design – Daily Joy with Honey Girl

created at ArtWalk!

At the June 10 ArtWalk event announced earlier this week, visitors enjoyed playing “Make a Quilt” and entering in the drawing to WIN YOUR QUILT! It was a hit. So much so, that we are now planning to do it again later this summer on the front sidewalk outside West Seattle Grounds coffee shop. In the meantime, thought you’d enjoy some glimpses of the creativity from Thursday night!

the winning design!

Some lovely non-winners below

This is how the “Make a Quilt” game works:

Public: Who can play? Everyone!

Instructions

1. Ensure hands are clean, with wipes provided.

2. Browse through the quilt squares, choose 15 that you like. Put the other ones into a neat pile to the side.

3. Choose your layout: horizontal or vertical.

(“Frankenstein” is vertical; “Respect wall-hanging” is horizontal)

4. Lay out your quilt squares in lines according to the blue taped areas on the table. It will create a design that is 3 squares x 5 squares (vertical), or 5 squares x 3 squares (horizontal).

5. Straighten it all up.

6. Take a photo with your cell phone.

Congratulations! You are now a quilt designer and that is your first e-quilt!

To win a real quilt made out of your design, join the WIN YOUR QUILT drawing!

the death squares… but don’t be scared!

Update on the “Respect Quilts”: No quilt in honor of the Black experience in America would be complete without a representation of death. So I made these death squares today and think they are rather cute. Why be morbid? Death happens. It hurts, it sucks, we all hate it. There will be place on this quilt for political statements; I have four patches to sew on the back which make the #BLM issues clear. But death is all of ours and the way we handle it can be light-hearted. We can make it dance too, while we’re living.

These squares use bright yellow cotton to evoke the energy unleashed when we shake off our mortal coils, and they depict grinning skeletons doing all kinds of silly things: kicking their heels, brandishing swords, or tipping their top hat at you, as if they stepped right out of a classical Hollywood musical. The black velours makes these squares irresistible to the touch, just as the detailed piecing intrigues the eye with tiny bits of beautiful fabrics and satiny textures, thrown together in an off-kilter way.