Good morning all, Mary Ellen here.

Do you remember when Sundays used to be a day of rest? Stores were closed, not much was happening outside of the family. Maybe a musical performance, a club get together but generally it was a day to reflect and rewind. Couldn’t we please go back to that?

Catching up on a few of my favorite blogs this morning. I tend to follow a group of rather “modern” quilters in blogland. I think it’s the fabrics they choose that I like so well. The blocks are generally just traditional ones done in a slightly tweaked way. Sometimes they are improvised or wonky, sometimes the pieces are skewed a bit-rectangles instead of squares, ovals instead of circles for example, often they are just as they’ve been made for a hundred years. One quilter I’ve always associated with free form wonky blocks is Gwen Marston. Her book Liberated Quilting was my first introduction to blocks that were made “off” deliberately. Here’s a link to some photos of Gwen in NYC giving a talk to a modern guild. Look at those traditional quilts. Who’d a thunk it? I wonder if up close they are a bit freeform. I have heard that a few years ago now, Gwen and her husband then, Joe Cunningham, came to AMQG for seminar. I’d love to have either one of them, or both, back again. Anybody?

Here’s a link to one of the first modern blogs that I began with, done by a group of bloggers: fat quarterly.  They have come a long way from their start-now publishing an online magazine, and many of the quilters in the group now are published authors. Lots of free things available at their sites. I don’t always agree with their techniques-sometimes it seems quality construction gets lost, but I’m a bit of a stickler regarding bias edges-but the final products are usually bright and fun. Have a look if you’re not familiar with them.

I just got a book from authored by the group from Fat Quarterly called Shape Workshop for Quilters. It’s organized by shapes used in the blocks and quilts-such as circles, polygons, diamonds and a few more. Just getting into it, but it looks good so far. Again, I like the modern fabrics, bright colors and free-spirited quilting. Will let you know more after I give it a thorough read.

TTFN.