What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Back in the spring, my friend Chris brought me this orphan block and said "let's do something together with this"

Until eventually we had a completed quilt top! I matchstick quilted it on my domestic machine, added some big stitches with 8 weight pearl cotton and bound it in lime green after auditioning many options...

Welcome to the final day of the Bubbles, Curves and Corners Blog Hop. 

I hope you have enjoyed the projects shared by the Studio 180 Design Certified Instructors, who have used the new Deb Tucker Studio 180 DesignBubbles, Curves and Corner Fabric Collection for Island Batik, and Blockbuster Blocks. It's been great to see the different projects that each participant has created. One thing I love about the Studio 180 Design Fabric Collection is the vibrant array of colors in each new collection they release. 

If you missed any of the other blogs, please check the list below to ...

 Earlier this month I enjoyed seeing the beautiful show put on by the Plano Quilt Guild. I entered four quilts in the show (all quilts hung, this is not a juried show). Both of my quilts in the group quilts category received honorable mention ribbons!

Spot on is a collaboration I completed earlier this year with my good ...

Time for some catching up! Back in January my pal Debbie was cleaning out her stash and gifted me a beautiful stack of improv hourglass blocks she had made last year. 

I had a wonderful time assembling them into a quilt top, adding a scrap or two of my own alone the way to make things fit. As I assembled it, I began adding appliqué dots here and there, because, why not? The Modern Quilt Guild has recently embraced Maximalism as an element of modern quilting and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get on board. 

I attached ...

And, it's Design Wall Monday!  Read all the way and you'll see it.  

Part 1:

We have a son that is a maker.  He comes by it honest; but the great thing is that he does beautiful work, and I sit back and admire that he managed to acquire that particular gene or trait, which I believe is from his father’s line and my father’s line. 

In other words, he is an artist.  He makes his living as one.  For a few years we have discussed the desire to collaborate.  Life and the pandemic got in ...

One thing Karen and I have done together is develop a method for creating collaborative projects. We'll be sharing more about that method in ...

Today is the fourth installment of Exploring Collaboration, a series of blog posts offered up twice a month by Karen Bolan and me. We've really enjoyed sharing our thoughts with you and look forward to future conversations about collaboration with many fellow quilters.

For this week's exploration of collaboration, I have a specific idea that you might try with a group of friends.  Hopefully the world will soon begin to open up again and we will be more able to join with fellow quilters on retreats, for quilting days, workshops and other in person activities. Here's a ...

Oh, and look at that, on page 49.....

Karen Bolan and I collaborated on an article! I'm delighted to be included in this beautiful magazine and happy to spread the joy I find in collaboration with others. 

You can order a copy of the magazine here.

If you've been following along, Karen Bolan and I have been exploring different aspects of collaboration together, then reflecting on our conversations on our blogs. You can find the first two entries in our series here on my blog and on Karen's blog as well.

 Whew! What a year! While it would be easy to focus on all of the crazy negative things going on in the world right now (no, I'm not going to list them. you already know!) I'm choosing to focus on the positive. And there sure was a lot of it in my world this year. Here are the highlights.... so I never forget how blessed I was in 2021.

Urban Emergence

 Here we are, round 2 of Exploring Collaboration! Last time, Karen and I discussed different kinds of collaborations that we enjoy. Today, let's chat about how to form a collaborative team to make those projects happen!

Bees

Some tips and tricks for forming a bee group:

1) Establish your goals. What are you hoping to accomplish through your bee? Do you want to make traditional blocks and hone your piecing skills? Do you want to experiment with improv? Make charity quilts? Write it all down so you can share these goals with potential bee members.

2) Set rules. I ...

 I've really been enjoying exploring different aspects of collaboration with fellow modern quilter, Karen Bolan. You might remember reading about Welcoming Lamp, the project we collaborated on several months ago. Our conversations have continued since then and we are working on a series of blogposts to open up conversation in the quilting community about collaborating.Karen and I will offer articles on this topic twice a month and encourage you to join in by sharing your thoughts in the comments.

For our first posts, we are sharing our thoughts about the different types of collaboration. You can read my ...

 Several months ago, when Sarah Goer and I began our Zoom calls based on In Tandem Art (read more about that here) we decided to issue each other a challenge. We each chose a photo from our archives, sent our photo to the other, and then made mini quilts inspired by the photos. It was great fun and a good way to kick off our stint as pArtners. In case you are wondering, yes, we are still meeting over zoom every 2 weeks, holding each other accountable, inspiring each other and occasionally solving world problems (I wish!).

The photo I ...

And just in time! This week Ally receives her MSW (Masters in Social Work) from UT Arlington. Quite the accomplishment! And she was able to achieve this remotely from ...