12.30.2009

Sweet P Drops By For A Visit.......

My name is Paulette and I am a quiltoholic….….I am otherwise a fairly normal person ~ a wife, mother of three beautiful daughters and step mom to a wonderful daughter and son and step-grandma to two lovely girls. I am also a retired Grade One school teacher.
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Here I am as the Blue Bird of Happiness …OK maybe not so normal after all…but look at the kids…are they not adorable!! I loved every moment in the classroom…everyday was an adventure, with a new and different story to come home with! To think I got paid to do crafts all day long!! Blows the mind!
You are probably wondering how a nice ‘normal’ person like me became a quiltoholic…. ~ Well it all began in a small town on Vancouver Island (west coast of Canada). My mother loved to sew and it took very little encouragement from her to get me sewing at an early age… It started with embroidery at age 6 or 7…and when we ran out of pillowcases and table runners to embroider, I started making doll clothes and stuffed animals.
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This is a sample of some of the work I did with my mom’s help…I would work on these for hours! Some good memories are tied up in these stitches!
I wasn’t allowed to use my mom’s sewing machine until I turned 10…but when I did LOOK OUT! I started sewing clothes for myself and continued to do so until I entered University…in fact I took my sewing machine with me. Yes, I was the only girl with a sewing machine in my dorm! Nerdy? No way! Everyone knew where to go when they needed something mended! I was VERY popular!
It’s every sewers dream to have a little girl to sew for… well I was blessed with three of them! (every two years…like clock work!) I would sew them matching outfits, party dresses and romper sets.
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Just look at those pretty party dresses…fun to make but poor Hayley, the baby, always got the hand-me-downs!
(Now here they are all grown up and still in party clothes…sigh….aren’t they beautiful!) IMG_1541
But back to the story…about ME….
So I continued to sew for them until they refused to wear dresses anymore….which was alright because by then I had moved onto other crafts-you name it I’ve done it- I made candles, batik, macramé, decoupage, I made stain glass lamps and windows, I smashed dishes and tile to do a mosaic on tables and shelves, I made dough dolls, I sponged, ragged and spackled every room in my house at least once…, I made cement leaves, hypertufa pots, wreaths out of dried hydrangeas and pine cones, willow chairs and arbors, stepping stones, beading and scrapbooking….I think you get the idea! I gave Martha a run for her money!
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This is a plate mosaic I did on a watering can and below are some cement leaves.
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You name the craft and I have probably done it and I enjoyed it all! BUT then one Christmas, about seven years ago, we went to my school staff party at Rick and Dawn’s house (Rick was a teacher at my school). Dawn is an extraordinary quilter, with quilts hanging all over her house….I drooled…I gushed….I talked quilts all night….Dawn sent me home with Eleanor Burns’ book “Quilt in a Day”. I couldn’t get to a Quilt shop fast enough! And the rest is history…a passion consumed me. I whipped up a green and red log cabin quilt and that was so much fun that I whipped up another. Everyone in the family got a quilt that year…A baby in the family? Whoopeee, let me make a baby quilt!
(And who did I get to meet at the road to California last year…why my new BFF Eleanor Burns!! What a thrill!)
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Dawn went to Cloth Castle Club….so of course I tagged along….talking quilts a mile a minute! Alice (a friend from elementary school) soon joined us and we talked quilts even faster!! It was here that we met Claire, another incredible quilter and we have been getting together ever since! It has become our ‘monthly’ ritual!
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Here we are, left to right~ Dawn, me, Alice and Claire…my partners in quilting crime…always plotting the next quilt!
It was through Claire that Alice and I developed a passion for working with wool…
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So between making quilts and penny rugs I have become a quiltoholic…AND I AM PROUD OF IT!!
Now enter the world of blogging….(music from Jaws played here…..dah dah…dah dah….)
I confess…I had been a Blog lurker for over a year before starting my own blog in July. I thought quilting had changed my life but blogging has changed it in a whole different direction!! It’s enhanced my quilting self…if that makes sense…I discovered a whole bunch of other quiltoholics and blogging is where we can meet to talk about our quilting ‘highs and lows’.
My new blogging buddies are quilters from all over the world. We talk and share and find inspiration or encouragement. I find it incredible that I can talk about a quilt or a technique or a pattern with someone in Iceland or Australia or Brazil and all in the same day! They share the same passion with me and as a result the world has become a much smaller, friendlier community…Blogging is wonderful!
Welcome to~
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Please make sure you stop by for a visit….I’m always home and the coffee pot is always full….Make sure you leave a comment…I always enjoy meeting new quiltoholics!
….Now if I could just get off the computer long enough to quilt!!

~Thank you so much Paulette! I loved reading about you! I've been stalking your blog for quite sometime! I love your style and I am so honored that you are a guest blogger here today!

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7 comments:

  1. Thank you so much Paulette! I loved reading about you! I've been stalking your blog for quite sometime! I love your style and I am so honored that you are a guest blogger here today!

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  2. Besides quilting, Paulette has a wonderful way with words. I already follow her blog, so I knew that, but thought it was worth mentioning again after her guest blogging! Thanks for sharing Paulette!

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  3. I enjoyed reading about Paulette and her life. Looking forward to her adventures on the road.

    Debbie

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  4. What a nice post to introduce such a fabulous quilter. I am a reader of Paulette's blog so I have enjoyed her quilts and her way with words. But it was fun for me to see a picture from her classroom days too! Thanks for featuring her today.

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  5. I could not agree more. This circle of quilters that we have is a treasure trove of goodness and such fun. Indeed a place where we find support and friendship from all over the world. I love that, too. I stumble across some real nice folks like Paulette while visiting blogs and now she brought me here, a fun place I have not been before.

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  6. How nice that she got to meet Eleanor. That is my dream too, and it is going to happen this February in Puyallup, Washington at EXPO. I have met several of the women I used to watch on PBS there. Sue Housman, Kaye Wood and Nancy Zieman. I don't have neat pictures with them though. Gotta do that. Thanks for sharing her journey on your Blog.

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  7. It was great to read about your crafty history. I am glad I met you!

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