A glimpse into my compulsion to create.
Pardon me, but I’ve developed an obsession with itty bitty scrappy blocks. Now I am sewing rainbows upon rainbows in various little blocks.
Knowing that folks are always looking for ways to not be overwhelmed by their scraps and actually enjoy them I am hosting a Scrap Sparkler Party through the Quilters’ Playcation. You too can make your own itty bitty rainbows, or starry night, or treasured bits showcase.
October 28 10 AM - 2 PM Mountain
In the meantime, enjoy my rainbows...
Proof that if you start with some ugly fabric you can still make something beautiful.
Back in the spring I was hosting a Quilters’ Playcation Playdate. The focus that day was on finding an ugly fabric in your stash and seeing how we could make it work for something. When you let the fabric be your guide, as opposed to forcing the fabric to be something else, it usually works.
These were some of my initial pulls. It isn’t that each fabric is really ugly. You may love them, in fact. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. But I’d had that leaf fabric forever, I have no idea where it came from as it isn’t something I would generally pick, and it had never been used. So that became my challenge fabric.
The fabric is so very cliche fall fabric. I leaned in to that. If it’s going to scream fall, I will let it be what it wants to be and turn it into a maple leaf block. I paired it with another bold fabric that had a lot of the same colours, save brown, and got to sewing. And what happened? It made a very cool quilt block! In fact, I loved it so much that I kept going and made more blocks to coordinate. I picked all the fabrics from my stash to coordinate in the colour scheme started with that first block.
In the end I made 25 blocks. They are 12.5” square so the quilt ends up as a small lap size. I’m not sure it will be finished for this fall, but that’s okay. I finished the top back in June anyway!
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.
I’m either really late finishing a Christmas quilt or really early for next year. Let’s go with the latter, shall we?
This quilt was started in the Quilters’ Playcation Cut Sew Repeat Party in December. It’s such a quick way to make a quilt top that I had it done a few days later. With a long arm appointment already booked I decided to go ahead and finish her quickly.
It was a quick make, a fast quilt, and a quick finish. I still didn’t get it done before Christmas. It’s all good, I’m just ready for next year! I used a light turquoise thread for the quilting in freehand, wavy lines. It’s almost garland like.
The fabric all comes from the Alison Glass Holiday collection. Buying a single collection bundle is not my norm, but I’d picked this up early in the pandemic as an example for a stash class I was teaching. It is an unconventional holiday fabric and I love that. Using a single collection is a fantastic way to explore the Cut Sew Repeat Technique AND show off the fabric at the same time.
When I finished quilting I took a quick look around My Sewing Room, where I was renting the long arm time, and found this coral fabric in the clearance section. What a find! I had been thinking hot pink but there are just enough hints of this coral in the multicolour prints of the collection that it worked perfectly. It was a lovely way to spend a few afternoons of winter finishing up the binding by hand.
The Cut Sew Repeat Party is returning on March 18. I’ll have a different stack of fabric, but the same great fun ready for you. Even if you attended the Party last time, we will have new treats and tips to explore as we play with our fabric. You can register here.
