Friday, September 30, 2011

Keeping it [kind of] simple

I try to be zen.  I would love to live in a big empty house with bright lights, a mattress, and a few pieces of art.  But I also love to collect and people keep giving me things!

On Monday night I went to a meeting for the Northwest Ohio Modern Quilt Guild and received a set of Fat Quarters from Jay McCarroll's "Habitat" line along with a challenge to create something using most of the fabric.  Here are the rules:

1. Item made must be quilted
2. May add other Habitat fabrics, otherwise – only solids
3. Due at our October meeting
4. Make something you like and want!


I appreciate the collection and wouldn't want to add to the busy-ness anyway, and I think that only using a white or cream solid will showcase the design.  Since I'm currently work on City Block quilts that have 132 blocks (each of which is made up of 3 smaller blocks and white sashing, so what's that - a million pieces???), I want to keep this one relatively simple with a lot of negative space.  Here are the fabrics and my design idea.


What do you think?  Definitely a take on my old pal Mondrian.  It's going to be awhile before I can get started on this guy so there may be a few other iterations of the design.

The other colorway of this fabric is pretty cool too - take a look and purchase it at this link.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

What am I working on?

Take a look at these amazing Japanese fabrics.  Doris from Minimodernistas has commissioned me to make a City Blocks Quilt (order yours here) featuring her fabric collection.  Yesterday I received a box with more than enough fabric and I had to resist the urge to leave my other job early to start cutting into these beauties! 

I love working with other people's fabric collections.  It allows me to expand my horizons beyond the colorways and fabrics that I would usually choose.  Doris' collection is high quality and just lovely.  I have a feeling that I'll be finished with her quilt much earlier than my promised 4 week turn around.

Hey readers!

Do you love quilts or at least love looking at quilts?  Cool!  Me too.  I started sewing a long time ago, but was always overwhelmed by the idea of quilting.  My perception was colored by the image of 10 amish women gathered around quilt-stretcher, stitching everything by hand.  Romantic, but totally terrifying.  That is, until one cold winter night when I was feeling irritated with an ugly green poly-fleece blanket and decided to fire up the sewing machine and make myself something of higher quality.  Hence, my very first quilt was born.  And my obsession was born.
I started an etsy store in early September to sell my quilts and the sales have just started to roll in.  Some of the items are right over there in my sidebar ------->

I have two main areas of inspiration: American Arts and Crafts and Mid-Century Modern.  I try to integrate both aesthetics into my work.  Mid-Century is fairly easy given the current fabrics that are available/popular.  Arts and Crafts is more of a challenge for quilting - since the architects, designers etc. from that era would've preferred a tapestry or a whole cloth textile over a quilt.  I'm brainstorming ways to overcome that obstacle, so look for some cool experiments in fabric dyeing and printing as soon as I get a chance!

I do other creative stuff in addition to quilting, so I will post about those things from time to time as well.  I plan to post pictures of my current projects, ideas, and challenges.  I'm also looking to make friends and build community amongst Toledo area artsy-crafters.  Send me a note if you're one of them!

I hope you'll stick around and watch this blog grow.  I'll be posting about my current commissioned work, featuring some GORGEOUS Japanese fabric, later today.

Here's a picture of me turning a corner on quilt binding... not really the most opportune time for a picture, but it's pretty cute: