The first time I attended the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild they announced the national MQG Kauffman solids challenge. All of the color ways, except pastels, were taken by members. At the end of the meeting, Jacquie Gering from Tallgrass Prairie Studio (guild president at the time) was kind enough to allow me to have a charm pack when I promised to complete the challenge. Pastel wasn’t a popular choice, and it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I was up for a challenge. It was a solids-only challenge, and I added some additional personal parameters. I decided I wasn’t going to purchase any new fabric, and also decided I was finally going to bind, rather than pillowcase a quilt. I left the meeting positively giddy with inspiration and couldn’t wait to get started.  It might be considered more of an art quilt than a modern quilt to some, but I’m a bit of a crossover. I used watercolor pencils to deepen the color of the pastel fabrics and appliquéd three coneflowers, using every bit of the charm pack. There is one flower to represent me, one for my husband and one for our daughter. I joined the KCMQG the next meeting and was happy to hang this mini-quilt in the Quilts on the Quad show on the UMKC campus. It was the first show for the KCMQG, the first quilt I’d hung in a show and the first quilt I ever kept for myself. This was pieced and quilted in 2011.

“A New Day” quilted in 2011