Scribbles All Over
I went to a quilt show yesterday. It was not an “art quilt” show, but a made-by-loving-hands-at-home quilt show.
It appeared to me that almost all of the quilts were scribble quilted. You know -- squiggly lines all over the quilt which ignored the piecing or appliqué. There were three beautifully done needle-turned appliqué quilts, but two of them had been scribbled all over by machine. The third was machine quilted fairly well and the stitches did not override the appliqués.
There were three quilts in the show that caught my eye. One was a 3-D Dragonfly piece.
Dimensional Dragonflies made by Devi Lanphere. She said “This was a perfect joining of a fabric that called to me and a new pattern. This is paper pieced.” Ms. Lanphere did not give the name of the pattern designer. The quilting was minimal. I took a close-up picture of the dragonflies. How did she do that?
A quilt called “Harper Family Tree” was very sweet. The maker, Marilyn Harper, noted, “My mother-in-law has dementia and I wanted her to remember her family. We gave this to her for Christmas.”
No scribbles on this quilt. A close-up of one of the family members doesn’t have any lines crossing through the picture, thank goodness.
I noticed clothespins clamped on lower corners of all the quilts. I wondered what they were for.
My dear husband, Robert, demonstrated the purpose of the clothespins when he used one to lift the corner of a quilt so we could read the label. There were no white-glove ladies anywhere (nor any white-glove men). Ahaaaaa.
I ran into a very familiar quilt called “‘Ex Libris’ Library Quilt” by Tracy Langford, and quilted with scribbles all over by Debra Canon. Tracy wrote, “This quilt was made for my daughter, Amy. It celebrated her graduation from Liberty High School and going off to college… The books reflect her special interests.” I couldn’t get a very good picture of the quilt because there were always people standing in front of it and examining it closely.
Tracy didn’t give credit to the pattern designer – ME.
It appeared to me that almost all of the quilts were scribble quilted. You know -- squiggly lines all over the quilt which ignored the piecing or appliqué. There were three beautifully done needle-turned appliqué quilts, but two of them had been scribbled all over by machine. The third was machine quilted fairly well and the stitches did not override the appliqués.
There were three quilts in the show that caught my eye. One was a 3-D Dragonfly piece.
Dimensional Dragonflies made by Devi Lanphere. She said “This was a perfect joining of a fabric that called to me and a new pattern. This is paper pieced.” Ms. Lanphere did not give the name of the pattern designer. The quilting was minimal. I took a close-up picture of the dragonflies. How did she do that?
A quilt called “Harper Family Tree” was very sweet. The maker, Marilyn Harper, noted, “My mother-in-law has dementia and I wanted her to remember her family. We gave this to her for Christmas.”
No scribbles on this quilt. A close-up of one of the family members doesn’t have any lines crossing through the picture, thank goodness.
I noticed clothespins clamped on lower corners of all the quilts. I wondered what they were for.
My dear husband, Robert, demonstrated the purpose of the clothespins when he used one to lift the corner of a quilt so we could read the label. There were no white-glove ladies anywhere (nor any white-glove men). Ahaaaaa.
I ran into a very familiar quilt called “‘Ex Libris’ Library Quilt” by Tracy Langford, and quilted with scribbles all over by Debra Canon. Tracy wrote, “This quilt was made for my daughter, Amy. It celebrated her graduation from Liberty High School and going off to college… The books reflect her special interests.” I couldn’t get a very good picture of the quilt because there were always people standing in front of it and examining it closely.
Tracy didn’t give credit to the pattern designer – ME.
posted by Christine Thresh at 3:58 PM
9 Comments:
Yes, I know what you mean about the quilting. There were so many of those quilts at PIQF - the quilting just runs over everything and ruins the design. I don't get it!! Clever about the clothespins - an idea to pass around.
The fact that people were examining the library quilt speaks well of the person who designed the pattern, methinks.
That dragonfly quilt does look remarkable. And, hmmm, not to denigrate "scribbles", but often it seems as though quilting designs are an afterthought and not integral to the quilt.
The dragonfly quilt is from a pattern by Ruth Jensen for her pattern company Thimble Art. She is a designer out of Utah. I have made a quilt out of this pattern. i will post it on my blog at keddykat75@blogspot.com
Kathi, thank you for the pattern source.
Your quilt on your blog is very, very nice with bright colors on a dark background.
Click on Kathi's name on her comment and see her quilt on her blog.
I would imagine you could stitch 2 pieces together and turn right-side out, then put in a piece or 2 of timtex.
I think I'd put 2 fabrics together with a piece of heavy fusable stabilizer in between, then curl it slightly while it's still warm.
I was to be in the original About swap and received the bookshelf pattern. Unfortunately, I had to resign from the swap...but someday Christine...I'll get it started!!
Hugs!
Ah ha, I knew your name sounded familiar. The library quilt has been on my to-do list for a long long time. My SIL works at a library, and I go to one at least once a week. I think I'm still stuck on deciding what fabric to use for the books. That and the many other quilt ideas that keep cropping up.
Oh about the stippling, a few years ago, my LQS sent their stuff to be done by a quilter, and everything was stippled. I like the look, because it keeps the attention on the quilt itself. Now the quilter is more experienced, and the quilts reflect that. I generally try to choose the quilting pattern based on the quilt, but I really do like the look of stippling.
I'm afraid I agree with you about the quilting being an after thought. I think a lot of machine quilting ruins the look of the quilt when no thought is given to the design but just "scribbled" over it. I think if you machine quilt you should have some type of pattern that goes with the design of the quilt even if that means doing an outline stitch -- I guess that is why I love hand quilting because you can easily quilt to compliment your piecing.
I loved that library bookcase when it appeared in QNM years ago, I didn't know that was YOU. Wow!
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