Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Gyleen Fitzgerald

Gyleen Fitzgerald came to our Brownstone Quilters meetings last Friday and she was a delight! I attended both the afternoon meeting and evening meeting and also joined her for dinner with other guild friends.

Gyleen was incredibly inspirational, funny and shared lots of great information about finishing, setting and completing quilt projects.

Her website has lots of information about her and her work. I encourage any guild to invite her to speak and give a workshop. She has a wonderful upbeat, generous quality about her that is both refreshing and infectious.

Here are some photos from the evening lecture, Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings:

Many of these quilts are made from antique blocks that were either given to Gyleen, or purchased by her. Her settings were so imaginative and provided lots of inspiration. Some of them have been reinterpreted with modern fabrics or colors.




This was the workshop project. I wish I had been able to attend - one word; puppy.




this is the back of the quilt above. Almost all of her bed quilts had wonderful backs, making them 2-sided.

this is also a back, and I missed the front - sorry.


The Trash to Treasure Pineapple Challenge:
Gyleen has developed a pineapple ruler - which is brilliant. I've always liked the pineapple block, but didn't want to paper piece or use a foundation - and now I don't have to. You can get in here.


Gyleen has a challenge going and it's not too late to participate. The top needs to be finished by May 15. You can contact her for an application regarding where to send the photo on her website. You make a pineapple quilt using her ruler, any color, any size and 50 will juried to be exhibited at the Houston and Long Beach Quilt shows.


I decided to take the plunge and this is where mine is so far...

coco - little miss perfect - NOT

hey brownstone quilters - feel free to leave a comment if you attended the meetings or workshop - :)

11 comments:

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

wow! so many beauties here!!! the third from the top log cabin..fantastic... the yellow star one, Delicious!! and I love the stat of your pineapple quilt! you have her ruler foe that? very cool...
tsk tsk Coco!!! my dogs have all done that one too! yesterday one of them came out with fabric scraps tangles all around her... ha ha!! guess I should sweep more often...

Sue-Anne said...

First of all, Coco is SO CUTE!!! I am glad she has been keeping herself amused.

Thank you for the quilt photos. They are all wonderful.

Your pineapple quilt is stunning. I love the colours you have used.

Karen said...

The toilet paper trick reminds me of toddlers who do something very similar.

Your quilt group must have a similar situation to two of the guilds I belonged to in South Carolina. Daytime group and a night group for working people. Only a lot of people from the daytime group also attended the evening group.

I like your pineapple project. I am hesitant to switch from paper piecing to a ruler. I used a ruler in the past and did not have good luck with it.

Lori said...

Great quilts! I love the turquiose in the log cabin!! A little unexpected surprise:)
I really like your pineapple quilt! Such a graphic punch to a classic block.

Anonymous said...

OMG...your pineapple quilt is looking fantastic! Love that...and so glad you shared some awesome quiltage with me!
Darling pooch....you just got to love that face!!

Diane said...

Oooooooooo!

julieQ said...

I enjoyed that quilt show a lot! Your pineapple is just shaping up beautifully...how big will you make it? Looks like your dog is doing his thing too!

Crispy said...

Great quilts!! Too funny about Cocoa, I don't think she was really very sorry for being naughty LOL.

Crispy

Janet said...

The quilts are all fantastic. I especially love the log cabin and the lemon one. Your blocks are coming along beautifully, it's going to be a wow quilt. What a ratbag coc is, ha I remember pillow stuffing all over the lounge room once. Actually, there's a cute puppy in an ad for toilet paper like that photo.

Anonymous said...

Love the puppy picture. My dog Boomer would grab the end of the roll and run through the house leaving a long rail behind him.

Jenni said...

Lovely quilts to look at. I have to tell you that my Simon is 13 and still pulls the toilet paper off the roll.