This Quilt Is A Mess

May 1, 2011July 23, 2012 Elizabeth E.Leave a comment

Whooey! Another tempest in a quilting teapot! (And this quilting disaster–explained at the very end!)

I love all this controversy. I love that we are talking about quilt issues, digging our hands deep in the loam of the quilting garden and really talking about things that bother us and that delight us. Rachel of Stitched in Color was quite frank one day about Saying Things She Didn’t Think She Should. Bammo! Millions of comments–some, mostly rants–about one aspect of the quilt world or another. I should have expected as much from all of us women who run blogs. Then her next post was about Things We Should Say, and the issues of it’s a subjective world (quilting) that some are trying to categorize objectively (skill levels, style labels).

Here’s my .02:

I’ve read all the posts and it seems like the conversation/comments has generated a healthy discussion, re: the labels of modern vs. traditional quilting. More about that at the end.
But about the other–the “dumbing down” stream. I’ve read all *those* original posts and realize that it had its genesis in trying to describe levels of skill. I think this is sort of one place where there is no subjectivity, and that’s kind of what set off the whole alarm bells and craziness. Either you have the skills to make successful HST (Half Square Triangles) or you don’t. It’s meeting an objective standard. For some, HST are intimidating. For others, they do them in their sleep. I do think it can be successfully argued that there are certain skills that come with practice and after having achieved them, a quilter can objectively say s/he’s got those down. I consider myself a master quilter, having done just about every technique in the book (some while I was majoring in CloTex in college, some afterwards as I took quilt classes to become more proficient). The point is I was still learning, still trying. And as I want to improve myself, I’m now trying to master more applique techniques. So even while I may have objectively met some unnamed standards of skill level, there is always more that can be learned, can be perfected upon.

Now: my .02 on the “modern” quilting business. A while back ( a year ago?) I read a blog post putting forth the idea that *modern* was one leg of a three-legged stool, the other two legs being *traditional* and the *art quilt*. I was happy with that idea–that we were all finding ways to be creative. I love the injection of fresh! new! that the modern gals have brought to the industry. I started quilting in the 1970’s when I was 21, and personally, I thought we were all getting a bit old and musty. Something had to change. I wasn’t ready to go the art quilt route because I still love a good cuddle under a hand-made quilt. So I was happy to see some fresh ideas, another way to contribute to our big wide world of quilting. It’s not an either/or. It’s all of us together, doing what we love.

On that note, I present to you. . . This Quilt Is A Mess.

I don’t think that this was its original name, but it is certainly the name it has now. I’d recently been on a trip to Venice and like so many other quilters, fell in love with the floor of the main cathedral. I bought the POSTER of the floor (they wouldn’t let us take photos) and started to sketch it out. This quilt was supposed to be one of those very clever quilts of using one block yet coloring it so many different ways that the quilt would be chameleon-like. Yeah, right.

It started out that way–I think that section is kind of in the upper right. Then I got tired. Then I started piecing things every which way. Then it sat, like an ugly gnome in a room of beauty queens. Here’s where the class thing comes in. I had to have a quilt to take to a workshop with Hollis Chatelain, who was just hitting the circuit after her very successful painted images (then quilted) were winning big prizes. I knew I would be experimenting with quilting, so grabbed this. She talked to us about spray basting (so I did that) and brought the “glued-together” sandwich to the second day of the class. I realized that I had to be plain-jane with the quilting, not swirly.

So the quilting consists of eight billion rows, one-quarter-inch apart, some in black thread and some in red and occasionally switching directions. I was never so happy to be done with a quilt. I put the binding on, a sleeve for hanging, but basically it is STILL an ugly gnome in a room of beauty queens. It rarely sees the light of day.

So, even though I execute flawlessly in objective skill level (well, okay, maybe not ALL the time), subjectively I can say: This Quilt Is A Mess. To this day, I’m still not a complete fan of tight row stitching, but I have learned from Red Pepper Quilts that there is a fresh, modern way to adapt that technique so it’s not so painful. So to all you bloggers & quilters out there–keep sharing, keep showing, keep writing. It’s good for us all. Even the tempests in the teapots.

100 Quilts · Creating · Quilts

Deep in the Trenches & Twined Thread

March 1, 2011July 23, 2012 Elizabeth E.1 Comment

Or rows of flowers, as the case may be.

It’s winter, so that means some sort of flu bug or sickness will find its way to me. So, I sat on the sofa and appliqued my flowers while I watched The Social Network. Twice. Once straight through and once with the actors all talking about what they did/thoughtabout while they did their scenes. My husband fixed dinner, cleaned it up (I know–I’m not trading him for anything) and I went upstairs to do lesson prep for today’s teaching–like I had a cotton head or something. Luckily appliqueing doesn’t take much brain power or we’d be in trouble.

I took down the other row this afternoon after class, with all the pins skitty-wampus through the pieces.

I lay them on my table, and trade out the monster, regular pins for tiny applique pins (see the comparison, above). This is a trick I learned from the quilters when I we lived in Virginia for a year. They are accomplished appliquers, all. They also told me to use silk thread, which I do, for the thread just disappears when the piece is stitched on.

I traded out the Wintery Branches quilt in my hallway a few weeks ago for the Valentine Quilt I’d made out of turkey red and cream. I’d always wanted a turkey red-white quilt, and was at a little teensy-tinsy quilt show, where one booth had some turkey red yardage. I didn’t prewash the red fabric, so I guess I’ll never throw it in the laundry. It would probably end up a turkey red-and-pink quilt then.

It’s a fairly simple quilt, with intertwined stripes, but I like it not only for its coloration, but that lean, linear quality. This is also the first quilt I machine quilted. Ever. I started out with cream-colored thread, but hated how it looked when I stippled over the red. (Everyone did a stippling pattern in those days!) I switched out to monofilament thread after unpicking yards and yards of stitching.

Here’s the label on the backside (sorry, I know it’s a little blurry).

The verse reads:

No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love can do with a twined thread.–Burton.

The name of this quilt is Twined Thread, and it was completed July 1997. Of course, you all know it’s in honor of that man who will cook me dinner and do the dishes when I am laying sick on the sofa. Love holds us fast together.

100 Quilts

Cara-Cara-Kumquat

February 13, 2011July 23, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Say that two or three times–it just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Cara Cara is a type of sweet navel orange that has pinky flesh, and is an early navel variety. Kumquats are a small sour orange fruit that you pop in your mouth and eat–skin and all–and although it makes your face pucker up when you first bite into it, it leaves your mouth feeling really fresh. I pull one off our trees out front when I’m going somewhere as it freshens my breath. Add them together and you get the name of my latest quilt: that pinky-orange 9-patch that I’ve been working on for a while.

My husband held up the quilt this afternoon in bright sunlight, so it’s really on full wattage. It’s a little more mellow indoors.

The quilting, by Cathy of CJ Designs, is a heart-and-loops design.

The back is pieced, and is a Marimekko fabric from Crate and Barrel’s Outlet Store (which regretfully moved 90 minutes away from my house–how I am supposed to get my quilt backs now?). This is supposed to be stylized fruits (see the grapes?) but sometimes I wonder if the people in Sweden have different fruit than we do. Let’s be real: I chose it for the colors.

Yeah, okay. I’m proud of those corners.

Had enough?

That’s all for Cara-Cara-Kumquat. It’s going on my bed for a while, so I can really enjoy it.

100 Quilts · Family Quilts

Crossed Canoes

November 25, 2010April 2, 2024 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

My sister’s friend recently lost her daughter. As a memorial, my sister organized a group of friends to make quilt blocks in the crossed canoe pattern. She laid them out on her floor, called and asked, “Can you help?” Yes. I asked her if she wanted me to get it quilted down here, as she couldn’t even get a quilter to take on the project before Christmas, and she wanted to get it to her friend.

She fast-mailed the quilt to me and it arrived overnight. I put it up on my pin wall, and I have to admit I was discouraged. Really discouraged. I had one more block to add, but all I could do that first day was true up the squares and put them back up on the wall. That actually improved the balance of things, as part of the trouble was that they varied in size, as do all group projects of this kind. I made mine and added it to the mix, but it was still problematic.

I went to bed, taught my class the next day, and came home and stared at it.

I called my sister. Some changes were allowed. I took apart one block to make it more the size of the others, and did a quilt intervention on two other blocks, substituting fabrics. I moved the blocks around on my wall.

Better.

I had called my quilter, Cathy Kreger of CJ Designs and she had agreed to quilt it (a little miracle), so I kept working, knowing I had to drop it off the next morning. I started stitching it together.

Borders on. I didn’t smooth it down so they look a little wonky, but really, they’re straight. Done with the front, and I stitched together the back, trying to cut it creatively so I would have enough left for the binding. The next morning, I dropped it off at Cathy’s. She had one of mine ready for me, so I asked her if her small machine had anything on it, and if by any chance she could put this one on. I told her the story and added that my sister had called and said she was coming down to Southern California for the weekend–I could give it to her then. Cathy agreed to get it done quickly, and two days later, Thursday, it was done. Like I said, she’s a miracle worker. We chose the quilting pattern titled “Calm Water,” a fitting pattern for these crossed canoes.

Back from the quilter, I took a photo of my block–it’s right next to the boldly patterned block of my sister’s. I like that we’re together.

Sewing on the binding.

My sister came by and picked it up late on Friday night (nearly midnight) and she was thrilled. A few days later, she sent me an email with these photos, a fitting conclusion to our shared escapade. I’m so happy she’s happy with it, and I think it turned out to be a lovely memorial quilt.