Quilt Plano 2024

 Earlier this month I enjoyed seeing the beautiful show put on by the Plano Quilt Guild. I entered four quilts in the show (all quilts hung, this is not a juried show). Both of my quilts in the group quilts category received honorable mention ribbons!

What's for Breakfast, a Quilts Unscripted Bee quilt featuring improv cereal boxes by my incredible bee mates. How many do you recognize? Here's a key so you can check your answers! This quilt was quilted by my friend Diane Poor.

Spot on is a collaboration I completed earlier this year with my good friend Debbie Jeske. It was quilted by my pal Martha Wolf.

Chris's quilt, Shenanigans Between Friends, also received an honorable mention. This quilt was a collaboration between Chris and me.

Deco at Dusk is a beautiful collaborative quilt designed by my friend Ashley Stovall and pieced by a group of my local quilty friends. It will be the raffle quilt for the Plano guild next year. And guess what? It got a second place ribbon!

My friends were nice enough to let me contribute an improv panel for the back! So I had a tiny hand in four of this years group quilts, all of which ribboned!  What fun.

There were so many beautiful quilts in the show. I wish I could share them all.

Quilts unscripted 2023

 It's been a minute since I shared the blocks I've been making for my improv bee, Quilts Unscripted. 

January blocks were inspired by architecture in gray tones for Isabelle. I loved making these and used photos from recent visits to New York City as inspiration.

My first block was inspired by the Oculus....

and my second block was inspired by One World Trade Center

February blocks for Sarah were done in her chosen color palette (which I love) using tiny squares, organic curves and strips. 

March block for Emily was actually one large slab, inspired by a photo of pottery she provided in her designated color palette. Just like every month, this prompt stretched me!

April was my month to choose a prompt. I'll be sharing more about that and the resulting blocks very soon.

May was fun! Charles challenged us to choose our own adventure. We each chose a book genre (mine is romance) colors from 10 different palettes, and 2 improv blocks from his list. I used pinks/reds and greens to create a meadow of flowers from checkerboard and drunkards path blocks. This big slab is 17”x18". 

In  June, Chris had us drawing inspiration from ancient Pueblo pottery with a very specific color palette. One of my blocks is shared here, with it's inspiration photo....

In July, we made blocks for E.A. One in solids and one in blenders! She is making classroom quilts for her students. Here is my blender block...

Guess who is up again for August? Me! I just sent out my prompt and I can't wait to see what my beemates do with it. Stay tuned!

Quilts Unscripted 2022 recap

 Well, hello there! It seems I up and stopped blogging about six months ago! That was totally unplanned. I've still been over here creating and learning new skills. I'm not sure why I stopped blogging here, but now I am back with all of the good intentions a new year brings. 

I thought I'd start by reviewing all of the bee blocks I made last year for the Quilts Unscripted Bee! Our improv bee is currently in the middle of it's second year and going strong. Here are the blocks I made in 2022.....

January

In January we made blocks for Emily.  Her request was for blocks that represented our dreams, goals and growth using analogous colors on the color wheel. My first block represents my dreams/hopes for the world, peace and calm....

My second block represents my personal dreams of joy and energy.

February

In February I requested improv log cabin blocks using the Kona color of the year, Cosmos in a prescribed color palette. These blocks became the quilt "Darkest Before Dawn" which will hang at Quiltcon next month in Atlanta! 

I'm delighted to have another quilt accepted into the group category this year! Thanks to my awesome beemates  who sent me incredible blocks.

March

In March, Sarah G asked us to make improv sawtooth stars.  I had fun with these...

April

In April, Isabelle requested all the colors and tiny piecing. Such happy blocks!

May

May was the first month of our second year as a bee and it was  E.A.s turn. She had us make blocks that literally say "hope". Check out her instagram to see photos of her powerful finished quilt.

June

In June, Chris asked us to make signature style blocks inspired by a beautiful Ukrainian egg she had bought. I made her these...

July

July was Charles turn. He asked us for abstract art slabs using colors he sent to us. This was challenging and fun!

August

In August, Sarah R had us making blocks inspired by outer space. Mine are a nebulous and a shooting star.

September

Elizabeth had us make improv grandmother's fan blocks in September, with black corners. Another block I had not worked with before!

October

Our October prompt was from Allie. She asked us to make ladders with white backgrounds. Crazy fun!

November

Our final prompt for 2022 came from Carole. We were to make half rectangle triangle blocks using black for one half of the block and bright improv for the other. I had bought Latifah Saafir's HuRTy ruler months before and never took it out of the packaging. Time to learn something new! What a great ruler. And Latifah has awesome videos that step you through it. I've become a big fan of HRTs since November and I promise you'll see more uses of it on this blog soon. Here are the blocks I made for Carole...

Sorry for the long post but I had some catching up to do! I hope you'll follow our bee's hashtag on instagram, #quiltsunscriptedbee for even more inspiration. 

2021 year in review

 Whew! What a year! While it would be easy to focus on all of the crazy negative things going on in the world right now (no, I'm not going to list them. you already know!) I'm choosing to focus on the positive. And there sure was a lot of it in my world this year. Here are the highlights.... so I never forget how blessed I was in 2021.

Urban Emergence

In February, my group quilt, Urban Emergence was part of Quiltcon Together, the virtual MQG show that replaced in person Quiltcon this year. It was my very first quilt accepted into Quiltcon. Imagine my surprise when I won first place in my category! As if this wasn't enough, it was chosen for publication in the Quiltcon magazine! What an honor!

Later that month, Sarah Goer and I formed a pARTnership, inspired by Danielle Krysa's In 

tandem Art project. Sarah and I have continued to meet on Zoom every two weeks all year long, encouraging each other in our artistic journeys. One of the greatest things to come out of our friendship is the start of our new improv bee, Quilts Unscripted. This group is incredibly talented and inspiring! 

Again in 2021, I was able to participate in the Virtual Quilt Guild where I met so many amazing quilters. One relationship that came out of that group is my collaboration with Karen Bolan. Karen and I have also been meeting often on Zoom and have shared a collaborative quilt project (Welcoming Lamp), a series of blog posts (Exploring Collaboration) and coming soon..... a published article on Collaboration in Curated Quilts magazine! This was completed in 2021 and will be arriving in mailboxes early 2022.

Welcoming Lamp

One other thing I am so proud of this year is the completion of my Through Ellyn's Eyes project. When I set out on a six month personal journey to create a cohesive body of work and explore my creative voice it seemed daunting at best. The more I worked through it, the more joyful it became. I am so lucky to have had the time and the resources to complete this project and look forward to sharing it with guilds in the coming year.

Through Ellyn's Eyes quilts

So, 2021 proved to be a productive, fun year for me. Most of these things were not even on my radar a year ago, so who knows what 2022 will bring? Regardless, I look forward to sharing it with you. Happy New Year everyone!

Quilts Unscripted Blocks

 The Quilts Unscripted Bee continues to challenge and amaze me month by month. You can see posts about my past blocks here. I thought I'd share the rest for 2021 today.

In November, Loide asked us to make a variety of Christmas blocks. She put very few restrictions on us which was fun, but at the same time challenging!

For my first block I made a Christmas tree! Very structured yet improv as I just winged it, no pattern.

It's a smaller version of the tree mini I did for the MQG earlier this year!

Next up, snowflakes. I debated putting them all together in one block, but decided to leave them apart so she can use them as she desires.

A Christmas Present seemed like a good choice for my third block... the most improvy (is that even a word?) of the three.

As Loide is a local quilty friend, we were able to meet for lunch when I delivered her blocks, so it was a big win!

Elizabeth was up for December.  She asked us each to make a sash, using 2 contrasting solids, at least one of which was bright and saturated. I journeyed to my local quilt store, which has a whole wall of Bella Solids, and was overwhelmed and confused!!! Lyssa, who works at the shop and knows me well, walked up and pulled Limeade and Turquoise off the wall and said "this speaks Ellyn to me" well duh! I was trying to be unique and creative when all I really needed to be was myself. 

My finished sash is 6" wide and 47" long. And that E in the middle? A total accident! It can stand for Ellyn or Elizabeth or whatever she wants to think. It's already arrived safely in Arkansas. Now I impatiently await the January prompt.

You can follow our group shenanigans at #quiltsunscripted

Quilts Unscripted Bee Blocks

Quilts Unscripted Bee continues to inspire me! In September, Carole challenged us to make blocks that represent Time in a  prescribed color palette. Songs about time kept coming to me, including my favorite song of all time, James Taylor's Secret of life....

One part of the song says "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time... any fool can do it. there ain't nothing to it. nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill. But, since we're on our way down, might as well enjoy the ride". It always makes me think of a roller coaster! That's what I was going for here.

Block two was time "slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future...

And yes, I do know block three looks like olives! hahaha so it goes with improv.... it's an hourglass with sand keeping track of time. Hey, I tried!

Chris had September and asked us for black blocks with bright lines that intersect.... or don't. Basic geometry. I loved it! I know Chris is a rainbow fan so block one was a rainbow....

blue and green lines for block 2....

and a rainbow ladder for block 3,

 I'm really enjoying this bee! If you want to follow our shenanigans, check out our hashtag on instagram, #quiltsunscripted.

Blocks for E.A.

 It is my sweet friend E.A.s turn to request bee blocks from our Quilts Unscripted bee, I'm telling you, every month I appreciate the quilters in this bee more and more. Each one offers up such carefully thought out prompts that encourage me to dig deep. This month was no exception.

E.A. asked us to explore the idea of holding space for someone, whether that means thinking about people who hold space for us, being fully present for us, or us holding space for others. She wanted us to think about how that feels and to create identical (or as close to identical as improv can be) pairs of blocks on this theme.

After many interesting conversations with people close to me, some deep personal thought, and maybe even a few tears, I created two pairs of blocks for her.

For my first pair, I used blues and grays to represent turbulent waters. Often when I am struggling with something in my life I feel like I am drowning (interesting since I have a pretty intense fear of water to begin with). The lightness at the top and the rays coming down represent incredible people in my life who hold out their arms to me in my darkest times and pull me from despair. For some of them, holding space means sitting with me, listening to me and holding me until I find peace. For others, it means speaking difficult truths into me in a kind and gentle way.  (deep enough for you? if you came here for laughs today I'm sorry to disappoint!)

My second pair of blocks takes a whole different turn. They illustrate how it feels for me to hold space for my three adult children (represented by the three triangles above). The soft pink at the bottom represents home, where my husband and I both literally hold space for them, if they ever need a place to land, and figuratively hold space for them in our hearts. I believe that knowing we are always here, believing in them and ready to catch them if they need us, has allowed them all to soar and succeed. The really cool thing has been watching them hold space for each other over the years. 

So I thank E.A. for giving me the means to articulate (both in words and in fabric) thoughts that I have had for many years. These blocks will be winging their way to Nashville soon.