Friday, July 13, 2012

Between the Covers at the Library

"Between the Covers" Poster
I enjoyed giving a presentation last night at the Oak Grove Library in Hattiesburg, MS, during their "Between the Covers" July adult programs. There will be a speaker each Thursday night. 
Of course, rather than book "covers," my presentation dealt with quilts as "covers." I described the fascination and importance placed on friendship blocks among quilters from the colonial days until the present. Collecting blocks with verses or sentiments and a signature offered comfort when families were separated by westward migration, death, or war.

The quilt pictured here is a version of a friendship quilt even though it does not contain verses or signatures of the makers. I received a set of blocks of varying sizes and chose to assemble the blocks as a giant tree, with the background sky and ground made of Log Cabin blocks.

2 comments:

Norma Schlager said...

What a fabulous setting for the quilt. I love the log cabin background suggesting sky and ground. Well done!

Martha Ginn said...

Thanks, Norma. It was challenging but fun to make. Drafting it all on graph paper would have simplified it, but I just worked on a design wall by trial and error. You can see more pictures in the Gallery-Large on my website. Here's the link: http://www.marthaginn.com/IFA_large/ifa_large_quilts_friendship_tree.htm