Happy Zombie

Shortly after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, Daniela and Susan sprung into action and established Quilts for Quake Survivors. Not only was QFQ to be providing love, warmth and comfort - it in turn gave many an opportunity to do something.  I know this to be the norm amongst all quilters - in times of tragedy our immediate instinct is to MAKE A QUILT.  Now.  Pronto.  To comfort someone else - and the by-product of that is it comforts ourselves.  Thank you to Daniela and Susan for the do-something-good double whammy.

The third by-product of QFQ is the community esprit de corps it fostered.  The feeling of an old fashioned quilting bee - or a barn raising. On one QFQ occasion, Cherri opened her doors to her beautiful Sew On Studio for a night of QFQ sewing. Most of us there that night were from the Portland Modern Quilt Guild along with some new friends we got to meet and sew with!

Clockwise:  Finished quilts and works in progress.  Jen holds up a quilt made by Alicia (no one could stop ooohing and ahhing).  Alicia has two posts about her quilt here and here.  Marsha points to a Kaufman solid we’re all in love with on Paula’s quilt top.  Awesome spiral quilt!  Paula showing her gorgeous quilt - her FIRST QUILT SHE EVER MADE, and not only that… but PAULA DONATED HER FIRST QUILT SHE EVER MADE!

Cherri’s design wall saw a lot of action that night.

Sweet, sweet, sweet Susan gave me two of her books that had just been released.  TWO.  Yes, TWO.  Susan has TWO books out at the same time.  The same time!  Sorry, am I shouting?  Just that Susan gets me all excited and happy.  I just L-O-V-E Lhhhhhhove Modern Log Cabin Quilting and World of Geekcraft (and BTW… best book title ever).  Susan’s such a crafty goddess, I think this makes 5 books for her?  But these two are my fave and kick serious book ass.

Daniela, Suzanne and Michelle admiring a beautiful quilt (and Patty’s beautiful fabric used).

At a prior QFQ/Susan’s Modern Log Cabin book signing event at Modern Domestic, I started  some log cabin-ishy blocks out of Bari’s County Lane fabrics - I then finished the blocks this night at Sew On.  Jen plays with setting them on the design wall.  The blocks then went in the pile and on to some other loving hands to finish the next stage.

The wonderful thing about QFQ, it wasn’t about making a quilt, it was about participating in the making of a quilt. To do what we could. Some of us pieced blocks. Some of us pieced quilt tops. Some of us quilted. Some of us bound. Some of us made an entire quilt start to finish. We all did something different, and we all contributed with our hands together in a common goal. I had made the blocks above and off they went to another person.  As well, I had donated a top - and Kimberly beautifuly sandwiched, quilted and bound it (her photos here and here).  At our July guild night-park picnic, Susan had a huge IKEA bag full of QFQ quilts and tops that needed finishing.  There was this one super pretty quilt that was calling me - not only made in Lecien’s Flower Sugar line… but it kind looked like my blog.  Hello Monica, this is Destiny calling - please pick up line two.

The Flower-Sugar-looked-like-my-blog quilt was pretty much done, only a little bit of quilting I had to do plus I bound it.  I didn’t know who made the quilt… that is until I posted it on flickr and Amy kindly left me the answer.  I had a triple OMG moment when I discovered it was my friend Kristyne who had made it!  I had the best It-Takes-a-Village-moment ever!  And so global too, as Kristyne is in Canada.  Remembering Hands Across America - this was kind of a Hands Across North America to Japan.  I feel so blessed to have had this quilt+love+barn+raising+goodness moment with Kristyne even though we didn’t know it.  Is there a saying when you give one thing, you get a hundred things back?  Yeah, I feel like that.  Awesomeness bathing in a pool of awesomesauce while sipping an awesomegarita.

THANK YOU Daniela and Susan for giving us all the opportunity to participate in the awesomeness that is Quilt for Quake Survivors, my husband for indulging me in a The Walking Quilted with Kristyne’s quilt, and to Kaci for nourishing us with rosemary fries from Burgerville!

Posted in I Heart Oregon, Do Something |