Scrap Challenge: Just let the words fall out...


"From the Cutting Room Floor II - Edit" 
42" w x 34" h
local quilt guild Oh Scrap Challenge entry

Earlier in the year our lcq had a scrap swap. We did it musical chair style sort of. I was MC for a while then jumped in to grab some scraps. Well I ended with a few more of my own scraps back and not enough of new to me scraps. I decided since this was my challenge for the guild I would just use some of what I got from the swap and use the buckets of black and white scraps that I had from previous quilts. While we all were working on our quilts a member of the guild offered to have her studio space open to us for the finished pieces to be on display.  Her space is downtown at the Burkholder Project an art gallery and collective. 
The challenge ended at our last meeting at the end of May and we swooped in and got them down to the studio and hung for the first friday art walk in the downtown area. So last friday we had a small reception and enjoyed seeing our quilts hanging in this fun art gallery. 

My entry started out with a few black and white prints with inserts of leftover text fabric. If you know me you know I love text and black and white. Pieces in this quilt were bits from many many quilts. It was so much fun to remember some of my quilting journey. I think the oldest piece is a bit of black and white that sort of looks like piano keys. That piece was from a Debbie Mumm animal quilt I made back in the 90's.  Some of the bigger text fabric was left over from a Libs Elliot quilt I made when she came and taught a class here. 

When I started sorting out the scraps of text I just kept singing to myself the Sara Bareilles song "Brave"..........

Say what you wanna say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave


I just kept playing with the words and the shapes it was creating. 

I made a small quilt in this method and colorway before. Check out Cutting Room Floor HERE.
I was inspired to expand on this idea and use as much of my scraps as I could. The thing I have been learning is to listen to the fabric and let things happen....then literally let the "words fall out".  

While some of the words are easy to see, others are just glimpses of words and phrases that you may or may not figure out. 

Maybe the idea of letting the words fall out and edit are opposites? I think for me the words and meanings are sometimes subtle and sometimes bold. In letting the fabric speak I still am creating a composition of what I want others to see. I am totally okay if others do not know every nuance or meaning behind my work...I know it is there and what it means and make me feel.

When I was making this quilt I was amazed that things sort of fell into place. I grabbed pieces of bigger scraps for the backing and they exactly went together to fit the back and...I grabbed a random piece of batting...the exact right size. Sometimes things are meant to be. 

Comments

Sophie Zaugg said…
It's very cool! I love the striped and text prints.
Jen said…
I love that song! This quilt is so you, so cool and it was meant to be! Love how everything fell into place so easily for you on this one!
I love text fabric also but it is sometimes difficult to find great pieces. Great Job!
Turid said…
This is really cool.
Lisa J. said…
I absolutely love this quilt. It looks awesome.
Kaja said…
I think the best things happen when we let ourselves listen to the quilt. I guess maybe that's a form of editing but a looser, more creative one than when we let our heads lead the way. In any case, your quilt is awesome.

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