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Updated: 05/03/03
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 NEWSLeTTeR
Vol.
I, No. II, Sept. 2001
I believe I speak for all the quilting
community when I offer
our prayers for the victims and their
families on this day of mourning, September 11, 2001.
"Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be
discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you
go." Joshua 1:9 NIV
GREETings...
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Eden
Mennonite Sewing Society: This was taken in l993 of a portion of the
ladies who are dear to my heart. L to R: Linda (Enns) Froese,
Veatrice Nickel, Hannah Rempel, Elizabeth (Rempel) Kroeker, and Mary (Enns)
Penner. Some are still with us, and some not. On average, we usually
have around l0 active members, and I mean active. We get together almost
every Thursday, for all day. Some of us just half a day. There's
always work to do and if you sit still too long, we'll find work for
you.
Currently the group just finished a red and white
"Hearts & Arrows" quilt for the annual state disaster relief sale
in November. More on that in a minute. The current President is
Dorothy Griffin, Vice President Lorena Jantz, Secretary Dorothy Janz, Treasurer
Phyllis Hiebert. When I came to this group back around '85, I think, I was
an outsider and they took me in as a little sister. Sometimes I wonder why
they tolerated me at first, but they were all very patient with me. They
were usually careful to explain what they said when German was used, and I
picked up a little of it myself along the way. Back then, they averaged 22
per meeting day (or "nefraim") and their numbers have dwindled a
little since then. They still manage to get at least 12 quilts a year done
for one benefit or another. In real time, that's about 4 days per
quilt. Don't you wish you could get a quilt done by hand in 4 days?
This was taken this morning (Thursday,
8/30/2001) of some of us in our little quilting room (which doubles as a Sunday
school room on Sundays, but the quilt stays on the frame). Left to right
clockwise: Dorothy Griffin, Shirley Froese, Veatrice Nickel, and Phyllis
Hiebert. They are busy little bees right now preparing for the bi-annual
Country Festival to be held at the church on September 29. It's a big
affair with 50% of the funds for Mennonite Relief. They
have an auction of crafts, quilts, donated items. All kinds of activities
and foods such as: tractor pulls, homemade ice cream, horseshoe pitching,
demonstrations on making apple butter, beekeeping, quilting bee, peppernuts,
homemade noodles, a pancake breakfast, and lots of ethnic foods. Here's a
picture of some of the items to be sold (the quilt in the background was my
contribution--the pieced top anyway--it's called Grandfather's Flower Garden,
from an issue of Quiltmaker a year or two ago). If anyone needs
information about this event, call Liz at (9l8)-543-2453.
About the Oklahoma disaster relief sale: Check out the Oklahoma M.C.C.
web site at: http://oklahomamcc.net.
This event is held in Enid, Oklahoma, the first weekend of November each
year. This year it falls on November 2 & 3. It is held at the
Chisholm Trail Pavilion, Garfield County Fairgrounds in Enid. I've been
fortunate enough to attend several of these sales, and highly recommend it for
any and all quilt enthusiasts and/or people who enjoy traditional German
food. Each Oklahoma Mennonite church contributes all sorts of items for
the sale--quilts, peppernuts, zwieback, sausage, bierocks, veranika, new year's
cookies (my personal favorite) as well as many other items to be
auctioned.
I'll try to take some photos to share with you on December's
newsletter, just in case some of you can't make it this year.
What's New On This Site: Well, we finally got the credit card thing
done. Now, everybody order something using their credit card, ok?
You can mail it, fax it, phone it--whatever. Next on that agenda will be a
secure server ordering system. But not today.....
We have a new project starting this month. Everyone who
is a basket fanatic can appreciate this one. "Basket Beauties"
is a block sampler of 12 - 12" blocks, all different baskets. Two
color examples are given, print & solid. It begins with the Fancy
Basket block. An easy block using half-square triangle
units.
The September block for "Simply Amish" is the King's
Crown block. A very easy block. Here's my finished top. I haven't had it quilted
yet. I'm going to go and take it off
the wall now, mark the quilting design, and take it next door to the quilters. (That's an advantage I
have, living in an Amish community, aren't you jealous?)
I'll post a picture of it, (a "before" and "after") on the
gallery when it comes back. Well, 3 hours later, I'm back. Got
carried away marking the quilting lines. Haven't got to the quilter's
yet. I put an ornate fleur-de-lis design in each of the large
purple triangles, and also in the 4 black corners, and designed one for the
center block. Behind all that, I marked a 1-inch cross-hatching
grid. Also put some little fleurs in the center of one basket and
in the center squares of the corner blocks. When my Amish friend next door
sees it, she's going to go "EEEEK!" And I'll reassure her that
it will be beautiful when she's finished with it. .....And it will be!
I hope that you, out there in the real world, pay your quilter well if you don't
do them yourself. After years of quilting for people, I always felt
overworked and underpaid. And I was. We once figured out that your
normal quilter gets paid the equivalent of about $l.00 per hour if you stop and
think about it. You know it takes anywhere from 10 to 20 days to quilt a
regular quilt, working 8 hrs a day. That is from 80 - 160 hours plus time
to set it up, mark it, and finish it. I always appreciated it when a
customer would pay me extra. It's just like if you used to wait tables,
you become a good tipper, I guess. Have you hugged your quilter
today? Oh, sorry, I'm suppose to be talking about what's new on the site,
not lecturing, right?
NEW PATTERN-------House Hunting is here!!! 
This is another block of the month series with 9 - 12" blocks, eight theme
blocks and 1 Log Cabin border block. All use the "no template"
methods so popular today. You use 2 of each block for the center and
surround them with log cabin blocks. Go to the pattern page to see the
quilt. This pic is the "Sleepy House" block. There's even
an outhouse block. This will be a free block of the month project,
probably starting next month, but I haven't decided yet. But you can BUY
the pattern now, instead of waiting on me.
Also new this month (actually I added it a couple of weeks ago) is a new pattern
for sale: Ozark Mountain Night--on the pattern page. A
gorgeous queen size quilt top that is surprisingly quick to make. It has
TONS of half-square triangle units to piece. You can use your own
preferred way to do that. Personally, I like to draw as many on one layout
(like a fat quarter size) as I possibly can and keep the lines continuous so
that I can sew both sides of the diagonal as quickly as possible. Everyone
has their own way of doing things. You can do it one square unit at a
time, or Nancy Martin's Bias Square technique, or buy some half-square triangle
paper, and on and on...Anyway, this quilt is gorgeous in different color
combinations. We include a blank worksheet for you to copy and color
pencil in to experiment with the colors yourself.
WE NEED TO START A GUEST GALLERY SOON----So all you gals send
in your pics of your block of the month projects and quilts using our
patterns. Since we are so new, we'll wait a month or two, to give you time
to finish something for "Show & Tell".
Another project to watch for is the "Unknown
Star". We plan to feature the works of someone known to us who should
be famous, but isn't. Maybe we can help a "wallflower" quilter
bloom. A lot of these quilters we know can create beautiful quilt
masterpieces, but have heretofore remained anonymous. We think their works
should be shared amongst people who appreciate quilt artists.
Well, that's enough text to read this month, don't want to bore you.
Be thinking about the guest gallery. And don't forget to ASK
GRANNY anything you've been afraid to ask about quilting. She's
been very lonely lately since no one has written her for her advice. OK?
ENJOY!
ARCHIVES:
August,
2001- Premiere Issue: Explanation of Website Categories, Picture
of Author
(Copyright
© 2001 Claudia E. Plett, all rights reserved)
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