On the wall, or floor, or something…

Even though I am not going to Market this spring it doesn’t mean things aren’t happening. Oh no, stuff is getting made and it is starting to take up space on the walls and floors and whatnot…

I’ve shown this over on the Facebook page, but haven’t put it up here. I’m calling this quilt Abecedarian, and it is based on the Braille alphabet. Yep, another example of me playing with embedding codes into my designs. Doing an alphabet quilt seemed especially right for Thesaurus, my next fabric collection with Andover, since since the fabric pivots around the idea of words and making up stories.

thomas-knauer-sews-abecedarian-1

I don’t generally do borders on my quilts, but this one really seemed to demand it. The extra cushion really pulls the negative spaces within the units through the whole quilt, transforming the discreet elements of the alphabet blocks into a seemingly random tangle of shapes, and by extension, language.

On the wall is a second version that I’m calling the Technicolor Abecedarian that I am making for the wonderful Kim. While the first one is about the interplay of positive and negative spaces, this one is all about entanglements, the interpenetration of solids and prints in a complicated language space. Also, it’s just all about crazy color overload.

thomas-knauer-sews-abecedarian-2

As with my recent Spoonflower designs, I’m really digging the interplays between language and form and the way meaning gets hidden within formal and aesthetic decisions. Heck the basic design of this quilt stems from the meaning of the word Abecedarian—”one learning the rudiments of something (as the alphabet).” The decision to keep the blocks ultimately simple is a nod at making this a quilt every beginner should be able to make, even as it results in a more complicated final result.

And speaking of complexity, I’m dipping a toe into computer-aided quilting for this one. I’ve designed a all-over quilting pattern especially for this quilt that is based on the alphabet print from Thesaurus:

thomas-knauer-sews-thesaurus-alphabet

The final quilting will look pretty much like this, which I think is going to be wicked-awesome. Along with some upcoming adventures into machine embroidery I am rather excited about taking advantage the otherwise impossible things I can do with new stitchery technologies…

intertessellation-lines2

So, the first Abecedarian is off for quilting; can’t wait to see how it turns out. I fear this techno work could get addictive, not because it makes things easier, but because it makes the insane, irrational, and impossible almost inevitable… At least for me.

-t

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