Have you heard of the Gees Bend quilts and their quilt makers? Many of the leaders in the Modern Quilt movement, have considered their quilts a significant influence on their work.
Did you know that you can create a Gees Bend-like quilt using Electric Quilt? Check out the video tutorial on a Gees Bend Postage Stamp Quilt. And then be amazed by the latest designs from those in the Tech Know Quilters EQ8 Membership Studio. Gees Bend Background
Information from:
http://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers “The women of Gee’s Bend—a small, remote, black community in Alabama—have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating from the early twentieth century to the present. Resembling an inland island, Gee’s Bend is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. The seven hundred or so inhabitants of this small, rural community are mostly descendants of slaves, and for generations they worked the fields belonging to the local Pettway plantation. Quilt makers there have produced countless patchwork masterpieces beginning as far back as the mid-nineteenth century, with the oldest existing examples dating from the 1920s. Enlivened by a visual imagination that extends the expressive boundaries of the quilt genre, these astounding creations constitute a crucial chapter in the history of African American art. Gee’s Bend quilts carry forward an old and proud tradition of textiles made for home and family. They represent only a part of the rich body of African American quilts. But they are in a league by themselves. Few other places can boast the extent of Gee’s Bend’s artistic achievement, the result of both geographical isolation and an unusual degree of cultural continuity. In few places elsewhere have works been found by three and sometimes four generations of women in the same family, or works that bear witness to visual conversations among community quilting groups and lineages. Gee’s Bend’s art also stands out for its flair—quilts composed boldly and improvisationally, in geometries that transform recycled work clothes and dresses, feed sacks, and fabric remnants.” Gees Bend Postage Stamp Quilt Tutorial
In 2006, the United States Postal Service issued Quilts of Gee's Bend commemorative stamps, which featured ten designs chosen by USPS art director Derry Noyes. These same designs would be featured in the Gee's Bend Quilt Mural Trail, which was created in 2007.
I selected one of the designs to draft using Electric Quilt 8. The biggest challenge is the different sized patches in these quilts -- including those for the border. As a result I decided to draft the entire quilt as a single block.
I did the coloring of the block in the quilt worktable as it allowed me to place a copy of the picture right next to the quilt. The quilt appeared to be pieced with solids, so I chose to work with colors rather than fabrics for the quilt. Although I could have drawn curved lines, I decided to stick with straight lines when drafting. When I went to color the block, I did find a couple of errors in my original drafting. The video also includes the process of fixing those errors.
Check out the final quilt along with my inspirational photo.
Tech Know Quilter's Gees Bend-like Quilts
In the Modern Quilt class, Tech Know Quilter members were challenged to create their own quilt in the spirit of Gees Bend using Electric Quilt. This was a chance for them to think outside the box along with stretch their own EQ drawing skills.
I did a blog post in 2018 where I shared a number of their quilts. But as users have continued to take the class, I thought I would share some of their newer designs with you. I think after looking at the quilts you will agree that they did an amazing job. And can you believe they did this without a formal "how to" video.
Here are the EasyDraw blocks you will need for a "beach" quilt. All of them have a finished size of 3" x 5".
Fabric for the Beach Quilt
Each month, Electric Quilt produces a new free fabric collection that we can download and use in our Electric Quilt projects. The August 2022 collection is Island Vibes II. It was designed by Linda Hahn for Banyan Batiks. Just click on the picture and follow the instructions to download this collection to your computer and load it into EQ8.
Once the fabric collection is in your Electric Quilt library, add it to your Block Alphabet project (the project you set up last week).
Beach Quilt
Of course these quilts would also work for a name -- maybe for a child or grandchild. Here is the same quilt I did with my name.
I am looking forward to see what quilt you end up designing -- and what fabric you use for your quilt. Feel free to post a picture in the Learning EQ Facebook group.
On a personal note, I am looking forward to retreating with my local quilting group at the end of next week. It is so fun to be able to get away with friends as we work on our quilts. I just cut out a quilt to work on at the retreat. It only has a zillion half square triangles in it -- so we will see how much I get done.
I hope you find some quilting time this week as well.
This week found me needing a pieced alphabet for a future project. Ideally all my letters will be the same size which will make it very usable in a variety of quilt blocks. A 3 x 5 size seemed ideal after a lot of looking at a variety of block letters on the Internet.
I started by drafting a couple of my pieced letters using EasyDraw, but then realized I wanted a bit more flexibility as I created the alphabet and applied what I learned in drafting one block to another block. Ideally I wanted to be able to draft the entire alphabet on one page. Within EQ8, one way to approach this is to use the One Patch Quilt Layout as graph paper. This gives us flexibility to color (and un-color) the graph paper squares during the design process. By the second letter I realized that I needed to be able to add piecing to some of the squares in order to differentiate some of the letters. I didn't want the "B" to look like the number "8" or the "D" to look like the "O". To add the additional detail, I created a few very simple 2 inch blocks in EasyDraw and added them to Layer 2 on the Quilt worktable.
I was able to do the entire alphabet with only 6 blocks (in addition to the 2 inch squares). And the blocks would be a breeze to do with the Deb Tucker rulers:
Watch the entire process in the EQ8 video tutorial.
You could copy my alphabet -- or create one of your own. Feel free to set your own rules.
I am looking forward to seeing your alphabet and maybe even a quilt that incorporates some words in it. Feel free to post pictures in the Learning EQ Facebook Group.
Have a fantastic week.
With the variety of clamshell rulers and tools to choose from when piecing your next clamshell quilt, I thought it was time to do a tutorial on a drafting a basic clamshell block. But playing with clamshells can be very addicting, so I ended up with 2 different clamshell blocks and five different quilts. And my head is still spinning with other ideas.
In the video, I didn't include the process to add new fabrics -- but the fabrics in the video are from the July 2022 Fabric of the Month collection from Do You EQ. The collection is Stitchy by Christa Watson for Benartex. And the file is free!
Here are the blocks from the video. They are super easy to draft in EasyDraw using the Arc tool. The key is the snap settings in the Precision toolbar and when necessary using the space bar on your keyboard to change the direction of the arc when drawing it.
Hint: If you release your hold before changing the arc direction, select undo and redraw the arc, making sure to select the space bar, before releasing the mouse at the destination snap location.
Check out a sample of quilt options from these simple blocks.
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For the first quilt, just color the full clamshells in a variety of fabrics. I suggest saving before finishing the coloring for the second quilt, as it will make the 3rd quilt much easier to create and color.
Notice that once you hide the quilt patch lines, you can see the alternate clamshells that appear in every other row. ![]()
To create the illusion of full clamshells in the alternate spaces, make sure to uncheck the boxes to show quilt and block patch lines when exporting the image.
When piecing this version of the quilt, you will want to use the center template from the block and ignore the corner pieces for those alternate clamshells. You could also alter the basic block to obtain templates for the half blocks at the edges and top and bottom. ![]()
By playing with Symmetry you can create different arrangements of the block. This particular arrangement also produces full clamshells. However they are rotated when compared to the Clamshell Quilt 2.
For quilts 4 and 5, I decided to create a block that used a orange peel unit in the alternate spaces. To achieve that look, add the orange peel to the first block. This is also a great option for playing with Symmetry in the Quilt worktable.
I am looking forward to seeing what you create with these two clamshell blocks. There are so many more options that what I presented.
But Wait -- There's More
In Tech Know Quilters I cover a number of different ways to create and work with clamshells in your quilts.
In the Tech Know Quilters Membership program, we first touch on creating clamshell blocks during the Mix and Match Medallion Borders class. The clamshell border I included in the class was inspired by a number of medallion quilts I saw during Quilt Market in Houston many years ago. One of the tricky parts in using a clamshell border in a rectangular quilt design is the potential need to include an inner borders to ensure the clamshell size stays the same on all four sides.
Here are a few examples of these clamshell borders from class participants.
After some encouragement from Tech Know Quilter Master's members, I decided to create an entire class for them on clamshell quilts. Tech Know Quilters members are eligible for the Masters program after completing 12 months of Tech Know Quilter classes. Masters members receive fewer lessons each month, with more time to devote to their own projects and challenges.
The group got very creative in applying the concepts from the class as you can see by the photos below. They found it so much fun to move beyond traditional clamshell quilts. And can I share a secret? None of the clamshells in these quilts are EasyDraw blocks.
Drop me a noteif you have completed over 12 months of Tech Know Quilters and are interested in learning more about the Masters program.
Drafting a Three Yard Quilt Using EQ8
Do you need a quick and easy quilt? This quilt designed in EQ8 can be pieced with three one yard cuts of fabrics. The yardage even includes the binding.
The quilt finishes 40" x 52" -- which is the perfect size for a quilt for a baby or a young toddler. Or even a lap quilt.
Did you like my technique to make sure we had sufficient yardage for the binding for the quilt? Just subtract 1/2 inch from the cut size of your favorite binding.
Here is the quilt from the video, along with the yardage chart (from the version with the adjusted binding).
I would love to see what fabrics you choose to use with your 3 yard quilt. Of course you could also swap out the blocks. Just double check to make sure your quilt can still be pieced with three one yard cuts of fabric.
Feel free to post pictures of your design on Facebook in the Learning EQ Facebook group. Three Yard Quilt Design Process
When I share my how-to videos, I typically have already designed my blocks and quilts and am sharing with you how to recreate my project. Just like I did in the above video.
I though I would also share with you my design process. This particular project had an added challenge in that I wanted my quilt to be able to be pieced with only 3 yards of fabric.
To get started, I found two blocks that I wanted to include in my 3-yard quilt.
After deciding on my blocks, I started playing with the different setting options.
Option #1Option #2Option #3Option #4Option #5Option #6Option #7
TKQ Masters 3 Yard Quilt Challenge Show
Tech Know Quilters members are eligible for the Masters program after completing 12 months of Tech Know Quilter classes. Masters members receive fewer lessons each month, with more time to devote to their own projects and challenges. During May Tech Know Quilters Masters members were challenged to create their own quilt that could be pieced with three one yard pieces of fabrics. I am so impressed with their designs. I think you will agree that they are incredibly talented. ![]()
Mary Groesbeck If I understand this week's challenge correctly...well...I feel like I'm cheating on this one. I love to buy "Yard Trios" from Pineapple Fabrics (3 1-yard matching fabrics). So I design these all the time. I sometimes add a solid (and sometimes they send me a free yard as a gift that I save to add to these kinds of things). I'm even in their Yard Trio Club, where they send me a mystery yard trio every month and I challenge myself to make something with it before the end of the month. Most of them don't have borders, so there are more blocks.
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Linda Carlson
My 3 yard challenge quilt, that's actually (3) different 3/4 yard pieces. It's my block featured on the back cover of the 3rd edition of B. Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, #1408, traditionally named The Bat. The block is a 4 patch, hence the 2 row look even though the layout was 3 wide X 1 height. |
Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
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