I’ve written about my quilting sister, Tess, many times. She is our guild’s Challenge Queen, Ribbon Queen, and Creative Genius of Quilting. She has motivated all of us to be better at what we are doing, to try new things, and to enjoy the act of quiltmaking.
After coming up with twenty-five glorious ideas for our guild’s challenges, she has decided to retire from that role. Her shoes are unfillable – not that her feet are big – but her store of ideas and her sense of humor that has led to such interesting titles for our challenges will be a hard act to follow.
Not only have her titles and descriptions been interesting, the ribbons she makes for the winners are always perfect. Take for example, the ones above for our most recent Something Feathered challenge. And here are a couple of others:
For the “Let’s Strip” Challenge, we had to use strips of fabric in some way in the quilt. Tess made the ribbons from strips, too.
In The “Charmed, I’m Sure” Challenge, Tess required that each fabric in the quilt be unique (a traditional quilt pattern with that requirement was called a “charm” quilt. So her ribbons were comprised of fabrics each used only once.
At the conclusion of most recent meeting, our president presented Queen Tess with a quilt made by guild members to show her our appreciation for all her hard work. The quilt has 25 blocks, one representing each of the challenges led by Tess. As she viewed the quilt, Tess could immediately recognize some of the challenges and she was heard to exclaim, “oh, that’s the Brown Bag challenge”, and “I remember baskets, and log cabins, and oh, there’s the fans!”
The label on the back memorializes her status as Queen Tess. I didn’t get a photo, but the label is in the shape of a crown.
I’m not sure what that next act will be…our guild is yet to decide. Will we continue the annual challenge? Will we have one leader? Will we rotate the leadership about the guild? Will a committee determine the challenge each year? Will the winner of one year decide on the challenge for the next?
In the aftermath of the meeting, Tess was already wrapped in the love of her quilting sisters.
In the absence of a volunteer in the immediate future (at a time when the guild wasn’t meeting because of Covid), I agreed to plan the challenge for 2021. That doesn’t mean I’m locked into it forever…all the aforementioned possibilities need to be considered. But doing it once shows me how challenging it is to think of everything to plan a challenge…to get the details right, to communicate it to all, and to inspire people to participate. Really, it’s more fun to participate in making a quilt following Tess’s guidelines. But, I do understand that she’s ready to sit back and watch…and make the quilt that takes home the blue ribbon – without having had to make the ribbons.
Truth: I have not minded staying at home for a year.
Another truth: Seeing my quilting sisters this week was glorious!
Thursday was my quilt guild’s first meeting after more than a year. It was hard to predict how many people would come – but it was wonderful. It was great to see everyone, to visit, and to share a meal.
Our guild’s annual challenge is normally hung in November…since we missed that in 2020, we did it yesterday. This challenge was Something Feathered – the quilt had to include something feather related and a bit of yellow. Challenge Queen Tess often throws a color component our way.
As I do every year, I spent a lot of time thinking of all the ways I could incorporate something feathered into a quilt. Thinking of something wasn’t hard…narrowing it down to a challenge entry was. I actually made several things with the challenge in mind…more on that later…but the quilts that were hung showed that others of many of the same approaches I did…cyanotype images of feathers, vintage linens with birds on them, feathered designs in quilting.
There were stories, too. That’s what I love…the stories that are stitched into a quilt and into our souls.
Members vote for their favorite of the quilts displayed. The winning quilt yesterday was Genie’s Cardinals for Cora. Cora is Genie’s three-year-old granddaughter and when she visits, she exclaims with delight over “GiGi’s birds,” her name for the cardinals in Genie’s yard. Now for generations, when people see this quilt, they will pause in their busy lives and think of a delightful toddler spending time with her grandmother. Can anything be more beautiful?
The second place ribbon went to Marsha’s Murder Among the Posies. Marsha is like me in that she’d much rather shop in an antique store than a modern fabric store. She loves to find vintage linens with a history and combine them to tell a new story. Her quilt title was educational, too, reminding us that flocks of different bird species have different names. For crows, a flock is a murder.
Third place went to Dewey for Doodles. Dewey is a gifted longarm quilter. He tells us that he was bored one day, having caught up with his quilting tasks on hand during a retreat, so he layered some black fabric, played with bold colored threads, and just doodled. Beautiful! We all wish we could so casually doodle like he does.
Sherry brought two entires. The stuffed birds on the branch got my attention…so lovely. She named this one Delora’s Birds; remembering her Aunt Delora who loved pretty embellished linens and who spent time doing crafty things with Sherry during her childhood. Sherry brought another entry, too- Sunshine on a Cloudy Day. Our display space did not show off Sherry’s birds on the branch well, so she sent me photos from home. Once she suspends it from her ceiling again, we will replace the photo with that image. Zoom in on the closeup image to see the bird’s feet…a marvel in engineering for Sherry’s resume!
Marie entered Winging It, a small piece made from an extra block from an earlier quilt. Marie says when the Northern Rough-winged Swallows appear, she pulls that quilt out and drapes it across a chair in her den so she can enjoy the season inside and out.
Everyone was impressed with Shirley’s entry, Yankee Doodle Mickey. Not only was this quilt large, but it was Shirley’s first “real quilt,” she says. She used Disney fabric and incorporated feather stitching in some of the quilting. We are very impressed, Shirley, and look forward to seeing what comes next from this beginner!
Helen’s entry, All Feathered Up and Nowhere to Go 2020, combined cyanotype images of feathers and commercially printed feathers to make an eye-catching wall hanging. Helen likes blue almost as much as I do, so the blueprinting process on fabric was fun.
Angie’s entry is framed under glass, so please ignore the glare. Entitled I Believe, it is a beautiful combination of appliqué and embroidery.
Page’s entry, A Winter Evening, is a cardinal ready for display during the holidays.
Kathy is ready for fall with Pumpkin Season.
Patti’s entry, Pandemic Flowers, includes a feathered design quilted into the border. Patti says she gets the prize for including the most of Tess’s required yellow fabric.
Sharon’s quilt, To God Be The Glory, features a beautiful stained-glass dove and divine quilting.
Gladys, one of our most prolific quilters, ( I believe she made more than 100 quilts while staying safe at home during Covid), brought two entries for Something Feathered. I’m A Feathered Star, and I’m a Wanna Be Feathered Star (the blue one).
My entry was this appliquéd image of a Singer Featherweight sewing machine. As I said, I had plenty of feathered ideas and even stitched some with this challenge in mind. But once I had fun with the featherweight and the play on words, I decided to let this be my entry. I called it Threading My Featherweight. Jim’s title suggestion, “Bob-bob-bobbin Along” was better – but I didn’t ask for his input until I had stitched a blue bird….maybe I’ll do another one with a robin doing the work and use his title.
I’ve written about our guild’s challenges many times before…they really have enriched my quilting life, and I’m sure other members share that feeling. Click on the challenge category in the sidebar to see more of these stories.
