AMB Challenge Quilt Top

Last week I finished up the quilt top for the American Made Brand challenge.

It’s pretty big, about 70 inches square.  My husband suggested quilting it in concentric circles (like the Nature Baby Quilt I made earlier this year), but I would have to do that on my domestic sewing machine and I think the layers would get shifted around a lot.  I had to cut quite a bit off the edges of the Nature Baby Quilt after quilting because of that.  That wouldn’t work for this quilt since it has a border.  Any suggestions?

I was able to make the entire bricklayer section from ripped strips just like the Gee’s Bend Quilters.  The final 1” border was precisely measured and cut with a rotary cutter.

I decided to go with wonky friendship stars in the borders.

While I’m not enamored with this quilt, I think it looks pretty good from a distance.

I am really looking forward to getting this quilt finished!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Gee’s Bend Experiment

Earlier this year I listened to the MQG webinar about modern quilting.  Heather provided a list of books and resources for further information about the origins and practices of modern art, quilting, and graphic design.

Have you ever heard of Josef Albers?  Please don’t laugh, but I never had.  I didn’t know that those square in a square in a square paintings at museums were actually color studies—how colors interact when different shades are placed next to each other.  I think one of the reasons I was never able to see that is normally there are one or two of those pictures on display.  It takes seeing several together to be able to discern the color play at work (at least for me).

Although I picked the colors for my next quilt from a computer screen, the way the navy and the fuchsia interact is better than I could have ever hoped…the blue starts to look almost purple with the fuchsia next to it.

So why is this a Gee’s Bend Experiment?  The quilt design is a popular variation of a Gee’s Bend quilt, called the bricklayer.

And then I decided to approach the quilt construction from a Gee’s Bend perspective too.  The quiltmakers didn’t use rotary cutters or rulers for most of their designs, they ripped strips from whatever fabric they had on hand.  No measuring, just ripping.  The first rip was a little scary, but after a few strips, I wasn’t afraid of ruining the fabric anymore.

I used a little bigger than normal seam allowance, 3/8”, to make the piecing more stable.  And I just trimmed each strip with scissors, no rulers or rotary cutter.

I’m not sure exactly how this quilt will develop after I finish the bricklayer section, but I’m using this photo of a Gwen Marston quilt, on the left, as my other piece of inspiration.  The quilt on the right is the Gee’s Bend quilt I studied.

Have a great week!