First Shelter

Today is the day that our quilts on the theme of "Shelter" are revealed in my Twelve by 12 challenge group. Go on over to the Twelve by 12 blog to see what everyone has done! As usual, the responses to the challenge theme are amazingly varied and beautifully done. I'm so honored to be a part of this group of talented artists.

In case you're wishing that you could do something like that too, let me tell you how easy it was to start! I was wishing I had a journal quilt group with artist whose work inspired and stimulated me and would push me to make my own work better, and I started cruising blogs via the Artful Quilters blog ring, noticing whose work I just adored. I summoned up a bit of courage and emailed the artists whose work I admired, and proposed a group challenge. Once I had some willing participants, we agreed on a format, set up a group blog so we could chat together and post our thoughts, and voila. Look what happened! So if you're thinking that you'd like to give something like this a try, I'd encourage you to think about what sort of challenge you'd like to be in, and then just invite others to join you.

I have to confess that my long blogging silence has been due, in part, to the various deadlines I have pressing me right now. Work deadlines, project deadlines (of which this was one) and the need to get various life things under control before I can escape to my twice-yearly quilting retreat at Bishop's Ranch. I can hardly wait!