The post where we get a little personal

So here is the thing. I'm actually overseas and will be for a few months. I had big BIG plans to be able to continue to post like nothing is happening. I was going to answer emails in a timely fashion, and peruse and chat on instagram as normal. I was planning on working like I wasn't away. Not sure why I thought that was necessary to keep everything going as normal. I'm guessing it was ye oldy friend ms.perfectionist trying to do it all. 

Anyhow, it isn't working. I have been away a month and trying to find time to reply to emails quickly, and keep totally on top of things is causing me a little spot of stress. So I wanted to explain where I'm at, rather than confusing you with pictures of a Danish field and a wool shop in Croatia*. Or frustrate you by posting in a totally random fashion....

And this is where the personal comes in. I don't often get personal on here so here goes.

The long and the short of it is that we have been planning and hoping for many years now to go on an adventure with our kids. A big adventure. I like them. Always have. But I kinda screwed up 13ish years ago and met a corporate fella while I was travelling. And he is/was super corporate, so we got stuck in the life. A lovely life - but one that lacked time and had plenty of stress. 

Fast forward ten years and three kids and we start talking about adventures. We weren't sure of the when and how, but we had plans. Lots of plans. Maybe we drive from Australia to England in a camper van. Maybe we spend 6 months in South America. Maybe. Maybe. Anyway late last year we got super lucky and he was made redundant after nearly 20 years. And we booked some tickets.... 

We decided to start a bit smaller and so now we are camping our way around Europe - with a tent and three kids seven and under. We left at the start of April. Got to my MIL in the UK. Bought a second hand Land Cruiser and top box and off we went.

We are only a week or so into the camping part, but I can see that life will not quite be what I thought. We have adventure, but adventure means that I can't be sure of wifi access and/or how many kids will throw up on the ferry and/or if there will be the time and space on any given day to take a photo and write a post. Two days ago I thought we were headed for Spain, but we are now heading down through Germany into Prague. We actually have no plans and nothing booked. I can't tell you how exciting that is…. 

So before you get concerned…. The Craft Sessions September 2014 is all good to go. We are completely sorted and I will be back in plenty of time :) (and we still have some tickets left!). The blog will keep going and emails will be answered, classes assigned, etc etc. The only thing is - it might take me a day to get back to you sometimes, and somedays it may take me three. 

I'll be back later on in the week with a post on some inspirational nordic knitters and hopefully another one on patchwork. The next post in the Secret to Becoming a Great Knitter/Learn To Read Your Knitting series has just been photographed and hopefully will pop up next week. 

Hope things are good with you and yours.

Felicia x

*If anyone has any wool shops etc that I should check out in Europe please let me know :)

Freestyle knitting

So today we are talking freestyle knitting - knitting where you just make up your own pattern as you go. Now, I can hear you saying “but why??... why would I want to?... people write patterns for me to follow”. All of that is true but there is a few great reasons for trying freestyling that I want to share.

But quickly before I start I want to say that this is not a post about designing a pattern - that is a whole other kettle of fish. This is about making up a garment that you want to knit without a pattern. While freestyling is much easier after you have a little experience under your belt, I do believe that advanced beginners could/should give it a go. 

1. You can make what you want

This truly is the best bit. Ever spotted something on pinterest, or even in the real world, and fallen totally in love. Then spent hours on Ravelry trying to find a matching pattern. Yep - me too! Often Ravelry doesn't have the exact pattern I want. I have become a notorious modifier who is always changing something to shape it to what I want. Through learning even a little about the structure of your knitting AND the potential structures of knitted garments, you gain so much control. You can truly make what you want, how you want it. And who doesn't like having some control hey!

I'm trying to figure out how to make this beauty. If only they would take one more photo of it lying flat I would be set...

2. You learn how to make modifications

Freestyling means you will learn about knitting structure. And this means that ALL your garments benefit. By understanding more, you are able to modify patterns so they fit beautifully so you actually want to wear them. Then because they fit, you will think knitting sweaters is wonderful so you want to knit more. Win.

3. You gain confidence and understanding

Learning how to freestyle your own design really solidifies your knowledge base in a way that knitting from a pattern doesn’t. I’m having trouble finding an analogy but freestyling means that you have to pay a lot more attention to the details of the knit. Honing your skills while you work.

4. You get more joy from your knitting

I have no actual proof of this. But I do offer into anecdotal evidence the photos that are used in this post. This jumper was a request from my small boy for his birthday next week. He designed it. He chose the yarn. He refused my many many requests to choose a simpler collar. He feels total ownership of it and even knitted a few stitches. And although the ad hoc nature of the knit meant that I did lots of ripping of the aforementioned collar (and copious amounts of s@#$ring) I feel way way prouder of it than if I had knitted someone else’s pattern. It bloody well worked! And he is thrilled. 

5. Fun

Freestyling is fun. The sweater you are making may be looking a bit big around the neck – why not do a few more random decreases you rascal you, and make it a bit smaller. Freestyling is a wind-in-your-hair kinda freedom without leaving your couch. As EZ says "it's your knitting!"

 6. You learn things

Now although I like his jumper, there are a few wacky things about it – like for some random reason I decided to do a three stitch raglan which looks a little s%$t….so I learnt a valuable lesson - that I don’t like having 3 stitches in between my raglan decreases.  I remember making the decision to do it but I don’t remember why and I do regret it - but not so much I was willing to rip it out. All about the learning.

Please excuse the hideous light but I was trying to take them under a very grey English sky that wasn’t going anywhere.

How to learn to freestyle knit!

I truly believe you need to go back to the masters - Elizabeth and Barbara. They wrote two essential and fabulous books. One for bottom up and the other for top down. They both have their benefits and their separate joys. Bottom up means that you are essentially doing a giagantic gauge swatch before you get to the all important yoke – but you can’t try it on. With top down you can try it on as you go but you need to get your gauge right first. 

Resource 1

Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I have talked about this book on the blog before but if you really want to understand your knitting then this is the perfect place to start. Elizabeth will fill you with confidence, knowledge and joy.

Resource 2

Knitting from the Top by Barbara G Walker. This is the bible for the top down knitters. Ignore the picture on the front as this book has all types of top down shaping and is oft quoted as the book where people began their top down journey.

Read them both and you will truly have increased your knowledge and understanding of the knitted garment in an exponenetial way. You will never be the same.

Resource 3

Another fabulous resource would be Karen’s posts on How to improvise a top down sweater. This series is brilliant!! And she was a pretty new knitter when she wrote it, so she is looking at it from a wonderful perspective that doesn't assume you have years of knitting experience. 

Resource 4

If you are able to get to a class or two (or work with a knitter you know) to learn it in a hands on way then that is incredibly valuable. That said – I didn’t. I learnt all I know from those books, youtube, making other people’s patterns and making a ton of mistakes (and a few successful knits ;)). Which reminds me - another great resource for how-to is just to take notice when you are knitting other people's patterns. You will find an absolute wealth of knowledge if you really start to pay attention.

Okey dokey. Now if you think freestyling may be for you, just get to it and remember mistakes are how you learn – ripping is part of the process my friends. Don’t see it as wasted time – see it as a step towards mastery.

I’d love to hear if you freestyle (or plan to) at all.

Felicia x

PS. A little housekeeping. Due to my inability to maintain two separate Pinterest pages, I am not going to be updating The Craft Sessions pinterest account any longer. I will however continue to update my own (and have changed the link icon to link to my personal page). I have a heap of clearly marked craft boards. So if you are interested in craft but not in the fact that I need a coffee table, please feel free to just follow the craft boards.

The false economy of not making

Just before I left to go on holiday I got to spend a couple of hours with my lovely friend Claire. Those of you who came last year will remember her - she was the gorgeous blonde who looked after you alongside the lovely Anna. So Claire and I were having a chat upstairs at her pretty pretty shop about how there are a lot of things that she doesn't even start knitting because she isn't sure of how they will turn out. And a bit inside my brain started going hmmmm. I started wondering whether I did it and if so how often. 

Y'know how it goes. You invest all that time and energy into a project and it doesn't quite turn out how you wanted. This happens to you a few times and then you start getting twitchy about beginning, knowing that the end product might ultimately lead to some dissatisfaction or even borderline physical pain. Some people might start avoiding particular types of projects whereas other people may even give up entirely. 

And that probably makes sense. Most people have limited time to make and you don't want to waste it making things that don't work…..

But I've started thinking that not making is totally a false economy. By not making you don't even get the opportunity for it to go right AND you don't get the practice. Each time you make a mistake you learn something - right?

I know I do it. Avoid starting stuff because I'm not sure of the outcome or start but get stuck in the middle. But then I watched this new TED video this week that reminded me that the near miss has real value on the road to mastery. And that mastery is the goal, not success because success is a one time event. And mastery involves improving your skills over time…which can only happen if you get in the game.

There is a life lesson in there somewhere - yes? 

I've been thinking about a way forward. The only way for me to get around it in my making is to be super conscious. Going back to that visual diary obviously, but also simply looking at stuff that keeps coming up that I really want to make but don't. And then I almost need to schedule a time to start. Without being that structured avoidance seems to be where I live - and that is not the way forward.

So here is a commitment - this week I am going to start my little fella's quilt. I'm off to iron. Anything you need to start this week?

Felicia x

Part 2 - I was totally wrong about patchwork!

So this post follows on from Part 1 - I was totally wrong about patchwork! but starts from a "how do they do that? HOW are those quilts so beautiful?" perspective. After explaining how I have fallen in love with patchwork over the last few years, I wanted to take it a step further today and tell you about some of the things I think that make their quilts so amazing. I also feel the need to say that I might totally be stating the obvious in this post - but for me it took some time to figure out what they had in common that I loved - so I thought I would share.

At the end of the post I am going to suggest some other patchworkers/quilters you might like to have a look at and a couple of artists I like who make quilt like art or art that looks like quilts. There are so many other makers out there to inspire you to give patchwork a try.

Form and Composition

Quilts have always been about form and composition. But each of these quiltmakers has put their own stamp on tradition. 

Hopewell through their use of simple shapes - some of them remind me of Rothko or Albers paintings - make simple but really interesting quilts combined with what they do with colour. Lindsay Stead does it with her use of traditional patterns at different scales - she talks about her process a bit in this video on her site. Maura just appears to fiddle with traditional patterns and makes magic - she seems to deformalise the formal. And Meg talks about using a traditional methodology and fiddling with it to get her amazing strip quilts.

The Similar Colour Trick

This I think is the key - but I'm finding it tricky to explain. Each one of these quilt makers use this "trick" where the quilts aren't just flat colour. For example instead of using a single dark colour,  they use two (or more) very similar colours as their "dark".  They use this trick in different but clever ways to make quilts that have so much more depth and life than they would if they just used flat colours.

This is best way to show the similar colour trick is through pictures methinks.

The Georgia quilt below actually uses two different flat cottons - one navy and one black as the "dark" in this quilt. Until I saw this quilt it would never have occurred to me to use two similar colours and especially not navy and black. Seeing this was one of those life altering moments. My reality shifted a little. I mean look at it! It totally blew my mind....how clever does Maura want to be.

Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose

Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose.

She then gets a little cleverer. Maura now uses her own naturally dyed fabrics, which means that the fabric itself has subtle variation in it and isn't flat (this is like the effect of a semi-solid for all you knitters out there). This is beautifully shown in her Idaho quilt below - what could have been quite a dramatic sharp quilt is softened by the use of the naturally dyed fabric. Often there is variation in both the background and the feature colour of her quilts. 

Photo's courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose. 

Linday Stead does this thing in many of her quilts, where she uses flat colours but two slightly different shades of the one colour. There are two examples below. This is so simple and yet so effective.

Two different reds - Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead.

Two different background colours - Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead.

Another one that Lindsay has just finished has just been accepted into Quilt Canada and it shows this perfectly in the background. Have a look at it here - http://instagram.com/p/nDcLdCrc93/

Meg Callahan does this sometimes by using a dyed fabric in just in parts of the quilt - like the red one. Or in the black one below the dyed fabric is used as the dark fabric throughout the whole quilt.

Photo courtesy of Meg Callahan

Photo courtesy of Meg Callahan

Photo courtesy of Meg Callahan

So after seeing that this was a common element to many different makers, I emailed the lovely Anna and asked for some words about why the similar colour trick has such an amazing effect and she said this:

“The use of colours which are harmonious (close to each other on the colour wheel) create a harmony of effect. The contrast is subtle, so the effect is subtle. The colours sit together like good friends. But by having more than one flat colour, the effect creates more interest. There is variety, texture, depth, subtlety of difference.

In the case of the Georgia quilt, it helps create the pattern - it makes it more complicated than if it was one colour. The added detail of the two colours with the floral fabric does this too - adds variety and breaks up the consistency. They create interest and a place for our eyes to settle.”

— Anna Farago via email

There are so many examples of this out there when you start to look. 

Contrast (or not)

I talked a little bit about value in my colour post but these people use value so cleverly. Many of the quilts combine the use of high contrast with the use of the similar colour trick. These create quilts that are quite dramatic quilts but because of the similar colour trick, they aren't hard and crisp but instead have a softness to them (in my opinion). 

Hopewell use contrast in a different way and often have less contrast combined with a more harmonious colour palate. This create quilts that to me, feel much calmer while still being interesting due to their composition, form and use of multiple shades. Which brings me to ......

Multiple shades with a difference  

Claire and Eliza of Hopewell do something similar to the similar colour trick but in a totally different way. They use less subtle differences in colour than the other makers but they do often use multiple shades of a particular colour. These shades are then further varied through the use of prints and patterns and (I think?) shot cottons and chambrays. A shot cotton is one where the warp and the weave are made with different coloured yarns which means the colour changes as you look at it from diffferent angles which provides depth.

For example - when you look at it from a long way away, the background in the quilt on the right looks like a creamy grey. Up close it is a grey dot on a cream background. 

Photo courtesy of Hopewell

Photo courtesy of Hopewell

This again creates interest but the harmoniuous nature of using shades of one colour give these quilts their simple joy!

Other people you might be interested in 

Most of these people I know of via instagram. It is a wonderful resource where many makers are posting about their process. You can learn many things just by looking at the pictures. 

Doreshandmade - Uses form and composition, similar colour trick and the multiple shades thing.  This one is a lovely example of all that. There is also something else in there that I haven't yet put my finger on.

Counterpane - Handmade quilts and custom handiwork by Pauline Boyd. These quilts are something special and don't fit in with any of the stuff I spoke about above. They are just art really. She uses fabrics from Ilana Kohn and Ace and Jig to produce these beauties. Have a look at her instagram stream as well. 

Make Something and The Workroom - Karen's blog is Make Something and her business is The Workroom - she is based in Canada. For years she has consistently surprised me with a more traditional style patchwork that sings. The star I made for the Freedom Patchwork front picture was based on one I saw on a quilt she featured. 

The Purl Bee - This is the blog of Purl Soho. These guys are a masterclass of colour and the similar colour trick. Have a look at their quilt page. I've been on their mailing list forever and they just keep coming up with the goods, month after month after month.

Other artists to look up whose work may interest you would be Louise_Bourgeois or Agnes Martin. Also have a look at Ethan Cook. You need to do a google search for images as his website is almost completely bare.

I would love to hear of others I should look at in the comments.

Felicia x

PS. I said it on the last post but in case you missed it - we are teaching patchwork at our retreat in September. The lovely Melissa of Tiny Happy fame is coming from NZ to spend a super day skilling you up in our Freedom Patchwork class. 

PPS. Part 3 of this post is now up on the blog.

Part 1 - I was totally wrong about patchwork!

I'm often wrong. Which I love. I love the fact that there is always more to learn and that I don't already know everything. And that sometimes things I have believed wholeheartedly turn out to be complete piffle. And that sometimes you have to learn things slowly, rather than just being taught. And so today, because all those statements are true, I want to say that I was wrong about patchwork. Totally wrong.

I didn’t think I liked patchwork. In fact I have been known to say that I h#%e patchwork. I want to interject in my own post and say I now realise my previous statement is total blasphemy (Anna just looked at me and sighed, bless her). Patchwork is obviously not one thing, and there are so many styles and tastes that there is something there for everyone. Yet again, one woman's water is another woman's wine..... 

But back to where I started. I thought patchwork was way too busy and too bright and messy and loud. It just seemed too much. And then on top of that I really hated the idea of taking a beautiful print and chopping it into little pieces. That didn't make sense to me. And that is not to say that I didn’t see the a quilt here and there that I liked, but for the most part I thought they weren’t for me. 

That said, I liked quilts – their function and the feeling of them. We sleep under one in the summer rather than a doona. I even made a few – wholecloth quilts of course - where I didn’t need to snip up the pretty pretty fabric. And I also think there was also some kind of avoidance of patchwork hidden in my dislike, in that I was also a bit scared of trying it. It seemed like a different science to making a frock. One where colour choice was oh-so-important. The same quilt pattern can look so vastly different – stunning or super-ugly based on this simple but complicated thing called colour and fabric selection. Learning how to do that felt a little bit impossible. 

And then it happened - slowly but surely I was shown the error of my ways. About two or three years ago quilts started popping up on the web and pinterest that I didn’t just like - I LOVED!  And they were sometimes quilts where pretty fabric was chopped up, and still I loved them. And then I started seeing people who were making quilt making into an artform with their incredible talents in composition and form, and their deep understanding of colour.

Quilt by Lindsay Stead. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead

Quilt by Lindsay Stead. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead

And I really did fall in love. 

So I thought that today I would share some of my favourite quilt makers - the ones that have made me fall in love. Then in the next post, I'll tell you a little bit about what I think they have in common that makes their quilts oh-so-special. 

Denyse Schmidt

First up there was Denyse Schmidt. For those of you who haven't heard of her she is a quilting pioneer and really the first person whose quilts spoke to me. I first saw her work about five or six years ago and I loved her Sonic Blue/Deep Blue quilt. A bit improv-ish, still simple but stunning. (There is also the Tangerine version). Pretty fabric was cut up but I wasn’t forced to shield my eyes from the busyness. I can picture this quilt in my mind so easily as I have looked at it so many times. And then she did a range of quilts called the Mount Lebanon series. Go and have a look at them. They are really beautiful and even more quiet. And at the time I hadn't seen anything like them. 

My dislike shifted a little, and I purchased a couple of quilting books - the super one from Purl Soho and both books by the incredible Denyse. And there were some beautiful things. Things that I felt could be adapted to my taste. I started to see the potential.

And I started pinning things on Pinterest. And slowly, but surely have built a whole board of quilts I love. 

Maura Grace Ambrose of Folk Fibers

So then, about two years ago, I came accross Maura Grace of Folk Fibers. Wow. I fell so hard and so deep - as did the rest of the world. I think it was the Colorado Quilt (shown below in reds and pinks) initially and then the Georgia (dark one) and then the Idaho (yellow). Totally different quilts but all with something totally interesting and stunning about them. Maura uses naturally dyed fabrics, machine piecing and then hand quilting producing these amazingly tactile looking quilts. I adore the yellow Idaho one so much I think I dream about it.  And at the time Maura was blogging a little more, and I had just joined instagram where she documents her process. Maura has made one amazing quilt after another for years now - developing her style and her techniques over that time. It has been truly amazing to watch.

Colorado Quilt - Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose

Georgia Quilt - Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose

Idaho Quilt - Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose

And through watching I became a little obsessed with learning more processes. I had to learn how to do a sashiko type stitch on a quilt. I made a wholecloth quilt or two for my small girl in order to teach myself how. And then progressed on to my imperfect quilt which I loved making almost as much as I love it finished. It was definitely a process as well product thing for me.

Sawtooth quilt. Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose.

Flying Geese Quilt. Photo courtesy of Maura Grace Ambrose.

Making a few quilts and planning many more has meant that I have become even more curious about other makers. So in the last few months I have gone out looking for more. I have been looking for people who make quilts that I love, so that I can analyse them to figure out why I love them so much. What is it about them that speaks to me - and once I understand that - what it is that I want to make. It is all part of my visual diary process for quilts. 

I have found another three modern quilt makers that I LOVE (and I can't wait to find more). I love watching their work and their process (often via instagram) and anything they want to give me really and I have come to the conclusion that I actually LOVE patchwork (and them. I really love them - they are so inspiring!) 

I'm going to show you a few bits and pieces from my three latest loves in no particular order, but please follow the links and have a look at their work. There is so much more to their work than I am able to show in one post. 

Hopewell Workshop

Hopewell Workshop – wow! They have been popping up all over the interwebs. Claire and Eliza really understand simple composition, colour and form. The simplicity of those three things in their quilts really make my heart sing. I adore their use of simple prints mixed with plain fabrics,  and simple arrangements. Unlike many of the other quilt makers they aren’t solely making one-of-a-kind pieces and the quilting is done on a machine. Which makes their quilts more accessible. They are true masters of fabric choice.

Tell Tale East - Photo courtesy of Hopewell.

The Lakehouse Quilt - Photo courtesy of Hopewell

Lavender Horses - Photo courtesy of Hopewell.

Pink Little Courthouse - Photo courtesy of Hopewell.

Lindsay Stead

I first came across Lindsay Stead on pinterest. The amazing quilt below right won First Place in the Minimalist Design Category at QuiltCon 2013. And was all over the place. But it was only after finding her through instagram and then her website that I realised how amazing she is as this quilt as not a one off. She is a master of mixing up a traditional pattern in new ways. The one below left won the Judge's Choice Award in the same year.  The two quilts towards the start of the post are also hers. 

Quilt by Lindsay Stead. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead

Quilt by Lindsay Stead. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead

Her latest series of quilts explores scale - enlarging quilt blocks to full quilt size. I love these. 

Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead

Photo courtesy of Lindsay Stead

Meg Callahan

And finally Meg Callahan - the quilter about whom I know the least but again I found via pinterest. I didn't even realise the quilts I was pinning were the same person until I went through the wormhole and found her website. I actually didn't realise initially that they were quilts. I thought they were blankets that were printed. Again I was wrong ;). And wow! Her patterns aren't traditional. They are more detailed than a common traditional quilt pattern and more geometric. And they are unlike anything I have seen before.

I mean c'mon. Look at those things. I could have added a heap more of Meg's quilts but this is already a photo heavy post. Go and have a look at her site.

So next post I'll tell you about the things I have learned about why these quilts are so special - other than just their genius. I've looked at them a lot and they have some things in common that we can all learn from. I'll also give you a bit of a list of other wonderful work I've seen you might want to check out. 

If this post has sparked your interest in what patchwork might do for you, you might consider joining Melissa Wastney at our Freedom Patchwork course in September. She will be teaching a day of patchwork exploration, where you will come out with the skills you need to start making for yourself. Imagine the possibilities.

If you have other people that you think I should look at please leave them in the comments. I am hungry for more. Or maybe you just want to tell me about things that influence your quilting and patchwork. I'd love to hear. 

Felicia x

Part 2 and Part 3 of this post are now up on the blog.