Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Kindred Spirits - They Are Everywhere!

Because the weather was so ghastly at Shoestring during our holiday I had the idea of dragging out an unfinished quilt top started years ago and beginning to quilt it.  I remembered that the inspiration to make this quilt had actually come from an expert quilter who had a gallery near Shoestring Cottage, where I had travelled with Mrs Peaceable to take a course in machine quilting.  When I admired a quilt on display in her gallery the kind owner of the gallery (Madam La Poste) had shared with me the secret of how to make my own version of the quilt.
And here it is in the process of being hand quilted - probably about 10 years after it was commenced

While Mr Shoestring and I were walking round the town on our holiday we happened to spot the lady herself, and I felt I must thank her for her help and let her know that I was (finally) in the throes of quilting my own version.  When we fell into conversation it emerged that she was a mad keen crazy quilter also, so we arranged to meet the next day to compare notes.  I was astonished to find that we had so much in common, even down to the sorts of quilts we had made and the techniques we preferred.  (Madame La Poste's work was fine and detailed where mine is rather coarse, slapdash and hasty by comparison.)  She showed me several techniques to add variety and interest to the crazy quilt I am working on at present.  Her work includes beading, which I have not used so far, and as soon as she said goodbye I was furiously adding some beading to my blocks.  Also she presented me with these beautiful motifs which are hand dyed or even entirely hand made, and she told me how to go about dyeing my own notions for including in quilts.

These are all notions which Madame La Poste has created or dyed herself

A hand made bead butterfly - how skilful is that?

It was difficult to contain my enthusiasm and it has to be admitted that there was a lot of interrupting (on my part) in case I couldn't get out my thoughts in time, before we moved on to the next important topic.  We exchanged books and magazines with inspirational articles in them and it seems that there is yet another kindred spirit close by - bliss!