Bill Stearman, Quilt Maker

These are the eight quilts in the show at the Parrott Gallery in Belleville, Ontario .The show is a collaboration with my husband, Larry Tayler, photographer.  Artist Statements' are included, as are links to brief YouTube videos for each quilt.Photos by Larry Tayler ( larytayler.com )  For the Oppression of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Two-Spirit Communities, We Apologize Not For Sale          77” x 82” ·   Based on a variation of a traditional double disappearing nine patch block. ·   Fabric design assistance by Hri Neil, Carbon Art and Design ( www.carbonartdesign.com ) ·   Hand guided, free motion quilting by Deanna Gaudaur – ( www.quintestudios.com ) Artist’s Statement On November 28, 2017, in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin  Trudeau delivered an apology to LGBTQ2 Canadians. I wept as I listened to his words that day and I wept again as I r...

To start with I sort my fabric.  In this case I sorted by medium, light and dark ranges. Then I construct the first nine patches.  I usually make more than I'll need. When I have all of the nine patches made, I cut them into quarters.   For each of them, i use the original blocks in the corners and then add five more blocks to make new nine patch blocks. I will often mix up the original quarters in order to get colour/tone proportions that I think I'll want in the final piece. Next I cut the second nine patches into quarters.  These are the 'blocks' that I'll use in my quilt. I arrange the quarter blocks on my design wall until I'm happy with the arrangement. I will often add solid blocks to emphasize aspects of the quilt. Sometimes I make more blocks.  For this one, I wanted to ground the composition using white fabric, so I made some blocks I could use to soften the edges where colour and white meet. This quilt...