City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks by Tula Pink

I got this book as a present almost about the time that it came out. I looked at it and thought Wow, there are a lot of tiny pieces of fabric in each of these 100 blocks--hard pass. Fast forward to the present when I have been in a Modern Quilt Guild for 18 months, and I know more about scraps and the process of making textiles and the very commendable trend of using ALL your fabric, mix that with one of my friends who quilts is now making her second one of these (she is over 75% done with it in fact) and voila, I am thinking why haven't I made one of these. The book is essentially mostly the blocks--with pictural directions for sewing and written instructions for cutting (I am on my 4th block and I have already made a mistake in cutting, so this is not going to be a breeze), and then various designs for assembly to finish it out. You can make this with scraps and that is my intention--my sewing table, which doubles as my dining room table seating 14, is a total mess, but this is well done and I think it will be fun once I get the hang of it. I also love that something so long buried can be resurrected again.

The Many Coats Of Rachel Clark

I had the pleasure of taking a two days class with the quilter and garment maker Rachel Clark. I cannot emphasize enough how magical it is to listen to her talk about her creative process, the making of her coats and the origin story that they each have. Some of them stem from an idea that she wants to convey of celbrate, like her watermelon coat or her Obama coat. Some of them are the celebration of a fabric, like her Japanese fabric coat or her rickrack and polka dot coats. She brought a couple dozen of her coats with her so that we could examine them in class, be inspired by them, and when we got to the design process, we could see examples of directions we could go with the coat. The absolute best part, is just to watch her work. She sorted fabric for several people in the early design process, and then as people made some progress, she highlighted several directions they could go so that the class could benefit from those who were further along. I loved listening to her, and I would take another class with her in a heartbeat if it were offered nearby and I could swing it. She is someone who is fun to be with in person, but I watched a lecture she gave at QuiltCon, and she translates well to the recorded world as well. She is a treasure.

Crumb Quilts by Emily Bailey

The subtitle of this book is: : Scrap Quilting the Zero Waste Way. There is a growing movement within quilting to use ALL of the fabric when quilting. It is perfectly acceptable to make a quilt that inherently generates some waste, but the next step is not to compost it or throw away the left overs, but rather to use them to make something else. I have always done this is a casual way. Some fabric that I used almost 10 years ago in one of the first quilts that I made when I returned to quilting after a many year hiatus following my diagnosis of ovarian cancer used some Guatemalan fabric that I bought in the 1980's that was well used when I got it. I used some of the leftovers in a baby quilt a few years after that, and I just added some of it to a Block Of THe Month Quilt that I made last year with the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild. So not opposed, is what I am saying, but also not particularly systematic either.

This is my favorite quilt from the book and it demonstrates something that I have not done, which is organize my scraps by color and value, and then essentially piece together a back ground to use for making quilt blocks. I really like the star as a design feature, and these slightly wonky stars very much appeal to me--but the pieced backgrounds are an added plus. This is all in the interest of wasting nothing, or as little as possible, and while I came from a family that valued this (Depression Era parents), the fact that textile production uses so much water is another reason not to waste it.

Silk Weaving, Kumbakonam, India.

In the 17th century India had 20% of the world’s population and accounted for 25% of the manufacturing, which was almost entirely related to textiles. Today the silk market is so huge in Kumbakonam that approximately 5000 families are employed by the Silk Weaving Industry in Kumbakonam. The Thirubuvanam Silk Handloom Weavers is the biggest society in Tamil Nadu, delivering conventional silk sarees with unadulterated Zari. The region is well known for silk weaving from the time of Great Chola rulers. This home shop dyes and spins silk, then loads the silk onto shuttles for hand weaving. There is some hand manipulation of the blue/gren transition design, and use of Jacquard weaving templates for the blue/gold edge. Could have watched this for quite some time… And yes, I bought one.

Rachel Clark's Quilt Coats

I am taking a class with this artist in June and I wanted to watch her QuiltCon lecture to get a sense of both her work and what I am in for when I spend two days with her. She brought over twenty coats that were modeled by four different volunteers, and it was feast for the eyes. She grew up with garment makers in her family, but Rachel’s life as a quilter didn’t fully blossom until she got married to her husband, Gary, and moved from New Orleans, Louisiana to Watsonville, California in the early 1970s. After this long-distance move, she found herself without community for the first time.

Clark discovered that even though she wasn’t very good at approaching people and striking up conversations, she was very good at designing clothing that could serve as an excellent conversation piece. People will approach you to talk about what you wear—she did say in her talk that you should not wear it if you need to run through an airport—people who want to ask you about your jacket will just slow you down and you could miss your plane. Clark loved both dressmaking and quilting, and didn't feel the need to choose between the two. She explored the possibility of combining them to make unique clothes with quilting techniques. People were interested in her clothes, and in turn, interested in her. She used clothing to “invite people in.” Well, I share some of these traits with her—not the creative one or the garment maker one—the shy with people I don’t know one—and I hope this pieced garment phase I am about to enter will be a good one for me.

Quilt As Art: Valuing Our Work, Tara Faughnan

I had an inspiring time at QuiltCan in Phoenix last month, but I purposely did not attend any of the lectures. I find the whole experience to be overwhelming, for one thing. Another is that while on site, I want to spend as much time with the quilts as I can, and finally, I find the leture hall to be too big. I am naturally antsy and to be in an auditorium with row after row of people is just not my idea of fun. So streaming the lectures at home hits all the right notes for me. I took an all day class with Tara Faughnan and it was amazing to be in the room with her for a day and to see her numerous featured quilts in the exhibit hall was an added bonus. Her keynote talk walked us all through her career as a modern quilter, her lack of success in the more traditional quilt world, and how her work fit so perfectly with the modern quilting sensibility, and how nourishing that was for her as an artist. That was all great to hear, but when she talked about quilting as art, how to value what we produce, and how it connects us to generations of quilters who came before us, that really resonated with me. I love those connections, feeling like I am walking in the footsteps of earlier family members--my great grandmother quilted--and to treasure and value my deep seeded love of fabric. She talked about her own drive, which is greater and more talented than my own, but coming from the same place when all is said and done.

Create Your Own Improv Quilts by Rayna Gillman

I have been quilting off and on for 50 years, but I am brand new to the concept of improvisational quilting. I do better when someone else picks out the pattern and I do my own version of it. If I really like the pattern I might do several versions. So the idea of starting with a concept, or even just starting, no concept is alien to me as a quilter. Then in 2024 I went to my first QuiltCon. My mind was blown. There was so much more to quilting than what I had explored and there were so many ways to explore it. I joined a Modern Quilt Guild and while I struggled to make meetings and also to make progress, I felt like I was on a new quilting path. At our guild's fall retreat a recommended reading list was developed and this book was on it. Finally, something that spoke to me and how I need a starting point in order to quilt. It is a relatively slim volume but one that is packed full of ideas and places to start with your own improv quilts.

She gives her idea of what exactly improve quilts consist of, how she approaches her own work, and walks through her creative process as a way of teaching the reader how to start. There are several chapters that are "start here" options, from string piecing to having a shape in mind and following it to starting small and seeing where it takes you. I would recommend this to someone who is hoping to make something totally their own but doesn't know where to start. Start here.