In January of 2009, I started a quilting blog to document my journey as quilter and to connect with the quilting community as I had none in real time. At that point, having only two "real" quilts under my belt, and being entirely self taught, I wasn't sure where I was going or what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to get there.
Problem Child - February, 2009
This was a quilt I had started in August of 2008 while recovering from surgery. I made the blocks on my tiny Kenmore sewing machine while sitting up in bed. They were fussy, quite difficult for a newbie quilter, and I couldn't figure out why in heck I had decided to make such a
difficult thing. It was the third quilt I'd ever made.
Schrodinger's Box - March, 2009
When I made my first "real quilt" back in April of 2008, I made up the pattern as I went along - using my scraps and making them fit. When I was done, I liked the result so much, I decided to try the pattern again with this group of fabrics (various versions of cats in boxes, hence the name). It was my second attempt at free-motion quilting, and it left a lot to be desired, but it was a satisfactory beginning. You'll see that my picture taking ability improves along with my quilting throughout the year!
A Day at The Zoo - April, 2009
This was another quilt I'd started in 2008 and finished in 2009. The patterned fabric are various zoo animals and in their little block "enclosures" I thought the quilt was rather zoo-like. I didn't like it much when it was done, but this quilt was where I
finally figured out some of the more important points in free motion quilting - the key one being "
run the machine quickly, but move your hands slowly". It was a counter-intuitive process for me, but it made all the difference in the world - you can actually pin-point on the quilt where I had my "epiphany". The difference in the stitching is amazing.
My Mis-Steps - April, 2009
Another 2008 start and 2009 finish - this quilt was a great disappointment to me. It contained every mistake a newbie quilter could make, and the finished product looked only a tiny bit as I had imagined it. I hate this quilt.
Strangely though, it gets the most use out of any of our quilts! We keep it around to throw over ourselves if we get a chill while watching t.v. - saving the nicer throws I've made for when company comes over. So it gets used a couple of times per week. One of the little ironies of life.
Oma's Pocketbook - May, 2009
This was a very simple quilt, but one I really loved. Inspired by an online friend's quilted daisies, I bravely tried quilting some flowers myself - and I loved the result.
But more importantly, while making this quilt, I came to the acdidental realization that I could tell a story with a quilt; that a quilt could be used as vehicle to share something personally important. The knowledge that quilting could be a medium for something bigger than the quilt itself percolated in my sub-conscious for awhile, until it became its own conclusion.
Autumn Steals In - May, 2009
Another 2008 start and 2009 finish, I first saw a version of this quilt online. I ended up changing the pattern a fair amount, and the addition of sashing between the blocks changed the look of it significantly, but this quilt was important in my quilting development because my free motion quilting was good enough that I realized that even though it still wasn't there yet, it would be, maybe somday soon.
Despite the significance of this quilt, I stopped quilting for a few months. Family stuff was happening, and I fell into a fallow period while, it turned out, things were percolating.
Strawberry Sunday - July, 2009
I began quilting again in July, having decided that I would have to make a series of "journeyman's quilts" - quilts that were for no other purpose than to hone my skills.
With that in mind, I made another "story" quilt - this one about the relationship between myself and one of my brothers. It's a simple quilt, and again, not one I particularly like as it doesn't speak at all to my aesthetic - and yet, I have quite an emotional attachment to this quilt because of things I learned about my brother and I while making it.
One of the more interesting things about quilting is how meditative the process is, leaving your heart and spirit free to remember, explore, or take wing.
Kinda Blue - August, 2009
This was a commission quilt of sorts - it was for a birthday gift for my sister-in-law, who loves turquoise blue. I found this quilt easy to make from a physical perspective, and difficult to make from an "emotional" perspective. I was trying to make something to suit someone else's tastes, home and colour scheme, rather than my usual "inspiration has struck/I saw it in a dream" approach, and I found the process very trying.
In the end I was very pleased with it, but was pretty sure I never wanted to make another commission quilt again!
Coneflowers in Leslieville - August 2009
Oh, and hey, speaking of working to the constraints of others, I had joined a swap, and my partner was someone whose very being seemed in direct opposition to mine. There wasn't a point where we didn't differ in terms of taste, colour preference, personality or even, as far as I could tell, way of moving through the world (!), and after making and discarding several versions of quilts for her, I finally finished one that I believed would suit her tastes. But I hated it with the passion of a thousand firey suns! So I destroyed it. I mean, I literally ripped it apart with my hands and then cut up the pieces. If I'd lived near the ocean I would have scattered the pieces to the sea. I
HATED IT.
And the next day, very early in the morning, I began constructing this quilt. It was extremely labour intensive (about an hour per square inch); but when I was done I was proud to send it off into the world with my name on it.
It was my first art quilt - which was significant, but it was also this quilt that told me I had to be true to myself as I pursued this newfound passion.
P.S. Although the recipient was kind, she hated it. *laughs*
Zoopendus - September, 2009
For my next trick, I wanted to try my hand at applique. When I was done, I realized my mistake with this quilt were the borders - they're too much - simpler would have been better - and I still may take them off somdeay soon. I learned with this quilt when to say "when".
But for my first attempt at applique, I was quite pleased with it.
Baby-Go-Round - September, 2009
In constant pursuit of learning, I wanted to try a different (raw edge) applique method, and see if I could make my "grown up" aesthetic work in a baby quilt. It did work rather well, I thought, but I was particularly pleased with the quilting, which was vastly different than anything I had tried before.
It was intensely time consuming (it took me about twice as long to quilt this baby quilt as it usually took me to quilt a queen sized quilt); but I loved the end result - a quilt made reversible by virtue of its quilting. (The back is plain black with high contrast thick white thread for quilting.)
It also taught me that to get the results I wanted, I needed to really take the time. This was a signficant lesson for me as up to this point, I was interested in producing as many quilts as I could as quickly as possible. From here on out, my focus switched to making the best quilt I could and taking whatever time it needed to be so.
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After that, for a couple of weeks I made some "cat quilts" - practicing different quilting and piecing techniques. Since they're small, I won't bother posting pictures of them, but you'll see them in the coming year as I make people sized versions over the next several months.
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Pinocchio - September, 2009
My "not-a-log-cabin" quilt, I don't actually like this quilt from an aesthetic point of view - it's too busy, too brash, too
much for my tastes, but I was at the point in my quilting where I felt I ought to try and make something that followed the rules, that looked like something a "quilting lady" might approve of, and by so doing, I would be able to claim my place as a "real" quilter.
I of course, failed miserably in my not very valiant attempt to follow the rules, but decided that whether or not my quilts ever received the approval of the "quilting ladies" of the world, I was indeed a quilter in my own right, and that I didn't need their approval after all.
It was quite a relief, and quite freeing.
Mans' Fans - September, 2009
This was another "big moment" for me in my quilting journey of 2009.
This quilt top is what set me on this year-long pursuit to improve my abilities. I made it early in 2008, but realized that at my then-current level of quilting ablity - I would ruin it. If I was going to make the quilts of my dreams, I first had to learn how to do so. So, when I took this top out to quilt it this fall, it was with some trepidation: Was I good enough to quilt this the way I had imagined it?
It was scary proposition to try. I was delighted and actually quite surprised to learn that I had reached at least one of my short terms goals - the quilting looked
exactly as I had imagined it.
When this quilt was done, someone who saw it called me a "Fibre Artist". This new name was one I was beginning to be ready to claim. But the possibility of so calling myself set me on a new path to dream into fruition.
Make Something Purple - September, 2009
The self-imposed pressure was too much to live up to. Despite my newfound path, I crumbled into self-doubt. But I knew if I stopped, I'd never pursue the dream again.
To get myself into the sewing room every day I started making a nine patch using fabrics I'd had for years, and never used. Because of my disinterest in those fabrics, I threw it together quite haphazardly. I didn't expect to like the finished product and before it was even constructed I knew its intended use was as a "car quilt"; but the whole was somehow greater than the sum of its parts and I was sorry in the end I hadn't been more careful because it would have been quite pretty if I had actually taken the time to plan and execute it well.
Another lesson learned!
The Paths to My Bliss - No. 1
This one was a weird little number. The textiles in it kind of grabbed me in the middle of the night and more or less
forced me to work with them, and it turned out to be another "channelling a quilt" moment like I had experienced with
Coneflowers in Leslieville. I called it "No.1" because I knew immediately that there would be more in the series, but unlike what I thought at the time, they won't be like this one.
The little quilts in this series are all going to be those "aha!" moments on my quilting path - so they likely won't look alike at all. But they'll tell a story that I'll be able to follow and I think will be quite an interesting collection as the years progress.
Although I LOVED this quilt when I first made it, I feel "meh" about it now. But I do love what I learned while making it, and those techniques will be put to use in future quilts.
Berkley Square - October, 2009
And then: well, and then, I made Berkley Square. It's subtle, and quiet, and not at all my usual colour palette, but it's probably the truest reflection of the kind of quilts I want to make. Contemporary. Textural. Sophisticated.
Which is not to say that every quilt I ever make will always fit those paramaters - sometimes I'll just want to have fun - and more often than not, I'll have to make more practical quilts; but this type of quilt will always be what I aspire to produce when I'm at my best as a quilter.
The quilting on this lap-sized quilt took about 45 hours. Crazy. But I loved the whole process and love this quilt.
Zen Garden - October 2009
And so I produced another subtle, quiet, contemporary quilt.
The quilting on this one is like waves in the sand, but to me, the real beauty of it isn't captured well in photographs: the fabrics are
spectacular and they were what inspired the quiet subtlety of this quilt. From the unbelieveably soft grey/green tweed of the front to the quite astonishing Japanese silk chiffon of the "stones" and the back, this quilt not only embodied my personal style, but the texture I've always been so fascinated with.
The Littlest Hobo - November, 2009
And then I made something fun, but not so challenging. After the prior two, my brain needed a bit of a break. Not much to say about it other than that it was fun and bright and made me happy while making it.
Love Drops - November, 2009
Funnily enough, this is the quilt that started it all.
Back in 2007, I was wandering around the net, visiting sewing blogs and clicking on random links, and I came across a woman who had a made a doll quilt she called
Confetti. At that time, the idea that someone would make a doll quilt was quite befuddling to me, but I really loved her little quilt and wanted to learn how to make one. I've never been back to her blog again; but it was seeing that quilt that made me decide to learn how.
And so I finally made one for myself.
Winter Moon - November, 2009
Another art quilt that was made to be sent out into the world, my intent is to re-visit this theme, refine the technique and make a tryptch. And then I think I'm going to enter it in a show. It'll be my first time entering a show, but I think I'm ready.
The judges will let me know if I am or not. ;)
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Since
Winter Moon, I was in another fallow period, and took the time to work on some WIPs; making one twin-sized Amish style quilt, two queen sized quilts and another art quilt, but at the beginning of December, my computer crashed and burned and I lost all the photos of every quilt I'd ever made. Thankfully, I had this blog so I could recover some of them, but the art quilt went off to its intended recipient in the American Samoas and I don't know if I'll ever have pictures of it again.
As for the other quilts, I'll take new pictures and do separate posts about them since I haven't done so yet anyway.
And that was my year in quilting.
Twenty-five quilts, a learning curve that catapulted me into the near future (I didn't think that I'd achieve the kind of quilting I'd done on
Man's Fans and
Berkley Square until 2011 at the earliest); some "aha" moments that changed my path as a quilter, and
I found that oddly, quilting helped me achieve some quite significant growth as a human being.
And so, in 2010, I have found a new purpose and new ambitions for my quilting.
From an artistic perspective I want to delve more deeply into texture and colour and how those two things play with and against each other; I want to make some more art quilts and discover whether I can find a place for myself in that world (or even whether I want to
be in that world); from an emotional perspective I want to explore using quilting as a medium rather than as the product; and as for ambitions - well - I have some of those too, but I'm holding them close to my heart for now.
If you stayed with me through this very long post, thanks for doing so, and for following along throughout the year.
Happy new year, and creative blessings to us all! I'm looking forward to seeing what 2010 will bring.
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