Right after manning the Thursday afternoon shift of the BMQG Lowell Quilt Festival exhibit, I wrote a blog post and accidently published it on the BMQG blog. I was so embarrassed and only had time to delete it, email an apology to guild leaders, and now I am finally getting around to writing a similar post on the correct blog!
I volunteered to take the Thursday shift from 2-6 and I have to say I was amazed at what a strong turnout our show had. Last year, I did shifts on Friday and Saturday mornings and I don't remember there being as many patrons coming to the show.
Being a volunteer at the show is fun because I had kid-free time to chat with other quilters while doing quite a bit of seam-ripping on a WIP (a post for another day I suppose).
These first two pictures give you an idea of what a gorgeous space we have to show our work. Appleton Mills is an apartment building designed primarily for artists- it really is a jewel of Lowell (truthfully, not one of my favorite cities after doing almost 2 years of social work there before I had my first child).
Show committee members did an excellent job in showcasing a few of the Quilts for Boston quilts. Many people made comments on this display: asking more questions, informing me they had contributed blocks to the cause, and some expressed gratitude for the project.
I think my most favorite part of our guild participating in LQF is knowing the makers of every project at the show. I love to see everyone's hard work all together.
Here's Stephanie's Converging Corners quilt:
Grethcen's Heart Quilt: (Pattern by V and Co.)
Samantha:
Jen:
Jane:
Trish:
Natalie:
Jane:
Tina (I think this might have been my favorite- wow, the patience of doing machine pieced hexagons!):
Alexis:
These next two quilts are not only stunning, but quite LARGE! I am glad to be in such good company- as I often get teased for creating very big quilts.
Rebecca:
Julie (Orange Peel pattern from Denyse Scmidt's newest book):
I submitted two quilts, Dots and Ties (Dotty for Dresden pattern by Sarah Fielke):
and my most recent creation, Under the Sea:
I didn't take pictures of everyone's quilts but a lot of people participated and it looked fantastic.
It is awesome to see how far our guild has come in such a short time. I will admit that I sometimes feel nostalgic for the early days when our guild was a little smaller and my introversion wasn't as much of an issue for the large-group setting we know consistently maintain. But truthfully, there really is nothing wrong with the positive growth our group is experiencing and it's awesome to welcome so many people to our organization who are all so talented and contribute so much to our community. The Quilts for Boston project is a great example of the good that comes with such growth. I know this all sounds a little corny but oh well!
Thanks for reading! I am excited to reveal my SuperKids projects this coming week, so "stay tuned."
3 comments:
I read your now deleted post, it was a great recap of the show and it was good to hear your voice! When I write a post for Seacoast Guild blog I always get sweaty palms because I just know I'm going to hit publish before I'm ready! Thanks for all the photos!
It was a great event. I really enjoyed seeing everyone's work. Thanks for the shout out!!
Laurie, thanks so much for this writeup! Toddler (and other) woes kept me away, and I was so sad to miss the BMQG show. (I felt guilty because I know that modern quilters really need to work to REPRESENT at these kinds of things.) Your quilts look lovely, and hung together, the work that you BMQG folks are doing is just stunning.
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