Teesha Moore Patch Swaps

Today’s blog entry was supposed to be just a quick post to share a few Teesha Moore-style patches I’d made recently for a craft swap. But then I got to thinking about patchwork quilting in general, and then about quilting bees. And I began wondering whether these patch swaps are like a modern-day version of an old-fashioned quilting bee.

My sister has actually held quilting bees at her house. (Well, sort of.) They have all involved her immediate family (mother-in-law, husband, etc.) rather than a group of friends or neighbors, but the concept was still the same. That’s how they produced the wedding quilt they gave to my husband and me, our initials and wedding date lovingly quilted into the cloth.

Myself, I have never been to a quilting bee. (Although I have, upon occasion, gotten together with some friends to make soap, or jewelry, or things like that.)

There is something so wonderfully communal, about many hands crafting a single “work of art”. I once saw a beautiful mosaic — a “Tree of Life” made by the congregation of the Unitarian Church of Berkely, CA. Each parishioner designed a leaf and then the whole thing was assembled by mosaic artist Kim Lawson. What a beautiful expression of unity!

These Teesha Moore patch swaps produce the same sort of assemblages — many people’s work, stitched together into colorful and vibrant masterpieces!

Each person in these swaps chooses a theme (or themes) such as “dots and stripes” or “trees and leaves” or “peacock colors” and that way, the patches can all be combined into a single, unified creation. It is so fun to see how each crafter has interpreted the theme!

Below are the patches I sent recently, and the associated themes.