New Zealand Stripes

Here's the latest quilt I've finished; made from a "jelly roll" of fabric strips, sent to me by friend, Carol. Carol lives in New Zealand--and the fabric is all strips of wonderful New Zealand prints. I think my favorite is the kiwi in the All Blacks rugby uniform.

Thanks, Carol! See what I made out of your fabric gift? ;-) I'm not sure Carol will see this post, but never mind...she'll be here at the end of April and THIS quilt will be on the guest bed where she'll be sleeping.

Sunday at Spring Quilt Break

Sunday...the last day of Spring Quilt Break. How fast it goes by! My Sunday class was Mary's Triangles with Sally Schneider. It was only a four hour class instead of a full day, but that's about all any of us can take by the time Sunday rolls around!

Here is Sally showing quilts made with Mary's Triangle blocks.









Our last luncheon for Conference always has Show and Tell with it. I love this part, as we get to see what everyone else has been doing all weekend!

Here's Barb on the right, Julie on the left with a quilt for charity, made with blocks donated at SQB.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find my challenge fabric and didn't contribute a block.
Anita won the drawing for the other half of the blocks and chose to make two quilts with her team.
What great quilts!







Here's my Friday class with our Twisted Ribbon Star quilts.






Julie took Sally's class on Saturday and did a Laurel Wreath with Christmas Cracker border:






Here are more Show and Tell photos: (can you spot Alice behind her blue machine quilting sample? Alice doesn't like to have her photo taken! lol)

Saturday at Spring Quilt Break

All right, back to the fun stuff! My Saturday class was Machine Quilting Elegant Borders with Pam Clarke. Pam lives in Spokane. She is a bundle of energy and a wonderfully talented machine quilter. I took her class to get ideas to use on my stand up quilting machine--but others were there to learn how to better quilt on their regular sewing machines. I had my tiny travel sewing machine, a wee Janome, along and let me tell you, that was tough going, trying to free motion quilt on it! I realized the HQ Sixteen has spoiled me! Everyone else did really nice with their samples, but mine...ahhh well, it is best left hidden!

Rather than marking a quilting design on the quilt, Pam's technique is to make "registration marks," so you can free motion and keep things even. It has a lot of potential and I'm very excited to try it out on the HQ. Here is Pam and some of her quilts.








Pam was the luncheon speaker on Saturday, talking about old quilts. She had several to show us and a couple were for sale! I helped carry one of the quilts around the room. Later, folding quilts up and putting them in her suitcase, this one called out to me. It has fabric in it that I remember from a quilt my grandmother made. That quilt my Nana made was the one I always cuddled under on Friday night when I would spend the night at her house. It ended up wrapped around the hot water tank when my sister inherited my grandmother's house. By the time I found out what Marigene did with it, it had experienced a couple of basement floods, as well as being exposed to marijuana smoke from Marigene's children. It was beyond salvaging. This quilt, though, kind of makes up for that loss! It is a different pattern; more complex than the one Nana made, but I still love it. Pam finds a lot of vintage quilts in antique shops and thrift stores and feels we should finish them when such treasures come into our lives. She machine quilted this one and did a lovely job on it. Later a friend told me the pattern is called "Boutonniere."

After lunch when we were back in class, Elise phoned her husband and had him bring their treasured family quilt over to show us.

Gossip

I'm going to pause a moment here in the saga of Spring Quilt Break, to put in my two cents about gossip. I don't like it. It hurts people. Now I could just leave it at that, but instead, I'll tell you what happened in one of my classes over the weekend and why I am a bit upset. C. was in my Friday class, sitting two rows ahead of me in the room. C. and I have been acquainted through our quilt guild, for quite a few years now. C. reminds me of my grandmother, who used to sit at her kitchen table and watch out the window, so she could keep track of what the neighbors were doing. I think this desire to be "in the know," comes from boredom. Anyway, there we were in class. Everyone was busy sewing except C., who mostly sits around in class and complains, driving the teacher crazy trying to help her. Not that C. really wants help; she just likes the attention. I've often wondered why C. even bothers to take classes... The room was quiet, with only the hum of sewing machines making noise. C. asked me a question--from her two rows ahead of me, pertaining to my personal life. I told her it was a sad story and I'd tell her later. She kept on, making several comments to the room in general, about one of my family members. I wondered why she felt the need to share MY personal details with everyone, but I kept sewing, hoping if I ignored her, she's quiet down. One of the other ladies asked me a question about what C. was saying. Gritting my teeth, I answered with a single, "Yes." Someone else said, "uh oh..." and then no one else asked anything! Ha! Not everyone is as dense as C. C. made another comment, directed at me this time. I didn't answer. She repeated herself, adding, "Yvonne, did you hear me?" I said, "yes, C., I heard you." I went back to my sewing. C. got quiet.

During the luncheon lecture that day, Tom called me on my cell phone. I had it on vibrate, so as not to disturb anyone, but I had to leave the room to answer the phone. Turns out the power was out at home and he wanted to know if I had the phone number of the power company anywhere. Yes, dear, in the phone book! He was without power for three hours, due to a drunk slamming their car into the transformer. Poor Tom!

On my way back to the luncheon, I spotted C. sitting out in the hotel lobby. She found Zena's lecture "boring." Huh? She was almost drooling in anticipation, though, because she thought I was going to fill her in on juicy details of the "sad story" she'd asked about in class. Her eyes were shining with delight and a grin was on her face as she prompted me to "tell all." Nope. Not gonna do it! Not now, not ever. Instead, maintaining my usual calm and quiet demeanor, I told her she had been way out of line to have said what she did in class earlier. Speaking to C., I didn't raise my voice, nor did I even sound angry. Good job there, considering inside I was pretty ticked off at her! lol I quietly told her "If I had wanted everyone in there to know my business, I would have told them." Then, turning on my heel, I walked away--back to Zena's marvelous quilts and fascinating stories.

Later in class, C. passed by me twice, each time saying she was sorry she'd offended me. Each time I said, "okay, C..."

This jogged a memory in my mind, from back in 1986. Our youngest son was born too early and only lived 10 hours. After I got home from the very traumatic experience of his death, my "friend," Inez, phoned daily to see how I was doing. As you might imagine, I was an emotional wreck. My baby had died. It was devastating. Inez seemed so concerned and caring--I found myself pouring my heart out to her. Little did I know that she was telling everyone about our conversations and basking in the attention of being "in the know." For her, it was all about the gossip and having something to talk about. I suppose it made her feel important. I was lucky, though, because one of my real friends phoned and told me what Inez was doing and how she was ridiculing and belittling me in her efforts to elevate herself. What a sad person! After that, when Inez would call, I made myself scarce. Ahh, C. and Inez...they have a lot in common.

Spring Quilt Break 2009

I just got back yesterday afternoon from my annual quilty vacation. I don't go far, just down the hill to a local Holiday Inn. Others travel from much farther, with some of our friends even coming all the way from Alaska. Spring Quilt Break has been going on for a long time now--longer than I've been in the guild--but I think I've been going to them for the last 17 years. (yikes!) I missed one year in 1996, when Liz was flying off to the University of Alaska to start her college life, and wanted me to come along. Couldn't afford both the plane ticket AND Spring Break, so of course I chose Lizzie! ;-)

But back to SQB... Our attendance was down (drat the economy!) but still, there were 70 of us there and we had a great time. We start out with a get acquainted social on Thursday night, with a show and tell of quilts we've finished from classes we've taken in past years. I've finished quilts started at SQB, but this is probably the first time ever that I've had one available to show. Usually they go out the door to their new home shortly after that last stitch goes in. HA! I have the tesselated leaves from a Jackie Robinson class that I was able to show. Here it is:
It's going for the Jennie Quilt Challenge next month and will find a home as a comfort quilt for someone fighting breast cancer.







Here are some of the other quilts shown on Thursday night.




Friday morning I had a class with Sally Schneider, from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Here's her website: www.sallyschneider.com She's friendly and fun--and taught us how to make a built in twisted ribbon border. This is Sally with her class sample.







Here is the Twisted Ribbon Star I did:






Friday's speaker at our luncheon was Zena Thorpe. Check her out at www.geocities.com/zenasquilts She is a very talented applique artist. I recognized some of her quilts from the covers of quilt magazines over the years. Maybe you will too!










Zena spoke about "A Look at History Through the Eye of a Needle;" which was about the way women over the centuries, have used their needlework to document their lives and tell their stories. It was fascinating, especially as she illustrated her lecture with her own quilts!

to be continued....

More Jennie Challenge Quilts!

Only a little more than a month before many of my online quilting friends will be here for our Jamboree! I finished up a UFO (UnFinished Object) that I started a couple of decades ago. Never thought it would be finished, but here it is. It's the blue and yellow pinwheel quilt. The green and orange one is from Carol in Australia, and Monique from Canada made the other one. These quilts are part of the Jennie Sherlock Quilt Challenge we're having in conjunction with the Jamboree--and will be going to women battling breast cancer, in memory of our friend, Jennie, who lost her battle in May of last year. I think Jennie would like these! (especially the green and orange one--she loved bright colors!)

Siggy Swap Block Quilt

I don't know about you, but I have a few piles here and there, of blocks received from online swaps with other quilters. One of the tallest piles was signature blocks. Since it was threatening to topple over, I decided I had to do something!

Here is the result.



As you can see, some of the blocks had to go on the back. I was determined to use them all! The earliest blocks are from Washington Internet Quilters (WASIQ) and are dated 1998. Those weren't from a swap, but from a retreat I went on with the group. I had everyone sign a block for me. Also in this mix are blocks from quilters in the now defunct Quiltswapper group. When that group folded after several years, some of us stayed together in a group called Quilting and Friendship (Q&F). From there I went, along with others from Quiltswappers, to the group I'm in now: QuiltPocket. All in all, here and there, I've known some of these women for at least a decade! I have been lucky enough to meet a few of them in person, either through our travels, or from gatherings like the QuiltPocket Jamboree in Conneticut two years ago. They are all very dear to me. Next month some of them will be coming here, for a Jamboree. Time to renew friendships and meet MORE quilt buddies in person! Ooh...and wait until they see this quilt!

Quilt Jamboree

Here are my online quilt buddies at our last Jamboree, which was held in 2007, in Conneticut. It was wonderful to get to meet so many of them. In fact, it was SO wonderful and I had such a great time, I volunteered to the the hostess for our next gathering.

What was I thinking? Oh. Well, I was thinking if it is HERE, I won't miss it! It's been fun, arranging for a party of this size. Doorprizes, meals, excursions...fortunately, I'm not doing it all by myself--there is a Committee, but of course, I'm the only one of the Committee who is physically here. There have been a few bumps in the road as I've arranged things; the biggest being the downturn in the the economy. Two years ago there were a lot of the group--not just the ones who'd been at the 2007 Jamboree, who were determined to be at this one. However, what with one thing and another--mostly financial, the number of people able to come has dwindled alarmingly. Now it looks like we will be luck to get 20 people. Alas! But...I take what I can get and hanging out with 20..or 17..or however many of my quilt buddies who will be here, will be a treat. Carol from New Zealand, as well as Carol (and her husband, Peter) from Australia, will be staying at my house for a bit of extra time. Tom and Peter got along so well at the last Jamboree, that Tom was hoarse from talking too much!

Here are two more quilts for the Jennie Sherlock Memorial Quilt Challenge. Jennie is in the photo above, standing 4th from the left, in the red vest and black shirt. The blue, yellow and green quilt is from Lillian in the U.K. The tesselating leaf quilt is one of my UFOs (UnFinished Object) from a class I took from Jackie Robinson a few years ago at my quilt guild's annual Spring Quilt Break.

It is nice to have it finished. Both of these quilts will be going to women battling breast cancer here in my local area.

Only another month until Jamboree! The world is coming to my house to play. How cool is that?