PFLAUMEN QUILT

Pflaumen is German for plums, the best stonefruit.

I began this quilt in October 2020 because I wanted to experiment with a piecing technique and I had an absolute wealth of purple linen. I’d been listening to so much Prince, so leaning into purple felt very right. As I worked I added in other colors that I thought would highlight the purple without taking away from it- navy, browns, yellows, a bit of green. I brought in a pile of black linen, all slightly different shades. I let the squares (well, rectangles) fall almost randomly, trying to learn from the patterns that emerged rather than forcing any kind of agenda on them.

The quilt top is all linen of varying weights and textures. It is quilted in thin, eggplant purple, cotton thread from Thailand. The binding is also linen. The back is the last of a beautiful vintage sheet. The batting of this quilt is a much denser variety than I usually use- which has made for a thick, fluffy quilt after its first wash.

Completed in July, 2021

45” x 50”

IMPERFECTLY QUILT

So much of the last year has been about letting go of expectations of perfection. This quilt gently assisted me in those lessons over and over again.

After finishing the Big Star quilt I couldn’t get sawtooth stars out of my mind. I wanted to see what would happen if I expanded the pattern, sort of exploding the star out from the center while repeating the motions that made the star in the first place. I was surprised by what came out when I began to play with the idea on graph paper- the resulting star feels so airy and removed from the original pattern, and yet there it is in the middle of everything. Tavi and I pieced this top together during some of the hardest days of the pandemic’s peak and it fills me with hope to see my fears and anxieties physically transformed into beauty and comfort.

The top of this quilt is entirely linen (plus some hemp linen!). The fabric was reclaimed from garments, cut from garment production scraps, and sourced from friends and family all over the US, as well as some bolt remnants from Lithuania. The batting and quilting thread are both cotton. The binding was a linen/cotton table cloth. It is machine pieced, hand quilted and hand bound.

Completed in July, 2021

65” x 65”

BEFORE YOU WERE PUNK QUILT

At first glance this is a traditional interpretation of an American quilt. The fabrics are mostly cotton and I quilted in the seams (or “stitched in the ditch” as they say), giving it a very old school feel. The pattern itself is quite recognizable, a variation of the Ohio Star block. However, in materials and execution I strayed far from the practices of mainstream quilt making and went back to my roots.

As I began to piece this quilt in Detroit towards the end of winter I found myself falling back on old quilting habits. I sewed sitting on the floor, my machine perched on a milk crate, my knees up around my ears, my best bud to my left. I didn’t measure a thing, tracing one square off of another instead, barely ironing. The top is made from a mix of my fabrics and small pieces trimmed from my friend Aisling’s collection- mostly old floral sheets and housedresses that we’d each been holding onto for years. I finished the quilt in Chicago, backing it with a cheater-cloth sheet thrifted in Detroit. It’s hand quilted with cotton thread, filled with unbleached cotton batting, and bound with a soft mystery fabric that I thrifted in Grand Rapids years ago. I named the quilt after a cd I listened to a lot when I first started quilting, because this quilt is all nostalgia for me.

Completed in June, 2021

42” x 54”

PATCHWORK QUILT

I like to think of quilts like these as more gleaned than made. This quilt was pieced entirely from my scrap bag when it was full to bursting after a busy season of sewing. Everything about this form of quilt making is so pleasurable for me- the unpredictable palette, the puzzle of patchwork, the practicality. This quilt is brought to you by the letter P!

The top is almost entirely linen reclaimed from garments and tablecloths. There are a few scraps of hemp linen from Yoke garment production, and a couple of tiny bits of cotton that landed in my linen scrap bag by mistake but were too pretty to leave out. The quilt is backed and bound with soft vintage sheets and the unbleached cotton batting is pieced from scraps as well. It is hand quilted with space-dyed green and white cotton thread in meandering, freeform rows.

This quilt is loosely named after Patchwork Farms, here in Chicago. When I first moved here I worked at Patchwork a little bit and the farm helped ease me into city living. Patchwork Farm’s annual fundraiser has gone online this year because of the pandemic, and I’ll be donating $300 from the sale of this quilt to help them out! Thank you Patchwork Farms for both the food and the community you’ve grown for our city!!

Completed in May, 2021

36” x 40”

SONGBIRD MIGRATION QUILT

A few years ago Tavi and I managed to be in LaBagh Woods during the height of songbird migration. The woods itself was barely hazy with early spring foliage so the tiny colorful birds stood out in bright contrast to the grey of the branches and the blue of the sky. It took a few minutes to register that the streaks of color we were seeing were actually birds.

If you imagine the blue of this quilt top as the sky and the colorful quilt stitches as the songbirds zipping back and forth across it, then the floral back could be the forest floor and the green binding could be the haze of spring all around you. And the red corner… that’s your good bud in their parka (it just needed a red corner, you know?).

The top is all cotton, machine pieced from the last scraps left from my indigo dyeing practice of a few years ago. The back is a vintage cotton sheet and the batting is unbleached cotton. The hand quilting is done in a mix of linen and cotton threads in a few deeply saturated colors. The green binding is cotton, the red is linen. No new fabric was used in making this quilt.

Completed in April, 2021.

45” x 45”

HOUSE QUILT

I’ve been calling this quilt a sketchbook quilt, because I was sort of experimenting with it while I held another artist in mind, which I consider sketchbook work. It’s not the sort of piece I’d consider selling, but I’m sharing it here because I believe the age of the sketchbook is coming ;)

A few years ago I stumbled across a partially dismantled exhibit of Arbie Williams’ quilts at the Chicago Cultural Center. What struck me about Williams’ work was the way each piece of fabric stood confidently alone in the composition. Often in quilting I seek to minimize a patterned fabric- I make it representational of a single color and mute it with the noise of similar patterns. In Williams’ quilts each fabric was given full permission to speak, and I was taken with the result. I decided to replicate that style here, although I don’t think I’ve achieved the boldness or confidence of Arbie Williams’ quilts.

When I use a fabric that I really like or that has some emotional significance for me I hold a scrap of it back “to save”. A lot of saved pieces found their way into this quilt where I hoped they could all be equally loud. There is some vintage Marimekko from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Patches from Maya and The Far Woods. Dye experiments from myself and friends. Vintage German sheets and a scrap from a worn out robe from Thailand. Boobs from a Gravel & Gold pillowcase.

The quilt itself is a new top on an old favorite that had gotten too worn for use. The original was made by Tavi’s great grandmother Nellie, and it featured row after row of appliquéd gingham houses perched on gardens of calico florals. I incorporated two thinner fabrics in the front, through which some of the original top is visible. The back is original to the quilt. The original and the new quilt are hand quilted and the stitches of both are visible in the back.

Completed in January, 2021.

60” x 72”