X Plus Patchwork Top

Is it just me, or does it feel like it’s been ages since I shared what I’m working on? I have this big bundle of finished quilts sitting beside me at the moment that I’m impatient to share and I just can’t seem to catch a break in the weather department to be able to get images to post. So, in the meantime I’m going to give share with you more my X Plus Blocks and how I pulled them together.

When I started this project I thought I’d do 100 blocks and make it into a big square quilt (I love a square quilt) and I’d use fabrics from my stash that I love and have collected over the past couple of years and that make me smile. (Because you should only ever work with fabrics that make you feel something!) I was making blocks in between other projects and they were a great way to have some fun and use prints together that are unexpected and people wouldn’t normally think about using in this way.

I just wanted to have fun.

And I did. I think I spent more time picking and auditioning fabrics then I did actually making the blocks. This quilt is really all about the journey.

It’s that time of year where entries are due for the Annual Canberra Quilters Exhibition and while I had grand plans to make 100 blocks I also had plans to get a quilt into the show and so I decided to submit this quilt. When I sat down to think about which quilts I was working on that represented me and what I love about patchwork and quilting this quilt (and eventually my Smitten) are me to a tee. Seriously, if I could use a quilt as a business card – this would be the one.

This is me in quilt form (for now… I’m evolving and I know it’s going to change but at the heart of who I am and why I make is these 3 simple truths: I love to have fun, I want to make people smile and I can’t get enough of colour!).

This is how impatient I was to share this with people – that’s HUBBY holding the quilt up on the nature strip near our house. I was just so excited when it was all together that I couldn’t contain it – and that’s how a quilt should make you feel. Like being in love, you should want to scream it from the roof tops.

Like I said at the start, I wanted to make 100 blocks and do a 10×10 formation but time and life got in the way and so I made it 63 blocks and settled on a 9×7 formation. I went in to making the blocks with no vision of how they’d all sit together when they were done and I have to admit there were quite a few times when I was looking at it on the design wall and just scratching my head about how I was going to make this loud, bold, bright blocks all work together harmoniously.

I was just making blocks as inspiration struck. As the blocks started to pile up and I started to get an idea of how they’d work together I refined my approach to the blocks. (Originally I was using prints for every section of the block, but when I saw them together I realised that I needed to use only solids on the “connectors” or it would be too busy and the impact of the feature prints would be lost.)

I actually went back an unpicked blocks and redid portions of them to remove excess print and to make sure that the accuracy was better. (I wrote about why and how that came to be in this post.) It’s a decision that I’m so glad I made because when it came to joining all of these blocks together the attention to accuracy paid off hugely. There’s only a handful of places where those points don’t meet perfectly and that’s huge given how many seams are in this thing.

I posted a photo of the blocks coming together on Instagram and I lamented the fact that I had no real plan for how to pull it all together. When I post to Instagram I very rarely ask for input on what I’m doing. I like to follow my own gut and so I don’t tend to make quilts by committee (the few times I have they’ve not been as strong as they could have been if I’d listened to my own voice). So I didn’t post it with the intention of getting advice on how to make it work. But I’m so glad that I put it out there because someone commented and suggested I use the black and white feature to get an idea of tonal placement.

I have a confession to make… When I read the comment my ego responded in a really unbecoming way because my first response to reading it was “I know about that!”. It was totally ego driven and I’m not proud of myself that my first response was not more open and accepting (but I’m working on it). I didn’t respond to the comment, I just let it sit there… percolating away….

I am so very grateful for that person leaving that comment. It changed everything. I put my ego aside and listened to what they were taking the time to share with me and I revisited my layout. While I knew about tonal placement and how to use the camera filter to see it I hadn’t thought about doing it. (I rarely look at tonal placement with my quilts – I am very gut driven when it comes to decisions, it either works or it doesn’t.) It was a great lesson to me that sometimes I need to stop thinking I know everything and just get back to basics and be open to those that are kind and generous enough to share their opinions, lessons, thoughts and wisdom with me.

Looking at those blocks together on the wall as a tonal grouping gave me just the focus I needed to pull it together. I had about 45 blocks made and I played with their arrangement based on tones and the idea for how it would work hit me. I had this one lone block that was so pale that when I mixed it with the others it just stood out like the proverbial on a dog. I loved the block, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to include it because it was so out of place.

When I looked at the quilt as just tonal values I knew how to use that block. I made 8 more pale blocks and gave my quilt a pale racing strip. It was the first time I made these blocks with intent when it came to fabric choices.

Inadvertently I’d been making really heavy dark blocks and so I had an over abundance of these. I made the decision to stop making dark blocks and started adding a couple of mid-tone blocks to the mix. This gave me the ability to create a layout that goes mid tone, dark tone, dark tone, mid tone, mid tone, light tone, mid tone. Those two strips of dark help to balance out the pale and pull it all together.  (In my opinion at least. *wink*)

This is about as wanky as I get when it comes to talking about my quilts in terms of visual impact, movement, balance, etc. Like I said, I normally just go with my gut and trust my internal compass.  Although, since this experience I’m thinking it might be a good time to brush up on some of the artistic fundamentals of placement, colour theory and design principles if I want to keep on making quilts.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I ardently admire this quilt.(Channeling my inner Mr Darcy…) I made it for me and I’m really thankful for the many lessons it’s taught me. I’m grateful for the conversation it started with Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, I’m thankful for the inspiration it provided to others who were watching me pull it together and I’m ever so thankful for the clarity it provided me.

The quilt has been quilted (thank you Gemma of Pretty Bobbins) and I’ve put the binding on it. It’s ready to be handed in tomorrow at Canberra Quilters and I’m really proud of it. For the first time since I started entering the Canberra Quilters Exhibition I’ve submitted a quilt in the commercially quilted category that doesn’t have a custom quilt job, instead I took inspiration from Denyse Schmidt and  Siobhan Rogersr and went with an edge-to-edge design that provides texture and doesn’t detract from the piecing. (Because this quilt is all about the fabric selection, fussy cutting and piecing!)

I also added a little something to the edges of this quilt because I hate losing block edges to the binding. I don’t know why, but it’s a personal foible of mine that I can’t handle a block design disappearing into the binding.

I make a lot of quilts and I rarely make a quilt that is specifically for me, but this one is all mine. (I say that, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to spend a lot of time on the little man’s bed as he just loves looking at it and pointing out all the different things on it.) I’m excited to see it hang in the Exhibition and I really hope it makes people stop, look and smile.

See it in the wild!

The Canberra Quilt and Craft Fair is on from 6th – 9th August and you can find out more about it and buy tickets by clicking here.