Guilds, Bees, and Swaps

As promised, here is my post from 52 Quilters about guilds, bees, and swaps. How many of you are in quilt guilds, participate in bees, or in swaps?

Two years ago I attended my first Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild meeting and I am so glad that I did. I found my group, my support, and my teachers. The Philly MQG shaped who I am as a quilter. I was (and still am) constantly inspired by the diversity and creativity that is shown at the monthly meetings. In Maryland, I have found similar support with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild and the Southern Comforters of Bowie. All three guilds encourage me to reach out of my comfort zone and to keep making on a regular basis. I love being inspired at the meetings, learning at retreats, and making life-long friends who don’t roll their eyes when I talk about quilting and fabric.

I joined my first bee, the Modern Insta Bee, in 2014 as a way to meet other quilters and to have a reason to sew every month. What I did not know at the time is how much it would push me and that it would make me a better quilter. I put colors together that I would have never have dreamed of putting together, paid attention to my scant quarter inch seams, became best friends with my seam ripper, and made blocks that I would have been afraid to make if I wasn’t obligated to make them.  I am now participating and leading two swarms for The Bee Hive quilt bee and participating in the Philly MQG bee.

I was hesitant to put yellow, orange, purple, and gray together with black and white fabrics, but it is now one of my favorite blocks that I completed for the Modern Insta Bee.

String Circles – the block that I dreaded making, but it is the block that taught me the most.

I have participated in a few swaps over the last year, both online and in person, and I really enjoy the process of making for others. It is another way that I stretch my comfort zone and play with fabrics and colors that I may not have considered before. My favorite mini was for my secret sewist at Mid-Atlantic MOD though:

I designed the pattern myself since my partner was a huge Alice and Wonderland fan.

You can see most of my bee blocks (I am still catching up on posting some of this years) and minis on my bee blocks and swaps page if you are interested in seeing the range of them.

How about you, what do you get out of guilds, bees, swaps, and/or the online quilting community?

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#41 on 52 Quilters

I was thrilled when Chris asked me to take over this week at 52 Quilters. 52 Quilters is a social media project to showcase diverse world of people who quilt. I am taking over their blog, Instagram and Twitter handles beginning today!

Yesterday I sat down to draft my introduction post and realized just how hard it is to write about myself. If you feel like taking a peek, my intro post is live on 52 Quilters.

I’ll be back later this week with a cross post from 52 Quilters on the importance of guilds and swaps to my quilting and how they shaped who I am today.

Fabric Friday: Meadow

Happy Friday! This stack of beauties is destined to be my Meadow Quilt from Lizzy House’s pattern. I took her workshop with the Philly MQG two weeks ago and learned so much. Lizzy is a great teacher and a down to earth person. I am excited to hear her lecture next week.

I pulled my fabric stack two days before my workshop picking up the green Grove by Alison Glass for the background and lime American Made Brand solid for the petal centers from my local quilt shop on my way home from work. I knew that I wanted to do solid petals so I pulled my stash of Essex Yarn Dyed Linen which includes black, charcoal, and gray. My center field will be all low volume. I was pretty happy with my pull of 17 fabrics and I added one from Becky’s stash during the workshop. It contains a lot of Carolyn Friedlander, some Cotton + Steel Basics, a Jessica Levitt, and some other unknowns from my stash.

I am looking forward to clearing my to do list over the next few weeks so I can get started on this one.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Joslyn from Philly MQG.