Books · Quilts

At the End of a Day

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

Sometimes at the end of a day, I like nothing to crawl in bed with a quilt book, and relax and think about different aspects of quilting.  One that I’m working through now is  Masters Art Quilts, Volume 2.  Here are some snapshots of what I have been interested by, followed by something grabbed from the web.  (And yes, that is still my red mess of a cutting table–sorry, I’ve been grading!)

I’m in love with quilts by Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade, with their combination of photo-realism with quilt symbols such as lines and the grid.  Here’s a picture I found on Google Images:

Another artist which I’d never heard of before, but who I find to be very interesting, is Jan Myers Newbury.  She dyes her own fabrics and uses the tonality of these to build her compositions, of which many elements are seen in some of the Modern Quilt Guild artists working today, with their dependence on blocks of color.

This one is titled Ode to Albers, and it led me to a search for that artist’s name.  Josef Albers liked to place colors against each other to watch how they behaved.  Again–do you recognize this motif of a block within a block? To me a good book makes you want to head to another book, to find out more.  To search.

Beatrice Lanter uses small pieces of colors, working both in harmonies and dissonances to shape her quilts.

Vergngt is the name of this piece, and it’s approximately 43 inches square.  That’s another thing that struck me about many of the quilts I read about in this book was their smaller size.  This isn’t even a lap quilt in size, yet you could get lost in the design.

So when my husband and I are out today on an errand for my grandson (long story) I see this billboard sign, all fractured and shredded by months of painted produce advertisements, ripped off around their staples.  Before I would have just slid past it and into the store, but now I stopped and studied, as it reminds me that inspiration can be anywhere.  Isn’t this a version of a modern mola quilt?  With the top layers cut to reveal the lower layers?  And here’s another shot of what we did today (but don’t tell the grandson–it’s a surprise).

Yes, these are giant dinosaurs.  And yes, PeeWee Herman visited these in his movie.  They’re about 35 minutes from my house.  How random is this, in a quilt blog?

So, I’ve already placed the first of the Masters quilt book in my Amazon cart, and will order that one in as well.  Sometimes my big wish is to really break away from what I’ve done all my life, from the traditional blocks and triangles and just cut, stitch, deconstruct, and find a new way to a quilt.  But do I have the energy?  The vision?  The courage?  I sometimes wonder if I stay on the same track not only because I love it (and I do), but also because I am used to it.

And changing to a new track takes more ardor and zeal that I think I currently have.  But what then, this quote from Leonardi Da Vinci:  “Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.”  And my father’s favorite quote, which became the title of his memoirs, written a few years ago (he’s 86 now):  The place that seems most dangerous is exactly where safety lies.

Quilts-on-the-Bed

Quilts on the Bed

Elizabeth E.5 Comments

I started quilting my Valentine Quilt yesterday and it’s coming along.  Marking it with pencil makes life a whole lot easier.  But here’s two other quilts on the bed currently: the back of my patriotic quilt (the red and white toile), and a cousin to a quilt I made for Heather, a good friend.  It used Lakeside cherry prints and is lap sized.  I love the pillow, purchased on my first anniversary of being married to Dave, my heart-throb of a husband.

I didn’t find him first–but despite the presence of my ex-husband (who, by the way, is divorcing his fourth wife and is writing a book about relationships–just so you know), Dave raised my four children, giving me good support and encouragement.  When we were dating, there was always this realization that our marriage came out of loss, and that perhaps a future splintering might possibly occur.  When I saw this pillow (over 21 years ago), with its sentiment of Real Love Stories Never Have Endings, I had to buy it, because it described my love for Dave.

Okay, that’s the February/Valentine bed.  What’s on yours?

WIP

WIP–Valentine Quilt

Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Many thanks to Lee of Freshly Pieced Fabrics for hosting this Works In Progress posting frenzy, commonly known as WIP Wednesday.

So last week I was unpicking this quilt.  The thread was too skinny on top (although I like a thinner thread on the bottom–Bottom Line by Superior is my favorite), I was using PolyNeon on top.  I have sewn many quilts with this thread, but it just wasn’t cutting it for this Valentine Quilt.  I’d picked up a spool of tone-on-tone red that I had in my thread stash, and thought it might work because King Tut is a heavier thread.  I like that look.  [Wait.  What?  You don’t have a thread stash?]

I overlaid some of my trusty-dusty wax paper on the quilt, sketched an idea–liked it.  Now how to get that design onto this quilt.

So I cut out a punch of petals and pinned them on, and while listening to This American Life proceeded to stitch around this little shapes, impaling myself on the pins.  This wasn’t going to work.

I mean–it worked because I liked the design with the thread, but it wasn’t going to work being pricked to death.

I realized that all the petal shapes were merely overlapping circles, so I cut out a circle, did some research on marking pencils.  I went to my pencil stash (don’t tell me you don’t have one of those, too) and grabbed Quilter’s Choice in silver.  I also pulled out a soapstone marker, for the deep reds, but ended up using the silver most of the way through.  Apparently it will wash out.  Stay tuned.

I finished teaching today, and fairly skipped to the parking lot.  It is one of those days that makes people in Wisconsin want to move to California–warm with a slight breeze, but not overly hot.  A lean-your-arm-out-the-window-while-you-drive sort of day.  I teach Mondays and Wednesdays and one of my friends and colleagues coined the term WedFrinesday for what we feel.  We generally work all week long, but it begins Thursday morning with our stacks of grading, continues through the weekend, and ends on WedFrinesday, when we yes, skip to the parking lot.

So, working on the red and white is going to be on this sunny day’s agenda–listening to a new book on the computer (my mother and I listen in tandem, although she’s always faster) and stitching away.  I keep calling this the Valentine’s Quilt.  I think I’d better get to it!

UPDATE: I drew up some loose instructions and have it for you at its new home: Revisiting the Red & White Pinwheel.

What else is on my list?  Too many things!  I received some Malka Dubrawsky’s fabric that needs to be washed up, ironed and caressed.  I have a stack of things from my purchases at Road.  I still haven’t spent my son’s Christmas Gift of a Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate, and that certainly needs to be taken care of.  Quickly.

That same son gave me the gift of my own web address, so if you want to reach this more quickly, type in opquilt.com. It refer back to here.

Thanks, Peter!

Quilt Shows · Something to Think About

Road to California–In Perfect Harmony

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

I’d Like to Teach the World the Quilt in Perfect Harmony
Bert Garino, Florida

Before I get to the wonderful quilt above, made by a friend of mine, I’ve had some interesting responses on my posts about Road.  I hope I made it clear I was not denigrating any of the quilters who made the snazzle-dazzle quilts.  They’ve spent hours and hours on their creations and while I may moan about the proliferation of these types of quilts at this particular show, my observations should in no way imply that their quilts are deficient in any way.

Bert notes that: “Bling” was the keyword for winners at Houston this year too.  I find it interesting that so many of the prizewinning quilts show up at so many different shows.  It seems to be a business for the winners, and the rest of us lifelong quilters just go to see what they have come up with each year.  I’ve been a “quilt angel” in Houston the last few years, and so I got to hear a lot of comments from quilt viewers.    It seems that a lot of the quilts are more intimidating than inspirational to a lot of quilters.

Rachel says: I think your observations have really been spot on.  Perhaps the reason we are more inspired by the vendors is because they are making/selling the kinds of quilts we want to make.  I’ve noticed the trend toward show quilts.

Kris made the comment that: I agree that show quilting has gone to a whole different level, but I think that it is worth mentioning that the “bling” quilts you are showing were designed for the art or non-traditional innovative quilting categories.  They were specifically not made as traditional quilts and as such really can’t be compared to them.

Now back to this quilt.

Bert Garino, who served as President of the Mt. Vernon chapter of the Quilters Unlimited Guild in Virigina (a HUGE guild of 11 chapters) shortly after I left DC, made this quilt for the guild’s quilt show in February 2009, where the challenge was “All the World’s a Stage.”  She says that she “loved this little quilt so much, I thought more folks should see the message written on it,” and she enetered it into Houston where it was juried it as “Art – Whimisical.”

“The letters written across the earth were done with a permanent pen, and then I quilted around each of the letters.  The legs, arms and quilts were done with fabric pens.  Each of the little quilts was then quilted individually before being appliqued to their little person in the larger quilt.  On the sun I trapunto-ed the Chinese symbols for harmony and the doves flying in the sky are carrying various thread bits.    The quilt was made to bring a smile to people’s faces and to share in the joy of each quilt maker’s journey.”

Bert writes “It just smiled on the wall hanging amidst all these ‘thousands of work hour’ quilts, wondering how it got there.  I think we all need to just enjoy the art and hard work of all the quilters, and know that we all have our favorites that we would like to emulate.  For me, the favorite quilts that I’ve made have been given to soldiers returning from Iraq, families in shelters or given to new babies, family and loved ones.”

Thanks, Bert.  Sometimes we get all wrapped up in the business of quilting, that we forget its origins as a necessity, as well as a way for early quilters to express some of their creativity.  I love that Bert sent me these pictures and the last one with her radiant smile helps me to remember why I quilt.

Happy Quilting!