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| Friendship Scrap Quilt Block |
In the Quilters' Book Club for the month of March, we're reading and discussing A Single Thread by Marie Bostwick. Most members are also making a quilt block/blocks to represent each book. You are welcome to join us!
Just like in The Persian Pickle Club, we see a theme of friendship in A Single Thread. I found the following quilt block patterns free on-line that relate to this theme. Click on a name, and you will be directed to the pattern.
Double Friendship Star
Framed Friendship Star
Friendly Hand
Friends Star
Friendship Scrap
Friendship Star
Friendship Star Variation
Friendship Star Quilt Block.
Friendship Star Variation Quilt Block
Friendship Star Variation Quilt Block,
set on point and bordered by blue fabric
In A Single Thread, Evelyn tells Charlie she dreamed that her store would spawn a community of quilters, women who knew her story and she knew theirs. In the comments section below, tell us a bit about yourself so we can start to know your story. Who taught you to quilt? How did you develop your love of reading?
For the next Quilters' Book Club post, I will give you suggestions for block patterns that go with the setting of A Single Thread.
You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post:
http://www.starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2013/03/texas-wildflowers-disappearing-9-patch.html
I think I am going to put my "friendship" block in the center of the quilt and arrange the book blocks around it. I want that block to represent this friendship as well as the stories.
ReplyDeleteNo one taught me to quilt. I was taught to darn and mend and turn collars. I flunked sewing at school because I was made to do it right-handed. I sewed for my dolls because they needed changes of clothing and bed covers to keep them warm. My dolls were my best friends so I saw to their needs.
I hated reading. We had a big book on an easel in front of the room and I could not make out the words so I memorized the words that went with the pictures. I also memorized the eye chart so I could put my toes on that white line and do what was expected. I was balled out for holding things so close "because I would ruin my eyes". In college I was made to take a speed-reading course but my comprehension went from 100% to 30% by the end. As a Sr. in High school I picked up a Nancy Drew book. It was the first time I ever read something because I wanted to.
When I was in Grad school, I got a job as an assistant Children"s Librarian with the Cleveland Public Library system. I went back and read everything I had missed.
When I got married and had kids, every night before bedtime we sat on the stairs and read. Each kid could check out 5 books from the library and we read them all and then went back for 30 more. We kept it up even as teenagers, moving to chapter books and classics. Now, all my kids read to their kids, keeping the same tradition. I am very dyslexic and have trouble reading long sentences but reading out loud has helped. I hated history until I began to read historical fiction. Maybe I enjoy books even more because of the challenges I faced.
I think what you said is absolutely true, Julie. I know a number of people who are dyslexic or have other learning differences that especially love and value reading - perhaps because they have to pay such a high price to be able to enjoy them.
DeleteJulie, I think your troubles in school have caused you to be an especially compassionate and kind person. You are a friend to so many children! I'm so sorry for what you had to go through growing up, and I really admire the kind of person you have become - even through all of your difficulties.
Deletei started quilting when I was about 24 - mostly because I needed a creative outlet besides caring for my two little boys. My first quilt project was also my first UFO! A table runner with just two colors - cream and burgundy. SO blah and SO unlike what I do now. But back then I was afraid of color. Thank heaven I got over that! LOL That project was drawn with pencils, cut with scissors (no rotary cutters or rulers then), sewn and quilted by hand. I still have it and keep telling myself I'll finish it. But, not so far....
ReplyDeleteI began quilting in earnest in 1983 after life-changing cancer surgery, and have been at it ever since. Of course, I do other projects, like making crocheted Prayer Shawls for the local hospital and knitting sweaters for my family, but quilting and fabric has been the constant for most of my life. I bought my first yard of fabric at age seven! My first quilting book was by Georgia Bonesteel, and my first quilt teacher was Karen Previer, her friend (both from NC). I rarely "lap quilt" anymore, but I learned some valuable lessons from those two ladies! Like Julie, I came from a family of readers and passed my love of books and reading to my children. Both of them are teachers now at the local Community College.
ReplyDeleteI belonged to 4-H during the 5th and sixth grade, but my mother had started me hand stitching much earlier. After high school I was making my own clothes. I had long wanted to start quilting, but never got into it until about 8 years ago when I moved to Louisiana and saw that my sister-in-law was quilter. I tried it once and was hooked. As to reading, my mother had taught me to read nursery rhymes and Golden Books before I went into the first grade and have loved reading ever since. As a youngster it was said that I always had my head in a book. Later, after I had worked my way through college, I got tired of working for the Federal government and took a job for a county library system in Maryland. I loved the job so much, I went back to school for my MLS. I remained in library land for almost 40 years before retiring two years ago. And, I still always have my head in a book when I'm not quilting or sewing.
ReplyDeleteI would love to join in with this group! A lot of quilting books are not available to Australian users of kindle though, so I will do what I can to follow along!
ReplyDeleteWe would love to have you join us, Julie! Welcome!
DeleteMy first attempt at Patchwork was about 23 years ago. I made two blocks using paper templates, the fabric was too thick and the hand stitching too slow a process, so I gave up until six years ago. I attended a class, and made a bag over a couple of sessions, that was it, I was hooked. The trouble was I attended every workshop that I could and ended up with a long list of UFO's. I'm much more selective about workshops now and over the past two years have made a huge effort to work on and complete some of the projects. I have always loved reading and have a massive collection of books. I was bought a Kindle a few years ago, and love it when on holiday or in the garden during the summer, due to the special screen. It has also encouraged me to read books from different authors as many books are offered on great deals. I still purchase fictional paperback books and non-fictional books have to be hard copies.
ReplyDeleteMy love of reading is almost as old as I am. It's funny, the prologue in the book mentions when Evelyn was 5, she 'got lost' from her mother, when she discovered the lovely colors in the towel section. When I was 5-6, my mother thought that she'd 'scare' me into staying with her, when, after I wouldn't leave the book/magazine section of the grocery store to shop with her, she loaded the car, and drove around the parking lot for a few minutes, hoping that I'd notice she was missing and teach me to stick with her. It didn't work. I was so absorbed in reading, that I didn't even know she wasn't right there, and didn't care. I learned to quilt from a lady at my church, back in 2001. No quilt stores, no quilt police, whatever we wanted to use was fine. I've been hooked ever since.
ReplyDelete