Inspiration from Gwen Marston

Part of the reason I'm having such a hard time with this upcoming move is that I won't have all my books and fabric once I'm in Florida. There's only so much I can take with me and shipping costs do add up. I know in some ways it will be a good exercise for me - only quilting with the stash I have on hand will force me to be more creative.

I am taking some of my solids with me. I still really want to do a quilt combining my letters with Gwen Marston's book Ideas and Inspiration (available from her website, which has recently been updated with news from Beaver Island).

I have Gwen's permission (in a roundabout way) to share this quilt with you. It's Strippy, made in 2007 and measuring 39 x 49

I love everything about this quilt. The colors and different sizes of blocks. Yummy. I can envision adding a word here or there in a large block. My quilt wouldn't end up looking like this one, but hopefully have some of the same elements.

Can you see how this is constructed? There are eleven vertical rows. Those are the longest seams, so you know they were sewn last, not counting the borders. Still can't quite figure it out? Print out a copy of this picture. Then take paper scissors to it. Cut along the long seams separating the rows. You can cut keep cutting along seams, always starting with the longest ones available.

One of these days, when I'm settled and have some fabric, I really do want to have a class/get together where we work with my letters and Gwen's book. Should be lots of fun and I hope you'll join me. You will need to have a copy of Gwen's book though - that will be a class requirement.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to pack Gwen's Liberated Quiltmaking in my backpack. There's going to be lots of other stuff in there like my nice camera and the external hard drive... Ack.

Changing the topic, but still thinking about the move, Howler and Habibi are going via a pet transport company. They're getting picked up this morning at 11:00am. I think we've come up with a good plan to get them into their cages. It would be so much easier if we could do it how we've done it before, but now they're too smart to fall for that again. We'll be taking Lily and Pokey with us tomorrow as carry-ons.

I expect this will be my last post from Paris. Not quite sure when I'll be up and running in Florida, but I'll see you then.