Quilting smiles and tears

First the tears...

Last week my first and most important to me online quilting group lost a very dear friend. When I was a beginning quilter I was also active on Usenet, which shows my age, and I was welcomed into the fold of rec.crafts.textiles.quilting aka r.c.t.q This group covered the globe and I have many good friends from there, now mostly on facebook, the majority of whom I have never met. One of those early online friends was a forthright New Mexican lady called Sarah Curry, mostly known as Miz Sairey.  She was encouraging to me as a newbie and always inspired me to do my best. Sadly Miz Sairey left this world last week and I hope she is now somewhere enjoying talking "off topic" with a bunch of quilters while drinking a cold beer.  Other quilting friends have written their own tributes, here is Nann's.

RCTQ also has a history of making group quilts for members and others in need of a hug, because we were spread around the world and could not meet up to make these quilts or comfort those in need in person we mailed (and still do so) the blocks to a coordinator who made sure the whole thing happened as planned, the quilts became known as HUG quilts, or just HUGS.  With a HUG the whole is definitely greater than the parts and I have sent blocks in many times and also had the honour of being "hug mom" for two HUGS.  Miz Sairey put it all into words better than I ever could, and at the end she was wrapped in her HUG from many years back infused with the love of her r.c.t.q. friends.  Here is her description of a HUG as posted on RCTQ on Usenet over 20 years ago:

"This is the story of The HUG Quilt.

Reprinted with permission of Miss Sarah Curry, Taos NM:

I've been on long enough, folks (although NOT since the earth cooled, as some might think 🙂 ) to jump in here. Until recently, I thought I'd received the very first HUG-quilt (which is indeed ENORMOUS, and breathtakingly beautiful, and the source of a number of really close friendships). I wasn't, turns out. I was the recipient of the first quilt CALLED a "HUG", and the name stuck, somehow (well, it FITS!).

Magic Mike received the first quilt of the genre, and that's fitting, too. Mike has been under the weather of late (noticed the question about how he and Dave are doing tonight), but he's one of the true GIVE-ers or the Universe. And it's a lovely thing, that Mike received the first HUG-quilt.

Now. Although HUG-quilts are USUALLY because someone's having a hard time of it, one way or another (and each HUG is different, and for different reasons) (and after all, that's when HUGs are perhaps most important), there have been some just-for-fun ones, too.

And as I recall, first came Magic Mike's HUG (not called that, but the same principle) -- folks got together and made blocks (more often than not, we sorta do this "behind people's backs"), and gave Mike a quilt --in his case (I don't think he was ill, then, but I'd not got here, then), mostly to show just how much he was loved and appreciated.

Mine was next.

And then, one of our favorite people, Ruth Evans (others will have the links to this one -- I'm not the link-meister), who was one of everyone's favorites (and one of the really quiet ones -- she mostly hosted swaps, and didn't join in on the ng banter, although many, many of us corresponded with her, privately) posted that she had cancer. And we got together and made blocks for a HUG-quilt for Ruth, for her to take to chemo with her, and the like. This one wasn't a secret. We ASKED what colors she liked (hunter green, burgundy, and navy). And so many blocks poured in that there were simply too many for one quilt. The "Atlanta Bunch" (where the heck have Jean and Cher and the rest of that bunch been, lately, come to think of it?) assembled the blocks, into just a beautiful, beautiful quilt top. BUT. Before we even reached the deadline for submitting the blocks, Ruth Evans died. She was terribly young. She was a teacher, and she was a delight. We finished the quilt (Ruth's Quilt I (RQI) which has been given to her family), and finished the second quilt (RQ2), which we raffled on this newsgroup, and made over $3500 to donate to the charity Ruth barely had time to designate before she died (proceeds from RQ2 go to teachers for advanced education in Caldwell, Idaho).

Since then, there have been many HUGs. Some are complete quilts. Some are blocks for quilts. Some are very public (the James Byrd Reconciliation Quilt was one of those, as was the Columbine Quilt; bothhave links you can find). Some are very private.

And so. What is a HUG?

A HUG is bits of fabric put together with love and understanding – and sometimes, a serious case of stitching-out-the-pain, for some of us who cannot BE there to administer the real, personal HUGs. A HUG is one way (sometimes the only way we have, in this chunk of cyber-space, this big quilting bee many of us have depended on in ways we can never fully explain) to put our arms around someone (and each other); to reach out and say "I wish I could be there with/for you, in person, but I can't, and this will just have to do, at least for now." A HUG wraps the absolute Caring that goes on in this newsgroup into a tangible package for someone to touch, and feel, and cuddle down into when times are tough. Sometimes, a HUG is all we have, when words aren't enough.

Now, don't think for an instant that HUGs are ALL sadness and tragedy. Not by a long shot, they aren't. There's almost always a lot of LAUGHTER stitched into each HUG, and a lot of shared good-times. Lots of puns get worked into many of the HUG-blocks, and lots of the things we've just LEARNED about each other, from time to time. Lots of rainbows and butterfly wings and sunshine and flowers and just downright-silly-giggles, too.

There is an astonishing amount of POWER in a HUG, folks. Lightning and thunder and some really sharp edges and planes. Anger, sometimes, in a HUG. A good, clean kind of anger. A HUG is for Friendship and Family. A HUG helps with fear and pain. A HUG is for Laughter and good times and spinning around the room in a happy-dance.

A HUG is all the things quilters do, for all the reasons they do the things they do. But because mostly, quilters do what they do because they CARE so very deeply, and simply understand the perfect beauty of a HUG, the quilters here on RCTQ just HUG, from time to time.

Happy Trails, and many HUGs,

Sairey

So now onto the smiles...

One of our quilting acronyms that may be used less now but was certainly a common term on RCTQ is S.E.X. or Stash Enhancement eXperience, or eXpedition - fabric shopping!

Last week I was away on business in San Antonio, Texas and oh boy was it hot for this Englishwoman! Outside of my work hours I did manage some S.E.X., visiting three LQS (local quilt shops) and enhanced my stash at each.  Here are my new acquisitions:

 

I visited Las Colchas, Mesquite Bean Fabrics and Memories By The Yard.  All made me feel most welcome and each had their own character and style so I was able to find different and pleasing things in each store.  I shall definitely be visiting again next time I am in San Antonio.