The Boulder Modern Quilt Guild and the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community, CU Boulder, presented An Exploration of Sustainable Modern Quilting from October 4 – December 14, 2018. The show hung at the Albert A. Bartlett Science and Communication Center, CU Boulder and featured 18 quilts selected by a jury panel.
Quilters residing along the central and northern Colorado Front Range submitted quilts that fell within these five categories: repurposed, rescued fabrics; renewable, sustainable new fabrics; scraps, waste, and otherwise trashed pieces of fabric; repaired, restored, and reworked ‘old’ quilts into new quilts; unusual materials. Below we are sharing some of the quilts that hung at the show. Please see PART 1 to view the other quilts.
Katie Arrington
Lafayette, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
I’ve Got the Blues
cotton scraps, flannel sheet, wool batting
This is a modern improv quilt in primarily blue and white/low volume scraps.
The quilt was made with all scraps. Blocks were constructed improvisationally and then trimmed down to 8.5 inch squares. The batting for the quilt is sheep wool sourced from Montana, and the backing of the quilt is a much loved sheet. The binding for this quilt is also scraps and the quilt was quilted on my machine at home.
category: scraps, waste, and otherwise trashed pieces of fabric
Tracy Buckley
Louisville, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
Ashleigh (9) and Riley (7) Wood
[untitled]
collection of old Girl Scout bandanas, pieced cotton batting, old sheet for backing
I am introducing my nieces to my quilting hobby. We practiced sewing on a bunch of my old GS bandannas as Ashleigh and Riley got to know their way around a sewing machine and related tools. From a large collection of available bandannas, Ashleigh used a design wall to plan out the pattern. She was insistent on keeping the color scheme simple. Our goal was to make a usable bed size project from some super size blocks so the project could be easily completed. The trickiest part was trimming up and working with bias edges, but both pins and wonder clips came in very handy at this point in the project. We are thrilled to submit this first family made cross-generational quilting project to be part of the Boulder MQG and CU Boulder Sustainable Modern Quilting show to hang at Mom and Dad’s Alma Mater.
The fabrics in the quilt are from my Girl Scout bandanna collection from when I was an Outdoor Skills and Camp Certification trainer for the Commonwealth GS Council of VA. The batting was pieced together from leftover sections from some other quilting projects. The back is a light green bed sheet left over from when I used to buy these sheets 8 or 10 at a time as a member of the online Marine Comfort Quilts group. The group made Memorial quilts for Gold Star family members of soldiers and other service men and women killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 2003-2014. Each unique Memorial quilt was made of blocks that were signed by the quilter and/or contained an inspirational message from a quilter or a veteran. Center blocks included personal information about the person who served and their branch of service insignia.
category: repurposed, rescued fabrics
Betsy Widner
Denver, Colorado
Denver Metro Modern Quilt Guild
Susan Santistevan, long arm quilter
[untitled]
blue and white everyday kimonos, modern solids and linen
I have always loved working with repurposed fabrics. In fact, the very first quilt I made at age 12 was out of my mother’s sewing scraps and some clothes that were being donated. I can’t say it was very attractive, but I liked the idea of combining many types of fabrics into something purposeful. I still love using repurposed fabrics but hope that my quilts today are more fun to look at. I am drawn to graphic and improv quilts and I have a stash of repurposed fabrics just waiting to become something modern and beautiful.
Years ago I had the opportunity to visit Japan with some Japanese-American friends. Because I was interested in bringing back a variety of traditional blue and white fabrics, my friend took me to a flea market in Kyoto where I purchased many blue and white everyday kimonos. I loved the history of these everyday garments which were well worn complete with stains, holes and burn marks. After washing these kimonos I spent many hours taking them apart so I could use the beautiful fabrics. For this quilt I also added in some modern solids and linens. I love the fact that these everyday kimonos have been made into something beautiful and modern.
category: repurposed, rescued fabrics + renewable, sustainable new fabrics
Claudia Sheehan
Nederland, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
[untitled]
cotton fabric, knitting wool, monofiliment thread, cotton 12 wt thread, polyester/cotton blend flannel
This quilt was inspired by the Siddi quilters in India. These women of modest means recycle old clothes and sarees into beautiful quilts. The Siddis sew their quilts entirely by hand, and have an interesting method of construction. They begin making the quilts from the outside edges and work towards the center. Thought this quilt is made entirely by machine, it was started at the edges and worked clockwise toward the center in a quilt-as-you-go fashion, emulating the Siddi quilters’ technique. The Siddi quilters stitch their quilts with a running stitch, and I emulated this with bobbin play using a white 12-weight cotton thread in my sewing machine.
The quilt is sustainable in that all materials other than the thread used for construction were salvaged. The cotton material on the front were scraps left over from my previous quilt and sewing projects. The “batting” on the inside is a heavy flannel that I pieced together. This came from the trimmed edges of a long arm quilt project, from a friend. The backing is flannel a friend gave me that was left over from a pajama project for her daughter. The tassels on the corners representing the “fula” decorations with which Siddi quilters decorate their quilts was made from knitting yarn that I had left over from a sock project.
category: scraps, waste, and otherwise trashed pieces of fabric
Rebekah Texer
Thornton, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
[untitled]
vintage tea towels, thrift store sheets, leftover scraps from previous projects
A few years ago for my birthday, my mother-in-law gave me a set of vintage hand embroidered tea towels that were made by her mother. I have always loved vintage tea towels and felt so honored to have received such a special gift. However, the towels just sat in my drawer for years because I didn’t want to run the risk of staining or ruining these family heirlooms. These towels have been the inspiration for this sustainable quilt project. My husband’s family has Dutch heritage and I wanted to incorporate that feel into the quilt which is why I choose to add various pinwheel blocks to emulate the characteristic windmills across Holland. The pinwheel blocks are of various sizes, colors and shapes as a few are offset to create a modern approach to a traditional block. The large white negative space also creates a minimalist and modern feel to balance the traditional tea towel blocks.
This quilt is sustainable as it is made with materials that have been repurposed or reused. The tea towels used are vintage, hand embroidered from my husband’s late grandmother. The white background, striped fabric, and the backing for this quilt are made from old sheets found at the ARC. The solid navy are scraps from previous projects and the bright floral print is a scrap from vintage linens.
category: repurposed, rescued fabrics
Holly Harrison
Golden, Colorado
[untitled]
upcycled silk, velvet, cotton fabric; cotton batting
Sourced primarily from estate sales, I am a collector of vintage and cast-off textiles and the stories that accompany them.
As I gather treasures ranging from the vintage silk kimonos of a Japanese war bride, to exquisitely hand embroidered linen dinner napkins, to piles of fabric carefully pressed or haphazardly jumbled, I muse upon the life and dreams of the person who sewed and crafted and created in a home now open to the perusal of strangers.
The treasures and scraps that were once part of someone else’s beloved stash find a new home in my studio where I cut around the stains and imperfections, deconstruct and reconstruct, and combine colors and fiber content and a myriad of styles to create new purpose and beauty.
I quilt, tuft rugs, weave and felt, carrying on the legacy of generations of makers as I endeavor to create new pieces of functional art…with a past.
All the materials in this quilt were sourced from estate sales: the remainders of projects finished or left undone. If unsold, these materials were destined for a landfill. The design of the quilt is intentional to utilize even the smallest scraps. All materials were washed and dried before being used and the finished quilt is therefore washable. Everyday use is encouraged!
category: repurposed, rescued fabrics
Laura Loewen
Lafayette, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
#theglaciertwo
linen, repurposed 100% cotton men’s dress shirts, solid color quilter’s cotton, bamboo batting
This is the second quilt I made in a small project inspired by Colorado’s glaciers, specifically Arapaho Glacier. I chose to piece this quilt with 14 cuts of fabric representing the 14 named glaciers of Colorado. About half of the fabrics used for piecing are linen, there are 2 pieces made from quilter’s cotton, and the other fabrics making up just less than half the pieces are repurposed men’s dress shirts; depicting the over 50% receding of Arapaho Glacier in the 20th century. The quilting design is the topography of the Arapaho Glacier area. It was hand quilted using perle cotton 8. I used a metallic thread to machine quilt a grid inside the boundaries of the glacier, along with a white line of hand stitching around the glacier’s border. Both North and South Arapaho Peaks are visible on the topo quilting.
I chose to use linen on the majority of this quilt top because the growing and production of linen is friendlier to the environment than cotton. I left the selvages on the linen because they were as beautiful as the main portion of the linen fabrics. Typically, a selvage is cut off and thrown away. I also used repurposed men’s dress shirts. For the batting I chose a bamboo/cotton blend because bamboo is a quick growing plant and has a lower environmental impact than other batting options.
category: renewable, sustainable new fabrics + repurposed, rescued fabrics
Barbara Gippe
Dacono, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
[untitled]
scraps, materials from the Art Parts Creative Reuse Center and recycled poly batting
The colored fabric strips in this quilt are from my scrap bins. The denim fabric and royal blue fabric were both purchased at the Art Parts Creative Reuse Center in Boulder. The backing consists of extra stripes from the front, extra blue fabric from the front and white curtain fabric leftover from pillows that my sister made for me. The batting is recycled poly.
Scrap fabric, material purchased from the Art Parts Creative Reuse Center in Boulder and recycled poly batting.
category: repurposed, rescued fabrics
Kim Fischer
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder Modern Quilt Guild
Karen Dovala, long arm quilter
Love and Tears
white eyelet wedding dress, vintage handkerchiefs, table cloth, denim, Robert Kaufman love fabric, Kona raspberry solid
This quilt, entitled Love and Tears, is made primarily from my white eyelet wedding dress I wore in 1978 (shown in the picture on the quilt label), vintage handkerchiefs, white eyelet from a tablecloth my mother-in-law made for the table at our wedding reception and denim from my late husband’s jeans. We had been married 34 years when he passed away 6 years ago from cancer. I wanted to make something tangible out of these materials to remember my relationship with Mark and how it was filled with lots of love and some tears.
category: repurposed, rescued fabrics
Special thanks to the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community, the Albert A. Bartlett Science Communication Center, Faurot Construction and DIV 6 Millwork, the BoulderMQG Show Committee and Jurors, and Stephanie Ruyle of Spontaneous Threads.
