Sewing With Nancy

Book club members are often inquisitive minded. You know the premise, read a book get together to discuss or debate the topic and then eat. Not so with the Cover to Cover book club. They discuss their books through creating quilts. Welcome Dianne Kane and Joanne MacNaughton who join us via Skype from Portland, Oregon. Welcome Joanne and Dianne. Thank you. This is a fascinating book club. Dianne, will you give a brief overview of your group of 11? Sure, the group started in about 2000. It was a group of ladies that were quilting together at a local shop and one of them decided we needed to challenge ourselves and work a little harder at this. They decided they would read a book and then create a quilt that was inspired by the book. There are 11 of us now. Three original members are still with us. We live in the Portland, Oregon Vancouver/Washington area. We read two books a year. We feel like we have a really nice diverse group now. We all use a lot of different kinds of techniques and we think that helps create a really interesting show for our viewers. And Joanne, the book that we're going to discuss via quilts is an interesting title. Could you share that with our viewers please? Hugo Cabret. It's a book about a young boy who ends up living in a railway station in Paris. His father passes away. It has to do with a clock in the train station with gears, etc, etc. It's quite a powerful story. This is a perfect transition because the first quilt that we're going to share with our viewers is by your group member Linda Reinent and it's called "Gears." Tell us a little about this quilt. Linda does a lot of quilts with circles so she really wanted to use her circle technique to create this piece. It's a fairly large piece. It displays well, people love looking at it. Linda's done a great job creating it. She's a Master Quilter too so from up close it's a beautiful piece of work. Like you said, these are masterfully done. I mean, not little wall hangings quickly done this is a real art. Judith Phelps also did one called "Value of Gears," Joanne. Tell us your insights into that quilt. Truly in my life I have never seen anything as masterful as Judith's quilts. I believe she draws first, and paints and then it's all stitchery. It's precise and it's simply magnificent. It is. That quilt, I think, is only one-sided. Nope, it's two. Okay, it's two-sided. It's all done with thread, so we always tell people make sure you look at the back because the back is just as interesting as the front. Oh, my. Dianne, your quilt is called "Suspended in Time." Yes, I knew I wanted to create a piece that would represent the gears. We have an opportunity every year this was year number four to display our quilts at the Sisters Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show. So our quilts hang on clotheslines and they move in the wind. I wanted to create a piece that you would be able to look through. So the black background that you see on the photograph is simply the backdrop for the photograph. When you look a that quilt hanging on the line you can see through those holes. You have openings. I do, yes. One of those openings was not supposed to be there but I couldn't get all the pieces in the middle to match so I thought oh, I'll just make a hole like I did with the others. And I love the effect. And then when I found the clock gears I knew I'd found the perfect piece to hold all those circles together. Nice. Thank you. Joanne, your quilt is up next. I love the quilt that I made because it makes me think of the times that my husband and I have been able to travel in Europe. Typically, the buildings that I portrayed are the kinds of buildings that I have seen on our travels. I thought the cafe could fit into that. It's lovely. Then our final quilt, and to close our segment by Pat Busby is "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." She gave it the same name of the book. Yes. Pat is one of our Masters. She and Joanne are two of the members that have been with us since we started. Pat starts by reading the book and then she's able to combine all the components into some masterful artwork that she creates. Then she builds from that. That is a huge quilt as well, it's-- I'm not sure. It would certainly cover a full-size bed perhaps even a queen-size. It's just a stunning piece of work. It's one of those that you have to just keep coming up and looking at because each time you look at a different part you see different things that she's done. Well, Dianne and Joanne wonderful time to see what variety comes from a book, the inspiration. And I know others will join you in perhaps, doing this is their book club. Thank you for joining us. We hope so, thank you. Thank you. And thank you for joining us during this three-part series on "The Absolute Easiest Way to Sew." Now also go to nancyzieman.com and watch many other shows, re-watch this one and also join us via social media. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.