Supporting Quilter

When my husband said „Yes“ a little more than twelve years ago, he did not really know what he was getting himself into. To be honest - neither did I. At that time I was still thinking I would have a career in academia as a linguist. Quilting was a side issue, much loved, but not in the focus of attention. Only slowly did it dawn on my that my profound unhappiness of the time before I met my husband was not only due to the fact of being single, but that it also had to do with my job situation. So I resigned from my position at university. That’s when the real challenge started for my husband. He had not understood that this meant he was enrolling in an intensive course as supporting quilter. He has discovered signs announcing unexpected quilt exhibitions while driving by in the car, long before I ever saw them. He came along to a two-week class with Nancy Crow to baby-sit our then six-month-old son while I was at the sewing machine. He frequently is my first critic, and although his usual first jesting suggestion is to “turn it by 90 degrees!”, he is not always wrong about this... He was the one who came up with ‘justquilts’ as my domain name for the quilting business, and together we chose ‘justcolours’ for the dyeing. He found a book on old parquet patterns and gave it to me as a present with the suggestion to use that for quilting and patchwork patterns. He has helped me to install my new sewing machine table, which I would not have managed without him. And he always finds interesting bits and pieces. The most recent one was this:

In one of the music magazines he subscribes to, he found this 3-page-article on Gee’s Bend quilts as musical inspiration. Of course he knows about my admiration for Gee’s Bend Quilts, although I still haven’t seen any in real life, only in books. He would have gone ahead and probably ordered all of the seven CDs mentioned in the article, but I narrowed the selection down to three. 

Bobby McFerrin - SpiritYouAll
Geri Allen - A Child is Born
Guitar Concerts of the 21st Century, inspired by Gee's Bend Quilts

And I got them even though it is just before Christmas. All of which are great to listen to. Thank you, Michael.

Of course, Gee’s Bend Quilts are by now well-known, and many people are probably much better informed about them than I am. But this little re-encounter has led me to check back on the net.

You can find pictures of Gee’s Bend quilts here and here. 

An interesting article on the second exhibition can be read here.

This article is rather more recent, as is this one. 

Let’s see what other discoveries my husband will come up with during the next twelve years...