FROM STUDIO TO SHOW

CRAYONS in process

Liberated methods drive my quiltmaking process. I choose a little fabric and color I want to work with, just enough to get started because I am free to add and subtract as I go along. I begin to piece parts. Here you see a few parts and initial ideas for an arrangement on the design wall. I think about this as an audition. 

I first met Gwen Marston after looking into quilters from Michigan, and Gwen is the mastermind behind Liberated Quiltmaking. Another student of Gwen's, Fern Royce fernroycequilting.com once said that a Liberated Quiltmaker is someone who has an idea for a quilt and she figures out how to sew it together. For this quilt, I had a general intention to make "marks", lines, squares and triangles marching around and about.  

I like a mix of free cut and straight seams, or lines. Frequently asking "what if" is sometimes followed by "what was I thinking"?!! A balance of spontaneous sewing and more deliberate moments is a nice routine. Patches of wide open space offers a stage for the quilting.

Looking back on a few notes I made during this process, I can share that I had a jolly good time from start to finish. 

CRAYONS 45" x 44"

The award was icing on the cake. Crayons, First Place Small Wall Quilts-Hand Quilted at AQS QuiltWEEK Spring Paducah, April 2018

photo taken in the studio at MADELINE ISLAND SCHOOL OF THE ARTS