A Quilting Tornado

Somewhere along the line one of my local guild members referred to me as a "quilting tornado", either indicating that I get a lot done or that my work is a disaster..not sure which! The former is certainly not the case in recent months.

Last year our guild challenge was to create a new personality block. When I joined the guild in 2004 everyone used the pattern below to create their block. These are held by the guild and shown at the monthly meeting during your birthday month. They are also displayed at our annual quilt show and always seem to be a crowd favorite.

This was my first block. I attempted to show my various interests of crocheting, gardening, baking and of course quilting.


For last year's challenge our guild was generously given permission from Amy Bradley to use her Quilter's Yearbook patterns.

I had more than a little difficulty getting inspired since I'm really not a very creative or original person. All I could think of was being called a "tornado".....so this is what I came up with first. I drew my own pattern, rather than using one of Amy's heads. It did look like me..almost too much since everyone else was making caricatures of themselves. And the "tornado" of quilts coming out of my head blended into the background fabric too much. I wasn't happy with it, though now it hangs on my sewing room wall and doesn't look too bad.

For my second attempt I used a less busy background. This time I used one of Amy's head templates more or less. After it was done I decided I looked distinctly Oriental. What do you think? At any rate I ran out of time and this was the one I turned in.

This is the display of personality blocks at last year's quilt show. I wish more members had elected to make one. They really were a hoot, don't you agree?

Yesterday was not very productive, quilting wise anyway. I spent most of the afternoon doing our tax returns. Now if one final tax form would arrive in today's mail (as it's supposed to by law) then I can e-file and be done with that for another year.

Last night I finished two more Dutch Treat blocks.

Nine Patch

Time Warp

Happy Saturday!