Baton Rouge Modern Guild Meeting

We shared some great quilts last night.  Not all were modern, but hopefully we are working on that.

One of my pet peeves is when there are more Traditional quilts at the meeting than there are Modern quilts.   There really needs to be a separation of modern and traditional, everything in its place.

When we started the Modern Guild we wanted to separate ourselves from traditional quilting found at the other 6 or so guilds in the area; we wanted a place for the Modern quilting ideas.

I happen to do quilting in both Modern and Traditional methods but share membership in both Modern and Traditional Guilds.  Sometimes the two lines cross, I do admit that.  And there are times when you can "modern up" a traditional pattern quite nicely.

It really concerns me that the Modern Guild is going to swing into the typical "Traditional with Some Modern Quilts" I see in all the other guilds now.

If the work that is being done by the members is anything indicative of the show and tell last night, this is exactly the way it is going.  And don't get me wrong, it was beautiful.  And most of the members share Modern roots with me and have done many Modern Quilts over the years  Perhaps there are new members who are unaware of what makes a Modern Quilt modern as opposed to traditional.  Maybe the answer is education.

I wonder how other modern guilds deal with this issue.

Anyone out there in a Modern Guild who has seen this phenomenon and worked through it?




I understand too, that the quilts themselves have changed over the few years Modern Quilting has been around and defined.  In the early days, it was easy to decide what was Modern and everything else was Traditional.

 But now there is no clear cut look to a Modern quilt. Right?

So how do we always know?  I guess we need to decide that through informative education and decision making.

And deciding what we are willing to look at as Modern, Traditional and Art Quilting.

Something to think about, since I personally saw both of these quilts at QuiltCon.

Dinner Party Means .......

........a lot of cooking and cleaning!  And what dinner party is not complete without those tiny little toast things with a creamy soft cheese dip for a starter?

The house is clean and I think I have all the groceries I need.  If not, there’s always the nearest store!

 The fish dishes were the only dinner party dishes that survived, so we have a "fish" theme I guess.





I have half the hexes for the bees made for Carrie’s Pinkie Girl Quilt.  I love those bees!  They are so awesome.  I want a whole quilt of bees!  They would have to be bigger though; these are like 3 inches.


DiNozzo and McGee are distraught tonight.  They have heard through the
grapevine and commercials that they are knocking Abby off tonight.  They have cleared their calendars to be totally available to watch the show and see that happens.

All ears, so to speak.


 I asked Frank to cut own my ligustrum poodle bush that lived right in front of  the window for the last 3 years.  It looked like the one to the left there.  But now it was blocking over the view.

Since the flood, we have made the rest of the house "modern" in style. So the patio is getting a modern makeover as well.

This is step one.  Bush gone.



Speaking of Modern.

Lori  and I did a presentation for the Modern Guild last night.   Lori and Barbara shared their judging sheets from the GSQA Show with the group.  Lori compared the way QuiltCon was judged compared to the GSQA shows, which are very traditional in nature.  She said that the Modern component of the GSQA Show was judged by Traditional Judges.

Hence the comments about clipped tips on HSTs and Flying Geese!  In the Modern world, that is not such a bad thing.  In the Traditional world, it is awful.

It was a very interesting discussion.  The Modern Quilting philosophy has not moved into all the areas of hardcore traditional quilting minds yet.

But it is moving forward into those areas at lightening speed!

Squares or Rounds?

I had to make a trip to the comic book store for some backer boards to put all this new fabric into the existing stash.  I won't tell you how many of the hundred or so backer boards I used.......yes, I still have some left over, thank you.

So to use up some of the fabric, I hit upon a great idea.  I have some orphan blocks that needed a home.  So I put together two quilts and used up 10 orphans and another one using a kit from the fabric haul. 

Here is the flannel quilt on the frame. 


I just quilted a quick meander so I was able to finish two quilts totally (even to the binding all done).  And one that I need to put on the frame tomorrow. 



This one is a set of strings that languished in the quilt room for several years.  they are made on a base of the old curtains from my bedroom. 

I think I changed those curtains out maybe 15 years ago..... ....

The block in this one is the center.  I was part of the second or third 100 Blocks Magazine with this block.  The first round is the dark blue.  I just grabbed any fabrics and put them together, round after round.

I wonder why they call them rounds when they are obviously square............

Pat and the Amazing Quilts

I have a friend, Pat, who makes amazing quilts.  Pat works all week in a wonderfully busy job, and comes home on Friday, sets up the 1975 Bernina on the dining room table.  Cutting is done on one end, sewing on the other. The family eats at the snack bar.

A quilt top is finished in a weekend.  Most quilts are sent to Charlene for quilting, remember her?  She did the Ellies Quilt for me.  But the combination of the two minds is what creates the beauty in these quilts.

27 of these marvels were shown at a guild meeting last night.  Interestingly enough, the guild is one of the most traditional of all the ones here in the area.  Among their ranks are quilt historians, civil war experts, museum docents and some incredible applique experts.

And the show was all about MODERN!  There was a lot of silence.   And a lot of gasps when they realized that Modern quilts are still quilts too!  Some eyes were opened that night!

I don't think minds were changed, but they did see how their beloved blocks could be used differently, put in modern fabrics, new colors, enlarged, skewed, flipped, spaced out, spaced in, twisted and stretched to create a new look.

Modern.  It was an incredible show.

Want to know the most amazing thing about the whole night, Pat is a man!  His wife works and gives him money to buy fabric!  LOL.  And she does not sew a stitch!

Who wouldn't love a man like that! Sharing a fabric addiction?

Bring it on, fellas!

Design Wall Monday 11-28-11

I told you I would have something for the design wall this week and I do!

Yeah!  Feels good to get back to sewing stuff again.  I was beginning to lust after my sewing machine and that messy room.  I did spend a couple of hours in here cleaning up some stuff, but you would never know it.  I don't think anything LOOKS different, it is just a bit cleared and organized.  Notice I said "a bit", that is all a tiny tiny tiny bit.

I can't show you the entire thing because this is a December Challenge from the Modern Group.  So here are some peeks. 

We are exchanging our Product Output and everyone is offering "peeks" so here is mine.  The Challenge is to create something 50 or less inches in total perimeter that has triangle trees and represents Christmas where we are.  I am in South Louisiana and I used to think those Christmas cards with all the snow and the trees, and the horse drawn sleighs were all make believe fakes.  Our Christmases are very, very green around here!  (You would think I could match the seams on the flying geese after all these years of quilting, wouldn't cha?  I guess not.)

And I cooked some Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass, Sausage and Okra Gumbo on this cold, humid, rainy day.  Here are my helpers.  This is Chloe the Smelly Basset, not sure where DiNozzo is located.  Probably out hunting squirrel for the next gumbo. No matter how many beds I have in the den scattered around they all want to be by me in the kitchen, in the middle of things and on something soft.  The other two guys sit on my stove and just watch. 

I made stock from the turkey carcasses and used my fancy new half pot holders from Hawaii from Amber.  They were there for Dan's daughter's wedding while we were in Europe.  I brought Amber some Olive Oil Soap with Basil and Rosemary from Greece. 

glen:  and I still got dumped..................