Last month fellow guild member, Connie, who has been in cancer remission  for some time, was told that cancer had returned.  We were all devastated.  The Guild members got together and decided to make a quilt that would hopefully lift her spirits a bit.  We each made a block  and one of the members volunteered to assemble the quilt top.

I had just finished putting her block together when I received a message from the president of our guild that she had passed away. It was decided to give the quilt to her family as a token of how much we thought of her. Her husband and son had helped in many ways over the years, especially as we set up our quilt show. (Our husbands are as generous as our members).

I think that Connie is spending her time quilting and is even finishing the quilts she starts. I once read a story about a knitter who would always cast on stitches for a new knitting project before she completed her current project. She always had a project that was being worked on. One morning a friend came to visit and found that she had died during the night.  On the bed beside her was a closed box. Upon opening the box she found completed sweater, and knitting needles but no new project.

I am sure that as long as I have UFO’s (and I really have more than my share), I’ll never be able to die!

Quilting From Home!

In  every month that has five Thursdays, one of my favorite local quilt stores, Mission Rose,    has a ““Go Green” Bag Day” Sale, which translates into a 20% savings on all purchases.  A group of us take the  lunch hour to check out the new  patterns,  material, etc.  I really enjoy interacting with the Mission Rose staff and fellow quilters.  It certainly is ego boosting to  “go where everybody knows your name”.

Last Thursday,  we were trying to find fabric for the border of my Celtic quilt.  Since I had altered the pattern by adding the Seminole strip, I  recalculated the amount of border fabric and thought that I would need 3 yards to complete it.  I had originally purchased 2-1/2 yds. for both the border and binding.   So, I was on a mission to  find replacement fabric.  No matter how much all of us looked, we couldn’t find anything that we liked as much as my original choice.

Barb, one of the staff at Mission Rose, overheard our dilemma and offered the obvious solutions that we had all come up with and rejected:  Can you make the borders narrower, or add more borders?  Then she quickly calculated the fabric needed and came to the conclusion that I actually needed less than two yards for the border.  The computer calculations were set to make borders that are cut along the straight grain.  Joining the borders with miters will effectively hide the fact that they are joined.  I think it helps a wall quilt hang better and not curl when the borders are cut on the straight grain, but certainly mitered borders will work on a bed quilt.

Avid quilters like to go to quilt shops for more than the fabric.  Not only do the  shops have the best quality fabric and supplies, but the staff is knowledgeable, willing to help as you ponder fabric selections and to help solve problems.  I have come to rely on their knowledge and expertise to hopefully make me a better quilter.

Quilting at Home!

After reading the column, right off the bolt,  by Alison Dea Bolt in the February/March 2009 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter, I think that it must be also be a “special form of patriotism” to  visit all the local quilt stores whenever we travel.  It not only provides us with more ideas and fabric that we can use in a lifetime.  It also serves as a “stimulus package” that might just lead us out of today’s economic woes.

I believe that as long as I have UFO’s, I will never die.   As of this date, I should have a lifespan of at least another 40 or 50 years.

So consider it your patriotic duty to visit as many quilt shops as you can while vacationing this year.  I certainly plan on doing my part!  On this trip I have visited Tomorrow’s Treasures Quilt Shop in Homosassa, FL and Sew Studio in Naples, FL.  Both were stores that I will definitely revisit when we come back here next year.

I’m sure our husbands will understand.

Lucia, Quilting from the Road!