Quilting 101 and QAYG Blocks

After years of traditional quilting and then moving to primarily art quilts and fiber art pieces, I feel as if I have just had a course in Quilting 101 with a Quilt As You Go (QAYG) project. I remember seeing Georgia Bonesteel showing this method on TV back when I began quilting in the 1980s. But I never made a QAYG quilt--until now. A woman contacted me about some squares her 95-year-old mother had made 10 or 15 years earlier. The mother was still in good health but no longer quilted and they wanted to get the pieces finished. The hand-piecing and hand-quilting were skillfully done, and it was an honor to be a part of completing an another quiltmaker's UFOs ("unfinished objects" to quilters). 

A large box was mailed to me and I was tasked with making whatever was feasible from the 18" QAYG blue blocks and 18" QAYG green/muslin blocks, 12" hand-pieced blocks, muslin fabric and remainders of blue and blue print fabric. I had several options but wanted to get as many completed quilts from these supplies as possible. 

There were 12 blue 18" QAYG blocks with sashing, which I joined on the front, adding strips to join the squares on the back. Then I machine quilted the sashing and finished with binding.

There were nine green/muslin 18" QAYG blocks, which I finished by adding muslin strips to join the already quilted squares. These apparently had been made over a long period of time because there was variation in the muslins used.

Then there were 12 green/muslin 12" hand-pieced blocks which I was doubtful could be used. But after a careful examination and washing, they looked promising. I shopped for a darker green fabric for sashing and used the provided muslin for borders. 

Maybe someone will complete my UFOs someday.

 

Mid-July Happenings

 Let's see, where was I? It's mid-July, high 90s every day, so I don't spend much time with the flowers except to give them and the birdbath a drink every day. Hydrangeas are greenish color but still beautiful, just not so showy.

I sent this art quilt to SAQA for the 2022 Online Auction. The caladium leaves are real, with stitching accenting the veins.

Caladium Leaves, 12" x 12" for SAQA online auction

My Handy Quilter Sweet Sixteen has been repaired with new computer parts and is waiting for some human interaction. 

New parts being installed

Up and running

I finished the cat puzzle, well, all except one last piece. I've searched for days but have to admit it is lost. Elizabeth only sleeps on the puzzle, doesn't play with the pieces, so I hate to accuse her. 

Intense Color Challenge

The Intense Color Challenge at the Downey Gallery at University Baptist Church, Hattiesburg, MS, July 3-29, 2022.

The Invitation

Intense Color Challenge - This exhibit is the result of an intense color study undertaken by Southern Fiber Artists.  The challenge required use of a monochromatic color scheme (no black or white) in an unusual size, 15" wide x 45" high using color cards from Joen Wolfrom’s 3-in-1 Color Tool (updated 3rd edition). The inspiration for this exhibit came from a Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) exhibit entitled: Prism Play: A Full Spectrum of Art Quilts, curated by Cara Gulati in California. The SAQA exhibit contains 62 quilts and will travel until 2026. 

Southern Fiber Artists is group of like-minded artists sharing a love of textile art.   Our members have diverse talents and interests.  We meet quarterly throughout the state and are open to interested textile artists. 

We are happy for the opportunity to share this spectrum of color in the Downey Gallery at University Baptist Church.

The rest of the story--When I made entries for Prism Play I thought my chances of getting in were so slim that last August (2021) I told my Southern Fiber Artists group about it and suggested we do a deep dive into color study with a similar project, with an August 2022 completion date, hoping we could hold an exhibit somewhere in the future. They embraced the plan enthusiastically and began to make quilts. When I showed some pictures to friends at church, the chairman of our Faith in the Arts Committee invited us to hold an exhibit in our Downey Gallery in July 2022. Here are the 35 pieces, representing all 24 color cards. 

June Events

I enjoy June in Hattiesburg for many reasons, and probably the main one is because of Festival South. These music events are of a quality that most folks would have to travel to the Big Apple to hear. So I'm already looking forward to Festival South 2023.

My Southern Fiber Artists group hung our Intense Color Exhibit at the Phyllis Downey Gallery at University Baptist Church for the month of July. Eleven of us selected color cards from Joen Wolfrom's 3-in-1 Color Tool and created quilts using the limited color palette found on each of the 24 cards. I had participated in a similar call for entry in the Northern California/Nevada SAQA region and enjoyed the challenge of working in a monochromatic fashion so much that I invited my Southern Fiber Artists to create pieces in the hope that we could mount an exhibit at some future date. These 35 pieces really wrap the room in color--intense color!

Color Tool

Invitation

My hydrangeas rewarded me with a beautiful show of blue this spring/summer. They are struggling in the high 90-degree heat, but afternoon watering revives the floppy stems. 

From underneath

From underneath