Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Bacon Punk



I had trouble putting words on this screen to talk about this quilt. 

It is everything I love about a quilt. It is everything I love about quilting. 

Recently, I have been trying to shift my quilting focus towards trying all the hard things. I want to look at patterns and designs and feel empowered instead of scared. I want sewing and quilting to feel like a journey. Personally, I believe that perfecting my craft is part of the fun and that you have to know the rules in order to break them. I am proud to consider myself a quilter within the tradition and I embrace my quilty forebears. Someday, we can sit down with a cup of coffee and I will share my opinion on all the divisions quilting (modern, traditional, art, oh my). For now I will just say, we are all quilters.


When I first saw Jen Kingwell's Steam Punk quilt, I loved it. But then, the little voice inside my head told me that I could not make that. It was too hard. Templates. Curves. Appliqué. 

On a whim, I went for it. I ordered the pattern, I ordered some acrylic templates. I opened my scrap bins. I combed through my stash.


Each block was an adventure. I didn't have a plan. I just started making blocks. There was some intense fussy cutting and a large number of cats (honestly because I have a lot of cat fabric in my stash, no particular design plan). 


Because rainbows. 

Then, all of a sudden, I had all of the blocks. 

Over a couple of work trips, I hand appliquéd. It seemed to go fast.


Scraps on the back. I guess we could call this improv?

It is not perfect, I could probably point out all the mistakes. It is mine and I am so proud of it.


Quilt Stats:
Name: Bacon Punk
Size: approximately 71" x 71"
Pattern: Steam Punk by Jen Kingwell
Quilting: Shell free motion quilting with Aurifil white thread
Finished: April 2015

16 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, I love it! I can see why you feel so strongly about it, it's a beautiful quilt. Your efforts and determination to try something new certainly paid off! Also, the fussy cut centers are too sweet, they make me smile. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so proud of you and I am honored to call you my friend and quilty inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sarah, this is beyond gorgeous. I love it, and this is just the 105th reason you make me want to quilt. <3

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh. My. Goodness.
    This is amazing. Love the colors and the fussy cutting. Love the whole thing. Gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is a wonderful piece. There's so much depth in your fabric choices. Big applause! Thank you for also making it asymmetrical - just another nice artistic touch.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And it is soooo amazing!!! You should be proud! What a fantastically beautiful quilt - totally my type of quilt xx. I especially love the light blue sashing - makes a peaceful overall picture despite the colour.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rightly proud - it's so colourful and perfectly balanced.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The colours are fresh and pretty, and i agree, quilting should be more about the journey than the destination.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The colours are fresh and pretty, and i agree, quilting should be more about the journey than the destination.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How exciting and well done!! It is a fine quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely. It has such movement, as if they were falling. I'm reminded of the feeling of the game Bejeweled.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I really really love this! I'm with you. I feel like I've done the basics and I'm ready to explore what else quilting has to teach me!

    ReplyDelete
  13. All I can say is I love you so much right now! (not that way!!) You are so creative and so smart and I would love to share a cup of coffee with you and discuss all those quilty things! Let's do it next month!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love it! It's bright, colorful and full of cats! It's all you! Another beauty to add to the collection. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You had me at bacon! Seriously-I look at your beautiful quilt and think the same thing...curves...templates...scary good. I need to take a page from your blog and be brave-what am I afraid of? I've been doing this quilting thing for quite a while, so I need to get out of my comfortable zone! Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments! Thank you so much for sending me a message. I try to respond to every single comment I get, but sometimes it takes me a bit when life gets crazy. I see them right away and I love you all.