Some new books!

I did a bit of "pity-purchasing" last week-end when a virus had me out of circulation...now that I am feeling better I get to enjoy the packages arriving at the front door!

I bought several book but I'll share two of my favorite arrivals.  First, Indigo Quilts: 30 Quits from the Poos Collection by Kay and Lori Lee Triplett.  Love this book!  The first third is data heavy - everything you want to know about the history of Indigo.  Lots of history and some photos.  The next third is titled "Quilt Album" and it is just that - photos of great examples of indigo quilts. (you will need couple cuts of tea to get through the first third and a napkin to keep your drool off the pages for the album section!)  Finally the last section has directions for 5 projects using indigo fabrics.  It is nice selection of applique and piecing at beginner to advanced.

Second book is Tributes and Treasures: 12 Vintage-Inspired Quilts made with Reproduction Prints by Paula Barnes and Mary Ellen Robison..  This book is mainly about the patterns with a bit of American History.  The quilts are nicely designed, the book is laid out well, photography is excellent, and the directions for the quilts look to be well done.  It is a keeper!

I am still working hard to finish a couple more quilts before the show in two weeks.  So of course my go-to sewing machine died.  It has been in and out of the shop so often the past year that I am finally accepting it may be time to let it go...ever since I wore out the feed-dog and had to have it replaced it just hasn't worked the same.

The good news is I finally took out the $10 Bernina 1030 my husband found for me at an estate sale.  Of course then I had to take it in to be serviced - $80.  Then I bought a walking-foot - $170....but I love this machine!  Definitely worth every penny!

I finished channel quilting this little improvisational shirting quilt.  It reminds me of many early 20th century Southern quilts made using scraps from the textile factories.  For this quilt I used colors found around Augusta in the springtime...when we have most of our visitors!  I should be able to get the binding down tonight and then only have one more to finish!

Sibley Textile Mill revisited

Ever since I visited Sibley Mill, a textile mill here in Augusta Georgia that closed about 30 years ago, I searched for a quilt made locally that could have scraps from the mill.

Denim backed quilt on the front steps of Sibley Mill

I just may have found it...but may may be as close as I'll come!  I bought this at an estate sale.  Yes, she was a quilter.  Yes, she lived near the mill.  Yes, family remembers it being in her house.  Here is the kicker...no one remembers her working on this quilt and women in her church were known to trade or gift quilts often.

So for the meanwhile this will remain just a "southern quilt circa 1970, likely made in the Augusta area."

adjacent to the dye room

I did get a chance to go inside the Mill and do a bit of photography.  The building is pretty much empty except for a hydroelectric power plant.

abandoned spools of thread in the dye room

Interesting place though the 100 degree heat at 9 in the morning was a bit tough to take!

and I ended it by lugging a really heavy quilt around to get photos...just a bit crazed!

So I have now have loads of post processing to do...translated to messing about in editing programs with raw photo files.  The down side is that heat kicked my optic neuritis into play and so I don't have the best color vision...the files will have to stay on the back burner for now.  Good thing I have a large library of BBC mysteries to keep me occupied!

New York Beauty

I love books and I love quilts...so not surprisingly books about quilts make me very happy.

And even better is when the book has wonderful photos and lots of great information.  (OK, I admit the first three times through I mainly looked at the pictures!)

Bill Volckering has been collecting New York Beauty quilts (which go under a wide variety of styles and names but for simplicity sake I will use the NYB name) for years.   He had compiled what is most likely the largest collection of that style.  He also has a degree in art and photography - all of which comes through in this book where he did all of the photos.

Can you tell I love the photos!  You don't just see the piecing but you can see all the quilting.  As a hand quilter this means a lot!

His collection spans almost all regions of the U.S.A. and from the 1850's to current day.  I love books that really go into a specific design and really shows the variety that different quilters can take to make it their own.

It is a great historical take on this pattern but it also has patterns for those of us who get inspired and find our fingers itching to try a NYB for ourselves.  Since it was published by Quiltmania it isn't surprising that they went for the template style favored by hand-quilters.  The only two NYB's I've made have been paperpieced but who knows...I may take the challenge.

So this has found a place on one of my quilt history shelves...once I'm through looking at the photos of course!

Debate Night!

Please tell me mine isn't the only household in the U.S. that is excited for the debates tonight.  For us it is almost like the Superbowl...yes, we make snacks and yell at the TV.  All fun but serious as well....

Leaving politics aside I did use the elections (or at least American Political history) as part of a recent guild program.  I had several antique quilts named after political figures and a set of 9 blocks that I made so that we could have a quilt block quiz...all fun!  Unfortunately due to time constraints we only did the quiz...still fun

These are some of the blocks I made...

I had to keep it non-partisan so if Ararat (blocks above) was there...

I also had to have Giddup....

One of my favorite blocks (both to make and to research) was Dolly Madison (upper left in photo)...who knew she was such a pistol!  Not only did she save many pieces of artwork from the White House from the British soldiers but she left dinner set out on the table for them!  Who knows of it is really true...but it makes for a great story!

Not to be out-done...I have long enjoyed making the Martha Washington star...(upper right in photo.)  The lower left is Lincoln's Platform and on the lower right is Road to the White-house.

This last one is called the President's Chair...my DH called it "Dirty Harry's Hammock."  He thinks he is clever...Now off to back some snacks for tonight...let's hope for a great debate!

Something good even better...

Isn't it great when you find someone has improved upon something you already like. Take the latest recipe posted on Big Black Dogs blog - a butter cookie (I'm sold already) made with hazelnut-butter and mini chocolate chips...sigh! Then there is the latest improvements to the Quilt Index.

The Quilt Index is a joint project of Michigan State University Museum and the Alliance for American Quilts and is one of my favorite sites in all of the internet. (If Dr. Spock was a quilter he would hang out here....) So here is a site I love as much as butter cookies (and that my friends is saying something!) that they have relaunched with some even cooler additions.

The now have nearly 50,000 search-able quilt records from more than 29 contributors. What does this mean. Say you find an interesting Irish Chain quilt like mine in the photo above in your Grandmothers attic and wonder if there are others like it. You just type "Irish Chain" into the seach box at www.quiltindex.org and just see how many photos you get to look through! If you go to the basic display page you can even play with the zoom feature that lets you focus on specific parts of the quilt. (This is a great feature for the applique and sampler quilts!) The history pages for the quilts can be really interesting reads too.)

They just completed a new project on Signature quilts (the Signature Quilt Project.) This project allowed for public submissions to the listing in a narrow field. I forwarded this to the folks in that own the really fun signature quilt that I saw in October. There were several similar to it in the Index along with information on how to research these quilts.This quilt is one of my favorites in the signature study. It is the Quaker signature quilt and combines piecing, applique and signatures. (the little applique signature block at the top of this post is from my collection...one I mean to research soon....)

So my plan for today - make up a batch of cookies and a pot of tea, then change into my most comfortable jammies and spend this rainy day playing in the new quilt index...do I know how to have a good time or what!

Happy Mother's Day and other stuff....

I did finish my 4 letter happy word for Tonya...cake! It is a little longer than the requirement but big cakes are better than small ones...that is my story and I'm sticking to it. Actually the k is toughest letter I have done so far (at one point it was huge and I kept trimming it off a bit at a time so worried it wouldn't look like anything but chicken scratch when I was done with the rotary cutter!) So if any of you folks doing three letter word run a bit short...just call it kismet or teamwork or whatever...my big cake will take up the slack!


In honor of Mother's Day I thought I should post a photo of my Mom. She isn't a quilter but she did encourage me to sew or quilt while I was growing up. She let us keep the sewing machine on the dining room table for a couple weeks while we worked on "major" projects and supplied me with bits of fabric to play with.

Last week an elderly woman in my guild gave me this box of quilting patterns. A friend of hers gave it to her a few years ago and she wanted to pass it on. Last night was my first chance to go through it...how fun! (The box cover is very appropriate for what is inside!)
It is like opening a time capsule. Inside were patterns for quilting and other needle arts. The dates range from the late 1920's to the mid-50's. There are three main sources - Kansas City Star, a farming magazine, and batting wrappers like Mountain Mist.

It wasn't all about quilting...there were lots of fashion tips too....
If I could knit I might consider making that hat on the top left...reminds me on of one worn in a Sherlock Holmes episode by one of the heroines....I am going to make copies of some of the papers then box it all back up.

Quilt bee

I actually made it out to a quilt bee this morning. It was good to see some other quilters. Lot so folks showed up so several quilts were pinned, some wool shared, an entire cake eaten, and more challenge blocks given out. A typical quilt bee....
I've got to say it wore me out though. So I came home and played in old quilt blocks (like the redwork above) and then mindlessly cut up a pile of shirts I bought at the church yard sale a few weeks ago. In now have a full box of shirting fabrics...guess I need to figure out what I want to make from it!

I've also started reading some of the quilt history books I got last weekend. This one by Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger was written in 1935. The writing style is so different from anything you would read today. I mean, when is the last time you saw poetry in your quilt books? The last stanza of "The Patchwork Quilts" by Carrie Hall is my favorite:

I think a quilt is something very real --
a message of creation wrought in flame:
With grief and laughter sewn into its patches
I see beyond the shadows, dream and aim.

The photos in this book are all black and white. She made an amazing collection of quilt blocks. You need to use lots of imagination (and at times a magnifying glass) but it is still a great read.