Thursday, February 25, 2016

Raw Materials

Right after I finished "Diamond Sky," I started perusing the internet for different quilt shows to enter or challenges to join. I saw that International Quilt Festival in Chicago was coming up and that there was a special challenge to make a quilt that showcased the classic drunkards path block. I decided to play along!

My husband and I took our children to the local Catholic church for a sing-a-long on Christmas Eve and a light went off in my head. There were drunkards path motifs everywhere and so beautifully done! The colors of the paintings and stained glass were sublime. We came back for Christmas Mass and I sat in the pew and drank in the architecture, design, and color work. I went home incredibly inspired and immediately went to my sketchbook to rough out my ideas and to make notes about the colors. I figured that when you are inspired in a church (of all places!!!) that the design has a divine stamp of approval and is destined to work out.


I was wrong.


After I chose a range of colors that reflected the cool tranquility and majesty of the church, I started making improvisationally pieced drunkards path blocks. After I'd made about 100 of them in various sizes, I went on to the sunburst part of my idea and it all went TERRIBLY WRONG. Instead of achieving the perfectly imperfect look that I love so much, I ended up with some really bad looking circles. @#$%&#@!!! Normally I would have kept working on it until I could make a success of the design, but seeing those circles brought up a deeply repressed memory. I put a quilt into the state fair last year that had some free-cut shapes as flower centers. It didn't win any ribbons and when I got the judging form back I could see why. My handwork element had been graded as "poor." I had that quilt spread out on the hood of my car as soon as I got back to the parking lot looking for the flaw in my work. I finally figured out that to the judge's perception, those free-cut flower centers looked like poorly executed circles. Now, beyond needing to enter an applique piece in the state fair this year to defend my honor, I knew I could not make another "I Wasn't Trying to Make a Circle!" quilt. So, I walked away from my original idea and tried to make lemonade with 100 drunkards path blocks.


My dad was a farmer and a maker. To help fuel his creativity and supply our farm with necessary implements, he kept a pile of metal junk behind our shop, though he never called it that. He referred to his collection as “raw materials.” One afternoon I was texting with my brothers and we started reminiscing about dad's scrap heap. That conversation was a key turning point in the evolution of this quilt. I stopped thinking of the units as blocks and instead imagined them as raw materials to draw with. I built improvisational pictures entirely out of drunkards path units. I saw that the quilt needed the addition of darker values and the pictures needed space to breathe, so I added the filmstrip sashing. The little twinkles of gold in the sashing and binding are a homage to the church and the intent of the original quilt design.


The quilt finishes at 50" x 54." I used Warm and Natural batting and Aurifil thread in #1246 (Grey), which is my new favorite color since it reads as more like slate than grey. I quilted a gentle curving line to mimic the curve of the blocks and then echoed that line over the rest of the quilt.



The heart is my favorite!




I had plenty of strips and fabric leftovers from the piecing of "Raw Materials," so in keeping with my new commitment to active and immediate scrap management, I began another quilt.

Recently I entered a major quilt show and all of my entries were rejected. I was feeling a little sorry for myself one morning in the sewing room and staring at a bucket of mostly blue scraps. As luck would have it, the next song that popped up on my playlist was by Johnny Cash. He sang:

"Hey, get rhythm when you get the blues
C'mon get rhythm, when you get the blues
A jumpy rhythm makes you feel so fine
It'll shake all the troubles from your worried mind,
Get rhythm, when you get the blues."

I chose the simple shape of the upward arrow as a reminder of the power of a positive mind and repeated it over and over in black (another nod to Mr. Cash) to create the "jumpy rhythm" he describes. I had intended to scale it in a mini size, but once I had those first pieced strips up on the design wall, I knew that I'd be going bigger. I ended up cutting (lots) more fabric. There went my scrap management plan!

Since these strips were improvisationally pieced and quite long at about 60," I had to employ every strategy I knew to keep this quilt from ruffling. I used up a whole bottle of starch, lots of steam and the cutting techniques I've learned to piece in gentle curves. My cutting table is only a yard long, so I used chalk to mark out the curve that I needed to cut to match each strip. I had my pencil cups holding down the strips to keep them from shifting and used lots of marks to keep everything lined up. It was a challenge. Despite surprising my children by showing up at school to pick them up with a piece of chalk behind my ear and my hair and cheek liberally adorned with white dust, the fact that the quilt is suspended and hanging flat and straight of its own volition is a major victory for me. Hopefully, my kids will forget (or forgive....eventually) the chalk incident.

The quilt finishes at 38" x 58." I used Warm and Natural batting again with the 50 wt. Aurifil in Grey. It is quilted simply with vertical lines.






As I've said before, I enjoy a challenge and I join in on swaps for the chance to make something that I wouldn't normally make. I currently am involved in a pillow swap that was organized by @littleislandquilting and @imasavonasac. This has been a great swap so far because Alison and Sami took so much time determining the perfect partnerships. As a result, my partner and I already followed each other on Instagram. During the making of the previous two quilts, she actively participated and commented on the progress shots so I knew she approved of the palette.  I sandwiched a thin strip of black between scrap strips, then squared the block down to 2.5." Once it was all pieced together, a sweet friend on IG mentioned that the blocks looked like Allsorts (a black licorice candy). That wasn't my plan, but I am now pretending that it was. Thus, the name..."The Allsorts Pillow." Once again, this is quilted with straight lines in Grey Aurifil and has my first hidden zipper! It finishes at a 20" square.




After the pillow, I was down to a container filled with random strips, smallish squares and triangle clippings from "Get Rhythm." At this time, our little family also had a loss. As with the previous times, I've retreated into myself and my sewing room for some therapy. I took great solace in stitching those little bits of nothing into something and pulling myself together again simultaneously. This quilt represents the process of all those things. I called it "Windows" because the making of it helped me look up and out again to what I hope will be a bright, beautiful day.

"Windows" finishes at 38" x 44." It used Quilter's Dream Puff batting and a 40 wt. Aurifil thread in Champagne (pale yellow). It is quilted simply with vertical lines.







Here's a little behind the scene shot that I couldn't resist adding. Sons #1 and #2 are great sports.
So many times in the making of these quilts (and in my life), I had to step back from my preconceptions and do my best to accept and reshape the reality into something I could live with. There is meaning, beauty and blessings to be found in the struggle, even when we pray that the struggle can pass us by. I am thankful for my daily habit of sewing and creating. Slowly it has changed my mindset so I am always looking for the possibilities with optimism and a growing faith in my capabilities. We *can* do hard things.

This week I received some fantastic news. The International Quilt Festival in Chicago accepted all three of my entries for their show. "Raw Materials," "Get Rhythm (When You Get the Blues)," and "Heading West" will all be hanging there April 7-9. Chicago is not that far from our home in Iowa, so we're planning a road trip. It's a relief to not only end February, but to end February on a make. I hope I can see some of you there.


Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

57 comments:

  1. That was definitely a twist in the story! Congratulations on getting into IQF!! And I'm very sorry for your family's loss.
    Thank you for sharing your beautiful work and the stories behind them.

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    1. Thanks Anne! I'm all for those kinds of plot twists!!!

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  2. It's fun to see fabric used in a series of quilts, each with their own personality. Congrats on three quilts into a show. I'm sorry for your loss and can relate, quilting is therapy for me as well.

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    1. Thank you Sally. I crave the solitude of sewing and the peace that comes from thinking of beautiful things. It sounds like you're just the same.

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  3. All are lovely! Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. Thank you, Anne. I'm glad to know that you liked them and that it sparked some ideas for you.

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  4. Oh wow! Love the contrasting colors of blue and purple.

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    1. A world without blue and purple wouldn't be much of a world, would it...?!? Definitely go-to colors for me.

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  5. I am in love with every single one of these! The colors are stunning and each is so different! I get on a path where I have numerous projects from one project...until every single piece is gone! Congrats on getting your 3 quilts in!

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    1. I feel the same way! I feel a lot of anxiety making those initial cuts into the fabric, but once I start it goes away. Making all these projects just helps maximize that no-stress feeling!

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  6. All lovely finishes! Johnny would be so proud! Congrats on all three juried into the show!

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    1. Thank you, Paige. Yes, I hope Johnny would be proud. I'm definitely a big fan! :-)

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  7. I love the first quilt! The balance of pastels and black/white is good color and also nice improv plus precise. I admire your working through all scraps immediately. Nice show. And congrats on getting into the Chicago show. Too bad I don't live near there anymore to see them in person. Claire aka knitnkwilt.wordpress.com

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    1. Thanks, Claire. Yep, you caught me with the precise thing too. I love making improv that is slightly tamed. Apparently I've got some strong left-brained traits too!

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  8. Wow - what a whole load of amazing finishes!!!! Love the immediate use of scraps.

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    1. Thank you! Since "starting" a brand new thing causes me some angst, it's easier to just keep going.

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  9. A lot of things to learn here. I am so inspired. Thank you so much.

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    1. Thank you, Sue! I hope you create some beautiful things!

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  10. What a great use of something you didn't originally like! Way to keep at it. Congratulations on getting accepted into the quilt show!

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    1. Thanks Kelly. That quilt is my favorite just because it was such a fight to finish it. Getting a chance to have it hang somewhere is just the cherry on top.

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  11. Love all of them, and I think the drunkards path one best. I was surprised your earlier entries did not make the quilt show too. There must have been an enormous amount of submissions, but even then ... Way to keep working and let the disappointments fuel some new beautiful quilts.

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    1. Thank you, Angela. I had a chance to look at some of the quilts that hung in the other show and my stuff was just the wrong vibe for that show. I played my husband that show tune "There's a Place for Us" on the night I got my rejection emails. I'm happy that I made it somewhere!

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  12. Congratulations on working through so much on your journey with these quilts; I hope that the adventure of going to see them on display is an awesome one!

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    1. Thanks Yvonne! It's going to be like Christmas for me (or was that just the Cherrywood bundle I'm going to buy talking?). :-)

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  13. Beautiful quilts. Great job of using up left overs! I did that this week too. And I linked. Which I rarely do. But I'm #101. Come by and see me!

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    1. Thanks, Sherry! Your projects look very nice. I really love log cabins and your navy version is so fun. Stock up on some thread with your next coupon so you'll be prepared when the sewing bug bites!

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  14. There is so much beauty in this one post! I just keep scrolling up and down to look at everything over and over again. I love the color palette and all of the interesting designs. I like your version of the drunkards path, but the one that stole my heart is Get Rhythm. I love the black arrows, they are such a beautiful addition to the other colors. I'm glad you received such happy news - congratulations!

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    1. Thanks Beth! After piecing Get Rhythm I had to make an emergency order of Kona Pepper! When I was teaching, the other teachers teased me because I used black butcher paper on my bulletin boards, but black makes all colors look better (IMHO).

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  15. Thanks for sharing your work and your creative thought processes. It is inspirational to hear how you pushed through to create something wonderful and quilt show worthy.

    tushay3 (at) yahoo (dot) com

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    1. Thank you! Just channel your inner Tim Gun and "make it work!" On a side note, all our work is worthy....it's just nice when we can get a quilt judge to agree with us every once in awhile.

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  16. the upward arrow just blows my mind. I love it on every level, huge impact. I have to say that as I was reading along and got to the part where a Johnny Cash song came into your head as you were making a modern quilt I kinda heard that backscratch sound from a record and thought to myself "say whaaat" !
    Also, the state fair judge... I think this is a good example of knowing the right venue for our work. The judge must have been 'blind', and by that I mean that they have to look at the entire work in a case as such you are describing . I'm sure that all the other craftsmanship elements were there and in looking at the quilt that way the judge would have known that the circles weren't meant to be perfectly round.
    Congratulations on having your quilts accepted - you have found your venue !
    Greatly deserved.
    I gotta go listen to some Cash - maybe I will be inspired too ;)

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    1. Thanks, Colleen! Gotta love that Johnny Cash no matter what kind of quilts you make! As far as the state fair goes, I'm not mad. It was a great learning experience in how we see with our brains (filled with unique memories and experience) and my job as the maker is to make my intentions crystal clear. Even then the viewing/ judging experience is out of my hands.

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  17. Just found your site from Crazy Mom link up!!! I love, love, love your quilts and your abundant creativity!!! To be able to come up with your ideas and execute is a gift! Keep up the great wotk and best of luck in Chicago!!!

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    1. Thank you so much, Cathy, for the lovely compliment. I wish I could sew as fast as I plot!!

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  18. Congratulations on all your beautiful finishes and getting accepted into the quilt show. I like the jumpy rhythm the best. I haven't entered a quilt in a show, because I am afraid of rejection and being judged incorrectly, but I think I will try to enter one of my quilts somewhere this year.

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    1. Thank you, Shasta! Please, please enter a quilt show. The kind of confidence that helps you say "your loss" is the same confidence that helps you produce great quilts. You can do it!

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  19. Congratulations, Jill! This is a beautiful post with terrific quilts and sweet stories and lessons.

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    1. Thank you, Susan. There's enough negativity, angst and contention in the world. I think it's necessary for all of us to to create a beautiful space in our heads so we can create beautiful things with our talents.

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  20. I admire your work so much and appreciate this thoughtful (and positive!) post. FANTASTIC about your quilts getting into the show - congrats!!

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    1. Thank you, Debbie. That means a lot. I am so honored to have had the quilts accepted and to have it in a venue that is close enough that my kids can see my work hanging in a place bursting with beautiful things. Congratulations on your ribbon for Mod Mood. What a superb collaboration that quilt is!

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  21. I love your quilt designs and your color choices!

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    1. Thanks, Mary. I love any color palette that has slate blue in it!

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  22. I like all the quilts (and the pillow), but am particular in love with 'Get Rhythm'.

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    1. Thanks, Sapphire. I swear it's all that Kona Pepper. There's something magical that happens to other colors when you use it (says the woman who just ordered 5 more yards). ;-)

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  23. Your posts inspire me, as do your quilts, and these are no exception. Congratulations on the quilt show acceptance. I totally agree with the admission "powers that' be." Well done.

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    1. Thank you so much Marla! I am so ridiculously excited to go to that quilt show that I don't know how I'm going to get through the next few weeks. I've never been to a big show and neither have my quilts. I'm sure it will be awesome!

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  24. I love all of these quilts, so beautiful and inspiring! Congrats for getting them juried into a show.

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    1. Thanks, Cheryl! We've visited Chicago a few times before and have had a great time. The kids are pretty jazzed to go see Sue the T-Rex at the Field Museum!

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  25. Congratulations! Scraps rule!

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    1. Thank you, Linda! I've been thinking that scraps deserve a name change. Maybe "fabric without pressure" or my favorite, "personal precuts?" :-)

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  26. I am a first time visitor to your blog and all I can say is Thank you. You are an inspiration.

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    1. Thanks Karen. You're always welcome here. I hope you come again!

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  27. These are all fantastic, but my favourite is the upward arrows. Well done on getting your quilts accepted!

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    1. Thank you! Our whole family is so excited to go to Chicago. I'm hoping that a bundle of Cherry wood comes home with me too!

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  28. love your quilts, glad you share all the stories too. Looking forward to seeing your work at IQF next month. are these Kona? Bella?

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    1. Thank you, Debbie! The main fabrics I used for these quilts were about half each of Kona and Cotton Supreme. The background of the baby quilt is Bella. I like mixing manufacturers to get subtle color variations.

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  29. I'm blown away by your creativity and hard work! First time visiting here and I'm truly inspired. No wonder you ended up on Quilty Folks favorite blog list. Congrats on the show!

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