Quilter's Wishlist

I saw a Christmas wish list posted at Bella Online, but I have to admit her list said more about the quilter's deficiencies than about quilting. Or at least this quilter's deficiencies. A needle threader speaks more to my shaky fingers and poor eyesight; the iron that turns off automatically reminds me of my forgetful nature. And getting new scissors and teflon mats is all well and good, but if anyone wants to make this quilter's heart flutter, check below.

This is a selfish listing of just SOME of the fabric art I'd love for someone to put under my Christmas tree -- in no particular order.

Ruth McDowell's self portrait of Nude Reclining -- or just about anything that Ruth has made.

Virginia Spiegel's 400 Songbirds. I fell in love with this piece when I wrote about her and several other quilt artists' activist quilts.

Valerie C. White's Sunrise and the Rooster and just about anything else she has made! I adored writing about her for Quilters World. If ever I feel down, I just visit her site and look at her quilts -- they always lift my spirits. Maybe it is the colors or the movements or a reminder of the fun I had writing about her.

Anything quilted by Karen McTavish! I love her style and her subversive tendencies. A quilter should have tattoos! Why not?

Eileen Doughty's activist quilts -- any of them -- and her Meteor Shower (shown below)-- any of her landscapes. Oh heck, anything Eileen makes I like and would love to find under the Christmas tree!

Well, it goes without saying -- Hollis Chatelain -- I fell in love with her Burkinabe Mother before many people had heard of Hollis.

Caryl Bryer Fallert. I'm almost afraid to write her name for fear I'll misspell it, but I can't make a wish list without her work on it. Anything, anything. But I did fall in love with her Feather Flower and Feather Study (among others). They rather remind me of Jacobean designs.

Jacobean reminds me of Mary Sorensen's work. I have one chickadee pattern on the blog and would be happy to see that hanging on my wall. But I also have fallen for her Persian Dawn Jacobean design.

Laura Schwarz Smith is new on my radar and I hope to find out more about this artist and her work. I particularly liked her Il Postino shown here to the left. Okay, I liked Imagine and Awakening and....

To look at more quilt artists and their work, Lyric Kinard has amassed a delightful list.

Not as easy as it looks

I've been sewing since I was a child. I've been sewing well since a teenager. As a young wife and mother I made most of my family's clothing -- out of necessity and just for fun. But I haven't sewed now for several years, maybe a decade, maybe longer. I have tried a few small projects -- fabric bowls, an Irish Chain quilt, a Christmas wall hanging.... That's about it.

So this past weekend I put a new audio book on the CD player and started cutting and sewing together an Ohio Star quilt complete with appliqued hearts.

First of all, I couldn't decide on the fabrics. What colors to use and where and why? Purple? Blue? Monochromatic? Two-tone? Scrap? Then I pulled out some patriotic fabrics --red, white and blue stars, flags, variations on that theme. And that solved my color and fabric dilemma, I'd make a patriotic wall hanging. Not that I need one. Not that I'll even hang it for more than a few days each year, yet, I liked the idea of it. I felt it was doable. So I started cutting out squares and quarter-triangles while listening to David McCullough's book John Adams. Great book by the way and soon to be released as an HBO mini-series. The book and quilt seem to be following a similar theme.

But I digress.

I snipped and measured, sewed and ripped and sewed and sewed and ripped. And the poor Ohio Star that developed -- well, lets just say some parts fit better than others. Some of the triangles fit together giving the little block a waistline. Not a good thing.

I discovered that printing out a pattern off of the Internet comes with some problems. Some size problems. It seems that just because it is printed off of a page that has the right sized pattern, doesn't guarantee that the printed pattern will be true to size.

So I got out my trusty copy of Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes
with their carefully prepared patterns and instructions.

I would love to say that the quilt fell together and I am finishing it up. But what I have is an Ohio Star laid out with all of the pieces in the proper places, awaiting a trip to the sewing machine. But first I must work up the nerve to give it another try. It is the first hurdle. Just do it. Don't try to channel Hollis Chatelaine or Kaffe Fassett or Ruth McDowell -- just sew for the joy of sewing.

It has been too long since I did that. But, I'm looking forward to that -- not the quilt, not the wallhanging, not even mastering the basic Ohio Star pattern. But sewing simply for the joy of it. It has been too long.