Free-Form Quiltmaking, a.k.a. Color Bars

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:

Color Bars #2--Black by Martha Ginn

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.

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.

by Missy Lee

by Myra Cook

Georgianne Brooks, Angela Jones, Missy Lee

Nancy Losure designing on the floor

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.

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.

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.

Pathways Workshop Results

It was quite rewarding to see the results of the Pathways workshop when the students showed their pieces two weeks later at our quilt guild meeting. They had completed the small practice piece, some adding borders and finishing with quilting. Missy and Joe had also made their large project from the pattern I provided.

Barb, Suzannah, Susie, Dianne, Joyce, Betty, Missy, Elsie, Ellen

Barb, Suzannah, Susie, Dianne, Joyce, Betty, Missy, Elsie, Ellen, Joe

Joe, Betty (holding Joe's extended practice piece), Martha

I enjoyed teaching the workshop so much that afterward I decided to make one of the pieces myself. I call it Pathways in Stone. It features a Mickey Lawler Skydyes fabric.

Pathways in Stone

Kittens Up for Adoption

These last 10 weeks have been joy-filled and entertaining. As the foster kittens grew and I enjoyed them and laughed at them and fed them, my friends constantly asked, "How can you give them up?" They remarked, "I'll bet you keep them." Well, my three grown cats (who were fosters a year and a half ago) have felt very invaded and frustrated, actually downright frightened of these little fur balls, so it wouldn't seem fair to them.

When the kittens reached 2-1/2 lbs. I took them for their neuter surgery, and then Southern Pines Animal Shelter microchipped them and delivered them to PetSmart yesterday for adoption.

George Clooney, Josh Groban, Christopher

Christopher

George Clooney

Josh Groban

Trying to share a chair with Tarbaby

They will make wonderful pets. I will miss them.

Pathways Workshop

The Pathways workshop on May 27 for Pine Belt Quilters went very well. I continued with the Power Point Presentation to refresh some of the information from the program two weeks earlier and to see details of how we can draw our own designs, add registration marks, match registration marks on a light box, and stitch the pieces together. Having the PowerPoint with pictures was most helpful, allowing a quick look back to compare color choices and construction methods. I am so proud of the guild's recently purchased projector, and we will all benefit from better programs by using it and the new camera. 
To get comfortable with the Applipiecing technique developed by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, I had the students construct a small design about 8" x 10" before starting on their larger project. They cut out freezer paper patterns and ironed these pieces to fabric and cut out, then used glue sticks to turn the seam allowances on the "over" edges. These "overs" were then positioned on the "unders" by matching registration marks.

Using PowerPoint

Elsie Harris, Missy Lee, Martha Ginn, Suzannah Patterson

A light box works well for positioning the pieces, but a quick holding up to the light helps, too.

Dianne McLendon

Joe Bingham

Ellen Hall

After working on the small practice piece, I had the students select their larger design from the four patterns I had prepared. They began deciding on the pathways in their larger piece, some adding Flying Geese, Piano Keys, Spikes, and some using solid fabric paths.

Susie Jackson

Suzannah Patterson

Some of the sewing machines had tension issues using the invisible thread, even after changing needles and trying other spools of thread, but Suzannah's little Janome didn't know it should have problems and performed like a real trooper. She had never used the machine before and we expected disaster and were happily surprised at her outcome.

Some of the students planned to alter their designs and use the Pathways in a novel way, which is always a thrill when a teacher feels like the students are taking the class one step further by adding their own innovation. We were so busy that I didn't get pictures of the finished small pieces before an approaching  thunderstorm caused us to need to move sewing machines to cars before the rain started.
I'll post more pictures later. It was a fun and successful day!

Pathways Program for Pine Belt Quilters

I enjoyed giving a PowerPoint presentation program on Pathway designs at our Pine Belt Quilters May 13 meeting. This is what I call several "pathways" crossing a background. I have been in love with this type of design for many years from admiring Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's remarkable quilts. Of course, hers are intricately challenging pieces, but I began trying some simple designs in 2008 when my niece in Colorado asked me to make a 35" x 55" piece for her wall. She had no specific design in mind--but I knew from her professional photography skills that she loved brilliant colors. I made "Marilyn's Pathways" and she was delighted that I had captured her admiration of the mountains and Canada Geese she saw on her morning walks.

Marilyn's Pathways,  2008, 35" x 55"

Later I purchased a pattern from Caryl called "Square Dance," which taught her Applipiecing® technique for joining curved pieces, and realized this technique was the answer to many of the challenges encountered in Marilyn's piece. Then in 2009 I attended a four-day "Beyond the Grid" workshop at Caryl's Paducah studio where we learned to draw and construct our own designs. I will be ever grateful for Caryl's inspiration and generous sharing. Her website contains a wealth of information and I encourage quilters to avail themselves of her patterns, articles, and instructions (www.bryerpatch.com). Learning from her was a dream come true I will always remember.

The piece I started in her workshop and later continued and completed at home, Galaxy, is one of my favorites. The background is Caryl's gradated fabric, with the blue pieced pathway of hand-dyes by Mary Nell Magee and the two solid pathways my own (one-time foray!) hand-dyes.

Galaxy, 2011, 37" x 24"

Since then I have made several other quilts I could not have made without her marvelous Applipiecing® technique. Sharon Shamber and perhaps others use a similar method but I have only read about these.

Ribbons of Change, 2010, 25" x 29"

Ribbons of Change was made in 2010 and donated to the AIDS Services Coalition auction, and you can see Caryl's influence on my color choices of the mountain/valley pathway. She often gradates the mountain peaks and the valley peaks in the opposite direction (one from light to dark and the other from dark to light).

My guild has recently purchased a camera and projector, which makes it much more possible for members to see and enjoy a program featuring items that we no longer own.

I'm looking forward to teaching a Pathways workshop in two weeks and helping quilters make their own design, thanks to Caryl's Applipiecing®!I have drawn four designs that quilters may choose from. These can be oriented different directions, and everyone will decide on her own pathways and fabrics, so no two quilts will be alike.

Meanwhile, my foster kittens from Southern Pines Animal Shelter are seven weeks old and running to greet me when I go into the garage. They love to be picked up and purr loudly; they are getting near their required two-pound required weight for their surgery and adoption. My house cats are still terrified of them and will be glad for them to find forever homes!

May in Mississippi

This amaryllis is about seven or eight years old and produces some of the largest blooms I have ever seen. It was a gift which I later planted outdoors in a flowerbed on the east side of the house (so I could see it from the kitchen window). This year it has two stalks with nine blossoms. The second stalk can be seen low on the right.

The maidenhair fern survived the winter in the garage; after trimming all the old fronds, it has put on fresh fluffy greenery.

 My rosemary bush was unfazed by the cold winter temperatures.

My foster kittens are growing; their mama, Caboodle, has weaned them and gone back to Southern Pines Animal Shelter to get spayed and adopted. She is such a beautiful and sweet little cat that I'm sure she'll find a home quickly.

The kittens are almost to their two-pound weight required for their surgery and adoptions; meanwhile, they are having a good time in my garage and a delight to watch. Below is George Clooney, named for his handsome face! The other gray one is Christopher, who is just as handsome. 

The one with the white face climbing up my leg I first called Crybaby for his constant meowing. Now I interpret his voice as singing and have renamed him Josh Groban. I didn't want him labeled with an unpleasant name.  My three inside cats are terrified of the little furballs and will be glad when they are gone, but I will miss them. I've been letting the babies explore inside the house, hoping my cats will learn there is no danger from them. No progress on that score.

Our "Shapely" Challenge

Our Pine Belt Quilters guild enjoyed the Round Robin Challenge that Dianne McLendon organized for us last year, with very interesting quilts resulting. I called it a "selfish" round robin because we kept our own piece from start to finish. You can see the finished pieces here along with the assigned fabrics and rules.

She has organized another challenge for 2015-16, called a "Shapely" Challenge. We paid $10 and received a packet of five fat quarters, which have to show up somewhere in the finished quilt. No two packets were alike. We can add any other fabrics we choose. Every other month we will be assigned a shape and will make four different 12" blocks using only this shape. The first shape is a SQUARE--think of a nine-patch made up of nine 4" squares. Some other possibilities are sixteen 3" squares, four 6" squares, thirty-six 2" squares, or a whole block of 1" squares! We will be assigned a shape (sometimes more than one shape) in March, May, July, September, and November, and then have four months to complete our project, to be revealed in March 2016. This activity offers a different set of challenges in that we can plan our color palette from the beginning and also know we will always be making 12" blocks. Every time we approach a quilt from a different standpoint, it can be a learning and growing opportunity.

Here is my starting packet--at a glance I see that I have mediums and lights so will have to be sure to add some darks and background solids. I love these fabrics--rose, coral, lime green, butterscotch!

My starting packet of fabrics

Old Quilt Repair and Growing Kittens

I finally finished repairing the old quilt I agreed to do back in November. My goal was not to make it look new--just secure or replace the loose patches and stitch and/or quilt to get the quilt back to a usable state. It is a dear and precious piece made by the owner's grandmother and it had cotton tumbling out and ragged places from years of loving and use. It was more difficult than I anticipated because the cotton was hard and packed from washing and knotting. Luckily, the original quilting design was straight lines or L-shapes about 2" apart, so there was a minimum of quilting needed.
Here are some "before" pictures (click to enlarge):

After the repair, I didn't want the owner to be able to tell my work from her grandmother's. A few patches were added to hide noticeable dark stains. She did not want the fraying edge replaced, so it got a few stitches just to prevent further damage. Here is the quilt after repair and washing:

 My foster kittens from Southern Pines Animal Shelter are three weeks old now and beginning to walk about. Mama has moved them again, to a shelf away from the side of the garage. I think a thunderstorm caused her to want to move away from the windows, so I put a fleece blanket under them and she seems content. She gets nervous when they don't stay with her, but in a few days they will be all over the garage. I've already begun leaving my car outside!