Skull quilt inspired by one in the new book Quilting Art by Spike Gillespie

This is a brand new book that will be available soon and boy is it filled with an amazing variety of fabric eye candy!

Quilting Art:
Inspiration, Ideas & Innovative Works from 20 Contemporary Quilters   

By

Spike Gillespie

Quilting is a craft, rich with tradition and homespun, practical applications. But it's also an art—which, with needle, thread, fabric, and an idea, can give us a new way of looking at, and wrapping ourselves in, the world. This book profiles twenty American practitioners of that art, quilters whose fascinating, innovative work takes the craft one step further and makes it into something new.

These remarkable quilters describe their inspiration and methods and show us several examples of their best work. Among them are Jeanne Williamson, a celebrated mixed-media journal quilter; Pam Rubert, whose large-scale quilts showcase her humor; Loretta Bennett, the youngest of the beloved Gees Bend quilters; Boo Davis, a hip crafter who pieces together quilts with heavy-metal themes; Susan Else, who constructs whimsical quilted sculptures; Ai Kijima, a Brooklyn-based artist influenced by Japanese anime; and Jane Burch Cochran, whose folk-art quilts feature thousands of beads and buttons.

Through personal conversations with the quilters, author Spike Gillespie gives us an inside, in-depth look at what inspires each, what methods they use, and how their art has evolved. Along with these close-up views of the quilters studio and process, each profile features firsthand tips and inspirational advice.

Quilting Art serves as an idea book for quilters, as well as a gorgeous representation of the quilter's art.

I was so inspired by this fabulous quilt by Boo Davis of Quiltsryche:

 

I just had to make one!

She used a basket weave variation for this quilt but I am a big fan of using scraps and as many different fabrics in a quilt as possible so I thought I'd try one using all 2 inch squares.

I grabbed my graph paper and sketched.

 

Off to the scrap stash.

 

Now onto cutting. I have made quilts of lots of little squares before I knew about the wonderful invention of the grid ruler and boy am I happy I know about it now. This quilt went so quick using a grid ruler not to mention much more precise.

 

I don't know if other quilters do this but I recommend leaving the little stack of squares just cut in place when cutting the next stack of squares from the strip, this keeps the layers from slipping around.

This skull quilt takes:

216 white squares

34 red squares

35 black squares

It is 15 squares across and 19 squares tall.

Here are all the squares cut and laid out....but there is a little error...can you find it?

Quilting and puzzles, now that's a combo.

OK I'll tell you, in this shot the right eye is off by one row, see how there are 3 rows of white squares on the far right and on the left there are only 2? Well, I fixed it in the piecing.

I sewed the squares together in horizontal rows carefully folding each pair and then stacking them up to bring them over to the sewing machine and then putting them back in order.

 

Here are all the horizontal rows sewn together. I then simply sewed all the vertical seams together alternating the seam allowances up and down.

 

Ta-da! I'll keep you posted on what I do for a border for this guy, anyone got any good suggestions? They are most welcome.

Be sure to pop on over to Amazon to see more inside sneak peeks and to pre-order Quilting Art.

Comments

[Rammel]

How long did it take for you to make it?

[MonkeyGurrl]

You quilters are amazing. I have a friend in my office that does some incredible work and I never ceased to be completely overwhelmed by amount of work and craft that goes into making a quilt. Like you, she's often very blasé about ("oh, I just put a few squares together...").

Lamé (in case that doesn't come out, "lah-may") would make an excellent border, particularly if you could find it in gunmetal gray. LOVE the skull.

[senoramuertos]

That is awesome!

[Cyndi L]

I cannot *wait* to see a copy of that book! Thanks for the preview :-)