Quilting weekend

I just got home from a weekend long quilting retreat with the Emporia Regional Quilt Guild. It was fantastic! Not as big a commitment as you might think because it was held here in town (at a church about 1/2 mile from our house) so I didn't have to haul my machine and stuff far and could still come home at night (which is probably the only reason Tommy put up with it since I was gone last weekend too, teaching).

We each had our own 6 x 3 -ish tables which were grouped in threes. I sat with Rosetta, long time quilter and Emporian who has had two cornea replacements and is married to a Harley-Davidson motorcycle rider/owner who, other than the HD, sounds a lot like Tommy.

Rosetta made two quilt-of-valor quilt tops and had a good start on a third by the time we quit this afternoon. Quilts-of-valor are quilts that guild members make with patriotic themes. They give them away to veterans on Veterans Day every year. I saw last years quilts-of-valor on display at the Emporia Public Library and that's how I originally learned about the guild.

Terri was my other table mate. She is a newer quilter than even I am although she's sewn all her life. She's had a kidney transplant and so doesn't work although she's only about my age. Terri had a very old (1930's maybe) vintage quilt that had been hand pieced and quilted but never finished with a finished edge (quilters call that binding). For the quilters who may be reading this it was a Dresden plate pattern in 1930s prints with a scalloped border made up of Dresden pieces so binding it was going to be no small task. Luckily, there were lots of experienced quilters there to help her.

Here's what my work station looked like and a picture of what I worked on all weekend.







That's one of twenty-four blocks for a block exchange I'm participating in with eight of my Texas friends. We'll each make three sets of eight blocks with three different 1930s fabrics (one for each set) in different shades of the color we've been assigned (red is my color). And they have to be P-E-R-F-E-C-T. I made two practice blocks out of scraps before I started on the real thing and they're still not quite perfect. The hardest part, for me, is getting the center square to come out nicely. The triangles (called half square triangles) are also usually hard for me but I'm using paper templates that pretty much guarantee that they'll come out right.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also met a woman who specializes in vintage and antique quilts. She was impressed with everything Mom has taught me about preserving the ones I've got.

To top off our busy weekend, we're going to the Dean's house for dinner tonight...those of you who know us well will know how excited we are about that

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