Day Tripping . . . for Quilts!

Two weeks ago, we took a jaunt over to Coeur d'Alene in Idaho to see the North Idaho Quilters "Quilted Gems" quilt show. We got to talk with Jean Schute, the featured quilter, and enjoyed meandering around this lovely quilt show. So much to enjoy, so many inspiring quilts!

Once home, I wanted to see if I could make a video of my favorite photos. So here, courtesy of Picasa and YouTube, is a short (roughly two minute) video of Jean Schute's quilts, along with a few other highlights. Jean is an accomplished art quilter, and her quilts are vibrant, a true pleasure.

The Washington State Quilters has added a new category -- MODERN QUILTS -- for our October quilt show. Check out the registration form at http://wsqspokane.org

And here's my slide show, with music!

Quilt on . . .

The Waterford Quilters opened their annual show today, this sunny Saturday in Spokane. Nearly 150 quilts were on display, and the show featured Georgie Gerl, an accomplished quilter who specializes in stunning quilt designs. Many of her quilts are featured in Asian Fabric, a magazine for passionate quilters. My two-sided African quilt was on display with the rest -- the slide show has just a few pictures (I'm still getting used to being in one place AND taking pictures).



Waterford Quilters

I've come to love my Thursdays with this group of 10-15 women who meet to work on various stages of WIPs, applique, hand quilting, and counted cross stitch. We talk more than we stitch, but stitch we do as we admire each others' works in progress.

Allen and I just came back from a week's stay in Corvallis, a nice 6-1/2 hour drive south to Oregon, over the Columbia River, past Mt. Hood, down the Willamette Valley, almost still our home, and a chance to see friends, hours of good talk, hugs, and promises to return. Then back we came, north to Spokane, where, at 4,000 feet, winter still can be seen in bare trees and in traces of snow last night.

Yesterday Rachel and I dropped off the African quilt to the Cozy Quilt shop for quilting. On larger quilts, I can't do the machine stiching that will hold the finished quilt together, but Lisa was wonderful and showed me this lovely leaf tracery pattern that will embellish my quilt -- by October. Just in time for the annual Quilt Show held by the Washington State Quilters' Association on October 17, 18, and 19, here in Spokane.

How does it feel to finish a quilt? Like most quilters, I'm guessing, I feel a little sad. The challenge is behind me. I know all those dangling threads, the two places that needed patching because I ran out of fabric, the several places that needed reseaming, and the hopes and history that were stitched in each line, not the least being the chance to research African history as well as other family memories that come with certain fabrics.

This week's writing prompt on Sunday Scribblings is about solace -- what gives us solace when all else seems to crumble. Perhaps it's quilting for me, though that's not really an answer. Solace digs deeper. I'm thinking about the view out my office window and how for moments I just like to look at the sky, watch the wrens fly about young aspen saplings. The leaves quiver in the wind, just like the wrens themselves as they hover, land and rush about. Perhaps there's too much of rushing in our lives so that solace comes unexpectedly, in such moments. I don't need long conversations with family and friends to feel settled in myself somehow. Just a word or a look, sometimes a hug, and I feel centered.

I was heartened by two texts this week from Barack Obama -- the inspirational text of his speech in Berlin and his very private prayer this week released to the press amidst great controversy, though, of course, it should have remained private. He asked that his family be safe first, and I feel sad we still have to worry about assassinations. Then he prayed that he not be prideful or carried away by a sense of despair; he asked to be the instrument of God's will. Scribbled on a sheet of paper from a hotel, how his simple words reveal the private person who has such a keen awareness of his weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and yet who sustains a vision of hope. If he is successful in being elected, I think we can take solace in his presidency. At last.

Quilting and writing. Writing and quilting. Both seem to balance each other. Since we've returned to Spokane, out came the unfinished African Quilt top from storage, inspired by Kaye England and Mary Elizabeth Johnson's colorful Quilt Inspirations from Africa. This book was about $25 when it first came out and is now a quilt collector's classic.

Thus, off I go to the library. Two chapters were especially helpful to me as I started this quilt last July. The top is comprised entirely of Fulani stars (I can find nothing online about this technique, though it's explained beautifully in Quilt Inspirations). The design is inspired by quilted armor Fulani cavalrymen wore into battle to protect them. Here's the top:



Inspired by this panel, I wanted to make an "almost" quilt for the back.

But somehow I also wanted to work in Adinkra symbols from the Ashanti, those applique shapes that convey additional protection and meaning. So, I chose four: osrane (the moon, full of positive female qualities, love and kindness); kuntin kantan (humility); gye nyame ("except for God", the immortality of God); and duafe (a wooden comb, again a female symbol for patience and care).

Today after writing, I read through a few 19th Century shipboard diaries kept by passengers on sailing vessels from England to New Zealand. I'm guessing most ships at this time to Australia were convict transports, where conditions were brutal, so I was pleased to find these diaries where the voice of the average person comes through (a little tougher to find in history books!).

What a wealth of material. People wrote about singing every night, dancing on the foredeck, whether church services were held or not (depending on weather), details on meals (people were grateful for fish after a steady diet of ship's biscuits and estatic when a passing steamer brought fruit). Passengers mutinied over food. Sailors fought over rum and were occasionally found in the women's quarters, and babies were born and died. Boredom was noted often.

Once the ship passed a certain point in the Atlantic, repeated storms and strong winds often made journal keeping nearly impossible. I notice a class difference between passengers (in cabins) and emigrants (down below in holds). I need to find some maps of ships to understand what parts are where.

One writer told of a passenger jumping up and climbing up the rigging with three sailors up after him, trying to catch him. Everyone watched with humor the young man's progress. When he was finally caught, the sailors bound him in irons unless he apologized -- and paid for some rum.

Today we go to the library. My African quilt is out of storage and I'm needing to come up with a design for the back. I read online that some original African designs avoided straight lines as evil spirits could then enter that way. So I'm maybe going to use the Fulani Star pattern that appears on the front (see pic). It would be wonderful to finish this, but perhaps like writing, the pattern will appear as I go.

Today was a travel day, up from Charlotte to Aberdeen, Maryland, just 82 miles outside of Philadelphia. We stopped in Madison, Virginia, at That Little Quilt Shop in a restored Presbyterian church. Richly detailed quilts hung from every open space. My wanderings through this beautiful shop inspired today's poem "For Rachel". My favorite quilt was the Broken Star pattern, perhaps adapted from the difficult Texas star wheel pattern. Maybe someday.

Just now I'm hand piecing from a older quilt book Allen found, Joyce M. Schlotzhauer’s The Curved Two Patch System (EPM Publications 1982), withdrawn from the New Orleans Public Library. She teaches how to use the simple square and block to create flowers, so I’m using batik fabric to build something, I’m not sure yet what, but I’m working square by square to master this. Today’s picture shows one block completed. Don’t look at the wrinkles; I’m traveling without an iron!

And we’re truly tired tonight, not just from watching the returns from Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary (and hoping for good news for Clinton), but also from driving through Washington suburbs at 70 plus miles per hour, with drivers talking on cell phones and not using turn signals (how much can one do, after all), and trucks barreling right along with the rest of us, 70 plus even in a 55-mph zone. I’m shocked, shocked to find speeders on these freeways. Tomorrow, home to Philadelphia!