Quilt World Tidbits…

item 1:
Last summer during Iowa City’s Iowa Arts Festival, the Old Capitol Quilt Guild held its biennial, two-day exhibit of quilts at the United Methodist Church. A non-traditional quilt show, the quilts were draped over the pews rather than displayed on walls. Well attended and showing a variety of approaches, techniques and skill levels, it made for a worthwhile visit. My own work is a little different from this intensively pieced approach, but I still appreciate the phenomenon that quilting has become.

item 2:
On a rainy day last fall, I was invited to speak at the Friendship Quilters Guild in Waverly, Iowa. Aside from mortifying myself by locking my key in the car for the first time in my life (it all ended well enough), I have fun at Guild meetings. Program Chair Cathy Busch has a great sense of humor and an adept manner of instruction. She spoke about the upcoming “Super Sew” to make quilts for the Cedar Valey Hospice. I didn’t get all the details straight, but basically the “Sew” involves teams of players with rules not unlike football, their pre-game packet of fabric sewn as “Yardage.” Different skill levels of quilt designs reflected different scoring levels. Teams with Team captain had been selected earlier and would be in competition with other Guild teams. A few “free agents” had also been identified. I appreciated the sense of purpose in this communal activity, which for those not familiar with Guild meetings, is pretty typical. Cathy has published articles about her various “game” strategies in Fons & Porter Love of Quilting. The “Super Sew for Charity” article appeared in Sept/Oct 2004. “Quilt Guild Bingo” was in the Sept/Oct 2006 edition and “3-6-9-12 Sew” was in the March/April 2003 edition.

item 3:
Look for an article on my artquilt work and doodle pillows in the February edition of Quilting Arts!