed the top together. I used two different green background fabrics because I ran out of the first one. I hope they blend better after it is quilted. I am glad to get it off the design wall.

This is the second version of Kathy's Doughty's 'Fractured' pattern I have made--I gave the first one away, but liked it so much I pieced a second one. I sewed the blocks together into a quilt top over the past week.