Thursday, April 6, 2017

Playing By the Rules

This post in no way is intended to point fingers or say something is right or wrong. Not in the least. It's just a reflection back in time - my time - to when I first started quilting. If you follow with any regularity, you'll already know much has changed for me along the way. And depending on how long you've been quilting, I bet much has changed for you as well. But in sharing recently about one of my first quilts Back in the Day, it made me recall many of 'the rules' I lived by. Basically, the techniques and guidelines I learned in my beginning quilting class in 1987 remained exactly what I did for many years following:
  • Choose a large floral, then pick fabrics with those colors, but varying values, to round out the fabric pull. Include large, medium, and small scale prints to provide balance to the quilt.
  • Hand-piecing, which lasted for just two quilts, a 9-patch sampler, and the quilt you'll see below. But by then it was second nature.
  • Press seams to the side and to the dark side. Always.
  • Quilt blocks were separated by sashing, and every quilt top was finished off with a border.
  • A solid backing was the name of the game, and for some reason, I always chose muslin - maybe so that the quilting showed up well?
  • Basting was done by hand with a long needle and a long running stitch.
  • I only hand-quilted for a very long time.... over 20 years. I finally sent a quilt to be long-armed in 2003 and did that occasionally until I eventually started machine quilting most of my own quilts in 2010.
  • Bias binding, cut at 2" wide, finished by hand. 
  • A hand-written label. Of course.
Case in point is the quilt below - my second quilt, finished in 1990. My long-time friend Sharon/@redapplestitches went along to our local quilt shop and helped me choose the fabrics. The rust-colored focal isn't that large of a print, but otherwise, this quilt fits all the 'rules' listed above. "Shirley's Sampler" measures 74" x 88" and is completely hand-pieced and hand-quilted. It took me a year to piece, a year to quilt, and the finished quilt hung beneath the vaulted ceiling in our living room for ages.



Things have really changed, haven't they?! {grin} And those rules? Eventually I felt confident enough to break each one. Oh good, right? I remember them with fondness, while thankful that in my quilting endeavors today,  the rules are few and far between.

So what rules do you create by? Any you have given up on? How about ones you are itching to break? Do tell.

18 comments:

  1. When I learned quilting one of the steps was how to make templates and mark your cutting and sewing line. All cut out with sissors and handpieced. Of course handquilting was the only option considered. I still do handwork but do love all the new things as well and embrace them all. I got into improv a few years ago and just love working on something and watching it evolve. I did a lilly quilt early on in mint green, moss green and peach the colors of the day. I remember trying to get the fabrics just like you described. A few years ago I really got radical and started using things like satin, shiny poly fabrics and other things in my quilts. Then we discover things like the Gees Bend quilts and realize that there is nothing new under the sun.

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  2. Fun post! As I read your 'rules' I reflected back to my own quilting experience and evolution to where I am today. I'm impressed by all the hand work you did...I've only hand pieced one quilt, a mini and only hand quilted a few minis. The quilt above is beautiful. Quilts are timeless, aren't they, regardless of how fabrics, colors and styles change.

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  3. Sense I taught myself in the beginning I broke all the rules just figuring out how to get a quilt started and finished. lol
    I have a question for you. The lovely 2nd quilt you shared with us today... I know you probably won't make it again but if you did what design elements would you do the same and why?

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  4. This is really interesting! I've just started quilting the past 2 years and have been using online tutorials and blogs (like this) to help me along. I'm glad I didn't think too much about rules when I started, it would probably have put me off a bit. Though I have finished all my quilts with bias binding, finished by hand so I guess I'm following at least one of those rules!

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  5. Gorgeous quilt, Debbie! Very representative of the work that encouraged me as a beginner many years ago.
    I still mostly press to the dark side, unless it will create too much bulk, then I will *consider* pressing open. Also, I always use cotton thread. I know several people who use poly for both EPP and appliqué, but my very traditional taught-by-the-quilt-police heart just can't use anything but cotton.

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  6. Enjoyed this post! When I learned to quilt (almost 6 years ago), I took a My First Quilt Class. Lucky for me I had a very good (and practical) teacher who said she was going to teach us one way to do everything and as we got more experienced, we'd learn other ways. She did stress that we should only buy quilt store quality fabric and use 100% cotton thread. Have my tastes changed? I don't know that they've changed so much as I've gained confidence enough to explore new methods and patterns.

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  7. well it's a beautiful quilt but I'm glad you learned to break the rules, because I love your current work so much. I've always been a rule breaker (which drives my mom nuts, LOL)

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  8. I love this post and this discussion! Thanks Debbie! It's so interesting to see and hear about folks' evolutions!

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  9. Nothing wrong learning the usual way to do something and then going your own way....no matter how long it takes you!

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  10. I'm glad I learned to quilt in recent times - or at least at a good LQS and the Internet. My first teacher gave me a really good set of basic skills, but never said they were rules. It's fascinating to see your early stuff - so very different! (I'm not sure I ever would have sewn in the dark ages before rotary cutters. ;) )

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  11. What a great post, it made me smile and reflect. No bad thing to have learned a lot of "rules" but quite liberating to loosen up too especially as we age, but I do stick to cotton thread as I see a few of the above comments do. Gave up pre washing years ago though.

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  12. I think when we all learned to quilt those first rules were magical and followed to the letter. I've since learned that there are no rules and I like it that way! Its hard to break rules, and it took a long time for me to do it. But it is freeing and liberating! We should all do what we love, the way we love doing it!

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  13. Change is good; it's evolution. Thanks for the post. I've only been quilting for seven years but sewing for fifty years. I evolve every time I see something and say, "I can make that."

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  14. In 2007, these were the rules I was taught:
    Yes, oh my, yes.
    yes
    OF COURSE (and still do)
    yes
    no
    no
    no
    no
    yes

    Thanks for sharing one of your early quilts. I still have my first, but it's just a top. Don't love it enough to quilt it, too proud of it to get rid of it.

    Picture! Posted it as part of the IGquiltfest a week or two ago:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BSEP7f-gN3C/?taken-by=handwroughtquilts

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  15. Great post and loved reading the comments! I started quilting in 2009 - just when the modern quilting movement was emerging. And so my early quilts follow most of the "rules" you listed, but once I found blogs and joined the Montreal MQG, I just naturally let the rules go and started doing stuff that spoke to me and in a way that allowed me to really enjoy my hobby.

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  16. My more recent quilts are so much more fun, vibrant, & interesting than my earlier quilts (I started about 1999). I still consider myself more of a traditional quilter, though, I am not much on improv. I still love the symmetry & order of traditional blocks. But the fabric choices now! The colours! The variety! I've come a long way too, though. More daring. Scrappier. Less matchy-matchy. I never was a hand-quilter, though.

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  17. Very interesting, Debbie! Your style has really changed! Because I couldn't join any quilting class or group and just learnt on my own, I didn't have many rules. First I was afraid to do the folded binding and just did it somehow. I enjoyed the quilting and making patchwork from the first minute and hope to become more creative without rules. x Teje

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