The Process Pledge

Have you noticed this logo cropping up on your favorite quilt blogs lately? The link leads to an excellent post about changing the focus of our blogs to include the process of quilt making rather than simply sharing the final product. When you read the post, read the comments as well. They're enlightening.

You won't see much about process on my blog because most of the quilts I share were finished years ago. It's hard to recreate the design process for readers, once sketches, notes, and memories are gone. But if my quilts have stories, I will tell them.


This Square in a Square quilt, for example, is typical of what I was making in the early 1990’s ~ traditional pattern, controlled color palette, loads of hand quilting.

Roberta Horton‘s Mood Indigo fabrics inspired this quilt. I'd sent away for 4” sample squares of the collection, reasoning that variety was more important to me than quantity. Horton's plaid and striped fabrics were unique for the time and I simply wanted to document them in a quilt.

I'd read Horton‘s book, Plaids and Stripes: The Use of Directional Fabric in Quilts,  where she suggests cutting some of your fabric “casually off grain” to mimic the look of antique quilts, and add the interest your eye seeks when using nothing but linear fabrics. I laugh now when I see my timid attempts to heed her advice.

This quilt was a good candidate for hand quilting, since the fabric is luxuriously soft and easy to needle. I used Mountain Mist Cotton batting, which requires quilting as closely as 1/4" to 1/2" intervals. It has a flat loft and puckers with washing. If you don't mind doing all that stitching, you're rewarded with a quilt that looks antique.

People sometimes ask, especially about my small quilts, "What are you going to do with that now that it's finished?" "Own it, look at it, love it," I'm always tempted to reply. In this case, I truly made it just to chronicle a beautiful collection of fabrics. The joy was in the making. That was enough.

Horton’s Got The Blues

30" square
machine pieced, hand quilted
© Diane Burdin, 1993

Less Is More

One of my favorite radio programs, “The Story,” recently featured a fellow named Chris McNaught, who is determined to pare down his personal possessions to a mere 500. Can you imagine? 

Much like the popular organizing guru, Marie Kondo or renowned Victorian designer, William Morris, it’s about making intentional choices to live with less rather than mindlessly accumulating more. Comedian George Carlin also has a great take on "Stuff"

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”  William Morris

Mr. McNaught includes items like kitchenware, clothing, books, and music CDs in his tally, whereas food, toiletries, or other personal products that get used up, are not counted. He’ll sometimes take photos of sentimental items for posterity, before selling or giving things away.

Could you live like that? I know I couldn't. I’m way too fond of my stuff! Nevertheless, an occasional exercise in restraint is a good reminder that less is often more than we actually need.

On one of my first Mother’s Days, I asked my husband to skip the gift. What I really wanted was some uninterrupted time to sew. This little quilt is what I started that day. It's made of Roberta Horton's "Mood Indigo" fabric, just a few sample squares that I had of the black plaids. It reminds me that it doesn’t take much money, fabric, or time to satisfy a creative urge--just the bare essentials.

Sawtooth Sampler
16” x 18”
machine pieced, hand quilted

Diane Burdin, 1990

Small Quilt Display

A reader named Libby has been following my posts about doll quilts and asked, “Do you have a display of all your doll quilts? I'd love to see how you show/use them.”

Plaid Posies

19" x 22" 

hand appliqued, hand quilted

© Diane Burdin,1991

I’ve never had much luck displaying my doll quilts. Those charming groupings and tablescapes you see in magazines and online are inspirational, but as soon as I try to create one, my quilt becomes a magnet for clutter. Jim moves them off the coffee table so he can put his feet up, and guests mistake them for coasters. I get tired of the tug of war we play, shuffling them from one surface to another, so I don’t bother putting small quilts out anymore.

There is one spot in the house where I hang little quilts -- a room where I spend enough time to appreciate how much they brighten the surroundings -- the laundry room. 

This tulip is a Gwen Marston design. The pattern used to come in a package of Fairfield batting, although, as Gwen herself admits, who needs a pattern? Just cut one from folded paper. I used Roberta Horton woven plaids and stripes, added a saw tooth border and quilted it with my favorite folky fan pattern.

Many of my yard sale finds have ended up in the laundry room too: an old grater, butter paddles, wooden chopping board, and cookie press...

a clothesline winder, cabbage grater and a towel hook made by my friend Laurie from a silver fork and spoon.


Now, if I could only be that clever with quilt displays!