Quilty Pleasures-A House of Quilts

I'm wrapping up a stay in SoCal where sis-in-law Pattie has played hostess to me for almost a week. Besides being an accomplished cook (with 5 kids, it was a matter of survival), she has been a quilter since 1975. Her first quilts were made with templates, scissors, needle and thread, and that's it.

Pattie has made many amazing quilts and the house is her own personal quilt museum. It's not a "don't touch" place, though, and these quilts are used, loved, washed, and used again. I went around and took some snaps. These are just a drop in the bucket, though, because I suspect she has plenty more in storage, ready for some more lovin'.

Quilts are on the walls:

Sunflower

An Alex Anderson Pattern and Pattie doesn't know what it's called

On the furniture:

Double Irish Chain, machine sewn, hand quilted

Log Cabin, hand quilted in concentric circles

Postage Stamp Baskets, machine pieced and quilted

Red and White Toile

30's hand pieced, machine quilted star quilt

 

 

Left: Sampler Quilt made of Civil War fabrics Right: 1920's top found in Leadville, Co, quilted recently by the person who found it.

And, of course, on the bed:

Another Double Irish Chain, machine pieced and quilted, originally to be a table cloth. Folded on top is Pattie's Unplanned Community quilt

Even on the ottoman:

Mariner's Compass

It's am impressive body of work, don't you think?

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday-Unplanned Community, A Freddy and Gwen Inspired Quilt

Today it's a guest post by sis-in-law Pattie, quilter extraordinaire, the person who inspired me to start quilting. A couple years ago we went to an Empty Spools Seminar at Asilomar, California, for a class with Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran.  I'll let Pattie tell you the rest of the story:

 This quilt is a product of a Gwen Marston-Freddy Moran collaborative quilting class I took 2 1/2 years ago.  My quilting history has always been as a traditional and conventional "interpreter" of quilt design...i.e. I just copied a pattern and added my own fabrics, usually civil war or other 1800 repos.

Taking a Marston-Moran liberated quilting class was a huge step out of the box for me, so huge, it took me 2 years to complete the project.  Deciding on what 'parts' to use and how to arrange them without any absolute design threw me into creative anarchy: Anything goes....nothing is wrong...everything matches...there are no wrong choices....all colors and fabrics go together...the more the merrier.  There was only one rule: use some black and white to rest the eye once in a while.

In truth, I didn't feel very "liberated."  I felt like I had to make decisions based on my preference,  but what was my preference?  How do you build a quilt without dictated shapes, sizes, borders, measurements?

I had a plethora of block designs from Freddy and Gwen to choose from...houses, wonky stars, trees, pinwheels, four patches and even some really cute chickens!   I loved them all!  No fabric was left out; everything went together!

 Each time I sat down to sew I experienced a mixture of frustration and angst combined with manic euphoria. Over the course of 2 years I tenaciously struggled with my new found "liberation" and finally completed my "Unplanned Community," called that because there are lots of houses:) and because the only 'rhyme or reason' was mine.

That's the back of the quilt