Agathe - October Morning Make Finished

Agathe

66” x 74”

Agathe is a German women. She grew up running the fields of her family farm, hands trailing in the grasses as she eyed the woods ahead. She wasn’t allowed in the woods, bad people could be there. The same bad people that loaded the trains they sometimes saw. The same people who knocked on their door at night demanding food. Agathe was still allowed in the fields though, even if her parents insisted she be in their sight at all times. Not until she’d moved to Canada did she really understand their fear. By then she also understood that they gave her freedom from fear by still letting her run the fields on sunny days. All her life she knew to take pleasures in the feel of flowing grass under her hand, of good pastry, of daily sunshine. Even if life isn’t good around you, to look for the simple pleasures.

October 2020 Morning Make is finished. I named her Agathe.

One improv block a day for the month of October. Composing as I went, playing the entire time. Some days the block related to the day before, some days the connections were harder. Each day was about finding a bit of joy, a respite from the daily slog of life in 2020. And at the end of the month I had a finished quilt top!

Fast forward a few months, one afternoon with my girls helping me baste and 8 spools of thread later and I have a finished quilt.

To quilt her I used my walking foot and creating a map of parallel lines. In spots I followed the lines of piecing, in others I went against the flow. There was a lot of starting and stopping, a lot of threads to bury. (This time I was smarter and buried them in spurts as I went while we watched Brooklyn 99.)

It is no secret that I love a contrasting binding, but this time it didn’t feel right. She got the same black binding used in piecing. It’s actually a tone on tone from my Tag Fabric collection. The other two fabrics are a cream solid that I think came from my Baba’s stash because it smelled like her when I pressed it, and a random white solid I found in the closet. The cream is actually more like a pale yellow, which I didn’t realize until the whole top was done. That’s what happens when you do all the sewing in the dark of morning.

Making this quilt really was an escape. From the piecing to the quilting to the binding. It was a respite from daily life, a moment to give myself where the rest of the world melts away. The grass isn’t green here yet, but the hares are giving us smiles. I even had one check things out as I was snapping pics. Life goes on. Life is beautiful. Finding the simple pleasures.

Mask Scraps

It’s time to make another batch of masks. Between constant wear and loss the mask basket by the front door needs replenishment. That means extra safety for the family as we ride this third wave of Covid AND more scraps.

Not sure why, but from the get go last year I kept the mask scraps as we sewed for ourselves, family, and friends. Part of me wanted to keep things together, as a form of documentation of this time. I figured I would keep them together and could always recirculate them back into general population of the scraps if I changed my mind. It would be harder to locate them again after the fact though.

Then, at one point in the summer we succumbed to the tie dye lockdown trend. I bought the good fabric dyes and we spent an afternoon dying sheets with the kids. I threw in some solid whites I had with the leftover dye. As a result, I have a whole bunch of red fabric that fits the rage mood of a lot to do with Covid. A match made in creative conscious heaven.

You can learn how to make these sweet blocks in the latest Quilters’ Playcation Playdate.

March Morning Make 2021

“You are so creative”

A dear friend said this to me after my first post for March Morning Make. I actually had a visceral reaction to her statement. It’s not that I disagree with her, it’s that she said it with the hanging “and I am not” to it. I was actually upset about it for days. The thing is, I am no more creative than she is, than anyone is. What I am is willing to exercise and explore that creativity in unique ways. She is a mother and works in a dynamic environment. Her daily life requires constant creativity to get through the day. She is so creative.

Scientists and engineers are creative. Doctors and teachers are creative. Maybe not accountants, at least not at their jobs. Athletes surely are. Parents are definitely creative. We ALL are creative. Indeed, we all need to be creative to get through the day. Those who exercise their muscles through creative pursuits like art, music, writing, sewing, and more are the ones deemed creative. No, we are just the ones hitting the gym. Just like an athlete of any sort is the one that devotes their physical and mental energy to a physical pursuit, those of us deemed creative are the ones that devote our extra physical and mental energy to a creative pursuit. It’s a choice about how we spend our time more than anything.

So, for March, I chose to spend my time doing something completely foreign to me - making paper flowers. It made me a beginner again and it was awesome. My creative muscles got quite the workout, not to mention my clunky fingers. Being a beginner at something is amazing. It forces you to slow down, fire the brain up in new ways, and explore in an unfamiliar way. I know that all that terrifies people and it can do a number on your confidence, but I, personally, love it. It’s a good reminder that it is okay to be a beginner, that it’s okay to not be great or even good at something, that trying is as important as finishing.

I based the majority of my flowers on directions in the book The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers by Livia Cetti. Not having a clue what I was doing I definitely needed the structure of directions. So I picked flowers based on their looks and whether she said they were easy or not. Partway through the month I decided I wanted to make some flowers that were not in her book so went to You Tube for instructions. Having some basic understanding from daily play meant that I could extrapolate and make up some of my own things. They didn’t always work, but I wouldn’t know that unless I tried.

Most interesting to me over the past month is my changing perspective on the flowers themselves and how I wanted them to look. I went back and forth between liking the not so perfectly accurate look of the tissue paper flowers and construction paper leaves, some days I preferred the crepe paper and other days it drove me nuts. I quite enjoyed the manipulation of the paper with bleach, that stayed throughout.

Will I make paper flowers again? Probably, if the occasion comes or the mood strikes. For now I have a lot of flowers to deliver to friends. We are at least 6 weeks away from real flowers here and we could also use the colour. Whether or not, however, you can sure that I my creative muscles are in better shape after this month. I hope yours are too.

Snowballs Playdate

Announcing the next Playdate on your Quilters’ Playcation!

SNOWBALLS!

Winter isn’t quite over yet here. After a bought of fake spring we had a few inches of snow the other night. As a winter lover I am not quite ready to let go. Needless to say, these blocks are the perfect inspiration!

Quilters’ Playcation Playdates are live Zoom events where I demo an improv technique then we hang out. Bring your beverage of choice, an open heart, and get ready to laugh. You can even bring your fabric and sew along with me. Each event lasts 60-90 minutes. And now, thanks to a number of polite requests, I am happy to offer a Friday night and Saturday morning option. This will allow friends to join one or the other event (or both) from around the world.

On our first Playdate we had a friend join us from Saudi Arabia where it was 3 am!

For my sample blocks I dug into my overflowing solids scrap bins to make the corners and my endless low volume stash. Together they make some magic! Kind of like the energy of a snowball fight. Generally, as a quilt teacher I end up with a lot of class samples that never make it to a finished quilt. These blocks definitely will, I am so in love with the combo and I have a few more ideas for playing with them. That’s just how play works: you get an idea, try it out, and sometimes it works (and sometimes it doesn’t). No matter what it was time well spent because you were playing!

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Snowballs Playdates

April 9 at 5 PM MDT

OR

April 10 at 10 AM MDT