Month: February 2019

Paul’s Hearts

I have a friend Paul who has a way with words.  He peppers daily conversation with phrases that keep you on your toes.  When I get an email from him, I savor it because I can revisit the conversation with him without strugglng to remember exactly how he “put it”.

Paul gave me permission to share a recent email message.  You can see what I mean.

Sandy,

For reasons I don’t fully remember, I’ve refused to buy Jean a Valentine gift. I’ve insisted on making something and have persisted doing so for several decades. These gifts are often something which might make a grade schooler’s mom roll her eyes. Roll them enough to hurt. Carved pennies, personalized mini-street signs, repainted toy horses and many efforts I can no longer recall. It can be surprising difficult to get inspiration and that solution often comes at the last moment.

Several weeks ago, a valentine’s themed dishtowel at Ingle’s found its way into my cart. I had no thought of how to use it.

On Valentine’s eve, when I should have been working, I noticed  A Beekeeper’s Daughter among my favorites. Loving Hearts quickly made this year’s solution clear. A trip to the local Walmart provided the needed supplies. It also created several “deer in the head lights” experiences as small children rounded corners at top speed, stomped past the thread display far too close to my recently operated on foot and disappeared around the next aisle before I could think of something mean to yell at them. They knew what they were doing. I froze in terror with no clue which way to run.

At the end of the next work day I hand stitched my version of a Loving Heart. Jean seemed satisfied.

Thank you for the last minute inspiration.

Paul

Here are photos of some of Paul’s heart projects. 

Paul: I made three stepping stones and a big mess on the shop floor. 
 Paul: Because Jean often comments about pinto/paint ponies each time one trots across our television on an old western, the repainted horse is the effort which pleases me most.
Sandy’: When I saw this, I did a music search and enjoyed listening to some Italian arias!

And, if you are wondering, yes, my Loving Hearts quilt is finished. Once I attach the label, a blog with photos will be posted.

Lessons from the Low Country

We returned to SEWE (the SouthEastern Wildlife Exhibition) in Charleston, SC this weekend.  It was once a regular excursion for us, but it’s been many years since we were there. We took lots of photos, but not many in the art exhibits; there we were just absorbing the art and talking with the artists.  Most photos were from our strolls around town.

Here are some rather random images and observations I made.

Charleston is such a beautiful city. Old can be so glorious!

The sound of horses hooves on cobblestones is unlike any other.

Sometimes collectors of old duck decoys have them x-rayed as part of the age evaluation.

Many galleries in Charleston include work from several artists; they take turns manning the store. That gives them a chance to meet their fans, but also have undisturbed time to work.

Repetition is a great design feature. And not just in quilts.

Art takes on many forms. The fine art gallery had examples of paintings in oil, watercolor, and acrylics. We saw stunning examples of charcoal drawings and amazing photography. There were wood carvings and bronze sculptures. And we learned about less familiar techniques (at least to the Gilreaths) like scratchboard and carved bird feathers.  Oh, and using feathers to make bowties and cumberbunds.

These feet may be old, but they still get us around.  We logged more than 15 miles on foot to see the city.

Even when the city is crowded, the side streets and alleys are quiet, quaint, and serene.

I just love window boxes.

Street photography is powerful!

Details are important. Like the music playing in the art venues. Live bluegrass in the fine art gallery associated with SEWE and steel drums in the park where vendors were set up.

The weatherman is not always right. Gloomy skies and rain were predicted, but that was minimal.

Bricks and flagstone and pea gravel and cobblestones make great paving surfaces, either singly or in combination.

Even though an image is familiar, maybe iconic, it’s still a thrill to see it again.


I love geraniums, any time, any place.

It’s always nice to have a quilt in your purse.

On the way home, we visited Beaufort. Another extraordinarily beautiful town. The tumbling blocks quilt posed again with some boats.

Note: As I usually try to add a link to a quilt if I’ve already written about it, (so you can read details about it if you wish), I went searching for this blue quilt. How interesting that it was in this post about staying in beds and breakfasts – because that was one of our observations on this trip – that the overnight stays in chain hotels are usually forgettable, but staying in a great B & B is money well spent.

And, further exploration yielded this post, where I talked about backsides. It seems that I had this quilt on my mind in conjunction with backsides of people…like the lady with the cane. Interesting!

And, the blue quilt pictured was discussed here, too.

Princess Priscilla

I looked up from the sewing machine and saw another heart on the wall. I hadn’t exactly forgotten this one, but she is old.

I made her in 2005 in answer to a challenge at my local guild. Tess, our Challenge Queen, had directed us to make a quilt including hearts. A great idea since we are the Heart of Georgia Quilt Guild.

I was new to the world of quilting and to the challenge notion. This was my second opportunity to enter that competition and appliqué was the newest tool in my toolbox.

The pattern came from a book by Robyn Pandolph and many of the fabrics I used came from her designs, as well. Those were the days when I used fabric from one collection. And followed a pattern. As already stated, I was new at this quilting thing.

New at giving titles, too. I named this one Princess Priscilla loves Paisley.

Well, I sorta followed the pattern. I remember the challenge specified hearts, plural, so I added the hearts in the border. They are low contrast (I love that touch of subtle in a quilt) and asymmetrically placed. (Oh, how I love that!)

And the doll nestled among all those quilts is just one I had to bring home with me a few years ago. She’s happy bouncing around the house posing on quilts.

Speaking of posing, Priscilla went to Tifton recently and posed in front of Plough Gallery there. Don’t you just LOVE these blue doors? And, the hexagons in the paving on the walkway?

And the art in the gallery is nice, too! More stories from this place to come.

Loving Hearts

So the obsession for blue hearts outgrew the bowl. Bowls, actually; several are full.

It seemed the natural thing to do was to make more of those hearts to put in a quilt. I continued using bits of vintage linens, remnants of old clothing filled with memories, and remnants of overdyed linens.

I cut free-form hearts and stitched them to bits of background fabric and placed them on the design wall. Then a couple of days of trimming and filling in blank spaces with other beloved blue fabrics, and a quilt top was born.

Now it’s pin basted together, ready to quilt.

One of the old remnants I used included dozens of hearts like these and at least 40 of these birds. I found this gorgeous tablecloth last summer when I wrote about tattered treasures here. I didn’t appreciate the work some woman had done until I cut it up and stitched through the fabric myself.

It is a heavy cotton fabric, densely woven; what my mother would describe as “tough as pig iron” to stitch through. I realize now that the phrase makes no sense regarding stitching, but that’s what she said.

The woman who stitched all these crosses must have had sore fingers. Maybe she was a friend of Margene‘s, devoted to needlework, determined to finish.

The tablecloth was used, though. I know because of the stains and holes I found in it. That’s a good thing. I love stains and holes because I feel less guilty about cutting the piece apart and reusing the decorative stitching. And, I like knowing that the piece has stories embedded in the threads.

There are other stories in this collection of threads, as well. I bought some indigo and white homespun fabric at Elco Antique Market more than 30 years ago. My mother used it to make a dress for me. Now parts of it are in this quilt. Some of Jim’s shirts and some of mine have found their way here too.

And, those of you who make quilts are wondering about those blue dots and straight pins. I’m trying something new here, pin basting without having to close and then reopen safety pins. I like the pinning part. I’ll report on the removal process once the quilting is done.

A later post has been added with photos of the finished quilt and my verdict on the pinning dilemma. It’s here.

Hearts and Ribbons

This is the month to see hearts everywhere, and I LOVE it!

Hearts have long been one of my favorite motifs and they often show up in my quilts.  My quilt guild, (Heart of Georgia is its name – coincidence you think?) has themes for some of our Show and Tell sessions this year.  

We always bring new quilts we’ve recently finished, but the themes let us revisit favorite old quilts that we haven’t shared in a while.  Show and Tell is always inspiring and this variation allows new members to our group to see some past works they missed.

So I’ve been thinking about hearts in older quilts of mine, looking around the house at older pieces.  

One I found was this one Hearts and Ribbons– a project I made in the first appliqué class I took. Anita Shackelford was the teacher.   An excellent designer and teacher, she guided me through the intricacies of needle turn appliqué.   Though some of my work is more casual these days, I owe her all the credit for my beginning stitches in this technique.  

This piece features hearts that were made and stuffed, then hand quilted.  Later, they were attached to the background including other appliquéd elements.

The stuffed berries and delicate embroidery just add to the rich details of the piece.

This was one of my first efforts at free motion machine quilting, too.  I think I used an invisible thread and cotton batting.  

I don’t suppose anyone is surprised that the featured color here is blue.

Ollie Jane Goes for a Ride

I don’t always color coordinate my “ride along” quilts with our destination, but today I did.  I love these old greenish blue doors we discovered in a little out-of-the-way town on one of our rambles.  Today we were headed in that direction, the sun was shining, and quilts were going along for the ride.

Ollie Jane’s Flower Garden usually stays home.  Her permanent place in the world is hanging in our stairwell of our house and moving her is no minor event.  But, she’s been resting on a bed since Christmas, having given that spot of honor to a more wintry quilt, Miss Nellie’s Country Garden, for a few months.

I knew our travel plans would take us near the town with the green doors, and Ollie Jane needed to be photographed outdoors, so this seemed perfect.  Some of the hexagons in that quilt would coordinate with the color of the doors – so fabulous, aren’t they?

So, it happened!  The sun was not in a photographer’s favorite position as we passed through the little community when going or coming.  But since the desirable face of this building would not see direct sunlight for a few more months, we made the best of the opportunity at hand.

As we headed out the door, I grabbed another couple of quilts that I thought would look good in front of these turquoise doors, Sea Squared, and Annie Mae’s Lace.  I have written about these quilts before, but they haven’t been on a photo shoot.

Each of these quilts was very cooperative, as was OJ.  And, the gray doors and shuttered windows were rather showy themselves, giving the doors some competition as backgrounds.

Details of the construction of these quilts and other stories about them can be found by clicking on the links within the story above, or following them here:

Ollie Jane’s Flower Garden is here.

Annie Mae’s Lace is here.

Sea Squared is here.

I’ve already realized that Fairhope Feedsacks and another couple of quilts have fabrics that would coordinate with these doors. We will visit them again!