Finished

Quilt 7

September 10, 2011 by Chris

I finally finished quilt 7. I set aside the Fern Quilt and the Beaver Creek Farm Quilt and spent a few weeks dying some fabric and then playing with squares. Here’s the result:

Quilt 7 (2010-2011): 162 x 244 cm (64″ x 96″). Cotton fabric hand-dyed with Procion MX fibre-reactive dyes, cotton thread, polyester thread, polyester batting, backed with cotton-poly navy sheeting. Machine-pieced and -quilted on a Singer 201-3 (made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1952).

 

I’m sending this to my friend Amy and her husband Brent at Beaver Creek Farm in Stevensville, Ontario. The farm quilt which I’ve been working on won’t be finished for a while–in fact, I discovered some new techniques while I was working on it and I want to start over–and the fern quilt is at the bottom of my UFO (unfinished object pile) where it will likely remain because I’m quite sick of the colours in it.

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Quilt 6

August 7, 2009 by Chris

Quilt 6 (2009): 183 x 183 cm (72″ x 72″).  Cotton fabric hand-dyed with Procion MX fibre-reactive dyes, block printed with Opulence pigments, some commercial fabrics, cotton batting and thread.  Machine-pieced and machine-quilted.

The pattern for this quilt is based on prime numbers.  I wrote a little C++ program that assigned each digit from 0 – 9 to a colour family or texture group and then made a pattern based on the occurrence of all the prime numbers.  I wanted to see what it would look like.  Note the relative lack of blue in the middle.  Interesting!

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Quilt 5

August 7, 2009 by Chris

Quilt 5 (2007-2008): 183 x 213 cm (72″ x 84″).  Hand-dyed (Procion MX fibre-reactive) and commercial patterned and solid cottons, cotton thread, polyester batting.  Hand-pieced; machine-assembled and -quilted.

My fifth quilt was an adventure.  I hand-pieced and machine assembled and quilted this red and black variation of the traditional Drunkard’s Path block.

As usual, I used my trusted Singer 201-3 (made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1952).  For the first time I used a walking foot purchased on eBay.  I still found the occasional fold in the quilting on the underside here and there, but I’m not entirely convinced this isn’t because I’m doing something wrong.

I’m not perfectly happy with the picture but I think the general effect is visible. My plan was to experiment with value. At the top of the quilt I used reds with relatively light values, and at the bottom of the quilt I used reds with deeper values. I used darker fabrics for the centres in the top of the quilt, and lighter fabrics for the centres at the bottom of the quilt, all the while trying to maintain some artistic leeway for making minor adjustments here and there.  Many of the fabrics have a Japanese or Chinese theme.

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Quilt 4

August 7, 2009 by Chris

Quilt 4 (2007): 152 x 122 cm (60″ x 48″).  Hand-dyed (Procion MX fibre-reactive) cotton, commercial patterned cotton, cotton YLI thread, polyester batting.  Hand-pieced, machine-assembled; hand-quilted using a traditional hoop.

After making my first three quilts and lots of mistakes, I thought it was high time to take a class and learn from an expert.  So in Spring 2007 I took a beginner’s quilting class at the Thread Bear quilt shop in North Vancouver (now closed).  The instructors, a pair of energetic sextagenerians named Doris and Shirley, taught us how to make templates, trace and cut pieces, hand-sew the pieces into traditional blocks and the blocks into a quilt, layer and then hand-quilt our work using a traditional hoop.

This sampler quilt is made from commercial and hand-dyed (reactive) cottons, hand-pieced, and machine-assembled with cotton thread using a Singer 201-3 (made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1952), layered with polyester batting and quilted with cotton thread.  I dyed the charcoal backing using low-water immersion and reactive dyes.  I learned how to do this at Emily Carr at a great 4-week textile printing class.

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Quilt 3

August 7, 2009 by Chris

Quilt 3 (2006-2007): 213 x 213 cm (84″ x 84″).  Commercial cottons, cotton thread, polyester batting, backed with heavy black Italian cotton shirting.  Paper foundation block construction.  After “Jewel Squares Window Blind” in Kaffe Fassett‘s Glorious Patchwork (Clarkson Potter 1997).  Machine-pieced and -quilted on a Singer 201-3 (made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1952).

This is my third quilt. Scott and I photographed it at the Thread Bear quilt shop (now closed) in North Van. Thread Bear had a magnificent and enormous second-floor studio-classroom with cathedral ceilings, large high tables, floor to ceiling windows and a view of a pristine salmon stream babbling through the forest outside.

This quilt took a long time to complete. I grew impatient with the quilting and that shows, especially in the middle of the quilt. It’s sloppy craftsmanship, but it’s just fine for snuggling on the couch.

I based this quilt on a pattern I found in Glorious Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett (Clarkson Potter 1997).  The book contains a pattern for a foundation block patchwork blind in a rich assortment of reds.  I wanted to make something larger, so I enlarged the blocks onto tracing paper and decided to use blues.  A few spots of red pay homage to the original.

Foundation block work was interesting.  I sewed the seams in each block right through the tracing paper and then, after sewing the blocks together into the quilt, tore the paper off piece by piece.  I had to leave some strips here and there because removing them would have involved tearing some very stubborn seams.  There’s a faint and strangely comforting crackle in the quilt from time to time.

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Quilt 1

August 7, 2009 by Chris

Quilt 1 (2006): 132 x 132 cm (52″ x 52″).  Rayon-backed Chinese silk satin in green, red, purple and bronze, backed with purple polyester velvet and quilted with polyester and cotton blend.  Machine-pieced and -quilted on a Singer 201-3 (made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1952).

Holding it up with me is Toronto-area sculptor Farhad Nargol-O’Neill.  This quilt was a late wedding present slash Christmas present for Farhad and his wife, my friend Kathleen Florence Reichelt, a painter and playwright and founder of Toronto’s Garage Collective.  Sadly, their marriage has ended, but the quilt is alive and well!

I learned that rayon-backed Chinese silk satin starts shredding to smithereens right after it’s cut. I was vacuuming silk fibres off everything in the apartment for months. It was very hard to sew – silk is very slippery and the fibres clogged both of my machines. I didn’t use any filling in order to keep it light and soft.  I don’t know if I will quilt with silk again.  What a way to start!

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