Quilt Monday

Thank you all for your comments about the baby gifts. I'm really glad you like them, and I hope the recipients and their parents will like them as well.

I am back from a fantastic, almost exotic vacation - right here at home! Two whole days without the baby (Todd took her to the art fairs, and she loves to look at art), and I am now well-rested with my hair trimmed, my eyebrows shaped, and my crafty fingers twitching.

On Friday I skipped my usual swim class and ran errands: walked two miles across town, another two miles uptown, and then returned home with all my packages. My journeys included a stop at the quilt shop, where I finally saw, first hand, the Denyse Schmidt fabric line.

Denyse Schmidt's Run and Fall quilt, from DenyseSchmidt.com

Ok, I guess I'm the lone nay-sayer. I'm just not excited about the line. I stared at the fabrics for quite a while and just couldn't get enthusiastic about them. I'm sorry. It's not that I don't like any of the prints. I guess what bothers me is that it doesn't capture what I love about Schmidt's work: she uses solids and quirky, eclectic fabrics in her own quilts, and developing a line of fabrics seems to be the antithesis of the way she approaches her work. In other words, the Denyse Schmidt quilt-making method does not seem to be this: go the quilt shop, select your fabrics off the bolt in a pre-determined palette, and go home to reproduce a Denyse Schmidt quilt. The idea is, instead, to dig and scrounge unique, unusual vintage fabrics from thrift shops and your grandmother's attic, sit down with those fabrics and play with various combinations, and create your very own unique twist on the traditional quilt block.

But this is the same issue that bothered me so much about her book, too. I don't want to be given a pattern for a quirky, off-center quilt block which will match everyone else's quirky, off-center quilt blocks; I want to learn how to create my own individual, completely unique quirky quilt blocks. In other words, I want to learn the process, not be given the pattern.

Those are the reasons that Denyse Schmidt's quilts are great, and it's the same reason why the Gee's Bend quilts are so marvelous: each quilt is one of a kind, made of old, used fabrics which had served other purposes. There was no trip to the quilt store and no use of a quilt pattern. And how much better are those quilts for it!

So yes, some of the prints in the new line are very pretty. And I'm sure that somewhere down the line I'll be buying and using a few of them. It's just that I had hoped for a more random, less co-ordinated fabric line. I think I wanted to feel like I was discovering some beautiful old prints instead of being handed co-ordinating prints in a predetermined color palette. And I fully recognize that my expectations are much less practical and don't fit with the way quilting fabrics are marketed and sold. But that's why I expected more from Denyse; her quilts aren't typical quilts, so why should her fabrics or her book be typical either?

Having said all that, I will now completely contradict myself and show you my very first quilt blocks, made entirely with fabrics I purchased at quilt shops.


This is the first of the pillows. I've never done patchwork before, which is odd considering all the time and money I spend at quilt shops. I've cut the cotton batting and plan to quilt both panels before assembling them as a pillow. Can't decide whether to hand or machine quilt. My limited amount of crafting time is pushing me toward machine quilting, but we'll see; this is good practice for making a big quilt, and perhaps if I hand quilt the pillow I'll be more realistic when it comes time for a queen-sized quilt!

One last thing: my beloved Purl Soho is opening a quilt shop! At last, there will be more than one shop in this town. I ran into Joelle the other day, and she told me that the new quilt shop will be named Purl Patchwork, it will be just up the block from the yarn shop, and it will be teeny-tiny. She will indeed be carrying the Denyse Schmidt line as well as many other vintage-inspired fabrics, Japanese imports, and a selection of other more unusual fabrics. She'll also be offering classes. I negelected to ask her if there will be a website. I certainly hope so!