Quilty Pleasures: Our Lady of Guadalupita

I taught a class at ThreadBear a while back on improvisational medallion quilts. The three session class was designed to give everyone a start on the process, so I haven't seen their finished products.  Nonetheless, it was fun sewing along with the students so they could watch the process and get some ideas, with a few instructional stops along the way.

You may have seen the Lady of Guadalupe quilt I made after taking an epic class on Liberated Quilting hosted by quilting buddies Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran. (Click on the link above to get that story.)

Anyway, I still had some Our Lady panels in my stash (and have started another quilt that I hope to finish this winter), so that's where I started. Since this quilt was improvised, there was no clue what the finished product would look like, just starting in the center, working border by border.

Here's a look at the quilt. I built around the center, got bored with that and decided to add details at the top and the bottom.

Here's a close up of the different layers I added around the center panel. Because I wanted this quilt to be finished quickly, I made strategic use of interesting fabric rather than piecing each border. Freddy Moran, whose quilts have a plethora of fabric and color, likes black and white borders in a busy quilt so our eyes can stop and rest. For reference, the half square triangles are 1.5 inches finished. I'm not sure about the orange and rose fabric touching each other, but it's done and a small matter. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Look at the quilting Michael at ThreadBear did, the rose and leaf quilting pattern echoing both the roses in the red border and and the general flower motif I repeated throughout the quilt. Oops! Don't look at that stray white thread. Oh, you looked, didn't you?

Towards the top of the quilt is an arch of Gwen Marston's Liberated Stars. I made the stars first and worried they would get lost in the bold colors, but by placing them at the top,  they become a focus motif. Liberated stars are free pieced, no measuring the stars' points, so each one is different.

At the quilt's bottom, I used Gwen's Liberated Basket technique to make flower pots, the flowers from an old Kaffe Fasset fabric. Gwen has used these same pots in one of the Lady of Guadalupe quilts Freddy and Gwen made for their book Collaborative Quilting.

An aside: If you haven't seen Quiltfolk magazine, please do. This issue is about the Michigan quilt community and features an article about Gwen, my quilting hero and a national treasure.

The backing fabric is Alma y Corazon by Alexander Henry. Love his fabrics and am grateful for Ann at ThreadBear, who made a bee line to this exact fabric, knowing it would be perfect.

 As I was making the quilt, I thought about a student I taught in Corona whose mother had gifted me years ago with a beautiful white crocheted sweater and later, after I had retired to the mountains, sent me a cozy hat and scarf to ward off the cold. I've always been so grateful for these gifts because, well, it was a parent who wanted to show me I was valued, and her son Juan went on to become a teacher, too, which is even better. So I sent her the quilt, now named Our Lady of Guadalupita. The name? Guadalupita, NM is the closest village to our place so it makes perfect sense since that's where I made it.

It looks like Mrs. Rosa Salgado likes Our Lady of Guadalupita, so I am glad to have been able to make her just as happy as I was receiving her gifts of love.

Quilty Pleasures-Another Finish: Day of the Dead Quilt

Today is All Saints' Day in Western Catholic culture, and connected to this Catholic holy day is Dia de los Muertos which is a day (actually two days) to celebrate, pray for and remember our dearly departed: infants and children today and older family members tomorrow. 

 Families go to cemeteries and put food, toys and other memorabilia on their loved ones' graves. It isn't a morbid time, but time to acknowledge that death is part of the life cycle. The next day, All Souls' Day, is also part of Day of the Dead, so it's a two day celebration.

I love the way the natives in Mexico incorporated their own traditions into the Holy Days the Spanish Catholics were pushing onto them. It's a lot more fun than the basic European version, where we go to church and that's about it.

Why skeletons? Some folks think it's morbid, but those skeletons are the dead coming back to visit for a day with their families still on this mortal coil. They are not to be feared, but friendly family members. Halloween skeletons are scary; these skeletons are not!

The skeletons in my Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) quilt are happy, enjoying each others' company in several ways.

 Sorry, but Ms. Pearl didn't want to move.

The couple in the center of the quilt are flirting a bit, with an onlooker on the right peeking into the frame. The center fabric is Paseo de los Muertos by Alexander Henry. The cow skull fabric is from Luana Rubin's Enchanted Desert collection. I pieced the house roof from scraps.

The surrounding black fabric is another Alexander Henry called Fiesta de los Muertos. When I see this fabric I think of my mom and dad in heaven having a great time. 

I have always been a piecer and much less a quilter, but I am learning a little at a time. Below is a detail of my novice quilting and of a liberated star. I love liberated stars!

So that quilt is almost totally finally finished. I have a lumpy spot in the binding, so will be redoing it to lay flatter. But really, it's done and I am hanging it today to remember my mom and dad on this Day of the Dead.

Stars in My Eyes-Quilty Pleasures Wednesday

I love scrappy stars: liberated, non-liberated, wonky, precise and any other way they might be aligned. I've made stars as parts for a quilt.

But I've never made an entire star quilt. I've been anguishing over starry quilts for a while now, an angst that began when I learned how to make liberated stars, Gwen Marston style.

Then I saw this post today and it just makes me want stars even more.  Is there a Southwest Scrappy Star quilt sometime in my future? But when? So many ideas, I am overwhelmed!

I want to send out an "Hola, chica," to Jodi at the Pleasant Home Blog, who got my mind churning on the stars idea again. I love her blog because the photos are delicious, inspiring, and she has some awesome tutorials.  She's what I would like to be when I grow up!