Quilting Passion

A Field of Poppies:

Four Friends, Fellowship and Fantastic Fun

My elder daughter Susan is responsible for my abiding passion for quilting. When she moved to Lancaster County almost 20 years ago, she quickly accepted a part-time job in a fabric shop. Pretty soon, her natural talent and training as an educator led her to conducting quilt classes. We used to say she was teaching the Amish how to quilt!

Gregarious and eager to share her skills, Susan offered to teach our female family members how to make a Quilt in a Day. So one day my mother, sister and three cousins gathered at my house to learn how to strip-piece a Log Cabin.

That day marks the inception of my quilting passion, which has grown to include the forming of Hearts and Hands, a charity quilt group in our community, during the Kosovo crisis, membership in a hand-quilting group with the unlikely name of "Uvulas" (don't ask) and teaching a bi-annual quilt day class at St. John's Episcopal Church where I now work as a part-time secretary.

Internet swaps widened my circle of quilting friends, including Judi Kirk from Canterbury (next to me in the group picture above). Judi has been my guest during the Lancaster Quilt Show and we've gone to Paducah together with two other friends, Connie and Diane , also pictured above.

On August 11, the day after the terror alert in London, Connie, Diane and I boarded a British Airlines flight, bearing Ziploc bags as our carry-on luggage. We quelled our anxiety by reminding one another it was likely the safest day in aeronautical history, and it turned out to be just that. We'd been looking forward to attending the Festival of Quilts, billed as the biggest show in Europe and, when one is possessed by quilt passion, a terror threat is no deterrent.

Before we went to Birmingham, however, we spent a day in the home studio of Maureen Thomas. I encourage all quilters to visit her website at www.aquiltartist.com to view her magnificent work and beautiful home on the south coast of England. The four of us played with hand-painted fabrics and specially-drawn patterns of poppies all day long, and the day was heaven on earth, topped off by a convivial meal together with Maureen and her husband at a local pub.

Isn't it amazing where a bit of fabric and a needle and thread can take you?