Northern Flicker. A Quilt and a Bird.

The Northern Flicker. 

(Colaptes auratus)

photo by Kent Keller (utahbirds.org)

"Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump." - The Sibley Guide to Birds

Hiking in the mountains of Santa Fe, my husband and I heard the noise of flickers knocking on the trees. Two male flickers were fighting about something just above the trees. They are beautiful birds all spots and stripes with bright flashes of red.

Flickers are Derek's favorite bird. They are one of my favorites too. When Derek and I were dating we were both living in (separate) off campus houses with friends while we were undergraduates at the University of Denver. The houses were only a few blocks from each other and I remember many walks between those houses in the residential neighborhood around DU. In the early morning and in the early evening the flickers would come out to hunt.

Walking in the New Mexico mountains with Derek ten years later, the flickers were still fighting, hunting, and scavenging. Derek and I are still walking.

Sometimes you see something and you know it needs to become a quilt. I knew my flicker quilt was not going to be a literal bird quilt. I wanted to try to capture the colors and movement in the birds feathers. I just started cutting fabric and sewing it again. Triangles and circles, to make stripes and dots. I wanted the quilting to be irregular and organic. 

I gave this quilt to Derek and he promptly wrapped it around himself. Later I found it in his office. I think he likes it. Flickers are his favorite bird.

Quilt Stats: 
Name: Flicker
Size: Approximately 65" x 70"
Pattern: Improv, with lots of straight lines, but no pattern.
Fabric: So many scraps....
Quilting: Organic lines with the walking foot using Aurifil thread
Finished: January 2015

Why I quilt and #quiltconreject

Why do we quilt?

Why cut up fabric and sew it back together? Why do we do elaborate things with fabric when we could just sew together simple squares and the final product would be just as warm?

Quilting is a meditation for me, a meditation about creation. It is something I devote time and energy to because the craft makes me feel good.

I was reading Uppercase Magazine (January 2015, Issue 24), editor Janine Vangool interviewed Denyse Schmidt. In this interview Schmidt discussed why she started quilting, "The tangible record of time and effort I held in my lap, versus the ephemeral nature of what I produced day to day was a revelation."

That is it.

Sometimes a quilt is not designed or pieced, it is built block by block. I feel a little like a mason building a brick wall. It is not improv, per se, I used rulers and traditional blocks with precise point. It was a journey, I did not know what the finished project would look like until the end.

I chose traditional blocks to reference our heritage as quilters. I am so proud of my quilting fore bearers and I like to think they stitched up beautiful designs both for the practical and aesthetic reasons. Just like me, beauty was created for beauties sake. The quilting is done by both machine and hand. It felt important to make this personal quilt even more personal by adding handwork.

It also felt important to take my time. Quick quilts and easy patterns have their place (I personally love them!). A quilt that takes time is special, it means something when you stop and contemplate your work. We don't have to do this. If I needed a blanket, I could sew some squares together (something I have done and loved), but devoting oneself to a project gives it more meaning. It is almost like I stitched part of myself into this quilt.

I put my name on the front of this quilt. It felt so permanent and personal. It is also a statement on the art and craft of quilting. Quilting is an art that generations of women have perfected and loved, it is also an art that has often been ignored and under valued (I am sorry men, not trying to leave you out, but quilting has been long considered women's work and has been undervalued in the way that tasks considered "feminine" often are). Stories of finding intricately pieced antique quilts with no name or date are so common. On a quilt that is all about the maker and the process of making should include placing the person on the front with the design.

This quilt was rejected from Quilt Con 2016.

I am not going to lie and tell you I was not disappointed. I poured my heart and soul into the construction of this quilt. It was a passion project that took me weeks and months to complete. I do not, however, make my quilts for showing. I made this quilt because I had something to say, I needed to make this quilt.

I know that many fantastic quilts were accepted and rejected from the show at Quilt Con and I try not to derive self worth from a jury decision. Sure, it still stings. I am writing this here in case you were rejected from a show. I think it is okay to admit to being bummed. We want to be cheerful cheerleaders for our buddies who are showing quilts and the craft that we love! You didn't submit a quilt unless you loved it and believed in it. It is hard to hear a "no".

The good news is, this quilt lives in my house and I still love it. I am happy with my concept and design and I would not change a thing.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Why I Quilt 

Size: 65" x 70"

Pattern: my own, many traditional blocks included...

Fabric: Many stash fabrics, mostly from the scrap bins (as an aside, how do these bins never look smaller!)

Quilting: Straight lines by machine with Aurifil and hand quilting using Finca thread and some Aurifil Floss. 

Finished: August 2015

Blue is a Happy Color Scrappy Quilt

I had trouble naming this quilt. I mean, it is just a quilt. It was not hard to make, I didn't spend a long time debating my fabric choices or patterns. But, I did enjoy every second I worked on this project. Sometimes just a quilt is just what you need.

We have had a tough couple of months in Bacon casa. No babies (at least ones that belong to us) or divorces, but life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes when you are THINKING so hard about everything in your life you need to enter your sewing room and not think at all. This is a project born out of my desire to meditatively cut fabric apart and sew it together. This is also a project born out of the fact that I could not close either of my two (two!) blue scrap bins. My two low volume scrap bins were also not closing anymore. My color choices were made for me.

Blue is also my favorite. A happy color for me.

I knew I needed something simple and I also needed to use small pieces (scraps, amiright). I did make some rules for myself. The best meditation is done within constraints. I could not cut yardage. In a pinch, I was allowed to use fat quarters. I was not allowed to think about placement. I cut. I sewed. I pressed. It took me less than a week to make this top.

My instagram friends and my husband both convinced me that bigger is better. So this is twin sized. I also decided I needed some quilts that fit beds.

I didn't want to think about quilting either. I also think this quilt demanded simplicity so I went for straight lines in a crosshatch. I didn't mark, just eyeballed the lines using the quilt.  I tried to play with thread color switching between blue and white Aurifil, but you can barely tell.

One of the best things about scrappy quilts are the little nuggets from other projects you find. There are gnomes, cats (so many cats), frogs, dots, bridges, birds. text, bicycles, metallics, flowers, and deer... to name a few. Did I mention this project had very few rules?

Just in case you want to make your own scrappy Irish chain (did I mention that this is an Irish chain?) here are some stats. I cut 2.5" squares for each of the nine patch blocks. The large low volume squares are 6.5" (unfinished). Each block is 6" square finished. It is 11 squares across and 15 squares tall (measuring 66" by 90", taller than my 6'1'' quilt holder).

So, my first true finish of 2015. I started on new years and had the whole thing done in January. Just blogging now. New years resolution is going well.

Sew Joy my friends.

I love you all and I promise life is going okay. I promise you I have some fun stuff planned. I am heading to Quilt Con in 11 days (!). I have a post planned about my quilts that are going to be hanging in the show and I have a fun blog hop coming up sewing with some gorgeous bright and happy Gina Martin fabrics.

Cheers! Let me know if you are coming to Quilt Con in Austin. I would love to meet everyone. I can be a little introverted, but I know that we will be friends because we all love quilting and fabric.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Blue is a Happy Color
Size: 66" by 90"
Fabric: Way too many to name, all the girls are here... the backing is Carolyn Friedlander's Widescreen in Yarrow (by Robert Kaufman)
Quilting: Straight line cross hatch with my trusty Aurifil in white and blue.
Finished: January 2015

PS - These photos were all taken at the Mast Farm Inn, Banner Elk, NC. Derek and I took a mini weekend vacation there this weekend to hike in the mountains and curl up by the fire. It is a charming, small (and romantic) inn, which I would highly recommend to my local (and not so local peeps) looking for a unique getaway.  We stayed in a renovated woodworking building, which was completely luxurious.

Cover the World in Quilts. Quilt Lemonade.

Good afternoon my dear friends! Today I am blogging at you from Buffalo, New York. My family had a little reunion in Niagara Falls this weekend and Derek and I are spending the night in Buffalo before we head back to North Carolina.

Yesterday, we rode a boat underneath Niagara Falls (EPIC! AMAZING!).

Today, we bought my husband hockey skates and ate Buffalo wings (when in Buffalo...).

Tomorrow, we journey home and do laundry.

Tuesday, I am heading to Alabama for work.

Life is funny sometimes.

To the point... I made this quilt.

In the world of quilting there are many very deserving charitable organizations that ask for your talents. It can be sort of hard to determine which organizations to support with your limited time and resources. I read my friend (and guild mate) Val's passionate request for quilts for the kids living in a safe house in La Limonada, a community in Guatemala, and I knew I had to make her a quilt. According to Val, many of these kids have nothing to call their own. Can you imagine having nothing? Can you imagine not feeling safe as a kid? Or your kid not being or feeling safe?

This scrappy coin quilt was made with a little boy in mind. The colors were inspired by a terribly destroyed quilt my father's grandmother had made for him. My dad loves this quilt!

I have been informed that this quilt has journeyed down to Guatemala and is in possession of a little boy who is very pleased with it. Actually, I was sent a little picture and thank you from Val herself, but I can't share it because this little boy's anonymity needs to be protected. I can share that the photo made me happy cry.

If you are interested in making a quilt for Quilt Lemonade, the details are here. The organization working in La Limonada is Lemonade International and there are many other ways you can help this community.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Cover the World in Quilts
Size: Approximately 50" x 55"
Fabric: Scraps
Quilting: Infinity Loops with Aurifil Thread
Finished: June 2014

If you like this quilt, see this quilt, which is very similar.

Crazy Good, Crazy Quilt

I would like to start this blog post with some congratulations to myself. I writing a blog post, which is a win. I only found one tick on myself at work today and we saw no snakes.  I am awake and alive.

Life is awesome.

Today in this awesome successful blog post I am going to discuss a quilt I finished several weeks ago.  

It is a bigger, badder version of this quilt.

My friend Lauren asked me to make her a quilt. Normally, I do not make other people quilts on request. My fellow quilters may or may not agree with me, but quilts are a lot of work and gifting them is not something I do lightly. But something about Lauren's  quilt stuck with me and she allowed me complete creative control and no deadline. Plus she is awesome.

Her only request was green. I think I nailed it.

It only took me a year.

But she loves it.

What do you need to congratulate yourself for today?

Quilt Stats: 
Name: Crazy Good
Size: Approximately 60" x 60"
Fabrics: Scraps! with Ikea fabric on the back
Pattern: Roughly based on Crazy Star (from Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration)
Quilting: Figure eight loops with Aurifil thread
Finished: May 2014