Reconstruction no.1

Reconstruction no.1 was a true exercise in creativity for me. It's the first time I ever worked with denim, (in a quilt) and I had to exercise a few brain muscles on this one.

First I didn't want there to be a lot of bulky seams, so I kept most of the seams open and raw edged, securing them with zig-zag stitching.


Secondly, I was unprepared for how the twill weave on some of the pieces would prevent me from having an easy time quilting... the more I quilted the more some of these areas stretched and expanded, leaving me with long ridges and channels of excess fabric. Unlike the old quilting adage, "you can quilt it out" meaning the more you quilt the flatter the fabric will become, I found that the more I quilted the worse things got.

I don't know if it is because I am a big fan of "Project Runway" of if it was because I was using old denim pants, but I kept hearing the voice of Tim Gunn in my head, repeating his mantra, "Make it work!"
So I did!...


I cut long slashes where the fabric ran in raised gopher-made-like trails, and inserted red printed japanese fabric strips behind. Then I turned the raw denim edges in and carefully stitched things down.


I added an applique patch in one other problem area, and then scattered a few more all around the quilt to balance things out visually.


And I also added lots of big, red embroidered stitches through out... just for good measure....




and intentionally included certain naturally occurring imperfections found in the recycled denim, as honestly that is what drew me to wanting to work with it in the first place.


And when I was done, I found that the "problems" I had encountered and my solutions to them, ultimately created a quilt that was much more rich and interesting then anything I had originally set out to do. (But as for working with denim again... not so sure about that... we will see!)


Reconstruction no.1 is available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Small String Study

In an on going effort to use up my leftover scraps, I have begun making little quilts such as the one shown here.

I always have left over strips, and small pieces of batting laying around, and they lend themselves wonderfully for making little "string" pieced quilts, which give me a fun and safe place to explore line, color interaction and various stitching ideas.

Plus I love to work on a small scale!


Expect to see more of these sprinkled here and there on my blog and in my shop, as they are a bit like eating potato chips, you can't just stop at one, (truth be told, when it comes to potato chips, I could easily eat a whole bag without even blinking!)

This Small String Study Art Quilt measures 8 1/4" x 15 3/4". Perfect size for a small space that needs a little something!

Note: This quilt has been sold.

Building an Improvised Quilt

Last month, when I finally got to see the quilts of Gee's Bend up close and in person, I was most delighted and energized to see how freely the quilts had been built. The Gee's Bend Ladies sometimes compare constructing a quilt to building a house. Lots of the quilts began with a square or rectangular piece of fabric. This would be the base, or foundation of the house. Strips, (like walls) are added to all of the sides. And from there more is added... a bit of this and a bit of that... building the quilt up... no pattern... everything improvised.


This made perfect sense to me, because I never work from a pattern, they completely confuse, and I admit, bore me! (At times, when working with different publishers, I have had to create patterns for pieces that I have already made, drawing up diagrams and writing step by step directions on how to make one of my pieces. This always makes me feel a bit awkward because it is so contrary to how my mind actually works.)


Keeping those Gee's Bend quilts in mind, (specifically the one's which started with a basic squarish shape) I began to construct this Flower Garden Art Quilt. I decided to only use scraps of fabric which were left over from some previous projects, and made a pact with myself that once the scraps were used up, I would stop... and that's just what I did!


I started with the center square, next added on the strips, and just kept building and adding until my scraps were used up.


I also noticed upon observing the Gee's Bend quilts, that the hand quilting on the pieces were often done in arcs. I decided to also quilt this piece in arc shapes, but used machine quilting, as that's what I perfer.


This is the back of the quilt. You can really see the quilting here. I just use my regular sewing machine and a walking foot, (a special foot that helps all of the layers feed evenly through the feed dogs.)

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I would absolutely love to see the creativity that could come from every sewer if patterns were thrown out! Just imagine the wonderful array of originality in design and construction that would be unleashed on the world!

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NOTE: As I was writing up this blog post, Jacquie over at TallGrass Prairie Studio was on a similar train of thought and had already posted the day before about her great idea Project Improv, a quilting collaboration that shares in and supports the efforts, process and results of those wanting to make improvised quilts of any size! Each participant is encouraged to make a project for themselves and to also make and send in a 12.5" improvised log cabin block from one of 3 selected color combos. The individual blocks are to be sewn into quilts and donated to charity. I think this project is a great idea, and I will be participating in the challenge and donating a block in Orange and Pink. I encourage anyone else who is interested to go to Jacquie's blog and join in on the fun! (Last I checked I believe she already had over 70 people respond to her post!)