Another good day out

Off to Clifford on last Saturday for a meeting of our Contemporary Quilt Group. The Community Centre at Clifford is an excellent venue with plenty of tables, chairs etc, a very well equipped kitchen and very good natural light. A number of people couldn't attend, but there was a goodly number present even though it was a very cold day.

The meeting was not entirely successful. Not everyone wanted to join in with the design exercise but we did, I think more out of not wanting to say we didn't want to do it than anything else. I didn't end up with anything to show for it.  Indeed, it made me think about whether such exercises are necessary. In fact I now think that they are probably not for me. My view has been reinforced by the excellent Quilt University class I am doing. This class called "Goodbye to the grid" is based on a technique that I hadn't tried before and I'm finding it very rewarding.

The afternoon session at the meeting was a demonstration of mono printing followed by everyone having a go and although this was more enjoyable and I came away with some prints, I have to confess to being rather at a loss to know what to do with them.

So I have finally reached the conclusion, and not before time, that any actual design exercise or textile technique is only valuable for me if it is done in the context of the work I'm doing at the time. So my Quilt University class will I hope provide me with a design for a quilt for the CQ at 10 challenge. If I manage to produce a finished quilt, I may even enter it in the competition, but I'm still not convinced that I want to do that.

So here are a few of the embryonic drawings that might become something!

Watch this space!