My Entry In The Bloggers Quilt Festival

This is my first convergence quilt. I've been enamored with Ricky Tims' theory of convergency since I first heard of it. I ordered the book, and while I awaited it's arrival I cut up a bunch of colored Post-It Notes and spent an hour arranging them on an hour-long car trip to Web Fabrics one afternoon. Not quite the result I had hoped for, I decided to give it another shot, which resulted in this:

Wall art for the studio, and another not-quite what Ricky meant by 'convergence'.

Anyway, I read my book, and I took a class at my LQS. The ladies in the shop were very patient with me, steering me to color choices that would work rather than meld together (my next convergence piece will be high contrast, trust me). The teacher was great, and I was very happy with the result.

So much so that I stepped outside my free-motion comfort zone and did a little outlining of a leaf print I used, and

then I went a little crazy and just started making up little leaf patterns of my own.

So, all in all, this wall quilt is one that I'm going to remember as one of my better lesson learned pieces. I picked up a little information about color, I was taught about careful cutting and piecing, and I realized that I could do way more than meander and spiral my quilts and they'd look okay.

I enjoyed meeting Ricky in Houston last fall, and I came home with his next lesson...the kool kaleidoscope. Who knows, maybe I'll get over the familiar trepidation with starting something unfamiliar and I'll be able show you my kaleidoscope next Bloggers Quilt Festival.

For now please use the Festival link in my sidebar on the left to jump to Amy's Creative Side for a list of all of the quilters participating. Lots of beautiful work and fun blog entries. Visiting all the participants will keep you amused for months. Enjoy!

Bloggers Quilt Festival - 2009

Here's my entry into this year's Bloggers Quilt Festival, which Park City Girl so graciously moderates each year.

The 'First Cloth Convergence' has borders on it. It's waiting to be sandwiched and quilted, which I seriously doubt I'm going to get to before we leave for Houston on Wednesday morning. If not, it will be the lucky 'first quilt' to have the dubious honor of being quilted on the new sewing machine, assuming that it is ready to pick up on my return.

This is my first foray into the Ricky Tims Church of High Convergence. I love this style and there's another version coming of this that is going to allow me to play with a more 'in your face' coloration to hopefully understand why you lay out what and where to make your point. But don't get me wrong, I like how this one turned out. It's got that 'fall' vibe going on.

This was also the first thing I've made using batiks. I do have two Bali Pops and a little set of FQs I picked up at a show this summer, but I think I went for those as they were easy....I wasn't overwhelmed with hundreds of bolts of subtly different fabrics calling to me ('pick me', 'pick me', 'no, pick me'). Having someone pick them for you makes it a little less daunting to start out on that path.

Speaking of Houston. Watch this space, because I'm going to put on my show correspondent hat and I plan to post nightly from the Marriott Courtyard in beautiful Downtown Houston, reporting on all things International Quilt Festival 2009. Those of you that have never been, can be as overwhelmed as I will be, this being my first time.....not to mention, you can shop with me (albeit vicariously) at the 500 vendors in the Convention Center.

Check back Wednesday night for my first report on Quilt Festival Preview 2009.

And be sure to visit Park City Girl's blog: