Working Through

January 31, 2024 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

Over the last year, I’ve had recurring pain in my elbow. The pain fluctuates and flares — I’ve come to think of it as its own entity. Each morning I check in.

How are you today?
How much attention will you require today?
What will you allow me to do today?

It’s always in the back of my mind, like a second pulse. I wanted to illustrate my relationship to the pain but also my need to keep going, keep creating, and keep using my body in this life. So in this quilt I’m attempting to portray my elbow pain alongside some creative life force flowing out of my hands. I appreciate my hands, wrists, and elbows for allowing me to do what I love. I’m rooting for them and trying to care for them so they will carry me another 30 to 50 years, please and thank you.

This quilt was constructed almost entirely from deconstructed shirts (everything but the back) as part of the Take the Shirt Off My Back sustainability challenge organized by Diane Paquin Provost, a member of my beloved Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I took inspiration from amazing quilters I admire: Carolina Oneto, Sherri Lynn Wood, and Annabel Wrigley. From sketch to construction, this is one of the harder things I have pieced and I’m proud of how it turned out.

Three Gifts

January 31, 2024 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

My daughter recently graduated high school. It wasn’t always an easy journey and I was inspired to make a few gifts for some folks who helped her (and us) get through.

The first is a mini quilt for her Japanese teacher who taught her for 3 years and was an amazing presence in her days. This teacher is such a fun person, such a character, such a quirky and positive personality. We all love her. She happens to have a thing for Brad Pitt. He often appears in her powerpoint presentations. Her room is covered floor to ceiling with mostly Brad Pitt and a little Japanese ephemera. So this mini quilt is for Sensei, and now hangs in her classroom. It measures about 23” square. I made the center from a t-shirt and pieced the rest with Japanese fabrics I found on etsy. I handquilted it in a baptist fan motif to mirror some of the prints on the fabrics.

Next I made a Triangle Jitters quilt for the school guidance counselor who helped us navigate high school for both of our kids. Seven years of countless emails and phone calls from me! He handled it like a true pro with patience, skill, and care for my kids that I sincerely appreciated. I didn’t know what colors he would like so I went with the school colors. I quilted this on my Juki, using a walking foot organic X shape from Jacquie Gering’s book Walk. This was my second time making this Suzy Quilts pattern and it’s fantastic. This one measured 49”x71”.

Finally I made a quilt for the color guard coach. My daughter enjoyed 4 seasons of spinning flags with the color guard, and we loved watching her do it. It was a highlight of her high school years for sure. I designed this quilt myself, attempting to convey spinning flags. The team used hot pink practice flags this year which really appealed to me. I wanted the sashing to be dark enough to read almost black but in actuality it’s several colors (blues, reds, purples, and browns). I did some stitch in the ditch quilting and some handquilting to finish this one up. It measures 54”x64”.

Most photos by Mitch Hopper, a few by me. It’s weird to be the parent of two high school graduates! It went by so quickly. Onward!

Peoria Street Surplus

May 01, 2023 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

Sometimes we can’t explain the things we do for our art and this is one of those instances. I sewed up this quilt top in 2018, using extra blocks leftover from my Art 140 quilt. After having it long armed, I decided it needed to be hand quilted instead. So I spent the next 2 years ripping out the quilting I paid for, and quilting it by hand, block by block. I used the same lines as the original quilting, and joked that it was a very expensive way to mark a quilt. I often questioned my sanity. Now that it’s finally done and on our bed, I’m happy. Measures 83”x83” Photos by Mitch Hopper.

Yoshiko's Donut Mountain

April 29, 2023 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

I finished this earlier this year, it’s a quilt dedicated to donuts. It was conceived at QuiltCon 2015 when I bought this Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric featuring the puzzling yet pleasing motif of donuts floating over a mountain range. I started collecting fabrics to complement it, including a little bundle gifted to me by Celina Mancurti after I assisted in one of her QuiltCon screen printing workshops the same year. That stack of fabrics stayed stashed in a bag for 7 years, the longest I’ve ever had a project in progress. I’m glad to check it off the list. It’s not my favorite thing I’ve ever made but they can’t all be! It’s scrappy and a bit wild and I had fun piecing the donuts.

For the record my favorite donuts are glazed donuts from Walmart circa 2009 (I think they changed the recipe since then), and powdered donuts from the Oak Park farmers market. {{{excellent photos by @man.of.action as always}}}

Bee quilt: black&white&rainbow pineapples (and a bonus purple pineapple quilt)

October 21, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

During the early days of the pandemic, I signed up to participate in a bee with some of my guild members. This was my first time taking part in a bee like this, where each member requested a certain type of block or patchwork, and the other members of the group provided what they asked. I really enjoyed making the blocks for the other members and felt inspired by their prompts. When it came to my turn to request blocks from other bee members, I struggled to come up with a cool prompt. I blame covid brain for my lack of creativity in this instance (not that I actually had covid, just that the early period of the pandemic made my brain feel so weird and mushy).

I had a pad of pineapple block foundation papers in my studio, a freebie from QuiltCon many years ago. I have always loved this quilt by Tricia Royal, so I asked her if she would be okay with me using it as the template for my bee quilt. She said go for it, so I sent a couple foundation papers to my bee members. I decided I wanted to add a border that would contrast with the black & white. My first idea was to try purple blocks as a juxtaposition, since I had a lot of purple in my stash that wasn’t getting used much. I wasn’t feeling that combination, so those purple blocks turned into their own quilt (see below). Next I tried to yellow blocks for my border and I was happy with that outcome. It wasn’t my first time using yellow in this way; this quilt from 2016 definitely influenced my design choice here. I’m happy with this bee quilt even though I couldn’t come up with a super unique prompt for my bee members. I love having an homage to Tricia’s work of my own.

This quilt measures 71”x83” and was quilted for me by Sarah Evans.

And here is the quilt that came from the purple blocks I made. I paired purple with chambray and navy and tried to focus on contrast in my composition. Honestly I never thought I’d make or love a mostly purple quilt but here we are. It’s a nice nap size quilt and I absolutely adore the quilting done by Sarah Evans on it (a fun panto by Longarm League called Thread Garden). Measures 59”x70”. Photos are by Mitch Hopper (except the one of Tricia’s quilt).