Hi friends! It's hard to believe the year is winding to a close. Whether you see December as a time to sew all the Christmas things, or rather to relax a bit and enjoy the year's end, I hope you find joy in the small moments at the very least. As usual, I'm feeling somewhat bittersweet, a little uneasy at all the uncertanties, yet thankful and hopeful at the same time.
WHAT'S UP
Housetops was, at 68" x 76", my largest finish of the entire year, and I worked at making scrappy blocks and then finishing it, over the course of several months. It was intended as pure fabric-play, and intentional scrap-usage, and it served me well on both counts. It was not the first, nor the last, inspired by a vintage quilt in Bold Expressions: African American Quilts from the Collection of Corrine Riley. Modern Traditional combined with improv and scraps seems to be one of my current focuses, and I'll just enjoy it while it's here.
A bright, bold, and modern alphabet quilt, Sarah's
"Unscripted" quilt was made with the help of her Quilts Unscripted bee. I recommend reading her blog post, a reminder that following your vision is definitely worth the effort!
I adore Brigid's hand-quilted "Modern Log Cabin" quilt, and her take on a traditional design. Her use of color is inviting, and oh those mitered corners!
Rachel is a master at using color and value, and her recent
"Autumn Glow" is proof positive once again. You'll find several posts about the making of this beauty on Rachel's blog, right down to the finishing.
An exploration of negative space, Charles' "Take the Stairs" is also an exercise is using value, and I'm in awe of his creation. There's so much to love here, and one of the details I find intriguing is "the undulation of dark negative space that could be created by arranging squares of increasing, then decreasing size and color value into a maze of stairs that crawls across the quit top." wow.
ON TREND
Holiday gift-giving is definititely on the minds of many!
I'm also a fan of Heike's method for making potholders! "Take your scraps and then: cut and sew and cut and sew and cut and sew....And when it‘s finished call it a potholder." Hand-quilting also adds so much to Heiki's improvisational designs.
[heirami_]
Cassandra Beaver and I are in a virtual quilt guild together, and when she shared about her finished project for the QuiltCon 2022 Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge during a recent show and tell, I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing! The challenge fabrics were cross-weaves (woven with one color in the warp of the weave and another color in the weft), and in her "Pulling Strings," Cassandra did exactly that. In her words, "The weave is slightly looser than most quilting cottons, which could be considered a challenge, but I quickly decided I would attempt to make this an advantage." I could go on and on about this ingenious piece, but you really should hop over to Cassandra's blog to see and hear her share more about it.
P.S. On a recent Craft Industry Alliance Podcast, Zak Foster chatted with Abby Glassenberg about his transition to full-time artist and creative-community-organizer. I'd already found Zak and his work inspirational, but there was so much more to consider after this heartening interview.
