I should be getting ready for the lecture/trunk show I'm giving to my quilt guild on Wednesday, but instead I'm blogging about it. I needed a break after trying to figure out how to organize and condense everything from about 30 years of quilting.
First step was to haul out all those quilts that have been rolled up and piled in the closet since we moved here three years ago. This house is a lot smaller than the last one, so more quilts went in the closet and fewer went on the walls.
Do I dare show my very first quilt -- the king-size lumpy unfinished red and brown one above that I started around 1980? I had never even MET a quilter at that point, but I had been sewing clothes since I was 11 and decided to teach myself how to quilt from library books. I think I broke most of the rules of traditional quilt making.
Here's another traditional one, using the Friendship Stars block, that I made in the '90s after I had learned to quilt properly.
This sparkly wall quilt is one of my favorites because it always makes me smile. It's based on the picture below that my daughter made when she was 5. I call it "Julie's Happy Fish."
Here are some from the late '90s when I had started to paint most of my fabric, hence the softer color palette.
These are from the early 2000's (would that be '00s?). The top one is from my Hershey Kisses wrapper stage, when I collected all the colors and ate chocolate in the name of making art. The black one showing on the left is a piece I made in reaction to the 9-11 attacks.
I have more, but blogger isn't letting me upload them. Maybe it's a hint that I should get back to work! Wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be working on Labor Day ...
Have a colorful day
I spotted that so very traditional looking thing folded up on the shelf in the downstairs bathroom and decided not to ask about it. Have to say it is a better result than MY first quilt which was also a self-taught effort and barely lap-size. Cringing allowed! But I hope you include it in your trunk show. I included mine in one of my quilt lectures. I swear, quilters like to see anything quilty.
ReplyDeleteWow - What an array of wonderful pieces! I so enjoy seeing/hearing of people's progression with their art, and through life, in general. And what a go-getter you must be to bite off that huge, rather complicated-looking (to me, at least) quilt as your first attempt. I do hope you shared that at your trunk show as I'm sure others will find your progression interesting, also.
ReplyDelete