Sharing your quilts -- do you? And why you should!

Today, tomorrow, and Saturday is my local guild's quilt show -- Clark County Quilters. I have been a member for a number of years, and I must admit that it has been a wonderful experience. Although I would have never gone and ultimately joined if not for my friend, Terry Knott. She encouraged, persuaded, and helped me step into an unknown and mostly uncomfortable zone. I tend to be on the shy side unless I know someone and then you can't shut me up even if you want to!  LOL Anyway being thrust into a big guild like CCQ can be intimidating unless you have a person in your life like I do named Terry. She walked me around and showed me the ropes...sometimes showing me the ropes multiple times before I remembered everything.

Guilds are wonderful resources, and I highly encourage you to look for your local guild. Not only can you meet wonderful men and women that share the love of quilting and art as much as you, but you will be inspired and encouraged and wowed by all of the wonderful things that members are doing and making.

Running a guild is a tremendous job and I have watched first-hand how much hard work current and past presidents put in to making a guild a success. It really does take an army of volunteers to make a guild successful, and we just happen to have pretty awesome members that volunteer umpteen hours of their time to run it. Each year the guild goes to an incredible amount of work to put on a show that really rivals some of the big shows. Again, all this work is done by volunteers.

I am so proud to see the number of quilts displayed at our show. We really have quite a selection from the youth section, to first time entries, vintage quilts, all the way through exquisite applique, pieced, art and modern. I know of no where else where you can get exposed to so many variations of quiltmaking than at a show, which brings me to the title of this post....sharing your quilts.

If you make quilts, please share them. I am my own biggest critic and can point out every area in every one of my quilts that are less than perfect. All of these things in my mind make my quilts non-show worthy. However, if none of us ever allows our quilts to be seen and viewed, shows will cease to exist and that would be a terrible thing. I view quilts as art and love that each and every one is made by human hands.

I took lots of pictures but don't want to post them until after the show so that I don't spoil someone from seeing a ribbon on their quilt.

The quilt above is my quilt I entered. I was tickled that my Piecing through the Decades received a Best Hand Quilting ribbon and an Honorable Mention ribbon. This quilt is what I call my life quilt. I started it back when templates were made with cardboard and drawn onto the fabric, cut with scissors, and hand pieced. I entered a class but was only able to take three classes before we moved out of state. I have no idea of who the pattern designer was for the blocks because we made our templates during the first class and cut up the paper to glue it onto the cardboard. The next 25 years was spent finishing the center blocks and growing and learning what to do with them. It shows exactly where I was in my growth and as I learned new skills, this quilt grew. I learned to be free and do borders so I designed the borders. I learned precision paper piecing and made the stars, I watched and learned techniques from teachers at The Quilt Show, and the quilt top was finished.

Next I pondered. Do I machine quilt or hand quilt. Because all of the center blocks were done by hand and I love the look of hand quilting, I decided to start a new journey and started hand quilting. I learned that I was not able to hand quilt in a hoop. I located a frame and started again. I learned you cannot move a quilt frame around like a hoop, so I learned to quilt with my thumb and finger so I could quilt in any direction. I found hand quilting therapeutic and relaxing. I finished the quilting and bound the quilt. I love it and see myself in many different ages through it. The quilt belongs to my husband who has given me the most fulfilling life I could have ever imagined.

Entering a quilt into a show takes courage. Courage to allow others to see it, judge it, feel the emotion  you've put into it, and gives you a great push to start the journey again.

Showing your quilts is giving back to all of the quilters who came before us and helping grow the next generation of quilters.