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PlainStitch Deb

PlainStitch Deb

A Modern British Quilt History

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Category: Notes on Quilting Column

My Column for The Quilter Magazine

My Quilts, Notes on Quilting Column, Quilt History

Modern Notes On Quilting

Dec 1, 2019Nov 17, 2020 Deborah McGuire

I’m excited to be writing a new column in this quarters’ The Quilter Magazine* It is out at the start of December, so I wanted to take a moment to share with you my thoughts on the new column. Firstly let me tell you about the name of my column. ‘Modern Notes on Quilting’ is… Continue reading Modern Notes On Quilting

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My latest #notesonquiltingncolumn for #thequiltermagazine explores the idea of the quilt as soft power. Soft Power is the name for the gentle powerful diplomacy that happens quietly just off stage, and I suggest that quilters are expert in this crucial art. Every wrap of a warm quilt around a scared child, tucked around elderly knees, kindly gifted to a friend, every charity block, every donated fundraiser, every uplifting quilty zoom call is an act of soft power. These moments make impacts on the arc of another’s life for good and leave an indelible mark, usually a fabric/quilt shaped one. Far from being insignificant or irrelevant these everyday acts are the glue that holds societies together at tough times. You quilters are the good eggs 🥚❤️ #debmcguirewrites #imintheguild #qgbiregion7 #quilthistory #quiltmagazine #thequiltersguild
Such a beautiful customer quilt on my frame in the sunshine last week. As a longarm quilter you get a unique peek into others quilting worlds. It’s been a long winter at the end of a hard year but judging from the elegance of the quilts on my frame lately, quilters have risen to the challenges and found beauty in the barren. After scorched earth, new growth blossoms, resilience always wins in the end, I’m optimistic for a beautiful summer of making ahead for us all. #plainstitchlongarm #gammillquilting #longarmquiltinguk
This picture of my #hawickquilt encapsulates what I really love about a finished quilt - its texture. It’s been interesting reading @zakfoster.quilts and @heidi.parkes advocating for a reevaluation of how we photograph and show quilts. I’ve often found the convention of showing quilts on walls a bit bare, devoid of warmth. For a few years now my experience of seeing my own quilts displayed on stark white walls under bright lights has left me a bit cold. In stating that quilts have artistic merit does that mean that they have to behave like pictures? When we try and make them flat, hang straight, be stiff, do we emasculate/defeminate(?) them, take away their unique haptic-maternal-material strength to be items of comfort, to convey softness as power. Lots to muse in this line of thought? Did we accidentally negate what is uniquely good about quilts in order to be accepted as ‘art’? Are we selling out strengths in traditional femininity to play in masculine fields? Can modem quilters take back the roots of why quilts have power by showing that post-modern quilts don’t have to play by the conventions imposed by art? Maybe consider all these weighty problems curled up under a cosy soft quilt - the answer to most of life’s gnarly problems can be found there. #quiltsasart ##hawickquilt #quiltstudy #postgraduatelife #handquiltingasmeditation #folkskills #handquilted #scottishquilt #modernvernacularquilt #britishvernacularquilt #britishquilts #britishquilter #quilthistory #debmcguirequilts #quiltmakers #quiltstories #thequiltersguild #imintheguild #qgbiregion7 #modernbritishquilt #modernwholeclothquilt #libertyfabric #freezerpaperapplique #quiltsofinstagram #wholeclothquilt #antiquequilt

Hello!

My Quilts

  • A Scant History of Patchwork & Quilting in The British Isles
  • The Hudson Quilt Coat
  • Waste Not Want Not Quilt
  • The Rosemaling Quilt
  • The Daisy Quilted England Wholecloth
  • The Georgian Quilted Petticoat Project
  • Hope Blooming Quilt
  • The Misses Barron Quilt – Part 2.
  • The Maps of Childhood Quilt
  • PlainStitch. What’s in a name?
  • Modern Notes On Quilting
  • The Wendover Remembers Quilt

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Read My Column – Modern Notes on Quilting – The Quilter Magazine

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