Liberated Log Cabins

I made these six blocks in the workshop.

Well, good morning!  Yesterday was day three this week of having fun with fabric and creativity, and (almost) not thinking about work.  Yay.   It was extremely enjoyable and motivating.  Gwen Marston has a delightful style of teaching and a wonderfully quirky sense of humor.  She brought some of her earlier small quilts as well as newer ones where she's using one block for the whole piece.  Of course as soon as I saw it I had to buy her newest book, because there were so many more color-block type pieces.  These really motivated me.  


There was much less teaching time and more sewing time that in the Janet Fogg workshop, but I didn't really mind as I was eager to get to sewing right away when the ideas started to flow.  But I try to make a point of remembering in classes that I paid to be there hearing from the instructor, and learning from the other students' works and ideas, not to sit in a corner and sew, which I can (theoretically) do anytime. 

I also made 16 partial mini-blocks - One seems to be MIA

There were a few familiar faces from past classes and the guild, and it's nice to feel like I'm finally starting to get to know some other local quilters.  There was also a fair contingent of "in the box" people trying to figure out how to get out.  They all should get an A+ for effort because there was a whole wall full of really great blocks posted by the end of the day.  I'm off to get started on the weekend chores, then I'll be back to post photos.
Much as I want to jump back into my log cabin or my piece from the earlier workshop, I think I will buckle down and finish the placements first today.  I need to get that project cleaned up and off the table.  
Later:  Place mat piecing is finished.  I need to decide how to bind.  I don't think I can face  6 mats x 4 sides x 14" each = 336 inches of strip binding, so I will probably use a pillowcase type, with top stitching.


So as promised, here are some shots from the workshop:  First, some of Gwen's samples:

This is the one that made me want to try the small "half-cabins."  It's about  18 x 24, maybe less.

Another earlier piece.  
I think the big border helps calm the "wonkiness."

This one used a whole bunch of prints, many of them with stars.

Her current work is all in solids, and she's been playing with the idea of entire quilts being made up of one giant block: 

Here's one of her single block pieces, surrounded by some of the student work.

This student did a good job with the "giant block" theme.

Student work

More 

One of the nicest student projects

Some of the quilts in the book worked with very minimal color palettes, which I really admired, but couldn't see myself doing - at least not at this workshop...  Here's a very nice example.  

Really nice compositions and effective use of color.

I didn't photograph all of them, but it was very interesting to see how different they all came out,  here are a few more random shots.  I was surprised how many people chose to "fussy cut" from novelty fabric.  The last picture shows my favorite of this style, where she interspersed some white printed fabric in her bright blocks.