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?!

Morning Make October 2020

On October 1st I had a grand plan that I was going to make this symbolic improv quilt. A stylized version of the date, counting up with an interruption of a different colour every time a kid in the house was affected by Covid in terms of learning or having isolation requirements of their own. On October 2 I scratched that plan and decided playing was a lot more fun than getting symbolic with a quilt. Especially now.

Especially now.

So each day I woke up and padded to the sewing room, with the sole purpose of making an improv doodle. This isn’t totally new to me, as long time readers will know, but my approach this time was definitely different. Instead of making a block each day AND THEN figuring out how they might all work together, I decided I would make, compose, and build the quilt as I went. Each day the block was sewn next to the previous day’s block. After 5 days I had a row. After 10 days I sewed the two rows together. And onward.

None of the rows are the same height, but I did get them all the same length - some with trimming and some with additions. The height of the row was determined by where I stopped sewing with the first block, then all were made the same.

Composing on the go like this is a definite challenge. I just didn’t want it to look like 31 distinct blocks or have a grid. I can look at the finished quilt top and see some things I would change. Oh well. But I did eventually get in the groove and could see lines I might extend or places where it would be fun to change directions. I repeated a few motifs and the whole thing has multiple techniques used again and again.

I do think it finishes with a fairly well balanced composition, so that makes me happy.

Watching the quilt grow was indeed a marker of time. It marked an improvement in my mental health as opposed to a marker of my stress, which would have happened if I stuck with my initial plan. That also makes me happy.

I’ve got a plan in mind for quilting already and found the perfect fabrics in my stash. I almost basted it last night too, more welcome distraction in very stressful times. Hopefully it will happen in the coming days because I am in the mood to quilt! Plus, I am not sewing for November Morning Make so I need to get at my machine!

Rocky Road to Kansas With a Vibrant, Modern Twist

When you don’t have enough fabric to make a quilt you make pillows.

When you have an idea that won’t get out of your head you make something.

Back in September, when I was painting traditional quilt blocks fo Morning Make I painted one particular block: Rocky Road to Kansas. It’s quite a cool design. Even Barbara Brackman doesn’t say much about the block’s particular history, but it does have a long one. The block is seen in quilts nearly 130 years old, in variations more like a crazy quilt or a string quilt. It is definitely a block that can read extremely modern too. Like most quilt blocks, it all depends on the fabric you use.

In my case - once the idea borrowed itself in my creative consciousness - I went with a collection of hand dyed fabrics and some charcoal linen. The hand dyes came from two sources. The vibrant colours were a gift from my husband and daughter 5 years ago. At the culmination of a epic road trip to Whitehorse they came across a quilt store and shockingly, went in for me. They came across some vibrant fabric that was dyed by a local. Well, that local, it seems, now lives in Fiji so I think these tropical colours make a lot of sense now! The rest of the fabric was a collection of precious scraps from Debbie Aruda. I met Debbie teaching at The Workroom. Using natural dyes she was manipulating fabric in gorgeous ways and she gifted me with some. The combination of luminescent and subtle colours works so well together, I think.

To make the quilt block I drafted a freezer paper template. That way I could get nice, crisp lines and, hopefully, matching points. It was also useful as I was working with a limited supply of fabric. Each block is actually a four patch. Together they make a 24” square.

I probably had enough fabric to make a total of 10 corners. Of course, I could have augmented the blocks with other stash fabric too. At one point I entertained doing a whole deconstructed thing. You know, one block with 4 corners, one with 3, one with 2, and then just 1. That would have got me a decent size quilt. it would have also got me a quilt top that likely would have sat for years before being finished. So, pillows it is.

My husband actually hates decorative pillows on the bed and I hate laying in bed for anything other than sleep and well, sex. But these pillows are on the bed and they look pretty good there too. I guess they will be purely for show and I am not complaining one bit!

In March I played with making marks with watercolour. That led to further watercolour explorations. That led to sewing these blocks. This project is a perfect example of creativity begets creativity.

One Little Block at a Time

One day you are just staring at the scraps from some log cabins and the next you are starting a new quilt. To be fair, I didn’t really plan on starting a new quilt, I just wanted to see what would happen if I made some little four patches. Well, I can tell you this, JOY happened. Little four patches are deliciously delightful!

Tedious to sew at times, but delightful.

Initially, I only made the red and white ones. After a batch of those I decided they needed some other colours for company. It was only after I made some green and turquoise ones that I decided these little bits would become a quilt. But what kind of quilt?

THIS kind of quilt.

A meta four patch showing off all the best in the colours and the low volume fabric. See? Delightful.

My Covid brain would not allow me to imagine what it could truly be as a quilt though. At least not at a useful size. Usually, I could fo the math and dive right in. Alternatively, sew a bunch and then figure out a way to make it work. This time I needed to draw it out a bit. No one will ever complain about a little sketching either. Some coloured pens an graph paper did the trick. Now I could count squares instead of totally winging it.

Sometimes you don’t want to do the math though. Only because the answer is daunting. Really daunting. That is one of the downsides of small piecing. The only downside. It takes a lot of blocks to make a useful size quilt. In my case, this quilt will end up 21 x 27 blocks. That means I need 567 of the bigger blocks. So double that of the four patches! Yeah, I didn’t like that math either.

The good thing about small piecing and no deadline, is that I can plug away and one day it will be done. This causes me zero stress. If I finish this project this month, next year, or in 2025, I don’t care. It will be a cool quilt no matter what.

So I’ve cleaned up dangly bits from the stash of low volumes, tidied up the scrap bins, and got myself a pile of blocks by the sewing machine. As I work on any other project the pairs become my leaders and enders. Once a good stack of them are ready I plug in the iron and put a show on the computer to press. Then repeat, making four patches. I’ve actually squared up quite a few of them while on Zoom calls for school or sports AGMs. Keeps me busy, at least.

I feel my mojo creeping back so getting these assembled doesn’t feel like work. More like a comfort, a return to home. Just like our lives right now have to be about taking it one day at a time, we can make a quilt one block at a time.