Thank you all for being my quilting community. I have so much gratitude in my heart today, after another fun Periscope #honestcraftroomies hop last night, and after receiving the sweetest mini mini from Allison from Campbell Soup Diaries as part of the mini mini quilt swap (Check out #miniminiquiltswap on Instagram to see all the creative fire this little project is sparking), and see Allison’s tutorial for this mini here.
I want to keep this short so that I surely will complete it and post it before baby Finn wakes up from his nap. For those of you with a smart phone, I definitely recommend downloading the Periscope app and watching the scopes that were created last night as part of our weekly #honestcraftroomies Periscope hop. They are viewable for 24 hours, which means you have until 9pm EST tonight to watch them! Here was our schedule last night:
The topic of conversation was “Quilting Community” and our conversation ranged from a real live scope from a booming guild meeting, to reflections on why some of us modern quilters love the local traditional guild like family, all the way to “I make my own guild because I live too far from one—and you’re it”! We spoke about quilting conferences vs retreats, person to person interactions, and online relationships.
As an experiment, and a little peek for those of you who may not have a smart phone, I’ve tried to save my video stream and post it here (embedded from youtube). Please note (and this is important!!), in the actual Periscope stream, little comments appear at the bottom of the screen, so when I suddenly look closely at the camera and seem to reply to someone, I’m actually replying to someone! I’m not crazy, I promise! The video I saved to my phone doesn’t save those comments or the stream of hearts indicating when something I say resonates with viewers especially deeply. So here we go: my real-time, un-edited, late night with a sick baby in the next room, take on quilting community and what it means to me. I hope this works.
(Video disclaimer: In watching this again, I’m pretty sure my nervous fried-brained self said I am a single mom. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I meant full time mom, but I’m a total video beginner and was nervous LOL! I have a loving and supportive husband who is not only a fantastic dad and husband, but also amazingly seems to enjoy talking quilting with me. Please pardon the twisted tongue! I have so much respect for anyone parenting solo, but I’m endlessly grateful to have my husband on my parenting team. I couldn’t do it without him.)
The human connection is so essential to most people, and I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve helped foster over the past couple of years. Allison is one of those with whom I’ve been conversing through blog comments and resulting emails for almost as long as I’ve been blogging, so of course I was game for swapping mini mini quilts with her. We agreed that we were both busy, so the timeline would be relaxed. A day or two later (or less?) she wrote back, “I was inspired. I made your mini.” Little did I know how sweet the two (2) minis would be!
The fabric choices alone make these immediately awesome in my book. Allison clearly knows my favorite designers–Carolyn Friedlander (with some of that much coveted Architextures that I never did get my hands on–swoon!) and Alison Glass.
I especially love the little house, which she calls “The House Where Kitty Lives”. I mean–it’s named after me!! So awesome. Here’s a bit of what she wrote on the card (after Schöne Gruße aus Deutschland!), and why it honestly made me tear up when I opened it:
The second mini is titled “Welcome to the House Where Kitty Lives,” and I designed with you in mind. One window for each child, a heart for the love you share as a family, flowers just starting to bud and a house filled with love and happiness!”
Is that the sweetest thing, or what?! I’m still stitching my love into the mini mini I’m making in return for Allison, and I’m not sure I can come close to a creation as personal and beautiful as this. It will still be a mini mini filled with love, and a little sign of how important my quilting community is–even across the world! Allison lives in Germany. Isn’t the internet an amazing thing!?
Thank you to all of you, enjoy the Periscope hop if you have the capability and time to watch, and happy stitching!
Night Quilter 
You are such a joy Kitty! I enjoyed your Periscope talk last night. I hope all is well with your kidlings too! Be well, and have an amazing day!
Dori
LikeLike
Oh! I have a hubby like yours! He is totally involved in my quilting and other hobbies as well. Isn’t it wonderful?
Dori
LikeLike
The internet is a very amazing thing, Kitty! What a beautiful and deeply meaningful mini mini quilt that Allison made you. Thank you so much for being a part of my tribe. ❤ ❤ ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
“The House Where Kitty Lives”- I love that! What a thoughtful gift!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I listened in last night…my first attempt at using Periscope. Love your minis.
LikeLike
This is the cutest mini ever! You must be feeling the love (you deserve it!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Kitty,
Thank you for such a nice blog post. I have noticed that since I am finally having the time to sew again (and the time to actually blog about it), that it has been increasingly more important to have a community too… who would have thought that such a community would include rural Maine and Northern Germany?!?
I was really excited to finally work with those much coveted CF fabrics… a score for me this summer. I too missed out on it when they came around the first time… a little scary to cut into, but totally worth it. I told myself that no matter how much I wanted to, these would not become my “stroke fabrics”. (you know the ones you pull out every once in a while, stroke them, and then put them back because they are too nice to cut into)
I’m so glad you liked the mini’s and that it touched you so deeply… isn’t that what sewing is all about?
Allison
LikeLike
I’ve fallen in love with Periscope and getting to know all you ladies out there with the same interest in quilting. It’s become my community as I’m not apart of a guild (for multiple reasons). It’s great to see you and hear you speak about your passion. Looking forward to next week!
LikeLike
That was so cool! Thanks for sharing the video. I so want to participate but periscope doesn’t have an app for windows smartphones. 😦 It’s funny how much this topic resonated with me as well. As a stay at home mom who’s moved around a lot (5 times in 4 years) I didn’t know any quilters other than those in our online community. The 2014 New Bloggers group was my life-line and where I met so many of you that I call my quilting friends. Being from rural Maine, dang you still got to a lot of in-person quilting events! I’m so excited to be going on my very first quilting retreat in a few weeks. I finally live close enough (45 minutes away) to my local modern quilt guild and just joined this month, but I still consider my online community my first guild.
LikeLike
And I completely forgot to mention how adorable those mini minis are from Allison. They are just so sweet!
LikeLike
Kitty, thanks so much for posting your Periscope video here so we non-smartphone people could tune in. It was terrific to finally meet you! Please, do it again sometime if it’s not too much of a pain 🙂 Living Downeast, I feel that my community is online–quilters like you who are generous with their art and their lives make me feel welcome to the quilting family. Snuffly Finn and fruitflies (yeah, we’re overrun, too) aside, I hope you are enjoying our gorgeous Maine fall–if only we could have a few of these days to take out and loll around in in February 🙂
LikeLike
Allison’s minis are the sweetest things and so obviously show the care and attention she put into them.
I’ll have to come back to watch the video. My supportive husband (and dog) would be woken by the sound if I played it now. Periscope is cool, eh? I have yet to try it. I would be nervous on film too.
LikeLike