Spontaneity in Medallion Quilts

Earlier this week I went to the AQS quilt show in Grand Rapids. My favorite part of the show by far was this special exhibit of Medallion Quilts from Gwen Marston's book Liberated Medallion Quilts. 

There were many quilts made by Gwen 

and also some made by other quilters who contributed to the book.

I was very impressed with the variety of quilts in the medallion style.  Gwen had some very traditional looking quilts in traditional fabrics

and also some bright colorful quilts made with novelty prints like the fun frog quilt she made for her grandson, shown below.

I love the skinny spike/shard detail in the corner of the quilt below that uses more contemporary fabrics.

Gwen hand quilts many of her quilts. I would love to do that. 

So many beautiful quilts made by Gwen and quilters from her Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.

I have read Liberated Medallion Quilts cover to cover, as I do with all of Gwen's books. Really. If you can't have Gwen over for tea, reading her books is the next best thing. I adore her writing style. 

This book is full of photographs of beautiful quilts, and I love that she includes some background information for each quilt. I enjoyed reading what the other contributors had to say about their quilts and the inspiration behind them.  You won't find any specific patterns to make the quilts included but there is a lot of information on how to approach quilts in this style. She gives more of a "recipe" on how to make liberated medallion quilts. She has the quilts grouped into chapters of different medallion styles. Seeing them grouped this way makes it easier to understand how the different quilts were made. 

Thanks Gwen, I think you hit another home run with this one.