The Quilt is Back on the Bed

That's a sign the quilt show is over.

This past weekend I brought my hand patterned and dyed wares and my cowboy boots to the Capital of Texas QuiltFest in my beloved hometown of Austin, Texas.

My booth features lots of handcrafted fabric, quilts and pillows, but, oftentimes, this quilt generates the most interest.

Along with paper versions of this pattern, I sell the PDF in my shop.

But, before it can do that, I have to take it off my bed where it is in daily use.

Other points of interest in my temporary 10' x 10' home of three days was the rainbow of half yards I created with the nearly 170 yards of fabric I patterned and dyed in preparation for this show and as a starting point for my booth in November at the International Quilt Festival in Houston ( I actually grew up in Houston, but do not consider it my hometown).

A lot of this fabric has gone to new homes, especially if it had the word "love" written on it, but I have 6 weeks (yikes) between now and then and I'll be making lots and lots more.

For almost real time updates of what's new in my fabric world, check out my instagram page. I'll be posting pictures of fabric as well as newly made samples to hang in my booth. I'm even thinking of a new sign for my booth that features my logo and the phrase, "Hand dyed modern batiks for modern quilts". I considered "modern batiks for modern quilts". I often use the hashtag modern batiks when posting to instagram, but I want customers to know that these are not mass-produced, commercial re-creations of batiks, but the absolute, real mccoy. We pattern, whether via drawing or stamping, every single piece of fabric. And by we, I mean me and my assistant. It happens in my home studio in lovely Austin, not half a world away. 

Anyway, all that seemed a bit long for a shop sign, so I thought I'd just add the phrase hand dyed to communicate that. What do you think? The sign hasn't been made yet, so I'm open to suggestions.

Also, as always, my online shop is available if you didn't have a chance to stop by this weekend and won't be in Houston. 

Just a girl who can't say no...

Remember the scene from the musical Oklahoma where Ado Annie declares, " I'm just a girl who can't say no," ?

 Well...me too.

Annie's referring to her penchant for kissing every boy in the county and I'm just referring to sewing with fabric. One is potentially more exciting than the other, but the inability to resist is the same.

My particular problem is not buying fabric, but wanting to craft with it. My job is patterning and hand dyeing fabric and, while I love my job, I do spend a lot of time planning projects with the very fabric I'm supposed to be selling. 

Like this:

When I listed the Two Stripes Fat Quarter Bundles in my store, my head started to fill up with ideas for patchwork featuring these fabrics.

Most of them involved using the bundle fabrics exclusively, 

but I can see mixing them in with solids as well. 

My pinterest inspirations board has over 2,000 pins and, despite being heavily weighted toward quilts made in solids, offers a lot of possibilities for tops that incorporate these stripes. 

Personally I'd like to use this pattern to work in these hand dyed beauties.

Abi's Coins Quilt Pattern PDF

This first version was made with a combination of Allison Glass's Hand Crafted II prints and a beautiful Kona cotton in blue, but I'm so tempted to grab a handful of these stripes and a different, but equally bold solid, and make a second quilt in this pattern.

What can I say?

Apparently not no.

Getting the Skinny on Skinny Stripe Grids

Confession time: I'm a selfish designer. 

Some people are selfish sewers, primarily sewing for themselves or because they want to try a particular pattern and, frankly, I'm one of those too, but my design interests are pretty self-focused as well. 

I assume there are folks who ask themselves questions regarding what their customers want to see them create or what trends appear to be on the upswing, but I'm motivated by what I want to try in terms of patterning and color.

I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing, but it's a thing and it's why I designed this pattern, skinny stripe grids.

Skinny Stripe Grids in indigo and white.

It's very simple really; I'd been patterning with simple horizontal lines and wanted to create a freehand drawn grid as well and to create that gird in a variety of color combos.

Skinny Stripe Grids in Pale Blue and Grey

Skinny Stripe Grids in Coral and Raspberry

Skinny Stripes Grids in Lemon and Amber

Since I selfishly wanted the fabric, so much so that I designed and created it, it's probably no surprise that I've already sewn several items with it.

A wee quilt.

A version of Purl Soho's City Gym Shorts (love this pattern!)

The Kenedy dress from Seamwork Magazine in hand dyed rayon.

Like most of you, I love sewing; that's why I'm writing and you're reading. But, there's just something more when the sewing is done with really special fabric. I'll sew no matter what, but give me a length of hand dyed fabric, and I'll sew with a slightly bigger smile on my face.

A quick note about the rayon: I'm gearing up to offer all the Skinny Stripe Grid color combos listed in my shop as well as the Bubbles and Wasabi Peas color combos in rayon as well as quilting cotton. At least initially the rayon will be on a custom order basis. If you're interested, email me at malka@stitchindye.com and request swatches of those fabrics. 

Next up for the Next Quilt

Simple really is best. 

I finished this queen-sized quilt top in a little over a week and am slated to take it to the longarmer tomorrow. 

As I hinted in my previous post about this design, I'm not done crafting with the 4 rolls purchased for the original top.

Though still very much a WIP, this design, along with the bed-sized version will be included in a single pattern zine along with a few extras. My plan for this is different from most and also a work in progress, but I'm very excited about this direction.

Also, for those not interested in the scale or color ways pictured so far, look for the next version of the Next quilts in these colors:

I'm thinking twin-sized this time. 

They go together so quickly and are such fun to watch as they emerge, row by row, that another sort-of big quilt is something to look forward to.

Stay tuned here an on instagram to see the latest.

Superstring Baby Quilt

If you follow me on instagram then you probably caught the sneak peek of this quilt a while back. Here, however, is the full view, in the Summer 2016 issue of Modern Patchwork. 

The concept behind this design is simple. It started with a question. All my designs do. That question was what would it look like if I sewed large strips together and then overlaid a large, self-drafted template to create a  super-sized string pieced block?

Naturally, the only way to find out was to do just that and then tweak the process so that it was repeatable and, since my focus is designs that you all can re-create, explainable. 

I started with some of my hand dyed solids.

The final version actually includes a greater variety of hand dyes and, of course, this design would look fabulous in commercial solids as well (personally, I'm a big fan of the feel and colors of Art Gallery's Pure Elements Solids).

Once I had the 4 "string" blocks though, it felt a little unfinished. Also, I had lots of extra bits already cut. So, I crafted the border and corner pieces. It's then that it struck me that this top could also be just a block in a bigger quilt. I could see sewn in a more limited palette as well whether or not you chose to treat the design as a single block or a finished top.

The top was quilted in concentric lines from the center out that mimicked the diamond shape created by meeting the four string blocks together.

I was looking through my Pinterest board devoted to inspirations and found a bunch of examples of creative uses for the humble, but graphically powerful string-based block. Have a gander here and let me know what you think.

What's next?

It's a love/hate thing. 

(Channeling my inner Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof):

On the one hand writing here, specifically on my blog, is so important to me and my work and my business. It helps me to think through ideas, forces me to document via photography, and helps to promote the stuff I'm trying to sell.

On the other hand, the work of keeping up with social media can start to feel like a job of its own and, though I like the job, I'd really rather be making stuff.

So, why am I here today? Because of this:

Aren't screen shots great? 

This particular one is from a site I follow, primarily on Instagram, called Nitch. Everyday they pair a beautiful black and white photograph of a well-known person with a quote from that person.

This quote caught my eye and came at the perfect time. I know I should be writing here. It's good for me and not in the way brussel sprouts are good for me (I love brussel sprouts and have a great recipe for them, but that has nothing to do with my point). Writing in this space is important because it's part of my making journey. I can't, however, wait to be inspired to write, I just have to show up and start pounding those keys.

So, here I am, ready to engage in the process.

Now to explain the first image:

The smart-ass in me wants to claim they're petrified logs or the food color dyed interiors of cinnamon rolls, but they're fabric rolls, Kona cotton fabric rolls, specifically. The reason they came into my life, because I've never really been a pre-cut gal before, was this quilt:

I don't exactly know where the idea for this little quilt came from, but I initially designed it as a free tutorial to include with my bi-weekly newsletter which, incidentally, you too could get(the form's at the bottom of this page). Anyway, the pattern is very simple and graphic and I sensed that it was the beginnings of something else.

And it was.

Though this is a still a work in progress, making the mini-version started me thinking about the possibilities for manipulating this design. Despite my total lack of experience working with pre-cuts, I wanted to explore designing within the parameters that fabric that's already cut and measured and selected presents. 

I specifically chose two "ombre" rolls to work with because I wanted to see what happened to the graphic nature of this design as the colors changed.

The other day someone asked why I don't design on a computer and, if I didn't know before, the process of creating this quilt has certainly answered that question. As I sew this top together, I make changes from my initial plan.  I wouldn't "see" those changes if I was just manipulating images on a computer. Frankly, I think it would lengthen, rather than streamline the process of making because when I did move the design from computer generated concept to actual fabric item, I'd then have to adjust the design for the change in media.

Next up for this design? 

Finishing and quilting the top, making a second, smaller, different color way version, writing and testing the instructions, and  publishing the pattern so that you all can make it and change it for yourselves.

Also, because it really is all about the process, this unfinished make has already, dare I say, inspired new ideas.

Here's a sneak(y) peek:

Gingham

I'm often reluctant to work with a curated selection of fabrics. I'm not sure why, but the thought of being limited to a specific collection, no matter how extensive, causes me anxiety. It doesn't matter who the designer is; it could even be me, but my first reaction is an inner clenching.

I was a bit surprised when Vicki from The Fabric Society contacted me to discuss a promotional post for some of their fabrics and I  enthusiastically agreed to participate. 

Though I'm usually a believer in the ideal of sticking with plan A, I also see the value in pushing beyond my comfort zone and that, oftentimes that leads to new discoveries.

It certainly did this time.

I didn't really have a design in mind when I chose a variety of colors from their collection of Fresh Solids. Frankly I was hoping that something would come to me.

I lived with the fabrics for a bit, mostly because I was in the midst of QuiltCon prep when they arrived, until I came up with this simple and graphic design.

After a bit of play with concept as well as pairing colors, I was ready to piece the top together, a super-quick process.

Then this little top was off to the long armer, bound and ready for it's close-up. The whole 40" x 40" quilt took about a week from design to finished product.

When I look at this design my head fills with other possibilities and variations, many of which you will be seeing in the weeks to come. None of it, however, would have been possible if I hadn't ignored my instinct to fear the limitations of working with a set group of fabrics and embraced the opportunity to create in a new way.

Reverse Psychology as a Craft Tradition

"I can make that." When I was a kid, that was a common refrain of my mother's whenever we went to a store. The store was never a high end, or, frankly, any end, department store, but usually Kmart. Do they even still exist? As a child, money was beyond scarce because scarce implies we had a clue where to look for it and we didn't. So, Target was too rich for our blood. But, every once in a while a trip to Kmart was a must. We needed new shoes or a winter coat. Like most little girls, my eye often landed on a pretty dress or top and I'd show it to my mom. I knew we couldn't buy it, but at least we could acknowledge its appeal. But, more times than not, my mom's response was to declare that she could make it herself. My mom was the original DIYer, except she wasn't.

For starters, she hated sewing. I think she felt like she should love it, but she always cursed quietly under her breath when a situation required that she bring out the Brother sewing machine, acquired after devotedly collecting and licking Green Stamps.

Then it was her refusal to admit the value of a pattern. This might sound adventurous and creative; she followed the beat of her own drummer, crafting fanciful garments entirely from her imagination. Reality looked a little different. My mom didn't really understand clothing construction and pattern drafting wasn't among her skills. Also, she didn't believe in drape and fabric weight and especially in cutting anything on the bias. Her theory was that the bias was actually a conspiratorial ruse created by the fabric companies and acceded to by the pattern companies to persuade unsuspecting home sewers into purchasing extra and unnecessary fabric.

Thankfully, I was a relatively bright child and it took only a few homemade garments to convince me that hand-me downs, even those from my elder brother, were better because they came from the store.

Yet, when asked who has had the greatest influence on me and my decision to craft and pursue the handmade as a career I would answer my mother. Her many unfinished and unable-to-be- finished items taught me the value of following instructions, deeply learning a technique, and, most importantly, understanding a process before deciding to alter that process. My work would be completely different if I didn't genuinely love to learn and appreciate a tradition before I was ready to change it and make it my own.  

Whenever my mother would like something hand crafted, she would say that that person had really good hands. As a child, I didn't like that comment because I felt it disregarded the cerebral aspect of crafting. My mom, after all, was a scientist with advanced degrees in Biology and I thought she was disparaging the intellectual side of making. Looking back though I think she was admiring that person's ability to access their creative brain and translate it into something tangible, something beautiful to hold or wear or use. She was actually paying that individual the greatest compliment she could think of. 

My parent's home is decorated(littered?) with my drawings, quilts, prints, and pillows, a good place for them to be, because, though my mother didn't share the desire to craft, she taught me all the essentials to doing just that. And, she's always been my biggest fan. 

Too Tired to Tinkle

That title is a reference to Gillian Flynn's novel, Gone Girl. Let me know if you get the reference.

I was listening to On Writing by Stephen King today. I almost always listen to an audio book or podcast while I'm working. Sometimes I do so furtively because I secretly don't think I should when my assistant is around, but I love the way being told a story gets me into the flow of working. 

Anyway Stephen noted that his most productive working time is in the morning and I have to agree. If I had written this post this morning it would be chock full of insight and pithy phrases. if I had written this post this morning I would effortlessly transition from one topic to the next and find a way to connect them all. 

But, I didn't write it this morning or even this afternoon. 

It is 8:39 CST and I'm putting fingers to keyboard after a full day of crafting and dyeing and erranding and teaching. So, I'll just post a pretty picture and say goodnight, Gracie. (Please, please, please tell me you remember George Burns).

Picked up this quilt, the first of my Gingham Quilts, from the longarmer today. Straight line quilting is so perfect for this design.