Sunday Talks

First block in Katie Wilkins' Milestone quilt

Ben age two receiving the quilt flanked by his siblings

Both sides of the temperature quilt.

Katie with completed quilt

The hiking adventures quilt

I watched three and a bit talks on Sunday. First up was Quilts to Mark Milestones by Katie Wilkin.I wasn't quite sure what this meant but it turned out that when their third child, Ben, was born Katie and her husband joked that there would be hardly any pictures of him - third child syndrome. So Katie resolved to make a block a month and to document her progress. So each month she made a log cabin block and take a picture of Ben alongside which would record his development month to month for a year. When Ben received the completed quilt on his second birthday it was clear he regarded it as something special. Katie went on to make a further quilt depicting the weekly hikes she did with other mums and children over the summer holidays. She also showed a temperature quilt made by her friend, Cindy Wiens where different shades represented daily temperatures.
Next up was the wonderful  Judy Gauthier's talk on Strategies for Modern Scrap Quilting. She was very clear to listen to. There was a promotional element for her Bungalow shop and books but also lots of information  about techniques and fabric choices and ways of incorporating older and ugly fabric in a modern looking quilt. She used a camera to aid little demos which appeared on screen. And she showed lots of quilts to illustrate her points. I was impressed! 

Judy and helper with her latest and second book title (which I bought along with the first)

JG Quilt incorporates lots of small scraps

JG Owls

JG: Older scraps transformed by modern
background fabrics.

JG monochromatic palette

JG quilt

JG's personal favourite

I would set these blocks straight
rather than on point

JG quilt

JG quilt

JG quit with blocks as sashing

Final JG quilt here

The third talk went well over time as Sherri Lynn Wood was so passionate about her current preoccupation with Passage Quilts and the Bereavement Process.  Her mother's clothes had been shared out between family members and quilts made from them Hers was on the platform for us to see. She liked to maintain the structure of the clothing in the quilts. She had gone on to make bereavement quilts for others, to work with the bereaved in making their quilt or to enable them to make their own. She found in most cases two years at least would elapse before a bereaved person could make their quilts. Other quilts documented divorce or menopause.
I had to give up on the Panel as I couldn't tell what any of the speakers were saying!

A man's quilt

Sherri's quilt of her mother's clothes draped over the podium table.

Th clothes of Sherri's grandmother with many "housecoats".