In progress…

I can’t wait to share these pics any longer (though I’ve only had them for a couple of days). Here’s what the incredible Lisa Sipes and I have been working on (mostly her to be honest)…

thomas-knauer-sews-jo-morton-quilt-1

This quilt started out with a conversation with Jo Morton at Spring Quilt Market. We talked of this and that and the other, and I decided I really wanted to make a quilt with Jo’s new line Elizabethtown, one that referenced traditional quilts, but also fit my eye and approach. I actually designed one quilt that night at Market, but made it with different fabric (that quilt has started me down a long path of 1″ squares). On the flight home from Market I started sketching this quilt, playing with various plus signs, crosses, and windmills until I cam up with the precise placement and ratios that felt just right…

Then came the fun part, planning the quilting. I had a bunch of conversations with the absolutely remarkable Lisa and we came up with a general plan (motifs, straight lines, a real attempt to incorporate both modern and traditional feels) and then Lisa got to work, and boy howdy did she get to work. I’m convinced she is psychic, ’cause it turned out exactly like I saw it in my head before I actually saw it in my head. I cannot imagine it any other way. Now for a couple of the details…

Those diagonal lines, they are triple lines to get a really extraordinary texture…

thomas-knauer-sews-jo-morton-quilt-3

And the pebbling around the motifs, we’re calling it sand because it is so freaking tiny (think pea-sized)…

thomas-knauer-sews-jo-morton-quilt-2

And yes, that is trapunto baby…

I cannot begin to explain just how awesome Lisa is. Seriously… Beyond words, just can’t explain.

What I really love about this quilt is that it is both modern and traditional, minimalist and intricate. I am falling for doing modern quilts with traditional fabric, not trying to find a middle ground but just ramming disperate approaches together. To me this seems essentially quilterly, which, drawing from my academic art background, lines up in so many ways with postmodernism.

(Wikipedia actually offers a vaguely adequate introduction to postmodernism. Maybe someday I’ll get around to tackling it here.)

Anyway, I can’t wait until this baby lands on my doorstep and I can quickly bind it up. I may need to get to that quickly as a certain deadline looms ominously ahead…

Hugs,
T

This entry was posted in general and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to In progress…

Leave a Reply to Ellen Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *