Review: Collaborative Quilting

This is a design book by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston. Freddy lives in California and Gwen lives on the remote Beaver Island in Michigan. They collaborate by phone and meet for periods of time to produce quilt tops.

I had seen this book before and dismissed it because I only looked at the pictures. The quilts are not the sort of thing that speak to me, however the book was loaned to me and I was encouraged to read it. (What a concept. Don't just look at the pictures. Read the words.) To my surprise the words gave me a greater appreciation for what Freddy and Gwen were doing, but more important, the book affirmed some things I've come to know. Affirmation is important to me because it tells me I'm on the right track as I muddle through quilt making. Some of the points are design-related and some are tips. The list follows in no particular order:

1. With scrap quilting, the eye needs places to rest. Freddy accomplishes this with black and white. I think it is also accomplished when you use concentrations of color in some areas, low contrast areas in conjunction with higher contrast areas, the addition of sashing to separate areas of the quilt, and more.
2. Black and white make bright, clear colors work. I have been making what I think of as formula baby quilts. The blocks are assorted black and white print floating sawtooth stars with bright sashing, cornerstones, and borders. Quite often the border is a black background with bright colors on it. Freddy and Gwen use large areas of bright, clear colors and smaller areas of black and white. Since I am a murky person, I need for the black and white to be a larger percentage of the quilt top.
3. Find your own neutral. Freddy's is red. One time I wanted to use up some scraps from a perky project without going shopping for background fabric which I initially thought had to be white. I scavenged in my stash and found bright yellows to use as the background for floating sawtooth stars. The borders and the center of the stars were a predominantly black Laurel Burch jungle print. The star points and sashing were bright, clear colors. I really liked the quilt and vowed to try other colors as backgrounds. That hasn't happened yet. I can't say yellow is my neutral until I try this with more colors. I would need a neutral for use with brights. I think the off-white/tan shades would remain my neutral with murky fabrics.
4. Pressing blocks well is "absolutely crucial" before assembling the top. They use steam or a light mist. They press on the right side first. Then they press on the back. They do not argue with seams, but let them go the way they naturally want to go. Hooray! I am always dismayed when we have a speaker who says to finger press as you go along and just press at the end. I also don't like the rule of always pressing the seam towards the darker fabric. I press the same way they do, except I don't usually press from the back as the final step. Must try that.
5. They recommend careful measuring and then pinning borders on a flat surface prior to sewing them to the quilt - first at midpoint, then quarter point, etc. - so there is not fullness in one area. This helps avoid the ruffled border.
6. They don't stress over points that do not meet at the seam because they are liberated ladies. I try to piece carefully, but I don't stress over points - especially if making the points meet the seam would distort the block/quilt. I am not particularly liberated. I just feel it is more important for the blocks and the quilt to be square and hang well.

There are some points I don't quite agree with at this point in my quilting life:

1. I don't thoroughly understand the parts department. It initially reminded me a little bit about advice like cut your stash into nickels or 2 1/2" strips so it will be ready for you to use. But what if I need a 6" square? Or a 3" strip? What then? Anyway...Freddy and Gwen build conventional and liberated parts. (Of course, I find the conventional parts to be more acceptable.) It does help to understand that most of the block sizes are divisible by 2" or are blocks they consider easy to cut smaller if needed. I could not envision how it would all work out perfectly so I was glad to hear that some things did not work out right, which led to a rule. If something is too small, add more, and if something is too large, cut some off. Perhaps I need to engage in some collaborative quilting with someone.
2. Quite often the comments about a quilt in the book say that the quilt works for some reason or other. Many of the quilts do not work for me. They are too out there for my organized, murky mind. I find that Gwen's quilts appeal to me the most because they tend to be more organized. Some of Freddy's more organized quilts appealed to me - Sister's Dots (pg 90), Whirly Birds (pg 97), and Black and White Tiles (pg 100) are a few examples. Beaver Island (pg 191), African Trails (pg 197), and Liberated Baskets (pg 223) are examples of collaborative quilts with more appeal.

Ideas I want to take away:

1. Gwenny's Little Bitsy Nine Patch (pg 35) is a quilt with very interesting borders - one on the left and another on the bottom. Nothing on the top and right. The tiny nine-patch blocks were trimmed to size if they were too large. I've made a copy of this page.
2. God's Dogs (pg 52) by Gwen is another quilt with interesting border treatment. It solves the problem of getting the applique design to go around the corner. I've made a copy of this page too.
3. Pierson (pg 53) by Gwen shows a good technique for adding interest and length to a quilt.
4. Gwen offers these design guidelines. "1) Be adventuresome and open to taking chances. 2) Think of design as play. Yes, play! Trust your intuition. 3) Many well-sewn quilts that don't quite succeed in the design department stumble because they are over-coordinated and over-designed. Very often, over-thinking produces stagnant, hollow work. When work appears too studied, it often resembles 'color-by-number' paintings." Perhaps, just perhaps, I need to be a little more adventurous at least part of the time. Go on a traditional quilting adventure.
5. Gwen gets inspiration from traditional quilting techniques and old quilts. I will pay more attention to old quilts. Maybe visit a museum that has some and take notes.

Collaborative Quilting is a good book.

Gwen's Tips for Studying Quilts

Courtesy of Gwen Marston, from the book Collaborative Quilts:

1. Is there anything unusual about this quilt?
2. What colors are used? How are they used?
3. What surprises are hidden in the quilt?
4. How are the blocks set together?
5. What techniques were used?
6. How do the borders work?
7. How are the edges finished?
8. What is going on with the quilt?

I will make a concerted effort to study quilts in more detail instead of just giving them the thumbs up/down.

Responsible Quilting - Where Did the Acorns Come From?

Sometimes all the forces in the universe...and your friends...conspire against you and you find yourself in the middle of a project that was not on your list of things to do now. This is what happened to me:

1. Suzanne Marshall was our speaker at the October guild meeting. She turned me onto the idea of seeking inspiration from antique quilts.
2. At the guild meeting Ada gave Sherrie and I each a book to look at. I had America's Quilts and Coverlets by Carleton L Safford and Robert Bishop. It had older quilts in it, quilts with beautiful applique designs and exquisite quilting. I saw many quilts I admired, including a quilt with the Bethlehem Star block. It is a block I had admired for a long time. I always thought it would be good for the center of a medallion quilt, but I'd never gotten around to implementing that thought.
3. Sherrie has been talking about making a medallion quilt. That put medallion quilts in my head on a regular basis.
4. I made a spur of the moment trip to Peace and Applique on the Saturday after the guild meeting because I hadn't been there for a long time, and it was a nice day for a drive. I purchased a nice background print with brown in it and a luscious dark brown and black paisley. I had no intention of using them together. By the time I got home, I had decided to use them with some third medium fabric from my stash to make the Bethlehem Star block. The new fabrics were washed and pressed and never even made it into the closet. They were immediately promoted to in use. The block was finished several days later. I was really pleased with it and thought it had good contrast.
5. Ada, Sherrie and I met to talk about contrast. Sherrie and I traded books. I got Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston. I've always thought of them as modern quilters and must confess their quilts did not speak to me. Yet I was somewhat interested in Freddy because I met her while taking the Sue Nickels applique class at MAQS. She'd flown in from California because an exhibit of her quilts was opening that week. In reading the book, I discovered that Gwen (from Beaver Island, Michigan) learned quilting from very traditional quilters. Her quilts are actually modern interpretations of old quilts. In her tips for studying antique quilts, she suggests looking for surprises hidden in the quilts.
6. At our contrast meeting we had also discussed that it is more difficult to make a quilt with fewer fabrics because each fabric has a greater responsibility for the success of the quilt. I decided to make the Bethlehem Star block the center of a medallion quilt that had only those 3 fabrics. That meant each fabric had 33.33333% of the responsibility for the quilt. (I was relieved that I was in no way responsible.)

I did not plan the entire medallion quilt at once. Each border was designed when I got to it based on what I thought was needed next. I had to made a second trip to Peace and Applique for more of the dark and light fabrics. I was not able to locate more of the medium so it was in somewhat limited supply. Here is the evolution of the quilt:

• The center block is 16" finished.
• The first border is a 2" finished light strip. It sets off the Bethlehem Star block and makes the top 20" finished.
• The second border has 2" by 4" finished flying geese. I needed 40 flying geese and something for the corners. At first I was going to make all the flying geese dark. Then I decided a surprise was in order. I used 23 dark and 17 medium flying geese arranged almost, but not quite, uniformly. The corners have dark square in a square blocks. The piece then measured 28" finished.
• The third border is another 2" finished light strip. I wanted the square to measure 32" and thought the strip would add a little area for some nice quilting anyway. It was justified.
• I wanted the square to measure 32" because I decided the fourth border would be 8" finished sawtooth star blocks - 16 in all separated by 2" finished strips to make piecing easier. While working on the 8" blocks, I was reminded that it can be a bit boring to make many blocks using the same fabric. I hadn't done that since my first year of quilting. Finally I asked myself if I could do something other than make 16 identical blocks out of the same fabric. I made two stars of the medium fabric and that gave me a slight feeling of change. Next I began contemplating an appliqued strip for the bottom of the fourth border - a squirrel in silhouette, oak leaves, and acorns. I decided to call the quilt Where Did the Acorns Come From as a reminder of the silly squirrels who drag acorns to my yard from somewhere and plant them in my mulched beds where they germinate as oak trees. This little quilt was taking on a life of its own. It had grown too large for my small design wall. I was wishing I had a larger one. Must remedy that sometime.
• I was so pleased with the leaves in the bottom of the fourth border that I decided more appliqued leaves were in order. The fifth border would have angled oak leaves on 6" side borders and a 6" zig zag at the top and bottom. I added the zig zag to make the quilt rectangular instead of square.
• The sixth and final border is only on two sides - the top and the bottom. This border has angled oak leaves similar to the oak leaf borders in the previous step. The finished size of the quilt will be about 60x72.

I will still need to quilt this top, but I'll let that be a different entry in the journal.

I thought it strange that, in the midst of reading Collaborative Quilting and studying all the riotously wild quilts, I was making a quilt of 3 fabrics in browns, a color which Freddy "does not understand." Perhaps it was the equivalent of Gwen having to lie down for awhile after working on a really wild top.

During the fourth border I started feeling like I was taking some risks, which Gwen recommends. The fourth border was spanning days even though it was not all that complicated. I thought about it and looked at it a lot. I wondered how the same design would look made of many fabrics. Will I have to make two?

I am excited about this quilt. Even though I've made many quilts without following a pattern, this is the first time since I started quilting in 1998 that I feel my work is truly original.

Contrast for Dummies

I am finding it difficult to pin down my thoughts about contrast.

At our last contrast meeting, Sherrie, Ada, and I discussed the following:

1. Use contrast to distinguish the background from the foreground.
2. Use contrast to create a shadow effect.
3. Dark colors, pure colors, and warm colors advance when paired with light and cool colors. There are exceptions though.
4. Infrequent accents of a different color or hue create contrast.
5. Patterned fabrics add texture and not necessarily contrast.
6. Contrast helps the eye focus on one area of the quilt.

Egads! What does all that mean?

Next we went off on a bit of a tangent, looking at pictures of quilts and saying where the eye focused. Some of us think the eye will normally focus on recognizable shapes.

We decided it confused the issue to study traditional quilts as well as quilts with scenes. We restricted our study, for now, to "using contrast in traditional quilts." We decided each of us needed to write down tangible thoughts about the topic before our next meeting.

So here I am.

1. Consider whether your quilt has enough contrast. People tend to worry more about how well their fabrics match and fail to think about whether there is the right degree of contrast. They behave as is they are shopping for a sweater to match slacks. For a quilt there is little reason to use 5 nearly identical brown tone-on-tone prints in the assorted blocks. It makes more sense to vary the shades, include small and large prints, geometrics, plaids, stripes. You may have formerly found it hard to find the right 5 matching fabrics. When you increase the contrast between fabrics, you may find it hard to limit yourself to 5.
2. Contrast is a single design element to be considered at every stage of quiltmaking. Ask yourself the following questions. Will you repeat one block over and over in the quilt top? Will you use an alternate block that complements the first block? Will your alternate block be a single square? Light or dark? Print or solid? Do you want the border to contrast with or blend into the rest of the quilt? How many colors will you use in the quilt? How much difference is there between the darkest and the lightest fabrics in the quilt? Will the colors be randomly arranged or will they have a more formal layout? When quilting, will you use overall meandering? Will you quilt some areas in different ways to increase texture? Will you use stencils with specific shapes as well as background fill? Will you use more than one stencil? Do the stencils complement each other? Do you want the thread to be visible or blend? Do you want some quilted areas to be more prominent?
3. Be more purposeful about the amount of contrast used. First you need to decide what results you want. Then you need to understand what to do to accomplish those results.

My advice. Don't cut out all blocks for the quilt at once. Experiment with a few blocks. If you can see you are headed in the right direction, forge ahead. If not, regroup. Don't put yourself in the position of having to continue with something you don't like just because it is all cut.

A Study of Contrast

Sherrie, Ada, and I have embarked on a study of contrast. After a rambling discussion, we decided each of us needed to do some research and solidify thoughts.

I looked up definitions of contrast in assorted dictionaries to get the thought process going. My findings follow.

Contrast:

1. the act of contrasting
2. a striking exhibition of unlikeness; a great difference
3. a person or thing that is strikingly unlike in comparison, that shows differences when put side by side with another
4. opposition or juxtaposition of different forms, lines, or colors in a work of art to intensify each element's properties and produce a more dynamic expressiveness; the putting close together of varied forms or colors to heighten their effect, and the effect of the whole composition by comparison
5. the relative difference between light and dark areas of a print or negative
6. the brightness ration of the lightest to the darkest part of the television screen image
7. a difference between linguistic elements, esp sounds, that can serve to distinguish meanings

I also found the etymology for the word. Contrast comes from the French contraster and from two Latin words contra (against) and stare (to stand). Originally it meant to fight against or to withstand as two opposing sides in a battle would do. The term contrast was re-introduced in the 1700s as an art term. This was an interesting thought. The quilt with all its blocks, fabrics, colors, and quilting is like a battleground. Each element is trying to stand out against the others and gain the viewer's attention. The strongest one wins. If all are of equal strength, the eye wanders around not knowing where to focus.

I noticed that the 4th definition referred to the opposition or juxtaposition of different forms, lines, or colors. I made a list of different types of contrast from a quilting perspective.

1. Color - blue vs red
2. Value - light vs dark
3. Scale - large vs small
4. Pattern - plaid vs floral
5. Shape - square vs round

The 5th definition refers to the relative difference between light and dark areas of a print or negative. This made me think about the advice to organize the fabrics to be used in a quilt from lightest to darkest without considering the color. (To do this you have to view the fabrics through blue and green filters.) The amount of difference between the darkest and the lightest fabrics would be the degree of contrast.

1. High - medium red vs white
2. Medium - medium red vs medium blue
3. Low - medium red vs medium red

Every quilt does not need to have the highest degree of contrast possible. If that was the case, we would all use solid black and white in every quilt and then mix in some mediums.

Next I asked myself why I would use a high, medium, or low degree of contrast.

Why high contrast?

1. for dramatic effect
2. for immediate focus on a particular element of the quilt
3. to showcase exquisite piecing and applique

Why medium contrast?

1. cozy, comfortable quilts
2. scrap quilts with many fabrics

Why low contrast?

1. to add interest without overpowering; for example, pieced backgrounds for applique
2. to give the eye a resting spot before it moves on to focus on another area

Consider contrast throughout the quiltmaking process. Do you have the desired amount of contrast:

1. within individual blocks,
2. between blocks,
3. between blocks and sashing, setting pieces, borders, etc,
4. between thread (quilting) and the surface?

Prior to embarking on this study, I didn't consciously think about contrast. After all this research, I felt like I was now confused about contrast and would have no idea how to explain it to someone. When we convened to talk about our research, Sherrie said something that hit home with me. Be more purposeful about the use of contrast.

How Do I Quilt Thee

This would be a great name for a quilt! I will use it someday. It would also be a good name for a chapter in a book or a magazine article.

Why is it so hard to decide how to quilt a top? (I am thinking specifically of machine quilting.) Maybe...

1. The quilter might be too worried about ruining a nice quilt top with less than perfect quilting.
2. The quilter might have limited skills.
3. The quilter might lack ideas.
4. The quilter might lack imagination.
5. There are too many options and the quilter doesn't know which to choose.

So...what is a quilter to do to overcome these obstacles?

You might ruin the quilt. Get over it. Do you manage your life based on what might happen? If you go on an airplane, it might crash. If you get married, you might get divorced. If you buy a new car, it might be a lemon. Accept that whatever you do today is the best you can do right now.

You have limited skills. The standard answer to this is "practice quilting every day." That advice never made sense to me. We lead busy lives. If a person has 1.5 hours to indulge in quilt-related activities on a Thursday night and the person is in the midst of piecing blocks for a quilt, it does not make sense to change feet, thread, needles, and tension to practice quilting for 15 minutes. I improve most when I spend concentrated amounts of time quilting. I may not quilt for a month. Then I may spend 2 months quilting a big project. I would also recommend that you take advantage of opportunities to take multiple-day machine quilting classes. Too often the one-day classes only cover the basics, don't allow enough time for students to practice, and don't permit the teacher to give one on one help.

You don't have ideas for quilting the top. You need to develop a quilting repertoire. Collect stencils that you would like to try. Organize them so you know what you have. You may have books with a lot of good idea, but can't take the time to look through all of them every time you are ready to design the quilting. Make copies of pages with great quilting ideas and put them in a folder...near the stencils. You could also put magazine pages and photographs with great ideas in the same place. Photograph or draw architectural details that might translate into quilting designs. Doodle on paper while waiting to speak with the next available representative.

You lack imagination. This means you quilt in the ditch and perhaps meander in the background...every time. You can't think what else to do. Perhaps you are just in a rut. If you can get out of the rut, you may have a wonderful imagination just waiting to be unleashed. In fact, you must have a wonderful imagination if you gather fabrics and make quilt tops. You probably don't make the same quilt over and over. Make yourself try something different when it comes to the quilting.

You have lots of ideas, but don't know which one is right. There isn't just one right way to quilt a top. Refer to Quilting Makes the Quilt by Lee Cleland, an Australian quilter. Lee made 5 identical copies of 12 different quilts. (Yes - a total of 60 quilts) Then she quilted each of the 5 quilts a different way and they all look great. Consider your options, make a decision, and start quilting. Or you can make 5 copies of each of your quilts and do each a different way. It's your choice.

Naming Quilts

I didn't know that quilts had names until it was time to fill out entry forms for my first entries in our local guild's quilt show. Those quilts were named after the fact, while I was filling out entry forms the week before the deadline.

Since then I've changed the way I name quilts. I start thinking about the quilt name while I am making it. Sometimes the name comes to me early and easily. Sometimes it doesn't come to me until the quilt is finished. Sometimes I have to settle for a name for lack of a better one. If the name feels right, it helps me bond with the quilt. Some of my favorites include:

1. It's Like Sleeping With My Stash. This quilt had over 550 different fabrics and I found it all in my stash.
2. Jane Doe - A Quilt With No Name. I was having a hard time naming this quilt and kept referring to it as the quilt with no name. Eventually that phrase reminded me of the old song, A Horse With No Name. When I searched for lyrics for that song, I found a website with ideas for naming horses. (Wouldn't it be nice to have a website with ideas for naming quilts?) I called the quilt Jane Doe because that is the name one uses when the real name is unknown and kept the quilt-with-no-name part for fun.
3. No Piecing Required, Just Quilt As Desired. This was a small wholecloth quilt about 25" square. The name was bigger than the quilt.
4. American Spirit. This was the quilt I made after the 9/11 attacks. It was a murky, scrappy quilt in blues, reds, tans, and golds. It symbolized the ability for a country to endure through dark days and survive.
5. Bittersweet. Fall is my favorite time of year. My birthday is 9/14. Around that time of year, I find myself using fall colors. I was enjoying the September weather and this quilt with its leaf blocks tremendously. Then it was 9/11 and what was normally the best time of the year became anything but.
6. Summertime. This Cups and Saucers block quilt was done in pastels with a nile green background. I made it in the summer and it was reminding me of warm summer afternoons and sipping ice tea on the back porch. Around the same time, I got a George Gershwin CD with the song Summertime on it. Check out the lyrics. "Summertime and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high." The cotton is high! That is the case at my house. It is folded on 5' wide shelves taller than me.
7. Rhapsody in Blue and Purple and Green. This is a continuation of the Gershwin theme. I was listening to Rhapsody in Blue and working on a quilt in blue, purple, and green. I looked up rhapsody in the dictionary and found that it is derived from rhaptein, which means to stitch.

I like humorous names best, except when it comes to quilts like American Spirit and Bittersweet. If the quilt has too lofty of a name, I feel more pressure for perfection. I try not to take things too seriously and just have fun. When I'm relaxed, things go well.