On our country rideabouts I like to discover old houses. Those that have been kept in good repair or remodeled are appealing and happy, but I also love those that have seemingly been abandoned. I can imagine stories and people that once inhabited those now bare walls.
I occasionally snap photos of these houses for future reference for stitching or sketching.
Im not alone in loving these houses. On some social media sites, these have recently been called lonely houses. An enchanting phrase that describes the essence of these places.
But theres one house en route to one of our antiquing hot spots thats only lonely sometimes. If we pass by at just the right time of day, this house has visitors. The four-legged kind. How fun is it to see these horses eating on the porch.
The horses dont like to pose in perfect lighting conditions for a photo shoot, but on this day we happened by at feeding time and I got a couple of shots.
An update on the red hearts on linen
Since my last post, Ive abandoned the one-heart-a-day plan and have been stitching several down during tv time each night. Almost all the ones I had pinned in the last photo you saw are now stitched in place. Ill probably add more small ones but its nearing completion of the appliqué stage.
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.
Somehow, every year, the second page of the calendar sends me to needles and thread with hearts in mind.
This is not the time of year for me to be taking great nature photos to use in my Good Morning Girls text messages. Yes, Im still doing that today is day 665, by my count. During December, I sent photos of Christmas ornaments, our Santa collection, and amaryllis blooms. This January had warm days with some still blooming plants in our yard, but things are a bit bleak outdoors now. A few daffodils are up, but I needed a photo scheme for February.
Ive wanted to learn more about photographing indoor vignettes some sewing still lifes, I guess you could call them. So yesterday, I pulled some hearts out to shoot. I found some jewelry, some buttons, and some fabric hearts I had made.
As I played with the red hearts and the companion fabrics I pulled to use as background, I began a plan for a heart quilt.
I made a blue one a few years ago, Loving Blues , by stitching hearts on blocks, then assembling them.
This time, my plan is to start with a linen tablecloth from Europe. It has a red border woven in, so thats convenient and I wont have to assemble blocks when Im done with the hearts.
Im planning some appliqué, some embroidery, and some who-knows-what for the hearts. I’ll use many of my vintage fabrics, but I have some nice commercial prints that I’ll likely include. Im thinking one heart per day in February but these plans may change. They often do. I wont bore you every day, but I will keep you posted.
And I’ve begun with a heart made from my sister’s red and pink toile drapes that she moved with her from house to house over some 40 years.
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
A friend called to remind me that I had not yet written about my journal quilt from my time at home during Covid. Shes right – so here it is.
Ive kept a daily journal for years. And Ive always loved to start an entry with home all day. But with dashing here and there running errands, going to meetings, and just out and about, those at-home days were sometimes hard to find.
In the Spring of 2020, things changed. Every day was home all day.
Soon I decided a visual record of these days should be part of a Covid journal quilt. It was easy to review my journal entries and tabulate things. The legend is included on the quilt a yellow (his favorite color) backslash for Jim, blue forward slash for me to clarify our days at home. I included January and February of 2020 for comparison of our normal days before the pandemic.
My beginning plan was to document the days we were spending at home. An old linen calendar provided the perfect stitching background. ( I just happened to have a calendar from 1986 – a year in which the days of the week and dates were the same as 2020 – in my stash. And later, a 1971 tea towel provided the right day/date combination for 2021.)
As time went on, I continued to think of other things to include in this journal quilt. Our time spent working in the yard, playing chess, binge watching tv all were candidates that made it into the quilt.
I made the blocks not knowing how I would put them together. I ended up attaching them to a bit of a vintage quilt remnant 10 ½ wide and rolling it up on a stick. It measures 64 long when stretched out.
The title came from our daughters remark when I told her we didnt mind being at home. I was feeling guilty that we were actually enjoying the solitude while so many people were frantic that their schedules were disrupted. She replied not everyone can be quarantined in Eden.
I included our days at home through April 2021 past our vaccinations and including many days of out and about again. Since then, the Delta variant has added more days at home. Maybe I need to find more calendar tea towels
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!
The day was sunny and clear – perfect for a big thick quilt to dry on the lawn. So I gathered some old ones that had been waiting for an outing and draped them on the fence to air.
These are specimens from Jims family. Two grandmothers made quilts in styles distinctive enough that he and his sister can specify the household from which they came. But they dont always know which generation the maker was from.
Most are tattered and need repair before they can be washed. But what treasures they are, and what stories they tell.
One grandmothers quilts are heavier than the others. Granny used a thinner cotton batting than Grandmama did. They may have processed both at home, or one used ginned cotton while the other used some straight from the fields.
Some of the fabrics are delicious and vibrant colors, others have faded to be unrecognizable, still others have disintegrated completely.
I personally love the backs of these old quilts, too. Homespun cotton on every one – and, interestingly, in many cases that fabric has NOT disintegrated.
I am in the process of repairing these pieces of history so that they can travel on through the generations. Sometimes that means more labor intensive work than others, but its a joy to join these womens work with my own stitches.
I am adding a label to each quilt that tells what we know of their history and maker – but the fabrics and stitches tell a story, too. The rust circles on the back of this one tells me that this quilt lay under a mattress at sometime, against bare bedsprings.
And, the one quilt that was ready to wash is now drying between two layers of cotton sheets on the grass – the bottom sheet to protect it from grass stains, the top sheet to protect it from birds flying over.
This was one of the first few blocks I made for the 52 Tuesdays quilt. It seemed like a good idea to get a photo of the quilt with the subject that inspired this image in the background.
It was a dreary day, even drizzling cold rain, as I propped the quilt on a swing in front of the building. The hayrake and bicycle wouldn’t be included in this photo shoot, but a warm fire beckoned us inside for a few more photos.
Becky, the owner of the Farm House, was gracious as always to allow us to pose the quilt and shoot a few images.
Having a quilt in tow is a bit like carrying a baby with you, or a cute puppy. Conversations are easy! Everyone, at least in the south, has a quilt story to share. It often starts off with “my grandmother…”. I love hearing those stories.
Judy, who works at The Farm House, said seeing 52 Tuesdays triggered fond memories of her grandmother’s quilts. That’s another reason for dragging my quilts around all over the place.
Other photo shoots at The Farm House are described in these posts:
Others acquired at more junk piles later in the day:total $5
One hour of dipping and rinsing, Maytag at work, some drying on the rack, then this:Priceless!
Someone, or several someones, had a bunch of doilies and such that they didnt want.They might have a tiny hole or a stain or two, but in the donation pile they went.I brought them home, dumped them on the table, and photographed them.The first ugly photo above is the $1 pile.
Another couple of pieces came from another store, the hankie with the hideous yellow lace was $1, a tea towel was $1. You see those in the second ugly shot.
I had a fresh vat of indigo dye that I had mixed for friends earlier in the week, so I wet the fabrics and began dipping.
The dye appears green and when the fabric is first removed from the vat, it is green.But, exposed to air, the chemistry magic takes place.The oxidation process makes the color change to blue right before your eyes.
This photo shows the first few pieces as they oxidize.The one on the bottom right is freshest from the dye vat, the others have been out in the air from 1 to 5 minutes longer.
One of the beauties of overdying old linens is the reveal on embroidered pieces.White-on-white embroidery is beautiful in its own way, but, the dye takes it to another level.This huck cloth pillow sham (an earlier find) is a great example of that.
Damask tablecloths and napkins are amazing, too.The subtle color changes from the differing directions of thread in the weave is not subtle after dyeing.This tablecloth (a piece from an earlier dyeing session) also has variations because I left some areas bundled up so less dye reached the fibers and/or less oxidation took place.
And, I thought the two yellowed tea towels I dipped yesterday were plain.But, no.Once I hung them up, I saw patterns woven in the fabric.Amazing!
Its addictive; this blue magic.Every stage is exciting.Seeing the color change.Seeing whats left after rinsing (the pale blue trim was dipped three times, but because its not a natural fiber – has a lot of polyester in it, I think – it never becomes the deep blue like the others).Playing with it after its dried.Then planning how to incorporate it into a piece of fiber art.All stages are fun.
And, that, for certain, is priceless.
The same mass of textiles, now blue.Variations in color come from different fiber content of the pieces and the number of times I dipped them.
Ive written about the process of indigo dyeing before:several posts, in fact. You can click on links here and here to see earlier posts…or if you are reading this later than the original post, type “indigo” in the search box and you’ll find more with photos of finished projects using indigo-dyed pieces.
It was a gray day when we recently visited Fairhope, Alabama, but I had a bit of color in my purse.Early in my quilting adventures (2003, I think), we visited Fairhope and I saw a log cabin quilt made from reproduction feedsack fabrics.I came home and started sewing.
When we headed to Fairhope last week, I rolled the little quilt and tucked it into my purse just in case there were any photo ops.
The skies were heavy, so I stopped at the first picket fence with a color-coordinated house behind it, and snapped this view.
In a couple of shops, I saw welcoming vignettes and store owners graciously let me drape the fabric about their merchandise.Its amazing what a crazy old woman can get away with if she bothers to ask.
In a tee-shirt shop, I was amazed that they had laid out a display of shirts in just these feedsack colors!
And then, Sailor sauntered by and plopped down for a nap.He was kind enough to model the quilt, creating a unique spot for Fairhope Feedsacks to rest.
At the pier, pilings and tree roots served as quilt racks.
And, at a candy store, more fences, porch railings, an old dresser, and even a baby carriage, a blue baby carriage, gave the little bit of a quilt a place to perch.
Now Im looking for places to take some other small quilts.I love making the little ones.And since Im doing it for fun, who cares what size it is?I know a lot of people think a quilt has to cover a bed.Im so glad they are wrong!
Fairhope Feedsacks measures 19 x 24 .The logs finish at3/4 wide.I probably used Dream cotton request batting and cotton thread.
Lessons learned from this quilt:
Washing a quilt gives it a softened aged look instantly.
I personally dont like the same fabrics used in the same position in a log cabin (thats what I did here, giving the double dose of turquoise every time the blocks meet).I like the colors to be more random, scrappier.
The result, this little piece, was one of my first attempts at free motion quilting.I used a variegated thread and a simple meandering stitched path.Its not complicated, Its not a competitive piece, but the little quilt is pleasing to hang about the house or on fence posts, or at the beach, or on a cooperative doggie.
Here is a photo of Fairhope Feedsacks at home, atop the clock in the breakfast room where it hung out all summer with a compatibly colored rooster.