Photo Finishes

Tags

April Showers Bring May Flowers, Hexagon, longarm quilting, machine quilting, quilting, Susan's Quilt, Teal There Was You, The Wrong Shade of Red, UFO. WIP, V is for Victory, V is for Victory II

I’m overdue for an update, so I gathered photos of my most recent finishes to show what I’ve been up to.  Thanks to Jeff Lomicka (of Jeff & Cricket quilts) for the photos that I did not take (mostly the long shots of everything but Susan’s Quilt and the close up of the quilting on The Wrong Shade of Red.)

Susan’s Quilt:  I got this quilt top in my Guild’s Auction and decided to use it to practice hand guiding the long arm… to mixed results.  Eventually, some of the blocks were freehand, and some were programmed block by block.

I called this quilt Susan’s Quilt because I gave it to my friend Susan. Yeah, not the most inspired name…

Detail of Susan’s Quilt on the long arm.

Teal There Was You: I am well on the way to finishing this quilt for my brother. I might just be able to finish the quilting next week and then work on the binding (which, since it’s a queen-sized quilt, will take forever…)

Teal There was You was a “commission” quilt from my Mom to my brother David.

Teal There Was You on the long arm.

The Wrong Shade of Red: Finished and bound and on my bed in time for the falling temperatures in New England. For such a simple quilt, I really like the way it turned out, but I didn’t use all my black & white fabrics…

The Wrong Shade of Red was made up of blocks I took away from another quilt and turned into this one.

You can actually see the quilting in this photo. Some how apples seemed appropriate for a red quilt.

Comfort Quilts: My Guild has a committee that takes in quilts for various charities.  This year, in addition to making the Meezer Teaser Balls, I was able to finish three quilts for them.

Didn’t love the way the quilting came out on V is for Victory, but the quilt is quite festive and, as a comfort quilt, I’m sure someone will be happy to receive it. (And, yes, it’s being held upside down… doesn’t matter, I think.)

V is for Victory II, came out a little more satisfactory. I like the brighter colors in the original, but I’m sure someone will like this more muted version.

I called this quilt April Showers Bring May Flowers, and the quilting motif is big 1960s-like flower-power flowers. Made with the 10″ squares I won in my Guild’s layer cake raffle, the pattern can be found on the Moda BakeShop site.

Three Questions on Quilting

Tags

applique, Design, DNA1, Got Dots, longarm quilting, machine quilting, MQX, Quilt Show, quilting, Spirographology

Last week I went to a quilt show: MQX.  It stand for Machine Quilters Exposition, which, obviously, means that it’s focused on machine quilting.

Now, this isn’t a local Guild show, or even a small regional one. This show features quilts from people all over the U.S. and other countries (I think I saw ones from Germany and New Zealand.)

Going to a show of this caliber means, of course, that one could come away from it feeling that any effort you make as a quilter must be labelled as so much dross. It’s just as easy to feel “in the shade” while looking at some of these quilts as it is to feel inspired (sometimes at the same time!)

I would like to say that this fabulous whole cloth quilt is The Paisley Peacock by Bethanne Nemesh, but I focused on the quilt and not the label, so I’m not entirely sure.

One of the reasons I go to shows like these is that I have a really hard time figuring how to quilt my tops.  I try to forget comparing myself to the quilters in the show and just try to figure out what I like about the quilts, and what I don’t want to do with my own quilts.

Then I try to apply what I’ve figured out to my own projects.

This show, I came up with three questions to ask myself when I decide what to do about the quilting of a specific top.

1. How much time have I got?

This is actually a two-fold question. The first “fold” is that the quilters at MQX have thousands of hours (probably tens of thousands of hours) experience in their craft. They know their machine. They know their fabric.  They know their thread.

Way Too Many Circles by Debbi Treusch & Linda Arndt

I don’t have thousands of hours of experience. Well, at least not in the actual quilting part of it since for years I’ve been stopping just shy of that. I’m still just learning to use a long arm, to choose which patterns and which thread.

The second “fold” is just how much time to I want to spend on this particular project.

The truth is that the quilts I make are mostly intended to be used on a bed. Spending a year planning, programming and quilting just one quilt is not my idea of a fine ol’ time. It turns out that I don’t want to spend that much time on my quilts.

While I love the look of very dense quilting when it’s used to enhance the block design (as shown in Way Too Many Circles), it’s something I usually decide against when I realize how long it would take to do and how much practice I would need to get ready to do something like that.

La Passion by Grit Kovacs, quilted by Laurena McDermott is like my Spiro.  Sometimes, no matter how you quilt it, the piecing design will be the standout element.

2. How much will it show?

A whole cloth quilt (like The Paisley Peacock, above) shows the design of the quilting and allows it to shine.  Ditto the quilting in the “space” between the appliqué in Way Too Many Circles. However, to make that sort of effort really wasn’t necessary in a quilt like Spirographology. It would simply have been lost, overlooked.

I could have tried something a bit more , but, as I learned on the border of Got Dots, sometimes the effort just isn’t worth it.

DnA1 is next up. I think I’m going to try something a little different inspired by Too Many Circles

3. Do I want to do “something different?”

Yes, there are times I want to experiment, to learn more and gain more experience, but prepping for a quilt talk was not the time for me. I wanted to show some nice quilts.  I really wanted to feature the piecing designs. I wanted to finish as many quilts as I could so I wouldn’t be just showing tops.

Now that that is over, I can look at my projects with new eyes and decide if I want to be a little more experimental. Maybe some hand-guided quilting for DnA1. Maybe change-up the thread color or weight in another quilt.

Who knows what else I’ll learn in the next year now that I feel like I’ve got the time and the motivation.

Show and Tell

Tags

barbara brackman, Borderpalooza, DNA1, Drop and Give Me 20, handquilting, Kansas Dugout, longarm quilting, Making out with BoB, piecing, quilt, quilting, quilts, Spirographology, UFO. WIP

Probably the oldest of my surviving quilts. Made in the 80s.

I gave my “speech” at my Guild on Monday.  Actually, I decided to hold it as more of a Show & Tell than have a theme, etc. It was less nerve wracking that way.

I had set the quilts up in sort of a timeline from oldest to newest, but basically just talked about what was going on and what I learned from making each quilt.

What everyone doesn’t know is that this was my sly way of getting my friend Jeff from JnCQuilts to photograph a bunch of my quilts. (For the record, I always use their long arm and he leant me the Bubble Jet Set stuff to make the labels for my quilts.)

So, here are the quilts that I have finished this past year that I hadn’t be able to take full size photos of (and special thanks to members of my quilt guild for holding them up:

Brimfield Star (on it’s side). The binding is made from strips of the black and white fabric I used in the stars.

Crossed Puposes. You’d never know it by this picture, but this quilt fought me the whole way through, and though there are some color choices in the blocks that I would rethink, on the whole, I’m happy with the result.

In Memory of Rumor (DnA3). Another quilt I sweated over the color of thread and the border only to find out, looking at it from the audience point of view that it just doesn’t matter.

In Memory of Edison (DnA4). Half the DnA quilts are now done. My sister has located DnA2, so I hope to finish this project by the end of the year.

 

 

 

Spirographology. Dedicated to my Dad, whose block I am a chip off of…

So now that I’m done with sweating over getting something showable, what’s on my to-do list?

1. Meezer Teaser Balls.  I’ve got 20, I need 25 for the next shipment, so I should be mailing them to the Siamese Cat Rescue Center next week.  If you want one (or more), keep checking their Facebook page.

2. Keeping up with quilting my quilts. The Wrong Shade of Red is on the long arm now, mostly because I found the perfect backing rather than any particular scheduling reason. Next, I will baste Starina for hand quilting, and THEN DnA1 and (hopefully) DnA2.

3. Borderpalooza continues with A Tribute to MaryEllen Hopkins.  I hope to finish in a week or so, since I have most of the border pieced.  There is only one more BorderPalooza quilt, Barbara Brackman’s Civil War Sampler.

5. Yes, I am going to make V is for Victory, but first I am going to write the instructions and sizes on the setting triangles. (Or maybe I’ll do that simultaneously.

 

To Do List

Tags

Borderpalooza, DNA1, DnA3, Drop and Give Me 20, longarm quilting, machine quilting, Meezer Teaser Balls, piecing, quilt labels, quilting, Spirographology, Tribute to Mary Ellen Hopkins, UFO. WIP

DnA3 (or is it 4) is ready for binding. The trick was finding something that looked good on front, but didn’t cause the pieced back to look bad.

Just a short post this week as I clear the decks for… well, I don’t know what since we’re supposed to have another multi-day snowstorm.

1. Binding for DnA3.  Thanks to Cricket, I now have enough purply-pink wisteria fabric to bind this quilt.  It took a long time to decide what to do with it since the original plan was to use black.

I still have to bury the threads in the center of this quilt.  It’s a good thing we’ll be snowed in for the weekend, I guess.  I think I’ll cue up Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth…

My own version of “Deflate-Gate.” The original Meezer Teaser Balls sold out at The Siamese Store. These are waiting for catnip and filling so they can be shipped off. (Yes, I’m accepting scraps for this project.)

2. Binding for Spirographology. Freshly ripped off the long arm (no, not literally) I have a couple of options for this one.  I bought a multi-color batik with a black background, or I could use the black binding I previously cut out for DnA3.

I loved the Dream Puff batting for this quilt. It gave some dimension to the quilting that the cotton batting I had been using on the other quilts didn’t.

The big problem, though, was that Spiro is a hexagon quilt and I ended up having to shepherd some of the extra puffiness towards the center to keep it square. In a hand-quilted quilt this is not a problem, but I didn’t notice until the end, so I ended up more fullness toward the bottom and with some tucks on the quilt top.  I’m contemplating requilting those areas, but not until much later.

I think I may be more than half-way done with the border for the Tribute to Mary Ellen Hopkins quilt.

3. Meezer Teaser Balls.  Thanks to the kitty moms who follow the Siamese Cat Rescue Center on Facebook, the original shipment of the balls sold out in less than a week. I’m hard at work making more, but might not get them done and out until the end of the month.

4. Labels.  I now have all the quilts finished so I need to set and wash the labels, and, of course, sew them on.

5. Still plodding along on the paper-pieced border for my Tribute to Mary Ellen Hopkins.  I know I was trying to use up fabric from my stash with this project, but I ended up having to buy more of the top red fabric… and what do you know, some other pieces of fabric also jumped into my bag.

That’s my top 5 projects for now. What are you up to?

Hmm. This post is a bit longer than I had originally planned!

V is for Victory

Tags

A Tribute to Mary Ellen Hopkins, binding, longarm quilting, Meezer Teaser Balls, paper piecing, piecing, quilting, Spirographology, UFO. WIP, V is for Victory

I’m calling this quilt V is for Victory, but, in truth, I don’t know who made it or where it’s from.

Those of you who are connected to me on Facebook, or who have been looking at the Chelmsford Quilters’ Guild page there, know that a friend of mine posted the photo of a quilt she really liked and wanted to know how to make it.

It’s actually a very easy block, complicated only by an “on point” setting, and, if you like it scrappy, you can use 5″ charm squares or 2.5″ strips, or even the 10″ layer cake squares that Cricket and I run the raffle for at the Guild meetings.

For those of you who have been quilting a while, I suspect you see right away that this block is the start of a Log Cabin block using 2″ finished blocks/strips.

You only need three pieces for this block: two of the same fabric and one background.

For those of you who didn’t see that right away, I’ll lay it out for you:

Each block contains 3 pieces: 2 2.5″ squares and one 2.5 “x 4.5″ rectangle. There are 270 blocks in the quilt as shown. (There is also no reason to be intimidated by the task of making so many blocks. Just make as many as you want, and your quilt will be either smaller or larger.)

First you will need to choose a background fabric.  In the first photo, the background fabric is a solid black.  For my test shots, I used white on white leftovers. You only need one 2.5” square of your background fabric per block.

In fact, I used only scraps. I have quite a few scraps which I really should give away, but I can’t seem to part with since, well, it’s fabric.

For the scrap fabric you will need one 2.5″ square and one 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle (in a future post I’ll talk about how to cut this block from pre-cuts and how many you will get and what you will have left over.)

From there you only need to sew 2 seams:

1. Put the two 2.5″ squares together and sew a quarter-inch seam on one side.
   I usually press after this step, but it doesn’t particularly matter which side you press your seams to, or even if you press them open.  All have their merits.
2. Sew the unit you put together in the last step to the remaining rectangle.
   If you have sewn your seam “correctly” at 1/4″, the two pieces should line up exactly.  If you haven’t, don’t bother trimming until after you sew the long seam, just center the short seam to the long side of the rectangle and sew.
   Again, I press after this step.

I don’t usually trim until I have several blocks finished. That way, if I’m off in my seam allowance, I can trim all the blocks to the same size.

And that’s one block! You only have 269 more to go!

This is a great quilt to chain piece.  I would probably line up at least 10 blocks to sew step one, and then another 10 blocks to sew step 2. That way I would only need to cut out/set up 10 blocks out each day, and I’d finish 10 blocks each day.

So, there you have it, Pat.  That’s how to make the block.  I’ll talk about cutting and setting in another post.

In other news: I’ve finished Meezer Teaser Ball #25, and now that I have approval of the wording on the tags, all I have to do is print them out, put them on and ship the whole kit and caboodle to the SCRC.

I’ll let you know how much they’ll end up charging and when they go on sale when I know myself.

I have decided not to stress myself and finish 2 more quilts before my babble in February. I am now hoping just to finish Spirographology. That should take some of the stress off since I will have three bindings (two I’ve been putting off to play with Meezer Teaser Balls), and the label project.

I also started the border for A Tribute to Mary Ellen Hopkins. I kind of like it even though I’m not really a fan of paper piecing.

 

Holiday Lead-Up

Tags

cats, CQG, DNA1, DnA3, DnA4, Guild, layer cakes, longarm quilting, machine quilting, Miko, NaNoWriMo, quilting, Rumi

A new DNA quilt finally goes on the long arm. (This is the one with the pieced back, which is finally the correct size.)

Rather than complain about the Christmas decorations (most put up after Halloween, thank goodness!) I’ve decided to embrace the whole deal.

Now, of course, this does not mean I’ll be leaving the Thanksgiving table to go to the mall (or waking up at O-dark-thirty to get “deals.) It just means I’ve decided not to be grumpy about it… for today at least.

I mean, shiny tinsel and evergreen boughs are pretty! Be happy! Don’t Worry!

I think I can stay like this until I have to pick up my prescriptions from Walmart.

So in my (probably temporary) un-grumpy state, I’m going to tell you what I’ve been up to in the last couple of weeks.

First of all, I have been writing.  I still think it’s dreck and will ultimately be unpublishable, but the novel has made some twists and turns that have surprised even me. I’m about 80% of the way through November’s word count and will hopefully be able to have it “validated” for NaNoWriMo before the end of the month.

What I learned is that I need a bit more structure when starting. I took out an old outline, but I hadn’t re-acquainted myself with the plot or characters before the beginning of November, and the story has veered WAY off course. I have no idea how it’s going to end (or if.)

Note to self: more prep for NaNoWriMo next year.

Most of the pictures I’ve taken lately have been of the cats. Here’s Rumi

Number two on the hit list is: dealing with cats.  I know I posted a picture of Rumi when I got him, but we’re still in the “getting acquainted” stage with Miko, so some hissing and growling accompanies my daily writing. No cats have been harmed in the making of this…. well you get the picture.

In terms of quilting, I finally got DnA4 (or is it 3) on the long arm. I programmed the machine and the first border went swimmingly.

Unfortunately, it all went down hill from there. I forgot to change the thread for the “inside” and then, last week, I wasn’t able to work on it at all.

I am co-running (is that a word?) a 10″ block “raffle” for my Guild with my friend Cricket.

This coming week, being American Thanksgiving, will also be a no-LA week, so it will taken longer than a month for me to finish it (probably even two.)

I still can’t get to my quilting supplies, so I am knitting instead.  I have the body, tail, one paw, and two ears of the Siamese kitty toy I’m knitting for my friend Kris.  Oh, and half of the head. I would knit a lot faster if I actually sat down and did it.

Finally, I am almost done with the book shelves after the flood. We have three empty shelves (out of 20) and some only partially filled.  I am beginning to move books from other areas to “fill the gaps” and, at the same time, go through those.) I hope to move the sofa back to its original position some time this week.

When I do, I can finally move the excess furniture from my bedroom and get quilting again!

Fun Times

Tags

cats, flood, longarm quilting, machine quilting, Miko, NaNoWriMo, quilting, writing

So what have I been up to in my missing couple of weeks? Well… there in lies a tale (and at least a couple of tails.)

First of all, I woke up the morning of October 23rd to find half of the front room of my apartment flooded.  The drains had not drained and, having been asleep, I hadn’t bailed.

I needed to pack up my my bookcases and my china cabinet. Bear in mind, by bookcases run the length of my apartment, and my “china cabinet” is three separate units, the center one housing my TV, etc.

So, as I sat around with various maintenance guys moaning about how much stuff I had, and how dare I garden on my porch (because, obviously the dirt from replanting pots was so much more responsible for clogging the drain, than the times that they trimmed the hedges (and didn’t sweep) or strip the paint on the upstairs porches (which fluttered down to my ground level apartment… which they didn’t sweep)… well, you get the picture.

An exhausted Rumi (not to be confused with Rumor) returns from exploring the main room.

During all this, I adopted an “annoying kitty companion” for Miko.  His name is Rumi.

I had hoped to have the Siamese Rescue people hold onto him for a few days while we got our apartment back in order, but, no, he had to come to his “forever home” in a total state of chaos.

And so we have remained.

We finally dried out and now Miko met her match. They both prefer to believe the other doesn’t exist, so even though doors are open, there is almost no interaction (unless you call Miko trying to eat Rumi’s food, which she shouldn’t have.)

I haven’t done any quilting since.  Quite frankly, my sewing machine is unreachable.  Actually, my bed is almost unreachable since I have been storing most of the furniture from the front room in my bedroom.

I thought I was going to be okay, though. Before this disaster happened, I had pieced together the backing for the next quilt I wanted to quilt on the long arm.

I went today and put it on, only to find out that my top was 2″ wider than my back.  I guess I’d better go back to measuring school… and find some fabric to add to the edges for next week.

You may also notice the widget on the left column. Yes, I am participating in NaNoWriMo again. I have gotten off to a rocky start in that I don’t have a clear idea of my main character, and pretty much everything that I’ve written so far is description and world-building that will end up on the cutting room floor.

Still, I have a better idea of what she’s about after 6 days of writing, and some of the other characters are coming into focus, so maybe I will be able to save the story after all.

I still live in the hope that I will return to weekly blogging about quilting.  We all must have our dreams…

Project Gap

Tags

Borderpalooza, Cat fabrics, DnA quilt project, DnA3, DnA4, longarm quilting, MacBook Cover, machine quilting, pieced back, quilting, stash, UFO. WIP

The first of the DnA quilts to be quilted is, of course, the last one to be made: DnA4: In Memory of Edison.

I haven’t been feeling very creative (quilting-wise) lately.  I have been finishing stuff, just haven’t been able to think of a new project to start. It’s been like that since I came back from Pittsburgh.

I have been quilting, however. I finally finished the last of the Dragonfly Path quilt tops. It was like pulling teeth at the end. I don’t know what I was thinking of when I volunteered to make THREE Drunkard’s Path quilt tops, one right after another. (And, yes, there still in a fourth one in the pipeline, but I just don’t have the strength at the moment…)

I was so glad to see the end of the Dragonfly fabric, I didn’t even snap a photo of the finished top! This is the layout in progress.

New case for my new laptop. (Now I know why people buy these things!)

I couldn’t figure out what next to do, though, so I made a laptop case for my new MacBook Air. (I got this new computer so I could have all my writing software on it and write wherever I was, especially when I was out of town, or needed someone else to make coffee for me. Worked great at Mom’s house, where I got both at the same time.)

Anyway, I learned lots in making this piece, most important of all is: it’s really worth paying someone else to make the next one!

Between the zippers and the piping and the doubled batting (to cushion the little Mac from life’s many bumps), my lack of a working walking foot (long story) the only real surprise to me was that I finished it. As you can see, it’s string-pieced on a foundation. You may notice some fabric from my other projects, including the yellow plaid from Les Filles des Mares. the iridescent dragonflies, from THAT project (above), and, of course, the obligatory Hello Kitty fabric.

Doesn’t look like much now, but this is part of the pieced back of DnA3: In Memory of Rumor, which I’ll be quilting next.

At least two of the strips are backing fabric from some recently completed quilts. In fact, the third strip down is the back of the quilt I have on the long arm at the moment.

The last of my “filler” projects is the backing for the next DnA quilt: DnA3: In Memory of Rumor. It’s pieced from all the cat fabrics I have left… and I still didn’t use everything up. My now much-more- rationally-sized stash of cat fabric includes two 1 yard pieces and less than half a dozen FQs of cat fabric. (So don’t send me anymore for my birthday!  Send airplane fabric instead 🙂 )

I, of course, am trying not to go out and buy new fabric in the hopes that inspiration will hit again. I think until I find a block or vintage quilt that inspires me, I will simply go back to Borderpalooza.  I think there are 2 or 3 more than can be finished this year.

Inspiration From Vintage Quilts

Tags

antique quilts, Brimfield, Brimfield Star, Dragonfly Path, Drunkard's Path, longarm quilting, piecing, quilting, Seven Sisters, UFO. WIP

Many dealers at Brimfield have quilts even though not all who feature them specialize in them.

I try to post on Thursday, which is also when I go to use the long-arm. This past Thursday, however, I was cleaning and prepping for the visit from a friend, and so I didn’t get to this blog.

It was the last Brimfield of the year and this time we went on Friday when more dealers were open. Saturday is good, but some of the dealers pack up earlier because they are traveling on Sunday.

Anyway, I had nothing I was really looking for, so I settled for looking at quilts. (I also have to warn you that I forgot my camera, so these were taken with my “stupid phone” which you really can’t see in the sunshine.)

One of the things I really love about antique quilts is that even when they’re imperfect and downright wacky, they seem to represent that “real” human women were making them.

The piecing is great on this one. The quilting… not so much, but the quilter obviously did as good a job as she could and the resulting top looks terrific!

The quilts that generally show up at Brimfield are not the stellar, “hang-in-the-museum” types, but more like the kind that I do which makes a great counter-weight to going to Quilt Shows.

“Ah, yes, these quilts were made to be used.”

Unfortunately, quite a few of them are used as packing, which seems a bit sad, but at least they’re not just sitting around. (She glances around her room at her stacks of quilts on the trunk at the base of her bed… on the closet shelves… in a pile on the drafting chair waiting for their binding…)

Speaking of making quilts…

Since I didn’t get to use the long-arm last week, it means that I still have to choose a project to work on for the next couple of weeks.

Coming back from Brimfield, I thought Brimfield Star, but I don’t think I have a backing I like with it, and I’m not even sure what kind of thread to use. I might have even decided all that, but if so, I forgot.

I really should write these things down… oh wait, I probably did.  I just lost the list.

The second of the Drunkard’s Path quilts.

As for piecing, I am still working on Debbie’s Drunkard’s Path projects.  I’ve just finished the second (which I am considering calling Dragonfly Path: The Fairy Frost Strikes Back!)

So, that’s what I’ll be up to this week.  I may post again on Thursday, or I may make a move to Mondays… who knows?

Why I Am Grateful For Modern Quilting

Tags

Barbara Brackman Grandmother's Choice, cats, circles, Crossed Purposes, Drunkard's Path, edison, longarm quilting, Modern Quilting, quilting, UFO. WIP

I’ve been sewing so much that another spool has “bitten the dust.”

I have been quilting for more than 25 years, so I can’t really claim to be a “Modern Quilter” and wouldn’t ever describe myself that way.  I am a quilter. Period.

But, for some reason, the term “Modern Quilting” doesn’t annoy me the way it does many of my contemporaries (i.e. quilters who have been quilting a while).  I see it mostly as a marketing thing, but anything that brings more voices in my art, and more fabric to my stash, I see as a good thing.

So, for my quilting buds, I am listing reasons why I am grateful that Modern Quilting has come along.

An orphan block from Grandmother’s Choice might be the inspiration for a quilt of its own.

1. Gray.  I love grays because they sink back and are a team player.  It was getting really hard to find nice grays (and solids, too, for that matter) before “Modern Quilting” took off.

Like the Japanese quilters popularizing taupe (another color “discovery” I love), I will always be grateful for the new fabric designers for bringing back nice grays.

2. Online resources. The rotary cutter really revolutionized quilting. I remember it (mostly because I used templates to cut out the pieces for my first quilt… templates, and scissors, and (oh horrors!) a Sharpie!) It’s a wonder I wasn’t burned at the stake back then.

Since quilting has become popular again, there are dozens of podcasts, thousands of blogs, and millions of tutorials, both video and written. There are books, and rulers, and templates, and stencils, and patterns directed at all interests and skill levels. There are more ways than ever to connect to like-minded quilters all around the globe, and that’s just wonderful in my book.

Crossed Purposes is hot off the long arm!

3. The death of the Quilt Police. Oh, they’re still out there, but they are easier to ignore than ever by attributing your quilting style to something they are less familiar with.

You clipped your points or your corners don’t match: you are exploring “freeform piecing.” You like lots of white space, or you adore the new fabrics? You’re “modern.” You like using billions of scraps? You’re a “scrap quilter.” You’re exploring elements of design using fabrics and other stuff? You’re an “art quilter.” There are now more ways than ever to shut those pesky quilt police down.

Another possibility for the leftovers from the (many) Drunkard’s Path quilts I’ve been playing with.

4. Experimentation and whimsy. I admire people who can take existing patterns and make them new and fun.  In fact, that’s what I try to do when I quilt: start with a parameter and see where I can take it.  Solve a “problem.” Probe deeper into a concept.

The Drunkard’s Path Blocks are my current “research” and I’m really enjoying myself.  Isn’t that the point of an avocation or hobby?  If I sewed as much for my business as I do for fun, it would be drudgery. I wouldn’t look forward to my time with my fabric. But because I can’t wait to see what happens when I put all those blocks on my design wall, it’s exciting and fun.

Edison had the right of it: the best part of quilting is enjoying the quilts you’ve made.

5. Making useful stuff is “in” again. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in thinking about what others see when they see our quilts that it seems like we’re constantly preparing for a Quilt Show. One of the things that the Modern Quilt Guild claims makes a “modern quilt” is that it is a utility quilt.  I find this really funny because that’s what I’ve been doing for 25+ years, but if they want to make it “cool,” then I’m “down” with that.

So if someone describes themselves as a “Modern Quilter.” Don’t regard it as if as if they are looking down their nose at you. Don’t pooh-pooh them as if they are merely following a trend (they may be, but didn’t we all when we started out? And some of us still do because we prefer that specific style.)  Think of it as if they are proudly proclaiming themselves “art quilters” or “traditional quilters” or “hand quilters” or “slow quilters” or whatever.  Concentrate our commonalities. They are easy to see. It’s in that second word: Quilters.