Please Don't Say Tulip!

For our upcoming quilt show, the Material Girls Quilt Guild is working on a special project. We are making at least one quilt from each year of about 20 years or so of the Great American Quilt Book. This week I've been working on the one I said I would make. Need to have it done by the show, on June 28th and 29th.

I'm remembering why I stopped making large traditional quilts.

1. My house is tiny, quilts are not and,
2. I can't stand to do the same thing over and over again!

I have been cutting out hundreds of tulips this week. Now I'm trying to decide on sashing. The original has blocks and sashing of solid white. This style has come around again, with the Modern Quilt Guild Movement, but it's just not happening here. My block backgrounds are white with black lines. I got a pale blue fabric, intending to use it the wrong way around for sashings, to make it even lighter. Now I'm thinking I want to use the brighter, right side. Take a look. (Sorry for the bad pics, see item number 1 above.).

Here the options are together.

 

This is the brighter side.

 

And the lighter side.

 

Jensen thinks this is too much tulip, since he's not allowed to nibble. He's been napping at my feet as I cut out pieces all week.

 

So what do you think, lighter, or brighter?

A Slice Of Life

At the Material Girls Quilt Guild show,  there was an interesting group of quilts that were called "slice" quilts. Several people got together to work on this project. Each person chose a photograph, and sliced it into pieces. The pieces were handed out to the other people involved, who then replicated the slice in fabric. The original person who owned the photograph reassembled the pieces of the photograph into a quilt. I thought the resulting quirkiness of the finished quilts was very cool . I hope you enjoy seeing them.

In this first quilt, the pieces were set into a traditional Attic Windows-type setting. 



"Puerto Vallarta", Kathryn Amadon


The next quilt also used a window-type grid, but of a simpler design. You can see the original photo in the lower left. The flowers are stunning on this.


"My Flower Garden", Kathie Peloquin


The original photo is also visible in the photo of the next quilt. No window grid was used on this one. I really love how well the slices went together here.


"My House", Sandi Phillips


On the next one, the quilter chose to turn each piece into its own small quilt. A very interesting idea, that I suspect hangs on a wall better than it sits on an easel.One really cool detail is how the flag extends over the edge of the upper left slice.


"My Camp", Jessica Leger

In this final quilt, the quilter chose to frame the quilt after assembling it. It was truly gorgeous, but I had a hard time taking the photograph. I had to turn off the flash to keep from getting a big flare in the middle of the picture, and that muted the colors. They are more intense in real life.

It was amazing to see all the different techniques used in each slice by the quilters involved. And yet despite the differences, when reassembled they still made a beautiful quilt. It looks like they all had a lot of fun doing it, too, which is really the best reward. 

Fun At The Quilt Show

The Material Girls Quilt Guild show  from this past weekend went off really well. There were well over 100 quilts to view,  a bunch of  vendors selling cool stuff,  and a lot of fun quilters to talk to. It was hard to get pictures of the quilts with the crowd of people around, and some of my pictures are at strange angles because of the closeness of the aisles, but here are a few that caught my eye.

This is called "Impulse", and was made by Carol Sarafconn. I love the bright colors.

The centers of all the blocks are hand painted squares. I'm not sure how she made them. Some looked sort of like ink blots, some like spin art. Maybe they were gelatin prints?

This next quilt is actually quite tame for Jessica Leger. Her quilts often have everything including the kitchen sink on them. I think this one is called "Santa Baby". It's the only  one whose label I didn't photograph, because I swore I would remember the name. Oh, well.

  

I think this must be Jessica in the center.

She also makes (and wears) these coats!

This one, by Nancy Sullivan, was one of my favorites. It's called "My Daughter's Prince".

I managed to cut the top off the next quilt (in the photograph, that is). It's called "My Fun Time", by Allene Leger. She made it from a Block-of-the-Month program at The Quilted Crow.  It's wool, but I'm not sure on what, because I couldn't touch it. I think it was either homespun, or flannel.

This next one intrigued me, because all the quilts that I had seen from this woman before were dark and/or patriotic. Turns out she made this for a granddaughter. It's called "Flowers of Squares", by Kolleen Dickinson.

I loved the colors, and the slightly wonky nature of the squares in this next one. It is "Dreams of Australia", by Ellen Parkinson. I couldn't get back far enough to photograph the entire quilt.

There were several dog quilts by Janice Quejo. She does wonderful animal portraits. This quilt is very different, but so much fun! Click on the picture to see a larger version. The faces are fantastic. This is called "Dazzling Dogs".

This Leaf Quilt is by Sandie Catlow. The background makes good use of half square triangles received in an exchange.

I wish I could show you all the quilts, as they each had a unique beauty.  And as for the vendors, well, they were fun, too. Somehow I managed to keep myself from buying more fabric. The notions were a little harder to pass up. I got these gorgeous handmade ceramic buttons from Grana's Buttons. This woman uses a wide variety of items to texturize her buttons, including roller stamps that she carves herself. Apparently she doesn't have a website, but she can be reached at granasbuttons@charter.net.

And, I also came home with this beauty made by Cynthia Ellis. Not only is it pretty, but it feels really good in your hand. I only hope I don't have to use it too much! You can see more of her work here. 

Tomorrow I'll have a few more quilts to show you, that were the result of an interesting group project. Right now, I'm off to give Weasley his evening cuddle. Can't keep a bunny waiting!