Featured Quilter—“Alchemist Emeritus” Christine Barnes

Greetings, Artistic Alchemy friends! Many of you know me as a former member of the group and teacher at the Zephyr retreat, but for recent followers, I—and my quilts—may be new. I’m posting today to invite you to the Pine Tree Quilt Guild show April 30 and May 1, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley. The show will be open 10–4 each day. 

I’ll be the featured quilter, with 30 quilts and 6 wearables. Heidi, Sandra, and Jane will be in their booth, with polymer, patterns, hand-dyes, kits, and more. I’m really looking forward to seeing old and new friends—AND the 250 quilts made by our guild! Traditional, art, and modern quilting styles will be well represented. There will be vendors, a Country Store, raffle baskets, a silent auction, and a café—everything we love about a quilt show! 

To give you a taste of my display, here are a few of my quilts:

My newest quilt, “Jigsaw,” was inspired by a traditional block I had never seen. The plan was to use two colors per block, each color in a lighter and darker value. All centers are Kaffe Fassett prints. Below is one of the first blocks I made. The interlocking design is oh-so-modern to my eye.  (Later, I changed the black-and-white “plaid” squares to dots; the original squares will show up in a future quilt.)  

Sandra’s vertical quilting was the perfect choice; it adds texture without interfering with the straight-line piecing. 

“City Grid” came out of a series of blocks I had set aside and, honestly, forgotten. They began with centers cut from Elin Noble’s hand-painted fabrics, surrounded mostly by solids, and accented with B&W swizzle sticks.

I absentmindedly put a few blocks on my white design wall one day and decided they looked best “aired out.” The stripes and dots visually connect the elements.

Check out Sandra’s amazing quilting.

My quilts often start with a had-to-have-it fabric, but “Glacé” was inspired by a tea towel from France. Woven into the design are French words for ice cream and other frozen desserts. 

A few of the elements—appliquéd circles of Kaffe’s Promenade stripe, Kaffe and Tula Pink prints, a pastel ombré.

This quilt is a different take on my “Black Opals & Ribbon Candy” design, with some of the triangle blocks in the original replaced by the four-patch units.

“Cut flowers” is another example of blocks that got “lost,” then found. 

When I unearthed them, I thought that changing the woven-stripe centers by Kaffe Fassett for some of his newer stripes might perk up the design. With the painted stripe in the center, the colors seemed more vibrant. (You may prefer the original; such things are subjective.) 

Setting the blocks proved to be a real challenge. If you’d like to see the many settings I auditioned, check out my newsletter article. https://conta.cc/3EsxcYs  

Though I’ve retired from traveling to teach (20+ years seemed like enough) I’m still working away on new quilts and patterns. You can follow me on social media and sign up for my newsletter, “Christine’s Color Connection.” All can be accessed from my website. www.christinebarnes.com

Thanks so much for reading and looking. The four of us hope to see many of you at the 2022 “Springtime in the Pines Quilt Show.” And if you can come, be sure to stop and say hello!