Quilts of Denmark

Okay.

Let's do a quick review of the greatest quilt show experiences I've had in the last couple of years:

• The red and white quilts in New York City. 
• The Gee's Bend quilts in London, Ontario. 
• The molas in Toronto. 
• The International Quilt Festival in Houston. 
• And, while not actually quilts, The Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibition in Montreal. 

All amazing and life-changing. Turns out, I would place the Quilts of Denmark show into this category.

Heartbeat by Linnea Hassing Nielsen

Iris by
Lisbet Borggreen

I did not want to miss the opportunity to see these quilts. You may recall, I first wrote about the Quilts of Denmark in February. You may read it here. Seeing that preview only whetted my appetite for the whole show, and what a treat that show was. There was a palpable quilt excitement there, very enjoyable to walk into and absorb. Part of that energy is the community of Ailsa Craig, which pulls together to put on a very well organized show.  Combined with another pleasant country drive, complete with seeing assorted farm babies along the way, and you have the makings of a great quilt expedition.

Double Wedding Ring
by Else Mikkelsen

The thing most striking thing these about these quilts of Denmark is the artistic and contemporary interpretation of this traditional craft and art form. A double wedding ring quilt portrayed in "wild" colours. A heart quilt styled into log cabin blocks. Appliqued flowers mixed with pinwheel blocks.  I was thinking, "Where did they get these fabrics?" These are not the fabrics we usually see at quilt stores around here. And how do they come up with these ideas? It is fascinating to see the divergence from North American quiltmaking.

In speaking with the Danish quilt makers, I have the impression that they are interested in making quilts, but have evolved away from the bed quilts that we know in North America, and have focused more on the artistic representation of the craft/art, with only a very small influence of the traditional patterns of quiltmaking. I know some of them saw the Huron Perth Quilters Guild show last weekend, and believe they were as amazed by the quilts made here, as we are amazed by the quilts made in Denmark.

These photos that follow show details of some of the fabulous quilts, since I think in these cases, the details tell much more of the story than the whole quilt picture does. As always, you may click on a photo for a better look.

Gear Wheel by Else Mickelsen

Iris in a Row by Dorte Gjelstrup

The Whisper Project
by Lene Koch Simonsen

All Dressed Up by Dorte Gjelstrup

Order & Chaos by Ulla Valnert

Summer by Aase Pedersen

Angler's Dream by Gurli Gregersen 

Spring I by Karin Ostergard

Family Rings by Mona Paulsen

Spring Field, Winter Field
by Charlotte Yde

Road Trip

Two of my sisters were in the area for the weekend, one from Alberta, and one from Ottawa, along with a niece from Korea whose blogs here. So I went to visit with all of them, at the home of another niece in Toronto, along with her very adorable baby. It's great to spend some time with these women in the family.

What a perfect opportunity, I thought, to drive to a quilt store which also happens to be in Toronto. The Sew Sisters started selling fabric online out of their home, and have now moved into a nice retail spot. I've seen them selling their stuff at various quilt shows, and promised myself that I would get to their store when I had a chance. Surprisingly, there aren't a huge number of quilt stores in the big smoke. You're much more likely to run into a quilt store in any number of small towns in Southern Ontario, which is always also good for a road trip.

Of course, I bought some fat quarters, but didn't spend a huge amount of money. I've been collecting pale creamy colours for a project that is still in my imagination. I still need more, and in my typical fashion, I won't start cutting out the quilt until I have 30 or 40 different fabrics. Besides, I'm still in the starting stages of my other quilt, so the last thing I need right now is to start another quilt! When I'm ready, though, at least I'll have all the fabric I need.

And there is a delightful change from my usual raspberries. My friends have been scoping out blueberries for me. They were in the Muskoka area and picked up an 11 quart basket of yum. Not cheap for these wild ones, but they will survive in the freezer and taste delicious in the winter. I might still go picking, but it'll have to be the cultured ones.

If All Else Fails. . .

My faithful, trusty 30 year old Pfaff is out of commission. Unbelievable! I feel pretty lost when I can't access my sewing machine. I have backup machines, but they just aren't as good as my Pfaff. One of my friends at work was no longer using their machine, so she gave it to me. Just gave it to me, because she thought I'd use it more. What a treat. It's better than my other backup one, so I'm using it for a couple of weeks. One of these days, I'll have to buy a new one.

We've also had a sick kitty cat here, so we've been looking after her, poor girl. She's made another comeback, so she's good for another while. On top of that, a traffic ticket, and a few appliances have broken down recently. We're wondering where we picked up this bad karma. And wondering how we can turn this around into better luck. All somewhat discouraging.

So I thought the best thing to do under the circumstances is to start a new quilt! One aspect of my stash collecting has been a tiny black print on white background. Mostly white, with only a little black, so it still reads about 95% towards white. I'll cut these into blocks, and then applique bright coloured flowers on top. Maybe add some green leaves, maybe a vine and leaf border. This should keep me busy at least until my machine gets repaired, or perhaps for the next couple of summers. I like to sit outside summer evenings and do some handsewing, but so far this summer, I haven't had a project to work on. This one might get me going in the right direction.

A little every day

I have endeavoured to do something for quilting every day, for at least an hour. Most days, I do something for quilting, and occasionally skip a day. This might be cutting out fabric pieces, printing fabric, sorting my stash, sewing blocks, pattern work, reading quilt books or magazines, hemming pants, surfing the net to see what other quilters are up to. . . . Sometimes, if I don't feel like sewing, I'll go for a drive, and take my camera to see what's out in the world. Or go pick raspberries!

For example, today I was creating another vest pattern for myself. This is a plain vest, to be used for wearable art. It didn't take long, because it doesn't have a lot of details. I have a couple of heavy weight shirts hanging around that would be better suited if they were cut up into something else, so their destiny is about to change. Nothing is too sacred around here to avoid the scissors!

Can you tell, I'm good at coming up with ideas, and starting things. I have way more ideas than I can ever hope to get finished. I'm lucky if I can get everything written down in my sketch book, which I keep in case I ever run out of things to make. Ha, like that would ever happen.

A lot going on

There has been a lot going on, I just haven't been writing it down. I was on holidays last week, and I had a long to-do list for myself. I did most everything I wanted. I did some serious sewing, I went camping, spent a day adventuring with my family, went to a couple of quilt stores, went to an air show, went to my quilt guild meeting, spent some quality time on Georgian Bay. Feeling the water, the fire, the sky, the stars, the rain, was good for my soul.

From my tailoring training way back, I am able to draft my own patterns for clothing and other sewn items. This has always been easy for me. So one of the things I did last week was create a jean-jacket style vest pattern for myself. I've had an urge lately to make some clothes for myself. Tailoring my shirts for work hasn't been enough. Now I want something different when I'm not at work, something other than my usual jeans and t-shirts. Very interesting, this new desire to present myself in a different way to the world!

I've been also working on my printed fabric landscape quilts, too, though this isn't progressing as much as I'd like. I guess I need to focus more on it, but there are only so many hours in a day! I did get some printing onto silk, with fabulous results. The colours just seem so much brighter than on the cotton. There is a tiny bit of bleeding, and I have a couple of ideas to work out.

And anybody who knows anything about me knows I love raspberries. Strawberries are in full swing around here at the moment, and I'll go out picking at a local pyo, but with all the hot weather and rain we've had, the raspberries are coming already. Feels like berry heaven. I was just out today to check on the wild blackberries that grow around here, and collected enough to get a good feed. And now I'm wondering about blueberries, which are also excellent for health. Might have to go to the farmer's market to have a look-see.

So you see there is a lot going on.

Quilt Festival in St. Jacobs

I spent Saturday at the Waterloo County and Area Quilt Festival. The only venues left for me were in St. Jacobs, where I love going anyway. And what a treat. I saw so many wonderful quilts.

Featured within a grouping of local quilters was a fabulous display of very well made and beautiful quilts by Dorothy Sittler of Elmira. Inspiring and creative quilted vests and jackets by Sandra Thomas were also featured. Helen Hughes of Guelph was in attendance with a good selection of her fibre art quilts.

And of course, I had to visit Reichard's quilt store right in St. Jacobs, and the merchant mall. I picked up a few, ok a lot, of fat quarters, books, and coloured bits of trims to use in my photo landscape quilts.

A big push in the garden on the weekend has done wonders for the garden and little for my sewing. The garden is pretty well all taken care of at the moment, so I'll be able to resume sewing. The list is getting longer, though. I bought a few summer clothes that need alterations. And after seeing Sandra Thomas's work, I am inspired to make some quilt vests for myself. How does that happen?!

Busy, Busy

People have been trying to pry me away from my sewing machine, to no avail. I've been joining those blue and yellow blocks together. It is a big job, not only because there are so many blocks, but also because there are so many star points that I like to get all (mostly) accurate about. I've been considering how I might set them up in a quilt, too.

I've also been tearing apart the seams on a whole bunch of my uniform shirts for work. This leads to a nicely tailored look, but doesn't much advance my quilting cause. It is tempting to wear the shirts the way they come out of the package, but I like being a little non-standard, wearing my talent so to speak. Ladies at work are asking if I'll do the same to their shirts. No! It takes a lot of time, time I'd rather be quilting. I'm sure all you other quilters understand.

And the other thing I have going is printing. I tend to do things in big numbers, so I treated a bunch of fabric, cut it into printer sizes, then print, print, print. My next stage will be to treat them again, and then I can start quilting them. The printing experiment didn't work out the way I wanted, so I'm thinking of other things I can try. I was aiming to get brighter colours on my cotton prints. So I tried steaming to heat set, but this just blended the colours together. I would like to try a resist of some sort, but that will have to wait.

Oh, yeah, one other thing competing for my time. Garden planting is in full swing here in S. Ontario. We do quite a flower show in our yard, and plant many annuals and baskets, and a few vegetables. Poppies and peonies in bloom right now. We have a big heat wave going on, and I'm more comfortable inside, sewing of course.

Quilt Season

Spring time means being able to see a lot of quilts, and the Waterloo County and Area Quilt Festival has begun. There are many venues in the area, and many quilts to see. Grand National earlier in the week, yesterday Threadworks at the Wellington County Museum. View the Threadworks pieces here. I especially liked the Crabapple Branch by Tracey Lawko, and the Tree Mandala by Marilyn J. Arms. Three Leaves, by Gordana Brelih, was very impressive, obviously many hours of stitching, and very beautiful.

It always amazes me how people put different colours and fabrics together, create an interesting layout, add stitching in their own unique way, and create a piece that is amazingly beautiful. I just get so moved to see the creativity of other fibre artists.

The Tax Man Cometh

So I haven't been quilting much recently, because my whole being is preoccupied with getting my taxes done. This is a very big deal with me, and involves much sorting and recording of bits of paper spread here and there about the house. There is much catching up to do in this regard!
After several intense sessions, I'm happy to say I've made significant progress. I'm motivated to get it done mostly by my desire to have it off my plate so I can get to some serious quilting.