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Saturday, May 31. 2008

A perfect weekend

No doubt, each of us has certain criteria which define what makes something perfect – a perfect day, a perfect weekend, etc. – and these criteria vary from person to person. But I would be willing to bet that the two criteria a) spending time in attractive surroundings and b) spending time with congenial people rate high on almost everyone‘s list. My last weekend included both a) and b) and therefore came very close to fulfilling my definition of perfect.

 

The attractive surroundings were a quilt shop, “The Patchwork & Textilwerkstatt” in Merzig, a nice little town on the Saar River in south-west Germany. The shop is owned and run by Sibylle Wasow, a good friend of mine. I must admit that I‘m a little proud of Sibylle. She was one of my very first students when I began teaching patchwork and quilting here in Germany (years ago) and she caught the quilting bug so thoroughly that she opened a shop in her home (in Merzig) in 1998. That shop was such a success that it wasn‘t long before she needed more room, so she moved into a lovely shop in town in 2003. 

 

Sibylle has a good eye for color and design so she has an outstanding selection of fabrics. Right from the beginning, she began specializing in Japanese fabrics and she also has a good selection of fabrics from Kaffe Fassett and Oakshott, as well as many (I have never counted) of what she calls “standard” fabrics from many different companies. She has completed her selection of fabrics with some linens, wools, and a few other fabrics for garments and/or home decorating. Of course, she has sewing and quilting notions and supplies and books – including many Japanese books to round-out her special area.

Photo

 

In addition to doing everything that is needed to run a shop, Sibylle and her co-worker seem to spend a large part of their time sewing. What seems like a constant flow of new quilts, bags, and other textile projects, both large and small, show customers what wonderful things can be made with the fabrics in the shop. As part of her offerings, Sibylle also organizes patchwork and quilting classes...

 

...and that‘s where I come in. The congenial people who spent my weekend with me had signed up for a hand appliqué class in Sibylle‘s shop and I was the teacher. I have taught several appliquè classes at the shop in the past years, but this one had a special emphasis. Sibylle has announced a competition with the title, “Houses, houses, and more” based on quilts and other projects on the theme of houses, as presented in Japanese books by Yoko Saito or other Japanese quilt designers – once again putting the emphasis on her Japanese fabrics and books. This class was conceived to help anyone interested in participating in the competition learn the basics of hand appliqué. 

Here‘s the little appliquè that I made for the class – inspired by the Japanese book, “House” (I would like to say who the author and publisher are, but I don‘t read Japanese).

I appliquéd it and Sibylle quilted it for me.

 

It was a small group, but they were all extemely motivated and worked very hard all weekend. I have seldom had such a quiet class – they were all concentrating on their appliqué! That all of them enjoyed good conversation became obvious during our lunch breaks, which we spent together at two good restaurants near the shop. They were wonderful to work with and I had a great time! Judging by the results of their sewing and by their thanks, I can only assume that the participants had a good weekend also.

 

Here are a few photos of the shop and the class:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Mary at 10:55 in Shows, shops, and museums
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Monday, May 12. 2008

The Seven Sisters Quilt Show

Usually when I‘m travelling, I arrive someplace the week after the local quilt show or the weaving show is next week (and I‘m leaving tomorrow) or I read the local newspaper Saturday evening and discover an article about an embroidery show on Saturday morning (too late!). But this year when I was visiting my father on California‘s Central Coast, I arrived on a Thursday and my father presented me with the “Calender” section of the local newspaper with a long illustrated article about a quilt show which would be taking place that coming weekend. I could hardly believe my luck!

 

The Associated Quilt Guilds of the Central Coast were presenting their “Seven Sisters Quilt Show” (there are 7 guilds in the AQGCC). This wasn‘t an annual affair. It was the first “Seven Sisters Quilt Show” and had been several years in the making – once again, I could hardly believe that I had actually timed my visit perfectly for the show.

 

And what a show it was! For 2 days, over 370 quilts of all styles, all sizes, and all levels of ability were shown and more than 30 vendors offered their assorted temptations. I had assumed that I would be going to the show alone, but my dad said that he would come along, which was nice. Two can see more than one alone and sharing impressions, explaining techniques, etc. heighten the experience.

 

 

 

Having helped hang a few exhibits myself in the past few years, I was impressed by the amount of work invested in the show. Quilts were not only displayed on a huge number of temporary frames, they were also hung from the ceiling. All quilts were uniformly (and well) labelled. Vendors‘ stands enticed visitors along the outer walls and even in a tent area before we actually entered the show building.

 

I can‘t say that I liked all of the quilts, but I could appreciate the time, energy, imagination, and love invested in each and every one of them. And, of course, I did find many truly impressive. Here are a few that caught my eye:

 

 

A wonderful optical illusion quilt, with impressive piecing. The squares (well, actually, I guess they are trapezoids) of the center red and black area measure about 1/4 inch. I‘ll write the name of the quilter and name of the quilt as soon as my suitcase arrives (hopefully tomorrow – it didn‘t arrive with me, missed one of the connecting flights). The suitcase did arrive, so now I know more. The quilt was made by Andi Perejda and is called “What a Trip!”.

 

 

 

An intriguing, very original combination of two different sizes of “Snail Trail” or “Monkeywrench” blocks. And it was entirely hand-quilted with tiny, very even stitches!

And while we‘re on the subject of quilting...the large majority of all quilts in the exhibit were machine quilted. I hadn‘t realized that machine quilting has become so popular. Many were machine quilted by someone other than the quilt‘s maker so it seems that people (women probably) in the quilting business are actually making some money, which is nice.

Once again, the names of the maker and the quilt will be added here when my suitcase arrives. The quilt is “California Reel” by Allison Lockwood.

 

 

As a contrast to the preceding quilt, I thought that this was a good example of how effective a simple pattern can be when made with well-chosen fabrics. In this case, I can read the quilt‘s label when I enlarge the photo, so I know that it is called “Japanese Circles” and was made by Gay McNeal (the last name might be wrong – once again....when the suitcase arrives – yep, that's the right name) who was inspired by the book and class, “Circle Play” by Reynola Pakusich.

 

All in all, I can sum up my impressions of the show with congratulations and thanks to the members of the AQGCC!

Written by Mary at 16:53 in Shows, shops, and museums
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