Collaborative quilts

Warning: quilt heavy content!

My quilt guild, the Strip Piecers met at my house earlier this week and we had much quilty goodness. Before they arrived, I moved my DR table to one end to leave a wide open space in the middle so we could layout quilt blocks. I have a really big dining room (11 by 15) so we laid out several at a time. Karen held hers up for everyone to see, and she made sure to tell me how my quilting style had influenced hers: note her freestyle letters and all the strip piecing (which I introduced to her in this quilt, after which our guild got its name.) Very fun. It's a wall hanging for her future SIL.

Here Cheryl, my partner in quilting crime, is holding up two 48 by 66 cuddle quilts for two little boys we both know. At right is the I Spy quilt I've shown before, rearranged a bit with more darks. At left is a strip-pieced quilt made from novelties from fellow guild member Bonnie, who gave us yards and yards of fabric she was done with. I supplemented it with the letter fabric and a few squares leftover from the I Spy. Cheryl strip pieced both onto navy microfleece backing, and brought the fleece to the front for a nice dark binding. Bonnie had enough yardage to make a pillowcase for both boys, which I haven't pictured. Thanks so much Bonnie!

Below are two of the monthly challenges. Each month a different guild member sets a challenge and we make the block in the colours or patterns she asks. At right are Laura's 6.5 inch string blocks which was our October challenge. She brought them back because she had a few more, and I gave her the 10 more that I made. Lovely, lovely, lovely. We tried out several b/w sashing fabrics, and she's hoping to make several quilts from these 99 she has. At right is Anne K's November challenge of Jack in the Box blocks in blues and purples. Mine are at the top right, including the mistake. I like the value combinations where the pinwheel appears to flip over , like the 2nd one from the left in the top row. At the bottom right is the bag of bonus HST squares we made when making the flying geese. Anne is the ultimate scrap quilter, so she'll find another use for these.

We have so much fun playing with these blocks and showing off our new quilts that some evenings we don't even get out our handwork. Thanks, Strip Piecers, for a fun and inspiring evening.