What is Quilting to Me?
When I talk about quilting to most Americans, I preface the conversation with “I am a fabric artist” or something similar. Why do I do this? Because the word “quilting” brings up prairie dresses, polyester fabrics (60s-70s), lumpy quilts tied with yarn, and other cheesy elements of “crafting”. People raised here in the states seem to have a negative image of handmade and handcrafted items. Sure, there’s a small percentage that make money on the art, and things like Amish quilts are sought after and valued – monetarily as well. However, my art (fabric) rates below painting, wood crafting and even jewelry making.
I tried to sell quilts at craft shows a couple times. I had some small pieces (crib sized) that were six inch squares, some embroidered, and they were quilted and bound – quality pieces. The fabric was all 100% cotton, the batting was “warm and white” cotton batting and I use good thread. If I were to buy all the materials retail, I estimated $40-50. I priced the quilts at $60-80, depending upon how much embroidery and other touches. Basically, my labor was at a couple dollars an hour. These were fun pieces that I’d made and I was more interested in testing the market and building a following than anything else.
People looked at them and acted shocked at the price. One woman even told me that she could get a whole crib set at Wal-mart for $40! That’s what my hand work was compared to – sweat shop labor created goods at a big box store. Never again.
Recently, I discovered that one of my Indian friends from work was reading this blog! I didn’t expect a non-American male to have any interest. He referred to my pieces pictured here as “thread work” and some other more art terms. This was fascinating to me; this gave me an ability to take a step back and even look at my own work with a different eye. I’m jaded from the “cheesy homemade look” perception of quilting and I needed that fresh perspective to get out of the rut.
So to answer my question – quilting to me is an exercise to try and get the creativity I feel inside me out to the world in a visual form. I have a style, but I don’t have a style. I remember art class in High School. I went to a private school, so we actually had art classes that taught techniques. We were constantly given new ways to do things, and strict rules on colors, shapes, etc., to force us to work outside our paradigm. The lessons held well with me.
Challenges
I love quilt challenges…. I seek them out. They are the best way to work outside my box and do something I would not normally do. I’ve done four (five if you count scrap tamers) and am currently working on a fifth/sixth.
Number 1: This was a fat quarter challenge* from my quilt group. The theme of the challenge was “reach for the stars” so I made a double/queen sized quilt that is all stars. It is an original pattern. The fabric given was a gold and black fabric. (see closeup)
* In a fat quarter challenge, you are given a fat quarter and you can do ANYTHING with it – any size piece, quilt or other item, and use any other fabrics.
Number 2: This was another fat quarter challenge from my group. This time I made a purse. This was another original pattern. The challenge fabric is the black fabric with all the little pieces/jewels/etc., on it. I also made a wristlet and a key fob to out of my scraps!
Number 3: This is the debated one, and the only one I don’t have a picture of. I gave it to my father, so I just need to go over there and take one someday…. This wasn’t so much a challenge, but a mystery quilt. Each month, we were given a block or several smaller blocks to make and in the end put them all together, along with some sashing and bordering, to make a lap sized quilt. I actually added another row all the way around and made mine up to a small double bed sized. The challenge part of it for me was that I used fall colors – a palate of brown, orange, rust, etc. – that really aren’t my colors at all. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it turned out. It matched nothing in my house, but my father has orange as a primary color in his living room so I figured it would be a great couch quilt for him.
Number 4: This was yet another fat quarter challenge from my group. I made a twin sized quilt. The challenge fabric is the black/red/grey wavy fabric in the center of some of the squares.
Number 5: Another challenge from my group, but NOT a fat quarter challenge. We were given two color crayons, and could use fabrics matching those and black and/or white fabric. I was rather disappointed in the challenge overall because I feel that strictness of guidelines was not adhered to. Me, I took it quite seriously! My color crayons were pink and purple – two colors I would NOT put together much, especially with only each other and black and white. I also used both black and white fabric. I quilted with black and white threads (in different spots) and used white batting, instead of the natural color I usually use! The pink is pretty visible in the pictures, but the purple is sort of hard to see. Trust me, it works well. This is not an original pattern.
Number 6: I signed up for and bought the challenge pack from the Minnesota Quilter’s guild. I’m scared. This one looks harder. There are two fabrics, both black and white fabrics, in different amounts. You have to use “recognizable amounts” of each in the quilt top. You can also use black, white, black and white and one color fabrics. The color I got, which is represented by a fabric marker in the pack, is a darker green. AND – here’s the rub – you have to use that fabric marker to embellish the quilt. Ok, that’s the part that has me quaking… I don’t do free hand anything!
I’ve started working on an original pattern and I’m doing a test of it with different colors. I’ve got the center piece done, and it’s going well. I think I need to reduce the scale however – the quilt may turn out too big to work with for a challenge. I’ll post later about it.
Other Current Challenge to Myself
Last in today’s diatribe is a self challenge that I’m doing. My guidelines to myself are to 1. Use a fabric I bought at Nancy’s Notion’s show in a predominant manner and 2. Buy nothing (2a is use up smaller pieces in my stash that I won’t use for anything else.
First – the main fabric. This is a batik that I bought at the show. I don’t normally care for batiks much. I don’t find them as fascinating at some do, and I think that they are generally too expensive to do much with. I also tend to make quilts with lots of little pieces. Batiks are pricier and much of it seems to be lost when you chop them up small. However, when I was perusing the fabrics at the show, this gorgeous piece of fabric just called out to me… it also was 108” wide… and almost $20 a yard… *sigh*. I bought a big chunk of it and then brought it home, stared at it, and said “what now?”.
I dug into my stash and pulled out all those fat quarters, skinny fats, half yards and a yard piece or two of fabrics that I’ve wound up with from gifts, sale lots, etc., that seemed to be complimentary to the focus fabric.
Here’s where I am so far: (sorry, the pictures are awful - taken with my ipad, on the living room floor, late at night)
The blocks are 14 ½ inches (14 inches finished). I’m also making a bunch of smaller blocks – same design – where four of them will square up to a block the same size (14 inches). I’ll them randomly put them all together into a quilt that will be 84 x 112 inches. I’ll post pictures when I get it done.
Checklist:
· Focus fabric very visible? Yes, 6 inch blocks and 2 ½ inch strips allow it to be seen
· Lots of purple? Yes
· Scrappy look? Yes
· Not a cheesy home made look? Yes
· Outside my normal paradigm? Yes (all batiks)
· New and unique design for me? Sort of – all batiks is new, but the block design is not.
· Stash reduction goal achieved? Yes, used up several smaller pieces in stash
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