Modern Art Quilting with Thomas Knauer

This past weekend I attended a modern quilting workshop at Gotham Quilts, led by Thomas Knauer.  It was a fascinating experience.

Digital Trunk Show

On Saturday we met early, and Thomas did a presentation of his quilts.  He explained how he entered the quilting world, and shared the stories behind many of his quilts.  My favorites are the ones where he encodes messages into the quilts.  You can read about them in his gallery.  I found them to be fascinating, and my son and I have been discussing possibilities.

MOMA Tour

After getting us all stirred up, we walked up to the Museum of Modern Art, and did a little exploration, followed by a guided tour with discussion and explanation.  It was interesting to hear his explanations of the art work.

We were encouraged to chose one piece as an inspiration, and create our own quilt.  My favorites are from Joan Miró and Piet Mondrian.  I was also quite taken with a piece by Kurt Schwitters.  I love that it is found object collage.  My photos aren’t great, and after reading the copyright info on the MOMA website, I’m not comfortable just taking a screen shot and sharing it here.  I didn’t take a photo of the Mondrian, because I’m so familiar with his work.

Sketching

I tried sketching ideas based on some of the pieces I liked.  My first attempts were meh, even with some feedback from Thomas.  I detoured, thinking I’d whip something up for the Curated Quilts mini challenge.  Starting with an irregular grid, I then plopped in some improv curves and circles.  I liked it, but I felt it wasn’t fulfilling my “assignment”.  I went back to working from artwork, just imitating the pieces, hoping it would send me off in a new direction.  It was not exciting.  So, I went downstairs, looked at fabric, harassed paying customers, and basically just screwed around.

Thomas found me, and took my sketchbook and started flipping through it.  He stopped on my mini quilt sketch, and told me it was good and I should make it.  I probably blushed.  I was so thrilled.  It is really energizing to have someone you respect praise your work.

So, I colored it in, and then changed my mind, but rather than re-draft it, I just set out my measurements and got to work.

Stitching

I dithered over fabric selection a lot longer than I usually do.  I went from solids, to prints, then back again.  When I think of modern prints, I think solids, but I am a print girl.  My final pull is predominantly solids, with one print and one Essex Linen thrown in for texture.  That stuff is addictive.

Sadly, I took zero construction photos.  Because I designed the quilt on graph paper, it went together very quickly.  I spent a few minutes generating cutting instructions for myself, then whipped through the improv curves, trimming the blocks to their final size.  I stalled out at doing my circles, which I had planned to make using the inset circle technique, but I didn’t bring freezer paper with me.  So, after melting some template plastic with an iron, I moved on to fusible appliqué.

I added an extra layer of batting behind the circles, giving myself a cool trapunto effect.  I then put the darning foot on the machine and went to town, doing really dense free motion quilting.  My favorite part of mini quilts is adding so much extra detail that I just won’t spend the time on in a larger scale quilt, because it would take forever.

The finished piece measures 16″ square.

Binding

The binding is a faced binding.  I like this effect on my modern pieces, and especially on minis.  The backing is an adorable dinosaur print that I have been eyeing for a week or so.  The bolt was getting alarmingly thin, so I grabbed some when I had an excuse.  The colors on the dinosaurs are perfect for this piece, and I love the juxtaposition of ancient and modern in one piece.

Improv curves are calling my name right now, and I’m trying to listen.  They will be popping up in a few more projects in the near future, until I find the next shiny object to chase.  I also want to try this piece in some other color ways, and without the deviations I made from my original pattern.  I don’t have a lot of confidence in my modern quilting attempts, and this project has been quite a booster for me.

You can see all of the entries for the Curated Quilts Mini Quilt Challenge here.  You can read about my first entry into their challenge in April.  My quilt wasn’t chosen that time.

If you are curious about Thomas Knauer, visit his website.  He has a current design workbook available, and it is fantastic.  It covers a lot of the artwork that we discussed at MOMA.  I plan to start doing the exercises in the book soon.  You can check out the Quilt Design Coloring Workbook* here.

All of the fabrics I used in this piece are available at Gotham Quilts*.
Tiny Dino in Cream
Essex Yarn Dyed in Shale
Designer Essentials Solid in Dove
Designers Essentials Solid in Diva
American Made Brand Light Gold 67
American Made Brand Olive 24
Alison Glass Latitude in Turtle

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Have you tried improv curves yet?