Melbourne MPavilion Challenge

Becoming a member of a guild is a very important step in your quilting journey. In my case, I decided to apply to join the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild (MMQG) to meet new people who were interested in both designing and making bright, colourful and fresh quilts. They held sewing day events and looked to be a great way to connect with other quilters.

Then COVID happened….

Like everyone, there were a lot of disruptions and in Melbourne we had the longest time in lockdown in the world (over 200 days). It was strange to be disconnected and I guess it made a lot of us more aware of our dwindling personal networks. For me, this had been the result of moving from overseas to resettle in Melbourne and focusing (far too much) on achieving work goals and being a contributing member of my work team. I know, not too smart in the long run! It is vital that we protect our own time and make space for our lives away from whatever professional roles we may have been focusing on with real zeal. For me, quilting was the first step in finding something that I loved doing MORE than work! And, joining the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild has been the next step to finding people who I was surprised are very much like me…fabulous!

The quilt I am showing today is a part of a challenge that was organised between the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild and MPavilion. MPavilion is an architectural challenge where an architect is invited to design a pavilion structure to be install in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. It is a ‘temporary’ installation and exists for the Summer months after which it is dismantled and relocated. You can find out more about the MPavilion project here: https://mpavilion.org/

Quilters from the guild were invited to submit designs to be created especially for this year’s pavilion is the tenth and has been designed by Tando Ando. Quilt designers were required to use a limited colour palette as well as a limit shapes to squares, circles and rectangles. What? No half square triangles allowed in this modern quilt! It was a bit of a challenge. In the end I entered an existing design as a second entry and this was the one that was selected by MPavilion to be included in the mix.

So…anyone can go down to the gardens and ‘sign out’ one of our quilts to use for their own picnic, or to relax in the spaces around the new pavilion. The quilts will be cleaned on a roster and maintained during the time the pavilion is installed. I won’t make it there myself so if you do see my quilt please tag me @angiefinndesigns so I can see this one being used and enjoyed on location.

That a wrap from me, I will update the gallery if I do see any more images of this quilt on social media. It reminds me of some great picnic memories such as egg sandwiches and games of twister! I promise neither of these were in my mind while designing this one.

Have a great day. If you are not already, think about what becoming a member of a local quilt guild might offer you and most of all — happy quilting!