May Morning Make 2022

While May was a busy month for a family it was a relaxing month for Morning Make. Indeed, starting my day with Morning Make meant that I was in a good frame of mind for the rest of a chaos.

These watercolour sketches of quilts are not a new to me effort. I’ve made a few in the past. For me, it’s a great, relaxing activity. Plus, I get to explore traditional quilts without having to sew them. All that precision piecing!

While there are a million resources for quilt blocks in both print and online I turned to this beauty of a book for picking out my patterns: The Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman. It’s an absolute classic and was recently reprinted. It pairs, if you like, with the Electric Quilt products, but you can buy the stand alone book. I picked mine up through Quilt Folk, but check your local quilt stores (or ask them to order it for you) or through the big A. Note, the book only contains drawings of the patterns, there are no measurements, piecing instructions, or templates. You need the Block Base software for that.

It was an absolute treat to flip through the book. As you can imagine, it was hard to narrow down a block choice each time! I ended up picking blocks I either always wanted to try or love but will likely never piece myself.

Each painting started with a pencil sketch. Using a good old ruler, a sharp pencil, and with an eraser nearby I translated the single block drawing into a quilt sketch. Sometimes I played with layout, sometimes it was straight grid.

Once the pencil sketch was done I started painting. These are the basic watercolour sets I bought just before the pandemic started. I tried to stick with the colours of the palette itself, so that I wasn’t trying to match colours day over day. I also stuck with 2-3 colours only. This was to force myself to concentrate on the design of the block, not try to create a watercolour quilt like I would sew one. Simplicity is sometimes a challenge for me so this was good practice.

On the first painting of the month I outlined the ‘seam lines’ of the quilt with a black pen. I really thought I would do this to all of them, but ended up not liking the look. I’d done it previously but something about it didn’t feel right this time. I suppose I just wanted a softer look.

It might be a little less ‘finished’? I’m not sure, but I still prefer it with the outline.

My watercolour skills are still very basic - this is essentially just colouring. But there is something about the movement of watercolour that is different than anything else. I am still smitten after my first forays into it over 2 years ago now. Loads to explore!

October Morning Make 2021

Went back to my childhood here. There were many an evening I spent in my room with a stack of Seventeen magazines and a glue stick making collages. Generally, I was cutting out things I liked and filling the page. Maybe it was a mood board before I knew what a mood board was? In October I made a collage each day for Morning Make.

I still like my magazines and the stack from this year was falling over. Rather than ripping out the recipes or rooms I liked and recycling the rest I decided to bring the glue stick out of retirement. Each morning I did a colour wash with some watercolours then while it dried I found my images.

Some days I had a clear idea and set out to find images that worked. Other days I waited for an image to strike me. Everything was made up each day, no preplanning. Frankly, some days worked better than others. I don’t define success as a beautiful image, rather, it is about the time spent. That being said, I wasn’t always happy with what I produced.

I was game for trying new things within the month, playing with text and images, just text, just images, and always with composition. Indeed, this was an excellent month for exploring composition. As a quilter that is always a useful exercise. It also forced me to reckon with negative space. So while I didn’t love all the literal results, it was a good skill building month.

You’ve heard me say it before: Creativity Begets Creativity. Playing in a different medium with translatable skills can only ever be a good thing. At the end of this month I have a few new ideas I want to explore in fabric, my comfortable medium. I’m not sure they would have emerged without this exploration into collage.

June Morning Make 2021

There is something very meditative about paint by numbers. That was the good part abut June’s Morning Make, it was very meditative. I can’t, however say that it was interesting or very creative for me.

To each their own.

I can see how people would love colouring books and paint by numbers You don’t have to think, you don’t have to be challenged to be creatively ON, and the design work is done for you. It gets easy to get lost in the action, the repetition. This is rather relaxing, truth be told. It just wasn’t enough to hold it for me this month.

The kids gave me the paint by numbers for my birthday in May, with Morning Make in mind. It was kind and thoughtful. I’d never really thought of doing one before so I was game to try it. It went quicker than I thought, I finished by the halfway mark of the month. By then I knew I was okay to not do another one so I jumped when a friend suggested making a quilt inspired by the painting.

It’s me, so of course it was improv. I grabbed scraps in the greens and pinks of the painting and set to making flowers and background pieces. As you can see, I skipped the hummingbird portion.

The whole thing was made willy nilly. Made a few flowers one day, made some background another. Frankly, it would have been better to plan it out a little as it required some headscratching, partial seams, and hacking apart to get it to come together with ease. Above you can see it before I squared it up to finish. With improv you’ve always got to add the order back in.

Both pieces are 16” x 20”. I ever feel motivated to finish and frame them they can exist side by side.

The Slow Comfort of Painting a Quilt

Small comforts.

These days that is what we take, what we can find. Whether that be in the consumption of something, Or, as it would be more likely for readers here, the creation of something.

A cup of tea or a glass of wine, candles lit, a ruler and a quilt book close at hand. Don’t forget my now trusty watercolours. I had no idea when 2020 started they would become familiar, comforting. It took me some time, but I’ve brought them to my quilting. Rather, I’ve brought quilting to the watercolours.

Meditative to make, these paintings are an exploration of traditional quilt patterns. They are significantly more detailed than the cards I made back in September. In a way, they are my opportunity to play with precision piecing without having to actually precision piece. They serve to try out colour combinations, as if I was sewing with solid fabrics, also something I don’t do that often.

I can’t say that I want to go out and make these quilts now. They are comforting to make, but aren’t necessarily inspiring me to sew. At least each one only takes me a few hours to make. Much faster than a quilt with fabric!

Each one starts with a sharp pencil, a block pulled from history, and a ruler. I draw the whole thing with pencil then start painting. Painting is a multi day/evening process as I like to have the paint dry in between. It’s watercolour so I don’t want the paint to bleed. Once the colour is all done I go over the seam lines with a black marker, to highlight them. Without that last step it feels a bit unfinished. Kind of like me adding the quilting stitches to a flimsy.

These aren’t fine art and I have a lot to learn yet, but the comfort it gives me is divine. A quiet, slow moment in a noisy world that wants to reach in and swallow me whole.

And maybe this way I can convince my husband to put a quilt on the wall?!