Pat's Article

Pat Van Burkleo - Modern Quilting
Pat took over for me as President of the  Baton Rouge Modern Guild this year.

I don't know if he  mentions it in the article, but he designed and printed the fabric on Spoonflower.

He is an amazing quilter!

Zig Zags, Pat and Neo-Impressionists

I just finished listening to the book by Alice Hoffman about the famous neo-impressionist painter Camille Pissaro born in St. Thomas Virgin Islands called The Marriage of Opposites.  It really is about his mother rather than him, but I love those historical fiction books.  I  liked her writing enough to get another of her CD books called The Red Garden.  Love that one too.  Not sure why she called it The Red Garden as it really does not figure prominently in the book.  I looked for The Art Forger by BA Shapiro but our library doesn't have it.  

Last night at the river city guild meeting Pat Van Berkleo presented his trunk show of modern quilts.  He does the most amazing work. Self-taught, he designs, makes mad quilts his own quilts. He also designs his own fabric on Spoonflower!   A true Renaissance man. He works on an old Bernina that his mother used when she taught home economics back in Texas when he was a child. I will post the link to the quilt show when the pictures from River city  are posted.

 He has a collection of over 50 quilts and he's only been quilting for three years now.  He says he hates to give up any of his quilts and yet they don't use them at their house.  I can empathize.  I hate to give up any of my quilts.......BUT........I use them all the time!

See these beautiful yellow flowers? They're all over the place and they really are pretty.   They are tall tall and sitting around the fence posts they are very picturesque. But there's lots of pollen involved in them and my head has been stopped up; my ears are ringing louder than they normally do.

 Zigzags!!! I finished up three more zigzags this afternoon. I got the blocks squared up at about 16 inches. Got them sewn together and it now is a top as well.  Turns out to be about 62 x 62 inches, and you know, I hate square quilts!  But that is the size it will be.

So tomorrow I will begin once again to work on the old house quilt I have on the frame. And then I'll add a couple more quilts and get those finished too.

The cute guy who came to check out my Air Conditioning System for the fall was totally in love with my quilts.   He was so sweet.  He worked with the Intelligence Dept for the Army when he was in the service, so he may have been spying on me.  I have to admit, he could have gotten a lot of information out of me by being interested in my quilts!  I would have ratted out my best friend!

Nutria Day in South Louisiana

(Don't forget to look at my retreat photos from yesterday's post.)

Well, no self respecting Cajun would listen to a groundhog, but Pierre the Nutria says we will not have 6 more weeks of Yankee winter!

Pierre C. Shadeaux predicts a long and wonderful Louisiana Spring.  It was quite foggy when he woke up this morning!

My cousin and her hubby are visiting from Illinois and flying back to Chicago today.  Maybe.  Her neighbor told them there was 10 feet of snow in their driveway after the snow plow came through.  Give me hurricanes any day!  LOL. 

Her daughters are the smart ones, one lives in Florida, the other in Hawaii.  Go figure.

I enjoyed seeing them.   People kept stopping by our table and marveling at the fact we all look so much alike!  One face, yep, our family has just one face! Karen hopefully will send me the picture Jim took.

While I was at the retreat, I received my Louisiana Traveling Quilt!  I was so excited I tore into the box before I even got halfway in the door!  I have to show it at the Modern guild tonight so I will show some photos tomorrow.

I hope the other two participants (Pat and Kelly) got theirs and we can exude love for our fabulous quilts!  And make eeryone else jealous!  You know they will be!

Finally, The Star and Some Feathers

 I finally have the Star Quilt out of the washing and drying machines.  It wrinkled up nicely!

Check out the back, it looks like a star!

And these are some feathers I made for Mr. Pat's Louisiana Traveling Quilt.  His does not have the theme of Louisiana like the other two I was working on.  It had the feel of modern masculine and angles.  One night I was dreaming that I had feathers from the Anna Marie Horton Feather Bed Quilt.

And it was so!

They will fit nicely on one side or the other.  I plan on leaving them off for the moment and sendin a note to the next person in line asking them to include them in their piece down one side or the other as it all fits together.

I really love this quilt.

glen

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!