Gee's Bend Quilts

Luckily my friend Marion emailed me to tell me that the quilts of Gee's Bend were making an appearance in a Canadian city that would be within driving distance of my house. I was quite interested to see the quilts and convinced my husband that it would be a nice outing for me us, and he agreed to take me! Having heard about these quilts for many years, I was happy to be able to see some of these quilts and even more delighted that we were permitted to take photographs. (There are few things that annoy me as much as not being allowed to take photos at a quilt show...I understand all the copyright issues, but it still really annoys the photographer part of me!)
So I won't show the quilts in this blog post because I don't have permission to do that and I am too scared of the copyright police, but you can see about 80,000 photos if you google Gee's Bend quilt images.
I thought I might be able to get away with showing a couple of the  close up photos that I took to show why I love these quilts so much...

1) the riotous (exuberant, lush, luxuriant, profuse) use of colour in many of the quilts...








2) amazing, free form hand quilting....

3) hand quilting through denim and corduroy...








4) complete disregard for matching seams and no worrying about missing points...




5) use of all the little scrappy bits...

I was totally inspired to not worry so much about the things that I have been told make a quilt "show worthy", and instead to focus on the things that make a quilt meaningful.  I was totally pumped to rush home and do some hand quilting...and to remember that the stitches don't have to be tiny or perfect to give great texture on a quilt.

But, it's been about a month since I pin basted this quilt for machine quilting, so I thought I better get to work on that one!

Remembering Martina

I am thinking often about my friend Martina these days. She was an art therapist that I worked with for many years as my co-therapist in an art therapy group in a psychiatric hospital. She taught me so much about the creative process, especially how to start a piece and to trust that I would be intuitively directed by my own inner creativity.

I am thinking about her now because it was two years ago that we celebrated her last birthday. She was diagnosed with cancer and suffered for 1 1/2 years after her diagnosis throughout various conventional and some unusual treatments. Here is a photo of her 45th birthday..I am on the left behind the cake and Martina is on the right, wearing her "Susan Saradon wig". Behind us are friends Wendi and Hope. This was a happy day of celebration and we had no idea that 5 months later she would die.

I am also thinking about her now because I am working on a beaded quilt and am relearning/remembering some of the things I learned from Martina. In May I signed up to participate in the "Bead Journal Project" (BJP) which you can read about here. It is not as easy as I thought it would be and I am struggling to complete the first month's piece, which is why I have not written about it until now...and notice there are no photos to be seen!!

This is what I said in Martina's eulogy: "Martina taught me that the process, not the outcome, was the most important thing. And I would watch her as she painted or quilted, not following any plan. She would work and re-work the piece – adding on to it until she felt it was finished. I would say to her… “but I liked it best when it was two layers underneath” and I knew it would be different the next time I visited. And I tried to learn not to be attached to outcome but enjoy the transformative journey."

Earlier this month I was given a book called "The Book Of Angels" that was found among Martina's belongings and in the book was tucked this beaded fabric card that I made for her last birthday. I had given it to her with a Quilting Arts magazine. I don't know how this card found its way into the angel book, but I was honoured to receive this gift.

If Martina was here now, I would show my bead mess to her and she would give me some good advice, not about what to do next to fix it, but about how to get out of my own way. Maybe she would direct me to focus on the process of my beaded project for the BJP and why I am struggling so much with the outcome. Hmmm....thanks Martina!

Flora and Fauna

Today's blog entry has little to do with quilting! I will mention in passing that my friend Louise and I went on the shop hop called "Goose on the Loose". We now have a chance to win some prizes in a draw, but there were no fabric/pattern giveaways like the last shop hop I went on. Never mind...we had great conversation and lots of fun!

On the way to Louise's house, I spotted this turtle and screeched the car to a stop. Isn't it so interesting? Look at the spikes on it's tail. I gave him/her a little lecture about the dangers of walking on the highway and I think he/she listened because I was delighted to note that there was no dead turtle on the highway on the way home!
And I admired so many other things on my drive. These are the daffodils (on the left) in full bloom at Louise's farm. She has many beautiful flower gardens.

And just look at these wild trilliums! The trillium is the provincial flower for Ontario, Canada and they are only found in deciduous forests in early May. Apparently the white petals change to pink as they age, and I was so excited today to have found my first one!

And now you know what it is like to go on a road trip with me...I am easily distracted by beautiful and intesting sites!

My inspiring brother

I am posting about my brother today. He is a very inspiring person, both as an artist (he is a writer and guitar player) and in terms of the perseverance and bravery he has demonstrated in all that he has faced in his life. He has been sick off and on for about 25 years due to a congenital illness (arterial vascular hemangiomas) requiring numerous surgeries over the years, resulting in a permanent traech tube, which causes him untold suffering in his struggle to eat and breathe.

Here is a photo of us from a couple of years ago. (Don't look at my "post-tobagganing hairdo"!!) This is the photo mosaic quilt I made for his birthday based on photos that I took of him writing on the beach. I used Ami Simms photo transfer paper to transfer the photos to fabric. I cut the photos into squares and rectangles, and added in some commercial fabrics that fit the colour scheme and theme of writing. (See blog entry from Jan. 23 where I talked about making a quilt for another one of my favorite people using the same technique). In the border around the centre photo, I wrote (free motion machine quilted) the names of his four favorite poets.

He is quite sick again and I am sending him lots of loving and hopeful thoughts for a quick, non-surgical recovery from his recent symptoms.

My quilting time this weekend has focused on getting myself organized for a quilting retreat (Monday to Wednesday). What to take?? What to take??? How many UFO's can I work on in 3 days? How much sleep do I really need?

Ice and Snow

Maybe the icicle fascination is getting out of hand!?! These are some recent photos I took around my neighbourhood. You know it's too cold when your dog refuses to go for a walk! But I still enjoy looking for new icicles...longer spikes, more points in a row, unusual shapes, etc. I like the shot on the right because of the shadow on the wall. And the icicle on the left is getting bigger every day. Okay...one more photo...from this morning...the ice crystals on the inside of my screen door. They were so beautiful and sparkly but difficult to photograph.

And on to my recent quilting endeavours...after all these years of quilting, I still really enjoy paper piecing and always have a few of those projects on the go. During the Super Bowl I finally sewed the faces on these snowpeople. I had great fun rummaging around in my bead box to find tiny beads that looked coal. This pattern is by Wendy Vosters and it was definately not a beginner project. The blocks were a little tricky to sew (4 separate pieces) but fun to work on.
However, the trickiest blocks to paper piece are those that have multiple pieces (more than 6) with lots of diagonal or partial joins...and when you don't even know what you're sewing! On the right is one of the mystery blocks from one of my favorite paper piecing sites Paper Panache. Every two months or so Linda posts a new (free!) mystery block. I love to select the fabrics, prepare the pieces and leave everything in a baggie beside my machine, so that when I have a little time to work on it, I can pick it up and continue from where I left off. I still have the Christmas block (which is a 6" square) sitting there waiting for me. Fun Fun Fun!

Inspiring People

At my quilt guild this month we had Sybil Rampen as our guest speaker. I must say that she is one of the best speakers I have ever heard! She was inspiring, her work was unique, she was generous with sharing her ideas, and she was very entertaining. In addition to being an accomplished fibre artist, Sybil is also an author and has written a book called "The Grannies", which I am giving to my Mom for her birthday. She has also written and self published a book of fibre art techniques called "Milkweed Angel" and I have ordered that for myself...let's call it a Valentine's Day present for myself!
After the meeting I was thinking more about sources of inspiration. One of the guild lectures I provide is on my sources of inspiration... I talk about 14 of my most used sources of inspiration, and show the quilts I have made from these sources. Many of the original quilts I have made were inspired by people and special occasions. Such was the occasion at a "big" birthday party for my friend Louise Hopkins...I won't give away just how "big" of a birthday this was! Louise is the person who introduced me to quilting many years ago when we met at the hospital where we were both working....she was an occupational therapist and I was a family therapist on a treatment team. At the time I met her, she was hand quilting a huge log cabin quilt. I loved to hear her talk about her quilting and invited myself over to her house to see that quilt. Louise encouraged me to buy a sewing machine, believing that I could learn to quilt. And because she believed it, I thought it must be true! Having never sewn a thing, I bought a sewing machine! From that day on, I have become more and more addicted to quilting...rarely does a day goes by that I do not work on a quilting or beading project. And because I owe my introduction to quilting to my friend Louise, I wanted to make her something special for her birthday. I started with a photo of her children that she had sent in her Christmas card the year before. I made photo transfers of that photo plus a few other photos I had taken of sunflowers. I added in some of my hand painted fabrics and some textured commercial fabrics, and used one of my favorite designing techniques. I cut a variety of fabrics into squares and rectangles, generating approximately about twice the number that I will actually use. The size of the pieces are based on a 1" finished measurement, so the squares start at 1 1/2" and the rectangles start at 1 1/2" x 2 1/2". For larger wallhangings I cut some of these smaller pieces and then increase the sizes so I have a variety of colours and sizes. Then I organize the pieces in a way that pleases me and sew them together. On quilts as small as this one (7" x 8") I do a minimum of quilting, and this quilt I finished with a two colour binding. There are a lot of things that are symbolic of Louise and her values in this little quilt and although I can see things that I would change now, I still smile when I see this photo and think of all the inspiration and encouragement Louise has given me over the past 17 years. Thanks Louise!