Chinese Coins

                                I'm still waiting for my book...but I wanted to show this quilt I made for
                                my son.......its really long to cover his 6'2" body on the couch!
                                And look its all solids :0).....it has Chinese urns on the back.

My first test Hole in the Barn Door blocks...

I made these both at the same time. I think I  have cut the corner triangles a bit too small... but it was the first time I tried this so I am not too worried about it. I am thinking I might trim them down much smaller and make a bunch of different sized batik ones for a quilt.

I am still waiting for my solids to get here.  I am getting excited about it.

I'm ALMOST ready to begin

Kim posted a comment on my blog, Sophie Junction,  asking that I post a photo of this quilt here:

 
It's the project I had just started before Tonya posted this irresistable challenge ... and so, while I have been rushing to finish it, I've been thinking of what it means to abstract design ideas from a traditional quilt to a "liberated" one and how this quilt, based on Gwen Marston's pattern, Liberated Wedding Ring, is a great example of abstracting a traditional Wedding Ring quilt.

Now that this top is completed, I'm almost ready to focus my attention on our challenge.

Decisions, Decisions

Hi! Sharon from Indigo Threads here. First, a huge Thank You to Tonya for doing this Get Together! This is gonna be fun!

I've been trying to make up my mind, because so many of these quilts are so wonderful! I love Amish quilts - the wonderful colors and the great graphic appeal. It's been really tough, but I think I've finally narrowed it down.

I'm thinking "keep it simple, stupid" here. I've already done a Roman Stripes quilt (wallhanging) and a Bars quilt (doll quilt), so I want to do something different. I've been really drawn to the Nine-Patches, especially #108 and #67. And then there's Gwenny's Own Nine Patch on page 80 of Liberated Quiltmaking II to also inspire me. So, I think I'll be doing a Nine Patch of some type.

However, I do reserve the right to change my mind! I'm also quite drawn to #88 (Stars) and #37 (Bow Tie) and #49 (Stripes).

Next is the tough decision of what fabrics and colors to use. I gave most of my solid fabrics to my daughter when we moved 3 years ago. . . they live in Nevada now, too far to access easily. So, I'll probably be using my hand-dyes or even my small stash of Cherrywood fabrics. (If you're interested in the Cherrywood Fabrics, and only want a little, they have a grab bag of 50 - 7" x 10" pieces for $20 here. They also have Cherry Rolls - 9 colorways in 24 colors each for $29. And, of course, yardage and bundles of gradations) I just have to keep narrowing things down!

I have to go fondle fabric now. . . .

I picked one!

This took much longer than I ever anticipated!

I loved #106, Jacobs Ladder, for the fun ribbon border (could I fit words into that ribbon?) but then I saw #100, Crazy Star, with all those tiny pieces (could I finish it before June - who am I kidding!)

So on the the Log Cabins like 92 with its gorgeous colors (sorry Tonya - I like brown) but then #42 - how gorgeous is that! Oh no...#104 with its wild stripes (and I have some striped fabric that could make great cheater piece but then how would I get the words in there?)

Go simple, go simple I keep telling myself - you have plenty of time to over-think this later...ah, so then I saw #73, Original Pattern. Simple enough that I can delude myself into thinking I can finish it by the deadline and plenty of opportunity to over-complicate it all on my own. So is this a decision...I think so!

Crazy for Amish quilts

While you were all signing up for this blog, I was at a quilt retreat working on a little liberated (and not so liberated) Amish quilt goodness of my own. This is Brenda from Scraps and Strings, and I've been intending to get into my drawer of solid strips and strings and scraps and yardage for a long time, so this class is just the push I need. I don't yet own the book, and I'm intending to visit the web site soon, but so far, I'm leaning toward a crazy quilt with big borders.
At my retreat I made some blocks and a wee quilt with Amish-style solids.
At left  below are two double nine-patch blocks which still need borders to get them up to 12.5 inches for a guild challenge/block exchange. The wonky star was a sample from showing a friend how to make them, and the little one patch was made from all the leftover squares from the nine-patches. It measures about 8 by 11 finished. I look forward to seeing what the rest of you come up with. Thanks for having me!

Three choices

I have it narrowed down to three choices for my Amish inspiration piece:

#085 Trip around the World- I actually like the flying geese border and am thinking about doing the whole quilt using flying geese

#082 Hole in the Barn Door

#47 Maple Leaf

Going to have to think about it some more......any suggestions??

Lazy Gal

Hey Tonya....did ya see one of the Gees Bend quilt kits is called Lazy Gal V?
Now where did they get that name......maybe you should  TM "Lazy Gal" the way
"Gee's Bend" has been TM!!!

Happy Sewing,
Kim

Chinese Coins

I don't know if a Chinese Coin quilt is included in the book, but I have seen others elsewhere in the past. My idea for my quilt came to me this morning---Chinese coins with a Twist. Now I can start cutting, arranging and sewing.

Amish Quilt

OOh count me in Tonya, can,t wait to get started. Have always had a leaning towards the Amish Quilts however since joining in the Liberated Quilters - Clare,s Group even more so. I think I might do No.89 or 035.

Cheers Irene V uk

Joining in the fun

Hi! This is Marit from Quilt it. I just received my LQII and have been enjoying reading it, great inspiration.

Years ago, Amish quilts was my introduction to quilts and quilting. Together with the quilts of Gees Bend they still make a strong impression on me, love the color and simple graphical design elements.

All the beauties in the Amish collection makes it hard to decide on a starting point. I have my eyes on this triangles quilt and this churn dash right now. Have to check on my stash and think about it.

This is a great challenge, thank you for hosting, Tonya!

White Mountain Greetings!

Winter greetings from the fabulous Western White Mountains of New hampshire! I'm Shelly, a spirited 40 something who loves the outdoors almost as much as I love fabric.

I began quilting in the 1980's when Amish quilts and solid fabrics were "hot".....and I love that we've come full-circle....it is my observation that hand quilting is even making a come-back.

I like elements from many of the blocks.......jacobs ladder, love these colors, like the layout here, and finally this is intriguing......so......I'm leaning toward a sampler of sorts. Waiting on the book for a final decision.

Great to be here, making new friends, stepping out of the box a bit and loving life.

P.S. Thanks Tonya for your efforts!

Started Cutting

I started cutting strips for mine today.  I had to keep telling myself to use light colors and not quite as many darks.  I'm still not sure what exactly I'm doing.  More and more, I find myself thinking of the Ocean Waves framed on one side by another design.  Plus my big blocks, or using the big blocks in the frame.  So many decisions!  What's a girl to do?

Starting the Process

Hi everyone, I'm Sharon from Blaine, WA. You can't be any further NW than
Blaine, WA It's a small town on the ocean and also on the Canadian border. We are expecting a lot of Olympic traffic this month, as Vancouver BC is just across from us.
As for this challenge, I'm so excited to be participating and quilting along with everyone. There are some familiar bloggers here, and I look forward to seeing everyone's work. First off, I'm NOT a liberated quilter, but I want to be. I've got Gwens new book, and many older books she and Joe have written on Amish quilts and hand quilting. I've also got Jean Wells new book and it too, is very liberated. Click here and here for two posts from her presentation at our guild.
I've only tried Gwens stars (made 5) and have them in a small wall hanging in my studio.
My inspiration is going to be Bars. I'm thinking "stars and bars" and my goal is to make several bars of liberated stars and several bars of liberated piecing. And this is what I'd like to use.

I've had this bag of hand dyes for several years and the time has come to cut them up. They are a bit bright for Amish, but hey, we're stretching the boundaries. Black will be my background.
Does our top have to be quilted and bound by the June time line? or just pieced?
Sharon

Hello from Heidi

Hi,
thank you Tonya for letting me in:-)
The evening before I read about this blog, a friend gave me some beautiful light solids, so this was a perfect timing. And I have a lot of different dark blue solids, so I'll try to combine them. I chose no. 093, because I love triangles . I've made broken dishes before, but not these kind of triangles and no liberated ones, at least not with purpose...
It will take maybe 2 weeks, before I can start, because I want to finish the quilting on this one first. It's a queen sized quilt with about 80 liberated stars made after the tutorial in Gwen's and Freddys first Collaborative Quilting book

Looking forward to see all your work
Heidi