Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Guild

Bits and Pieces

October 2001, Volume 6 Issue 10

Jackie Morse, Editor

YOU CAN DO IT!

Are you tired of piecing traditional patterns?  Have you always wanted to create a uniquely beautiful art quilt, but never tried because you don’t think you’re an artist?  Or because you think your quilting skills aren’t advanced enough?

Good news! Lura Smith will conduct a workshop on designing art quilts, and she promises you don’t have to be either an artist or an advanced quilter.  You’ll be working from a photograph of your choice, and she’ll lead you step by step through the process of translating that picture into a quilt.  This is not a sewing machine class; rather, it’s a guided instruction in the basics of designing your own art quilts.  So prepare to tap into all those creative juices that secretly flow in all of us!  The price is $55.00, which includes the lab fee.  Contact Connie Seale at 785-3545 to sign up and get a supply list.

The workshop will be conducted Saturday, October 20, from 9:30 to 3:30.  At our regular monthly meeting on Friday, October 19, Ms. Smith will lecture on “The Journey of an Art Quilter.” She’s a warm and friendly speaker who will inspire you to think “outside the box.”  We”ll meet at 12:30 for refreshments and socializing; the meeting will begin at 1:00.

UPCOMING EVENTS

November 16:  Judith Jones’ long-awaited and much anticipated workshop on hand applique has been rescheduled for November.  Act fast to get a place!

December 14:  Mark this date for our annual holiday luncheon.  You’ll definitely want to participate in this one, which will be a farewell tribute to Gayle Stewart, who sadly (for us) is moving to Costa Rica.

2002 Breast Cancer Quilt Auction

      Planning is underway for a quilt auction in Sacramento in the Fall 2002, to raise money for breast cancer treatment and research. This auction is co-sponsored by seven local Quilt Guilds.

      Quilts can be any size, theme, color or design. A three inch sleeve sewn along the top of the quilt back is required for hanging purposes. Quilts must be completed by September 1, 2002 to be included in the auction.

      Throughout the coming year, donated quilts received by the sponsors will be put on display in quilt stores, offices, banks and community buildings for public viewing, and then moved to Sutter Cancer Center on October 1, 2002 for a month of display. Early bids may be placed on quilts at this time.

            November 2nd will be Auction Day at Sutter Cancer Center, 2800 I Street, Sacramento. Silent auction bidding will close section by section for the smaller quilts throughout the day. A professional auctioneer will sell the larger quilts in a live auction. All proceeds will be donated to Sutter Cancer for research & treatment, with none going to administration. For more information call 916-567-0827 or email Donna Hussain at khussian@web.com.

Reach Out & Help the Kids

      Quilts For Kids, Inc. has been gifted red, white and blue fabric from major fabric houses throughout the country. It is our intention to find people who will make 5,800 flag quilts (crib quilt size) that will be given to the families of those who perished in the 9/11 tragedy. I will be happy to ship the fabrics anywhere in the country.  This is a time for all of us to come together and help make a difference in the lives of the families left behind.

      I refuse to sit paralyzed in front of the television any longer. I need to keep my hands and heart busy...this seems to be the very thing that can both unite communities and help those most in need...the families and survivors of this tragic event. Let them see that the people of this country care and that we have not forgotten them because the news coverage has slowed down.

      We all have felt powerless against the forces of Tuesday, September 11th...this is an opportunity to help make a difference.

      Quilts for Kids, Inc. has always been an organization committed to bringing comfort to children in need through the gift of a handmade patchwork quilt...with Tuesday's events we have just expanded our mission.

      If you want to help but do not sew you can join others and be a part of our "adopt a box" program. You simply send in a donation to quilts for kids, inc. to cover as many $10.00 boxes of fabric you'd like us to send out. This will help defer the staggering cost of shipping out boxes of fabric throughout North America. Your donation is tax deductible. Please help.

          Linda Arye, President

          Quilts for Kids, Inc.

          11 Effingham Road

            Yardley, PA 19067

          tel & fax: (215) 295-5484

          e-mail: quiltsforkids@snip.net

            http://www.quiltsforkids.org

A Bench for Doris Buck

      Gualala Arts is building an outdoor amphitheatre with bronze plaques dedicating each bench. If you are interested in donating towards the $500 cost for one in Doris Buck’s honor, please send your contributions directly to Gualala Arts with a note saying so and that you are a member of PPQG. If we don’t raise the full amount, our group will merge with the other groups Doris was involved with in the dedication of a bench in her honor.

A Series of Thank You’s

      We have received a series of thank you notes for our various efforts which Janet Sears read at our September meeting. Shamli Hospice sent a heart-felt letter praising their new felt ornaments coupled with a request for us to make more this year, And the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles recognized our $500 contribution towards their exhibition program.

      Neva Buechner thanked us for sponsoring the first place prize at A-I-R in the Quilt category, and said her prize money is going towards quilting supplies.

      Gualala Arts also thanked us for sponsoring that prize, and for the Raffle Quilt, which raised a remarkable $3,653 towards the Scholarship Fund.

      Member Miscellanea

      Claire McPherson’s new address is PO  Box 627, Gualala, and her phone is 884-5099. Her email remains the same.

      Lenore Sollom’s new telephone number is 884-3064.

      If you are going to Chico the weekend of October 13-14, Annie’s Star Quilt Guild’s show is at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds.

October Birthday Wishes

Janet Sears -2nd

Iris Lorenz-Fife - 16th

Mirian Littlejohn - 21st

Elizabeth Beckett - 29th

Toile - Classic Becomes Hip Fabric du Jour

by Charlyne Varkonyi Schaub

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

      Everyone from Martha Stewart to the folks at Elle Decor magazine is talking toile.

      Yes, we know that toile (pronounced twall) isn’t new. The classic fabric, typically characterized by light colored background and pastoral scenes in a single contrasting color, has been around for centuries. It was the fave fabric of Marie Antoinette and was credited with saving the French economy during Napolean’s reign.

      What is new is how toile has become the hip fabric du jour and how classic toiles have been joined by those with more color, more variety and more whimsey. People who didn’t have a clue what toile was six months ago are wearing it and buying it on everything from desk sets and accordion files to umbrellas and dinner plates.

      How hot is it? You can find toile clothing at every price range from Marshall’s to Talbots to high-end boutiques. It’s in all kinds of home furnishings catalogs from upscale Gump’s to affordable Ballard Designs. And you can find it at design centers for as much as $264 a yard or at discount fabric houses such as Calico Corners for as little as $7.99-$22.99 a yard.

      “You are right,” says Donna Mae Woods, design director of Scalamandre in New York City. “It’s everywhere. All of my friends are calling me and asking if they can have 3 yards of toile.”

      Woods says she went to a party in East Hampton recently and there were at least 12 men wearing toile trousers. Even more surprising, she saw a man wearing a toile sarong at a Manhattan party.

      “This illustrates a lightening up of men’s fashions, and home furnishings are following that trend,” Woods says.

      At Calico Corners in Boca Raton, Florida, sales clerk Teri Halaburda was wearing toile Capri pants with a yellow background and red print.

      “I went to Stein Mart and bought a pair of toile pants and they were $50,” she says. “I told myself I just couldn’t spend that because I can sew. They are in my car and I’m going to return them.”

      Instead, she says she made three toile pairs in different colors. The total cost? $45.

      Although Calico Corners sells toile for upholstery and draperies, Halaburda says more and more customers are coming in to buy toile to make clothing. Last week, a female customer bought three-quarters of a yard of toile in each of five different patterns to make skirts like those she saw in a boutique.

      The designer many people credit with starting the democratization of toile is Steven Stolman, whose flagship designer boutique is in Palm Beach, Florida. Stolman first used toile in clothing back in 1995, and since then, this home furnishings fabric has become as much his trademark as Lily Pulitzer’s hot pink-and-lime green prints. Stolman says when he opened his first shop in Southampton, Long Island, he wanted to leave Seventh Avenue behind and find another source for fabric.

      “At that time, (designers on Seventh Avenue) were more interested in black, brown and gray microfiber rather than decorative fabrics,” he says. “Everything was very dour. It was all very severe and very sad.”

      He had friends in the D&D Building in New York and marveled at what they had available in home furnishings’ fabrics.

      “I started going through the fabric collections and tons of things struck chords with me,” Stolman says. “Toile was cheerful and upbeat and a recurring motif in home furnishings. I was immediately drawn to it. What I liked as opposed to many other home furnishings fabrics was the fact it’s relatively calm in color. I knew as a fashion designer I had to balance rambunctious color for those urban customers who only wear black and white.”

      Stolman uses designer fabrics and his prices are in line with the carraige trade clientele. For example, ladies slacks made from a tasteful Brunswig & Fils “West Indies Toile” sell for $275 and a slim skirt is $175. Men’s trousers range from $225 - $275.

      “I don’t think I really started this,” he says. “I saw pictures of Mamie Eisenhower in a toile dress when she was in the White House. But I think we popularized it and made it accessible.”

      Elle Decor magazine loves anything that reinforces the idea of the marraige between the runway and home fashions, according to editor in chief Margaret Russell. The magazine featured toile in the May  issue’s “Trend Alert” column. Along with swatches of fabric, they ran a sassy runway shot from Cacharel, featuring a model in a miniskirt and mandarin collar top.

      “That’s what makes it hot right now,” she says. They (Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro of Cacharel) are giving a cutting edge to toile. It’s not a ball gown and it’s not what you expect to see in a micro-mini, either. It’s a juxtaposition of new world design and old world fabric.”

      Elle Decor was just one of several design magazines that featured toile in spring issues. Chances are good you will be seeing more of this fabric in upholstery during the next few months because toile was the darling at the April International Home Furnishings market in High Point, N.C., and fabrics at the show will be in retail stores in the fall.

      If you need any more evidence that this fabric has hit middle America, chew on this; toile was all over upholstery in the La-Z-Boy showroom.

      Elle Decor’s Russell is enthusiastic about the future of toile. “I am never going to get tired of it,” she says. “In fact, I can’t get enough of it.”