Jaime's Quilt

This is why I save scraps.  Take a look at Jaime's quilt...a perfect example of the magic of a scrap quilt.  I wish it were mine.

House Hunting and Modern Quilting...a Parallel

After we sold our house in Kansas I started cruising houses online.  I would open house even if I wasn't looking for a home.   I thrive on seeing how others decorate, organize and lay out their homes.  It's so great to not have to get dressed or get in a car and still see hundreds of homes. My favorite time to walk Bruno is at dusk when I can see inside people's homes.  It's dark enough to see inside, but right before they need to pull their curtains to get some privacy.  I'm a house peeper.

As I'm looking for a place to live, I have a picture in my mind of the perfect place.  It's modern, minimal, open, but with character.  The more I look, the more I've come to a place where a house carries an aesthetic with it.  Sure the decor makes a difference, but the bones of a house have an aesthetic as well.  Modern is not simply built today, it's a specific, definable aesthetic.

So what does looking for houses have to do with modern quilting?  Maybe it's a stretch, but I think about quilting all the time and there are a couple of things that I hear repeated often in the quilting community that I don't agree with and my house search has clarified a couple of those for me.

"There is nothing new in quilting."
I see this phrase all the time and I think the opposite.  There are new things in quilting all the time and I believe that modern quilting is contributing to the options available to us as quilters.  There are new designs, new techniques, new tools, and new ways to run a guild.  It's like in homes, there are sinks in every kitchen and bathroom, but new shapes, sizes, materials, variations and installations are fresh and add to the "sink culture." It's still a sink, but in its own way it's new.  In every art we borrow from or are inspired by the the past and reinvent, revise or tweek to make something new.  That new ideas are being added to the "culture of quilting" is a wonderful sign that the art and craft of quilting is vital and growing. Quilting has a rich and varied history and tradition and isn't is wonderful that we as modern quilters are a part of that.

"Modern simply means made today."
I looked at a house that is new construction, in fact it wasn't even finished yet, but there was nothing modern about it.  From the layout, to the choice of windows, trim and fixtures, it wasn't the modern aesthetic.  While I'm not sure we are finished defining the modern quilt movement and what a modern quilt is, I do believe modern is an aesthetic.  Some houses have elements of modern combined with elements from other styles.  I think it's the same with our quilts....I believe there is such a thing as a modern quilt.  That doesn't mean a modern quilt can't have a link with the past and that their aren't variations on modern.  It also doesn't mean that one is better than the other...they're different.  It's ok to be different.

Some folks tend to see defining a modern quilt as limiting, I see it as freeing, as an opportunity to push further and explore new ideas. Quilters don't have to identify themselves, I choose to, but that doesn't mean I reject other styles.  My hope is to see quilting continue to evolve and change and develop more styles.  When I read these words I see pictures of each in my mind: Amish quilting, crazy quilting, traditional quilting, modern quilting...the possibilities are endless.

The pictures have nothing to do with this post, but a post without pictures....boring!  I've been doing some experimenting with matchstick quilting trying to develop a method that will work with my home machine on large quilts.  I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

Scrap Organization

I make a lot of scraps from making lots of quilts and from doing lots of experimentation.  Scraps can get out of control and at least in my studio can tend to overwhelm my space.  Though I don't have a lot of storage space, I have a scrap organization system that works for me.  It's simple and allows me to find the right scraps when I need them.  I used this same system back in Kansas, but I had to downsize it a bit to fit the space I'm in now.

I keep this box on a shelf next to my cutting table. As I cut I pop any usable size scrap into this box.  I keep scrunching it down with my hand...you'd be surprised how many scraps can fit in a small bucket.

Eventually though, it gets full and overflows onto the shelf, the table and ultimately the floor.  That's when I know it's sorting time.

 I have a set of small laundry baskets that fit perfectly into my shelving system.  I used to have one for each color, one for solids, and one for selvages.  I don't have that much room any longer, so I combined colors into single baskets.

I dump out my collection bucket and sort the scraps into their color groups.  Right now I have six baskets:  selvages, neutrals, purple/gray, red/pink, green/blue, and orange/yellow.  When I need scraps of a certain color, I pull down the basket and grab what I need.  Easy peasy.

I also save scraps with a particular fabric when there is enough of that fabric folded in my shelves.  I put any scraps left from using that fabric tucked inside of the folded yardage.

I can store it neatly on my shelf and find particular scraps easily without having to cut into more yardage if I only need a few small pieces.

This system helps me keep track of my scraps making them easy to use without lots of effort.

Flea Market Fancy Legacy...Have you gotten yours?

Available at Marmalade now....this is selling fast, so don't wait, don't hesitate...shop now!

The Traveling Quilts

I'm participating with a bunch of great quilters in a bee/round robin type event called The Traveling Quilts. We started this month. It works like this. 11 quilters, 11 journals, 12 months, and what comes back to me is a finished quilt with my start, the additions of 10 friends and one friend who quilts and binds my quilt before it comes back to me. How great is that!

Monica, aka Happy Zombie, made us each our own personalized button for the group.

This is part of the start for my quilt that I sent to Faith.  I didn't get pictures of the final set!  Dang camera batteries! The only caveat for my quilt is color...I want all the colors of the rainbow in this quilt.  We only get to see sneak peaks along the way, so it'll be a year before I get to see what happens to these pieces and read the journal that documents the journey of this quilt.

Low Volume

One of the things I learned from Yoshiko Jinzenji's book is that simple shapes and simple piecing can create wonderful quilts. While I'm not close to her exquisite work with simple shapes, I do love creating that way.  This quilt is all about placement of values.  The dark in this quilt is Kona ash, which in many quilts acts as a light.  It also has Kona pale flesh, a subtle gray/white stripe, Kona white and Kona snow which together create this subtle, low volume quilt.

This is one of the quilts that I gave Angela to use for her book on machine quilting and it came back in the mail all quilted up. Genius again!  I can't wait to get my hands on her book.

I haven't seen it for so long, I forgot how much I liked it. So funny that it's so much the same as this quilt...just different shapes.

I'm glad I took the time to do a bias binding.  I love stripes on the bias.

I'm kinda in love with the back as much as the front.

It's that amazing Jay McCarroll Habitat fabric.  I adore that fabric.  My youngest son, Jon, loves the back of this quilt too...and as he told me, "The back is WAY better than the front."

This one will be donated to the BASIC's program as soon as I have a nice full box to send.  I hope some little girl who likes pink gets this one.

Three Little Quilts

These three little quilts will be making their way to the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative with the group coming from the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  There are going to be a whole bunch of great little quilts added to the sale list soon.  This is a great guild service project.  Making the quilts doesn't take a whole lot of time, but a bit of an investment pays off in a big way.

From left to right:  Sands of Time, Life is a Circle, and Not Lost in the Woods.

Thanks for all the kind words about the book.  It's exciting to know that other quilters are interested and willing to buy it.  I'm beyond thrilled.  On a side note, the book has made its way into the Top 100 in the Crafts/Hobbies category on Amazon.  I don't have a clue what that means, but for now I'm thinking it's a good thing.  

It's Real...it's really real!!

Interweave overnighted an advance copy of the book to me on Thursday. It's hard to find the words to tell you how it feels to hold your book for the first time.  I will tell you I was shaking when I opened the package! Pretty awesome, a bit humbling, and kinda jaw dropping.  It's even better because it's everything I wanted it to be.  It's heavy too.  176 pages of quilty goodness.  21 projects...2 sets of pillows, placemats, a table runner and quilts...17 of them.

I wanted it to be beautiful.  It is.  Interweave put in all those little touches that make a difference.  I won't share much of the inside of the book today.  You'll see plenty of that later.

As with any project like this, there was a great team behind Katie and I.  I can't thank them enough!

The best part, my friend Kate was here when the book arrived so she shared the joy of opening that package.  My new friend Tricia came over and let me gush over the book to her, and I got to share the book and my enthusiasm with my new Chicago Modern Quilt Guild friends yesterday afternoon.  Life is definitely good.

It's due to arrive in the warehouse at Interweave, April 2nd.  You can pre-order it on Amazon and see a peek inside too, in case you want to see a bit more.  I hope you all will love it as much as I do.

The Bruno Chronicles - I am A Giant Basting Pin

Guest Blogger: Bruno

Hi folks! In case you didn't know this about me, I am a quilter too.

Jacquie really couldn't do any of this without me.

Don't I make a great giant basting pin?

Well, maybe I'm not so great at basting, but I did remind her that this quilt needed some batting. What would she do without me?

PS  Pet hair on quilts is a design element.

Quilt In Miniature

For the Alzheimer Quilt Initiative I decided to make one of my quilts in miniature. I used Cloud 9's organic solid in earth, Bella solid stone, and Kona pale flesh. I wanted sophisticated, neutral colors.

Not Lost in the Woods is the large version.  It has elongated wonky log cabin blocks.  It's one of my all time favorites.

The blocks in the tiny version are 4" x 5".  I think I'm going to add the dark border like I did in the original quilt, but it can't be any larger than 9" x 12" when it's done.

It's been fun working in miniature and with this design. I think I need to make another large version of this quilt.