Friday, 2 July 2004

Quilters in Fairfax County, Virginia are contributing to an effort begun in Florida to provide homemade quilts to families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"If this war ended so long ago, how come so many soldiers have died?" shop owner Carolyn Schoenian wondered aloud over the whir of her sewing machine.

[...] The volunteers send their finished quilt tops to Porter's home near Florida's Gulf Coast. She then stitches them to a cloth backing with a huge quilting machine that was donated for the project; her home is overflowing with quilts.

Here are a couple more pictures of quilts from the art quilt show that Katxena mentioned. I found this tree fascinating for two reasons: first, I really liked what was done with the rectangles of different blues and greens and whites; second, the tree was made out of applique (I think) that trailed into just thread for the very thin branches. Very interesting. Way more than I would ever attempt.

I took Friday off from work, and I watched an episode of Simply Quilts on HGTV. The episode features Dilys Fronks, who's work is similar to the tree quilt you posted. Here are some instructions and pictures from the show. Her quilts are really amazing, and supposedly "easy", but I doubt I will ever want to do that much applique.

      Quilty comment by Katxena on 4 July 2004

Last weekend Lyn and I saw an exhibit of work by the Q&A Quilt Artists, a group of art- and non-traditional quilters from the DC metro area. The show was small, but vibrant, with work from 15 different quilters on display. Although all the quilts were amazing, I was particularly taken with the work of Bettie Barnes Kaseguma. The two below were my favorites.

For some reason I can't fathom, I am enamored with small rectangles, and these works are made up of rectangles put together in interesting ways -- I really like the way her work is both spontaneous and structured. You can sense purpose in the way some lines are straight and others are wavy, and her use of color is joyful.

I'm glad we went to the show -- it was inspiring and fun.

Marken http://feinkost.gelago.de/cat220/Italien/Wein-Welt/Weisswein/Marken/

      Quilty comment by Marken on 16 September 2004