The Bus Trip

Last Monday, August 24, 47 of us went on an all day bus trip to Seattle. The bus left at 7 AM and everyone was on time and in their seats with their nametags on and purple Attic Window bags in tow. One of our employees made delicious homemade scone for all to enjoy. We played games where everyone ended up with a pattern along the way and Martha was our voice on the microphone. Our first stop was to Clothworks, http://www.clothworkstextiles.com, where we had the delightful opportunity to meet one of their designers, Barbara Tourtillotte, http://www.turtlecrossings.com. She shared with us the process they go through deciding on her design, her expansion of the line and then explaining to us how it ends up on the fabric. She was so lovely and graciously gave us two HUGE gift baskets filled with home decor items that she also sells with her designs. The president of the company showed us a slide show of how the fabric is printed in either Japan or Korea. They treated us like royalty and we all had such a good time. As we boarded the bus our box lunches arrived which made our trip to Martingale fly by. With our tummy full of a great lunch we got off the bus at Martingale, http://www.martingale-pub.com/, to tour their offices. Oh my gosh there were quilts everywhere. A guide took us to each and every quit and gave us some history behind the designer and what book it came from. Then we proceeded to their book store, a book store where the books are considered seconds - EVERY BOOK WAS $5!!!!! It was hard not to buy one of everything and bring them home as gifts for friends and family. I reined myself in and only bought 8. They are all at Office Depot being spiral bound (did you know you can do that with your quilt books or any book for that matter and it costs under $4?). From their we drove to Ste. Michelle Winery, http://www.ste-michelle.com/. It was the perfect place to go and relax before the bus ride home. Several people went on the wine tour, the group I was with sat out in the shade at a little bistro table and we were joined by two peacocks and two ducks that were roaming from group to group. On the trip home we broke down the gift baskets from Barbara Tourtillotte and everyone got something. It was a delightful day had by all. The shop is already planning their next fun excursion....

Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show!

I’ve been promising a recap of my wonderful trip to the Sisters, Oregon quilt show since . . . well, since my trip to Sisters! Three old friends and I went together – seemed like a last minute decision for Sisters planning, as we didn’t make our reservation until February, found the condo on line, paid a very reasonable price for gorgeous accommodations, and were (much to our delight and surprise) two short blocks from the start of the show! Everyone we talked to told us they were amazed at our luck – with much more advance planning many ended up having to stay in Bend and drive to the show . . . . for us, an auspicious start to a great trip.

To say that we were overwhelmed by the quilts would be an understatement – in every way. They are hung everywhere you look on the sides of buildings and on clothesline strung across lawns or across the wide porches of storefronts; quilts of all sizes and shapes. A committee of 2-3 women organize the hanging, choosing locations for each of 1200 (yes, that is not a typo!) quilts, skilled at grouping like quilts together for visual interest. One store wall might feature 4-6 Baltimore Album quilts, another Christmas or Halloween themed, another block of the month quilts, yet another all purples and greens (my favorite, of course!), across the way all embellished quilts, down the street a grouping featuring incredible (and I can’t emphasize that enough!) examples of intricate machine quilting.

Everywhere we turned there was something more to see – I don’t know that it would have been possible to see them all, even if we’d started at 7:00 a.m. (which we didn’t, too tired after all that driving on Friday) and stayed until they pulled them down at 5:00 p.m. (which we also didn’t, too hot by 3:30 or 4:00). But it didn’t matter, because what we did see was so inspiring and visually stimulating. One of the things we all liked about this show is that anyone could submit a quilt and have it hung – so we saw everything from the first quilt ever made by a quilter, with all its warts and blemishes still a delight, to exquisite and intricately pieced and appliqued items that would have won prizes at the most exclusive and rigorous of judgings. What fun to have them displayed side by side and what a great opportunity for quilters of all skill levels to have their work viewed and enjoyed by others.

I particularly liked the Block of the Month quilts – a wide variety of blocks and fabrics – all put together with interesting settings that gave me plenty of ideas for this year’s Brown Bag blocks and for, perhaps, next year’s theme, as well. An inviting reminder that, although it is quicker and easier, we do not have to settle for the sometimes boring 12 blocks separated by sashing with a couple of borders. Let your creative juices flow and do something exciting and different – the reward is worth the effort!!

We will see how long the inspiration stays with us. The four of us are a group of women who have known each other since the 70's (or in the case of one, the woman who started me quilting, she and I have been friends and somewhat sisters since 1960!) We’ve drifted apart while we were all pursuing our careers – and in their cases but not mine raising children – and we’ve drifted back together as we move on to a more relaxed part of our lives. About 4-5 years ago we started going to a block of the month class together in Bellevue. Decided we didn’t like the class but did like getting together monthly or so for dinner, so started our own private Block of the Month, taking turns picking out patterns for star blocks. We have enough blocks to do something with them – and had the great idea that we should all finish our quilts (all extremely different) and enter them as a group into the Sisters show. Perhaps next year, perhaps two years hence . . . we shall see. But for sure, we shall be returning to Sisters!

Oh, and all three thought I should take all my orphan blocks and piece them together into a quilt for my car . . . not likely to happen, but what fun to look at they were!

EQ 6 Club

After a typical problem with my 15 year old, I sat down for the afternoon session of the Attic Window's Electric Quilt 6 Club. OMG, today was great. My fingers are itching to get to it. Some of the ladies are going to meet at 1pm on Thursday to review what we learned today.
As I mentioned before, this is not my first or second version of EQ. It is so exciting to see what I can do with the software, something I never explored in the past versions. Today we explored auto borders. Wow! This is so great, something I never would have thought to look for.

A friend sent a picture of an Irish Chain quilt she is making. Char has only been quilting for a little over 18 months but has already designed more quilts than I have dreamed of designing. With the photo of her quilt there was a word doc showing the quilt, colored with a pieced border. Granted, Char works with word and power point and knows how to use them better than I will ever be able to do, but to design a whole quilt on word - well, I wouldn't even attempt it. I am in awe of her creativity. And ladies, her hubby loves to give his opinion and he doesn't just say, "that's nice". They shop for fabric together and he really looks at a quilt and makes constructive suggestions, which work. Anyway, I am thinking this is the software for her.

Today I found out about a whole bunch of buttons I didn't know my software had. We transferred motifs to blocks and blocks to motifs. We merged blocks - so cool! Soon we will learn about custom settings.

I am really looking forward to doing the custom settings. I have a box of my daughter's old t-shirts that I want to put into a quilt. They are all different sizes, some have things on sleeves that I want to save, some are baby sized through early teens. Then there are the blocks made with my fabric by my guild members back in Germany (brown bag exchange). I have about 8 or 9 blocks, fabric to make more if needed. Or to use for the finishing of the quilt. I am ready to try out all the options on EQ to finish my blocks dating back to 2002 and 2003.

Isn't it great when you see a way to finish old UFOs? Or to clear off shelves in your closet? I get so many ideas running through my head. Just need to find a way to put them in effect. My thanks to Martha for showing us what the software can do. If you are like I was in the past, buying the EQ software and then not doing anything but playing with it, printing out single blocks, etc - please take the time to explore it. If you are local, check out the Attic Window's club. If not, go to your local shop, guild or friends and explore.