Abby’s “African Prayers”
There are only a few more days before Quilt Festival in Houston! I am so excited to be going with a group of quilting friends from my guild. Last year, Kathleen Murphy went to festival to see her Slice House quilt hang in the show, and was awarded first place in the group quilts category. Kathleen had such a fabulous time at Festival that she convinced a bunch of us to go this year. It has been 20 years since I last went to Quilt Market, when it was held in Boston. At the time I was a buyer for my Mom’s quilt shop. We had such a great time seeing all the new products available to quilters, and buying the latest gadgets for the shop. Can you imagine, our shop was open at the time when Rotary Cutters were invented, and first used by quilters? The original quick quilt methods were developed during our 7 years in business. Do you remember the first Lone Star Handbook by Helen and Blanch Young? We made a “quick” Lone Star using cardboard templates to mark, cut with SCISSORS and sew multiple diamonds at one time. This was Amazing! I taught this method to hundreds of quilters way back then. We’ve come a long way, Baby! I am off to Houston. Deb from “Wendt Quilting” has a booth at Market. If you go, you might see my “African Prayer” quilt hanging in her booth. It is the ultimate quick rotary quilt, and was made using her 4-3-2-1 DONE! pattern. This quilt was made for a 11 year old boy I met on the Oncology ward at Children’s Hospital Boston. I have since lost touch of Abby, but this quilt is waiting for him when we are reunited! Abby’s Mom and I really bonded at the hospital. Timmy and Abby were admitted and diagnosed with Leukemia on the same day. They were both 11 years old! Somewhere out there I hope Abby is a Healthy and Happy 13 year old boy! So Deb is at Market for the first time this year. I had hoped to join her to introduce my new tools to the Quilting World, but time has gotten away from me. My new tools, the Leaves Galore Template (3 different sizes), and the Quilter’s Chalk Reel, are just weeks away from being launched. This rotary cutting tools take the best from quick rotary cut pieced quilts, and uses new techniques to rotary cut applique quilts. I hope to launch my new line of tools nationwide at the next Quilt Market in Minneapolis this May. Meanwhile, you will see many changes to my website as I go live with my products. There will be a new tools page where the Leaves Galore templates and Quilter’s Chalk Reel can be purchased, and a Patterns Page, where you can find inspiration and full quilt patterns for using all the tools. So I’m off to Houston, this year, just for fun! See you when I return. Happy and Healthy quilting. Sue
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