A collaboration, parts 1 and 2

And, it's Design Wall Monday!  Read all the way and you'll see it.  

Part 1:

We have a son that is a maker.  He comes by it honest; but the great thing is that he does beautiful work, and I sit back and admire that he managed to acquire that particular gene or trait, which I believe is from his father’s line and my father’s line. 

In other words, he is an artist.  He makes his living as one.  For a few years we have discussed the desire to collaborate.  Life and the pandemic got in the way.  He came over to the apartment sometime in the summer of 2021 and pulled a few pieces from the fabric stash closet.  I sent him a photo of the fabrics so he could stew on it if he liked.

In July 2021, we started working on the project.  He’s leading the effort; he throws some fabric on the design wall and I comment.  Most of the decisions are his, but I’ve suggested some changes along the way and he has acquiesced. 

There was much discussion to get this far.

Cutting strips and auditioning placement

THIS IS FUN.

While writing this post, I was reminded of a class I took with the late, great Gwen Marston--Liberated Blocks.  That was about 25 years ago and what I took from that class forever changed my outlook on quilting.  Liberated, indeed. 

When we stopped, this is where we were:

The plan was that he would come back later that week to continue our work (or fun).  But two days later he called me out of concern due to the spike in Covid cases here in Arkansas.  Even though we are both fully vaccinated and he works almost 6 feet away from me in my studio, I understand his concerns and appreciate his desire to protect his parents and himself.  When we get together again to work on it (which may be via FaceTime), I’ll post the progress.

Part 2--Fast forward to January 2023:

And a year-and-a-half later, we met in person to collaborate again.  I’m having so much fun doing this and believe he is, too; he’s the one that called and said, “Mom, can we work on the quilt?”  Silly boy, of course we can!

After everything was back on the design wall, I mentioned it needed some green.  We ended up buying two pieces of yardage.  We went to Hobby Lobby and found a green we both liked, but it’s a poly-cotton blend.  We also found a tan Kaufman woven with great texture.  He also found a chartreuse stripe from my stash.  Each found a place in the quilt, and each of those fabrics will find other places in the quilt.

There are other things in the photo trying to get attention; please ignore
that gold fabric in the lower left corner with the red text. 

It is still a WIP and I don’t know when we will meet again but it’s on the design wall and will stay there as I’m now packing up as much of the studio as I can stand to be without for the next 2-1/2 months. We never tried FaceTime for this project; he wants to be in the room—can’t say I blame him!

I may be flying under the radar for a bit.  We still have a couple of decisions to make on the new house, and we may be driving up to Memphis to shop for those things.  I still can’t believe we’re less than 90 days to closing, but I am happy about it.  Hubs is building our barn doors for the studio and the master bathroom and I may be assisting at some point.  Since Cindy is allowing me to use her Bernina Q20 to quilt, I can go to her home on a rainy weekend and get a couple of quilts done, and that will feel good. 

In the meantime I’ll keep packing, but you need to go make!