Tough Titties (a quilt)

I entered three quilts in QuiltCon, and I was really stoked that one was juried into the QuiltCon exhibition.  I hadn't share the quilt online previously, because I originally made it (together with my sister) for the New Zealand quilting symposium, which required that it not have been published before.  It was one of a very few quilts which were rejected from Symposium, which meant I was a bit surprised when it was accepted into QuiltCon (which was MUCH more selective in terms of quilts entered compared to quilts accepted). 

This is my quilt hanging in the QuiltCon show.  It seems right to be sharing it on what will still be International Women's Day for many people, since it's a quilt with a feminist bent.

I have to confess that I'm a little bit nervous about sharing this quilt here.  I try to keep the blog a nice happy place for sharing quilts and quilting techniques.  However, quilts are one of the ways I express myself, and this quilt reflects my thoughts from a time when I was thinking a lot about feminism (something I think about more or less depending on what is happening in my life and in the news).

This is the description I gave for this quilt when I entered it in QuiltCon:

The quilting on this quilt recounts anecdotes of subtle but infuriating instances of every day sexism.  

"Tough Titties" is a reference to the way this kind of discrimination is often dismissed and women are made to feel that they should just harden up and get over it.  Don't miss the hand printed fabric on the back!

This quilt is a collaboration between me and my sister (who is not a quilter, but who is a feminist).  She carved a stamp (out of a potato, no less) and used it to stamp the fabric used for the backing of the quilt.  I did the appliqué and the quilting, and most of the binding (but I did insist that my sister hand-stitch one side of the binding so that she had a hand in the construction of the quilt).  The words on the quilt come from experiences we've had, and a couple of anecdotes contributed by friends.

In construction, this quilt is pretty simple.  I appliquéd the words "Tough Titties" to a plain linen background, using the blanket stitch on my sewing machine.  I traced the capitalised letters from my own handwriting, because I felt a bit funny about using someone else's font for this quilt.

The quilting was done free-hand.  I experimented with marking the letters on fabric and then quilting over the marked lines, but found that I was happier with the result when I just stitched freehand.  I did mark some lines using my hera marker so that my writing didn't slope all over the place.  I used a heavier than normal thread, 28 weight Aurifil in my favourite colour 2021, on the front of the quilt, and my usual Aurifil 50 weight 2021 on the back.  I kept the thread colour quite similar to the fabric I was quilting on, so that people would have to get close to the quilt to read the words.

One of the cool things about showing at QuiltCon is that you get feedback from the judges.  I was really pleased with the feedback on Tough Titties - the judges commented favourably on the craftsmanship of the quilt and suggested that the collaboration could be enhanced by creating a custom fabric for the appliqué as well as for the backing.  I think that's a great idea and I'm going to try it with the next similar quilt I make.  I definitely want to repeat the technique of quilting words on a quilt.  In a happy turn of events, I didn't bring Tough Titties home with me from QuiltCon.  It now lives with Gillian, and she apparently is going to hang it in her office which I think is seriously awesome.

So yeah, that's the quilt I had in the QuiltCon exhibition.  It didn't win any prizes, but it was a thrill just to have a quilt in the show.  It's pretty different from many of my other quilts, and I guess one of the things I've taken away from QuiltCon is that I'm still happy making a variety of quilts in different styles depending on what suits my mood at the time.

Springtime on the Farm Pillow

I've been meaning to blog about this utterly gorgeous pillow I received from Karen aka Sew Peachey as part of Round 8 of the X-Factor Pillow Swap.

 

The theme for this round was log cabins and text, and I love how Karen interpreted it.  All the fabrics that she chose are so cute and play so nicely together!

 

This quilting is just perfect for the cushion and adds such great texture!

 

Isn't Karen's little label on the back of the cushion gorgeous?  I really want to get some sew in labels made - I just need to get organised!

Have you been taking part in any swaps lately?

Top of the Lake Quilt

Way back in May last year, I was inspired to make a quilt featuring the colours of the TV show Top of the Lake.  I used the St Louis 16 Patch tutorial to make my blocks and the quilt top went together at the speed of light.  I threw in a few rogue blocks for interest and to use my fabric to maximum efficiency - they blend into the top surprisingly well,

 

I basted the quilt pretty promptly, but since then it has sat and sat in my cupboard waiting to be quilted. Initially, I started quilting 1/4" off the seams, but I really didn't like how it was looking, so I ripped that quilting out.  Then I had grand ideas about tracing the pattern of the fabric on the back of the quilt using free motion quilting, but I realised that there was so much happening on the front of the quilt, the quilting wouldn't really show up anyway.

 

I ended up quilting a simple diagonal crosshatch grid, using a light grey Aurifil thread (#2600) on the top, and my trusty off-white Aurifil #2021 in the bobbin.  They both just melt into the quilt leaving a great texture.  This quilting has also left the quilt beautifully drapey and soft - I can't wait to wash it and see whether it crinkles up much.

 

For me, this quilt is full of unexpected fabric combinations and contrasts, with soft and pretty florals mixed with dark, graphic and challenging fabrics. For the back of the quilt, I wanted to continue this unexpectedness by clashing the front, which is full of slightly off, dirty colours, with fabric that looks like soppy sweet old-fashioned wallpaper.  I ended up with this floral stripe from Spotlight, which is so not my usual type of fabric but I love it on this quilt.

I pretty much want to put this black and white pin dot binding on every quilt!  In my original post, I described this quilt as deliberately un-pretty.  I still think it's brooding and a bit dark, but I have come round to thinking it is pretty as well.

Have you ever had a quilt grow on you as you've worked on it?

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

Sour Candy Cushion

I made this cushion for round 8 of the X-Factor Pillow Swap. The premise of this swap is that each round, you make a cushion based around a theme, and send a photo to the group admin, who posts it to the group (so you don't know who made which cushion). After the deadline for entries has passed, everyone ranks the entries in order of preference, and the person whose cushion got the most votes gets their first choice, the person whose cushion got the second most votes gets their first choice (if it's still available), and so on.

The theme for this round was log cabins and text. After the last round, which was low volume, I wanted to do something really different, despite the temptation to use a low volume text fabric.

For my cushion, I used the black text print from Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures lines with a handful of prints from Alison Glass's Lucky Penny collection. I really like how the colours of the Lucky Penny fabrics are slightly clashy and how they really pop against the black text print. The design is super simple - instead of making a log cabin in the traditional way, I simply made four quarter log cabins, by starting with a central square and then only adding "logs" to two of the sides. Since these blocks weren't too big, I simply pieced them, but if you wanted greater accuracy, foundation paper piecing would work brilliantly (but more slowly).

For the quilting, I did simple straight line cross hatch grid - it gives lovely texture to the cushion without distracting from the piecing. I used Aurifil 50 weight thread in colour #1246 - a very dark charcol grey, and as usual, I was delighted with how it just blended into the top. I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but sometimes I find very dark black or grey threads to have a different texture to lighter threads, and sometimes they seem to tangle more easily. Not so in this case, which made hand stitching the binding down with the same Aurifil thread a dream.

The back of the cushion is made using a drill fabric from Spotlight, designed by Austrlian designers Prints Charming. It's such a fun print - I wish I made more of it! Of course, I used my covered zipper cushion back

method - it really is speedy and nice and neat. I posted my cushion off to my partner this afternoon - I hope she likes it!

A couple of zip pouches

This weekend, at my brother's request, I made him a pencil case.  I used some amazing colourful First of Infinity fabric to piece a rude word for the front, and a bigger piece for the back.  I used Noodlehead's open wide pouch tutorial to make these, except I quilted the exterior and didn't box the corners.

 

I had so much fun making a pouch for my brother that I decided to make one for my mum.  She wouldn't appreciate a sweary pouch, but she can't resist the word pith.  It makes her laugh every time.  So I made her a nearly-but-not-quite sweary pouch.

The cursive letters were done by tracing the writing with a water soluble pen and then free motion quilting over the lettering.  My quilting is not perfect but I still love the effect.

Have you every gotten carried away making something and ended up making multiples?

By the way, if you're thinking about participating in the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge (or frankly, even if you're not), you should head on over to Play Crafts and check out Anne's For the Love of Colour post on Radiant Orchid.  I'm learning so much from these posts and this is a particularly good one!

Texting Quietly Pillow

So on Friday I mentioned that I received the most wonderful pillow in the X-Factor Pillow Swap from Alison at Little Island Quilting.

 

I just had to share some more pictures of Alison's beautiful work - this pillow is full of amazing details and I don't think I'll ever get sick of looking at it.  It has such a vintage feel with all the different text prints, including many I've never seen before and which are no doubt from Alison's extensive stash.

 

Even the back is perfectly in theme!  Alison is one of my quilting heroes - she uses lots of different fabrics and techniques but her style shines through in all her work.  I really admire that quality in Alison and in a few other quilters out there - I think it shows that they are being true to themselves in their designs and fabric choices etc.

Thank you Alison - I feel like a very lucky lady!

Sew Sew Modern Received

A couple of weeks ago I received the most wonderful parcel in the mail - my amazing swap goodies from Cindy, who blogs at Adventures of the Singing Quilter.

 

I asked for a few different swap items - to give my partner options (I know I like having options when making for a swap partner!).  But what I was really hoping and crossing my fingers for was a sewing machine cover.  Cindy really pulled through for me!

 

Isn't it gorgeous?!  Cindy used linen (love) and lots and lots of different text fabrics (more love) and that fantastic measuring tape trim (so cute).  Linen is not that easy to work with on this scale, and Cindy did a fantastic job.  It fits my sewing machine perfectly and I absolutely adore it.  Even the lining and piping fabric (Cindy made piping!!!) is beautiful

 

How cute is this little thread catcher?  I love the little bits of Flea Market Fancy and there is even a smidge of text print here too.  I cleared it out for these photos, but I have already been using it - there are far fewer threads on my sewing room floor thanks to this little basket.

Finally, how sweet is this little pincushion?  It's filled with what feels like sand, which strangely enough makes it really satisfying to stab pins into.  What can I say - it's the little things!

Cindy also sent me a lovely note, a cute postcard and a spool of Aurifil!  So generous!  You can believe I am excited to start sewing with that Aurifil - I've read so much about it online but never used it myself.  It's a light grey - a perfect all purpose colour, and I'm going to save it for quilting to really get the most out of it.

After quite a lot of swap activity over the last three months, I think I will take a little break for a while, but I will definitely sign up for the next round of Sew Sew Modern - it's a fantastic swap group!

Linking up with:

Starting small

Mostly I sew because I enjoy it - the creative aspect, the practical process of actually putting something together, and the tangible result of that work.

I'm not sure if exercising that creative part of my brain that doesn't usually get used a lot has opened me up to looking at things differently, but lately I have been thinking about some bigger issues, and wanting to express my thoughts and feelings through the things I make.  I don't plan to stop making things just for the sheer enjoyment of doing so, but I also want to make things that are meaningful to me.

This post from C at completely cauchy encouraged me to stop just thinking about it, and start doing.

So, what have I come up with?  Well, I recently read about the One Billion Rising project, with events taking place this Valentine's Day all over the world.

For me, the idea of one billion people standing together against violence toward women is a very powerful and positive one.

I also really like that its held on Valentine's Day.  To me, standing up for a cause I believe in is much more meaningful than the frankly anxiety-inducing usual Valentine's Day rituals.

This pouch is a rather literal representation of my feelings - to take a stand, to be part of something bigger than my own immediate concerns, and to rise up against violence towards women.

Will you be one of the One Billion Rising this February 14?  I will.  To find an event near you, click here.    This is not just an event for women, so if you are, or your significant other is, a man opposed to violence against women, don't be afraid to attend.

Sewing details - pouch made from Noodlehead's open wide pouch tutorial, in the largest size.  Paper piecing and lettering of my own design.  Linking up with TGIFF, this week hosted by Kit Lang - Art and Finish it up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Typewriter cushion

I was in a cushion making mood this weekend.  Last weekend, I came into possession of some Melody Miller typewriter fabric.  Basically, Lyndy from Stitchbird started following me everywhere - one quilt guild meeting, fabric-a-brac, another quilt guild meeting - until I was forced to buy some of her lovely fabric.

I really want to make the most of this fabric, so fussy cut one of the typewriters to be the feature of this cushion.  I then surrounded it with a black texty fabric (a Spotlight find - what is the world coming to!) and then Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Flax.  I have the perfect teal fabric which I will use to bind the cushion once it's sewn up.

I'm a bit stuck on how to quilt it though.  My preference is for the quilting thread to blend in, so I will probably have to use something different on each section.  In the meantime, I am off to watch Angela Walters' Craftsy class on free-motion quilting to see if that provides some inspiration...

How do you think I should quilt this cushion?  I would love suggestions!

Linking up with Plum and June and Sew Modern Monday: