Kathy's   "ROUND  TABLE"

I have to admit, when it was time for the "Round Table" Challenge, my very first thought was "Round Table Pizza !" 

[  We lived in Anchorage, AK for 35 years, and believe me...  "Round Table Pizza" was a pretty big deal for us...  Delicious, readily available in just about any combination you'd want,  AND... Free Delivery...  A super great bonus because of our weather and road conditions !  ]

I kept pondering how to put "Round Table" into one of our Quilts, and had, "by chance" recently ordered a book on "Crop Circles" that have intrigued me for many years.    How do they get those truly gigantic circles to be so perfectly "Circular" ?  How do they accomplish the extremely complex designs ?  How do they photograph the Crop Circles ?  So many questions ! 

As you can tell, "Crop Circles" became my theme, and I had a blast making this quilt !

The book, "Crop Circles, the Bones of God" by Michael Glickman has been (and continues to be) an enormous source of inspiration and information about these phenomenal structures.

All the fabrics in this quilt were "Rust Dyed" using old, rusted pieces / parts we continue to find in our pasture; and I have to admit, any time I see an old rusty piece of metal I tend to pick it up and add it to the stash  :-D

This particular Crop Circle, is called the "Angel Formation," and its one of my favorites.   It was "created" in July 2001, and is about 700 feet in diameter !

Andrea's Round Table Quilt

 

 

When Will We Be Reunited?

11" x 14"

cotton, silk screen, stencils, paint

This is a nod to the situation we continue to live with and the social distancing protocol restaurants have to follow.  Chairs have been separated from their tables, with many lined up against nearby walls just waiting to be reunited.  

After many weeks of struggling with this theme, I finally had an "Ah Ha" moment towards the end of September after meeting two friends for lunch.  This was my first restaurant experience since probably February, at a favorite Asian eatery.  Although we intended to eat outside at tables set up in the parking lot, it was a very hot, humid day so we decided to eat inside.  We were brought to an octagonally shaped room with a large round table in the center and smaller rectangular tables around the perimeter.  I suspect they can either seat a larger party at the round table or use every other smaller table for guests to remain 6' apart.

The chairs and chrysanthemum were painted using hand cut freezer paper stencils.  

freezer paper stencil

Jane Hartfield’s Roundtable Quilt

 Spinoff

Lately I have been spinning a bit out of control. COVID has kept me at home which gave me plenty of time to create. That was perfect six months ago. However, as time goes by, I tend to get distracted more easily. At times I feel like I just can’t focus. That means I have quite a few works in progress. Spin-off is one that I finished! It was fun to do and moved smoothly from start to finish.I entered it in Quilt National along with Coming Together. Both were rejected. 

At any rate, when a Roundtable begins to rotate and spin, it can throw off bits and pieces which can form new tables. 

This piece started as a mono print using thickened dyes and a piece of silk. I realized it needed more details and definition.

So I started adding paint using thermofax screens and just sponge brushes.

Next I had to start quilting. I added even more paint after that. I used Lumiere metallic paints to emphasize the spirals spinning off. I finished the quilt with a facing.

Happy Spinning!

Jane Hartfield

Gail’s Round Table Graffiti

 I recently completed a Graffiti Quilting online class with Karlee Porter.  I learned a lot!  Our final was a small graffiti quilt.  This one starts in the center and moves round in a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. Quilting in the round until the space is filled was so much fun that I can’t wait to use it on larger quilts.  

Nedras Round Table - Arthur's Realm

King Arthur immediately came to mind when round table was named as our theme for this reveal.  I explored other interpretations but kept returning to ideas of knights, swords, Camelot and castles so I ran with that idea.  Tintagel Castle was named by 12th century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his historical account of British history,  as the place where the story of King Arthur and the knights of his round table was conceived.  My piece is a collage of Tintagel, a knight, a crest and a replica of the round table that King Henry the 8th had decorated with a tudor rose and the names of the knights of the round table and hung in Winchester Castle.  The original table was built of oak for a festival to celebrate the betrothal of one of Edward I daughters.   See this site for a picture of the real table and more details.   https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/winchester-round-table

The piece is composed of items that were fused onto stablizer and stitched before attaching to the background.  Normally I stitch after affixing to the background, but I found I prefer to work in this order as it allows more "margin of error".  The background was machine quilted also before I sewed the individual items onto it.  Commercial cottons and silk fabrics were used and embellished with  inktense pencils, stitching, tuille, etc. to create textures and detail.  Braid, beads and crystals finish off the details.  

I really had fun with this theme, although not totally engaged initially!!! 

Alice's Round Table Quilt: Camelot

I struggled with this theme, trying to think beyond the "knights of the round table" and come up with a  a broader theme. But then it occurred to me:  Why not the knights?

And so I constructed a quilt featuring one of the knights of the round table, Sir Lancelot.  I have always loved the musical CAMELOT that told the story of the marriage of King Arthur to Queen Guenevere and then her illicit romance with the handsome Sir Lancelot.  And so my quilt features these three characters in the form of Wee Folk dolls.

I learned to make these dolls years ago while baby-sitting with my four year old grandson Locke in New York City, while his mother was a summer session visiting professor at the Columbia School of Law.  Prior to their arrival in the city, I met Linda Hicks and she took me to the wonderful quilting store, City Quilter.  It was there that I found Salley Mavor's book FELT WEE FOLK.  Thinking that Locke

might enjoy making these dolls, I bought the book and some supplies.

We did make a few, but I learned quickly that these dolls are too challenging for a pre-schooler, but Locke did enjoy watching me make them.  Later on that year I made him a set of Robin Hood dolls for a Christmas present, as he was at that time a huge fan of Robin Hood.  I've included a photo of this set below.  When I showed them to Judy Steward, she said, "Alice, you ought to feature some of these in a future MM quilt!"  Well, it's taken a lot of years for me to follow her suggestion!  Locke is now a junior in high school!

I used wool for the background for my quilt, blanket stitching the sections down to a base, along with the castle and the tree.  The dolls are constructed from chenille stems (like pipe cleanser), wooden beads for the heads, and their clothes are made from wool and rayon felt.  I decorated the clothing with different embroidery stitches and then sewed them onto the dolls with the blanket stitch.  Their arms and legs are wrapped with embroidery floss, and their hair is wool fleece.  I inked the features of their faces with permanent markers.

 

With so much embroidery, I decided to forego any real quilting.  The quilt is also finished along its edges with more blanket stitching.  The dolls are tacked onto the quilt in strategic places and I was relieved that this "tacking" kept them from sagging on the quilt.  I confess that this quilt took me far longer than any other quilt made for this blog!  But I loved every minute spent in its construction!

Grandson Locke's Robin Hood dolls--Robin,  Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck

 

Tricia's Family Round Table

When I thought about the theme, all I could come up with was the classic King Arthur's round table. After talking with my husband about the theme. We thought about the oak kitchen table that we purchased from an antique store we loved. The table was going into our kitchen. We just loved the wood and it came with leaves so we could accommodate many family members.  Many meals, stories, laughter and love are shared at the round table. A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen with an island that our family now sits around. The table has a new home in our youngest daughters house with new her husband. The round table will continue to have a life of family round table discussions of love, laughter and stories to be told. If the table could talk how many generations have sat around it before and probably after our family.

I created my piece by having my daughter photograph the table. I printed the photograph on fabric and cut out the table and chairs. I fused them onto fabric that looked like a wooden floor. Before fusing I machine quilted words in a circle around the table. A few of the words are love, laughter, family, togetherness, gatherings and hearts stitched in between the words.