Quilters Newsletter, June/July 2013

Posted by ewquilts on June 4, 2013 in Publications |

A nice article by Mary Kate Karr-Petras for Quilters Newsletter about my trip to Shanghai, China in September 2012 for “The Sum of Many Parts” exhibit.

Class @ Home Ec Workshop, JUN 8 & 15, 2013

Posted by ewquilts on May 19, 2013 in Classes |

SATs JUN 8 & 15, 10A-1P, Home Ec Workshop, Iowa City

Come Celebrate the UNSTR8!

June is bustin’ out all over! Learn to make this wonderful quilt pattern by Pam Rocco. Work toward a finished 50″ x 50″ quilt in this 6-hr class, or take the top home and make three more to construct a quilt fit for a QUEEN! Perfect gift for a bun in the oven or for someone you love bunches! Whimsical and loose: recovering perfectionists welcome!

Emily

Linzee

Maureen

Lisa

So great to see each student’s personality shine through in the quilts. What a fun quilt, class and group of students! Great job everyone!

Me

I eventually machine-quilted this sample and gave it to my niece, Jessica, for her daughter – my great niece, Bella Rose. Here she is wrapping herself up, peek-a-boo style, at her soon-to-be-cousin’s baby shower in Kansas City, MO.

UPPERCASE blog post, January 2013

Posted by ewquilts on January 25, 2013 in Publications |

A thoughtfully written article by friend, writer and Iowa City local, Linzee Kull McCray.

“One Life” – finally complete

Posted by ewquilts on January 23, 2013 in WIP (Work-In-Progress) |

Sketch of initial idea

More detailed quilt map

Getting started

On a roll

Progress!

Late one cold winter night, I finished the bottom portion of the quilt.

This is the point where I hit a creative block. It took three failed attempts

to figure out how to finish off the remainder of the quilt.

Taking inspiration from tilework under the eaves of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana Thomas House, Springfield, IL, I’ve finally been able to move forward and much closer to finishing this piece!

Almost there…

Eight months later…One Life (top only) – finally pieced!

Monday, July 29, 2013! Next stop: hand-quilters.

August 6, 2013 – Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild, Quad Cities (Davenport, IA; Bettendorf IA; Rock Island, IL; Moline, IL)

Posted by ewquilts on January 13, 2013 in Speaking Engagements |

1:00PM – “The Road Home” presentation with Q&A session/trunk show
7:00PM – “A Piece of Me” iMovie (debut presentation!) with Q&A session/trunk show
First Congregational Church, 2201 7th Ave, Moline, IL

February 21, 2013 – Piecemakers Quilt Guild, Galesburg, IL

Posted by ewquilts on January 13, 2013 in Speaking Engagements |

7:00PM – “The Road Home” presentation with Q&A session/trunk show
Calvary Assembly of God, 432 North Linwood Road, Galesburg, IL 61401

Regrettably, I had to cancel this engangement due to winter storm warnings in both Iowa and Illinois. RESCHEDULED: THU JUN 19, 2014!!!

November 1, 2012 – Calico Cut Ups Quilt Guild, Independence, IA

Posted by ewquilts on December 7, 2012 in Speaking Engagements |

7:00PM – “The Road Home” presentation with Q&A session/trunk show
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Independence, IA.

My Quilting Family

Posted by ewquilts on June 29, 2012 in Pillars of My Quilting World |

Over the years, I have had the chance to meet and become friends with so many wonderful people through quilting. They are one of the greatest rewards of over fifteen years of quilt making. I’d like to honor and recognize them in this photo gallery. When people ask me how I learned to quilt, I say “self-taught,” but mostly it was by asking questions of very helpful and generous shop-owners, clerks and fellow quilters. I continue to make and sell quilts only with the talents and good graces of others. Thank you all for being a part of my life!

Louisiana Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Collective quilter
Shanghai, China, September 2012
Though my time together with Louisiana Bendolph was limited to our 10-day trip to Shanghai via the US Embassy-sponsored exhibit, “The Sum of Many Parts,” the influence of that trip and time with Louisiana will be lifelong. I have been a huge fan of Gee’s Bend quilts since first learning about them, perhaps through the US Postal Service stamps. In 2006, I flew to San Francisco specifically to see the Gee’s Bend exhibit at the De Young Museum, never imagining that I would someday have the honor of exhibiting with, let alone getting to know, Louisiana – a member of the Gee’s Bend Quilt Collective. During our visit to Shanghai, I was more than once moved to tears when talking to Louisiana about the roots of why either one of us make quilts. Though our lives could not be more different, we share a common bond through quilting.
As Louisiana says, “I quilt to be free.”

Virgie Hoffman, retired hand-quilting broker

Virgie is nearly single-handedly responsible for my quilting career. I met her one hot day

in the late 1990’s in Macomb, IL. She and her relatives were stopped with car trouble at a gas

station where I was filling up. I overheard one of them say they were from North Dakota. I had

spent some time living and working on a friend’s ranch in North Dakota and wanted to extend

my hospitality to them as a former resident of that state. We went across the street to the

Dairy Queen and as we visited I learned that Virgie was from Dyersville, IA and for years

she’d taken in quilt tops and doled them out to three different hand-quilting groups. The groups met in three of several astonishingly beautiful Catholic churches that rise up out of the rolling farmland northeast Iowa. I met Virgie at a turning point where I knew I could not continue

to hand-quilt all my own work. I would have dozens and dozens of quilts quilted

by Virgie’s groups, which I consequently sold so that I could afford to keep making more.

Breitbach’s Country Dining, Balltown, IA, May 24, 2014