My husband is a magician. Not only can he see beauty though the lens of his camera, but in post processing, he can emphasize whatever he wants. Recently, he’s put the emphasis on my quilts. I love what he can do, don’t you?
Yesterday found us riding backroads with quilts and cameras in the car. We ended up at The Farm House. An old sharecropper’s cabin with numerous additions, good food, and decor to please any southern girl; it’s one of our favorite destinations.
We had a nice lunch in the dining room with a fire burning in the open fireplace. Outside, guineas were roaming around, a scarecrow was standing guard, and piles of pumpkins adding color. The menu included candied sweet potatoes, turnip greens, and corn muffins – more evidence that this is a place to please any county soul.
Surrounded by old quilts, old baskets, old ironstone, I feel like I’m visiting relatives from my childhood. Since much of it is for sale, visitors can take elements of the past home.
I personally brought a wreath with a crow inside, and a pair of earrings made from feathers from the wandering guineas.
The owner gave us permission to take all the photos we wanted; her goal is to share this place with all who will love it. Quilts posed on farm implements, beside pumpkins, in the garden, and on the porch.
My talented husband worked his magic in post processing. Some samples are here, more (with details of these quilts) will follow in upcoming posts.
On this Black Friday we wanted to drive backroads with the camera and maybe find an antique shop or two. One goal of photography was some country Christmas scenes. The treasure of the day was a church decorated with Christmas wreaths on every window. And, this church has a chimney. I’ve never seen a church with a chimney. An old cemetery surrounded by a white picket fence is well maintained by a local boy scout troop.
We had lunch at our favorite locally owned restaurant in Monroe, GA, across the street from this pocket park. The focus of this park is an old bank vault (left when the downburst of ’93 destroyed the building). Two treasures here: the safe itself and the fact that the town preserved it and made a park there.
Visits to a few antique stores generated minimal purchases. The highlight for me was packages of old bias tape and rickrack, all cotton, all unopened, bearing original $.19 price tags. I could imagine the vendor thinking, “nobody will want this old stuff.” And, I’m thinking, “WOW. What fun is this!” The wicker item had a tag saying “lampshade,” but I thought “bee skep”.
Yes, we did some shopping on Black Friday. But we didn’t elbow anyone out of the way, never stood in line, didn’t get frustrated, and had no traffic snarls to navigate. Back roads and small businesses, that’s the way to do it.
Yesterday Jim and I went junking. Well, not really. Dumpster divers we aren’t. We aren’t even heavily into yard sales or estate sales. We like antique malls where someone else has made the selections, maybe done some cleaning up, and displayed items in a pleasing manner. Well, the last is not always true. But, we do like antique malls.
But I did find a few things I couldn’t leave behind. An old quilt with a masculine look will be perfect as the backing for men in photographs. The homespun backside is amazing, too. A blue cross-stitched linen tablecloth. A couple of bargain pieces which will be amazing labels, and a lovely bee!
I didn’t really plan to spend a day this week cutting apart old wool coats and felting them. But at $5.00 each, these 100% wool coats begged to be included in a quilt project. Ok, will do. Any ideas about what to do with the fur collar?
And I found inspiration! Not so much in the textiles themselves, but in displays. Old suitcases opened with vintage trims and fabrics inside, laces and ribbons wrapped around old wooden spindles, jars of buttons pleasingly arranged. These kinds of things make my heart sing.
There’s something iconic about a man in overalls. To me, it means he is unpretentious, hardworking, honest. Someone with whom I would want to spend time in conversation and in hugging.
Maybe all that is why I was so intrigued by the man in this quilted piece. I snapped this street photo the minute I saw him. Since then, I have come to know who he is and have secured permission to use his image in my art. He, like my Daddy, is worthy of long conversations and hugs.
The quilt measures 10” x 18”. The photo is printed on vintage linen fabric, hand painted, then quilted. I used cotton thread, using hand-guided free motion quilting on my domestic machine. It is layered with raw silk, a remnant of denim, and a worn reclaimed quilt fragment. The label is a vintage cocktail napkin. (I found this one with the rooster in an antique store ramble just as I had finished this piece. Perfect!)
In recent years, I used the seed stitch in this block of Floozies, a quilt I made using a 
But recently, I’ve used the seed stitch on another piece, this white baby dress on blue, still untitled. Here I’m using a fine thread (30-weight cotton) which matches the background. The stitch is rather small, so all that is visible is the dimple created when the stitch secures the top, batting and backing. The photo here is one I took while riding in the car. (The seed stitch is in the area of the white in the lop left quadrant of the photo.) On a road trip yesterday to see and photograph a rare bird, I got a lot of stitching done. I was not the driver.
And remember the pile of vintage linens I brought home 
As I approached my fourth birthday, I was looking forward to kindergarten at Miss Emily’s little red schoolhouse. My only sister was 19 years old and away at college, so I didn’t have playmates of my age around all the time. My mother recounted hearing me ‘talking to myself’ while playing alone on the front porch of our house. It seems I was describing the fun I would have with other children at this fantasy land. According to my mother, I included an outhouse as part of my description. She was amused and horrified that I added that detail.
