Interesting Meeting

As meetings go, the discussion on "What is modern quilting" went well.  While defining a concept that defies defining seems unnecessary to me, many members appreciated the time for discussing the concept.  My first love and first major in college was history, thus for me,modern can be assigned to any time period.  Having been an accountant for my 25+ career years, I rather enjoy not having rules, which modern anything embraces!  in the end, quilters will create what they like no matter the popular experts decree.

Moving on, enjoy the pictures from the meeting

 Kelly shows us her quilt top done in "circular" fashion.(above)  Many of the fabrics are souvenirs from a recent trip to Hawaii.  Below, our guild's secretary reveals her block exchange.  Her criteria were to incorporate solids in grays and yellows.  Of course everyone but one quilter heard the rules....except for Becky????  The lone ranger block worked great though, it's the upper right with a yellow print.

Ambitious Marcia had her blocks from a previous month's exchange completed.  It looks great!  Notice  how she worked in the leftover HST's in the middle to break the monotony.  Marcia doesn't sit idle for very long, she stitched a binding onto another quilt during our meeting.  I'd enjoy attending the symphony more if I could sew while listening!

 Jan shows us the most exquisite quilts each month.  Needless to say when she showed the completed quilt, below, no controversy arose whether this example was modern.  While circular motifs are integral to the quilting most of her quilting detail was done by walking foot!  Some members commented that only certain types of quilting designs could be considered modern.  The leafy motifs could be considered more traditional.  What do you think?

 Another modern example from Jan.  Color usage entered the "What is Modern" discussion.  Jan showed us this quilt of more traditional colors done modern.....

 The close-up above shows an example of stitches Ginger used on her small wall hanging.  Making use of the decorative stitches sewing machines have, even a basic zig zag, can elevate the quilting to a more interesting view.  Interestingly, Ginger paper pieced the stars for this example using fabrics purchased from Bill Kerr's site....modern fabrics?  Of course, opinions were expressed for both sides of yes and no!

 Kathy showed us her new quilt top.  Kathy really likes doing modern with irregular shapes worked into the top.

 Lindsey showed us her example of modern, too.  She loves to make pillow covers with exposed zippers.  Her pillow covers mimic the Marushka dolls of Russia, take one off and another appears, several times.

 I showed my swirling lone star table cloth.  This project was more involved than I should have committed myself.   A later blog will explain.  I was SO GLAD to move this project off the to-do list.

The fabric is from the Bahamas collected from several trips from many years....over 25!  I needed 8 colors, so I started cutting old dresses and shirts I had made.....

If you're looking for a fun road trip, consider Three Rivers, Michigan!  Why?  The blogger of 13 Spools has some of her quilts on display at the Carnegie Art Museum there.  Enjoy!