Phat Quarters Classes

Home from a wonderful trip to a charming town, Galena, IL, and a most welcoming shop, Phat Quarters!  The shop, above, suffered severe flood damage right before our scheduled event, but fast work, Jane and her intrepid staff managed to salvage inventory and move to a new location right on the busy Main St. in time to host our event. 

Classes were held in the new front room of the shop, with big windows and plenty of room.  Now that we have left, they can proceed to setting things up and arranging inventory, decorating, etc.  They were flying by the seats of their pants, with an old cash register, no computers, but none of us complained at all. 

We had two days of great classes, fun, excitement, and success!  The charming shops and restaurants were all on the same street, and in the beautiful summer days there we took advantage of it all.

Feathers were amazing, stitches improved, students were smiling.  I thank everyone in class and especially the staff for making this happen.  If you are in Galena, stop by their new place and see what's going on.  Fabric not damaged is on killer sale, great bargains to be found.  And yes, they have Berninas!

I stayed in a hotel at the outer part of town and it had the most perfect carpet that included scrolls, feathers, leaves, and spirals, and of course the ubiquitous tendrils, below.   Perfect to set the stage for class as I unpacked and regrouped before my lecture the first night, with vintage 35 mm slides.

I arrived home Wed. night thinking I just might have time to bid on my AAQI quilt online and own it myself, but by the time I got to it the auction was over.  Thank you all for your bids and support, and congrats to the final bidder who will receive this quilt.  I think it is one of my favorites, and I hope it will be enjoyed for a long time.

"Mourning Too Soon"

Teaching with talented quilters gave me many ideas and inspiration, and now I hope I can find some time to work on a few long delayed projects. 

Oliver of course scampered his little heart out when I arrived home, then settled down for unpacking and sniffing everything from foreign lands, well, IL at least, and purred in contentment as we rested and relaxed. 

Monday he will be two years old, and we must plan a party.  He is still a Vegan, although he has been licking the remains from melted frozen custard in my dish, his first real people food, definitely on the path to becoming a bona fide Cheesehead.  He is a cautious boy.  He much prefers corn husks, raw green beans, and any veggie. 

Thanks again to my Galena students; it was such a pleasure getting to know you in class.  Don't let too much time go by before you quilt some of the techniques at home.  Repetition is the key.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.

Diane

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

Last week I cleared away the dregs of projects and layered my next one for quilting. I volunteered to quilt one of the many quilts made up of strips of purple fabrics with names of those with Alzheimer's disease.

These quilts will all hang as part of the next traveling exhibit entitled "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope." You can read about this at www.alzquilts.org/alil.html and see the style of these quilts. Perhaps you signed a strip of fabric on the reverse, faded side, in honor or memory of someone, and perhaps it is in the quilt I received.

As I unfolded the quilt top, long and narrow, about as long as I am tall, the impact of the long string of names, all in different handwriting, struck me so hard. Lovely names, strong names, whimsical fun names, but all with the common thread of Alzheimer's. Behind each name I knew the terrible story, the suffering from this disease each person had.

Somewhere in one of these quilts out there to be quilted is my mother's name, Erma Hinterberg, that my sister signed when she attended the MN quilt show in Duluth last year. When the exhibit is finished and on tour I will look for it.

Some of the names were bold and strong, some one name only, some mentioned a relationship like Mom or sister. Seeing these names hit me so hard I knew I could not proceed that day, it was just too emotional, and I had to step away until the names became familiar friends.

I layered that quilt, did some stitch in the ditch between each signature rectangle, and then decided rather than an allover quilting design I would treat each name as its own little quilt, and try to do a motif on each to honor each name, and to reflect what I was imagining that person might like.

Melvin and Milton have strong straight lines of quilting. Viola is on a solid lilac fabric, first name only, and she has a pretty feathered vine. Louise, Lu Hamilton - Grandmother, and Bunny. Clamshells and bubbles, Diane-shiko or simple wavy lines, I varied the motifs, and loved seeing the names become little quilts before my eyes.

Below, three of the rectangles I signed and sewed on to the long strip of names, one for my husband's Aunt Rita, one for my uncle Milt Woolson, and one for a friend's mother.

I used silk thread rather than a heavier one which probably would have worked better on these fabrics, but I didn't want to obscure the names. The quilting takes back seat to the names.

I now will ship this to yet another volunteer for another volunteer to bind, sew on the label and sleeve, and add it to the growing number of quilts exactly like mine that will comprise the exhibit. They will all be quilted by different people, in different threads and styles. I feel like these names are now "my people." I have spent hours with them. I know they will be seen by many over the four years of travel they will have. I hope they raise awareness and funds for research to treat and eventually cure or prevent this disease.

Please visit Ami Simms' site, www.alzquilts.org to read what is going on and for more information.

After the next snowstorm I will gently fold and pack this quilt up with the label for it, with my own signature as the quilter. It will be part of history now, and I hope it can help enlighten the world.

Keep quilting, you never know when your skills may be needed.
Diane