Quilts and NASA.

I've just left the lecture hall where three of our very talented Aussie quilters were the featured speakers. Carolyn Konig, Di Ford Hall and Michelle Yeo spoke about their quilts and gave a brief history of quilting in Australia. The room was full, their talk was very well received and many asked questions about sourcing their type of fabric etc. it was lovely to be there to hear how much everyone loves their distinctive style of reproduction quilts.
  Yesterday I heard Karen Nyberg, a NASA astronaut speak about her journey in space and the challenges she faced while trying to piece a star block in zero gravity, 240 miles above the Earth. The star block at the end of this page is Karen's block.Quilters from around the world sent in star blocks and IQA received almost 2,500 blocks which have been made into 28 quilts respectively. Jenni S. and Jenni O. asked me to look for their blocks and so far, although I've been studying most of the finished star blocks, I haven't been able to find their blocks. Sorry Jenni,s.
  On the bus on the way back to the hotel, I was sitting opposite two ladies I recognized from a lecture I attended yesterday. Jean Wright spoke about her job sewing space blankets, which are special quilts sewn for the Space Shuttle. On the bus I was able to hold a piece of tile from a space shuttle as well as holding part of the space blanket which protected the shuttle while the rockets burnt fuel. So I managed to have a little look at NASA which my DH will really appreciate.
Hugs, Jan mac.