adventure + sewing + education
I’m so excited to be lecturing again for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, my home guild in my home town. I’ve been an on-again, off-again member for more than a decade so it feels like home turf, that’s grown while I was away.
So back in November, at our Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting, we were asked to bring along some swatches of fabrics (no more than to fill a ziploc sandwich bag). Everyone dumped their baggie onto the table, then at the end of the night, everyone left with a different baggie full of fabric to make something for the original person. Sounded like a great idea until I managed to leave in a bit of a panic a half hour before the meeting ended.
It took me three weeks to remember that I hadn’t taken a baggie of fabric when I left.
The ensuing weeks had been crazy (mostly bad-crazy) and the idea of making something for someone else had completely slipped my mind. Then I panicked again.
Luckily for me, one of the fantastic folks at the PMQG had taken the extra baggie and gone ahead and made something. I have no idea what I missed out on, but I am grateful that Brittany took care of it and I didn’t have to add another thing to my to-do list. In the end, it was Brittany who was the lucky recipient of Elizabeth Hartman’s gift, so I think it might actually be fair. 🙂
At the December meeting everyone brought what they’d made, then each person searched for their fabric choices in a finished project. Unfortunately, I had totally forgotten what fabrics I’d turned over, but Amanda from Threadbias saw my name on these potholders. Chris made them for me and they turned out great!
I actually don’t remember buying that Alexander Henry print and I don’t think the cream fabric was mine. It’s been a hard couple months and my brain has clearly stopped working as it should.
The potholders are happily at home on my new counter. We moved out of the temp situation with my adult son and into a teeny tiny (450 sq. ft) apartment, just me and my teen daughter at the beginning of December.
I’ve lost many of my belongings in the moves (four in the last year), including all my shoes and a bunch of kitchen stuff. So the potholders were needed and very much appreciated. I haven’t baked here much since the door of the oven bumps into the couch that doubles as my bed, but I have high hopes for using them.
Thanks, Chris, for taking the time to make them for me. I truly appreciate it and can’t wait to use them!
Quilt Market is coming next week and while I don’t get to go this time [insert tears here] I did get to do a little work on a piece that’s going. Melissa created a wall quilt based on Crissy’s I Love My Local Quilt Shop logo–both are super cute, of course. Melissa needed some help on the stitching since she was leaving townfor a wedding, so I volunteered my set of hands. 
There’s something about stitching by hand that I really do love. It gives me an excuse to sit down and stop cooking, cleaning, working for just a bit. It doesn’t hurt that I love the outcome, as well.
I’ll show the whole deal when I can. It’s totally finished–patchwork, handstitching, quilting and binding–and ready for Quilt Market in Houston. I think they’ll love it, too.
And speaking of love, last night was the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting and our special guest was the lovely Angela Walters. I have zero interest in doing long-arm quilting, but I loved listening to her talk about her path and seeing the quilts she brought. She does beautiful work and someday, someday, I’ll have her do one for me.
She has fabric coming out soon with Art Gallery that I’m super eager to see. She had some sneak peaks sewn into a couple of the quilts, which was fun. She even has a panel that can be just folded in half and quilted to make a small quilt. She designed it that way for folks to practice their quilting techniques–clever!
As I sat in that room, packed to the gills with women (and a man or two) eager to share their enthusiasm for fabrics and quilting, I realized how lucky I am to finally have found others that I can connect with. I had no idea there were others who were so thrilled to have needle and thread in hand! Now that I’ve found them, I don’t ever want this group to go away.
First I found this and it made me pretty happy to see folks were re-pinning and posting about my little sewing drive:
Then I got a comment from Trinh saying that she’d found out about the sewing drive thanks to a post on Rashida‘s blog. Rashida? As in I Heart Linen‘s Rashida? I had to check it out. And sure enough… she did!
Squeal! I cannot thank her (or Shelly or Kim or PMQG) enough!
I am awed, really.
(If you’re new to this project and want to get involved, you can join in on the sewing or donate cash–just email me and let me know!)
I’ve had good intentions of being active in the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, but life and kids and work and doctor visits all seem to thwart my valiant attempts. I make it to the monthly meetings every other time, if I’m lucky.
So when the Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guilds meet-up was announced, I figured I could plan for that one and jump in with two feet. Luckily all the ladies from Portland, Seattle and Vancouver were super nice and welcoming. It was nice to finally talk to people I’d seen present beautiful quilts at the meetings, but had always been afraid to talk to. I got to meet Sonja from Artisania, too, which made me uber-happy. I really love, love, love her piecing patterns. Check out my favorite one.
We hung out the Island Quilter for hours and I finally got my hands on both Violet Craft’s “Memoir” fabric from her recent Madrona Road Collection and a sewing machine. It’s really been too long. I’ve been doing plenty of hand-stitching lately, but being at a machine just makes me so damn happy.
We visited the West Seattle Fabric Company where I bought another book from Kay Whitt/Serendipity Studio.
