Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Mom's First Modern Quilt!

One of my favorite times of the year is the Blogger's Quilt Festival because there is so much quilt inspiration to be found in the entries.  Plenty of my time is spent visiting blogs and admiring all the creations.  

Now, I have entered my stuff before, but this entry is rather special.  This entry is my mom's first modern quilt.


Mom's First Modern Quilt
53 x 51
Machine pieced by mom, straight line quilted by me


In February, my mom and I attended Quiltcon 2015 in Austin.  While I was in class, my mom attended a lecture by Sherri Lynn Wood.  She really enjoyed hearing Sherri speak about improv creating and I suggested that maybe we could collaborate on a quilt someday.

Well, someday turned out to be Memorial Day weekend.  I was missing Quiltcon, where it was fun sewing with a group of people and I asked my mom (expecting her to say no) if we could have a sew day.  When she said yes, I jumped to gather up my supplies before she could change her mind.  I was worried just how easily this traditional quilter would take to improv piecing.  


I was wrong.  My mom just jumped in and totally got into the creative flow.  I was trying to be encouraging, while at the same time trying to bring her back to the instructive process as laid out in the book.  It soon became clear to me that my mom was in a zone and was doing her own thing.  I realized that this is what improv creation is all about.  So I gave up on trying to "help" her and just let her go.

The top was completed in a day and I quilted the piece using straight line quilting with invisible thread.
   
Following Sherri's instructions, I asked my mom to evaluate her work:

Surprises - I was surprised at how vibrant the color looks against the light background.

Discoveries - I learned how to use a lot of colors.  Normally, I stick to one color scheme but I like how all the colors work together.

Satisfactions - How fast it all went together.

Dissatisfactions - None really.  I thought at first that the colors would look all jumbled, but it all came together in the end.

Entered into the Modern Category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2015

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2015

10 comments:

  1. All I have to say is "you go Mom!" The quilt is great and you are too for embracing the world of improv!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just great I think your mom has a bright future in modern quilting :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this quilt! And I wish I could spend a day or two quilting with my own mom. The time you spent together will surely make this even more special. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic! I'm so glad one of my readers linked me to see this creation. Your mom's interpretation of this score is very energizing! I am working through Sherri's book, score by score, and just shared my finished take on this same score: http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2015/10/zephyr-improv-handbook-score-1.html Such a great book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mina - this brings tears of joy to my eyes! What a great quilt and what a great story. Thanks to you and your awesome mom.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fantastic! Love that you could collaborate with your mom, and I really love the quilt!

    Mina... I have a dear friend named Mina (Fermina) from the island nation of Palau. If you don't mind sharing I'd love to know the origin of your name. And I'm off to check out your blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Liz, my name is a family name that has been passed down to me. I am named after my French grandmother

      Delete
  7. It's really fantastic! How wonderful and satisfying to get it done so quickly and for your traditional mother to let go and try something new. And good for you for getting out of her way. She did awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm thinking you have a new modern quilter on your hands! Beautiful Collaboration

    ReplyDelete