May Meeting Highlights

6/16/2017

Laura Piggott on Modern Quilting

Our very interesting and talented guest speaker was Laura Piggott, artist and modern quilter who specializes in improv work and colour theory. Laura has a visual arts background and is a co-founder of the Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild.

She began by testing our knowledge of the characteristics of modern quilting that included responses such as saturated colours, large blocks, lots of negative space, intense quilting.

Laura's quilts illustrated many elements of modern quilting, and basic principles of balance, composition, design, and colours. They range from modern-traditional to abstract improv.

We learned that Canadian modern quilter and textile artist, Libs Elliott was commissioned to design the label for the bottles of Absolut Vodka's special Canada 150 product, Absolut Canada. Who ever imagined a bottle of vodka would feature a quilt on its label!

We appreciated seeing the Fancy Fox quilts that Laura made for her children, and her son's generosity in parting with his beloved quilt for the evening.

Laura's fast moving and inspirational presentation was peppered with many tips that included:

Laura uses a thin cotton bamboo batting
She frequently uses flannel backing
Use the fancy stitches on your sewing machine, such as wavy lines, and elongate them for modern machine quilting
Use linen in negative space for an interesting texture
Turn any quilt block, including traditional blocks, into a modern block by making it bigger
Laura's quilts are frequently quilted with peach coloured thread
Laura often uses Aurifil 28 weight thread and a 3 or 3.5 stitch length on linen fabrics
Modern quilters "hang out" on Instagram - look there for photos of their work. Photos are tagged with hashtags such as #modernquilt, #improvquilt Create an Instagram account and you can follow specific modern quilters. Follow Laura at #wafflekisses
QuiltCon annual modern quilting conference featuring a quilt show and classes
Modern fabric vendors: Mad About Patchwork (Stittsville), Fabrications (Ottawa), the workroom (Toronto), Fabric Spark, Hawthorne Threads
International Modern Quilt Guild (MQG)

Quilters mentioned by Laura who have inspired her and who are prominent in the modern quilting community included:

Elizabeth Hartman - books, herringbone tutorial, "Fancy Fox" pattern blog
Heather Ross web site
Anna Marie Horner - flannel fabrics and more web site
Libs Elliott - Patterns: hexagon. Rebel Quilt, Weight of Love. web site
Carolyn Friedlander - fabric and patterns web site
Tula Pink web site
Gwen Marston web site
Alissa Haight Carlton - founder of the international Modern Quilt Guild web site
Jacquie Gering web site

Laura is an Ontario Certified Teacher and quilt workshop leader. Her workshops focus on originality, creativity, colour theory and improv piecing.

You can find Laura on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/wafflekisses/ or #wafflekisses, and her older web site

Laura's quilts are pictured below and included innovative modern Advent calendars, and her sailboat quilt which was headed off to Quilt Canada.

Tim Hortons T-shirt Quilt

Our guild was enlisted to make a quilt to assist the Arnprior Tim Hortons outlets in raising funds for their Send a Kid to Camp programme. They provided a number of Tim Hortons themed t-shirts which Marilyn Erskine and Brigid Whitnall made into this 60" x 70" quilt which they shared with us at show-and-tell.

Moving Forward

All of the executive and key volunteer positions were filled for next year. They assume their responsibilities on July 1. Special thanks to Past President Anne Cruikshank for her work in recruiting people for these very important jobs.