Thursday, March 30, 2017

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

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Wordless Wednesday

OK, not quite wordless, but very few.  Sacagawia Sampler by Minick and Simpson.  I'm still plugging away at this sampler.  I love it, I just can't squeeze in any more time in my days right now. 




Wow, it looks really good.  I must put this higher on my MUST finish list for 2017. 
Keep stitching,
Sharon

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Quilters Anonymous Part 2

Since I love applique, I'm always searching them out at quilt shows. The ones with hand quilting really catch my eye and I'm always happy to see the hand work being shown.

Enjoy Part 2 of this quilt show.


Sorry, I didn't turn this picture.

I liked the layout of this one, the sashing and border really pops the blocks.

Pat Sloan pattern?  I think so.  Bright and cheerful!

The color choices on this were lovely.


This pink/green/white appealed to me.  I love the balance of color and the design really shines with the bit of dark used for star points and little hourglass blocks.
And I loved the very pretty, and clean lines of the quilting.  They didn't fuss it up with a ton of thread, but really accented the patchwork. 

Oh how this one caught my eye, and the eye of many other viewers around me.  The compliments were flying both times I went to look at this piece.  So much color and great placement of flowers and leaves.  Plus the background choices really helped the applique pop. 

I was so surprised to read the card beside this quilt and not recognize the quilter's name.  I was so sure I knew who created this piece, both the fabric choices and quilting felt familiar to me.  Then I ran into Nifty Quilts and she asked if I saw her plaid strip quilt.  Duh....I read the wrong card.  Of course this is her work.  Fabulous baptist fan quilting with black perl cotton.  I purchased this fan template after seeing Nifty show some work on her blog.  I am mentally designing a quilt top that I can use this stencil with.  You can purchase it here.  I'm not affiliated, I just know it's a great online shop and the service and product is terrific.


close up

Stellar secondary designs were added with the machine quilting.  And those circles are actual faced holes with a background layered behind them.  I've seen this technique years ago without a background, and it still mystifies me as to the technical steps to achieve this look.  Fabulous piece.
Simple blocks with great results.  All patchwork does not have to be complicated and time consuming and stressful and laborious to be fabulous.  This is the perfect example.  I don't know who's quilt this is, but I love it!
Another great liberated modern piece.  The color choices are fantastic in this one, and it drew me in for a closer look several times. 
I'm a bit biased on this last piece, as I did the quilting on it, but I truly love it.  Nifty Quilts sent this to me in the new year and I loved working with her on this one. Keep it simple and whimsical and not a lot of quilting on this, she said.  These are left over parts and pieces, the leaves are string pieced, ala Susan McCord, the outer blocks are from Organized Chaos. (remember the piece from my last post?)  Big string pieced baskets.  Both machine and hand applique is used, and borders got their bang from the prints in the fabric.  The striped Kaffe really shines next to the outer border.  This piece is big, it's fantastic, and it is totally a Nifty creation.  One of a kind!
I hope you enjoyed my mini version of a fantastic show.  Now if only they call me and tell me I won their raffle quilt, it will have been a perfect day.  Minus the torrential rains that Tonya A. drove in to get us there.  She's also a great quilter, check out her latest pattern in Quiltmania.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Quilters Anonymous Show Part 1

A photo heavy post with very few words.  This was my first time to the Monroe WA quilt show put on by a very large group, approx 500 members strong, named Quilters Anonymous.  Most, but not all of my photos are patterns you will recognize, and although I checked my camera battery before leaving home, it did fail me.  Enjoy the photos.
A lot of traditional pieces, but I did love a few liberated pieces.  I really like the black background on this piece.


Judy Irish - a great version of this pattern

Mary E. The colors in this Lady of the Lake version are fantastic.

especially the border fabric.  My colors are not good on these photos, but this border picture shows the brightness of the prints in the quilt.  The above photo looks faded.

Great texture and an added element with the multi colored variegated perl cotton.  Hand quilting makes you want to get closer to the piece.


Bright civil war prints ala Gypsy Wife pattern.

Kim McLean pattern?  I think so.  very bright and cheerful.

What's not to love about a red/cream churn dash?!!

The Crabapple Hill pattern is shown with pastel threads on cream/white background.  This quilter here pushed the boundaries with navy batik, metallic threads, and beads/embellishments.  Fabulous piece.


Lovely quilting.


Red and white houses..........love

Great machine workmanship


Organized Chaos, by Sally L. Fantastic color placement. Machine and hand quilting. The circular hand stitching draws you into this piece, then you want to step back to admire the design, then get back up close. I heard many great compliments from other viewers while I was admiring this piece.


Stop back on the weekend for some more eye candy. And as a tease, next week I just might be posting about my Gwen Marston 3 day workshop I'm going to this weekend.

Keep stitching,
Sharon