Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

The Wayward Jungle Crow

The Wayward Jungle Crow
2015
23 x 27
Hand dyed fabric and thread, commercial fabric, vintage linens, old wool shirt, machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand embroidered, hand and machine quilted.
Inspired by A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

I've posted lots of closeups so you can see the stitching.  My hand embroidery includes a lot of backstitching.  I did fly stitch on the tail.  

The bird includes and is surrounded by spirals.  The spirals represent the Pacific gyres that are talked about quite a bit in the book, plus they are fun to do!

The fabrics include several vintage linens, including the edge of a fine linen tablecloth (above) that was overdyed in indigo and walnut.  I laid the whole piece over the darker blue you can see below, and tacked the whole edge down.  I employed Jude Hill's invisible basting stitch quite a bit on this piece, so occasionally you'll see tiny stitches that show through.  On the right is the piece of a heavy linen table cloth that was overdyed in indigo.  I left the fringe hanging down.

The top piece is from an old Pendleton wool shirt gifted to me by a friend.  I machine quilted spirals and stars into it, then went over the stars with some embroidery thread and a backstitch to create the white star outlines.

The stars in the middle are created with liberated piecing.  I tried a lot of stitching here that I learned from Jude Hill.  The satin stitched points, satin stitched star and black and white star tails are all ideas from Jude.  

This piece was really fun to do.  I decided to bite the bullet and machine quilt it last weekend.  Good choice, actually, cause I had no idea I'd have the flu by Tuesday.  I've been very sick all week.  Both of the guys caught it too, so we've laid low all week and I haven't done any sewing at all.  I am resting a lot and trying to get healthy before I leave for QuiltCon on Wednesday.  I'm a whole lot better, but still get pretty tired.  I am glad this one is done though.  I have a few more finishes to show (small things), but don't know if I'll get to them before I leave.  In the meantime, I have started something for another challenge.  You can see photos of that in my Instagram feed.

If you are also traveling to QuiltCon say hello!  I will be Instagramming while I'm in Austin, but won't do blog posts until I get back.  I am taking my big camera though, so I hope to get some great photos to share!

Celia's Raven

Celia's Raven
2015
43 x 46
Inspired by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Celia's Raven is done over 6 months early!  I am so excited about that.  No more sweating the summer over a book quilt.  Anyway, I love how the raven came out though it's hard to see the stitching unless you are in the right light.

I chose to keep the machine quilting fairly simple.  I added some lines of stitch to represent the face, but didn't try to add anything for an eye, for instance.The other quilting really doesn't show too much with so much pattern going on.  

The back is also simple, but I followed my rule about making the back fun and indicative of what's on the front.  I bought that circus tent fabric just especially for the back of this quilt and I was pleasantly surprised to find the raven fabric in the stash.  

I don't normally show my labels, but I did here because I wanted to show the book quote that inspired this quilt.  "In the blink of an eye folds of silk are glossy black feathers, and it is impossible to pinpoint the moment when it is fully raven and no longer cloth".

Stitching a Raven

My Night Circus quilt is coming right along (previously blogged here).  I have never had such an easy time with a book quilt.  I will have this done over 6 months ahead of time!  I think it's because I decided not to obsess about it and add a million details. It's actually pretty simple, and except for the hand applique, is all done by machine.  I am posting these photos to show my hand applique technique.  The raven is done with black silk.  It's a fairly substantial silk, so it's pretty stable, but it is slippery.  I didn't use any kind of stabilizer here.  Most of the time with cotton I don't bother with thread basting unless the pieces are unusually large.  The raven is large and also has those annoying points and is slippery.  

I draw the design out onto freezer paper.  Then iron the freezer paper to the applique fabric right side up.  I draw around the pattern on the fabric with a Sewline pencil (my favorite for white and black lines).  I cut out the applique (adding a scant 1/4" for the seam allowance) and remove the freezer paper.  The applique is laid on the quilt top in place and pinned in a few places. I then thread baste about 1/2" in from the line that I drew.  I use a blind applique stitch with lightweight thread and clip corners as I go. I use a combination of hand and needle turning. and usually just do a bit at a time.  I like to turn a few inches or a small section and pin in place, then stitch.  

I spent the weekend working on the raven and was so happy when it was done.  I also remembered that I needed some tent flags, so I did those.  I got the quilt layers basted on Sunday night and started machine quilting yesterday.  

Yesterday I started with the big tent, then did the background around it.  I followed up with the smaller tents this morning and just did the raven.  One thing I hate is marking.  I don't mark when I hand quilt and I sure don't want to mark when I'm machine quilting.  I think there would be no way I could stick to the line and the thought of having to later remove the lines gives me the willies!  So, with the raven I did one section at a time, deciding how I wanted the long wing feathers to look, then deciding what to do with the top part of the wing, etc.

I am so pleased with how it came out!  Do I sound surprised?  I am, I really, really am.  For many years I struggled to machine quilt and thought that I'd never be pleased with my own effort, but I think I've improved a lot in the past few years.

In other news,tomorrow night, Wednesday, January 28, I will be doing the program at the Sisters quilt guild (aka East of the Cascades Quilters).  It takes place at the Stitchin' Post in the classroom at 6:30 pm.  I will be doing a Trunk Show (aka glorified show and tell) with some of the quilts from the last few years.  I'll also have my newest pieces, including this one!  Hope to see some locals there.

Studio buddies

The Wayward Jungle Crow

This small quilt is for the Novel Idea book A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.  I am a bit enamored with corvids, so they are showing up in my quilts lately.  This one is in the middle of the hand embroidery stage.  I worked on the wing last night, but realized afterwards the purple is not going to show up, except up close. I'll be adding more and different colors.  I also need to define the bird's face and will add more embroidery and stitching in the background.  This one needs to be done by April 1. 

Night Circus Quilt

For our 6th year of making quilts inspired by books, The Undercover Quilters have chosen The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  This book is amazing!  It's so visual and  even if you've only seen the cover you'll know why the predominant colors are black, white and red.  This book is so visually rich that I had a bit of a time coming up with a design.  Fabrics are lusciously described and for a while I thought I might do something relating to one of the main character's dress.  Anyway, I did a sketch a little while ago of the tents and couldn't get it out of my mind.

I wish I'd gotten a photo before adding the circus tents.  Anyway, for the background of my piece I started with an improv/liberated hourglass block in the center. I added various strips randomly around the center until I decided a little bit of red would be nice.  I used my skinny strip method to add the 1/4" red strips, then added another round of black and white prints.  This year we have set a minimum size of 36" x36", to conform to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show rules.  I added enough so that it's well over and I won't have to worry about shrinkage during quilting.  This is about 45" x 47" right now.  For fabrics I used a bunch of the black and white prints I've been collecting for no apparent reason (handy here though!), some red prints and solids and some silk that is to die for!  It doesn't show up that well in photos, but in person it really shines.  It's the red on the largest tent, red on the top right roof and the white in the top left tent.

I do have a plan for that blank space and I'll show you that next time.  Don't want to give away too many secrets now!  I hand appliqued the tents and have more hand applique to do before it's done.  The main parts of the tent are created with gentle improv curves.  I created the tents somewhat randomly as far as size and shape.  I knew I wanted one to be larger.  The top left tent was changed because I originally made it with just black and white stripes, but it really blended in when I laid it on the background.  I added the red on either side and that helped tremendously.

I am also in the middle of starting my next Novel Idea quilt, so I'll post about that soon.  I guess when I said I'd be working in solids this year, I should have said that's what I'll do for my improv work.  For the book quilts anything goes!

Sneak Peek

The fabric is flying, but this is all I can show until after my meeting tonight.  Gotta let my peeps get the first look!

The Undercover Quilters :: 5th Anniversary Celebration

Glass Beads by Jane Davis, inspired by The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato.  Jane made some wonderful blown glass beads and placed them on velvet for an elegant quilt. 

The Undercover Quilters is a quilting book club based in Bend, OR.  We have 12 members, and the only rule is You Must Not Quit!.  We read and discuss a book each month.  Every year we choose one book from the past year to inspire quilts.  Some past books have been:

• 2010: The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery  
• 2011: On the Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren 
• 2012: Love to Water My Soul by Jane Kirkpatrick 
• 2013: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh 

Members don't have to read the book or even make a quilt.  This year we sifted through all of the books we've read since the beginning of the group, leaving out those that had already been done or none of us liked.  We still had about 30 choices so everyone got something they liked.  Only 8 of us made quilts this year mostly due to life changes for the others.  This group of quilts is as varied as the makers themselves.  Enjoy!

**Click the photos to enlarge

The Zookeeper's Wife by Sally Black, inspired by The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.  Sally has been doing some fabulous work with portraits.  Her leaves are 3 dimensional, bringing the viewer right into the scene.

The Help by Susan Mondry, inspired by The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Susan's piece has some important symbolism that needs an explanation. Susan writes, "I wanted to integrate the friendships that developed in the book with all of the women of various color.  I used hand dyed skin tone fabrics and wanted to represent the women growing closer as they worked on the book together, thus the size of the pieces getting smaller as they move to the center.  The friendships in the book were so unique and special, as are the friendships of the women of The Undercover Quilters."  Pretty special, isn't it?

Benny & Shrimp:: Like Chalk and Cheese by Kristin Shields, inspired by Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti.  This title needs a little explanation.  The story is about Farmer Benny and City Girl Shrimp.  As it says in the book, they are as alike as "chalk and cheese", meaning NOT AT ALL!  My quilt depicts the Swedish winter, the deliniation between rural and city life, and the sense of time passing.  Throughout the book, they both consider their biological clocks and how they are ticking away in their mid-thirties.  

Heartbeats by Betty Gientke, inspired by The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker.  Betty's quilt is made with sumptuous silk fabrics and depicts many hearts beating.

Wild by Wanda Barkhurst, inspired by Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  Wanda has created many different paper pieced animals and other sights that the author saw on her trek on the Pacific Crest Trail.  

The Empress by Cindy O'Neal, inspired by The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan.  Cindy has developed a real talent for faces.  On this piece she writes, "I struggled initially with deciding on a color for the face and finally decided to use all of them, focusing more on value rather than color.  I love the results!"

The River by the Bay by Martha Sanders, inspired by Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.  Martha has become well known for her 3 dimensional quilts and this is no exception!  Martha writes, "In the last story, Olive and Jack find friendship and a new beginning.  Here, Olive and Jack sit at the river by the bay.  It's a cloudy, windy day, somewhat like their lives have been."  Martha used watercolor pencils to draw the image of the figures.  Then she took it a step further and copied the image onto fabric.  The print is on the front of the quilt (enhanced with thread painting) and the original is on the back and serves as the quilt label.

 This 5th anniversary finds The Undercover Quilters in a stage of development that is much farther along than we might have been without this group.  We have all tried countless new techniques, developed lasting friendships and created some wonderful exhibits.  It's been a fantastic 5 years, with many more to come!  This last photo was taken at our group quilt reveal in early August.  Susan's quilt was the perfect opportunity for a group photo of a different kind.  If any of my readers is curious about starting a book/quilt group or is part of one, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.  

PS: I discovered while writing this post that many of the other quilt exhibits have never been posted about here on the blog.  That's something I plan to remedy.  I will take care of that in the coming weeks.  It's going to be a very busy early fall, but I will try to post at least every week about all that's going on.

Benny & Shrimp :: Like Chalk and Cheese

Last night was the quilt reveal for The Undercover Quilters Book Club.  Our August meeting is always fun.  Even though we see each other's quilts in progress throughout the year, the final reveal is always a surprise.  This year, our 5th Anniversary year, we decided to change things up and each do a different book from the past 5 years.  We got to choose our favorite from about 30 possible titles.  My book is Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti.  The story is about farmer Benny and recent widow and city girl Shrimp, who are about as alike as "chalk and cheese", meaning, not at all!  My quilt depicts the Swedish winter, the deliniation between rural and city life, and the sense of time passing.  Throughout the book, they both consider their biological clocks and how they are ticking away in their mid-thirties.  

I enjoyed the making of this piece.  It's created on crinoline and has acrylic paint to soften the edges of the randomly sewn background patches.  I experimented with metallic thread (and love it now!) and did a lot of the stitching with the top just on batting.  Then I added a backing and did a few quilting lines to stitch it together.  The final hurdle was the black machine stitched trees, which I was so afraid to do.  In the end, about a week ago, I just got out a bit of sample cloth and practiced a bit, held my breath and did it on the quilt.  It was not so difficult, but every time I try something new I break a little more out of the box.  That's something I hope everyone tries!

All of the quilts from our books will be on exhibit at this Saturday's Mt Bachelor Quilters' Guild show in Pioneer Park, 10-4.  Hope to see you there!  If not, I'll be posting photos next week.

Kit Stafford :: White on White

The Owl and the Pussycat by Kit Stafford

I was sorting through my recently uploaded photos this morning and found this set that I had forgotten about.  These photos were taken on Fiber Arts Stroll day.  Sarah and I got in to Sisters at about 11:00 so that I could get set up.  First thing we did was to stop somewhere for coffee and, lucky for both of us, it was Navigator News that we chose.  I had no idea there would be such a special exhibit there!  I was blown away by these lovely artworks by Kit Stafford.  Kit is the daughter of the famous poet William Stafford.  My quilt, Longing for Connection, was inspired by one of his poems.  I had not known much about Kit, except as his daughter, but she is a longtime Sisters resident who is very much a part of the art, music and poetry scene. 

When we got there, the labels weren't up on these art pieces, and Kit wasn't there.  I got to chat with one of the employees who was preparing the labels and I mentioned that it was too bad Kit wasn't there, because I'd love to meet her.  As it turned out, she stopped by my booth later and said hi and I got to say how much I loved her work.  She said that her one and only "quilt" class had been with Janet Bolton a few years ago and she made these pieces after that.  She doesn't do much sewing nowadays.  Boy, that makes these pieces even more special.  You'll note that these illustrate fairy tales and nursery rhymes and are made so inventively with vintage textiles.  I consider myself lucky to have seen them.  Most were framed under glass and I only had my cell phone with me so I did the best I could with Photoshop to crop and enhance the photos.

Kit Stafford (no label, so I'm not sure which story this is)

The Three Little Pigs by Kit Stafford (note the bbw)

Kit Stafford (no label, so I'm not sure which story this is)

The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe by Kit Stafford

Little Red Riding Hood by Kit Stafford (sorry for the reflection, but this was my favorite!)

Tiny Red Riding Hood detail

This last piece was the only one with color.  It's a fantastic map quilt all sewn by hand. It reminds me of the work of Valerie Goodwin, but I'm not sure if that was the influence.  I really love the detail!  So, are you inspired to get out your old linens and work some magic?  I know I am!

Longing for Connection

Our quilt guild retreat last week was really productive for me.  I managed to work on the basket quilt above from start to basting.  I have been hand quilting it and I don't have too much farther to go. 

I also managed to go from start to finish on my 2014 Novel Idea quilt. Here's a bit about Novel Idea if you haven't heard about it.  It was always going to be small, but that helped get it done quickly!  This is made with my hand dyed fabrics, including linen.  This piece is based on the book The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.  The book is a post apocalyptic novel in which the main character is a poet.  He goes back to his old home, despite great danger, to pick up one special book.  It's a book of poetry by William Stafford called Stories that Could Be True.  One of the poems is quoted in the book, “The Farm on the Great Plains” and it begins:

A telephone line goes cold;

birds tread it wherever it goes. 

A farm back of a great plain

tugs an end of the line.

I call that farm every year,

ringing it, listening, still

This longing for connection seems to be at the heart of this book and as soon as I imagined that telephone line with birds on it, I couldn’t get it out of my head.  This was particularly meaningful this year as I had never heard of William Stafford before.  He was an Oregon poet, former Poet Laureate, professor at Lewis & Clark College, and well known in my state.  This year is the 100th anniversary of his birth and there have been programs and events in celebration.  In a perfect confluence of events I learned about him on the radio, in my book club and through this book all at the same time.  The universe was trying to tell me something!  The Novel Idea quilts will be displayed at QuiltWorks for the month of April and the opening reception is Friday, April 4, 5-7 pm.  

In addition to those two, I also finished a couple of 12 x 12's (Black & White and Trees) and an Improv teaching sample.  The 12 x 12's will be in a special exhibit at the Bank of America in Redmond, OR this spring.  I am not sure the exact dates, but will post them here when I do.  Our Undercover Quilters group will have a display showing our collection of 12 x 12's which should be very interesting!

I am teaching Modern Improv at QuiltWorks tomorrow.  There are still spaces if you'd like to join us for a day of creative inspiration!