At our June 13th meeting we had guest speaker Laurie Jones come and to chat about Art Quilting.
Laurie started out as an traditional quilter but did not find any joy in it. To Laurie traditional quilting was too constructed and emphasized on to much perfection. Then out of the blue one day Laurie was introduced to Art Quilting and has been in love with it ever since. Laurie loves how art quilting is so improv and the little bit of this and that can make nothing into something. If you have an pile of little scraps or some old neckless with beads on them hanging around, you can start Art Quilting too.
A lot of Laurie does deals with bead work and we all have to say what patients and steady hand that you have Laurie! All what Laurie does is hand stitching and all of us here really appreciate that she shared her quilts with us.
IN the photos below Laurie talks about the wall hanging that represented her journey of bring God into her life. Laurie said that the blue circle was her before God and the colors are what fill her heart and soul after having God into her life. Laurie had a pattern that she bought for the wall hanging but really did not follow it as much as she should. She improvised it and from this pattern she started designing her own stuff. As you can see in the second photo Laurie's beading and hand work comes to life.
A lot of what Laurie does are small things and they all have a theme. Notice that in all of Laurie's works there is a checkered print some where! Laurie loves checkers! Well, the print or the pattern of it. She said that her kitchen and bathroom both have checkered tiled floors. So she just kept the theme going into her quilting.
In these photos below Laurie passed around a wall hanging to show off more beaded and hand stitching. Then Laurie passed around her memory accordion book of her grandmother. Laurie's grandmother is where she inherited all of her creativeness from. Laurie and a few of our members were discussing how her grandmother would take wheat from the fields and use colored foil to wrap the wheat in to make them look like fireworks in a flower arrangement.
Also in the photos above Laurie brought in a Journey Journal. This journal is about the adventures Laurie has taken. Whether it would be a trip to Georgia, Arizona, to a winery or even personal events in her life such as loosing her daughter Grace, who passed away at a very young age. With each adventure and event Laurie's life she has written about it and then sketched up a small quilt to be made. When she is finished she will then attach each small quilt together and make it into a wall hanging.
In these photos below of Laurie's wall hanging shows off an up close look of Laurie's stitching and bead work.
So does Laurie have you convinced to start Art Quilting? Who knows you might like it just as much as Laurie does, so give it a try!
Lastly:
We want to thank Laurie for joining us and for speaking about her Art Quilting.
After Laurie's speaking we did not have much to chat business about but we did have a few show and tells!
First up was Chris Porter:
Chris had made a log cabin leaf quilt and showed it off a while back. Well, she just got it back from the quilter and was so excited to show off the quilting done on this quilt. Chris also had a table runner that her sister wanted another friend to start doing a block of the month with but the friend bailed and the blocks were made into a table runner.
Jennifer Overstreet also brought in a few of her quilting items too! Jennifer finished and completed a houndstooth quilt, her most recent Moda Bake Shop project Tea Time for You & Me table cloth, a table runner she designed, and a grocery bag that she also designed.
What lovely work Ladies! Thank you for sharing!
Well that wraps up the meeting news! Thank you for stopping by!
Next meeting June 28, 2012
Happy Quilting!
New London Quilt Guild