Here is my favorite liberated log cabin Gwen showed us! I loved the colors - they were so me - and I loved all the little centers she started with. She called the tiny centers the composition. Isn't it great. When Tonya said she thought she may make a liberated log cabin with solids my first thought was this, I love it so much!
Oh I can't even begin to tell you how much fun tonight was! I didn't want to leave and come home! I wanted to stay and sew all night! I"ve fallen in love with these little liberated log cabins!
Oh, oh, oh! It was so worth the drive and late night. Gwen was such a down to earth wonderful friendly person! So even though I got less than 5 hours of sleep I'm happy.
And look it! I even dragged Bonnie and Tonya with me! Isn't it fun that we all wore the same outfit!
She talked about her 4 blocks quilts and how she applique's just like women would have back in the 1800's. For circles she just cuts the circle from the fabric - no template. For sunburst type pieces she folds the fabrics and free cuts, as would have been done back then. She eyes her placement, no overlays. A really great comment she made was if you were going to make 80 blocks and have them all identical why do it - make one block and just look at it!
She does a lot of her quilting free form - hear that Tonya! She was said your free form fans were the way to go, Good for YOU! We saw one of her quilts where she free hand drew the feathers on the border of the quilt, no templates. She was curious how long it would take and it only took her 45 minutes. She also had an example of a quilt where she did free hand grids without lines and pointed out how it ended up that parts of the quilt they looked like squares where other parts were more diamond shape. Oh the quilts were so wonderful! I'll post more pictures this weekend. Tonight I get to see the liberated log cabin quilts!
One lady asked how or when she got "liberated"! She laughed and said it didn't take long! Before she found quilting she was the very home ec-y type lady and did all the needle things of the time - macrame, needlepoint, that kind of stuff. Then she went to a quilt show in Flint Michigan and saw the quilts. She said she felt like "....the heavens opened and God said - "You will quilt" - and she said - OK!".
Not long after that they moved to Salem Oregon and she went through a blue time in her life. Miss Home-Ec was stuck in a new town, her husband was busy working and the kids were in school and here she was stuck in a pre-furnished condo! But the best thing happened because of that! She was looking through the paper and saw that a mennonite church nearby was having a quilt show. So she went and was in love. She said she pretended to be sick and asked if she could come back sometime (you should see her acting this out)! They gladly told her they met every Tues and Thurs and she was more than welcome. So she started going and never missed. These ladies were all in their 80's - the younger women were not interested - so these ladies were so happy to have an interested young thing! One woman took her under her wing and taught her to quilt and when she got good enough she was allowed over at the group quilt. So she quilts on a flat frame and says her year with these women was really how she learned and involved
OK, so much for the bad summary of the lecture - I'm not a good story teller like Darcie, but at least you get the picture. Tonight - Liberated Log Cabins!
Well I've decided I can go down the the Gwen Marston lecture tonight as well as the class tomorrow! I really don't have the time, and it is a hike from my house, but I've decided I'm going to do it!
The satellite guy just left and we are up and running! Even using 2 computers at once - AND - I can talk on the phone while on the internet! Now isn't that grand!
I already showed you the one sunburst I made this weekend. Here is the 2nd and my sunshine on my shoulders 30's style quilt. It is looking great I think! And wow how fast I could upload these pics!
OK, this weekend has been hectic! But I did get our computers wireless networked, a new dvd/cd burner installed and attempted to do a wireless print server but that didn't work and I was too tired to keep trying!
Around the first week of Nov I had seen a blip in the Quilter's Newsletter or American Patchwork and Quilting magazine about this new cool quilt calculator that had just come out. I was intrigued, but it only was a small blip and no website to go check it out. So I thought - oh if it is new I'll see them everywhere at quilt shops and magazines.
Wheh! Finished the 2nd raffle quilt! This one goes to the orig Millburn school where all 3 of my first children went and Emily went until this year! Their school colors are red and white - of course!
I have been bugging my friend Kathie to start blogging for a month now! And she was ready to do it, but life sometimes gets in the way - you know! Anyway, she finally broke down this morning and got her blog up!!!! I'm so excited! Above are her Gwen Marsten baskets she is working on!!! Aren't they the greatest! Read about them on her blog!
See a theme here! I was a working maniac to finish "stuff" this weekend! I got the 2 grade school raffle quilts back last week and have the first one done with binding! Woooo Hooo!!! I'm a happy camper!
I finally finished quilting and binding another charity quilt for our guild this weekend! It is done, done, done! And it is adorable - using Bonnies Bricks and Stepping Stones - I LOVE that pattern! I'm going to do more of those! I did this quilt entirely from stash except for the backing and outside border. I saw those 2 fabrics on sale 50% off at JoAnns and had to get them for this quilt!
I did all the quilting on my home machine and I think the flowers I did in the outside border turned out adorable and looks so cute with the border fabric!
Wooo Hoooo! I went to Cedarberg yesterday with my friend and we spent the entire day strolling through town browsing. It turned out so sunny and in the 30's - but there was no wind and it felt so good to see the sun we didn't mind!
I've been eyeing Tonya's hugs and kisses quilt she is making - man I am loving the colors and I am not a bright vivid color person. But those are wonderful. And I love, love, love her border fabric. I like the extra X's but I"m not sold on the one border on the left side only. So I figured I can't say I don't like it without suggesting something else - which may create some other really fun design.
I just found out an internet friend of mine who actually lives near Purdue started her blog 2 days ago! You'll have to go visit. She has made some awesome folk art/primitive quilts - I hope she shares them with you.
I was chatting this morning with a really lovely new friend of mine and the subject of international quilt friends came up.
I have a really great friend I met maybe 6 years ago now by accident on the internet who lives in France. She is an amazing quilter. She does all her piecing by hand and all her quilting by hand. I can't even begin to tell you what amazing things she does! About 2 summers ago she and her husband even came to visit me for a week - it was so much fun! I speak no French (and let me tell you, they died laughing trying to teach me) but they did an amazing job of speaking English while here! In fact when Christelle and I first met we started emailing because she figured if she had to make her children learn and speak English for school she should also force herself to practice. At first I used small careful English. Some days it would take her 3 hours to translate and understand the whole email. But now - WOW - I type and talk just like I would any of you! So practice makes good!
Anyway, she brought a suitcase of quilts with for show and tell when she came, and over the years I have gotten some amazing gifts from her. I couldn't even begin to tell you how amazing these are! And some of her more fun quilts I've seen - use the old "cut up old clothes" method. This was way before my maverick days. And here I see all of you being creative.
Anyway - on to the quilt show - ok so I'm really sidetracking above. It has been a stressful busy 2 weeks at work and my time has been so short. So I guess I'm also releasing my pent up quiltness here!
The pillow cover shown above is called Boutis de Provence. It is an old style of French quilting. They used to do this for fancy petticoats, corsets and vests for men. (Now why would you make such beautiful stuff and cover it up for a petticoat or corset I have no idea). The pillow cover she made me is made from an antique petticoat she found in an anique store. It is very heavy and dense fabric. My fingers just ache from thinking about quilting through it. With Boutis de Provence you quilt all the lines through 2 pieces of fabric (no batting). then on the back side you poke a needle inbetween the lines of stitching and "stuff" it with yarns or threads. In mine she said each little line has 6 yarns pulled through - and let me tell you they are TINY. When your done you can brush the fabric with your needle and no longer see the hole - so basically the back is identical to the front! Unbelievable. Oh and her is some more info on Boutis de Provence if your interested (see # 3).
The second quilt is a very small applique piece she did for me one year. The pieces of the little flowers are so tiny they are about 1/2 the size of your pinky fingernail! And look at that quilting - is it awesome or what!
The mariners compass quilt was a gift last year for Christmas. I LOVE mariners compass/stars. Anyway - to her quilts should always be in brighter happy colors. Even the mourning quilt she made while mourning her mothers death is almost all white with some muted purple. So she said she never, never, never used black in her quilts. Well you know I love darker more primitive type earthy colors. So her challenge was to make me a mariner's compass and use a dark blue/black/grey fabric. I think it is wonderful! Even she was happy with it! (and believe it or not if I go bright I LOVE lime green so I loved that she used all shades of green!)
The last is a little table mat she made after visiting me. She was making a similar one on the plane trip for her friend who was taking care of her 4 children while they were on their trip. I fell in love with these little stars. They are very tiny - the inside star is maybe 1 inch across. So I was so thrilled to get this from her.
And can you believe this is only the tip of the iceberg of her talent! Maybe tomorrow I'll have some more time to dig up some more pics.
