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:: January 19, 2008 Love Love Love
1. Passage Quilt (2005, 65" x 61"), made by Sherri Lynn Wood from her mother's evening gowns, everyday clothes, Sunday dresses, nursing uniforms, robes, pajamas and bathing suit.
Passage Quilts = "grief and transition work through improvisational quilt making." More Passage Quilts by Ms. Wood here on Flickr and on her website, where you can learn of here exhibitions and workshops. (via Reference Library) 2. Whole-cloth numbers quilt, made by (Austinite!) Malka out of an IKEA duvet cover:
And that's only the beginning of the amazing quilts she creates, often using her own dyed/discharged fabrics. 3. Netgranny: Pick a Swiss grandma to knit you a pair of socks. (via the Craft Magazine Blog)
posted by in Quilting :: Comments (6) :: link :: June 6, 2007 Nope Not Yet
No, nothing yet. I am 2cm and 80% effaced as of today (for free! wooohooo!), but not a contraction in sight. I'm still feeling super -- I'm not nearly as miserable as everyone's telling me I'm supposed to be right now. In fact I have been very productive with the crafts. It is officially work and not pregnancy (or work + pregnancy) that has been keeping me from this stuff. Two bed quilts turned into four baby quilts (well, quilt tops). All the blocks have been done for quite a while now, I just had to sew them together. So there are two of each of these ... Plain Spoken II! (Pattern by Funquilts.) Made with baby boys in mind, colors inspired by these socks.
And Hop, Skip, and a Jump (pattern by Denyse Schmidt ). Has it been a freaking year?! My god.
Some more onesies ... And I also have made good progress on knitting a Jess Hutch Squarey. Knitting is SO perfect for all this nervous energy. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (15) :: link :: April 17, 2007 Fletcher's Quilt -- Gee's Bend Study II
Here's a quilt I made as a baby gift for Fletcher. I started it when Miss Susan was pregnant, and since they left the gender discovery till the birth I hope I did a good job of making it gender-neutral. I got to meet Fletcher when I handed off the quilt. He is SO cute and calm. Is he that chill all the time, Susan? Well anyway, my congratulations and awe to Susan and Beaty! It's a "study" of this Gee's Bend quilt by Belinda Pettway. (Here's Gee's Bend Study #1, a still-unfinished pillow.) And here's a close-up so you can see the quilting -- just groups of straight lines that change direction once in a while. I had grand plans to make baby quilts for the very many pregnant people I know, not taking into account that I would become hugely pregnant/unmotivated myself AND not knowing at the time that quilts are now considered a no-no for baby bedding. Thank goodness they haven't yet been outlawed as floor pads, burp cloths, tablecloths, capes, fort doors, or wall hangings. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (23) :: link :: January 27, 2007 Patchwork Pillows
I finished two quilted pillows during the luxurious four-days-off-work Austin Ice Storm 2007. One, a Lisa Congdon-inspired log cabin, only with a more traditional color vs. color thing going on.
The quilting up close:
For the other, I opened up my Gee's Bend book to this:
And kept it open on the table till I had this:
The quilting on the first one took for-ev-er so I did free-motion on this one:
Both are backed by matching corduroy and have a zipper closure. Could these be the beginnings of a little shop inventory for me? Hmmmm maybe. A tip for making pillows (or cushions, depending on your dialect): buy (or make) a pillow form that is an inch or two bigger than your finished case. You want the innards to be really stuffed in there. No flaccid edges! posted by in Quilting :: Comments (23) :: link :: November 11, 2006 IQF Report
The last two weeks have been hectic -- first a whirlwind trip to Monterrey, Mexico for a wedding (see many pictures of people you don't know here), then the International Quilt Festival in Houston last weekend. So here is my reportage from the IQF. In a nutshell, I'm glad I went, but I don't have to go again. There were around 2,000 quilts on display (!) and 1,000 vendors (!!). I went with my mom, and our entry point into the convention center was smack in the middle of the vendors -- maybe a mistake because once I managed to extract myself from the sales floor, I was exhausted and WAY overstimulated. I got to see real live quilts by Angela Moll, Jane Sassaman, and Bean Gilsdorf, which was very cool. Unfortunately, the ones I most wanted to record were off-limits to photography. In fact I only managed to take ONE picture.
Fortunately Mellicious took a whole bunch: see her Flickr sets of the judged show and the (non-judged) exhibits. Overall, I was more impressed than inspired. I don't know! Maybe it was just my mood, maybe I just have narrow tastes in quilts. Or both. Maybe I am just a quilt poser. But never mind that. Wanna see some of what I bought?
There were a handful of vendors that sold vintage fabric exclusively. They were expensive, of course, so I had to show restraint. One vendor Margaret Meier of Vintage Fabric & Etc. from Oakland Park, Florida (no website or email). It is one of the only, if not THE only, bricks-and-mortar vintage fabric store in the U.S. I talked to her a while and she told me she has a book coming out about barkcloth. I can't remember the publisher though, sorry.
I also scored these wax prints from Ghana depicting boxing gloves and walking love letters. I've been on the lookout for this kind of fabric since seeing this set from Extreme Craft. They are no smoking mufflers or batteries or steam irons, but still pretty cool. They were from St. Theresa Textile Trove out of Cincinnati, OH. They also had a print with hands that had disembodied fingers along the border. I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting it, but it was a color combo that I didn't like too much. The ladies told me these prints are not on their website now but will be shortly. Now, off to Stitch Austin, the closest thing we have to the Renegade Craft Fair. posted by in Fabric , Quilting :: Comments (4) :: link :: October 2, 2006 Judgement
In case you were wondering what quilt show criticism is like! (To see it larger, try here) The show is judged by hired judges from out of the area. Your name and your description of your work is hidden from them. So unless the judge was familiar with Denyse Schmidt, she would not know that this quilt was from a pattern. A single judge covers an entire entry category, for consistency's sake. I wasn't surprised by the ratings -- well, pleasantly surprised by the positive comments on the piecing, and a little perplexed that the color/design/originality was not counted among its strong suits. I mean, that part is all Denyse Schmidt! Well, as Tim Gunn would say, it's a matter of taste. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (11) :: link :: October 1, 2006 Austin Area Quilt Guild Show 2006
Damn it's been a while since I posted. Mostly because finishing the Pie in the Sky quilt has taken up most of my time an energy for the last few weeks. But now it's finished and being displayed to thousands of people at the AAQG biennial show!
It took me forever to decide how to quilt it. I made some attempts at the Orla-Kiely inspired design but it was NOT going to look good with my free-motion skills, and of course I didn't feel comfortable with, well, ripping of that leaf pattern (even though, as you might see from browsing through the print + pattern archives, I think a lot of designers do it. Maybe O.K.'s not even the one who came up with it?). I needed something that I could do with a walking foot, and came up with these randomly-sized, randomly-placed starbursts. It contradicts the nice symmetry of the quilt, so I ended up not liking that aspect, but once it was all said and done, it looked OK. Still, it did not turn out with ribbon-winning quality. It was hard to keep a nice consistent stich length and tension, the lines converging in the middle of the stars didn't always meet up perfectly, there was some ugly backstiching to secure the ends, and yellow Chaco Liner I used to mark the top ended up STAINING THE THREAD in places. Bummer! Still, I was proud of the piecing and was not at all embarassed to have it hanging in the show. What more could a first-timer ask for? I have to run because I'm volunteering at the show all day today. More pictures on Flickr. I will post more about the show later then take some detail shots of my quilt once it's home so you can see some close-ups in better lighting. posted by in Austin , Finished Projects , Quilting , Textile Arts , _____-Alongs :: Comments (18) :: link :: September 10, 2006 Gee's Bend: Two Exhibits
Bryan and I took a trip to Houston last week to see the exhibition Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt at the Museum of Fine Arts. I am depressed that I missed the original Gee's Bend exhibition, The Art of the Quilt, now finishing its tour at the de Young in San Francisco. As the MFAH describes this second go-round: "the exhibition explores how the artists improvised on certain traditional motifs and traces the family quilting lineage of some master quilters."
The first room housed all log cabin/housetop variations, and was by far my favorite collection-within-the-collection. The one pictured above was included, but it's not representative of the room -- most of the quilts were riots of color and pattern. I loved seeing the vintage fabrics and how the women used them in their designs.
The next room contained work clothes quilts, the ones using the faded jeans and tattered shirts. Beyond that room there was a collection of corduroy quilts, all containing the surplus 70s avocado green corduroy that the quiters had after making pillow shams for Sears. This room was just beautiful and glowy, with all the fall colored designs gathered together. My fingers hurt from me just imagining what it took to hand-quilt through all these heavy fabrics. The next mini-collection showcased the women's non-traditional takes on traditional patterns. Then, there was a wall of really oddball quilts, such as the one made from sports jerseys (as seen in the big book) and a great one made from some fugly 80s pre-printed turkey doll/pillow fabric. The last room showed recent works by a few of the women, including the black, white, and red quilt by Mary Lee Bendolph that is featured on the cover of the exhibition catalog/book. These were bigger, bolder, more self-consciously artistic, but still very cool. At the end, there was the hands-on portion of the exhibit, a table with dozens of rolls of colored tape and little tiles of foamcore board with which to make tape-art. It was intended for kids, I think, but when we got to it it was surrounded by adults, all working intently and happily on their creations -- one older gentleman in particular was really into it and was overjoyed when a docent told him he was welcome to keep all the tiles that had been left behind by others. He taped them all together to make a big old awesome tape-art quilt.
The week prior I had gone to the Austin Museum of Art to see Mary Lee Bendolph: Gee's Bend Quilts and Beyond. This exhibition served as a nice appetizer for the big Houston exhibit. It also featured monoprints of the quilt designs that the quilters have been producing in conjunction with some arts collective. Best of all, the museum was showing a documentary, "The Sandman's Garden," about the artist Lonnie Holley, one delightfully crazy dude. In it, he offhandedly mentioned a piece of his called "Cold Titty Mama," and its follow-up, "Cold Titty Mama II." What can I say other than the phrase has brought much joy into the Kight household. Much has been written about Gee's Bend, I won't retread those things here. I have already been moved by the histories of the women and the circumstances from which the quilts arose. But seeing the quilts in person yielded surprises. First off, the quilts are messy! There is puckering and waving galore, bindings traveling off edges, and on the older ones, there are rips, tears, hand-piecing stiches bubbling out in all directions. I am not a conoisseur of hand-stitching, but the big stitches would earn the tsk-tsking of the anal old lady quilt crowd for sure. But what they screamed to me, as a quilter: just freaking do it. Go for it. In quilting there is an inordinate amount of rules and techniques and secrets that you must patiently pursue to achieve ever-greater precision and excellence. That all has its place, but that's not where the love or the art is. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (19) :: link :: August 20, 2006 Quilting Stress
Stalled with your quilting design? Here is a tip I picked up from a mini workshop at the Austin Area Quilt Guild: Take a photo of your quilt top and get it enlarged to 8"x10"
The finished quilt is due at the end of September, and I'm starting to stress out a little. First of all, I misunderstood the show guidelines and it turns out I wasn't qualified to enter into the novice category -- so I got moved to the regular ol "pieced quilt, large" category along with all the seasoned veterans. There goes my fighting chance for a ribbon! The layers are now pin-basted and was looking very neat and taut, but now after being folded and moved around it's looking pretty scary and rumply. Do I have to start over? Please god no. Then I tried to start quilting today but it was a disaster. Doing curvy lines with the walking foot just isn't going to happen. So it was back to the wet-erase marker. I kind of like what is going on in the lower right corner there, but how to make it work across the whole top? Hmmm. And can I really manage anything presentable with a free-motion foot? I hope an epiphany comes before too long. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (12) :: link :: June 26, 2006 On the Design Wall
The Hop Skip and a Jump quilt blocks are together, trimmed, and now in the arrangement phase on the design wall. Wooohoo! More notes on the Flickr page. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (18) :: link :: June 23, 2006 Hop, Skip, and a Jump
I was feeling a little gun-shy about quilting the Pie in the Sky quilt, so the natural thing to do is start another top, right? And another from the Denyse Schmidt book at that. The quilt in the book is 12 blocks big, mine will be 30 blocks. The pink/green/black/white color scheme was lifted wholesale from Hillary's inspiration that she got from a piece of fabric I sent her -- does that make sense? And it uses that fabric and some prints that she sent me. Some other color schemes (is there a difference between "color scheme" and "colorway"?) that are sure to come into play in future projects: Orange, red, and gray (with a hint of bright aqua blue) a la Jane's log cabin quilt Orange, aqua, and brown (spotted on a stranger's knit shirt recently) Chartreuse with grass green, avocado, and other darker greens (inspired by new growth in spring -- long overdue inspiration, that is)
What color schemes, ways, combinations, whatever, have been on your mind recently? posted by in Quilting , Works in Progress , _____-Alongs :: Comments (5) :: link :: June 3, 2006 Quilt Back
Today I finished the back for the Pie in the Sky quilt. This is my first pieced back and now I wonder why I haven't always done it this way. Well, I guess in some circumstances the quilting you have planned for the front won't work with anything but whole cloth in the back, but if you like piecing tops more than the quilting and finishing process, this is perfect. Also, sewing together big chunks of fabric is hard. Cutting long pieces perfectly on the grain is hard. (Or is it just me?) There is some waviness in this one but I'm pretty sure it'll quilt out. Umm, did I say something about not doing a matchy-matchy thing with the Denyse Schmidt fabric line? I was wrong. I just love these fabrics and how they look together. PS, the pink is not so contrasty in person -- the dots in the white fabric pick it up. In that last entry I was having that little border problem. Thank you SO much for all your input. I really did feel like framing the circle blocks with a contrasting color or pattern would have destroyed the aesthetic. Turns out my local Hancock fabrics got a new shipment of the kona cotton solids and lo and behold, there's my peacock blue! It is still obviously a different dye lot, but it's much less noticeable a difference and one I think I can get away with. posted by in Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (1) :: link :: May 22, 2006 Block Swap
My block swap package arrived last week. I am so pleased. All the blocks play so well together (It makes me hope that my contributions found good friends and weren't too much of black sheep). Every time I walk by them I stop and take a minute to admire. Jessica either put them together randomly and they just jived, or she spent That Much Time assembling packages and she's a genius. Either way, she rules! The idea of using the same four solids worked out so well. She was really on top of things and the turnaround was quick so it was all very satisfying. And now I get to decide how to turn these guys into a quilt. Right now I can only imagine doing the same thing Jessica is doing for the charity quilts -- a plain white background, with the blocks set not-quite-symmetrically. She's sure to come up with some other lovely ideas so I'll sit back and wait for a while. Here is who made my blocks! From the top, left to right: Thanks to the ladies who made my blocks, and double-triple-quadruple thanks to Jessica. I hope there is a block swap II very soon! posted by in Mail , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (2) :: link :: May 2, 2006 WWDSD?: A Dye Lot Dilemma
Every knitter has had a dye lot trauma. It never struck me that fabrics have dye lots as well, and differing dye lots will be especially obvious in solid fabrics. You know, the solids that Denyse Schmidt has brought back from obscurity, the solids that define her quilts. You see what's coming? So it is that I have hit a roadblock in the Pie in the Sky quilt.
I got a ton of RK Kona Cotton in peacock blue from Hancock's of Paducah for the two DS quilts I was making. I had to re-cut the background squares for the Pie in the Sky blocks because the first round came out all skewed. That forced me to order another couple yards, again from Hancock's. I didn't notice the discrepancy until I had cut the borders and sewn them on. It is subtle, but really obvious when they're butted up against each other. It was hard to capture so the photo above is doctored a bit -- neither batch is really so blotchy -- but the second (bottom) batch is noticeably more grey. Sewn together, it looks like a mistake, like I'm trying to get away with something, and since I was entertaining entering this quilt into the Austin Area Quilt Guild show this fall, I want it to be as perfect as possible. Even though I would enter it into the novice category, I can just picture those quilt ladies, all white gloves and pity, shaking their heads and tsk-tsking. They may do that anyway, but I don't want it to be about something under my control! Sigh. I considered that the problem may be due to using the wrong side, but no dice. It COULD be because I didn't pre-wash the first batch, but I'm pretty sure that I did. I wrote to HoP and they said that there are indeed different dye lots, that they don't have a way to keep track of the dye lots you have ordered, but that you can send swatches and they can try to match it. This sucks! At least if you run out of yarn in a certain dye lot, you can beg your fellow bloggers to check their stash and give some up. The moral of the story is: if you're using lots of solids in your quilt, order a few extra yards. So what do I do? WWDSD, ha ha? This calls for my first experiment with blogpoll.com. OOPS! Choice "E" should read "Both C and D." I'm confusing myself as well as you. And scroll down for some photoshop mockups!
Option B: Option C: Option E: Option F: posted by in Fabric , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (18) :: link :: April 24, 2006 Finished Project: Day at the Beach Quilt
The Day at the Beach quilt, re-created almost exactly in queen size from the original in the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, is finished! This one was so easy there's not even much to say. Except that I really love how it turned out. Oh, and two other things: 1. It was shockingly expensive to get quilted -- 3x the cost of the Plain Spoken job and about twice what I was expecting. I've tried to think of it this way: It was kind of like how car repairs go, and at least I have something tangible and nice to show for it. 2. I think I've got this hand-finishing the binding figured out. I've always gone diagonal, which has never been very invisible or looked all that great in general. This time I tried straight up-and-down stiches, as in the diagram at the bottom of this page. It (gasp) lays flat and was a zillion times faster. Hooray! More photos here.
posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (23) :: link :: April 11, 2006 Look Ma, I'm Improvising
Here are my contributions to Jessica's Block Swap. The I-guess-you'd-call-them string blocks are by far my favorites. I wanted to do something like this Denyse Schmidt quilt. Interesting -- as I made them, I only remembered the look, not the colorway, and the colorways are nearly the same! So much for improv!
These I made first, just by stacking 13" squares of my fabrics and rotary cutting them without a ruler. I've been checking out other contributors' blocks on Flickr and found myself most attracted to the simpler ones, so I just went with that.
Stack and whack, but WITH a ruler. OK, these were made AFTER the string blocks when I just wanted my 10 blocks finished! Also I thought I should use some of the mint green. I like them alright. From afar. posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (25) :: link :: April 2, 2006 In Search Of: Piecing Perfection
Triple-check your sewing machine tension. Here are nice instructions for balancing tension. There used to be a great, comprehensive guide at this link, but it seems to have vanished. You know your tension is off if you can see the top thread on the bottom or vice-versa, or the fabric on either side of the seam is wavy right out of the machine. Use a walking foot for piecing. You know how your pieces go into the machine perfectly lined up, but end up with one end hanging out over the other? To combat this the The Modern Quilt Workshop book suggests using a walking foot. This foot is essential for quilting, but it can also prevent your fabric from shifting around during simple piecing. Every little misalignment adds up and conspires to screw you up big time as you assemble the quilt top into larger and larger units. Or use a 1/4" foot for piecing. This foot has a little barrier on the right edge that prevents your seam from straying from the sacred quarter-inch. My walking foot only has a slit through which you can eyeball the edge of the fabric, and that's harder to control. The 1/4" foot keeps the seams consistent but you give up the even feed the walking foot affords. Fashion a pressing board on which to press out your seams and blocks. My ironing board is too narrow and kinda lumpy, which make it hard to get blocks nice and flat. I got a big piece of MDF from the hardware store, staple-gunned one thin layer of batting to it, followed by a layer of fabric. (The board will double as a portable design wall for quilting or a blocking board for knitting projects.) Press, don't iron. I still do not have the self-control for this, but it might be the most important tip here. Lay the iron on top, hold, lift, move, put the iron down again, lather, rinse, repeat. Back-and-forth ironing can distort the fabric. Trim your blocks down. AFTER pressing. It is smart, when possible, to make your blocks a little larger than the pattern calls for then trim down to the final size. When your blocks are not exactly the same size, you're forced to do all this easing to get seams to match, which causes those waves and puckers we're trying to avoid. Be aware of seam pressing and pinning issues. I have always pressed my seams open, stuck a pin through the middle of both seams (or at least tried to), and sewn over the pins. Sewing over pins is bad not only because of the danger aspect but also because it can distort your seam line. According to the Modern Quilt Workshop book there is no reason to press your seams to one side. I discovered one possible reason, and that is this trick. The action of the presser foot and feed dogs press opposing seams together. It must take some practice though, because I haven't gotten it to work for me yet. Backtracking a little: my beginning sewing teacher said that, when pinning, you should not lift the fabric from underneath with your hand, that the pin should do all the work. Lifting the fabric causes misalignment and distortion. Like pressing vs. ironing, this practice is mighty difficult to adopt. If you have any more advice to add, please comment! posted by in Quilting , Sewing , _____-Alongs :: Comments (14) :: link :: March 14, 2006 A Fabric Order, and Some DSQ Thoughts
This haul from Reproduction Fabrics arrived recently. It was my first time ordering from them, and I can heartily recommend them. For one, they stock some Japanese imports that I haven't seen elsewhere, and some of these were discounted. The fabric arrived quickly. I had ordered two yards of the blue print up top there, intending it for some quilt backing, and they called me shortly afterward to tell me that they only had two smaller chunks of the fabric, and did I still want it? I got the message too late -- we're SO bad with checking our voice mail -- by the time I heard the message the package had arrived already, with an extra 1/3 yard to make up for the problem. Isn't that nice? --- Jane and Liesl have some recent posts on Denyse Schmidt that resonated with me. They talk about the disconnect of having patterns for DS's loose, improvisational quilting methods, likewise having a fabric line that is coordinated in a traditional fashion when her aesthetic is very much more serindipidous. I agree with both of them, but I don't mind the disconnect at all. I have been kind of bothered by the fact that I'm making two quilts out of the DS Quilts book and following the patterns almost exactly, down to the colors and everything. If you will allow me the pretention of quoting myself, here is a comment I wrote to Sarah a while ago in response to her post about a creative slump she found herself in: I've been feeling that way a lot lately -- that I should be doing more than just following other people's patterns. Especially down to the letter, with the same colors or quilting patterns or whatever, like I tend to do. Some I guess would define following patterns vs. improvisation/"coloring outside the lines"/making something original as the line between craft and art. If so, it's OK to "just" be a crafter, right? I'm telling myself that, anyway. I figure that it's still valuable for learning, and when I've gained enough of experience, my own ideas will come naturally I'll have the skills to make them reality. So yeah. When I started quilting, I had aspirations to do grand, improvisational things, but quickly found myself overwhelmed, paralyzed by options, and lacking the solid basic construction skills and/or courage to carry anything out. I bet that some people with the same level of experience have aspirations to do grand improvisational things, then go forth and do them. But for someone like me, the DS Quilts book, with its improvisational quilts distilled down to patterns, is perfect. By mimicking, I am learning things that I will be able to take into my own original patterns. Sure, I am ending up with what, as Liesl says, "a quirky, off-center quilt block which will match everyone else's quirky, off-center quilt blocks," but I love the original quirky, off center block so much that I wanted it for myself. Besides, I don't know anyone in my real life who is doing this kind of work, so I do think I am making something rare and great. In sum: sure there is a disconnect between patterns and the DS style, but having patterns provides a path that some of us need to take to get to a higher level of artistry. As for the fabrics: I guess I did expect a more eclectic line as well. Then again, read Jane's first paragraph. I sometimes wonder if the craftblog world gives us an inflated idea of the demand there is for the Denyse Schmidt/Heather Ross/vintage-retro-modern aesthetic. What do you think? posted by in Fabric , Patterns , Quilting , Sewing , Shops :: Comments (20) :: link :: February 22, 2006 It's All Denyse Schmidt, All the Time
I'm afraid this Denyse Schmidt thing is getting out of control. Now I'm working on the Pie in the Sky quilt, my first attempt at curved piecing and applique, well it will be since there have only been straight lines involved so far. Triangles with fabric cut on varying degrees of bias are difficult enough though. But just the fact that I can do these halfway decently (in fact I have eight done) have made me feel mighty! Bryan is calling it the basketball quilt, which I think is nice. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (11) :: link :: February 21, 2006 Oven Mitts II
Hello, two more oven mitts! I tried the ball fringe binding in the pattern but I got the tiny little baby kind and it didn't work. Regular old binding just isn't as jaunty. posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting :: Comments (4) :: link :: February 9, 2006 Quilting Resources
Recently I plugged "quilting" into the iTunes podcast search to see if anything came up. Something did, and it's been my commuting companion ever since. It's Quilting Stash by Annie Smith, a teacher of the quilting arts who lives in California. She is more of a traditionalist, but her podcast covers topics that any stripe of quilter can relate to: stash management and workspace design, buying sewing machines, quilting instruction, internet resources, you name it. She has a lovely and comforting voice too. Quilter's Buzz has become a daily visit for me of late, ever since proprietress Gina posted the first pictures of Denyse Schmidt's soon-to-be released fabrics. She'll have the first peek at the new Amy Butler line as well. Aside from the fabric previews and design world scuttlebutt she has lots of great pointers on tools, techinques, workshops, books, and lots more. I'm thinking of checking out my local quilt guild to see what goes on there. I'm scared, but at the very least it should make for an interesting blog post. I'm entertaining the idea of entering a quilt to show in this year's show -- the deadline for entries is in July so maybe I can come up with a candidate before then. posted by in Podcasts , Quilting :: Comments (5) :: link :: January 23, 2006 Oh My God I Finished Something.
I'm no Angela, with her 17 Denyse Schmidt Oven Mitts Frenzy, but here is a pair, with two other pairs to come (they're awaiting binding). You have to make them in pairs, right? I hate canvas -- the suggested lining fabric -- because it does horrible, un-iron-outable things when I wash it. What I did was use thermal batting and regular cotton fabric for the lining. The thermal batting has an unpleasant crunchiness when you scrunch it, but hopefully it is functional. posted by in Quilting :: Comments (10) :: link :: January 18, 2006 Day at the Beach Quilt Top
Here is a small view of my Day at the Beach quilt top -- the easiest pieced quilt top in the world! Queen size in under two hours. I just love how much impact the narrow strip of prints has when it's sandwiched in between two blocks of strong color. It is my first entry in the Denyse Schmidt Quilt Along hostessed by the magnificent Sarah. I like the figure-8 quilting in the book but it seems too curvy and perfect to do on my own, so I'll take this one to be professionally quilted as well. Soon, a Modern Quilt Along update ... posted by in Quilting :: Comments (9) :: link :: August 1, 2005 Badtz-Maru Quilt
Flickr member 3e shows the whole process of making this freak'n AWESOME quilt. (Via Quilts Galore) posted by in Quilting :: Comments (1) :: link :: July 27, 2005 Denyse Schmidt Quilts, Page 172
I got a shout-out! Thank you so so so so much, Denyse. My copy of the book arrived yesterday. I actually found this out last week as I looked through the book at a bookstore. I let out a little yelp and scared nearby book browsers. Fellow listee Sarah is going to hostess a Denyse Schmidt Quilt-Along. Everybody join! posted by in Quilting :: Comments (7) :: link :: July 18, 2005 Denyse Schmidt Alert
It wasn't supposed to be released till September, but look: Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt And Patchwork Patterns Also spotted on Amazon: Make Your Own Contemporary Quilts posted by in Quilting :: Comments (8) :: link :: July 10, 2005 Baby Quilts: Two Variations
Now that I've finally handed Flippy's quilt off to Melanie, I can show you the projects I've been working on the last couple of months. I made two baby quilts using the same fabrics and the same pattern (Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs), but finished them differently. The first one I started was for my neighbors, who just adopted a baby. This one was freehand machine-quilted with an animal-print-looking design over the blocks:
And animal shapes around the border:
You can still see the chalk outlines because I'm STILL not finished hand-finishing the binding. Here it is with the backing, which I don't like very much. But you can concentrate on my excellent new bedspread underneath.
When I started quilt #2 for Melanie and Flippy, I wanted to try backing with Minkee (but ended up with bright red microfleece, which is really soft and holds up very well in the wash). Trying to machine-quilt with the fleece backing was a disaster, so I decided to tie it, which I've always wanted to try. I used embroidery thread in matching colors, and like the results very much. I thought tying was supposed to be faster than quilting, but I ended up spending probably an equal amount of time on both. Here's the whole shebang:
posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting :: Comments (5) :: link :: June 14, 2005 Modern Quilt-Along?
If you're interested, leave a comment or send an email. I think a quorum of five should do it! I'm working on a little review of the book, but if you want to know more about it, check out the authors' site Fun Quilts or follow the link above to the Amazon page. posted by in Modern Quilt-Along , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (8) :: link :: June 10, 2005 Slow-Ass Hand-Stitching
I'm in the home stretch of making a quilt, and trying to do the binding by the book this time, which means hand-stitching it to the backing. I've now sat through two movies while working on it, and am about 1/4 done. And this is a crib-size quilt. Is that how it is for everyone, or am I just very, very, very slow? What kind of (invisible) stitch might go faster? posted by in Quilting :: Comments (1) :: link :: May 31, 2005 Quilting Books
The Denyse Schmidt book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt And Patchwork Patterns is available for pre-order on Amazon now. The cover is up and shows some of what we can expect. I can't wait for September 30, hoo doggy. That reminded me to look up whether Fun Quilts' book is out yet, and it is! I'm ordering The Modern Quilt Workshop (by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle) right away. Here's the cover ...
posted by in Books , Quilting :: Comments (2) :: link :: March 3, 2005 Finished Project: Dog Playing Poker
Here is a little quilt I made for my dad's birthday. He loves dogs and he loves poker, but I'm not sure he likes kitsch or quilts! If he doesn't like it, his favorite dog will. It was made from a 1-yard panel, with a coordinating dogs-playing-poker print for the back:
I just used random swirls for the quilting. It won't win any prizes -- I'm not good at this yet *and* I get the feeling my machine isn't really suited for free-motion quilting, but I try not to care, because when you step back it all looks fine. And I know the edges of your quilt are supposed to lay flat and not be wavy, but both of my quilt projects have turned out wavy. Anyone know why this is, and what you can do to prevent it? Then again, I shouldn't care ... there is so much about the process that has the potential to turn you off quilting forever, the less you worry about, the more likely you are to keep doing it, and the technical stuff can fall into place over time. posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting :: Comments (2) :: link :: February 8, 2005 Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend Documentary
Did you catch the hour-long special The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend this week of PBS? If not, it should be airing intermittently on your local station and is highly worth taping or TIVOing. Turns out those women can sing, too. posted by in Quilting , Television , Textile Arts :: link :: August 25, 2004 Finished Project: Pointless Wonder
The "Pointless Wonder" baby quilt was made from this pattern using these fabrics. posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting :: link :: August 3, 2004 Fun Quilts
Wow! The modern quilters are coming out of the woodwork. This time it's Bill Kerr of Fun Quilts, who wrote me to say they've got a book coming out called The Modern Quilt Workshop. They have already published one book that I'm just going to have to buy: Color Harmony for Quilts. For those of you who live in (or can get to) the Chicago area, they offer classes and camps as well. Mr. Kerr also pointed me to a fellow Texan, Red Llama Studio, whose proprietress Shari Lidji says "I've always been inspired by art, particularly Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Lucienne Day, a textile designer of the '50s." :: July 17, 2004 Valerie Goodwin
Map/architectural quilts by Valerie Goodwin posted by in Inspiration , Quilting , Textile Arts :: link :: June 30, 2004 Denyse Schmidt Worship, Continued
I was very honored that Denyse Schmidt wrote to me a few days ago responding to my previous post lamenting the lack of inspiring quilt patterns and instructions. Turns out that she is releasing a quilting book in fall 2005 along with a line of vintage reproduction fabrics. Hot damn! The book will have instructions for beginners and lots of easy, quick patterns. Oh, such a long wait ... in the meanwhile she does teach improvisational patchwork, uh ... somewhere. I don't have the link handy right now but I'll post it later. :: June 11, 2004 Quilts to Aspire to
Stack & Slash quilt instructions. It's like Stack & Whack, but "far less sophisticated." Within that same site's gallery, there are some quilts (stack & slash & otherwise) to behold. For example:
I love the idea of making a maze and using existing motifs on the fabric to tell a story.
Wow. That's all I have to say about that one. And finally, an image I found just looking for "quilt" in the Google image search. It's a map of Poweshiek County, Iowa:
posted by in Inspiration , Quilting :: link :: May 28, 2004 Gee's Bend and Me
My urge to take up quilting had its origins in general textile lust. I went to the University of Texas fine arts library to hunt for this book (more on Lucienne Day later) and thought I'd browse the shelves for quilting books to see if I found anything inspiring. I have to agree with Brandy Agerbeck's assessment of the current quilting tradition: it's way too anal for me. I would add that it's hard to get inspired when so much of fabric you see is hokey as all get-out. I don't mean to denigrate any quilting, because I know how much skill and patience goes into it, I just mean that most of the mainstream fabrics and quilt designs are not my thing. Then again, I suspect that I just may not have developed the taste that is actually well worth developing, and that I lack the skills to see individual fabrics as part of a bigger design. Back at the library, the big hardcover book Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts was sticking out. I picked it up and flipped through it. My thoughts were, OK, yes!, this is what quilting is all about. Gee's Bend quilts have gotten a lot of attention in the art world and most crafters know and love the tradition. But if you haven't heard of them, here are some links: Quilts of Gee's Bend official site Some Gee's Bend quilts look simple, and though their creators used improvisation under the constraints of whatever fabrics happened to be available at the time, there's a mountain of knowledge and experience that went into them, not to mention the un-reproduceable aspects of the women's lives and circumstances. I figured this out as I attempted my first quilt project, which was going to be an improvised Chinese coins quilt with unevenly cut strips. But improvising on my first attempt was probably not the best idea. The patchwork for that style shouldn't be a big deal, but you know, I just don't have the expertise to step outside of right angles yet. Not only that, I didn't understand how to combine different colors and prints, and it showed. They didn't work in the traditional OR rule-flouting way. I never even got to the actual quilting part! This is all to say that I wish there was a quilting version of Knitty or Stitch 'n Bitch, to give people who are interested in quilting but are put off by the aforementioned anality and hokiness an enticing entryway into the tradition. In my mind, it would involve articles about Gee's-Bendian design principles, Denyse Schmidt worship, and quilt patterns that won't make my bed look like Frank Bielec threw up on it. Maybe I'll start it. Right ... with my proven history of keeping websites current. That's why I'm putting the idea out there. For free! Take it and run! Teach me the ways of the quilter! posted by in Inspiration , Quilting , Textile Arts :: link
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is out now! I just ordered it. Someone should host a Denyse Schmidt-Along! I was planning on doing it after the 
Would anyone be interested in a Modern Quilt-Along? My thought is that participants would make anything, any size, from the book 
