Happy Halloween!

Playing Catch Up Part 2

Back to the sewing room this week to try to get caught up on the other Block of the Month, the Kansas City Star’s Women of Influence quilt. Did manage to get blocks 6, 7, 8 and 9 done. Will work on block 10 and hopefully have it finished in time for the next block to come out, third Sunday in November.

Block 6, Love Apple, honors Elizabeth Cady Stanton who was a significant part of the suffrage movement.

Block 7, Log Cabin, honors rights advocate and abolitionist Sojourner Truth.

Block 8 is called Tulip and was designed to honor Lucretia Mott who was an activist for abolition and suffrage.

And Block 9, called Whirlwind, pays tribute to Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet.

So enjoying the women’s history that is being intertwined with these blocks! Anxious to get the measurements for the Flying Geese borders for the blocks which will form a secondary pattern when the blocks are put together. Even though many of the blocks are very simple, I think this bordering of the blocks is just going to make the quilt.

A little daydreaming going on too! In the new magazine I picked up the other day, More Fast & Fabulous Quilting Ideas, I fell in love with this adorable purse. I mean really, can you have too many pockets??

May be time to dig through the autumn or Christmas fabrics…

Playing Catch Up

As I attempt to get back into quilting, I am reminded why I LOVE this block of the month so much! It is the Tisket Tasket series from Anne at Bunny Hill (see sidebar). Each month’s design is even cuter than the one before. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

I’ve been trying to hang out a little more in my neglected sewing room and this was the first project I ran to. I was four months behind so this week has been filled with tracing patterns onto fusible web, cutting and ironing.

Lighting is pretty poor there this morning due to overcast skies and just generally crappy illumination!!! Trying to improve the photo with a photo-editing program was no help! But here are the July, August, September and October blocks all fused. Now to add the machine blanketstitch, hand embroidery and some button embellishments and they should be ready to join the party!

Two more months of blocks to go—can’t wait!

Off to fight the rain and get a haircut.

Tiptoeing Back In…

It has been said that life is what happens when you’re making plans. Oh, boy, so true. Thanks to the readers who expressed concern. I am trying to get “on with it” so thought I would start back into blogging with a post about those wonderful Gee’s Bend quilters. In case you haven’t heard their story, there are wonderful posts on the internet. Here’s just one: http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/history/

Last Sunday DH and I traveled about an hour and a half to a charming small town, Marshall, MO, to a quilt show where the Gee’s Bend quilts were being featured. Three of the quilters were there in person, along with about 15 of the quilts.

It’s hard to look at these works of art and not reflect on the influence they’ve had on today’s “modern” quilts—whether intentional or not. I see so many designs on the internet and in books that could easily have been in the Gee’s Bend collection. Here are some I was privileged to see.

Their appeal to me is in the functionality and utility. It was so fun to see how they were able to incorporate scraps and pieces of fabric in comforts for their families. Nothing appeared to be off limits—leftover corduroy from a Sears plant, husbands’ work shirts snippets, whatever they could get their hands on! To the uninformed, these quilts might not be appreciated. To me, they are what quilting is all about. They are expressive works of art with a very necessary purpose.

If I have not commented on your blog in a long spell, please forgive me. I will try to do more of that!