Goodbye to WQI :(

This last weekend was the last meeting of WQI. It was bittersweet.

There were the normal group of members participating in the meeting and workshop events with an additional banquet on Saturday evening that was lovely.

The committee did a GREAT job with everything. All former presidents, board members, etc... were invited (as many as could be located). Luella Doss was there. She started WQI back in 1980. Why doesn't that surprise us. Luella is always sponsoring Wisconsin quilt events/happenings and still is very active in the WQHP (Wisconsin Quilt History Project). Thank you Luella for everything you do for us.

Diane Gaudynski was the speaker for the evening and was wonderful as usual. Her representation of our state in the quilt world is our honor. We love you Diane!

Show and tell was one of the main events of the evening. In attendance at the banquet was a 92 year old quilter who drove herself to the banquet. She brought a quilt she had made this last year for a grandchild/great grandchild that was representative of our world. The top was the heavens, a map of the world, with borders symbolizing many things found in different sections of the earth and at the bottom were penguins from the South Pole. It was great! Another woman brought a quilt replica of a quilt she had made for the Madison Historical Society that had blocks made to symbolize Wisconsin industries, wildlife, heritage, ... She had received some type of grant (I hope I am explaining this correctly) and took great pride in her work, as well she should have. All in all a historic evening.

A committee has put together a blog for those of us that would like to continue to stay in touch. Please feel free to join it at http://www.qhinwisconsin.blogspot.com/. An annual retreat will continue in May to stay in touch and spend time together. We hope you will join us.

Quilt Expo, 2010

Had a great time at Quilt Expo this year. The quilts were of great caliber again this year and there seemed to be more this year than last. Overall the quilts worth the trip to see. I just spent Saturday there and was surprised at the low attendance. Others commented that it was much busier on Thursday and Friday. Met up with some old friends and made new ones as well.

Spent much of the week relaxing from my 6:45AM-3:15PM job. It should slow down soon as most everyone is getting in the back to the normal school day routine. It sure is nice to see the kids again. School was much too quiet over the summer without them.

Spent the day making a sweatshirt jacket with my sister-in-law Debbie that was designed by Dancing Needleworks here in WI. They gave a presentation in August to the WQI (Wisconsin Quilters Inc.) group in Madison on Saturday August 7th and held a class on the 8th for a sweatshirt jacket they especially designed for WQI. Very talented ladies, Tricia Anderson and Margie Posbrig. WQI also had Cara Gulati in as a speaker on Saturday and she taught a workshop on her "Radiant Suns" quilt. It was a great weekend.

WQI is disolving at the end of October. The last meeting will be October 2nd and 3rd. Please check out the website and try to join us in the last hoorah celebrating the many years of service to the Wisconsin Quilting community. The website is www.wisconsinquilters.com. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Rosemont & Paducah

I’m back from my two favorite spring shows, Rosemont and Paducah. This will be the last year at Rosemont but they’re hoping that the Cincinnati venue will do just as well if not better. It will be great to have the two shows to go to without having one right after the other. There will be time to go home and regroup before heading to Paducah for the vendors as well as the show-goers. It has been really tough on the vendors. They haven’t had time to go home in between and the shipping of items they run out of has to have been really expensive. Let’s hope the Cincinnati venue is a success. Only time will tell.

I appraised a quilt in the “Celebrate Spring” exhibit this year. The quilts were great as usual. Click here to go to the Quilts Inc website and look at the exhibits and fun we all had.

Kaffe Fassett was in the house in Rosemont and Paducah. My husband’s Christmas present to me was a class with Kaffe in Paducah. With everything that was going on with preparations at home, I didn’t get to take the time I wanted in selecting fabrics for the class, so I decided to just shop in Chicago for the fabrics. We were supposed to have fabrics that were small prints. It was difficult to find the colors I was looking for in small prints so I went for batiks. The pattern we worked with is in Kaffe’s new book. The pattern is called “St. Mark’s Diamonds”. In Chicago I met Kaffe at his book signing and had him take a look at the fabric. He doesn’t care for batik fabrics. Oh boy. And I had just put out a mitt full of cash on this fabric. No worries, Nancy will make it work. Sure enough, the day of the class came and he loved what I had done with the fabrics and said that the layout of fabrics is what he had envisioned he would have done with them. He called the layout “utterly fabulous” and “absolutely glorious”. (Not bad for him not liking batiks!) Here is a picture I took of him admiring my layout. The class was great. Strictly a design class with 60’s music in the background with most everyone singing along with the songs. It was a very relaxed and positive atmosphere, perfect for creating design and playing with fabrics.

On Monday in Paducah Sandy Schweitzer and I went to visit a friend of hers, Ella Bontreger. Ella is Amish and is well known for her appliqué chicken quilts on feed sacks. She was GREAT! She was sweet, welcoming, beautiful, and worth the trip to visit. I purchased one of her quilts and will treasure it always. Every time I saw a chicken in a quilt later that week I thought of her. She said, “I love chickens and I love quilts. And I love making chicken quilts.” You just wanted to squeeze her and take her home with you. She was so loving and kind. Marion, KY will be a mandatory stop every year now in Paducah. It is definitely worth the one-way hour plus trip.

The quilts in Paducah just keep getting more and more elaborate! I don’t know that I’ll ever get a quilt accepted but I will still dream. I appraised three quilts on the floor and had four walk-in quilts at the PAAQT booth on Thursday morning. And it was time to go home before you knew it. Now the trick is to accomplish everything on the list I made while I was in Paducah. (My working vacation.) J Enough for now. Talk again soon.