What I Made At QuiltCon

QuiltCon was an awesome, eye opening, and super friendly experience for me. I think many people feel the same. My classes and students were wonderful. (I can say that Saturday night was a bit of a rough night for a class, everyone was pretty tired.) Thank you to everyone who came to sew, to laugh, to eat my chocolate, use my fabric, and push themselves. You made my experience for sure.

I did, however, get a little bit of time to sew myself. Taking a few classes was a welcome respite in my busy schedule. To be honest, I felt kind of sneaky being in a classroom. Or maybe it was more indulgent? Either way, I'm glad I made some time to do it.

I spent one morning with the Gees Bend quilters. After my time in Alabama in the fall I was eager for the chance to visit and sew more. The entire class was more of some playtime and visiting, punctuated with gospel singing and laughter. There was minimal direction, if any, so it would have been tough if you were totally new to improv play. But the 4 women made sure each student was acknowledged, helped, and guided. My neighbour spent a lot of time with them as they kept making her redo and redo a certain seam of her piece until it was just right. And when we saw the final seam the effort was totally worth it. Improv can be careful and calculating too.

My choice of fabric for the class were some old clothes of the girls. I cut up two pairs of pants, a dress, and a blouse. It was a miss mash of fabrics and textures. But having seen the original Gees Bend quilts it was a good push for me. And wow, was it liberating to cut up old clothes! I decided to go with their influence to the extreme and based my work on the Housetop pattern so many in Gees Bend have used. That block is all of the clothes, with only a few small pieces leftover. I didn't cut away grass stains that never came out of the knees or the tiny mustard spot. Initially I thought I might keep going with the technique and framing it with more neutrals. Now that I'm home, we'll see. Although, I do see that as a fun family marker.

The other class I took, and my first choice going into QuiltCon registration, was Cristy Flincher's Paperless Paper Piecing. I've been fascinated by this process and what she makes. It is so outside of my comfort zone and usual style. Yes, I like precision and do enjoy paper piecing, but this is a refreshing way to approach the style. Not to mention that Cristy is a great teacher. Seriously, she's good.

She gave us the template for the block so we were all working from the same foundation. But there were so many different fabrics at play that each block looked different. It took all day to make the one block, but that had a lot to do with a steep learning curve and not enough irons. (And for me, having to duck out for a book signing.) Now that I know the technique, though, I can see it being a very handy skill. It won't take nearly as long next time. Bonus: Cristy even told me how to add improv to this so my soul was touched a bit more.

I definitely want to make at least 3 more of these blocks for a small medallion.

Quiltcon Quilt Keeping Me Warm

 Quiltcon Quilt

103'' x 94''

It takes a long time to finish the binding on a king sized quilt. That was a lot of Top Gear and random Discovery Channel shows sitting on the sofa by my husband. But I'm not complaining one bit because it was totally worth it for this quilt.

Started 2 years ago at the first QuiltCon in an Improv class with Denyse Schmidt, this quilt is a new favourite for me. I know improv, I'm very comfortable with it. Taking cues and following the process of someone else was refreshing. I may not use the brown paper bags Denyse starts with, but that go where you may and trusting your intuition is very similar to my approach a lot of the time. And she totally taught me to embrace the small pieces, the tiny, right alongside the large.

A year after QuiltCon I took out my initial blocks again and made more. Many, many more. Then I spent some time puzzling it together. For me, that part is probably the most fun. It is a challenge, for sure, but so much fun.

(Confused about that puzzling it together part? Check out my new class on CreativeLive all about that!)

A few days of work to get it all together and I was thrilled with the completed top. I was not thrilled with the prospect of quilting another king size quilt on my home machine, however. Especially because I wanted something more than straight lines on this. So I convinced my friend Andrea at Urban Quiltworks to play.

And boy did she do a stellar job!

She embraced the spirit of improv with her quilting as well. We settled on a lovely yellow thread from Wonderfil, then I left her to her own devices. She did some all over work, some line work, some dense parts, left some spaces open. If your eye wasn't already moving constantly with the piecing, the quilting will get it going. There is just so much to see. And so much additional texture created.

To be honest, I feel totally spoiled and honoured to have her work on this quilt. It is absolutely perfect. The right compliment between the piecing and the quilting for sure.

A few people that have seen this quilt have commented on the colour scheme. I must say, that was entirely unintentional. In Denyse's class you start with your chosen feature fabric - the black and white in my case - and her bags of scraps. You also pick a solid. I must admit that my hand was directed a little by my friend Jules as it blindly searched in the paper bag for my solid selection. I never, ever would have picked this weird green/grey/sage colour. But I am happy she led me to it.

At home, when making more blocks I used the initial fabrics found in the classroom blocks as my guide. Just tiny bits of orange, yellow, and that magenta tones. A bit of brown and blue. More grey. Overall it feels cool. There is no bright pink and only snippets of purple. It feels like there is a bit of control, but mostly just randomness. 

Actually, it feels like home to me and it is wonderful to have this beauty finished and keeping us warm at night.

Values Plus

We've all seen a million half square triangle (HST) Values quilts. I, for one, don't get bored of them. I think that is because no two are the same - from the fabrics to the layout. However, I wanted to try something different. I was actually prepping for my upcoming class - Values Plus. In that class students will play with values and more than just HSTs. The class is about experimenting, not just creating a HST quilt.

So I dug into my jars of strips and strings. All random fabrics, random sizes, and only paired up by value. That is, as I grabbed strips I made sure that they had a value difference. Sometimes it was subtle, sometimes it was bold. That's generally how I approach pure value work. Subtlety makes it a bit more interesting.

After sewing the strips together I picked a size to trim to. It was mostly dictated by the width of most of the pairs. So 3 1/2'' square it was! And then I kept sewing, and sewing. And trimming and trimming.

I played with a number of layouts. More of a rail fence setting? Totally random? Strips of light/dark? After a long chat with Amanda Jean I went with this final set up. I also decided to create these little groupings on colour, a four patch.

No word of lie, it wasn't until I was posting these photos here that I realized that they looked like plus signs. For my Values Plus class. Get it?

I'm such a nerd.

Giant Dresdens

How fun to start a new project. It's been a while since I started something brand new, right from the fabric pull. (I have another project that I'll share next week too).

This project is destined for the lap of an almost 90 year woman. I don't usually take commissions, but my closest cousins asked if I would make something for their Baba on the other side. I had an idea I wanted to try and some Allison Glass fabric that has been sitting around forever that I wanted to use. Those two things combined into a yes to the project.

And so I'm playing, experimenting, trying something new. I'm in love. These are giant Dresdens. I had a Fat Cat ruler in my QuiltCon swag bag. I'm not exactly likely to make a cat block, but the same ruler works perfectly for 30 degree wedges for a Dresden Plate. These completed Dresdens measure about 26'' in diameter! And it only takes about an hour to cut and sew each one. Pretty good time investment for big impact. Just need to get some background fabric and sew these down. But maybe I'll make at least one more first.

Hot, Awesome Mess

Look at that quilt top, floating in a snow globe. Oh wait, that's only half the quilt. Do you know how hard it is to photograph a king size quilt top?

Yes, I made another king size quilt. I couldn't help myself. Last week I needed to flex my improv muscles. Not that I needed practice at improv. No, I needed the therapy of just sewing for the sake of sewing. Mindless, no planning play. It did wonders for my mood (and my cold). And before I knew it I had enough blocks to more than fill my design wall.

Once the blocks were up on the wall I started the puzzle piecing to get it all together. I only went by size, filling in gaps and squaring up as I went. I paid no attention to colour or direction. In fact, the only design decision I made was to make sure the feature fabric was on each corner of the finished top.

Then I made it bigger. At first, it came out to about 83'' by 103''. It seemed like such a funny size, and a few more inches meant it would cover our king size bed nicely, with extra quilt for snuggling. So I added another 11'' on one short end. It seemed totally crazy to make it even bigger, but felt right. And seeing as making this was a form of therapy it only made sense to make it the way that felt right.

This quilt began at Quilt Con last year. I was lucky enough to get a spot in Denyse Schmidt's Improv class. See more about that experience here.

About 6 months ago I made some more blocks with the scraps I had from the class and new fabrics I added at home. Then I packed them all up and they joined my WIPs. My thirty something WIPs. It was such a thrill to pull them out and put them upon the design wall. More of a thrill to get to playing again. Every night last week, after the kidlets were in bed, I entered my studio and exhaled.

Play, play, and more play. Then I totally took advantage of my time with a part time babysitter. Deadlines met for the week, I took a whole day to get the top together. Another couple of hours at night and it was done. Then another hour to add that final strip. 

Sometimes I look at the top and think it is a hot mess. And other times I get giddy with all the little bits that pop out at me. It may be a king size quilt, but there are so many tiny scraps in there. Big and small, they all play together. I do love the way it looks, but I think this quilt's value to me is definitely in the process.

Now, hopefully I can find that value when it comes to basting it.

Circles Inside a Pieced Background

More circles going on here. Shocker!

Someone in my Craftsy class asked about doing inset circles inside pieced backgrounds. I promised to try and let them know how it worked. What a fun experiment! I took leftover blocks from the Denyse Schmidt class at QuiltCon. No one claimed these early improv efforts and I couldn't let them go to waste. I took them with no plan and here they are.

As you can see, the blocks were not the same size. I created a random circle template and used it on both blocks. So the circle is the same size, but that's it. I'll likely trim things down and sew the blocks together. After I make more, of course.

And, for the record, it totally works to use a pieced block as the background. 

Just Sit Down

There are times in life when we need to push ourselves, when the teacher becomes a student, when the one who can't top talking needs to shut up and sew. This pillow serves a reminder to me to do all of that.

After my two days of teaching at QuiltCon I had the pleasure to take some classes. The pillow is the end result of my class with Yoshiko Jinjenzi. I jumped at the chance to take a class with her, even though I wasn't thrilled about making a pillow with sheer fabric. Whatever, it was Yoshiko Jinjenzi.

Turns out we were making a project from her book, Quilting Line and Color. I have the book, I constantly pull it out and drool, but I've never been inclined to make anything. The instructions seem fussy and overly complex. Well, this pillow was actually dead easy to make. We had a total of 5 minutes of instruction from Yoshiko and then we set to making.

As our first step we got to go and dig through scraps to create our own bits and bobs to highlight on the pillow. Every single person in the class had to resist the urge to squirrel away extra fabric. We were cutting little bits so it was quite fun to think about this fabrics on a very small scale.

After we picked our fabric, cut them to whatever size and shape we wanted, and laid them out on this gold fabric she provided we layered it with a sheer gauze. Some basting stitches to hold everything in place then we set to quilting the heck out of that sandwich.

That is, when we weren't crowded around her fondling the quilts she shared. It was half pillow class, half trunk show. But it was when she was showing her quilts that you saw the potential of this layering technique. Something I was quite easily dismissing at the beginning of the class suddenly provided inspiration. Of course, the intricacy of her work and the extreme attention to finishing details might have also had something to do with it.

In the end, I did get my pillow almost done. Despite the distractions of the quilts and my neighbours Marianne and Leanne and my SIL (way to represent Alberta in Austin!) All but the actually turning it into a pillow. Just as soon as I could I turned it into a finished project, minus the tassels. I knew that if I let it sit it would never get done.

This pillow is so far removed from anything I would normally make, from something I would likely every make again. Gold? Sheer? A Pillow? But it serves as a good reminder for me to just shut and sew sometimes. And for that reason it will keep a place of honour in my heart, if not my room.

It's Good Here

My ladies (and one guy - hi David!) rocked it in the two Perfect Circles classes at QuiltCon. Such committed participation, consumption of chocolate, choruses of 80s ballads, and a collection of circles. I had a great time teaching, a seriously great time. I hope all my students felt the same. And my volunteers were incredible.

QuiltCon was a fantastic event. The Modern Quilt Guild, especially Heather, did a wonderful job putting on a big show. A quilt show, merchant mall, classes, lectures, and more don't come together without a heck of a lot of work - hard work - and loads of dedication. It was a committed team that pulled it together and an amazing group of volunteers that delivered.

One of my favourite moments of the entire event was listening to a lady scream on the phone to a friend about this amazing show she was at. The lady had merely wandered in from the RV Show going on in the next exhibition hall, but she was staying and exclaiming her delight at the quilts. She said she wanted to go home and learn how to quilt RIGHT NOW after seeing that quilts could be so much more than what she thought they had to be.

Indeed.

It was a busy weekend between teaching, taking classes, and yes, drinking beer. I never got to a single lecture, missed an entire aisle of the merchant mall, and only saw the show in it's entirety the last half hour it was open. There was a book signing and quite a few gentle hugs. And a lot of neon one night. There was the chance for longer conversations with friends, old and new, yet some missed ones as well. For those of us working in this industry it was nice to be here, in a much more relaxed environment, compared to Market. Spending time at meetings talking about real life instead of contracts and pitching ideas. It's still work, but we had the chance to breathe a bit more. 

Of course, that may have had something to do with being in Austin.

11 months

Just sitting in the airport, my kids at home. There is an ache in my breast that is more than my heart. Yesterday was the last day I nursed my baby boy, my little man.

Don't get me wrong, I am beyond thrilled to be headed to Austin. Hubby is by my side (wondering why I'm blogging on our layover). The kids are home with Baba in baking heaven. I get to wear necklaces again, like mine from here and here. And I'm going to QuiltCon. Hello!?

But I nursed my baby boy for the last time yesterday. We shared a fleeting moment in the pre-dawn light, our last gathering in the dark, skin to skin. I can't admit to loving nursing, but I have loved the relationship it builds. That I am so needed, that we have something no one else can lay claim to. But he's a mobile, curious creature now. He's got more important things to check out (like his sisters) and greater things to eat. 

Seriously greater things, he has well earned his nickname of The Garbage Truck.

So I kissed him softly in the middle of the night as we tiptoed out of the house on our way to airport. If you see me this weekend, hug me gently or just slap my butt, because there is an ache in my breast.

Circles Everywhere - QuiltCon Prep

Phew. Finished my QuiltCon prep with less than 48 hours to spare. It might not have been that stressful if I hadn't decided to make all new samples for my class. If you're in my class be prepared to be overrun with circle blocks! Despite the work tossed around and in between school, dance classes, naps, and swimming lessons I had a lot of fun. Circles are just awesome. I may have mentioned that before.

It was great to just get in my fabric and play. Some wonderful colour combinations, finally using up some of my treasured text prints., and even cutting into my Indian cottons. I do hope that the students in my class appreciate the effort.

My QuiltCon schedule looks something like this:

Wednesday - Leave ridiculously early for the airport so we don't get stuck in customs like we did when we went to Spring Market. Fly. Eat BBQ, compare to Kansas City.
Thursday - Teach Perfect Circles. Drink Beer. MQG Leaders Meet-up. See the bats at the bridge.
Friday - Teach Perfect Circles. Convince my husband to wear the Adidas track suit I got him for the 80s party.
Saturday - Yoshiko Jinzenji pillow class. Lunch and catch part of the show and lectures. Lotta Jansdotter Printing class. Drink beer. Hang with my SIL and her Mom too.
Sunday - Denyse Schmidt Improv class. Book signing in the Stash Books booth 1 pm. Back to class. Drink Beer.

Of course, this schedule, particularly the beer drinking part, is highly dependent on my husband. Despite his terrible experience at Market he is coming to another major quilting event with me. I know it's because he loved everyone he met so much, and not the possibility of beer, BBQ, and visiting the new F1 track. Or because we are travelling without our kids.

If you see me in Austin feel free to accost me and say hello. I am loud and brash, but very friendly.

Full Circle Announcement

Look at those pretty circles. All sorts of Liberty goodness in my not-quite-patented process.

These are being whipped together courtesy of the new Liberty Lifestyle fabrics and my impending teaching schedule. I've got a Perfect Circles class coming up and guess where it is?

I am beyond excited to join the faculty at Quilt Con. Such esteemed company (Lotta Jansdotter, Denyse Schmidt, Jacquie Gering, Lizzy House, and more!) and what looks like to be an amazing event. You can come and take half and full day workshops, attend lectures, see a couple of quilt shows, and even shop.

My Perfect Circles class runs twice over the course of the event. We will run through all manner of circle techniques - from sizing, creating, placing, and sewing your circles. Circles, circles, everywhere! And we all know how I love my circles.

See the complete line-up here. Registration opens August 30, 2012.

And big thanks to Stash Books for sponsoring my class!