'It' and the Dare to Doodle

Yea, I have seen the blogs, looked over the tutorials and read the books (oh so many books) that say "Get a dry erase board and doodle. It will help you to learn good eye hand coordination and improve your quilting skills." I ignored that advice. I made excuses like "its not really like actually quilting", "I am not good at drawing things", and "it can't possibly help me, its just silly".

Until, one day during a back to school sale I picked up this 'thing'.

Scary? YES! You mean I have to use it?

When I arrived home that day I walked in the house and leaned it up against the guest room wall still wrapped in its plastic, and scurried away quickly as if it was taunting me! Telling me I was not good enough, I had no right to think I could handle the failure and disappointments I might make upon its pristine glistening white face.

Weeks went by, then months. Every time I passed the guest room I could hear it, still taunting me. One day while sitting in the living room visiting with family I was asked to draw out examples of my quilting, to which I quickly changed the subject. Later that evening and after a few glasses of wine I summoned up my courage and marched into the guest room. Before 'it' could utter a word, I tore away the plastic wrapping, wadded it up and tossed it on the floor. I sat on the guest bed and pulled the cap of the pen off and wrote this:

You Will Not Defeat Me 

I will over come this fear!

I doodled swirls and I swear I thought I heard giggling. Quiet taunting laughter as if my sad crooked jerky swirls were a joke. I used my sleeve and wiped the swirls away, it got quiet again. I drew more swirls and more and more swirls, until the evil whispering laughter ended. I put the dry erase board away in my quilting room. It's shiny white face silently glared at me.

The next time I went to use 'it' the pen was missing. A large emotional search was conducted, blankets tossed, dresser drawer contents emptied, and accusations were made. Eventually the said pen was found, under the couch broken into three pieces. The battle wounds could clearly be seen, and the guilty party identified - Ripley! My sweet little doxie girl had killed the pen. So off to the store were I purchased a multi pack of dry erase pens in many colors (ya know I love me some color in my life).

Now I doodled and practiced every free moment I had, and like training a wild mustang each time I doodled on the dry erase board we got to know each other. I knew if I didn't like what I saw, I could simply erase it and start over. 'It' learned to trust me, to understand I was honing my skills as a quilter. Together we created, practiced and experimented with new designs harmoniously.

What does this silly little story mean, you may ask? 

It was all in my head, all the evil voices and laughter were simply me and my doubt. The fear of trying and failing, that is all it was. I was intimidated by seeing my mistakes, but you have to make mistakes to learn to get better, right? What a extreme moment of insight!

If you want to quilt and want to get better at it - GET A DRY ERASE BOARD!

It doesn't matter whether you want to quilt on your domestic home sewing machine, a mid-arm or a long-arm get one ASAP!

Practice and doodle and if you don't like what you see, just wipe it away. If you like what you see, take a picture and save it. Do it over and over and over again!!

'It' is now affectionately named William, but I call him Will - yes my Will!

So, tell me what is your excuse??

Modern Low Volume vs Traditional Quilting Neutrals

Low Volume fabrics have become very popular in the modern quilting world and while there are many different opinions on what is or isn't Modern Low Volume, I thought I'd take a moment and talk about low volume prints and how they differ from Traditional Quilting Neutrals.

When I first saw a quilt using Modern Low Volume fabrics I thought "Wow, what a great idea. So fresh and modern". But as the wave of quilts and fabric bundles have come out I also have noticed that many new quilters are still confused as to what Modern Low Volume fabrics are.

From here on I will refer to Modern Low Volume fabric as MLV and Traditional Quilting Neutrals as TQN.


Traditional Quilting Neutrals

Photo credit - Keepsake Quilting Butter Churn bundle

I think I need to explain first what TQN fabrics are, or at least what I think they are. 

I made this quilt many years ago in Civil War Repros.

Back in the day (yuck that makes me sound old) - when I first started quilting I was a traditional quilter, I used Civil War reproduction fabrics, 1930's reproduction fabrics, muddy colors and lots of beige. 

A baby quilt I made as a gift in 1930's repro.

I used a lot of what was called Neutrals or now called TQN fabrics for backgrounds. I  loved them at the time, and the simple truth is that was all we had available for background fabrics other than the typical solid fabric or muslin.

Traditional Quilting Neutrals

Above is an example of TQN fabrics commonly used in traditional quilts as background fabrics. TQN are usually tone on tone prints ranging from off-white to beige with a warm tone to them.

Example of TQN used in the background. I made this quilt as a challenge to use all stash and scrap fabrics. 

Most TQN have little to no color other than the cream to beige range, although they can have a little color in them - small amounts and very subtle.

Mini Log Cabin Heart quilt made using TQN.

While the quilts above are beautiful, they say to me 'Traditional' as opposed to 'Modern'. I can appreciate a traditional quilt just as much as I can appreciate an 'Art' quilt or 'Modern' quilt! And it doesn't hurt my feelings if you call them traditional, because I understand the concept between Modern vs Traditional. (and those are my traditional quilts I am showing above :)


Modern Low Volume Prints

With the Modern and Modern-Traditionalism quilt movement came the use of modern prints for background fabrics and thus created the MLV trend.

MLV fabrics are often graphic prints with white or light gray backgrounds, and can contain color.

The MLV fabric use was slowly building until the book 'Sunday Morning Quilts: 16 Modern Scrap Projects' by Amanda Jean Nybery and Cheryl Arkison was published, then the quilting world exploded with MLV fabric bundles and projects.

Photo credit - Westwood Acres Inside Voices Club

MLV fabrics are bright and clean as opposed to the TQN that are more muted and warm in tone. When looking for MLV fabrics look for graphic prints on white or very light background.

Riley Blake's Geekly Chic Glasses on off-white

I try and stay away from fabrics with a cream or beige background that has very little contrast or no color. With the exception of graphic prints on off-white backgrounds. Sometimes you will come across MLV fabrics with a muted background like the example above. Riley Blake's Geekly Chic Glass fabric in off-white is a modern graphic print and an excellent MLV.

Tailored Key by Annette Tatum for Free Spirit

Annette Tatum's fabric 'Tailored - Key' for Free Spirit graphic print with royal blue on a crisp white background is a great example of a MLV fabric. Using a bold color in a tiny print that is toned down with the white background.

Posy by Aneel Hoey

'Posy' by Aneel Hoey is another example of a MLV fabric, a whimsical print with a white background and small doses of color. 

While just about any pale modern print fabric can be classified as a MLV, it is more about the use in a modern quilt for the overall visual effect.

Photo credit - Film in the Frig's quilt Marcelle Plus 

In the Marcelle Plus quilt by 'Film in the Fridge', Ashley Newcomb uses many MLV fabrics for the background and bold color prints for the pluses. The bold color prints stand out but play nicely against the MLV fabrics. Your eye is drawn to the pluses and the MLV blend into the background.

This lovely low volume quilt was made by Rita Hodge of 'Red Pepper Quilts'  she uses all MLV fabrics here. In this quilt she lets the low volume fabrics sing, and though some may stand out more than others, this quilt has a calming feel to it.

Mod Pop by Anne Sullivan of Play-Crafts

Mod Pop by Anne Sullivan of Play-Crafts is a wonderful example of MLV in tones of light gray and bright bold blue prints. Not only a very modern use of fabric but a very modern design.

Pillow Tutorial by Amanda of A Crafty Fox

Amanda from 'A Crafty Fox' created this pillow pattern and tutorial using MLV, bold colorful prints and Essex linen. Again a great example of using MLV fabrics to make the bold colors pop - the orange hexagons are the first thing you see.

Here in 'Her Light Within' a mini quilt, I used a few MLV prints in two quarters of the large sun to contrast the stark white, orange and aqua prints.

Both MLV and TQN have been used as backgrounds in quilts and both are equally beautiful, yet they have totally different aesthetics and create an overall different visual outcome.

Hopefully I may have helped you and not added to the confusion of the question 'What is a low volume fabric?'.

Will I make more quilts with TQN? Of course! Will I make more quilts with MLV? You can bet on that!!

xoxo,
Kira

PS - all the spelling and grammar errors are free of charge ;)
(I am a notoriously horrible English student)

Quilt Show Lately? If you haven't maybe you should!!

Many of our guild members had quilts in the show last weekend at the

 Emerald Coast Quilt Retreat and Show

I even submitted the quilt 'Cosmos' 

I was asked four things from my experience of having a quilt in a show -

what were my fears, why did I enter, what did I expect and what was the reality of it all in the end.

Since it's so hard for me to translate my emotions into words I did a word game - you know, make a list using one word answers to describe your feelings in each category  Using the topics 'fear', 'why', 'expectations' and 'reality', I came up with these answers answers.

Fear

• opinions- I am scare of others opinions of me, and the quilt only shows one side of who I am
• judgement- if the quilt is a failure and a horrible example of quilting
• criticism- what if no one likes it or worse what if they hate the quilt
• negativity- could my quilt put a negative spin on the modern quilting movement

Why

• experience- to have the experience of actually having a quilt in a show
• group- if not for the ECMQG I would have never had the confidence to show a quilt
• share- spread the word about modern quilting and the wonderful community of quilters
• voice- to have a voice or show what I can do 
• represent- again to show how wonderful the world of modern quilting is by being an example

Expectations

• feedback- to get feedback from the judges 
• skills- learn what skills I need to work on and what skills I have accomplished
• learn- from this and be a better quilter and share with others what I have learned
• interest- to build interest in ECMQG and modern quilting

Reality

• good- none of the fears I had became fact, I was silly to even think them!
• pride- in oneself and as a quilter, and with our quilting community
• community- our diverse quilting community is open and welcoming, not at all judgmental
• interest- we received lots of interest in the guild and modern quilting
• accomplishment- a general sense of accomplishment that I plowed through my fears and came out in the end just a little be better! 

So if you've been afraid to take the plunge and enter a quilt in a show, I say DO IT!

You won't be disappointed!!

Cindy's Wonky Stars

Melanie's Awesome Quilt

There were even more great quilts from our guild - but my computer is not cooperating with me today. Our wonderful members- Cindy, Marcy, Wendi, Kelly, Melanie, Leslie and all the members that made a block for the Modern BOM Charity quilt (who didn't even realize they had their works in the show) you did a wonderful job!!!!!

For more pictures and to see all the quilts in the show click here

a wonderful experience

Can you tell from this picture that all the fear was gone and nothing but sheer delight was to be had Saturday!