i won 3rd place at quiltcon 2015! 3rd place in the improvisational category, for my quilt This Way. It was made in early 2014, as a test quilt for my friend Sherri Lynn Wood's forthcoming book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously. her book is due out imminently!
here's a better look at my quilt:
it's an improvisational flying geese quilt, made without the use of rulers...something i hadn't really done much before making this particular quilt. i had to innovate and figure out a way to make the geese without relying on specific mathematic measurements, and then compose the geese i made into a cohesive quilt. it was quite the challenge, but my mind has been blown by the process and i feel certain that i will take the lessons i learned from making this quilt and strongly integrate them into my work, going forward.
the unusual, eye-seering colorway and mash-up of fabrics was, of course, intentional. i was kind of going for something crazy, something some might even find "ugly". i have this thing for paring orange and green together, i like the strong clash that results. yellow has been a favorite color for several years now; i cannot get enough of it. and i like grey with any of those colors. the fabrics were, like always, from everywhere. some marimekko, a few choice scraps from my friend jacquie gering's enviable stash o' scraps, bits of old men's oxford shirts from the thrift store (that minty stripe is but one example), and some acid green tie dye that i made about 15 years ago, back when i still lived in florida.
i ended up calling it This Way as it came together, as some of the geese formed these silly arrows that seem to point every-which-way; i just kind of went with it. also, i was thinking..."there is no right way". there's no right way to quilt, to make art, or to live. we all have our own paths. i feel a strong imperative to go my own way, even if my way doesn't make sense to others or goes against some established or expected grain.
the quilt did not make it into sherri's book. so i was tickled that it made into the show at quiltcon, and even more tickled and humbled that it scored 3rd in it's category. i say that because, seriously, there were so many deserving and incredible quilts on display at quiltcon...i never thought my funny quilt would make it as far as it did. :)