Traditional, or Modern

This is not my usual sit down at the computer and write a few words and put up some photos of my work in progress for the week.  I have been mulling over this topic for a few weeks now and have put in a bit of thought to this post.  So bear with me - maybe even get yourself a cup of tea or a glass of wine! 

What type of Quilter are you? We hear so much about modern and traditional quilting and it occurred to me that there may not actually be a huge difference.  Our quilting group has a challenge for the summer months once again.  We have now completed two different challenges -

Seasons in 2013

and Illusions 2016

and this year's challenge theme is Modern!  Yes just "Modern" the only stipulation this time is that it has to be a small quilt measuring no bigger that 24"x24" with a hanging sleeve or corners so that it can be displayed.  As you will agree this theme is open to all sorts of interpretations.  No I have not yet decided what I'm doing!

The definition of Traditional according to the dictionary is “following the customs or ways of society for a long time without changing”.  So in quilting terms I guess it means using square quilt blocks which have passed down through the years such as ninepatch, logcabin, stars, rail fence, bear paw, tumbling block, etc and using warm coloured fabrics with small designs and patterns.  I think these quilts, which were two of my early quilts depict the traditional theme although they were both machine pieced and quilted the only handstitching was securing the binding.

Homecoming

Call of the Wild

Willow Pattern - This one used scraps but had one fabric which featured in every block -
Another class challenge using one fat quarter 

Although not used in these particular quilts, scraps of fabrics from old or worn clothing would be used to make warm three layered blankets and quilts to keep the cold out during the long dark winter months.  Traditional methods would of course be hand stitching - no sewing machines or long arms for quilting.  Each block would be stitched by the fire by hand then layered and stitched or tied to make the quilt.

So what is Modern?  The definition of modern is “something relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past.  In quilting terms though some say modern is negative space, low volume or solid fabrics, improvised piecing.   Pieced or appliqué circles are not unknown, even triangular blocks have made an appearance as have diamonds in rainbow colours and hues.  No borders, binding the same fabric as the background, quilting straight-lines or echos usually on the machine are also features of the modern quilting movement.

So perhaps this one is classed as modern?

Twister - using templates and low volume background fabric, solids and quilted with circles

or these?

Improv Blocks - Quilted in straight lines following the improv angles

Woven Circles using solid fabrics

Refractions - Definitely Modern!

But how would you class this one?

Log cabin blocks in vibrant bright rainbow colours - is it traditional or modern?

In my opinion modern can be traditional too.  What is wrong with using traditional blocks? What is wrong with using scraps? I love some of the traditional blocks, but why not use nice bright modern fabrics, there are some fabulous fabrics available now, a huge colour selection of solids and blenders are now available by all the manufacturers at varying prices to suit every pocket and can can be utilised for the making of a modern quilt.  I am still a piecer or a topper (I am not so good at choosing the actual design to quilt the sandwich) - I love the cutting and stitching together of small pieces of fabric but modern quilting can also be appliqué, confetti, mosaic indeed any medium you care to choose.

I think we should have a new category,  Fusion - ‘the process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity'.  The meeting of old and new.  The bringing together of the old traditional blocks and teaming them up with bright new fabrics and methods.

The quilt I am working on this week is perhaps a Fusion quilt.  The Half Square Triangle is  a quick and easy traditional block, but the fabrics i am using are bright and cheery and the background is a low volume white on white modern swirl.  I have a layout which I think is quite modern and I haven't seen it before but it does not have solid fabrics, improvised piecing nor will it have the binding the same as the background.  I'm not sure yet how it will be quilted but it will be called my fusion quilt.

The ultimate goal in quilting is not whether it is traditional or modern, whether it is dark or light whether it is blue or green, cotton or linen.  The ultimate goal in quilt making is your own enjoyment.  The pleasure of making  an item whether it be large or small, whether it is a gift or whether it is to be kept for yourself is the main goal.  The enjoyment comes from the pleasure of making and transfers on to the pleasure of giving it to a recipient who you hope will enjoy the comfort and warmth it will bring to them.  If you are not enjoying the process of quilting, stop and put it aside for another day.  Enjoy your quilting journey whichever label or name you want to use.

If you have managed to stick with me to the end o this post I would love to hear your thoughts and views on the subject.  Drop me an email, or post a comment below. Happy stitching!

Normal Sewing Has Resumed

Last weeks disaster has been fixed.  I received my nice new shiny Acufeed foot earlier this week, a speedy delivery which allowed me to return to the Awesome Ocean and complete the quilting.  The binding is attached and I now only need to stitch it down while relaxing one evening this week.

While waiting for the new part I continued with the HSTs.  Some folks shy away from triangles, however I find it quite satisfying chain piecing and trimming.  It is absolutely essential to trim as you go - it makes for nice neat square blocks when they are all joined together.  

It is amazing how many different patterns can be achieved using HSTs.  If you haven't already tried playing with them perhaps you should give it a go the next time you want to make something different with a charm pack and some solid background fabric.  I have come up with two different patterns - well I think they might be, although someone may have beaten me to it.  I will hopefully show you next time.  I have planned them on EQ7 but a design wall or a large table or floor would suffice.

Our little Grandson and his Mummy and Daddy visited us yesterday.  What great fun a 3 year old is!  The sun was shining and we had a picnic lunch in the garden.  Which prompted me to make something different last night.  A reversible Bucket Hat for S.  I've had the free downloadable pattern from oliver + s for ages.  S and I chose the fabrics together - He liked the spaceships and flying saucers and I chose the co-ordinating stripe.  I think I might have made a few changes if I do it again but all in all I'm happy with the result, I hope he will like it too!

The sun has disappeared this morning but I hope it will reappear soon.  It is so nice to be able to sit out with your sewing or knitting.  I have been enjoying the antics of the young blackbirds being fed by their mother in the garden and the butterflies and the bumble bees are beginning to appear too as the new growth appears on the trees and flowers.   Happy sewing days!

Disaster Strikes!

Last week I did as I said I would - some thinking and some stocktaking.  I found a lot of things I had forgotten I had, orphan blocks, little fishes, charm packs (I don't really like pre-cuts so not sure why I've got them) lots of fat quarters - again not usually my thing, and a few cheap and cheerful Connecting Kits.

So where to start?  Elizabeth Hartman has produced a few lovely patterns and I have used some of them in the past.  I particularly liked the Forest Friends and had used some of the characters in children's quilts.  The little fox, hedgehog and bunny being some of my favourites.  Awesome Ocean is another lovely pattern and I had downloaded it when it first appeared online and I made a few of the little fishes and the octopus with some of my scraps.  They were floundering in one of the baskets.  So without any further procrastinating I set to last weekend and pieced them altogether and here is the result.

So Cute!  Well it is now sandwiched together and the quilting is started, I had big plans for some exciting quilting on this quilt but in the end decided on the straightforward wavy line decorative stitch on my machine. 

Thats when Disaster struck!

I have a Janome Memory Craft 8900QCP sewing machine which I love.  I know of two other friends who have the same machine.  They have had trouble with their Acufeed System.  This system is  a fantastic walking foot system but it must have a design fault.  There is a small pin in the foot which works itself loose over time.  I was hoping it wouldn't happen to me but ...............

I have now ordered a new part and hopefully it will be with me very soon but in the meantime this little quilt will need to wait on the shelf again.

So whats next?  It's one of those Charm Packs, half square triangles again.  It seems to be the go to block for these little squares.  

The sun is shining this morning so I am hoping I might get to sit in the garden for a bit later, although I see one of the acers looks a bit sorry for itself this morning - have we had a bit of frost over night? Oh no, that would be another disaster,  the fresh new buds look to have all shrivelled so it will take time to recover.

I hope you all have time to stop and enjoy your garden as well as having some time to sew this week.

Taking Stock

Sometimes you just have to call a halt and take stock.  I have been working on my UFO's and WIP's for some time now and have managed quite a few finishes recently.  This week I quilted a little quilt which I started a while back.  Again the top was done but it lay on the shelf needing some TLC and a backing.  Its good when an idea inspires you to pick up an unfinished top.  I did enjoy piecing this one but until this week I hadn't a clue as to how I was going to finish it.  I sandwiched it using a Connecting Threads backing in grey cobblestones and quilted it with Glide thread in a vibrant yellow, strangely its called Cornflower - and I thought cornflowers were blue!  Well here it is - all finished and back on the shelf meantime until its needed.

The Plus quilt has been completed too - again done on the Grace frame with a vibrant lime green fleece and quilted with Glide Key Lime thread.  Its lovely even although I am saying it myself!

........ and finally the red angry quilt top is off the design wall, the borders are on but it's folded up and put away for a bit.  I am liking all these nice bright spring colours I've been working with so I'm putting this one away until the Autumn when I might just have a better idea of how to quilt it and perhaps by then I will have found a nice backing too. 

So what next?  I do need to take stock.  I have a few partial projects in baskets, not so many tops still needing quilted but I have got lots of stash needing used up.  We have a summer challenge at class I need to think about and the theme is 'Modern' so that is open to all sorts of interpretation. We have now completed our BOM which we have been completing each month for the last 9 months.  My blocks now need to be arranged and put together so that the completed quilt will be ready for Show and Tell in September.  I also have a few ideas buzzing around in my head for other projects so I really should write them down before I forget what they are, and why I have bought that particular fabric.

If I am going to do some stock taking I had better shut down the computer, iPad and phone and get on with it hadn't I.........procrastination, where should I start!

Enjoy the Holiday weekend - I hope the sun shines as predicted and you get to sit out in your garden and do some stitching in the sun.  Who knows the BBQ might even get its first outing of the summer.  Enjoy!!

Holidays Over

It didn't take me long to get back into the old routine this week and sadly the sun disappeared after Saturday.  However the holiday laundry was all done quickly last weekend and normal service has resumed.

I think I really am a sad person in some respects - I missed my sewing machine, so without any further dallying I jumped right in and completed the quilting on my Starburst quilt.  I don't normally like leaving things set up on the frame for too long but it had to remain there in limbo for two reasons.  first one of course was I was away but more importantly my thread was running low.  I sent off a new order for the Glide thread I use for FMQ.  Quilt Sanctuary has in my opinion a lovely range of colours and a very good prompt service, thanks Laura!

When the Robin Egg Blue thread arrived earlier in the week (with some other spring colours I couldn't resist) I set to and completed the last row and border, and quickly unfurled it from the frame.  I am really pleased with how it has turned out.  I do like the pattern of the quilting on the reverse side.

This quilt is not going anywhere it is for me, well not really it will stay in my car.  It's always useful to have a wee cover for picnics - if we ever get the weather for one!

The Starburst,  Connecting Threads quilt is now complete apart from the label, which may get done later this evening.  As I was writing up my Quilt Journal, I noticed it is exactly 2 months today since I started this one, I think that is good going.  I measures 61" x 76" and you may just see another little quilt made with the generous leftovers from this kit in the not so distant future.

I have also been working on the quilting of our class Circle of Geese quilt.  Each of our members made a foundation pieced Flying Geese block.

My original intention was to load it on to the frame and just meander the quilting line.  Ideas change and formulate in your head over time and when I sandwiched this one I was not happy about quilting it on the frame.  There are no borders on this quilt and I was concerned the tension on the frame might pull the edges too much and distort the finished quilt - Plan B.  Echo the stars and do something in the middle of where the blocks join.  Almost done, I now and have to trim it for Tuesday when the binding will be ready to go on, and hopefully then passed on to someone else to handstitch the binding.

Well thats my progress this week.  How did you do?

Return From The Sun

We have had another little break, this time in the sunshine in Sicily.  The men played golf at the lovely golf resort in Donnafugatta on the south coast of the island and of course the wives went along for the ride.  The resort is about an hour and a half from the airport at Catania and having picked up the hire cars in the sweltering heat we headed off over the mountain to the resort.  I was to be the designated driver for the ladies for the week.  I knew Italian drivers were a bit crazy - but to be honest that was an understatement.  Different car, sweltering heat, new roads, and driving on the other side.  Fortunately I was used to driving in Canada so that was not a huge issue.  We had a few scary moments due to erratic drivers but we arrived safely at our destination.

We had a lovely week relaxing with good friends.  Having decided this was to be a relaxing and chill out week the car remained in the car park although we did have an outing to Regusa but I wasn't driving fortunately.  The sat nav took us down a country road where we met.........

A large heard of cows on the road on their way to be milked.  After a few minutes waiting until they had passed we continued on our journey until we ended at the farm yard - a dead end!  Retracing our tracks we did get to Regusa and had a lovely lunch outside in the sunshine, followed by a walk around the old town and the gardens.

Most of the week was spent around the resort, walking and and lazing in the sunshine by the pool, while our other halves played golf.  It was just what I needed and enjoyed every minute.

As you can imagine no quilting was done, however I did manage a few stitches in my little stitchery while lounging by the infinity pool which overlooked the golf course.  A few of our party did venture in by the end of the week however it really hadn't heated up to a high enough temperature to be comfortable in.

The closest I came to seeing anything quilted this week was two rather striking cacti in the hotel which were made with soft furnishing fabrics.  Quite stunning but perhaps only in the right setting - which these definitely were.

Well the washing and ironing has now been done and we will be back to the old routine tomorrow and hopefully I will get some more quilting done this week.

Have a good week everyone.

Multitasking

Since my last blog post I have been working on two different projects. I featured the red fabrics last time for the ‘Bliss’ quilt.  Where do they choose the names from?  Well this has been proving it’s not bliss.  There is I think a reason for me not working with red fabrics - they make me angry!  A remember my Mum telling me when Techie was a toddler that should not dress him in a red t-shirt or sweatshirt.........why because it made him grumpy! I of course could never see the reasoning behind this theory but on reflection I think she was probably right.  Red can be an angry and aggressive colour, it can also be bright and cheery but this week it has driven me up the wall. 

The 2 blocks which make up the pattern

The pattern has lots of squares and flying geese blocks and I am glad I have now finished making all the geese on this one.  I am also so pleased I have the space for a design wall.  On two different nights I have discovered a border placed the wrong way round.  One I only noticed when I was taking a photo for Instagram.  Progress is being made though but and it remains on the wall for now as I felt the need for a change.

 The first border added but I had lost a piece

Missing piece found at the bottom of the basket hiding

As I  enjoy piecing more than any other process of making a quilt I always have lots of ‘tops’ sitting waiting to be sandwiched.  I needed a change so chose the ‘Starburst’ top to pick up.  You may remember I was waiting for backing before I could move on with this one.  I chose an Aqua cobblestone fabric for it which compliments it nicely.  

Starburst top and backing

This one was always destined for the frame and to be freemotion quilted.  Having browsed through many blogs and watched lots of YouTube videos when I was ill some ideas were stored in my mind.  So the process began,  but not before ordering some nice new bright reels of Glide thread from Quilt Sanctuary.  I chose a Robins Egg blue which is lovely. I’ve had a few oopsies, or should I say design features but this quilt is destined for my car and is a project to push the boundaries a bit so that I can move away from straight line quilting and produce a more flowing design using curves and circles.  

Loaded up and the first pass done

Making progress

Not an overnight success but if at first you don’t succeed try try again!

I hope you have been able to try something new recently and push your boundaries a bit out of your comfort zone.  It is such a sense of achievement when something works the way you want it to.