Quilt from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 05-08-21

For quite a few years I posted a quilt from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection every Sunday.  Don't know how I got away from that and I think I will start doing it again.  So, here is the first of many.  There are now about 380 quilts in the Collection from postcard size to a few that fill a wall.  I do have my favorite artists, there are 34 Ruth B. McDowell quilts!  

"The Red Hen" Ruth B. McDowell  2010 17"W X 20"L

Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batting, cotton thread.

Machine pieced (straight line piecing) and machine quilted. 

Ruth's method of piecing is complicated to learn, but once mastered it is a very effective way to construct a quilt.  I have taken dozens of classes from her and always hoped I could acquire the skill she has at fabric selection.  She is the very best, but I have concluded that it is an intuitive skill, not one that can be learned.  This quilt shows some of that skill.  Who else would use a plaid against a large flower and the various patterned white for the background?  And look at those outrageous feet!   You will see more of Ruth's chicken (and duck) quilts in future postings.  I find them enchanting.

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In an April long ago 04-18-20

Looking back in my picture files again.  Just typed in "April" and found a few quilt images. 

This is from April 2005 in a class at Empty Spools with Sylvia Einstein.  Sylvia did wonderful wedding ring pattern quilts and had us use the same templates with original settings.   I think I called mine "Green Trails".  It has yet to be quilted.

This picture is from April 2003 when this quilt hung in a big show in Pennsylvania.  It is a group quilt with blocks made by friends of Judy House who subsequently died of cancer.  It started out as just a few blocks from Empty Spools friends and spread to her friends all over the country.  Unfortunately we didn't put any dimensions on the request for blocks so there was no uniformity.  It took me forever to put it together and I had to make some small blocks as fillers.  I still get a kick out of the chicken in the lower right with a block of three eggs right below it.  Looks startled!  After her death the family donated the quilt to a children's hospital or clinic in the Washington DC area.  Might have been Walter Reed.  As difficult as it was to put together I think it is the most fun quilt I have ever worked on.  

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Re-visit a Ruth McDowell chicken quilt 07-31-16

There are quite a few of Ruth McDowell's quilts in TCQC, including half a dozen chicken quilts.  She did quite a few "fowl" quilts a couple years ago and had a great time with the fabric choices.  I posted this one only a year and a half ago, but it has caught my eye lately, so I am repeating it.  Check the  link for more pictures and explanations.

 

 

"He Caught Her Eye" Ruth B. McDowell 2014  30"W x 34.5"L

Such a jazzy, glorious couple they are.

  

 https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3236658054810119404#editor/target=post;postID=6828648348126655920;onPublishedMenu=overview;onClosedMenu=overview;postNum=0;src=postname

Not my Chickens 03-31-16

I don't know what the law is in Anaheim, but in Placentia, residents are not permitted to have chickens in their yards.  Having lived where someone had a rooster and didn't clean up after their chickens, I can see the logic of such a law.  But I miss seeing chickens.  When I am driving across country I always expect to see chickens, bur rarely do. 

 

 

However, when I go to my local Starbuck's, which is in Anaheim, I see these two who have been living there for over a year.  Recently the company has remodeled the inside of the store and re-landscaped the outside.  I worried about my chicken friends, but needlessly.  They are still there and enjoying their new surroundings.  I think they were dumped at Anaheim Lakes and just moved over the fence to the Starbuck's lot.  Nice to see chickens in town.  Reminds me of San Juan Bautista on the central coast where chickens run free all over the place. 

 

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Ruth McDowell quilt added to Collection 03-01-15

Yes, I'm still buying Ruth McDowell quilts.  Each one is so special I just can't resist.  Every one has fascinating details from her very creative mind and the piecing is so amazing.  She does piece everything, even the tiniest eye or beak or toe.  And she does it "the old fashioned way: right sides together, machine stitch, open the seam and press."  Add another million pieces and you have a quilt.  It is like a jigsaw puzzle with seam allowances. 

"He Caught Her Eye" Ruth B. McDowell 2014  30"W x 34.5"L

Such a jazzy, glorious couple they are.

 

 

Such sexy chickens - no wonder he caught her eye.  The beaks are carefully selected fabrics that form top and bottom beaks with a quilted line delineating the divide. The eyes have a white paint dot.

I always love Ruth's choice of foot fabric; his are yellow with blue dots and hers are gold with pink dots.  The background fabric here is a traditional cotton print. 

The long sweeping tail feathers are backed by a black/gold print that shows through the feather tips.

For the border on the right side she used a vintage Marimekko bird fabric - we don't need to see the entire bird to know that it is a bird.   I love it.  The fabric in the lower left with the tiny pinkish-gold nine-patches is from a fabric line Ruth created for South Seas several decades ago.  It is at the top of the next image.

On this quilt Ruth has signed her name on the front....

...in addition to the label on the back.  Name, artist, date and contact is a minimum on a label.

And  here is the elegant back with a  vintage Marimekko print.  This is a quilt I will sometimes hang backward to admire the print and the quilting.

Here is a detail of the quilting from the back.  Ruth has a knack for inventing new quilting lines to enhance her quilts and add interest in different features.

 

Ruth's Comments: "It’s much harder to make high-contrast, boldly patterned, multi-colored fabrics work together as in this quilt. I was VERY careful which part of which fabric I cut for each piece and had to make multiple changes as the pieces were cut and pinned in place [on the design board]. There’s a very bold antique Marimekko fabric remnant for the back that has been on my shelves for decades. Cool!"

www.ruthbmcdowell.com



Ruth B. McDowell quilt in TCQC 03-31-13

Ruth McDowell may be retired from teaching (and happily so), but she is still making quilts.  She just finished a large new quilt "Orion" which you can see on her website:  http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com/

She made several duck quilts last year and I added this one to Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.  You can see the others on the sold page of her website: http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com


"Duck, Weeding" Ruth B. McDowell - Colrain, MA   2012  18"W x 20.5L
Cotton fabric, thread, batting.  Machine pieced and quilted.
This is what Ruth says about this quilt: 

"Bright spring green reminds me of duckweed on a pond. Quite a collection of fabrics in this one, 1980’s Marimekko scrap, piece of shorts from Sylvia Einstein, piece of a dress from Kathleen Butts, contemporary fabrics from Jane Sassaman and Westminster, and some batik among others. Great fun!"

 

I always like to see little bits of traditional patchwork patterns in a contemporary quilt - a reference to the quiltmakers of the past.  These four patches and square in the middle are printed, but they still take me back.   

 

Lovely feet.  Ruth always does great feet - along with great everything else.

 

What great fabric selections, that come from everywhere.
 

A wonderful Marimekko fabric on the back which allows us the see the quilting better.
And a fancy sleeve of Jane Sassaman fabric.
 

And the hand-lettered label with the basic info: Title, Artist, Date, Contact.
 

Wordless Wednesday - Weeks like this 08-18-10

Gorgeous day 02-28-09

Lonely walker on access road along Hwy 101 near San Juan Bautista. The grass is green and the willows are putting out their yellow/green leaflets.

The cattle are out on the hillsides enjoying the grazing.

This field is the ultimate green, I think. It almost hurts my eyes.

Handsome fellow! One of San Juan Bautista's wandering roosters. Look at that iridescent tail! I didn't see any hens, they are probably all hiding from the dozens of roosters!

What is this? 01-10-09

This is a chicken drinking water in a gutter....

... at my local Starbuck's drive thru! Did she follow me home from San Juan Bautista? This Starbuck's is in Anaheim, for goodness sakes. The barista said she had been around for a month, but this is the first time I have seen her. Weird.

We know who this is - the Poodle Prince. He decided I was not paying enough attention to him and tore up two paper towels. I looked at him, he looked at me, he started tearing again. I told him to stop, he started tearing again. He will be with me until Monday. I sure hope I can give him enough attention lest he tear up every paper towel in the house.

Chickens - again 11-17-08

Last night, truly the 17th, I had this blog post all ready to go. I hit the 'Publish Post' box, the post disappeared and my computer went down. So, I went to bed! This morning I had to reconstruct part of it, which takes longer in the morning than it does at 1am because I have a night owl brain. I know I have 'done' chickens before, but I ran across some pictures of "Odd Flock" and wanted to share one.

This little guy or gal is starting early with the 'chicken crossing the road' business.

Even in San Juan Bautista, where they should be accustomed to it, chickens don't seem to like to have their photo taken. One must stand very still and wait for them to stroll within range. I was standing in a front yard waiting for this showy guy to hustle his bustle in my direction. I don't think Mary thought it was nice to stand in some one's yard like that - especially since the people were home! "Those crazy touristas!"

I rather admire this fellow, he looks like he is made out of parts - one specked front plus a lustrous backside. He is grazing at curbside. The San Juan Bautisita chickens wander everywhere in town and are adept at avoiding being run over. The citizens are somewhat divided into 'love the chickens' and 'hate the chickens' camps. I suppose having a garden would automatically put one in the 'hate' category.

I used this photo in a blog post previously, but can't find it to give you a reference, so I am just re-posting it. I think he is the most handsome of all the roosters in town. And he is a BIG BOY, so he probably thinks he should be the Rooster King.

The hens, on the other hand, are mostly rather scrawny. Maybe it is because they have to run so much to keep away from "King" and his followers.

In 2004 when our friend Judy House was putting up a good fight to beat cancer, I started collecting chicken blocks for a friendship quilt for her. I did not expect the project to expand across the country, but once the word got around friends of Judy's sent wonderful imaginative blocks to tell her that they cared. It took me longer than it should have to get it together and it was an amazing test of my layout abilities. I put all the blocks on my design wall and moved them around until they were roughly in a rectangular shape. Then I started adding little borders around some blocks and making strips to fill in the blank spaces and constructing some small chicken related blocks to help fill out the quilt. I was amazed that the quilt came out so flat and I delivered to the long-arm quilter who did a lovely job of the quilting. And finally I wrapped it up and shipped it to Judy who was surprised and touched at such a gift. It is a bed sized quilt and she put it on her bed where it could keep her warm until the day she died. Sadly, not too many months later the wonderful long-arm quilter died of cancer also.

Among the blocks are several very clever ones. In the bottom row is a bowl of chicken soup made with chicken printed fabric for the soup. In the same row is a filler strip with three eggs - I didn't realize what an amusing juxtaposition it made with the astonished looking chicken above it until the quilt was finish and photographed. Margaret Miller sent the two strips in the top left corner, "egg - chicken" and I copied her lettering for the "peep - cluck" in the bottom right. Something was needed to sort of balance things. Freddy Moran sent the block on the right edge made from her original chicken design - I think Judy was in the Asilomar class when Freddy was developing that block. In the center of the quilt the speckled b&w chicken on black with a thin red border is "Spring Chicken" with little springs for legs - my brain will not retrieve that quilt makers name, but it has given a lot of smiles to viewers of the quilt. This photo was taken at Quilt Festival in Houston and the quilt won a ribbon at the Pennsylvania Mancuso show. So, a lot of people have enjoyed looking at all these chickens. The coordinating black/white/red/yellow fabrics are from "Fowl Play" an early collection from Free Spirit.

More Figs and SJBautista chickens 09-02-08

On the way home from Pacific Grove Mary and I stopped at the market in SJB to get veggies for dinner. Lucky me - they were selling very nice figs at $2.50/basket, the basket I selected held 21 small, but delicious figs. I may have to stop there in the morning to buy another basket.

When we got home I tried some arty fig photos - this is the one I think this is the best of about 24 shots. I have made an album of seven photos with different backgrounds which I will post if I can stay awake long enough to search out the URL! http://picasaweb.google.com/DELQLTS/FigsSJB090208?authkey=iYETdWn5P_s#

San Juan Bautista is known for it's chickens which run loose all over town, especially near the Mission. Apparently many of the chickens are named by the townspeople,
this cock with feathers on his feet is Bob.

This is one of two "girlfriends" he chases around with and rules.

Here is Bob with the other "girlfriend" and, as you see, Bob is a banty rooster and his gals are full grown regular hens. He must really be something to have such a deal, especially since there are so many very large, handsome cocks running around loose.

Like this colorful fella. I took seven pictures of him and didn't get a single one showing his face! Guess SJB roosters are camera shy.

I'll be heading home in the morning, so I can be there on Thursday to have my laptop checked out. I don't know if I can find a computer to borrow sometime in the evening, if not, I will blog again on Friday.