Hello all, Mary Ellen here again.

We had a very nice presentation by the WNY chapter of the Modern Quilting Guild at our regular guild meeting last evening. Many of us had some of our questions about “modern” quilting cleared up for us. Those of us who consider ourselves to be “traditional” quilters have more in common with the “modern” girls than we might have thought. Several of the quilts that they brought along to share didn’t look “modern” to me at all. Some of the fabrics used looked like repros to me more than brand new designs, which is not to say that others of the fabrics did not have a really fresh new look to them. The use of solids in many of their quilts reminded me, and perhaps many of the others in attendance, of the days of old (now I’m really aging myself) when solids and mini-dots were about all you could get for quilting. For Pete’s sake, Victoria Findlay Wolfe whose Double Wedding Ring quilt won Best of Show at this year’s QuiltCon has a prized collection of double knit quilts! Remember those? I think double knit will be found completely intact by archeologists thousands of years from now. I did love those double knit pant suits though, when we professional women (I almost said working girls—no no no!) were first allowed to wear pants to work. It was great to see young women so excited and passionate about a craft/art that many of us more senior ladies have loved for years. During our show and share after the business meeting we saw many of “our” quilts that could have been examples during the “modern” portion of our program. It gives hope that our work will be loved and appreciated for years to come.

Hey did you get a look at the visitor counter to our blog? Over 40,000 visits!!! I would not have predicted that in a million years–just a bit of exaggeration. It’s time for a blog candy celebration. I’ve gotten permission from our treasurer to spend a bit on some nice prizes, so here’s the deal. You lurkers out there will have to come out from hiding if you want to win any of them. From now until the Monday following our quilt seminar, I will post a question now and then.  You can answer as many times as you want–answer every question, or leave more than one comment to a particular question. Let’s find out who some of our visitors have been. You do not need to be a member of our guild to play along. All of our visitors are welcome and appreciated!!By leaving a comment where you answer the question, you will entered into the drawing for the great prizes. I’m thinking gift certificates, great thread samplers, super duper scissors…stuff like that. Since I personally am trying to reduce my fabric stash, none of the prizes will be fabric–although you certainly could use a gift certificate to add to your own fabric collection if that’s your thing.

So here’s the starter question: Complete this sentence by copying it and pasting it into your comment. Then fill in the blanks. If you need to reword the sentence a bit to have it make better sense, feel free. I’ll do the first one as a sample.

I, (your first name), love (a color) in my quilts and (your favorite kind of fabric). My current quilting project is (title or description).