I have been feeling quite creatively uninspired lately. With the heat and humidity, the moving and unpacking, and the new job, pretty much all of my creativity has gone into planning worship, writing sermons, and thinking about visioning for the church.
But last night I got a good shot of creative inspiration that may be enough to get me motivated to get my workroom in order and get busy.
I visited a meeting of the Meherrin Piecemakers Quilt Guild and had a wonderful time. This group is relatively small, about 20 members, but are they ever busy. It was hard to keep track of all the things they’re doing, but two things that really caught my attention are the work they do to make quilts for the Family Violence Prevention Program ,and the Quilt Show they put on for the annual Virginia Peanut Festival.
They’ll be showing and then collecting lap-size quilts for victims of abuse, many of whom are children, at their September 27-28 show during the Peanut Festival which will also include vintage quilts, “first” quilts, and many other quilts as well as items for sale.
I now have a use for and reason to get busy quilting the Shoo-Fly-Away quilt top I made a couple of months ago. It will be a great quilt to give away to someone who can use the comfort a quilt can provide.
The really fun parts of the guild meeting are Show and Tell and demonstrations. So many beautiful quilts and smaller objects were shown. I left all my quilts in Taos, so I only had my Bow Tucks bag and one of my fabric journals to show, but another person in the group had also made a Bow Tucks bag and it was fun to see how different they look in different fabrics.
The demonstration by Debbie was on Stack and Wack quilts which I had heard of but never done. There’ll be a full day workshop on August 2 and I’m planning to go.
This morning I pulled out some of my Zimbabwean fabrics that I got in Mozambique and picked this one out to try. The technique calls for distinct, brightly colored, repeating prints. I think this one might work nicely, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to do a fabric purchase, so I’m going to take a look at a fabric store today, also.
I am continuing to make slow progress on my Aspen Grove Shawl, although it doesn’t really look like it. I have about 11 more rows to complete on the first section. I’m still enjoying working on it, but am ready to start into that next section.
It’s great to be thinking creatively again.
Oh, I forgot to mention. A real surprise last night was another first-time visitor to the guild. My friend Kay, whom I’ve been corresponding with via Ravelry and my blog visited also. She’s not a quilter, yet, but wants to be. We’re very close to getting our knitting group started. What fun to finally meet her and learn that she’s interested in quilting, too!
