March 11, 2024: Decisions Made!; Quilting’s “Big Tent”; Earthly Delights

Greetings dear readers. Decision made! I’m putting a grouping of diamonds on each of the corners of the Hexagon Star quilt and leaving open space in the middle of each border which can then be filled with quilting. Here’s how it’s going to look (the diamonds are not basted or sewn yet in the photo):

One corner pinned:

Each corner has 14 diamonds which will be hand appliqued. I think they form a nice frame for this traditional style quilt and don’t take attention away from the busy center. It shouldn’t take too long! This is another quilt that I dearly wish I had time to hand quilt – so far every stitch is by hand. Alas, if I went that route, I wouldn’t get to it for at least another couple years at the earliest as there are 2 quilts in front of it in the “hand quilting” pile plus the 2 I’m already working on now! So…most likely off to a long arm quilter some time this year.

Another decision made! Last post I was worried that the 9 patches would be too small (at 1.5 inches, finished), so decided to sew some of the pieces and rows together to get an accurate look:

I needn’t have worried 🙂. I really do love them this small and will continue with the full project – 480 tiny 9 patches, probably set 20 across and 24 down, plus a border. Here’s a closeup:

Since I last posted, I’ve made 2 more sets of 20 blocks each. Even though I’m definitely using the double pink for the alternate blocks in the actual quilt, I still enjoy setting them out on different backgrounds for photos and might even eventually make a couple of doll quilts with these blocks and different backgrounds. Here are the latest 2 batches:

I’m still slowly, but surely, going through my books and adding to the discard pile. It’s getting really high 😊:

One of the books I’m discarding is this one of the winners in the very first 3 AQS Paducah shows in the mid 1980’s.

I looked at all the winners and reread some of the stories about the quilts and their makers. Here are the Best of Show winners from those first 3 shows. 1985:

1986:

1987:

All were hand quilted, of course. All are traditional bed quilts. The vast majority of the winners were traditional, with a few art quilts sprinkled in. At the very same time I was going through this book, I was looking at online photos of quilts in this year’s QuiltCon. What an incredible difference! I do like the “big tent” that the quilting community has become and the diversity of styles- traditional, art, modern – that are accepted as legitimate means of expression for us. My heart is with the traditionalists, but kudos to all makers and artists! Go to quiltcon.com and look under the “quilt show” link to see the 2024 winners. Also, check out Aurifil’s blog, auribuzz, to see a selection of 38 quilts from the show. One thing that struck me as being truly different from those show winning traditional quilts from the past, was the frequency of modern quilts with MESSAGES. The QuiltCon Best of Show was about gun violence in schools. I saw quilt statements that referenced survival, femininity, depression, death, social justice, therapy, self acceptance, processing emotions, and life changes. Of course, there were also many quilts purely exploring color, design, pattern, and attempting to express beauty too. It was just interesting to ponder the evolution of quilting over the past 40-50 years and the diversity it now embraces.

I did manage to squeeze in some appliqué since last posting – 2 more blocks for “Winterberries”:

In my neck of the woods, northern New England, some days we can feel hints of spring in the air, but it will probably be weeks before we see much change in the flora. Here are some earthly delights from my walks:

I’m appreciating the beauty now, but looking forward to the changes in these woods over the next 3 months!!!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi