Flying Geese Exploration

I was just doodling, I promise.

After doing some computer work that required notes my mind was wandering. I had the computer open and a pad of graph paper next to me. Ignoring technology I picked up a pencil and started doodling on the paper. That night I started sewing some quilt blocks.

There isn’t anything fancy or revolutionary about what I doodled or the play I started, but it was relaxing. Knowing my solids scrap bin was overflowing I started there with my fabric. My doodle required contrast so I chose to explore warm/cool contrasts rather than any specific colour. And it’s just play, not a quilt, so I could try different combos and see what happens, right?

The only really shocking thing about this is that I chose to play with precision piecing. Definitely shocking with me. I’m making 2.5” x 4.5” flying geese blocks. Accurate cutting and piecing required. Still mindless, but definitely not improvisational piecing. I’ve got improv in the colour play, so I am still left satisfied.

As is usually the case with play rooted in experimentation it may not always go how you thought. When pairing fabrics to make the flying geese blocks I paid more attention to warm/cool contrasts than value contrasts. It totally works. But then the overall effect isn’t the same as what I initially sketched. My original idea was to effectively have one giant medallion. Without value contrast, however, it was looking like a mess of triangles only, no design visible. So I started sorting the blocks by the cool values. This has potential.

Like most of my quilts this one started with a “let’s see what this does” kind of attitude. If you are a little kid with a stick and a light socket, that means danger. But an adult with some fabric, it only means fun.

Back on the Road

This past weekend I went on my first quilting trip since the Pandemic. I’ve had a few in person events and the odd class, but this was my first get packed, get on a plane, and a hang out with quilters all weekend kind of trip. It’s been forever!

It felt so good.

As stressed as I get before leaving (always with a moment of regret for the commitment) I feel amazing once I arrive. This teaching gig gets me to some beautiful places with wonderful people. I am so lucky.

This particular trip was to Parksville, British Columbia. Parksville is a town North of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. In the summer it is packed with tourists because it has great beaches, beautiful parks, and a wonderful people. By this time of year the tourists are gone and the rain is settling in. Still absolutely worth the trip.

The Parksville Quilt House Guild is the largest guild on Vancouver Island and one of the oldest in British Columbia. Everyone I met was kind, full of laughs, and tremendously supportive. My hosts were incredible. I taught two workshops (Traditional Variations and Improv Lettering) and delivered a trunk show to over 150 people. At the workshops quilters brought treats for the group, fruit from their own trees, and made sure I had tea and medicine when an unexpected migraine hit. And, they followed my supply list and brought chocolate!

I’ve written before about how inspiring it is for me to be on these trips. I get to see parts of the country (or the world) but I also get to witness the creative acts of quilters. Both things inspire me so much. I get my own cool ideas as we all play together. More importantly, I get to witness the changes, ideas, and freedom many quilters feel in my events. Yes, I am tooting my own horn, but I see a lot of quilters leave my events brimming with ideas and with newfound freedom. No one has given them permission to play before and you can tell.

At the end of my trunk show I had one lovely women come to me and tell me that she is more of a “looker” than a quilter. She made her first quilts decades ago and while she was so proud of what she did she was judged by the quilt police and barely sewed after that, feeling like she couldn’t be good enough. After seeing my improv quilts, my bits of wonkiness, even my mismatched points when I am trying for precision, she felt so good. It’s not that my bad work made her feel better about herself. No, it was that she could see there was another way to create, and that the judgement of the past didn’t need to apply to her anymore.

That right there is why the stress before leaving is worth it. It’s always worth it. Rainbows over the ocean, bald eagles, and stellar sea lions are only a plus.

Quilters' Playcation Adventure Sewalong Update

The Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong is back after the summer break. Our map is growing. This is the point where I can really see the blocks coming together as a map. I went out recently and added more beige fabrics to the stash so I could complete the island part of the map. Now I can see that I will have it as an island surrounded by water.

Like most of my quilts, this one started without really knowing where it was going to end up. I just committed to making the components. Really, this is about committing to the process more than anything. Being willing to play, experiment, and relax about knowing the end result. To me, this is the ultimate freedom. I know, however, that to others this is absolutely scary, terrifying even. Many folks want to know exactly what is coming and how the whole thing will come together. That is their comfort zone. Meanwhile, that sounds boring to me. We are each different quilters and that’s okay!

The second version of the quilt is also progressing. This is the more abstract one. Each row definitely references the inspiration, but it is far from a literal interpretation. (Is it really literal when it is an improv quilt block?) I can see that the next few rows need to do some things composition-wise, and I will have to think carefully about the colours I use. These two things will help the overall quilt feel balanced.

If you are new to the Adventure Sewalong, you can find all of this year’s videos on You Tube.

Maple Leaf Quilt Top from Ugly Fabric

Proof that if you start with some ugly fabric you can still make something beautiful.

Back in the spring I was hosting a Quilters’ Playcation Playdate. The focus that day was on finding an ugly fabric in your stash and seeing how we could make it work for something. When you let the fabric be your guide, as opposed to forcing the fabric to be something else, it usually works.

These were some of my initial pulls. It isn’t that each fabric is really ugly. You may love them, in fact. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. But I’d had that leaf fabric forever, I have no idea where it came from as it isn’t something I would generally pick, and it had never been used. So that became my challenge fabric.

The fabric is so very cliche fall fabric. I leaned in to that. If it’s going to scream fall, I will let it be what it wants to be and turn it into a maple leaf block. I paired it with another bold fabric that had a lot of the same colours, save brown, and got to sewing. And what happened? It made a very cool quilt block! In fact, I loved it so much that I kept going and made more blocks to coordinate. I picked all the fabrics from my stash to coordinate in the colour scheme started with that first block.

In the end I made 25 blocks. They are 12.5” square so the quilt ends up as a small lap size. I’m not sure it will be finished for this fall, but that’s okay. I finished the top back in June anyway!