By Patrice Krant
Such a beautiful summer we’ve had in Homer! Great weather means beautiful gardens, lots of fishing and visitors from the Lower 48. But those distractions didn’t keep our group from quilting -- our Thursdays at the Kachemak Community Center were packed with happy, chatty stitchers all summer.
We sadly said goodbye to Dana Lewis and her daughter Selena in August. We will miss Dana and Selena, but we support their decision to move back to take care of Dana’s parents.
Dana has been part of the “fabric” of Homer quilting forever (her word!) and we see her influence everywhere. Who taught you to make scalloped binding? Dana, we bet. Most of us here got at least one piece of fabric from Dana as she divested her stash over the last couple of months, so her style and influence will be found in our group’s quilts for years to come. (There’s a metaphor in there about how each of us is a “thread” in our quilting guild or local group...and together we make up a quilt...I will have to work on that.)
Rumor has it Dana will come back to Alaska for our February retreat, and we will be very happy to see her!
Lorraine Murphy and Margaret Lau went to the Sisters quilt show and classes in Oregon again this year and had a wonderful educational experience. They had such good things to say about it when they come back that a few more of us are talking about going next year.
Quite a few of us went on the Kenai River Quilt Walk in Soldotna in July. What beautiful quilts! In case you didn’t notice, our Karrie Youngblood quilted several of them. They were all beautiful, and congratulations to Carol Renfrew, who won the door prize at Trinity Greenhouse!
Homer Quilt Show News: because the quilt show and the Shorebird Festival will not be on the same weekend in 2016, our small quilt challenge will be Alaska flowers instead of Alaska birds. Quilts may be no larger than 20” square. Start thinking about your entry! The quilt show will be, as always, on Mother’s Day weekend, May 7-8, 2016. (The Shorebird Festival will be May 12-15, 2016)
Because Anelie Belden, author and teacher, was staying with her friend Peggy Parsons in Homer while teaching her Modern Dresden class, the Homer quilters got a sneak preview “trunk show” of Anelie’s beautiful vintage and modern Dresden plate quilts. Gorgeous!
And last, but not least, we donated 2-3 quilts of each size (queen, twin and crib/lap) as requested by the Willow Iditaquilters for the victims of the Willow fires. Thanks to Wendy Anderson for delivering them for us on her trip to Anchorage.
