Gigantic

When I started Quiltunes a year ago, I wondered what it would be like to quilt to Nirvana. And now, I know.

When we moved into our house 5 years ago, we won the neighbor lottery! Our next door neighbors are some of our best friends and this quilt is a gift for them. When I texted “what kind of music do you listen to?”, I was rewarded with an immediate phone call and a long, wonderful conversation about the importance of music in our respective lives. One connection we found is that we both have a huge soft spot for grunge bands. When grunge burst onto the scene in 1991, I was in 8th grade and I was immediately smitten. I listened to “Nevermind”, “Ten”, “Badmotorfinger”and “Dirt” over and over and over again in my room. This was pre-CD, so these albums were tapes or records; how they survived my abuse for years is truly incredible. Grunge happened to coincide with my “angsty” phase, which for me was very minor and really only related to the music that I binged in my messy bedroom. While my ears were filled with the sounds of emotional, loud Seattle music, I continued along getting near perfect grades, devouring library books at an alarming speed, continuing my Lutheran confirmation classes and babysitting my cousins. Meaning that although I was obsessed (literally) with this music, my life was in every single way the polar opposite of grunge culture.

Listening back to these albums again is both nostalgic and sad. Although Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana and Pearl Jam remain on semi-regular rotation in my repertoire, after the conversation with my neighbor, I listened with more intent and thought about what this music really meant for a solid 5-year chunk of my life – and how much it still resonates. It is sad because of how many of these musicians died young and tragically. What could Kurt Cobain have created as an older artist? One can look at Eddie Vedder or Trent Reznor and see their respective creative evolution and think damn, what would Chris Cornell and Layne Staley have done had they lived longer. Grunge tapped into a discontent among people of my generation: the lyrics are deep, emotional and very sensitive in ways that previous genres were not. And all of these musicians lived hard lives in economically and seasonally depressed towns and wrote about what they knew. Fame was so sudden and unexpected for most of these bands; you can hear the youthful surprise and discomfort in their voices during the live “Unplugged” albums. In today’s overproduced music culture, grunge harkens back to a more raw, emotional time and a period when the Northwest, especially Seattle, was rugged and artsy, not corporate and sleek. Grunge was born out of a specific region and flourished in those places. Grunge is connected to the geography of the Northwest.

The first album to kick off this quilt production was my neighbor’s favorite grunge band, Soundgarden’s “Down on the Upside”. Later in the process, I also worked to “Badmotorfinger” and a solo Chris Cornell album. I listened to Nirvana, both “Nevermind” and “MTV Unplugged” back to back, just like the olden days lying on the floor in my teenage bedroom. I took a minor detour to “Metallica” by Metallica, because that was my first concert when I was 13 (see previous comments about being a good kid) and without that album I’m not sure I would have fallen so hard for grunge. Alice in Chains is one of my favorites, so I cranked up “Dirt” and “MTV Unplugged”. The Unplugged albums of the 90’s showcased a musicianship often overshadowed by the loudness on the produced albums. Of course you can’t have a grunge soundtrack without Pearl Jam, so that was on too. While hand binding, I played my MOST FAVORITE movie soundtrack “Singles” which features most of the aforementioned bands. My neighbor also loves the movie Singles, another amazing connection because this film isn’t exactly a blockbuster, although it should be considered a classic since it celebrates a bygone Seattle. A quick digression: when I lived in Seattle, my friends would go on field trips looking for locations from the movie and to this day believe we found the apartment building at the center of the film. This quilt is named “Gigantic” because 1) it is my favorite Pixies song and 2) showcases the awesome Kim Deal, whom my neighbor also called out as a favorite. The song came on the stereo just as I was hand stitching up the last few inches of binding and suddenly, my quilt had a name. And a theme!

Oh yeah, this blog is about quilting AND music! Gigantic is made entirely of scraps left over from a twin-ish size quilt I made my mom a couple of years ago. In my mom’s quilt, the pattern called for strips sewn together on a diagonal and then cut down to square blocks. This left me with a lot of residual pieces that I saved. I started with these cast offs since they were the perfect size to cut into triangles and rearrange into my own blocks. The quilt top came together rather quickly once I decided on a layout. I really wanted something to draw attention to the center and am pleased with the way the middle catches the eye. The most awesome neighbors also happen to huge Denver Broncos fans, so I added the blue and orange borders in honor of their commitment to the team. Once the top was completed, I hung the quilt in the window to help me determine a quilt pattern. Holy cow, suddenly I had a stained glass window! This accidental discovery will lead to a future project – a mock stained glass window out of fabric.

I don’t believe that my 9th grade self would cringe that forty-three year old self is a) still listening to the same music and b) making creations inspired by the music. I was a nerd then and now. For the back I used an awesome spacey batik fabric I had in my stash. I don’t know about you, but I am WAY into the Perseverance Rover (aka Percy) and this fabric reminds me of this amazing scientific feat. This past winter solstice, we gathered telescopes and binoculars to watch the “Great Convergence” of Saturn and Jupiter in the neighboring front lawn. I had SO much fun sewing to my 9th grade record collection that I wanted to spend more time on the quilt. I stretched out the project by a couple more albums by echo quilting in the triangles throughout the piece. I used a lighter grey thread in my bobbin, which initially I thought stuck out too much on the back, but with a darker thread, you would not see the echo pattern. The more I quilt, the more confident I am doing detailed work.

I truly enjoyed every stitch on Gigantic. It allowed me to slow down (yes, while rocking out to loud music) and focus on something creative in the midst of big life changes. There is added significance that I made this quilt at the time in my life when I am moving back to the Northwest. I started this quilt with a pile of scraps and really let the music help drive my creation. Grunge is a genre full of scraps and was the perfect musical accompaniment to this quilt.

Albums listened to: Soundgarden “Down on the Upside”, “Badmotorfinger”; Nirvana “Nevermind”, “In Utero”, “MTV Unplugged”; Alice in Chains “Dirt”, “MTV Unplugged”; Metallica “Metallica”; Pearl Jam “Ten”; Chris Cornell “Higher Truth”; Singles soundtrack; Pixies “Surfer Rosa”.