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

Squared up and ready for binding

Cutting off the edges and squaring up this quilt was a nightmare. I spent 2 days fretting over it and this morning I just finally did it. The diagonals when I measured them were pretty much equal. Normally I would face an art quilt, but this one is just too big for that. Plus maybe it needs a frame??? I just can’t deal with the wrestling match that facing a quilt this size with lots of fusible near the edges is. Although now I’m feeling guilting for not facing it!

I have cut skinny trial fabric strips to see what fabric to use for binding. I have a lot of potential fabrics, but many of them were just too small to cut all of the binding strips. I think I’ve settled on a blue and purple batik. I wanted one that was not too dark against the sky fabric.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Back to Boston

After a long hiatus I’m back to quilting my Boston collage quilt. This week I’ve been working on the long purple brownstone on the left side. This quilt is so heavy and stiff from all the fusible web that it’s nearly impossible to turn. I try to quilt in one direction without turning so that means lots of starts and stops. That’s not ideal, but easier than turning. 

You can see what I still have to do based on where the safety pins are. I started designing this quilt almost 4 years ago. I hate when quilts make you feel guilty for that long. Time to get it done. I will never make a building quilt that large again. Someone talked me into the size. I forget who that was! Maybe it was me…..

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Making progress

 I’ve had a little less stress this week and have managed to get back to quilting the Boston monstrosity. I finished the large building and have done 3 1/2 more. I’ve decided to quit fretting when the quilting is not perfect and accept that I’m not as good as I thought I was at this!!!! At least my enthusiasm is back and I want to work on it everyday.

I have one more week of my class to teach. They are doing pretty well considering many of them are really beginner quilters. 

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Things I think I've learned over the years...

I have been art quilting since 2004 when I started my Isle of Skye quilt. It was started in an online class at Quilt University with Susan Brittingham. Quilt University has not existed for years and Susan is no longer with us. You can see that I loved buildings even then.

My second art quilt was "Grandma's House."

So what did I learn many years after making these quilts? I've learned that borders are not necessary.  I rarely put a border on a quilt now.  I also usually face the quilt instead of binding it these days. If you want it to look like art rather than a quilt you should skip the borders and the binding. My Amsterdam canal houses at night which is shown below would be an example of a quilt that has no borders and has facing instead of binding. So why did these first 2 quilts have borders and binding? Well I was a traditional quilter and always "slapped" a border on a quilt. That's what I was used to. At least I mitered the borders!!

The other thing I learned was to use an inspiration photo that had an unusual perspective rather than taking one that looks at the subject straight on. The one of my parent's house was the only photo I had at the time so that's what I had to use, but now I would take the photo at an angle to get something more interesting to work with. The canal houses are taken from an angle looking down a street. That's better in my opinion than a straight on view. The other thing I did with the photo was to stretch the vertical dimension to make the canal houses look tall and skinny. I've discovered how to manipulate a photo to make it more interesting or to fit the subject better. Tall skinny canal houses call for a tall skinny quilt.

Looking up or down at a building is also a great view to find something interesting. Looking up at the ceilings of a cathedral is a great viewpoint.

The other thing I discovered over the years was to use unusual colors rather than the actual colors in the photo. In other words skies don't have to be blue or buildings don't have to be brown.

My original idea for the canal houses was to go with the actual colors in the photo. I did a sketch and painted it in with those colors. It evolved into a night time scene with all blues and the yellow orange windows after I played with it in Electric Quilt software. So the other thing I learned was to play with things before I even start making the quilt.Some times I play for years before I commit to something.

 

I've learned that colors can create a mood. If you look at these 2 energy quilts you can see they have very different moods based on their subjects. You can utilize that to your advantage.

 

So what about how big to make a quilt?  Sometimes the size I choose is based on what fabrics I have to work with. Other times it's dictated by the subject and what I want a viewer to feel. My Boston quilt is a good example of that. I wanted the viewer to feel like they were standing there looking at a city scene so it is very large. That of course has been stressing me out while I've been quilting it. It is approximately 50 in by 80 in.

 

I’ve also learned to simplify things, leave things out, add things, or move things around. I guess one of the last things I've learned is that I have to be patient and learn to deal with plenty of tedious things in this process. This process is not for the faint of heart.

What have you learned over the years that I forgot to mention?

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Thanks for reading

Chris

Magic fabric

Before I get started talking about what kinds of fabrics I use in my quilts, I have to admit that I struggle with fabric choices. Picking the “right” fabric is never easy for me. I envy people that don’t struggle like I do. My husband calls it over analysis. And I know that I’m guilty of it.  I’m pretty open about what kinds of fabrics I use….batiks, hand dyes, Stonehenge, fossil ferns, Moda marbles, Jennifer Sampou sky fabrics. Generally I don’t use solids. I also use what I call magic fabrics. These are fabrics that work really well in my quilts. These are fabrics that have variation in color and value and both the front and back of the fabric are useful. 

This fabric was used a lot in my Boston quilt. In some places I used the front and other places I used the back. It made a great window fabric in this quilt. I used it in the skyscrapers as well as the brownstones. It is definitely a magic fabric! In fact I initially bought a small piece of this fabric and then went back to the quilt store to buy more. 

Here it is in the quilt. I used both the front and the back of the fabric when the values required it. That alone is magic in my book.

I’ve been getting ready for my class so I did not do much quilting this week. I’ve heard from 4/5 students and figure I probably won’t hear from the last straggler. Hopefully she shows up on Tuesday. We are not allowed to contact the students unless they contact the instructor first. All the students were given contact information and a pre-class assignment to send their photo to me.  Although I’ve learned from the past classes that not everyone gets something done in class. 

The students have picked some fairly complicated and fairly large sizes to work on in this class. The sizes are around 16 by 22 and they all seem to be making quilts of their houses. So it will be a challenge and  they will still be working on it after the class is over. Well at least I will get them started and on their way.

Do you use magic fabrics? Do you use both the front and back of fabrics? Do you struggle with fabric choices?

Thanks for reading.

Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

Not a lot done this week

I only got one building done this week and started into a second building. The finished building is the pretty fairly large purple building that is made from a purple Cherrywood fabric with light purple fossil fern windows. The second building is a very large building with lots of windows and details. There are a few marks in white on it so you can see is where I will be quilting next. I’ve been using the Roxanne white water soluble pencil to mark the darker buildings. I just discovered yesterday that I can use packing tape to remove a lot of the marks. It pulls them right off.

My class was in the OLLI newsletter this week. I got one more student, but one dropped so I am still at 5/6. I’ve heard from 3 students with the photos they are working with. I’m still waiting to hear from the other 2. The class is getting close with only a bit more than a week to go before it starts. I hope they are not waiting until the day the class starts because I have to print their enlarged photo for them.  That would be impossible the day of the class. So I hope I hear from them soon. I hope they are looking forward to taking the class as much as I’m looking forward to teaching it.

Thanks for reading. Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

Two more buildings done

I quilted 2 more buildings this week, had SI joint injections, and found out my class on architectural quilts has enough enrollment! Yeah! I’m looking forward to teaching it. The quilting was fun, but the SI joint injections were not. The day after the injections the pain was way worse than before the injections. Of course they warn you of that. Yesterday and today it’s not as bad. So hopefully the steroid will be kicking in soon.

The 2 buildings done are the purple arch and the blue purple building below it. Notwithstanding I have to sketch out the quilting lines for the darker purple building that you can only see the top of in the photo. Still a long way to go, but I can’t think about that.

Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Skyscrapers are done!

 I finished quilting the skyscrapers this week. I’m still in love with my new machine. 

In case you don’t think it looks like much quilting let me show you the back.

Next on the agenda is the purple arch building in the middle of the quilt. There is a lot of detail to quilt on this building. Should keep me busy for a while. 

I have to mark it and then pick the thread. I might need a break today so maybe it will just be a marking day. It’s less than a month to my class on making an architectural quilt. I hope I get enough students. Last year I only had 3 students. If that’s all I get I’m not sure if I will teach it or offer it again. It means there is not much interest. 

Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Four buildings done and only a million more to go

It only feels like there is a million more to do. The skyscrapers on the right hand side are done and I did start the ones on the left. I wish I could see it without all the marking pencil lines, but that won’t happen until I soak it when I am finished quilting and before I trim it and add the facings. The skyscraper on the far right had some changes made to it since the last blog. I ripped out some stitches and did the windows. 

I’ve been racking my brain to figure out how I’m going to quilt the sky. Any ideas?

Linking to Nina- Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Quilting away

I have been quilting the Boston quilt off and on this week. It is a slow process. I basically have nearly 3 of the skyscrapers done. That extra 3.5 inches of harp space for my new machine is wonderful although it still is a wrestling match. All my markers have died so I have some tape stuck on the quilt where I want to stitch next. I will be buying some more markers later this morning. I might do another building this morning while I wait to get them.

I must say that the days of being able to quilt really straight lines are over. I hope that once this quilt is done and it gets soaked with water that the wiggles won’t be obvious.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Time to go back to Boston

I’ve worked on the Halloween quilt for over a week now and I think it’s time to start quilting the Boston quilt. I’ll let the Halloween quilt sit on the design wall for a while.

There have been plenty of suggestions of changes made by several people. My daughter said to use the 2 crows that I had cut out instead of just the one. They do balance the bats on the upper right in the quilt. I do have to paint an orange eye on that crow. Sheila my Idaho friend https://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com/ thought I should move the fence opening down to about the 3rd pumpkin. I moved it to the 4th one. I also had to move the fence on the right side. I’ll have to think about whether to move it further. It could move down between the 3rd and 4th pumpkins. That also moves the fence on the right side. Maybe this is good enough!

Some people wondered why I take so many photos of my work. I find photos very useful. Often I can see things that I need or fix or that look wrong or weird by looking at a photo when I can’t see it by looking at the quilt. I don’t know why that is. I suppose it’s like looking at your work from a different perspective or a more objective eye. Camera phones make it so easy to take lots of photos so why not take them?

At any rate back to Boston. Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Hacking away at the fence

I’ve taken my scissors to the fence to make it more dilapidated. I’m not sure if I’m there yet. I’ll let this simmer on the design wall until tomorrow. I’ve also started to put the pumpkins back up. Some of them keep falling off. I will need to use some Roxanne’s glue baste on them before I take this quilt off of the design wall. Besides that I’m still struggling about the spacing of the pumpkins. I know that to create depth when they are further away they should get smaller and closer together. I don’t want to make them in a particular section all exactly evenly spaced because that would be boring. So some irregularities are important. Plus I guess there should be some slight variation in the sizes of the pumpkins in a particular section. Also they should get darker and less distinct. 

Of course I’ve made some changes to this after taking this photo.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

First run at fence

I started the fence yesterday. I still have a lot of decisions to make about it. At first I think I had too many vertical slats so I took out every 3rd one and repositioned the others. I will have to decide about this.  I also need to get this to look more worn out and dilapidated.  Also do I need a horizontal fence support near the center. And yes I need to fill in that black spot on the hill behind the fence. That spot was originally behind one of the pillars of the fancy fence I had created once upon a time.

Too many vertical slats??

The right number of slats??

The first kitten I found now has his adoption pending. I’m so happy for this kitten.

Thanks for reading. 

Chris

The Images art exhibit starts today

 I had to drop off my Pittsburgh art piece yesterday and the exhibit opens today. When I dropped it off the woman that accepted it made quite a fuss over it. That made me feel good.

Pittsburgh in the Snow 2: Cathedral

Here’s a link to the 51 pieces in the exhibit.   https://arts-festival.com/images-exhibition-gallery/ 

There’s a lot of nice artwork in the exhibit. I’m so happy I was able to get in with such stiff competition.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Some things fixed and more to do

I have the windows and the path fixed. Now I just have to do the fence and. Add back all the pumpkins Actually at first I put some of the pumpkins back on the path and wondered if I even needed the fence. And as I look at the photo I wonder if I should have used a lighter yellow for the windows and made them a bit bigger. So maybe the windows are not fixed!!

Then I thought that it did look too empty without the fence. Of course the question in my mind is whether it really needs it or I just think it looks better with the fence because it always had a fence. Maybe that’s what I was used to. I sketched in a very crude fence behind the pumpkins on my iPad. I think the fence is needed. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.

Chris

It feels empty today

The house seems a bit empty today after the 3 trapped kittens went to our local animal shelter. We did not really get to interact with the kittens that much since they were in a crate, but I checked on them a lot. I talked to them a lot. They were so cute. I hope they are adjusting at the shelter. They will go into foster care together until they are ready to be adopted. We are still going to try to catch the mom and get her fixed and then released.

I finally got up to the sewing room and worked on the windows in the haunted mansion. I wanted them to be fewer, yellow, and smaller. Here’s the first try on that. I’ve been playing with the fence a bit, but not seriously. I did change out one of the bats that was very large and looked like a bird. I think I need to reevaluate some of the others as well.

Thanks for reading. Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

Boston is pinned

It took 2 days, but the Boston quilt is pin basted. It was quite a job getting the pins through some of the thick areas….lots of fusible and layers. I had to pin around some of the really thick areas. This was the first time I had to use a spoon to help with the basting. 

In this photo you can see the fossil fern blue fabric that I picked for the backing of the quilt. This will surely show all of my quilting. 

So with all the bending over my cutting table for 2 days my SI joint hurts today. Hopefully that settles in a couple of days. Meanwhile I’ll work on the Halloween quilt so I won’t be hunched over my machine quilting the Boston quilt and aggravating it more than it already is aggravated. I can’t even do quilting things without injury! So it’s sitting on my cutting table waiting for quilting. The first thing I will quilt is the outline of all the buildings. 

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Back to an old project

The Halloween quilt that was inspired by a painting is back on my design wall. This is what I was working on 2 years ago before I got into the Boston quilt. There are several changes I need to make to this quilt.

Here’s that quilt. 

The first thing I will change are the windows in the house. I want less of them, make them smaller, and make them yellow instead of white. Here’s a sketch of what I have in mind.

The next thing is the path that goes up the hill. It’s too snake like or too curvy. It should be more like a zig zag with sharper bends. Here are some photos of a path going up a hill near where I live. You see I was doing research. It pays to do your research!

Then there’s the fence. I asked an artist about it and she said the perspective was off, but did not say how. I am confused as to how I’m looking at those large pillars. Is it from above or below? Plus it’s too fancy compared to the house. The house was more free in its cutting. The fence was more rigid. So I’ve taken off a lot of the fence and will rethink it. I’m leaning toward a simple fence and no open gate so I don’t need to worry about perspective as much. It will be more like this sketch.

So you can see I have some work to do on this one. I put it back on the design wall and will work on it as I pin the Boston quilt for quilting. In other words I will be doing two things at once.

Have you ever rethought a quilt and made major changes to it? 

Thanks for reading.

Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

Where’s the fanfare??????

I would have thought when I finished stitching the pieces in place for my Boston quilt that I would have heard some fanfare. But there was nothing but silence. After 3 months of stitching you would have thought that I deserved some celebration music. But no! 

I did listen to the Hallelujah Chorus so I created my own celebration. Here’s the finished top. I ordered the backing fabric which I decided was going to be fossil fern in light blue and purple. This design began 2 years ago. Most of that time was spent designing, but the last 3 months of stitching seemed really long. I’m very happy that I made it through this stage. I would imagine that quilting will take that long as well. I expect the quilting to be more interesting at least.

Thanks for reading. 

Chris