My Quilting and Sondheim

 In Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George there's a song lyric:  Work is what you do for others; art is what you do for you.  I have always loved that line.  Last week and this week I am working.  I quilted two baby quilts made by my Kennedy teacher friend Jen - one is for her yoga teacher, and the other is for her.  I love how Jen, a beginning quilter, made these simple quilts of horizontal bands of fabrics.  So simple but so nice.  She will now do the binding to finish off the quilts.

 My other work is for a woman who loves to buy and cut fabric.  But she doesn't care for the sewing part.  So she puts together her "kit", and I do nothing but follow her directions and layout.  Here's the first one she designed that I did.  She mentioned she has a couple more grandchildren.  I will happily work for Roberta because I like her projects.

Roberta requested her granddaughter's name on the back of the quilt.  So I put what I learned at the February meeting of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild to use. 

I have one more commission to work on and then I can focus of my art - a Winter seasonal challenge due in July and something fabulous with three Marcia Derse fabrics...  Art is what I do for me.

Finding My Modern Way

Putting labels on things is so difficult.  And I've tried to avoid this labeling.  However, as the Modern Quilt movement gains momentum and as I've become increasingly involved with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, I must declare that I am a modern quilter and am finally able to state why.  Years ago I was attracted to Nancy Crow and her work - I think that's when my path as a modern quilter started.  What has finally made me able to articulate the following was going to QuiltCon in Austin in February 2013, the first Modern Quilt Convention.  Two speakers especially touched me - Heather Grant and Yoshiko Jinzenji.

A modern wonky pillow, thanks to Erika M's label

Heather Grant helped me to understand what can be contradictions in the Modern Quilt world.  She likens the modern quilter to a diner approaching a salad bar.  The Modern Quilter, beginning a project, goes to the salad bar of modern quilting techniques.  These techniques include but are not limited to:

• use of often expensive negative space
• no borders
• minimal or low volume
• graphic color palettes
• improvisational piecing
• grid and alternative grid work (Jacquie Gering is the master of this...)
• asymmetry
• exaggerated scale
• pixelization
• modern traditionalism
• texture

Seriously, low volume vs graphic color?  Sure.  Both of these are aspects of modern quilting.  As a modern quilter I can pick and choose from the above and also go out on my own.  Seeing the quilts at QuiltCon in the above context helped me make sense of this movement.

A bag in process, thanks to SewSweetness's pattern and Emily L for bringing it to my attention

 And there's an attitude involved with Modern Quilting.  This attitude values workmanship and embraces a freedom from rules balanced with freedom in construction and respect for tradition.  Jacquie Gering refers to herself as a "proud maker."  That there are quilters across the nation and world embracing the modern movement is exciting.  Mary Fons At QuiltCon observed that there are young women coming to quilting with no sewing machine experience or knowledge.  And it's these people that modern quilt guilds need to embrace and welcome.

work in process, based on a class by Jacquie Gering at QuiltCon in Architectural Piecing

Modern Quilt guilds, the Chicago group included, are making the decision whether to be a part of the Modern Quilt Guild.  For a group the size of Chicago's modern guild, it's a financial decision that will be about $14 per member.   I'm crazy about so many of the women in this guild.  However, the Chicago girls - including Jacquie Gering and Robbi Eklow and Ebony Love (three with national recognition) - are not enough for me.  I want to be a part of the larger movement and continue to have my passion for quilting in a modern style nourished while - well, let me just use the mission statement of the Modern Quilt Guild:    supporting and encouraging the growth and development of modern quilting through art, education, and community.

Fabrics, waiting for me to channel my inner Yoshiko Jinzenji

 I love that quilting involves finding one's own path.  And I love that my path has intersected with so many quality people.  And while I may go through moments when my sewing or creativity is stuck or blocked, I am excited by the projects in front of me - and by those projects I haven't even dreamed of...

A double-sized hexagonal quilt, in process for six years now, just waiting to be finished...

 

Hi Ho Hi Ho...

It's off delivering lamb cake kits we go...  This tradition of baking lamb cakes and delivering the kits (frosting, green coconut grass, jelly beans) was one that John's mom did years ago.  And I love carrying on this tradition.  We missed Easter this year, and I am trying to make up for it by celebrating Orthodox Easter.

Stay tuned for pix of decorated lambs...


 

A Quilt - or...

Despite being in carpet factories in Turkey, China, and India - where we have always refused to even look at carpets - we both looked at this Kilim carpet from Morocco and wanted it. With the help of a local guide/minder secured by our tour guide to help us navigate the tricky passage ways of the medina in Marrakech, we did some hard negotiating and carried this 6' by 9' carpet home in my suitcase.  Hexagons are quite the rage in quilting.  This split-hexagon design could make a lovely quilt.  Hmmm....

Soothing the Savage Breast

One of my teacher/guild friends is an emerging quilter. She pieced these two quilt tops and has given them to me to quilt. She will then do the binding. I love the combination of fabrics on the front of these quilts, and the elephant backing is just perfect. Today, basting these quilts and starting the quilting is just what I need to be doing. There's great solace in simple activities as a foil to the sadness of my parents' slow decline.

The Studio Took Second Place...for a while

While we were in Morocco, we had our kitchen updated.  I thought I'd come home to something completed - you know, like those kitchen reveals on all the HGTV shows.  As I lugged in my suitcase and spied the dishwasher still in the front hall, I immediately had to revise my expectations.  Then jet lag and a sinus infection hit.  But finally - things are almost complete, the kitchen is absolutely functional and beautiful, we are happy, and we are both feeling healthy.  Nice.

Our designer, Sheri Sauer from Premier Design and Cabinetry in LaGrange Park, was instrumental in helping me decide on a budget and then sticking to that budget while still getting the look I wanted.  Sheri also recommended a contractor, John Klich, of Premier Contstruction Services.  To be able to be out of town during the lion's share of this work and know that the house was in good hands was invaluable.  There was an unexpected issue with a support beam, and John made it right.  There was an issue with the electric, and again - John made it right. 

By moving the refrigerator to the East Wall and creating some pantry space, the kitchen now have a fully function U-shape with two clearly defined work areas.  John and I can now be in the kitchen at the same time without snarling at one another.  A good thing.

Now it's time to get back to normal - with workouts, with the parents, with the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative quilt scanning, with the studio projects I want to do, and with a couple of small commissions.  (Also, I owe my grandsons some Easter Lamb cakes, so this year we are celebrating Orthodox Easter on May 5.)

Project Night Night

My fabulous guild, The Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, directed its Sew to Serve Chicago charity efforts to Project Night Night, an organization that provides basic items for the children of those needing shelter. At yesterday's meeting  over 40 quilts and stuffies were collected.  While the thought of making stuffed animals terrifies me, I was willing to make two quilts.

Since I don't have light and bright fabrics, I bought a jelly roll of these bubble pastels and an accompanying packet of fat-eights for the back of the quilt.  It's 50" x 60". It's the cover quilt from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr's Quilts Made Modern.  Here's the other quilt I put together, made from blocks that were improvisationally pieced at the January CMQG meeting.

Pranked on April Fool's Day

I know I have written about how influential Eleanor Burns has been in my development as a quilter. I must give equal credit to Alex Anderson and her years as host of Simply Quilts on HGTV. So I pay attention to these women when they talk about something new and revolutionary. Did you see this link posted by Alex? My QFF Wayne also sent me the link, and he too is someone I pay attention to. So I watched Alex's video. Really? Seriously? All we need is a smart phone, a downloaded app, and a USB on our machines to plug the phone into. And magically unsewing happens. I asked Wayne if our Husqvarnas even have a USB port. Wayne pointed out I must still be sick (and apparently without a sense of humor) because this was a prank. As I said to Wayne, I'm such a dork...

A Quilter's Look at Morocco

What will come out of this trip to Morocco in my studio? I don't know. I still have things rolling around in my head from Kenya and Japan. But here's what caught my eye on this trip.

Stone Floor at Volubilis

Mosaic Marble Floor Tiles

Mosaic Tile Floor

Cedarwood Ceiling Work

Ancient library, courtesy of Atlas Studios

Arch perspective

More arches

Rudimentary Roofing

Notre Dame in Casablanca

by Louardiri

by Nabili

A Look at Morocco

Looking through the window of a casbah

Our Gate1Travel guide Ibrahim was a delightful man who showed us the best of his country through geography, history, and people.  From Rabat on the coast of the Atlantic through to Atlas Mountains to the edge of the Sahara Desert back through the mountain oasis of Ouazazate to Marrakech to Casablanca, we generous people and feasted our eyes on things we will never see again.

Courtyard in a medina of Rabat

Family outing in the city of Sale

Happy to be in Morocco on the way to Fez

Roman Ruins of Volubilis

  Karavanseri (Hotel for Caravans) now a museum

Our camels waiting to take us back down the dunes

Seriously, we were at the edge of the Sahara Desert. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be there, let alone get there on a camel. 

The variety and beauty of olives

Lunch in a Berber tent

Algerian food is tangines and couscous

In Fez at a leather-dying factory

While so much of Morocco is rural and unique, the cities are highly Westernized. Is that good or bad? Older cities like Fez and Marrakech have managed to balance what is uniquely Moroccan with some modernization. Newer cities like Casablanca are a bit scary in that they are so modern. Look at this picture from our hotel room.  We could hear the call to prayer through the din of the evening traffic.  The city highrises surround little flat shantytowns, where the poverty is visible. 

Morocco is a country of contrasts - the snow-covered mountain tops of the Atlas Mountains and the beautiful desert foliage, shepherds in fields and aggressive souvenir hawkers, the sands and the oasis, the seacoast and the high plateaus.  It's a country where you view life through a vastly different window.