By popular demand

Keiko quilt detail.

I've been helping Barbara teach a class on improvised quilts this year. We met last night and I showed the group a slide show of improvised quilts on display at market in Houston. A class member asked me to post a picture of Keiko Goke's spectacular My Double Wedding Ring quilt so she could look at it again and again. On the quilt label, Keiko explained that she began quilting using traditional patterns. She turned to contemporary quiltmaking and then found herself recreating traditional patterns, but without patterns and on this grand scale.

Kathe goes for it with one of grandma's blocks.

 We've all been a little surprised, I think at the fun we've had in this class, challenging each other to try new ways of thinking about quilting. We've tried several sewing projects. Last night we took quilt blocks and cut them apart then put them back together in an improvised fashion. Here are some of our starts.

It was fascinating to see castoff blocks now making new shapes. I have blocks we found in my grandmother's estate. We'd never seen her sewing them but I recognize some of the '70s fabrics. I'm going to start slashing!