Quilter's Guild of Brooklyn Show

 Below are some of the most striking of the quilts presented by my quilt guild, the Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn, over the weekend at the Block Institute in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I am always so impressed with the talent of the other members of my guild, and I always come away inspired and with about 10 ideas about what my next project should be. This time, I'm leaning toward doing a medialian quilt, like the one pictured on the left in the 2nd row, and I bought a wedge-shaped plastic triangle from a vendor at the show that I can use to make something similar.
My entry is 9 rows down, and it was one of the few quilts in the show with a white background. I actually finished this quilt a few years ago for and gave it a friend, but had never shown it at a Guild show, so I borrowed it back  for the event. It was nice not to have to struggle to finish something in-progress on a deadline.

Happy Easter!

This is the best chocolate bunny EVER---he's riding a Vespa! Although I'm sad to report that my real Vesta is out of commission. The battery died. After a Spring tune up, I'll be back on the road.

April block lotto blocks

I made these 4 blocks for the April drawing of Block Lotto. The background is white, but as Sophie (the fearless block lotto leader) just pointed out to me, the photos don't do it justice. Next time I'll have to make sure the lighting is a little better when I shoot the photos! But you get the idea. I know I always say this, but I love these blocks! I'm going to make 5 more and hope I win this month.

String blocks

I made these two 8-in. string blocks yesterday as part of a challenge started on a blog I follow called String Thing Along. One of the site's members had been told that her string blocks were ugly because she'd used pieces  of all different fabrics and widths. Imagine! So the blog's leader asked members to make string blocks and send them to her so she can make a charity quilt from them to show just how "ugly" they are. Can't wait to see the result, which all quilters know is bound to be gorgeous. (Although I admit my blocks are pretty ugly, I hope they'll play well with the others!)

Scrappy triangles for Block Lotto

Here are the 4 scrappy triangle blocks I've made for the Block Lotto drawing for March. I think these could make a pretty great quilt for some lucky winner!

Orca Bay top finished!

I just sewed the last border on this baby and laid it on the cobblestones in my backyard so I could take a photo of it. I'm so happy that it's finished! I was worried that it would be challenging to get the pieced borders onto the quilt--can you believe I've never sewn pieced borders before now?---but it wasn't bad at all. I had to adjust one side a bit, but the other was perfect. Go figure.

For anyone not familiar with this quilt, I made it as a mystery quilt run by Bonnie Hunter. A link to her website is here.

My quilting sewing machine is in the shop, so I can't get started on the quilting immediately. Maybe I'll wait for the machine to be repaired, and do some simple quilting on this myself....or maybe I'll send it off to a professional. I'm a little reluctant to let someone else work on it, after all the hours I've put into this project, but it's probably the best choice for me if I want it done anytime soon, and if I want it to look good too!

Show at Brooklyn Public Library

I'm happy to report that I have a small quilt on display now in the grand lobby of the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Here's a shot of the front of the library, an Art Deco building begun in 1912 and completed in 1940. The library serves over 1 million people a year, and contains more than 1 million books. Do you that that's one book per person?

The quilts were made by members of my guild, the Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn. They've been hung by the library's curatorial staff on a series of free-standing partitions. My quilt is on the top left in the slightly-out-of-focus photo below, the one with the blue border.

Below I've posed photos of what I felt were among the most  beautiful quilts in the show. I always feel honored to be a member of such a creative and talented group of quilters!

The show runs through April 28 and is open during library hours, most days from 9 am to 9 pm. A description of the show and more information are included on the library website if you click here