The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn Show

GONE SEWIN

Visiting a Quilt Show is continuing education for a quilter. It is an opportunity to be creatively motivated, shop for new fabrics and gadgets and visit with old friends as well as receive inspiration from the beautiful quilts. The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn exhibited quilts, we call wall hangings at the Block Institute; 376 Bay 44th Street; Brooklyn, New York on April 17-18, 2010. Fortunately the Access a Ride driver chauffered us quickly from Manhattan to the Bay Parkway Exit from Highway #278 West.

Non quilters may be entertained by the other varied activities. A booklet for each visitor describes the quilts, the vendors and these related activities. A plastic glove was included in the program booklet for scrutiny of the exhibited quilts. In the exhibit space hostesses wearing white gloves also invited scrutiny. There were demonstrations of quilting and sewing techniques such as "sewing on a button." Dr. Myrah Brown Green gave a mini lecture on her recently published book on paper piecing--- Pieced Symbols:Quilt Blocks from the Global Village.

In one room members were actually making quilts! This charity activity demonstrated the generosity of members who contribute small, simple quilts for children in hospitals and Quilts of Valor for injured veterans. Members annonymously contribute completed quilts or contribute one of the three components at different stages. Members will next complete the quilt by adding either the top, the batting and backing. Some quilts are tied, others machine stitched as in the "stitch and turn" method.
The exhibited quilts were hung in the cafeteria where the lighting was not bright enough. The black drapes borrowed from the Empire Quilters Guild provided a somber background that enhanced the colorful hangings.
The Quilts:
*SANKOFA was dedicated to the Inauguration of President and Mrs. Obama.. The portraits in the center were handpainted by Doris Douglas. The surrounding blocks depict the symbols of the underground railroad mythology: crooked path, bow ties, northern star and log cabin. "We must know from whence we've come, in order to know where we are going."

*ROSEBUDS by Irene Lee combined hand applique with machine piecing and quilting. There was an inset border, a flange of orange surrounding each rose.
*MY FIRST TRIP TO A QUILT STORE/RECOVERY Melissa Price created this pattern with a strip pieced block divided into fourths. Completed by machine piecing with a black sashing.
*ALPHABET SOIREE by Micki Segel used graphic objects to describe each letter of the alphabet, each centered on a pink diamond. Hand appliqued and quilted.
*DARK GOLD by Mara Lurie, quilted by Janice Jamison. Firty six shadow box blocks with six inch African fabric squares. The black and gold sashing is part of each pieced block.
At this point a non-artist might ask "How long does it take to make a quilt?" I'll give you a clue. Years. Years to make a quilt, the sewing. ?And years to study how to sew a quilt. Quilters have various design techniques/or proceedures. But butying a kit at the local quilt shop or reading a book entitled "A quilt in a weekend" is not a solution.
*SPRING FLOWERS by Rosenelle Florencechild, a master hand quilter with feather quilting in a center medallion: Amish style circle in a square. Colors of aqua, pale salmon and chocolate browns were points on the sides. The large muslin squares showed off the white and dark thread hand stitched feathers and puffed flowers. It was not over quilted; it seemed to fly.

*ONE DROP RULE 81" x 73" Hand quilted by Kate Haller was a copy of a found scrapy quilt. It was just 'a little crazy' with several recognizable log cabin blocks.
*BEN'S GRADUATION QUILT Handquilted by Micki Segel had brightly colored striped fabrics in eight inch blocks that looked like strip piecing. The binding was black and white stripes.
*Author Anita G. Solomon, Rotary Cutting Revolution exhibited LIBERTY ARROWHEAD. This is a redesigned historic pattern from 1941. The machine quilting by Janice Petre was in parallel wavy lines undulating horizontally across.
*THE POOCH 37"X37" by Debbie Brekenridge. A seated dog sixteen inches tall with perked ears of brown and white triangles and squares.
*ORIENTAL MAGIC was the name of the pattern executed by Josina Dunkel. The Asian fabrics used a four patch with folded borders including a black flange.
The earth tones had a glow of goldeness.

There were three quilts from the winter Show at Lefferts House and the Audubon Center in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. Jennifer Horan's HENRY HUDSON'S FANTASY;Donna Rae's 400 HALVE MAEN (half moons);Ruby Horansky's HALF MOON. All designed for the 400 year anniversary of the Henry Hudson Voyage.

The 2010 Block Challenge required a 20% marbled chartreuse color block measuring 12½ by 12½. The theme "Think Green" had to include recognizable fabrics with fruits and vegetables. More than forty members participated. Visitors received a card for voting for your favorite.
The 2010 Museum Challenge required participants to submit a quilt accompanied by the quilter's written statement about a piece of artwork that served as their inspiration. A photograph of the art or scene in nature was placed next to the quilt. The thirteen quilts demonstrated a variety of techniques as well as a variety of inspirations.
A most unusual exhibit in the Quilt Show was Photographers Among Us coordinated by Michele Kucker. Quilters are photographers who use "frozen moments in time" as inspiration and as fabric imagery.
GoneSewin.com Shop in Hicksville, NY
Reporter
Myrna Williams

Bridge

Bridge is more than a card game.
When my first thought came to learn to play Bridge, I thought it was a card game. Perhaps you think so. This is my third semester at JASA. My teacher Mark Hyman hold the Manhattan Bridge Club Championship for 2006. He gives a lecture on a segment of the guidelines called rules. Then he passes out a set of already dealt cards. Based on the mornings lecture he watches us play. The "dealer" is marked as we pick up our thirteen cards. WE bid. Bidding is a prediction, a gamble.
That was my first clue that Bridge is not a card game. It is much more than four people sitting at a card table with fifty two cards between them. This bidding is called an auction. Each partnership, each two of the four players bids in the auction for the contract. The contract determines the score the partnership will make. This essay is not a detailed discussion of how to play Bridge. It is certainly not about how to score because I have not learned how to score.
This sounds strange to have a card game not yet about scoring. $180 later; Bridge is not just one game. It is several games in one.

First: the bidding
The play of the cards to win tricks
The scoring
The etiquette, the social aspect

A trick is stacking four cards on your side of the table. This bidding is about winning tricks. There are five ways to win tricks:
Ø highest card
Ø length in a suit
Ø finessing
Ø promotion
Ø trumping


To bid the two partners converse in a convoluted though mathematical syntax. If they predict the number of winning tricks they win points. This intriguing conversation is spoken in a hierarchy of suits: no trump, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, with a number. You describe your prediction to your partner with a number and a strain (a suit) This is calculated by counting the points in your hand primarily. Counting and recounting. This conversation is encrypted with bravado as one partner queries and the other partner responds. Then suddenly the other twosome partnership jumps into the auction.
If your partnership wins the contract one of you will play the cards form both hands. You may playa no trump game or a trump game. In no trump the highest card wins in all suits. In a trump game only the contracted suit wins. In order to win your contract you must plan. Planning means
Ø Deciding when to draw trumps
Ø When to play the higher cards
Ø When to ruff
Ø When to finesse
Ø When to promote
And most important
Ø when and how to lead from your hand.
The other two players, the defense do the same planning. This is all very unpredictable because every hand you are dealt is different. There are one quintillion possible hands to be dealt. That is 10 to the18th power Six sets of three zeros.
The social and emotional aspects of Bridge are immediately essential. You need four people, a quiet space a card table and four chairs. Bridge was played at JASA for many semesters with a board laid between four chairs.
The four players may not always be you friends, but you will need etiquette to control your conduct during the game. Emotional comments and chitchat are limited. This cordiality implies nice clothes and especially jewelry. The money spent can be on paying to play socially or tournaments, lessons, supervised play, books and unique playing cards.
What is called Bridge is a social activity that is many faceted.
Ø Memory: what to bid, what to respond?
Ø Mathematics: counting points in your hand and imagining the opponents' points
Ø Mindful strategy: when to play which card?
Ø Musical chairs: as you travel to play around town.
There are challenges to last a lifetime. One quintillion challenges!