Okay, everyone with me. 1, 2, 3… Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Cyyyyynthia, Happy Birthday to you!… Aaand many mooooore! Yay! Yup, it’s her Birthday and to celebrate I thought I would post this! If you’ve ever chatted with Cynthia online, you’ll know how lovely and bubbly she is, which I think comes across like crazy in this interview. (But, um… I’m kind of biased.)

In the summer of 2010 I saw a tweet from Lesley Stenning talking about a call out for a new group called the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Hmm, seemed interesting. I attended that “keener” meeting as it was nicknamed. Holly the founder the Vancouver group asked us to put a dot on a map where we all lived. Everyone’s dots clustered in Vancouver. My dot, well… it was about 5 inches to the right of all those dots. It took me over an hour to drive out to the meeting but I was willing to do that since I hadn’t met anyone out in my area that was interested in fabric and quilting let alone modern quilting.

The “official” VMQG meeting was scheduled a few weeks later. Holly generously offered to put me in touch with a few people out my way. Perhaps we could carpool? One of those people Holly email introduced me to was Cynthia. We instantly hit it off emailing back and forth. We made arrangements to go to the next VMQG meeting. Luckily we hit it off in person too and enjoyed the meeting and our drive. However, we did realize that our drive was as long as the meeting. As we drove home we chatted and figured we couldn’t be the only two people in the Fraser Valley that were interested in modern quilting . It was decided. We would start our own guild. Cynthia set up our online presence and I secured our meeting space, Quilt Essentials, a local fabric in Abbotsford at the time. The rest you could say was Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild history. In hindsight, we really didn’t know each other at the time but what fun we’ve had ever since! Plus, I’ve had the pleasure of learning from and watching Cynthia accomplish such awesome things. Like designing fabric for Robert Kaufman!

1. Of all the people I’ve interviewed, you’re kind of the trickiest because I know you so well. What are three things about your stash that would surprise me? Hehe my kindred sista from another mista! I don’t think you’ve seen a lot of my stash lately, it’s always changing. Three things that might be surprising, hmmm…

 3. Kind of an add on question to number 2. Picasso had his blue period and thinking about your go to colours, did you have a particular colour scheme say, in the 80s, 90s and the early 2000s? Black, black, and black for all three. No colour. The “Moody Broody Artist Chic” decades! Decades I tell ya!

I didn’t do quilting until most recently, so it was mostly garment sewing I did up ’til modern fabrics started appearing on the scene. Then I started being brave and accepting and using colour, purple was first. Now it’s all colour all the time and I rarely use black!

4. You collect vintage fabric… where is the oddest place you ever found treasure? Oh man! I found some pieces of vintage (1977) Marimekko shoved in a plastic bag in a shoe bin at one of the local thrifts. I saw the brilliant turquoise peeking out & was like hey. That looks like something. And it sure was!

That I actually am saving and have’t used yet. It needs the perfect project to showcase the large-scale print.

You always can find stuff at the bottom of bins where nobody dares stick their hands. That’s where the good stuff is!

5. You walk into the room where your stash is stored, Starr and Charlie have been having a grand time playing tug of war with your fabric. What 3 pieces of fabric doyou scramble to make sure they haven’t touched? Is there a particular reason they are your three favourite pieces? Honestly nothing is truly sacred other than my super duper old vintage pieces like one I have from my great gran, a hand beaded and embellished floral strip on net/tulle, with silk ribbons, silver beads, and truly vintage touches. It’s very fragile so I keep it stored way up high in a latched suitcase where my furry friends can’t get it. I love it because it’s truly handmade, likely from a beautiful 1800’s dress, and I like to imagine the story behind it, where it came from, and why my great gran so carefully kept it tucked away, and having it pass down to me is really cool.

I might also get pissed if they touched “my” stash- the sample yardage pieces of fabrics that I designed for Robert Kaufman, they are like my babies!

“Hello Cynthiaf, nice to meet you!”

Drawn November 2012

14″tall, 11″ wide, 2″deep

SOLD

Otherwise I think I would get a giggle them playing with my stuff, they always like to come and see what I’m doing and help me! As long as they don’t actually eat it, it’s all good.

We have our sit on the quilt for a photo thing too, as soon as I lay out a quilt on the floor to baste or take a photo, they go sit on it and wait for me to take a photo. It’s very hilarious!

My good friend Cathy was given a surprise birthday party back in April. Yay!  Unfortunately it was the last night of our guild  hosting Happy Zombie so I wasn’t able to make it. Boo! But later I gave her a wood 6 inch square canvas and told her I’d draw what ever she wanted on it.  To my delight Cathy landed on the idea of her favourite buttons. Yay! I love buttons and together we came up with the idea of turning the drawing into a clock. Yay! Her buttons were quite large so I had to scale them down to fit. That’s one boo and three yays! The yays win!

Cathy and I have an mutual adoration for buttons and get weak in the knees for our favourite ones.  I think it’s fair to say it’s the same affliction we have for notions and trims, which I suppose might seem strange to some, unless you have the same affliction. Lucky for Cathy, she own’s Stream Trunk Craftworks so she can get her fix through her store. Lucky for me, not only do I get to draw a lot of her trims notions and now buttons. Cathy has has been one of my biggest cheerleaders.  She has always been very generous with her encouragement, she’s commissioned my work and more recently licensed my work, for which I’m very honoured and grateful.   Plus she’s just so darn cute, smiley, sweet and can give it to you straight, which I really appreciate. Not to mention she has a great giggle!

I know, I thought I was a goner too! Last thing I remember is looking forward to summer then…POOF! Summer was over. Where did the time go? Now that school is back, oddly enough it seems like all we’ve been doing is… partying!

My Birthday was on the 6th and I had a wonderful day at the Little White House in Fort Langley, again. I know, I know I did that last year but in all fairness I almost forgot about doing anything for my birthday in the midst of the back to school hoopla, so I figured celebrating at the Little White House again would still be fun. And it was! I was joined my my good friends, Cynthia and Trudy…

And my good friend Hana!

They spoiled me rotten!

Vintage buttons, button fabric! Oh they know me so well!

Then of course, this was the present my husband gave to me! I know for a fact he snuck into Favourite Gifts and bought it! Made by The Loving Spoon.

The following week our guild had our third anniversary party! Third! It’s so hard to believe it’s been three years already! I did plan on taking some pictures but I was to busy partying! BUT Carol Browne, photographer, blogger and all around crafty type did! Phew, thank goodness! Although, you gotta keep your eye on her, you never know when she’s taking your picture!

And then! To top off the week it was my youngest son’s birthday. Why is he wearing a Jason mask you ask? He was born on the 13th and his birthday this year was on a Friday. He wasn’t born a Friday though, so we didn’t name him Jason.

Party on Garth!