In my attempts to constantly say what an inspiration Leah Day is, I do have to say that this past weekend I started the beginning of what could be a very long year-long experiment in the scientific quilter household. Which is a good thing.
I started up my own 6 inch squares with dark fabric, light thread, batting, paper, a list of beginner designs by Leah that I printed off on my black-and-white printer, and my own variations of those designs. I do have to say that:
I don’t own her DVD of designs – yet!
I don’t own her worksheets
I don’t get paid to say this
I haven’t been asked to do this experiment
I have not discussed this particular adventure in any way (yet) with Leah Day.
I simply LOVE the idea of learning how to machine quilt and I love how there is structure to the ‘unstructured’. The post where she set everything up is really what got me started thinking that I could do this too. Along with several other posts of hers as well.
Here’s my process:
Cut out 6 inch squares of dark fabric and batting
Search Leah Day’s Free Motion Filler Designs blog for the Beginner designs.
Copy each image to my computer for reference ONLY (sorry if the next few steps break copyright)
Save them in a folder on my computer with nothing else in it.
View the folder as thumbnails.
Take a screenshot of the thumbnails on my computer.
Save the screenshot in photo editing software.
Print the tiny thumbnails onto a hard-to-read black and white paper to give me some starting points on ideas (boy do I need the actual designs to do this better).
Take pieces of scratch paper.
Draw 9 boxes on the scratch paper.
Try to “recreate” or “reinterpret” the designs (that I could see well) on the scratch paper, drawing in one continuous line as with her designs.
Start to draw a couple of my own that I would like to try.
Give up on any squiggly line type designs Like Oil Slick because I can’t do the curves right on the paper yet to my satisfaction.
Draw a 4 inch line on each fabric top with marking pencil.
Spray baste batting, backing and top together.
Change the foot on my machine to darning foot.
Thread machine with light thread etc.
Put on my new machine quilting gloves bought from Leah’s site.
Draw a box with the darning foot.
Slowly and steadily worked around two designs.
Realize I should have also bought cheater needles to hide the threads.
Realize I should also have broken my foot as she suggested, but was not going to cut through plastic that easily without a replacement foot.
Now I need to cut the designs down and put them in my clear plastic sleeves into my folder.
This was my sketching the designs to my liking and practice with one long pen stroke.
Loading my “quality machine” with the darning foot – see gloves on the side!
This was the first design and I listened to her video suggestion on this one and just did a grid and then the flying geese pattern. I like them up and then down without the bars in between.
I have a love affair with daisies and instead of making them in rows like her Dresden daisies, I thought I’d rather see them in random patches. Not my best work, but these are interpretations of daisies. It’s a process.
So far practiced curves and straight lines. Boy was this fun and getting me excited to try more!
Occurences with complex vocabulary in technical disciplines
What is it about all this scientific and mathematical vocabulary, notation, jargon, acronyms? Is it there to make us smarter and understand more or is it there just to confuse us? The following are some scientific examples of extreme vocabulary (look at your own risk)
In math you have all the integral signs and the large sigma and the n-notation everywhere.
In physics, essentially you learn the greek alphabet, math, equations everywhere!
Chemistry is no better, with all the organic chemistry notation. For example one diastereomer is trans-3-methylcyclopentanol (I have no idea what that is used for, but it looks complicated, right?) The other enantiomer is cis-3-methlycyclopentanol in case you’re wondering.
Biology for me was hard due to endless lists of vocabulary. Just opening one page in my book gives me: squamous cells, cuboidal cells, simple epithelium, stratified epi…… (okay I’ll stop here!)
With terms like this, its easy to stop in your tracks and run the other way. Sure. Go ahead. See ya next podcast and post if you follow suit. But for a vocabulary adventure, keep reading.
Eschew Obfuscation in the English Language and what to do about vocabulary intimidation
But you don’t encounter intimidating vocabulary only in the science classroom. Or in any classroom. There are things all around us that cause us to feel intimidated just by saying them out loud.
The English language being one of the great intimidators. The existence of the word irregardless. Spelling bee words. A new (to me) phrase brought to my attention by one of my commenters: Eschew Obfuscation
After doing a little bit of research, I found out that “eschew obfuscation” means “avoid confusion“.
Sometimes intimidating vocabulary can be used (like I did with the science words) to intimidate you. Or as Timelady says: “sometimes (people) genuinely do not realise that it is unreasonable to expect others to understand such words – perhaps they are (using) technical jargon, abbreviations, acronyms”.
Do I feel that a lot of people in my life do this on a regular basis? – NO.
Do I feel that quilters have such a crazy complicated vocabulary such that they cannot express their meaning to me in a way I can’t understand? – Also NO.
If someone does intimidate you verbally, Timelady says to counter with something to the effect of: “oh I don’t know what that word means. Could you tell me? Thanks for increasing my language skills”.
To avoid confusion when writing, an Eschew Obfuscation website suggests to
write simply
write concisely
assume the reader is naive
use the active voice
present tense
positive language
common language
avoid acronyms
organize thoughts sequentially and logically
(a few of these I have to work on myself.)
Possible confusing vocabulary in our hobbies
With hobbies of any kind, science fiction, fishing, quilting … etc. there is usually a learning curve to understanding the hobby.
Learning product and equipment names can seem confusing to use. Materials used in creating a project have their own names, brands, and acronyms.
Other times it is a specific technique that is being demonstrated, and a skill that has to be learned.
Sometimes abstract concepts are best described with a certain word or phrase like “color value”, gradation, contrast. Some of these techniques are simple in idea, but also complicated such that it takes a lifetime to master.
Space saving when communicating is facilitating our use of acronyms and symbols. Text messaging, tweeting, and constant communication is shortening our words and ideas to “WIPS” “UFO’s” “HSY” (haven’t started yet – heard by me first on Annie Smith’s Quilting Stash).
Referring to loved ones as DH, DD, MIL, …. is necessary sometimes to protect privacy.
The reason I haven’t pursued crochet and knitting is the pattern and symbol notations used in patterns as space savers. I see the pattern notation, don’t take time to analyze it, and put the project down, never to start on it. I COULD figure it out if I had the desire to learn, but for now I’ll just do quilting with its visual blocks.
Strategies for overcoming intimidating vocabularies
Once past the apathy, here are specific strategies for increasing vocabulary (in quilting or other):
Dictionaries, lots of dictionaries. Ruthann has dictionaries everywhere. Christine has dictionaries at work and at home. I use www.m-w.com or www.dictionary.com or www.wikipedia.com to learn about things I don’t understand.
iPhones (with access to dictionary.com) and Kindles have places to look up vocabulary too, so you don’t have to carry around a large dictionary everywhere you go.
Listen to Podcasts, listening to complicated words spoken several times gets you familiar to the words and ideas. This makes it easier when you actually do the technique or use the product.
Watch Videos – Same as podcasts – gives you exposure, ideas, lets you see and hear together what is meant by various techniques and words
Write the word down several times – in context
Make up your own story or your own sentence
Ask someone who brings it up to explain, then give them an example sentence or situation and see if you understand (my personal favorite a lot of times)
Learn the rootwords, prefixes and suffixes. That organic chemistry compound earlier can be explained in its parts. For non-chemistry examples: hetero- means different, chrom- means color, epi- means above -graph means write …
Use word clouds to gain familiarity. Create your own on Wordle or Tagul.
Google search – or your favorite web search engine.
Post on a forum about what other people know. People are generally helpful enough to answer your questions.
Use mnemonics to help your brain link common terms and objects to more complicated ones
Do teacher-type techniques for extreme vocabulary learning (like for tests when you HAVE to know words)
Make it fun. Create word crosses, word searches, and puzzles at discovery puzzlemaker site
Matching quiz. Write or copy the list of words and the list of definitions and paste each into two separate columns in a word processing or spreadsheet program. Then alphabetize all the words alphabetically, and alphabetize all the definitions reverse alphabetically. Do a matching game.
Create flashcards. Used this to demonstrate the idea of stoichiometry in equations. Physically moving something around helped with movement and learning. As quilters, we move around the parts of our quilt blocks – that is similar to how to learn balancing equations.
Create a blog about a new word or idea. Chances are that teaching someone else something will help you learn it better yourself. Blogs are good for this.
Something fun
I hope you enjoy a little crossword that I created using words from Quilt University’s own Quilt Glossary. You can find the PDF below.
As I’ve seen in many students (adults & me included), there seems to be a point when learning a new technique seems scary, whether its science, math, or quilting even.
Fear of learning new techniques is risk of doing something that could have negative consequences upon failure, whether that is unsatisfactory results, public humiliation, or loss of time and/or money. Perfectionism is praised by quilt judges and peers, and so getting points to match up can become a priority for quilters and the possibility for not reaching that perfectionism may cause quilters to stop trying new things due to their lack of confidence – or rather their fear. How do quilters motivate themselves to move past the fear and see the rewards of learning to be greater than the risk of failure?
Follow me on my audio journey (i.e. speech) on how to combat the fear by listening to my podcast. An outline of my speech is as follows below, so you know where I’m headed on the podcast. I hope this is helpful to more than just me.
Setting deadlines may help motivate discipline and practice
Practice makes perfect
Use muscle memory, weather physical or mental, to help get you through techniques
Other ideas for stumbling blocks
Have the desire to learn the new task before trying
Psych yourself up for new projects
Create tutorials for others to help you ‘really learn’ what you’re doing – blog about it!
Give yourself time to digest new material
Something Else to Think About
Higher level of needs and thinking is where the categories of creativity and problem solving lay. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that to obtain these needs other needs of food, shelter, etc need to be met first.
Ruthanne asks “Why aren’t we creative?” (see Mirkwood Designs specifically episode 1 ) and we should strive to reach those higher levels of needs as much as possible in our lives. Looking at the level just below creativity and problem solving is esteem and confidence and respect – the main part of my podcast today.
Maslows Needs from Wikipedia
As I always say: Be creative and think about what you’re doing. Get to work on those higher levels of thinking and get out there!
Mark Lapinski’s “black white and rainbow quilts” See the current patterns on the site – not associated with Quilter’s Home after this issue (January 2010)
The completed applique quilt top mentioned in my podcast that took 4 (5) weeks to complete.
The pictures of the other projects I am working on will have to wait – I have to spread out my pictures so it looks like I am doing a lot with only a few projects in place!
Here is some places that I mentioned in the podcast. I will have a whole list on the side of the blogs I follow in the future, but since I mention these in the show specifically, here they are:
Welcome to the Scientific Quilter. The theme is quilting with a science, math and complicated quilting design emphasis.
I USED to have a podcast called Scientific Quilter. Many old blog posts may refer to podcast episodes. The podcasts have been removed and old blog posts have not been updated.
I am always looking for new science and math inspired projects, or a good experiment on quilting techniques. Feel free to contact me with your ideas!
Scientific Quilter 