Monthly eBurst
Join us to help save the stories of quilts and their makers!
We've Got a Quilt Story for You!
Episode #20 is sponsored by:
Meet Marianne Fons and tour her boathouse studio on Lake Michigan
Summer is coming to a close for us in America, and for Marianne Fons that means an annual retreat to her home on Washington Island in beautiful northern Door County, Wisconsin. StoryBee host Frances O'Roark Dowell joined Marianne there recently via web conference for an interview and tour.

Marianne Fons is well known to quilters nationwide as a longtime public television host of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting and as an author and lecturer. With Liz Porter, Marianne authored Quilter’s Complete Guide, one of the best selling quilting books of all time, published in 1993 and being reprinted in 2019 by Dover Publications. Marianne Fons and Liz Porter were the 2019 inductees into the Quilters Hall of Fame.
 
Marianne served on the board of directors of Quilts of Valor Foundation for many years. She helped establish the Iowa Quilt Museum in 2016, and in 2017 reopened the Iowa Theater, both in her hometown of Winterset, Iowa.

StoryBee presents stories recorded remotely in the studios, offices and home workspaces of our interviewees and is shared directly and only with our members. Just like you bring your best thimble and your best stories to a quilting bee, we bring you special slices of life from across the quilt world. 

September Membership Incentives

Begin or Renew your Quilt Alliance membership today to be entered into the Quilt Alliance Membership Drawing each month. All current members as of September 30 will be automatically entered to win a Quilt Alliance t-shirt. It could be you! Thank you gifts for new and renewing members are also offered this month by The Quilting Company and Vikki Pignatelli. Find out more on our membership page.
Remembering Quilting Friends: Documentation from the heart.
Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! videos often reveal personal stories about the people, events, places, or ideas that inspired the quilt shared. Sacred Threads artist Christina Blais shared the story of her quilt in a Go Tell It! video recorded by QA staff member Emma Parker. "Lachrymose" mourns the loss of friend and fellow quiltmaker, Karen Loprete. Karen was a member of the Quilt Alliance and made quilts for three of our annual contests.

Have you made quilts inspired or influenced by a fellow artist? Has the work of another quiltmaker touched you or taught you in a unique way? We encourage you to record your story. Preserve this memory for yourself, for the friends and family of your inspiration (and for the sake of history). The Go Tell It! project was designed to be a public project, and do-it-yourself instructions are available on the Quilt Alliance website.
...
See the rest of this story: watch Christina's video, see Karen's quilts and find out how to record and submit your own Go Tell It! video on our blog here.
QSOS Listener Contest:
Listen & Answer to Win !
The Quilt Alliance’s keystone project, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories, or QSOS, celebrates an important birthday this year, marking two decades of preserving the voices of today’s quiltmakers. This unique oral history collection, the largest of its kind in the world, includes over 1,200 interviews with quiltmakers.

Quilt Alliance past president Janneken Smucker was interviewed for QSOS at West Chester University by student Andrew Politsky in 2016 . In her recorded and transcribed interview, Janneken talks about growing up in a modern Mennonite family with a tradition of quilting. She made her first quilt in high school and then continued in college.

What did Janneken do to encourage her college friends to quilt with her?


This month's prize: Thread Up with Grunge (Small) by Aurifil: 100% Aurifil Cotton, 10 Small Spools, 50wt (220yds/spool)

All entries must be received by 12pm EDT on September 30, 2019; winner announced by Oct.19, 2019. Previous QSOS Listener Contest winners are not eligible to win. Congratulations to Brigit Dermott, our August Winner!
It's Puzzle Time!
Enjoy the September Quilt Jigsaw Puzzle! Again this month, we feature a quilt from the Quilt Alliance contest archives.

This month's quilt was made by Amy Munson of Bismarck, North Dakota for the 2016 Quilt Alliance contest and auction, Playing Favorites and it was chosen for a Judge's Choice award by Marianne Fons.
 
Be sure to  sign up for our blog notifications  so that you don't miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Good luck!