Utah Valley Quilt Guild May

You might remember I blogged about a talented designer from Highland Utah, Jill Finley from Jillily Studio Designs a couple of months ago. She is a lovely lady who did a trunk show for my smaller group New Friends. Well, Jill was invited to be a guest at the "big girls guild" LOL, and this time she expanded on the presentation with even more quilts and a peek inside her very own family's quilt traditions in the making.

Jill says all of her sisters sewed except for her until she got bitten by the quilting bug. She and her sisters and sister in laws and Mother started out with a once a year family retreat that has grown to over 30 members including daughters, nieces and niece-in-laws, as long as they are 18.
She shared some special quotes from those retreats...like "I made a mistake, with that be a problem?" or "this is harder than I thought". Along with a lovely sort of an essay written by one of her nieces on why quilting? They have lots of fun when they get together and complete at least one "group" project along with what ever else they bring along. I am so impressed that this family ages 90+ to 18 get so excited for their yearly quilt retreat and plan month's in advance to attend!
She then told us about the round robins that they now do again started by about 5 sisters and sisters in law, that has grown into more than that original group as well. (for those of you who don't know about round robins in a nut shell the "owner" of the final quilt starts with her choice of center block(s) then subsequent rounds are added on by the other quilters in the group until after all has added a round and the final quilt is given back to the original person)
The bottom 4 pictures are quilts made in the round robin...impressive aren't they?
I really enjoyed seeing how a the women of this family have pulled together with an art/craft that is not only fun but helps them stitch their family tighter together with loving bonds.
Thanks Jill!