A Cabin in the Sticks

December 8, 2023December 7, 20231 Comment

I made this quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild’s Super Scrappy Challenge, sponsored by American Patchwork and Quilting.

Improvisational work with scraps touches me in a way a planned design does not, but the work also makes me question my intuition. I’m not sure why some things work and others annoy me. In the beginning, I wanted to make lots of small log cabin blocks, but after making about a dozen I stopped because it felt like something I had seen many times before.

I moved onto strips of scraps. I chose them randomly from a large box of solid scraps. I tried not to cut any of the length of the scraps. When I pieced the long strips together, I loved the movement and the color combination.

I used almost exclusively thread from my mother’s sewing cabinet and I felt a connection to the past while creating this piece. I grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, and I’ve often said I grew up “in the sticks.” The wonky sides make it real for me and create that organic feel I wanted.

It was not selected for QuiltCon so I’ll have to find another exhibit.

Dear Orcas

November 2, 2023November 1, 2023Leave a comment

I made this quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild’s fabric challenge for QuiltCon 2024. The fabric is Windham Artisan Cotton. I used Turquoise-Copper, White-Aqua, Apple Green-Chartreuse, and Grape-Dark Pink.

I used artisan cotton previously, and I liked the feel of it. It does fray and it’s hard to fix mistakes because it thins almost to the point where you lose your seam allowance. Making curves felt easier though. This type of quarter circle requires precision and I didn’t fix some of them because of the fraying (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself).

I used Latifah Saafir’s Clammy 10” template. It took some guidance from her and quilty friends to understand how to cut the pieces correctly.

I used variegated thread (4655 color), 12 weight, from Aurifil because I wanted it to have the feeling of water. I also quilted one large quarter circle. Do you see it?

At one point of making the quarter circles, I saw a ship, followed by a whalelike creature. I called it Dear Orcas because they were in the news for attacking boats. We do not know why they are doing this, so I wrote them this letter.

Identity crisis: traditional? liberated? modern?

March 5, 2014June 5, 20145 Comments

Around 2008 I began taking quilting classes. I wanted to learn all the techniques — paper piecing, applique, Y-seams and so on. My first class was machine applique and the quilt pattern was Thirties Treasure using Thirties fabric:

I then took a class beginning in October 2009 using the book, Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler, by Jennifer Chiaverini, where I learned a different technique each month over a nine-month period:

I followed that up with the Christmas Greetings Sampler by the same author:

I also took a class in 2011 where we made the quilt Vintage Moments. I’m still hand quilting it:

I consider these quilts “traditional.”

I’ve made a few baby quilts. I have a photo of only one of them. I designed this one:

Last year I wanted to use my “scraps” from these quilts and found the quilt book, Sunday Morning Quilts. One of the authors has a wonderful blog: crazymomquilts.blogspot.com My first project was fabulous:

Without these other quilts, I could not have made this quilt.

I recently joined a group at Blue Crab Quilt Co. The group initially used the book, Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston. I took fabrics left over from Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler and made these liberated blocks:

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these, but it was nice experimenting with liberated quilting.

While looking for a pattern for a gift for my sister, I saw this quilt pattern called Aerial by Carolyn Friedlander. This is a modern quilt. I’m about half way through making the “plots”:

By the way, on the right in the photo are a few of the Quilted Storage Boxes I made using directions from Sunday Morning Quilts:

These boxes have been essential in organizing all those “scraps.” They make it more likely that I will continue to make more liberated and/or modern quilts.

I did make that gift for my sister:

I can’t escape the fact that this turtle is very traditional and I liked it so much I made one for myself:

I’m trying to decide which of these design styles I like and how can I incorporate them into my life. I wonder if there’s a market for a modern liberated traditionalist quilt pattern and what would that pattern look like?