Inspiration and Other Things

My guild quilt show is October 9-11, 2015 and I'm co-chair.  We have a few new ideas to help pay for the show.  One is a Special Exhibit of Quilts Inspired by the Quilts of Gee's Bend. 

Each of the 24 entries has to be 24" square and is the maker's interpretation of the quilts of Gee's Bend, whatever that means to the maker.  My thoughts on the quilts of Gee's Bend are that they often have improvisational piecing and the maker used what she had.  For the first one, I found images of Gee's Bend quilts, found a design I liked, and used my fabrics to follow that "pattern".  Here is the quilt I came up with:

Inspiration #1

(EDITED: to show finished quilt.)
The other day I heard there were those who believed a Gee's Bend quilt HAD to have denim or corduroy and I need to put that to rest.  So I went back online, looked at more images, found another I liked, and challenged myself to use only the fabric I had in two shoeboxes:  one with pieces between 4-5" wide and the other with pieces between 5-6" wide.  Shoeboxes hold my scraps that are too small to go back in the closet.  This proved to be a good way to "use what I had".  Here is that quilt:

Inspiration #2

 

I'll show these two finished quilts at the guild meeting this week to show denim/corduroy is not required.  And these are to be quilts "inspired" by the quilts of Gee's Bend, not exact replicas unless that's what the maker wants to do.  All 24 of these will be available for purchase at the show.  I think we will have a terrific display of these quilts and hopefully, all 24 will find new homes.

I love Lemoyne stars, also called 8 pointed stars, and during my Open Studio demonstrations at Chicago, I showed how to string piece paper foundations for those stars, in addition to showing how to string piece squares.  My go-to paper for this kind of work is phone book pages.  This morning I discovered I had 7 of the 8 star points done for a 12" star, so I whipped up the 8th and put the block together:

I still have to remove the paper--that's a good job to do sitting on my front porch swing, as it's a rainy day today.  This was fun and I love digging into my deep string stash and finding some wonderful small scrap of fabric long gone.  There's a piece of African fabric in there, and a few of my all-time favorites, of which I have  no more. 

Now to get the Stars in a Time Warp stars cut and sewn from last week and be sure I'm ready for our monthly Simple What Nots club Friday night.  This is my busy week:  teach class Tuesday night, attend guild meeting Thursday night, conduct the Club Friday night, and attend the baby shower Saturday for my wonderful daughter-in-law and our new grandgirl, Stella.  Who has time for a job?!

Linking up with Judy L's blog for Design Wall Monday.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

A Few New Projects

I'm still working on the Simple What Nots quilts for the Club we are doing at my local quilt shop.  Here are the latest I've gotten done:

Widdlytinks, with buttons instead of Yo-yos, 12" x 15"



Hopscotch with applique' center--a pieced center is an alternate variation
28" square

 

There is one more to finish then I can take a short breather.  This first collection club was so popular we are doing it again, January to June 2015.  See Collection 2 from Henry Glass Fabrics here. 

A look at the happy folks with their little quilts done--I love when they change the pattern to make it their own, adding borders or extra rows, making a placemat, changing colors, what fun:

In between this I made a small quilt "Inspired by Gee's Bend".  Our 2015 quilt guild show will have a special exhibit of quilts inspired by Gee's Bend quilts that will be for sale.  The committee will be meeting again soon and I wanted to have this "flimsy" made to give them an idea of what can be done.  All of them must be 24" square.  Here is my first one:

It was so much fun I'll be making at least one more.  One will be donated to the special exhibit sale and one I think I'll enter in the show.  It was hard for me to do "wonky"--you'll notice the borders got straighter the more I added. 

Four weeks from today I'll arrive in Houston.  I look forward to this so much every year and this year is just extra special.  So much to do before then so I've got to get busy!

Let's Quilt!

Barbara