Impulse Quilting

With three UFOs needing to be finished in the next two months I'm feeling antsy and decided to make a pink quilt that would go quickly. Why pink? Because somehow too much light pink has entered my stash, also lilac and some dusty rose. I don't like pink very .] [Very bright pink is a whole other story

While surfing quilters' blogs a few days ago I came upon someone who showed a strip quilt and wrote that she was using dryer sheets as the stabilizing backing. Light Bulb Moment! I've been saving dryer sheets but didn't really know why -- it's that acquisitive thing again, the "waste not, want not" frugalista training from parents who were shaped by the Great Depression. Ah-ha! I could use up the dryer sheets and the pinks by making a strip quilt.

I love making scrappy quilts and strip quilts are about the pinnacle of scrappiness. I love, love, love having a pile of strips [or squares or triangles for other patterns] and making an instant choice of fabric every time I sew a seam. So far I've done a dozen blocks. I'm aiming for a single bed or throw size quilt that will eventually be given away to some charity. As I said, I am not fond of pink.
This little tool is my latest love. I purchased it at the Empire Guild show when told by a paper piecer that she uses it to flatten seams as she pieces. It's more adaptable then most of the mini irons. I have a couple mini irons and don't like them very much. But this little roller flattens seams enough so that when a block is done it can be ironed to really flatten the seams. Love it.

Strip pieced squares

I've been making strip pieced 6-1/2 inch squares which will sew up as 6 inch squares, of course. It is for a swap-bot swap. Last year I did a couple of such swaps and got briefly addicted to making these squares. I used up quite a bit of my strips stash but now I find I have a stuffed bag and these ten squares hardly made a dent so maybe it's time for a couple more strip pieced quilts. Below is one of last year's quilts. I find I don't like large solid expanses of the strips. I like them broken up with wider stripping in between. The one below is actually reversible to assorted six inch squares which used up more of the scraps stash. I may do that again also.


Stash using is a very satisfying exercise especially when the January sales are beginning in the fabric stores and the urge to buy more fabric is strong. However the frugalista persona is saying but, but, but ...

I have trouble throwing away anything larger than 2x2 inches. I've been looking at Nelly Duran's lovely little art quilts with small pieces of bright fabrics on a dark ground and some of her excess yarn and thinking that might be a good way to shrink my bag of the smaller piece that won't work in a strip pieced quilt. Click the listing in the sidebar to the right for Nellie's Needles. She is a very talented and imaginative art quilter. Her blog is inspirational to me.

Louisa L. Smith, "stripper" quilter

Anyone who still harbors the notion that quilts are demure little old lady things should go to a quilt show today or look at the work of the many teaching art quilters. Louisa L. Smith spoke and did a trunk show at the Bayberry Quilters' meeting yesterday with her jaw dropping, brilliant quilts. As Louisa announced immediately, "I'm a stripper." And she is teaching others to be strippers too with several book and many teaching gigs, usually at big quilt shows.

To her "stripper" means she sews strips of fabric together and thus makes a "new" fabric from which she cuts the shapes, often curvy, that she then sews into these stunningly colorful and intricate quilts. She not only sews the basic quilt but then embellishes and appliques extensively to get even more complexity. We've all heard the comment from nonquilters [usually attributed to befuddled husbands] about buying perfectly good fabric, then cutting it into little pieces and sewing it together again -- which sounds to many people like the epitome of pointlessness. But we know that if you want to make art of that fabric [which may in its own right already be graphic art of a high degree], it has to be cut up and reassembled. Which is just what Louisa does. I loved seeing her quilts although I was distressed at her penchant for using [as she admitted] cheap plaid fabrics for the backs of many. I deeply understand using cheap fabric for the backs [I always do] but the plaid contrasted with the wonderful top work just didn't work for me.
Louisa is a practiced and good speaker with a slide show of reasonable length and a trunk show of some of her very many quilts which have been shown all over the US, some have traveled for years. I'm sorry this photo of Louisa speaking is dark, I was too far back in a big room with my inadequate camera. The quilt that is being held up as she speaks would have made anyone proud but it was one of the simplest that she showed, as can be seen by comparing it to the others here.
This picture with lighting bad because of my camera angle, nevertheless shows the brilliance of the color which here, as in some others of her quilts is attained by using dupioni silk, one of the most lustrous materials to be found, not easy to work with, but obviously, Louisa handles it expertly.

I have seen jackets made using this piecing technique, in fact the guild president wore a jacket she had make this way and it was lovely. That tempts me somewhat more than a full size quilt. I do like bright colors but I have seen so many quilts lately that virtually vibrate with color and design that I feel more like retreating to something a little less "in your face."