Quilt Day

I had an extraordinary quilt day yesterday!  I belong to two quilt guilds and was fortunate enough to have two events yesterday.  The first was "Quilts on the Triangle" where I had volunteered as a greeter.  The "Triangle" is a square (but not shaped like that) in the middle of the  small town where our guild meets.  We had a wonderful turn out and this was one of the events we are doing to celebrate our 20th year anniversary:

We were so fortunate that the weather held off during the event.  It has rained here everyday for weeks and didn't start until about 5 p.m. last night (wooohooo!).

From there I drove to another event which was AMAZING.  One of the women from the other guild I belong to, Colonial Quilters, had an event sponsored by her children and celebrating her 80th birthday this year.  They did so by renting a fantastic hall, hiring a caterer and displaying all of the 200 quilts she had made through the years.  It was a fantastic one woman show!

The family did such a fantastic job and Terry (the artist) was beaming.  The family borrowed Colonial Guilds' quilt racks and it was such a wonderful exhibit.  I was surprised at how many quilts were still hand quilted although Terry has been machine quilting lately.  Her daughter said she quilts like it is a full time job and always has the next project on her mind.

 I think every quiltmaker has something to teach us and Terry had many lessons to offer.  Her choices of fabric were often inspired and surprising like using this reproduction fabric to frame...

a very modern quilt:



AND IT WORKS!!!  Terry even used home dec fabric on some of her quilts and it really gave the quilts a wonderful textural sense (yeh and the fabrics all worked together despite different weights.....amazing). And look at how she uses a big print to frame her center:

I think I was most surprised at how she kept her work so fresh and continues to challenge herself.  I had wondered if her quilts would be more traditional in nature but Terry has continued to evolve as quilting has changed.  She is an amazing inspiration!

It was a wonderful day although I feel bad that my husband was a bit neglected while he was home.  My week ahead is much clearer and I hope to be able to spoil him a bit with home cooking and baking. 

Have a great day!