quilt guy retreat

Last weekend the Yahoo Group, Quilt Guy met in Woodstock NY at the Woodstock Quiltsupply quilt shop of Bob Silverman and Jim Helms - great shop owners, quilters and members of the group. Jim and Bob hosted and seven quilters in all took part in the three day retreat. A great time was had by all.



Many thanks to all of the guys for coming out and sewing together and sharing the weekend.

Many, many thanks to Holice Turnbow for his generous support of the quilters in all aspects of their work.



That's Holice on the right, Jim on the left, looking at a quilt that Holice made recently. Behind them is Andre Emmel's amazing hand-appliqued bird quilt. Beautiful.

Plans are in the works for next year. All quilt guys should plan on being there.

Rock-on

fabrics prints from Ghana

This set of fabric scans/photos of fabric swatches of fabrics from Ghana made me ask some questions about the intention behind their creation.



Specifically one can see that the print register is off- is this intentional, stylistic, and if so then what aesthetic purpose does it serve, either intentionally or not?



where are these fabrics printed? from the small bit of research I've done it seems that they are printed in China, by companies that are dutch.
do these fabrics represent a collection of 'seconds' that just happen to appeal to my aesthetic?



if one looks specifically at the individual colors or screens in the prints then one begins to see the 'fill' colors don't naturally fit the outline shapes that they are meant to fill- this would lead me to believe that at least 'overlap' is intended in printing. as for alignment of register- I'm still not sure.

contents: partially recycled fibers (threads)

I think the guys on the Quilt Guy Yahoo would like this.




I was reminded of this fabric by the recent tootsie pop challenge quilt and a thread of posts having to do with quilt fabric prices and buying used clothes (for the fabric) from Goodwill/Salvation Army type shops.

That's where this shirt/fabric came from. a Goodwill store discover, two shirts, new with the labels still on them.

The cost of fabrics available in quilt shops has been creeping up lately- and quilters are worried that they will not be able to purchase as much fabric as they perhaps have been and quilters are of course also worried that shops will not be able to stay open.

In once saw a sign in a quilt shop: "One yard a week is all we ask" - it made sense to me.