Kathy Doughty - Adding Layers—Color, Design & Imagination: 15 Original Quilt Projects from Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession

Publisher: Amy Marson

Creative Director: Gailen Runge

Art Director: Kristy Zacharias

Editor: S. Michele Fry

Technical Editors: Alison M. Schmidt and Daniel Rouse

Cover/Book Designer: April Mostek

Production Coordinators: Zinnia Heinzmann and Karen Ide

Production Editor: Alice Mace Nakanishi

Illustrator: Jenny Davis

Photo Assistant: Mary Peyton Peppo

Dedication

I am nothing without my husband, John, and my three sons, Oscar, Noah, and Sam. Outside the family are my MO quilting sistersBundle Caldwell, Cath Babidge, Wendy Williams, Carolyn Davis, Gai Collins, Grace Widders, Kate Page, Megan Manwaring, Liesel Moult, and Robyn Shipton. These women make the shop my happy place to work and visit. And thank you to the wonderful team at C&T that has made me look so much better than I am!

Making Connections

Quiltmakers are the storytellers of each generation. The quilts we make leave a legacy of time and place in a manner that appeals to many senses and captures moments in time. The lives and voices of the makers are sewn into a composite piece of visual delight that evocatively joins color, technique, and style into a long-lasting memory. We see and can imagine a quilt wrapped warmly around a newly married couple, protecting a baby against the elements, flapping in the breeze on the clothesline, or lying folded in an attic for decades. We see the stories of lives and events woven with a long piece of thread. We need to be a part of what we see, and so we make quilts to connect. We make our own stories that reflect where we are now, what we see, and what we have to say about our lives. Contemporary quilters layer textiles, technique, and imagination to make a reflection of the present world for those who follow.

Seeing a quilt immediately leads us to ask a series of questions. Who made the quilt? Where was it made? What was the motivation that ultimately ended up as this quilt? We look for clues in the fabric, the technique, and the style to tell us more about the maker. What attracts our attention may be obvious or subtle. We may see all the delights of a given quilt at once, or we may go on a long walk of discovery that delights us in numerous small revelations. We can easily fall in love with a quilt and want it to be ours! We become aware of what we like or dont like as we view a quilt with admiration or aversion. Walk through any quilt show, and you will hear the participants expressing their varied opinions about how a quilt makes them react, much like viewers examining a treasured piece of art.

What strikes me is how a simple quilt can move the mind and heart. Quilts in their essence are layers of color, pattern, and imagination, all working together to form a composite textile product. Fashion and function are decoratively fused. The top layer tells the obvious story about decisions regarding color and pattern and relates in spirit to the fashion of the day. The middle layer adds warmth, texture, and dimension as it works unseen from within. The backing holds it all together. Each layer has a role to play. We travel with the makers of the past and present into the future in our minds eye, learning, feeling, experiencing, and imagining what was, is, and will be while leaving a telling treasure for those who follow.

MY JOURNEY

Quilters all start somewhere. Some of us were guided into a life of sewing at an early age by our mothers or grandmothers. The memory of the care and love they expressed is closely associated with the process. Others discovered sewing at school, or even later in life. I am one of those late-blooming quilters. Although I had many opportunities to pick up a needle when I was young, it wasnt until I was making a home of my own that the idea really stuck. At first I was attracted to the process of using scraps of fabric to make a textile treasure. One thing led to another as I discovered more about how to use process and technique to develop pattern with color, line, and shape. More than twenty years later, I can see that quilting has brought much joy to my life, and I have much to be grateful for as a result. What amazes me is that no matter how far I dig into the process, I always find moremore color combinations, more patterns to try, more techniques to learn, and more, more, more fun!

The plot of my quilting story thickens. Of all the elements of the quilt, the one I love the most is the story that I hear in my head as I make it. The issues of the day, the weather, music, and even TV often become part of the memories that make up the story of each quilt. In sewing the elements together, I am creating a lasting impression of where I am today, right now, for everyone to see. Just as important as the how of making the quilt is the why. My imagination works overtime sewing the story of each quilt.

When my shop, Material Obsession, was new ten years ago, we were pushing existing boundaries while working unexplored new territories in layout, fabrics, and design for quilts. First, we wanted easy. Then quick. Quick and easy results fit into a busy life. In a world filled with chicks and country colors, we were using colorfully printed fabrics with large graphics, spots, and stripes. Eyes would widen upon entering the shop. Whispers of This shop will never last! were heard many times, along with grumbles that our methods arent quilting. A strong determination won out, and now the new techniques are widely accepted as a sign of our times.

You and the Book

I am a self-taught quilter. Over the years I have accumulated many skills that have added interest and depth to my quilting experience, both literally and figuratively. Like a child, I walked before I ran. Simple fabric selections, basic patterns, and obvious designs gave way to more mature, thoughtful, and developed creations. Quilting is one area in my life that allowed me to go slowly, revealing in layers a growing depth of understanding. The square gave way to triangles, wedges, and appliqu. Simple palettes grew more complex. My story started changing to include subplots. The following chapters explore areas of quilting that are important to mestories that have grown from simple concepts to include new fabric choices, new techniques, and a lot of imagination.

Every quilter is different and has personal reasons for making quilts. It may be an attraction to the fabric, the geometry, the history, the process, or the result, but in any case patchwork quilting has an endless supply of options. This book provides a path to developing layers of depth and understanding in your process. ) introduces a bit of imagination. What happens if we change an element of a quilt? In this case, we examine scale.

As you progress through the book, I challenge you to find methods for expanding your basic ideas and habits. At the start of each quilt project, ask yourself, What do I want to say? Like the stitches that bind one layer to the others, the layering of fabric, design, and a bit of imagination creates unique opportunities within each step of the creative process. At the end, your quilt will be your own, representing your life, thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Depending on your choices, you can make a pop-song quiltone that has immediate impact with modern lines and popular, fashionable fabricsor you can arrange a symphony of color and pattern in more traditional ways.