do it yourself

Quilting: Its Complicated

What to say about quilting. Well, quilting is hard (almost as hard as writing this post, I’ve started and stopped like eleven times. Seriously, what is my problem). Measuring, no matter how hard I try, is elusive.  Things don’t match up, my seams are just as often wonky as they are straight. Sometimes fabric puckers and creases. So why do I keep at this quilting business if its so nasty and frustrating? Well, there is more than one answer to that; I will attempt here to explain. At my core I am a maker of things. Things that people can use and love. Things that are beautiful and creative and tell people with every use how important they are to me. Quilting is tradition that embodies this. A quilt is something a person can use everyday, share their life with, wash a thousand times, get grass stains on, spill wine on, raise their kids with, get through a bad cold or a long night with. Quilts carry history with them, they record our personal stories, and they remind us that we are loved and someone out there wants to make sure we stay warm.

Secondly, I saw the documentary, The Quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend (and later the exhibit) and it literally changed something in me. Beautiful, wild, completely unconventional patterns. Generations of quilter’s, making amazing  art  out of scraps, rags, old clothes, feedbags, mattress ticking, essentially whatever they had, in a tiny isolated town.  Nobody told them this was the right or wrong way to make quilts. They just did it.

So, I gave up seeking perfection. Besides not being terribly fun,  I  learned to  embrace and repeat the following mantra, “this is handmade. Therefore it should look like I made it by hand.” And there is A LOT of repeating of this. Still. Walking away from classic  quilt patterns opened up a whole new world of possibility. AND, perfection isn’t my thing. Not in any of my creative pursuits, so why, why would quilting be any different? By no means is there anything wrong with traditional quilting patterns, their histories are fascinating and important, they are just not  me. With all this in mind, I started to practice what I like to think of as “abstract quilting”. Problem solving exercises in color, line, shape and pattern.

So without any further ado, here for your viewing pleasure, are a few of my most recent endeavors.

This lovely little number is the pride and joy and result of a collaboration between myself and the very talented Jennifer Frendo.  This winter break we locked ourselves in Jenny’s studio, threw caution to the wind, as quilters are want to do, and busted out this sweet little master piece for baby Deven.

And then, if that weren’t enough, we did this.

Well, this one the credit really goes to Jennifer. I only helped out with the binding, but I do love it so.

And just in case its starting to look like all I make are baby quilts, there are these pillows, made out of scraps of fabric, a skirt, and my dad’s old cashmere sweater that I I wore to death in high school, but couldn’t quite bear to get rid of. Kind of a homage to those quilts of Gee’s Bend, and a nice daily reminder of how much I love my dad.

 So,  your not a quilter, certainly I am just barely one. But maybe this will inspire you to make room for something you love to do in your own imperfect and lovely way.