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Finished size: 60" x 78"

Finished size: 60" x 78"

"Dance Music," New Quilt Inspired by the Mountain Goats

December 3, 2017

I remember the first time I heard the Mountain Goats. Ten years ago, a friend of mine in graduate school made me a mix called "Apple Holla" for our road trip to an apple orchard in Wisconsin. It had some songs I'd heard before, and some that were new to me. The best mixes inspire listeners to seek out new music, and that's what "Apple Holla" did for me by introducing me to the Mountain Goats. 

After hearing the Mountain Goats song "No Children" on the mix, I bought and listened to as many of their albums as I could get my hands on. Eventually I heard the song "Dance Music."

Sometimes it takes time and distance for us to understand relationships in our lives. My father did not live in my house when I was growing up, but that didn't stop him from damaging me and my family. He was a liar and a misogynist, and the worst memories I have of growing up are trying to block out the sound of my mother crying and yelling at him over the phone. Some of us have problematic relationships with our parents, and after growing up to realize all the harm he did he is no longer part of my life. It's for the best. 

Lean in close to my little record player on the floor
So this is what the volume knob's for
I listen to dance music

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Listening to music became incredibly important to me. I would sit on the floor of my bedroom with headphones on as loud as I could stand, reading lyric books and trying to understand every song I heard so I didn't have to hear anything else. So I decided to make a quilt about this feeling and this song to make something lovely out of something awful. 

Is the large black circle a record, or is it a hole from a broken family? Are the teal squares getting darker to represent the volume turning up, or are they getting lighter as toxic and emotionally abusive family members leave your life? 

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This quilt, like the song "Dance Music," has been in my mind for a long time. I'm glad it's finally finished and it exceeded all my hopes and expectations for how it would look. I'm proud of making something I love so much out of such painful memories. 

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John Darnielle, founder of the Mountain Goats, is my favorite writer. In addition to writing incredible songs, he has also written two novels, Wolf in White Van and Universal Harvester. Please read them!

Fabrics: Black is Kona cotton, purple is from the line Tattooed by Libs Elliott for Andover Fabrics, teal is V & Co Ombre for Moda Fabrics, binding and backing is Widescreen by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman. 

← December Quilt MixtapeQuilt Mixtape: October →

What is Sonic Stitches? 

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I'm Laura, and Sonic Stitches is my online quilting home. Follow along as I learn and grow as a new quilter, explore my ideas in quilt series, and write about some of my favorite projects!


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TAKE A LOOK AT MY QUILTS!

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Find me on Instagram @sonicstitches

Oh, #helloquiltcon! Can’t wait to see you later this week!
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I’m Laura. I make quilts, read about quilts, write about quilts, and talk about quilts. I’m presenting three lectures at QuiltCon this year, and I put my schedule in my story highlights - come hear me talk!
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I can’t wait to see the quilts in the show, learn in the lectures I’m attending, and meet new people. Seriously - I want to meet you! I love meeting new folks, especially quilters. Say hi any time! Tell me about your quilts, and I’ll tell you about mine 🖤
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Will I see you at QuiltCon this week?
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#quiltcon #quiltcon2019
Block No. 4 of my musicians quilt!
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Robyn, from the “Call Your Girlfriend” video - follow her @robynkonichiwa
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Last year, I had been thinking about making a quilt with portraits of musicians for a while, but really finalized the idea on a car ride in Utah with some incredible friends and Quiltfolk coworkers. Blasting Robyn’s music while driving through the mountains, I thought about the quilt idea more and started writing my list of musicians to make portraits of while we were traveling. This is a special block, not just because Robyn’s music is so meaningful to me, but because listening to her is what gave me the final push I needed to start working on this quilt - and making these blocks is the most fun I’ve had quilting in a long time!
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Swipe for a picture of Robyn in the “Call Your Girlfriend” video, fuzzy shirt and all. Thanks to @rashida_coleman_hale for designing the perfect fabric for Robyn’s iconic pants! And go to YouTube and watch the actual video if you haven’t seen it before! 🖤
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#quilt #quilts #quilter #quilting #modernquilt #modernquilts #modernquilter #modernquilting #aurifil #aurifilthread #aurifilartisan #robyn #robynkonichiwa
I’m always excited for QuiltCon, but this year has a little something special! Next week during QuiltCon in Nashville, I’m going to see @imwithherband live - the band that inspired this quilt! Spending a day looking at beautiful quilts and then going to a show by a band that inspired one of my music quilt is my idea of a great time 🖤
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#quiltcon2019 #quiltcon #quilts #quilt #quilter #quilting #modernquilt #modernquilter #modernquilting #modernquilts #aurifil #aurifilthread #aurifilartisan #imwithherband
Behind the scenes of Quiltfolk Issue 09: Utah!
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Profiling Ken Sanders of @kensandersbooks for Quiltfolk’s Utah Issue was an absolute delight! I enjoyed every second of our interview, when I learned about the 1960s horror comic “Crazy Quilt,” Ken’s work tracking down rare book thieves, and his time on Antiques Roadshow. His bookshop is a must visit spot in Salt Lake City for any bibliophile - I got four books after our interview!
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Check out the Utah Issue of  @quiltfolk, available now, to read about Ken’s book shop and his unusual connection to quilts! 🖤
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To learn even more about Ken, I recommend reading the illustrated edition of Edward Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” which Ken’s press published, and “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much” which focuses on his hunt for a notorious book thief.
Photo of me doing what I like best - recording an interview with an interesting quilter! Here I was with quilter Ralyn Montoya under beautiful weeping willow trees in the heart of Salt Lake City, learning about her quilting journey for a moving article in @quiltfolk Issue 09: Utah, available now!
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Have you read Quiltfolk’s Utah Issue yet? 🖤
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Photo by @meg4quilts
Behind the scenes of Quiltfolk Issue 09: Utah!
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While we were working on the issue’s story about Sundance Resort, my pal @hyper.scrappy helped me confront my fear of heights by riding a ski lift with me while our team worked on getting incredible shots of @pingel.h and her quilts! I cried the whole time we were in the ski lift, but I’m so glad I did it and glad I had such an incredible friend there with me. I’ll never forget it. Swipe for pictures of our adventures in the air! 🖤
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@yomaryfons @melanie.zacek
Scenes from one of the @quiltfolk crew’s trips to Utah back in September 2018.
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Have you read Quiltfolk Issue 09: Utah yet? I hope so! 🖤
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@hyper.scrappy @yomaryfons @melanie.zacek
If you’re enjoying Quiltfolk Issue 09: Utah and want to learn more, you’re in the right place! Here’s a review of a book I read while researching Utah quilters for @quiltfolk!
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Gathered in Time: Utah Quilts and Their Makers, Settlement to 1950, by Kae Covington, published in 1997.
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“Gathered in Time” is Utah’s State quilt documentation book, produced in conjunction with the Utah Quilt Guild and Utah Quilt Heritage Corporation, which documented over 2,200 quilts at 26 different quilt documentation days across the state. 74 quilts are included in the book.
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Utah has a remarkably well-documented post-settlement history, due in part to early LDS leaders who encouraged Church members to keep journals and record their life experiences. That documentation is on display in this book, which has quotes from early quilters, precise dates for life events, and photos of nearly all the quilters. Of course, most quilt documentation books choose their best documented quilts for publications, but Utah really shines in that area!
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Each quilt is accompanied by a brief one page essay about the quiltmaker and quilt. It’s arranged chronologically but does not have a historical narrative running through it to help readers learn more about the state’s history beyond quilts. But the next book I’m going to share does, so stay tuned!
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Swipe to see pictures of my favorite quilts in “Gathered in Time” - I hope you read this book too! 🖤
Thanks for having fun seeing the beginnings of my new quilt! Please always tell me about the music that matters to you, it’s so interesting!
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Here’s a bit about the quilt that inspired me to start my music quilt (see precious posts for my first three blocks). After about nine months of no sewing for me, due to a serious back injury coupled with a big career change, I wanted to work on something new where I didn’t have to worry about straining my back more at my sewing machine.
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I have a little quilt history library at home that I’m always building. It helps me with research for work, and it also helps me grow as a quilter to read as many quilt history books as I can. Historian + quilter = lots of quilt history books.
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One day, I bought a box of thirteen quilt history books from an estate sale on eBay and split it with my pal and fellow Quiltfolk writer @hyper.scrappy. When I opened the box and saw the quilt on the cover of this book, “Twentieth Century Quilts: 1900-1950,” I became obsessed and knew right away that I wanted to make something that put my own spin on this stunner of a historic quilt. My quilt is inspired by the visual, not the important Depression Era theme. I thought about it a lot and decided that since most of my quilts are about my relationship with music, making little musicians was the way to go! I have a giant binder where I’ve organized info about each block I’m planning/hoping to make, and it’s been a blast getting started 🖤
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Swipe to see closeups if the inspiration quilt, “Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner,” made by Fannie B. Shaw in the early 1930s.
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#quilt #quilting #quilter #quilts #modernquilt #modernquilting #modernquilter #quilthistory #quiltstudy #sonicstitchesquilts #music #musichistory
Block No. 3
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David Byrne, wearing his big suit from the iconic “Stop Making Sense” Talking Heads concert film! Swipe to see the big suit, and to see me holding the block for scale.
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His music has meant so much to me ever since I first heard the Talking Heads. Very few people can string words together the way he does. His solo career and collaborations are incredible. And, as a former very dedicated color guard and winter guard member, the recent collaboration he did with musicians and color guards in “Contemporary Color” was exciting beyond belief. I’ve seen him live a couple times, once with St. Vincent and once on the stunning American Utopia tour. Subscribe to his newsletter for Reasons to be Cheerful! If you don’t listen to David Byrne, I’m so excited for you because you get to hear his work for the first time. Learn more: @davidbyrneofficial
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#quilt #quilts #quilter #quilting #modernquilt #modernquilting #modernquilter #modernquilts #music #musichistory #sonicstitchesquilts #aurifil #aurifilartisan #aurifilthread #davidbyrne #talkingheads #stopmakingsense
Quilt Block No. 2
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St. Vincent! One of my favorite live performers. If you haven’t heard her, check out her music: @st_vincent
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Swipe for the beautiful outfit that inspired this block, and a picture of me holding it for scale. And check out my previous post for Block No. 1 of my new quilt project!
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#quilt #quilter #quilting #quilts #modernquilt #modernquilting #modernquilter #music #musichistory #musicquilt #sonicstitchesquilts #stvincent #stvincentguitar #aurifil #aurifilartisan #aurifilthread
Block No. 1 of a new quilt I’m working on!
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Happy David Bowie Day! My fave musician and constant inspiration would have been 72 years old today. This little 11” needle turn appliqué block is going to be the center block of a new quilt I’m making that’s very different and also the same as everything I’ve done before. I can’t wait to make and share more blocks!
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I chose Bowie’s famous Tokyo Pop costume (swipe to see the original inspiration photo) for his block because it was the first object visitors saw in one of my favorite exhibits, the 2013 Victoria & Albert Museum show “David Bowie Is.” I was fortunate to see that exhibit twice - once in its original installation at the V&A and once at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. As a curator, it was so interesting to see the differences and similarities in the two installations, and as a Bowie fan it was a delight to see so many iconic objects from his life and work. A new app featuring a tour of “David Bowie Is” was released today so you can see it too!
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What’s your favorite David Bowie album? Mine changes sometimes, but most days my favorite album is Low, which I could listen to every day and still feel something new.
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This is the first of 25 needle turn appliqué blocks I’m making for a quilt that’s tentatively called “Painkillers.” I’ll share more about the whole quilt soon! Thanks to @man.of.action for making the templates for this and all other blocks of this quilt 🖤👩‍🎤🖤
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#quilt #quilts #quilter #quilting #modernquilt #modernquilter #modernquilts #sonicstitchesquilts #konacotton #aurifil #aurifilthread #aurifilartisan #davidbowie #davidbowieday #bowie #music #musichistory
@man.of.action wins this Christmas! He got me this wonderful quilty David Bowie print to decorate our living room, and he’s going to make a frame for it this spring when his wood shop is warm again 🖤🖤🖤
Quiltfolk Issue 09: Utah is here!
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This issue is packed full of interesting people! I wrote six articles, including one about quiltmaker Ralyn Montoya (Navajo), who recently lost her grandmother, a prolific quilter who taught Ralyn to quilt as a way to heal after the tragic loss of her daughter. Also among my stories, a profile of an English literature and women’s studies professor, Melody Graulich, who brought quilts into the college classroom in creative ways. One playful story focuses on Ken Sanders, owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books in SLC and Antiques Roadshow appraiser, who had an unusual childhood fear of quilts that stemmed from a 1960s horror comic called “Crazy Quilt.”
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The stories written by @yomaryfons, @meg4quilts, and new Quiltfolk writer @hyper.scrappy are fantastic! All the stories in this issue delve deep into Utah’s unique quilt culture and history.
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Utah is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been, and the photography in this issue by @melanie.zacek and @azureewiitala will make you feel like you were there.
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I’ll post reviews of books about Utah’s quilt history here soon. If you read the issue and want to take a deeper dive into Utah, you’ll have a great reading list soon!
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Speaking of reading, if you want to follow along with my reading list for 2019, head to my new account @lauras.reads where I’ll post about all the books I read in the coming year. Happy reading, and happy quilting!
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#quiltfolk #quiltfolkmagazine #quilt #quilter #quilting #quilts #quilthistory #quiltstudies
Close up of a scrappy, tied Louisiana block I made for a Christmas gift 🖤❤️💙🖤
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#quilt #quilts #quilter #quilting #tiedquilt #quilthistory #scrappyquilt #friendshipquilt #aurifil #aurifilthread #aurifilartisan
Embroidered signature and date on the Louisiana quilt I made for @yomaryfons 🖤
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#quilt #quilts #quilter #quilting #embroidery #quiltlabel

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