Open House at the Creative Stitchers

One of the many groups I belong to in my new home at Carriage Manor is called Creative Stitchers.  This is a group of about 150 members that does a myriad of projects, including about 200 quilts a year that are donated as well as knit and crochet items.

Today we had our big open house to show off the new sewing room and our featured speaker was Sharon Schamber.  This was open to other parks in the area and announced in quilt shops.  We drew in about 300 people. She was an amazing speaker who told us of her difficulties with being a severe dyslexic and having essential tremors which cause her hands to continually shake.  Oh, and she's in the midst of a bad divorce right now.

On the quilt below she explains that she is so tired of feather wreath being used as a quilting standard, but she does like the look of it.  So she took the basic technique and spun them around to create an entire background out of them.

In spite of her physical conditions she has emerged as one of the leading artists in applique quilts. The quilt above is all needle turned applique and she uses a technique where she embroiders the edges instead of doing blind stitching. I could think of several of my friends who would have been just drooling over these quilts.  I didn't think to bring a camera with me, so these photos are all off the internet, but I did get to see each of these up close and personal at today's showing.

I loved the story she shared with the quilt below.  She was so convinced that she was part Native American as she was so drawn to the work that she did a DNA sample.  She found out she's Croation...no Native blood running through those veins.

My job was as a "greeter" which is essentially like putting a black lab puppy at the door to say hello.  The day went by way too fast and we all left quite overwhelmed at her multitude of creations.

She helped ease the guilt of having our "UFO's" (these are unfinished objects for those of you who don't speak quilt). She refers to them as "studies" and therefore they don't ever have to be "finished".  Her machine quilting is all done free hand and is so small and precise that it's mind-blowing.

She utilizes so many different techniques that it's impossible to explain them all in this blog, but she has over thirty you-tube videos out there for those who want to learn more.

It was a day of over the top inspiration and I may need to try my hand as some "studies" sometime in the future.

Long Live the Queen