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AZTECIAN
Aztecian is one of the very first Color Grid quilts where I felt like I got it. I was manipulating the sashing to interact with the blocks. It was visual magic, and while I could see what I had done, I didn’t yet really understand how I did it. That would be years later when I began teaching block based improv quilt making. If you repeat color in particular places you can disappear the boundaries between the blocks. What a revelation!
THE STITCHING SILO
“The key point is this: with or without a formal training in anthropology, we all do need to think about the cultural patterns and classification systems that we use. If we do, we can master our silos. If we do not, they will master us.”
― Gillian Tett, The Silo Effect: Why putting everything in its place isn't such a bright idea
In the early years of our family, my husband Walt would blare the TV or music all the time. He could always find something to watch or listen to. Always. He was raised in a household of TV’s. He liked it. I hated it. It was an ongoing battle that he mostly won. When he wasn’t watching the Kansas City Chiefs (lose all the time—back in the day!), our children were watching Blue’s Clues. I was the lone advocate for silence.
One day, Walt bought a pair of bulky old school headphones that allowed him to listen to music all day in silence. As the years went by, everyone in our family got smart phones and airpods. Our house got quieter. We could all listen to exactly what we wanted to listen to without compromise. Rich Roll and Joe Rogan could be playing simultaneously, and no one would ever know.
Blow that up.
We now all have our own data generating individual entertainment centers in our pockets and ears. The modern world with its bazillion options for connecting in just the way we want to connect allows each of us to build the community that we want to live in. We have the power to craft our own world of information.
I call my world the Stitching Silo, and I am trying to break out of it. I want to engage with the rest of my family’s “silos”. I still don’t find poop jokes funny, but I can chat about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Isn’t that the merger of all mergers? Hello lady football fans. I pause my rotary cutting to peer at Youtube videos that make NO SENSE whatsoever. Are they even speaking English? And well, as my children say, I am the Mother Mom. I can engage or ignore as I wish in the confines of our home. But beyond? Where does the silo end?
Where is our common ground? Wordle? Is that it?
Let’s take quilting. Sometimes people can get really upset about pressing. Yes. I have been known to have strong opinions on this subject, but I will still be your friend even if your pressing abilities are substandard. Can I take this a step farther? Can I accept your floppy bindings and uneven free motion quilting? Yes, of course I can.
What about the step after that? Can I like all forms of making—from cake decorating to toilet paper roll art? What about all artists, and art community members, and leaders who fund those activities? What about the person who wants you to make them a quilt even though they just met you on an elevator? Ummmm, that’s a hard one.
Start with any subculture you are a member of and draw the circle bigger and bigger. How big can you go?
NEWS & EVENTS
IMPROV FOR EVERYONE—ON THE GRID
Twice a year, I teach a four hour ZOOM workshop for $30! Yep. That is the price. I call it Improv for Everyone! For $30 you get the following things—
—Four Hour Live Workshop on ZOOM
—Recorded Version of the Workshop which is available for six plus months
—Lecture & Demos
—Invite to my private Facebook group where all of my students hang out
—Live Q&A Session
—Handouts and Link Pack
—Total Immersion into the Improv topic for the session which is GRIDS!
Here are the details.
Improv for Everyone—On the Grid
Saturday, July 13, 2024
12NOON—4PM East Coast Time
My plan is to cover improv plaids, quarter log cabins, and then move into a discussion about how your sashing (which is a grid) can interact with your quilt blocks creating cool and interesting results in your piece work. I hope you will join me. I only do this twice a year! Don’t miss it.
The quilts shown here are all from my Color Grid Series and feature the quarter log cabin block with innovative sashing work. Sign up for Improv for Everyone and learn the tricks for doing this! |
