Quilt artist exhibit was the perfect inspiration!

oh my goodness! So much has happened recently I don't know where to start. I apologize if I talk in circles because it is just one big jumbo and it all interlinks and connects in a big way for me. It's one of those moments when I realize everything has happened to bring me to this point. 

Although many of my fellow guildies are members of the Mississippi Quilt Association (MQA), I have resisted joining a statewide or nationwide guild.  But as it happens, my PTQ guild mate Julia Graber is soon to be inducted as president of the MQA at the Spring Quilt Show on Feb 12 & 13. She proposed a challenge to my PTQ members that we make 25" square quilts to be displayed at the show in honor of MQA's 25th year. She said think "25" and "celebration" and "how MQA has influenced my quilting". To participate you have to be a member of MQA.

Well, I was going to let it pass. After all, I hadn't any intention of joining a big quilt guild like MQA just yet. I'm just getting settled into PTQ, right? PTQ and the Starkville Hoopers keep me busy enough! 

MQA has two shows per year, a spring show and a fall show. The responsibility of hosting the shows goes to each guild in a revolving manner. This year my PTQ guild is hosting the Fall show here in Columbus in October. It's very interesting as we start preparing! Anyway, with that show on the horizon, I anticipate I have to join MQA to participate. What's the difference in joining now or in a few months? 

I don't know.. Maybe it was that a couple of my friends announced their finished quilts for the challenge. Or maybe it was my reflecting on how much I've progressed in quilting since moving here. Or maybe it was the enthusiasm of my fellow guildies to show support for our very own Julia Graber as new MQA president.... whatever it was, I was inspired to accept the 25th Year Celebration challenge. 

I started to draft my quilt... first on newsprint, then when I had a better idea of what my plan was I put it on freezer paper. Originally, I was thinking I would do free-motion quilting (FMQ) in a whole cloth style. Then the thought of letting my FMQ speak for it's self was too intimidating. I figured I would either applique some wavy strips of color or piece it. Either way is time consuming and caused me to delay progress because i can't decide how I was to proceed....

While I delay progress due to indecision, I went to a Caryl Bryer Fallert quilt exhibit in Oxford, MS. "40 years of Color, Light, & Motion", Oh my! this lady is quite the accomplished quilt artist! I'm going to share with you some of the pics I took. Most of my pics are close ups of the quilting. The  Bryerpatch Studio Gallery has better and many more pictures if you are interested in having a look.

(Edit: my quilt friend has some wonderful pictures of the gallery as well. Have a look at Terry Turnage's blog. It's an interesting read as well!)

close up of the quilting on the Fibonacci's Garden

I was amused that my draft has similar wavy lines as many of her quilts.. (and I can see how mine lacks the organic movement. Mine is very calculated and started with a "25" square grid :). )

I like how she used quilting to make strips , looks like lacy ribbon. The stippling is so very tiny!

I like how she quilted her signature to the front of the quilt here!

All of Caryl Bryer Fallert's quilts were amazing and inspiring. I felt a very personal connection. She has a fearless use of color that she expertly balances very well. She is fearless in her free-motion quilting, and at the same time it's very precise and controlled! I am working towards that level of  mastery.

Walking around the exhibit, I realized I tend to think of quilting designs as limited to the piecing lines. In many of Ms. Caryl's quilts, the quilting was not confined by the piecing. These last three photos are here to remind me to think outside the lines! :)

And so I go home, inspired to continue on my challenge quilt.... ohhh!! I forgot. In her presentation, Ms. Caryl showed how she uses freezer paper to piece her quilts. I learned about this technique many years ago and was happy to be reminded of it since I already had mine drawn up on freezer paper.... LOL, well,,, wavy line piecing is not easy in any technique, that's my opinion!! I finally settled on top stitch method. I'm not completely happy with it, but it's faster than hand piecing or hand applique, and there's no judging for this challenge, so fastest is very good.

I'm also not happy that after getting these two bright vibrant colors pieced together, they wash each other out. I stitch a small sample piece with variegated and dark purple thread, but it still didn't satisfy me. I was beginning to think I would have to start over and chose different colors... :(.

small sample piece and a fabric print I couldn't resist purchasing when I went looking for a deep purple for the border.
Obviously, the orange print is not going to work for a border. Actually, I had no intention of using it at all for this project. I just loved the print and had to have some. 

But look!! (my phone pic isn't doing the colors justice.) That print will work perfectly sprinkled across the background! There's just enough red to make it pop, and tiny flecks of purple to reflect the inner border deep purple. I am pleased I gave in to impulse this time ;). 

another practice sample. Don't look too close :). I was pretty speedy just trying out threads and quilt designs.
I am pretty pleased with the tiny stippling here too :), because stippling has been confusing to me.
Anyway, my Heart suggested using a neutral color for the veins of the feathers instead of echo quilting inside or the two lines. I'll probably go with his suggestion... we'll see.
Can you find the heart in my little quilt?