Of Quilts & Quiddich & Other Nutty Things

The QBs met at Claudia's house again, Pat still being gone (and we miss her a lot). This time I remembered to bring the camera.

The thing about Claudia's house is that Claudia's husband Charles lives there. The thing about Charles, who just celebrated his 70th birthday, is that he is an avid Harry Potter fan. You would not believe their basement-- adorned copiously with Harry Potter ephemera, including this:

Claudia patiently unrolled her Beige(ish) Behemoth quilt so that I could take a picture.

Her quilt was rolled because she was preparing to quilt it with her machine. I tell you da truth, I have never seen such a quilting setup! Her machine mounted atop a thingy that moves horizontally east-west, which is in turn mounted on rails that move north-south, if that makes any sense. Meanwhile, her quilt top is rolled around a long pole-ish thing and her back and batting around a seperate long pole-ish thing. To quilt, she rolls the two parts together and toward the machine. I haven't seen it in action, but it certainly explains how one can quilt a large behemoth on a regular sewing machine. It is very similar to the HandiQuilter (I just looked it up on the net) but Charles built much of it himself. A-mazing.

Some, but not all, of the QBs attend the same church, and they participated in producing a baby quilt for one of their members. Each of them pieced a strip using fabrics they chose that coordinated with the backing material. Someone sewed them all together with the sashing, Claudia quilted it, and Liz pieced the binding out of their leftover fabric and sewed it on.

All of the rows were wonderful but I was particularly enchanted by Sally's row with the animals, including a panda koala (Felina is particularly fond of koalas and was outraged that I should blithely throw out "panda" as their species. I humbly apologized and hope that in time she will be able to bring herself to associate with me once more in public). Claudia gave character to the ears by quilting an oval inside them.

Liz has started quilting the baby quilt she is making for a longtime friend of hers. I love the theme-- but what? No poodles?!

For the backing, she is using a divinely-- maybe also sinfully-- cuddly material called "Minky". Those of you who like to pet cashmere and silk? You might want to check out this material. I'm just sayin'.

Lynda brought her flower garden quilt in progress, lovely pastels, mauves and yellows...

And Daisy came downstairs to play with us for a while.

Another great day with the Broads!

When I got home, I found this lying in my front yard. I thought I'd bring them in before the nutty squirrel found them.

Posted by Sheila at August 10, 2005 09:00 AM Posted to Friends | Quilting | TrackBack