FYI November 2024

Bethanne Nemish, a very generous and experienced quilter, is offering a free feather class.

You don't need to wait until Black Friday for sales at Fat Quarter Shop. Daily category sales can save you up to 50%.

Highlights from the 2024 Quilt Festival Part 2

A Year in Hand by Margaret Brockband, and quilted by her daughter Maika Christensen, is based on the Mrs. Billings Coverlet pattern by Karen Styles, but with a modern palette. 

The original quilt from 1790 is in the Quilters Guild of the British Isles collection. The quilt was hand pieced and took about 2,000 hours.

Blooming Flower, an original design by Fengmei Li, gives its flower an explosive, geometric appearance with hundred of slender rectangles.

Kathryn Kerr's 365 Challenge Quilt was the basis of Suzie Wilbanks' Finding Teal Mountain, except she swapped the center medallion with a Mariner's Compass. Lois Kindley did the quilting. 

Highlights from the 2024 Quilt Festival: MQG Through Lines

Quilts from QuiltCon 2022-2024 that use line in effective and interesting ways were shown in the Modern Quilt Guild Through Lines exhibit. 

Dancing hexagons, composed of 1/8" strips in a darkening monochrome give the impression of spinning off the quilt in Pickle Hex by Megan Ellinger.

Stereo Vibes by Gabriella Garza and quilted by Melinda Sword was inspired by Sherry Lynn Woods' Modern Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters score #10 (affiliate link). Striped blocks were originally pieced without a specific direction or vision in mind. The center stripes are reminiscent of auto visualizers on an old stereo.

Disappearing parallel lines on the left provide visual interest, while colorful lines are employed to disrupt visual monotony in this untitled, labor-intensive, piecing challenge created by Elza McKenna of Rippey Street Quilts. She found the repetitive pattern to be a meditative practice that allowed her brain to relax.

Laser Maze by Melissa de Leon Mason (left) is a modernized play on a traditional Celtic knot quilt with the high contrasty of bright neons on charcoal gray. Geometric quilting in fluorescent thread emphasizes the lines of the design through their progression around the quilt.

Page Turner by Donna McLeod and quilted by Trace Creek Quilting depict the passage of time when immersed in a story with it's illustration of an upside-down book.

Trichotomy was a UOF for Barbara Oliver Hartman, before she decided to pick up the hand-dyed project years later. Thankfully, this beauty was completed for us to see!

LA Stripes by Claudia John Shearer is inspired by the scenery, colors and light of Los Angeles. Freehand cut strips give a sense of movement and energy.

Out of the Dark by Robert Bosscher (left) represents the seemingly endless, enveloping darkness of depression, with its deceptive, negative self-perceptions and depletion of self-worth in contrast to the light and restorative worth people reaching out restore to those suffering from the pain and sadness. Robert shared a quote from My Brilliant Image by Hafez, 

"I wish I could show you, 

When your are lonely or in darkness, 

The Astonishing Light of your own Being!'

Leaves of Grass (right) by Heather Pregger is inspired by golden green salt marshes that represent the termination of summer in of Massachusetts.

Patti Coppock Bucklin improvised the design of Where She Stops, Nobody Knows. The first few blocks formed a curve that she continued to form a circle. Scraps were used to accentuate her favorite cinnamon-colored fabric, while appliqué circles give movement.

Broken Bonds by Amelia Harveycutter features brightly colored, disintegrating outlines of Sawtooth Stars over a black background.

Highlights from the 2024 Quilt Festival Part 1

Truly Madly deeply was meticulously pieced, appliquéd, and freehand quilted by Karen Lambdin using the Whig's Defeat pattern from Quilts With a Spin (affiliate link) by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins. 

She added special touches including a scalloped edge and beaded piping. For details on this technique, check out Bethanne Nemesh's All the Devilish Details class.

Silk and Soul by Karen Lambdin features a plethora of techniques including but not limited to shadow trapunto, painting, vintage pieces, paper piecing, and yo-yos.

Karen created her own blocks from silk with inspiration from Cinzia White's The Storyteller Sampler (affiliate link). She added personal touches, such as her favorite hobby (kayaking) and her pets.

Longstanding quilt artist, Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry explored symmetrical spirals in Electric Snails #2. Sketched as a line drawing in Corel Draw, printed on fabric using Spoonflower, employing transparent elements, and quilted with assorted colors of thread and designs, this piece shows Caryl's signature style.

MJ Kinman uses a paraiba tourmaline to represent earth, and a black diamond to represent the climate crisis, in Eclipse 2020, which was created for eQuilter.com's For the Love of Gaia exhibit. 

I had the pleasure of attending MJ's "My Quilting Odyssey" lecture during the Festival. She explained how Interaction of Color (affiliate link) by Josef Albers influences her work.

FYI: June 2024

I hope your introduction to summer has been a good one. My kids just wrapped up school, and will be starting up summer sports and programs before long. I'm also going be starting a fun project with Fat Quarter Shop. Lori Holt has designed an adorable scarecrow quilt that I'll be piecing from assorted batik fabrics. The year-long Quilted Scarecrow Sew Along begins June 9 with the first "Scarecrow Sunday". 

Check out the blocks being made and share your progress with the #QuiltedScarecrowQAL hashtag. To participate, you need the pattern (available as a paper copy or a downloadable, but not tangible, pdf) and fabrics of your choice. There's a kit from Lori Holt's Autumn fabrics available for those who want to simplify the selection of fabrics. I also think Quiet Grace fabrics by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass would be very well-suited to this pattern.

For cross stitchers, there is a stitch along you can follow or join  (#TheQuiltedScarecrowSAL) complete with pattern (pdf or paper) and kit.

Angela Walters is starting a new quilt along. She's an excellent resource for all things free-motion.

Fellow US women, don't forget to celebrate 104 years of being allowed to vote by going out and making your choices for primaries. Review your candidates at https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote.

For those who are even more local to me (or fancy yourself a visit to the southwest), the Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild is hosting the de-accumulation event of the season (or if we're being honest, it typical results in the opposite).

If you have you or your kiddos just scored all A's and have a Boba Tea near you (a rare combination---to be sure), check out the 2B Smart reward program.

My sewing machine case was on its last leg and needed replaced, and even though I'd adore a Tula Tutto, I went for a low-budget option from Harbor Freight. Don't forget to look for quilting supplies in unconventional locations. I also sighted this rotating mat at Tandy Leather.

FYI: May 2024

Piecing the Past Quilts is hosting "Rest & Refreshing," a free block of the month program. Sign up now.