Modern Quilt group makes ‘Modern Geo Hugs’ quilt for Jenny Bowker

The modern quilting group recently held a quilting bee to make a quilt for the group’s founder, Jenny, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. While the modern quilt group had sewn together on charity quilts before, they had never sewn together on the one project at the same time. 

Michelle had the idea of a simple quilt using bold, solid fabrics to give a modern geometric effect, and selected 11 colours to be used. There was no pattern – just the simple instruction to the cutters and sewers to cut 7 inch squares, sewing half square triangle blocks (HSTs) and then putting them back together into a quilt. The group gathered one Sunday morning in late April at our Cook rooms. During the morning there were between 17 and 20 members in attendance. Some members ironed, some cut, some sewed, some trimmed, and some took over the design wall to create a truly special quilt.

Here are some images of the process (photography by Jacquie Rogers):

Jacquie sewing blocks
Jacquie sewing blocks

 

At the pressing stations
At the pressing stations
Removing the "ears"
Removing the “ears”
At the wall- arranging the blocks
At the wall- arranging the blocks
at the wall- checking the arrangement
at the wall- checking the arrangement
Sewing the blocks into strips
Sewing the blocks into strips
Pressing the final top
Pressing the final top
Top finished
Top finished with backing fabric in the foreground

In under two and a half hours, the group had sewn the top together, as well as prepared the binding and backing. They worked with little direction, and everyone had an opinion on the placement of the blocks. We ended up with a truly beautiful modern quilt.

 

Playing with the leftovers
Playing with the leftovers

The next step was left to member Gemma who is a long arm quilter. She quilted enormous swirling feathers over the quilt using variegated thread in shades of purple and dark pink. The batting is 100% wool, so the quilt is meant to be very snuggly and warm. 

When Gemma had finished quilting the quilt, Michelle took it home to bind and label it. The final size is approximately 60 inches square, and is called “Modern Geo Hugs”. 

 

The quilt was presented to Jenny this weekend. The modern quilting group wishes Jenny all the very best for her treatment and recovery, and look forward to seeing her a modern quilting group again soon! We miss her very much, but all our love has gone into this quilt for her in the hope that it will assist her in her recovery. The image below is from Michelle Law, at Jenny’s home:

Jenny with her new quilt
Jenny with hew new quilt

Further images are available on Michelle’s Flickr album here.

Now the thinking caps are on for what we do for another bee. The first one was a lot of fun and we achieved so much in such a short period of time. It helps that the group is extremely friendly and collegiate, and everyone pitches in to help out where help is needed. We are currently making quilts for the QFO CommonGround project, so this might be the subject of our next bee. We’d like to encourage the other small groups to undertake a bee if they haven’t already – it’s a great way to get to better know members of your group, and you can possibly make something really spectacular together.

3 comments

  1. Thanks so much Liz for posting the write up! I am already gathering some good ideas for our next bee. I doubt we’ll make anything as beautiful as we did for Jenny, but we’ll certainly have fun trying!

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