My "Twisted Journey" Quilt Program...

Talking about my "Life of Pi" quilt.

 Last night, I gave my quilt journey program to our guild. I had really tried to avoid 

this, but the program coordinator, Sally, was persistent. I finally said, "OK. I'll do 

it, but it will be more of a twisted  journey, rather than a straight path. My words 

stuck, and that's how my program was billed. Last night, I said that I actually 

preferred, "The Long and Winding Road", because of the circuitous route my 

quilting endeavors have taken. Until about seven years ago, I never ever would 

have considered myself a "quilter". Boy, has that turned around for me!

This is my "Seaside Rose" quilt. One of my favorites.

 I took sixteen quilts with me and told a little story about each one.

From my very first (what I thought would be my "only") endeavor, which

was a quilted, finished-in-one-day, hand-tied Christmas tree skirt, to some

of my most favorite projects, I spoke for about twenty minutes about how

I came to be a quilter. I think about how much I've learned, and how much

room I have for more knowledge and improvement, and I have to admit

that I was a little surprised to learn just how many quilts I've made so far. 

I found that I've created more than fifty quilts, and most of them were 

lap-size and larger. Most were twin or queen size, and I gave away or

sold a significant number of those projects. Considering that I "got 

serious" in only the last six years or so, I was pretty happy about that figure.

Queen sized, "Garden Magic" quilt.

 I explained how I moved from my first four-patch lap quilt kit to making

kits for much larger projects. "Garden Magic" was made for the bed

in our guest room, and I added matching covers for the headboard that

can easily be removed for cleaning. I think it makes for a comfortable,

restful room for our guests. Nothing like a quilt to convey a warm hug.

"For The Love of a Corgi" in honor of Fezzik

I moved from simple piecing to learning how to do applique' and

thread painting. You'll remember that I prefer the term "needle dancing".

"Patchwork Pumpkins" - pattern from Shabby Fabrics

 Who knew that, after my first applique' frustrations, I would

come to love it as much as I do now? This was a fun and quick

Fall-themed project, which now sits on our dining room table.

"Coffee Drunk" was from a guild class I took.

 I had fun sharing the result of a class I took that was sponsored by

our guild. It's a quilt-as-you-go, drunkard's path project. This one

is our table cloth on the Flying Cloud. One of my favorite "smalls".

"Martinique Plates"

 This is one of my more recent finishes. It's a queen size quilt, and

will be entered in our 2014 guild quilt show. I love this fabric line!

At the end of my program, surrounded by my "props".

 I closed my program by saying three things. 

1) I thanked Jettie, Karen, Kathy and Nora for inviting me to join our guild nearly three years ago. I've learned so much from the seasoned quilters who have since become my friends. 

2) That my quilting muse is a favorite quote. "The way to use life, is to do something that outlasts it." by William Rutherford. (If you scroll down to the bottom of my main blog page, this quote has been there since I first started writing my posts to you.) I have embraced this thought for the last thirty years, and

3) This road I'm on continues to be a joyful pursuit, but what I have learned is that, as with life, it's not always the destination. 

In life, as much as quilting, it's definitely "the journey".

***There were many more photos from last night's meeting. I'll be posting them

to a new Flickr album today. I'll share the link as soon as I get everything uploaded.