Gee's Bend Challenge--The Big Reveal!

Today was the first day of the London Friendship Quilters' Guild "Harvest of Quilts" show. I volunteered in the morning at the raffle table with Christine. At lunch time, we went out for lunch with the group involved in the Gee's Bend Challenge and everyone got to show off their projects. Others in the restaurant were also admiring our handiwork!

For most of us, this project took us way outside our normal comfort zones.

Everyone used fabric from our stashes--often the fabric was something we would not something we would normally use in our quilting projects. The back of this quilt was as interesting as the front!

My quilt was made mostly of denim and corduroy leftover from shortening jeans and cords. The pocket is from an old pair of jeans that my daughter wore at one time.

The binding was made by wrapping the backing fabric around to the front of the quilt and sewing it down. The corners were not mitered!

Lots of wild fabrics in different combinations were used in these projects.

Some of these fabrics were used to make boxer shorts for this quilter's sons!

This was a fun challenge and we have decided explore the possibility of doing another challenge soon!

The bonus of this project was getting to see everyone again and going out for lunch. It was a great opportunity to get caught up with the latest news!

Ready for the Quilt Show

I spent most of the afternoon making labels and sewing them on the last few quilts for the quilt show. Finally, they are all ready to go! 

I have spent time over the last few days working on my nieces' flannel disappearing 9 patch quilts. Here is a sneak peak at one of the quilts, without all the blocks sew together yet:

The other one is still waiting for me to sew  the blocks back together after cutting the 9 patches into 4 pieces.

These are Christmas gifts --I am hoping to have them done early as I have some other gifts that I am working on as well.

I also finished off my Gee's Bend Challenge today as well.  We are getting together later this week to reveal our projects. I will post a picture after the big reveal.

Finally working on the borders!

Christine and I got together today and spent a few hours cutting out the pieces for the borders of our Carolina Christmas quilts. Neither one of us have our blocks sewn to each other yet so that will be our homework this week. I have started to sew some of my blocks together and will post a picture when I get it done.

Here are my pieces:
And here are Christine's:


I made another selvage sewing stool--this time in fall colours. I ran out of staples before finishing off the corners so they will look better when the corners are pulled tight and stapled.
Erin at My Patchwork Life asked for a sneak peak at my Gee's Bend Challenge quilt. I have finished hand piecing the flimsy--it is just a small wall hanging. Now, I am working on the hand quilting. I must tell you that it is very difficult to hand quilt corduroy and denim!
Bye for now!

More Homework...

I hope everyone had a good long weekend! My husband and I got our daughter off to university on Friday and then spent the weekend doing odd jobs (gardening, grass cutting, caulking windows, etc) here and at his parents' house (trimming trees and bushes, installing a small decorative fence, installing a small patio for their garden bench, replacing electrical outlets and switches, fixing a leaky faucet, installing a new light fixture (partly, anyway!), etc.) Much was accomplished and my in-laws were pleased to have all those tasks off of their list of things to do.
It's warm and windy here today. I went outside with my camera to check on what's in bloom. I noticed lots of beans, broccoli and peppers ready in the garden. I will have to go back out in a few minutes to do some harvesting! Anyway, our Sedum is out in bloom and this bee is enjoying the pink flowers.

This orange Mum plant is just about in bloom.
Our Rose of Sharon is also looking good!

Today, I worked on some more of my Carolina Christmas homework. I have the Fox and Geese blocks done. Now, I should get back out to the garden to do some harvesting before it starts to rain.

By the way, I did a little work on my Gee's Bend Challenge quilt on the weekend. It is all hand sewn and cut with scissors rather than a rotary cutter. So far, so good! I can't reveal my project until the group gets together to show their projects in October.

Gee's Bend Quilts

On Thursday, 7 of us met at the London Convention Centre to see a display of Gee's Bend Quilts. In this picture, we are standing in front of a quilt that was made from several types of materials including denim from old jeans, twill, corduroy, and cotton. Some of the denim pieces included the pockets!
(Yes! This pocket was upside-down on the quilt!)









This quilt is made of twill and denim strips. I learned in the lecture about the quilts and the quilters that they do not use rotary cutters--they just tear the fabric into strips and sew them together, usually by machine, and then quilt them by hand. Notice that the corners do not match.

This pattern is called "Housetop" and there were several quilts that showed variations on this pattern.This quilt is a variation of "Bricklayer".
This quilt was made from strips of corduroy and was hand quilted across the stripes. The Gee's Bend quilters use polyester batting to make their quilts puffy.

The binding was done without mitered corners and was often just fabric from the back of the quilt brought around to the front and sewn down at the front.
The quilters of Gee's bend could never be accused of being afraid of colour!

We stayed for lunch and then attended the lecture in the afternoon. As we were looking at the quilts, we decided to do a Gee's Bend challenge--each of us is going to make a wall-hanging in the tradition of Gee's Bend. In October, we will get together to do show and tell with our challenges and watch the DVD that one of us bought about the Gee's Bend quilters. I will have to let this percolate a while before I dive into this project.

I made two more liberated wedding ring blocks today. I will post a picture of my blocks later this week. Also, Christine and I are getting together this week to work on our Carolina Christmas quilts. Sounds like a fun and quilty week ahead!

Inspired to Start a New Project!

Yesterday, I went to see the Gee's Bend quilt exhibit at the London Convention Centre (London, Ontario, Canada) with a group of quilters. I will do another post later this weekend with pictures of the quilts I saw. As you know, I have been thinking about doing a selvage quilt for quite a while. I have quite a collection: I have made a couple of selvage projects including a post card and a sewing stool seat cover. Last Christmas, my husband gave me this book:
Today, after thinking about the quilts I saw yesterday, I took the book off my bookshelf and decided to make a liberated selvage quilt inspired by a quilt layout I saw at the quilt show yesterday. I used a muslin foundation for each quarter block. The block is my version of Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston's Liberated Wedding Ring block. Here is my first block.
When I showed my husband, he immediately told me that my selvages were not straight! He would have a hard time being a liberated quilter! I hope to make a few more blocks later this weekend. It is supposed to be very hot again which means it is good weather for staying inside my air conditioned house and sewing!