Each year the MQG challenges it’s member organizations to create a quilt for charity based around a theme and color palette. These quilts are displayed at QuiltCon each year. In 2020, the theme for the annual charity quilt challenge was text in quilts with a grayscale color scheme. With that in mind, the IMQG board contacted the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library as the first choice for the recipient of our charity project for the year. What better fit for the year than one of the most well known Hoosier authors ever and a native of Indianapolis. Members of the guild worked together to create a design, source fabric, and plan the quilt before the entire guild worked together at one of our monthly meetings to sew the text portions of the design.
Individual members worked on additional half square triangle units to fill in the background of the design. A smaller group of guild members then met at a member’s home to assemble the top.
Individual members finished the assembly of the top and back before it was quilted by one of our member’s with a longarm machine. The relay was complete when she handed off the quilt to another member to complete the binding. These last two steps had to be handled in a bit of a rush because MQG had been following the quilt’s progress on Instagram. We were asked if we could ship the quilt early so it could be photographed for inclusion in the QuiltCon program. Even though we were in the middle of the holiday season, the quilt got done just in time to be included in the program. We were all so thrilled to be noticed by the our mothership organization!
Then before we even got the quilt back from QuiltCon, the pandemic hit, and we had to cancel our planned quilt exhibit at Garfield Park Observatory where Practicing an Art would have held pride of place.
This also waylaid plans at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library for their grand opening this past fall. Never fear though, Practicing an Art has made it to it’s forever home at KVML.
