The Hard Stuff

As a baby quilter, in the mid-1980's, I was taken with a wonderful quilt by Jinny Beyer, Ray of Light, made in 1977. It won the Good Housekeeping contest "The Great American Quilt". It is both pieced and quilted by hand. I clearly remember telling new quilter friends "Some day I want to make a quilt like that". At the time, that seemed pretty unlikely:

Ray of Light, by Jinny Beyer

It was about 5 years ago when I saw a collage of my quilts that I realized how many Medallion style quilts I have made and immediately made the connection to Jinny's quilt I had seen so many years before. I am a huge fan of Jinny Beyer, her fabrics, her patterns, her books, and her spirit. One of those who have really made a difference in my quilting world.

In the last 10 years or so, I have taken on ever-increasing "degree of difficulty" quilts as a challenge to myself.

Here are a few more I am hoping to make:

1. Made by Catherine Butterworth, an Australian quilter who continues to make great quilts and win big awards. Look at her Instagram feed and be amazed:  ccbutterworth. I wish I knew the name of this quilt--she made it for her daughter who uses it every day on her bed:

When I saw this in a quilt magazine,  I was able to track her down and corresponded with her about my desire to make one similar. She was gracious, had no plans to create a pattern, and wished me well.  It was my intention to make a Diamond Jubilee quilt to celebrate my 60th birthday. So far I have 4 blocks done. Since I am now on the other side of 65, it may never get done. But I still love hers:

This shows how this block is made, without Y-Seams, it is paper pieced using a Sue Garman pattern, Washington-Medallion:

2. Another Challenging quilt I want to make is Western Sun, published in a book by Barbara Brackman, Butternut and Blue.  

I saw this quilt on Julie Silber's website and wanted to make it. I was so happy to learn Barbara had already created the pattern because it's not easy to draft.  Immediately, I ordered the book from Barbara and told her it was officially on my "bucket list".

This is the photo Julie had that got a lot of attention from those of us who love antique quilts:

It's got a lot I love: many fabrics, star points, circles pieced or appliqued, and a flying geese sashing border throughout. Isn't it luscious?

There are a few more challenging quilts I hope to make, time will tell. There are a few more easy ones too. Those are coming in the next post.

Let's quilt.

Barbara