Finished Quilt!

Quilt. 48 x 60 inches. Hand quilted. Naturally Dyed. Hand stitched binding. 

The fabric was naturally dyed using the following materials: Osage Orange Tree Wood, Rosemary, Cutch, Cochineal, Lac, Blackberries, Avocado Pits and Japanese Maple Leaves. 

I spent every single spare second I had on this project, which is why I was able to finish it so fast. I want to say it took around 30 hours to complete everything (not including the dyeing). 

I Started a New Quilt.

I'm really excited about this one. It feels so good to start experimenting with different colors and shapes. 

Finished Quilt!

Quilt. 80 x 74 inches. Hand quilted. Naturally Dyed. Hand stitched binding. 

The fabric was naturally dyed using wood from an Osage Orange Tree and leaves from a Japanese Maple tree in our old backyard.

Oh my gosh, I finally finished my quilt. I am so happy and relieved at the same time. Relieved because I've been working on this for so long, I looked back at my old blog posts and saw that I started this in November of 2014! And I dyed the fabric for it on July 3, 2014! 

The quilt top was made fairly fast, maybe a couple of weeks, but the hand-quilting took the longest time (quilting the three layers together, the quilt sandwich as they say). Also, I did free-form hand quilting (not using a quilting loop and not using any sort of guides), which I thought was going to be more fun, but it probably made it harder in the end. It also didn't help that I took several months off while we moved and I took my sweet time only every once in awhile to work on it. I guess you could say I procrastinated on it quite a bit, the sheer size of it was slightly overwhelming for an amateur, but now I feel pretty good about everything and I sort of wish I got it done a lot sooner. There are things I would have done differently looking at it now, but overall, I am very pleased with it and excited for the next quilting adventure!

Loretta Pettway.

Loretta Pettway. Gee's Bend.

Quilting Progress.

 Finished the quilt sandwich! Now I can start hand-quilting the three layers together!

Quilting.

Around the House.

Quilting.

Putting together a new quilt with naturally dyed fabric using Cochineal + Weld, Cutch and Madder Root. 

Quilt.

Proud of my new Wall–Hanging Quilt. 

Gee's Bend Quilts.

"The Quilts of Gee's Bend were created by a group of women who live in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama during the 19th century (when the community was the site of a cotton plantation owned by a Joseph Gee). Currently, more than 50 quilt–makers make up the Gee's Bend Collective..."The compositions of the quilts contrast dramatically with the ordered regularity associated with many styles of Euro-American quilt–making. There's a brilliant, improvisational range of approaches to composition that is more often associated with the inventiveness and power of the leading 20th-century abstract painters than it is with textile-making," writes Alvia Wardlaw, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts." More here. 

Gee's Bend Quilts.

"The Quilts of Gee's Bend were created by a group of women who live in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama during the 19th century (when the community was the site of a cotton plantation owned by a Joseph Gee). Currently, more than 50 quilt–makers make up the Gee's Bend Collective..."The compositions of the quilts contrast dramatically with the ordered regularity associated with many styles of Euro-American quilt–making. There's a brilliant, improvisational range of approaches to composition that is more often associated with the inventiveness and power of the leading 20th-century abstract painters than it is with textile-making," writes Alvia Wardlaw, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts." More here. 

First Completed Quilt.

 Super fun creating my first quilt! 

(Special thanks to Patricia of Okan Arts for the technique tips). 

First Quilt.

I have been inspired by quilting forever. One of my most prized possessions is an heirloom quilt I've had since I was about five years old (pictured above). It was made by my great grandmother whom I was named after, Elizabeth Nome (Nome--meeh) and comprised of her old wing dresses. She lived in a small home on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in Parker Canyon. She wore braids, a silver watch, round glasses and floral dresses. Always dresses. This quilt has meant a lot to me and will always be a part of my life. It lives on my bed and occasionally my couch and is still beautiful after all these years. In almost all of the creative things I do and even more so in my recent daily life, I try to channel her energy. I even like that our house is small because it reminds me of hers.  

Top Left: Great Grandma, older sister, me, and dad in a tipi. 

Top right: Great Grandma and I in her home.  

Process pics from my first attempt at creating a quilt. 

Needless to say, I have finally started quilting! I've been threatening to make one of my own for at least 10 years now. Not sure why it's taken so long, but I feel ready now. I am so inspired by their differences, traditions, origins, and functions. The possibilities seem endless from the color of fabric and thread to the design and dimensions, even down to hand quilting vs. machine quilting.

This first attempt hasn't been easy, but it's been a lot of fun figuring everything out. The biggest challenge has been relearning how to use my sewing machine (for the machine-piecing). In the beginning, I had to rethread it after every square which was becoming unbearable, but I think I have everything under control now. Everyone has to start somewhere I guess.

One of the best things that has happened in the process so far was my discovery of a a small shop. I was searching for a specific thread and after calling several shops in Seattle, I was finally able to locate it at "Okan Arts," a small independently owned shop that specializes in Japanese fabrics run by a wonderful woman named Patricia. She had me bring my quilt top project to see what I was working on and ended up giving me a ton of tips and pointers on it. Turns out I made several mistakes and was able to fix them all after visiting her. Her passion for quilting was evident and truly inspiring. I strongly recommend her shop if you're ever in the market for fine fabrics, threads or quilting classes.