String Stars

Everything I love about quilts and quilting are in this string star piece.  It was made in 2013 with the help of the amazing Gwen Marston during a retreat on Lopez Island.

It contains strings
It was created using Gwen's liberated star techniques.

The cheddar border bleeds into the corner blocks for a unique look, and that is a result of "using what you have".

It's hand quilted and has feathers in the solid red areas.

 The diamond border is all half square triangles that were bonus blocks from a Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. And no matter how hard I try to keep prints away from each other, this usually happens.  Really?? 3 plaids so close together??

The outside print gave me a grid for the border hand quilting.

 

It's red and cheddar and we all know "cheddar makes it better".
I hope you get out for some activity and fresh air this weekend.
Sharon

Gwen Marston - It's a Wrap

Photo heavy, word light.  Here are the shots of some work in progress pieces and some finished results from our workshop.  With 20 people creating in one room, there was a bit of sensory overload for me.  I kept focused on my piece and soaked up so much from those around me.

Matt - Seattle Modern Guild.  You should stalk him on IG  @odditease  Everyone tries to pull their hands out of the shot.  I happen to like them in the photo, after all, these are the hands that created the piece that we are enjoying.

Finished? not quite.............

Matt finished and if you check out his IG, you will see the hand quilting he has going on.

Making parts....

Auditioning background colors.  Vera worked her pieces from lots of yellow/green on the right to lots of pink/turq on the left.

Finished the abstract piecing and onto making Liberated Stars

Sally and Mary came up from Seattle to say hello, and lucky for us, Sally brought her corduroy quilt.

LeeAnn and Merry.  Square in a square by Merry, cherrywood fabrics.  Still in process, as a fabulous border showed up a bit later.

Leah M&M for size reference.

She rocked the small piecing and created some wonderful patchwork.

Finished composition. Such lovely work!

Paula with her Mexican Hat center and liberated rounds, medallion style.

Cheryl - we realized we have taken 3 different Gwen workshops together. She has good taste in teachers *vbg* Don't you just love this? She did the patchwork, then cut her big square in 4 to make the outside triangles. Her sewing buddy had some great advise. Stay stitch just beside the cutting lines "before" you cut on the bias. Still more to happen, but not enough fabric or time to have a finish.

Justine rocked the hour glass block with brights all around.  This piece is so lively. 

Fern, as in IG @fern_royce, or www.fernroycequilting.com came up from Berkley to partake in Gwens last blast class.

Fabulous work.  She teaches and lectures.  Check her out!

Ferns sewing buddy, who's small 4 patches took my breath away.  I just had to go make a block for reference.  I love the partial seam technique she used to surround the center. 

Elizabeth continued on a current project she had.  Such good colors in this piece.

Mary green lib log cabins

Gwen shared so many techniques and here is a collage of processes.  Marilyn now has the best note / sketch book to take home.

Merry shared a wool quilt she finished.  I love a good churn dash.

LeeAnn aka NiftyQuilts working on the floor.

Nifty had the floor with her wool strippy.  Is is recycled? or upcycled now?  I just know its a great quilt and someone will be lucky to get this.

Norma also pulled out the hourglass medallion theme.  Love the curves added in the first round.  There's more to come on this piece, but again, time got the best of us.  Norma and I have also been in several of Gwen's workshops in the last few years.

As Gwen continued to show techniques, the work became more complex.  I see Maui when I look at the piece on the right.  Such great colors.

I call this one Vision Accomplished.  I had an idea in mind; sea glass  I came with a stack of fabrics that worked with my newly painted condo and I managed to see it through to fruition.  Strings on the right were from the strip ends.  They have made their way into another piece already.  When the iron's hot, right?

Gwen and I, our last hurrah............

And like the fields of Snow Geese that I saw while leaving LaConner,  Gwen drove away.  It was a bittersweet workshop, knowing that she has truly retired. 

I asked her if she considered taking up quilting in her retirement, she replied, "I've thought about it"

Gwen, thank you for empowering so many of us to find our voice, to be confident in our decisions, and to defend our work.  You are a true gem in this industry and in this world.

Thank you
Sharon

Gwen Marston's Last Hurrah

I'm sure you have heard the news.........Gwen Marston has retired.  For sure................. it's official.  We had the cake to seal the deal.

Gwen taught one last class in LaConner, WA over the weekend and it did not disappoint.  After showing several pieces of her work, the attendee's got busy and dove right into their projects

After lunch we walked up the the PNW Textile & Fiber Museum.  It was the last days of Gwen's exhibit and we had a tour through the quilts with Gwen.

Gwen told us she was allowed to touch the quilts :-)

Home dyed fabrics made up this piece.

Pointing out secondary shapes made with the border triangles bumping against the inner round of triangles.

The workshop was titled, Abstracts in Solids, but true to a Gwen workshop, everyone was in their own zone and worked in their own style.  Some were working small, several medallion pieces were started, a few strippy quilts got rolling and there were also  squares, triangles and diamonds in the mix.  It was fantastic to be in a room with SO many creative spirits.

As seen on the tables as I walked around the room...........

Organized chaos......

Organized .........

Matt started sewing liberated diamonds, wait till you see what he accompished. It is fantastic.

"Just start".  Best advise ever.  On a road trip from Washington to Florida, I don't think I would know where I was spending the third night.  I would just start and figure it out along the way.  Quilting in a liberated, free style method is much the same. 

We all started, some finished, some finished more than one piece.  We all worked in our own way, different colors, shapes, textures.  And in the end, we will all have a little piece of Gwen stitched into our projects from this weekend.

Stay tuned for more.  I'll be taking over APQ instagram account this weekend.  More pictures will be posted there and I'll have one more blog with more pictures.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Gwen Marston - Small Studies

Wow, three days of 15+ quilters / artists in the house and the ideas just started flowing.  Gwen was under the weather the first day.  She did her intro, pinned up her Small Studies samples and then went back to her room.  And we got busy.  

These first 4 pieces are some of my favorites of Gwen's work. 

I just love the shot of turquoise that jumped into this piece.

Here is the collective work of our class.  WOW.  I watched people share their ideas, their formulas, their methods.  It was a room that was busting with ideas and creativity.  You can see my pieces on the bottom left.  First piece as too much print in it, the second one got a shot of pink and the small piece on the bottom left is the beginning of ??????

These two are made by the same quilter, in fact, she had 3 pieces finished by the end of day 3.  It wasn't' a race or a competition, and I have to tell you, I learned SO MUCH watching KM work.  I have already starting thinking in a different manner about piecing and quilting design in general after these three days.

Close up of KM's third piece.

This picture is twisted, but see next picture. Great work by this quilter.

Here is the second piece right side up. I love the curve in the top right corner and how it plays with the straight outside edge of the borders.

I had the pleasure of having Tom at my table. It was fabulous to watch him work. He's spent his career surrounded by line and design and has recently started playing with textiles. Unfortunately, I did not capture his first piece that was superb. In this picture, he re created the piece on the left side, which is a chenille creation of his.  The upper left was his 3rd piece of the workshop. 

My goal was to test every technique Gwen had to offer.  I came home with  a stitched sample of each method she uses and I can now refer back to these pieces for reference.  That was my goal, I achieved it and am very pleased with my pieces and my ability to move forward onto a second and third piece.

And if you've stayed with me, here is the info on Gwen's new book.  I can't wait, and I'm positive it will be one that becomes dog eared and coffee stained in my studio. 

Thank you Gwen, for a life time of creating and sharing and teaching. I've learned so much from you!

Sharon