First Quilt Convention in Greece

 Hello to all my friends ,I have dropped out for a long while as you can tell.  So much has happened and the most exciting thing is the first ever Quilt Convention in Greece , the organizer is my dear friend Kristine in the city in which she lives Thessaloniki  And the place that hosted it was at the Cities Y.M.C.A  it is a huge beautiful classical building in the center of the City very near the water. I traveled  by train with my friends Madelyn and Rachel and the first thing we did after checking in at our hotel is to go out to eat and there they are above waiting for our dinner to arrive . There were six lovely ladies coming over from the U.S.A to teach various techniques in quilting ,about color theory ,art quilting,Dresden plate,cathedral window,stain glass window,free motion quilting,paper piecing and beginners quilting.

 Women traveled from all over Greece to take part ,my friend Matoula which showed an interest traveled from Aigio which is even further away.  Here we are the day before after setting up the quilts on a ride on an old Sail boat called Liberty which was built in 1934 on the island of Samos and took place in the 2nd world war and is now docked on the port on Thessaloniki , the new owner has turned it into a coffee /bar so for the price of any beverage you get to enjoy a half hour cruise on the  Thermaic Gulf 

 And we also took photos with the White Tower.

 And this is a photo of the quilts displayed ,there were tradition and also a Greek Challenge .  I entered my spider web quilt and a Greek Challenge .  I must tell you that Kristine had mentioned to me she needed a translator and just then Ada which lives in Sparti left a comment on my blog and I got to thinking maybe she would like to come up to be a translator ,so we connected and she came up and we even stayed in the same room with Matoula and I .

Here I am in my first workshop holding Notions Patricia's dog ,we are doing the Dresden Plate  our Teacher was Patricia McCartney from Trinity Texas . Patricia is the best she brought us all mats and cutters and sewing kits along with kits with patterns and olfa cutters it was like Christmas.

Everybody was excited and started working  and Patricia's dog Notions in sitting in the middle watching us ( he is a stuffed toy dog ,but don't tell Patricia that) Notions traveled all the way from Texas .

Here is Matoula proud of her work and Ada is sitting beside her.

We had lunch breaks and coffee breaks brought to us by Thomas and Kristine ,they were the best hosts ever they worked so hard to make this happen.

Here is Rachel and Ada on the Liberty after the second day enjoying a beverage ,but the ride was short due to too many waves.

Here is the Second workshop and my teacher was Patricia again,we did stain glass window and cathedral window, all the ladies are working hard to finish there windows.

Here is Kristine and Thomas serving us coffee and sweets we were so pampered .

A group photo with our teacher holding Notions .

Matoula with Patricia at the end of all the workshops. we all helped carry machines down stairs and to be taken back to the local Singer shop which was donated by the owner Alex. We visited his shop and purchased some supplies, he carries various products for quilting.

We walked in the rain.

On the last evening we went to Kristine's house to use her quilt machine which was so much fun ,we all got a turn , here is Rachel .

This is Ada having a turn.

And here is Matoulas chance ,Kristine is in the black dress always showing and explaining none stop.

This is my Greek Challenge ,I quilted it in ten days after putting it together and sewed the binding while on the train.

This is Madelyn's Greek Challenge.

This is the morning of the last day and the director of the Y.M.C.A is giving a her speech thanking everyone for there participation.

And here is Kristine which had given a wonderful speech
BUSINESS MISSION STATEMENT
TOQUILTORKNOT.COM
The misson of toquiltorknot.com is three-fold: to bring and expose quilting in all of its forms to the country of Greece, to use quilted gifts to love people less fortunate with the love of Christ specifically orphans, widows, the aged, and women who have been rescued from a life of trafficking, and to help poor, disadvantaged women establish viable business ventures using quilted products as their medium of sale.

 Kristine gave special thanks to the six women that had come to teach .  And her goal to make quilting known in Greece and how it can help women go to Kristine's site on the link above to find out more about Kristine.

It was a most enjoyable four days spent here at the Quilt Convention and I hope it will happen again next year . I also hope women sign up for quilt classes and more and more women start quilting .  I wish all of you enjoyed my trip and hope you have a nice day.