"Hourglass"

I finally finished this top, after starting it last summer and putting it away for awhile.

"Hourglass"  (aka Courthouse Steps) 64" x  78"

Made from shirt scraps and vintage fabrics.

It's my rendition of this quilt from Roderick Kiracofe's collection.  

Photo courtesy of Roderick Kiracofe

"Housetop, variation" c. 1950-1975, African American

From the book, "Quilts" by Roderick Kiracofe.

  

I'm not sure how I'll quilt it.  I'm thinking about lots of red ties. 

Whatever I do, it'll be awhile before my hands are free.  

They're occupied with this one for the next six weeks.  

It's got a date with the local quilt show in March!

Exciting New Book!

I can hardly wait for this book to be released on September 9!

Unconventional and Unexpected--American Quilts Below the Radar 

features about 150 quirky utilitarian quilts from Roderick Kiracofe's extensive collection

plus other quilts he borrowed for the book.   All were made between 1950 and 2000.

AND

It includes essays on art and quilts by big names in the art and quilt worlds.  

Kaffee Fassett and Denyse Schmidt are just two of the names I remember him mentioning. 

Here's Roderick Kiracofe, the author, and the nicest man you could ever meet. 

I got to have tea and pie with him recently in his home town, San Francisco.  

He's also written major quilt history classics that most of us have in our libraries:  

The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950, 

Cloth & Comfort: Pieces of Women's Lives from Their Quilts and Diaries, 

Going West!: Quilts and Community

Although he encourages us to support our local book sellers, Amazon has the book on pre-order here.  

I've ordered mine.  Like I said, I can't wait!

Gwen Marston on Lopez Island

I've just returned from four days with Gwen Marston and friends on Lopez Island, Washington.

This was one of several workshops I've taken from her.  

She never fails to be witty, good natured, helpful, talented and SO much fun.  

This retreat was all about making medallion quilts.
Here's Gwen with the flimsy I made during the first two days.

This is the start of one I worked on the last two days.

Photo by Sharon Risedorph, shown with permission from Roderick Kiracofe.

The inspiration is this quilt in Roderick Kiracofe's book, QUILTS, at Blurb.com.

It's made between 1950-1975 in New Orleans by an African American quilt maker.

  

Here's Gwen showing the book, while everyone took notes about how to order it.

If you like quirky quilts like I do, you're going to want this book!

The retreat took place at this historic one room school house, set in an idyllic field. 

One day, I heard a "baa" and looked out the door to find a herd of sheep passing by!  

If you look closely, you can see a black border collie working the herd.

Our hosts were two lovely women who did everything to make sure we were all relaxed and happy.  

One has a great little quilt shop on the island.  Isn't this a fun sign?

Each day started and ended with a ferry ride from and to a friend's place on a nearby island.

And a drive past driftwood sculpture.

One morning I spotted these deer outside my bedroom window.

The last night, we all made a scarecrow for our friend's garden.  

Ah, the island life!

Sharon and Anita were also at the retreat.  It was a real treat to sew with them.  

Check their posts for photos of the participants' quilts and thoughts from Gwen.  

Two Great Quilt Shows

I saw two great quilt shows in the San Francisco area recently

featuring my favorite kind of quirky quilts!

The first was an exhibit curated by Roderick Kiracofe 

at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.

This was the entry, all sweet old quilt tops hung on clothespins.

Here are some of my favorites quilts, many are from Roderick's collection.

You'll recognize some of them from his wonderful book, 

Unconventional & Unexpected: Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000.

It was thrilling to see them up close!

Dots and stripes!

All made of hat bands.

This one was particularly intriguing.  

All the pieces were sewn on only three sides!

Hmm, little pockets?

He also incorporated some newer quilts.

By Sarah Nishiura

By Joe Cunningham.

I got to visit with Roderick and have him sign my book!

If you'd like a signed copy, you can purchase it here.

The next exhibit featured quilts from Eli Leon's collection

at the Oakland Museum of California.

Here are a few highlights. 

By Rosie Lee Tompkins

By Rosie Lee Tompkins

By Angie Tobias

By Mattie Pickett

Love that pink binding!

By Sherry Byrd

By Mattie Pickett

My favorite of all!

Lattice Quilt Top

Some quilts take many inspirations to find their way.  

This is one of those.   

It started with this floral and gingham yucata cotton, 

a gift from Patricia at Okan Arts, a few years ago.

I was new to using neutrals (still am), and felt very challenged by the prospect (still do.)

I pulled coordinating fabrics from my stash, and the red hopped in unexpectedly.

I was captivated by the Lattice Quilt in Sujata Shah's book,

Cultural Fusion Quilts, page 55, and wanted to make it.

I made a bunch of "Free-form Blocks" and took them to Sisters, Oregon, 

for a class with her in the summer of 2017.

Sujata very sweetly helped me lay out the design in class.  

I loved it, packed it up, brought it home unsewn, put it on my UFO shelf,  

and forgot about it.

Lattice Quilt 64" x 64"

Then, Sujata got us going with the UandU Quilt Along at Basket Full of Scraps.  

I looked through the book, Unconventional and Unexpected by Roderick Kiracofe,

for the upteenth time, and saw his Lattice Quilt on page 34.

It jogged my memory of the unsewn quilt blocks from Sujata's class.

 A few tweeks and a few hours later, the quilt top was done!

Many thanks to Patricia, Sujata and Roderick for your inspiration.

Falling in Love

I'm thick into the process of quilting this this top, 

inspired by a wonderful quilt in Roderick Kiracofe's new book, 

Unconventional and Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000.

I usually approach machine quilting with a "grin and bear it" attitude.

 "Just do it."  It'll feel good to have it done.    

I decided to stitch in the ditch, "every stinkin' seam," as Cindy Needham

teaches in her excellent Craftsy class.

So, I was going along, a few minutes or an hour at a time, trying not to rush myself.

Noticing my stitches weren't perfect, and forgiving myself for that.

Stitching, stitching, more stitching...

And then I started to fall in love. 

 Slowly stitching around every piece brought the stories to mind.

Oh, there's that red flower that T gave me from her mother's stash.  How sweet.

I love it next to the gingham I bought in Norway!

And there's that piece of men's shorts I bought at Goodwill with S.  That was a fun trip!

And the men's shirts that M and I have shared across the globe. 

Oh, and the golfer shirts that T sent from Florida.

There's a tiny sliver of red and white.  How'd that get in there?

Did I really put a scrap of bark cloth in this?   I like it!

Now I really don't care how the quilt looks overall.  

It's the stories, the connections to sweet friends, 

the memories of the design process that matter.  

I'm sure we've all experienced this.  

It's one of the greatest joys of quilt-making--

working closely with our fabrics and remembering the stories behind them.  

Wishing you finishes and love this season!