QUILTERS ON THE EDGE

Candy’s 1st Round Robin

What a great name for a small group!  When asked how they arrived at that, they said that the group came up with a list of figures of speech, played around with them, and landed on this one.  (Great job, ladies–this “figure of speech” aptly describes your small group!) Individually and together as a group, they have produced many stunning traditional quilts and “edgy” art quilts.

Becky’s Round Robin

The Quilters on the Edge consist of Becky Bohlinger, Jacque Ervin, Claudia Evers, Candy Fullaway, Jean Kelly, Judy Liebo, Lisa Roberts, and Jan Shipman.  (Do you remember Becky and Jacque being included in the Winey Quilters small group?  That’s right—they love small groups so much, they belong to two of them!)  The core members of the group have been together since 2009 with Lisa joining about two years ago and Jacque being the most recent addition last month.  At eight members strong, they consider themselves a closed group.

Claudia’s Round Robin

 

The group tries to meet every six weeks, usually on a Monday night, although their projects will largely dictate how often they get together.  Each member takes a turn at hosting the entire group for show-and-tell followed by dessert.

Judy’s Face Quilt

 

The main focus of this group is interactive projects.  They have created round robin quilts, row quilts, and many other projects that allow for the individuality of each member while still creating a cohesive final quilt. A past project required each member to create a “face” block of themselves as well as face blocks of each member of the group.

Candy’s Face Quilt

 

Jean’s Face Quilt

 

Judy’s Telephone

They called another project their “telephone” quilts.  Much like the childhood game of Telephone, after coming up with a beginning block, each member was required to make a block based on the block passed down to them from the previous member in the line-up.  And, like the game of Telephone, it was interesting to see how much the “picture” changed from the first block to the last.

Claudia’s Telephone

 

Candy’s Telephone

Each member has the option to join or not join a particular project; but once committed to that project, each member is expected to contribute. They are currently working on row quilts wherein each member was asked to purchase or contribute a one-to-two-yard piece of fabric.  All the fabrics were put into a bag and each member then drew a fabric that would become the

Jean’s 1st Round Robin

central fabric of their row quilt.  Each were then given the opportunity to choose a theme for their quilt and create the first row before passing their “box” to the next member of the group.  When all is said and done, they will have eight rows for their individual quilt, one from each member of the group. This reporter was privileged to be at one of their meetings where they revealed the progress of the project so far.  So many gorgeous rows! It’s hard to believe only eight quilts will contain them all!

Judy’s 1st Round Robin

 

The group has traveled together to quilt shows in the area and are planning to be together during the Quilter’s Affair and quilt show in Sisters, Oregon in July. Plans are also in the works for some of them to attend the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall.  And, because they can’t seem to get enough of each other, several of them are members of a larger book club as well.

Clockwise from top left: Judy, Becky, Jan, Jacque, Candy, Jean, Caudia

These women enjoy their small group very much.  They have been known to go to another member’s home and “shop” their stash.  They all enjoy the challenges created by the different projects, and appreciate the great support they receive from each other while they are navigating these challenges.  They each have a different style of quilting, but very much enjoy these differences.  Their easy friendship and respect for each other as quilters is evident when you are around them for any length of time.

Lisa

 

Within the guild, there are opportunities to create a small group, and there are groups waiting for new members.  If you would like to experience this same kind of close camaraderie with other quilters, you can contact our Small Groups Coordinator at smallgroups@metropatch.com