Bill Stearman, Quilt Maker

Like every January, once I finished what I had in progress, I sat, in depression, having lost every bit of creative moxie that I had.  And like every other January, I looked for a mindless pattern or technique, and some bright coloured fabric so that I could climb back out of my depression. This year I chose a technique … ‘stack and whack’ … ‘one block wonder’ … it goes by many names. Basically, it just involves selecting a printed fabric and stacking six repeats of the fabric on top of each other. Precisely. The you just cut six exactly the same pieces of fabric to arrange into hexagons.   I added lots of solid hexagons to my version, using a Free Spirit solid in a cranberry-ish colour.  My Granddaughter, Anna, selected the colour.  Left to me, I’d have used black, which might not have lifted my funk!  The floral is a Kaffe Fassett design, from Westminster Fabrics. There is a large piece of what remained on the back of the quilt. I’m pretty happy with the end r...

  2021 It was a pretty strange year for most of the world, but I think it might have been a weirder year for me than for most others. This is my interpretation of the year. It is a bit under 36” wide.  The bright coloured fabric is my own hand dyes and the rest of the fabric is by Libs Elliott. Nothing Fits Anymore, But I’m Still Beautiful As I have aged (matured?) my body has ‘evolved’.  My clothes may not fit like they once did, but I remain … beautiful!! About 36” wide.  Background is white shweshwe from Meerkat Shweshwe.