Tree of Life Vintage Quilt Inspiration

What better way is there to spend a late winter day than immersed in a vintage quilt collection? Back in March I had the opportunity to explore part of Heritage Park’s collection of donated and gathered quilts. It was all in anticipation of the Festival of Quilts, taking place in August. Delayed twice because of Covid it was a special experience. My goal was to identify a quilt to inspire a modern interpretation for a special class at the Festival of Quilts. Let me tell you, it was hard to narrow it down!

In the end I chose this pastel version of the Tree of Life pattern. I took a million pictures then came home to sketch. My goal to was make a straightforward version of the block, one easily made with a rotary cutter and one that lent itself to play. I wanted students to be able to play with colour, fabric, and scale, creating their own modern version of the block.

The first version I made tested the pattern. It was also an opportunity to play with fabric and scale. This particular block finishes at 36” square! I dug into the stash of both purples and the low volume black and whites. I love the combination of warm purples and cool purples. Together they make the block very dynamic.

This size proved popular in the class itself. It’s a great way to get far with a project.

The block itself can be set with a straight set like this or on point. It’s hard to decide what you want until you make the block. For example, I debated making 3 more blocks this size to make a four patch in this straight set, maybe all pointing to the four corners. However, I think I will add another round of black and white patchwork squares to make it a bit bigger and turn it into a baby quilt.

Here’s what it looks like on point, like in the original.

You can see I am having fun playing with fabric. Exploring variations in the colour green and playing with value placement keeps this from being boring. The entire block is made from half square triangles and squares. Super easy to make! But also a bit tedious. So having some excitment with the fabric sure helps. So does a good show in the background (I am currently watching Sex Education on Netflix.)

In the class itself students worked in all sizes and with a wide range of colours. It is always so exciting to see people play!

A huge thank you to Heritage Park, curators and staff there, as well as the Festival of Quilts volunteers for making this happen.

PS Don’t follow those pattern instructions, it contains errors that I fixed later.

One Colour Challenge Blocks

More often than not I teach a class and the samples used for demo purposes build up. I don’t count them on my Quilts Under Construction list either. That is, I don’t count them until I am sure they are going to actually be turned into a quilt top and not remain as samples. Most things eventually get on the list. Then there are the times I go from class sample to desired quilt top just one block in.

That’s what happened with these blocks.

One Colour Challenge has been one of the classes I taught this past year for the online environment. It is a lesson in colour and value, as well as half square triangle construction and, if time allows, block assembly. In the very first class I taught I fell in love with the block I made. Each time I taught the class I had fun playing along with the students making more blocks. When I started making blocks on my own time I knew it was destined to be a quilt top.

Now my plan is to make 25 blocks. This will give me an 80” x 80” quilt top. We all know how I love bigger quilts, even when playing. I’ve even made a list of colours to explore to get me up to 25 unique blocks. It’s going to be bold and awesome! I would love to use each fabric only once, but I’m not sure even my stash is deep enough!

In the class we make 16 HSTs. There are a lot of different blocks you can make with 16 HSTs. In prepping for the class I went through a number of quilt block books looking for options. That’s how I found the one I went with but this option above was very tempting too. Either way, you get amazing secondary patterns between the light and dark sections. So many possibilities!

This, indeed, is the best part about playing. A few basic rules to the game but then infinite possibilities!

Color of Connection Quilt

Color of Connection

58” x 64”

The premise behind the Color of Connection quilt along was to sew together, yes, but to also inspire discussion and efforts around diversity and inclusion in the quilt community.

Diversity and inclusion in the quilt community? I believe that while quilters come in all stripes and colours, the spaces are dominated by white women. So yes, quilters are a diverse bunch, but it is still a far from inclusive community. This #colorofconnectionqal is highlighting that. I've met a number of new quilters and new to me quilters, quite a few with stories about bad experiences with quilt guilds and communities. It is painful, but not surprising that this is still happening. Quilting community is going to be a reflection of the larger world. Just because we are quilters we aren't all magically kind and wonderful, despite the grandma stereotype. If we want the change here and everywhere we have to make the change.

This was my first quilt along, at least the first I can remember participating in. I felt it was important to both join the discussions and lead by example. It really wasn’t about the quilt. (But I will still talk about the quilt in a moment.) It was about a bit of a reckoning for our quilt community. It was also about building community for ALL quilters, for acknowledging that the spaces we are creating may not be welcoming, and for having this Color of Connection community be a truly inclusive space.

Kudos to the organizers Porfiria Gomez, Keyana Richardson, and Michelle Collins.

Now, to the quilt.

It’s me, so you know I have a hard time following a pattern. I followed the quilt along and the discussion prompts, but played with the pattern a bit. The original quilt called for large solids or at least large cuts of prints. As my scrap bins were overflowing I decided I would make slabs and cut my pattern pieces from them. I started with black solely because I was thinking about Black Lives Matter. This particular quilt seemed like a good one to get symbolic. After that I chose warm colours to share joy and warmth of people. And because they looked good.

As usual, The Monster helped me baste the quilt and she suggested the red thread. I used a Wonderfil option from my thread stash. In fact, I bought nothing to make this quilt. The backing was a combination of two fabrics from my Tag collection. I loved the mix of the names prints - showcasing the diverse community of our local elementary school where all the signatures came from - and the texting print of all thumbprints. My batting was put together from leftovers. Nothing like Frankenbatting to truly embrace a make-do approach!

The binding was a fun choice. We know I like a contrasting binding. It actually wasn’t my intention here, but nothing I chose in black, red, pink, or otherwise looked good. On a whim I pulled out my blue and green bins. This royal blue Pearl Bracelet was exactly the right colour and I had just enough to make this work.

The quilting itself, with the aforementioned red thread, was a fun grid. Vertical lines first, every 2”. Then I did a diagonal line with the same spacing, following the lines of the large HSTs in the pattern. It isn’t fancy, but it is effective. And quick.

Obviously, a quilt along is not going to solve systemic racism. What it does achieve, however, is a continued conversation and visibility for the topic. Both are important in our community. With the quilt along finished it is now up to the rest of us to continue that conversation.

As a quilt teacher one of the places I do this is in my classroom, virtual or in person. My goal is to create a space where everyone and anyone is welcome. I promise you I will shut down the commentary, judgement, and racism/homophobia should it come out in the classroom. And if people don't think I should do this then they shouldn't hire me. As a quilter, I will do this by continuing to read, to listen, to encourage the conversation, to use the materials I have on hand, and to use my platform for all of this. I know loads of people want to keep politics out of quilting, but you just can’t. And I won’t.

If you are interested in the Color of Connection pattern or the goals of the project you can find out more here.

Morning Make February 2021

Phew!

That was a bit of a doozy. In a good way, of course, but still an incredible amount of stitching. That right there is one crumb block for each day in February.

What is a crumb block? That is a block sewn together with little scraps, the crumbs of your previous quilting. I think of them as mini slab blocks, the often used technique from my book Sunday Morning Quilts. What counts as a crumb is a personal definition.

In my case, crumbs are as small as 3/4” and as big as 2”. They might be skinny and long or so small you wonder why I bother. All of it is precious and valuable. This really is sewing with every last bit.

The month started with a basket of scraps that had accumulated over time. I sorted them one evening, pulling out the bigger bits and setting them aside. A few days in I remembered a half full IKEA bag of various scraps. Sigh. That’s a lot of scraps. But a zoom call with girlfriends in another city got me through most of those. Sorting scraps can be daunting but I find it is easier to do when I am multitasking with conversation or viewing something. It was those two sources that fed the crumbs. Yes, there are still some left.

That’s alright, because I am not done making these blocks!

I actually had a handful from previous sew days already. And with my upcoming Crumb Blocks Playdate on the Quilters’ Playcation I have more sewing on the agenda.

I have no idea how I am going to put these all together. You may be shocked to hear this, but I am debating using sashing! All the blocks are different sizes - they finish when I feel like stopping sewing. It would be very enjoyable to puzzle it all together, filling in the gaps with more crumbs. Indeed, that is my favourite part of making a quilt. However, I already have one large quilt made in a similar fashion. Slightly bigger crumbs and the addition of a word, but still very similar. I think I will challenge myself to do something different, I’m just not sure what that will be. In the meantime, there will always be more crumbs.