Meeting an Instagram Friend

Life is full of wonderful coincidences, have you ever noticed? Earlier this summer, Sheryll, one of my quilting buddies, mentioned that I'd be interested in her guild's speaker in September. It was to be Carol Shriver, a fellow Ohioan who lives in Coshocton, my husband's home town. Small world, right? 

But there's more! The reason Sheryll knew to mention it to me is that she knew I followed Carol on Instagram, and that Carol's work is impressive.

So, Thursday, she and Terry, another quilting buddy and guild member, attended the meeting with me as their guest. Fun! I was really eager to meet Carol and hear her speak to the guild.

I first heard of Carol from fellow Ohioan Annette Williams of Sewing The Good Life. Annette is a frequent vendor at quilt shows, and is just the nicest lady. In one pre-pandemic conversation I had with Annette, the subject of DH's hometown came up, and she knew of Carol from there, and proceeded to tell me all about her. I began following her on IG and the rest is history. (A convoluted story there; hope you were able to follow it!)

So let's go to the guild meeting. The Goodtime Quilters are known in these parts as a guild who puts on one of the best quilt shows around. It's a very active guild with retreats and shop and hops and speakers, in addition to the annual quilt show. Several of the Frankfort Girls are in this guild and I hear of their activities often. I'm glad they welcome guests, as I am not in a 'joining' frame of mind since retiring. 

After the business meeting, which was handled in quick order, Carol took the microphone and shared a trunk show of mostly applique quilts she has made since she retired from teaching Home and Consumer Sciences. She'd never quilted before retiring, but had a strong background in needle crafts. She told the story of taking her first quilt top to her LQS and asking if it just needed to go to the garbage can. Assured that "it would quilt out" - she didn't have a clue as to what that meant at the time - she has gone on to become a prolific quilter and often garners "Best of Show" when she enters her works in quilt shows.

Let's see a few that she shared. I did not photograph every quilt Carol brought, and these that I am sharing are amateur quality photos taken during her talk. I hope you'll pardon the distractions and focus on the quilts. All these will be linked to better pictures on Carol's IG account, so you do have a chance to see her exquisite workmanship more closely. My guess is that once you go to her IG, you will soon be following her, too. There are some gorgeous squares on her feed, for sure!

 

This album quilt is a pattern by Blackbird Designs called Fresh Picked.

 

This quilt is Granny's Garden by designer Lori Holt and was a block of the month project awhile back. Carol had it custom quilted; both quilt and quilting are gorgeous!

 

This is a Quilt Mania Mystery Quilt from 2019 called Marshal from designer Jen Kingwell.

 

This Kim Diehl pattern is an early quilt from Carol's quilting career and it illustrates how quilters evolve through their work. Carol explained that she was firmly into darker, reproduction quilts early on, and largely made pieced blocks. However, she grew tired of the monotony of making the same block over and over, so moved into applique and "happy colors" which afforded her the variety she desired. 

The variety in this quilt speaks to Carol's preference for "busy, happy quilts." I found the colors in this one particularly appealing. It's called Midnight at the Oasis by designer Jen Kingwell.

Here we have another Jen Kingwell design, a very whimsical quilt called Spring Fever.

Carol and I talked briefly both before and after her talk; we plan to meet up in Coshocton the next time we go to visit DH's family, and there's a good chance we take in some fabric shopping. Looking forward to it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!