More Purses and Chautauqua

Well, I finally finished making the dresden plate half-block purses for myself and three of my friends. I tried to coordinate the fabrics to each person's colors. I got them done just in time too. Next week is our annual trip to the Quilt Week End at Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua NY. My friends and I rent a cute cottage called "Bee Haven." It's a very homey place. All we need to bring is clothes and food -- everything else is there.

This is our fifth year going to Chautauqua! I can't believe it -- how fast time flies when you ARE having fun. This year will be a little different, though, because this will be my first real show where I am going to promote my book, Orphan Block Quilts.

I have a very dear friend, Cheryl, who has invited me to be part of her vendor space. I am very excited. I've mad a few pin cushions out of little orphan quilt blocks to sell. I also culled some blocks from my collection. AND I made up some doll quilt kits with vintage blocks and reproduction fabrics. All of these things will promote and support my book.

I am planning to split my time between enjoying the show myself and being in my friend's booth -- it's actually a whole room. There is usually a special guest at the show. This year it is Kay Woods. I'm looking forward to meeting her and going to her lecture/trunk show.

I will make sure to take lots of pictures to share, so check back in a week or so....

Antique quilt

My quilt book is now officially out! WHEW! I still can't believe it, although you would think that I would since I have boxes of books sitting next to me on the floor.

Well, I've done two real book signings now. They went very well (of course I really don't have anything to compare them to). While I had a quilt exhibit of the quilts from my book and a signing at the Venango Historical Society in Franklin, PA, I was fascinated with this quilt from their collection.

It was called a Sampler Quilt and dated circa 1885. But that brief description doesn't do this piece credit at all. The more I looked at it, the more I saw. It really was truly an "orphan quilt." Fabrics seemed to span about 50 or 60 years, from early chintz and block prints to the roller prints of the late 1800's. Blocks were chopped to fit into the space needed. I really love this quilt. I hope that you enjoy the photos, too.

Helpers

My cat Grey (first photo) was curled up in the center of a sunny spot on my bed so I decided to join him and plopped down with my laptop to check my email. Then suddenly, my dog Gizmo (second photo) begs to come up too. Then, lo and behold, my crazy but adorable kitten, Pip (thrid photo) comes leaping onto the bed, landing halfway on my laptop keyboard and skidding across the bed.

Grey and Giz are really only concerned about snoozing in the sun while four month old Pip is having ball trying to play with my laptop. She begins by rubbing her face on it and then she tries to sneak in a nibble or two (she's in that stage where everything goes in her mouth). I watch her and tell her "no" when she starts to nibble. You can tell in the third photo that she had just been scolded for trying to eat my computer -- she looks a little sheepish.

My pets make me smile. When I'm working on binding or nadwork in my favorite chair in the living room, Gizmo insists on sitting with me, with as musch of the quilt under him as possible! Pip tries to eat thread, lint, and fabric and not necessarily in that order. She also tries to steal papers, scissors, spools of thread, or anything not nailed down. Grey is a senior citizen so he is much better behaved -- he can sometimes be found either draped across my feet or else sprawled on the edge of a quilt on the floor (the one I'm trying to sew binding on, of course).

I am surrounded by furries and they enrich my life. They are my first quilt-testers to make sure the quilts are comfy, warm, and soft. They love me even when I'm grumpy or have a bad hair day. With so much help, what more could I ask? Maybe stock in a lint brush company?

It's been almost a month since I last blogged. I really don't have any good excuses, except I keep forgetting/losing my password to login. But, I guess I have been busy promoting my soon-to-be released book (five days to be exact).

What this means is that I've been doing a lot of networking, setting up book signings and programs, etc. I never really knew how much work was involved after the initial work of writing the book.

I've also been trying to downsize mt collection of unfinished projects just sitting around. I am happy to say that my stack is getting smaller. Slowly.

I did make a new baby quilt for my very good friend, Rita. I am also planning to make a matching diaper bag, but I haven't started it yet.



I am also working on making a series if small purses. I used a favorite purse pattern for the body of the bag, but made the handle extra long so that it can be worn across the body. I also substituted half of a vintage dresden plate block for the flap. Cute, isn't it? I'm making them for myself and my three friends for shopping and quilt shows. I wanted a smaller bag that went across my body for when I go to International Quilt Market in Houston at the end of October.

What's New

Well, I finished destroying that quilt. I took the blocks I removed and made a new quilt around them. Then I quilted it using my own style. It worked out much better the second time around. I'd show the quilt, but it's on its way to Quiltmaker Magazine to hopefully be included in their Jan/Feb 2011 issue. More on this at a later date.

I haven't blogged for what seems like a long time, but it's only been two weeks -- a lifetime for some. But I have a good excuse -- my advance copy of my book, ORPHAN BLOCK QUILTS, finally arrived unexpectedly in the mail. It was quite a moment in time when I realized what I held in my hands. I stopped breathing for a second and then I started screeching, I think. It seemed to take an eternity to rip open the package and to pull out the two copies of my book.

I shouldn't have been so surprised -- it's not like I didn't see the book as it developed, but to see it all put together and in one place was a feeling like no other. I've never given birth, but I think I can liken it -- at least somewhat -- to holding your newborn infant in your hands for the first time. This book is my baby -- it's part of me. I couldn't wait to crack the binding for the very first time. I had tears in my eyes as my heart pounded in my ears. Well, I'd better move on before I bore everyone with the details.

A few days later, after I'd had to chance to accept that I was now a real author, I had the opportunity to attend a quilter's picnic for another quilt guild in the area. It was so much fun! We had make and take projects all day long, but you weren't made to feel like you had to do any of them if you didn't want to. We sun dyed fabric (which I'd never done before), made several different flower pins, tried sashiko, and even made fiber scarves. It was a great experience -- and I got to try some new things. There was, of course, lots and lots of food, too. We snacked all day during the mini projects and then had a potluck dinner at 6 pm. It was like a mini quilter's holiday.

Quilt Destruction

Have you ever destroyed a quilt on purpose? I know, this sounds like a really evil thing to do, but sometimes you just don't have any choice.

I made this great quilt top and was very happy with it. I wasn't sure how I wanted to machine quilt it so I went against my better judgement and tried to do someone else's design, not only that but I tried to do it "their way." If you are a machine quilter who does your own work, loud sirens are probably going off in your head right now as you read this AND you already know how this story turns out, I'm sure.

I'll just say that the quilting did not go well, but I gritted my teeth and kept quilting it, even though I was beginning to hate the quilt (actually not the quilt, but the quilting). I finally made myself stop quilting it when I was more than half-way done. I just couldn't go any further, feeling the way that I did. At tis point, I gave myself a few different options:

1) rip out all of the quilting and requilt it
2) throw away the quilt and start over.

Option one was not a good idea -- it was already over half-way quilted and I was afriad to inflict damage if I tried to rip out the quilting. Option 2 seemed like my only choice except I was loathe to throw away the 16 vintage (irreplaceable) quilt blocks that were part of the design. OH, what could I do??????

I actually came up with an alternate solution that was a combination of Options 1 and 2 -- I decided to remove the vintage quilt blocks from the quilt and then remake the quilt. The vintage blocks had the least amount of quilting but it would take some time to free them from this bad quilt.

Finally, after a week of ripping, I freed the vintage blocks and removed the outer border (which hadn't been quilted yet. This is what is left of the quilt:



As sad as it is, the new and improved quilt will be much better. And, I learned the hard way to quilt my own way.

History Came Alive

On the Fourth of July, my family went to an "Old-Fashioned" Fourth of July Celebration held at the Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs, PA. The Riverside Inn is an amazing and graceful lady from the days of elegant women in flowing dresses and men in suits and hats. It was built around the turn of the century to house vacationing folk seeking the waters (sulfur springs) at Cambridge Springs. The hotel is magnificently decorated with Victorian furnishings -- it's like taking a step back in time.

Anyway, we went to the "Old Fashioned" Fourth and it was great! It was truly like taking a field trip to a simpler, less complicated time. There were Civil War reenactors and an encampment. The ladies even hosted a cotillion and taught some dances. Old fashioned fun included games, pie eating contest, seed spitting contest, hot dog eating contest, as well as a bar-b-q with all the fixings. Yum! One thing that I really liked about the reenactment was that inside the tents, on the cots, were quilts! Of course!