Modern Quilts: THE BOOK!

First things first: Happy New Year!

Although my copy is still in transit and I haven't actually seen the ink on the page, I am very excited to finally share with you that one of my quilts appears in this first (I say first, because I am hopeful that there will be more) hardcover volume documenting some of the best work of over 200 Modern Quilt Guild members.

Longtime modern quilt curator and MQG Director of Marketing & Programming Heather Grant, MQG founder and Executive Director Alissa Haight-Carleton and MQG Communication Manager Riane Menardi co-wrote this volume. I plan to keep it close at hand on my coffee table along with my treasured Gees Bend books so that I'm ready to show interested friends and visitors just what Modern Quilting is, what modern quilts look like and how some of my work fits in and some of it doesn't.

A regrettable lack of confidence kept me from submitting any of my quilts for consideration. Then one day I received an email from the MQG asking if they could include Chess on the Steps and I was absolutely thrilled to be involved. Creating this quilt as one of the first MQG "free pattern of the month" in 2014 really began my continued participation in the guild and the broader community outside of my local Vancouver MQG. The quilt went on to hang as part of an invitational exhibit at QuiltCon2015 and it appeared in that year's QuiltCon and Simply Moderne magazines.  After it was published, I received some wonderful teaching and trunk show invitations both at home and abroad and then the MQG asked me to design a beginner improv pattern for Simply Moderne magazine to accompany their ongoing monthly article on the modern aesthetic (resulting in my Variegated Threads quilt).  This quilt really has brought a lot of joy and excitement to my life!

What makes Chess on the Steps even more special to me, and I think a wonderful inclusion in Modern Quilts, is that it honours the traditions of quilting and a make-do style that I so respect, admire and ultimately, aspire to. The layout of a giant Courthouse Steps block was inspired by a vintage quilt I saw displayed in a museum exhibit  American Quilts: The Democratic Art in the fall of 2012. The original quilt (by an unknown maker) contrasted suiting wools in neutral tones with more colourful shirting and dressmaking fabrics. I thought about this quilt for many months and was delighted when a friend finally located a photo in Roderick Kiracofe's book Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 shortly after I made my version.

Here they are side by side: contemporary inspiration and modern interpretation.

The more I considered it, the more I wanted to recreate the design using a limited colour palette of solids.  Eventually, I came to develop my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique for this quilt and many others that followed  (it became my most popular workshop over the past 3 years). I was incredibly fortunate that Oakshott Fabrics sponsored this quilt; it is made exclusively with their colourshott shot cottons. These fabrics give the quilt a luminescence that flat cottons just can't replicate. You can still purchase a kit to make your very own Chess on the Steps quilt from Oakshott Fabrics right here or purchase the pattern from my Craftsy shop here.

I cannot wait to savour this book and enjoy the work of many friends, acquaintances and quilters that I admire. There are many talented Canadians included in the book, which makes it extra sweet for me.

Thank you to the authors and the MQG (and of course my local VancouverMQG chapter) for the many opportunities made available to members to share our work with a growing audience through regular magazine articles in international publications, QuiltCon (the annual juried show), the annual QuiltCon traveling exhibit, member webinars and patterns, this gorgeous book and a new venture starting later in 2018: a traveling museum collection of quilts from Modern Quilts. Chess on the Steps will be a part of this traveling exhibit, having already made trips to Inuvik, Sweden, Alaska, Birmingham UK, Austin TX and an appearance in Canada's national juried show. It truly is the quilt that keeps on giving.....and getting around!

Chess on the Steps beside an igloo in Canada's arctic, near Inuvik, NWT.

It is my hope that the traveling exhibit will make it to some Canadian locations (I've suggested a few!) and if that happens I will definitely let you know.  Details of the tour locations will be posted at modernquilts.com as they become available, with the first exhibit opening April 1st, 2018 at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Ohio. In the meantime, you can see many of the other quilts included in the book and read about their maker's stories on this extensive bloghop (details at this link).  Would you like to have this beautiful book in your quilting library or know someone who would? Purchase your own copy directly from the registered non-profit MQG right here where 100% of royalties will support guild programming and member services.

Maritime Teaching Tour 2017 Part 1

This year is flying by due to many wonderful travel and teaching opportunities, high school graduation for my daughter and fun getaways with friends. So many plans!  It has been difficult to find time to properly share what I've been up to here on the blog.

Back at the beginning of May, I flew east....almost as far east as possible in Canada (with the exception of Newfoundland, which is the one Canadian province/territory I have yet to visit). After receiving a wonderful invitation from the Mahone Bay Quilter's Guild to be their guest, other maritime guilds jumped on board and I was able to visit four locations in 3 weeks: Mahone Bay, NS, Charlottetown, PEI,  Halifax, NS and St. Pierre & Miquelon, France.  I bought two fancy new hard-sided suitcases for this trip and packed them to within an ounce of 50 pounds each (75 pounds of quilts and 25 of clothing!).

Every year, Mahone Bay hosts a program they call Extraordinary Quilter. I was a little intimidated by the program title, but this group had me at ease right away with their excitement and friendly welcome. The four day event starts with a giant dessert party with over 130 guests for the visiting quilter's trunk show, followed by three days of workshops.  The guild is composed of very experienced quilters from a fairly far-reaching geographical area of Nova Scotia. It was lovely to meet so many passionate quilters! The dessert party took place in the local legion hall and workshops were held in the hall of one of Mahone's Bay's famous three churches. Here are some photos of the 24 linear feet of dessert and our Cutting Garden and Structural Improv workshops.

The guild does fairly traditional work in general, and also has many talented art quilters. I was thrilled that they were willing to give modern a try and to experiment with some improv design. The positive feedback was amazing and I had a wonderful time working with this super friendly guild. 

I have been to Mahone Bay many times on family visits, however I've not stayed overnight there. I loved having several days to enjoy the town and take morning walks. My gracious hosts Barbara and Peter fed me delicious local fare (lobster! scallops! homemade cider!) and toured me around the local haunts, including a working sail loft (4th generation sailmaker Michele Stevens came to my Cutting Garden workshop and is one of the fastest sewists I've ever seen in action!). Here are some of my phone pics from the area.

The famous three churches of Mahone Bay (there are still two more in town!)

This is a sailmakers sewing 'pit' sunk in the loft floor so that large heavy sails can spread out on the floor and sewn at the same level.

Here's a home displaying a classic local architectural feature known as a Lunenburg bump. It's a nice little sitting area at the top of the stairs - perfect for awaiting your sailor's return home.

From the South Shore, I flew out of Halifax to St. Pierre....on Air St. Pierre! The flights go three days/week and take just over an hour, plus an additional hour of time change from Atlantic time.  Once we landed on the small island runway and entered the fancy 'new' airport building, I am pretty sure I was the only passenger that actually had to show my passport. Everyone else was a local returning from a sunny vacation in the south and seemed well-acquainted with the border guards.  Luckily, I arrived on the preferable (at least for tourists) weather day of the two typical options. Option A: sunny with lots of wind. Option B: fog.

My hosts Sylvie and Marie-Claire toured me around the tiny island for an hour or so, checking out the town and surrounding viewpoints. Although the island is just 12 km from Newfoundland, you realize quickly that you are actually, fully, in France. Shops follow the afternoon closing practice, food goods are imported from France (along with the wine!) and the currency is Euros.

It was a short walk from the 46-seat twin prop plane into the terminal.

It really is an island of rock!

Looking over the main town and harbour. There is a passenger ferry service to Newfoundland. A car ferry service is scheduled to start this summer. Although there are three patisseries on the island making delicious French pastry, I did see many people disembark the ferry carrying boxes of Tim Hortons donuts!

A photo at the southern-most tip of the island, where the road ends. I can only imagine how bitter the wind is here in winter.

The homes and businesses in town are painted bright, cheerful colours in contrast to the grey fog and rock. Small vestibules allow you to remove wet and winter clothing before entering.

The oldest shop on the island. You can see the storage room door in the sidewalk.

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Lobster season had just opened when I arrived. Most homes have a boat out front, or in the yard. Fishing, lobster-fishing and hunting for deer, pheasant and rabbit on a nearby uninhabited island supplement imported food. There are also wild berries, but very little food is grown, other than small back yard gardens.

The small, but dedicated group of 20 quilters gather weekly at the "old" airport, where they rent a conference room, kitchen and dining room for 30 Euros/year from the local government. We sewed under the old control tower! Fabric is pretty hard to come by. Many purchase fabric on trips to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or France, but some people are starting to order online.  Although there was no expectation for me to do so, I tried my best to teach in French. It was pretty exhausting, but so much fun and even just a few days of immersion brings back my accent and vocabulary. They were thrilled that I was willing to try and I got lots of help with technical terms from those that spoke some English.  Eager for new ideas, the gals were keen to purchase my book and patterns, drink wine together and talk quilting as much as possible! I taught both Round Peg, Square Hole and a half day intro to free-motion machine quilting workshops.

The quilting room is in the left wing of the old airport!

A lovely welcome reception to share quilts and meet each other on my first evening.

Gloves on! Ready to FMQ!

Definitely in France! Yummmm.

Here's the difference a day can make - the same view 24 hours later after "le brumes" had moved in.

The group calls themselves "Les Piqueuses de brumes", Quilters of the Fog.

On my second evening, a group of us went to dine in a local restaurant where we enjoyed fois gras, lobster au gratin and delicious wine. Just before dinner, I had purchased two fairly expensive bottles of my Dad's favourite French wine for his upcoming birthday, which I left in the car. I got a huge laugh, when after dinner I stood in the pouring rain waiting for Sylvie to unlock my car door. Apparently I was the only person who locked a door to protect my wine purchase. No one locks their cars or home; I was told crime isn't an issue because 10 minutes after something happened, the entire island would know exactly who did it!

It really would have been so nice to stay longer with these quilters who were so eager to learn. They have very little opportunity to meet outside quilters, so if you ever find yourself on St. Pierre, do try and stop by the old airport sewing room!

This post is getting so long. I think I'll take a break and write about my visits to the Maritime and PEI Modern Quilt Guilds another day. Until then, my friends.

Variegated Threads - A Modern Spool Quilt

About 18 months ago, I was asked by the MQG if I'd agree to publish my Chess on the Steps pattern in Simply Moderne magazine (produced in France by Quiltmania).  I happily agreed! Quiltmania editors were impressed by the free pattern of the month quilts on display at QuiltCon 2015 and enquired about running a monthly feature on MQG quilts and modern quilting techniques written by MQG Communications Manager Riane Menardi.  Soon the terms changed and the folks at Simply Moderne requested new, fresh patterns in lieu of the previously published free patterns of the month. I was so pleased for the opportunity to be a pattern contributor for a piece on Improv Quilting (although, as you know, actually writing a pattern for improv is a daunting prospect and sort of counter-intuitive to the process).

Hmmm, what to do? I knew I wanted to incorporate my Improv Under the Influence technique because I think it is such a fun gateway for quilters venturing into improv from a traditional quilting background.My inspiration came in the form of Oakshott's new Colourshott range. This gorgeous, luminous fabric had served me so well with Chess on the Steps, but I wanted to use more colours...in fact all of them! Looking at a unit of improv strips sitting on my design wall from another project, it came to me that it would make a perfect thread spool. There are so many ways to make spool blocks and I've long admired vintage spool quilts. I've even made several fun spool quilts using selvages in the past.  This time, I decided to take advantage of the colour range and create variegated spools, each with four different but related colours; just like you'd see on real thread display racks.

Ultimately, the pattern is part 'planned' improv (the thread units of each spool are built using my Improv Under the Influence technique) and part traditional piecing. Once trimmed, the thread units are pieced into the spool block, then joined together to form the wall hanging. One fun element of the pattern is that two rectangular spools sewn side by side form a square block, so the quilt could be laid out with alternating two horizontal/two vertical spools. That way, the light and dark grey backgrounds would zigzag, forming a secondary pattern.  I've also created a table runner sewing 7 spools side by side. I can't wait to use it on my dining table for Stitch Group days!

I had a lot of fun quilting this piece using my collection of rainbow Aurifil 40 wt threads that I'd initially purchased to finish this quilt a couple of years ago. That custom box of Aurifil thread (purchased from my friend Carola) seemed an extraordinary extravagance at the time, but I have used all of the colours time and again, so I don't regret it for one second!  In the background areas, I used a medium grey and quilted a swirling loop to resemble pooling threads. In each variegated spool, I tried domestic ruler work for the first time (sewing the straight lines with a darning foot beside a thick ruler) so that I could go back and forth in both directions without having to turn the quilt to avoid the dreaded 'fabric drag' between the quilting lines. Each spool features a coordinating or matching thread colour. It was a great success on my Juki!

I just love this little quilt.  It is a great introduction to improv work, which of course can evolve into a much freer, creative process where the maker begins with a toolbox of techniques and an inspired idea instead of a pattern. 

Want to make your very own? The Oakshott company has prepared full kits for the front and binding of the quilt, conveniently made with charm packs of their luscious new Colourshott range of shot cottons. If you are luck enough to attend the Birmingham Festival of Quilts next month in the UK, you can see my quilt in person at the Oakshott stand as well as purchase a kit - otherwise they are available online right here.  You'll also need a copy of Simply Moderne issue #5 for the pattern, available here.

Latifah Saafir is coming to Vancouver!

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild is super excited about our upcoming visit by Latifah Saafir, one of the founder of the Modern Quilt Guild and an incredible designer. Latifah will give a lecture on the past, present and future of modern quilting on Friday, May 27th at 7:00 p.m. at the MEC head office (Great Northern Way near Clarke). There are still tickets available for the lecture at $15.

In addition to the lecture, non-members are invited to fill the few spaces we've still got left in the Rocket 88 (Sunday) and Molehills (Monday) classes! Please see this post for full details and Paypal links. 

Rocket 8 by Latifah Saafir

Molehills

I'm excited for the GlamClam class on Saturday (sorry, sold out!). I need to get cutting!! Hope to see you at the lecture if you're local and can make it.

Chess On The Steps!

Finally! I've been waiting so impatiently to share this quilt with all of you.

The design is inspired by an anonymously-made vintage quilt I saw two years ago in Bellingham, WA at the American Quilts - The Democratic Art exhibit. Photographs were not permitted at the show and the book was sold out. I later purchased it from Amazon, but "my" quilt wasn't included in the hardcover book!  Thank goodness I had sketched it on the back of a receipt found in my bag; this simple concept has been on my mind for ages.  The original quilt was made with fabric scraps of solids and prints in cotton, wool and polyester. I recall that the vertical borders contained a lot of solid red scraps with colourful prints and the horizontal borders had mostly brown and black solids mixed with light-coloured prints.    

If you've been reading Poppyprint for a while, you may recognize that I've made a few other projects using the same piecing technique, which I've called Improv Under the Influence. See them here, here and here.  It is a technique that I'm excited to teach (four workshops lined up for the coming year in both modern guilds and traditional ones!).  It is my hope that it will appeal equally to improv-curious traditional quilters as well as those who've already embraced modern quilting.

Outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, there are always several games of chess going on. These take place on, or near, the former courthouse steps.  The basis of this quilt design is one large Courthouse Steps block, built around the central improv chess (or checker) board.  That's how I came up with the name. Possibly over-complicated, but that's me.

This quilt is currently the Pattern of the Month, free for members of the Modern Quilt Guild. I am so happy to be able to share the piecing technique with members of the guild.  After some time on the guild's website (on the community page), I will be permitted to sell it here for non-members. I do however, encourage you to join the MQG, which you can do as an individual if there is no satellite guild near you. The resources available to members are outstanding and include a free modern quilt pattern every month, regular webinars on really interesting topics, discounts at QuiltCon, fabric challenges with amazing prizes and so much more!  

This quilt was made entirely of the new Colourshott shot cottons generously provided by Michael Oakshott. The quilting was all done with free-form (unmarked) lines with my Pfaff IDT (built in walking foot).  I just followed seams in the piecing and went for it.  There are 7 coordinating colours of Aurifil 30 wt thread on the quilt.  Sewing with these shot cottons is so enjoyable as the colours are beautifully saturated - at times I feel like I'm working with sari silk!

What do you think? Are you a traditional quilter that is improv-curious, or a modern quilter looking for a new, fun piecing technique? Check out the pattern!