The Value of Quilt Shows by Donna Hussain

Star Spangles by Donna Hussain
A quilt based on an Islamic design.

Many women remember snuggling in bed on cold winter nights under quilts made by their moms or grandmothers. They become quilters because they want to give similar gifts of love and comfort to their families and friends. While making their first quilt they learn basic sewing skills. Other quilters have a lifetime of experience at the sewing machine. In all likelihood they sew clothing, Halloween costumes, doll wardrobes, band uniforms, and prom dresses in addition to quilts. In quilt competitions this group of quilters has a decided advantage over sewing novices because judges grade both the construction skill of the quilt maker and her artistry. The winners of major quilt shows are talented artists who have mastered sewing techniques for quilt construction and choose fabric as their medium of expression.

Featured artist gets premium space at a quilt show.

These artists deserve the prizes. (The awards advertised for the Pacific International Quilt Festival in October, 2009 is $18,000 in cash and prizes.) At shows all quilters flock to the winning quilts to study their construction techniques, their use of color, and their embellishments, their thread play and quilting patterns, the design of their borders, they way they portray their theme in abstraction or minute detail, a view from afar or through magnification. There is much to learn by the study of displayed quilts. In the process we less talented quilters harvest ideas for future quilts of our own.

Quilts displayed at a show inspire
other quilters with color, technique and design.

To be juried into a major quilt show like the American Quilters Society spring show in Paducah, or the International Quilters Association’s fall show in Houston is an honor for the average quilter. We don’t expect to win, but are thrilled that other quilters will view, and hopefully admire, our work. Acceptance into the show is a way of validating the growth of our creativity and the improvement of our quilting skills.

Most quilt guilds sponsor an annual local show for the display of their members’ quilts. The show is usually the highlight of the guild’s calendar year and its major fundraiser. Space is rented to vendors to sell fabric, books, and quilt supplies. Sometimes judges are hired; sometimes not. Judges usually give two encouraging comments and two suggestions for improvement on the judging sheet for each quilt. The advice can be very helpful even though I tend to scoff upon receiving a comment like “Quilting corners need improvement” telling myself that there is nothing wrong with my corners. But you can be sure that I pay close attention thereafter to corners when sewing my quilts.

Quilt shows are a lot of work!
Here the quilt frames are being raised.

Other advantages of guild quilt shows include giving members a deadline to finish quilts in progress and a place to display their talent. The show certainly promotes quilting to the local community. A guild is usually energized by a show because it requires so much work, so much involvement of its members. New friendships are made and bonds between members are strengthened.

Guild members develop friendships while
they take a break in preparation for a quilt show.

I recommend that all quilters join a local quilt guild. Novice quilters are always welcome. They are usually surprised at the support they receive from more experienced members. The sew and show portion of monthly guild meetings helps beginners decide which style of quilting they favor and which color combinations they like. Most guilds offer inexpensive quilt classes that help beginners master quilting skills. In quilt shows most guilds include a category called “First Quilts” to encourage novice quilters to display their quilts.

Quilts hung in a show might be in many categories,
giving both the novice and the expert chances at recognition.

Although my quilts have been juried into a number of national quilt shows I have never won a large financial prize. My only claim to fame was becoming a finalist in the contest Reflections on Heritage sponsored by Quilters Newsletter Magazine in 2002. The quilts of the forty finalists traveled together as an exhibit to Quilt Expo VIII in Barcelona, Spain in April, 2002, then on to the Houston show in the fall on that year.

When I first read about the contest I speculated that my quilt, Star Spangles, which coincidentally had recently been completed, would be the only entry representing a Muslim heritage. Since I was sure the contest organizers wanted a balanced representation of cultures, I figured my quilt would be a shoo-in. Allowed seventy-five words in the application I wrote:

My husband was born in India and raised in the Islamic faith, while I come from an American Christian family. I try to represent our mixed family heritage in quilts for our home. The pattern for this quilt was taken from a tastir panel (a line pattern, a geometrical motif) that is typical of the beauty of Islamic ornamentation. But the creation of this quilt required the inspiration of my two Kansas grandmothers who passed on their love of quilting to me.

Husbands offer both labor and support,
"Your quilt is going to Barcelona?"

How excited I was to receive official news that I was selected as a finalist. I told my husband that I wanted to travel to Barcelona to stand behind my quilt to hear the comments of viewers. “What?” he said. “Why would you want to do that? You don’t even speak Spanish.”


California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.


The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

The Value of Quilt Shows by Donna Hussain

How to Make Clamshell Quilt Templates and Sew Curved Seams by Donna Hussain

"Lamplight" by Donna Hussain

Quilt completed after completing a clamshell class by Monica Calvert.

When learning to quilt I easily mastered sewing quilt blocks with straight line seams on my sewing machine. All I had to do was place the fabric pieces right sides together, then line up my ¼” sewing machine foot with the edge of the fabric for stitching. There are hundreds of quilt blocks that require such minimal sewing skill.

Straight-line stitching, the basic skill required to make any quilt.

To machine-piece a quilt block with curved seams, like Drunkard's Path, requires more skill. As a novice quilter, I joined a clamshell class given by Monica Calvert at a quilt shop near my home to learn her curved seam techniques. I had no intention of actually making a clamshell quilt until Monica demonstrated the amazing versatility and design potential of the block during class sessions.

Clamshell Row

A template is used to cut clamshell shapes. Clamshell templates can be made at home using graph paper and a compass. Draw three circles with the same diameter as illustrated below. Circles with a 9” diameter are recommended for starters. As you gain skill in sewing curves you can work with smaller clamshell shapes.

Drawing a Clamshell Template

Cut out the clamshell shape that you have drawn on the graph paper. This is your template but the graph paper is too flimsy for practical use. Use the paper cutout as a pattern to draw the clamshell shape on light cardboard, a manila folder, or plastic sheet. A clamshell template cut from these materials will be stiff enough to last for repeated use in drawing clamshells on fabric.

To make fabric clamshells place your template on the wrong side of fabric and draw the template’s outline with pencil or pen. This line will be your stitch line so make sure that the line is dark and easy to see.

In cutting out the fabric clamshell you must allow for a seam allowance, so cut the fabric ¼” away from the stitch line. For ease in later sewing, it is helpful to widen the seam allowance to 3/8” along the pointed tip.

Drawing and Cutting Lines

To practice sewing clamshell blocks together:

• Select two fabrics. Cut out two clamshells with nine inch diameters from each of the two fabrics.
• Sew the pointed ends together of one color set as illustrated below. (The red clamshells.)
  

Preparing to Sew Clamshells Together

• Mark the mid-point of the convex curve of the clamshells to be inset. (Blue clamshells). You can determine this mid-point by folding the clamshell in half.
• The next step is to inset the blue clamshells into the concave curves of the red clamshells, as illustrated. To do so, place the sewn-together red clamshells face up. Turn a blue clamshell face down so that the stitch line on the back side is visible. Poke a pin through the mid-point of the blue stitch line through to the midpoint of the seam joining the red clamshells together.
• Join the ends of the red and blue seam lines together with pins. Divide the space to be pinned together in half again and again, each time poking the pins through the blue stitch line to the red stitch line. Many pins will be necessary to flatten out all potential puckers.
• Machine stitch along the seam lines removing pins as you go.
  

Pinning Clamshells Together on the Stitch Line

The design possibilities using clamshell blocks are endless. Keep adding clamshells by sewing convex curves to concave curves until you reach the size you want for your quiltop.

Possible placements of clamshells in a quilt design.

You can vary the fabric and color of the clamshells or cut clamshells from fabric pieced together. I suggest that you draw a clamshell grid like the one below and experiment with different coloring patterns using crayons or felt pens.

Clamshell Grid

When using clamshells you may mix the blocks with other patchwork blocks or appliqué sections.
The shape of four clamshells sewn together reminded me of Indian designs, of oil lamps hanging in a mosque. In "Lamplight", I used a black clamshell to represent the lamp base. I visualized perforations in the lamp sides to allow light to pass through. I quilted a candle flame in the top clamshell which is pieced. All of the blocks beneath the arch are nine-inch clamshells, though some along the sides were trimmed to make a straight edge. I consciously used darker fabrics for the area under the lamps, and lightened the background colors close to the flame. The purpose of the Islamic arch in the quilt is to place the lamps in context.

Give clamshells a try. They are easier to sew than you may think!



California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.



The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

How to Make Clamshell Quilt Templates and Sew Curved Seams by Donna Hussain

10% Off on New Rayela Art Textile Stamps

Floral Centerpiece, Rayela Art Textile Stamp

Every few months I get a new bag of textile stamps. It's quite the endeavor to get them sorted, cleaned, priced, and photographed. I don't do any deep cleaning, but they all get brushed with a wire brush. When they are ready, I load them on my website and offer them at a 10% discount on this blog and to my regular customers. There is usually a big rush and when it dies off, I start listing them in my Etsy and eBay stores. The advantage for me in doing this is that I save time and listing fees while customers get to enjoy "first dibs". There is one disadvantage for customers in that I don't list the dimensions- you just have to kind of guess by the price.

I also offer free shipping on orders over $100 to US addresses or $20 off of shipping to those overseas. The stamps on my website can be combined with anything listed in my Etsy or eBay stores to reach that $100.

Beautiful Art Deco Rayela Art Textile Stamp

I've written several posts on this blog about the stamps. Follow this link to read about the history and care of these wonderful carvings. Most of my customers are artists who use the stamps to print on fabric or paper with ink or batik wax and to make impressions into clay. But, the stamps are also beautiful as decorative pieces and can be hung, set into plate stands, or just laid around on shelves.

Floral Arch, Carved Wooden Textile Stamp

There are several kinds of stamps: borders, center pieces, arches, and fillers. Borders can be linked one to another to frame a piece. Center pieces stand alone as a focus point. Arches can be used to frame a smaller piece or ornament and fillers are often dots or lines that have repetitive designs. These stamps come from Afghanistan and the region (Pakistan and India) and are considered as seconds to the artisans there. As vintage pieces, they have been used and often have nicks, cracks and wax and dye residue. These flaws actually have value to those of us who like to reclaim what has already seen a life of use.

Floral Focal Point, Textile Stamp from Afghanistan

As these stamps come from Muslim workshops, rarely will you find an animal or human figure portrayed. For those, seek out Hindu stamps. Islam discourages depicting these images as a way to prevent idolatry.
If you are interested in taking advantage of this 10% offer, just go on over to my website. The instructions there should be pretty clear. As I get these stamps in a big bag, sight unseen, I never know what the mix will be. I was very pleased with this batch. There is an excellent variety of designs and most are in the mid-size range that people really seem to like. Prices are mostly in the $10-$15 range, per piece.

Do you work with these pieces? Leave a link in the comments section so we can all be inspired by these wonderful stamps!

10% Off on New Rayela Art Textile Stamps

"A Day of Hope" by Donna Hussain

A Day of Hope, A Quilt on Voting and Iraqi Women
by Donna Hussain

My quilt, A Day of Hope, pays homage to the women of Iraq who walked long distances to polling stations on January 30, 2005 to vote for a Transitional National Assembly, the first step in the democratization of their country after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The women then spent hours waiting in line to cast their ballots. In spite of the danger of suicide bombings and mortar strikes to disrupt the voting, Election Day was a day of celebration for Iraqi women. They had gained the right to vote and a promise that twenty-five percent of the Assembly seats would be filled by female candidates under the electoral system of proportional representation. Women were filled with hope that the election would lead to a future of peace and stability.

Sadly, the Transitional National Assembly failed in its attempt to establish a government acceptable to all factions in Iraq. Iraqis still live with violence and chaos, their dreams of peace blown to smithereens. However, the women and their Election Day hopes should be remembered. Perhaps embers of that hope still kindle in their souls. I sewed A Day of Hope to support this hope and to honor the women for their bravery, spirit, tenacity, and endurance.

My quilt depicts the women standing in line waiting to vote at the polls. (Males had separate voting lines.) Their faces are from photographs of Election Day that were printed in the newspaper. I scanned the cutout faces into my computer, then printed them on fabric that was ironed onto the waxy side of freezer paper.

Women in Line, Detail of "A Day of Hope"

For their clothing, I draped the women in three-dimensional shawls, black abayas, and burkas. Groups of Iraqi women usually have babies in their arms or children at their sides. On Election Day, however, they left the children at home given the threat of terrorism. I had a long internal debate whether the quilt was self-explanatory or needed a sign to explain the story line to viewers. If a sign had been posted at the polls it would have been written in Arabic. For the benefit of quilt viewers I chose an English sign instead: Women, Line Up Here To Vote.

The most challenging part of making A Day of Hope was the patchwork wall mosaic behind the women. The pattern of the mosaic was drawn from a book of Islamic geometric patterns. The problem was to figure out an easy way to sew the design.

After study, I determined that the pattern consists of three quilt blocks: a solid square, a block with an X, and a connecting block.

Three quilt blocks

The basic pattern is two rows of blocks. Row 1 has alternating X blocks and connecting blocks. Row 2 has alternating solid blocks and connecting blocks. Note that the connecting blocks in Row 1 have vertical deign elements. In Row 2 the connecting blocks are turned so that the design is horizontal.

Mosaic pattern

I always try to find easy ways to sew blocks. My solution for the X block is as follows:

• Draw an X block on paper the size of your choice.
• Cut a plastic template the size of your X block drawing. Place the template over the drawing and mark the center square on the plastic.
• Sew a patchwork block with a simple cross. The center square should be the same size as the center of your template. Measure your drawn X block from corner to opposite corner (for example, six inches) Each side of your patchwork cross block needs to be that size. (six inches square).
• The final step is to lay your plastic template on the sewn cross block as illustrated. Use your rotary cutter to cut along the sides of your template.

Making the X block

After sewing together the blocks of my mosaic design I used gold trim to outline and accentuate the patchwork patterns. The trim adds to the complexity of the mosaic design, creating a pattern of its own.

Trim pattern

Quilt trim

Once the mosaic was completed, I made the arch that frames the mosaic. I drew the arch with a compass on freezer paper, then cut out the center to create an arch pattern for the quilt. (Refer to my Bismillah: The Making of an Islamic Quilt post for detailed instructions on making and using arch patterns.) Arches

Then I ironed the waxy side of the pattern onto background fabric so I could mark the shape of the arch on the fabric. Unfortunately the gold fabric I wanted to use was purchased for a previous project. There was very little left so I had to piece small leftover sections together, a task that was complicated by the vertical stripes in the gold design. I always seem to have problems like this when I quilt. I start the sewing with a rough idea, but make most sewing decisions, like color and scale, on the fly. If only I planned ahead……

To complete the quilt, I added a patchwork frame to the arch, appliquéd the women figures to the bottom of the quilt, and sewed on borders.

Quilt arch

For the quilt back I used a light tan-gold fabric that unfortunately showed my machine quilting stitches to a disadvantage. To cover my double stitching and hide thread knots I sewed little gold beads, seemingly at random, on the back. I didn’t expect to fool the judges, but thought they might not make the effort to find mistakes to criticize. To my surprise one judge wrote, “How nice to find decorative beads on the back.”

A Day of Hope has been very well received. It has been accepted in a number of juried national quilt shows, including the International Quilt Festival in Houston, the AQS show in Paducah, KY, the Pacific International show in California, and received an Honorable Mention at the National Quilt Extravaganza XIV in Harrisburg, PA.

The quilting compliment I cherish most came from my high school English teacher, now in his eighties, whose wonderful paintings have political messages. After I sent him a photo of A Day of Hope he wrote that he was so inspired that he has taken his easel out of storage and is painting again.

California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.

The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

"A Day of Hope" by Donna Hussain

Interlacing Designs for Quilt Borders by Donna Hussain

Most beginning quilters focus their creative energies on the patchwork or appliqué centers of their quilts. By the time their quilt blocks are stitched and sewn together they are tired of sewing the quilt top, eager to start the quilting phase. However one last quilt-top task remains: the addition of borders. A common border solution is to frame the quilt top with four border strips of matching fabric. But does this border add visual interest and enhance the beauty of the quilt? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If not, what other options are there?

Traveling Star of the East By Donna Quartier

I am always looking for innovative ideas for borders. At quilt shows I walk down the aisles focusing on the borders of displayed quilts to collect border ideas. My scrapbooks of quilt pictures are a helpful resource when deciding on borders for a new project. A number of years ago I started a collection of interlacing patterns that I found in Islamic and Celtic art books, planning to sew these designs with bias tubes onto the borders of my quilts. Once my interest in interlacing designs was piqued I began to notice the patterns on jewelry, fabric trims, engravings, picture frames, fine china, greeting cards, and kitchen tiles.

However, I had to be able to draw interlacing patterns before I could sew them. The drawing was challenging until I realized that each pattern is a single motif repeated over and over again. Since I could not reproduce the symmetry of the patterns with accuracy when drawing freehand, I developed a grid structure for drawing the designs.

Sample drawings of patterns.

Click on the images to see the type more clearly.

Interlacing designs drawn on paper can also be drawn on fabric. By sewing bias tubes over the design lines the patterns can be sewn to border fabric. In 1998 I published a book on this subject, Interlacing Borders: More Than 100 Intricate Designs Made Easy published by Martingale Company. Included are directions for making bias tubes and for sewing the patterns, including how to start and stop as well as tips for sewing angles, curves, crossovers, and corners. Unfortunately this book is now out of print but can still be purchased either new or second-hand on the Internet.

Interlacing Borders by Donna Hussain

Here are some quilts that illustrate how interlacing border designs can enhance the borders of quilts. Some of the quilts are mine. Others are quilts made by Sacramento friends who allowed me to add interlacing borders to their quilt tops for publication in the book. Fortunately, I own the book’s copyright so can legally reproduce these photos.

Photos of Quilts

Starburst Fun By Joyce Reece

Forest Light By Donna Hussain

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Hearts By Candy Kraft

Leaves in the Wind By Cynthia Moseby

Rainbow Weaving By Elizabeth Lonnquist

Fourpatch Plus By Donna Hussain

Quintessential Quilter's Round Robin
By Ouida Braithwaite, Nancy Barrow, Donna Hussain, Kit La Due, and Sandy Ross

California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.

The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

Interlacing Designs for Quilt Borders by Donna Hussain