Sea Glass & More Community Quilts

I’ve got lots more fabric leftover from the bag of fabric that was given to me. I had enough flannel scraps leftover for a tiny quilt. Our guild donates small quilts to hospitals for preemie babies.
I have also started piecing together some of the Christmas fabrics which were in the bag. Christmas quilts often get chosen first by kids even when it’s not Christmas.


This months Fast Friday Fabric Challenge is to make a quilt with the concept of “less is more” by having a relatively small focal point surrounded by lots of negative space. Or by working with the “more is more” concept by having an overall pattern with no prominent focal point.

I like to pick up sea glass when I go walking out to the small rocky beach at the end of a marsh trail in San Leandro. I had in my mind to do a “less is more” quilt with a few shapes inspired by my small beach glass collection. I cut a few more than I needed, so I would have some choices when I was arranging the pieces, and then got carried away a bit. I may decide to make a quilt for each of the options available this month.

The Grab Bag CD, Fabric Scraps, and Community Quilts

The Grab Bag CD is now available. For a minimum $10.00 donation to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause, and shipping and handling of $2.00, you can obtain a CD containing 173 inspiring photographs and artists' statements of the 59 wonderful quilts that resulted from the 2008 Quiltart Grab Bag Challenge. Complete details for ordering are here: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html. I will be ordering mine in the next day or so, and will be looking forward to seeing all of the quilts which were made this year.

I was given a couple of bags of leftover fabric. I decided there wasn’t anything that I wanted to keep for myself. But there were a lot of nice pieces of fabric which I thoughtmy guild could use for their Community Quilts program. There were flannel pieces cut into strips, all different widths and lengths. I decided to sew the strips together to make a top for Community Quilts, and proceeded without much of a plan except to improvise as I went along. I enjoyed working with the happy bright colors. This will be completed by the guild with either tying or quilting, and will make a small girl very happy. It’s super soft and cozy too, being all flannel.

There are a lot of Christmas prints in the bag too. I might do something similar with them.

Two Quilt Guilds

I belong to the Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Newark. This guild has a couple hundred members, monthly meeting, and often has featured speakers. They guild also has a wonderfulCommunity Quilts program. Kits are made up and given to members to make quilt blocks. When the blocks are returned at the meeting, they are grouped together with fabric for sashing and borders for a new kit. Completed tops are put together with backing, batting, and binding. Some are taken to be machine quilted by individuals. Others are tied at guild sponsored tie-ins. The quilts are donated to local non-profit and service organizations who distribute the quilts and put them to good use. I will be a featured artist and speaker at the Piecemakers Quilt Show in May.

I brought a kit home containing completed blocks and fabric to make sashing and borders with instructions to complete the top. I decided to put the blocks together “wrong”. While I was deciding which way to orient the blocks, I noticed some of the blocks were “wrong” also. My way of putting it together disguises the “wrong” blocks, and the quilt is more interesting than if had been put together “right”. I wonder if there will be traditional quilters who look at it and think, “What was she thinking?” I added the small yellow squares between the sashing and the large blue corner squares, just because. I hope this quilt will make someone smile.

I spent this morning in Santa Clara at CQFA which is my other quilt guild. It meets every other month, and is geared more towards art quilting and anyone interested in more innovative techniques. We’re a smaller group, and less structured. But it’s worth going just for show and tell and see what everyone else has been up to. We usually have a small informal workshop presented by one of our members, and occasionally have a guest speaker. Today one of our members, Debbie Wambaugh, shared a technique she calls “blooming chenille”. Examples of her work can be seen here:
http://www.mountainartcenter.org/Shows/fibers_of_america.htm
http://www.mountainartcenter.org/Shows/form_and_function2005.htm
Debbie has a great color sense, and her pieces are full of wonderful texture.

I am lucky to be spending two days at a retreat with some of the CQFA members at the end of the month. We don’t have any planned projects, just time away to work on projects and a chance to get to know each other better.