Construction

On Friday I held a "Happy Village" class.

Ever since a blog friend sent me Karen Eckmeier's book years ago I have helped experienced and inexperienced quilters of all ages in making Happy Villages.  Happy Villages are taking over Japan!  (No... only in my local sphere of influence.)  I LOVE making Happy Villages!  But my friends in our patchwork group had never made any.  We were always too busy making quilts for good causes to start something of our own.  This month we were at a good starting point and so I brought homemade fabric packets from my stash and convinced the group that they were missing something if they didn't make a Happy Village.  Mrs. Furui supplied the batting and then we all sat around designing villages for something like 6 hours!

Mrs. H happily made her village not worrying about the choice of fabrics nor accepting my offer to cut other pieces more to her liking.  She followed my instructions to not think too much about constructing a village and instead to just start laying down fabrics.  Mrs. H seemed to be having a jolly time and by the end of the day had so much detail in her village that it will be a challenge to get it all quilted.

Mrs. S came late but she played around with the colorful pieces putting much thought to their placement and balance.

Mrs. F (you know who!) didn't enjoy the process of Village making at all!

"This is not my forte!  I don't know what I'm doing!  I have no idea about how the pieces should be placed.  All this randomness is driving me crazy!"  (Well, she said it in Japanese but that was the jist.)

And then there came our LCM...  Long time blog visitors know her as our Least Confident Member, who doesn't much like handwork (she's a pianist) but loves to chat with us. Our LCM keeps our group happy and laughing.  Occasionally she will stop telling us stories to help out with a few blocks or put in a few quilting stitches in her own quilt (that we FORCED her to make promising to help her over the rough spots ie., to do some of the work for her).

"Mrs. T, please join us and make a Happy Village!  We've got all the supplies here for you."

"No, no.  I just came to chat.  I've still got that quilt to work on." (Which she didn't bring... she really does come just to chat.)

"Too bad...  This project won't take months and years to do.  You might enjoy it."

A few minutes of watching the others and Mrs. T suddenly said,

"I'll do it!  What do I do first?" and she started in laying down her pieces.

"What made you change your mind?"

"If I don't participate in something occasionally you all might kick me out of the group!"

Which is untrue.  We love our LCM even though she doesn't quite understand quilters' passion.

From my position as instructor and observer I found it fascinating to watch my friends' villages grow.

The "thinker" agonized over the process...

"Yes, that's about right.  Her usual work is always so planned and organized and precise.  All this slapping down of pieces probably is very frustrating for her."

The slow pondering "construction worker" is always unruffled, always sweet and smiling.

The jolly village builder follows the directions closely but finds ways to make something her very own (she added birds in the sky from minuscule scraps found in the throwaway pile.)

And our LCM uses bright colors and does things her own way not caring in the least if her masterpiece is different from anyone elses'!  (Hmmm.  I caught this picture in the early stages...)

I had a very good day and I hope my friends enjoyed themselves.  At our next month's meeting we'll start machine quilting. Stay tuned!