journaling – Sandy Gilreath

A Birthday Outing

It was my birthday…and a trip down memory lane. Jim did a facebook post with lots of photos from the 40 years he’s had me in his viewfinder, and we visited places that triggered even earlier memories.

We headed out the door with no particular plans in mind except maybe to visit a new-to-us antique mall, Planter’s Walk in Locust Grove. Before we even went inside, I saw a garden sculpture that sparked the day of reminiscing. And as we walked through the vendors’ booths, more and more memories surfaced.

The phrase “seeing your life flash by” is usually reserved for one’s final moments. But walking through this antique mall brought that phrase to mind. I’ll share the specifics with photos.

A little girl pulling up the hem of her dress reminded me of my sister.

In this and many other photos, Jane was showing off her chubby little legs. She was teased a bit about this pose in years to come.

I had skates similar to this when I was a child. We lived on a dirt road, so my skating was done on a concrete floor of the front porch, 10’ x 15’, I’d guess. It was a big surface to me though.

Corning Ware cookware was a big part of my kitchen life in the 1970’s.

My mother had a set of these glasses. I can still taste the orange juice when I see these small ones.

A butter mold exactly like the one my mother used. (I have hers.)

The tag on this one said “folding milking stool”. I don’t know if that’s its true purpose, but I had one as a child…just like it.

Here I am sitting on my stool feeding my baby doll. Yes, those are barkcloth curtains in our living room. 1957 or so, I’d guess.

Clocks…lots of clocks were displayed here and there in this antique mall. The WestBend with dark face is like one that sat on my Daddy’s bedside table and woke them every morning. Well, it was set for that purpose, but Daddy usually woke before the bell rang.

Masks like I wore in fencing class in college. Yep. Fencing. I made an A.

My mother had a jewelry box exactly like this.

I usually see an item or two in an antique store that prompts memories, but I don’t recall ever seeing as many as on this day!

And, then, if that wasn’t enough nostalgia for a day, we went to the grounds where I attended camp as a child and as a teen. Now known as the Georgia FFA/FCCLA Center, I visited for several days several times in the years between 1960 and 2000. First as a camper (4-H in elementary school, FHA in high school) then attending state meetings of GALA (Georgia Association of Library Assistants) in high school, and finally with a group of educators working on curriculum in the 1990’s. Another trip there could be in my future. Quilters sometimes have retreats there….

The new dining hall building has a timeline of the camp over the years. This section is devoted to the first admission of women. My sister Jane would have attended FHA camp there in the early 1950’s.

There are changes that have taken place over the years, but a lot of the buildings and grounds are still familiar to me. Especially the dining hall. Wow. As I walked inside, I could hear the shuffling of feet as hungry kids lined up for delicious food. I could also remember the hush as a leader offered a blessing before the meal. A new larger dining room exists now, but this one has been kept as it was, furniture and all. It’s now sometimes used as a meeting space, but I bet others with memories as long as mine recognized how important it might be to revisit.

The original dining hall complete with original furniture. I’ve eaten many meals here.

Here I am in 1968 with a fellow GALA member. That organization was nerdy before nerd was a word, I guess. But I fit that description and reveled in going to meet with other like-minded teens in this glorious outdoor setting.

The campground has grown and changed over the years, as have I. It can now house up to 1200 people with abundant opportunities for attendees to grow and change, too. To revisit a place that was such an impactful part of my growing up was powerful!

This is the cabin I stayed in during my visit with math and science colleagues in the 1990’s. Different memories, but fond ones nevertheless.

The antique mall we visited was Planters Walk in Locust Grove. More information is here: http://www.planterswalkantiquemall.com/

The website for the Georgia FFA/FCCLA Center is here: http://www.georgiaffacamp.org/

Hot Hot Summertime

One of our favorite pastimes is going shopping for antiques. Now the words thrifting or junking are more popular than antiquing…but whatever you call it, Jim and I enjoy doing it.

One of our favorite haunts is Monroe, GA. It’s the birthplace of my partner in crime, so the route there and back is filled with stories of his childhood travels in that part of the state. So as we travel to find treasures, we travel through time, too.

On our most recent visit, we took along a quilt. It’s made with brightly colored fabrics using a pattern by Tula Pink called Birdseed. I followed her suggestions for background fabrics in shades of gray, and pulled bright prints from my stash for the orange peel and flying geese blocks.

I love quilts that combine applique and piecing, and this simple design gave me some handwork to do in front of the tv at night with minimal preparation. In fact, to decrease that prep time even more, I used my Accuquilt cutting device to cut the melons. The size die I had did not match Tula’s template size, so I resized the whole quilt. I don’t know how many units her pattern specified; I just made them until I thought I had enough; put them on the design wall and moved them around until I was happy. Then I sewed them together.

I pieced brightly colored fabrics for the backing, layered and pin-based the whole thing, then put it aside until this spring. Quilting it was fun. I played with different free-motion designs in each area enclosed by the melons. As I finished this project, the daily high temperatures were three digits. The vibrant colors in the quilt said, it’s Hot Hot Summertime, so that’s the title.

Several of the antique malls we visit in Monroe, Ga (throughout the state, actually) are housed in old textile mills. In front of Hodge Podge are some old techology relics. We posed Hot Hot Summertime in several spots on that property. Her vibrant colors are a nice contrast with the dull rust machinery; her soft texture pleasing against the hard surfaces of brick and stone.

The entrance to another shop there provided a nice background for the quilt, too.

The quilt’s finished size is 46” x 55”, perfect for a napping quilt. Yes, I’ve done that!

A vintage coaster (purchased on an earlier trip to this antique mall) serves as the label for the quilt.

Linen Luxuries

I went shopping and brought home some linen treasures. They are all glorious to look at. I can’t wait to stitch on them, piece with them, and maybe dip one in the dye pot. The textures, the colors, the glorious weaves inspire me.

Yesterday’s haul included four linen tea towels from India, a vintage French tea towel (the checked fabric in the photo), a white on white woven towel, and a pristine square linen tablecloth.

I can’t know all their stories. But I can imagine…

Some have memories of India in those huge indigo vats where they dip linen to get this rich vibrant color. These textiles are new. Woven and dyed to sell to someone. How many middle men shared in my money before I got them home? I don’t know, but I know I love all the hands that brought them to me. And I can’t wait to stitch on them.

Those indigo tea towels were so gorgeous, I bought all four that the store had to offer. I hung three of them in the kitchen so that I can just enjoy their beauty before cutting and sewing with them…I might even use them as tea towels…

One has memories of France. In whose kitchen did this towel do its work? I can imagine it hanging on a wire hook against a stone wall in a kitchen with a brick floor and copper pots all about. This is the kind of textile that inspires the French General collection of fabrics from Moda. I’ve loved making things with those reproduction fabrics, but there’s nothing like the real thing to stir my soul.

I couldn’t resist pairing the “new to me” French towel with some other things already in my stash…awaiting the right companion.

This bit of wool applique (from a Maggie Bonanomi pattern) is waiting for more companions to make a new quilt…it’s coming together with this new acquisition.

And a woven textile of white on white – I’m not sure of its origin. It has stains to show it’s been a worker, but the beauty of the weave caught my eye. I might have been hesitant at the price until I saw the “S” monogram. Yep, it came home with me. This one might get a bath in a dye pot. The stains would disappear, and the weave would become more pronounced.

I love imagining the places these fibers have been. And I love imagining the possibilities of what they may become in my hands. I’m not certain of those outcomes yet, but I do know that when I see them, or parts of them, I will remember a glorious day of strolling, shopping, browsing, antiquing, lunching, languishing over coffee with my soulmate. There’s nothing more beautiful than that.

Is it a coincidence that the fabrics I bought yesterday are red, white, and blue? I think so…but it’s certainly a good time to share them. Another red/white/blue story is here…and some of the Moda French General fabrics are in the quilt here. The blue and tan quilt in the background of some photos is described in more detail here.

The Camera Museum

My GrandDaddy Youngblood was a big part of my earliest years. I was three years old when he moved away from Georgia, but I do have memories of him, visiting his photography studio, and enjoying his visits to our house. There were letters, phone calls, and visits over the years, but his presence in my life was always associated with photographs.

A photo GrandDaddy made of me on an important day in my life.

In recent years, since I’ve become interested in photography and have read about photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange who were contemporaries of my GrandDaddy I’ve been curious about what cameras he used. Well, now I’ve seen some of them!

GrandDaddy in the doorway of his studio in Ashburn, GA.

Jim and I visited the camera museum in McDonough, Ga. You’d think that with Jim’s interest in photography, we would have been regulars. Jim did know about the place and had planned to go, but the impetus that got us out the door and on the way was learning that my GrandDaddy Youngblood’s cameras were there!

This building was first a church, then used as a municipal building complete with courtroom, and now houses workspace for the Image Doctor and the Camera Museum.

Yes, there is a display with information about my grandfather and his son and their photography! When we learned that some of GrandDaddy’s cameras had been donated, Jim and I were anxious to see them! When we arrived, and told them who we were, the owners greeted us with delight and led us right to the display.

I think of this as the Youngblood Corner…we were so excited to see everything and Scott was so excited to share details of the cameras with Jim that we didn’t get a photo of the original presentation…the camera fanatics (Scott and Jim) had moved the big camera to a spot where they could examine it more closely.

There are two of GrandDaddy’s cameras on display along with photos and a brief history of his photography. Both cameras are view cameras, where sheet film (preloaded in the darkroom) (for one or maybe two exposures) is inserted into the camera in a holder, then into the back of the camera. After the film is exposed, it is removed and set aside for developing. The large camera, an 8” x 10” view camera, was patented in 1890, the smaller of the two on display is 5” x 7”.

closeup of GrandDaddy’s 8″ x 10″ camera- frontview

GrandDaddy and his son, Homer Youngblood, Jr., had a studio in Georgia in the 1940’s and ’50’s. Prior to that, GrandDaddy worked as a photographer and reporter in Seneca, SC, and later had a studio there, as well.

GrandDaddy’s 5″ x 7″ viercamera frontview

Interviews with family tell me GrandDaddy began work as a photographer sometime after 1918. That’s the year his first wife (my grandmother) died. He had served in the Army during WWI, so I wonder if, like Jim, he learned photography skills as a soldier.

portraits of my GrandDaddy and his son who worked together as photographers

My GrandDaddy as he worked in Seneca, SC as a reporter and photographer. He and I were pen pals once I learned to write and his letters to me were always typed on onionskin paper. He signed them, “Love, Grandpappy Doodlebug”.

The Camera Museum is a passion of Scott Evans. After 40 years as a photographer, Scott now works to restore old photos, convert old movies, slides, and photos to digital format (as the Image Doctor). His lab is in the same building as his museum, which houses his vast collection of cameras of all sorts and anything camera related. There are displays of spy cameras, simple box cameras, folding cameras, twin-lens reflex cameras, 35mm single lens reflex cameras, and more.

a display of Kodak Brownies and similar cameras along with figurines of photographers

Scott has a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm about all things camera. We will have to visit again and again for me to take it all in.

Displays of paparazzi and some of their famous shots are displayed in the restroom of the building. The area used as holding cells when the building was used as a municipal court space now display famous mug shots (including Johnny Cash, Elvis, and others you will recognize). Scott and his wife welcome you to come visit. Check out their website, make an appointment for a tour, or go for a night of fun on one of their scavenger hunts! You can find them at www.camera-museum.com or www.imagedoctor.com..

My GrandDaddy with all four of his children. The girl on the left is my mother, her sister on the right. The two younger ones, Homer, Jr and Myrtle are children from his marriage to “Miss Catherine” after his first wife’s death.

When I’m making the art quilts where I print an image in black and white on fabric, then add color using ink or watercolor, I think I’m channeling my DNA into art. GrandDaddy made photos in black and white and his son and daughter would sometimes add hand tinting to them.

You may recall an art quilt I made with my GrandDaddy in it: https://sandygilreath.com/four-brothers/

One more exciting tidbit: My hand touched something that touched something that was in the room when this portrait of Abraham Lincoln was taken. Matthew Brady was the photographer. Yes, that’s the profile you see on pennies every day. This is in a collection of direct prints made from the exposed negative in Brady’s camera. This will soon be protected under glass, but we were able to touch something that touched….

Putting on a Show

I’ve written before about how special my quilt guild (the Heart of Georgia guild) is to me. I recently celebrated my 20^th anniversary as a member and the sisterhood just gets stronger. I spent this past weekend with those sisters at our biennial quilt show. If you are local, I hope you had a chance to attend.

This year’s show displayed nearly 200 members’ quilts. And the 58 quilts hanging on the rails above the floor level were made by our guild for residents of the Methodist Children’s Home. Each resident receives a quilt when he/she moves in and keeps it for life. Our guild makes many quilts for this endeavor.

Quilt Show weekend is a special time for us. We work together to present some of our latest work to friends and family – and to visitors who may be quilters, but not members of a guild as well as those who want to become quilters. We want our sisterhood to grow!

I’ve written about several shows in the past and included photos of fabulous quilts. I’m doing that here for this latest display, but this time I remembered to take photos of some of the work that goes into getting it all together. This year, our quilt show leader was Helen. She did a fabulous job of organizing everything, but it’s not a one-person job. Everyone helped!

Here is Dewey demonstrating use of his longarm machine at the show. Yes, he loads all that in his trailer, brings it over, sets it up to demonstrate, and allows visitors to try it out!

Before the show can even be laid out, someone has to collect all the information on the quilts and plan the layout. This year, and for the past several shows, that person has been Dewey. Dewey is our quilting brother. A gifted artist at the longarm machine, Dewey is also quite the handyman and quilt show designer.

Dewey arrived and started setting up the poles (he had help from a quilter’s husband) and identifying which quilt would hang where. This is after two weeks’ work developing a layout on computer and then on the butcher paper.

Here Kaye is checking her quilts in. Each quilt is labeled and in a pillowcase. Data has already been sorted to assign a number to each quilt so it can be hung in the correct space.

As all those quilts come in, members resort by number to put them in place.

Here you see some quilts ready to be hung and stepladders ready.

And, the quilts are up! I took no photos in progress, I was busy on a ladder.

Sherry was busy (with some helpers) in the weeks ahead of the show making ribbons for the awards. These are the three ribbons to be awarded to recipients of votes by all viewers who attend the show. There were 18 more ribbons made to give to winners of votes by members on Thursday night.

While Thursday night’s votes were being counted, members and friends enjoyed food and conversation.

Julie’s farm-themed quilt was a big hit!

Carol’s Montana quilt was beautiful! By the way, there were many many beautiful quilts here…I shouldn’t share them all….just a representative sample.

Kathy’s scrappy quilt was fabulous…I had to share a closeup of her feather quilting on her longarm machine.

Deann won a ribbon for best hand quilting….for a different quilt…but my photo of this quilt shows the stitches more clearly.

Sheila’s masterpiece, Mimi’s Garden, won best appliqué and was quilted by Dewey on his longarm.

This is my Celebration quilt. It took home a ribbon for best quilting on a home sewing machine.

After everything was set up and ready, we welcomed visitors from 9:00 – 5:00 for two days. Then on Saturday afternoon, all this process was reversed. Quilts were dropped (gravity helped that process go faster than putting up), folded, reinserted into those pillowcases, resorted by quilter’s name, checked out, and carried home.

We’ve had a few days to put everything away at home and reflect on the fun we had. We are already thinking about the next quilt (it’s probably in progress) and planning how to make the next show better. I hope wherever a quilt show fits in your life; as a participant or a visitor, you make time to experience it.

Mimi’s Boys Working

I’ve written about this quilt before, but didn’t have good photos of the quilt or the risque fabric involved. Recently, one of the grandsons loaned the quilt to me to use in a couple of talks I was giving to quilt guilds.

The story always brings smiles to other quilters, and I have renewed determination to make a quilt for myself where I include some of this fabric.

I love toile fabrics, and selected this to make quilts for two little boys some twenty years ago. And, yes, I still have some of the fabric left. I don’t think of myself as a hoarder, but a collector of stories. And fabric holds stories. Especially fabric like this that has had a few years of life.

The fabric line from Moda, called Tom and Huck, features scenes of boys painting a fence, fishing, swimming, opening a treasure chest; things you expect boys to do. I made a few blocks, pieced them together, and had two cuddle quilts for grandsons.

I selected different scenes to feature in the largest blocks and named the quilts based on that scene. This quilt is Mimi’s Boys Working, the other is Mimi’s Boys Fishing.

Years later, one of the grandsons made me realize that a new line of fabric had put swimming trunks on the diving boy. Until then, I didn’t think about my boys being embarrassed that I had made them quilts with nekkid swimmers on them.

A little web research turned up an image of the later line of fabric complete with trunks. I guess I have to approve, because the trunks are blue. This later line of fabric was released by Marcus Bros, not Moda. I don’t know the ins and outs of fabric production, competition, and copyright, but I bet there’s a story there.

While this quilt was on loan to me, I took it outside for a photo shoot at a local library.

More details of this quilt are in an earlier post here.

And speaking of stories, I’m reminded of one about my Daddy diving into the water at a Sunday School party and his trunks coming off. It seems the adventure was unplanned and he borrowed swimming trunks from a chunkier friend. Thankfully, he was a skillful swimmer and could stay under water long enough to retrieve them.

Not a Lonely House

On our country rideabouts I like to discover old houses. Those that have been kept in good repair or remodeled are appealing and happy, but I also love those that have seemingly been abandoned. I can imagine stories and people that once inhabited those now bare walls.

I occasionally snap photos of these houses for future reference for stitching or sketching.

This is actually not abandoned…an old church now used as a community center of sorts…but we’ve visited it with cameras more than once. It’s so serene.

I’m not alone in loving these houses. On some social media sites, these have recently been called “lonely houses”. An enchanting phrase that describes the essence of these places.

But there’s one house en route to one of our antiquing hot spots that’s only lonely sometimes. If we pass by at just the right time of day, this house has visitors. The four-legged kind. How fun is it to see these horses eating on the porch.

The horses don’t like to pose in perfect lighting conditions for a photo shoot, but on this day we happened by at feeding time and I got a couple of shots.

An update on the red hearts on linen…

Since my last post, I’ve abandoned the ‘one-heart-a-day’ plan and have been stitching several down during tv time each night. Almost all the ones I had pinned in the last photo you saw are now stitched in place. I’ll probably add more small ones…but it’s nearing completion of the appliqué stage.

Hearts on Location

You know when we head out the door with a picnic lunch and cameras I grab some quilts, just in case a photo op appears.

Recently, we had several of those days – bright sunshine, moderate temperatures, no other obligations. Since it’s February, I brought quilts with hearts on them…and then I thought, I could bring some of my stuffed hearts, too.

Here are some images for your Valentine’s Day.

Hearts rested on the stacked stones at the base of a building.

Hearts in Bloom posed nicely on a porch railing.

A closeup of the heart bearing Princess Priscilla Wears Paisley.

This fountain at Tatnall Square Park in Macon has quotes at its base.

So these three hearts found a place to rest near *love*.

Sometimes displays in stores go along with my theme…an antique store in Woodbury, Ga.

I’ve embedded some links to details of quilts in the photo captions above, but if you want more, you can type “hearts” in the search box, or click on the “hearts” category in the sidebar.

Dancing Hearts was a fun Valentine’s Day project.

And…an update on the hearts on linen quilt….

I’m on schedule with the hearts on linen..Feb 13 had 13 hearts stitched in place.

I thought it was time to plan the rest of the layout…so here are more pinned in place for stitching.

This linen tablecloth has a story. I could cover it with a heart, but I love seeing the history in fabric. I’m thinking of featuring this inside a heart somehow.

Red Hearts on a Quilt

If it’s February, then I need to stitch hearts.

Somehow, every year, the second page of the calendar sends me to needles and thread with hearts in mind.

This is not the time of year for me to be taking great nature photos to use in my Good Morning Girls text messages. Yes, I’m still doing that…today is day 665, by my count. During December, I sent photos of Christmas ornaments, our Santa collection, and amaryllis blooms. This January had warm days with some still blooming plants in our yard, but things are a bit bleak outdoors now. A few daffodils are up, but I needed a photo scheme for February.

I’ve wanted to learn more about photographing indoor vignettes…some “sewing still lifes”, I guess you could call them. So yesterday, I pulled some hearts out to shoot. I found some jewelry, some buttons, and some fabric hearts I had made.

As I played with the red hearts and the companion fabrics I pulled to use as background, I began a plan for a heart quilt.

I made a blue one a few years ago, Loving Blues , by stitching hearts on blocks, then assembling them.

This toile heart is posing on the linen tablecloth I plan to use as my background fabric. See the red border already in place?

This time, my plan is to start with a linen tablecloth from Europe. It has a red border woven in, so that’s convenient…and I won’t have to assemble blocks when I’m done with the hearts.

I’m planning some appliqué, some embroidery, and some who-knows-what for the hearts. I’ll use many of my vintage fabrics, but I have some nice commercial prints that I’ll likely include. I’m thinking one heart per day in February…but these plans may change. They often do. I won’t bore you every day, but I will keep you posted.

And I’ve begun with a heart made from my sister’s red and pink toile drapes that she moved with her from house to house over some 40 years.

I suspended this favorite February pendant of mine over the back of a quilt with red in it. I’m liking this kind of play with the camera.

The Playhouse Quilt

Here’s the story of my Challenge quilt for Heart of Georgia 2021, Playhouse in the Chicken Yard.

Participants were to channel the little girl inside, search our memory banks, and make a quilt reflecting some aspect of childhood.

Even though I wrote up the challenge description, I had no idea what my Little Girl quilt would be. I had ideas….so many ideas. That’s not unusual for me. My first thought (and most pervasive for many months of the year) was a little girl in a swing.

I started that…sketched a little girl, even made an image on fabric, painted the skin color, selected fabric to appliqué her dress…and then….

As I remembered the trees where Daddy hung my swings (there were several over the years), I recalled my parents making me a playhouse. On the eve of my 9^th birthday (it was on a Saturday that year), they sent me to spend the night with a friend. I now realize they had to scurry to get things done. They enlarged a storage room in an unused building on our property to create a playhouse for me. They added a cabinet, a stove, a bed, some dishes, and curtains to give me space of my own.

What a delightful surprise for my birthday gift! And now that I recall it, the time they took to arrange the surprise makes it even more special.

At some point in time, I came to realize that my playhouse wasn’t the romantic little image of a miniature house that some girls had in their yards, but I never thought about that. It was mine.

You can see from the shape of the building that my playhouse was in a chicken house. Earlier, there had been chickens running around, but that venture had been abandoned. Daddy stored lumber in one end and I occupied the other. My quilt has chickens running around as a nod to its original purpose…and to the fact that my mother still referred to that portion of the yard as “the chicken yard”. Thus, the title of my quilt was born.

When a guild member asked if the chickens got in the way of my playtime, I explained that these were “ghost chickens” on the quilt.

My original sketch didn’t have a little girl in it. I think my idea was that she was inside playing. My husband and daughter insisted that there be a visible little girl. So after the house was stitched down on the pieced background, I had to remove the back layer of fabric and insert a tiny door with a little girl entering. The space was so small that I chose not to appliqué this feature, but to paint it.

In my stash, I found the farm fabrics you see above. I knew those funky chickens had to roam around on my quilt.

There was a cow in a pasture to the left of the chicken house…but no room for this fabric on the front…so I put it on the back of the quilt.

I pieced the grass and sky (fabric overdyed with indigo) by machine, hand appliquéd the building, used raw edge appliqué for the tree trunks, leaves, and chickens.

I worked really s l o w l y on this project because I was having so much fun. I spent an entire day stitching samples of hair to decide how I would create the stringy blonde pigtails you see here.

Another day found me reviewing Sue Spargo’s drizzle stitch to add details to the tail feathers of the chickens.

This playhouse is still part of my life. When we sold the property, we knew the buyers planned to demolish that building, so Jim rescued the door to my playhouse. Our friend and expert craftsman, Tommy, built a stepback cabinet using that door as the back of the cabinet.

He built it so the elements of its construction are visible. He even placed the hook used to secure the door where I can see it as I arrange my collection of small things.

The cabinet is in our breakfast room where we see it every day. I hang small seasonal quilts above it – so made this quilt the width to fit on that hanging rod. Here you see the quilt is at home above the door.

Sometimes quilters like to “play chicken” with a spool of thread…you can see here that I won, but just barely.

As I planned this quilt and began working on a drawing of it, many childhood memories surfaced. I found myself planning another quilt (larger than the 29” restriction on this year’s challenge) with more Little Girl memories. I’ve already begun translating some of those memories to fabric. And, I might eventually finish the little girl on the swing…

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