Liberated Medallions- International Exchange

One of the pleasures of attending BIQR is meeting people from all over our country and from other countries, too.  Last year two lovely ladies, Joes and Isabeau,  from the Netherlands, attended.  They brought with them a little surprise for each of us.

front

back

These little dolls are made in one part of the Netherlands where wearing the traditional dress is still an everyday custom.   As clothing wears out, some of it is recycled to make these little souvenir dolls.  (The orange dress is worn on National Holidays, while blues, blacks, and other colors are worn on other days.)

On the last day of that retreat (the theme was "small studies") I made a block of 0.25 inch squares and bordered it with some bright solids. I decided to surprise Joes and Isabeau, extending a hand in friendship on behalf of all of the American retreaters there, by giving them some "homework" in preparation for the medallion quilt retreat the following year (;-).  I asked them to take this center and have some of their friends in the Netherlands add to it as a kind of distant participation in making a medallion quilt that originated at BIQR.   They did so (probably twisting a few arms in the process) and brought back this wonderful rendition.  Many thanks to Joes, Isabeau, Ans, Lucy, and Ellen.

close up of the original center(3"x3.5") and three "rounds"

Medallion made by our friends in the Netherlands (24"x24")

At the end of this year's retreat, Isabeau presented me with a center to continue the process. (What goes around comes around - and I gave her permission to do so!)

(6"x6")

 I am looking forward to passing this along to the women who have volunteered to grow this quilt.  We will give it back to Isabeau and Joes next year.

Liberated Medallions 2

For my liberated medallion project (at the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen Marston), I chose to challenge myself with solids.  I have not used solid fabrics often and wanted to begin feeling more comfortable using them.

Here are my two efforts:
Number 1

30" x 30"

I made the center prior to the retreat.  I showed it to you in this post.  I added a few more skinny strips to the original block.   I also had to resort to using marbles, because I ran out of truly solid grays.

Number 2

Here the challenge was to use a HUGE (for me) center block (the ochre center) and go from there.  I had several consults with Gwen during the process, trying to find a focus for what I was doing. First I thought I'd try for harmonious colors and found myself back to using relatively skinny strips.  So I started focusing on shapes.   It took a lot of effort to insert fabric wider than 1.5 inches and make it interesting!   The little inserts and color changes (not clearly visible here) help.  The renegade red square was suggested by Elisa, one of my buddies at BIQR.

Gwen said "working big is not easy".   She is right.

20.5" x 20.5"

Going forward, I'll be doing more solids work!

Liberated Medallions 1

Liberated Medallions was the topic for Gwen Marston's 2012 Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.
One of the neat things about this style is that there is no formula. These quilts are built one row at a time.  The resulting quilts were as varied as the attendees.  I did not get capture photos of all the quilts, but I'll show you some I did get. I apologize in advance for any blurriness.  These were taken during the last day's show and tell.  There was hardly time to photograph or get close enough for a good shot- hence the angles.  Enjoy the show. (These are from the 5th week of the retreat.)

Sally's Zebras

Jean's Parrot Tulip

Sylvia's Blue on Black

Denise's Baskets

Charlotte's "Spot"

Sue's Portrait

Elisa's Lady of Guadalupe

Kyra's  Framed Applique

Sue's Kaffe Medallion

Pat's Cherrywood Beauty

Karin's  curious Kitty (made from floor scraps)

Close up of Karin's Kitty

P is for...

Progress # 1

The wedding quilt top is coming along.  I've made three more "blocks" since my last post.  Five more to go and I should be able to start cobbling this baby together.  As I begin to see the end of the project, I have to remind myself that no matter what... it will take time.  The last laps seem to take the longest;  I've never run track, but I imagine that it sometimes feels that way.

(Teotihuacan- Pyramid of the Sun)

mosaics - note the diamond

Progress #2


The triangles galore quilt now numbers 21 bocks.  I'm shooting for 35! I'm gonna run out of room on the design wall.

Parts


Quilt "parts" are one of the ideas that Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran have advocated in their books, Collaborative Quilting and Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again.  They found that making basic pieces such as HST's or nine patches, or piano keys, or spikes, in advance of their meetings made the designing process a lot more efficient. Each of them put together a stash of parts using their scraps and with no set quilt pattern in mind.

I've been making parts, too. I have no set plans for them, but I know I'll use them somehow, someday.    I always sew together HST's of the cut off triangles from the corners of flying geese or snowballs (even if they are tiny).  I sew together elongated triangles left over from the Triangle Galore project which will make skinny spikes or divided rectangles. I sew these pieces together in the Leader and Ender style of Bonnie Hunter... I have a stash of pieces by my sewing machine.  As I start a series of sewing, I will begin the process with one set of the parts and then when I come to the end of the project, I'll sew another together.  These leaders and enders take the place of the bit of scrap that is often used at the start of a seam so that fabric and thread don't make an annoying birds nest or jam into the "hole" in the machine.  (Sometimes I forget which project I am really working on and end up sewing several parts in a row before I remember they are supposed to be the leader and ender.  LOL)   Here's just a wee handful of my parts.  Those HST's measure 1.75 inches square.

Play


The Bloggers BOM for this month was designed by Amy of Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts.
These are my four blocks.

The New'Bee made-fabric bee over on 15minutes play.com... Beebee asked for this star of made fabric and a bright solid around it.  The solid fabric is really a lot brighter than it appears here.  My made fabric was made from tiny scraps, so there is lots of variety.

Parcel


Look what arrived in the mail all of 40 minutes ago!  Gwen's newest book!  Published by AQS.

It is FABULOUS.  No matter what your quilting style is -  modern, traditional, scrappy, applique, wonky, liberated, amish solids- there is something of interest in this book.   It holds lots of fun and inspiration and how-to hints!  Gwen shares the spotlight with a number of BIQR students.   I highly recommend this book.  I'm looking forward to taking a really good look at all the quilts.  I'm going to Gwen's retreat in October and Liberated Medallions is the focus.  So excited!