Meetings on the 3rd Monday of the Month 6pm Family Life Center, N side

For guild pictures, go to https://claycenterpiotiquequilters.wordpress.com/ (copy and paste into your search area)

What makes a Man's Quilt?

Today's post will cover the meeting on Monday, June 18th and the workshop on Tuesday, June 19th.
We were blessed with lots of beautiful quilts to look at, an influx of knowledge and best of all

LAUGHTER!!!!!

Thank you to the 26 members and 9 guests that signed in when they came into the meeting room.

There was information galore for anyone interested.  And of Course the County Register.  Sorry, we had none left by the end of the night.

Hope you got a chance to see what was coming up at the guild.
Flour Sacks in July with Nancy Jo Leachman and Trudy Barker's Trunk Show and Workshop in August.


And

Tonight - Tony Munoz from Parsons, KS
"A Man's Quilt !!!!  UUUURRRR"

Tony was born and raised in Parsons, Ks.  His mother taught him and his siblings how to do a little bit of everything.
He taught 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades in school for over 32 years and has been lecturing for 32 years.

One of the things that Tony has enjoyed too much, is picking up pins from every venue he has lectured or taught at.  Some where in the picture above is his name on that apron.  Even in the back of the room, you heard the loud Kerplunk as he laid the apron down on the table.  Definitely not something you want to wear for long.

He did his very first quilt in 1970.  Jeanette D. and Deb B. will tell you how heavy this quilt was.  Tony did not know all of the how's - so he did his own thing.
His mother gave him a comforter for the batting and he proceeded to applique down the blocks.  The quilting was larger stitches.  What some would now call Sashiko (a Japanese type of embroidery) quilting today.

The back of his quilt was just as fun to look at as the front.

In 1981, Tony learned how to hand quilt  (see the barn quilt in Girard here).  And in 2011 he finished it.  This is all done by hand. 

If you click on the picture, it should come in larger so that you can see his stitching better.

See the wedding ring block, or what some may call slave chain, well - Tony has another name and the story was a good one that went with it.  I do have to apologize - but there is no way I could convey the stories and laughter Tony shared with us about his quilts and quilting  memories through time.

He passed around a small quilt sample of what he does so that we could see his work up close.

Tony stated that some said his title of the lecture - "A Man's Quilt" is a little oxi-moron.  But Tony has sat back and watched other men view quilts at shows.  They see nothing.  From his own experience, Tony has come up with some very interesting tips for us all.

Though men may see nothing when they look at a quilt, they will eventually see  COLOR.
This quilt belonged to Mrs. Lena Hawkins-Banks.  She gave several to Tony's mother and his mother gave them to him - all but one. (You have to get the story from him)  The type or "flavor" of the quilt is after the Gee's Bend quiltmakers.  The lone "X" up in the top right - must mark the spot.
Think this is the quilt that is in one of Barbara Brackman's books.  Geri got with me and said that if you look at the Kansas Quilts and Quilters book page 60, you will see the quilt and
Ms Banks at her 100th birthday.  Thank you Geri.

This top of Ms. Blanks is made of scraps.  The color for men might be a little confusing - but to Tony and many of us - it's a running history of who wore what when.

This one uses cheater cloth to give the look of curvy braided piecing.

Remember gabardine?  This quilt is a tied wonder of piecing of the cloth.  Deb is on the left here and Jeanette on the right........

all they did was walk it around and this is the back.  Wow!!!  What a change of directions.

Think this is one that was quilted on a treadle machine.  What makes this pattern really stand out is that the squares do not line up neatly left to right.  Which gives a visual effect that makes you come back to look again.

Men see color 1st - AND - then they see subject, or as in this quilt - tools.

or the vehicles in this quilt.  Both of these quilts can catch a man's eye with their color and with subject matter.

Men would notice the blue first on this one.  They probably would not see the feed sacks that make up the stripes on the star points.

It's hard to see here, but even the back is made of feed sacks.

Tony made this Amish looking quilt top.  He tried to use red where the blue is; however, it made the black "float" too much, so he used the blue to "hold it still".

Tony also has given workshops in how to make this "ugly" log cabin quilt (his words).  It's a way to use up your scraps, even those that you don't like.  The fun part is some of the lighter fabric in this quilt is the backs of some of the darker fabrics.  He told us that it is okay to use the back - after all, you bought both sides.

Tony's workshop that we are doing tomorrow is called "Random Access" and this is one of the 5 quilts he has done with this technique.  His friend Nancy Swanwick came up with the pattern using a Northumberland Star and making adjustments accordingly.
On this one, Tony set it lighter squares to darker.

This is another version and in more of a random setting.

Tony was asked to come up with an autographed quilt (this could be the one for the KQO of which he is a charter member) and he picked the courthouse step blocks.  Using whites and colors in a specific way, you also get a spools of thread look.

Again, I think some of the fabrics were reversed to get the colors he wanted.

The reds would capture a man's eye here.

This quilt would probably scream math to a man and he would more likely be figuring out an easier way to do the "y" seams, after the colors had caught his eye.
This quilt has some very unusual fabric used in it.  Tony was cutting the fabric up before he realized that it was a shower curtain, not yardage.  And yes it stayed in as was.

This is Tony's first machine pieced quilt - a Seminole design.

He also has a workshop for this twisted bargello design.  One of his students wanted to enlarge it and asked Tony how.  Duh?  Mirror image it?  I'm not even sure if I would want to do it the first time, let alone 3 more sections mirrored.

Don't you love this quilt?  Tony said everyone's eye is caught by the colors - THEN.......as you watch them stare at it, you see their heads tilt a little more and more trying to figure out up, down, pathways, etc.  Some how you get the feeling that the math in this blue and white, kind of got away with the maker.

It definitely is one that you want to keep staring at till you figure it out.
Right?  hahahahaha

Now this Mariners star book is as close as Tony plans on getting to the block.
Nope, not on his want to do list.

As the girls were showing us the back of this quilt, Tony was telling us about a quilt meeting in the basement of a church that got suddenly interrupted when evacuee's started rushing down the stairs for shelter.  This was about 18 years ago.
A year after this event............

his guild challenge was to depict what they saw or felt that day.
Yep, a tornado ripped through their area.  Tony decided to use the twisted Log Cabin block and flying geese to show what his impressions were.

On the quilt are a multitude of little items sewed on to remind him of what was going on - cars, hearts, crosses, you name it - they were all gathered up in his tornado.

Not only has Tony been a quilter and a grade school teacher, he has also been in theater presentations.  This T-shirt quilt has some of the t-shirts that he got to commemorate those times.   This would be one of those guy's subject quilts.
And this one is a man's hunting quilt.  Course he has to explain the green for the tree and the brown for the trunk.

Another man's hunting quilt...........

Different type of hunt though.  hahahahha

Jeanette D. loved the fabric and wanted to know where to get so she could make her son something.  As it has been several years, Tony was not sure if he knew where she could get it..........got Winnie to thinking and on Tuesday, she gave Jeanette this fabric.   Great job ladies.

Here is another fabric that Tony had for a hunting theme, he just has not decided how to use it.

Tony has also made clothes.  There was a story about him making someone bell bottom pants in a red/white/blue color scheme - that mother might still be upset with him.  He had brought this vest he had made.  Very good detail work even in the quilting.  Unfortunately - IT HAS SHRUNK.  😉

Ever heard of  Ami Simms and the bra support group quilt?
Image result for ami simms support group bra quilt
This is a picture of it I was able to grab off the net.

Tony made his own support group quilt and used Trapunto in it.  Needless to say, he OVER trapunto-ed a few spots.  That's Tony's sense of humor

Guest Lynn had her husband with her and we asked him the next day if what Tony said about men seeing the color, subject and the math about quilts is what he saw.  Got a big smile out of him and a YES, Tony is right.   hahahaha  Thank you Jim for being honest.  So......

Tony's trunk show was not only entertaining - it also gave us insight to our men and some wild new ideas of possibilities for quilts in the future.

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After the lecture, we had our business part of the meeting, and had our guests stand up and introduce themselves.  It's not every meeting that you are so blessed with 9 guests. 


Thank you every one for joining us.  Hope you enjoyed yourselves and come back again.

Sara not only took minutes, she also did her ROM (Row of the Month)
Whirlwind blocks were on the agenda.  Click here to get the directions.

We had several rows from previous months on display also.

Giving you a close up of the two ways you could do this month's row.

***********************
Then was Show 'n Tell time

Frances always has something great to show us......

and her backs are as good as the fronts - okay somewhat.

This is a crazy mile a minute type quilt.  So many things to look at.

Remember Francis' wedding ring quilt that she decided not to use the flying geese on?  Well she decided that the geese fit in great with this quilt.  Very modern look to the back of this one.

Jane had brought in a box of jeans to give away - and she ordered us to take as she was not hauling it back home.  Jane showed us a couple of apron ideas to use them with and though she may not weave rugs, she does repair fraying ones.  That's the picture in the middle.

Teresa had shown us the top of this Anchor quilt.  Now that Susie has the quilting done - Teresa had to bring it in one more time.

Thank you Teresa.  The quilting and your label are something to see.

Jenell H. calls this her "Pinkalicious" quilt for one of her granddaughters, Abbey.  It is one that Donna J. gave her the idea for.

Coleen brought in these delightful bags that depict some much loved grocery items.  Darn!  Forgot to ask her if she was carrying any bubble gum in the one.  hahaha

Donna J made this quilt for the Wichita Children's Service (if I have that right)

Love this one, think it is also going to Wichita.

Now this quilt, Donna's group did a bull's eye exchange and as she wanted a bigger quilt and did not want to make more bulls eyes, she alternated the blocks with hourglass blocks.  Great visual on this one.

Deb M had done a shop hop in 2017 and finished this quilt from it.  We heard a little voice out in the audience say they had the same fabrics, but had not taken them out of their bag yet.  hahaha
Congratulations Deb for a lovely FINISHED quilt.  hahaha

Deb O made this stash buster out of very appropriate fabrics for the upcoming holiday.

And she laughingly told us that she cut up some wide backing fabric to insert this piece slightly in the middle of it.

Verna Lee made this log cabin quilt in the barn raising setting and had Susie quilt it for the Salina Council of Catholic Women.  Great size and lovely colors.

Dona S. had come down for our meeting and to show us the offering that the Miltonvale Piecemakers have for their opportunity quilt at this years Tootlefest.  (11 am - 4 pm: Quilt Show, Christian Church.  For more information contact Linda Scott, (785) 427-2626)  Took some doing to get this one done as it is not the typical type of quilt their group makes.  It has a huge WOW factor.

Especially when we got to see the table mat that Dona had them use for the quilting template.  You can see it here in orange.
Lovely quilt, thank you for bringing in the tickets.  And remember ladies, they will still have tickets available for purchase the day of the festivities - Saturday, August 25th.


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"Random Access"
workshop, Tuesday, June 19th

What a lovely start to our day.  A little rain shower and then sunshine.
Tony started the day off with the rules:

Whether we cut up 7 fat quarters or 50+, we each had 7 bags with the FQ pieces inside according to the # assigned to them in the cutting directions.

Tony told us to think about driving on the free way and randomly just taking an exit or on ramp and going that way.  Difficult - yep.  We all want a goal or direction to go in.  A PLAN!
Today's fun was going to be in learning to let go of the controls and go RANDOMLY.
In bag #1 - take out one square of fabric
go to bag #2 and take out one group of 4 triangles that were pinned together when cut.
REMEMBER:
YOU CAN NOT PEEK
YOU CAN NOT PULL AND DECIDE YOU DON'T LIKE IT AND THROW IT BACK IN
You can only re-pull if it is the same fabric or too close to value/color and will be lost when sewed on to the previous piece.

Easy, right?

No it is not.  But we all went step by step for the first block.  When you got the hang of it, Tony said go for it.  For some of us - took a bit longer.  Not in the pulling.  We all pretty much got that part.  It was the where do you sew it on and which direction?  Now that was fun.  NOT!  hahaha

Besides learning new techniques and enjoying the fellowship at a workshop - you get to see all the awesome tools that your co-conspirators have.  The purple headed pin that the arrow points to might not seem too important to some. . . . . but I sure wished I had of had some when I was pinning together 8 and 16 pieces.  Juanita got them at Joann's.  Guess what I am buying next?  Yep!

Patience wins out......

Lynn had her first part of her first block together in no time.
Then things started in a little slower.

Okay, for some of us.  Jenell was saving thread and putting together 4 blocks at a time.

Winnie's pressing table hid some of her pieces, but it is so pretty.

And of course - there is always the machine pixies that did not show up at home when you double checked that everything was working correctly, but when you get in a workshop - those pixies wake up and start in causing you trouble.  Four of our attendee's fought those little buggers.

We spread out and went to work.....

and when we needed it - Tony was there with sage advice.

Don't we look like we were having fun?
Thanks to Lynn, she brought 2 machines just in case and so when Jane's gave out, Lynn loaned her a sewing machine.

We persevered, and before long were showing off our blocks. 

And once you had one to go by, the rest was easier.  

Tony had his two random's there for us to look at and see how the random adds to the fun.  Besides the Northumberland star block goal, look at how some of the colors recede or come forward and make what looks like a churn dash, barn door, monkey wrench, etc.

2nd random setting

Tony told Jeanette that she was working on the hardest block there could be
Yeah!  Everything from here on will be a cinch.  hahahahahahaha

More and more blocks were finished and

added to our design wall

And though machines slowed us down, we were all getting there.

Just a close up of a couple of Tony's blocks so you can have something to double look at.

Lots of fun and we all have set goals as to when we are going to show and tell.
So everyone keep your eyes open and give us an encouraging word now and then.

Have a safe month.  See you in July.

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