A Few Challenges
Gee's
Bend Comes to Town
With four unfinished samples from my Art
Quilt class, I began to realise the extent of my UFO collection and felt rather keen to do something about it. Thankfully
I’d started keeping a UFO List way back in January 1997. Every year from them on (with only a few
exceptions!), I had made a New Year’s UFO List.
Somehow 2008 became my year of retribution & shame given the large
numbers of bits & pieces languishing in my stash. However, the year got away from me before I
could put salve on that distress; though not before stepping out to the Gee's
Bend Quilt Exhibition (31 Oct- 2 Nov 08) – sorry no photos allowed – and
participating in a group cot quilt for one of our friends.
I wasn't quite as excited about the Gee's Bend Quilts as I imagined I would be. I think this was in part due to the venue not showing the quilts to their best advantage. It was crowded and the lighting poor. Having recently read Nancy Crow's account of her first experience with these quilts (in "Crossroads"), I can better understand the excitement they generated in the quilting community. (By the way, her Artist's Statement is worth reading too!)
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| Find this catalogue here |
Out of interest, here's a couple of links to Pinterest sites so that you can enjoy the eye candy of:
During our November meeting, we were Stash
Challenged by one of the group (who shall remain nameless – and it wasn’t me) with
some real uglies. But I guess that’s
what makes it challenging! My
“challenge” pieces sat for a while in the bottom of my garden shed but
eventually another challenge for Australia Day 2013 saw them rise to the
fore. They thus became the basis for my
“Apron Quilt”, a submission for the Café Exhibition in December 2012 and
subsequent "silent auction" during our Quilt Show, Australia Day 2013. It was a nice little earner for our cause and
went to a good home off-island. You see,
all good things come to pass….
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| Front view |
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| Quilting close-up |
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| Back view |
The idea behind this quilt is that even when "relaxing" with my sewing machine, family duties, especially feeding the masses, is not far from my thoughts. So rather than quilt the apron in a traditional fashion, I wrote a menu of family favourites (with my trusty machine). I finished it off with tape measure ties - a subtle reminder that there's a need to watch the kilos. Too much eating, sewing and sitting can be dangerous. This was really a rather fun exercise (if you'll excuse the pun!).
