Twisted Trees Class

We had a good time making Twisted Tree art quilts at the MQA Gathering last weekend in Jackson. We started with a background pinned to a piece of foam core or cardboard, then made the precut strips into little twists.

Peggy Wehr and Martha

Once I was certain they all knew how to hand-twist the strips, I showed them how to speed up the process with an electric drill. 
After getting enough strips twisted, we began to create the trees by pinning the twists in place over the background. Once the twists were arranged in a pleasing manner, the pins had to be released from the board and turned flat to get the work under the sewing machine head.

Theresa Wege

Amy Schwalm

Cindy Allgood and Presley

Rebecca Dobbins

Rose Naquinn

Dianne Smith

Christy Calhoun

Myra Cook

I'm sorry I didn't get good pictures of Connie Moore, Nancy Newman, Diane Rayburn, and Roberta Slowey. Most quilters got their tree created and began sewing it down. This part is challenging to avoid hitting pins or injuring fingers, and twists can be adjusted and rearranged during this process if necessary.

Cindy stitching her tree

We discussed the background quilting and finishing and I shared my favorite edge treatment--facing--rather than binding. I promised to send Kathy Loomis' excellent facing tutorial she posted on her blog March 18, 2011.

Color Bars Class and Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

What an exciting week! It started off with the birth of a new great-grandson in Dallas on Saturday, Tucker Knox Kuykendall. Then Wednesday I teach my Color Bars class here in Hattiesburg. On Thursday I drive to Oxford (250 mi) to attend the Reception and gallery talk of CARYL BRYER FALLERT-GENTRY: 40 YEARS OF COLOR, LIGHT, & MOTION, a 58-quilt retrospective opening at the University Museum at Ole Miss. Woo-hoo!

Color Bars is an improvisational way of creating art quilts and I love to make these and teach the class. For people who have always worked from a pattern, this free-form way of cutting and stitching can be called "permission to do your own thing and ignore the quilt police." I am inspired by the works of Rayna Gillman, Dianne S. Hire, and Kathy Loomis, and there are many quilters today who enjoy these techniques.

Color Bars #2--Black

When I first saw Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's quilts in Houston in the 1980s I became her fan. Her Corona #2: Solar Eclipse that won Best of Show in Paducah in 1989 is my all-time favorite quilt and is a part of the permanent collection of the Museum of the American Quilter's Society. It is also pictured in The Twentieth Century's Best American Quilts.

Corona #2: Solar Eclipse by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

Caryl has many pictures and full description of how she created this masterpiece on her website.