Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

QuiltCon 2015 :: 6

On Friday of QuiltCon I was in Bill Volckening's tour of the special exhibits.  It was nice to get Bill's perspective about these quilts and also his personal stories.  Bill is a quilt collector and maker from Portland, OR.  He is also known as a Quilt Magnet and Sniper.  Don't try to compete against him in an eBay auction!  His exhibit of 1970's quilts was quite stunning!

First up is the Gee's Bend exhibit, then the Modern Materials exhibit.  Remember, these are all clickable to see more detail.  Also, remember this is my take on the show and I don't have photos of every quilt.  Please alert me if you notice that I've made a mistake on the attributions.  Enjoy!

Gee's Bend Quilt Exhibit

Railroad Crossing
China Pettway

 Railroad Crossing detail

Devil's Walking Stick
Mary Margret Pettway

Housetop with Center Stripes
Lola Pettway

Lazy Gal Bars
Lucy Lee Pettway-Witherspoon

Corduroy Mix #02
Qunnie Pettway

Brick Layer Corduroy
Nancy Pettway

Housetop Variation
Nancy Pettway

Royal Stack
Mary Margret Pettway

Untitled
Unknown Maker

Housetop Red and Turquoise
Ruth Kennedy

 The Gee's Bend exhibit was beautifully laid out with this viewing area for the Why Quilts Matter episode on the Gee's Bend Quilters.  

Gee's Bend Keynote

The Keynote was on Saturday and was as inspirational as you can imagine.  The four Gee's Bend quilters on the panel are Mary Ann Pettway, Lucy Witherspoon, China Pettway, and Gloria Hoppins.  They sang for us and spoke about their experiences in Gee's Bend, before and after being "discovered" by the greater art world.  They also spoke about the Gee's Bend Collective.  Mary Ann showed some new work that is pretty exciting.  I am looking forward to seeing some of these ladies again in July at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!

PS- I can't find any evidence of a Gee's Bend Collective website, but did find this charming blog post by Kate Spain who visited there in 2013.

 

 Modern Materials: Quilts of the 1970's
From the Collection of Bill Volckening

Grandmother's Fans
Polyester
Unknown Maker, Texas

Bill's tour was insightful and full of interesting stories.  His collection of 1970's quilts is colorful, sometimes wacky, sometimes elegant and always entertaining.  If you have a chance to see these quilts, don't miss them!  Many are made with double knit polyester, some are made from cotton.

Pinwheels
Polyester
Unknown Maker, Texas

On right: Snowball Variant
Polyester
Unknown Maker, Ohio

 

Crazy Quilt (aka The Roswell Quilt)
Polyester
Unknown Maker, New Mexico

Woven Pattern
Polyester
Unknown Maker, Georgia

 

Over the Rainbow
Cotton
Unknown Maker
United States

Log Cabin Medallion
Cotton
Unknown Maker
Washington

Continental United States Map
Polyester
Unknown Maker
United States

 

Tile Blocks
Polyester
Unknown Maker
Louisiana

Hexagon Diamonds
Polyester
Unknown Maker
Oregon

Thirty-Six Patch
Polyester
Unknown Maker
Texas

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".

Log Cabin Variation

Log Cabin Variation
2015
61" x 62"
Techniques: machine piecing, hand applique, machine quilting, hand quilting
Fabrics: old cotton shirts, old cotton flannel pajamas, vintage linens, indigo overdyed linens, new quilting cotton, vintage Pendleton wool shirt

Log Cabin Variation was made for the Central Oregon Modern Quilt Guild's Inspired by Gee's Bend Challenge.  I am so pleased with this one!  The old fabrics make it super soft and it's just really cuddly.  It's also boldly graphic which is fun.  

This is machine quilted with grey and the occasional red.  I also found two spots where the fabric was very thin (missed them when I was piecing), so I just patched them straight away.  These patches are hand appliqued (needle-turn) with invisible stitches.  Then I added the red stitches to emphasize them.  The red thread is Aurafil 12 wt, color 2260.  I got this thread for free in a goody bag at the MQG Sew Down last year I think.  It's great for hand stitches!

I did one short line of hand quilting with the red, but needed to get it bound, so haven't done more.  I plan to add a few more lines of the red hand stitches before the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  The SOQS will be the first showing of this group of challenge quilts.  They will probably show up at the Mt. Bachelor show and QuiltWorks this year too.

Below is the back which I love just as much as the front.  It was really fun to make this. I love the color palette and the method.  Have you tried a huge log cabin yet?

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!

Aussie Medallion

Aussie Medallion (44" x 44") was inspired by the Australian print with the curious name "Women's Business".  And while I have been to Australia, I did not buy this fabric there.  I got it at a local shop.  I love the sunny colors, but also the variety of shape and line in this fabric.  You can see more of it below in the photo that shows the back.  This piece started out in the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat that I went to in September 2013.  This was the second piece I worked on and at the time I only managed to get through the first round of liberated triangles.  Also, at that time I had a different plan for the corner squares.  You can see that idea in the last photo.  When I got the top out to finish I tried working with the appliqued flowers, but they just bothered me for some reason.  I tried many different things for the corners.  I think I had about 20 possible choices, but finally went with these fussy cut echoes of the center.

I got the top done a few months ago and decided to hand quilt it.  I didn't do any marking at all.  I free hand quilted the printed areas according to the fabric design.  On the liberated spiky triangles I quilted a 1/4" around the shapes.  In the last border I decided to do randomly different designs in the large triangles.  I did repeat some of the designs, but it was fun to decide what to do on each one.

I even did my initials in one of the triangles.  I rather like that and hope to use it more often.

Isn't the back lovely? I originally bought just one yard of the print, but went back for another yard when I decided to use more of it on the front.  I then had enough to use it on the back and binding.  This pleases me to have the back just as nice as the front and I never have confusion over which quilt it is in a stack.  Below is the original design with appliqued corner blocks.  The other great news today is from the Modern Quilt Guild, which announced that they will be now putting on QuiltCon every year and alternating locations from west to east.  In 2016 the show will be in Pasadena, CA and Gwen Marston will be the keynote speaker!  She will also teach and have a special exhibit.  I am so excited!  I already have a hotel reservation.  I am feeling very inspired to make quilts to enter in next year's show, so that will be another focus this year.  

Gee's Bend Challenge Update

This is the final top (62" x 62").  The photo is taken with my cell phone on a dark and dreary late afternoon, so the colors are off, but you can see the shapes.  It's constructed improvisationally with the center made in units and put together, then variously constructed "logs" were added around and around.  You may remember my inspiration was a couple of Gee's Bend quilts that I have from a postcard pack.  Many of the Gee's Bend quilts are constructed in this manner and there's almost always something unexpected in the mix.  In the quilt on the left below the border with the triangles really spices things up.  In the one on the right, the skinny red strip is what draws my eye, as well as the brown rectangle top left.  

Edited to add:  The quilt on the left is by Jennie Pettway, circa 1975, the quilt on the right is by Annie Mae Young, circa 1965.

I've gotta run. We have the first guild board meeting of the year tonight and I'm pooped!  Chloe left really early this morning for a January Term abroad in England.  I would have been all set since I didn't have to get up at 4 am to get her to the airport, but when Mark got home at 5, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep again.  

Chloe's trip is 3.5 weeks in England.  They'll be in London, Bath, Oxford and some other places and the class is Creative Writing. It's all so perfect for her that I hope she has a fantastic time.  I'm a little jealous!

COMQG Gee's Bend Challenge

So, this is what's happening this week in the studio.  The Central Oregon Modern Quilt Guild has a challenge every year.  Our challenge for 2015 is quilts inspired by the Gee's Bend Quilters.  A perfect challenge for me!  I am using scraps from other projects, vintage linens, old clothes (from family and from those that others have given me), and odd bits of fabric from my indigo dye days.  Fibers include cotton, linen and wool.  I have mixed commercial cottons, fine shirting fabrics, heavy linen tablecloths and flannel.  I like what's happening here.  I plan to make this a decent lap size and maybe it'll be a picnic quilt eventually.  I am having fun though and that's what's important.