Earlier this week, we found ourselves roaming around some of the mountains in north Georgia. We ended up having a picnic lunch beside a creek at Smithgall Woods State Park. The parking area was bounded by these fabulous trees – some species of pine, I think – so I was glad I happened to have some quits in the car.
This tree quilt is one of several I made many years ago, adapting a pattern by Caryl Bryer Fallert. The tree is appliquéd to a batik background fabric which still pleases me. The quilting is minimal stippling with an invisible thread (the early part of my quilting life, remember?) and I never gave it a name or attached a label. I actually made a couple of these as gifts; this one is still hanging around. I think seeing it perched on a fence under those trees is worth the years of storage. It measures 40” square.
I had another quilt in the car; one I’ve written about before. But it is a showy quilt and wanted to nestle in the branches of one of these trees. So we tossed Remember Me up on a limb and snapped some photos. Details of the story behind and construction of this quilt are in an earlier post here.
My loyal companion helping with placement and photography. Life is oh-so-wonderful with him!
We weren’t the only ones enjoying a bite of lunch in this bucolic setting.
Truth: I have not minded staying at home for a year.
Another truth: Seeing my quilting sisters this week was glorious!
Thursday was my quilt guild’s first meeting after more than a year. It was hard to predict how many people would come – but it was wonderful. It was great to see everyone, to visit, and to share a meal.
Our guild’s annual challenge is normally hung in November…since we missed that in 2020, we did it yesterday. This challenge was Something Feathered – the quilt had to include something feather related and a bit of yellow. Challenge Queen Tess often throws a color component our way.
As I do every year, I spent a lot of time thinking of all the ways I could incorporate something feathered into a quilt. Thinking of something wasn’t hard…narrowing it down to a challenge entry was. I actually made several things with the challenge in mind…more on that later…but the quilts that were hung showed that others of many of the same approaches I did…cyanotype images of feathers, vintage linens with birds on them, feathered designs in quilting.
There were stories, too. That’s what I love…the stories that are stitched into a quilt and into our souls.
Members vote for their favorite of the quilts displayed. The winning quilt yesterday was Genie’s Cardinals for Cora. Cora is Genie’s three-year-old granddaughter and when she visits, she exclaims with delight over “GiGi’s birds,” her name for the cardinals in Genie’s yard. Now for generations, when people see this quilt, they will pause in their busy lives and think of a delightful toddler spending time with her grandmother. Can anything be more beautiful?
The second place ribbon went to Marsha’s Murder Among the Posies. Marsha is like me in that she’d much rather shop in an antique store than a modern fabric store. She loves to find vintage linens with a history and combine them to tell a new story. Her quilt title was educational, too, reminding us that flocks of different bird species have different names. For crows, a flock is a murder.
Third place went to Dewey for Doodles. Dewey is a gifted longarm quilter. He tells us that he was bored one day, having caught up with his quilting tasks on hand during a retreat, so he layered some black fabric, played with bold colored threads, and just doodled. Beautiful! We all wish we could so casually doodle like he does.
Sherry brought two entires. The stuffed birds on the branch got my attention…so lovely. She named this one Delora’s Birds; remembering her Aunt Delora who loved pretty embellished linens and who spent time doing crafty things with Sherry during her childhood. Sherry brought another entry, too- Sunshine on a Cloudy Day. Our display space did not show off Sherry’s birds on the branch well, so she sent me photos from home. Once she suspends it from her ceiling again, we will replace the photo with that image. Zoom in on the closeup image to see the bird’s feet…a marvel in engineering for Sherry’s resume!
Marie entered Winging It, a small piece made from an extra block from an earlier quilt. Marie says when the Northern Rough-winged Swallows appear, she pulls that quilt out and drapes it across a chair in her den so she can enjoy the season inside and out.
Everyone was impressed with Shirley’s entry, Yankee Doodle Mickey. Not only was this quilt large, but it was Shirley’s first “real quilt,” she says. She used Disney fabric and incorporated feather stitching in some of the quilting. We are very impressed, Shirley, and look forward to seeing what comes next from this beginner!
Helen’s entry, All Feathered Up and Nowhere to Go 2020, combined cyanotype images of feathers and commercially printed feathers to make an eye-catching wall hanging. Helen likes blue almost as much as I do, so the blueprinting process on fabric was fun.
Angie’s entry is framed under glass, so please ignore the glare. Entitled I Believe, it is a beautiful combination of appliqué and embroidery.
Page’s entry, A Winter Evening, is a cardinal ready for display during the holidays.
Kathy is ready for fall with Pumpkin Season.
Patti’s entry, Pandemic Flowers, includes a feathered design quilted into the border. Patti says she gets the prize for including the most of Tess’s required yellow fabric.
Sharon’s quilt, To God Be The Glory, features a beautiful stained-glass dove and divine quilting.
Gladys, one of our most prolific quilters, ( I believe she made more than 100 quilts while staying safe at home during Covid), brought two entries for Something Feathered. I’m A Feathered Star, and I’m a Wanna Be Feathered Star (the blue one).
My entry was this appliquéd image of a Singer Featherweight sewing machine. As I said, I had plenty of feathered ideas and even stitched some with this challenge in mind. But once I had fun with the featherweight and the play on words, I decided to let this be my entry. I called it Threading My Featherweight. Jim’s title suggestion, “Bob-bob-bobbin Along” was better – but I didn’t ask for his input until I had stitched a blue bird….maybe I’ll do another one with a robin doing the work and use his title.
I’ve written about our guild’s challenges many times before…they really have enriched my quilting life, and I’m sure other members share that feeling. Click on the challenge category in the sidebar to see more of these stories.
A recent beautiful spring day was right for a ride-about. Not knowing our destination, I tossed a few small quilts in the car “just in case.”
When we stopped for our picnic lunch with this view of the sky and the trees, I was glad I had chosen to include Endless Migration, a challenge quilt from 2006. I had promised to write its details earlier when I did another post on paper foundation piecing here.
Our guild’s annual challenges always teach me something new. In 2006, our Challenge Queen, Tess, required that we do some curved piecing. As a rather new quilter, I thought about the possibilities all year (the challenge is announced in February, presented in November) but waited until nearly the last minute to engage in the sewing of my entry. If you know me, you know that this is a behavior in which I still engage…waiting until the last minute. Part of the reason is that I can’t keep a secret very long, so procrastination means I have less time to deal with that. But I don’t wait until the last minute to think about it…the whole intervening time between announcement and presentation, I have the challenge topic on my mind.
I loved the geometry of Mariner’s Compass blocks and had played with paper foundation piecing to accomplish a block or two of that type.
This quilt finished at 22″ x 25″.
I wanted to create an oval ring of flying geese around a tree of life motif. I had a tree pattern I liked, enlarged it to a nice wall hanging size, then made the oval to fit it. I did not have an oval the right size – this was before Cindy Needham created her marvelous templates, so I drew the concentric ovals on freezer paper by using two thumbtacks and a string. I drew in the flying geese as well, and it was to the sewing machine.
I loved (and still love) Fossil Fern fabrics. I had bought a couple of sets of the complete range of colors in 3″ squares, so I arranged lighter ones to fit in the sky portion and darker ones in the earth portion of my landscape.
The tree is a batik fabric fused to the background. At this early stage of my machine quilting life, I only knew how to stipple. So that’s the quilting done with invisible thread, I think.
The guild’s current challenge topic is Something Feathered. I’ve already made three possible entries and I have another one brewing…they are to be shared in a couple of weeks since we couldn’t meet in November 2020…so I still have time to make another, right?
Oh, and our picnic destination was Dowdell’s Knob where FDR often visited when he visited the Little White House near Warm Springs. Here you see he is holding Endless Migration. Another quilt’s visit to this spot is documented here.
