I am honored to have two quilts in the book Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century. Riane Menardi, Alissa Haight Carlton and Heather Grant did a great job pulling together all the 200+ Quilts for the book. It’s a great visual representation of modern quilts and the Modern Quilt Guild.
For my stop on the blog tour, I thought I would explain a bit about what the Modern Quilt Guild has meant to me in my quilting journey.
I have been quilting for 21 years – I made my first quilt when I was 13! I continued to make quilts off and on throughout high school and college. In my mid-20’s my friends started to have babies and I started making baby quilts. It was around this time that blogs were becoming more popular, and I had started seeing other quilters and the quilts they were making on the internet. I somehow learned about the modern quilt movement and discovered there was a guild right in my city.
In the fall of 2011 I joined the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild. I tried to attend all the meetings I could, even though I didn’t know anyone (somewhat overwhelming for an introvert like me). I loved being surrounded by other people that also loved quilting. It was so inspiring to see the different quilts people made at Show & Tell and to hear from speakers that were doing new and unique things.
Over time, I started to become more involved in the guild, and even forced myself to share my own quilts in Show & Tell (even though it always makes my heart race)!
Being a part of the guild really pushed my quilting into a completely new place. I started making and designing more quilts and trying new things. I made quilts with solids only! I grew as a designer and as a quilter, and I know I would not have created all the things I’ve made the last 6 years had I not been a part of the Modern Quilt Guild. I learned so much from the members of my guild, and appreciate the ones that went out of their way to help me on my quilt endeavors.
If you are at all interested in quilts and modern quilts, I highly recommend checking out your local MQG (if you are lucky enough to have one close by). I recently moved to Colorado and joined the Boulder Modern Quilt Guild. It’s smaller than my previous guild, but all the women have been so nice, and I know I will learn a lot! Moving to a new place, I am grateful to have a community to meet new people, and who also happen to share my love of quilting.
You can read my previous posts about my two quilts that are in the book Welcome to Colorful Colorado and Whatever to learn about how and why I made these quilts. If you are interested in making Welcome to Colorful Colorado, you can purchase the Colorado quilt pattern from my Etsy or Craftsy stores.
Check out other contributors on their blogs, below:
Amber Corcoran Heidi Parkes Melissa Cory Penny Gold Shruti Dandekar Amy Friend Paige Alexander Angela Bowman Lysa Flower Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill Jacquie Gering Christa Watson Heather Black Kristin Shields Krista Hennebury Cinzia Allocca Suzanne Paquette Yvonne Fuchs Ben Darby Nicole Daksiewicz Kristi Schroeder Kathy York Marla Varner Brigette Heitland Stacey Sharman Stacey O'Malley Kim Soper Steph Skardal Cheryl Brickey Shea Henderson Katie Pedersen