TGIFF! - Min

Unquilted

What an interesting exercise this foray into Minimalism has been! I loved reading your comments and hearing your opinions about the quilting and what would make it minimal.

When it came to the quilting, it was interesting that matchstick was brought up many times -- approved of and disapproved of in almost equal measure. It raised the question for me of whether one has to use a minimalist process (e.g. only a few quilting lines) to achieve a minimalist look or whether a simple final look is okay even if the process is more elaborate (e.g. matchstick quilting)?

When I first envisioned this project, I had planned to do matchstick quilting, hoping the simple texture would cancel the elaborate quilting process.

I added a black line of quilting on either side of the black fabric and started with 1/2" vertical lines in white Aurifil #2021 to see if that was enough. I should have taken a picture of it at that stage, but it didn't feel completed so I filled it in with matchstick quilting.

This is Min (let's be minimalist with the name too, why don't we?):

I'm not sure if the matchstick quilting detracts from the minimalist look, but I love it. I find it warms it a bit and I just love the texture.

I used a non-mitred facing binding (tutorial available here) so the binding wasn't visible. Adds to the clean look, I think.

Finished Size: 21" by 39.5".

So is Min Minimalist? According to minimalist principles, it is pretty objective (doesn't really look like anything else I've made), it is simple, it focusses on line, it uses only two non-colours, and there's no obvious binding. That said, it uses traditional materials (cloth and thread) and the quilting gives it a lot of texture.

I'll let others be the judge, but I'm liking it. A lot more than I thought I would. Yay!

Even though it's Saturday here, TGIFF! is still on over with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation so I'm going to link up and head over to enjoy the other finishes.


Have a great weekend, everyone!

An Exercise in Minimalism

I caught a documentary on Herb and Dorothy Vogel, the proletarian art collectors, on the weekend and was intrigued by the type of art they collected. They focussed on conceptual art and minimalist art. It was the minimalist art that intrigued me. I don't particularly like minimalist art because I usually find it cold, but I also don't understand it very well either. I started reading more about it. And I started thinking. You know that spells trouble, eh?

What might a minimalist quilt look like?

I considered different quilt styles. Wholecloth? Although the top is not pieced, the quilting often has trapunto and is usually pretty elaborate so no, probably not whole cloth, unless it was done differently. Amish? Simple style, yes, but still more elaborate than minimalist art. Gee's Bend/Improv? No, don't think so.

There's Alissa Haight Carlton's book, Modern Minimal, for good inspiration. There's also Lindsay Stead's quilts. Yum! I also found a great Pinterest board of inspiration.

What's über minimalist though? Something that's basic to art? What's a fundamental part of art and design? A line? Yes, let's go with a line.

Using the rule of thirds in design, I put in a 1" black strip of fabric in a 23" by 44" piece of white (Kona Snow). I want this piece to be one of the quilts that I rotate in our kitchen so it will be about the same size as Happy Canada Day, Eh! and Purplelicious. I chose this rough size to account for shrinkage from the quilting and trimming.

There. That's pretty minimalist, right?

But wait, it's not a quilt yet. What might minimalist quilting look like? Is it barely quilted or just simply quilted? Is it quilted at all? Thoughts?

Find out how my challenge turned out on Friday. Oh, and I'm also keeping track of the time and materials spent on this to do another Value and Worth exercise. :)