Remembering Frances Bailey

This week's post is dedicated to Frances Bailey, who was an incredibly innovative quilter and mentor to me and many others who live in California's central coast area. Over the years she taught many classes in a variety of techniques.  She also took many classes and workshops from others so she could continually add to her repertoire.  She passed away this week at the age of 95.  I'm posting pictures of a few of her many quilts.

 For the past sixteen years, I have had the pleasure and good fortune of going over to Frances' house to meet with  her and four other great women who form our circle.  We shared, not just our quilting techniques and projects, but our lives, with their ups and  downs.  We all laughed together and shared tears together.  We have attended weddings, funerals, and rejoiced at births of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We will miss you and your inspiration Frances, but will remember you every time we add a little bit of yellow to our quilts, as you often reminded us to do.

Frances made this quilt inspired by one of Jean Well's books on innovative piecing techniques. Frances had such a wonderful sense of using space, shape and form to create great compositions.  She would often say that she was not an artist.  You can see how wrong she was about that! 

She made this piece following a workshop she took from Carol Taylor at 

Pacific International Quilt Festival.

This beautiful quilt was started in a Ruth McDowell workshop at Asilomar.