Floating Four-Patch

Catherine Martin finished quilting my "Floating Four-Patch" and I picked it up today. All batik blocks, mostly from an internet exchange, and more were made on our Bee retreat in September.

I took Gwen Marston's idea for long narrow triangles and made a few spikes for each side of the border--something to contrast with all the squares.

And then I told Catherine to quilt it with something like Baptist Fans. I see some circles, which I don't think you would ever get with Baptist Fans, but I like the effect. It's a little whacky!

I got the binding on this afternoon, so now I just need a label (which I will WRITE on the white muslin backing) and a trip to the washing machine.

This quilt is going to be an auction for the Grand Rapids Womens' Chorus on December 13.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Catherine's work

Enough matching fabric for the binding

Turkey tomorrow!

Skinny triangles

I think I want another border on the "white-framed squares" quilt top I made at The Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.

I have begun making some of the skinny triangles that Gwen Marston uses in some of her borders/inner parts of quilts. She gave us a little method demonstration on the Retreat, basically using various widths of rectangles sewn from one corner across to the opposite side. Not too hard.

However, I don't intend to make a whole border of these! I'm thinking of just inserting some segments like this into a red border. Or should that be into a WHITE border?

Sara

Gratitudes:

sunny and warm

masses of Black-eyed Susans

Found a loaf of brioche in the freezer!

Beaver Island Quilt Retreat, Part 2

Our working room was overlooking Elk Lake in Elk Rapids, Michigan. We all could look up from our work and see the changing colors of the different green foliages and the lake reflecting the sky and clouds.

I started a second quilt top on Friday, using the greens that were in my box. In the back of my mind I was working with the view out the window.


I made Rail Fence blocks with one rail having triangles (mountains? evergreens?) and laid them out on the piano, which happened to be next to my work station.




When I laid them out as a square, they looked almost TOO landscapey, so I set them back as Rail Fence with the greener blocks at the bottom and the bluer blocks at the top.

Looking at more of Gwen's quilts I saw that she sometimes set the center of the quilt OFF-center and also sometimes made un-equal borders--so I played around with those ideas.

The final quilt top includes a large pine tree on the left and a representation of "My Wilderness Cabin" [log cabin block] on the lower right.
And here are a few more photos of Gwen's quilts for your inspiration:


Strips, squares and triangles.


:

She advised: "Use a simple block. Then make it over and over."























And finally, here is the cover of her new book, self-published:
Sara

Gratitudes:

TWO tops made while on the retreat
Special time with Reunion group at Lake Michigan
Home again, home again, jiggity-jog!

Beaver Island Quilt Retreat

Yes, Gwen Marston is giving her retreats for the 25th year, and I finally was able to participate. The theme was SOLIDS - using solids to create design.

First she showed us about 30 of her quilts.

[If you click on any photo you will get an enlargement and can see the quilting, and even some edges of other quilts piled on the counter!]

We oohed and aahed, and took lots of photos!

The tan one with light interior squares was tied leaving long ends dangling for "more texture."

She had used multiple repetitions of fairly simple shapes.

So then we went to work with our own solid fabrics (though some people had brought other projects which they labored over).

I had brought my bolt of WHITE that needs using, and was bound and determined that I was going to use it for background.

I stuck the blocks I had done when I went to bed on Wednesday onto one of the tablecloths hung around the area.

Thursday I worked on the sashings all day.

I hung itover the piano in my corner of the room, and after some study, I decided no more was needed. Anyway I was done for the day, and wasn't going to do any more on it until I got it home.

Here is the final result. Definitely using some of Gwen's ideas, but defintiely not made by her!

More on days three and four in a couple of days.

Sara

Gwen Marston, Teacher

The West Michigan Quilt Guild had Gwen Marston as our lecturer last night. She talked about "So Old, It's New". Many/most of her quilts are based on lessons she learned from old quilts under the tutelage of Mary Schafer. She thinks the current Quilt Police have forgotten how variable "the tradition" really has been, especially in the individuality of the shapes cut and placed "by eye".

For example, one of her own quilts was displayed to show that the border design does NOT have to be proportional to the size of the blocks! In fact she made it to dis-prove that statement by a Quilt Policewoman.

Today I took a workshop Gwen taught on "Liberated Stars".

We learned how to make stars without a pattern, just let the star points be "roughly" equal, or not equal at all.

Here's Gwen hard at work trying to convince "hardened" quilters that it DOESN'T matter if your points aren't the same size, or if your points don't meet, or if your points get cut off! If all those thing were to happen "correctly", you wouldn't have a "liberated" star.

It was a very difficult lesson, we are so brainwashed. However, by lunch time everyone was having a great time .

My production between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm was eight stars. I progressed from whacky points, to not-square centers, to not-square-Square-in-a-Square centers, and finally to have more that two points on a side. The star blocks are NOT the same size! But roughly nine inches finished.

Fun, fun, fun. Wish I had taken photos of the fabrics other folks were using, and how their progress was going.

Now I want to put these together with my "Follow The Star "quilt and get it finished for this winter tohang in the kitchen. Perhaps the title of that quilt will be "Follow A Star", that is, there are a LOT of stars, just pick one and follow it.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Mother and daughter team working next to me

Adrienne's New Zealand accent and enthusiasm

Dianne purchased lunch for me while she was out