Taking classes to expand my mind

I have taken plenty of classes that were not quilting classes over the years to have fun and expand my mind. In fact I have one coming up in June that has nothing to do with quilting. It’s one on eco-printing. https://artallianceofcentralpa.org/products/eco-printing-bookbinding

I have never printed with leaves and plants before. I have done normal fabric dyeing as well as rust dyeing. The rust dyeing definitely produces some interesting results. I have used several of the rust dyed fabrics in quilts. 

Rust dying set up

Rust dyed fabrics

Stormy skies rust dyed fabric is my favorite

Fracking quilt made from rust dyed fabrics

Painted rust dyed fabrics to use in a quilt

Rusted toxic barrels quilt using painted rust dyed fabrics

Do you take classes to expand your mind? What kinds of classes do you take?

Thanks for reading.

Chris

One of the great things my mom did for me

 I had a complicated relationship with my mother. I will leave it at that. There was one thing she made me do that I am forever grateful for. She made me go to sewing classes for a week in downtown Pittsburgh at a department store. I certainly did not really learn to sew that week, but it set me on the path to where I am now. I did learn to sew clothing over the years by actually making things. I pretty much made all of my clothing. Of course that was back when patterns were less than $1 and fabric was not that expensive. There were lots of fabric stores including an entire floor devoted to sewing in all of the department stores. Over the years we have seen all of them go away. The big fat books showing patterns from companies like McCalls or Simplicity are now just skinny books. Patterns now cost a fortune. We’ve seen Joann fabrics fold. So things have changed a lot. Now we have cheap disposable clothing to buy so we don’t have to sew clothing anymore. 

I even made my wedding dress and made lots of dresses and costumes for our daughter.

All that clothing making eventually led to quilting and where I am today. I wonder if I ever would have found quilting if my mom had not sent me for sewing classes. 

Did you sew clothing before you started quilting? Do you still make clothing?

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Where do I get my ideas for quilts?

When I first started quilting in 1986 I basically found a quilt pattern in a book that I liked and then decided to make it. These were mainly traditional quilts like double wedding ring, sawtooth star, schoolhouse.  Many were pieced, but there were some that were raw edge fusible appliqué. Several of these early quilts can be seen under the Misc Quilts tab above or by following this link. https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/p/misc.html. A good example of one that I made from a pattern in a book is this Amish one. I loved hand quilting all those cables and feathers.

Even though I was using patterns I did begin to modify those patterns by choosing fabrics that were very different than those shown in the patterns. The dinosaur quilt would be a good example of that. The original colors were yellow, red, and black. The pink, blue, and purple dot and stripe fabrics were really fun and our daughter loved them. She still has the quilt. 

The Halloween quilt that I made was also from a pattern, but I changed several of the trick or treaters so they were wearing costumes that our daughter wore. Our daughter has this quilt hanging on the wall of her office. 

So I was starting to add my own touches to the quilts that I was making. In 2004 I started making original art quilts. So where do the ideas for those art quilts come from? I would say they come from several sources. 

One

Photos that we have taken or ones I found online serve as inspiration. Neither of these are copied exactly. They are only inspiration. All photos need to be edited. They need to be zoomed and cropped. Things need to be left out or moved. Values need to be changed. I have collected many photos for ideas for future quilts. If I find something that I like I save it for the future. The photo that I will use for next year’s recycle show I’ve had in my photo collection for about 5 years. So I use photos to spark the idea for a quilt.

Two 

My daughter helps come up with ideas. She definitely helped last year when I needed an idea for the Bellefonte Art Museum word challenge. My word was wonder and she said to do wonder bread. I decided to do an Andy Warhol like quilt. I’m from Pittsburgh so that’s appropriate. I’m not sure what I would have done if she did not suggest this. 

Three

My husband also comes up with ideas when I’m stuck. This year’s recycle piece was his idea. He said to make a stack of Poe books with a raven on top. I used AI and online research on Ravens to finalize the idea. 

Where do you get your ideas for quilts?

Thanks for reading.

Chris

I won again!!!

I won the popular vote for my Raven piece at the recycle show. So I won first place and popular vote. All this winning is going to go to my head!

Upon a Midnight Dreary 14in by 14 in

Thanks for reading.

Chris