Fabric Day...

Today I went over my friend Maggie's house and dyed fabric. It has been years since I attempted this and I was more than a bit nervous but after a few minutes I just decided to go with the flow and have fun with it.In the end it felt somewhere between High School Chemistry and a cooking class. Lots of measuring, mixing, dirty pans, and surprise outcomes! Like why is it Mary who wore and apron didn't get any dye on her and my trousers look like a 5 year old went wild with some markers....
I think Tom the cat was unsure why we wanted to mess with his nice pile of white fat quarters....doesn't he look like an angel in there!
While Jazz, the Jack Russell, kept an eye on her treat barrel...

Around fabric....

Most quilting has been put aside this week as I clear out the bedroom so new wood flooring can be laid Monday. The physics just don't seem right...how can the contents of one room fill three other rooms? hummmmm....As I worked on it today I kept the TV on with an episode of "Messiest House." Now I am nowhere as bad (ok, maybe the sewing room....and maybe the garage....do you think they would come in and just do two rooms?) As I think about it I would be willing to part with/sell my entire Scottie dog memorabilia collection (not to include MacBeth the live Scottie dog) to have an organized sewing room - and that my friends is saying something!I did go over my friend Maggie's house this week to check out some hand-dyed fabrics she made last week. On Wednesday she is having a dying day at her house on the "rivah." Should be fun.This is here latest project...I think it is a Kim McLean (sorry if I misspelled that) pattern done in Kaffe/Westminster fabrics. It is gorgeous...as is her lab Bella who loves to pose but oh, so difficult to photograph!

Well, back to work. I have filled three bags with clothes for Goodwill. Now another run at the shoes...I am trying to use the "if I haven't worn them in a year" rule. Who really needs three pairs of red sandals and five pairs of black heels...and while I am questioning my footwear choices...what was I thinking when I bought those purple flats?

Lavendar post

Well between the heat and a nasty case of poison ivy on my hands (and arm, ears, scalp and maybe my nose...) I am working with beads instead of fabric for a few days. (hard to keep that anti-itch-pink stuff from getting all over everything and it is so much easier to just wipe it off a bead!)
My friend Paula and her daughter came over and made some bracelets and key-chains. I worked on a necklace that has been "ready" to string for about the past 3 (or maybe 5?) years! Nice to know my bead stash ages as well as my fabric one does!I also got a great surprise in the mailbox today! (Thank you Karol-Ann!) I knew something fun was there as I approached the end of the driveway and could smell...was, that lavender? The little scottie dog is stuffed with lavender and with 100 degree heat it must have scented the entire mail truck! It makes me think of the Cotswolds in England where the lavender bushes were huge!

I don't know yet what I will make with the South African fabrics...I'm thinking table runner so I can show them off in my dining room...I'll have to move fast so it will be done before the soccer is over though! Now I think I will go make myself a cuppa and a shortbread finger before my DH gets home and gets his hands on them!

Doggy care...

Sorry but between visitors and taking care of poor MacBeth I haven't been very good about posting lately.
One of my sisters came down from Boston for a meeting in Atlanta so took the opportunity to come by Augusta for a few days. While she was here we went to a great plant sale and cleaned the back deck...all in almost 100 degree heat! The backyard looks so much better but I am so dragging...so today is stay inside the nice cool house and recover day! Who knows I may even get a few stitches in...
On the doggy side MacBeth is still not feeling up to his old self. He has had a couple of good days and a couple of bad days. We go back to the vet tomorrow for more tests. Today I think he will enjoy just staying inside the cool, cool house too. Promise a more "quilt-y" post tomorrow....

Daylillies, quilts and the importance of breathing....

I've been MIA for a few days and I feel like I am way behind on so many things....
First I finally got to open a box from San over at Gypsy Quilter. I love the old catalogs and saw a couple of quilt designs that I've spotted at local antique shops. Thanks San!
We also had our evening and morning guild meetings this week. This is our youngest "member's" first quilt which she sold to her Mom! Below is a BOM from People Places and Quilts down in Summerville, SC.
Tonight we have lots of lightning bugs in our yard...really beautiful! Mother nature's mini-fireworks.... Unfortunately I can't spend much time out there. I've developed a sensitivity to the pesticide that so many of my neighbors are using in search of the perfect lawn that I can't even go out into my own yard! Well I can I just can't breath if I do and it is tough to work in the garden while holding my breath....
I did get out long enough to check on my vintage daylillies....I dont' get lots of flowers on this one but what I do get are stunners!

quilts and fabric - good way to celebrate...

It was very nice of the young clerk at the grocery store to say happy birthday and "you don't look that old at all! Wow, 50!" (For those of you outside of Georgia grocery stores card everyone no matter how old they look...) It was a great day though. My DH surprised me with a trip up to Charlotte last night. Then this morning I got to see the show at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium then trip down to Mary Jo's (with his credit card in my hand...oh, my.)

The quilts at the show were really interesting. I loved this wall hanging with the horses...
and this one with the william morris fabrics....
and this one that got an award for wearable...I got a lot of reproduction fat quarters at M.Jo's and some yardage for backings. Since I had already shopped at the show I didn't do near as much damage as I usually do. At the show I got some Japanese fatquarters, a few books, and this very fun bag....
Now off to water the garden...it was over 95 degrees today and even the daylillies look a bit parched....

Nearing a half-century....

Yikes...I can't believe it but this weekend I turn (gulp) 50. Where did it go? I remember turing 30 but 40? Blurrrr.
I went to lunch with my friend Paula and her two kids. She gave me this really fun pincushion (complete with vintage buttons that look like ladybugs) and some purple nailpolish...what every mid-century gal needs! I may just use it for my pedicure Saturday...
I have been playing with some 2 inch scraps...still in the autumn mood. Maybe I am trying to convince myself it really isn't going to be 95 degrees tomorrow. If that is the case I should pull out the Christmas fabrics....

Memorial Day meandering

Hope everyone is having a peaceful Memorial Day.
DH was called into work which is OK since it is sort of humid and ominous looking outside. Gives us a good excuse to forgo a cookout that I am pretty sure will involve lots of running inside and outside due to the weather!I can't believe I forgot to post a photo of my guild's latest birthday quilt...the pattern is by Kim Mclean (sorry if I misspelled that...) and the fabrics are Kaffe. It was for Ille's 60th B-day! So we know we have one quilt ready for the guild show next year!

Back to the iffy weather... it lets me play in the fabric piles again. The LQS had a big sale this morning...30% off if you got through the door before 8 am...25% before 9 am...and so on. So I got down there to buy some backing fabric for a quilt for my niece and picked up some thread...ok and some fat quarters. I hadn't really planned on going but when I was matching up tops and backs yesterday I uncovered a top I made last year languishing in the back of the closet. Oh, dear.
I also hung up this new piece on my Dining room wall...it is an invitation to a luncheon at Windsor castle from 1887. I love the engraving on it. I bought the invitation at an auction while I lived in England. Lately I have been going through "stuff" and telling myself if I don't frame it and use it then I need to move it on. So this went to the framer a few weeks ago...I really like how it came out!

Now off the play in fabric again....

On the border

Not an international border...quilt borders!

I have several quilts that just need that one last piece of the quilting puzzle to move in to "flimsy" or quilt-top stage. This week I got two of them onto hangers with a back to boot! Now I just have to get some thread and batting and I can have real quilts!
I love the feeling of matching up a top with a backing. I pre-pieced some backs and have them piled in a large laundry basket on top of a cabinet in my sewing room. I pretty much can always find something in there that will work. Once matched they are hung in the closet in my sewing room and wait their turn on either the machine or the hand quilting frame.
Since both of these quilts are for the Quilts of Valor project they will be machine quilted. A good project for Memorial Day Weekend....

World MS Day : National MS Society

World MS Day : National MS Society

I'm using today as a holiday...no cleaning or worrying about stuff that needs to be done (like fixing the fence out back or getting the cats to the vet for their shots due next week.) Today I am going to put some music on and rev up the sewing machine...who cares about finished I just want to see fabric flying!

Within my own quilting group here in Augusta there are two of us with MS and at least three who have family members with the disease. Online there are several of us who both quilt and manage the daily "aggravations and challenges" of being a fiber artist with a disease that tries to take away movement, vision, and energy....I've compared it to sitting down to quilt with the wrong prescription sunglasses on after running a summer marathon. But we do it (and many do it really, really well!)
So here is to the quilters with MS who keep on stitching and all those around them that helping them to keep the pieces together!

Back from the Beach...

Just to back from a few days down at Edisto Island which is just South of Charleston, S.C. It is a pretty quiet place so we spent lot of time walking, biking, and watching the dolphins. (oh ya, and eating...shrimp and grits is one of my all time favorite foods!) All and all very relaxing! There was a tiny quilt exhibit at the local history museum. All new story quilts reflecting the Gullah culture of the area. There was also an absolutely stunning Broderie Perse quilt top the is part of the permanent collection and worth the price of admission!(Sorry, no photos allowed at the exhibit....)
Now it is time to get back to work. I have to finish my application for AQS so I can take my appraiser test next April. It is 80% finished. My goal is to get it in the mail on Thursday. Should be achievable!
I went out to see a few more quilts last week. They were in pretty tough shape. It is difficult when I really like a quilt but know it doesn't have a lot of value due to condition. After the class I took up in Paducha I will never see a pineapple quilt again without thinking of Gerald Roy! Interestingly there was another quilt that was in good condition but was...what is a nice way to say ugly? (which by the way was the owners word...not mine!)
I'm finding working with these old quilts really exciting but also find it is another place that sets the project part of my brain on fire....take this red and green basket quilt....I could see myself making something like this...Grrr...this "no new projects until I finish a project rule" is tough!

Work in process....

The rest of this month is "clean-up" time. I finally sorted the projects on my sewing table and was shocked and amazed at how many I had started since the first of the year. Last year was a "finish" it year...helps when there is a quilt show and deadlines. I really boomeranged after the show...I must have a dozen starts lines up which equals about two a month. Even worse - 0 finishes...that is none, nada, not a one...I hang my head in shame....
So I spent the morning sorting and prioritizing. It only works for me if I hide the projects I am not working on - otherwise it is a few minutes on this then a few on that and really not a whole lot of progress on anything! Planning a project is my favorite part of quiting. I love the drafting of the blocks (on graph paper with colored pencils the old fashioned way!) and then the hunting and gathering of the fabrics. I also enjoy the test blocks...does it look like I thought it would? Is my math still working?
Then there is the actual making of the quilt-top. That has both highs and lows. At one point in every quilt there is a time I dislike it...or maybe it is I just get bored. Quilt-top ADD....So unless I really make myself finish it the quilt top migrates into the project void that leads from the sewing table to the bag to the top shelf in the sewing room closet. It amazes me how fast some of these move and how long some of them hide in there....

So I may not sew a lot today but I will get a lot done. I have pulled a couple that only need the borders sewn on so are quick finishes. I will not start any new projects in the month of June (hold me to that please) and if I can get three or four finished I will not feel like such a bad quilter after all....
An another front...here is a photos of the back of the trapunto quilt I mentioned in an earlier post. Photographing a white quit is not easy! I am going to see it again next week and I will bring a better setup with me. Since the back of the quilt was off-white and had more texture due to the linen it photographed better though the trapunto looks much rougher on the back than it does on the top/good side. It has a center medallion with two rows of designs using flowers and leaves around it. There is no batting. It came from South Carolina. (the owner gave me permission to photograph it.)

Blue and white mystery

So I got a call the other day about some quilts. The owner just inherited them from her husband's grandmother and the family wasn't sure how to store them. Her brother-in-law said the whole lot should be plowed into the river so I wasn't expecting much. Just when you don't expect it...
Out of the laundry basket comes a crazy quilt in good condition. I think some of the blocks may have different makers but the center 5 are all really well done and has the names of her children. There is also a nice "delegate" ribbon in one block. Fun quilt but no mystery...that is reserved for the next one..
A very large indigo Rob Peter to Pay Paul/Orange Peel quilt also in very good condition. (Note on the phone this was described as a blue and white star quilt...we all see things through different eyes!) There is a lot of quilting which is done well particularly considering the thickness of the thread used. so what is the mystery you wonder? When I looked closed there are what looks like stamped marks on a few blocks of the white fabric. It had to be on the fabric before it was cut and used in the quilt since I find the corresponding fabric piece in a separate part of the quilt. Also one "motif" was in the copper color and another in black...both show up in several blocks.
Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

There were some more textiles from the same family. Which on top of having some great quilts also have a wonderful history to go with them. So glad she didn't listen to her brother-in-law!

Guild Meeting...

The guild I belong to has two groups: one meets in the evenings and the other in the mornings. Twice a year we all meet on a Saturday. Today was one of those Saturday meetings.We had several activities to get folks walking around and talking. These included a match the guild member's name to their childhood photo. Loved how the member coordinating this framed them with fabric!A "Who am I" Portrait Challenge that included wall-hangings and dolls!
A green "bring your own place-setting" (then we voted on a winner...) this was so much nicer than eating off paper plates!
And a place for folks to give input into the name/them of our next quiltshow.
Our program was on how a quilt judge works. Here is our member who studied to be a judge talking about the uhm...not so perfect y-seams on my quilt. (I was a willing victim!)
The winner of this year's Ugly fabric challenge was announced and new ugly fabric diva crowned. (she gets to go first in line at all the of covered dish events and for all show and tells plus she gets to wear a very fun crown but then she also has to make something using fabric from the traveling fabric bag which has many pieces of well...darn ugly fabric!) The quilt in the photo above was the creation of the outgoing queen...she says her dog loves it!

After show and tell we had lunch....isn't the vintage fabric used in the center of the quilt in the photo below wonderful. She did a great job of framing it with the braided border...
It was fun to have all the quilters in one place and for the newer members to meet.