During the Fall of 2019, before everything changed, Gees Bend artist Mary Lee Bendolph filled five gaIleries at The Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, GA with dazzling quilts. Her creations rival any artistic medium, composed with balance and texture. Through her quilts you see a mastery of color, the stitches setting the tempo as well as the structure.
Ms. Bendolph is a foremother of the movement giving cloth expression an appreciation as Art. Each of her quilts tells a story as old as our lives. Her hands create a channel to the voices of her ancesters. The grouping of her work as a whole felt immediately essential. It’s apparent her quilts come from the depths of her soul.
Though generations of women who make quilts, and the High Museum introducing her to Atlanta, I was honored to meet Ms. Bendolph and December 14 hold a quilt making workshop at the Georgia Museum of Art. My goal was to provide an introduction to quilting without being hindered too much by technique. In two hours…
It was wonderful to share a rainbow of color for twenty people to choose from. My lifelong collection has never been so happy.
Now, 2021, This Atlanta Sewing Circle is an attempt to make our Hoop workshop an ‘At Home Project.” I’ve listed some ideas with possible no sew version.
If you’d like to learn, YouTube is loaded with beginning stitching demos.
Read through before you start for stitching pointers here.
This project can also be done with glue stick.
Don’t follow rules and you’ll have more fun.
Supplies needed:
- Sturdy wooden Embroidery or Quilting HOOP, any size.
- Quilt Sandwich for this hoop circle is 3 equal sized fabric squares:
- TOP Cotton fabric 5 inches wider than hoop circle.
- BATTING (or thin flannel)
- BACKING fabric, cut to size of Top.
- Fabric scraps to chop into shapes
- Basic Sewing Supplies: scissors, needles, pins and thread
OR lightly glue stick the edges of cut shapes
During our workshop, we spent the first twenty minutes in the galleries, soaking in Ms. Bendolph’s designs and imagining our own circle of inspiration. At home, check out the Gees Bend, AL quilts and their color blocks. Check out Paul Klee, my other go to, for great fabric designs.
Back in the workroom, look thru the empty circle Hoop as a window. What colors are most pleasing to you?
You could pencil outline the circle on paper to sketch ideas. Simple is powerful. Dark colors on light background or Light colors on Dark. It doesn’t take large fabric pieces to make a great design. You might trace your design features on scraps of paper for patterns then cut raw edge fabric shapes.
You could also use heirloom linens, cut to size.
Make your own porthole window and finish with family pins as quilting. Take your time.
This Hoop will also serve as a fab stretching tool while stitching the TOP and eventually your finishing frame. The Hoop screw is the top of your circle. You can use it as a wall hook down the road.
Hints:
Work only with the TOP fabric until it’s close to complete so put the Batting and Backing layers aside.
Basic stitching:
Place two pieces fabric right sides together, pin and then stitch on the wrong side, ½” from the raw edge. Iron the seam flat, to one side or open. Add as many strips as you’d like then trim TOP to the size of the BATTING and BACKING. This can be done on a sewing machine, while out of the hoop.
The Quilt TOP can be used in many ways:
#1-Whole cloth (as is) with cut shapes and stitches added as appliqué. Use a glue stick lightly in new shape center or pin to attach before stitching in place. Work with the TOP in the hoop and adjust as you go to keep it cinched flat.
#2-Pieced Top: Slice across the TOP and add a strip of contrasting fabric to the opening. You can make the added fabric any width and will have the BACKING to match back to when you’re finished.
You can sew (or not) other shapes over TOP, like the appliqué in #1.
#3 Mandala: The nature of this circle is great as part of a mandala practice. Fold the TOP only into half, then half again to finger press four sections. Make a basting cross through this, then you’ll have a guide to create a stitched labyrinth or flower or…
#4- Log Cabin: start with a small color square and add ~1-2” random strips, sewn right sides together, ironed open each time. You’ll add rows (logs) to the outside edge as you go, each row adding to the cabin. Cut to match size of BACKING before you make the sandwich.
#5 Use the Whole Cloth approach, as in #1, and put a shape in the center. Make colors with fabric scraps or threads in concentric circles around the center shape. Leave part of the original fabric showing as you circle around. Work your way back to the center with meditative stitching. Create a mandala poppy or turtle with radiating circles. Each layer is growth. Each radiating pattern is releasing your spirit.
When you get the TOP appliquéd/pieced as you like, layer with the BATTING and BACKING. Trim layers to roughly the same size. Loosen the screw to place the three-layered Quilt Sandwich inside the Hoop.
Now Quilt Becomes a Verb and is where your design comes to life.
Hoop Quilting:
Thread the needle and put a fat knot* in one end of ~18” of Perle (size 12,8 or 5) cotton thread. Smaller size is thicker. I like to adjust needle size to a bit larger. I hate fighting a needle eye.
Poke through from the back where you’d like to start.
Pull the thread tight then ¼” or so poke thru to the back. You’ve just made a STITCH. Make more. Make a couple in a row and get into a rhythm.
*Alabama Chanin makes their knot show on the top layer. No Rules.
To finish, tighten the screw at the Top and turn to the backside of your Hoop. Iron around the backside rim so leftovers lay flat. Use big Perle cotton thread to make a fat stitch around the backside of the circle, 1-2” inside the Hoop edge. Use smaller lengths to gather-stitch and knot segments around your circle. I often trim away the excess fabric inside this finishing circle. Put your name on it. Add special pins, mementos or earrings as part of the quilting.
If ANY of these raw materials aren’t needed, use as packing material or decorating a package. Feel free to put in a bag and pass on to someone else… Don’t let this weigh your down. We’re all together.