True Love Valentine's Quilt
Posted by Beverly Kirk on May 7th 2024
Hello to my world of quilt friends! I chose my college major to become a business classroom teacher. But instead of a practical nine month profession, I signed into a thirty-four years of a corporate, competitive and satisfying job which involved seminars and leadership training with a variety of people.
When the quilting bug caught me twenty plus years ago; I learned anew what really satisfied by "innards" as my Big Mama might have said! Thus I learned and grew and stretched far into innovative artwork in my quilt designs and narrative quilt styles. Here's a TRUE LOVE Valentine's quilt that I gifted to an auction event last February.
But hey—I’m back to my first love! There's just something magical and precise and mind-relaxing about a perfect quarter inch stitch and seams that press evenly and match almost perfectly all through out a lap sized quilt! And the mistakes and reversed blocks are hilarious to remind me of everyday life. I bet it's like that for you too!
My most recent adventure as a retiree moved me BACK into teaching basic block construction to senior women at my community Wellness Center! Wow to the excitement of looking over their shoulders with tips, tricks and how-to’s.
I nick-name my friends.... these two ladybugs are first-time quilters showing off their X's and O'x (hugs and kisses) beginner quilt blocks.
And my newest best friend invited me to teach a really broad range of college students, staff and faculty for a four-week workshop that included mostly first-time and never-before sewists. The group chose African wax designed fabric and we reflected on messages that may have been hidden and translated into quilts by enslaved person in early America. Good conversations for all who left the sessions knowing how to rotary cut, ruler and mat measurements, stitch a quarter inch and what exactly can you do with half square triangles (HST's).
I marvel at my first calling to teach business classes! This is so much more fun! It's still the same striving to touch and encourage another persons life. A craft, a hobby, a skill. Quilting is much more that just that. Lastly my Professor girlfriend wanted me to join her along with my own granddaughter to tap into their heritage and tap into the "innards"... the innermost part of their young minds and souls to talk, laugh and to quilt a block.
We, as quilters and artisans, know how we can change and enliven and enlarge our world. We know that just by dropping a pebble, or a button, or a needle tip into the pond of water we send forth ripples of cherished memories and inspiration to keep on quiltin'!
Click here to learn more about Layered and Stitched: An Art Quilt Experience and receive $20 off your enrollment using my code "Art24Kirk" at checkout.
Truly LuvYa,
Beverly
…..”give it, give it all, give it now! (Ann Dillard)
Beverly Huggins Kirk
Artistry in Textiles & Quilts
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Beverly Kirk has taught and lectured in local and regional guilds since 1997, focusing on African-American historical quilting techniques. Beverly specializes in storytelling and making statements with fabric art quilts, guild lectures, and Zoom presentations. Beverly loves sewing and quilting, teaching classes, and entering exhibits locally and nationwide in the US and Costa Rica. Fun fact: In 2008, Beverly won a 7-day quilt cruise in the western Caribbean sponsored by Bernina.
