Jinny Beyer Hilton Head Seminar Sigature Vest

 

I attended the Jinny Beyer Quilting Seminar on Hilton Head Island from the second year through many more years.

I created this blank vest in 1987 and had everyone sign it. 

This is the back of the vest and I also had people who were on it add a year if they returned in 1988 or 1999.

It was a fun project and I enjoy looking back at the names and remembering the friends I made and many I still keep in touch with.

32nd Anniversary Of The First Jinny Beyer Quilt Seminar At Hilton Head Island!

Around noon today Kaye Rhodes, Mary Nolan and I were reminiscing about the Jinny Beyer Seminar at Hilton Head Island.
The last seminar was held in 2009.

We each have wonderful happy memories from the years we attended.
Mary participated for 25 consecutive years - what a great record.
I now live in the same county Mary lived in many years ago!
Yes, it is a small world.

Of course Kay and I share a first name - even though she has an "e" at the end - I added an "e" when I was in junior high for a while!


One can not think Hilton Head Island without thinking of the iconic light house at Harbour Town.


My friends and I always arrived the weekend before the seminar began and spent our time shopping.


When we found this sign at a store we knew it was meant for us!


Even the coldest day ever on Hilton Head Island did not deter these us from our pursuit of 50% or more off!


This scene was repeated many times in the days before the seminar began!


Once the seminar began we were all business. Sally thought outside the box to create a "design wall".


I created this Violet pin in a class I took from Andrea Perkins.


This is the beginning of a Medallion style quilt from one of the first seminars.


This was the beginning of a King Size medallion quilt also started in an early seminar. I have scaled back my expectations and this will finish to be smaller than bed size.


This circular design created in a John Flynn class became the yoke area on a jacket. I finished the jacket and wore it to the Saturday banquet that year.



Each year on Friday there was a Beach Walk/Run and many of us created special garments to wear for it.


For many years we were privileged to see the Fairfield Fashion Show brought to us by none other than Donna Wilder. This was always one of my favorite parts of the seminar.


This was an outfit I created for the Fairfield Fashion Show and wore it for the banquet a few years later.


We had this photo taken of our group with Jinny Beyer at the closing of the 1985 seminar.

The banquet concluded the seminar each year and it was always bitter sweet.

The memories linger on, long after the last and final seminar in 2009.

The Way We Were

This photo was taken at a Jinny Beyer Seminar at Hilton Head Island a while ago. We tried to date it but couldn't.
From left to right, Donna Wilder, Kay Sorensen, Pam Gray and Jean Wells. We had just finished the one mile beach run.
Patchwork sweats were the fashion statement we were making. I made mine and Jean made Donna's and her own.



Donna and I have not seen each other for quite a few years. She and her husband Dan are here visiting now.
They arrived last night and after a little catching up we headed to The Villages to have dinner. We sat outside and thoroughly enjoyed listening to the music from the square while we ate. We walked over to see the dancers and walked around a little.

We then headed back to my house. We all visited and they both enjoyed looking at my blog books.

After Dan turned in for the night Donna and I sat up and visited until 1 a.m. We had so much to talk about and catch up with. It's great when you can get together with friends you haven't seen in a long time and just pick up the conversation where you left off!

Sentimental Journey

Recently I have had some wonderful experiences connecting with long lost friends and relatives I haven't see for years. The connections have been made with and without the aid of the Internet.


This is Threads Through Time. As I worked on it I felt a strong connection to my paternal grandmother. I thought about the similarities between the two of us and our differences. During the holidays I was looking through old photos and found photos of each of us at the same age. We could have been twins! I had never made that observation before. My grandmother also sewed and made quilts.
I have recently reconnected with 5 cousins who share the same grand parents. I had already had connected with several others. I now also know how my 2 surviving aunts who are 93 years old are doing.


Through The Years makes me think of friends who I had lost track of and recently made contact with. This includes high school friends, college friends, first job friends and quilting friends. These groups included friends I hadn't been in contact with for as much as 50 years. What a thrill to find them again.



For years I attended Jinny Beyer's Quilting Seminar on Hilton Head Island. For the 10th Anniversary of the seminar I designed the signature block and facilitated making this quilt top for Jinny. I made many friends through the seminar. As we all lead busy lives we lost contact over the years. I have reconnected with so many of them through Facebook.



This Lady Of The Lake quilt is significant because when I returned to Florida this year a long lost friend started talking about a lake in our area. I drove to the lake and also became interested in the history of our part of Florida. I am now reading the history of our county. We still have some "Old Florida" within a few miles but it is rapidly disappearing. Perhaps the current economy will help to slow down the disappearance of the natural beauty. We can hope.

I have so enjoyed reconnecting with everyone. Some nights after finding someone during that day or evening I am so excited I have a hard time getting to sleep. These connections are making my life much richer.


Recently I posted about the Quilt Art Altered Art Playing Card exchange I facilitated. After the post I heard from several of the participants. The cards for this puzzle are some of the ones I made for the exchange.

See How My Garden Grows (In fabric of course!)

See How My Garden Grows is a tesselation. I learned Jinny Beyer's method of doing tesselations and after figuring out I needed to do a tesselation starting with a triangle to get the calla lily effect I wanted there was no holding me back. I quickly drafted the pattern, chose fabric, stacked the fabric and cut several layers at a time. I eyeballed the seam allowance.
I was bound determined I would have several blocks pieced between the time I left the afternoon session and I returned that evening. I did. The only drawback to using this super quick method was accuracy was not as great as it should have been.
I was still able to make the 12 blocks, sew them together, design a border and attach it.
When I got it all pieced I'll have to admit the quilt had hills and valleys. What to do, what to do?
My solution was to use 2 layers of Hobb's wool batting and distribute the fullness throughout the quilt, hoping to quilt our the excess.
I'd like to share some closeups of the quilting with you as I feel the quilting designs really enhanced the design of this quilt.

Each block consists of a leaf and a small amount of the flamingo color background fabric. This also lets you see a closeup of a block. If you click to enlarge this you will see the quilting even better.

The quilt started with the patterned fabric. I dye painted it in a class with Judy Walter about 20 years ago. It was less that a half yard. The flamingo color fabric is a nice weight of cotton sateen decorator fabric. The value gradation of greens are from Jinny Beyer's Palette collection. The 2 darkest greens are from another fabric line.

Using 2 layers of batting definitely gave some depth and dimension to my quilting and allows you to see it very clearly. Probably the irregular surface also contributed to the depth of the quilting design. However I do not plan on doing a hills and valleys quilt top anytime soon again.
When the quilt was completed, but before it was bound, I wet it thoroughly and pinned it to my design wall to block it. Then I trimmed and bound it. I am pleased with the finished work even though the journey was anything but smooth.

Tonight's puzzle uses my favorite cut - lizzards!

Jinny Beyer Seminar Closing Banquet

Jinny always plans something special for the final banquet. For many years the entertainment at the banquet was the Fairfield Fashion Show. In this photo I am modeling Georgia Bonesteel's coat and dress. I don't know the title but it had everything you'd every need to make a quilt inside the coat.
This would be a good idea to make a similar garment and you would not have to pay for an extra suitcase when you travel. You could have one pocket for your stockings, another for your nightie, etc!

This is one of the outfits I made for the Fairfield Fashion Show. This is the official photo as I don't have a photo of it being modeled at Hilton Head.

The garments for the Fairfield show travel for about a year. When this was returned to me I wore it for the banquet one year.

One year we actually remembered to take some photos at the banquet. Many of you will recognize this quilter with me. The sweater I am wearing was one of my Hilton Head shopping purchases. I think it may have been 75% off!

This is our group of five who stayed together in the condo one year. We had to have a schedule arranging who got up first, how long they got to spend in the shower and who they woke up next. One of the people in the photo is my sister. Can you pick out which one she is?

We even were able to find Jinny to be a part of our picture. I can't tell you the year this was but I do know the seminar was still being held at the original Hilton Head Inn at the time, so it was probably one of the first 5 years.
When I started putting photos together for this trip down memory lane I couldn't find enough photos. Then I found an album filled with Hilton Head photos. You have just seen a few of them. I also have other projects I worked on at Hilton Head that you will see in the future.

I have enjoyed taking this trip down memory lane and I hope you have enjoyed it too.

As I write this post this years participants are probably all sitting at the beautifully decorated tables beginning their meals. I'm there with them in spirit, but it sure would have been great to be with them in person!
I'm sure they have all had a wonderful week and more tears will be shed at the end of this seminar than in the past since this is the grand finale.
Job well done Jinny and staff. You have certainly impacted many lives with your annual seminars. BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!

Beach Run and Stitch and Share

No matter what the weather during the week during the seminar on Friday at 4:30 the rain would stop, the sun would shine and hundreds of seminar participants were on the beach for a one mile run. All those who completed the race would be rewarded with T shirts with the Jinny Beyer Seminar logo in the "Color of the Year".

I participated every year. I have a collection of pristine T shirts that fill a whole drawer. You see, it was the thrill of the chase to get a T shirt each year, but I never wear T shirts!

One year I cut the bottom off mine, added that to the sleeves and attached fabric to the bottom to make a morning dress. I threw this on every morning when I got up while I stayed on the island to work on my quilts the following week.

After we received our T shirts we would change to our regular clothes, have a lovely dinner at the hotel and then gather our supplies to attend "Stitch and Share". This is a very relaxed function. Some sit and stitch and others wander around seeing what everyone else is working on or has brought to share.


In this photo I am admiring Carolyn's work. She attended more seminars than just about anyone. Her work is absoutely fantastic - both the workmanship and the way she uses color.


I am sharing my Japanese quilt with Diane in this photo. Each year Diane made it a point to take a photo with me in it and have it waiting for me the following year.


I developed a method of making miniature quilts with 1/4 inch or narrower strips using graph paper as a base. Here I am sharing them with Kathryn who also made precious and precise miniature quilts.

Stitch and Share was always one of my favorite parts of the seminar as it was very laid back and gave you a chance to see the work of the other participants up close in a way you could really appreciate it. You even got to touch it!

Thursday: Jinny Beyer workshops and Show and Tell

I took a class on making a doll pin from Andrea Perkins one year. I'm not a doll maker but Andrea's classes were too much fun so I took several from her. This is Violet. Of course Andrea also tells stories about the dolls.
This is Violet's story. Violet is from Wisconsin. Wisconsin's state flower is the violet so that is why she always wears that leather violet pin on her hat. Her hat is made from a piece of decorator fabric Kay purchased on one of her shopping expeditions earlier in the week and from a sample of Jinny Beyer fabric chosen to match her pin. She thinks the beaded feathers under her chin are so fashionable, even if they do tickle her when she moves the wrong way. She was so happy to be created in a class taught by Andrea as Andrea is originally from Wisconsin and Kay also lives in Wisconsin.

This large block is a work in progress started in one of the early Jinny Beyer seminars. My intentions are to add one or more borders to finish it. At one time I had planned on making it much larger. It certainly doesn't need to be much bigger than it is now.

I designed and made these blocks one year when the seminar theme was Medallion Quilts. I intended to make this a king size quilt to fit our bed. At the time I started this I thought all my quilts should be king size quilts! How many king size quilts does one family need? I have a basic layout sketched to make this. I will be scaling this back and making a generous size wall quilt with it. I still love the blocks as much as I did when I originally made them in one of the early seminars. The colors I chose were very unusual at the time. I have learned that these are colors that look good almost anywhere.

This very poor quality photo shows my quilt "Bordering On A New Millennium" being held up on stage for the Thursday evening show and tell of participants quilts. This was shown at the 2000 Seminar. You've seen this quilt on the Anderson Arts Center calendar in a previous post.

Robin Haller has sent me photos of 2 of her quilts. This one is called "Inner City, Outer Space". Robin attended about 10 of Jinny's seminars and you can see this is a wonderful example of things she learned. I'm so pleased to be able to share her quilts with you.

Cosmic Cube is another quilt by Robin. This quilt is a great example of how you can show the third dimension on a flat surface. I love both of her quilts so much. Robin has won a lot of contests with her gorgeous quilts. Robin and I last saw each other at Jinny's 25th Seminar.
Stay tuned as I will share two more posts with you as there are two more days left in Jinny's final Hilton Head Seminar.

Jinny Beyers Quilt Seminar has begun!

I took a class from John Flynn the morning before the opening of the seminar. This is my class project which I finished before the evening banquet. I brought it to show John I had finished it and to share with my friends. If you notice the slit in it that is because I chose to use it to make a jacket.


I had the jacket finished and wore it for the Saturday evening final banquet. The banquet photo where I am modeling this is in Florida so I am sharing this newpaper photo with you.
After the morning class we stopped at Signe's, one of our favorite places for lunch and also one of the very best bakeries anywhere.

Jinny welcomes everyone at the opening meeting, introduces the staff and introduces the seminar theme. We are divided into groups and we sit at a table with our group. Each table has one of Jinny's staff to help us when we have problems. Jinny was the first person to use a computer and projector to teach any quilting classes or lectures I was at.

After the afternoon meeting it was time to change clothes and get ready for the banquet that evening. The evening started with a lovely cocktail hour with excellent hor duevres and a chance to meet and visit with other participants and the staff.

More introductions were done at the banquet. I sat at the head table for the 10th Anniversary banquet. Since Jinny has a seminar coordinator she had no idea why I was sitting there. Here I am presenting our surprise to Jinny.


During the previous summer I contacted the participants and any past participant I knew to create a special quilt top for Jinny for the 10th Anniversary. I sent each person a pattern and instructions to make a block with Jinny Beyer fabric. People returned the completed blocks to me and I assembled the quilt top. I felt bad that I didn't have time to get it quilted. It actually proved to be a life saver for Jinny as she was able to quilt it while recovering from surgery on her knee.

This is a closer view of the center area of the quilt.



This is a close up view so you can see the signatures and the block.


In this photo of the top right corner you can see I used one of Jinny's border prints as a border on the quilt. The finished size of the quilt is BIG! I don't have any measurements. I do know that I had to take it up to the high school and lay it out on the gymnasium floor to see how the blocks blended together. I had to go climb up to the balcony to see it.

I haven't had a puzzle for a few days so I am giving you one that is very easy. A sister of one of the people who's signature is on on of these blocks has not done the puzzles so this is for her, and also for the husband of the person named on the block!