Gwen Marston, Teacher

The West Michigan Quilt Guild had Gwen Marston as our lecturer last night. She talked about "So Old, It's New". Many/most of her quilts are based on lessons she learned from old quilts under the tutelage of Mary Schafer. She thinks the current Quilt Police have forgotten how variable "the tradition" really has been, especially in the individuality of the shapes cut and placed "by eye".

For example, one of her own quilts was displayed to show that the border design does NOT have to be proportional to the size of the blocks! In fact she made it to dis-prove that statement by a Quilt Policewoman.

Today I took a workshop Gwen taught on "Liberated Stars".

We learned how to make stars without a pattern, just let the star points be "roughly" equal, or not equal at all.

Here's Gwen hard at work trying to convince "hardened" quilters that it DOESN'T matter if your points aren't the same size, or if your points don't meet, or if your points get cut off! If all those thing were to happen "correctly", you wouldn't have a "liberated" star.

It was a very difficult lesson, we are so brainwashed. However, by lunch time everyone was having a great time .

My production between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm was eight stars. I progressed from whacky points, to not-square centers, to not-square-Square-in-a-Square centers, and finally to have more that two points on a side. The star blocks are NOT the same size! But roughly nine inches finished.

Fun, fun, fun. Wish I had taken photos of the fabrics other folks were using, and how their progress was going.

Now I want to put these together with my "Follow The Star "quilt and get it finished for this winter tohang in the kitchen. Perhaps the title of that quilt will be "Follow A Star", that is, there are a LOT of stars, just pick one and follow it.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Mother and daughter team working next to me

Adrienne's New Zealand accent and enthusiasm

Dianne purchased lunch for me while she was out

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

I need to do laundry after our trip, and sort though the pile of mail I picked up from the Post Office, and go grocery shopping, and buy a new color ink cartridge for the computer printer. But what I want to be doing is working on the two steps of the Carolina Crossroads Mystery that I missed while I was gone!
Well, I'd better work on the OTHER jobs, then I can print out the directions in color.

Probably can't get to the sewing until Sunday afternoon. The Bishop is visiting our parish this Sunday, so there are extra preparations to be made.

Evening:

DS Peter and DIL Lynne invited us over for a late Christmas dinner tonight. We took the family Christmas game "Follow the Star" with us. My Dad copied this from a paper game in about 1972, and the fabric board with wooden and miscellaneous character pieces has been played since then for the 12 days of Christmas. Tonight we were a French man (Lynne's Dad), a Russian, a camel, a hippo, and an elephant. The task is to follow the path with various problems and delays (e.g. lose sight of the star, animals are thirsty, or thrown into jail by Herod) until you get to the stable. Tonight the hippo (Lynne) got there first, but we always wait for everyone to get there before the game is declared finished. The game was left in St. Louis for ther grands to play while we were in Costa Rica. Two of the grands are in the photo, plus a queen, a shepherd, a glass angel, a lone Parcheesi player, and a turtle on the board.

Epiphany tomorrow with a Magi parade at the offertory, pinata, crown cake, and THE game (White Elephants) at the coffee hour. Hope the Bishop enjoys himself.

Sara

Steps: uncounted

Gratitudes:

Wet, not icey pavements

Tasty prime rib with horseradish

Laughter with family

Arrival at Stable

In a crowded Bethlehem,
far from the airport,
Joseph has found a stable.
Looks like there is hay for a bed
and some friendly animals to warm the air.

Time to move in before Mary's time arrives.
Hope there is a midwife nearby;
he'll ask the innkeeper's wife.
Then he needs to go to the Tax Office to register.

And we think we've got a busy schedule!
I'm looking forward to a sermon about Joseph this morning, since we are in the lectionary year of Matthew. Matthew doesn't care about Mary. All those stories are in Luke. However, I still hope we will sing "The Angel Gabriel from heaven came".

EVENING:

I made the "THE" this afternoon. Decided it should be a little smaller, as a less significant word. Now they are both pinned up at the head of the bed. It would be nice to get "STAR" done before we leave for Costa Rica, but Christmas Eve may not be a good day for working on it. Then again, maybe it will be! With no one coming to visit, I can use my time however I want!
I am trying to imagine how to make the "A" for "STAR" look like a star. Since I am not certain, I don't feel like starting. Guess I'll go to work on the packing, which could make for more time tomorrow before the Christmas Eve service. Maybe I'll have a brainstorm by the morning.

Sara

Steps: 2831 (bad!)

Gratitudes:

Yes! We sang "The Angel Gabriel from heaven came".

FOUR candles lit on dining table.

Pasta with pesto for dinner.

Pieced words

This quilt top has been hanging at the head of our bed for the past year. (Photo is sideways. Top is to left.) My plan here was to make a Night Sky with lots of different stars in it, using my collection of blue fabric with stars/nebulae. I thought it was ready to quilt, in fact it is spray basted to the backing. But it hasn't felt "right" to go on to the next step. For one thing it is an odd size, about five feet square. And it doesn't feel focused.

Hooray, a possible solution has presented itself. I looked at Lazy Gal Quilting (Bonnie Hunter's friend Tonya) and she is encouraging a Winter Challenge on "Free Piecing" --something themed for Christmas or Winter. I remembered some of the stars on this quilt WERE free pieced, because I got bored with how unlike the stars in the sky the Regular star blocks looked. [In fact I sent one of these Odd Stars to Bonnie Hunter as part of a Congratulations shower from Stashbusters.] Then I realized that with Tonya's second area of fame (with me) I could add some piece WORDS to this quilt. This is a new technique for me! Maybe this will solve the quilt's problems.

Right away, I knew the words I wanted were "Follow the Star". We have a family game by that name we play every year only during the 12 days of Christmas.

Today I had time to work on it, starting with the easiest letter - "O". Here is the result. Only one word so far. It took a long time to make the "W". I made it her way, but wrongly. Then I corrected it. Then I made it the way I wanted it to look.

The word is now pinned to the star top, and Charlie is in the room getting ready for bed without any comment being made. It is right over his pillow!. Oh, well. He has his sermon written, and we are packing for St. Louis and then Costa Rica. So much to remember and imagine that the real physical world has little reality for him. He's not very "visual".

Sara

Exercise today: Walk to STOP sign, and shovelling
Steps: 3011

Gratitudes:
Walking with my trekking poles through the fog,
ice melted on driveway,
diabetic chocolate from my Secret Sister