I’ve written before about how special my quilt guild (the Heart of Georgia guild) is to me. I recently celebrated my 20th anniversary as a member and the sisterhood just gets stronger. I spent this past weekend with those sisters at our biennial quilt show. If you are local, I hope you had a chance to attend.
Quilt Show weekend is a special time for us. We work together to present some of our latest work to friends and family – and to visitors who may be quilters, but not members of a guild as well as those who want to become quilters. We want our sisterhood to grow!
I’ve written about several shows in the past and included photos of fabulous quilts. I’m doing that here for this latest display, but this time I remembered to take photos of some of the work that goes into getting it all together. This year, our quilt show leader was Helen. She did a fabulous job of organizing everything, but it’s not a one-person job. Everyone helped!
Before the show can even be laid out, someone has to collect all the information on the quilts and plan the layout. This year, and for the past several shows, that person has been Dewey. Dewey is our quilting brother. A gifted artist at the longarm machine, Dewey is also quite the handyman and quilt show designer.
After everything was set up and ready, we welcomed visitors from 9:00 – 5:00 for two days. Then on Saturday afternoon, all this process was reversed. Quilts were dropped (gravity helped that process go faster than putting up), folded, reinserted into those pillowcases, resorted by quilter’s name, checked out, and carried home.
We’ve had a few days to put everything away at home and reflect on the fun we had. We are already thinking about the next quilt (it’s probably in progress) and planning how to make the next show better. I hope wherever a quilt show fits in your life; as a participant or a visitor, you make time to experience it.
I’ve written about this quilt before, but didn’t have good photos of the quilt or the risque fabric involved. Recently, one of the grandsons loaned the quilt to me to use in a couple of talks I was giving to quilt guilds.
The story always brings smiles to other quilters, and I have renewed determination to make a quilt for myself where I include some of this fabric.
I love toile fabrics, and selected this to make quilts for two little boys some twenty years ago. And, yes, I still have some of the fabric left. I don’t think of myself as a hoarder, but a collector of stories. And fabric holds stories. Especially fabric like this that has had a few years of life.
The fabric line from Moda, called Tom and Huck, features scenes of boys painting a fence, fishing, swimming, opening a treasure chest; things you expect boys to do. I made a few blocks, pieced them together, and had two cuddle quilts for grandsons.
I selected different scenes to feature in the largest blocks and named the quilts based on that scene. This quilt is Mimi’s Boys Working, the other is Mimi’s Boys Fishing.
Years later, one of the grandsons made me realize that a new line of fabric had put swimming trunks on the diving boy. Until then, I didn’t think about my boys being embarrassed that I had made them quilts with nekkid swimmers on them.
A little web research turned up an image of the later line of fabric complete with trunks. I guess I have to approve, because the trunks are blue. This later line of fabric was released by Marcus Bros, not Moda. I don’t know the ins and outs of fabric production, competition, and copyright, but I bet there’s a story there.
More details of this quilt are in an earlier post here.
And speaking of stories, I’m reminded of one about my Daddy diving into the water at a Sunday School party and his trunks coming off. It seems the adventure was unplanned and he borrowed swimming trunks from a chunkier friend. Thankfully, he was a skillful swimmer and could stay under water long enough to retrieve them.
On a sunny day during a bleak week in January, we went for a ride about and took along a quilt. Old Indigos posed beautifully at Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge.
You know I love indigo…and I love vintage fabrics…and I love playing in the dyepot. This project combined all that.
I cut up some old indigo fabrics and appliqued a few flowers. I used some fabrics I had dipped in the walnut dye bath as backgrounds, and just stitched simple flowers.
Since all these rectangles were different sizes, assembling them could have been complicated. To piece them together, I would place them on the design wall, measure carefully, and cut precisely sized bits of khaki linen (my “sashing” fabric of choice for this project), then sew together. I’ve done that before and it’s not too hard using some gridded paper. But this time, I used a much simpler process. I arranged the floral blocks in a pleasing manner, pinned them to the khaki linen, and appliqued those rectangles down, too.
The final measurements for this project are 27” x 31”, perfect for spilling out of a basket or draping across a piece of furniture.
I finished this quilt almost a year ago…but just haven’t been posting on this site. Technical issues have convinced me that it’s time to find another way to share.
I’ll be moving my stories to other formats. Exactly what form that will take is uncertain: some Facebook, some Instagram, maybe a book.
The site and the 250 or so posts I’ve already done will be here on my website until early February, at least. If there are old stories you want to reread, or to save, now’s the time.
I’m on Facebook as Sandra Hasty Gilreath, on Instagram as Sandy A Beekeepers Daughter.
People often ask, “how long does it take to make a quilt?” There’s usually no way to answer that…but this one was 20 years in the making. I pieced the blocks long ago, pulled them out in February and presented the quilt as a gift early in May.
I learned a lot about quilting at the turn of the century watching the then HGTV series, Simply Quilts. On that show, a line of fabric designed by Susan Branch was featured with this pieced combination of Lemoyne Stars and half-Lemoyne stars. I was entranced. Entranced by Susan Branch’s art work, by the fabric, by the star pattern.
I bought the line of fabric in fat quarters, downloaded the show’s pattern, and began piecing stars by hand. They were lovely. I enjoyed many hours of piecing the stars while visiting with family and friends.
Then they sat in a box for years. Many years. I had memories of laying out the blocks on the design wall, labeling their position in a spreadsheet array, and putting them aside. I thought it was a failed project because the white background fabric was so thin that it wouldn’t work to assemble them.
I opened the box earlier this year to learn that I was wrong. I had put them away because the solid white blocks were the wrong size to connect with the stars. Whether I read the directions incorrectly, pieced incorrectly, or whether there was an error in the instructions, I don’t know. Fortunately the solid blocks were too big, not too small. All the stars were consistently the same size, so I just trimmed the solid blocks to fit and stitched them together. They went together perfectly. Well, there are a few less than perfect points…but let’s chalk that up to an inexperienced piecer stitching them by hand.
Twenty years of experience gave me the knowledge I needed to make the blocks work.
As I thought about a quilting design, the obvious was to quilt feathered wreaths in the open spaces. That seemed too pretentious to me for these fun fabrics. I wanted a curvy design to contrast with the pointy stars. So I stitched an overall vine in green thread, then echoed it in a fine white thread. I like the result.
I called this one Celebration. It was given to a family member who had reason to celebrate…but I was celebrating the completion of a big UFO! I considered calling it WooHoo, but went with the more discreet name.
The quilt measures 80” square. I’m pleased with the green vines on back and front, echoed with a finer thread in white. The green is a 30wt cotton thread. The white is a 100 wt silk.
The on-location photos were taken at a rescued country store, Mildred’s, in Houston County.
I made lots of new friends at our recent guild quilt show. Two of them, Flo and Jan, invited me to visit their Prayers and Squares group at one of their meetings. I went this past Sunday and was touched by the love they are stitching together.
I had heard of Prayers and Squares before; I have a friend who is a cancer survivor. Faye had received a loving gift of a quilt from a group during her time of healing. I didnt realize there was an international organization involved.
Prayers & Squares is an interfaith outreach organization thatcombines the gift of prayer with the gift of a hand-tied quilt. That statement is from their website, here. Begun in 1992 in California, their website now lists thousands of chapters worldwide. I visited with the one at Hopewell United Methodist Church near Milledgeville, chapter #1241.
This group of eleven women meets monthly. On the day I visited, they were celebrating their fifth anniversary as a Prayers and Squares chapter, and they were putting finishing touches on their quilt #170.
The emphasis is on the prayers, not the squares. Each of the quilts is tied, not stitched, to secure the layers of love. Each knot represents a prayer.
Not all of the members are quilters outside of this group. Flo, who learned of the organization and started this chapter, says that some people said, Id like to help, but I dont know how to sew. Her reply was, can you pin, can you cut, can you tie a knot? All skills are welcomed.
Especially welcomed in this group was the talent for organization possessed by Patty. A retired helicopter pilot, Patty used her military-like precision to ensure efficient work habits. Every quilt has a design sheet specifying each step of the project. Projects are carefully labeled with whats to be done next. Zippered bags hold projects at every stage of development – so when the group meets to work, each person just picks up a packet and proceeds to the next step. Patty has since moved away, but her presence is felt with every quilt this group makes.
I wrote earlier about a quilt I made for a friend, Every Stitch a Prayer. That experience ties me to these women who meet to sew and pray for someone in need every month.
If you want to know more about this organization, perhaps joining a chapter near you, or even starting another group, check out the website at prayerquilt.org.
I love pottery. To think that people dig clay out of the ground, manipulate it and decorate it, and make something functional and beautiful just boggles the mind.
We went to a local exhibit of pottery this week. An annual exhibit and sale, Fired Works features the work of 150 artists and is always a treat.
We dont need any pottery; our collection is certainly adequate but we love to go to this event every year, so off we went. And, yes, we did buy some.
Most of our collection is of the Southern folk art genre, but the whimsical pieces delight me, too.
As we examined the beautiful pots on display in this beautiful facility, I was constantly seeing images that related to quilt making. The captions on each photo explain some of my thinking.
You know when we head out the door with a picnic lunch and cameras I grab some quilts, just in case a photo op appears.
Recently, we had several of those days – bright sunshine, moderate temperatures, no other obligations. Since its February, I brought quilts with hearts on them and then I thought, I could bring some of my stuffed hearts, too.
Here are some images for your Valentines Day.
I’ve embedded some links to details of quilts in the photo captions above, but if you want more, you can type “hearts” in the search box, or click on the “hearts” category in the sidebar.
Heres the story of my Challenge quilt for Heart of Georgia 2021, Playhouse in the Chicken Yard.
Participants were to channel the little girl inside, search our memory banks, and make a quilt reflecting some aspect of childhood.
Even though I wrote up the challenge description, I had no idea what my Little Girl quilt would be. I had ideas .so many ideas. Thats not unusual for me. My first thought (and most pervasive for many months of the year) was a little girl in a swing.
I started that sketched a little girl, even made an image on fabric, painted the skin color, selected fabric to appliqué her dress and then .
As I remembered the trees where Daddy hung my swings (there were several over the years), I recalled my parents making me a playhouse. On the eve of my 9th birthday (it was on a Saturday that year), they sent me to spend the night with a friend. I now realize they had to scurry to get things done. They enlarged a storage room in an unused building on our property to create a playhouse for me. They added a cabinet, a stove, a bed, some dishes, and curtains to give me space of my own.
What a delightful surprise for my birthday gift! And now that I recall it, the time they took to arrange the surprise makes it even more special.
At some point in time, I came to realize that my playhouse wasnt the romantic little image of a miniature house that some girls had in their yards, but I never thought about that. It was mine.
You can see from the shape of the building that my playhouse was in a chicken house. Earlier, there had been chickens running around, but that venture had been abandoned. Daddy stored lumber in one end and I occupied the other. My quilt has chickens running around as a nod to its original purpose and to the fact that my mother still referred to that portion of the yard as the chicken yard. Thus, the title of my quilt was born.
When a guild member asked if the chickens got in the way of my playtime, I explained that these were ghost chickens on the quilt.
My original sketch didnt have a little girl in it. I think my idea was that she was inside playing. My husband and daughter insisted that there be a visible little girl. So after the house was stitched down on the pieced background, I had to remove the back layer of fabric and insert a tiny door with a little girl entering. The space was so small that I chose not to appliqué this feature, but to paint it.
In my stash, I found the farm fabrics you see above. I knew those funky chickens had to roam around on my quilt.
I pieced the grass and sky (fabric overdyed with indigo) by machine, hand appliquéd the building, used raw edge appliqué for the tree trunks, leaves, and chickens.
I worked really s l o w l y on this project because I was having so much fun. I spent an entire day stitching samples of hair to decide how I would create the stringy blonde pigtails you see here.
Another day found me reviewing Sue Spargos drizzle stitch to add details to the tail feathers of the chickens.
This playhouse is still part of my life. When we sold the property, we knew the buyers planned to demolish that building, so Jim rescued the door to my playhouse. Our friend and expert craftsman, Tommy, built a stepback cabinet using that door as the back of the cabinet.
He built it so the elements of its construction are visible. He even placed the hook used to secure the door where I can see it as I arrange my collection of small things.
The cabinet is in our breakfast room where we see it every day. I hang small seasonal quilts above it – so made this quilt the width to fit on that hanging rod. Here you see the quilt is at home above the door.
As I planned this quilt and began working on a drawing of it, many childhood memories surfaced. I found myself planning another quilt (larger than the 29 restriction on this years challenge) with more Little Girl memories. Ive already begun translating some of those memories to fabric. And, I might eventually finish the little girl on the swing
Our quilt guilds annual challenge quilts were revealed last week. You may remember the challenge this year was Little Girls. Members were asked to turn back their inner clocks to days of their childhood and make a quilt representing some memory from those carefree days.
While I was working on my entry, I hoped everyone was having as much fun with their creation as I was. Every idea that came across my mind prompted memories I had long forgotten and the actual construction of my entry made me giggle like a little girl.
As the quilts were revealed, it seemed that others experienced some of the same thrills I did.
Our procedure is to bring our entries in plain brown paper bags with nothing that will reveal the maker’s identity. This year, contestants were asked to write a sentence or two telling the story behind the quilt. Volunteers hang the quilts and assign numbers to them. Members vote on their favorite and play “Guess the Maker” – using knowledge of individual styles of quiltmaking to assist in identifying the creator of each quilt hanging.
Votes are tabulated as the business meeting is conducted, then ribbons are awarded. Every maker then shares the story behind the quilt she entered while participants check their guesses of makers’ identities.
Quilts in this Little Girl Challenge were especially precious.
Even members who didnt get their quilt finished for one reason or another had stories to share. Becky told of hanging blackout curtains over their windows during WWII and of coloring on the papers that their dry cleaning came in.
Marsha had memories of milk bottles being delivered to her house and hopes to make a quilt depicting that yet. Life got in the way of her putting those milk bottles on a textile piece in time for the challenge.
Our guilds annual challenge quilts are due in November. Im getting ready to start on mine. Yes, I know it’s almost October. The topic is announced in February and Im often not sure what Im doing until late October. Not that I havent been thinking about it, I have. I think of it ALL THE TIME once the topic is announced collect zillions of ideas, plan several carefully, pin images to a secret Pinterest board, select some fabrics, draw some sketches, maybe even start a few projects that end up scrapped. But the serious work of making that quilt is often a last minute thing.
This year’s challenge is to make a quilt that reflects some aspect of one’s childhood. The memory of being a little girl. So many fun images come to mind…easy things to piece, like a hopscotch grid. Some ideas are more difficult to depict in cloth. But the fun is in remembering and in making an image of that memory.
One member of guild made her Little Girl quilt really early as soon as the idea went out. But she couldnt keep the secret. She took it for Show and Tell in the spring of this year and resigned herself to making another one as the November meeting approached. That may be my issue, too .the inability to keep a secret. Maybe thats why I dont start earlier.
I have dozens of ideas for my Little Girl challenge but one keeps nagging me. The hardest to implement in fabric is the one I cant stop thinking about .of course. It’s a secret, so I can’t reveal more now…
One of my earlier challenge quilts was little-girl themed. in 2010, the challenge title was Bushels of Baskets. Though I love basket quilts and have made plenty of those, I chose in 2010 to do something different I made this doll, Annie Ruth, and let her hold a sweet little handmade basket I had bought at a local craft fair. She still oversees the activities in my sewing room. Perhaps she will inspire brave new Little Girl ideas in the next few weeks.
You know I love to make quilt labels that extend the interest from the front of the quilt to the back. But a label doesn’t have to be a separate design element. On Annie Ruth, I just wrote the pertinent information on her backside.
As this years challenge leader, I have other duties – making appropriate winners ribbons and prizes – so I have lots of opportunities to express my Little Girl ideas. I’ve been working on those ribbons and having a blast doing it!