Our state quilt association,
Mississippi Quilt Association,
holds a Workshop Gathering each June, and it is often my pleasure to
teach at this event. We always meet in a central location, while the
spring and fall gatherings move about the state. This year I taught
"Free-Form Quiltmaking," or what I call "Color Bars," relying on popular
techniques employed by such teachers as Rayna Gillman and Dianne S.
Hire. I feel a little ambiguous saying I "taught" the students, but
suffice it to say I helped them discover their own creativity and gave
them permission to play and experiment. Here are a couple of pieces I made last year using these improvisational techniques:
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| Color Bars #2--Black by Martha Ginn |
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| High Rise by Martha Ginn |
Isabel Adams was so eager for
the class that she sewed up lots of strips beforehand. We pinned these
units to a display wall and discussed ways to arrange them.
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| Martha demonstrating the "wallpaper cut" to Isabel Adams, Missy Lee, Carla Formel |
Working
without a pattern or specific size pieces was a stretch for some, but they
quickly discovered the joy of combining colors, sizes, and shapes to
come up with interesting designs.
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| by Missy Lee |
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| by Myra Cook |
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| Georgianne Brooks, Angela Jones, Missy Lee |
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| Nancy Losure designing on the floor |
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| Another of Isabel Adams' exercises |
At the end of the day,
all the groups come together for Show and Tell from their classes; it
was impressive to see the variety of creations.
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| The class showing their exercises |
Next month
I will travel to Hernando, MS, to present a program and Ghost Quilting workshop for
their combined day and night groups, as the houseguest of my dear friend
and former Hattiesburg resident Cheryl Owens, pictured below with
Teresa Pino and Sharon Arnold.
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| Cheryl Owens, Teresa Pino (yes, the room was cold!), Sharon Arnold |
Good resources for these techniques can be found in
Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design, by Rayna Gillman, C and T Publishing, 2011; and
Quilters Playtime: Games with Fabrics, by Dianne S. Hire, AQS, 2004.
