Sunday, February 22, 2009

The World-wide Quilting Web

The wonders of modern technology never cease to amaze me. I am currently in Singapore visiting my daughter Kathy and her husband Mark. Today we talked to our daughter Susan in California and via Skype were able to see our little grand-children on the other side of the world in Canada.
From a quilter's perspective, the web is agreat asset. I was delighted to meet this past week with quilters here in Singapore, having first contacted them through the web. Thanks to Janice, my contact who invited me to meet with the ANZA (Australia New Zealand Association) quilters and to Maurine who hosted us in her home. Each lady was working on a different project and in addition the group undertakes a charity project each year. I was especially interested in the project to make blocks which would be later made into quilts for victims of the bush-fires in Australia. The blocks are called "wonky stars" and they will be collected and sewn together by Australian quilters. Here is Alison with some of the blocks she had made.

When disaster strikes, quilters all over the world immediately start to do what they do best. Their quilts comfort and support the needy recipients by letting them know that others care about them and want to help.


On Wednesday, I met with quilt artist Marianne Bos (you can find her website by Googling her name) and we had a lovely two hours of quilt talk, sharing experiences and information, and looking at her beautiful quilts. Here she is with two of her wall-hangings.

I've never met unfriendly quilters and these ladies were no exception. Thanks to you all for welcoming me and letting me see and photograph some of your work.

Before leaving home, I checked out fabric sources in Singapore on the web and have visited most of them on my list, as well as some I didn't know about until I got here. My suitcase gets heavier and heavier with each shopping trip. And we still have two more weeks to go!

I think I already have enough projects in mind to keep me busy for the next few years.