Another retreat friend and a prolific quilter!!

Today, you are going to meet my friend, Connie Dummer. She is a very talented quilter and is one of the most prolific quilting friends I know. The other prolific quilter is our friend, Pandora. The two of them seem to excel at making larger quilts and getting them finished. I think this is wonderful as it provides "show 'n tell" for the rest of us who are less prolific. :-)

In the photo above, Connie is working on a wallhanging from this cute teddy bear fabric line. She's stitching up the hanging tabs and it is going well at this point. Later, the tabs provided her the opportunity to practice her ripping skills. :-) However, she stayed focused and finished them. That was one of the things I learned about Connie from the moment I met her...........she stayed focused on the project at hand. I met her at a quilting retreat held at Inspiration Point that is located near Alexandria, MN. I was asked to teach at the retreat in the Fall of 2001, when the regular instructor had health problems and I filled in for her. Connie took the class that I offered, called "Winter Star". It was a wallhanging project that I had designed and shared with my church group (measured about 36" square). She laughs about the fact that she didn't read the info that said it was an "intermediate" project. She considered herself a beginner so had some issues with points on the stars but I showed her that even my sample used strategically placed beads to hide points that weren't quite right. LOL!

Connie is quite tall. She has beautiful long, reddish blonde hair. I am quite short and my hair is short and quite white. :-) In spite of that (and I'm just being silly here), we quickly got to know each other and became good friends. She lives in Minneapolis, I lived in the suburbs, but that didn't stop her from making the almost one hour drive out to the block of the month group that I hosted at my church. She attended regularly and got to know the rest of the gals that now join us at retreat. She loves bright colors and often can't resist a colorful quilt kit. Example is this one below. In fact she bought two of them and she sold me the extra. That was at least four years ago and she brought her finished quilt to our recent retreat. My kit is still in the plastic bag. Connie always shares the name of the quilts and the shops where she finds them. I should have taken notes and I could share that info with you. I failed to do that but if you really want to know about one of her projects, just leave me a comment and I will ask her for the info.

When Connie shared the quilt above and the one below during our retreat "show 'n tell", I remarked that it was nice that she had coordinated her outfit with her projects. LOL! Double-click on any of these photos and take a close-look at her quilts. These two quilts are almost finished, they just need to have binding added. If my memory serves me correctly she got the binding sewn on them before she went home on Sunday. Yep, she was focused.

Her clothing didn't match the one below so she is hiding behind her quilt. She has such a good eye for color and pattern! I have liked every quilt she has ever made. I'm just glad she signed up for that "Winter Star" class so I could meet her and become her friend. :-)

One of the things I really like about my stitching friends is this............we are all so very different and yet we are the same. We all love to stitch - sew - quilt..............we love to "just touch" the fabric...........we practically "breath" fabric............we probably all "dream" about fabric ..........and yet we all have different color and pattern tastes so we all get to see so many different projects! Not one of us is ever bored!!

So, in my next post, you'll meet the final three friends that came to the retreat and see their projects. Then, I still have to share those recipes with you. I'll get to it. Taking one day at a time..............and reminding myself to be like Connie and just stay focused!
Sandi