Hey Girls,

Jean - thanks for blogging!  Sorry I missed Bee last evening.  I didn't think anyone was going.  I didn't want to be an interruption in Lori's household!  : /

I AM on Fall Break this week!  : )  And, it's been pretty EXCELLENT!!!  Yesterday morning Scott & I went into the City to check out Greenable Solutions for product information & ideas for our planned addition.  They had LOTS of stuff & it was a pretty cool store.  They had things like denim batt insulation, soy foam insulation, a solar attic fan, etc...?!

Afterwards, Scott returned home, but I stayed in the City & went to the Gee's Bend Exhibition!!!  : )  It was AMAZING!!!  I am SEW, SEW, SEW glad I went!!!  I cried.  I've been following the Gee's Bend quilts & quilter's for the last 6 years.  I've had this Exhibition on the blog calendar for more than a year already!  Ever since these quilts made history @ the Whitney Museum, I've been interested!!!  I had hoped & dreamed about the Gee's Bend quilts coming to Philadelphia.  When the Exhibition was announced, I waited...  I don't know what I expected, but the quilts were MORE remarkable than I had imagined!!!  They are FILLED with spirit! They are DYNAMIC!!!  They are PURE art. They are HONEST.  No photographs were permitted. I did take some notes & made a couple rudimentary sketches.  I went on a guided tour & was interested to learn...I had noticed many of the early quilts had quilting stitches that didn't seem to make any sense to me...?!  Some portions of a quilt were quilted with a Baptist Fan pattern, other areas had sloping rows of stitching, & still other sections had stitches that ran horizontally or vertically OR some of both. The quilting stitches were placed without any regard to the pieced design or pattern.  My mind couldn't figure it out...what & why was this so, sew?  It gave movement & interest to the quilts though!  It MADE you LOOK!!!  During the guided tour, we were told, "Piecing was done individually, but the quilting was done as a community."  What this meant was, there was NO predetermined quilting design to follow. Each woman put in quilting stitches in the portion of the quilt that was in front of her on the quilting frame.  They stitched until it was done - SEW BEE it!  The Gee's Bend quilts have some similarities with Amish quilts.  MANY ways, many times & with many different styles of interpretation, the quilt maker added variation in her quilt design - she would "turn" a block of Birds in Flight randomly here & there.  Or, a block design was repeated but the colors would be reversed, again, here & there.  Or, perhaps the quilt maker would do BOTH of these things, rotate a block AND reverse the colors.  It made me think of the Amish "humility" block.  The quilter's of Gee's Bend created interest & movement within their quilts.  They also used very BOLD colors, much like the Amish.  The Gee's Bend ladies used scraps & leftover bits.  If they didn't have enough of a pant leg to finish a quilt top, they would maybe cut the whole quilt top into quarters & add the smaller bits & pieces they did have.  Or, if they had enough, let's say, orange fabric, but the whole quilt was done using hot pink & black, they simply added the orange.  They NEEDED to make the quilt DONE so their family could be kept warm.  Each quilt is an original.  They do NOT ever repeat a design or pattern!  When asked what is the most important characteristic about a quilt, LOVE was their reply!  They like to use leftovers, scraps & pieces of clothing because they believe it gives the quilt spirit.  I could go on & on!  There are 74 (AMAZING) quilts in the exhibit!!!  In the Perlman Building there is another, much smaller, exhibition of African American quilts which are also worth visiting.  It was a day of ART & inspiration.  : )

This evening we are going to see Jason Mraz in concert.  He opened for Alanis Morissette 2 years ago, & now he IS the act!!!  : )  We're looking forward to it!

And, how 'bout those Phils?!  Wow, huh!!!  Will we be-e watching from Houston..?!

One last sewing morsel.  It involves quilting, politics & folk art.  Have you seen the quilt Denyse Schmidt has made?

Enjoy your evening & stitch when you can!

Piecefully, Pam