Quilt Auction

A few years ago I when was writing the book, Quilting Party: Group Quilting for Celebration, Commemoration & Charity, my guild (at the time) was on a retreat. I thought this would be the perfect time to test out my quilt block system.

I chose two photos and divided the quilt group in half. There were 12 people in each group. We divided the photos (the photograph above is from Nantucket by my friend Vicki Rentel) into a grid of 12 blocks. Each person took one part and interpreted it in fabric. Because this group is so talented,the two pieced quilts came out beautifully!

Since these artists volunteered their time, I promised to donate one quilt to Kids N Kamp, a charity that lends support to families with children touched by cancer. Take a look at someof the quilts for sale this year. Every year this organization holds a quilt auction in the skybox area of the Ohio State football stadium. It's a ball. There's lots of great food; local celebrities and coaches do the actual auction. This year the auction is October28. I'll be there! I hope the bidding is high for my piece and all the other quilts.

NQA lights my fire

Not once, but twice I left the NQA really excited about something I saw, with pictures on the camera, ready to get a post up on the blog…and left without writing down the details. The quilt pictured above was made by a group in…ah…Can anybody help me? It reminded me of the same technique I wrote about in my Quilting Party book.  The quilters started with a panoramic photo of their town and then cut it into vertical pieces. Each member made their section.  The sum is greater than the parts! I must say, though, the parts are each pretty great, too.

This technique created a very effective quilt which would be especially great in a public space in their town, any town. It would also work beautifully in a hospital lobby, town hall, library etc.

I think I may suggest this to my quilting guild as a great civic project (not to mention fun activity) to commemorate some of our historic and picturesque “Main Streets” here in central Ohio area. 

If you need a good public service project idea for a quilt guild, high school art class, junior high sewing class, (insert group name!), here it is.

Don’t see moose too often in quilts!

This quilt reminded me of Noriko Endo’s landscape quilts, especially with the tiny animals Noriko and this quilter added.  I sent this photo to Norkio, actually, to show her how effective the use of white tulle was in this quilt to simulate sunrays coming through the trees in the forest.  After the quilt was completed, strips of white tulle were placed on top with some branches overlapping them.  Take a look here at the close-up:

What a great idea! The more I see, the more I want to quilt all day long!

PS: Who made this quilt??

Mystery Solved!

I told you Beth Schillig knows everybody, and she has saved the day on the Mystery Quilter in my last blog post. The quilter is Linda Roy. She had a quilt Beth remembered seeing in the American Quilter Magazine.

You can see her work at this link, at the American Quilter's Society Quilt Show award page. She did #121, Vintage Bouquet Button. Linda won the "Hand Workmanship" award.

I love the internet! Thanks Beth.

Mid-week Potpourri

I’m taking a quilting class today, which is like a vacation. I’m away from the computer, the phone, the vacuum cleaner…I’ll learn something new and hang out with creative friends. No airport, cancelled flights, or checked bags. Perfect for a steamy June weekday!

In the meantime, one of my authors, the fabulous Barbara Olson (click here for her website), sent me a link to this blog:

We of Artistic Vision

I’ll say artistic! Fantastic. I’d love to get to know these talented women. The quilt they did in blocks for the Becker Lake Photo Challenge is exactly the kind of project I wrote about in in my book last year, Quilting Party. Since that book was published, I’ve heard from so many readers about their “Quilting Party” projects. One of my photographers, Vicki Rentel, just told me about a project at work a coworker put together for another coworker whose husband recently died. It’s been the talk of the office, and has really been a “hands on” way of supporting a dear friend. Lovely. (photo via We of Artistic Vision)

Last but not least, over the weekend I was digging through one of the innumerable clear plastic boxes in my studio, looking for some ideas. It’s therapeutic for me to dig through my stash, especially my stash of Asian printed fabrics. What do you know? I chanced upon a blouse I made years ago. It was done, but for the buttons and the label. I threw on the buttons and added my brand new labels, made by Heritage Woven. Now, who doesn’t love to finish a project, especially one that takes all of 10 minutes and means something brand new to wear?