My Medusas

It’s a little hard to believe that my first self-published pattern of 2019 didn’t release until this month, but I think I needed that hiatus to clarify my process for pattern writing.

Also, I find it particularly sweet that my latest pattern is an offshoot of one of my all-time favorite designs.

I published a pattern for this quilt, Medusa, about 18 months ago:

The original Medusa pattern is available in both PDF and paper formats.

I called it Medusa and I was and remain very proud of the design. It marked a transition for my design work, a clearer sense of my aesthetic vision.

Though, even as I completed this quilt, I knew I wanted to craft a second, simpler, solids-based version. The original Medusa was created to feature fabrics in my collection for Robert Kaufman Fabrics, Mark to Make, and I loved the challenge of using prints to create a strong, graphic image. But solids really speak to me because communicating movement and shifting light as well as clear, visible shapes is so much easier without the extra element that a print brings.

So, I made this quilt:

Medusa 2.0 is available as a PDF download.

Focused on two fat quarter bundles in gradients of red and grey with a single hand dyed solid as the background fabric, this version is smaller and, maybe, easier to imagine adapting to a different color palette. Making it your own could be as simple as swapping out the red-based bundle for one featuring a different color.

The design is planned in quadrants, so it’s also possible to play with value and color variations there instead of across the center seam of the quilt.

This top features four quadrants in two color gradients, warm and cool. Here, all the fabrics are hand dyed, but it would be simple to reproduce in commercial solids.

Currently, Medusa 2.0 is available as a PDF download, but I’ll be reformatting the pattern for paper also.

I’m also playing around with hosting a sew-along and would appreciate your feedback. Interested?

New Workshops

I’ve planned to add a workshop page to my website for a while, a long while. But, truth be told, I’d ALWAYS rather make something than work on my website and one of the benefits of being self-employed is also one of its perils: you’re the boss.

Lately though life events have reinforced the fact that I don’t have forever and just wanting something to be is not enough. I have to make it happen.

So, the other day I asked myself what kinds of classes I wanted to teach and why. In the past I’ve let that be dictated by the folks who invited me, but, now I wanted to more intentional and decided to focus all my offerings around a single concept: Simple Design.

Simple Design is my foundational ideal and the basis of most of my designs in recent years. I define it as the use of simple blocks and techniques that, combined with thoughtful fabric choices and placement, make complicated-looking, seemingly multiple- patterned quilts. All the quilt patterns I feature in the classes listed on my workshops page are constructed of strips, squares, and half triangle squares. There’s nothing more complicated than that. Additionally, many of the designs rely on components of same or similar measurements throughout.

For instance, in both versions of Medusa just three measurements are needed, two different strip lengths and a square. All the design decisions are focused on creating movement across the quilt top via color and placement. I want to liberate folks to explore these concepts without sweating complex technical issues.

Despite the classes falling under the same umbrella concept, each workshop is unique, both in terms of finished product and the design challenges. All will help you grow as a modern quilt artist, which, by the way, you are, whether this is your first or your 100th quilt. I say that because, along with my belief in the value of simple design to unleash creative thinking, I think making/art is not exclusive to a few “talented” people, but available to everyone.

Curious to know more? Feel free to contact me.

Pouf!

I made a pouf! And I want to talk and talk about it, but….

First, it’s been about a million years since I’ve posted here and I can’t chat up my latest make without acknowledging that. There’s a lot of why behind that reality, but I think I’ll save that for later.

Today is all about things I’ve been planning/wanting to do for a long, long time that I’ve finally done. This website is one of those things, updating it and adding elements I feel speak to a new direction. It’s not finished, but definitely closer to done than not.

And the above pouf? Done.

If I had a making bucket list, this item would definitely be on it. I don’t have one and I almost never feel like, having made one of something, that I’ll never make it again, but…did I mention I made a pouf??

So much planning went into this pouf. First off, I scoured Pinterest for inspiration and tutorials.

I endlessly pondered fabric choices including using a much-loved, but never cut piece of mud cloth I bought years ago. For more than 6 months, I saved fabric, thread, and batting scraps. Every leftover bit, no matter how insignificant, went into a large trash bag for use in my pouf. I worried too. I needed to find the courage, yes, the courage, to attempt this project. I know that this is just fabric and just a pouf, but I really wanted it to succeed. So, I waited for the perfect day. No, not today, tomorrow and not this week, but next.

Inexplicably, last Monday became the day. My daughter is coming to visit and I wanted to create a beautiful, sanctuary-like guest bedroom for her and a pouf is, apparently, integral to that.

I gathered hand dyed fabric and a quilted pillow top, also crafted out of my hand dyes, some yarn to make piping, and a zipper. This tutorial gave me the basic measurements, but I made some changes, both in the measurements and in my use of a zippered bottom and a quilted top.

I had to steady my nerves, but the pouf came together incredibly easily and quick. The zippered bottom allowed me to efficiently fill the pouf with all my bits and scraps and makes adding additional filling in the future a breeze. Using fabric scraps instead of polyester fill created a heavier, sturdier, more sustainable piece.

Having envisioned the pouf as a compliment to a comfy chair, I bought a chair as well as a small table, both of which, again overcoming my fears, I assembled. Yikes!

The room is still a work in progress, but quilts adorn the bed and one wall while handmade, long, sweeping linen curtains drape over the window. The room feels quiet and clean and calming. Exactly what I want for my visiting girl.