Radha - An Exploration in Scale in Quilt Design

Radha

80” X 80”

Just 16 large blocks. They literally took me an hour to sew. And then hours contemplating their layout, but that is beside the point. When you want to play with scale, going big is the easiest way to do it!

To make this quilt I took roughly 2 meters of a black on black fabric and 2 meters of a white on white. I split it all into even squares. Depending on the width of your fabric that ends up about 21” on each side. (A meter is about 40” so I used a bit more than that to get them to be squares.) After making pairs of black and white I sliced through each pair on the curve, freehand. This improv curve technique is a comfort and a classic to me. After sewing each set back together I was left with 16 blocks.

Then they sat. And sat. I thought I was going to use them for one thing, then another. Then, this spring, I was hunting my stash for ideas. Our oldest nephew was getting married and of course I was going to make him a quilt! In conference with my mother in law and niece it was determined that black would be a favourite colour in a quilt. Not my norm, but I could do it. Then I remembered these blocks!

Once uncovered, pressed, and measured it was clear they weren’t all the same size. rather than trim everything down to a smaller size I decided to add some strips to make those few blocks bigger. And what better option than neon solids? I added them randomly based off of what I had available.

Then I spent hours over days trying to come up with a layout that worked. You can see some of the ideas here. In the end I went with something that felt more black. Perception is everything, right?

Continuing with the neon theme I quilted the whole thing with a bright peach thread. A few episodes of Revisionist History while on the long arm rental at My Sewing Room and it was finished. Then the mad scramble to get binding on before I left on our big summer trip. The wedding was the first weekend we were away.

Normally, I don’t get too fussed about finishing wedding presents on time. Maybe I should? That’s another story though. But I was feeling a bit guilty that my daughter and I were missing the wedding so I really wanted to have the gift available on time.

The backing is a combination of Tula Pink neons and that great green whose name I cannot remember. The Tula was perfect not only because the colour but both my nephew and his bride are big animal lovers. Now it has the black side and the bright side.

If you’ve been at a trunk show with me over the years you’ve heard me tell the story of how my first quilt was made after I found out my future sister in law was pregnant. It gave me permission to try quilting. My first quilt ever was made for this same nephew. Well, when I was binding the quilt I realized I still had 1 scrap from that very first quilt! It fit perfectly on the binding. I adore this full circle moment in both family and quilting.

Back on the Road

This past weekend I went on my first quilting trip since the Pandemic. I’ve had a few in person events and the odd class, but this was my first get packed, get on a plane, and a hang out with quilters all weekend kind of trip. It’s been forever!

It felt so good.

As stressed as I get before leaving (always with a moment of regret for the commitment) I feel amazing once I arrive. This teaching gig gets me to some beautiful places with wonderful people. I am so lucky.

This particular trip was to Parksville, British Columbia. Parksville is a town North of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. In the summer it is packed with tourists because it has great beaches, beautiful parks, and a wonderful people. By this time of year the tourists are gone and the rain is settling in. Still absolutely worth the trip.

The Parksville Quilt House Guild is the largest guild on Vancouver Island and one of the oldest in British Columbia. Everyone I met was kind, full of laughs, and tremendously supportive. My hosts were incredible. I taught two workshops (Traditional Variations and Improv Lettering) and delivered a trunk show to over 150 people. At the workshops quilters brought treats for the group, fruit from their own trees, and made sure I had tea and medicine when an unexpected migraine hit. And, they followed my supply list and brought chocolate!

I’ve written before about how inspiring it is for me to be on these trips. I get to see parts of the country (or the world) but I also get to witness the creative acts of quilters. Both things inspire me so much. I get my own cool ideas as we all play together. More importantly, I get to witness the changes, ideas, and freedom many quilters feel in my events. Yes, I am tooting my own horn, but I see a lot of quilters leave my events brimming with ideas and with newfound freedom. No one has given them permission to play before and you can tell.

At the end of my trunk show I had one lovely women come to me and tell me that she is more of a “looker” than a quilter. She made her first quilts decades ago and while she was so proud of what she did she was judged by the quilt police and barely sewed after that, feeling like she couldn’t be good enough. After seeing my improv quilts, my bits of wonkiness, even my mismatched points when I am trying for precision, she felt so good. It’s not that my bad work made her feel better about herself. No, it was that she could see there was another way to create, and that the judgement of the past didn’t need to apply to her anymore.

That right there is why the stress before leaving is worth it. It’s always worth it. Rainbows over the ocean, bald eagles, and stellar sea lions are only a plus.

Quilters' Playcation Adventure Sewalong Update

The Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong is back after the summer break. Our map is growing. This is the point where I can really see the blocks coming together as a map. I went out recently and added more beige fabrics to the stash so I could complete the island part of the map. Now I can see that I will have it as an island surrounded by water.

Like most of my quilts, this one started without really knowing where it was going to end up. I just committed to making the components. Really, this is about committing to the process more than anything. Being willing to play, experiment, and relax about knowing the end result. To me, this is the ultimate freedom. I know, however, that to others this is absolutely scary, terrifying even. Many folks want to know exactly what is coming and how the whole thing will come together. That is their comfort zone. Meanwhile, that sounds boring to me. We are each different quilters and that’s okay!

The second version of the quilt is also progressing. This is the more abstract one. Each row definitely references the inspiration, but it is far from a literal interpretation. (Is it really literal when it is an improv quilt block?) I can see that the next few rows need to do some things composition-wise, and I will have to think carefully about the colours I use. These two things will help the overall quilt feel balanced.

If you are new to the Adventure Sewalong, you can find all of this year’s videos on You Tube.

Morning Make 2023 - Collage Portraits

Up first in my portrait making, aside from learning how to draw, was something I was just a bit familiar with. Back in 2017 I took a class with Melissa Averinos on making faces in fabric. I made one face, loved the process, developed some grand ideas, then promptly did nothing about them. Needless to say, that’s why I chose to start with this technique. Also, I was using her book to learn the drawing basics so it was a natural extension.

In the book Melissa walks us through the basics of anatomy and shape. She outlines many ways your can interpret this with fabric, then encourages you to go for it. It’s all so very approachable. She also has tonnes of examples. You can see the myriad ways people, her students, took to the portraits. You also get to see a big selection of her own work. It is all inspiring.

The first photo I took to interpret in fabric was my headshot, the main photo on the homepage here. I found it an interesting challenge because it is hard for me to convey depth in the collage. It’s obvious in the photo but in the collage the shoulders look a little off. But can we take a moment to celebrate my hair?! She is quilted with a million thread colours and stops and starts, providing texture and depth.

The second collage portrait I did was in black and white. I took a colour photo from when I was visiting Lucy Maud Montgomery’s house in PEI. I was just to happy on that entire trip and it shows in the original photo. I think the collage does not quite show that. In fact, it feels a bit skeletal to me. That being said, I still really like it. I played with being a bit more abstract in shapes and with value. To soften the whole thing I used a pale pink thread for quilting.

To finish both quilts I did give them a quick soak and blocked them. They are small (less that 20” on any side) but had got a bit misshapen in handling. This roughed up the fabric and I discovered places I hadn’t quilted as well. A few repairs with both glue and the sewing machine were needed. Then the mini quilts are bound with a single fold binding in a black on black print. I decided to be consistent among all my self portraits with binding and treated it like a picture frame.

These quilts were an excellent first start to this Morning Make adventure. Fundamentally, I am a quilter so fabric portraits are the way to go for me. Will I make more fabric collages? I’m not sure. the technique is freeing and effective, yes, but I don’t love the roughness of the raw edges. You do get ultimate freedom in cutting your collage though. I think this is a great technique for play and it may instead stay in the repertoire for that reason, even if I don’t make another full portrait quilt with it.