Blue Nickel Studios Quilts, Life, and the Meaning of the Universe (condensed version) all images copyrighted Scott Hansen (c) 2006-2012

Blue Nickel Studios

Welcome to the rambling world of Blue Nickel Studios where you will find the quilts, projects, musings, rhetorical questions, more quilts, and various diatribes and wonderings of color and design and family that inhabit the world of Scott Hansen. Comments are always appreciated and surprise giveaways happen once in awhile too.�All images copyrighted 2006-2010.







Geared for Guys Book Blog Tour!

May 15th, 2012

I was pretty excited that Emily asked me to be on the blog tour for her first book, Geared for Guys.


 But it didn’t hit me how busy I would be this week with Quilt Market Prep!!  So I don’t have a lot of pictures, but I did get a great little interview with Emily for you. Warning, Emily does not have any qualms about changing the questions by answering with something completely different! I like her already just because of that!

So tell us a little bit about how you named your company. You don’t seem Old or Crazy.
I hope no one is getting tired of hear this story, it’s probably the most often asked question I get. The way the story goes is about  8 or 9 years ago when I was getting serious about quilting I decided in a day that I needed my own quilting/craft room. So I moved my boys into a room together and set up space in the empty room. When my husband came home from work that day he was a bit shocked at all I had done. He came and stood at the doorway and I didn’t even get up from my machine. I look at him, smiled and waved. He just shook his head and asked “Are you going to become one of those crazy old ladies that sits around and sew all the time?” I just laughed. Then about 4 years ago I decided to start marketing my quilting patterns and felt Crazy Old Ladies would be a perfect name. Although I’m sure in time it will apply to me, it’s really a stereotypical reference to quilters in general.

Is Geared for Guys your first book and who published it? did you publish this yourself?

Geared for Guys is my first book. I thought long and hard about the publication process and even talked to a couple of wonderful companies. In the end I decided to self-publish. The main reason was time. I’ve had the concept of Geared for Guys on my mind for a while and I was so anxious to get going on it. I was worried that if I was hung up in the editing process for several months someone else might beat me to it.

Your first two lines for Michael Miller are Going Coastal and Hall of Fame....both are really guy oriented.  What is your next line going to be? any chance it will be “girly”? and when is it coming out?

Well I’m releasing another collection at Quilt Market this week. It’s called Shore Thing and has all the beachy elements I didn’t fit into Going Coastal. I LOVE it!  I think it’s a bit more “girly” with everybody’s favorite pink birds (flamingos!)  but still has a masculine edge too. When I started designing fabric I never thought “Oh, I’ll design fabric for guys” it’s just kind of evolved into that. I’ve got a few ideas for my next collection(s) that will be a nice marriage of masculine and feminine prints, patterns, and colors.

How did you approach getting on with Michael Miller Fabrics? When did you think, “oh I should design fabric myself”?

I put my big girl pants on and just went for it. I started designing Going Coastal when I was in a week long isolation following radiation from thyroid cancer. Once I had a collection I showed it to a few quilter friends who encouraged me to “Go for it!” I put together a little portfolio and went to market. I walked into the Michael Miller booth asked if I could show someone my ideas and had a very nerve wracking meeting with Kathy Miller. Obviously it ended well and I’m still pinching myself.
What was your favorite color when you were little? I think everyone goes through color phases but my most consistent one has been green (all shades).

What is your favorite color now? Still green.  :o

And the big one, what is next year’s Color of the Year going to be? Oh gosh, um, I’m always way off on this. But I’m hoping for green.

Do you remember when you first realized that you had an artistic bent? Tell us about it. I may not have cognitively realized it but as a small child I was always caught drawing on the walls. I would draw or doodle on anything I could get my hands on. My Mom would come into my room and clear out stacks and stacks of paper. When I started college I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a History teacher. They told me that they saw me doing “something more creative”. Of course, at the time I took that as my parents not supporting me but obviously at 19 years old my parents knew me better than I knew myself. I think I was always meant to do something with my creative talent, it’s just taken me until now to realize it.

What has been the oddest place you found inspiration for a fabric or quilt design? Let’s see, I don’t know if I’d call it odd, but clothing has given me lots of inspiration. I recently made a quilt based on a pair of men’s board shorts I’d seen at the mall. I also made a quilt inspired by a shirt I saw online. More oddly though, if you were to look through the pictures on my phone you’d see lots of hotel lobby-ish carpet pictures. Hey, look down once in a while- you might see something cool. :o
Will you write another book? How soon?

Oh yes!  I already have an outline for Geared for Guys 2. I have several patterns planned and can’t decide if I should just dive in and get to work or wait and give it time because my tastes might evolve. Right now in the mayhem of market prep I’m leaning towards taking a little rest.

What is your biggest pet peeve? When someone tells me I can’t do something. Yes, I’m that kind of person. I just want to go out and prove them wrong.

What is the worse movie you have ever seen?  Did you walk out?  If not, why did you stay?   Meet the Parents. Really!? There is no redemption for Ben Stiller’s character- ever. I can’t remember if I saw it in the theatre or not, but I did sit uncomfortably through the whole entire thing. And to think, I could’ve been quilting!

Strawberry-Banana, Kiwi-Lime, or Orange-Mango? Why isn’t Dr. Pepper on the list?

Ryan Gosling, Jason Bateman, or Will Smith? Ryan or Will? Ryan or Will? Ryan or Will?  I can’t decide. But it’s a really close tie between those two.

Mad Men or Downton Abbey? I haven’t seen either. I know, I can hear you all gasping. There are only 2 shows I watch regularly Smash and Glee. And no, I don’t sing.

Cats, Dogs, or Fish?  ELEPHANTS I love elephants, always have. If anyone has a pigmy elephant out there that will stay baby sized- I want it.

So that’s a little bit about Emily, the author of this great book with quilts for guys.  You can hear a little more about my “thoughts” on the book on Friday the 18th when Generation Q gets their day to be on Emily’s Book Blog Tour.  And you can win a copy of Geared for Guys by leaving a comment here about something you enjoyed about Emily’s interview and/or about what kind of prizes you want me to look for at Market for you.   I won’t be drawing for a winner until I get back from Market, and I will be trying to approve comments from Market, but my internet time will be spotty,  so don’t panic if you don’t see your comment show up right away. It’s in there, waiting to be approved….keeps out the riffraff you know.

and for another chance to win the book…go to Konda’s place tomorrow…she’ll be having a giveaway there as well!!

Best of luck!

 

Quiltmarket projects

May 12th, 2012

Boring heading, huh? Some days you just get so much creativity you know? so that’s where it is today.

Here are some snaps of the first two quilts I’ve done for this market.  And I didn’t get that many pics either….but hey,  it’s something.  Both of these lines ship this summer I believe.

 

This first batch of photos is the quilt I did for Michael Miller Fabrics. The main fabrics featured are from their new line Mid Century Modern. I am not so sure it’s a “line” exactly but I think it is one of their inhouse concepts that will keep growing. Very fun feature print I think. So Jetson-like, yes?

The line itself was fewer prints than I like to use. You know me. So I pulled in a few of my favorite Mini Mike’s, Laura Gunn’s  Painter Canvas, and Violet Craft’s Haystack to make it more to my satisfaction. I know the quilting world is all a gaga over solids, and I do enjoy using them more now than I used to, but these “blender” prints still delight me. Especially the mini Mike’s. Love those to pieces!

Cutting = moderately controlled imperfection.

The almost finished quilt.  Binding is not fully pulled around to the back yet. The pattern will be available online on the  Michael Miller Fabrics  site soon.

 

And for some reason, I have no process pictures for the next quilt. Okay, I might have them, but I couldn’t find them.  So here you go.

This one is from the line Ship Shape for Timeless Treasures.  It also will be a pattern on line over there soon as well.

This line so totally reminds me of when I was a kid in 1976. It was the bicentennial in the US, and the red/white/blue palette was having a field day.  These prints so totally remind me of that time.  I struggled with a name for this quilt for quite a few days, then it hit me—Square Knot! Nautical and referring to the basic shapes in the quilt.

That’s it for today’s post.  Be sure to stop by next week on Tuesday.  I have the privilege of being a stop on the Geared for Guys tour of Emily Herrick’s new book by the same name.  And Emily will be giving a book away here for the cost of a simple comment :)

 

Full Moons and Modern Quilts

May 5th, 2012

When Allie Heath at Kaufman asked if I wanted to play with their new line Kona Modern Quilts by Cynthia Frenette, I said sure. I wasn’t at all sure what I’d do with them, but I have been wanting to play with my solids and a few prints, and I thought they’d be fun mixed into that project somehow.

 

Since then, I have thought up a good idea for them before I play them into a  quilt, but I am not sure if I’ll have time to do so before Market. Time will tell, if I get a chance, I will share with you. For now, I wanted you to see them and get your own ideas. For starters, I think they’d be very fun backs to quilts and you could do your quilting from the back side using these prints as a guide.

And I also wanted to show you these new shoes that I bought for Market. Not Fluevogs, and not the same as the Uber-classy Joel Dewberry would wear (dude rocks male fashion at Quilt Market,  always is the best dressed dude there), but I think they are good enough. They fit my budget, are comfortable (note Dr.Scholl’s label in the tongue [feeling old here]), and will be somewhat slightly hip.

But the cool part is the sole of this shoe! Check it out!

Wolfman prints in the sand!! Perfect for Full Moon events and other occasions….like Quilt Market.

More later, but that’s it for now….I have got the usual 2,347 more things to do than I can reasonably get done in a day.

Happy Day!! (one month+ later!!)

May 3rd, 2012

so someone puuuullllllleeeeezzzzze tell me that today isn’t May 3rd….because I started this post March 26th….got the pictures on,  and then hit the sewing machine for 3 other quilts for Quilt Market and zammo bammo….there went April!  (I am sooo embarrassed that I didn’t get a single post in during the month of April, but there were other things going on too….silly life and all….)  I did however get all three quilts done and two sent off already. The third is at my quilter  Becky’s place right now…so I am going to try to see what I can do with these beauties by Cloud 9 and see if I can squeeze one more little quilt into the mix.  (Last year I was still binding things during Market, and I really did NOT like that at all)

I was so excited when I saw that Michelle was doing these prints of Ed Emberley’s in price sensitive organic fabric! I wrote and asked and she sent me these wonderful cuts to play with!  I feel guilty,  because I got them before you could buy them, and I was going to try to write about them to get you all excited like me….and now, well, they are shipping already….so I wasn’t able to pre-excite you….but now that they are out there….stop everything and go get yourself some before they are gone!!

I am normally not a big fan of novelty prints, but I really loved Mr. Emberley’s books on how to draw when I was a kid and spent hours drawing things that I thought I couldn’t.  So these prints are VERY special to me!!

Generation Q tomorrow where I talk about Naming Stuff.  It was pretty fun to write, and I even got a compliment from our chief humorist over there, Megan, so I am pretty sure it’s actually a decent read!

(if I get 12 posts in May, that will double March 2012 and beat March and April 2011 combined….yeah that will work….oy vey, how am I gonna do that? )    Oh, was I thinking outloud? please forgive me…that happens sometimes.  Talk to you soon!!

 

brought to you by the color of spring….

March 25th, 2012

yup…spring is many colors….here’s what they currently are here at Shiloah Cottage, home of Blue Nickel Studios, Miss Mabel Studio, and the rest of those meddling kids.......

        

       

 
Happy Spring! What colors are sponsoring your day??

 

Stitch-in’……..

March 24th, 2012

so a couple of weeks ago, Betz White writes me and asks if I would like to play with her line of  fabric Stitch with Robert Kaufman.  All I had to do was actually play with it and talk on my blog a little bit about it.  When I opened the box,  this is what I saw.



TONS of beautiful rich colors…..and a very nice mix of lights, mediums, and darks.   I find that when I am shopping for fabric….there are NEVER enough darks, and seldom enough lights to buy.  Medium values fabric abound, but not so for the ends of the value spectrum.   And to top it all off, a wonderful hand to the fabric (that is “shop-talk” for the feeling of the fabric….as if that could be quantified!) Maybe it feels so nice because it is GOTS certified organic, or maybe not.  But it sure felt nice, not so full of those finishing “coatings” that I hear they put on fabric.  I say I “hear” because I don’t know EXACTLY what they do to fabric before putting it on the market, but that’s what I hear.






Anyway, onto  playtime.

I apparently am on a log cabin kick because I did more with Stitch…although mostly this style of Log Cabin.


    


Now I have these two blocks almost finished, but I really need to move on to Quilt Market quilts, so this will be it on this project for awhile.





Of course, I had some strips left, so I found this  red scrap and used it to do a more traditional log cabin…..until the last two logs when I cut from two prints that I hadn’t used yet and decided this needed to be a bit more asymmetrical.


 


Betz has set up a new Flickr group to contribute any Stitch creations in here, so go check out more wonders there!


   


and we have a winner!!

March 22nd, 2012

No time…..

So little time, so much to do!!

But even with no time, I did sneak in time to pick a winner from this post!

Here she is!


How I wish I could figure out block sizes like you do Scott. I need a pattern, size of blocks and the directions. At least I keep the pattern designers busy! I have followed you for awhile now and think you’re a great quilt designer. Your block above is amazing for someone to design or embroidery over it. It’s really another great idea. I do look forward to some patterns. Keep us posted.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by and commenting, I really enjoyed reading all the comments, and when I do find some time, I will try to post more of what you all said you liked and want more of.  I really wish I could write more tonight, but I gotta get some boring stuff done that I have been putting off forever….so I can do more cool stuff….Like quilt market prep and all…For this quilt market, I have two quilts booked so far, and possibly two more…PLUS all the Generation Q prep…which is a LOT!!  Wait till you see shots of our booth…such a cool plan….

Oh, and I am working on an “expansion” of the Blue Nickel ‘Empire’.....as if….but some little things are happening that could become bigger and better….

 

 

Log cabins for a friend….

March 14th, 2012

today’s post has dual purpose….first showing a little project that my friend Luke Haynes asked me to do for him….and second is a prize is being offered as part of my guest post over at Quilting Gallery today.
First,  Luke asked me if I wanted to work with him on one of his art quilts.   I said sure, and here is the beginning of that.

He wants me to make a log cabin top for him to do his amazing art work on.  So basically I am gesso-ing up a canvas for him…except it’s a quilt.

And log cabins are simple enough, but then Luke wants this out of all recycled materials.   I think this is an awesome statement and comment…..but I am feeling very stretched with the fabrics he gave me to work with…some are very “shreddy” and most are very fluid, much more fluid than the quilting cottons I pretty much live in.  Did you notice the flannel backed tablecloth up there?? I’ve already melted one square because I forgot it was plastic.

I hope I can do this well enough for him…..I am certainly being stretched I can tell you that.

And secondly, here is the prize portion from my post over at Quilting Gallery.  All you need to do is just comment on something that you really like or enjoy from visiting around the Blue Nickel here today a little bit.   I would love it if you followed me on Facebook or Twitter and signed up to get every post I ever write again….but I am not going to require that.   If you are a regular reader, and just happen to be dropping in, then tell me what you would like to see more of here on the blog.   Leave a comment of something along those lines, and I will draw a winner Sunday morning the 18th.

Oh, here’s the prize, a nice layer cake from Moda…calorie free and all.

And I will probably throw in some other goodies as well, but this is the main prize.

So let me know what you think about the Blue Nickel….AND while you are here, you might as well mosey over to my other online gig, Generation Q Magazine. We are going to print soon, and even though we have achieved our Kickstarter Goal, this program is still going, and a great way to help us get launched and guarantee that you will get our first issue or even our first year of issues.

 

 

Birds of a feather….

March 10th, 2012

I am not usually into the pale pastel scene as you know, but when Thomas Knauer offered to send me some of his line Flock by Andover, how could I resist?

I had an idea already drafted that could go many ways, and I thought, why not pastel.

So here are some sneaky peaks…. 

I couldn’t decide on one blue for the solid bits I had planned…..

so…I picked them all.. (mostly from Kaufman, but I can’t be sure anymore.  I have solids from Free Spirit and Michael Miller too now)

I think this may become one of my first PDF patterns for sale too…..even though I don’t usually like to limit myself to one line for things like this, but lots of peeps do, and they seem to sell their patterns just fine.

What do you think??

I will let you know when the pattern comes up for sale.  I plan on selling it on Generation Q and Pattern Spot for starters, but also at a few online quilt shops and right here too, of course.  That’s all for now…gotta get back to sewing….

Oh, and if you already donated to our Kickstarter project at Generation Q, thank you so much! We  made our bare minimum goal! We can still get funded beyond, and you can still get great rewards until April 18th.  Any funds added above the initial 20k go to the great volunteer staff, helpers, and designers who have been helping us start this magazine from the ground up!  Thanks, and thanks again

 

 

 

Color on White

March 1st, 2012

So also in January, my friend Jennifer Paganelli popped me over across the winter wonderland of the Northern U.S.  a package of tropical cheer!!  It couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had been working for a few weeks on my Curious Nature project, and the colors from that were blending into our snowstorm….

So SisBoomery was a welcome bit of sunshine!

and even cheerier in the studio as well!!

(yes that’s a bit of So St. Croix on the left….I needed a little bit for this project)

I finally put those siggy blocks from 2 years ago (I was sure it hadn’t been that long, but I saw that someone fortunately dated their block, so yes they were from 2010).  Today’s shot is just a sneak peek, as this may end up showing itself in full form over at Generation Q Magazine.  Speaking of which….we just started our Kickstarter drive there yesterday and are almost a third of the way funded….of course the first third is easier than the last third.  So if you haven’t stopped by there to help us out, please do so, and send your friends.  Every little bit helps!!

And today it is officially March….which means later this month….it is officially spring! Are you as glad about that as I am? I just love that time of year!!  So full of hope and fresh beginnings!


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