Sweet Jan

The world could use more Jans, if you ask me. She is one of those people who goes way above and beyond when thinking of others. I'm blessed to have several people like her in my life, and I hope you know a few "Jans" also.

For the retreat, Jan was in charge of supplying the paper products. Her choosing this obligation stems from her freely admitting, "I don't cook. 'Cook' is a 4-letter word."

So there. Don't expect any part of Jan's sweetness to include homemade goodies. (She will, however, happily go to the market to get you something, or pay someone to make it.)

Back to those paper products. Now I, and probably most of you, too, would have just grabbed a stack of generic paper plates, a package of forks and knives, a pile of napkins and considered the obligation fulfilled. But not Jan. No way. She individually wrapped a knife, fork and spoon in a colorful napkin and tied it with a ribbon and a flower. When we began the retreat, there were at least 50 of these pretty napkins, and they made quite an attractive table alongside pink and green plates.

Here's the going above and beyond part, kicked up a notch. We each had an overflowing Easter basket full of good stuff - not just chocolate, either - waiting at our tables when we arrived. One item in the basket was the pattern and all the necessary parts for making a travel kit for carrying quilting supplies. Yeah, even the see-through, zip-lock dividers. And the batting. And the velcro. And the metal ring. Sweet!

And that's not all, in addition to the basket of goodies, we each got a bright kiwi green t-shirt embroidered with "Canter's Cave Quilt Camp 2015" on the upper left. Don't we look great?

Now, Jan is not all fun and goodies. She gets stuff done, too, by gosh. She is the quilter whom you've met here before with all the Lucy Boston blocks and projects. You can click back to see some of that stuff here and here. This year at retreat, she worked to finish a UFO made of various panels. The patterns for each panel were offered at a number of shops on a shop hop she did awhile back. She had a few of the panels made, and wanted to finish the rest and get the top sewn together while at retreat. She met her goal. Here are a few pics I grabbed of her work. I don't know which were made previously and which were made at retreat, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that her finish is fantastic.

 

And Jan had a Show and Tell, which I forgot to include in a previous post. This Churn Dash quilt is gorgeous from afar, but take a close up look and see the great detail she added to each block. What a sweet quilt!

I will finish this post about Jan by adding that she also taught a technique. I shared pictures of Laura teaching how to paper piece; well, I did not get any pictures of Jan teaching Lucy Boston. I really wish I'd gone over to learn a few things, but alas, I did not. JoAnn was taking it all in, though, and I think she will at some point have some LB blocks to show off.

 We "heart" you, Jan!

Happy Quilting, Friends!