Afghan Embroidery

This is my "Afghan Embroidery" quilt
It was not so simple to go back to traditional patchwork.
I'm waiting to see all those quilts from you all.

'Working Meeting' in Germany

Gillian came to Germany for her holidays, and after spending a few days in the  Alps three members of the group got together for a brief and intensive 'working meeting' during which a number of issues were discussed - and decided!

Obviously, I did not take this photo - somehow to me it seems a bit distorted,
but you can still recognize Gillian, Barbara and Uta, from the left.

Because of heavy workloads and tight schedules of many of us we have gone back on the size issue a bit, and the size we will be working with in the near future is 50 x 100 cm. This new size could apply to the challenge including the Afghan embroidery already, but because Kathy Loomis (and, as it now turns out, Eti David, too) has already finished hers in the 60 x 120 cm, Uta Lenk has decided to make hers in that dimension as well.
We have a new member: Bella Kaplan, from Israel, and are looking forward to welcoming her into the group. Watch out for her introduction piece.

New size, new challenge...

I came home from the show in Prague (and almost a month away from home) with great enthusiasm for getting back into my studio and doing some sewing.  The embroidered piece from Nasrin, the Afghan woman artist, called out for repetition of the geometric motifs she had used, and I fastened upon the chevron and the half-square triangles as the best features to work with.

I must say that our new size is a lot bigger, compared to the old size, than I was anticipating.  You look at the dimensions and see that they're half again as large -- that doesn't seem too huge -- but when you do the math (or when you do the piecing) you realize that it's more than twice the area of the old format.








I had been so happy with the small size of our first-round pieces, because I could whip them out so quickly and quilt them so easily, and now having to make something more than twice as big seemed like a lot more of a commitment.

Not saying that I'm unhappy with the new size, but it is taking more time and effort -- and thought. Which is probably a good thing.
Can't wait for the next challenge!