Currently, the Guild is offering two challenges to members. The Presidents’ Challenge and Round Robin: Exquisite Corpse.
The Presidents’ Challenge quilts will be displayed in our big 2027 show. The full instructions for this challenge are below.
Round Robin: Exquisite Corpse sections are due at the October 2027 meeting. Link to the full PDF of directions.
Presidents’ Challenge 2027
This is What Quilts Can Be
When people hear about the Brooklyn Quilters Guild they often imagine 20 or so women getting together to enjoy an “old-timey” hobby. We in the guild know that this idea is very limited; we are, in fact, a group 272 members strong and diverse in every way. For some, quilting is a hobby. For some, it is a career. But for all of us, we believe, it is an ART.
The Brooklyn Quilters Guild, through our community work and our biennial “big show,” has always had the mission of bringing the art of quilting to Brooklyn and beyond. In the same way people imagine our guild through a limited lens, they often imagine quilts in a similar way. With this year’s Presidents’ Challenge, we want to show attendees a broader and - we think - more accurate vision of what a quilt can be.
We started with two traditional blocks: Weathervane and Irish Chain. Together, they make a beautiful, yet fairly traditional quilt. The piecing techniques used to construct the blocks (half-square triangles, flying geese, etc.) were borne out of utility, availability, and beauty.
Our challenge to members is this: what quilt will you make from this starting point?
We welcome any interpretation of this starting point and we can’t wait to see how guild members use their creativity, their artistic eye, and their creative energy to depart from this traditional pattern in any way they choose with just a couple restrictions:
the narrowest it can be on any side is ten inches;
the widest it can be on any side is fifty inches;
and it must be able to hang on a rod.
We hope that you will let your imagination soar into something that is tied to the original by a single thread.
Enjoy!
Emma Hare & Poppy H. O’Neill
Co-Presidents