Accessible Stitches: The Ulla von Brandenburg Quilts

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I visited the Ulla von Brandenburg quilt exhibit, entitled "Wagon Wheel," at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. 

These quilts gave me an idea about making hand-quilting accessible to a wider range of hands and eyes. 

Info about the artist and the quilts:  This exhibit will only be at CAM St. Louis until April 11, 2015, but you may be able to see von Brandenburg's work elsewhere. She is a German artist, born in 1974 (just a little older than me!). According to the info on the CAM website, she researched quilting in the southern US in the early 2000s. These quilts mostly feature recognizable, traditional blocks, but on a large scale. According to the exhibit info, they are meant to recall the coded symbols used for communication by African American people to facilitate escape from slavery. Though I know very little about this history, it is intriguing to think of quilting as a means of visual communication. 

Here is a link with info from one of von Brandenburg's previous exhibits in London: http://www.pilarcorrias.com/exhibitions/ulla-von-brandenburg-wagon-wheel/

Me in front of Tumbling Blocks (2009). Gives you an idea of the scale.

Accessibility idea: I knew a lady who decided to give up hand quilting while she was undergoing chemo, because the treatment gave her tremors and made it difficult to execute the tiny, evenly-spaced stitches. For sure, hand quilting--while awesome, fun, and beautiful--is strenuous to the hands and also the eyes. But check out the big, wonky stitches von Brandenburg does:

Wagon Wheel (2009). Also the name of the exhibit. See the stitches?

That quilting was done with some kind of string/twine, rather than thread. Of course the irregular placement adds to the "rustic" effect of the quilts, and may not have universal appeal. BUT, it gets the job done; it would keep your fabric and your batting together, and would be just as snuggly as regularly-spaced hand stitches.

Here is some "traditional" hand quilting I did. Granted, these stitches are still pretty big for a hand quilter. This is the first thing I ever hand quilted :) 

big hand quilting stitches by Emily

Who knows what kind of crazy needle von Brandenburg was wielding, but you could probably create a similar wonky effect with some embroidery thread and an embroidery needle.

Hell, I mean, you could also machine quilt, but if you feel like doing stuff with your hands, only you don't want to deal with those tiny, evenly-spaced, traditional stitches, then these could give you some ideas.

A close-up of Drunkard's Path (2009)

How do these wonky stitches seem to you? 

Do you have any pics of rustic quilts? Have you ever tried "non-traditional" hand quilting?