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| CRAZY BLOCK MADE INTO A PILLOW |
As I stepped into the Berea Appalachian Fireside Gallery this past August, I was met with a small exhibit of contemporary crazy quilt blocks. The blocks were artistic, diverse, colorful, and had particularly fine needlework. There was a sign near the quilt blocks that introduced the exhibit as "Out On The Line IV." The artists of the blocks were women from a group called The Berea Depot Quilters.
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| BLOCK MADE INTO A DISPLAY PIECE |
The sign's information also stated that the blocks were made using the round robin method. I was totally unfamiliar with round robin. I contacted the quilt group and talked to Carol Ann White about the the method. Basically it is a few quilters working on crazy quilt blocks.
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| A BLOCK IN THE MAKING |
Above is an example of a block that is just beginning to be worked on. You can say it is pretty much in its raw state. As you can see the block has ten crazy quilt pieces. This means that ten quilters will be involved with working on this particular block. Each crazy quilt piece of the ten pieces of each block will be assigned to one quilter who will add her unique needlework during the round robin.
Each quilter will have a block of ten crazy pieces to be passed around simultaneously to all ten quilters -- each quilter getting only one of the blocks at a time.
As each quilter has the block for a month it will take ten months for each of the quilter's blocks to be finished. Each of the ten blocks will contain a collage of all the persons involved with this particular round robin.
Hope this explanation is understandable -- please send me a comment with any questions about how to do this round robin.
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| LION DETAIL ON A FINISHED BLOCK |
The lion block above displays some of the work accomplished on one of the blocks. Below are some of the individual blocks that were in the exhibit.
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| CRAZY QUILT STYLE ON A FINISHED BLOCK |
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| WEB AND SPIDER SURROUNDED BY OTHER DESIGNS |
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| MIX OF VIBRANT COLORS AMONGST THE CRAZY QUILT PIECES |
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| A DELICATE ICE CREAM CONE SURROUNDED BY LACE |
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| GARDEN VARIETY OF CRAZY PIECES |
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| BEE, BUTTERFLY AND FLOWER PIECES |
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| LACE, 2009 DATE, AND A PORCUPINE |
I felt the quilt blocks were both eye-catching and striking -- certainly a reflection of the quilter's love of their craft.
The quilters involved were: Rita Barlow, Pat Jennings. Linda Murdoch, Deannee Oliver, Barbara Taylor, Sarah Vaughn, Ginnifer Watts, Carol Ann White, and Jo Ann White.
What lovely, imaginative work! I've worked on several crazy quilts and think it's the most fun to do of all.
ReplyDeleteDelightful blocks, lots of creativity and good crafts[wo]manship. Thanks for a nice quilt show this morning. As a quilter I know about round robins but hadn't seen one with crazy quilt blocks -- usually it's a whole quilt with different quilters adding successive borders, working out from a center.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am so worshipful of this artwork! How absolutely beautiful, Barbara!!! I love Crazy Quilts! And the beading here, is breathtaking as well! What a beautiful post! Love the generosity of your photos! Great job, Barbara! And thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteElora
Those quilt pieces are so beautiful. I like to quilt, too, but I am impatient. It would be so hard for me to wait that long to see the finished product. Those ladies are very talented.
ReplyDeleteVicki -- I admire folks who quilt. To me it seems truly a creative process. I always love to view the quilts that appear on posts. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteQuilters are such an artistic group of people. I like the block with the spider and its web the most.
ReplyDeleteJune -- I found that I had a difficult time describing how the block round robin was accomplished. So glad that as a quilter you had experience in working with this method. I think your blog about quilts, CALENDER PAGES, is great -- here is the link if anyone would like to view it -- http://calenderpages.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteElora -- thanks for your nice comments. I thought the workmanship by the women was dazzling! I am glad you agree -- barbara
ReplyDeleteJanet -- The fact that you are a quilter impresses me. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteFarmchick -- I agree with you -- the spider and web are wonderful but I also liked the porcupine, bumble bee, butterfly, lion -- I guess all the animal figures were my favorites. But, then again so were all the plant types. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteWow Wow WOW! What stunning quilt pieces! I don't quilt myself, but I adore quilts and am in awe of people who have the patience and talent to create such beautiful (and often useful) pieces of art!
ReplyDeleteI'm completely smitten with the beadwork in this quilt, and am so glad you shared such wonderful closeups of some of the details! My favorite bits from top to bottom are the dandelion puffs, the lady with the wild bead hair :-), the spider in her web and also the beautiful flowers to her upper right, the greenery with the red berries, the delicate piece of lace edging with the little white beaded flowers to the lower right of the ice cream cone, the pea pods, the beaded daisies in the upper right and bee in the lower left, and the adorable porcupine. The beads, the lace, the colors, the designs - it's all so charming and gorgeous!
My best friend since college is an amazing, award-winning quilter who aspires to be a quilt judge someday (what little I know about quilting ~ like about the round robin method, I know from her). She will LOVE this post! In fact, I can think of at least two other friends who will especially enjoy it too, so I'm off to share it with them. Thank you for such a fun and beautiful start to my day, Barbara! Wonderful post!
Laloofah -- You and I are in the same boat -- don't quilt -- but very much appreciate it. In fact, I just plain like all needlework. Nice that you have such a talented quilter friend. Thanks for sharing my round robin post with your other friends.
ReplyDeleteSo enjoy reading your nice comments. I learn from them. I hope you find time to explore Strawberry Hill Farm. It would be such an interesting post or posts. -- barebara
Laloofah shared this post with me, as I am a quilter, and I really enjoyed it. I make what I call "portable hugs", quilts in sizes from 42x42 to 48x66, and I give them to folks in need of a hug for whatever reason. I use lots of whimsical fabrics and always make flannel backs. I never was good with a needle and thread, and in fact was told I couldn't sew, but I love quilting which I do by machine, or should I say two machines--one for the piecing and binding and one for the free motion quilting. I write words of encouragement in the quilts as I "dance" around the top. My quilts are far from traditional, and my points don't always line up, but they seem to give a lot of pleasure to a lot of folks including me! I love doing this, and in fact my plan for today is to make a dinosaur quilt for a newborn baby boy. Oh, yes, I only discovered that quilting is my main artistic outlet (I also have begun weaving) a little over one and a half years ago, and today's quilt will be my 139th so I quilt a lot! Your post has really inspired me now to try a crazy quilt of my own. Who knew (well, I for one didn't) that this was a possibility. Thank you for your inspiring post!
ReplyDeletedaphnepurpus - Nice that you were inspired by this post. I wish that I could quilt but my mind is so impatient for such an enterprise. I commend you that you didn't listen to the voice that told you that you couldn't sew. -- barbara
ReplyDelete