Berlin- Brandenburg Quilters Meeting

A few weeks ago I joined a Yahoo German Quilt group...it is helping me with my German. I can write my messages in German, and practice a bit more...on a topic I love!

Marga, a member, who lives close by, sent me a private email to invite me to the above group. I bundled up my nerves and went along.

The yahoo quilt group I belong to in Australia calls meeting people from the internet, "meeting axe murderers".

When I arrived I introduced myself at the doors, and was asked who told me about the group.

I say "Marga, but I don't know her last name, I talked to her on the internet"

She replies "Ahh Marga.....yes, I will introduce her to you"

So, I met Marga, and a few other ladies at her table. There was some talk about new exhibitions, a big quilt show coming up in June, and other stuff. It was spoken in normal German speed, which I am not terrific at....so I missed a lot of it, but that will all come in time. There was show and tell, with some divine quilting and lovely quilts, wall hangings, bags. Marga wanted to know if I had bought anything for Show and Tell....no not this time....perhaps next meeting (they meet once a month). 

We watched a short film about a weaver in Southern Germany....he was 88, and travels to peoples homes. The owner supplies all the wool, and he weaves these amazing pieces of cloth, which the owner then makes into clothing. He made a piece that was about 1 metre wide, and just over 7 metres long. It took him 3 days in total to complete, the woman paid him 80 DeutscheMark....about 40 Euros in today's currency! Man....so much work for such a small amount of money. The accents were very thick, and even Marga had trouble understanding some of it.....and some of the film had German subtitles.

So, I joined the group, bought a pin, and a CD with all the show and tell from May 2005 -Dec 2006.

The CD has over 350 photos to look at...I had a quick look this morning, and there is some lovely things on the CD. Above is the logo of the group, that is part of a friendship quilt. It looks like each member made a star, and signed their name on their block, and it was all sewn together. It is a lovely quilt! Marga is an amazing applique quilter...she thinks she will be able to turn my into a hand quilter.....my Sydney quilting group will be howling with laughter with this one.....usually I don't even use the "A" word....we will see!!!! :) Marga invited me to her place on Tuesday for a sewing day. Unfortunately I have already agreed to help out at Alexander's school trip to the Egyptian Museum, but I will try to go to the next one. I wish I had have met this group when I first got to Berlin. I think this would really have helped with my quilting, and my German, and getting to know where the quilt shops in Berlin are...and internet shopping a lot earlier! (Although I think this is a bonus to the credit card) See, the internet really can be a helpful resource!