jane’s modern quilt

Lap Quilt by Jane Belyea, 2009

When I visited my 82-year old mom in Victoria in May, we treasured hunted at local thrift stores for quilting fabrics. We used the “crease test” to check the cotton content—if we pinch pressed a fabric and it held a crisp crease, it was cotton.

For $4.00 CDN Mum picked up some boldly printed cotton with pink, teal, yellow and blue throughout. Here is the mid-sized quilt that she made with her bargain fabric. My dad likes the quilt so much that he made her agree to not give it away (which she does with all her wonderful quilts!).

lap quilt series: no. 6

Elusive Wisdom, 2009, 43" x 62"
COLLECTION OF SHUNA & GEORGE CERRATO

Here is my hand-dyed fabric in action. Creating the mottled fabric, curved piecing, stenciled oil stick artwork and overly wavy edges were all new for me. There is a sense of risk in trying different techniques. No peril of course, but it is engaging and exciting.

The lap quilt debuted at this month’s Art Chix gathering. Presented for the theme, Dirty Laundry, the imperfectly dyed fabric reminds me of soiled and stained cloth.

the send-off quilt

Crow Barn Quilt, 2009, 70" x 44"
COLLECTION OF MIKE GORE

Heading off to college evokes feelings of high hopes and adventuresome expectations. To remind Plymouth’s high school seniors of their spiritual home, our church sends them off with a comfort quilt made by the Piece Makers.

For the 15 graduating seniors, our busy quilting group produced 18 quilts this year. The three extra quilts were given to the Plymouth Healing Communities ministry.

My quilt is actually the work of three Plymouth women. Maurine Noble made the central black and white sections at a week-long Nancy Crow workshop. I designed the quilt top with scrap fabrics and did all the finishing. And Susan Jones did the bulk of the hand stitching.

The recipient, Michael Gore, is the son of a leading Plymouth family. Mike’s a bright young man with leadership abilities, public speaking ease and a witty sense of humor who loves to race bicycles.

baby quilt series: no. 3

Hello Bunnies, 2009, 34" x 40"
COLLECTION OF JANET SAULSBURY

Made with 15" wide cotton that I bought in Tokyo at New Year’s, this baby quilt is scissor-cut and machine quilted. The top is made with big pattern blocks while the back has solo bunnies, fancy-cut, in a central sashed composition.

In retrospect, I should have made the back the top, and vice versa. The delight of the little bunnies and the bright pink with the mottled gray on the back is the more exciting side.

lap quilt series: no. 5

African Night & Day, 2009, 42" x 60"
COLLECTION OF JANET LANE

High contrast: black top on white back. The front is made with Dutch wax-resist fabrics from Vlisco and Woodin. The back is a silk-screened tablecloth from South Africa. The hand of all the fabrics is crisp and cool.

Although I scissor-cut the pieces, the final look is quite precise. This is because I could cut along the graphic patterns of the fabrics with the black backgrounds. The quilting includes mostly stitch-in-the-ditch with some hand stitching.

The fabrics were brought back from Africa by Maurine Noble when she taught quilting classes there.

in search of imperfection

Connie Colton is the force behind the Quilt Qua website.

This article by me was posted on QuiltQua.com today under: Articles.

In the Fall of 2007 I saw two quilts shows in Tacoma. I drove down I-5 from Seattle to view the internationally acclaimed Gee’s Bend quilts at TAM (Tacoma Art Museum). Then I walked a block to the Washington State History Museum to see a show of contemporary quilt art.

At TAM, I paid my money and went straight upstairs to the Gee’s Bend exhibit. The show spanned early quilts to ones that had been made in the last decade. The most graphic of the quilts were my favorites. I was surprised that the craftsmanship of the quilts hadn't improved much over the years. Some of the newest ones were just as slipshod as the vintage examples— with sloppy stitching and bulky seams.

Down at the History Museum, I was wowed. The contemporary quilts were exceptional in all ways. I liked the innovative use of colors, shapes and finishes. In fact, I was so inspired that I went home and immediately mimicked one of the patterns for a pillow top.

Not being impressed by the Gee’s Bend show troubled me. If everyone else was gaga about the work, I needed to give it more consideration. I decided that the exhibit had given me a gift—permission to be as messy as I wanted with my quilts.

I’ve taken this signal to heart personally. In the last year I have abandoned my rotary cutter. Instead I cut my fabric with scissors, sometimes merrily whacking away. I piece randomly. I want to sew fabric together until I know I am done—like Jackson Pollock who threw paint on his canvas.

There is real excitement in approaching a quilt project with a vision instead of a pattern. I often think for a long time about the fabric before I make my first cut. Other times I get experimental and just want to see what will happen when I start piecing willy nilly.

The acceptance of imperfection pleases me. It allows me to appreciate anything that I create. “Keep moving forward” I say to myself instead of being overly critical of my work. I am not perfect and neither are my quilts these days.

chard, kale and mustard leaves

Vegetable Leaf Table Topper, 2009, 13" x 36"
COLLECTION OF GRACE LYNCH

This lap project has accompanied me on many excursions since the holidays. Last weekend I finished up the hand stitching on the Clipper, coming home from a weekend in Victoria with my parents.

All the piecing is scissor-cut. I like the organic look that comes from the non-precise shapes.

To finish this project, I need to hem 20 dinner-sized napkins that are in the turquoise- and wine-colored vegetable leaf fabrics. Then I will ship the runner and napkin set to Grace Lynch in New Jersey—the guardian angel of my daughter, Victoria, at CIA . Grace has a humongous collection of Portuguese cabbage leaf china that she uses at family gatherings.

The ceramic dachshund was made for me by my daughter Vik in a high school art class.

the stash

In D. Lisa West’s basement, we rinsed our dyed squares in her laundry sink and fixed the colors in two plastic bins. Then we ran all the fabric through the washer for a final rinse and the dryer for a light fluff. Two and a half hours later all the swatches were ironed.

Somehow we did not create any chocolate brown cloth. I thought that when we experimented with three or more dyes, we would make mud. Generally our fabric is bright, mottled and very appealing.

baby quilt series: no. 2

New Day, 2009, 39" x 44" front+back
COLLECTION OF LESLIE ROSS

For Art Chix this week, I debuted my latest baby quilt. The theme for the meeting was “Illumination.” With a pink sun and an early morning song bird, my piece expresses the joy of each new day.

The fresh blue and white fabrics are interspersed with unusual choices such a painterly pattern, and marbled and hand-dyed fabrics. Scissor-cut and randomly pieced, the quilt is machine stitched-in-the-ditch.

dyeing workshop

I spent today at Karen Williams and Leah Kaufman’s art studio, dyeing 30 fat quarters of cotton. We started by creating a series of tints and shades. Then we mixed secondary colors with two dyes. Our final lesson was creating complimentary color mixes.

Was it easy? Yes, because Karen had everything set up and showed us exactly how to get known results. She is like a scientist who has tried and recorded every color combination.

The day ended with experimental dyeing. In 24 hours I will see what I have created. That’s when I’ll rinse out my wads of damp fabric, set the colors, and iron my dyed cotton squares.

Karen Williams is a mixed media artist whose work revolves around fabrics, beads and thread. You can learn more about Karen and her art at skunkhillstudio.com.

march piece makers

African Night & Day, 2009, in progress

Ten ladies came to this month’s Plymouth Piece Makers meeting! That is pretty remarkable because when I first joined, three to six would gather for a “show and tell.” One time there were only two of us.

Our group is finishing up our annual assignment of making quilts for graduating high school seniors heading off to college and such. This year there are 16 students—five girls, ten boys and one transgendered youth.

At the meeting, three more quilts were added to our Youth Forum stash. We’ll make the goal handsomely with all the talent and energy of our burgeoning group.

youth reigns supreme

Prince William’s Kichaka, 2009, in process

My 18-year old daughter, Vik, has trumped me in the quilting arena. That is, with two artist friends Max Woodring and Ana Kochetova—who created the black and white animal squares.

The recipient of the quilt will be the new baby son of Olivia Britt, an art administrator at Gage Academy of Art. Olivia leads the teen art programs at Gage—where Max, Anna and Vik have all been Teacher Assistants.

Vik plans to hand stitch the quilt with orange thread to match the orange flannel backing, except around the animals—where she’ll use black thread just inside the edge of each shape.

oil sticks and freezer paper!

Owlet Artwork and Textured Surface

I headed to SODO today to check out the new studio space of Leah Kaufman and Karen Williams. The Studio Warming event was very different than I expected.

Instead of showing off their artwork, Leah and Karen invited me to use some of their tools and supplies—to learn something new. Karen creates advanced fiber art. I was intrigued by her colorful stencil work.

Next thing I knew, I was cutting out a freezer paper stencil and ironing it to a piece of black cotton. Then I used yellow and orange oil sticks to apply color over a piece of textured string fabric.

The whole exercise was mind-blowing. I can imagine all the ways I can add oil stick artwork to fabric for my own quilt projects!

lap quilt series: no. 4

River of Life, 2009, in process

The theme for this month’s Art Chix was “Women’s Work.” I chose to show a lap quilt that I hadn’t quite completed to demonstrate that “a woman’s work is never done.”

African fish swim across the main fabric, with coordinating solids on either side. Because I chose to hand-stitch around each fish, I do not see an end in sight anytime soon. There is additional wavy hand stitching in the wide fabrics on either end.

baby quilt series: no. 1

In The Beginning, 2009, 35" x 46"
COLLECTION OF ROSANNE OLSON

Made with Marcus Brothers designer fabric, this baby quilt is scissor-cut and machine stitched. Although any color goes well with black and white, butter yellow seemed like a perfect compliment.

The backing, more of the same swirly fabric, gains an additional pattern with graphic in-the-ditch stitching. In total, just under 4 yards of the main fabric were used to complete the quilt.

adopt-a-project

Ragamuffin, 2009, 33" x 39"
GIFTED TO MICHELLE FARRIS

Pat Brim-Williams abandoned a series of 4" squares—checkered fabrics in bright red, green, purple and gold—that she had sewn together in long strips. Being allergic to 4" squares, I snipped the strips apart. Without a straight edge or measurements, I cut the fabric into smaller pieces and stitched everything together in a folksy, asymetric pattern.

The baby boy blanket is finished with hand stitching and backed by a red organic cotton. The 1/4" binding is mostly a purple check with insets of contrast fabric.

celebration of creativity

Harriet Naf—our sign maker, me and Priscilla Orr

Last Sunday morning, the Piecemakers brought quilts and racks to Plymouth Church to share our artistic endeavors. The Lounge was also filled with paintings and drawings, photography, sculptures, even a floral display—to celebrate the creativity of our congregation. And during the service, there was a remarkable performance of the one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors.”

I must say that our colorful and crafted quilts, over 25 in all, made quite a splash for everyone to enjoy.

finally finished

Folk Baby, 2008, 38" x 33"
GIFTED TO OLIVIA DUNHAM

The top of this quilt is made with just seven strips of fabric. The piecing took about twenty minutes to cut and sew, and the hand stitching about 55 hours—over a five-month period.

Minimal piecing, maximum stitching. I chose this approach because the boxy patterns of the central fabrics, including one by Nancy Crow, already looked like little quilts.

The recipient of this quilt is Liz Holland, the soon-to-be mother of a little baby girl.

okadaya, tokyo

Japanese Narrow Goods

Yesterday I made it to Okadaya, a five-storey fabric store across from the East exit of the Shinjuku train station. I had a 35-minute window of time before I needed to regroup with my family and head back to our apartment in Nakano.

I walked up the stairs to check out the merchandise on each floor. If I had known in advance that all the quilting (pronounced "kilting" in Japan) fabrics were on the first floor, I could have saved ten precious minutes. There were elaborate Liberty of London cottons, Michael Miller and other American designer fabrics, and cutesy Japanese novelty prints galore.

My big find was a collection of narrow cottons (approximately 15 inches wide) that are hand-printed in only one or two colors. They took my fancy because their simple motifs looked genuinely Japanese. I bought 8 meters for 8,000 Yen each (approx. $9 US), plus a couple of remnants at a good discount. The cutter was very generous as he added about 3 inches to each meter, something that is never done at my local Seattle stores.

FYI: Be advised that there are two Okadaya stores within a half block of one another. The one for quilters has bins of fabric outside it.

quilting in japan

Details of a Japanese quilt in “Path to Edo” at La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, Summer 2008

I am off to Tokyo for seven days to noodle around the big city and look for signs of Japanese quilts and their makers. I found another blog (goatinacoat@blogspot.com) that talked about different stores in the city to buy fabric, so that will help me out.

The Japanese, with their built-in meticulousness, are fabulous quilters. Although quilting may be considered an original American art form, the art/craft form translates well to the sensibilities and fabrics of the Japanese.

With my eyes open to all things quilted, this should be an exciting trip. Sayonara.

quilting weather

Backyard, The Longest Night, 2008.

With two major snowstorms in four days and a third storm just beginning, Seattle is homebound. This is a great time to start a quilting project. Especially since I want a lap quilt to stitch during my upcoming one-week vacation.

I have pulled out some fabric to begin a runner for an East Coast friend, Grace Lynch. A key part of the piecing will be Martha Negley’s Vegetable Leaves fabric. I bought three yards of two color lines (with turquoise and cranberry backgrounds) to make 20 dinner napkins for Grace. Now with the scraps, I want to make an additional gift.

Grace has a remarkable collection of Majolican cabbage leaf china. She has upteen plates and bowls, and at least five big fat teapots with little rabbits peeking out from under the green leaves. The napkins and quilted table runner will hopefully be used when she hosts her big family gatherings.