Millissa Masters
Each year our master challenge creator, Kathleen O’Connell, comes up with a new theme to get our group to create outside their box. For 2016 Kathleen presented the quilters with the flying geese block unit. The first pattern published using flying geese units and blocks dates back to 1894. The rectangle unit can be described as twice as long as it is wide. The goose triangle across the width of the block and two sky triangles, one on each side. This block is amazingly versatile and can be used lots of ways, such as a primary design element, scattered throughout, lined up in rows, however the quilter would like to use it. You might say, “Boy how easy!” There are tons of ways and patterns to use this traditional block. But wait, Kathleen has a caveat up her sleeve. There is a second part to the challenge; the quilter must pick a color they do not normally use. So off we go to create and believe me, designing with colors you don’t normally work with is definitely a challenge. It is difficult to be creative using colors that don’t really speak to you. But the quilters came through with Flying Geese in droves! We hope you enjoyed their display in the window cases in the Creative Art Center last month. The range of art quilts was terrific and as we were limited to no larger than 30X30, we still filled two large display cases.
So now on to the 2017 challenge. Only Kathleen knows what direction she will take us next.