Quilters are generous people... Well, so are alot of just regular people, but I mostly know crafty people in my life and even those with little cash to spare, generously give their time and talent to make quilts for a wide variety of causes.
Now, I have been quilting as a HOBBY since about 1985, but actually made a few quilts before that but I considered it part of being a homemaker. When my children were very young I started to make quilts for their beds, quilts to haul around to picnics or to the beach, quilts to play on when they were out in the yard, quilts to use as tents and even a quilt or two to use as a table cover at christmas. Those kind of quilts were made throughout the 1970's. (only 2 small ones still exist today)
When I first joined a quilt guild in 1986, I began to consider it a hobby and I soon discovered quilt shows and quilt challenges at quilt shows. My very favourite part of any quilt show has always been the guilds' challenges -- I have participated in ALOT of them.
A couple of weeks ago, I was digging through my storage trunk and realized that all those challenge quilts I had made over the years, were sitting idle at the bottom of the trunk.
As I looked through them I knew that their main use was to be looked at but they certainly didn't get looked at in the bottom of a big box, now did they? The quilts were generally square and usually about 30 inches or less on each side. So, I thought about it for awhile. Who could enjoy these quilts and make use of them? Where could I 'get rid' of them but yet not personally feel that my hard work and creativity was wasted. Yes, where could I put those quilts and give myself SATISFACTION of a good job done and be happy to know that my work was also USEFUL...
Because these quilts were as much as 20 years old, their colours were not current or modern, but they were generally pretty, and warm, and definately useful.
So, I picked out 6 of these 'challenge' quilts (yes I still have a few more that I am thinking of homes for) and because my cousin Judi works as an aide at a private care home for 'Challenged' ladies I thought "How appropriate that they have something bright and cheery but not too big." So I sent six of my Challenge Quilts over to the 6 ladies in that care facility.
The Work in Progress
And, since it is Work in Progress over at the Needle and Thread Network I want to tell you about my newest obsession...
Yesterday, yep, just yesterday, I took a class from our quilt guild's MATH WIZARD Jane. TESSELLATIONS... This idea has been around for awhile, but not like centuries, just a dozen decades maybe. Anyway, I am hooked. For Now. Jane taught us about the different types of tessellations and how they worked and how to create them. I really like best that every one is unique. There are definate tessellations that have become recognized in the art world and most people recognize the name ESCHER. Well, I am no Escher, but now I can say I am a someone original artist. My shapes may be somewhat like others that have gone before, but apparently what I cut out is quite unlikely to be exactly like what someone else has done... EVEN if I emulate similar cuts, mine is still likely to be my own....
The one above (can you see the halloween ghost?) was a shape that I made after the class when I got home. It started out as an equilateral triangle and once the shape was created one point revolved to make the design... I am going to use this as my first tessellation in fabric ! I am hoping to show you an "in progress" or finished piece next week.
In class we used playing cards cut to regular shapes (square, hexagon, triangle) to learn the basics of cut out and put back. Simple to more complicated.
One thing that always puzzles me about the MATH in Quiltmaking is why is Math so facinating now, and when I was 14 and in grade 9, I was on the verge of failing each year of high school math that I took? Why wasn't math at all interesting then? How is it that my mind changed so drastically and now enjoys something I so despised before???
Now, that we here in the Pacific Northwest are finally getting sunshine and summer temperatures, I am planning to set up my outside table and draw tessellations for every hour I can find to sit in my back yard!
Hope you are out there getting a bit of that shine and enjoying everything you do!
