Placemat Commission: Every Shade of Blue

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It Starts With Your Story

As always, this commission started with a conversation. My client was looking for new placemats to brighten up their dinner table. They requested lots of different shades of blue, with little pops of lime green.

This was the perfect opportunity to use some mini charm squares* that I'd overdyed with indigo.

* for non-quilter people: "charm square" refers to a common size of pre-cut fabric. See also jelly roll, layer cake, charm pack, and quilters' candies. Yes, we're a wild and whimsical bunch. [eyeroll]

I'd also been contemplating a pre-loved work shirt in chambray blue. I like to think that placemats would be a sweet retirement gig for a hard-working garment.

We started out with an order for 8 placemats. However, my client made an unforeseen move to a much smaller house, so we revised that to 4. (Really, though, it's 4 fronts and 4 backs, so kinda like 8.)

I constructed these using quilt-as-you-go techniques. This basically means that I sewed each piece of fabric directly to the batting (that fluffy middle layer). I also use this method to make potholders.

And yes, these are improv quilts! I started with a general plan and a palette, but no specific designs or measurements. Each composition evolved during the process.

I just happened to put the finishing touches on these while hanging out at my favorite coffee shop. Since it wasn't crowded, I took the opportunity to photograph these among the convenient sunbeams and actual grownup furniture.

AND, my client (a fellow artist) was kind enough to take some pictures in situ.

More Than Just A Quilt

If you're thinking about commissioning a custom quilt, here's something you should know: As part of your package, I will include swatches of all the fabrics I use in your quilt, with notes about their origin.

You'll also get a pair of custom potholders made from the scraps. You're welcome to keep them for yourself, or pass them on as a gift!

Elevate Your Space

What extra-special touch is missing from your home? Bed covers, couch blankies, potholders, table runners, placemats, mug mats, coasters -- these are all right in my wheelhouse. Let's talk about bringing some magic into your space.

Quilt Commission: Remember Us

In 2022 I opened my quilting practice to take commissions, and since then, I've had nothing but rewarding experiences with my custom quilt clients. To get started with your custom-made quilt, head over to my Commissions page.

Remember Us

A custom quilt begins with a conversation. I want to get a good idea of what my client's needs and goals are. With this quilt, the client wanted something big enough to cover a teenager on the couch. The quilt needed to be washable. This client was already familiar with my work, and they pointed out specific pieces they particularly liked, such as this one:

Here's my conceptual sketch. I love doodling quilty images, but I'm not big on the sketch-to-finished-quilt pipeline. Thus the design is pretty spare:

For colors, they requested black, and I decided to fill out the palette with neutrals. I also included some hand-dyed pieces in the blue/purple range.

My client is an artist friend whose family recently moved to a new state. He's a poet and a typographic artist, so this was a great excuse to pull all of my fabrics that had text on them. Including:

• commercial quilting cottons featuring text

• fabric that I printed using a letterpress during my residency at the OxBow School of Art

• fabric that I screen printed during my residency at [Artspace] at Untitled

• fabric on which I used an oil stick to take a rubbing of a commemorative plaque

We're both a little sad that they moved away, so some of those fabrics are Oklahoma-specific. Here are some more typographic fabrics that I used on the back:

Oh, you wanted more juicy detail shots of the quilting? Here you go:

Here's a shot of me stitching on the facing. A facing on a quilt is like a binding. It goes all the way around the edge, but it only shows on the back.

When you order a custom-made quilt from me, you get a few extra bonuses. During the process, I save swatches of all the fabrics I use. At the end, I sew those onto a piece of paper, and add notes about where the fabrics came from. I also throw in a couple of Color Catchers:

While I make an effort to use fabrics that will not bleed in the wash, it can sometimes happen. Color Catchers are great for soaking up any loose dye in the wash. (They're reusable, too.) Look for them in the laundry aisle at the grocery store, or if you prefer Amazon, there are several brands available.

Your Quilt Tells Your Story.

Let's talk about your custom quilt! Check out my Commissions page and book your Quilt Customization Session today.

Repetition: E

Repetition: E

Reclaimed garments, vintage sheet, and other cotton and wool fabrics, machine pieced and quilted. 44" H x 39" W, 2022. $850 Click here to purchase.

Quilt Blocks Are Small Problems.

A small problem, created and solved, over and over. That's how I think about making a quilt. Build the blocks, then build with the blocks.

But wait - Sarah, aren't you an improv quilter? I thought you didn't make quilt blocks.

I actually make a ton of quilt blocks. I just don't make them all the same size or shape or color. That's where the improvisation comes in.

In Repetition: E, the building blocks are easier to see.

This is one of the quilts I started in early 2022 during the Abstract Piecing workshop series with Sherri Lynn Wood. It had snowed that week, and I was noticing the shapes made by different tire treads in the show.

The blocks are composed from very simple elements. All rectangles, one horizontal, the rest perpendicular to that one. Most of them are only two colors, to make the brain read the shapes as letter E's. Kinda like those charts at the opthamologist's office.

As with Don't Stop Me Now, I challenged myself to use mostly striped fabrics, which enforced the rectangular motif.

More Rule-Breaking

I could have made all of the E blocks the same size and shape. But my curious mind says, "Never make a rule unless you intent to break it." And rubs its little brainy hands together a-la-Mr.-Burns.

What if this block had 3 colors instead of 2? What if this one had 4 stripes, or 5, or 6? What if this one didn't make the E shape? What if this one was longer, or shorter, or wider? And so on. I can't help myself. I gotta try everything.

Basic Split is another example of this approach: Start with a very simple block construction, and make multiple variations on that theme.

Repetition: E is now available in my web store!

Click here to bring this bit of coziness into your own home.

Not Quite Right? Commission Your Own!

Like what you see, but want it in a different size? Different colors? Another variation? Let's talk about your custom quilt! Check out my Commissions page and book your Quilt Customization Session today.

Pivoting

This post first appeared on my Patreon page. Join today to see everything first!

"Whatever happened to Spweet?* Are they still aggregating Kuhfwangles?" "No, they pivoted."

In the tech startup world, pivoting is "a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth." (source)

Or to paraphrase Steve Blank: Fire the plan, not the CEO.

I painted so hard in 2016. And 2015, and 2014, and on back. I love the paintings I painted. But I'm tired of painting.

They Grow Around Roads. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee. Available at Ro2 Art.

I've been a painter for 20 years. It's been my pastime, my course of study, my profession, and a big part of my identity. It's been easy to answer the question,

"So, what kind of art do you do?"

Well, that's a good question. Right now, I'm not interested in making paintings. So how can I tell people I'm a painter? You know what I'm doing now? I make quilts.

Why Make Quilts?

Quilts inhabit an interesting space between two and three dimensions, comprising both image and object.

Quilts are largely functional works of art, meant to be touched, used, and worn over time. I make quilts that should be used - no hands-off museum mentality here.

Across cultures worldwide, quilts are created to mark time and record history, both public and private. We make quilts to commemorate birth, marriage, transition, sickness, even death. A quilt can simultaneously signify the history of one person and an entire people.

Quilts are a way to make old materials new again. They embody the age-old practice of making do, ever more relevant in our consumer culture.

Are quilts art? The debate plods along. I have the opportunity to expand the conversation about “craft” or “functional art” in “fine art” spaces. As one educated in the traditional art school system, making quilts feels at once radical and yet completely appropriate. Of course quilts are art!

Have I hung up my paintbrushes for good? Certainly not. I need some time to create in this other vein. I think I will return to painting through some side door that I can't see just now. It's going to take new practices and strategies to continue my art business with this new hat on. I'm definitely up for the challenge.

So now, when someone asks, "What kind of art do you do?" I tell them: I make quilts.

I'm a quilter, y'all.

* Okay, you would not believe how many nonsense words I auditioned for this sentence, but it turns out they are already in use, most of them as tech startups. Rejected words include: sploof, tweenge, treeve, alboo, florp, gloove, traeve, fween, spang, splot, ofen, crangle...

Curves on Top of Curves - Part 2

The Austin Modern Quilt Guild got so many contributions for the Drunkard's Path challenge that there were enough for two whole quilts. Thus we were able to double our donation to the Community First! Village. See pictures of the first quilt here.

First some links, then the pictures.

What is Modern Quilting? Join the Austin Modern Quilt Guild Learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes What is the Community First! Village? Contribute your quilting skills to the Community First! Quilters

Even More Curves.

Plus some stripes.

I just love the two zebra-striped yin-yang blocks we got. Can you spot the one in the other quilt?

By the pool. In November. Because Austin.

The back.

Quilting detail, and adorable chairs fabric from Stitch Lab.

I want to thank the members of the Austin Modern Quilt Guild for trusting me with their quilt blocks - I had SO much fun assembling and quilting these guys! You rock.

Want to see more creations like these? Check out the Austin MQG on Instagram.