Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Choo Choo Quilters

I joined my first real Tennessee quilt guild last night, the Choo Choo quilters of Hixson. The lady who made the quilt is Veronica Hofman-Ortega, one of the owners of the Stone Light Studio and also president emeritus of this guild (for the evening, as the other Pres, was unavailable). Veronica is an EXCELLENT quilt artist and she invited me to come to the meeting last night.
A closeup of her wonderful quilt. She and I have the same sewing machine, but it really does matter who is sitting at it. She knows her stuff. Imagine my relief!
There were 14 of us at the meeting, including me, and it was just great. We began nice and early, 6:30 Eastern which makes it only 5:30 for me. I live in Central time. The meeting is right across the street from the new Publix grocery store and of course I had to stop in and get a few items.

Are these tiny enough triangles? The gal who's name I already forgot (shame on me!) told us about sewing them as a four inch square, diagonally several times and then cutting them between the stitching and voila! 8 teeny half square triangles are the result. I must try this.
The group has a neat idea for programs. Teams of 3-4 are responsible for a demo or program for one or two meetings for the year. Since I was the new kid I needed to be assigned to a team and would you believe...they fought over me! I was absolutely giddy. Isn't that the most wonderful feeling? Yes. It sure beats being the last one called to play dodge ball.
Anyway, I was my usual show-off, Ms. Know-it-all self, announcing my name and following it with the automatic revelation of being a member of the Chicago School of Fusing. It was like the button was pressed and out came the whole spiel. I even sang 'I'm proud to be fuser from Chicago' Here are the lyrics:
.
I'm proud to be a fuser from Chicago
The school that makes it cool to cut and fuse
I travel with my iron across the country
and teach techniques that you can really use
I spread the word that you can be a fuser
It's good to leave your edges clean and free
When you become a Wonder-Under user
Your art has endless possibilities.
.
I really enjoyed being me last night. Incorrigible.

5 comments:

  1. Oooh... you're in trouble now! Those Guild ladies will latch on to you, and next thing you know, you'll be heading up a committee! Ask me now I know...
    Seriously, have fun! I have learned much in the year since I joined our guild, but then I don't have nearly the experience you do in the quilting (or fusing!) world!
    Judy

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  2. Oh, that does sound fun! I'm so glad you had a nice time!

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  3. If you try out that triangle thing, post photos... I'm curious!

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  4. Sounds like a fun time, Melody. Always good to have an opportunity to crank up the volume and be your full on self! The Choo Choo gals were indeed lucky to have a performance of the song:) And yes, beware of committees and getting roped in unless of course, you would enjoy it, and then it's worthwhile! But planning stuff for occasional meetings should be fun. Wonderful show and tell quilts.I love seeing what other quilters are up to and how they express their creativity. To the tune of "Tiny Bubbles" maybe there are some lyrics about "Tiny Triangles.. On the quilt... make you feel?? etc"

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  5. Darn, I missed your performance.

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