The Decision to Quilt
I last quilted in the late 70s. A full size bed quilt made from a single top, batiked and then hand quilted. (I am thoroughly confused by the use of the word batik in the quilting world. Having spent over 20 years as a batik artist I'm not sure I like the co-opting of the word. Batik is a wax dye resist process with an ancient history of craftsmanship practiced in many areas of the world, but achieving a high art form in the area of Indonesia. Learn more here.)
Rants aside, I made a decision last year to begin working on some quilted pieces. Stockpiling some hand dyed and hand printed fabric was the first step in my process. The summer was spent in the yard dyeing yardage from upcycled 100% cotton sheets with Procion MX dye, in a low water immersion, four step gradient process. I've now filled one cupboard and an Ikea Billy book case with dyed fabric. Nothing to do but start quilting.
I'm totally comfortable with my color, design and pattern styles, but I thought I should take a look at what contemporary art quilters are currently producing. So I added browsing quilt sites and blogs to my summer to do list. Even googling contemporary art quilt, it took me a while to find work I really liked and to get a feel for what was happening in that world. (And it is a world.)
Bored with looking at other folks' work I decided on a color palette, downloaded a template for a log cabin quilt, created a pattern of my own incorporating log cabin blocks with randomly sized strips and jumped in. My first question had to do with seams, pressing open as in sewing or pressing both sides of the seam in one direction. I'd read enough blog posting to have an idea that the seams should be pressed to one side. Didn't read anything on which side or pressing to the side of the darker color.
Because I used different weights of fabric, including some damask, I quickly ran into issues or maybe not with the fabric pulling. I can't see straight (astigmatism) which means I don't draw, cut or sew straight. Everything goes off at a slight angle. Just enough to build up to some extremely interesting lines on the strip area of my do it your self quilt.
I just worked along. Actually when I finished I liked the look of the thing, but recognized that I badly needed some help with quilting and quilt construction techniques. I don't care if it is art, everything requires a basic foundation of knowledge, then you get to tear that knowledge apart. So I took a quilt class.
Rants aside, I made a decision last year to begin working on some quilted pieces. Stockpiling some hand dyed and hand printed fabric was the first step in my process. The summer was spent in the yard dyeing yardage from upcycled 100% cotton sheets with Procion MX dye, in a low water immersion, four step gradient process. I've now filled one cupboard and an Ikea Billy book case with dyed fabric. Nothing to do but start quilting.
I'm totally comfortable with my color, design and pattern styles, but I thought I should take a look at what contemporary art quilters are currently producing. So I added browsing quilt sites and blogs to my summer to do list. Even googling contemporary art quilt, it took me a while to find work I really liked and to get a feel for what was happening in that world. (And it is a world.)
Bored with looking at other folks' work I decided on a color palette, downloaded a template for a log cabin quilt, created a pattern of my own incorporating log cabin blocks with randomly sized strips and jumped in. My first question had to do with seams, pressing open as in sewing or pressing both sides of the seam in one direction. I'd read enough blog posting to have an idea that the seams should be pressed to one side. Didn't read anything on which side or pressing to the side of the darker color.
Because I used different weights of fabric, including some damask, I quickly ran into issues or maybe not with the fabric pulling. I can't see straight (astigmatism) which means I don't draw, cut or sew straight. Everything goes off at a slight angle. Just enough to build up to some extremely interesting lines on the strip area of my do it your self quilt.
I just worked along. Actually when I finished I liked the look of the thing, but recognized that I badly needed some help with quilting and quilt construction techniques. I don't care if it is art, everything requires a basic foundation of knowledge, then you get to tear that knowledge apart. So I took a quilt class.
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Yasmin