Artless Fabrications

Second set of four blocks

Piecing in progress...

Well things are progressing along nicely and I’m keeping up a good finishing pace, with four quilt tops completed to the ‘flimsy’stage and one quilted by February 1st.

The project that my Bubby and I are doing each week has been challenging but also very satisfying. At this point we are supposed to have the center medallion and eight of the blocks finished. By the time we meet up at the Central Alberta Quilt Show in Red Deer, this April, we should have our quilt tops completely pieced for a show and tell.

I have to be completely honest and confess that I’ve gotten a bit carried away, and as you can see in the second photo, I’ve been piecing my top together ahead of schedule. I spent a lot of time with pencil and graph paper working out my final setting design and with all that nasty math out of the way, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. The next stage was to pull larger yardage cuts of fabric from my stash and cut all those setting triangles.

This entire quilt top has been made from historical reproduction fabrics I’ve collected over a long period of time and some of my choices were unusual and therefore a big stretch for me but it feels great to see them come together in this project. The only fabric I’ve had to purchase is backing and binding (believe it or not, there wasn’t one leftover piece of fabric used in the top that was large enough to make a binding).

This quilt is turning out to be one of my absolute favourites!

This is block #7 completed on January 7th and although it’s only been one week, I’m really enjoying the creative process of beginning my day with one hour of writing poetry and ‘playing’ in the fabric stash. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Haiku #7

the stars were aligned

from the moment of your birth,

making two hearts one.

I love you, Bubby! Happy birthday!

It’s been over three years now that our little quilt group has been gathering each month, and although we’ve taken a break over the coldest winter months of December, January, and February, I’m hoping everyone is still motivated to catch up on last year’s blocks.

I’ve been working hard at  finishing the blocks for our first section, in order to piece it all together as a panel. I’m also trying to get the next block samples done before we reconvene in March, just to stay ahead of the game.

As you can see in the photo above I did decide to keep my zig-zag blocks 12.5″ x12.5″, even though they were sewn too large (they are supposed to be 10.5″ x 12.5″). I really liked how they looked sewn together as one strip rather than split up on either side of the house block, but now I have to contend with my ‘error’ in measurements as those blocks are 2″ longer than the house block. I’ve been brainstorming some ideas and think I’ve come up with a plan to add a strip of small blocks to either the top or bottom of the house. It’s important to remember that whatever I choose needs to work with the other blocks, but if I select an element from within one of those blocks, this should help create a sense of continuity. This is such a scrappy quilt, with blocks of many different sizes, therefore I’m sure it will look just fine.

I’m hoping that by posting my own progress you will all be inspired to work on your quilts. With such a wide variety of fabric choices, it will be fun to see everyone’s first panels stitched together. Keep in mind that I will be offering some fun incentives and prizes at our March meeting, so have your first section pieced together and get all those old UFO’s stitched up, quilted and bound. The more  you have done, the more chances you’ll have to win!

A Bubby is more than a buddy –  she’s your bosom friend; she’s  your BFF; she’s your soul  sister; and she’s your partner in  crime when it comes to all  things ‘quilty’. Well, my Bubby  and I have been friends now for  over twenty years and yet,  somehow it feels as though I’ve  known her my entire life… and  then there are times when I feel  as though we’ve just met yesterday and there’s still so much to get to know about each other that it will take the rest of our lives. True friendship is weird like that.

We’ve had some great times over the years and have shared quite a few quilting events such as classes, quilt shows, and even a Quilt Canada conference. We’ve had our own little Shop Hops, done ‘block of the months’ together, gone to quilt shop openings and been there for closings, and attended many, many quilt shop sales.

A few years back, when I moved 500 km. away, we thought we’d lose touch and miss out on all of our wonderful experiences, and therefore desperately made a pact to meet once a year at our favourite quilt show and have our own quilter’s retreat. I am proud to say that we haven’t missed a year yet! And thanks to the internet we have kept in touch even more by creating our own ‘cyber’ quilting bee, participating in fun events such as the online Civil War block of the week with quilt historian, Barbara Brackman in 2011. We both created our own version of that beautiful quilt and each contributed a block to the ‘thank you’ quilt gifted to Barbara that Christmas.

This past April when we met at our annual Bubby Vacation in Red Deer, I surprised my Bubby with a Civil War style quilt to commemorate our twenty year anniversary. I had chosen a Sister’s Choice block from Bonnie Hunter’s free patterns and made two quilts that are almost identical… sister quilts, so to speak. I chuckle every time I see this photo as it appears that we’ve sliced one quilt into two pieces, but it’s just the way we happen to be holding them.

This winter we are doing  another cyber quilting bee, self  directed this time, by choosing  a pattern and creating a block  every two weeks, in the hopes  of having it finished in time for  Show and Tell at our  Bubbification Vacation in April  2015. We have a commitment to email photos of our progress each week to keep on track and so far we’ve finished our center medallions and four of our blocks. Keep watching here to see photos of my progress and perhaps by April you will see both quilts  complete… fingers crossed.

What is it about a new year that inspires one to begin fresh? There is all the promise of a clean slate and all the optimism of improving over last year’s efforts. Well, in my case that wouldn’t be difficult, especially regarding my website. My excuse has always been that I would rather be making art than talking about making art, but the truth is if you are not talking about your artwork nobody will realize it even exists…

But I truly have been producing as though a fire has been lit inside me! And in the spirit of fresh starts and New Year resolutions I am attempting to share some of this productivity with you in the hopes to inspire your creativity. Now, I am not going to predict how often this will happen but I will try to do better this year than last. The only problem is, where to begin?

I thought, perhaps, I’d go back through the thousands of photo files I have and select artwork I’ve not shown before, beginning with this piece titled “The Treehouse”. I created this work in 2009, in celebration of moving into my brand new studio on the second floor of the old Union Bank building here in Plenty. This was the first quilt I made in my new workspace and I incorporated my own hand-dyed cottons into the piece. It is interesting to look back on this period now, reflecting on the fresh start, new physical space and new mental/emotional vision, and how that manifested itself in crisp spring greens and energetic design. Now, I have to be honest and tell you that there was a second reason for the creation of this quilt. It became the fifth piece to round out a group of art quilts entered into an adjudication that year, which brought my work to the attention of the Organization of Saskatchewan Art Councils. This eventually led to my tour of the “artless fabrications’ body of work which ends this summer.

There is so much that I see when I view this piece – a shift in my style and construction methods, a bolder use of colour and pattern, my first attempts at free motion quilting, and being less intimidated to cut into my hand-dyed fabrics. It is interesting now to look at this little quilt and realize just how much it changed my life. Below is a photograph taken of the five quilts hanging at the adjudication.