THE 6.5ST WAY
I have had
a lot of people ask questions about the way I quilt, tips, advice etc, and so I
thought it might be nice to share the way I work through a quilt project. I
work intuitively. I do things my way, and they work, and it is so nice to see
other people like that method too. I approach my fabric design work, the same
way that I approach detailing all my architectural work.
I am a
visual and tactile person – I collect ideas in my head, until they germinate
into something tangible, and it’s usually a cumulative process of gathering
pieces of fabric, trim, texture, proportion and a base idea into one whole.
This might happen instantly, or take time and process over a number of months.
I find that the process might start with one set of parameters, and evolve into
an entirely different language as new ideas come into play. Eventually the end
product tends to end up back somewhere near the original idea, just more honed,
skilled, and refined.
I start
with piles. Piles are never to be misjudged. There’s a reason my blog is full
of piles. The piles are my sample boards, my mood boards, my inspirations. I
constantly arrange and rearrange piles in my study. I gather colours and
textures in the piles, see how the fabrics work together, and rearrange proportions.
I might add or subtract as I feel, and as I get to know the pile.
With the
Linen quilt, I gathered fat quarters, played with them thinking I might make a
log cabin quilt. I then received a selection of quarters from Stephanie, in different
tones, and was playing with them and another idea I had and suddenly the two
piles merged on my desk, and the log cabin got thrown out in favour of
something simpler which would let the colours and textures speak rather than
the energy of pattern. I wanted to use linen as the base material, so in came
some linen which was left over from my mother recovering her couches. I had
been wanting to use some of the stamp printed twill tape I received from
Abbytrysagain, and coincidentally, Stephanie tied up her bundle with the same
trim, and that was it, somewhere on the quilt would be letter tape. And I love
red dot fabric – and knew I had a load of some that could be used for a small quilt.
When I’m
ready, I lay it all out somewhere inconvenient. There is method in my madness.
If it’s laid out over things, I get to see how the fabrics work in drapes, how
they fall, how they work together through light and shadow. I get to see how
details might emerge, and how different amounts of each fabric might work
better when they fall over, get bundled, and get hidden. It’s an architect
designer thing. It just wouldn’t be the same to lay it neatly on a table
without clutter with everything sitting flat – I never see my quilts as flat
pieces. They are all 3dimensional objects. And from there I make quick sketches
to a relative scale. I’m quite conscious most people do not work in
inconvenient haphazard ways.
I might
make three sketches all variations on the original to see how I like different
combinations. They are quick line sketches, with bare notes. Occasionally I
measure it out and assign value measurements against parts, but mostly I trust
my eye and judgement and work from intuition as I cut. I might have overall
measures, but I don’t work exactly. Does it need to be exact? Hell no. I like
the fact there’s some give in it all, and there’s a certain free form quality
to it all that can evolve as I sew, and allows me to change things as I go. I
rarely follow patterns because of that – however I do use books to get ideas,
but my desire to create something beyond a pattern means I could never truly
follow something written down and set in stone. I have only 2 quilt books – and
I have never made a quilt from either of them. However I consult them all the
time for pattern ideas and textures and colour combinations. The two books are
Denyse Schmidt, and Contemporary Quilts. There is another Japanese book Simple Quilt I have
been trying to get hold of which is excellent for more contemporary quilts.
The linen quilt I knew needed to pay respect to a few ideas I’ve wanted to work with. The linen was the starting point, and the zakka style Japanese craft books which use linen with simple embroidery or details to achieve something extraordinary and unexpected. I knew I wanted to do embroidery somewhere. I also received a beautiful red and natural package from Manuele a while ago which included a very beautiful book on cross stitch alphabets. Very French, very elegant, thoroughly Need To Do. I had been waiting for the perfect custom project to use some of these scripts, and knew I wanted it to be about Pia. I have a need to get sashiko embroidery into too many of my projects, and hence the dragonflies. A little bit of whimsy, but it breaks up the linen beautifully. They’re subtle, but very effective. It’s all about the details, both subtle and obvious.
I love
tags. I adore the little Gocco printed cotton tape tags I make and use on my
work. Simple and effective (if you don’t have a Gocco, Sally has just done a
fabulous post about how you can achieve a similar result which I have to say is
a really tempting and neat way of going about doing it). I plan their location
and use quite specifically. They are an integral component in the design
process. I also wanted little intriguing things like ribbons to attach toys to
easily while we’re out to be part of the quilt. The satin ribbon works well
texturally against the linen, and they break up the regularity of the band of
fabrics across the centre – sometimes apparent discord creates balance. The ‘Pia’
tag became an extension of my line of thinking, drawing influence from Japanese
books again. I love the ideas of layering things, and having little bits of
interest in the details.
And the
backing. I debated this for weeks. I could have used simple cotton, and perhaps
used the red dot fabric from the front again on the back. But I like to make
the seemingly simple quite difficult for me, and just as I went down the sorry
path of using the fleece on the other quilt I did for Pia because it stretched
as I sewed it, I decided to use cotton jersey knit – which also stretches. But
it is soft and warm against babies skin, and snuggly for use in the cot or
stroller.
The wadding is pure cotton organic wadding. It’s lightweight, and sits well. Although it’s hard work to hand stitch through. Or maybe I just need tougher fingers. I wanted to do more hand stitching, but I ran out of energy. Actually I wanted to do a load of sashiko embroidery on it, and kept returning to it lying on the table hour after hour and waiting for that moment when you can’t resist taking up the needle and thread and diving in. I got close a few times, but was terribly worried I’d ruin the balance of detail. Balance – that’s a key point. Finding the right amount of small detail to large detail to pattern and space and the overall is critical, and unfortunately some people can do this, and some can’t. Learn by stepping back, assessing, and looking at it from different angles (literally) and observing what other people do who ‘get it right’.
Let it evolve.
