Bill Stearman, Quilt Maker

A couple of weeks ago, I met the most amazing young woman named Molly.  It was love at first sight!  And since her mother had three other kids to deal with, she let Molly hang out with me for a few hours ... So ... I figured that if she could hang with me for that long, she was `Quilt Worthy`.  I`m still working on it, and want to use it for Show and Tell at our next Guild Meeting, but, this one is called ...  `Love For Molly - Always`.

With all of that fabric, I really needed to play with colour, light, and movement to see what I can do with it all. Here is some of my play ...

Dyeing ... That pretty much sums up how I have spent much of my time since September.  I LOVE the fabric that I am encouraging and so look forward to using it to tell my stories.

In September I went back to Chester, Vermont, for the Fall Men`s Quilting Retreat.  I love the Fullerton Inn.  She is a grand old lady, staffed by the friendliest people! And I love the guys who attend this retreat with me! I worked much of the time with some of my hand dyed fabric with Kona Mushroom, which is a colour that seems to set off mt fabric so well. This piece, when it is done, will tell a story of finding yourself. Until then ... it remains yet another UFO ... :-)

In June, I traveled back to Chester, Vermont for a retreat with the Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild.  What a great bunch of folks!   They pushed my boundaries and `made`me buy some `modern`fabric.   I ended up using this fabric to make a lap quilt for my daughter.  These are NOT my usual colours, but she REALLY liked them.  So ... the name for this one is ... `Not My Box of Crayons - a Father`s Love`. Some of the other fabric that I bought became a UFO.  I`m hoping to quilt it in a `plaid` pattern, which is far more ME than the fabric in the quilt! And somehow, they even talked me into buying flannel!  Flannel is about my least favourite fabric to work with!  And somehow, they even got me to agree to use a pattern to make a quilt with! This one is for my husband, Larry.  He is cold from September until June, I think ... so he likes this one.  A lot.  I called this one simply ... `Love For Larry`. ...

In the Spring, I heard that my quilt from the `No Girls`show at Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum was going to be in the December-January issue of Quilters Newsletter.  I was excited, but kept it under my hat until I actually saw it in print. Then in the summer, I heard that the magazine was folding after 47 years of publication ... and that the October-November issue would be the last.  I was thankful that I hadn`t jumped the gun with my excitement. You can imagine my surprise in September when an early copy of the October-November issue arrived in my mailbox, WITH a picture of my quilt included. So ... I can now say that I have been published in an international quilt magazine.  I try to leave out the part where my quilt might have fame for helping with the demise of a great magazine! LOL

I have come to love this show put on by the York Heritage Guild, at Black Creek Pioneer Village in July. I put three quilts in it this year. As always, I was totally impressed with the show!  It has many beautiful tradition quilts, hanging with incredibly innovative modern quilts.  And all hung amid the history of the Black Creek site ... AMAZING!