Category: quilts on location

New Hebron

After my latest post on quilts posed at New Hebron Baptist Church in Pike County, I thought you might like to see more photos of this beauty from the past. On an earlier visit, Jim captured images of the vicar and the interior of this church while I enjoyed memories of my childhood that this place triggered.

We visited this idyllic spot for the first time as part of the Slow Exposures Photography  Exhibition in 2019.  The organizers included a display of some of the photographs from the volume Historic Churches of Georgia.

A church that should be in the second edition of the book “Historic Rural Churches of Georgia,”  New Hebron Baptist Church near Concord, Georgia is an idyllic and picturesque place and is what you might expect when you first open your eyes in the afterlife. Thanks to Vicar Dwain Penn for the tour of New Hebron and his hospitality.

A church that should be in the second edition of the book Historic Rural Churches of Georgia,  New Hebron Baptist Church near Concord, Georgia is an idyllic and picturesque place and is what you might expect when you first open your eyes in the afterlife. Thanks to Vicar Dwain Penn for the tour of New Hebron and his hospitality.

Jim’s words from his facebook post about New Hebron

In my journal writing of that day I noted that Vicar Penn doesn’t call himself a pastor since he “has no sheep.”  He explained that the church has had no members for several years, and is therefore no longer affiliated with any denomination.  

At the time of our visit, services were conducted once a month, on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.  That allows people to attend their regular church and enjoy this spiritual place, too.

They sometimes host special events here, too.  Sacred Harp Singing Schools have been held in this church.  Oh, how I would love to hear those songs echoing off these unpainted timbers!

The church, built in 1908, was seen in the movies Cold Sassy Tree and Mama Flora’s Family, but most of the time, it’s maintaining its position in a bucolic scene on a quiet country road.

For more information, check out the entry on the Historic Rural Churches site https://www.hrcga.org/church/new-hebron-baptist/ .

And this article includes more of Vicar Penn’s story: http://www.thegospeler.org/ChurchBrochure.htm

Dots and Vines went along on this trip, too.  Here she poses on the back door of the church.  The story of this quilt is here: https://sandygilreath.com/dots-and-vines/

Heaven in a Wildflower

It was a glorious fall day and the gingko leaves were turning.  We grabbed cameras, a couple of quilts, and went in search of photo ops.

As we drove around town looking for public access to beautiful trees, Jim was looking at the sky, wanting the contrast of blue skies and golden leaves.

I was looking for a carpet of fallen leaves to blanket my latest quilt creation, Heaven in a Wildflower.

We found both shots through our camera lenses.

My quilt guild’s challenge for 2019 was to be “charming”.  A charm quilt is one in which each piece of fabric is different from all the others.  Traditionally, the pieces are all the same size and shape, such as a tumbler quilt.  But our challenge always encourages us to think in a new way, so I came up with this design.

I selected a piece of an overdyed fabric with fruits and vegetables on it.  I believe it started as an old tablecloth.  The artist who painted it is Wendy Richardson.  I have amassed a collection of beautiful fabrics from Wendy and selected this as the focal point.  I added bits from my Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics and some woven stripes from a Kaffe Fassett collection, then pieced the selections improvisationally in a modified log cabin layout.  

Those big blocks of solid fabrics needed details that luscious quilting could provide.  I wanted to incorporate a word or phrase in the quilting.  

When I asked Jim for advice about a word or phrase that the painted segment conjured up, I got more than I bargained for.  He came up with a lot of words:  from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence.

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wildflower,
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

So intense quilting ensued!  

The challenge specified a perimeter of between 120” and 200”.  My quilt measures 34” x 41”. 

The colors seemed destined as a background for posing gingko leaves.  Mission accomplished!

A Wonky Star goes to College

It has been too hot in recent days to be dragging quilts and cameras around and staging photographs.  But last week, Jim and I had cabin fever and decided a “ride-about” was in order.  It seemed a good idea to throw in a small quilt, just in case.

We ended up on the campus of my college alma mater and decided to snap a couple of photos.  This Wonky Blue Star quilt posed on the banister of an antebellum home that’s now part of the administrative buildings for Georgia College.  When I was enrolled there; oh, my, 50 years ago, this house was used as a dormitory.

I lived in this house for a couple of years. At one time my bedroom was the corner room you see here behind the rocking chairs.  

The view from that window, across the street, was the old governor’s mansion, seen here with the blue quilt posed on that fence.  This building was used as the president’s residence some years, and the site of several festive events for students.  My mother was especially entranced by those beautifully decorated rooms.

As I peeped through the fence to the immaculate lawn, I remembered how pleased she was to attend an outdoor reception there one spring day in my freshman year. Mama would love this campus even more now.

It was hot, as expected, so our time out of the car was brief.  But the sidewalks were busy with students on the way to class – or somewhere.  Enrollment has doubled since I was a student there and there are some changes to the campus.  But all of them are good.  Historic buildings are preserved and the classic beauty of the place is intact.  The energy of people going about the business of learning is always exciting.

The Wonky Star quilt is one I’ve made several times in several sizes.  I’ve taught it as a quick technique to create a block or a whole quilt, as in this case.  You need thirteen squares of fabric the same size and some simple cutting and sewing directions to make a quick quilt.

Here, I chose a big print that I was reluctant to cut into tiny pieces and a contrasting background fabric.  A simple wavy line of machine quilting meant that this was a really quick project.  This one measures 33” square finished and works perfectly as a table topper.

In the next post, I’ll share other Wonky Star quilts and the instructions.

Loving Blues

My latest quilt project is finished and has been on an outing already.  Loving Blues rode with us to 7th Street Salvage today.  Coincidentally, perhaps, everything we liked was either blue or white.

Catherine graciously permitted me to pose my quilt in several spots, and oh, what fun we had!  Blues posed on a mantel,

on a group of bathtubs (love the blue oars, too),

on a dry sink (I’m really in love with that pump!),

and outside on a precious little structure.  Those blue tin tiles are fabulous everywhere, aren’t they?

Once home, Blues posed with the treasures we brought home.  The blue sphere is a duckpin bowling ball.  The pins and balls on display reminded Jim of playing this game at Indian Springs State Park during his childhood.  The coloring on this ball meant that it was coming home with us! (and yes, those are blue metal tiles you see in the corner.)

The sun was out for a few minutes, so we let Blues swing in the breeze. 

Yes, the vest I am wearing had scraps that found their way into this quilt, too.

Quilt details:  It measures 40” x 60” finished.

This has memories stitched together, some fabrics held my memories, some held memories of other hands, other lives. All fabrics were either vintage linens I had purchased, many of them overdyed in indigo, or bits of clothing from my closet and Jim’s.

There are fabrics from several of Jim’s shirts, some from shirts of mine. The V is made from a homespun cotton fabric I bought at Elco Antique Market in the 1980’s, my mother made a jumper for me and I wore it for years. Now some of that precious find lives in this quilt.

I changed the name.  That earlier post was called Loving Hearts, and I thought that would be the finished title.  But, no, the quilt said it was about Loving Blues.  Ok.  The label is a big heart cut from an overdyed linen tablecloth remnant with beads added.

Like memories that vary; some bring smiles, some bring tears; these fabrics differed, too.  Some light weight linen from my breezy summer shirts was soft and stretchy.  Others, like the ticking used to make the letter “E” and the handwoven toweling used for the “L”, were thick, made to be durable for centuries.  That made quilting interesting.  I chose a meandering vine with hearts.

And the pins and silicon tips I mentioned in this earlier post –  they are great!  I feared that they might make maneuvering the quilt under the sewing machine a bit trickier, but, no problem!  And the pinching motion necessary with safety pins, which is hard on arthritic hands, is gone.

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.

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!

The Farmhouse visits The Farm House

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.

52 Tuesdays in front of The Farm House, the subject of Tuesday #4

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:

Seven Black Birds (in the photo above).

The Farmhouse (with several quilts shown and featuring Jim’s post-processing skills).

Christmas Quilts on the Farm (interior and exterior quilt poses of Christmas quilts).

Christmas Quilts on the Farm

We left home on a recent glorious fall day with a camera and some quilts in the car.  We ended up with boxes of notecards showing Jim’s photos of quilts in unexpected places.

The most stunning image to me is this one of Miss Lily’s Baskets on a hayrake.  It was a sunny day, but the magician’s hand in the digital darkroom transformed it into something ethereal.

The same little quilt posed on the mantel in a rustic living room,

and on a chair at an outdoor banquet table.

Another seasonal quilt, Pomegranates and Poinsettias, lounged on a chair in front of poinsettias and a Christmas tree.  A fire in the fireplace was welcome on this cool day.

Small Tree Farm became part of a vignette of tools on the side of a building.  

I love the contradictions in texture:  soft quilted textiles against hard rusty tools.

I love the contradictions in value:  brilliant colors of fabric against old wood faded to gray.


In case you missed them, earlier posts give details of these quilts.  Miss Lily’s Baskets is here.

Pomegranates and Poinsettias is here, and Small Tree Farm hasn’t really been described except on the page of patterns I’ve designed.  Another post about it and its larger companion piece will be forthcoming.

Last year’s post about Christmas quilts is here.  Details of some of these same quilts are included in that post, with photos in different surroundings.  If you are wondering, Mistletoe and Holly, mentioned in last year’s post, isn’t finished, but I’m working on it now – repeating my love of stitching on red and green during this season.

While browsing my photo files for Christmas quilts, I found this image of a commissioned piece I did a few years ago.  I think its colors are well suited for this season, too.

Fairhope Feedsacks

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.  It’s 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 I’m looking for places to take some other small quilts.  I love making the little ones.  And since I”m doing it for fun, who cares what size it is?  I know a lot of people think a quilt has to cover a bed.  I’m so glad they are wrong!  

Fairhope Feedsacks measures 19” x 24” .  The logs finish at  3/4” 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 don’t like the same fabrics used in the same position in a log cabin (that’s 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.  It’s not complicated, It’s 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.