Partying with Pam Buda (and Fran and Pati)--photo heavy

Back in 2019 the Pam Buda Circa 1880 Club (sponsored by Marcus Fabrics) that met at Village Dry Goods submitted a video of our club to Marcus for a contest they were sponsoring. We happened to win. The prize? A visit from Pam Buda herself. It was scheduled for April 2020. Of course, it was canceled due to COVID. Fast forward to July 2023, when it was finally able to be rescheduled (thanks to the persistent people at Marcus). And that is where I spent two days a couple of weeks ago.

We started on Friday morning with a special party just for our Circa 1880 Club members. The three ladies pictured below made it delightful.

Left to right: Fran (owner of Village Dry Goods), Pam (fabric and pattern designer extraordinaire, and owner of Heartspun Quilts), and Pati (Director of Marketing for Marcus Fabrics).

Though the photo below is a bit blurry, I love it, because it looks like they are all trying to "make a point". I do not recall what they were trying to say. Maybe they were singing. There was a little bit of that happening at one time. (I promise, we were only drinking water with the refreshments of fruit-kabobs and banana cake.)

Below you can see where we enjoyed a little game to help us get to know Pam--and win prizes. Pati asked the question, we guessed the answers, Fran held the bag of our ticket stubs, and Pam drew the winner, then Pati distributed the prize.

After learning much about fabric production trends from Pati, and about Pam's many upcoming fabric lines from both of them, we then had an opportunity to share our Circa 1880 quilts. First we saw Pam's--the one that inspired this whole Club. This was based on a vintage quilt Pam had seen in an older publication.

Then club members had an opportunity to share their quilts. There were so many great versions. I have only chosen photos of 2 that are each set a different way from the original pattern as shown above in Pam's quilt.

Following the fun of this gathering, I had lunch with a couple of friends, and then we visited the Brigham City Museum of Art and History, which currently is hosting the "Light the World" quilt exhibit, featuring art quilts from around the world. We returned to Village Dry Goods to do a little shopping, and I was startled by a familiar voice behind me, calling my name. There was Lynn Hopkins!

Lynn is the designer of the Tiny Blocks that I had been teaching each month in my guild this past year, in Lynn's absence. He is currently serving a mission with his wife for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he was back in town briefly for a family event. He'd hoped to be able to make the party with Pam, but schedules didn't work out. Above, left we are holding his Circa 1880 quilt, and above, right he and my friend Ruth were looking at something he had made from his Tiny Blocks. You just can't talk to Lynn without ending up laughing, as this photo attests. He has very big plans for the future of his Tiny Blocks. They may get even tinier!!! So maybe I should say he has small plans?

That evening in my hotel room I was  Zooming with Chooky and the Chookshed Stitchers while having my dinner, and stitching some tumblers. Below left, you can see my machine set up on the hotel desk, and to the right you can see some of the global participants that evening. It was the perfect way to close out a quilty day, and it is always a lot of fun.

This is all I got sewn together that evening before calling it quits--just three rows from the box of large tumblers I have had cut for years. This is a start--and I am trying to be totally random. We'll see how long that lasts. These are laying on the Kingsize bed in my hotel room.                                                                                                                                                                                              Next morning we were at the Brigham Academy Center for a full day class with Pam. I love this venue--all kinds of natural light. This class was open to all, not just those in the Circa 1880 Club. They capped registration at 50. Below you can see my table-mates in the foreground.

We made one block from each of the three small quilts featured in her new  pattern, Haunted Halloween. I'll show my progress on those in a later post. 

We had a break for lunch, after which Pam did a trunk show with many of her beautiful quilts. Here are just a few of them.

This was just what I needed after a couple of crazy busy and stressful months of summer. These ladies in the photo below made it so very fun and refreshing. My thanks to Village Dry Goods, Marcus fabrics, and these three gals, for all of the work and time it took to make this great for those of us attending.

Pam has been a special friend for many years, and it was very sweet to spend time with her again. I hope there will be a "next time". Thank you, Pam!

Before I close this I need to announce the winners of the drawing from my last post, celebrating my 12th anniversary of blogging. Sadly, 18 of the comments were from people who did not have an email attached to their comment and did not include their email address in the comment, so they could not be included. 

I had the random number generator choose the winners.

*First place went to Denise @ Count It All Joy blog--she will get her choice of the kits.

*Second place goes to Nancy @ Joy for Grace blog--she will get whichever kit Denise doesn't choose.

Apparently you had to have a blog with the word joy in the title to win this time around.

I have notified the winners via email and will get their prizes sent out to them this week.

I have several things I want to blog about that will need to wait for a time when I haven't already written a chapter book for a post.

Until then, be creative and be kind.

Janet O.

p.s. If you love Kim Diehl, another blogger is having an anniversary giveaway that you might want to check out. Click here.

A sunset from an evening walk during the last week of July.

Pam's Heirloom quilt

If you are a follower of Pam Buda's blog (heartspunquilts.blogspot.com) you have already seen this outstanding heirloom she has created. This photo is from its unveiling in her booth at Quilt Market in Houston. Isn't it amazing?

This will be available to make in 2019 at quilt shops who sponsor the Circa 1880 club. In her post about this quilt here, she explained how she swapped blocks with friends to keep this scrappy and get it made by the deadline of Market. I was fortunate to be one of those who swapped blocks with those participating.

In this photo you can see the piles of 10 blocks on the design board to the left (300 blocks on that design board). In the middle are the baggies of blocks I received from others. And on the design boards piled to the right are pieces waiting to be sewn together to make another 120 blocks.

This is the kind of quilt I have always wanted to make, and this opportunity gave me the motivation I needed to keep making enough of those little blocks for a large quilt--hundreds and hundreds of those little blocks! There is a reason why I make mini quilts. I have a hard time staying focused on making the same little block over and over, but I proved to myself that I CAN do it! :)

My trusty featherweight has been the machine of choice for this project. Most of the blocks are made (there are about 75 left to stitch together), and now I am starting to assemble rows.
Here I am auditioning blocks to get a good balance of colors in a row.

I have 5 rows assembled and pinned to the edge of my design wall, where my half log cabin blocks are still residing. I hope to make more progress on this project when I go to my annual retreat in January. I actually made my first blocks for this quilt at retreat last January. This secret sewing has consumed much of my limited sewing time this year, and it is really fun to finally be able to share it with you!
If this quilt draws you in as much as it does me, check with your local quilt shop to see if they will be hosting the club.

Aside from that, since my last post I have been trying to get a few little quilt tops marked and basted.
They are starting to pile up again, and I do not want a repeat of 2016, where I had 30 little tops to quilt, and I added half again that many as the year wore on.
One of these will hopefully get quilted before the month is over to fill in as my Mini of the Month.  



We took a quick trip to Southern Utah last week to visit some friends, and attend a concert by The Piano Guys. On the way home I used my birthday month coupon at the little shop over the mountain (Village Dry Goods) to get 25% off of this lovely selection. 

Jo Morton's new Spice it Up line embodies the colors of Fall, to me. And I picked up a few of the new Primitive Gatherings Flower Garden line.
And look at this--one of the employees at the shop has made up Jen Kingwell's Long Time Gone quilt in Civil War repros. 

I have the pattern and when I finally get around to making it, I want to do something along these lines.
Until next time, 
Janet O.

 

Seeing Stars Again

Haven't touched a sewing machine for over a week, and even the hand stitching has been minimal. Instead, I have been busy making soap and testing some new-to-me gluten free flours.

I have managed a bit more stitching on Stars in the Garden.

There are two more flowers cut out and ready to stitch.
Trying really hard on this project NOT to make the flowers and stars all matchy-matchy.  I am combining fabrics I would normally never combine, in an effort to make this look like a real "make-do" quilt. On one of the stars I even used one hexagon of a different print from all the others in that round. I had enough of the original print, but I wanted it to appear that I hadn't. Can you spot it? : )

 Last night I felt like I should be stitching, but couldn't bring myself to drag out a work in progress. Then I remembered Lisa Bongean's recent block for the Splendid Sampler. I am not doing the sampler, but I really liked this pretty little applique block. Lisa did not do hers in wool. I did--and I changed the colorway.

At only 7" square, it is a sweet little block. Here I am auditioning Valdani flosses, and the possibility of adding tiny black buttons to the flower centers. Jury is still out on that.

I discovered that many of the wools I had chosen matched quite well with Lisa's Floral Gatherings line. I may need to piece a border to go around it--when I feel like it.

It is stitching up very quickly. Lisa named it Dedication Rose.

Fun mail today from my sweet friend, Pam Buda. Look at these wonderful scraps from her recent red/white/blue line of fabric. Love this line! Do you think I need to make a few more r/w/b minis? : )

 Maybe this will inspire me to get stitching again. I don't ever seem to stall with this color scheme!

I'll end with this photo of a photo of one of my Mother's quilts. Somehow the original photo became torn in half, but you can still see the lines of the feathered wreaths and diagonal lines Mom hand quilted. It is difficult to tell that the 9-patch blocks are double 9-patches.

She made this in 1991. It won Sweepstakes at our county fair and our state fair, and went to Houston that year. Just the quilt went--wish I had, too.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Winter Retreat With Pam Buda

Each January Village Dry Goods, a great quilt shop in Brigham City, UT, brings in a nationally known teacher for two or three days of workshops and a catered dinner/trunk show. Last year I was able to get in to one day of Lisa Bongean's workshops and had my first, but not my last, experience with wool applique. It was so much fun that by February I was signed up for this year's full retreat with Pam Buda (Heartspun Quilts blog), of Prairie Women's Sewing Circle fame.

I think I was doing my Statue of Liberty impression here!

Via email, Pam and I had arranged to meet up at the home of one of the shop owners to have a pie making session. This took place on Wednesday. Pam is as good a student as she is a teacher and we had a great time while she created her pie--and then we ate!

Fran & Kim

It was a day to remember. Thanks again to Fran for giving up her kitchen, to my friend Kim, who drove me through the  snowy canyon to get there, and to Pam, for letting it happen in the first place. What a generous woman. It was such a treat to spend the afternoon getting to know her! You can read her account of this experience HERE.

Friday was my first day as Pam's student. We were making the quilt from her Book of Quilting Hints, Tips, Secrets & How-Tos, called "Practice What I Preach." We learned all kinds of hints and methods while making the units for this quilt. She introduced us to many new tools, too.

It was a full house--a beehive of activity!

Me, Gayle, Jami, Jean, Pam, Fran, Kim

Cindy (in the purple on the left), fed us with delicious lunches each day. There we had time to relax, visit, and get to know each other better.



We were able to make great progress on our quilt, finishing the center block and getting most of the units made to be able to finish the rest of the quilt easily. This was the display of finished centers.

I so enjoyed meeting Pam, and meeting up again with friends Kim (no blog), and Gayle (The Middle Sister blog). Gayle posted about many fun things from the retreat HERE. So fun to share these experiences with good friends!

Saturday's class was focused on Pam's new design "Settler's Puzzle". We got to see and touch this quilt that was so beautifully quilted by Linda (Quilted Pineapple blog).

 We were able to create a 4 block unit from this design. Many were opting to leave the 4 blocks unassembled so that they could sew their quilts together by rows. Yes, mine is the block with the red triangles amid all of the blue and gold. I just don't know how to make a two-color quilt. Those red triangles will come together to make the square-in-a-square blocks that you see in the quilt above.

On Saturday I had the chance to sit by Donna, who is the sister of Sandra (Textile Time Travels  blog)--both very nice women. Donna shared with us a couple of the antique quilts she had in her trunk.

I really loved this one, and had to have a photo of me fondling it.

It was such a fun time--my first overnight quilty get-away. Hopefully not my last!

Next time I will post about the overabundance of gifts involved in this retreat, and the wonderful trunk show of Pam's creations!

Until then,

Janet O.

Recent Projects

I remembered to get a photo of the quilt my Mom made that hangs in her living room, behind their sofa.

 Mom hand quilts every quilt she makes. Her stitches are tiny.

 This is the table topper I made her for Christmas from the scraps of the quilt above. No--it is NOT hand quilted. : )

 This is the room where those two quilts now coexist.

I've been making more pineapples, and a couple of other mini designs, into ornaments for gifting. I like to hang these from peg racks throughout the year. They are not just for Christmas trees. If this photo looks familiar it is because I have photographed my ornaments in this same bowl before, but all of these are newly made since Christmas.

Had too much fun yesterday making pie with Pam Buda. (Much thanks to my friend, Kim, who drove me through a snowy mountain canyon to get there, and to Fran, one of the Village Dry Goods shop owners, who let us invade her kitchen.) Will be spending tomorrow and Saturday in Pam's classes and tomorrow night is her trunk show. WooHoo. Good times!! Details to follow. : )

One of my less wordy posts, for which you may all now heave a collective sigh. : )
Until next time--with all kinds of fun from the retreat,
Janet O.