Welcome to the Road to California Blog

Robin Gausebeck received $5,000 from Sponsor, Janome, for Art of the Ancient World at Road to California 2018

Robin Gausebeck did not set out to be a quilter, let alone an award winning quilter.

A few years ago, when Robin moved in to a new house, there was a tall blank wall in the stairwell that needed some color. She thought she could find “a nice long piece of fabric, hang it up and be done.” Only problem: she couldn’t find anything that she and her husband liked. In her search, however, Robin DID find a book by Pamela Mostek called “Just Can’t Cut It” which featured simple quilts that Robin figured she could attempt to make. After all, thought Robin, she did know how to use a sewing machine!!  That first quilt, which she revised to measure 4′ x 8’, was full of beautiful Asian fabrics but Robin felt that her “workmanship was atrocious since I really didn’t know what I was doing.” Consequently, her personal embarrassed kept her from letting anyone else see that quilt.  However, the process of using a variety of fabrics and colors fascinated her and she knew she wanted to do more. What inspired Robin to make Art of the Ancient World? About 8 years ago, she and her husband were passing through Lincoln, Nebraska. They stopped at the International Quilt Study Center and viewed a collection of Baltimore album quilts.  They weren’t Robin’s “thing” but her husband was fascinated with the style and began mentioning to Robin how much fun it would be for her to make an album quilt.  After listening to his hints over the years, Robin decided that it would be “okay for me to do an album quilt but it was going to be on my terms.” Although Robin didn’t consider herself a “folk-art person,” she always had been interested in art history and figured that she could pull design inspiration from the decorative arts of early civilizations from around the globe. Art of the Ancient World took over two years to complete. Some of that time, Robin spent researching in libraries, on the internet and with her own art books trying to design each of the 16 blocks.  After she made the first two blocks, Robin hit a creative wall and put the quilt aside for about 6 months until she determined that she had to finish it. Robin shared that she learned a lot from making this quilt. She learned a lot about art history that she hadn’t known before. She learned some new quilting techniques. And she learned that “I will probably never make another quilt like this as long as I live!!” When Robin received the email about winning, it was after a long day during which she and her husband realized that they would have to say goodbye to the last of the many loved cats they had owned over the years.  Robin had actually forgotten about when Road would be sending the notifications out so she was totally blindsided when the email said that she had won. She said that she “actually screamed out loud” when she read the email and then “rushed to tell my husband since this really is ‘his’ quilt.” While Robin would love to say that she spent her prize money on fabric, a new machine, or a quilt retreat, she actually applied it to some household maintenance. She hopes to also spend some of her winnings on “a nice dinner and bottle of wine, too.” What does Robin plan to work on in the future? “I have more ideas for quilts than I will ever have time to do.  I love color and form so I think I’d like to veer off in the direction of more abstract work but who knows?  An interesting idea (actually a title since that’s how most of my quilts start) may pop into my head and I’ll go off in another direction entirely.” Congratulations Robin Gausebeck for winning Road 2018’s Outstanding Wall Quilt.  ]]>