Heather Black Book Review and Moxie Update

I’m a huge fan of Heather Black’s quilts and loved her first book, written with Daisy Aschehoug, ‘Quilt Modern Curves and Bold Stripes’, so I was delighted to be given a preview digital copy of Heather’s new book, ‘Design Make Quilt Modern’.

I have to say that I was immediately impressed by Heather’s ambition with this book, as explaining and communicating abstract ideas like design is not an easy task. I approach quilt design myself in a very natural intuitive way and don’t often stop to think about the mechanics involved, perhaps because I don’t want to interfere with something that seems slightly magical.  So it was so interesting to read Heather’s take on design and actually incredibly helpful. In Heather’s words “Much of what we can learn about design and our own personal tastes we can find in our everyday lives.  I cover how to achieve balance, depth and movement in your designs and how the simplest of techniques can make the difference between an “ok” quilt and a great quilt.”

The book takes you through different sections, getting started, design basics, designing with colour, finishing with quilting, and a final section about making the quilt a reality.  Finally there are 4 stunning quilt projects.  I lot of things I do instinctively are explained through various design rules which I found really interesting. I learnt a few tricks for things that I haven’t been doing but may do now in the future.

One of the things I liked best is the way Heather kept telling you to ask the question ‘why?’. Why does a particular design appeal to me?  Whay am I always drawn to spikes and curves? Why do I like that quilt better than this one?  I really don’t think I have ever analysed my choices before and it’s a really valuable thing to do. Heather says it’s important to integrate your own ‘personality’ into your quilt-making while considering all the design principles, and though she does teach various design rules she also encourages you to break them if you want.

Colour Theory is something I lecture on regularly and I was pleased to see that Heather and I are on a very similar page as far as this subject. The chapter on colour is excellent.

Heather’s long arm quilting skills are pretty legendary and so I particularly loved the chapter on using quilting to finish your design. I have always believed that the quilting was as important at the piecing in realising a finished quilt design and this section will help you choose quilting that compliments your quilt.

This entire book is an excellent resource to anyone planning to design their own quilt and I would thoroughly recommend it. It’s published by Stash Books and available now from every good bookshop.

I absolutely loved the Around Town quilt from the book and decided to try a little improv version of the basic design elements. I have developed a bit of an aversion to measuring and cutting fabric accurately at the moment (not a great move for a quilter!) and have realised that I can look at most quilt designs and just cut and piece them by eye an an improv style.  This is a relaxed playful way of quilting for me and after a difficult few months I needed to let loose a little. So I chose some gorgeous solids from my Dashwood Pop stash and spent a couple of happy hours making this little piece (it measures 17″ x 22″).

Another reason for wanting to make a small piece is that my ruler base has finally arrived for my Moxie long arm machine and I was keen to try out some rulerwork.

The ruler base is a hard table like surface that goes over the bottom of the machine to give you more stability when using the ruler. I have heard that some people keep their bases on all the time so I will be trying that for my next FMQ quilt.  The ruler I’m using is this Handi Versa Tool that came with the machine. It has a selection of different shapes to use. I also got a ruler foot with a taller ‘cuff’. I’ve not tried using rulers for quilting before, even on my domestic machine. Straight lines and precision aren’t really my thing and I’ve always embraced the ‘free’ element of free-motion quilting instead. However I want to try all aspects of the Moxie in my role as Moxie Mentor.

I gathered together 3 mini quilts and pieced them into a strip with some scrap fabrics in between. If I do this again I will also piece scrap strips to the top and bottom of the row as this will give more leeway to practice on the scrap areas.  I had a training session on Zoom with Liz at Pinhole Quilting to get me started and explain some of the basics. This was only the second one I have had since the machine arrived and was very useful as now that I’ve completed 3 quilts using the Moxie a lot of things are falling into place and I had new questions to ask.

To begin with it was very hard to find the right pressure with the ruler tool, I was pressing too hard and I needed to constantly tell my left hand to relax.  If you are right handed like me that you hold the ruler in the left hand and work the machine with your right hand.  it takes a bit of getting used to and my lines were really wobbly for a while.

But I got better as I went along and by the time I got to the second mini I was improving (I’ll be revealing the first mini in a separate post). This is a Dandelion Clock Block class sample I had lying around.  The main problem I had was deciding which bits to quilt and with what design, but this one proved easier as I just used a similer approach to the Dandelion Clock quilt but with more straight lines. I managed to create a couple of time lapse videos of this (almost as tricky to manage as the quilting) which you can view here on my IG post.

I was really pleased with how this turned out and I was also able to use it as a sample for the faced binding tutorial I am teaching at this weekend’s Thread House Virtual Retreat (still places left if you are quick!).

So far I have stuck to the polyester threads that came along with the machine and that has worked like a dream. But now I have a small stock of Aurifil 40/3, the thread they designed specially for a long arm, and I thought it was time I tried it. So on what I am calling my ‘Heather Mini’ I decided to be really brave and use this turquoise variegated Aurifil.

I think with hindsight I should have chosen something more subtle for this early experiment with rulerwork, however the thread itself was absolutley perfect!  I keep hearing how cotton keeps breaking when used on a long arm but it didn’t break once despite the heavy quilting action going on.

I really got into using the rulers to fill these little areas, however I am going to invest in some longer rulers too for future quilts.  I even tried using the curved side of the ruler a bit. This can also be used to guide you for outlining around shapes. It takes a bit of getting used to but it certainly seems to make your outlining more stable and I will use the ruler tool next time I am outlining applique shapes as I did on the Splendid Sampler Quilt 2 in my last post.

I’m not sure I like the overall effect of the variegated turquoise thread but I like a few of the areas like the two pictured here. I was just making the design up as I went along and this was a good way to discover a few nice effects but also resulted in some less successful bits. Some of these will work better when I have mastered straight lines, like the horizontal grid. I added a little handquilting detail in Aurifil 12wt cotton to balance the areas that I didn’t manage to quilt.

Overall this was a good first attempt at rulerwork and I will certainly be doing more in the future. Using the mini quilts took the pressure off me and allowed for experimentation and a chance to make mistakes, which is the only way you can hope to improve at anything.

For more info on the Moxie and my Moxie Mentor role click on the button on the sidebar or this link.