New Year, new blog, new ideas
It’s a new year tomorrow, Happy New Year! I sincerely and truly hope it’s a happy, productive, and miraculous year for each of us. Do you make resolutions? Do you take time in a meaningful way to reflect on your successes and failures in 2023? Do you take stock of both the good and the bad, from having new family, friends, and grandchildren to having Covid, a parasite you picked up in Mexico, and a blown-out knee being replaced in 3 weeks? Or perhaps, all of the above or none of the above?
I am looking forward to tomorrow because I love New Year’s Day. Growing up it was always a fairly quiet day at our house, and no, not because any of us was nursing a hangover (which was often the case as we got older), but because my parents met at a New Year’s Eve party when 1951 was rolling into 1952. This was a special time of year, and we as a family took time to reflect on the good. We had small appetizers before the clock struck Midnight, with, you guessed it, the same appetizers served when they met the last few hours of 1951. Celery stuffed with whipped cream cheese, tomato aspic (read: tomato Jello – ugh!), deviled eggs, tiny meatballs with plastic toothpicks shaped like tiny swords, shrimp cocktail, and Cherry Studded Angel Food Cake.
Sitting here writing a blog I realize how much I miss my parents, who have been gone for more than a decade. They always encouraged each of us to explore our creativity, and I’ll continue doing just that – push the boundaries of what fiber art is.
Look at the world in new and interesting ways, no matter what is happening, good or bad.
I will make art.
Make something good today!
Cheers,
Beth
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January 11, 2024 What’s on the design wall?
When it’s gray, cold and snowy here on a winter morning, there’s nothing better than walking into my studio…a large and steaming cup of coffee in my hands. I have to carry my cup with two hands, not because it’s especially large, but because if I don’t, I start fiddling with fabric, arranging and re-arranging blocks on my wall, and pulling fabric from bins. You know, touching stuff!
Design, of any kind, takes time. It’s hundreds of small, individual decisions that eventually lead to art. That art can be fabric, textiles, silk, lace, beading, painting, baking, drawing with charcoal or colored pencils, or 100 other things. Good design is good design, no matter what the medium.
When I get stuck on a project, like this one (for a couple of weeks), it helps to just walk away. When it’s winter and too slippery to walk in our parks or trails, I go to quilts stores, and JoAnn Fabrics. There are those who look down on JoAnn’s, but for me it can be an hour of inspiration. I walk down their many isles of designer fabric rolls, admiring the sheers, upholstery fabrics, and even outdoor fabrics. I run my fingers over the myriad of fabrics on these glorious racks of rolls that are 8 or 9 feet tall, and admire the color, the texture, sometimes silk and sometimes nubbly tweed. Sometimes I run across Minky or satin, which is always a surprise on my fingertips. Am I going to start making my own pillows? Nope! Am I going to make new curtains for the living room? Also, a nope! BUT, running my fingers along the nubby tweeds, sheers, linen blends, and jacquards, some patterns I would never have even thought about putting together, I’m inspired.
So, this black and yellow riff on a traditional Rail Fence is an experiment in quilting. While the size and shape of the blocks has been stretched, manipulated, and exaggerated, it’s still a fairly recognizable Rail Fence. Because I wanted to try quilting on my small machine and then putting the clusters of blocks together, each section has been quilted, but one, and each “block” has a slightly different character.
How hard can it be to sew y-seams into quilted blocks? I’ll keep you posted!
Make something good today,
Cheers,
Beth
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January 22, 2024 Working on the dreaded Y-seams
This project has been a challenge since I first started thinking about a quilt-as-you-go project with y-seams. I’ve done a number of exceptionally large quilts that were quilted on a Bernina 330 then stitched together with long straight seams. The first time I ever saw this done was when Katie Pasquini-Masopust was at our local guild and was piecing together large swaths of quilted parts and making them into a whole image.
Katie was teaching a 2-day workshop, and while we were sewing away and learning new techniques of shadow piecing, she would pull her own project from her bag and stitch while we practiced. Honestly, it was the first time I thought of using that technique – a variation on quilt-as-you-go, and thought it was brilliant since I only pieced and quilted on a small machine. A year or two later I was able to attend the first Alegre Retreat, organized and run by Katie PM, and where I spoke at length with her and a number of other quilters who use this same process.
Let’s just say, in summary, there was some trial-and-error compensating for y-seams which were already quilted, but all in all, I would do this again. The fact that the Rail Fence blocks are varied sizes and different combinations rather than being laid out in a grid pattern, makes this quilt more interesting. It’s really a riff on a Rail Fence, and I like it!
A quilter asked me recently why I just don’t go back to making traditional patterns all the time… picking fabrics that “match” or going a “little wild” and totally scrappy? Picking a pattern where I know exactly what the end result would look like? Always being sure you know precisely what you’ll have? While I love traditional patterns… Isn’t it the joy of creating art that keeps artists constantly pushing the boundaries? While I genuinely have an abiding, deep love of the traditional quilt patterns, I also have a thrilling and addictive love of adventurous textile possibilities.
Try new things, and make something good today,
Beth
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