Boro Inspired ~

 What fun!  Started in February, 2021, in the virtual QuiltCon workshop presented by Blair Stocker of Wise Craft Handmade - Boro Inspired! A patchwork quilt with lots of hand stitching.  

Derived from the Japanese boroboro, meaning something tattered or repaired, boro refers to the practice of reworking and repairing textiles (often clothes or bedding) through piecing, patching and stitching, in order to extend their use.

I cut into a thrift shop linen blouse.....a slither of a t-shirt.....a feed sack....an aqua linen skirt plus one of my cut apart acid green floral silk skirts to add just the right patches stitched down, adorned and quilted using multiple stitches to maintain stability for continued use of this quilt.  

This is a must-do-again way to design and finish a quilt:  inspired by Japanese patchwork.

Inspired by the quilts out of India

 I was so intrigued with the display of Kawandi (quilts)  made by the Siddi quilters of India way so long ago (it seems) while at QuiltCon in Savannah.  Was that 2017????  While at home all these months now, I've been stalking some of those Siddi quilters and finally had an opportunity to participate in Sujata Shah's workshop this weekend past.  What  a great zoom treat.  Sujata is also known as The Root Connection if you'd like to be inspired by her quilting style.  

My kawandi finishes at 15" x 23".  It was a new way to use fabric from the scrap heap.  

From the beginning.....start with a thin backing fabric and a thin batting cut 1" smaller than the backing.  Fold backing over and baste in place all around the quilt.  Begin layering fabric and stitching from the outside edges of the quilt.  Now that's a new twist!  Stitching continues and layers are added round and round in concentric circles to the finish in or near the center of the quilt.   

The Phula (flower) adorns the four corners.  It's a traditional adornment and  the quilters of Siddi feel their quilts are not finished until the decoration is added.   I agree. That little flower in each corner just makes me smile.  

It was a great zoom workshop with 30 participants from around the US and into Great Britain    Just two little glitches which took away from my personal pleasure - one participant felt it was perfectly all right to interject her political viewpoint.  I was dismayed that she wasn't immediately muted.  Another participate dominated a goodly few minutes sobbing over the loss of her parents and how uncomfortable she was cutting into their clothing to make memory quilts.  I felt her pain but did not feel this was the best venue to elicit sympathy.  Both the politics and sobbing incidents diminished  my $50 value of the workshop.  Just saying ~ 

In a hurry.....gotta get on the road ~

I'm off first thing this morning for a weekend filled with Sherri Lynn Wood workshops.  It's going to be all about patchwork  doodling along with some courageous and outrageous curved piecing in two six hour whirlwind days in Lafayette, Louisiana.   My bags are packed and all the sewing gear is  ready to roll with me. 

But first a hint of what it's all about.   Here's my first 'floating square' block and finished improv patchwork quilt made several years ago using Sherri Lynn's book  The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters as inspiration and guidance.    Get fabric, cut a square and let one thing lead itself into the next. 

Sew, I'll see you on the other side of the weekend with more pictures of how  Sherri Lynn and I figure it out!  Improv patchwork, now that's a cat's meow. 

Huff Puff Guild Stuff ~

It's been a week for helping to take care of quilt guild business.  Whew!  What a relief to have some of that behind us.  Now to get on with getting a mind grip, realizing that some things we say in haste aren't meant to be hurtful.  Could it be that we need each other as sounding boards? 

Don't we all think of ourselves as very important people with very important things to be said and to be heard?  If we don't, then we should.  Oftentimes, the more urgent the message, the louder it becomes.  It might be one of those 'can you hear me now' moments.  When all is said and done and sorted out, it's a wonderful thing to know that the group is one that forgives.   Whether we agree or not in any given conversation, we know we are in a group who has the guild's best interest and well-being at heart.  It's huff, puff, guild stuff.

And, I continue waxing fabric in preparation for being a part of the July 6-10, 2020 Featherweight Retreat at Gray Center.     This jubilant double gauze just begged to be waxed for food wraps.  Two colorways....two sizes. 

Continuing in my search to rethink the recycle possibilities ~  When I received my  new shoes this week, they were stuffed with the best tissue paper just begging to be waxed.  Yes, we can recycle - one tissue at a time.  I'll be using my waxed paper as food wraps just as I would waxed fabric to wrap cheese, bread, fruit and raw veggies for preservation in the fridge instead of using plastic! 

Smile with me and enjoy your day.

Sunday in September #4

Being silent isn't a bad thing.  Being quiet doesn't mean one doesn't exist....it just means other things are going on.  Doctor visits, trip to Books a Million (old school habits require refrigerator calendar to get in touch with self every day),  successfully prepping a casserole for guild luncheon yummmm.     You know, the hum-drum 'busy' time in and out of the house.

But it's now 'fess time in very loud voice - I've finished hand quilting my project for a December showing.  Because of it's vintage style, I chose to finish it with facing rather than binding.  The hanging sleeve is absolutely attached and now there is plenty of time to get that label on.  Yea for being silent long enough to get this job done.

It's made with fabric salvaged from old shirts in the style my grandmother might have gathered and pieced.   This particular quilt design was inspired from quilt shown on page 51 in Roderick Kiracofe's Unconventional & Unexpected....American Quilts Below the Radar.

Hand quilted in Baptist Fan pattern with #12 Perle cotton thread

Continuing in loud voice - I've just finished constructing 75 little pouches to hold beeswax pellets for the July 6-10, 2020 retreat in Canton, Mississippi -The Gray Center. 

Oh, am I excited to be a part of the Nova Montgomery Featherweight week!  There will be 60+ attendees, each going through an intensive day of cleaning their coveted Singer Featherweights.  In their spare time,  Gray Center host, Anne Robertson, has elicited others to share what they do.  That's where I come in.  I've been invited to share the how to's of waxing fabric and what I do with waxed fabric....linen, silk, wool and canvas.   I'll be surrounded by lots of talented ladies and gents and am looking forward to this beautifully planned retreat.  Stay tuned for scheduling and details and keep an eye on the Gray Center events page.

Yes, I've been silent for too long.  Quiet doesn't become me when I have so much to share.  I'm so excited, I could scream.

Post Gees Bend Quilters' Retreat - blues

I've just returned from a most delicious and delightful retreat....with the quilters' of Gees Bend from, Boykin, Alabama - Mary Anne Pettway and China Pettway.     There were 36 of us eager-to-enjoy members in the group - all corralled by Anne, our beautiful Gray Center Retreat host.  Yes, you guessed it.  We had a rip-roaring good time.  It was a four day blast of energy and creativity rejuvenation.  And the food was from the gods! 

We came from California and New York and points in between to share ideas and fabric, love and laughter while Mary Ann and China mentored each of us in our quilting patchworks in progress and lifted us up with their soul-filled music. 

From start to finish:  Was it only 2016? that a group of us bussed to Gees' Bend, Alabama.  While there, Mary Ann was working on a little patch and I came home with it....signed, of course, by it's maker, Mary Ann Pettway.

I had the foresight to take the patch back with me last week and had Mary Ann add the final border and add the current date.  I hand quilted it and added binding this week for a finished momenta of the beauty of  a glorious time with queens of improv patchwork. 

This pink and lime predominately thrift store linens, started while at the retreat and the patchwork pieced borders were added this week after I got back home.    I think I'll call it a "running with lemon grass."  It's filled with the lime and lemon colors of citrus. 

and other snapshots while at Gray Center, Canton, Mississippi.

Sisson wears his patchwork!

then it was breakfast and goodbye until we meet again ~

China Pettway following Mary Ann Pettway as they leave
Gees Bend Quilting Retreat

But I'm not a pink person!

And I never said you were!  However, often times pink is just the right flair, especially in quilt making. 

I had the most fun opportunity to teach two improvisational patchwork piecing workshops for Red River Quilters in Shreveport this past weekend.  I took a lot of my scraps for the workshop participants to enjoy and while auditioning different fabric possibilities in an improv patchwork manner, one particular fabric was rejected because "I'm not a pink person!"  And I'm not green either!! BUT, what if green was never incorporated into my quilts.  Just imagine a landscape quilt without green. 

When life gives me a challenge.....still reflecting on rejects and discards without a fair chance, I decided to improv to the pink to see where this one went.  Here is my first fabric selection with that very focal lush pink flower added to the improv 9-patch. 

Yes, you're seeing right.....red and blue, black and PINK in this totally improvisational 9-patch

Next step was to slice and dice and add more fabric....the aqua and the little patched slice using aqua and red, yellow and pink.  This one is beginning to come to life. 

Challenging self, more pinks were added and not necessarily the same shade of pink....or black.... or yellow and blue that's already in the patchwork.  Oh, my! 

and so it's full grown.....30" x 36" basted and ready for quilting.  Yeah, Baby....we are in the pink.