Bobbi Finley: One Quilter's Journey

Shirley G's amazing Tile Quilt

2012-02-29T11:54:00.000-08:00

Co-author, Carol Gilham Jones, has already talked about the amazing tile quilt we recently saw at our annual quilt retreat on to her blog http://www.carolgilhamjones.blogspot.com/ but I wanted to "piggyback" on her blog to show the pictures I was able to get of Shirley's quilt top.

Here is a wonky view of the whole quilt top showing the wonderful pieced Tree of Life medallion center and the surrounding piecing. And here are individual views of the tile border.

Shirley has cut out the flowers, leaves and vine from one floral fabric and appliqued them to the background fabric as a wonderful feature in the border. She then filled in the spaces with other fabrics in the typical random tile fashion. As Carol pointed out on her blog, the change of color for the grout in the fan-shaped corners adds even more interest with the negative/positive play.

This is obviously a quilt in progress. The picture of the full quilt top on the design wall on Carol's blog has another pieced border added. We can't wait to see this quilt completed. Especially when Shirley adds her wonderful machine quilting.

Thanks, Shirley, for inspiring us and taking the tile quilt method to a new level. I'm going to be on the lookout for a floral fabric that might lend itself to this design.

Recent Workshops

2012-01-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

I've had a couple fun workshops recently with great results. It is still so interesting to me to see the variety of fabrics the participants bring to work with. Someone always seems to bring Asian fabrics and since I rarely work with Asian fabrics, I love to see how they work in Tile Quilt blocks. I think the answer is very well!

The first workshop was at Piecemakers of South Alameda County on 7 January -- the first Saturday of 2012 and a good way to start off the year. Here are some of the blocks, with Asian fabrics used in the first one.

I'm always pleased when someone has designed their own tile quilt block. Here is one Cindy S. designed with images that inspire her.

Cindy's drawing

And her block in the process of fabric selection.

And on January 10th, I was in King City at the Valley Heritage Quilt Guild.

Holly C. had designed a block based roughly on the Winding Ways pattern.

Here is her pattern and a computer drawing of how it will look with 4 blocks.

And here is her first block with the fabrics selected and the applique stitching begun in the center. Great fabric choices. I hope I get to see all of the blocks when finished!

And here are the rest of the blocks from King City with the usual variety of fabric choices for the tile pieces and the background which becomes the grout lines.

Check us out on the Radio!

2012-01-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Pat Sloan has invited Carol Gilham Jones and me to be guests on her internet radio quilting show! Pat's program is American Patchwork & Quilting Radio, which can be heard live on Mondays at 4:00 ET. In case you miss the show live, recordings are available later.

We will be talking about our book, Tile Quilt Revival.

Here's a link to Pat's website: http://www.creativetalknetwork.com/

We will be guests on Pat's show Monday, January 16, 2012. It's 4:00 Eastern Time, so adjust for your time zone if you plan to listen to the live broadcast. Go to this link to listen: www.allpeoplequilt.com/radio/index.html live and to listen again.

Just Finished

2012-01-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

First of all, Happy New Year to all. I hope all your quilting resolutions are achieved, especially if it includes a tile quilt!

Last spring I had the pleasure to attend a reunion of sorts with a group of quilting friends who have shared many good times together in many places but mostly in a sewing room at a quilt retreat at Point Bonita, just north of the Golden Gate. Some of us will be back there at the end of this month. The spring gathering was in Nebraska at the lovely Lied Lodge in Nebraska City. On the way back to the airport to drop off those who had flown in for the retreat, we stopped at The Quilt Shoppe in Stewartsville, Missouri for one last shopping opportunity. I gathered up a group of fat quarters that were nicely arranged and for some reason spoke to me. I don't usually do "cute" but these seemed to be a more sophisticated cute! For a change, when I got home instead of just putting these fabrics in my stash, I kept them together and finally found time to do something with them. Here is the result.

I'm calling it Sweet Shoppe. The fabrics include cakes, teacups, crowns, roses and other flowers, and some words in French.

I've loved the Winding Ways pattern for a long time. I think it's the way the blocks create the interlocking larger circles though in the case of this small quilt with only 9 blocks there is only one full circle. Several years ago I purchased a set of ARDCO metal templates from Quiltsmith, Ltd. http://www.ardcotemplates.com/ in Poquoson, Virginia in the 6'' block size. The templates are available in several sizes. I found the templates very useful and the accompanying instructions very helpful in assembling the quilt blocks. Someday perhaps I'll get around to making a larger quilt, maybe with larger blocks, but I think the pattern worked well with these fabrics.

The quilt is 23 1/2 '' square and is hand quilted.

Christmas Crafts

2011-12-18T17:03:00.000-08:00

Last spring I had the pleasure of watching a fantastic concert as part of PBS fundraising. It was the 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables filmed in October 2010. The tenor singing the role of Jean Valjean blew me away and I had to find out who he was. Little did I know that it would change my life. As I searched online for more information I joined his official website and have made friends from England and the US, one of which is a quilter so I will get to making this about quilting. But first, Alfie Boe has an amazing voice, an amazing story and is a wonderful person. Just Google his name if you want to learn more and there are lots of videos on youtube but here's a link to one with images of the concert including Alfie singing the signature song, Bring Him Home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RTXGA6l7LDU

The quilter I met is Nancy H. who is from Arizona. Nancy went to London last September to see Mr. Boe perform the role of Jean Valjean in the stage production of Les Miserables at the Queens Theatre and I was there in October to celebrate my XXth (BIG) birthday seeing Alfie in Les Mis. After months of online correspondence, Nancy recently came to visit and she brought me a lovely gift that she had made.

These buttons are all hand stitched to the red fabric and then set in the frame with the handsome bow. Needless to say, I was quite surprised and pleased to have received this lovely gift.

So, in return, I have sent to Nancy this Snowman Door Hanger I made for her.

And while she was here visiting, we thought it appropriate that we should have Afternoon Tea to celebrate our trips to England and our new found friendship -- all because of a certain English Tenor.

Nancy and Bobbi at Afternoon Tea

By the way, we both, separately, made quilts for Alfie for his birthday, but perhaps that's for another day's blog.

I hope all of your craft projects are finished and you are as happy to give and receive them as I am.

Happy Holidays to all!

Sierra Quilt Guild of Tuolumne County

2011-11-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

On Monday, November 14, I had a great time in the Sierra foothills at the Sierra Quilt Guild of Tuolumne County in Sonora. It was a beautiful autumn day and I got out before the first snow of the year a few days later! We had a great workshop and I wanted to share the photos of the blocks made in the class. As usual a great variety of fabrics were used and besides the two block patterns I offer for the workshop, one person used another pattern from the book with Civil War reproduction fabrics. The lecture in the evening introduced the historic tile quilts and I was rewarded with a copy of the Guild's cookbook. I'm anxious to try some of the recipes!

These blocks will be great when stitched and the "grout" (background fabric) is revealed between the "tiles".

Tile Quilt Classes

2011-10-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

I lectured and taught a workshop at my local guild the end of last month, the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Assn. We had a great workshop and I wanted to post some pictures of the blocks in progress.
But first, at the Show and Tell portion of the meeting, Mel B. showed the Tile Quilt block she had made from a Starry Orange Peel pattern at a previous workshop at the local quilt shop. When she finished her block she used it to make a great tote bag. Here is a picture of the bag with a copy of Tile Quilt Revival conveniently tucked inside. Mel was new to hand work but she persevered and finished the block by hand. Thanks, Mel, you did a fantastic job.

And now for some of the photos from the SVCQA workshop. Most of these photos were taken after the fabric selections were made but before the actual stitching was started to create the grout lines so you have to imagine the lines of background fabric showing between the pieces! Thanks to you all. You did a great job and you were so much fun to work with!

This block is an original design.

Carol and I have always said that the tile quilt technique invites interpretation in a great variety of fabrics and these blocks certainly illustrate that with the wonderful choices these students have made.

Lotus Quilts

2011-09-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year Carol and I learned of a group in Florida (with one member in Michigan!) who were making versions of Lotus, the quilt on the cover of Tile Quilt Revival. Carol mentioned it on her blog at the time. We now have pictures of each of the finished quilts. They are wonderfully different and we are so pleased to see the many ways this quilt can be interpreted. And so pleased that Tile Quilts continue to inspire others. You can also find a photo of the group with their quilts on Carol's blog http://www.carolgilhamjones.blogspot.com/ and below are photos of the individual quilts.

Joy

Barbara

Susan

Marie from Michigan

Susy

Last but not least, Margaret, the organizer.

Three cheers for the Orlando/Michigan Lotus quilts. Thanks for sharing your wonderful quilts.

Margaret has a website and a blog. Here's a link to the blog http://eazypeazyquilts.blogspot.com/

Eagle Quilts

2011-08-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Eagle quilts were a popular genre in the early 1800s - no doubt in celebration of our new country and its emblem. I was attracted to quilts with eagles and my opportunity to make one came in 2006 when the topic for the Biennial Quilt Study of the American Quilt Study Group was "Pre-1840s Bed Coverings". The format for the AQSG Quilt Studies is to choose an antique quilt in the topic category and study the antique quilt by making your own interpretation. The interpretation could be an exact replica or simply "inspired by" the original. A size restriction is imposed in order to facilitate displaying the quilts at Seminar so the interpretation could be a part of the original or simply scaled down.

The quilt I chose to interpret was made by Anna Catherine Hummel Markey Garnhart (1773 - 1860) of Frederick, Maryland. From 1815 to 1830, Anna Garnhart made 11 quilts for each of her grandchildren. At least nine of these quilts survive. All feature extensive use of reverse applique and sumptuous fabrics. At least four and possibly seven of the quilts feature a central eagle of her own design, possibly inspired by the eagle printed on an imported china pitcher she owned. The other quilts feature flower baskets in the broderie perse style of applique. The quilt I chose has both and eagle and a flower basket.

Anna's quilt can be seen at the Quilt Index website: http://www.quiltindex.org/. Search for Anna Garnhart.

I chose to interpret only the center medallion of the DAR quilt. Being faithful to Anna, I used reverse applique for the eagle and stars. I was half-way through the leaf border surrounding the medallion using regular needle-turn applique when I realized that Anna had probably used reverse applique for her quilt. My quilt is 40'' x 32'' and I call it "Remembering Anna Garnhart."

Remembering Anna Garnhart

One thing should be noted. I worked from two photographs of the quilt.published in two different DAR sources. After the quilt was completed, I discovered another photo and found that the eagle was facing in the opposite direction of my quilt and the photographs I had used! Yikes! I contacted Alden O'Brien, Curator at the DAR, and she confirmed that in Anna's quilt the eagle is indeed facing in the opposite direction of mine!

Last year, Sue Wildemuth of Illinois contacted me with the news that she was working on an interesting project called "Eagle Motif Wallhanging Decade by Decade". She wanted to collect a wallhanging inspired by an eagle quilt from every decade through 2010 and asked if I would like to take part. The quilt was to be no larger than 24'' x 24''. I loved the idea and the 1820s decade was not taken yet so Anna's quilt was the perfect inspiration. I loved making it again with a few changes to accommodate the size. This quilt is called Anna's Eagle. And it gave me the opportunity to place the eagle facing in the right direction this time!

Here is Sue's blog: http://sew-eyeoftheneedlequilthistory.blogspot.com/


Anna's Eagle

And, recently I found that I could have saved a lot of time and energy because Wyndham fabrics has produced a fabric line inspired from the DAR collection which included a panel of Anna's quilt.


Printed panel of Anna's quilt

Looks like Wyndham got the eagle facing the wrong way too!

Friendship's Offering

2011-07-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate to live in Williamsburg, Virginia for seven years where this California native was able to experience all the history and treasures of the other coast. While there, I was happy to be part of a wonderful group of quilters who called themselves The Glory Bee! Many of the group did wonderful applique and we always did hand work when we got together most Friday mornings. It is a group with a great range of talents and interests and always a lot of fun, which continues without me!
When I left town in 2009 to return to California, I was overwhelmed when they presented me with a beautiful appliqued quilt top they had made for me. I was to add the border and finish the quilt. The fabrics in the quilt were all from the first line by Windham Fabrics inspired by Colonial Williamsburg quilts which made the quilt even more special for me. Each block is signed by the maker and includes personal notes. On the book in the center block is: "Friendship's Offering to Bobbi Finley/The Glory Bee, Williamsburg, Virginia". Needless to say this is a treasure.

Here is a picture of all of us with the quilt top at my going away lunch in front of one of our favorite restaurants in Careytown in Richmond.

(l to r) Barbara O, Jane, Jean, Lee, Me, Martha, Barbara G, Elaine and Cindy

July 2009

I am pleased that late last month, I was finally back in Williamsburg and Barbara G. hosted a Glory Bee reunion potluck. It was so wonderful to see everyone again and I was able to show them my quilt which I had finally finished hand quilting just before I left on the trip.

Here is Friendship's Offering with (l to r) Barbara, Jane, me, Martha, Lee and Jean.

These are the ones who made the quilt. Do we look proud and happy?

And, for the record, here is the rest of the crew:

Same as above with Elaine added on the left and Cindy kneeling on the floor with Barbara.

The last two photos, courtesy of Cindy.

Thank you, Glory Bee!

My New Tile Quilt, An Alfie Dream

2011-06-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

An Alfie Dream, by Bobbi Finley 39'' x 39'' (above)

All in a Dream, by Kathe Dougherty 74'' x 74'' (below)

Kathe Dougherty made a wonderful tile quilt for our book, Tile Quilt Revival, which is pictured here on the right. Large scale prints and stripes with a balance of warm and cool colors were used and she arranged the blocks to create an overall pattern of warm and cool diamonds. The "grout" lines between her tile pieces add diagonal interest. In addition to her great color sense and design ability, Kathe used her excellent machine applique skills in making her quilt. I really love this quilt.

Since Kathe and her quilt reside in Lawrence, Kansas, and Carol, my co-author has the opportunity to show this quilt when she lectures on tile quilts, I thought about making a smaller version of Kathe's quilt to show in my lectures.

On a recent visit to Back Porch Quilts in Pacific Grove, I found a wonderful selection of Kaffe Fassett stripes and shot cottons and my version of All in a Dream finally came to be. I decided on only 4 blocks. And, while it was my intention to machine applique the blocks, I guess I just prefer hand work and so, in the end, my quilt is hand appliqued.

I named my quilt, An Alfie Dream. Why? I discovered the English tenor, Alfie Boe, on the recent Les Miserables telecast and ordered one of his CDs. All the time I was designing my quilt, I was listening to the CD of Show tunes that I'd just received. When I finished I realized that I was lost in a dream of color and fabric and beautiful song, so I decided to call the quilt, An Alfie Dream. The quilt is shown at the top. I'm not sure it does Kathe's quilt justice.

2011-05-17T14:51:00.001-07:00

More Tile Quilts.

I belong to the Applique Goddesses here in San Jose. The group has been active for many years now and has members who love all kinds of applique. Occasionally, a challenge is offered with a packet of fabrics to be used, either all or some, and a couple can be added. The resulting small quilts are exhibited at the Prairie Queens Quilt Shop in San Jose where we meet. Customers are asked to vote for their favorite.

As it happens, the first and second choices were both tile quilts. Helen Hodack of Los Gatos took first place with a quilt she designed after a visit to Turkey where she saw the wonderful stained glass windows in the Blue Mosque. Helen purchased our book and needed no further instruction! Her quilt, seen above, is called Turkish Delight. It's definitely a winner! Her quilt is on the left above.

The second place went to my quilt, Winding New Ways, which was made from a block that Carol and I designed and submitted to "Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks from today's top designers" magazine published last year. It is the traditional Winding Ways block redesigned as a tile block.
The quilt is on the right above.

Label Your Quilts

2011-03-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

We're always being told to label our quilts. The quilt historians of the future will love us if we do! Heeding that advice, I have generally been in the habit of labeling my quilts. That advice came to nice result lately. In 1990, I made a wall quilt as a gift to my aunt and uncle for their 50th wedding anniversary. Aunt Elizabeth was my mother's sister and my only aunt. And she was a wonderful aunt, even though she lived clear across the country in Florida from me in California. When I did manage to get to Florida for a visit I was always pleased to see the quilt I gave them hanging in the hallway. My aunt passed away several years ago and just last month, my uncle followed her. Recently, I received an email from their son. He and his sister had started to sort through their parents' house and their many collections. He found the label on the back of the quilt which stated who it was for and for what occasion, "given with love and admiration", the date and my name. My cousin reported that he had the quilt and he and his wife are redoing their Will to be sure the quilt stays in the family. So, labeling your quilts is good advice!

The quilt is named Star of the Orient. It was a little tricky to piece the stars.

Latest Quilt

2011-03-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

From my first quilt to the latest I have finished. And this is a tile quilt. It's called Birds in a Cherry Tree and is based on an Arts and Crafts embroidered panel. Most of the fabrics are from Barbara Brackman's William Morris lines for Moda. This quilt is 24" square and a pattern may be coming soon.

2011-02-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

It seems appropriate that my first post to "One Quilter's Journey" should be my first quilt. It is called Holly and the Ivy and is from a pattern in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, Nov. - Dec., 1987. It is all done by hand because that's how I thought quilts were supposed to be made. Though I had sewn clothes since I was a young girl, I really didn't know how to make a quilt. I still love to do hand work.