A Tale of Two Bubbies

A Bubby is more than a buddy –  she’s your bosom friend; she’s  your BFF; she’s your soul  sister; and she’s your partner in  crime when it comes to all  things ‘quilty’. Well, my Bubby  and I have been friends now for  over twenty years and yet,  somehow it feels as though I’ve  known her my entire life… and  then there are times when I feel  as though we’ve just met yesterday and there’s still so much to get to know about each other that it will take the rest of our lives. True friendship is weird like that.

We’ve had some great times over the years and have shared quite a few quilting events such as classes, quilt shows, and even a Quilt Canada conference. We’ve had our own little Shop Hops, done ‘block of the months’ together, gone to quilt shop openings and been there for closings, and attended many, many quilt shop sales.

A few years back, when I moved 500 km. away, we thought we’d lose touch and miss out on all of our wonderful experiences, and therefore desperately made a pact to meet once a year at our favourite quilt show and have our own quilter’s retreat. I am proud to say that we haven’t missed a year yet! And thanks to the internet we have kept in touch even more by creating our own ‘cyber’ quilting bee, participating in fun events such as the online Civil War block of the week with quilt historian, Barbara Brackman in 2011. We both created our own version of that beautiful quilt and each contributed a block to the ‘thank you’ quilt gifted to Barbara that Christmas.

This past April when we met at our annual Bubby Vacation in Red Deer, I surprised my Bubby with a Civil War style quilt to commemorate our twenty year anniversary. I had chosen a Sister’s Choice block from Bonnie Hunter’s free patterns and made two quilts that are almost identical… sister quilts, so to speak. I chuckle every time I see this photo as it appears that we’ve sliced one quilt into two pieces, but it’s just the way we happen to be holding them.

This winter we are doing  another cyber quilting bee, self  directed this time, by choosing  a pattern and creating a block  every two weeks, in the hopes  of having it finished in time for  Show and Tell at our  Bubbification Vacation in April  2015. We have a commitment to email photos of our progress each week to keep on track and so far we’ve finished our center medallions and four of our blocks. Keep watching here to see photos of my progress and perhaps by April you will see both quilts  complete… fingers crossed.