I appreciate feedback on my quilts as well. It’s one of the reasons I’m in a mini group where discussing our quilts is the primary focus of the group. This process helps me process what’s going on in my head with a particular quilt. One comment from one of the mini group members has stuck with me from the beginning…more on that later
Recently a TQS friend emailed me asking for a “quilting consult”. She’s working on Jacqueline de Jonge’s “Circle of Life” this amazing design has some complicated piecing and my friend wanted some input. I offered some suggestions, that in all honesty, confirmed where she was headed already. At some point during our conversation her copy of The Quilt Life arrived in her mail box. If you don’t subscribe to The Quilt Life it’s the new magazine with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims, Jan Magee is the editor. I wrote a piece for the “Be Our Guest” section – titled: “Finding your quitlerly voice”. My friend had time to read it and the next day she emailed this:
Thank you Teri for all your help. I have had a great deal of insecurity in the quilting of Circle of Life. I read your article in The Quilt Life, and realized I need to develop my voice. I need to let the quilt talk to me, which it has been all along. The vast navy blue expanse needed to be quilted in a way to reflect what the quilt is saying to ME! The quilt speaks to me of convergence, and radiation. So like the ephemeral waves of heat off a hot highway, I wanted that radiation to be in the navy, eminating off the NYB arches. I did a practice piece, and liked the look, so took the plunge and off I have gone!
She totally understood and chose to pursue her own quilterly voice, going with those quilting motifs that made sense to her. She sent me some sketches and chose to go with the one she really wanted for that space. What a gift for both of us!
On my front I got to work on the next in the “Twilight in the Bronx” series, which is as yet nameless…it’ll come. I like the background and where the design is going. It’s truly not what I expected and yet it makes me happy. *I need to replace the batteries in my camera because I left it on yesterday for several hours while I quilted. It usually goes off after 3 minutes so I didn’t think about it when I walked away. Bugger.* When I started working on “Twilight in the Bronx” I made a major change after one of the mini group meetings as one of my friends pointed out that I was hiding my quilting. The background on this next quilt is Kaufman’s Radiance in Peacock blue…I’m choosing warm colors for the quilting on this…I picked up pink, orange, yellow and red silk thread at Quilt Fest NJ. I have a lot of other bright colors of other thread that will be incorporated as well…I’m enjoying the process of this quilt.
Happy quilting!
Teri
How awesome to have a small group that supports you in that way! Thank you for your support!
I so agree with you about the “quilterly” voice. Listen to what the quilt is saying and then enjoy the quilting journey. It is great that you make time in your classes for people to bring their projects and then discuss quilt designs/threads/etc. as it is important to have a starting place with every project. Some people get stuck at the very beginning and never get to the fun part of the creative process.