Easter Week in Guatemala

Easter is not one of my big holidays.  But two years ago I was in Guatemala on the Nancy Crow Textile Tour during Easter week.  The colors and pageantry were fabulous!  Every village we visited had processions and pageants celebrating Easter week.  Here are a few photos, not necessarily my best (the Mayan people are not particularly fond of having their pictures taken without their permission, so I've tried to limit most of the photos here to backs and indistinct faces).  This will give you just a hint of the richness of tradition in the Mayan highlands near Lake Atitlan.  Happy Easter!

Mayan woman and baby in tradional dress, San Andres Xecul

Women carrying a float in the Easter week pageant, San Andres Xecul

Mayan women in tradional dress, San Andres Xecul

Palm archway entrance to the church at San Andres Xecul

Onlookers kneeling in the street to pray, carrying palm fronds for the Easter week pageant, San Andres Xecul

Offering of fruit, flowers, and sawdust painting, Easter week pageant, Quetzaltenango

Hundreds of town residents turn out in purple robes to carry the floats during one of the Easter week pageants, Quetzaltenango

Men carry a float through the market during Easter week, Chichicastenango

Another view of the float, Chichicastenango market

Homes are decorated with plam fronds and purple banners, Easter week in Zunil

Zunil

Zunil

Villagers work on a sawdust painting in front of the church in Zunil

Color Improvisations

In mid-2008, Nancy Crow invited several artists to submit work for consideration for Color Improvisations, an exhibit she was developing with Genie Curtze.  The work was to be based on a 4-plex format, machine pieced, and large - 6 to 8 feet square (yes, square).  I had 8 months to submit three to five quilt tops.  I managed to get three pieces done, and all three made it through the first round of jurying.  Then we were given until July 2009 to quilt and finish the pieces and submit them for a second round of jurying. 

I did finish those three quilts by the deadline - which I thought was quite an accomplishment since during that time I had emergency gallbladder surgery, two hospital stays, and a second procedure to remove leftover stones.  I was not at my best during those 8 months.  I am honored that all three pieces were accepted for the exhibit. 

Color Improvisations will consist of 54 large machine pieced works by 26 artists from the United States, Switzerland, Germany, and Canada.  These artists are dedicated to expressing their individual visions.  The opening venue will be the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, Germany.  The exhibit will run from July 11 to August 25, 2010, with the grand opening reception on Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 2 pm.

Additional venues booked thus far are:
Galerie Lac
St. Marie aux Mines, France
September 16-19, 2010  (this is during the European Patchwork convention, check the website for more information)

Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Art and Commerce)
Regierungsprasidium Karlsruhe, Germany
May 8 - June 12, 2011

The exhibition will travel throughout 2010-2012. Additional venues in Europe, Japan, and the United States will be announced. A catalog of the exhibit will be available in July 2010.

Shown above is a detail from my work, Tangle, copyright 2010 Bonnie M. Bucknam (photo by Mark Frey).

Here's Lily

Here's Lily, the newest member of our family, adopted yesterday from the Oregon Humane Society in Portland.  We're having a great time getting acquainted!

Petroglyph - March 2010 Handwerk Fabric Club Selection

The March 2010 Handwerk Fabric Club selection is available to ship. The colors are based on the South African Bushmen rock paintings. Included are black with blue highlights, rock brown, iron oxide, yellow ochre, mica, and sandstone. Fat Quarter packages (1 1/2 yds. total) are $27 ($30 including shipping by first class post within the U.S.); 1/2 yard packages (3 yds total) are $54 plus actual postage to your location; 1 yard packages (6 yards total) are $108 plus actual postage. Email me at bonnie@handwerktextiles.com to order. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal accepted.

Here are some photos from a drive to Oregon Gardens in Silverton this past January.

Block and Lattice Quilts

These two quilts are basically the same block as the slashed 9-patch, but use a different setting. However, I didn't construct these quilts using the 9-patch technique.  I wanted to use up scraps, so I actually cut all these blocks and lattice strips.  When I was calculating how many of what size squares and rectangles to cut, it was a bit confusing.  I decided to cut all the pieces out of blues, and all the pieces out of peaches, which resulted in cutting out two quilts at once - one with blue blocks and peach lattice and one with peach blocks and blue lattice. That was efficient.  Two down for Guatemala Bound!

Slashed 9-Patch

Here are a couple of experiments with the slashed 9-Patch.  You've probably all done one of these.  They're very easy and efficient.  Just sew together a 9 patch.  I used 5" squares (any size square works, as long as you're consistent) and sewed them into 2 different sets: half with the purple fabric in the corners and center, and half with the green fabric in the corners and center.  Then cut the 9-patch in half in both directions.  Arrange 2 light blocks and 2 dark blocks and sew them together.  There are quite a few other layouts you can experiment with.

The first quilt I did came out mushy and dull because the purples and greens were basically the same medium value.  I tried to brighten it up a bit with the peach stipe in the border.  I don't know how successful that was.

So, next I tried to pump up the value a bit.  I used darker purples and greens that were more to the lime/light side, I thought.  The quilts still has a mostly medium value look to it.

I made a crib quilt with a few blocks left over from the second quilt.

I have a few more quilts that are variations of the slashed 9-patch, but they're all in progress right now.  More on this technique later.

For those of you who are following the Guatemala Bound project, to date there are 48 quilts completed and about 25 more in the works.  We'll reach the goal of 80 quilts in no time.  Thanks all!