My American Quilt

Several years ago, when I first stumbled into this group, I had an
on-line conversation with someone about how much I liked the American
flag. (not being American)(And I recall Nann, being the darling that she
is, saying she had always liked the Cdn flag!)

So, some of the lovely American women here thought we should exchange
fabrics...American for Canadian. I think I was the winner in that
exchange, as I never could find any truly CDN fabrics (that's another
rant for another time) and had to search high and low for anything
woodsy or northern or with maple leaves on it. (Did find some nice ones
but not as dramatic as I would have liked.)

I received stacks of lovely American 'patriotic' fabrics (can fabrics be
patriotic?) and have hoarded them carefully over a few years, sometimes
eking out just a little bit for some friend or other who wanted some.
Some of the women in that exchange later became Magpie friends, and I am
still close to several of them.

Later on I took part in a block exchange with some other US friends (I
love Americans) and ended up with about 50 Log cabin blocks in the flag
theme. As these blocks were small (about 5.5) I put them away till I
felt like working on them. One day this winter I dug them out and
added another round of logs all round, using my RW&B stash, and finally
put the top together.

It is so pretty! Almost finished, just putting on the borders, and
making an additional piano keys border. It is really just slightly
larger than crib -sized, and as I pondered making more blocks for it,
and not NEARLY having the energy, it told me, as Sarah (and Sarah has
fabric in this quilt) used to say, where it wanted to go.

The daughter of a friend moved to California for a few years and while
there, she and her husband had a baby. The little girl is, of course,
American, but will also be entitled to full Canadian citizenship as
well, as they have moved home and she will be raised in Toronto. The
quilt spoke loud and clear that it is to go to her, plain and simple!

And so, in a week or so, in between spurts of finishing off my Master's
degree papers, I'll finish this lovely little quilt, filled with
memories of dear friends, and with a few little bits of "true north
strong and free" fabric thrown in, just so she can't forget who she is,
and off it will go to my new little Canadian/American friend. And I
still have enough left over to make my American jacket, and some to give
back to this group when I am finished.

I love this friends thing!

Cheers,
Lynne in Toronto

what a wonderful story. I can hardly wait to see the quilt. A couple years
ago I was going to Picton ON to a group gathering hosted by a couple there.
I wanted to give them something special as a TY.... I asked another friend
in Vancouver to see what she could find.... she found a cotton with both US
and CDN flags on it.... I made them a teddy bear.

--
Mary
http://community.webshots.com/user/mardor1948
"Lynne Van" wrote in message
...
Several years ago, when I first stumbled into this group, I had an
on-line conversation with someone about how much I liked the American
flag. (not being American)(And I recall Nann, being the darling that she
is, saying she had always liked the Cdn flag!)

In article , Lynne Van
wrote:

Several years ago, when I first stumbled into this group, I had an
on-line conversation with someone about how much I liked the American
flag. (not being American)(And I recall Nann, being the darling that she
is, saying she had always liked the Cdn flag!)

So, some of the lovely American women here thought we should exchange
fabrics...American for Canadian. I think I was the winner in that
exchange, as I never could find any truly CDN fabrics (that's another
rant for another time) and had to search high and low for anything
woodsy or northern or with maple leaves on it. (Did find some nice ones
but not as dramatic as I would have liked.)

I received stacks of lovely American 'patriotic' fabrics (can fabrics be
patriotic?) and have hoarded them carefully over a few years, sometimes
eking out just a little bit for some friend or other who wanted some.
Some of the women in that exchange later became Magpie friends, and I am
still close to several of them.

Later on I took part in a block exchange with some other US friends (I
love Americans) and ended up with about 50 Log cabin blocks in the flag
theme. As these blocks were small (about 5.5) I put them away till I
felt like working on them. One day this winter I dug them out and
added another round of logs all round, using my RW&B stash, and finally
put the top together.

It is so pretty! Almost finished, just putting on the borders, and
making an additional piano keys border. It is really just slightly
larger than crib -sized, and as I pondered making more blocks for it,
and not NEARLY having the energy, it told me, as Sarah (and Sarah has
fabric in this quilt) used to say, where it wanted to go.

The daughter of a friend moved to California for a few years and while
there, she and her husband had a baby. The little girl is, of course,
American, but will also be entitled to full Canadian citizenship as
well, as they have moved home and she will be raised in Toronto. The
quilt spoke loud and clear that it is to go to her, plain and simple!

And so, in a week or so, in between spurts of finishing off my Master's
degree papers, I'll finish this lovely little quilt, filled with
memories of dear friends, and with a few little bits of "true north
strong and free" fabric thrown in, just so she can't forget who she is,
and off it will go to my new little Canadian/American friend. And I
still have enough left over to make my American jacket, and some to give
back to this group when I am finished.

I love this friends thing!

Cheers,
Lynne in Toronto


What a great story, Lynne! And what a lovely quilt it must be. Will
you show us pics soon?
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

I loved reading your message Lynne.. you tell stories very nicely! )

PS: how doed it work in Canada, is the girl canadian because her parents
are even if she was born in the US? According to US law Sofia is an
american citizen automatically because she was born in the US but
according to Uruguay she is uruguayan because so are both her parents.
And I believe she could even maybe be Italian, since I have that
citizenship too. I don't think you can carry 3 passports, can you? If I
understand correctly, the US will require her to choose one citizenship
when she is 18 or so, but it doesn't matter to the uruguayan government
of course, to them she'll never stop being Uruguayan! Not sure about the
italian thing..

Lynne Van wrote:

The daughter of a friend moved to California for a few years and while
there, she and her husband had a baby. The little girl is, of course,
American, but will also be entitled to full Canadian citizenship as
well, as they have moved home and she will be raised in Toronto. The
quilt spoke loud and clear that it is to go to her, plain and simple!

--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

Thanks, all, for your comments.

And I KNEW someone would ask me the citizenship question. I think she
is considered Canadian because both parents are Canadian, but there is
some paperwork which has to be done as well. My understanding is that
she is entitled to dual citizenship on an ongoing basis, but you may be
right...later she may have to formalize the arrangement somehow. Many
Canadians/Americans have dual citizenship (although I don't know how
many "many" is!)

Re pictures of the quilt, I'll have to figure out a way to do this, as I
don't have a web site and don't have a digital camera. I'm behind a few
years in my technology!

Cheers,

lynne in Toronto







"Dr. Quilter" wrote:

I loved reading your message Lynne.. you tell stories very nicely! )

PS: how doed it work in Canada, is the girl canadian because her parents
are even if she was born in the US? According to US law Sofia is an
american citizen automatically because she was born in the US but
according to Uruguay she is uruguayan because so are both her parents.
And I believe she could even maybe be Italian, since I have that
citizenship too. I don't think you can carry 3 passports, can you? If I
understand correctly, the US will require her to choose one citizenship
when she is 18 or so, but it doesn't matter to the uruguayan government
of course, to them she'll never stop being Uruguayan! Not sure about the
italian thing..

Lynne Van wrote:

The daughter of a friend moved to California for a few years and while
there, she and her husband had a baby. The little girl is, of course,
American, but will also be entitled to full Canadian citizenship as
well, as they have moved home and she will be raised in Toronto. The
quilt spoke loud and clear that it is to go to her, plain and simple!

--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

PS: how doed it work in Canada, is the girl canadian because her parents
are even if she was born in the US?

Yes. A child born outside Canada to a Canadian parent is Canadian,
even if she also receives other citizenships (like citizenship of the
country of birth, for instance).

The US has a similar policy for children born abroad to Americans,
but the requirements vary, depending on the parents' marital status,
when the birth took place, and how much time the parent(s) has/have
spent in the US prior to the birth.

According to US law Sofia is an
american citizen automatically because she was born in the US but
according to Uruguay she is uruguayan because so are both her parents.
And I believe she could even maybe be Italian, since I have that
citizenship too. I don't think you can carry 3 passports, can you?

If you're a citizen of all three countries, you can hold all three passports,
unless the laws of one of those countries prohibits you from holding
any other country's passport.

If I
understand correctly, the US will require her to choose one citizenship
when she is 18 or so,

Actually, that's a widely held misconception. The US has NO requirement
to choose only one citizenship when a dual citizen reaches a certain
age. Some other countries, like Japan, do have a requirement to choose.

Here's the US State Department's statement on dual nationality:
http://travel.state.gov/dualnationality.html
In the second sentence of the second paragraph they state that the US does
not require a person to choose one citizenship or another.

Stephen Gallagher

P.S. Note that I hold three citizenships. I am a US citizen by birth,
British by descent, and a Canadian by naturalization.

A very good website that discusses the US policies on dual citizenship
is at: http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

Lovely story Lynn! Can't wait to see the quilt!
Good luck on your Masters! :-)

Denise in Ontario, Canada

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 21:00:26 -0500, Lynne Van
wrote:

Several years ago, when I first stumbled into this group, I had an
on-line conversation with someone about how much I liked the American
flag. (not being American)(And I recall Nann, being the darling that she
is, saying she had always liked the Cdn flag!)

So, some of the lovely American women here thought we should exchange
fabrics...American for Canadian. I think I was the winner in that
exchange, as I never could find any truly CDN fabrics (that's another
rant for another time) and had to search high and low for anything
woodsy or northern or with maple leaves on it. (Did find some nice ones
but not as dramatic as I would have liked.)

I received stacks of lovely American 'patriotic' fabrics (can fabrics be
patriotic?) and have hoarded them carefully over a few years, sometimes
eking out just a little bit for some friend or other who wanted some.
Some of the women in that exchange later became Magpie friends, and I am
still close to several of them.

Later on I took part in a block exchange with some other US friends (I
love Americans) and ended up with about 50 Log cabin blocks in the flag
theme. As these blocks were small (about 5.5) I put them away till I
felt like working on them. One day this winter I dug them out and
added another round of logs all round, using my RW&B stash, and finally
put the top together.

It is so pretty! Almost finished, just putting on the borders, and
making an additional piano keys border. It is really just slightly
larger than crib -sized, and as I pondered making more blocks for it,
and not NEARLY having the energy, it told me, as Sarah (and Sarah has
fabric in this quilt) used to say, where it wanted to go.

The daughter of a friend moved to California for a few years and while
there, she and her husband had a baby. The little girl is, of course,
American, but will also be entitled to full Canadian citizenship as
well, as they have moved home and she will be raised in Toronto. The
quilt spoke loud and clear that it is to go to her, plain and simple!

And so, in a week or so, in between spurts of finishing off my Master's
degree papers, I'll finish this lovely little quilt, filled with
memories of dear friends, and with a few little bits of "true north
strong and free" fabric thrown in, just so she can't forget who she is,
and off it will go to my new little Canadian/American friend. And I
still have enough left over to make my American jacket, and some to give
back to this group when I am finished.

I love this friends thing!

Cheers,
Lynne in Toronto



-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----

hey, Stephen, that is great to know... and thanks for the links!
interesting reading and like you say, the real thing instead of hearsay!

about the choosing at 18, that is what I heard, but of course we are not
there yet so I hadn't done much research..

funny story for you. when I got to Penn State for grad school, they told
me that some countries have tax treaties with the US so that if you are
here as a student you don't have to pay full or sometimes any taxes on
your fellowship.

so I went to the benefits office to ask if ANY of the countries I am a
citizen of had treaties that I might benefit from. the woman behind the
counter told me I couldn't possibly have dual citizenship. when I showed
her both passports she insisted that having a passport did not mean you
were a citizen of that country, and besides that they 'gave passports to
anybody' )

in any case I am glad neither of the countries had a tax treaty that
applied because since I have stayed, I believe I would have had to pay
those taxes retroactively to the IRS!!! )

Stephen Gallagher wrote:


Actually, that's a widely held misconception. The US has NO requirement
to choose only one citizenship when a dual citizen reaches a certain
age. Some other countries, like Japan, do have a requirement to choose.

Here's the US State Department's statement on dual nationality:
http://travel.state.gov/dualnationality.html
In the second sentence of the second paragraph they state that the US does
not require a person to choose one citizenship or another.

Stephen Gallagher

P.S. Note that I hold three citizenships. I am a US citizen by birth,
British by descent, and a Canadian by naturalization.

A very good website that discusses the US policies on dual citizenship
is at: http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

ANd here I was, not even thinking about the fact that my son has dual
citizenship - US and Panama....he's the only one in the family with dual
citizenship...the rest of us just have US citizenship......wondering if
I should ever tell him about being Panamanian by birth....whatcha think??

Larisa

Dr. Quilter wrote:

hey, Stephen, that is great to know... and thanks for the links!
interesting reading and like you say, the real thing instead of hearsay!

about the choosing at 18, that is what I heard, but of course we are not
there yet so I hadn't done much research..

funny story for you. when I got to Penn State for grad school, they told
me that some countries have tax treaties with the US so that if you are
here as a student you don't have to pay full or sometimes any taxes on
your fellowship.

so I went to the benefits office to ask if ANY of the countries I am a
citizen of had treaties that I might benefit from. the woman behind the
counter told me I couldn't possibly have dual citizenship. when I showed
her both passports she insisted that having a passport did not mean you
were a citizen of that country, and besides that they 'gave passports to
anybody' )

in any case I am glad neither of the countries had a tax treaty that
applied because since I have stayed, I believe I would have had to pay
those taxes retroactively to the IRS!!! )

Stephen Gallagher wrote:


Actually, that's a widely held misconception. The US has NO requirement
to choose only one citizenship when a dual citizen reaches a certain
age. Some other countries, like Japan, do have a requirement to choose.

Here's the US State Department's statement on dual nationality:
http://travel.state.gov/dualnationality.html In the second sentence
of the second paragraph they state that the US does not require a
person to choose one citizenship or another.

Stephen Gallagher

P.S. Note that I hold three citizenships. I am a US citizen by birth,
British by descent, and a Canadian by naturalization.
A very good website that discusses the US policies on dual citizenship
is at: http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

I think you should of course tell him... he will feel different, exotic
and interesting!! )

CNYstitcher wrote:

ANd here I was, not even thinking about the fact that my son has dual
citizenship - US and Panama....he's the only one in the family with dual
citizenship...the rest of us just have US citizenship......wondering if
I should ever tell him about being Panamanian by birth....whatcha think??


--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)