Archive for August, 2006

Gee’s Bend quilt stamps

Monday, August 28th, 2006

thumbnail of Gee\'s Bend quilt stamps

Yes, yes, I know – I should be blogging about the wonderful full-size bed quilt that Ann and Nancy finished this summer, and which now resides (in resplendant glory) on our bed. And I will, I promise.

But first, all of you should run, not walk, to your nearest post office and buy some Gee’s Bend quilt stamps. They are stunning. I just got some this afternoon and I nearly walked into a wall leaving the post office because I was ogling them so much. (Okay, it was a glass wall, but still.)

I saw an article in the newspaper insert section called “Life” (I think based on the magazine? I’m not sure) about the quilts and the stamps a couple weeks ago, and wasn’t terribly impressed. I mean yes, it’s cool that these women make quilts out of cast-off fabric, and it’s terrific that they’ve parlayed their work into economic development for their community, but I didn’t really “get” the appeal of the quilts. But that’s because the photos in the article don’t do them justice – the stamps show the whole quilts, so you see the full effect of the colors and patterns and not-quite-perfect design.

Go. Buy.

Applique anyone?

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

So, I’ve never really been into applique, but I think that is about to change. I discovered the wonderful portable-ness of applique while working on a sheep quilt for friends of ours who just had a baby girl in July. It’s a really cute pattern from Quiltmaker. It calls for the sheep to be made out of fleece and then machine appliqued onto the block, but I was not confident that I have good enough machine skills for that, so I decided to hand applique with blanket stitch. I’m very happy with how it turned out, and I discovered that it was really nice because a little sheep block fit easily into the diaper bag and I could take it along and work on it when the boys were busy playing at the playground and didn’t need any help from me. Wonderful! So, here’s the sheep quilt…
Eliza\'s sheep

Well, as life goes for a crackpot, one thing led to another. Once I had done that applique, I decided to try a little more, this time using freezer paper templates. And, if you’re going to try some applique, it might as well be something fun, right? So, in colors that coordinate with Andrew’s room, I am now working on a wall hanging that includes a dump truck…

a flatbed…
flatbed01

and a backhoe…
backhoe

I’m finishing up a crane now and will then put them together for a wall hanging in Andrew’s room. It’s lots of fun, so you can expect more applique from me in the future, though probably not flowery things!