Traditional Quilts?

I fell in love with traditional quilts from the very first. Not orchestrated modern traditional ones where every fabric coordinates perfectly, but quilts that worked within the framework of traditional and showcased the maker’s artistic skills and joie de vivre.

I admired but was not really inspired by most quilts shown locally in the 70’s and 80’s. After going to many shows, I finally found ones that made my heart skip a beat when exhibits featuring quality vintage quilts began to appear, and I discovered books filled with quilts from other eras. These quilts really rocked. They had exuberance, color, design excitement, whimsy, simplicity and elegance, all more or less within the “rules” of quilting.

That is not an easy accomplishment for a quilter. Those “other” qualities can sometimes suffer because a quiltmaker is so intent on executing the technicalities properly, and perhaps resorting to using a traditional “scheme” for the quilt that they may take a backseat. The art of the quilt can suffer.

I never really made a planned quilt. They grew and developed as I worked even though I always started with a plan. Even the plan in my mind was subject to drastic change at any moment, but I never threw out the basics of the construction and style of a traditional quilt.

At first these changes were tentative and minor. It was still a log cabin with darks on one side of the red chimney square, and lights on the other, but the fabrics were not all from one line, or one scale of print, or even all prints or solids but a mix of whatever I thought looked great.

I used drab colors with sparks of bright. Mud colors and subtle palettes were my signature look. Later I used more saturated colors, but subtle and subdued will always be pleasing to me.

I tried to work keeping in mind the spirit of quilters from the past who had no quilt shops, no fabric budget, but had to make do. They used their ingenuity and creativity to make wonderful quilts that still delight the viewer.

Later I ventured out into the array of new fabrics available as quilting flourished worldwide, and decided that strict “repro” quilts were not my thing, just as doing cross stitch designs and following the color charts never worked for me either. New threads and quilting techniques, designs and free motion methods all have affected the outcome of my quilts. Growth is a good thing in quilting, and keeps traditional quilts vibrant and fresh, ever changing, ever new.

I liked to play with my own color combinations, drawing on old quilts that wowed me as inspiration and then playing with variations of the traditional. Quilting motifs began as a continuation of designs used for hundreds of years, but have now changed and grown and are individual to me. Their roots are firmly based in tradition.

I still behave, and play by the rules: straight lines are straight, corners are not lopped off, precision in workmanship is very important to me. But within the structure and framework of traditional I have found much room for creative expression.

I continue to like the feeling of a challenge met when corners meet properly, geometry works out, bindings go on well.

Traditional in my mind has morphed into “classic.” It is a style of quilting based on an accumulation of history, culture, style that has worked for centuries in the decorative arts. It will continue to work in this century and beyond, but will leave room for growth, for creativity, fun, personal viewpoint, and color and design exploration.

A traditional quilt is a challenging and many times difficult quilt to make. The rules are not easy. Technical skills sometimes take years to achieve. Errors are easy to spot and can bring down the entire project. A quilter choosing this format has tough standards, a demanding task, a brave and intrepid spirit.

The rewards are worth it though. A true traditional quilt or “classic” can be exhibited in an art gallery and hold its own with contemporary art. It will also look perfect on a bed. It would command a room in an historic house, yet be a dramatic focal point in a NY loft apartment, all function, steel, glass, chrome, and brick.

It transcends time. It would be at home in the past, present, or future.
A traditional quilt will never be a trend or a fad, but reflect current styles and popular textiles melded with the quiltmaker’s personal art, all within a time-honored and tested format.

A traditional quilt lasts.

In this day of "trend du jour" in quilting, do not apologize for being a traditionalist. Create quilts, be proud of them, and explore your own art in this amazing genre of quilting.

"Butternut Summer," above 1998, and "Shadows of Umbria," below, at Paducah, 2008, two of my favorite classics.

Keep quilting,
Diane

Back to basics

I was unpacking my quilts from my recent trip to NQA in Columbus, OH, and spread out an old basket quilt on my cutting table so it could relax a bit before I rolled it up and stored it once again. But then, as the sunbeams warmed this rather dull quilt and the richness of the quilting showed so beautifully, I re-discovered its beauty in its very simple, basic quilting. I also appreciated the vintage style fabrics that nowadays seem to be out of fashion in quilt shows and shop displays. Funky, bold and bright gets center stage most of the time, but I still think there is a place for the classics.

So no apologies from me - I still love quilts that remind me of ones made hundreds of years ago. I think the pioneer women especially, with limited supplies and the necessity of making warm bed covers out of what might have seemed like "thin air," were true pioneers in the art quilt movement. They used what they had and made some amazing compositions that still command our respect and admiration. One little piece of Turkey red placed well in the top turned a dull array of shirtings into a visual delight.

My little basket quilt was a sample I pieced together out of blocks made to demo the piecing techniques for it. When asked to appear on Simply Quilts about 10 years ago, I used it to layer and mark and show how you would do this for machine quilting a top. When I returned home, it seemed like a wise idea to go right ahead and quilt it.

I used #100 YLI silk thread, mostly neutral shades, as that is all I had at the time when I was just beginning to venture into using opaque colored threads for the quilting. I discovered that most of the colors in the quilt could easily be quilted using the neutrals and look just fine. The old idea of color matching exactly the thread to the fabric that hung on in my mind from my days of sewing garments sort of went out the window.

This thread sort of "morphed" into whatever color fabric I used. Dark brown thread on deep red print fabric looked like deep red thread, taupe thread on chartreuse fabric looked like green, not taupe anymore at all. It was a big surprise to me, as you could still see the stitches, but the thread was a chameleon.

It took me more years of using this thread to realize its full potential, and now it is the extra touch I use to give my quilts depth, highlights, dimension. I still avoid using very dark fine thread on lighter fabrics as the machine stitch does not look wonderful nor does your quilting if you do this. Stitching over a line of quilting to get to the next area is not obvious, as you can see in the rosette in the corner square, below.

This basket quilt has simple quilting throughout, but has a complex border design that creates a lovely frame. The sashing and inner borders don't have background quilting, just basic cables or pumpkin seed designs. The basket has clamshells and continuous curves, and my favorite part was the straight parallel lines of backgrounds, exactly as a hand quilter would have done in the 1800's. This basic style is what made the quilt look vintage, even though done on my modern sewing machine. Stippling, or any of my new backgrounds, done around the baskets would have been just fine, but definitely have taken away from the mood of vintage. One basic old fashioned design,straight parallel lines, did so much for this quilt.

The lines were done free motion and I didn't mark them. I learned to look ahead of the needle and aim ahead, use a speed where I could stay in control yet fast enough for smoothness. Sometimes in larger areas it's a good idea to mark a "plumb line" or horizon line so there is something to keep you going straight. I did not use the edge of my foot as a guide, instead, I visualized the "puff" I was creating between the lines, and that was much easier for me and made everything fall into place so much better.

And the most important thing is to quilt the lines on the bias just as the old hand-quilted ones were done. There will be the least amount of distortion, "snow plowing," or pushing fabric along and causing a pleat when you arrive at a ditch or previously stitched line if you quilt a straight line on the bias. Yes, I did stitch in the ditch first, and around each basket. Everything stayed perfectly in place, there was no excess at all, and each basket background was more even and better than the last.

It's also a wise idea to do all one sort of quilting at a time - in this case, I quilted around each basket, then within each basket with the designs there, and finally all the backgrounds, one after the other, with a tiny break or mental "re-boot" time in between each one. This worked to increase my skill with the built-in repetition.

If you have some old tops pieced up that maybe don't interest you anymore, take one out, mark some basic designs on it, and quilt it up. Use some of your newer freehand designs as well to add to the complexity of your quilting, some un-marked feathers, whatever.

If I were quilting this top now? I'd probably have some echo feathers sprouting around those baskets, or a bird perched above one every now and then, but maybe the old way is still the best for simplicity and holding true to the roots of our quilting heritage.

Or....you could piece up a classic design like this in bright, bold, funky fabrics and quilt it, enjoy it, love the colors you have used and enjoy re-visiting each one as you quilt over it. The thing is, you need to look down at your work and love it. Love the fabrics, the colors, thread, designs you quilt. Then you will do your very best.

The pattern for this basket block and quilt are in my book Guide to Machine Quilting, still available at http://www.americanquilter.com/ or other major booksellers' sites.

Have fun deciding, and keep quilting! Your work gets better every day.

Diane