Our little local quilt guild has had Becky Goldsmith here to lecture and teach this week. (Thanks again Jenny for keeping me in the loop!) I’ve been long-time fan of Becky Goldsmith, who, along with Linda Jenkins are the team of Piece O’ Cake Designs. IMHO, Becky and Linda were among the pioneers of the fun, quirky side of quilting. When quilting made it’s big comeback in the 70’s and 80’s, everything was pretty traditional. Now we have traditional and modern and we got to the modern side of things with the help of quilters like Becky and Linda.
I’ve also been a long-time reader of Becky’s blog. Long-time being relative, since blogs are fairly new compared to the 20 years that Piece O’Cake has been around. What I really love about Becky’s blog is that she’s very observant and she makes you sit up and take notice of things you might have missed. She spoke about this a little bit at the beginning of her presentation. She showed us interesting slides like the one below. (Sorry the pictures are so dark — it was dark in the room.) What is the first thing you notice?
Becky said she posted this photo on her blog and she was surprised at the number of people who noticed the arrow in the negative space between the E and the X. Did you see it?
Another thing Becky notices a lot are manhole covers. I LOVE it when she posts manhole covers on her blog. Here’s one of my favorites that I remember from her blog and she showed it last night. I want to hang that one on my sewing room wall!
The main topic of Becky’s presentation was color and she spoke about different ways to use it. I thought the following quilts were interesting.
They’re made out of the same pattern. Becky decided to experiment with colors when she made the quilt on the right and she got a big laugh out of the crowd when she said that quilt “sucks”. The colors don’t work as she arranged them. (Below you can see an expanded view that shows that the quilts are indeed, the same pattern.)
Becky said to embrace your mistakes. The quilt that sucked became a great quilt back. I loved this next quilt. Awhile ago, Becky requested that the readers of her blog each send her a piece of fabric that they thought was really ugly. I remember when she requested the fabrics and she got some REALLY ugly scraps. (Another big laugh when Becky said that some of the scraps were almost pornographic.) She said there were probably only 4 pieces of fabric that she actually liked. But, she arranged them according to color and made the quilt below — Wow!
I loved her message. Look at everything with fresh eyes. And use your design wall. She also talked about cleaning out your stash and only keeping the fabrics and colors that you love. Get rid of the old fabrics that you no longer love, i.e. ugly fabrics. I have to say, I disagreed with that idea and had to chuckle when I thought about it after just seeing the beautiful quilt that she made from ugly fabrics. I have a LOT of ugly fabrics from the 70’s and 80’s. I don’t like the colors anymore. But, I love scrappy quilts and you just never know when you might need a bit of ugly fabric. I just dipped into the 70’s stash this week and found a perfect print for my Trip Around the World. So … you never know. I know I’ll never in a million years use all the fabric that I’m hoarding (and sometimes I get sick thinking about it) but, at least, I’m going to have some variety to choose from. (As an aside, can you tell me why it is, with a large stash, that you often can’t find a color or print that you want? I don’t mean it’s lost in your stash, I mean you don’t have the color that you need for your quilt. I think it’s one of the mysteries of quilting.)
Anyway, if you ever get the chance to hear Becky speak, take the opportunity. She’s fun and inspiring. And if you’re not following her blog, you should!
XOXO,
Anna
Hey Anna, Great post. What a fun lecture to attend. I just added her blog to my blogroll. Funny you should mention having a huge stash but can’t find just the right fabric. I had that happen today. Reds are what I have the most of (and I have quite a bit) but went looking for something I had in mind….and nothing fit the bill! Go figure.
Lucky! I’ve been a fan forever. I have their books to prove it. So fun to read. Wish I had some of that pink print…
When I first started reading this post I thought it would be one I would skim over and probably not leave a comment… After all I’m not really a quilter. But I really enjoyed reading about Becky’s approach and I’m off to check her blog, so thank you! And even though I’m not a quilter I have a whole stash of beautiful ( and ugly) quilting fabrics just in case… And I’m off to the Festival of Quilts this weekend!
I love that manhole cover. It would definitely look great on my sewing room wall. And it’s not just fabric that I never have the right colour of – I’m sure that’s really bad grammar! *blush* As you know, I do a lot of dressmaking but I often open my wardrobe and think “I’ve got nothing to wear!” LOL
What a fun post about Becky and POC. I NEVER noticed the arrow – fascinating.
her scrappy quilt is funny and a good example of the importance of color and value.
Interesting post, thank for sharing! I thought that was a funny juxtaposition of the successful “ugly prints” quilt and then telling you to get rid of ugly stuff. However, I did have ugly fabrics and yarns that people gave when I was a Beginner and didn’t know better than to take it. Now I’ve given a lot away to charity.
Have you read the unloved fabric purge at stitched in color yet? http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2014/06/unloved-fabrics-purge.html She also has made some interesting things with *ugly* fabric.
I think I ride the fence on that issue a bit. Like you, I often find that something I am not SUPER in love with is still useful. BUT, I have two shelves to hold fabric and they are stuffed full and right now I am in an obsessive vintage fabric collecting phase and it all has to go somewhere… :-)
And yes, it is still way more than I could use in a lifetime, but eh, I enjoy it, so whatev.
okay you fabric hoarder…. i vote that you get rid of ugly fabric you are no longer in love with… but what do i know?
so happy you got to see becky and see all of those women in your guild. (this is where i bit my tongue and didn’t say anything about QH)
have a great day anna banana.
:waves madly
Great post Anna! I honestly never heard of Becky Goldsmith before!
Maybe I need to sort my stash and get rid of all my ugly fabrics, but like you I always think they can be used for something…
I know what you mean about the stash and not having what you need. I will say that I need to beef up my yellow. I need more softer, buttery yellow fabrics than what I currently have. In my stash is more bright, orange-y yellow. Also, my purple is totally lacking. I mean TOTALLY. Only 1 shoe-box sized tote of purple and it’s barely full. That’s terrible.
oh, i usually have the fabric i need already in my stash…the problem is: i don’t usually have ENOUGH of it to make what i’m working on. i try to improvise when i can. other times, i just go look for it on internet stores. ;p
I have been following POC for quite a while. Don’t you wonder were Becky and Steve get all that energy? And yep, I gave some uglies going to cut up small like Binnie Hunter says and stick them someday in Scrap Vomit!
I didn’t see the arrow for a while even when I was looking for it. D’oh. I’m fascinated by her “ugly fabric” quilt. It looks beautiful!
(By the way, do you know why I (only I?) have to keep typing all the info in every time I comment on your blog? Other blogs seem to recognise me. Is there a button to click that I’m not seeing?)
How interesting – now that I’ve commented it remembers me!! Do you think it read my complaint? But I assume that if I go away and come back, it will have forgotten me again. So fickle.
Hi Anna, I so agree about not being able to find the right fabrics even with ALL the fabric I have in my fabric library! I was lucky enough to do a couple of classes with Becky in New Zealand a few years ago and had a ball with her!
I bet that was great – I would love to listen to her and some others – I wish my area had good speakers/workshops but they never do.
I so agree that Becky and Linda are amazing!