Making Use of Time

Today was the monthly meeting for my quilt guild - the Birmingham Quilters Guild - always a fun thing!  Several of my fellow guild members came up to me to say they are reading my blog; I didn't even know you guys were out there in cyber-land!  So glad you are.

Our speaker was Pricilla Hair.  She was extremely entertaining, really laugh-out-loud funny.  And her quilts were amazing.  She's teaching a two day workshop for guild members, and I was tempted (very tempted!) but no, I'm still not spending on quilting.  I paid close attention to her quilts, though.  I especially loved her nine patch quilts.  They were scrappy, but with close attention to color.  The colors seemed to flow across them.  Many of the blocks had very little contrast, while some had plenty of contrast.  And the nine patch blocks were set on point.  So what did I do when I got home?  I made nine patch blocks and set them on point on my design wall.  I used my greens.  Think I'll make some more tomorrow.

One of my interests is making slice quilts with groups of quilters.  Slice quilts are made by taking a picture and cutting it up into pieces.  Each quilter makes one piece of the quilt, and someone (usually me) sews the pieces together.  It's always fun to see how each person depicts their piece of the picture, and how great the pieces look together.

Currently I'm in charge of such a challenge in our guild.  We have 20 people participating.  We're depicting Van Gogh's Starry Night, a beautiful piece of art.  We'll end up with 3 finished quilts, each with seven pieces.  The deadline for turning in the completed slices is next month, but many of them have already been turned in.  After making the nine patch blocks, I had to pull out a few of the completed slices and check them out.  Was I ever impressed!  I'm so proud of the women who completed stepped outside of their comfort zone to take on this challenge.  I saw painted swirls, beads, crystals, yarn, and even a hand drawn face tucked within a swirl.  These three quilts are going to be magnificent.

It turns out that I found three pieces that fit together in one of the quilts, so I trimmed them and hung them on my design wall.  Here's a sneak peak:

You can see parts of three different slices by three different quilters done in three unique ways, but don't they go well together?  I love it!

Next on my afternoon list was adding a border to a quilt I'm making for the Amelia Center here in Birmingham.  This is a wonderful place, full of hope and counsel for people grieving the loss of a loved one.  These blocks are each decorated in honor of a lost loved one by those left behind, sometimes by a child, sometimes by a parent.  Some have photo transferred a photo of the person.  Some have written poems, or sweet messages.  This is the third such quilt I've made for the Amelia Center, and each is very meaningful to put together.  I try to use bright, cheery fabric to put the squares together, trying to celebrate their lives, rather then mourning them.  

After adding the borders, I pieced the back using the two fabric from the front.  Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and basted it all while I was at it.  Maybe I'll quilt it tomorrow.  

It was a nice day.