Patchwork Improv "Floating Squares"

First project in the Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is a challenge to set aside the usual modern quilter's tools and get back to a more intuitive use of scissors and build from a two sets of pre-cut squares. The assembly begins with a third color as the "filler"  to make these pre-cut squares fit together into larger and larger blocks. It was suggested one begin with a limited amount of fabric for each color and an unlimited amount of filler fabric to make it work until you ran out of squares.

 

I chose all solid fabrics which is a popular choice with modern quilters and I haven't done much work with pure solid color fabrics. I was always drawn to the tiny print calico style fabrics for it's interesting visual textures, but I am learning to use both and wanted to be pure in my first attempt at doing a Score from the Handbook. I used Kona Solids: Cinnamon and Chartreuse and Lilac as the filler color.  It worked out rather nicely I thought and I quit assembling them when I had three blocks that were about the same size. The total wasn't big enough for anything but a new born infant quilt so I decided to choose a second set of colors to work that would mimic my first set but be different. 

Next color selection was Salmon pink, dark Magenta and Silver gray for the filler.

Once those were joined up I took a third set of Turquoise, Orange-yellow and used Corn yellow as my filler.

 

Then I had enough to make a throw quilt top and started trying to figure out how to join them all together. It was an interesting project but I found in the end I didn't care much for the three sets together.

I was surprised at how easy it was to cut and sew fabric in straight edged shapes not using a ruler which is actually how I began before I had a set of rotary cutters and rulers and mats. In the future I will decide on all the fabrics going into a project before I get into a mix up like this one was.

finished top "Floating Squares" 43"x 56" 

a new journal

Today I want to tell you about and show a new patchwork piecing project this month. It is a cover for a coptic bound journal. I use them to write in and sketch ideas for new quilting projects. Last year I made a pair of patchwork improvisation blocks using some of the scraps from my big Orange Explains It quilt scraps. Compared to the regular book cloth covered coptic bound journal this was clearly fun and interesting to do but extra time intensive. That is because to make a cover with fabric one has to add a paper backing to the cloth patchwork before gluing to the book cover boards. Double the glue work but doubly unique in the final book covers.

Orange Explains It scrappy Coptic bound book 

After I completed this first book I gave it to Keith for Christmas and figured I would make myself another one in the winter. It never happened until now but recently I finished up a big quilt top using two tones of orange and had scraps that were long strips and by adding them together and cutting them I got a new type of scrappy quilt block for my next book. See images below of the new cover...

Inside this new journal I added some wrapping paper we bought last year at that great paper source store in Georgetown with various feathers printed for my end pages. I like to use a heavy Strathmore paper for my fly pages in this case darker orange. I also had orange beeswax coated linen binder's thread to finish up the orange theme. While sewing I decided not to add glass beads to the spine but to use a soft paper and insert a little yellow-green or chartreuse over the two center folios for some colorful interest on the spine. 

In the back ground there you can see the big copy press I have on my studio desk. That is how I get the paper and glued fabric to stay pressed flat before and after I apply it to the book cover boards. It's a very heavy tool but a great one to have. 

A friend on Instagram asked about the needle I use. It is a bend binder's needle in this case one that I bent myself a trick I learned at my first class in Coptic book making with Daniel Essig years ago at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center when it used to be in Riverdale, MD. We plan to have a fabric block printing workshop for quilters at the current Pyramid Atlantic home in Silver Spring, MD next January 2016 for DC Modern Quilt Guild members. So here are a few images of my process as I built the book. 

detail of the first 6 signatures sewn in place with orange thread and chartreuse paper over the spines of two signatures. 

look closely to see the bent binders needle is tucked under the thread which is all that holds the coptic journal together. 

book assembly is one signature at a time added using a single tread and needle.

Modern Log Cabin Quilt finish 2014

I began the year 2014 with a quilting theme, the Log Cabin. It is a very traditional pattern I have always admired so when I got a request for a tiny 4 inch log cabin block from my modern quilt guild to add to a member's new baby quilt I thought it was time for me to try log cabins in my own quilts.

the first four inch log cabin block for the guild's baby quilt.
The finished quilt with baby Vivian can be seen here: Jessie Aller's Flickr

 I also listened to a new thing called a Webinar presented to the Modern Quilt Guild which said that modern quilt design is full of neutral areas that work against bold new colors. Naturally, orange came to mind as my favorite bold color to begin with and I found this red, orange and purple mixed print fabric really appealed. I also liked the notion of using mixed whites and neutral colors that almost blend to be one tone but are not quite a solid field. At first I just played with the colors and fabrics learning how to build the log cabins and what contrasts I liked making in the combinations.

I used oranges and purples to build a series as well as white and off white with gray. As I worked with the blocks and learned the formula it felt like I had too many different colors in my blocks. I eventually  pulled out the purple and orange log cabins and kept making those 5.5 inch squares until I completed enough to build the smaller "log cabin quilt" I finished in May...

 Determined to create a large quilt with this log cabin theme I held on to the gray,

mixed whites and orange blocks and experimented with scale of the strips in the blocks. Instead of just one inch strips I began making a mix of one, two and three inch strips to achieve a larger block scaled to assemble together in an improvisational group. At this stage the felt wall was really important to lay out the various blocks and see where I was headed before I began assembling the different blocks into an overall design.

Along the way I discovered an antique quilt on Pintrest which was called a Triple Bar Log Cabin.  This one appeared to be a slightly rectangular shape and I began using it in an off shoot to keep having fun. I played with a broader spectrum of colors which cried out to me as the orange, gray and mixed whites project was accumulating enough blocks to cover a queen sized bed.

antique triple bar log cabin quilt photo from Pintrest 

My first triple bar log cabin block using a red-orange center to represent fire in the hearth.

This triple bar log cabin finish I called the Cantilever Cabins quilt thinking of the cool new buildings that use prefabricated rectangular cubes or steel shipping containers stacked up to make buildings in modern architecture. It was a very colorful finish that really tickled my fancy. To do the hand quilting I used some near matching multicolor pearl cottons to add an extra layer of color. The neutral blocks really added a modern feel to the finish as the Modern Quilt Guild Webinar had instructed.

Still I had this big set of blocks waiting to come together and I plugged along playing over and over with the various ways to combine the quilt blocks and create a modern design. It is a real struggle to set these designs and commit to the arrangement. The variations were only limited by my own taste. In the end I had too many blocks and pulled some blocks that didn't fit in well, out. This became another kind of Neutral block with pink log cabin quilt. The Untitled Log Cabin creation was fun and finished next as I got closer to the big quilt finish.

All along the queen sized finish was getting closer. It was time to make up my mind how big and how the layout was going to be set and sewn down. On the felt wall I tried symmetry then asymmetry... square and rectangular formats all working around the one big orange and gray block  from the beginning seen in the center below. 

I decided on a big 88 inch square format to fit my sleigh bed. But I wanted to add lots more orange-gray blocks to the mix feeling for a need to see more color in the large field of paler neutrals. It is filled with rich wool batting and backed with a white on white print then hand quilted with ecru pearl cotton #8. That means it was going to take a while to complete. Once I determined the shape, all three layers went together fast and the quilting spiral was marked in a day. It was ready to begin the hand quilting. Using a hoop of 18 inches I find it is easier to do the center sections where grabbing by hand alone is a little difficult.   As I work the lines of quilting towards the edges I abandon the hoop and just hold the three layers with no frame. 

Lucky for me that the summer wasn't hot as it usually is, so I could endure working under all that wool and cotton fabric for long evenings in front of the TV. In the end I added a binding of orange and made a white label for the back. Now I am having difficulty photographing such a big quilt at home. I need another DC Modern quilt guild meeting at the large Arlington Library where we made finished quilt photos last year using our professional photo set up to get a really nice finished quilt photos for our portfolio and blog posts. In the meantime here is the quilt pinned to my bedroom felt wall and a few other detail finished quilt photos... 

With this quilt I think I am about to finish the log cabin series but there are still some strips of orange and white laying on the pile of left overs I cut so who knows maybe there is another little block or two of log cabin waiting to find form. That fire red orange color is a recurring theme in my quilting work. The hand quilting was done in a squared spiral beginning in the biggest orange block radiating out to the edges at two inch row intervals. 

Last night we slept under the orange explains it quilt  and the big log cabin seen in this photo. It was toasty warm with the layers of wool and cotton piled high. Ending the year of log cabins I am ready to move on to something with a new challenge. Curves are calling to me to come play in 2015. Happy new year! 

Blue Hungarian Fabric Quilt Finish

In 2013 the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the national mall hosted a big beautiful display of Hungarian crafts and folk arts for two weeks. Keith and I went and enjoyed it about four days out of the ten that they were there performing for our education and entertainment. My younger sister is married to a great guy who's parents both immigrated from Hungry during the Soviet era to the midwest. Elizabeth his mom was so excited that this cultural event was coming and wanted to go so badly but her poor health at the time made the trip here to Washington DC in the heat of July impossible. That's why I went and dug into the events so fully to collect pictures and memories to send to her and to learn more for myself. I remember it as being an excellent cultural experience. One full of so many different crafts and songs and dances unlike most countries we see at the festival in DC there is a very strong youth cultural education model in Hungry. They have folk dancing clubs and all this great fun stuff for teens to do that American teens don't have.  Earlier this year Elizabeth sent me a surprise package in the mail. Inside were a couple yards of  beautiful hand made blue Hungarian fabric, printed with a tiny dot design of white flowers and strings of dots. 

Elizabeth's blue and white Hungarian fabric gift.

It is handmade in Hungry and I had seen the same type of fabric being made at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It is a resist process where the crafts people, after making a hand made wire block, dip the block in a resist type waxy substance and hand print it onto white fabric. Then the whole length of fabric is dyed blue and the resist holds out the dye everywhere it was printed on the white fabric. Voila, a blue field covered with delicate white designs. The woman presenting the process said it takes her husband about three months to make a new block from wood and copper wires, seen in the first photo below. They use a waxy resist which is turquoise colored in this picture below and you can see the print of turquoise wax mixture on the white fabric as well as the results after the fabric is dyed blue. 

The color of blue is a delicious rich blue and was seen around the festival in a few different places. This handsome young folk dancer was wearing a big shirt and wide legged trousers with a heavy wool coat of a shepherd and later a woolen suit jacket when he danced for us... he sweat up a storm in the heat of Washington DC July afternoon. I was very inspired by all the young performers who were the best in Hungry after winning a "Hungry's most talented folk performers" TV show contest of 2012. They were amazing. Getting some of this beautiful fabric was a dream come true so I set to work making a new quilt soon as I figured out a block I wanted to try.  

 I finished making it from the fabric sent by Elizabeth Poti in a modern jumbled pinwheel design. It's 46 inches square now after washing. I called it Blue Hungarian as I expect Elizabeth is a little blue being so far from her home culture, living in Iowa. I will be displaying my quilts for sale at the Middleburg Arts Project gallery December 5th-30th, 2014 Reception is Friday Dec. 12th 5-8 PM and the following day  "meet the artists" event Saturday Dec. 13th from 2-5 PM. The gallery will also have work by two other very different quilting artists I am looking forward to meeting.

Blue Hungarian is 46x46 inches all cotton hand quilted white and blue #8 pearl cotton. 

back of the quilt showing the diamond quilting and the huge pinwheel in blue and white.

Quilt Show

I was lucky to see a post on Facebook that reminded me I could spend this past Saturday admiring quilts by the Needle Chasers of Chevy Chase. It was in the armory-town hall in Kensington, Maryland. About a ten mile drive which took only 45 minutes due to road work and lots of traffic out along the way. The weather was beautiful like we expect in the fall.

When I arrived I found a  DC Modern Quilt Guild friend, Linda who blogs at
I FinallyHaveTime waiting to show me around the big hall with lots of very colorful quilts. I went through twice the second time stopping to snap photos of the ones that I liked the best. The raffle quilt you see in this first photo was up front and a very handsome extra colorful.

ORANGE! I felt right at home. These are two by quilter Fran Card I liked. "Condos for Elderly Angels" and "High Desert Fall" were two that featured lots of orange.

She also quilted this interesting circle quilt called "Black Hole"that has a surround of black on black log cabins. You have to look closely the contrasting value is almost non existent. The detail shot shows it a little better with some help from photo shop.  

This next quilt was a kit Margaret Ann Sparks bought in 1959 called "Rose of Sharon" which she write was too complicated then so she shelved it and got it back out in 2012 keeping track of her time she completed it this year. 263 hours applique and 406 hand quilting the finish! How she kept track of those times I would love to know. 

Wool is the latest new thing we have been seeing in quilting with embroidery holding appliqued bits on top. This next quilt is a mix of wool and cotton and was made to decorate a Downtown apartment. Westend Greens by Kim Kelly shows lots of creativity. 

I loved the bold color and skilled applique of this quilt called "Jacobean Garden" by Barbara Marom-Pollack, It's kind of Elizabethan to me but I have always loved these exotic flowers in prints and this appliqued version is sort of a magical modern version. 

Next is a small photograph picture based quilt  by Donna Radner called "North Woods" the scene reminds me of hikes I have taken on the edge of the Potomac River up near Great Falls. It was about 20x30 inches and the black is the drape it's hanging on not a lopsided frame.

Two quilts made from "scraps" in blues and whites appealed to me but I doubt I have the patience to make one like these for myself. 

the first is a detail of a bed sized quilt Marty Fry calls "Churchville" a "lady of the Lake quilt.

also "Regency Sampler" was very sweet in blues by Marty Fry 49x49"

Modern quilt guild member Anne Brill did this quilt I liked at the guild when I saw it and was inspired. She titled it "Low Volume" a bed sized quilt that came right off her bed to hang in this show. I took a detail shot to show the simple design works so well.

Black and white blocks made with 2 inch squares  makes up the next quilt I thought was notable for the time it must have taken and the simple graphic results. Martha Lisle called it "Adams Rib" for the Hepburn and Tracy film. 

There was a little birthday quilt made by a bunch of kids in one family that had some great insects in the prints and the machine quilting. Jan Danis's grand kids I think is who did this quilt. I liked the dragonflies and the wonky diamonds. 

These two color quilts were my some of my favorites in the show of 200. They are by a Marina Baudoin who also does long arm quilting professionally. 

 Then there was this interesting batik quilt of x and crosses with an inset picture of horses.

 An orange modern quilt

 The amazing "Wedding Ring" quilt in marigolds with red and a bit of turquoise by Renuka Algama. Next to the "Zinnias" by Elizabeth B. Davison  pictured quilt was like a garden delight.

Finally I caught Linda walking across the room and surprised her with my flash. Thanks for making me feel right at home with all the other quilters Linda! Great to have a catalog of the titles descriptions to bring home and allow me to give you some details about who did which quilt and what they call them.