A little
back story:
I have
belonged to Quilters’ Guild of Arlington (QGOA) since moving to Texas 15 years
ago. QGOA is one of the founding guilds for North Texas Quilt Festival (NTQF).
I've had quilts in all their shows. This year I was going to skip due to health
issues, lack of mojo, etc. Nothing ready. But the plea for more quilts got to
me at the last minute. I had one small, finished piece that just met the time
restrictions. I had more UFOs (unfinished objects), so I considered those also.
I entered the finished one and two UFOs. When you enter quilts, you give them a
name and a little writeup about the quilt. For this UFO I wrote the title “What
Is It?” and then the write up asked some questions like, is it a game? how do
you play it? etc. I put myself in a box and then I had to figure out how to
finish the quilt. I used ChatGPT to get some ideas, that's where using the
yellow thread and identifying the rows and columns came from. While hand stitching,
I thought about what type of game this could be. That’s where Creative Improv Collage
came from. Here are the instructions and rules so far:
The host
supplies materials for the collage. This could be paper, fabric, odds and ends,
beads, buttons, recycling items, etc. Players could also add to the stash. All
the items are grouped together as a Community Stash.
Each player
is given a substrate for their collage. This could be a piece of felt, a canvas
panel, or heavy paper
suitable for collage work.
Each player will
select a color for their Freeze and Claim tokens, these could be buttons or
squares of paper, or plastic. Just small enough to fit on a space.
The spaces
used could be 5 inches squared or something similar. If there are more than four
players, they could work in teams.
A deck of cards
containing:
each column/row combination,
multiple
cards for
Freeze or Pass
Skip,
Claim
or Pass,
Remove.
A Thaw Token
– a clear button.
Whatever
card is pulled from the deck will determine the move. If the card indicates a
column/row the player will take an item from the stash and place it on that
position. The skip card means player loses a turn. The freeze card means the
player can place their token on a column/row spot and no one can add to it
until the Thaw token is used. If the player does not wish to freeze any spot, then
the next player has a turn. When a player freezes a spot they receive a Thaw
token which they can then use to Unfreeze a spot in place of a draw turn.
The Claim
card allows the player to take what is on a spot and add it to their personal
collection. A claimed token is placed on that spot and that spot is out of the
game. The next player has a turn.
The Remove
card allows the player to take one item away from one spot and place it back in
the community stash.
As the cards
are played, they are placed in the Used spot. If more plays are necessary, the
cards in the Used spot can be reshuffled and played again.
After all
spots have been claimed the game is over and the players will now make a collage
using their personal stash. It can be done at the same setting or due back at
the next group meeting.
The community
stash can be coordinated to emphasis color combinations, styles, art concepts,
or any other ideas.
My next post
will show the quilt and talk about some of the considerations behind it and
some of the struggles.
Happy needle
pulling thread!
Rose
