Hiya. My laundry is now folded and I can move on to telling you about the incredible visual feast that is the new Australian modern sewing online quilt magazine called Make Modern! Seriously…have you heard of it? I am dazzled. Check out their second-ever issue over here on their preview. The projects are gorgeous and fresh. I was honored that they did a rather long designer feature of me this month and in celebration, we are giving away three onetime subscriptions to the magazine. You are absolutely going to love it. Also, I have always been really fond of the esthetic sensibility of the vibrant modern sewing movement in Australia. They have it going on over there. I see in Australian designers an inherent lack of fear and limitation–a lot of expressivity.
You will love the quilts and projects in each issue by wonderful designers like these:
And I am in love with the creativity activity I teach in this issue called Lovely Awful Thing. If ever you needed to make something, let me tell you this is it! We all need to make messes often and my Lovely Awful Thing is designed to free-up our creative practice by trashing our self-limiting perfectionism and object-envy.
We are all too in love with the idea of making everything good and right and perfect and lovely all the time. So this project is a little exercise I cooked up to bust you out of that. There are rules for this project: you have to use the WRONG SIDES of the fabric in your stash. You can’t pin, use a ruler or a rotary cutter, or even try to make a straight line! You can’t judge yourself. You have to make your Lovely Awful Thing in less than 15 minutes. You have to go to your machine stitches and look at all of them and choose the ugliest stitch your machine has to offer and use that one to quilt your Lovely Awful Thing mini quilt! Oh, it is just so fun and liberating to do this exercise and I will guarantee that somehow you will fall in love with your creation, because despite your best efforts to eliminate beauty and perfectionism from your project, what you will find there is still YOU: your esthetic sensibility, your thinking process, your hand. Your Lovely Awful Thing will remind you that you can break out of your limitations and be free whenever you want. (I am not advocating a lack of craftsmanship in general! Oh no. That is very important for your work and your working process. I just want you to do this as an exercise to encourage creative freedom, play and exploration.)
So leave a comment below by November 25th at midnight and 3 lucky peeps will get to see the whole issue online! Also, go subscribe!
This actually sounds like fun! I’m going to have to try it
so clever! And I totally agree, Australian modern quilters really have it going on. I’m constantly drawn to what they are doing & would love to check this out
How fun. I consciously work at trying things that are out of my comfort zone so I can, mmm, keep my brain and expectations of self a little more free than they would otherwise be. Your lovely awful project sounds like a great thing to try.
Sounds fun!
I’m going to have a go!!
Love the idea of 15 minutes! Fun. What an inspirational magazine! Their Instagram is full-on-fun!
would like to try this new design
Sounds like fun, I will have to give this a try.
dawnm1993 at gmail dot com
I’d like to try this! Have you heard of 15 minutes of Play by Victoria Findlay Wolfe? About creating patchwork.
oh, pick me. Pick me! You know I’ll LOVE it. Lin klopman Whitley
Linwhitley@aol.com
That would be fun I think I’ll try it:) Thanks
Funny you say we should do this on purpose! I happen to do it often accidentally! 🙂 The last thing I made was supposed to be a scrappy quilted set of hot pads for my neighbor when they watched out dog. I even embroidered their name on it (yeah, dorky idea). It turned out so large and icky that I couldn’t give it to them. Instead, it turned out to be a super ironing pad for small pressing jobs! So, it is useful, but not so pretty.
Sounds like a great activity to unlock inner creativity. I’m a bit of a pro at using the wrong side of fabrics. Accidentally.
Strrrretch. Yourself. Cheers.
I’ll give it a try! Thank you Carrie. Pam at lovedtopieces dot com
I just saw something about Make Modern yesterday. I’ll have to check it out! BTW, I’m waiting on my copy of The Little Spark 🙂 from C&T.
Just heard of it, so I will have to check it out.
Just saw the pillow on the right side of the pic, I NEED to do this one! Thanks for the chance of winning, waoh!
I so want this, for inspiration, in order to expand my world, and to ignite my Little Spark.
The closest I will ever get to my travel wish list, top of the list Australia.
Thanks for passing this along, always love to look at new things and get inspired by what others are doing.
What a brilliant exercise in letting go … love the modern!
For me it seems harder to getting started with a “lovely awful thing” than with any quilt 😀
I love trying new things!
TOtally need 15 minutes to be creative…. 🙂
looking forward to seeing more magazines, whether emags or paper, like this.
I’m pretty much a rule follower, but your work is lovely. Thanks for the sweet giveaway.
Lovely Awful Thing is a fantastic concept. Definitely going to give it a try.
I love that we have an interest that criss-crosses the world and that there is something for everyone – we are very lucky indeed to be able to play – this is a good reminder to remember how. Thank-you
What a great idea! My daughters would also love to do this. sarah@forrussia.org
Sounds like a great online magazine. I always love to see what quilting looks like in other countries. I follow a couple of bloggers from Australia and their work is amazing.
Thank you for a super giveaway and a chance to win.
usairdoll(at)gmail(dot)com
I am not a perfectionist and will rarely rip out seams. I think trying to make things perfect takes all the fun out of it. I look forward to buying your book soon! Thank you for the giveaway. I love Australian quilters too!
I LOVE that lovely awful thing idea. I got the first issue and I loved it. Would love to win the second one!
A lovely awful thing- sounds right up my alley! What’s so awful about it?!
What a fun and awful project, lol. This would be a hard exercise for me 🙂
A Lovely Awful Thing… what a great idea!
What a wonderful idea, very freeing.
time to have fun. YAY!
Lovely Awful project! Perfect! 🙂 What an excellent way to push past the inertia that can sometimes hit after viewing so many WONDERFUL designs and color combinations that you get *stuck* trying to begin. SO many possibilities – want to use/try them ALL…then keep visually feasting…but not doing!
Wow ! I am going to try this!! Carrie are you going to do any classes or speaking engagements? I would SEW LOVE TO LEARN FROM YOU!!!! I Love your Fun easy creative style !!!!
Looks like a great publication! I really like your idea of dedicating 15 minutes to creative freedom- I definitely plan on giving myself permission to try this!
I’m giong to have to try to make a lovely awful thing. Thanks for the chance to win!
Dazzled indeed! So many lovely looking projects stuffed in there!!
What an interesting and fun idea! Thanks for a chance to win!