A Course in Quilting A fresh new approach to uncovering the details that make quilting fun and rewarding. As we progress, you will be challenged to make stunning quilts using the skills achieved in earlier courses. Quilting 501—Master’s Year Your master’s year brings everything you have learned in Volume 1—Freshman Year through Volume 4—Senior Year together. You are entering into the world of medallion quilts, a style of quilts that can be anything you want them to be, from very formal to very simple or heavily quilted to simple and everyday. Medallion quilts were in their glory during the latter part of the eighteenth century and reappear in the quilt world time and again. This is not so much a pattern book as a book of inspiration and the culmination of all the knowledge you have achieved through the Quilter’s Academy courses. We have approached the quilts as a way of analyzing and troubleshooting piecing situations, and how to find the solutions. We hope that you gain a real appreciation for these quilts and put all your skills into creating an original one of your own by the end of the book. Note from the Authors This has been a difficult book to write. We didn’t want it to be a pattern book, but a book to inspire quilters to create original medallion-style quilts using all the skills that have been taught in the previous four volumes of Quilter’s Academy. Volume 5 is the culmination of all the techniques and the lessons in drafting and math, as well as the precision we have taught in this series. This is the master’s plan, where you should be able to apply all your knowledge into critical thinking and original design. We have approached this book from different directions. Carrie has always been excited to start with a blank sheet of graph paper, a stack of fabrics, and her huge box of colored pencils and let all that speak to her. It leads her into original quilts inspired by many different things. Her skills allow her to be fearless when it comes to the settings and piecing, as she is confident that she will be able to work out any problems. Harriet, on the other hand, has a passion for antique quilts and tends to collect orphans that are damaged or totally worn out. Her favorite thing is to bring these beauties back to life using modern techniques and new fabrics, but still getting the look and feel of a 175-year-old quilt. So, we have combined both of our styles to present a book to you that approaches quilt design from several angles. Harriet is taking you on a journey of working out the math and dimensions when working with a very old quilt, or from a photograph of an antique quilt. Carrie is working from her own original designs, new fabrics, and a more modern look to her quilts, but still in the medallion style. We sincerely hope you will jump in with both feet and utilize all the ideas to create your own masterpiece! The authors take full responsibility for the contents of this book, including the technical accuracy of the information. Please direct any questions to [email protected]. Please visit the Quilter’s Academy blog, too, for additional information and discussions: quiltersacademy.blogspot.com. Dedication This volume of Quilter’s Academy is dedicated to Izzie, Harriet’s furry kitty companion of almost twelve years. From the time she was little and came to live with us, Izzie was in the studio. There wasn’t a quilt made that she didn’t enjoy as much as we did. She never met a quilt she didn’t like, and her favorites were the most valuable antique ones. She was pictured as a kitten in Heirloom Machine Quilting in 2004, as she rode on the quilt while Harriet quilted it. She learned from the beginning that quilting is fun. Her life ended during the writing of this book, so we thought it an honor to her to dedicate this book to her. We share this dedication with all the furry quilting companions of all types that quilters have enjoyed and lost. There is a big empty spot in the studio, but one of the others is in training and it is looking good. God bless all the animal companions that have such a huge place in our hearts. We will always miss you, Izzie. Izzie helped write every book. Quilts and kitties—what could be better? Preface The human mind craves challenges, and we have tried to create and develop this way of thinking through the first four books. This book is going to put all the skills and ideas developed in the previous books into play. Medallion quilts can be quite a challenge and are not the style of quilt that is made in a weekend. When perusing recently published (within the past fifteen years) books dealing with medallion quilts, we found that they mainly amounted to pattern books, not manuals that teach you how to develop and design your own medallion. This train of thought has put us in the difficult position of trying to find a way to write about the analytical thinking processes that are involved in planning these quilts. There are so many different ways to approach them, and we wanted to cover as many of these ideas as we could. So, we came up with a plan to design some modern-looking medallions using the first four books as guidelines, keeping the piecing simple at first, then developing ideas and thoughts for more complex design as we went. Carrie designed quilts working from inspiration photos that utilized all the skills she has mastered through the writing of the first four volumes of Quilter’s Academy. This approach led Harriet into dissecting wonderful antique medallions and working out the piecing sizes through drafting and lots of calculator work. Then she decided to work from photos of quilts that live in museums that we don’t have access to. This led to a gallery of borders that we found in dozens of quilts that we studied, as well as outline drawings for you to use as a template for your own original medallions. We hope you find this book exciting and that it inspires you to take the time to create your own masterpiece. This is your master’s degree year, so it deserves the time and attention that you would give an advanced degree. Sit back, enjoy the journey, and create something wonderful. A Note from Harriet: I want to congratulate Carrie for hanging in there with me to this level of skill. When we started the series she was a new student of quiltmaking—a self- proclaimed “topper.” I have watched her dedication to excellent workmanship and learning, even though she really didn’t want to be a quilter. Not only has she and learning, even though she really didn’t want to be a quilter. Not only has she made half the quilts in all the books, but she has designed many, pieced them all, and beautifully machine quilted all of her tops. Her quilts in this book show the dedication she shows for learning and achieving the highest standards in her work. I hope she is an inspiration to our readers to follow suit. Introduction This is the fifth book in the Quilter’s Academy series. Our mission has been to write a series of books that teach the basics while at the same time trying to instill a desire in our students to create original quilts. We feel that the art of classic quiltmaking is being left behind for the quick and easy “modern” quilting fad. The problem with keeping everything fast and simple is that eventually you will get bored with the results. We hope that that starts to create a desire for a challenge. Now the problem becomes evident that few skills have been learned in the making of more simple, modern quilts, so there is a lack of knowledge as to how to start making the more difficult patterns. We sincerely hope that this series has helped people realize that there is no substitute for good workmanship, whether the pattern is simple or complex. Easy is not always best. It seems our society is reaching a point of chronic mediocrity and quilting is going along for the ride. Many quilters would argue that it is just about having fun and getting things done quickly, that techniques are completely subjective and there are no hard and fast rules. We understand how you can be sucked into that thought process. However, as in all things in life, the reality is that there is a need for a toolbox of skills to be able to progress. Not all quilts need to be masterpieces, but with a great skill set, you can make anything you desire, and make it well. If you are just discovering the Quilter’s Academy series, please don’t judge it based on the photos of the quilts. We have kept the fabric choices very traditional to keep them from looking dated, which the use of faddish colors can do. We do hope that you realize that all the patterns can be jazzed up by using wild and crazy fabrics, just as they can look very traditional by using more subtle prints and colors. The only thing keeping your projects from turning out like you want is your imagination and a little planning and doing mock-ups. We also want to remind you that you have been tested throughout the series by the “mistakes” we have in the books. Some were editing oversights and some were placed there deliberately. Our intention was to cause you to think through the problem and arrive at the answer by applying all you had learned up to that point, much like a midterm exam. We knew that if we had put “tests” throughout the book, most readers would just skip over them. We have received all types of comments and emails concerning this. Some were angry, some were very judgmental toward us personally, and some commented that they could work out the answer because they had learned from the previous lessons and classes and could apply the knowledge. Yeah!!! These students totally got it! We hope you were one of those readers! If so, you are now ready for this next challenge.