Last night was the quilt reveal for The Undercover Quilters Book Club. Our August meeting is always fun. Even though we see each other's quilts in progress throughout the year, the final reveal is always a surprise. This year, our 5th Anniversary year, we decided to change things up and each do a different book from the past 5 years. We got to choose our favorite from about 30 possible titles. My book is Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti. 
The story is about farmer Benny and recent widow and city girl Shrimp, who are about as alike as "chalk and cheese", meaning, not at all! My quilt depicts the Swedish winter, the deliniation between rural and city life, and the sense of time passing. Throughout the book, they both consider their biological clocks and how they are ticking away in their mid-thirties. 
I enjoyed the making of this piece. It's created on crinoline and has acrylic paint to soften the edges of the randomly sewn background patches. I experimented with metallic thread (and love it now!) and did a lot of the stitching with the top just on batting. Then I added a backing and did a few quilting lines to stitch it together. The final hurdle was the black machine stitched trees, which I was so afraid to do. In the end, about a week ago, I just got out a bit of sample cloth and practiced a bit, held my breath and did it on the quilt. It was not so difficult, but every time I try something new I break a little more out of the box. That's something I hope everyone tries!
All of the quilts from our books will be on exhibit at this Saturday's Mt Bachelor Quilters' Guild show in Pioneer Park, 10-4. Hope to see you there! If not, I'll be posting photos next week.