quilt: handy andy

 i called this one handy andy, as it's an oversized interpretation of a classic quilt block by the same name..

the made fabric is scraps of vintage fabric that i picked up in paducah, kentucky, during quilt week 2014.  the national quilt museum was holding a fundraiser in one of the vending halls, where they were selling gallon sized ziplock bags crammed full of old fabrics for about $1-$3 a bag.  since i am a fabric hoarder/collector and can't not adopt wayward old bits of fabric, i bought about 20 ziplocks and hauled them back to chicago (in my dear friend erika's honda CRV), with much glee and very little shame.  i paired the vintage bits with vintage solids i bought from a vendor at the randolph street market.  the really bright green that forms the cross that seems to overlay the quilt is a really fun, electric, minty linen i found at the textile discount outlet in pilsen.

one of my favorite things about this quilt is how that minty green seems to hover above the other elements...another quilt that messes with your mind and creates a weird but intriguing depth.  it's like a blown up grid and cornerstone, elements in quilt making that have been obsessing me lately.

i don't plan a lot before or very much as i'm working on my quilts.  images like these seem to emerge slowly as i plod along and make decisions about what feels right as the quilt making process proceeds.  i surprise myself with the final outcome almost every single time.  i'm just letting it happen...and this is what seems to come out of me.

this was another quilt longarmed by the talented frank palmer, of orlando, florida.  he used three shades of neon thread to quilt the quilt:  pink, green and yellow.

in a previous post i was blathering on about bindings and not always wanting to use them, saying it depended on the quilt.  this is one i felt needed a binding, and i envisioned using one as soon as i decided to put the red square of vintage fabric in the dead center of the quilt.  the binding matches that red square...in my mind, there's a relationship between the center and the binding and it makes absolute perfect sense because it ties everything together.

quilt: spiders on acid

this here quilt is "spiders on acid".  the title of which is me being cheeky:  a spiderweb quilt in acidic, bright colors.  

the name is also a half-assed reference to this video i saw a few years ago, showing the effects of various illicit substances upon spiders (spoiler:  they apparently weave different webs depending on the substance to which they are exposed):

the desire to make my own spiderweb quilt started with an obsession with the two quilts above, which were featured in one of my favorite books, the oft mentioned (by me) roderick kiracofe tome unconventional and unexpected.  i loved the optical movement that happens with the circle shapes, created by the triangles joining together to form squares.  it looks more complicated than it is.  i found it to be an easy quilt to make, but one of the most time consuming quilts i have made, to date.  there's a lot of work in joining all the strips out to the points of the triangles.  i thought the piecing stage would never, ever end!  freakin' tedious!  and i am not one to shy away from a lot of work.  i'm a fiber person, for chrissakes, everything i do seems to involve a lot of labor and i actually love it.  but whoa.  in the end, it was worth it, for the effect.

the fabrics are a mix, as they always are.  vintage, new, whatever.  dunno if anyone notices, but i often throw a little marrimekko fabric and a little tasteful batik into most of my quilts too (the bold stuff, like those designed by malka dubrawsky).

the colorway/design story goes a little something like this:  i started with one color of yellow for the triangles.  then i thought it might be interesting to add a few other varied shades of yellow, and yellow green.  and since purple is the compliment to yellow, i thought it would make an nice contrast with the yellow, both in hue and value.  as for the strings, the reds and greens are also compliments, along with the yellows and the purples, and orange is thrown in for more interest.  i had started with just green, red, and yellow strings, but the addition of the purple added the right amount of "jazz" to the whole color play, and just felt "right" to me.  i like the surprise of adding all the variations and the little bits of purple and orange.  it's the unexpected, the extra little something and keeps the whole quilt from being a bore.  the colors are crazy, but i like crazy.  i AM crazy.  maybe i'm a little like those spiders on acid...doing what i do, but maybe i'm a little tweaked?  have you heard of people saying you should be careful using complimentary colors in your work?  whateverrrr.  i say bubkis.  BUBKIS!!

i started out hand quilting this quilt, but decided i would rather machine quilt it.  so i used my 1980s berninamatic 910 to finish it off with straight lines on the diagonal, using a yellow variegated thread 100% cotton thread.  faced it, rather than binding it.  again, i'm digging the look of no binding or "frame". 

nothing fancy as far as the quilting goes, just straight lines for miles, but i like that minimal look.(AND...ummm, walking foot quilting is pretty much all i can do well, machine quilting-wise, truth be told).

quilt: two sides to every story

one more in an ongoing series of log cabin quilts (see this previous post for more details)!

i called this one two sides to every story, because each log cabin block in the quilt has a solid fabric side, and a printed fabric side.  some fabrics show up more than once in the quilt, but each block is different.

one of the inspirations for this quilt was a log cabin quilt i saw at the from heart to hand show at the de paul gallery here in chicago in 2014.  the quilt in question had prints on one side of each log cabin block and prints on the other as well.  i liked the idea of that, and used it as a jumping off point for my own experimentation.  the inspiration quilt had a more improvisation ally pieced, organic, wonky feel, while mine is more precice.  

the fabrics within are a mix of new and old/reclaimed, as is my usual M.O.  

i consciously placed the solids together in groups that form a diamond, which i think gives some structure to the quilt.  the shapes formed by the groups of solids and prints and all the colors and value changes throughout seem to play with the eye a bit, which was not conscious on my part, but i love that it had that result.  when i look at it, i see an X form in the middle of the quilt.  (

i really, really want to make a sister quilt to this quilt where only the X shape is apparent, and the rest is solids, to make the X stand out prominently.  when i get around to it.... (haha, famous last words!)  *grin*).  maybe later this year (2016).  when/if i get around to it, i'll let you know.  :P

the quilt was longarmed by the fantastically talented frank palmer, in orlando, florida.

this quilt is faced.  it just felt right.