Guild Shows and Charity Quilts

I've been involved with two guild shows in the last month.  The first one is the South Bend-Mishawaka guild show in the Mishawaka main library.  I've written about it before; it's a beautiful venue, and lovely show.  It's free for everyone, and draws both casual library goers and people who come specifically to see the quilts, including men.  How many men do you see at a regular show unless they come with their wives?  But there are always men at this show, not all just by chance.  They always have stories about their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and their quilts--all handmade. of course.  "No one does that anymore."  I wish I had a good answer to that--I just bite my tongue.

Some quilts from the show:

Grandpa's Fruit and Vegetable Garden by Helen Mao, striking from a distance and the fussy cuts are charming.

Simple Gifts by Virginia Heitman.  Virginia adapted a pattern to make the quilt rectangular; it's hand appliqued and machine quilted.  I love her fabric choices: the colors are so bright and clear.  (A softer colored version showed up in the second show, hand appliqued and hand quilted.  These men are wrong.)

The second show, held by the Niles, Michigan guild, is a full scale show, with vendors, refreshments, member boutique etc., and is a major fund raiser.  Anyone who has worked on this knows how tough it is, but this year seemed very successful, judged on the number of people and the money raised.  Here are a few of my favorites from that show.  I wasn't at all systematic in the pictures I took.

 This quilt is strikingly different from anything else in the show.  It's a Gee's Bend quilt.  Did you know there are kits for Gees Bend Quilts?  Talk about ironic.  But I thought the lively machine quilting is in the same improvisational spirit as the original quilts, even though it may seem wildly inappropriate at first.

This is a beautiful Star of Bethlehem pieced and quilted by Joan Duval.  I would have liked to see it do better than second in the category.

These two wildly different quilts are made by the same person, Linda FunNell.  I hate Sunbonnet Sue ordinarily, but I love this one.  Those perky pinwheels in the sash give it life and movement that's usually  lacking; and the mariner's compass quilt was stunning.


So much has been going on that I haven't been able to think about anything very creative, so I have pieced three charity quilt tops, and quilted, but not bound, two.  I've found that watching recordings of the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert while doing brainless sewing works really well.  Today's schedule:  Dancing with the Stars!