Angular Momentum

Angular Momentum

73” by 68”

My daughter, The Monster, named this quilt. She also helped baste it and held it for the photo shoot. Let me tell you, having teens has its advantages! Another one of those being the ability to sit and sew for extended periods of time without having to wipe a bum, get snacks, or fix the TV. Things sure have changed!

What hasn’t changed, however, is my love for all things Improv. It never will, it is totally my Love Language.

This particular quilt began life as a bit of play in 2017, the summer of 2017. One of the blocks in here actually inspired my Shiver quilt! I finished the quilt top itself in the summer of 2019. And I put the last stitches of the binding in just before the end of 2020. All in all, that’s pretty quick for me!

The entire quilt was an exploration of just a few improv techniques, led by a study in triangles. I made each block of the quilt with only two contrasting solids. I really did not think about how they might all look together, only how the two colours looked side by side. Selections came from my small stash of solids. This meant I was limited to what was on hand. Sometimes blocks are as big as they are because that’s all the fabric I had, sometimes I felt the composition of the block was good so I stopped.

The whole thing ends up being an exploration of positive and negative in colours as well as value. This makes you see different shapes or lines. (Is that a dragon’s tail or a zipper?) Playing with scale within blocks and among the blocks keeps it from feeling same same across the quilt. As does changing up the technique all over. There is so much to see, so much to study as you look at this quilt.

When it came time to quilt this I had a very specific free motion technique in mind. I spent a while doodling it on paper to make sure my brain understood how to make it work. It’s one thing to have the look in mind, quite another to translate it through the needle. Although it was terribly time-consuming, every minute was worth it. I LOVE the way it turned out. You could absolutely scale up this pattern so it isn’t quite so dense.

My go to thread on a quilt like this - multiple colours without a singular story - would be an olive green, but I had none. We’re still staying home so I picked something from my thread stash instead of shopping. Pink it was! I was pleasantly surprised at how well it performs in this quilt, never really being bossy, allowing the texture to be front and centre. The pink I used was Aurifil 2479, really nice medium pink.

For binding, that pink thread definitely influenced the fabric choice. I know a lot of people might have picked a single solid here. Or maybe a black and white stripe. Both would have worked. I also did not have enough of either. Besides, I wasn’t feeling those options anyway. That pink thread inspired me to look in my pink stash and as soon as I rediscovered this stripe I knew it was perfect. Unexpected and bold, but it doesn’t steal all the attention. You know me, I like the contrast on a binding.

The back came together with some panels purchased at a store close-out a handful of years ago and some of my own Tag Fabric. The pink kind of glows here, doesn’t it?

My plan is for this quilt to be a teaching sample, stay tuned for those details. In the meantime, it is already in heavy rotation in the house. My son grabs it when he wakes up in the morning for snuggles with me or the dog. It’s also keeping me warm now that winter truly arrived as I read on the sofa. The whole thing is such a shot of necessary colour right now.

That’s 3 quilts finished in a month! Who am I?

PS

Lest you think I am some kind of a machine, check out the full glamour of quilting literally in the middle of a blanket fort over the Christmas break.

HOME - From Virtual Workshop to Fundraising Opportunity

Wrapped up my last virtual workshop of the year this past weekend. What a whirlwind fall it’s been! Two of the most popular classes have been HOME and Make Words Not War. HOME is a more focused version of the other but both are about making Improv letters and using intention in our improv piecing.

As I developed samples for the HOME class a collection of blocks grows. Different text styles, different piecing techniques, and different homes.

A while back I asked followers on Twitter what home means to them. Interestingly, no one mentioned a physical space. It was more about a feeling - of warmth, safety, comfort, love, a deep breath. I’d always envisioned these blocks as representative of a physical space, so it presented a design challenge. It got me thinking about the different physical spaces that can be home - an apartment, a bed, a hearth. And about the non-tangible feelings. Not sure how to represent the latter, but I am working on alternatives to a single family dwelling.

This particular block started in a workshop with Keystone Modern Creative. It was about showing a few different ways to use curves in making the letters. Then that O happened. Doesn’t it look like a flame? That got us talking about the hearth of a home, the idea of warmth and comfort. With input from students I picked the fabric to make the tile surround and mantle.

Home really is the heart of life at the moment. For good and bad. I realize that for so many it is not safe place, not a place of respite. It can be scary or boring or dangerous or not even there. I’ve decided to take the HOME blocks I make for these workshops and turn them into a quilt come summer. After that it will be used as a fundraiser. I will also donate a portion of my earnings from each HOME workshop. So the more workshops I do, the more potential for fundraising.

Not exactly sure how this will all unfold, but I want the money to go towards a shelter that helps those finding home. I am open to suggestions, but will likely pick a local option.

Thank you so much to everyone inspiring these. Thank you to everyone staying home, staying safe.

Morning Make November 2020

Well this one was way out of my comfort zone! Just the way it should be.

Partly meditative, full of exploration, a lot of learning, and some very cool results at times. November Morning Make was some playtime with block printing. Thanks to my neighbourhood friend Julie who inspires me with her detailed reduction prints. Baby steps for me, as my one and only experience with block printing was a 2 hour class years ago where I recall being bored and distracted like a child in history class..

So I set myself some boundaries but gave myself free reign to try many things. I started with 3” blocks of the pink lino cutting material available in any art store. My daughter happened to have a lino cutting tool (I think it was a birthday present). I bought Speedball fabric printing ink, which the tube says was also fine for paper. Each morning I would carve a block then stamp it on paper in a 4 patch and then on fabric in a different 4 patch. Different patterns for the different materials simply to have two ways to see how the pattern of the block interacted.

Sometimes I did patterns that linked within the 4 patch. These were more or less obvious depending on the block. Sometimes I did a graphic motif that stood on its own, like a single stamp, so that a repeat was interesting, but not the most exciting. Sometimes the ideas worked, sometimes they did not.

The blocks above are probably my favourites of the whole bunch.

There were quite a few times where I wanted to print a number more repeats, to see a larger interaction. Or maybe mix a few stamps together to see the intricacies of the patterns created. Thankfully, I have the blocks still so I can always do that!

For the fabric I chose a slubby linen I had in my stash. I really don’t know if it was a smart or a stupid choice. I think my application of the ink on the stamp was a bigger concern than the fabric I used. I struggled to get it coated without being too thick or thin. Without doing much research - I didn’t want to use my phone while I was in the middle of Morning make but would forget as soon as I left the studio - I’m thinking that it is something that comes with feel and probably varies with the products used.

A friend pointed out to me that many of the things I’ve been exploring this year have potential to be repeat fabric designs. While I can’t argue with that, let me be clear that it was not my intention. I have been a quilter for 22 years and playing with prints that whole time so it isn’t exactly shocking that it would come out that way. Who knows? Maybe I will explore that a bit more in the new year? For now, though, I am just really having fun playing.

The Slow Comfort of Painting a Quilt

Small comforts.

These days that is what we take, what we can find. Whether that be in the consumption of something, Or, as it would be more likely for readers here, the creation of something.

A cup of tea or a glass of wine, candles lit, a ruler and a quilt book close at hand. Don’t forget my now trusty watercolours. I had no idea when 2020 started they would become familiar, comforting. It took me some time, but I’ve brought them to my quilting. Rather, I’ve brought quilting to the watercolours.

Meditative to make, these paintings are an exploration of traditional quilt patterns. They are significantly more detailed than the cards I made back in September. In a way, they are my opportunity to play with precision piecing without having to actually precision piece. They serve to try out colour combinations, as if I was sewing with solid fabrics, also something I don’t do that often.

I can’t say that I want to go out and make these quilts now. They are comforting to make, but aren’t necessarily inspiring me to sew. At least each one only takes me a few hours to make. Much faster than a quilt with fabric!

Each one starts with a sharp pencil, a block pulled from history, and a ruler. I draw the whole thing with pencil then start painting. Painting is a multi day/evening process as I like to have the paint dry in between. It’s watercolour so I don’t want the paint to bleed. Once the colour is all done I go over the seam lines with a black marker, to highlight them. Without that last step it feels a bit unfinished. Kind of like me adding the quilting stitches to a flimsy.

These aren’t fine art and I have a lot to learn yet, but the comfort it gives me is divine. A quiet, slow moment in a noisy world that wants to reach in and swallow me whole.

And maybe this way I can convince my husband to put a quilt on the wall?!