Challenge Update
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who responded to the challenge described in my last newsletter! 

For new subscribers - several quilters who offer newsletters were asking readers to help increase their Yahoo! ratings. Not wanting to allow a challenge like that to pass I also asked my readers to share my newsletter with friends and encourage them to subscribe to it. As a result, at last count, the Maria Michaels Designs Newsletter moved from ranking #101 out of 948 newsletters to #87 of 988 in the Yahoo! rankings. 

Please share this month's newsletter with your friends and family and ask them to subscribe. Instruct them to credit you by sending me your name and email address when they do. As a token of appreciation, you will receive a 10% off a pattern coupon for each time your name is credited. 

Featured Quilter: Florine Johnson
Florine is an accomplished quilt artist and teacher. She has taught appliqué to quilters in Georgia, North Carolina, Switzerland (Zurich, Lausanne, Lugano) and in Hungary (Debrecen). She founded the Mountain Laurel Quilter's Guild of Clarkesville, Georgia, in 1995. Its popularity has spread  beyond Georgia and now includes North and South Carolina. Florine is a member of three quilt guilds and the Appliqué Artists of Atlanta.

She is not only a skilled teacher but a talented quilt artist.  Raj, the Rooster with an attitude and Rob Roy, the Scottish rooster who is trying to get away from all those plaids are just two of her whimsical, delightful roosters. Ralph, Rupert, Rowdy, Rascal, and Rock will also put a smile on your face. They are irresistible!

Ralph was designed as a teaching project for Hungary. As Florine says, "He is lots of fun and loves to be done up in 'not so normal' chicken colours. Raj is short for 'maharaja' and he is very royal. He has an attitude and looks down his beak at everyone. He likes to be made up in royal purples and oranges."

While in Switzerland in 1997, Florine met Anna Dolanyi, a Hungarian fiber artist who introduced quilting to Hungary about 13 years ago. Anna invited her to teach quilting in her country. Florine was dismayed when she learned about the serious lack of resources quilters faced because the economy of the country was left in devastation and shambles after its Communist occupation. The Hungarian Quilt Guild had no money to pay her expenses and teaching fees, nor could they provide themselves with the basics, such as fabric, needles, scissors, thread, and so on. 

Despite these problems, Florine accepted. She went to the Mountain Laurel and Hall County Guilds for help. With their donations, she was able to put together 72 quilt kits. Each kit contained scissors, needles, thread, and a selection of 100% cotton fabrics. In August of 1999, she became the first American to teach quilting in Hungary. This newspaper photo 
shows her with one of the appliqué quilting pieces she took along as examples. It is one of the Piece O' Cake Designs which Florine has done. On this first trip she taught how to appliqué using several methods as well as how to look at patterns to see how they could be worked so that the quilters could continue on their own.

On the first day of classes, the women were delighted and excited to receive the kits. They had brought old clothing and curtains to use - a reminder of pioneer and depression days here in North America. They asked Florine what part of the kits needed to be returned and were astounded to learn that these kits were theirs to keep. 

Despite hot, humid conditions, a lack of air conditioning, and teaching through an interpreter, the classes went well. Florine explains that her Hungarian students were already good needlewomen, artistic, and skilled, and that all they needed were appliqué techniques and ideas for patterns. The tears on the last day were unexpected ones. Her students could not believe that she had travelled at her own expense, taught for free, and brought them free supplies, especially as under Communism they had been taught to view Americans as the enemy. She felt rewarded by their tears of gratitude and was very happy that with the help of her guilds, she was able to change their perspectives.  Florine was asked to judge the Hungarian Quilter's Guild's quilting competition. The winner's prize was all the rest of the fabric she had brought with her.

Upon her return, Florine shared her experiences with quilters in the Southeast and they came forward with donations.  Over 750 pounds of fabric were donated and sent to Hungary. These donations were continued until the price of mailing them became too costly. Guild members used the fabrics to create show pieces. In the year 2000, the Hungarians had the best exhibit at Quilt Expo in France.

Florine did not expect to go back a second time, but she returned in 2000 and found it even hotter and muggier than before. She paid for her own trip and taught for free this time as well. She needed a project for her students to complete and that is when she came up with the rooster who became Ralph. This time, instead of kits, she took suitcases of fabric and left the fabric for the Guild to use as it thought best.  She left on the day that Hungary celebrated its 1000th year as a country. 

Be sure to visit Florine's site to see all seven, wonderful, radical roosters and read their stories! You will be happy to know that she is busy creating rooster number 8 - Reginald. 

Books 
The Quilter's Legacy - by Jennifer Chiaverini

 This book is the latest in the Elm Creek Series. If you have not read any of them yet, I 
 recommend starting with the first one and reading your way through all five books. Although it is not absolutely necessary because each book is complete in itself, the stories build on one another and it is nice to know the backgrounds as you go from one to the other. In order, they
 are:

 The Quilter's Apprentice
 Round Robin
 The Cross-Country Quilters
 The Runaway Quilt
 The Quilter's Legacy 

 These are books of fiction which will delight quilters and will be thoroughly enjoyed by  non-quilters as well. They are wonderful stories - a lovely weave of family ties, love, friendship, history, and a touch of mystery as well. I just finished reading this last book in the series and hated to close the book when I reached the last page. You will not want to miss reading these heartwarming stories. Check your local library or a nearby bookstore.

Visit Jennifer Chiaverini's site to learn more about her books and to see photos and free instructions for the quilts mentioned in her books.

101 Log Cabin Flowers - by Linda Causee

 This book uses a simple foundation piecing method to create floral designs. Among the flower log cabin patterns, you will find designs for tulips, roses, poppies, pansies, sunflowers, lilies, and more.

Mat, Mount, and Frame It Yourself - by M. David Logan

 This book will teach you how easy and inexpensive it is to frame your own needlework. It includes a complete, step-by-step guide, explains how to make the right choices, and walks you through the process. It is suitable for both beginners and professionals.

*Remember to support your local libraries and quilt shops.

Quilt a Good Deed
Quilters are caring, sharing people with kind hearts. Their hands are often busy creating lovely work for loved ones, for worthy charities, and for comforting those who have been struck by tragedy. 

One such group of quilters offers comfort to bereaved families, especially those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. They have recruited quilters who are willing to make a memory quilt for lost loved ones and have matched over 450 families with volunteers from the U.S., Canada, and Australia. They continue to seek volunteers and families who would like to receive a memorial quilt.

Jane Jackson, co-founder of United We quilt, describes these special quilts: “A memory quilt gives people a way to hold on to the person they lost and to transform their memories into something tangible, that they can hold, look at, and wrap themselves up in."   

This photo shows the members of the YaYa Quilterhood, a group of Washington State quilters, with five of their completed quilts which were sent to a family in New York. You can read more about them and their quilts by clicking on the link below.

If you would like to "adopt" a family and volunteer to make a memory quilt for them, or if you know quilters who would, please visit the United We Quilt site where you can read more about their aims, view a gallery of quilts, and obtain all of the necessary details. (If you contact them, please tell them I sent you.) 

Their newsletter is written by Cathy Perlmutter who brought this special group to my attention. Be sure to read her newsletter's heartwarming stories and all about the wonderful, caring, giving people who make up this organization. You can also help by bringing this project to the attention of your local quilt guilds.

One of the nicest things in life is to know that we have made a difference!

Quilting Tools

Although both sets of these turning tubes are used mostly in sewing garments, toys, and crafts, they are also handy for quilters. They come in other sizes as well. Look for them at the Fasturn site.

This photo is of my two sets. I enjoy the ease with which any size fabric tube can be turned to the right side. My blue tubes are used most often because quick strip quilts can be with them and I am sure to start making some  tube toys for my little granddaughter soon. The smaller tubes can be used to make your own bias strips for Stained Glass and Celtic quilts.

Tubes can be filled with cord, batting, or wire at the same time that they are turned. The resulting fabric tubes can then be made into reversible vests or dolls, or sewn into quilts. Sewing.org has a page of instructions for making an octopus from tubes. Instructions for making a tube quilt can be found at the Patterns That Fit You site, though they do not include the use of the blue tubes, which make the project quicker and easier.