Thursday, December 20, 2012

Material Girls Row Quilts

I am so fortunate to belong to a small group of quilters called the Material Girls!  Unlike that other "Material Girl", we keep our clothes on, but we have been known to break out into song!  Every year or so we like to challenge ourselves to think outside the box. Our latest challenge which we just finished was to do a row quilt.
Seven of the group took up the challenge.  We started by writing on an index card a theme we would like for our quilt.  We also indicated row width, colour preferences, fabric preferences.  In some cases we included some fabric with our card to help give inspiration.  We have kept the rows hidden from the intended quilter, and have had fun sharing at our scheduled trade offs.  We took it slow, and generally had two months to make the row.  At our Christmas breakfast this year, we had our big reveal, and we finally got to see our own rows!
Connie was our hostess, and fortunately she has a nice big design wall that we could layout the rows.  Connie requested 30s repro fabric in primary colours (red, yellow, blue, and green).  The row I did is the baskets with the single Irish Chain!
Bev loves brights!  She wanted some traditional blocks, and some non-traditional blocks!  I love the bottom row of raw edge applique on a pieced background.  No, I didn't do that one, Carol did!  I did the next one up, with the appliqued flowers on the rolling hillsides!
This is Carol!  She wanted Civil War prints in blues and tans.  I did the paperpieced flowers in the log cabin squares at the top!  I had to borrow some fabrics from Bev, as I don't have a lot of Civil War fabrics in my stash!
Kim doesn't like to smile for the camera, so this was the best shot I could get!  Kim wanted batiks with an autumn theme!  Aren't those rows yummy!  I did the second row down with the paperpieced pumpkins, acorns, and maple leaves. I love the one just below mine, it looks like ceramic tile!
Marcia is another 30s repro fabric girl!  I got her row last!  My row is on top, my inspiration is Mickey Depre's Pieced Hexies! It was so much fun playing with those hexies and coming up with a fun design!
Patti wanted neutrals! OY vey!  What a challenge!  We are all very proud of our rows!  My row is the second from the bottom, with the dark squares in the center.  Can't really appreciate the piecing from this picture...sigh!  I love the row above mine, again is looks to me like ceramic tile!
Here I am with mine!!!  I wanted a Christmas theme!  I am so happy with my rows!  I now have to decide arrangements, and if there is to be any sashing or extra rows.  Then to get it quilted.  We hope to get them all done so that we can enter them into our guild quilt show October, 2013 in the group category!