A Pug Came to Visit

My sister-in-law Judy is the ultimate animal lover--3 dogs, a horse, a cat, and assorted small "wild" animals in her backyard. My daughter takes after her and has started volunteering at a local animal shelter. Recently, Judy was asked to "babysit" a pug puppy for a week and gave us the treat of a play date with our 2 puppies. Wilbur is the sweetest little dog--look at that face!



Ophelia (Lia), our maltipoo pup, was excited to meet a dog her own size:

Everybody played for hours.




But I'd think I'd better watch my Caitie or we'll end up with 3 dogs ourselves!

Hollyhocks and Doll Quilts

Every summer I'm pleasantly surprised to see the hollyhocks bloom in my front garden again. I have a fear that one year they'll just say: "Enough beauty already, we're done." They look even better with a coordinating doll quilt, don't you think?.

Here's the word--doll quilts are not just for dolls anymore! They have a particular appeal to those of us who have fond memories of playing with dolls as young girls (or maybe boys, too!). Many of the patterns for doll quilts in my first book, American Doll Quilts, were inspired by antique doll quilts, although they aren't exactly replicas of real doll quilts. Doll quilts from long ago were played with until they fell apart and that's why they're so rare today--not many survived the wear and tear.

Sue from Indiana, who's in my SmallQuiltTalk group, brought some of her antique doll quilts to show us in the workshops I taught in Indiana last week. Don't you just love them to pieces?

I met another quilter from Marion, Indiana, who wanted to show me HER doll quilts:

This is the back of the hexagons doll quilt:

Here's another one:

It's fun to imagine what kinds of quilts children may have made and played with long ago and making little scrappy ones like these certainly brings the past alive, doesn't it?

This is one of the first doll quilts I made from simple nine-patch blocks. I was pretty much a beginner when I made it but I think my crooked seams really add to the overall antique doll quilt look, don't you think? Some of you reading this are probably fantastic quilters and you'd have to work really hard to get that naive, childlike look. It comes naturally to me, LOL.

Kathy's Excellent Quilting Adventure

Just got back from Marion, Indiana, where I taught some classes at the Quilters Hall of Fame Celebration. They were honoring the induction of Merikay Waldvogel as well as celebrating Marie Webster's 150th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Quilters Hall of Fame. Marie Webster was the first "Quilting Celebrity" and an influential quilt designer of the early 1900s. She wrote the first book on quilting in 1915--the first history of quilts. She started a successful quilt pattern business after her designs were featured in the Ladies Home Journal in 1911 and is thought by many to be responsible for the 20th century quilting revival. Marie made her first quilt when she was fifty. Seeing some of her original floral appliqué designs up close was truly inspiring. Here are a few of my favorites:

The classes I taught were held in a classroom at the local middle school. There were quite a few other classes and workshops held throughout the 3-day event as well as lectures, auctions, Marie's quilts on exhibit at the Marion library and an exhibit of some of the quilts in Merikay Waldvogel's antique quilt collection. Eleanor Burns, Barbara Brackman and Nancy Odom were teaching as well. Wish I had been able to take some classes myself.



Wait, who's that in the back of the class I'm teaching???

Imagine my surprise when I walked in and found that ELEANOR BURNS signed up to take my class!! We had a lot of fun with her that day and she gave us a few tips as well. Wonder if she learned anything by making my scrappy little doll quilt??? LOL.



Here's one of my favorite quilts from Merikay Waldvogel's antique quilt collection:

Later that evening, there was a garden party dinner under a tent, amid beautiful gardens and a waterfall:





All in all, an excellent adventure and one I won't forget for a long time.

Exciting News

Yesterday was pretty exciting--I heard that my proposal for a new book I've been working on recently was accepted by my publisher! I turned in the proposal to Martingale & Co. last month and I've been waiting to hear ever since, even though I know it takes them awhile to present it before the editorial committee and make a decision on whether or not it will sell (the bottom line).

It takes a long time to pull everything together and the book will probably not be out until early 2011. It took me weeks to write the proposal. After a lot of "pondering" I finally got an outline of the chapters and the projects I wanted to include. Then I used Electric Quilt to design 10 of the quilts to give them an idea of the projects I had in mind.

So now I have to fill in all the gaps and actually write the book and make 16 quilts. Yikes! It's always exciting but scary too. I'm always afraid that I won't like the quilts after I've made them, and what if nobody else does either?

I've been collecting wonderful fabrics for the last few months in anticipation of using them in some of the quilts. Along with a "few" of my scraps, LOL.

Now, time to get to work!

Pretty Little Patterns

These came in the mail last week:

Aren't they cute? They're patterns for little quilts or fabric pictures, one is a bird "pinkeep." All designed by Renee Plains. I have a weakness for little bird applique and as soon as I saw these I really needed to get them. Now I just have to find the time. Found this fat quarter of a little bluebird print I forgot about in my shirtings box, so maybe I'll get motivated.

A couple of months ago I bought these patterns for really cute bags, also by Renee Plains. Hope I can make one of these before summer's over.

My 16-year-old daughter recently showed an interest in making herself a tote bag and so, in the interest of passing on the "sewing legacy," I took her to a quilt shop that had some really modern, cool fabrics, thinking I could entice her into making something, anything, before the urge passed. Here's what she picked out:

But summer means fun, don't you know, and it looks like she's going to be too busy making plans with friends to spend time sewing with Mom!

How I'm Spending My Summer So Far

Making and quilting trunk show quilts!

I've had a busy time of it this spring and summer and for awhile I was a little behind with everything--too many things came up that needed attention and I did quite a bit of traveling as well. Today (!) I finished the last of 8 quilts I had to make and quilt for trunk show samples to send to quilt shops so that they can display quilts with copies of Remembering Adelia, which came out in March. I did have help with a few of them and that made it so much easier.

I don't send out the original quilts from a book, I take those with me when I lecture. So that means that if shops want to have a trunk show of little quilts from the book, I have to make copies. If I make 2 or 3 sets of the same quilts, then more shops in different parts of the country will be able to display them at the same time and not have to wait months for them to become available.

After researching and writing a book and designing and making the quilts that go in it (along with writing the patterns and drawing the sketches for the illustrations), often the last thing I want to do is make the quilts ALL OVER AGAIN! But authors know that books don't sell themselves and trunk shows give shop customers a chance to see the quilts from the book up close. And even if they're copies, I try hard to match the fabric or colors of the quilts to the originals because that's what quilters like to see.

One of my favorites is the little Tumbling Blocks quilt from Remembering Adelia. This Spring I made 3 (yes, THREE--hand pieced, hand quilted--no wonder I was behind with everything else). But they were so much fun to make and if you haven't hand pieced a quilt yet, try making a little tumbling blocks quilt.

This quilt was inspired by a large Tumbling Blocks quilt made in the 19th century by President Calvin Coolidge when he was about ten. I saw a photo of that quilt in a magazine and knew I wanted to make a little one for myself. If you've been itching to make a tumbling blocks quilt yourself, try this one because it's really a lot of fun AND you can use up a TON of your scraps!
http://www.historicvermont.org/coolidge/CoolidgeBrigadoon.html

For each little quilt, I cut 168 diamond shapes from 2-inch scrap strips, lining them up with a nifty 60-degree diamond ruler. You can also use a diamond template (one is included in the book).


I found it much easier to sew the "Y" seams, or set-in seams, by hand.



I love this quilt!

Flea Market Saturday

Today was a gorgeous, sunny day, a little hot and humid but a welcome change after the rainstorms and hail we had in the Chicago area yesterday. So my friend Julia and I went to the Antiques Fair/Flea Market in Grayslake.


I was disappointed that there weren't very many quilts for sale at all. The one quilt I really liked was way out of my price range. I love the pattern though and will probably just recreate it with scraps of indigo, red and plaids/checks from my scrapbag.


Julia found this quilt and snapped it up because she loved the bright colors and also the price was so right. AND it matches her outfit perfectly, don't you think? A wonderful quilt to find on a sunny, summer day.




Here are some things I considered buying, but passed up. Don't you just love the ice cream cones border on this one??


And the colors and hand quilting in this Amish quilt?


I could fill up this buggy with doll quilts, LOL.




Love toy sewing machines but already have a few . . . . These were probably overpriced anyway.



I DO collect antique or antique-looking lockets and have fun searching for different ones I don't already have, so finding this one was a particular treat. The locket on the right is one I bought on my LAST trip to the flea market. The book-shaped locket below belonged to my mother and was the one that started my collection years ago.





No wonder I never have any money to buy antique quilts--I go for the truly sentimental thing every time!

School's Out!

My son arrived home from college a few days ago and said: "Evan's home, so you know it's summer." So true. The house can get pretty quiet when even one member is missing. After a tough sophomore year in high school, my daughter Caitlin is finished too, finally, although she opted to take a summer school course to lighten her schedule in the fall. (Or maybe to avoid getting a job the year she turned 16?? LOL) Two kids and two dogs will make the summer hectic and less conducive to working but I know it will fly by fast and the next 2 summers as well and pretty soon it will be even quieter with just me and my husband (and still the dogs!) so I'm not complaining about the noise just yet.

Here's a quilt I made for Evan the summer before he left for college in 2007. I used 6 1/2" scrap squares with 3 1/4" x 6 1/2" black print sashing strips and scrappy 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" cornerstone squares.



I love this quilt because it's unlike anything I've ever made before--it was all about him and his style, not me and what I like--a challenge. I did manage to throw in a few Civil War reproduction scraps here and there, though, and some blue.



I agonized over the design--what kind of quilt could I possibly make for him that would be quick and easy and hold up to college dorm life and also allow me to use up my scraps? Almost like making a quilt for a Civil War soldier--quick, scrappy and destined to be well used on the college battlefield. I was working on quilts for my book Remembering Adelia as well that summer and my time was at a premium. It ended up being a very non-traditional quilt (for me, at least, using black and brights) in a simple, traditional style for a somewhat artsy kid. He liked it! Some of the large patches have random writings (written in tiny script, with a fine point permanent marker) from me and a few family members: "Love you so much!" "Do well--we're so proud of you!" He's never mentioned them AT ALL so I'm not sure if he even knows they're there. But I know, and it comforts me that he's not only wrapped in the quilt when he's away but the words and thoughts too. Sentimental, I know.



After working hard at school, taking a break and working hard at video games.