Learning: Fat Thread Quilting with Mary Mashuta

I've been wanting to take Mary Mashuta's Foolproof Machine Quilting class for awhile, and finally, the stars aligned, my Saturday was free, and the class had a couple of empty spaces.  I've been adoring Mary's quilts for a long time.  I had her Cotton Candy Quilts book continually checked out of the Berkeley Public Library for months at a time until I finally found my own copy, so I was really excited to take a class from her.

She uses a process of quilting that doesn't involve marking your quilt top.  Instead, you use contact paper cut-outs to create designs that you then stick onto your quilt and quilt around.  She also uses very thick threads, and I love that look!

Here are a couple of my class samples. 

I can't wait to use this technique on a bigger project!

Inspiration: Sujata Shah

A couple days ago, Sujata from the Root Connection did a feature on her blog about my quilts.  What an honor!  I've been admiring her quilts through flickr as well and decided to return the love.  A girl who loves color, does strippy circles and stripey stripe quilts from reclaimed materials is a girl after my own heart!  She also designs patterns!  My favorite design that she has a pattern for is Wagon Wheels.

1. Wagon Wheel, 2. String Quilt, 3. Shirts from the Goodwill Store, 4. Inspiration from Gee's Bend

Inspiration: Kim Eichler-Messmer's Beautiful Hand-dyed Quilts

I recently discovered these beautiful quilts while perusing Pinterest. I love everything about them.

Kim Eichler-Messmer's Quilts

To find out more about her, check out her blog or her website.

Love, love, love.

Inspiration: Martha Jane Pettway

This is the quilt that inspired me to make my green and white linen split log cabin quilt.  The original is in the Quilts of Gee's Bend collection. It is also made of corduroy, which I love in a quilt, but I cannot imagine hand quilting through corduroy.

Martha Jane Pettway, born 1898. "Housetop"--nine-block "Half-Logcabin" variation, ca. 1945, corduroy, 72 x 72 inches.

I think I remember from the show that the corduroy used was leftover scraps from home goods that women in the town were sewing up for a regional department store.  For my version, I used thrift store linen tablecloths and bits of old blue jeans.

PSsst - Click on the link below the Martha Jane Pettway quilt to see some A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. quilts.  You can also see loads of contemporary quilts by clicking on the Blogger's Quilt Festival button below!