Marilyn Belfod

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The amazing Marilyn Belford was the speaker at the May Bayberry Quilter's guild last week.  This is perhaps her most famous quilt which has been in many shows, won many awards and been in many publications.  As you see it is being carried around the room as she talked about her very demanding methods using computer and a variety very, very careful cuttings, plus choosing the exactly perfect fabrics -- all commercial cottons.

She also brought quilts of her family members and a few of the mythological ones that have lately stunned quilt show audiences.  I saw her Medea driving a chariot at a New Jersey show a few years ago -- what energy and righteous fury she caught in the quilt!  There were quieter ones, such as either Eurydice or Persephone (I forget which).  She gave an intense workshop I thought of taking but finally I knew it would be extremely frustrating because I know that I lack first of all the skill but just as importantly the patience. I like portrait quilts and I think she is the supreme realist.

Finished quilt

Being a bit redundant, or seeming to--this is the final version of my augmented color wash quilt.  Several flowers and quite a few butterflies have been fused to the quilted surface.  I'm not sure the results are worth the time the whole quilt consumed, but then it wasn't all my time.  We had one constantly rainy day while Leslie was visiting when she did the fancy cutting of the flowers and butterflies.  I will probably hang it in my bathroom.  Flowery gardens with butterflies are a little saccharine for my taste in general.  The thing is, I get an idea from some picture in a book or magazine and have to find out if I can do something similar.  It's a self-challenge.  Not a bad thing.  I learn what I enjoy and extend some of my abilities.

The Flock

Leslie, on her 50th birthday, was "flocked".  The flock are seen here surrounding her. They visited all day long, having arrived in the early dark of the night before and leaving about the same time the next night. She tickled pink about it.  She lives in California and knew nothing about this local custom.  

The local high school's music department has for some time had this fund raiser.  They own an unknown number of pink plastic flamingos and will plant them in front yards on request.  The price is fairly modest, in some cases the arrangement is that someone orders a home "flocked" and the flocked person has to pay to have them removed. My younger daughter and I made the arrangements.  Leslie had never heard of the local custom, we had occasionally passed homes that had been flocked and smiled. 

Of course they caused smiles and chats among the people who live in the apartment complex. One woman who was unfamiliar with the flocking idea wondered if I were selling them.  It was fun for all of us.

Almost done

This is a color wash pieced quilt that I've been slowly working on.  In one of the books I have about color wash quilts there is a garden scene similar to this. It has appliqued additional flowers all over the bottom so I thought I'd try extra flowers and butterflies.  Mine are only pinned in place right now.  I think there will be more butterflies and maybe more flowers.  I'm contemplating what to do -- that's the purpose of a design wall, right?

Ironic photo

 

As I was leaving the disappointing lecture that I wrote about a week ago, a reporter from a local paper took my photograph and name.  No one else had even asked my name although people were distantly polite to me and one nice lady at the table where I sat chatted with me about local history.  However I think it very ironic that the weekend edition of the paper made me the cover girl for the article about the event.  Here I am in my quilted jacket like an advertisement for the whole thing.  Was it the Jabberwock that "chortled"?  Well, when I saw this that's what I did.  I'm even relatively happy with the photo and it's been a long time since I've really liked having my picture taken.

 

Fishy quiltie

This fishy quiltie has been sent to it's new owner-to-be.  The theme of a swap was "Under the Sea" so I did miniature paper pieced tropical fish from my scrap bag with a batik background with coral reef-ish purples mixed in with the blues.  Of course rickrack is not at all usual under the sea but I've been working with rickrack lately and it just seemed appropriate, being wavy and therefore watery.

Why Do People Do Such Dumb Things?

I was wearing my quilted jacket yesterday in the college cafeteria when a woman told me most enthusiastically that I must go to the Centerville Museum to hear a lecture about quilts from someone who's "done a lot of research."  She was an enthusiastic salesman.  So I went this afternoon.  I maintained my cool and said nothing at all negative as -- and after -- I listened to a woman who had done "some" research, but not much, who had never made a quilt and possibly never owned one talk about a few she had in hand and show half a dozen slides.  One of the quilts she described was borrowed from a man who is an historian; I visited in his house a couple of months ago.  He showed me about the quilt and told me it's story at length.  The speaker murdered the description.

Surely the people who put together this village's museum's programs know that a very large quilt guild -- and several smaller ones -- exist on Cape Cod.  Surely they know that two stores devoted to quilting fabrics exist within five miles of the museum.  Surely anyone wanting an expert in quilting would think of contacting either the guild or the owners of the stores on the assumption that someone with real knowledge could be found to give a talk.  They did nothing of the sort.  They presented half-baked information to a group of women who seem complacent and happy in their ignorance which was in no way alleviated by today's talk.  These are not dumb people; but they perpetuate their own ignorance while seeming to want information.   I don't understand.  Is it laziness?  I find it sad.

[The above art quilt was on show last summer at the International Quilt Show I attended, I'm sorry I don't have the maker's name.  This kind of art quilt was not within the vocabulary of anyone at today's gathering.  I wanted, in the worst sort of way, to get up and talk to them -- not to show off but because when  subject I love and am knowledgeable about is murdered I want to right the wrong.  But we were all "ladies" who certainly don't rock anyone else's boat.]