One blog feeds another . . .

I hadn't notice how little I've posted on this blog until my latest post . . . uh oh.

Will you forgive me??

My last post told about the difficulties I've been having with my other blog, Tessellation Nation.  I think there's an added benefit to fixing the problem.

Tessellation Nation can provide fodder for THIS blog.  It's been awhile since I've started any new quilts, mainly because I hadn't seen any patterns that really grabbed me.  Well, I'm gonna use some of the single-shape tessellations from Tessellation Nation for new projects.

Which means, I'll be posting more on this blog, as I work with color selection, construction, etc.  And, I'll keep you posted every step of the way!!

How a comment question launched a new direction . . .

This blog, Nacho Grandma's Quilts!!, is a "work-in-progress about works-in-progress."  One of these "works-in-progress" is my other blog, Tessellation Nation.

It has been a struggle.  I may have mentioned that since its launch on April 1, 2010, I have changed the theme several times, I have changed the content and its format several times, and January 1, 2011, I completely wiped out the preceding nine months worth of blog posts to start over.

The tagline for the blog is, "Tessellated patterns generated from a single 9-patch unit."  Yeah, none too snappy; I gotta work on that.  The content consists mainly of posts showing the different possible patterns using my design tile.  I've tagged the posts with the catalog number, the symmetry group, and the number of shapes in the tessellation.

Reduction Puzzles
I've been playing with the patterns, turning them into what I call "Reduction Puzzles."  The majority of the patterns produce tessellations with multiple shapes.  I've been combining the shapes to make a 1-shape tessellation (which is what most people think of when you mention tessellations).  It's kinda neat because a single multi-shape tessellation can generate multiple single-shape tessellations.

Anyway, over the weekend, I had a person ask me a question in a comment:  "How do I make the blocks to make a quilt from this one????

Now, I had tried in the past to write posts that showed how to make a quilt and I knew it was more trouble than it was worth.  After making the drawings and writing detailed instructions, I'd be more likely to attempt to market a pattern rather than posting it for free on my blog.

So, I did the next best thing . . .

How to transform a tessellation into a quilt . . .
I wrote a blog post, "How to transform a tessellation into a quilt . . ." to describe the process of tessellation-to-quilt without giving yardage charts, or detailed instructions for cutting, sewing, pressing, quilting, etc.

The post shows a blank pattern; then, the same pattern, colored; then, adds sashing between the 4-patch blocks (to show they're all the same); and finally, adds sashing between the patches in the block (to show they're all colored differently).

The idea is that if a quilter REALLY wants to make a quilt from the tessellation, there's enough information to do so (if they engage their brain a little).

I think it caught on because my view stats skyrocketed!!  (Of course, my view stats tend to be "up-and-down" normally, so I could be wrong, LOL!!)

Variations on top of variations . . .
Most of these tessellations will make multiple single-shape tessellations, so I can show "variations on a theme."

The question is:  "Should I present one variation at a time on a daily basis, or several variations a day several times a week??"

Doing the "Naughty Dance" . . .

Remember this quilt??  I call it "Mardi Gras Men."  Well, this morning, I was informed that it's been accepted into "Naughti Gras 4," an erotic art show at the Koken Art Factory, a local gallery.

How does my quilt fit in with erotic art??

Consider it a homo-erotic piece:  each man has his head between another man's legs, he's leaning on the calf of the man in front of him, and he's touching the leg of the man behind him as if to say, "just wait your turn"!!  Of course, as each man touches three other men, three other men touch him.  It's an orgy!!

I missed the deadline to enter this quilt in last year's show, but sent an email anyway, saying, "Better luck next year, eh??"  Imagine my surprise when I got a reply to the very email a year later with all the entry particulars!!  To think they kept my email for a year just to respond to it!!  I'm glad they did . . .


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