sandygilreathjournal – Page 10

Quilting Sisters

Hilda's art quilt I had the pleasure today of visiting with not one, but two, of my favorite quilting sisters. Joyce and Hilda are great friends. Friends to each other and friends to everyone they meet. To visit with each of them separately in their homes today was a rare treat.

Joyce and Hilda are seldom still. They are often not at home waiting for visitors, but instead are out galavanting about. They participate in several small stitching groups that meet about town, they are active in guild meetings and go to several quilting retreats every year. And, when they aren’t engaged in a church or stitching activity, they might be out shopping, in the pouring rain, looking for that perfect quilt backing to finish a project.

Does this sound like your typical image of more-than-90-year-old friends? If not, you’d be wise to revise your stereotype. Joyce and Hilda are dynamos. Their minds are sharper than a size 14 straw needle – I learn something every time I talk with either of them.

Hilda lives alone in the two-story house she’s occupied since 1990 or so. She now has her sewing studio downstairs because her children worried about her climbing stairs so much while she was home alone.

Some of the approximately 100 bed quilts she’s made since she began quilting in 1987 are still here, others have been given away. She’s hasn’t counted all the art and wall quits she’s made, but they are numerous and spectacular! An avid student, Hilda has about a dozen trips to the John C. Campbell Folk School on her resume. There she has explored topics such as basket making as well as quilting.

Her children and grandchildren are artistic too. Her house is filled with art she likes and art they have made. Pottery, wood turning, jewelry making, fabric printing, drawing, painting, all are in the family DNA.

The sewing studio is a haven for any stitcher. There’s a cutting table open on all sides for easy access, and at a comfortable height for the statuesque lady. A machine, tv, design wall, comfortable chair for hand stitching in front of the tv, cabinets to house the fabric overflow, and a fireplace for cozy wintertime work. A serene workspace for a quilter of any age.

My visit with Joyce was not focused on stitching today. We sat on her glorious wrap-around porch overlooking the lake. Her luscious plants were a topic of conversation, as well as her recent experiences as caregiver for her 95-year-old sister. We discussed her work with Western Union during WWII, her civilian work at our local Air Force installation during its early years, and her 33-year career at a wholesale pharmaceutical company.

Joyce was one of the charter members of our quilt guild in 1985. Hilda joined the group in 1987. Just think, each of these women was a career woman before being such was expected. And, since retirement, each has had a long and productive career as a quiltmaker. Many ribbons and awards have decorated their quilts along the way, and we are all still learning from them.

I’ve written before about missing the opportunity to explore quiltmaking in depth with my grandmother. But with the quilting sisters now in my life, I’m reclaiming some years of experience and love. Oh, how I love these women!

The photo is of an art piece made by Hilda. It hangs over the mantel in her studio.

Playtime

Today’s experiments: watercolor flower on silk

Silk radiance fabric. Dream Wool batting. Freeform stitching of a feather and simple flower using Aurafil cotton thread (50 weight/2 ply). Echoing and background quilting using silk thread (100 weight). Flower is painted with watercolors, hand embroidery added in the center.

freeform feather on silk Fun!

Tidying Up

Kaffe baskets in basket Friends and I were discussing the Tidying Up bestseller at dinner last night. I’ve not read the entire book, but I have read a lot of it. First, let me say that this woman’s definition of tidying up is different from mine. My idea of tidying up means someone is coming over and it’s time to run the sweeper and stash some items in the closet. (I will admit that I later straighten the closet and periodically purge it of unused items, but not on a rigid schedule and not enough to invite visitors to admire.)

Though I agree that “stuff” can get in the way of living your life, I’m here to tell you that cleaning can do the same thing. Balance, people, balance. Don’t be a hoarder, don’t live in squalor. But, then again, don’t obsess over everything being perfect.

I wonder how many people on their deathbeds wish they had taken one more load of unworn clothing to the Salvation Army. Can you tell that I spent yesterday cleaning and wished I were sewing?

When it comes to my quilting stash, I do sometimes find the need to straighten it to see what I have. Sometimes I share remnants with other quilters. It is fun to see their faces light up when they find a fabric I’ve used in a quilt they like and now they get to play with it, too.

My working style is that I have several quilt projects in progress at one time. I sometimes get bored with one technique or another, but often the reason is location. I always need a project that is portable – to stitch while watching tv or sitting on the porch, or recently, while riding in the car. Once that phase of the stitching is done, that piece might get set aside until I have time to prepare it for the next level.

I do keep the fabrics that I’ve selected for a given project together until it’s completed. I use baskets to contain them. Sometimes there are lists in the baskets telling me what is cut, how many are remaining to be stitched; maybe a sketch of the layout possibilities. I will confess that there are a couple of projects that I like seeing the blocks in a basket – so I’m not anxious about assembling those at all. Alma Allen and Barb Adams depict vignettes of such collections in their books and on their website. They inspire me to enjoy all phases of the quiltmaking experience.

Susan Lenz explains that the beginning phase and the finishing phase of projects are exciting. But one doesn’t need to be excited all the time. The stitching phase is relaxing – so psychologically, I’m centering myself with my working style.

I have come to realize that sometimes I slow down on a project before it’s finished, not wanting to finish until another is at its relaxing stage.

Jude Hill says of one of her magic feather posts, “And yet there is still stitching. Maybe I have slowed down even more. Just to make it last.”

Oh, yes, I’m in good company if my working style bears any resemblance to Alma Allen, Barb Adams, Susan Lenz, and Jude Hill. But it may not look tidy.

Home Again

Version 2 “Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog,” is one of this family’s oft-repeated phrases when we pull into the driveway. I know, it’s a misquote from the nursery rhyme, but we like it. It has history in our household.

But today, my version might be, “home again, home again, figgity-fog.” Today was our first full day at home in several weeks without another trip on the horizon. And, even when we were home between trips, there were meetings, and deadlines, and classes, and you get the idea.

So on this day without pending preparation for another trip, I’m unraveling the impressions of the past few weeks. Impressions which have become almost a blur.

I have been inspired by images from all our travels. The scenery on backroads, quilts from contestants and vendors in Paducah, art in galleries, techniques from fabulous textile teachers, and Nature herself are all jostling for position in my brain.

Those forms are mingling with fabrics, threads, buttons, and beads found on these travels, too. Now I am processing all those tidbits as I stow the treasures and sketches and thoughts, anxious to begin combining some of them in new work.

In my resting phase, I turned to Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth blog. Her textile work is amazing, her words poetic. I have read her blog for years. Since she opened all her former online classes to all of us through her Feel Free site, I’ve browsed many old posts, too. Her words soothe, much like handling cloth does.

On all our travels, I carried my sewing basket. I accomplished some soothing stitching on an ongoing project, and even worked on a new one on the road.

But being at home with all my implements is a different kind of creating. So now I’m ready to combine thoughts and materials anew.

The photo is Headed Home, a small piece I made for our local guild’s “two-color” quilt challenge in 2014. The house is hand appliqued, the background machine quilted with vaguely parallel lines stitched closely together. The twigs are from our yard, whitewashed and couched down by hand. The quilt finished at 8” x 20”.

Mother’s Day Memories

Cleo 1951 On this Hallmark day when so many people feel guilty if they don’t visit their mothers, or buy them flowers, or take them out to eat with 40,000 of their closest friends waiting in line to eat at a restaurant, I’m thinking of calmer Mother’s Days.

When I was growing up, we observed the holiday with a gift for the Mothers in our lives. Sometimes, I bought my mother something. My Daddy would take me shopping to select something for her. I cringe when I remember some of the choices I made – but she displayed the horrible treasure anyway. And, I still have a ragged sheet of paper on which I wrote her a poem. I think I was about ten years old at the time. I recall hiding in the closet to secretly write it when I was supposed to be vacuuming the house. She scolded me for dawdling at my task, but all was forgiven when she read the poem on Sunday morning. I found it in her belongings after her death 46 years later and it’s tattered state leads me to believe she read it and reread it a few times.

We always wore corsages to church on Mother’s Day. The only time I recall Mama spending money at the florist was for a funeral, or for Mother’s Day. Mama wore a white corsage (because her mother was dead, she explained; none of this “passed away” language at our house) and I wore a red carnation. We always bought an orchid for Aunt Nellie (the spinster great-aunt who lived next door and who had “raised” Mama after she was orphaned at the age of four. “Orphaned” was Mama’s word, too.) I was a bit perplexed because the orchid wasn’t exactly white, but in Mama’s world, it worked. Since Aunt Nellie attended a different church from ours, we made a visit to her house on that Sunday morning to pin on her corsage before her departure.

When Granny (my paternal grandmother, Ollie Jane) lived with us, she wore a white corsage to church, too. Now that I think of this, I realize how important that corsage was to my mother – and I wonder, did I take care of that EVERY year after I left home? I know I did if I was there to visit and go to church with them on that day, and I do recall phoning the florist in our hometown and having a corsage delivered some years. I hope I didn’t forget any time, but I know if I did, I was forgiven.

There were occasions when I couldn’t get home for Mother’s Day. I remember Mama saying, “It doesn’t matter to me. Any day you come visit can be Mother’s Day. It doesn’t have to be when everyone else thinks it is.” I still felt guilty about it, though.

Now that I’m a mother, I do understand. Sometimes other things come up. The last thing I want my children to feel on Mother’s Day (or any day) is guilt if they have lives to live. I know they love me. And, any day they visit is Mother’s Day to me!

The photo is of my mother in 1951, the year I was born. The photo was taken by her father, a professional portrait photographer, and was hand tinted by her sister.

Grandpa Tom’s Chair

Grandpa Tom's Chair This chair sits in our kitchen near the door. It appears to be an empty chair, but it isn’t. It is filled with memories from six generations in my husband’s family.

In 1903, when Tom Gilreath was thirteen years old, he rode a horse from Suches to Blairsville, via Sosbee Cove. A distance of twenty miles, across a mountain, meant that he had to spend the night on his way there and on the return trip. Tom’s mission was to pick up four chairs which had been hand made for his family.

Many details of this story been lost over time, the bare essentials I’ve outlined are all we’ve been told. But a thirteen year old boy who had to take his food and bedding and find his way to his destination and home must have had some frightened moments. Hmmm, four chairs, a boy, and his belongings – does this mean he walked the twenty miles home?

And his mother, Margaret, don’t you know she was worried? Though I guess she was accustomed to wondering how things were going for the men in her life. Tom’s Dad, Jonathan, was a circuit riding preacher as well as a farmer.

That made Tom a man earlier than many even in those days, I suppose. Their Dad being gone to minister to others meant that the children had certain responsibilities. Tom recalled going out on cold winter evenings and breaking the ice from around Jonathan’s boots so he could dismount from his saddle and stirrups. Maybe his older brother Henry had to stay home and tend the farm – that would explain the younger one going on the mission to collect the chairs.

I’m sure when you examine an old chair in an antique store you appreciate the craftmanship of assembly without nails. But next time, look a bit beyond the pegs and think about how the chairs were delivered. Maybe on horseback, on a mountain road, accompanied by a lad whose mother was trusting that he would be unafraid.

This chair is empty in the photo, but sometimes it serves as a staging area for things we need to remember to take with us as we head out the door. I did not know Grandpa Tom when he smoked cigars, but those who did say they can smell his tobacco when they see one of these chairs. All four of the originals are still in the family.

Embellishing with Paula

no presser foot If I had known old ladies had so much fun, I would have aged faster.

Today was session two with Paula Reid. We stitched ribbons and beads and baubles. We used dental floss implements, funky charms, and fancy stitches with specialty threads. We made new friends and laughed a lot!

I even won a cone of wine thread. Yes, you read that right, wine. I told you old ladies had fun!

Not only did we disengage our feed dogs, we removed the presser foot! Sewing is not for wimps. But, man is it fun! I have a new tool in my arsenal. Now I know more ways to use those beads and baubles and fancy fibers I’ve collected.

Every member of the class was playing with ribbons and threads in a different way. Taking a class is so inspirational – not only do you have an experienced teacher who shares her knowledge, but other participants spin off in different directions. Take a class!

Simply Quilts was still on tv when I began quiltmaking in 2001. I was still working, so I recorded the show every day, then watched it when I got home. I learned most everything I know about quilting basics that way. When I heard Paula Reid was coming to town, I knew she quilted on a domestic machine as I do, using what she calls the “fluff and stuff” method. I also remembered her episode on beading and embellishments where she removed the presser foot. I felt like I knew her already, because I had watched those SQ episodes over and over.

Online quilting shows still keep me up-to-date with the latest artists breaking the mold, or perfecting the mold, but it’s not the same. I spend money to subscribe to some of the online shows (thequiltshow.com hosted by Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson is my primary resource). I watch some youtube videos, too.

I read quilting blogs. I listen to quilting podcasts. I follow links to other artists’ work from Facebook. I goggle names of people whose work I see in magazines and online.

But nothing takes the place of on-site, person-to-person contact with an expert. Thanks, Couture Sewing Center, for bringing Paula. And, thank you, Paula, for coming to GA, and sampling our grits. And, thank you, fellow classmates, for a fun two-day sewing experience!

Improving Skills

Sandy & Paula I always love to take classes. Yes, I could have enjoyed being a professional student.

I’ve been fortunate to take classes in the past from many well-known experts in the quilting industry; Hollis Chatelain, Sue Spargo, Ricky Tims, Kaffe Fassett, Sally Collins, Karen Stone, and more. And, I’ve attended lectures by others including Lisa Bongean and Diane Gaudynski.

But until today, I had never taken a class on free motion quilting. I had learned by watching videos and reading and practicing. And more practicing.

Today I took a free motion feather class from Paula Reid at my favorite quilt shop. I’ve tried my hand at feathers before, with limited success. Today’s class was wonderful. Paula has quilted professionally for many years. Now she travels the country teaching others how to quilt on their home machines.

The class was structured so that Paula demonstrated a variety of paths and patterns to fill a quilting space with feathers, then gave individual assistance as we stitched along. The morning was devoted to feather designs marked with stencils, the afternoon all free motion feathers, unmarked. So liberating!

Sandy's feather This photo is my unmarked free motion design from this afternoon. Red Mettler 50 weight cotton thread in the top, Aurafil 50 weight cotton in the bobbin. Echoing is done with 60 weight Kimono silk thread.

Here are samples of Paula’s work (she gave permission to share). The green fabric is a silk/cotton blend –gotta get some of that! The motifs are fabulous! And, you are seeing the bobbin side of her work! Amazing talent she has. I’m so glad she’s in GA sharing her knowledge with us.

Paula's silk sample Paula's green feather Paula's red feather

And, tomorrow…free motion embellishments with beads and ribbons.

Ollie Jane’s Flower Garden

I recently described this work as “my first major quilt.” It was completed in 2007, so it doesn’t belong in the catalog of my latest work, but the elements I included in it still appear in many more recent designs.

The quilt was made over a period of six years. I completed other quilts during that time, but this was an ongoing project. One of the first piecing techniques that intrigued me was English paper piecing. I basted the 1” hexagons on freezer paper and had a portable project. Since I was still working full time, I stitched while riding in the car and on visits with my mother in her assisted living facility, on the porch with her at her nursing home, and in hospital waiting rooms when my sister was ill.

As I was learning more about the world of quilting, I began to think of ways to combine these hexagons with other quilting techniques. Once I learned needleturn appliqué, I wanted to add some curves to my pieced elements. I assembled ten of the Grandmother’s Flower Garden units, appliquéd them to a background, and planned to add a vine with leaves in the border.

detail from Ollie Jane's Flower Garden — detail from Ollie Jane’s Flower Garden

I actually made another small quilt to explore the technique of the two-colored border with the vine separating them. That worked, so I interpreted it large scale.

I wanted a bit more interest in the center of the quilt (well, not really the center…I was already embracing the idea of asymmetrical balance), so I made a bouquet of flowers using some elements of flowers from Barb Adams and Alma Allen’s Quilting in the Garden (a quilt I completed sometime in this process).

I made my first bow with trapunto here. I loved the bow. I still like bows. Especially plaid bows. They reveal the folds created when a ribbon is rumpled to tie a knot.

Certainly not the least challenging was the quilting. Then a beginner, I quilted the hexagons with a continuous curve motif, echoed around the appliqué, used my version of one of Diane Gaudynski’s filler designs in the inner border, and stitched a double grid in the outer border. The only element of the quilting that was marked was half of the straight lines (they are 1” apart) and then quilted 1/4” away from that using the edge of the free motion foot. Then, as now, the straight line quilting is the most challenging motif in free motion quilting, but I do still love the effect.

When it was time to give this quilt a title, I enlisted my husband’s input. He came up with Ollie Jane’s Flower Garden to honor the traditional blocks of hexagons and give tribute to my quilting grandmother, Ollie Jane Hasty.

This quilt has had quite a career appearing in quilt shows and going to lectures with me. She has earned some ribbons and accolades, but I haven’t retired her. She hangs in the stairwell of our home, as close to the center of our lives as she can be.

The quilt used all cotton fabrics, some reproduction feed sacks. Batting is Dream Cotton request. Quilting thread is DMC machine embroidery cotton 50 weight / 2ply. Finished dimensions are 58” x 68”.

Time Travel

Barnsley Gardens house I am creating a journal quilt again this year, Fifty-two Wednesdays. Each week, I select one image from my life and stitch it into a rectangular block.

The week ending on Wednesday, April 27, was filled with possibilities. We were in Padcuah, KY at the annual AQS show there, ending each day with time on the river. Of course, the thousands of inspirational ideas from quilts and vendors there would make many quilts, and we played on a caboose, saw bison in a prairie at Land Between the Lakes, and made a special trip to photograph fields of canola.

But the image that has been front and center in my brain since Sunday morning is that of the hauntingly beautiful walls of the house at Barnsley Gardens. Cotton broker Godfrey Barnsley bought 10,000 acres of land outside Adairsville, GA, and began building a manor house in 1842.

More than a century of misfortune had brought the mansion and its once magnificent gardens to ruin. You can read details at wikipedia or other online sources, but the Civil War and a tornado in 1906 explain a lot. In 1988, the remains of the property including the manor house were purchased and restoration begun.

I was entranced. Spellbound. On this quiet Sunday morning, Jim and I were in another world, another time. The skies were spectacularly blue, the sun bright, but at that early morning angle that photographers love. Shadows changed with every tilt of the head and with every step on the wooden floors.

Bare brick walls nearing two centuries in age reached to the sky. Window openings, sometimes with wooden frames clinging to the old mortar, were more spiritual than any stained glass window. Empty tealight holders nestled in openings in the brick walls, hinting at how magical this place would be in the darkness, too.

Before we left the trails surrounding the house, Clent Coker, author and historian, caught up with us and filled in some details of the restoration. His knowledge gave us a more complete understanding of the family and the land here. I am so thankful that someone decided to preserve this beautiful place as part of the lovely resort that is now on site. I am more thankful that they stopped before recreating a fine Italian villa. I love the crumbling bricks covered with algae, the skeletal structure of the building revealed.

This place will appear in Fifty-two Wednesdays and perhaps other quilt projects as well. I photographed bare walls with plans to stitch vines growing on them. I photographed the foyer floor whose brick inlay pattern looks like a unique quilt layout to me. And the three-tiered fountain and flowers blooming may show up in yet other projects.

“Seemingly insignificant moments…”, Jim remarked as we drove away. Had it not been for traffic delays and detours on Saturday, this magical Sunday morning might not have been part of our story.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: