Monday, November 16, 2009

Who has most influenced your quilting?

I just got home from watching Pat Sloan's trunk show at our guild meeting. It was a great lecture and lots of really neat quilts. I'm going to take the class tommorrow so I got to pack up my stuff for that still. During the meeting I started jotting down the quilters who have most influenced my quilting journey. Most of them I have never had the chance to meet in person. I've just read their books and admired their work. Here's my list:

Laura Heine- she taught me that your quilting thread does not have to be small and quiet but big and bold!

Valori Wells- she showed me that free motion quilting can be organic and free following. It does not have to follow a rigid pattern and be exactly the same for each motif. Valori has probably influenced my actual quilting style more than anyone.

Karen Stone- her scrappy patterns, use of tons of fabrics, and spikey edges opened up a new frontier for me. I actually has the opportunity to take a class with her several years ago and she is a great teacher.

Freddy Moran- her use of color, color, and more color!! Freddy tends to use many of the same blocks over and over again. She showed me how working in a series allows you to play with an idea and explore it further.

Gwen Martson- her liberated quilting making style showed me how much more interesting a design looks when each block is not all exactly the same. Also Gwen uses alot of solids which I used to think were "boring" fabrics until I saw how big of an impact solids have on a design. They elevated a quilt from being something you put on a bed to something you hang in an art gallery.

Unknown quilt show appraiser- I was talking to her and telling her how it was funny that I do so little applique but that is what I tend to excel in for the quilt show judging world. She told me, maybe the quilts are trying to tell you something......and this is encourage me to do more with creating my own appliques since these tend to be my "arty" pieces.

Who's influenced your quilting??????? Post a comment below, I would love to hear!

1 comment:

9patchnurse said...

Well I just don't know..... My first quilt teacher was Ann Majors and I always hear her voice when I'm sewing "make it fit". Kelly Wulfsohn from Don't Look Now has certainly influenced my fabric and color choices for the past year. And finally, my quilt buddies, The Wild Threads, have really taught me to use my imagination more and just try things.