The new year started with a bang! ChattMQG members' work was featured in books, a magazine, and a local quilt show; plus, we launched a new quilt challenge.
It’s Time to Cut It Up! (Again)
Anticipation filled the air at our January meeting as we prepared for an opportunity to breathe new life into a fellow member’s once-prized but now-neglected project. Participants were asked to bring at least one unfinished object to be part of this year's rendition of the popular Cut It Up! Challenge: UFOs, orphan blocks, and several quilt tops adorned two tables.
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| Challenge participants examine the UFOs, orphan blocks, and quilt tops up for grabs. |
Instead of focusing our efforts on a single group quilt, this go-round we’re working on individual projects. To start, each participant did a brief show-and-tell about the unfinished project she brought to the table. After we got a closer look and a chance to fondle the fabric, we drew numbers and divvied up the items White Elephant-style. There was quite a bit of stealing involved in the process!
Everyone left the meeting with someone else’s item(s) to cut up and use to create a new, modern quilt. You can see each item in the slideshow below: the original owner is pictured on the left, and the sewing surgeon is pictured on the right.Everyone has five months to complete the challenge and there are no size requirements for the finished quilts, which will be unveiled at our June meeting. Please share your progress as you work! Use the hashtag #chattmqgcutsitup on Instagram and post your pictures in our Facebook Group.
Quilts Exhibited at Local Gallery
Also in January, eight ChattMQG members exhibited their work at Scenic City Clay Arts' Gallery f 2232°.
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| Quilts on view at Scenic City Clay Arts |
The show, titled "Face Jugs and Quilts of Modern Day Appalachia", was organized by local artists Carrie Anne Parks and Lolly Durant as part of a Hamilton County Schools in-service day for art teachers. Parks and Durant heard about ChattMQG from member Sherry Leary, and they invited the guild to feature members’ quilts alongside the work of potters Mark Issenberg and Shelby West.
The timeline for submission was tight, and it happened at the height of the holiday season, but the result was a vibrant, colorful display that offered viewers a delightful juxtaposition of hard and soft art forms. Partnering with other artists for a local show proved to be a great success! In an article by the Times Free Press, Parks described the quilts as, “really like paintings, the way the [quilters] are working with color and forms. They are doing interesting things with their stitchery and adventurous things with their quilts.”
Congratulations, everyone!
Members' Work Featured in Books and a Magazine
Meanwhile, several members recently had their work shared on an even larger scale.
Veronica Hofman-Ortega’s “Listen” quilt, which was part of the show at Scenic City Clay Arts, is featured in a new book by Melissa Averinos called Making Faces in Fabric. Check it out on page 105 in the gallery of student work.
And Mary Keasler’s award-winning quilt “Not Easy Being Green” can be seen on page 179 of The Modern Quilt Guild’s new book Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century. That piece earned Mary the ribbon for Best Machine Quilting (Frameless) at last year’s QuiltCon.
Finally, Audrey Workman’s “Log Cabin Jamboree” is featured on page 81 in the Log Cabin issue of Curated Quilts. CQ is a new, quarterly journal that features a gallery of quilts on a specific theme. For each issue, the magazine puts out a call for entries for mini quilts; quilters must adhere to a specific color palette and strict size requirements in order to be selected for publication.
Bravo, ladies!
Hello, can you correct the spelling of Veronica's last name, please?
ReplyDeleteMy apologies, Veronica! I can't even blame a fat finger, because those two letters are nowhere near each other on the keyboard.
ReplyDelete