Prairie Winter Study - With Thanks to Gwen Marston

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I've had a goal for a few years to make the next in my Alberta Landscape series. It's been percolating so long I think the water is tepid now. Then something happened at QuiltCon.

I signed up for Gwen Marston's class. She is a personal hero of mine and it was Liberated Quiltmaking, the book, that set me on a creative path I am loathe to ever stray from. So while yes, I am totally comfortable with Improv and I am not a fan of small quilts, I signed up for her class on small studies. Best idea I've had in a very long time!

First off, it was good to find out that I share many similar philosophies with Gwen when it comes to making good Improv/Liberated quilts. Or perhaps I am more influenced by her than I give credit?

Second, she is a damn funny lady!

Third, the idea of a study for a larger work - while not new to me - was absolutely brilliant in this case. I wasn't interested in replicating Gwen's techniques or creating a stand alone Improv Mini Quilt. But when she talked about using a small piece as a study for something larger the landscape idea immediately popped into my head. More specifically, the Prairie winter landscape idea.

From the giant bag of scraps I'd brought to play with I pulled my golds and whites. That's it. I was picturing the cut stalks of straw, the golden stalks left in the field instead of being tilled under. They stand in undulating rows in the winter snow, gold on white. For the rest of the day I played, experimented with how I might sew these rows together. I thought I was working on a small scale but quickly realized this would be the exact height and width of my rows in a larger quilt (which means a lot of sewing when it comes to that one). But by fiddling on this piece I now know that. 

To be honest, I thought I would make the little top and it would sit there as reference. But after a month of so hanging out in the corner of my design wall I decided to finish it. Some wavy line quilting that took about 30 minutes. Then bias binding scraps left over from a project in A Month of Sundays. So easy I don't know why I even debated finishing it.

A few more deadlines to make on some work projects and the big quilt just might get started. Well, maybe by winter.

From A Judge's Perspective - QuiltCon 2016

QuiltCon is over, the winners announced, and I can finally talk about what it was like to judge the quilts. Phew. Keeping that secret was harder than waiting until the second trimester to announce a pregnancy.

Judging the quilts was an intense and overwhelming experience. Three days that were 10-11 hours long of doing nothing but looking at quilts. Not just looking at them, but touching them, examining stitches, evaluating colour and composition, and yes, comparing them. I've never been so absorbed in quilts before. Thank goodness I wasn't alone. As a team, I worked with Lisa Congdon and Scott Murkin.

The team aspect was fantastic. Lisa, Scott, and I got a long very well. Lisa is an artist and illustrator (and great teacher). Not a quilt expert, but with an amazing eye for colour and composition. Scott is a quilter in his own right and a certified quilt judge. He knows a lot about quilts. I've been quilting for 18 years now and I thought I knew a fair amount. I learned so much from both of them. I feel like, after our time together, we've bonded in a special way. We have private jokes and a shared experience. It was our time in the quilt trenches.

Except that it wasn't the trenches. The Modern Quilt Guild had show offices in this cool building in LA. A creative space full of concrete floors and minimalist design. The kind of space many of us dream about as a modern studio. There was nothing in our judging room other than paper wrapped tables, foam playmats to stand on, and a great window to hear the helicopters and sirens of the city. Not to mention the natural light. But we did spend long, long hours in there. Thankfully, as the judges we were engaged all the time and hardly noticed the passage of time. Towards the end of the day we would look up and boom! It was dark. 

So, what exactly did we do all day?

Simply put, we looked at each and every quilt submitted for judging at QuiltCon. It wasn't a free for all with a stack of quilts though, there was a very defined process that kept us on track and made it as fair as possible for the entrants. Here is the run down on the process, from my perspective. Keep in mind that we were judging quilts already juried in to the show and we did not have any role in the jury process.

- Each category was stacked on the tables, one category at a time. And we could only see the category we were working on, no others.

- The quilts for the entire category were fanned so we got a first look at each of them. This gave us an idea of the category as a whole and the quilts in comparison to the others.

- Each individual quilt was held up for viewing. We stood about 12 feet away. This way we got an idea of what it is like hung. You can see a lot in terms of design, composition, and colour when the quilt is hung and you view from a distance. (Not unlike how you would see it in a show.)

- As the quilt was held up the name of the quilt, and only the name, was said. We did not get descriptions or artists. This judging is blind so we had no idea who made what quilt. We could ask for descriptions, but we maybe asked about a dozen times over the 3 days - only if we were trying to determine whether the quilt was an original design or if the intent of the artist wasn't necessarily clear from the quilt alone.

- Then each quilt was laid down on the table for us to inspect it up close. We would look at everything - quilting stitches, construction techniques, edge finishing, pressing, whether the quilt edges were straight, fabric selection. Trust me, no one has ever looked at the quilts this closely!

- As we examined the quilts we were guided by category specifications that the MQG put together. These outlined the general and specific things to look at in the quilt - from overall design items to quality of the binding.

- Each quilt got at least 3 comments from the judges. We worked together to provide constructive criticism and compliments for each quilt. Scribes wrote down, by hand, our comments. Sometimes we would provide a little + next to one of the category specifications. This meant the work was done particularly well on that specification.

- As we went we would decide if a quilt should be held for an award or released. At the end of seeing all the quilts for a category the held ones would be placed back on the tables for us to see all together. Then began the process of determining winners. 

- Winners were determined by consensus among the judges. We would narrow down the field further, discuss a lot, and eventually get to the top ones in the category. Sometimes this took a lot of discussion and time, but it was always worth it to get to agreement.

(It should be noted that the winners for the Glitz challenge and EZ Triangle Challenge were chosen by Michael Miller and EZ Quilting, we only provided the top choices for them to pick from.)

- Best in Show was picked from the winners of each category.

Phew. Are you tired just reading that? It was both exhausting and exhilarating to do this. Overwhelming and inspiring. 

Judging is just that - judgement. It is subjective and critical. As I said, no one, even the maker, has likely looked at their quilts as close as we did. Call us the quilt police if you want - we did get nitpicky on things like quilting starts and stops and shadowing in seams - but that was our job! These quilts were there to be judged, so that's what we did. Our comments should be viewed as constructive because it was never our intent to make anyone feel bad about their quilt. We can all benefit from a critical eye and having aspects of our quiltmaking to improve upon.

The reason I went into detail about the room and the process is to remind everyone that those days were special. And the team was special. We worked really well together and I so enjoyed my time with Scott and Lisa. You could have put three different people together and likely had different outcomes. Judging, without a doubt, is still subjective. No matter what though, I am proud of the work we did and stand 100% behind the outcomes of our time together.

On a more personal note, I was quite surprised at my own reactions to this experience. I went in thinking I would be obsessive about the technical aspects more than anything, seeking perfection. Early on I realized that what I valued most - personally - was creativity and seeing the hand of the maker. These are, first and foremost, functional quilts, there aren't ever going to be perfect quilts. Once you realize that you start looking for the maker in the piece. You want to see that a person made it and the decisions they made had intent. Yes, you still want a technically proficient quilt that will wear well and not fall apart, but putting yourself in the quilt matters so much. 

It then became important to me to see the show itself hanging at QuiltCon. Because we judged blind and because I made a point of staying off of social media around QuiltCon deadlines I did not know who made the vast majority of the quilts. So I walked the show to see who made what quilts. One of the most exciting things was realizing how many quilters I did not know immediately or at all. (Of course, I can't know everyone.) What it really shows is the depth of the modern quilt world and the fantastic people out there making quilts. 

Giant Dresdens

How fun to start a new project. It's been a while since I started something brand new, right from the fabric pull. (I have another project that I'll share next week too).

This project is destined for the lap of an almost 90 year woman. I don't usually take commissions, but my closest cousins asked if I would make something for their Baba on the other side. I had an idea I wanted to try and some

Allison Glass fabric that has been sitting around forever

that I wanted to use. Those two things combined into a yes to the project.

And so I'm playing, experimenting, trying something new. I'm in love. These are giant Dresdens. I had a

Fat Cat ruler

in my QuiltCon swag bag. I'm not exactly likely to make a cat block, but the same ruler works perfectly for 30 degree wedges for a Dresden Plate. These completed Dresdens measure about 26'' in diameter! And it only takes about an hour to cut and sew each one. Pretty good time investment for big impact. Just need to get some background fabric and sew these down. But maybe I'll make at least one more first.

Hot, Awesome Mess

Look at that quilt top, floating in a snow globe. Oh wait, that's only half the quilt. Do you know how hard it is to photograph a king size quilt top?

Yes, I made another king size quilt. I couldn't help myself. Last week I needed to flex my improv muscles. Not that I needed practice at improv. No, I needed the therapy of just sewing for the sake of sewing. Mindless, no planning play. It did wonders for my mood (and my cold). And before I knew it I had enough blocks to more than fill my design wall.

Once the blocks were up on the wall I started the puzzle piecing to get it all together. I only went by size, filling in gaps and squaring up as I went. I paid no attention to colour or direction. In fact, the only design decision I made was to make sure the feature fabric was on each corner of the finished top.

Then I made it bigger. At first, it came out to about 83'' by 103''. It seemed like such a funny size, and a few more inches meant it would cover our king size bed nicely, with extra quilt for snuggling. So I added another 11'' on one short end. It seemed totally crazy to make it even bigger, but felt right. And seeing as making this was a form of therapy it only made sense to make it the way that felt right.

This quilt began at Quilt Con last year. I was lucky enough to get a spot in Denyse Schmidt's Improv class. See more about that experience here.

About 6 months ago I made some more blocks with the scraps I had from the class and new fabrics I added at home. Then I packed them all up and they joined my WIPs. My thirty something WIPs. It was such a thrill to pull them out and put them upon the design wall. More of a thrill to get to playing again. Every night last week, after the kidlets were in bed, I entered my studio and exhaled.

Play, play, and more play. Then I totally took advantage of my time with a part time babysitter. Deadlines met for the week, I took a whole day to get the top together. Another couple of hours at night and it was done. Then another hour to add that final strip. 

Sometimes I look at the top and think it is a hot mess. And other times I get giddy with all the little bits that pop out at me. It may be a king size quilt, but there are so many tiny scraps in there. Big and small, they all play together. I do love the way it looks, but I think this quilt's value to me is definitely in the process.

Now, hopefully I can find that value when it comes to basting it.