Layers on the Design Wall

What does one do with only one design wall? This quilter just layers quilt over quilt over quilt. This top quilt? It's my current hand project - a UFO I started at Glampalot in 2015. It's my merging of Carolyn Friedlander's needle-turn applicate technique (which I'm pretty hopeless at) on a background of Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric. A few weeks ago I woke up in a panic since my current hand project was completed. The next morning I found this neatly tucked away. Since I began this, I have become more proficient in my version of Sashiko, and I'm loving how this is evolving.

Here's a slightly better picture of this piece.

At the June meeting of my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, I volunteered to quilt and bind this charity baby string quilt, a project headed by Debbie Pine.  This is a charming scrap quilt with lots of straight-line quilting, and it washed up beautifully.

Over the weekend I decided I had to make a duffel bag from a pattern in one of Sara Lawson's books.  I love these two books - Windy City Bags and Big City Bags - and have made bags from both of them.  But I couldn't find them.  It took some major putting away and straightening up before I found these books.  One of the things I unearthed is a project I started for John's older daughter several years ago.  Why didn't I finished it then?  Who know.  But what I do know is that this Christmas Tree is perfect for Julie for right now.  She's relocated to Atlanta but will be home for the Christmas holidays.  Perhaps this tree will resolve her decorating dilemma.

And finally what's uncovered is my current project.  More about this in a day or two!

Meeting Two Personal Heroes

Wow, that sounds dramatic, doesn't it?  But Camp Stitchalot did allow me to work with and watch two  important quit bloggers who have greatly influenced my attitude towards quilting.

Rossie Hutchinson's Double Plus Good

When I started quilt blogging in 2007, I thought at the time that I was doing something unique and unusual.  And then I began to be aware of quilt bloggers and how many there are!    I'm not sure what led me to Rossie Hutchinson's blog - she began hers in 2010.  I saw her  Double Plus Good, and I was hooked on Rossie's approach.  It was she who started the whole Process Pledge movement.  And I had spent the past few years knowing that the inception and execution of a project is just as important as the finished piece.  Having Rossie - and so many others - validate what I discovered to be true for me has been liberating.  One of the things I love about my guildsters is that I have friends who care about the process:  they want to talk about their process and listen to mine.  Rossie has a PhD in Communications and has been on the faculty of University of Michigan.   She is also one of the organizers of Camp Stitchalot, along with Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics.  Throughout the weekend, Rossie was a fellow camper, taking the same delight in both teachers and classes as the rest of us and working as madly on her projects as we were.

Rossie was the July speaker at my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Meeting.  I was afraid I would miss her lecture/trunk show - it was the same weekend as my father's funeral.  Sunday afternoon was clear, and I went to the guild meeting.  As delighted as I was to meet and hear Rossie, I was emotionally fractured and couldn't make it through the whole meeting.  So Camp Stitchalot was a nice Rossie Hutchinson bonus. 

This one word sums up Chawne's approach to quilting and needlework

 The other hero/camper is Chawne Kimber, a math professor from a small college in eastern Pennsylvania and fiber artist/quilter who blogs at Completely Cauchy. Chawne was on my radar in later 2011/early 2012 before QuiltCon. She's a political quilter - her quilts make statements. Sometimes she tackles broad topics about race and language and gender. And sometimes her work is highly personal. She works both large and small.  Her art evokes reaction - that is the goal of art, isn't it? I wanted to meet her at QuiltCon, but she had a death in her family and didn't go. Except she did wind up making it to Austin for a bit. And when I learned that and that I had missed her, I was sad. 

Fast-forward to dinner Friday night at Camp Stitchalot.  It was the only ice-breaker meal where we were assigned seats. And looky looky looky who is across from me.  Miss Chawne! Chawne and I have a friend in common, the lovely Mirielle/Mimi, whose comment on Instagram tipped me off that Chawne would be at Stitchalot.  So meeting her, working along side her, and seeing her in action (omg she is working on such a tiny piece right now) was a highlight of the weekend.  Chawne, Mimi, and I have a date at QuiltCon in Austin next February.  Chawne's devotion to what we do speaks volumes to me. 

Throughout the weekend I slowly met more and more of the campers and could talk glowingly about so many of them.  How rich it was to meet so many lovely women, especially Rossie and Chawne. 

Camp Stitchalot - Part 2

 

Carolyn Friedlander is a young quilter, an architect by trade, whose fabric designs and now new book, are hot hot hot. The way some of my guild members throw around the names of fabric designers scares me a little bit. I just don't pay attention. Until I see something I like. And within the past six months I have become aware of fabrics that are architextural in design. And whose fabrics do you think these were? Yep. Carolyn Friedlander. Then I bought a copy of her book Savor Each Stitch. The past half year has been one in which I have slowed down and experienced the joy of handwork - so her book is timely for me. At Stitchalot Carolyn focused on teaching us a method of hand applique. It was odd to be in a room with 30 quilters and not have any machine whirring away. Needle-turn applique is awkward for me, but I did improve a little over the weekend.  On the strip below, five of those circles are appliqued.

 I'll take these circles to my mom's tomorrow and see how far I get.  Even with a needle threader, it's difficult to thread the applique needle - I may have to use something bigger.  My goal is to inset a strip of circles into the above Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric (look, another designer name!).  Carolyn's use of hand applique and machine quilting is inspiring, and that's the direction I want to head in with this panel.  Carolyn gave us little samples of her new fabric line, Doe.  And I must say there are several fabrics that I like a lot.

The pairing of Carolyn Friedlander and Sherri Lynn Wood as counselors at Camp Stitchalot was very clever.  They are quite different in their approach to quilting, and both have enriched the bag of tricks and techniques that I bring to quilting.  A good good weekend.

Homework from Camp Stitchalot

What a great weekend!  Sarah S, Melissa and I went to Camp Stitchalot with 28 other campers and camp counselors Carolyn Friedlander and Sherri Lynn Wood.  The whole experience was fun AND educational!

We decided to go one day early to have the luxury of extra sewing time and make Two-Zip Hipsters.  All turned out nicely by Friday morning.  Special thanks to Sarah for figuring out the twisted zipper secret.  Then Sarah, Melissa, and I decided we needed to go to Pink Castle Fabrics about 45 minutes away.  Carolyn and Sherri asked if they could go with us.  Um, yeah, well - OKAY!  Later that day Carolyn led us through design choices and her method of applique.  There will be more about Carolyn and this project in a couple of days.  But now?  Gotta focus on Getting My Curve On and Sherri.  She's our Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Speaker tonight, and I promised I would have what I worked on in class in a more advanced state.

Sherri led us all through her approach to improv quilting - guidelines that involve no rulers and working at one's creative edge.  Look at the link above to see her sweeping, bold, and wild use of color and design.  After I made these three wedges, I was done.  I needed to think about what is next with these pieces and how I want to create something that I want to keep in my home.  So I took them home.  Last night I began to play.

I tried overlapping these wedges, like so many in class had done.  but my instincts kept leading me back to keeping these pieces separate. And I also knew I that needed to trim these up and make them more symmetrical. 

Wonder if John has missed this Tupperware lid I keep in the studio...

As I have been blogging, I have had several epiphanies. I think I will stop, take a walk, and come back to this. Let's see if I was paying attention when Sherri was teaching how to sew curves. To be continued...maybe even today!