Do You Go to Quilt Shows to Be Inspired?

The Seven Sister’s Show inspired me, Elizabeth to take on the Block of the Month (BOM) position for the guild. Here’s the  quilt that got me so excited.

A Journal Quilt!

• An experiment
• A mini creative break
• A great way to use scraps
• A way to test a new technique
• Done in a day
• Disposable if it didn’t work out
• Fun to share

This Year’s Block of the Month Project

This year we are going to make lots of little quiltlets. Mug rugs, journal quilts  and doll sized quilts. These quiltlets will be quick and fun to make. They will also be a chance to exercise your creativity. Cost will be minimal as most of your supplies should come from your scrap stash or the free table at the guild.

Of course if you want a full size quilt, you can chose to make the blocks in coordinating fabrics, sash them to fit  together and quilt them only after you have made a quilt top!

I want to create some accountability and camaraderie this year by having a BOM  Show and Tell during the general meeting. That way we can admire each other’s  efforts.

I will not always be satisfied with my results for the quiltlet or even finished, but I will share what I did and I hope you will too. Knowing I need to share gives me a reason to sew (the night before) and often when I have shared a project that I viewed as a failure, a helpful suggestions from a fellow quilter saved the project.

I am counting on a big group of us sharing our efforts each month!

Our guild is home for beginning as well as advanced quilters so I am offering three levels for this creative challenge:

• Beginner: For those who are still mastering how to make quilt blocks—I will provide a simple pattern for a versatile block.
• Stretching: For those who have mastered the basics but don’t want to leave the safety of patterns—I will have twists for the “beginner block” so you can make it your own.
• Out of the Box: For those adventurous souls—I will provide a monthly prompt such as “The Dog Days of Summer”. Your challenge will be to make a journal quilt that exemplifies  “Dog Days of Summer” in your mind. It could be done by the choice of fabric, the quilting lines, fabric painting, a pieced block or a fused project.

Get Ready

Pull out your scraps and leftover pieces of batting and and watch for the first set of instructions. I will post instructions both on the BOM page of this website and in the newsletter. The first set of quiltlets are due and will be shown at the September meeting.

If you want to try “Out of the Box”, decide now on a size for all your journal quilts. Sue in the quilt above used Paper size (8½”x 11″) for her journal quilts but other quilters have used anything from  Calendar size (12″x 12″) to Postcard size (6″x 8″) for their journal quilts.

If you have questions or comments leave them here or on the BOM page. If you are on Facebook, share your trials and successes on the “visitor posts”  of our ACQguild page. The editors move those posts to the main feed after vetting them as “not spam”.

I am excited to see what we all create!