Marianne and Mary Fons presentation at Meissner's in Sacramento

Friday Venita and I had the opportunity to go listen to a quilt lecture given by Marianne Fons and her daughter, Mary Fons. This was given at the main Meissner Sewing Center in Sacramento. We had a great time and loved meeting both of them. They even set up a special place for us to take pictures with them when the lecture was over. So I did.

Mary Fons on left front. Marianne Fons right center. Of course I am standing behind them.

Marianne lives in Sommerset Iowa. She loves her downtown area and recently purchased the movie theater there and is restoring it.

The following picture was taken as we were all settling down and getting ready for the show to begin.

This is Mary Fons. She is a very animated presenter and found her quite fun. She and her mom were great together. Of course they have had a lot of opportunity to work together on the PBS Fons and Porter show.

 Both ladies were very personable. Below is Marianne Fons.

 Below is one of Mary's quilts. Venita bought the book this is patterned in. I really love the outside border.

This is really a beautiful quilt, too. I love they used just solid colors. I am finding I am moving to using solids more than flowers or other pattern. I really like how they make the design of the quilt stand out instead of the fabric itself.

Below is one of Mary's first quilts. Pinks with navy blue contrast. Very stunning. Very small blocks.

This one is Marianne's quilt. I love it because it gives the appearance of being a funky quilt. But each of the blocks is the same size. It is the contrast between the light and darks that make it seem the blocks are different in size. Simple quilt yet stunning.

Marianne is very active in Quilts of Valor. She made the quilt below. She often puts lettering into her quilt. This was a small quilt but very charming. To learn more about Quilts of Valor go to http://www.qovf.org/

Quilt below is a log cabin made by Mary Fons.

One quote I came away with that Marianne said is, " When you make a mistake in your quilt just state: 'It symbolizes something in my life.'" Love that. We all make mistakes in our quilts. Learn to live with them. Don't tell others that they are they and definitely don't point them out. Most times no one notices.

Loved the presentation. Thanks goes to Meissner's for giving us great quilters with great stories to tell and beautiful quilts to see. And one of these days I am going to win one of the sewing machine give aways!!!!

You can see more of the attendees at https://www.facebook.com/MeissnerSewing. 

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Harmonic Convergence quilt

In February my friend, Venita, and I went to Modesto to a Ricky Tims Seminar. It was three days of great fun as we listened to Ricky, Pam Holland from Australia and Alex Anderson talk about their inspiration, perspiration and accomplishments. [See my February 2014 post of this event.] Great incentive to Keep on Quilting. During one of Ricky's seminars, he showed us his Harmonic Convergence quilts and how easy it is to make one. I thought I can do this. So I on the way home, Venita and I stopped at a couple of quilt stores. I purchased the fabric to make the above quilt. That was Saturday. On Monday I entered my quilt studio hoping I could remember all he said or at least my notes would cover what I couldn't remember. After just a few hours the top was done. So easy.

After I finally quilted it, I took it to my guild for show and tell (or Chantell as Ricky calls it). As I mentioned the pattern name, I said I bet most of you have probably made one of these quilts or are aware of the pattern. Lots of nodding. My first thought is they have done this and are not interested. Wrong. Many probably had done it or seen it done and was not interested, but a lot of people asked me what the name of the pattern was again and the ease of it all. Our guild president is a gentleman that has been a member along with his wife for many years. He is just getting into piecing himself and said it would be a long time before he would attempt something like this. I told him actually he could do it now because it is super easy. It really is. It is just strip cutting two coordinating or contrasting pieces of fabric and then putting the strips back together again in reverse order of each other. Love the technique. Love the ease of making a quilt that people oh and ah over. I especially love the fabric I chose for it.

If you ever get the chance to go to a Ricky Tims' Seminar, go. It is so worth the time and the money.

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A night with Don Linn - Mr Quilt

Last night our guild, River City Guild in Sacramento CA, hosted Don Linn, aka Mr Quilt. He makes beautiful quilts. Here is one:

I was enthralled with his designs. Many with a free motion effect on the cutting. The above one is a little more traditional. He explained where his ideas come from and how he goes about getting them to be quilts. It was quite a story. He does have a book that I will be buying on that process. He started out as a long arm quilter and has two books on machine quilting.

Very enjoyable presentation. I'm sorry I didn't sign up for the class he is teaching today. I will definitely watch for him to teach around here again soon.

If you want to learn more about him, go to his website at http://www.mrquilt.com/

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