The Roots of Modern Quilting Exhibit

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the curator of the New England Quilt Museum, Pam Weeks. They were finalizing an upcoming exhibit on The Roots of Modern Quilting and thought my Mod Hex 2 quilt would be the perfect addition to the exhibit.

Feeling completely humbled and honored, I of course agreed to let them use my quilt in the exhibit.

The opening reception was this past Saturday. The museum was lucky to have both Victoria Findlay Wolfe and Jacquie Gering attend the opening reception.

Here's my quilt hanging right next to Angela Walters' quilt.

Here's Victoria with her third double wedding ring quilt in a series of 12.

Jacquie Gering's quilt is on the left and Thomas Knauer's is on the right.  (I totally forgot to grab a photo of Jacquie.)

And this is a Denyse Schmidt quilt. The lighting of this quilt really made it shine.

I think the most humbling thing about being in this exhibit is the fact that my little ol' quilt is on display among some of the most wonderful names in quilting today - Denyse Schmidt, Jacquie Gering, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Thomas Knauer, Heather Jones, Molly Upton, Angela Walters, Radka Donnell and Lucy Mingo. And then there's little ol' me.

Thank you Pam Weeks for including me in this wonderful exhibit. I am truly honored. 

Make it Right Challenge - A Quilt

I'm sure many, if not all of you have heard about the "Make it Right Challenge" using a panel plus some solids from Angela Walters' debut fabric line, Textures.

A little over a month ago, Angela asked me if I would participate in the challenge and I eagerly jumped at the opportunity to participate.

I wanted to leave the center of the panel alone and make it the focus of the quilt. I also knew that I wanted pull out some of the rectangles on the other half of the panel and feature them more prominently.

I love the colors in the panel, but I wanted to bring in another color that some people may not thing to add. I thought about going with a purple, but in the end picked this beautiful pink Pure Element solid - Cherry Lipgloss! Hey, what can I say? I like to be different. The background is Pure Element White Linen and the other teal is Tile Blue.

I know what you're thinking... I didn't use the whole panel, just a few pieces.  Actually, I uses almost every single inch of that panel. What's not in the quilt top became a part of the binding.

When it came time to quilt this up, I wanted to emphasize the straight lines in the fabric. I divided the top into four equal quadrants and alternated the direction of the straight line quilting by quadrant.

I backed the quilt in the crosshatch print from Angela's textures line. 

This quilt finishes at 48" x 46".

Are you planning on entering the Make it Right Challenge? If so, I'd love to see what you end up making.

Machine Quilting the Modern Quilt with Angela Walters

I shared some pictures from the trunk show Angela Walters gave the BMQG this weekend yesterday.  Right after the trunk show, I got to take a class with Angela and learned all about machine quilting the modern quilt.

Quilter's Way recently moved into a new space and added a long arm to their store.  As a result, this class was all on the long arm.  I've rented a long arm a couple of times, but my technique on one is not near as good as it is on a domestic. There was a bit of a learning curve for me in adjusting to the long arm, but conceptually, i think I was able to grasp everything.

There were five of us in the class and we all took turns using the long arm to try different designs and techniques. 

We started with pebbles, something that I'm fairly familiar with.  One of the great things with Angela's class is that she shows you three different ways to do a certain technique, increasing in difficulty.  I think my pebbles turned out pretty good given that I hadn't been on a long arm in a few years.

We then moved onto swirls.  Swirls are one pattern that I have struggled with in the past.  I struggle with the spacing at times.  I found getting spacing down even more difficult on a long arm, but overall, I think I did pretty good.

Of course, I had to try one of the more difficult patterns here, not the simplest one.  But hey, that's just who I am.  Give me a challenge and I'll usually accept it.

I did, however, think I did a pretty good job at the next pattern.  I could certainly see myself doing this quilting design on a quilt.  I'm actually thinking it might be good on a one block wonder top I've had sitting around for what seems like forever.

I also really enjoyed, and thought I did good on the more difficult version as well.  What do you think?  Pretty good, eh?

I also really enjoyed quilting a wood grain pattern.  The bit that I did is in the middle of the picture with the more pointed knots in the wood.  Again, not bad, eh? I could see myself easily doing this one again.

By the end of the day Angela and I were like new best friends.  She's actually thinking that if she has another baby, and it's a girl, she just might name it Jen.  (Just Kidding)  A couple of us from the BMQG went out to dinner with her at one of my favorite tapas restaurants in Waltham and had a great time. I feel like I have a new friend in the quilting community after spending so much time together (and no, I'm not a stalker).

If you ever have a change to take a class with Angela, I'd highly recommend it.  She's a great teacher that simplifies machine quilting for the average quilter. 

Angela Walters Visit

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with the oh-so-talented Angela Walters as she visited one of my favorite local quilt shops, Quilter's Way, and spent some time with the Boston Modern Quilt Guild.

For the trunk show with the BMQG, Angela talked about how she got started in quilting and how she evolved as a quilter. As we progressed during the show, she talked a lot about how she goes about quilting a modern quilt.  She shared some secrets with us - like some new collaborations she has coming up that I'll let her tell you about soon enough.  

She shared some of her awesome quilts and talked about how she goes about quilting them.

I'm sure you recognize some of these quilts from her book and her blog.  Let's just say that they were all awesome to see in person.

I loved this quilt.  Probably because the quilting was awesome and I love Art Gallery fabrics. 

We were the first group that got to see quilts from her upcoming book, In the Studio with Angela Walters.

I loved this quilt.  Probably because I've always loved things celestial, and the quilting in the sky, moon and ocean were awesome in this quilt.

I loved the swirl quilting she did on this quilt.  I was happy that I got to learn how to do it during a class I took with her right after.  Now to find something to practice on.

I wanted to steal this quilt to hang in my basement.  Hey, I did just redo it in a grey and yellow color scheme.  It would go perfect.

Anyone who knows me would assume I would like this quilt just for the abundance of teal in it.

Looking at this quilt up close, it took me a little bit to realize that the quilt spelled out "Inspire." The quilting on this one is great too, but what else would you expect from Angela?

I do love me some good citrus colors in a quilt, and this one is no exception. 

Angela was amazing.  She's an incredibly talented quilter who genuinely loves to share her craft with others.  I was lucky that I spent some time with her Friday night during an opening reception and basically all day Saturday.  She is such a genuine person and I truly enjoyed spending time getting to know her and pick her brain.