Community Quilt

Did you know you are part of a fantastic online community of quilters?  Well, you are.  We are kind, encouraging and helpful folks who, without a second thought, pass out complements on fabric choices, praise on finished quilts and suggestions when someone is trouble shooting.  I love this community and turn to it often for inspiration.

I am organizing a Community quilt.  I mentioned this several times earlier in passing.  I wanted, though, to really discuss the community it stems from and what shape the quilt will take over time. 

The Fluffy Sheep Quilting community has now extended through both North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.  This is incredible in such a short period of time.  The most frequent visitors are from my two homes, the United States and Ireland.  Quickly following is Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Norway, Brazil, Netherlands and France.  Our infrequent visitors include Argentina, India, Iran, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Poland and Sweden.  We're a regular UN of quilters with a shared love (or obsession) for quilting.  How great is this? 

We often use quilts to mark someone or something that is important to us at this time: a biography of sorts.  A wedding quilt, a baby gift, a quilt for someone who needs a bit of happiness.  Well, right now this community is incredibly important to many of us and I would like to mark that.  Who knows, blogging about quilting may be passe in 10 years time and we can laugh at it when remembering 2011. 

So I am looking for donated squares from any quilter willing to participate in my project.  Several of you have volunteered already, and for that I am thankful.  I am looking for donations of 2 inch squares of any quilt shop-quality fabric.  I request fabric of color or with a pattern.  In other words, not a solid white or cream that will be lost in the background.  Each little 2 inch square needs to "pop".  If you are interesting in contributing squares, please email me (fluffysheepquilting@gmail.com) or leave a comment below.  I would ask to have your fabric in the mail to me by Tues of next week ensuring it arrives by Fri (27 May).

The pattern I intend to use is from Tea Quilts.  You can view a gallery of finished quilts here.  If this goes well, I would like to enter it into the International Quilt Festival of Ireland to be held in Galway next year. 

As always, I am grateful for your generosity and support, online friends.  I love the idea that this quilt could include folks from all over the world with varied taste in colors and print style, but we can all contribute to something beautiful.