Between the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival, our monthly guild meeting, and Maria Shell’s “Circle and Curve Sampler” workshop, June has been a whirlwind of quilty fun!

Once again, this month’s meeting brought tons of inspiration. The Historian Committee shared a look back at 2015 with highlights including a Clue Challenge activity inspired by the classic board game and the first meeting at Kauffman Foundation. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Spoolin’ Around Block Lotto! Members made enough blocks for 5 quilt tops—we can’t wait to see the completed Spoolin’ Around quilts in the months to come. Chris Jacobs shared her Riley Blake Challenge quilt and we look forward to others sharing their challenge quilts at future meetings.

We welcomed Maria Shell as our speaker. A native Kansan, Maria now calls Alaska home; she shared her journey from outside of Topeka to Anchorage and points in between. Maria shared her very first quilt with us which she created from thrift store finds while living in Valdez, Alaska. Her journey has taken her to study alongside Nancy Crow, teach quilting in China, lead community quilt projects across the country, and so much more.

Maria shared several of her community quilts with their exuberant fused-fabric surface design and energetic piecing. She also shared several of her hot cross square variations, exploding flowering snowball quilts, her series of chairs and so much more. Her creativity and powerful use of color were inspirational!

Special thanks to member Tia Curtis for sponsoring our June meeting.