Join Quilters Guild Acadienne on a bus trip to meet the world famous Quilters of Gee's Bend

On March 31, Quilters' Guild Acadienne is hosting a bus trip to visit the world famous quilters of Gee's Bend. This three day road trip will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet these fascinating ladies who have influenced so many quilters with their unique perspective and improvisational style. Their quilts have been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and even featured on US postage stamps. Our visit will offer more than you could ever experience by simply viewing their quilts in a museum. We'll visit the Gee's Bend Collective and actually get to see where these ladies gather and quilt. We'll see their quilts up close and get a chance to to talk with them and hear their own stories first hand. We'll even get a chance to sit down and learn their techniques by quilting along with them.

The quilting tradition in Gee's Bend goes back to the 19th century. Perhaps influenced in part by patterned African textiles, female slaves pieced together strips of cloth to make bedcovers. Throughout the post-bellum years and into the 20th century, Gee's Bend women made quilts to keep themselves and their children warm in unheated shacks that lacked running water, telephones and electricity. Along the way they developed a distinctive style, noted for its lively improvisations and geometric simplicity.

Our bus trip is open to the public and will depart from Lafayette, LA on Thursday, March 31 at 7 am and return on Saturday, April 2 around 9:30 pm. We'll be travelling on a comfortable chartered Hotard bus and staying two nights at the Jackson, AL Hampton Inn. No quilters' road trip would be complete without stopping at some quilt shops along the way, so we'll be stopping at 3 quilt shops Thursday and 4 more on the return drive Saturday. Packages range from $270-$518 depending on several options such as inclusion of boxed lunches for 3 days, an extra bus seat to spread out and bring carry on items on the bus or a private hotel room. For more information or to register for the trip, email Jonelle (aka Torch).

Here's a brief summary of the trip:

Thursday, March 31 - Bus departs from Lafayette at 7 am, boxed lunch on bus available
Bus stops at 3 quilt shops - Heirlooms QuiltShoppe, St. Francisville, LA, Mama's Quilt Shop, Independence, LA and The Stitchin' Post, Hattiesburg, MS
Bus arrives in Jackson, LA. Dinner out in Jackson, AL (Pizza Hut)

Friday, April 1 - Bus departs Jackson, AL for Boykin (Gee's Bend).
Visit the Gee's Bend Collective, tour Gee's Bend Quilt Mural Trail. Box lunch available.
Bus returns to Jackson around 6 pm. Dinner out in Jackson (The Fish House)

Saturday, April 2 - Bus departs Jackson at 8:30 am, boxed lunch available.
Bus stops at 4 quilt shops - Block Therapy, Gautier, MS, Coastal Sew and Vac and Quilt Shop, Gulfport,MS, The Fabric Dock, Wiggins, MS, Bright Hopes Quilting, Mandeville, LA
Bus stops at Piccadilly for dinner and returns to Lafayette around 9:30 pm

by Amy Aderman

Block 2 - Lemoyne Star

Block 2, the Lemoyne Star is always a popular quilt block and it's got to be a favorite here in Louisiana - being named after two of our local historic figures - Iberville and Bienville!

Here's what I found when I searched for a little more history of the block:

“Lemoyne Star” is the name of a traditional quilt design whose earliest known published date is 1911 (according to Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns). The con guration falls into the category of “eight-point/45° diamond stars.” The pattern itself has earlier origins than its published date. Ruth Finley in her book Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them, 1929, states that this particular quilt block was called “Star of Lemoyne”, “Lemoyne Star”, or “Lemon Star” (in New England), and she reveals that the design takes its name from the two LeMoyne brothers who settled Louisiana in 1699.

-Patricia L. Cummings, Quilter’s Muse Virtual Museum, www.quiltersmuse.com/Lemoyne_Star_miniature_quilt.htm

- Reposted from QuiltMag.com

But making this Lemoyne Star block the traditional way usually involves a technique that many quilters refer to as "the dreaded Y-seam".  Wait!  Don't run away!  This version using Half-Square Triangles is known as the Lemoyne Star made easy - absolutely no Y-seams!

So if you've avoided making the Lemoyne Star, it's time to try this version.

Just like Block 1, following the pattern for cutting instructions, make your HSTs, then put together 4 units that look like this, pressing seams in direction of arrows.  Then sew the 4 units into two units, then into one.

by Amy Aderman

Coming Soon:  Block 3 - Windblown Square

Block 1 - Quilt Inspiration

Recognize this Block?  It's our Block 1 - Flying X.  This Quilt Pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Twirl Around found in Quiltmaker Magazine.

Bonnie Hunter's Twirl Around

LOUISIANA: “OH, WHAT A STATE WE’RE IN!”

LOUISIANA: “OH, WHAT A STATE WE’RE IN!”

BY QUILTERS’ GUILD ACADIENNE/MOD SQUAD, LAFAYETTE, LA

Our Mod Squad is a modern quilting interest group, comprised of individual members of The Modern Quilt Guild. We are all members of Quilters’ Guild Acadienne, a 25-year-old traditional quilt guild.   We saw this challenge as an opportunity to expose our traditional quilters to the world of modern quilting. We invited all guild members to participate.   Quilters of all levels, most of whom were new to modern quilting, accepted.  With little or no knowledge of how to begin, we began. 

As a group we watched the webinar “Improv with Intent.” We browsed galleries of modern quilts, and discussed how traditional concepts, techniques, and designs can be adapted for modern quilting.  Since most of us were modern quilting newbies, we decided to collaborate by sharing ideas, teaching and learning from others. Our number one priority was for our collaboration to be a fun, social learning process. Working alongside intermediate and advanced quilters, novices soaked up tips, techniques, and confidence; they shared their own knowledge, as well. Everyone grew from this exciting collaboration.

Mod Squad members, Diane & Beth hard at work.

The webinar, inspirational photos, and state maps led to a brainstorming session for determining our intent.  We decided that we would represent various aspects of our beautiful state then connect them all with the winding river.  We started with a very rough sketch of the concept.  Then at each sewing session, team members used his or her imagination to create landmarks, memories, and representational pieces in both abstract and realistic designs.  The prescribed color palette, at first a challenge, soon became a source of fun and whimsy, spurring our imaginations. 

Making lots of chunks

When visiting our quilt, visualize scenes along the Mississippi and its tributaries. Can you find rice fields, crawfish ponds, a shrimp boat and an oil rig? Can you feel the joie de vivre in the vibrant rhythm of jazz and zydeco?  Our state flower, bird, tree, and insect each have a place.  The tranquility of the rural areas and the energy of the urban scenes flow around each other as one discovers Louisiana.

Whether you’ve lived in Louisiana your whole life or are a transplant from somewhere else, or even a visitor, you can’t help but be inspired.  Just as threads bind the various pieces of a quilt together, the mighty Mississippi is a source of energy stitching together all aspects of our lives:  connecting, enriching, sustaining, feeding, and binding us all. 

The Charity Quilt Challenge has stirred the pot within our guild and challenged traditional members, both novices and experts, to taste a genre perhaps unfamiliar to them.  We’ve added spice to our pot and a new flavor to our already rich gumbo.

Nadine, Torch and Diane try to "Make it work"

Quilters:

Amy Aderman
Beth Andrepont
Jonelle Archibald
Kenneth Broussard
Nadine Cain
Marci Collins
Linda Ducotey

Judy Garber
Beth Glass
Stella Guidry
Marty Mason
Diane Redfearn
Polly Stacks

&

Linda Poole (Long-arm Quilter)

And the back.

by the Mod Squad

Mod Squad and The QuiltCon Charity Challenge

If you haven’t heard, Quilters’ Guild Acadienne includes a group of Modern Quilters known as The Mod Squad.  We meet regularly to explore our shared interest in Modern Quilting.  A few months ago, we decided to participate in The Quilt Con Charity Challenge.  After the complete quilts are displayed at QuiltCon West in Pasadena, guilds are asked to donate the completed quilt to a local charity supported by their guild.

The guidelines for the challenge were to work collaboratively to create completed quilts using a predetermined color palette and improv with intent.  The color palette can be described as white, off-white, sunflower, tomato red, light teal, grey and black.  Improv with intent has been defined in various ways.  Modern Quilter Cheryl Arkison, states, “Improv is more than sewing together random bits of fabric. You can take an idea, an image, or an object and translate it into a block or quilt via improvisational piecing.” Alexandra Ledgerwood , another modern quilter defines her approach to improv quilting as “a creative approach to piecing fabrics, working largely without a pattern but with an overall design goal in mind.” 

We decided to take on the challenge and have been working on our quilt for months.  It's almost complete.  Just some binding, a sleeve and label, then we’ll be shipping it off to Pasadena where it will be displayed in QuiltCon West, Feb 18 – 21, 2016.

If you are interested in joining The Mod Squad, contact Torch Archibald or Amy Aderman.

Coming soon – more about Mod Squad’s entry in The QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge

by Amy Aderman