Joy!

The Omaha Modern Quilt Guild hosted a challenge in 2018 for members to make quilts that expressed Joy. In addition to quilting, learning is one of my favorite things to do. For the last six to eight months, I've been a part of the Quilting Army supporting Professor Elizabeth Townsend Gard from Tulane Law School in her work to study the intellectual property issues in quilting. Around the same time as the Joy Challenge, Dr. Townsend Gard asked for quilts in the Just Wanna Quilt logo colors to be a part of the program's booth at Houston Quilt Market and Festival. Because the Just Wanna Quilt project has been a source of learning for me this year, I decided to combine the projects.

Alas, I did not get the quilt done for either. It was pieced in time for both deadlines, but once I realized I wouldn't be at the designated meeting to share the challenge quilts, I set it aside. I quilted it (and secured the iron-on appliqué at the same time) at a quilt retreat in late October. I finally bound it in mid-February.

This quilt started as a basic four-patch in bright Kona solids. I applied a Kona White appliqué using shapes from a logo for a NYC church that spell "Joy." To prevent bleed-through of the bright colors, I used two layers of iron-on interfacing under the white.

My Pfaff has dozens of stitches I've never used so I decided to try out the blanket stitch for quilting/securing the appliqué. I love this 28 weight Aurifil thread - now to remember where I got it as the spool is empty!