We Are The Music Makers

This quilted wall hanging was created for two different challenges, the Lincoln Quilters Guild's "Celebrate Community" wall hanging challenge and Lincoln Modern Quilt Guild's "Make A Statement" challenge.

The Lincoln Quilters Guild held their quilt show last weekend. I don't belong to that guild but the wall hanging challenge was free and open to anyone and my good friend Kristie invited me to play along. As I thought about the LMQG's make a statement challenge, I started to get the idea that I could combine the two challenges into one project. For my community, I chose to depict the music community at North Star High School where I work as an accompanist. This quilt is inspired by the show choir, guitar class and jazz band that all happen at the same time. Specifically, 5th period! 

 One Sunday morning, as I brushed my teeth before heading to church, I got the idea to have a piano and guitar nestled together. I quickly sketched out the idea and headed to church, where I pondered the idea for the rest of the morning. That afternoon, I improvised the piano and then gradually added the rest over the next week. The guitar started out as a full guitar but in an attempt to make things fit in a 24" square, I cut the guitar in half. The starburst section is jazz or a tambourine or sound ripples escaping. Use your imagination!  For the layout, I was inspired by the look of retro travel posters. To make it fit with the "Make A Statement" challenge, I added the words as a border, which also gives it a poster feeling, I think.

I had a lot of fun with the quilting! I did both machine and hand quilting. Since the piece is small, I really stitched a lot. Working small is good sometimes, I was not overwhelmed by the quilting!

My mom and I attended the quilt show last Saturday and boy was I surprised to see that I received second place in the wall hanging challenge! How fun is that?! Isn't the ribbon super cute? It has Nebraska's capitol building in the middle. I guess winning was a big deal because someone stopped me while I was grocery shopping a couple days later and asked if I was the one who made the music makers quilt! Wow, that was a first! 

I had so much fun creating this wall hanging and I'm so happy with the colors and design. I'm excited to take it to our next LMQG meeting! 

Quilt details:

20" x 24 3/4"

Improv design by me 

Machine and Hand Quilted 

Linking up with  Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts