Miss Nellie’s Country Garden

On a recent Saturday ride-about, we took a big wool quilt in case we saw a spot for photos.  We found a spot at Starr’s Mill, and gave Miss Nellie’s Country Garden some places to pose.

The quilt is my version of a pattern from Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings.  The wool appliqué is stitched by hand onto cotton background fabrics.  The piecing together of the blocks and the quilting are done by machine.  

As I worked on all aspects of this quilt, I thought of my Aunt Nellie.  The wool appliqué – informal and free – and the garden theme led me to know the quilt had to be named for her.

She was known as Miss Nellie to most everyone in the community.  I was lucky enough to know her as Aunt Nellie.  She was a teacher, and so there are some people who knew her as Miss Hobby, too.  She lived next door for my entire childhood, and serves to inspire me every day of my life. 

She lived to the age of 91, and only in her 91st year was she unable to tend her garden.  She grew vegetables to eat, to share, to can, and to freeze.  She grew flowers for the joy of the bloom.

Aunt Nellie’s vegetable garden was neat and orderly, but her flowers were a riot of stems and leaves and blooms.  Weeds were kept at bay in both places, but the separation she maintained in her butterbeans and squash was not valued in her flowerbeds.  The snapdragons and pansies, the petunias and lilies and gladiolas all mingled about, with her snipping a cutting here and poking it in an empty spot there to take root and fill a space.  And, take root they did.  Her green thumb was legendary, possibly due in part by the load of fresh cow manure a local farmer delivered to her every spring.

She grew geraniums in pots, dahlias in a  separate bed all their own.  She had a bit of yard art, too.  I remember a whimsical bird bath, tiers of porcelain basins given to her by a friend.  Once it developed leaks, it was repurposed as a planter for succulents.


So the whimsical nature of some of these quilt blocks is a perfect tribute to a woman from the country.  The label is a block I had made because Miss Jump, one of Linda Brannock’s creations, reminds me of Aunt Nellie.

More quilt details:  The quilt finished at 60” x 75”.  I used a whipstitch to secure the wool to the cotton, usually with perle cotton thread, but sometimes with embroidery floss or even fine sewing thread.  The quilting is all hand-guided freemotion stitching on my home machine.  I used Dream Cotton Request batting and a cotton fabric for the background.  And it was all fun!  Just as Aunt Nellie would have wanted it to be.

Oh, and another detail.  Because the wool is so visually heavy, I made a wider binding than I usually do.  The “standard” 1/4” binding seems so wimpy on a large wool quilt, so I cut the binding 3 1/2”, then folded in half and stitched it to the front of the quilt with a hearty 3/8” seam allowance (or scant 1/2”).  The binding then finishes (with these fabrics) at 1/2”. I used a woven plaid (easy to stitch down by hand) and cut it on the bias.

More about Aunt Nellie:  I’ve written a lot about Aunt Nellie already, if you type “Nellie” in the search box, you’ll find several references to her.  But, she is the older of the two “Spinster Sisters” in this post, where I shared more details of her: https://sandygilreath.com/spinster-sisters/

SlowExposures

When we leave home for one of our Saturday “ride abouts”, we don’t always know where we’ll end up.  Our most recent experience was at a county-wide photography exhibit.  We stopped at one of our favorite bookstores, A Novel Experience, in Zebulon, only to discover it was on this day headquarters for glory.  

Well, glory our way.  SlowExposures, A Juried Exhibition Celebrating Photography of the Rural South, was in full swing in Pike County.  Walking and driving to at least seven sites, we met interesting people, saw interesting photography and other art forms, and came away inspired.

Every person we met was friendly and informative and urged us to visit other artists as well.  So we moved through the day on those recommendations, going from one “pop-up” venue to the next, only to be greeted by more fabulous photography, more unique ideas in presentation, more friendly people.

The photos were images made all over the South.  The photographers were from as far away as Maine, and the exhibit was the 16th of its kind.  How did we not know of this?  Well, we know now!

There was a competitive collection of single images, and there were “pop-ups” all over the county.  A pop-up exhibit was a collection of work from a single photographer or from groups with some common theme.  Subject matter, or technique, or presentation could unite them for this exhibit.

If you think a picture is worth a thousand words, you can’t image the volumes spoken by some of these displays.

A collection documenting the memorabilia left behind by a soldier who ended his own life in 1959 was sobering  The images mounted on black wood, in black frames, finished without a glass barrier, are stark and convey the mood of the project beautifully. (You can see photos of this here. Neither Jim nor I took snapshots of this work, it seemed disrespectful somehow – the display was the powerful.)

A former architect displayed part of an ongoing project to photograph all the azaleas in his home town.  He lives in Nachez, MS, so that’s a lot of azalea blooms.

The settings for the exhibit were likewise intriguing.  The main gallery was housed in an old store building in a small town six miles away from the county seat.  Pop-ups were in commercial and government buildings as well as unique buildings in the community repurposed for this weekend’s treasures.

One artist had the fortune to have his work displayed in a stable.  To take advantage of this  venue, he created amazing large-scale displays to share his Forest re-Framed.  There were dimensional elements, large scale prints with plates of glass in front to vary the distance from the viewer.  There were huge prints on canvas with natural light illuminating the photos.

There were a couple of artists housed in a sharecropper’s cabin.  The exposed structure of the building, painted white, was a perfect backdrop for their works.

Maybe I’m saving the best for the last.  Or maybe just after such a day the anticipation builds so the last thing is the best.  But our final visit was to the Hive, a small building (renamed for these two days) containing four artists who incorporate beeswax into their photo displays.  Each of the four uses different subject matter and processes to make their encaustic work unique, but all were fascinating to this Beekeeper’s Daughter.

I felt a special kinship with Kevin.  Kevin finds vintage photos at flea markets, collages the photos with other objects, and makes up a story about the person in the photo.  Yes, like I did with Margene and Ruth, to name a couple – just makes stuff up!  When I shared that I love to tell stories though my work, too, Kevin and I bonded.  He gave me permission to share a photo of him, of some of his work, and later, he demonstrated his technique with wax.  An earlier photo shows a closeup of one of his collages, but the shot below includes one of the fabulous vintage frames that completes his work.

Inspired, intrigued, amazed, fascinated; all good words to sum up the day.  Another example of retired life with open-ended adventures!  Except for the old geezer who pretended his name was Jim in order to claim our food in a crowded restaurant, the day was fabulous!  Even that situation was quickly remedied by a poised waitress and it gave us another funny store to share for years to come.

Note:  here are links to more of the artists whose work I described:

Sandy Burr

Jo Lynn Still

Houck Medford

Nancy Marshall

Rory Doyle

Remember Me

In our household, we often quote favorite movie lines to convey a big message in a few words.  A bit like a secret language, the power of a select phrase can convey a sense of place, a mood,  or a personality,  and add to the bond of family.

One phrase that’s part of our oft-repeated mantras is “remember me?” spoken in the tone Julia Roberts used in Pretty Woman.  You know the scene when she returns to the uppity sales clerk who had refused to help her.   Laden with packages from another Rodeo Drive shop, she twirls about and smugly displays her loot.  There’s a follow-up line about working on commission and “Big Mistake.”  We quote that sometimes, too.

Several years ago, when I was a member of a mini-group of quilters who called ourselves The Basket Cases, we exchanged blocks to make quilts.  The rules were: make a 9” basket for each other member of the group, in the color specified by each gal; then make your own quilt with the result.  I chose blue (big surprise), as did Mary.  Susan asked for red and pink.  Dale requested pastels, and Angie’s color was terra cotta.


The single basket block you see here is from one set of blocks I made to exchange.  The others I made for them were similar, but with pieced bows at the top, not appliquéd bows like these.  I made some of that type in blue for myself, too.

We made the exchange baskets twice and each assembled her own quilt using whatever setting was desired. I had eight baskets from friends (you can find four pairs of similar baskets in my quilt, each pair from one quilting sister) and four I had made.

I struggled with the various shades of blue and the different levels of contrast until I remembered how I love brown with blue.  This dark brown polka dot seemed to be the perfect fabric to enclose the group of baskets and serve as a border.  

I tried the polka dot as alternate blocks, but the big blocks of color were distracting.  So back to the sewing machine.  I made six 7” basket blocks, framed them with 1” borders of the brown which acted as sashing, and was done.

So it was time for a title.  The brown polka dots reminded me of a dress Julia Roberts wore at the polo match in Pretty Woman.  So, Remember Me was the perfect phrase to convey the movie connection and the spirit of the exchange blocks with the Basket Cases.

The photos of the quilt were made on an outing to Auchumpkee Creek.  Jim made some photos, I made others.


In this photo, you see the back of the quilt with a tree’s shadow on it.  As I often do, I pieced the backing with several blue fabrics.

I did not do the quilting on this one.  My friend and longarm expert, Kathy Darley, did a great job putting the layers together.

Margene’s Tablecloth

Margene was a master seamstress.  She made clothing for herself and her daughters.  She made a shirt for her husband once, but decided they could afford to buy men’s clothing.  So the husband and son wore all store-bought clothes.

Margene made her kitchen curtains, recovered chair cushions, pieced worn out clothing into quilts.  Most of this stitching, like the girls’ dresses, was done on the sewing machine.  It was faster, more efficient for the necessities of life, but Margene needed handwork to keep her busy after the supper dishes were done.

She did a little knitting and crocheting, but her real love was pulling a threaded needle through cloth.  That rhythm soothed her soul.  Embroidery met this need.  She could buy a transfer kit with a design on it, iron that ink onto her own fabric, and stitch away.  Or she could even buy a design already stamped on table linens or dish towels and get right to business.  The local five-and-dime sold cotton embroidery floss by the bushel, and even had some of the designs she liked.

This tablecloth was one Margene started, but never finished.  She was in the midst of it when she got the news that her son was killed in a car accident.  She tried, but could never bring herself to thread the needle for that project again.  After a long while, she did do other embroidery projects, but every time she picked this one up, her hands trembled, and her eyes filled with tears.  If she couldn’t see the design, how could she stitch it?

All the above is imaginative.  I don’t know anything about this project except I bought the unfinished tablecloth after looking at it in a favorite antique mall booth for months, maybe years.  At $17, it’s beyond what I normally spend on linens to cut apart and reuse, but the soft colors, the nice stitching, the possibilities, kept beckoning to me.

Here is the tag the vendor included with the piece.  Her linens are clean and pressed, and packaged to stay that way while on display.  I could see through the cellophane that there were traces of the stamped design that had not yet been stitched.  I could read between the lines of the tag that the vendor thought someone would buy the piece and finish the embroidery. 

I could do that.  I would enjoy doing that.  I might actually do that.  But it’s likely that I will include it in a quilt project with the design left as “Margene” stopped.  An open-ended story – so many possibilities.

The portrait is a discarded photo I found in a bin at another store.  I thought this lady had a story or two to tell.  Turns out, she had a tablecloth.

Since I’m sharing this again in honor of International Women’s Day, if you are a new reader, you might want to read about some of the real women who’ve influenced me:

Spinster Sisters is the story of two of my ancestors whose stories impacted my life from the day of my birth.

Quilting Sisters introduces you to two women who still influence me today. A site search for “Joyce” or “Hilda” will yield more stories of these women.

Come On In

An old favorite haunt of ours has reopened this summer.  A warehouse in town where a construction firm once sold architectural relics is now new and improved.  A new generation of owners has made these treasures available again.  It’s even better than before.

What we once visited as Second Chance is now 7th Street Salvage.  Oh, never fear, there are still ample choices awaiting a second chance!


Catherine has an eye for detail and has glorious displays everywhere.  In addition to the warehouse holding years of accumulated doors and windows and stair railings, there are delightful vignettes of small treasures. Catherine has searched out more vintage delights and combined books and chairs and jars and hinges in the most unique ways. Her husband Brent is her partner in the endeavor.

The organization of bits and pieces is amazing.  Even the most OCD of us would love the cataloging of salvage pieces here.


I appreciate the old and dusty, and sometimes rusty, elements that are abundant in these places.  In some places we visit, a mad jumble encourages me to walk away.  That’s not a problem here.  Everything is grouped and categorized with clear price lists displayed.  The simple quantity of things like doorknobs and hinges and backplates and keys is astounding, but the organization is amazing.  Eat your heart out, Container Store.

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Look – tiles organized by quilt block usage: Half-square triangles and trapezoids ready to go!

And, who knew how educational such shopping could be?  Did you know chickens needed laxatives?  

This display of doorplates had me spellbound.  I bought a couple and included one in a fabric collage about home.  And I learned a new word: escutcheon.

This amazing place is 7th Street Salvage in Macon.  Their schedule of open weekends is on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/7th-Street-Salvage-1903699043183111/).  The architecture of Macon is glorious.  To keep the elements of its historical beauty available to include in newer homes is a public service.

Here is the piece I am making using one of the doorplates I bought.  I used vintage linens and a house key from our ancestral past atop an overdyed quilt remnant to showcase the escutcheon.  It’s all ready to mount on a 16’ x 20” canvas here.

 

 

 

 

 

It looked bare.  So I’m auditioning edges.  What do you think?

Update: Here is a later post about the wall hanging once it was finished: I changed the name to Safe Haven.

Floozies

When I shared photos of quilts at Step Back, I promised details on the quilts I took on the visit.  So, for those who are wondering about the Floozies quilt, here is its story.

On my first visit to Step Back, I mentally named this cabin “Waiting for Chinking,” since that’s the stage it’s in.  I think there’s an art quilt with that title in my future, featuring this cabin.

When I later learned that this cabin is where the “floozies” hang out during the annual Christmas celebration, I knew I wanted my Floozies quilt to be photographed there.

One of the volunteers was kind enough to pose as a floozie with the Floozies! These fine upstanding women of the community act as hostesses at Step Back.  They dress in vintage clothing and pose for photos and provide history lessons for visitors.

In other settings, Floozies is a brightly colored quilt.  I love how the weathered gray of the buildings provides low contrast with the background fabrics; subduing things, making the birds seem right at home.

The title I used, A Flock of Feathered Floozies, came to me after a year of working on these birds to stitch them in place, then embellish them with beads and elaborate stitching using all kinds of rich threads.

The pattern, hand-dyed wool, and accessorizing threads and baubles came from Sue Spargo in her block-of-the-month pattern a few years ago.  I had taken a class with Sue in the past and knew there was a lot more to learn from her.  And learn I did.

In each month’s  packet there were actually materials for three blocks.  Wool background, wool for the birds, instructions, and embellishing threads of cotton or silk, of all sizes and twists.  There is a lot of detail in each block, so click on the photo to enlarge to see things more closely.

The project was time consuming for sure.  These birds were my companions virtually every evening for a year.  As we watch tv, I’m usually doing hand sewing.  Sometimes it’s a binding, sometimes it’s appliqué, but for that year, it was these birds.  Every bit of appliqué and embroidery was done by hand.  The sewing machine was used only when it was time to assemble the blocks and then quilt the layers together.

I kept up with the schedule, finishing each month’s three blocks just in time for the delivery of the next.  I would get an email from Sue’s son when the next month’s block had shipped.  If I wasn’t done, I would stitch faster!  My self-imposed rule was not to open a package until the previous blocks were completed.  Since I was anxious to see what Sue had planned for the next birds, I made sure I was ready when the mailman came.

With Sue’s companion book Creative Stitches beside me, I learned all kinds of embroidery stitches I had not known before.  The wool appliqué was done with a whipstitch with matching wool thread, so it’s virtually invisible.  Then each piece was backstitched with a Valdani #12 perle cotton thread.  Sometimes other threads were used for embellishing stitches, sometimes the Valdani.  

The background pieces were often embellished with ribbon or linen or cotton fabric, as are the birds.  Just look at the French knots on the linen portion of this block.


Of all the new stitches I learned, I think I was most fascinated with the drizzle stitches.  See them here?  They make a loose fringe-like decoration on the tail of the bird above, but if left longer, they can be couched down to hold them in place.

Once the blocks were completed, assembled, and a border (with a lot of wool circles appliquéd, surrounded by embellishing stitches) added, it was time to quilt.  I used a thin cotton batting (Dream Cotton Request) and a free motion stitch to secure the layers.  I love how the stitching shows up on the wool.

Obviously, many of these techniques are now part of my stitching repertoire. The quilt hangs in my sewing room, providing me with constant exposure to the idea to “do more, more, more.”  And I do.

Sue’s title for this quilt (and a pattern is available now) was Bird Dance.  But every southern girl knows that if a woman is overdressed; has too many accessories, she is in danger of being considered a floozie.  I love to see people smile when they look at my work, and this piece has generated a lot of giggles when people see the title, A Flock of Feathered Floozies.

And, there is a still at Step Back.  So Floozies collapsed there for a rest.

In case you missed them, earlier posts about Step Back are here (Christmas at Step Back) and here (my quilts visit Step Back).  And this earlier post has details about wool appliqué.

 

As Is

I love to find a vintage textile marked “as Is.”  To me it means the price is discounted.  There may be hole in it – giving me an excuse to cut it up and reuse it, or to patch the hole with appliqué. There may be stains on it, meaning i am free to dip the piece in the indigo dye bath, making it beautiful and blue.

Elegantly presented and pristine linens delight me.  I sometime buy them to use just as they are and I do appreciate the dealer’s work in laundering them and packaging them so nicely.  But there is a special thrill in digging through a basket of miscellaneous bits of cloth and finding the treasure that is 100% linen.  Or a towel made from huck cotton. 

Of course, the value is not only in the eye of the beholder.  Most dealers know that even a worn faded sliver of barkcloth will sell for a pretty penny.  But occasionally I find a piece that was just recognized as old and worn.  I don’t squeal with delight until after I’ve paid my pittance for it.  Oh, I do love a find like that.

A worn cotton petticoat that has tucks and lace holds all kinds of potential to become part of a rescued remnant.

Here is a worn dresser scarf with a hole and a stain and a tear in the trim – all signs of use and deposits in some girl’s bank of memories.  There were other pieces in the set; some with more wear, some with less. 

One of the bluebirds flew from a tattered piece and became this heart. 

This heart was made from the intact embroidery from a tattered pillow cover.

And another came from some very very worn curtains.  This corner was bright and colorful.  I love how the old fabrics keep their brilliance!

See why I love “as is”?  I love giving those surviving elements a new home.  Some woman loved these fabrics, either because she stitched the embroidery herself or maybe she selected a color combination to brighten her kitchen.  Now her work survives to brighten someone’s day again.

 

The Story Shop

This is not a post about a quilt.  This is a post about magic, or at least a magical place for kids of all ages. 

 C. S. Lewis would be proud.  The glint in this boy’s eye says it all.  When you go, look in the wardrobe  – you won’t be disappointed.

This shop is on a downtown street in Monroe, Ga.  We go there frequently to visit family, to shop at some great antique malls, and to eat delicious food at local restaurants.

As we drove through downtown on recent trips, this storefront beckoned me.  It seemed to be a children’s shop of some sort, but until I entered, I had no idea what to expect.

There are books, book, more books, and nooks to read them in. 

There’s a yellow brick road, murals to delight children and adults around every corner.

I paused in my giggling with delight to get permission to take photos and write about this haven.  Do click on the images to enlarge them so you can appreciate the detail in the decor.

I learned that The Story Shop has been open for about two years and is as wildly popular as you would expect.  The owner and designer has created a delightful destination for kids of all ages.  


Groups are welcomed and school groups can come to presentation geared to their age groups.  Teachers will love that the programs are correlated to the state curriculum standards.  What a wonderful place to learn more about your favorite wonderland.

There’s a room for parties and gatherings.  And a bit of non-bound merchandise can be found, too.  

Just seeing the graphics on this tote bag brings happy memories of libraries and bookstores from my early reading life.  Imagine the memories made by youngsters who have the privilege of visiting this wonderland!  

How many favorite books from your childhood did you identify from the photos?

 

Quilts at Step Back

This is a preview post of several quilt stories to come.  As you know, I love to photograph my quilts in unusual settings and sometimes leave home with one or two, then blog about the quilt in detail.

Today we had the opportunity to revisit Step Back, a privately owned rural community with twenty 1900-era buildings.  An earlier post with details about this place is here.

When our camera club was invited to come stroll about the grounds with cameras, I asked if I might bring some quilts.  When the answer was “yes,” I gathered a few pieces whose stories are waiting to be part of a blog post.  So today you see some glamour shots – later more complete stories.

The silvery gray buildings were a wonderful backdrop for quilts to shine.  Sometimes the contrast was minimal, other times it was strong, but always, the old buildings brought new character to fabric and stitches. As always, you can click on any image to enlarge and see details.

Miss Nellie’s Country Garden posed near the waterwheel.  This 12 foot wheel is perfectly balanced and turns with just the tiniest trickle of water as its power source.

Miss Emily’s Baskets rested in some cotton baskets inside the mill house.

This is the cabin where local ladies pretend to be floozies at the Christmas open house every December.  I thought my wool quilt, A Flock of Feathered Floozies, needed to pose here.

Here, Where the Soul says Ahhh is hanging inside the entry of the schoolhouse.  

And here you see why I chose this quilt for the schoolhouse.

A little goat quilt rides on a tricycle.  This quilt has been the subject of an earlier blog post here , but it seemed that a goat quilt needed to visit Step Back.  

Guineas visited Step Back, too.  Guineas on Parade posed at the base of the windmill and on the floozies’ porch. 

And, a man in overalls was visiting today. Of course he was.  A trip back in time to a rural setting would not be complete without that image!

For more details about the Step Back village, visit http://seniornewsga.com/NewspapersSN/Atlanta/2015/AtlantaSeniorNewspdfdec15.pdf or like the Step Back page on Facebook.

Shade Tree Mechanics

Life imitates art.

On a recent adventure to a pottery festival, I saw this beautiful 1953 Chevrolet truck.  It was a glorious blue, beautifully restored, and photogenic from all angles.  But my favorite angle was this one because it mimicked the truck I put on a quilt a few years ago.

 

In 2015, when pondering a design for a raffle quilt for my husband’s local Vintage Chevrolet Club chapter, I decided to create a scene where men might tinker on their machines. I love including trees on quilts, so the title was easy 

The quilt measures 44” x 70“ and is a combination of needleturn appliqué, raw-edge appliqué, hand-guided freemotion quilting, trapunto, and printing on fabric.

I drew the design on acetate transparency and using my vintage overhead projector, enlarged the image to fill the background fabric pinned to my design wall.  The same technique was used to draw the freezer paper templates for the tree trunks and the various pieces of the truck.  I used commercial fabric to build the images, working from background to foreground as I attached the pieces.

 

I posted these photos to Facebook as I worked and it triggered many memories my students in math classrooms in days gone by.

 

 

The quilt top on the design wall before quilting began.

 

Wool batting was layered underneath the Chevrolet emblem on the tailgate, stitched down with water soluble thread.  Then the excess batting was cut away before layering the entire top on a cotton batting.

Freemotion stitching made the layers become one, a quilt.  In addition, that stitching was used to differentiate areas of the dashboard, windshield, and tire tracks on the ground.  Freemotion stitching was used to attach the raw-edged leaves as well. 

A photo of an antique car tag was scaled to fit the license plate space and printed onto fabric.  Blue was chosen for the 1953 model truck because there is such a truck in Jim’s family.  And blue…well, it’s blue.

A bowtie-shaped Chevrolet icon served as the basis for the handwritten label.  Sadly, I don’t seem to have a photo of that.

Note:  One purpose in writing this blog is to record details of quilts I’ve made.  I had written most of these details in a draft a couple of years ago, but the photo of a real truck like the one I fabricated spurred the post to publication.  As I read the details I had written, I was reminded how important it is to write things down.  I had forgotten the details of the wool batting layer, raw edged leaves, and thread choices.  

Especially since the quilt is no longer in my possession, the written description of the process is more valuable in case I want to do something similar again.

Another note: Many of these photos were made with an older iPhone and poor lighting conditions.  Reducing them to post online makes for even poorer quality, but clicking on the image to enlarge it may reveal some details you miss in the original.