"Will I Remember Colour?" - a Quilt Show Challenge

It is time once again for my traditional guild's bi-annual show this weekend! I'm always very excited about our show for many reasons: we have a very active guild of talented quilters who go all-out to make beautiful quilts for the show, we encourage & celebrate all kinds of quilting styles, the venue is amazing with lots of space & natural light, there's a fabulous member's boutique (that I coordinate), a tea room and a big merchant mall!

This year I am pleased to say that I managed to complete a challenge quilt.  The theme was "Quilt Me a Story" and the idea was to create a small quilt no more than 60" in perimeter inspired by a favourite story or book.  Of all the books I've read recently, I was most affected by reading the Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  I resisted this book, thinking it would be horribly depressing, but I'm very glad that I read it, because while it is indeed incredibly sad, the story left me with a peace that is hard for me to explain.

While considering the quilt challenge, I thought about my creative life, my loves and how memory loss might affect me (my paternal Grandmother lived to a very old age, but suffered severe dementia in her last 10 years). What would happen to my work if I could not remember the names of colours? Would working with colour be the same, just without the words? Would colour still bring me joy? How would I put colours together?

Will I Remember Colour?

 11 1/2" square

This quilt was made using the Small Studies techniques I learned from Gwen Marston last spring. I used Oakshott scraps that I had on hand and tried to work fairly quickly without giving much thought to colour theory or what I normally like together.

In addition to finishing up this challenge, I've been busy making items to sell in the boutique. I really enjoy doing this for every show. It is a great way to support the guild, enhance our show and also bring in a bit of cash for summer fun! (sorry, only iphone photos, no time for proper photography this week!).

Industrial woolfelt off-cuts were turned into card wallets

I love making these rope bowls!

Tiny scraps of Liberty tana lawn on their way to becoming earrings!

And finally, here's my show ribbon. We started a fun tradition a few shows ago, inspired by the Parksville Quilter's Guild, to award home made ribbons to fellow guild members in fun categories. Each member of the show-organizing committee gets to choose their own category and award the ribbon to the quilt of their choice. Member's love it and it gives an opportunity for everyone to have a chance at a ribbon!  For this show, I chose "1/2 Square Triangles" (last show, I did Best Use of Solids and the show before that I did Travel Inspired Quilt). 

If you are local, I hope you'll visit us this Friday or Saturday at Capilano University. Come find me in the boutique!