Sunday, October 24, 2010

Naive Rebel Method versus Traditional Grandmother's Garden:

Don't you love those hexagon 'granny's garden' flowers? One can do a whole quilt out of hexagons like this, called Grandmother's Garden. One day (maybe when I am a Granny myself) I would like to use all our family sentimental pieces of material from dresses, shirts etc for such a quilt, and scraps of material are always saved for that purpose. But in the mean while I cannot resist hexagons, especially tiny ones. Last term I started hexagons having no idea what I would do with them. I have a fetish with not being 'too tradtional', especially when it comes to quilting. The grandmothers Garden quilt being the only quilt pattern with repetitions that I actually like, maybe it is because one came to us via a missionary parcel when my Dad was working at the pharmacy at Jubilee Mission Hospital in Hommenskraal, Boputhetswana during my glorious free my preschool days? My sus has that quilt now, which I am very pleased about, but I feel the urge to one day make a family heirloom for my own kinders. When I think of that old quilt I think of weaver birds and thorn trees, thunderstorms and African dust - all beautiful memories... But I am getting distracted and sentimental now, aren't I? As I was saying, I couldn't resist the urge to make some hexagon flowers and even though I am already making a mini quilt with this special Bible verse, I couldn't resist the urge to make another mini quilt using these flowers up for something arty. The more I went along, the more rebellious I felt in terms of quilting, so I Made the quilt first then added the flowers and grass afterwards, with no visafix, quilting as I stuck every thing onto the quilt, buttons off centre, flowers falling off the quilt. Loose thread left hanging were appealing to me and then the scraps of material left over were just begging to be added. I tried an old cowbell, which everybody liked, but it was too conventional for a rebel quilt, so I took it off. Finally I got the kids to go and look for/make the best stokkie (stick) to hang the quilt on, Erica's stokkie won as she had made notches to hold the string. Actaully, I plaited a few pieces of crotchet cotton to hang up the quilt and this is my final result: In a messy corner of the house, next to the front door, hangs our first skinny rebel quilt:







Isaiah 40: 6b-8

All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

Erica's Triumph: "Horsing Around"

We haven't been doing nothing, even though we have not been blogging here, I promise. Slowly, slowly Erica and I keep going with our quilting. And finally Erica's hard work has paid off as she triumphed in the big Queensland Quilters Show last week, scooping first prize for Primary Age for her "Horsing Around" Quilt. The quilt was started last year with lessons from Vision Patchwork, Ipswich to help. But she extend their quilt with two extra blocks, didn't want to do paint work/writing on her quilt and designed her own horses on the top two blocks! With a flood and many dramas in between she finally finished it just in time for the Brisbane Craft Show at the huge Brisbane Convention Centre!

I am soooo proud of her, "Well done Erica!" Who can resist loving such a sweet quilter!

Erica receives her prize from Lorraine Curthew, Queensland's famous quilt/textile artist! Kim Boland from Queensland Quilters at the podium.