Empire Quilters, speaker, Helen Squire

For many years I've been reading, or often skipping, Helen Squire's articles in American Quilter Magazine about quilting -- I don't mean generic quilting -- I mean the actual work that quilts the three layers together. She prints very attractive patterns; she has quite a number of books of quilt patterns and about quilting. I understand that she's a well recognized expert. But to tell the truth I was not excited about hearing her at the first meeting of the Empire Quilters this afternoon.

Why not? Because I know myself to be a somewhat sloppy quilter who doesn't much like rules and I knew she has a lot of thou shalt nots and thou must dos. And she did. But she is a very accomplished speaker and she brought a collection of mostly antique quilts some of which were truly stunning. Some had the amazing stories, like the cheddar gold one that dates to 1830 and appears to be in beautiful shape although she says the farbic has many small round holes in it. And the final piece de resistance which was from the 19th century, made of satin collected from a factory that made men's top hats and lined them with brilliant satins. The eye popping colors were stunning. Perhaps some will be posted on the Empire Quilters website in the next week or ten days -- I don't know if Helen has rules about what can be published. She has a lot of rules, she's a definite type A, but I suggest checking the website which is in the sidebar.

In about the same amount of time the many show and tell quilts will be posted also and are really beautiful. So many people were busy photographing them and standing in my line of sight that I am eager to see them posted so I can look at them in peace -- since the small photos are clickable and they enlarge -- it will be a really nice quilt show. I had hoped to finish my reversible quilt but that old rule, "everything takes longer than you think" was in force. I have a very real hope of finishing it tomorrow.