This year’s theme was One Square Mile.

Over the last few years, all of us have become acutely and intimately aware of our closest surroundings. And many of us have drawn on that space – and the people, animals, and plants that inhabit it – for nourishment, sustenance, recreation, exercise, fresh air, companionship, renewal, and so much more. That space can be as big or as small as one square mile. With this in mind, we invite you to make a quilt that represents your personal “one square mile” around you.

As the modern quilts in this show illustrate so well, patriotism comes in many different, and sometimes surprising, forms. It is an allegiance that can be full of angst. It is learning from the past while looking to the future. It is taking pride in our best qualities. It is nostalgia for childhood or holiday traditions. It is not strictly American. It can be funny or playful. It can incorporate immediately recognizable symbols and motifs, or it can be more individualistic.

We hope you enjoy this collection of works from 32 DC Modern Quilt Guild members, who each took such a unique approach to this challenge.

Ten - what does that mean to you? Ten items? Ten colors? Now think of ten years. Do you think of the past, of now, of the changes, of each year by itself?

This year marks ten years of DCMQG. In 2010 Natalie Hardin gathered a group of people that liked modern quilting. They met at Ebenezer's Coffee Shop, near Union Station and the seeds of DCMQG were planted.

To celebrate our ten year anniversary, members were asked to create a mini-quilt around the theme of ten. The theme was interpreted in so many ways and the range exemplifies the range of our members.