Quilting with Friends

Yesterday (Saturday), the Northern New Mexico Quilt Guild (NNMQG) met to sew kids charity quilts. The quilt pattern was a bit of a mystery for which kits were supplied, or you could–as I did–bring a stack of 10 inch squares: 20 lights and 20 darks. I had a stack of 10 inch squares from a fabric exchange of dog-themed fabrics and thought they would make a fun kid quilt. Most of them are "darks," so I added some low volume and pastel squares to the "lights" to take along.

I am undeniably a control freak when it comes to the quilts I make ... I have to push myself to let go of my controlling ways and suspend disbelief for any kind of mystery quilt, but I persevered and ended up with, what one of the guild members characterized as an "old fashioned scrap quilt."

Today, it's what's on my design wall.  It is, undeniably, an anything-but-modern scrap quilt ... though in a different fabrication, I think the layout could be quite modern.  I have decided to choose to believe that the diverse fabrics make it one of those quilts that becomes more interesting as you get close enough to enjoy all those doggy fabrics and that it will be loved by the dog-loving kid that claims it.

And the ever-analytical me is thinking about how the fabrics I chose to combine with the mostly bright and bold dog prints resulted in that "old-fashioned scrap quilt" feeling.

The directions were dead easy–match light/dark squares and use the 4-at-once method to make Half-Square Triangles and then ... arrange as desired. Millie, our fearless leader for the effort, brought examples of possible layouts and one large quilt top she had made using this technique.   I confess this method of making triangle squares is my least favorite–mostly because you end up with HST units that have bias edges on all four sides ... but I continued to suspend disbelief and just did it. (If you are curious, you can find details of this method and some of my favorites in my free, downloadable HST tip sheet.)

At the end of the day, we laid out our in-progress quilts on the floor in the middle of the room and had a walk-around to enjoy our collective accomplishments.

To anyone who is not a quilter, the effort it takes to pack up everything you need for a few hours of quilting with friends could seem a little crazy ... and not at all worth it.  We bring sewing machines, extra lighting, seat cushions (or sometimes a good chair), portable sewing machine tables, rotary mats, cutters, rulers, specialty templates, thread, pins, scissors, snips, seam ripper–the last of which I was glad I remembered because dyslexic me ended up ripping out and re-sewing one square three times before I got it right ;-)   I didn't bring an ironing board and iron, but wished I had, because quilters were queued to press all day long and an additional ironing station would have been a good idea.  The charity quilts committee were also shlepping kits, idea boards, instruction sheets, backing fabrics for the quilts we would make and a giant roll of batting. 

When I looked around the room, it was clear the quilters in the room were happy to have made the effort–Sandy and Fran's big smiles were pretty typical of those around the room. 

Whatever the effort to gather and carry everything you need, it aways seems to make us happy to be  quilting with friends.   (Plus it was a good dry run for getting organized for for the upcoming guild retreat next month.)

I'm joining the lists for Oh Scrap! on Cynthia's blog, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework,  and Judy's Design Wall Monday.