The Grid, the Gridsters (and a wee bit of news)

February 26, 2017March 14, 2017 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

When I say the grid, you probably think of something like the image above: a rendition of the electrical grid in the United States.

Or you might think of a street grid, or the computer grid, or any other type of connected web.

I also think of the grid we use in making our quilts. Above is my example of a regular grid, using a 9-patch variant. This style of quilt — that of using repeated blocks set in a grid — didn’t become popular until the 1840s, as earlier quilts were more whole-cloth, medallion, or broderie perse styles.

The name of our Gridster Bee is a nod to the idea of the grid, and since I’ve had some non-sewing time, I did some research about the grid, finding its origin in the way that text was laid out on the printed page. (Note: Where the quotes are unattributed, I could find no source for them.)

This method of intersecting lines and angles, known as the Van de Graaf canon and used medievally, was popularized by Jan Tschichold in his books discussing classical book design, and became the standard for book layout. You can see the proportions at work in the magazine layout (above) on the right.

Some myths about the grid:

Grids are a design trend
Grids impede creativity
Grids are confining, and can only be used for certain designs
The grid is a static, even, regular subdivision of the surface both vertically and horizontally

There are all types of recognizable grids, such as those above, and in the images below:

grid-quilt1 — Patricia Walker Rusk’s *Sunset Gardens*

grid-quilt1b_pencils — pencil cubbies in a shop in Switzerland

grid-quilt2 — *Bullseye* by Vicki Ruebel

grid-quilt3 — *Upward Modbility* by Stephanie Ruyle

grid-quilt4 — Christa Watson’s *Square in a Square*

delta-breeze_wiens — Cindy Wiens’ *Delta Breeze*

grid-quilt7 — Three versions of my *Neighborhood Quilt*, by my students

(more designs from Spain and Lisbon)

grid-quilt11 — Velda Bowen’s *Fractured Rainbow*

(circular grid used, both above and in combo with a regular grid, just below)

shinecirclesquilt_frontl — *Shine: The Circles Quilt*

(Golden Spiral • from here)

grid-quilt13 — Beth Shutty’s *Cut Diamonds*

(A diagonal grid, both in Shutty’s and Van Orman’s quilts) )

grid-quilt14 — *Tesselation* by Jenn Van Orman

grid-quilt15 — Stephanie Ruyle’s *Embers*

I love the grid, as ultimately, the function of the grid is to help determine and define proportion, such as the last two quilts, which seem to have some unseen glue holding them together. That’s why some quilts that seem to use no grid at all can either make us shake our heads in confusion, or can capture our gaze.

And that’s why we’re the Gridsters — not just those in the bee — but all of us in the quilt world.

And a little bit of news.

I wake up everyday and see this:

On some of my harder days, it has crossed my mind that I won’t ever sit there again, happily stitching away, and I feel so far away from the quilting world that I love. Cue the tears and the Sturm und Drang. And then I received this:

Guess the universe doesn’t want me to give up yet. (If you’ll be there at Quilt Festival-Chicago, please take a photo of my quilt, and tag me on IG [occasionalpiecequilt].) And I was also asked by our guild, The Raincross Quilt Guild, to present a Trunk Show on May 16th. I’m pretty excited about this, and have been working on my program notes.

So…guess I’ll be a good girl and keep all my Physical Therapy appointments so I can get back to quilting.

200 Quilts

Liberty USA Mini Quilt, 2

February 19, 2017March 14, 2017 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

I’ve made some progress by getting the first (left) side sewn down.

It’s pretty wonky, but I’m leaving it as a testament to this wonky time in my life.

In my pain-killer-addled brain the day I mapped this out, I resorted to doing the freezer paper appliqué method, so everything looks pretty 3D-ish when laid out. In hindsight, I probably should have done it differently, but the quilt will still get done this way. Better to move forward, than to take too many steps back.

100 Quilts · 200 Quilts · Quilts

Be My Valentine • 2017

February 14, 2017February 13, 2017 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

mini-love-quilt — *Mini Love Quilt, 2012*

be-my-valentine — *Be My Valentine, 2012*

A creation from Way Back: a florid appliqué heart Valentine designed by Elinor Peace Bailey.

HeartsPinesQlt_Front — *Hearts in the Pines, 2007*

(Pattern for heart blocks on this post .)

Valentine Hearts, with a wee pocket with a wee Valentine note tucked in. The hearts themselves are about 4″ tall, with attached ribbons and keys.

twined-threads_front — *Twined Threads, 1997* (first quilt I ever quilted by machine)

Free Quilt Pattern · Mini-quilt · Quilts

Liberty USA Mini Quilt, 1 (along with some “slow quilting”)

February 11, 2017March 14, 2017 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

I have always wanted a patriotic mini-quilt, so before surgery, I prepped up these little stars, fused them down to 2 1/2″ squares of fabric and stitched them together in a block. I figured I could stitch on them while healing. I would use some of those pearl cottons I’d collected while doing Oh! Christmas Tree, and blanket stitch around the shapes.

The first day, all I could stitch was ten minutes. I came back to it a week later and over a few days, finished them up. Now what?

I taught my husband how to rotary cut, and we got some stripes together (short is 8-1/2″ x 2-1/2″; longer is 16-1/2″ long x 2-1/2″). I swapped out my big machine for my teeny Featherweight, and stitched them together, one-handed. At my first check-up the doctor gave me the go-ahead to do stitching, as long as I wore my sling, saying it would be “therapeutic.” Oh, yes.

Putting on these scissor-cut 1-1/4″ borders was not easy (finish at 3/4″). I’m so used to man-handling the fabric for speed, I’d forgotten how to slow-stitch, or slow-quilt, or whatever you want to call it. Before, I would grab the strip in front and in back and put some tension on it, floor my foot pedal, and force that fabric into place. Since I only have one hand available to help guide it through the machine, this wasn’t going to work.

Auditioning the next border, with the realization that there is no driving, either, so no running to the fabric store if I don’t like what I have. I scissor cut the borders, laid out the little mini quilt face-up on the ironing board, and gave it a good press and smoothed it out. Next I laid the border face-down on top, and again pressed it. Since I can’t force these pieces together, I have to coax them. I pinned them together in many places, and fed the seam slowly through the machine. Flattest border I ever put on, with no puckers anywhere.

I had an old printout from the internet (couldn’t find the source when I went back to reference it) that had this word, so I drew two lines, 5″ apart, then another guideline 1″ inside the top and bottom and freehanded the letters. I fused them on to the quilt. They are about 5″ tall overall, as that outer border was 6″ scissor-cut.

I sketched out a bud, figured out some leaves. I drew joined leaves, inspired by my love of samaras, or those joined helicopter seeds from maple trees, but also inspired by this photo [PDF of pattern shapes is at the end of this post]. Above, I am trying Sarah Fielke’s method of prepping up shapes for appliqué. It worked fairly well.

I laid out all the parts: leaves, byds (small and large), tubing for stems and more cut stars (on the pattern sheet), trying to decide if I like two leaf sets next to the word Liberty, or one. I’ll appliqué or blanket stitch down everything…then decide. Since I work in small segments of time, and ever so slowly, I might make my goal of July 4th. Here’s the pattern sheet in a PDF document: liberty-usa-quilt-bits
Please be sure to set your printer’s settings to 100% so the large star will measure 3-1/4″ where noted. It contains: large flower bud (top and two sides), small flower bud (next to Liberty), joined leaf shape and the large star. You can either shrink this star for the 16 stars in the central star section, or look for a star online that will measure about 1-3/4″ to 2″ across.