The Graduates of the Quilt Studio

My first quiltmaking class at the Quilt Studio is over and the students have gone home-I'm feeling a little sad! Each woman's quilt top, though the same pattern, looked quite different since their color choices were unique. What am I going to do on Wednesday afternoons now?

My own first quilt class was a disaster. It was 1972. We met in the backroom of a needlepoint shop and made four small patches--a pieced Pinwheel block, an applique something, a crazy-patch square, and then a plain square we were supposed to hand quilt in. During week #4, we each consulted with the teacher and she gave us suggestions for quilt projects we might do after the class. She looked at my work and then said, "Uh, Pepper, maybe you'd like to do something decorative for the home, something like this-" and pointed to a picture in a magazine of a Sun Bonnet Sue on a quilted toilet seat cover. ( I couldn't make this up, folks.) I didn't go back to the class for week #5--I am a quilt class drop-out. Here's a picture of the very tatty strange block, grease stains and all, that was the only product of that first class.
In comparison, my students were all brilliant. Madeline McCabe (aka the Mad Stitcher) is making a bright quilt for a deserving son.

Mary O'Neill, recently moved here from NY (notice the city scape shirt) just likes blue and yellow.


And finally Shirley Ellis, freshly retired, who has found a new hobby and finally un-boxed the sewing machine she got for Christmas. Well done, ladies! I am so proud of you!