The Golden Quilter Awards

The word is out and the nominations are in. The rumors are true. I must be totally clueless, because I have to admit I'd never heard of this before so I was taken unawares when Gerda told me I was nominated  for a Golden Quilter award in the Best Author category. Wow, you can imagine my surprise. (It was 3 a.m. and the phone rang. "Whaaat??  You're kidding me . . . " For once I was speechless.)

Seriously, friends, thanks to whoever cast those votes to nominate me. (Bonnie, are you absolutely sure you didn't vote twice??) If you are itching for some great giveaways, check out The Golden Quilter awards on SewCalGal's blog for those who cast votes.

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/golden-quilter-awards.html

Anyone can vote for their favorite nominee in any or all of the Quilting categories. Post a comment on SewCalGal's blog and you'll have a chance to win some fabulous prizes. Voting ends on March 31. If I win, there'll be a few nice giveaways here too. I promise.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get started on my acceptance speech. All the nominees have to be prepared cuz you never know . . .  "You like me, you really LIKE me . . ." Oh wait, that's been done before . . . Maybe I'd better go talk to Susan Lucci and see how she did it . . . Oh, and I have to find a dress . . . Black, I think, it's slimming . . . and perfect  for my Long Shot status. Does my husband need to rent a tux or will anyone even be looking at him on the Red Carpet??? What WILL I do with my HAIR??

What oh what should I wear?? Here's the deal - pick the gown you think is best suited to me to wear to the [imaginary] Awards Ceremony (be kind) and I will throw your comments into a pool to win a few fat quarters of the new Alice's Wash Day Blues fabric designed by Carrie Quinn for Blue Hill.

Quilters, here are your [imaginary] choices. (Work with me . . .)

# 1 - Simple and elegant, not too flashy. And I know I can fill out the top much better than she does.

#2 - I love blue, but is this one a little crazy or what??

Too Smurfy?? I don't know, I kinda like it. The ruffle on the bottom, not so much . . .

#3  - Also very simple but I might  have to lose a few. This one only comes in Junior Miss. But then my daughter can wear it to Prom afterwards.

# 4 - Nice. I love  Ralph Lauren, but would I be able to wear my Granny underwear with this??

#5 - This one would make my butt look waaay too big . . .

#6 - Totally classic and dramatic. Perfect if I happen to lose.

#7 - My husband wouldn't know what hit him and would probably have a heart attack if I wore this . . . . Do I take that chance? Or is it too dangerous?

So, choose your dress, post a comment and you'll have a chance to win some really cool fabric. Dress comments will close at 10 p.m. CST Tuesday, March 22.

Also, don't forget, go to http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/golden-quilter-awards.html before March 31 to cast your vote for me or your other favorites. Take your time and vote wisely. Voice your Choice. Tell your friends. I need all the help I can get.

Charm Quilts

When we think of charm quilts we think of quilts that are made without two pieces cut from the same fabric. Sometimes they contain hundreds or thousands of pieces that are all different. Actually, however, many quilts we casually call charm quilts today do have pieces that are used more than once and the name often includes quilts that simply are made with many different fabrics, whether it's accurate or not.

You know I love scrappy little quilts and a charm quilt is on my list of quilts to make someday. Lord knows I have enough charms . . . .

Charm squares, not yet turned into a charm quilt, LOL.

This one should have been a charm quilt but I used a few pieces more than once. I decided to call it a "Charming" quilt instead . . . .

Sometimes, quilters from the past would include 2 pieces of the same fabric in their charm quilt to make it more interesting while also making a game for others to search for the duplicate patch. Here's one that claims to have only 2 patches alike in the whole quilt.

I recently found a perfect book for those of you who want to use up some of your scraps. Tara Lynn Darr's new book, Simply Charming, is just great for lovers of small scrap quilts and includes patterns for 20 little quilts! Any one of them would be perfect for making a small charm quilt.

I had fun looking through the book - so many of the fabrics Tara used in her quilts are ones I have in my scrap collection too.

I know I have enough scraps to make several of these quilts without repeating a single fabric. Do you too??



Show & Tell

Aside from meeting so many wonderful quilters, one of my favorite things about traveling around and visiting guilds is staying for the Show & Tell part of the meeting where members present quilts they've made. They always seem to enjoy seeing my quilts and I love seeing theirs too.

Here are some quilts made by members of the Prairie Patch Quilt Guild in Mundelein, IL, taken when I visited earlier this week. 

These are VERY small. Gotta love those tiny scrappy stars . . . .

See what you can do with charm squares? Whip up a simple table topper in no time at all.

 

The tiniest one yet!

A Vintage Collection

When I was at the retreat last weekend, Jill brought in her collection of antique sewing kits from the 19th century to show me. Oh my goodness! We all fell in love with them! See this gorgeous collection for yourself:

Made of leather with a green silk lining. Exquisite. A beautiful assortment of threads.

Since all of an Early American household's cloth items had to be sewn by hand,  hand sewing was an important skill for most females in the 1800s and earlier, and these skills were of necessity passed down from mother to daughter at a very early age. Thus, young girls (some as young as twelve)  were often very accomplished. In addition to sewing and mending garments for the family,  we can see many of their skills evidenced in needlepoint samplers of the time period and other fancy work such as embroidery.

The needle holder on this one is embellished with a tiny tiny blanket stitch and embroidered flowers. So sweet.

Sewing kits were often very personal items and women took care with their contents. Needles, pins and scissors had to be carefully wrapped to protect against rust. Sometimes women ran their needles through the natural oils in their hair to protect them and make them easier to pass through fabric. (We wash our hair much more often than women did in earlier days so I don't think that would work today!)

This small case is called a Lady's Companion and the other is also lined in silk. Some of the kits contained bone crochet hooks and stilettos and even a tiny pocket knife.

This case came with a note saying "Made by Miss Abby Buckingham and given to me by my mother - 1839." Made of purple velvet and silk with a patent leather outer case.

See the tiny hiding place for the thimble?

A page from an old newspaper folded up into a small packet is unfolded to display some pretty antique glass head pins.

This sewing roll-up contained needles organized by size. Numbers are embroidered in the different sections so every needle has a place. What an organized sewer!

Author and collector Nina Little, in her book Neat and Tidy: Boxes and Their Contents Used in Early American Households, notes: “When one considers the large amount of needlework, both plain and fancy, that was accomplished by young ladies and their mothers during the 18th and 19th centuries, it is understandable that personal sewing boxes should be among the truly cherished possessions of most American families.” 

It would be fun to collect some of these antique sewing kits, wouldn't it?  For now, I'll just have to content myself with making sewing kits of my own to cherish. Those of us with daughters hope that  someday they'll be among someone else's  treasured possessions. 

A Pieceful Retreat

This past weekend was the retreat I attended in Woodstock, IL sponsored by Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop. I was sure many of you would be curious about it so I snapped a few pictures. Everyone had a great, relaxing time and I was happy to participate and meet some new faces and renew a couple of friendships with those quilters I already knew.

The retreat venue itself, run by Loyola University of Chicago, was very nice. Not at all monastic, LOL. It was still quite cold yesterday, however, and I wish the weather had been a little warmer so we could have taken advantage of the lovely grounds. I brought my walking shoes and everything but the wind was bitter. Still pretty and tranquil despite the small traces of snow and ice on the ground. It's definitely not Spring yet . . .

Large and spacious general meeting areas

Plenty of good food. Very important as you work up quite an appetite with those foot pedals, LOL.

Quilters often pack up and bring everything but the kitchen sink, LOL! I was happy to see soooo many little purple Rowenta travel irons -  my own personal favorite. Not only for classes but perfect for using at home too when you're pressing those small blocks. It really heats up well.

I taught the Union Stars quilt from my new book, The Civil War Sewing Circle.

I love to see how others make the blocks and what kinds of fabric they choose.

I suggested patriotic prints for the center of the star blocks. Someone chose to make hers with Nancy Gere's Presidents fabric for the centers.Very cool, I thought.

This is all I know - Windham, by Nancy Gere - don't ask me where to buy it.

It was also fun to see what a few others brought to work on for the weekend.

A happy group of quilters!

Check back TOMORROW - I'll show you a  lovely little collection of antique sewing kits someone brought to the retreat to show me.

ALSO coming this week - A peek at a charming new book I just bought that I'm sure you'll all love.

And the Winner Is . . .

(Drum roll please . . .) Congratulations to  Kathy from Fairfield, TX   for winning my American Doll Quilts book giveaway!

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments - Honestly, I wish I had 200 (or even better, 2000) books to give away to all of you.

Runners up: So many of your comments made me laugh that I couldn't just pick a few to receive fabric so I decided to use the Random Number Generator again (AKA my husband and his random number function in Excel)  to come up with 3 winners of the fabric bundles:

*   Delphine from France
*   Red Rover
*   Rita in NJ

I promise they won't be "ugly squares."

Please e-mail your addresses to me at kathyktracy@comcast.net. I'll be away this weekend (Woodstock  Retreat!) and will get the packages out in the mail early next week.

This sure was fun and the response was great. Wonder what I'll give away next . . . .

Book Giveaway

I know I have never really gotten into giveaways on my blog like a lot of other quilters. All of you have followed me despite that and I have to say I appreciate it. That's going to change this week as I morph into a nicer, more generous, less whiny version of myself. Don't be too disappointed - My first giveaway will not be your usual gift  of a brand spanking new item. No, sorry, but almost as good, I think.

I was cleaning out a bookshelf in the basement while looking for some of my gardening books and I found a copy of my first book - American Doll Quilts - that's now out of print and is very hard to find.

It's slightly damaged on the back cover - but the front and inside is perfect. I can't remember for sure, but I think it got damaged a few years ago when I was about to mail it out to a customer and the glue strip on the padded envelope stuck (like Glue, duh!) to the book and try as hard as I could, I couldn't remove it without damaging the back cover. So I sent her a clean one and tucked this one away thinking no one would ever really want it. And maybe no one does.

Here you can see it - there's a strip of icky, sticky gummy stuff along with couple of scratches where I tried to remove it with no luck. I thought I'd let the lucky winner remove it herself or maybe just live with it the way it is. It's still a delightful book containing 16 patterns for little quilts and not bad for a first book. I get asked about whether I have extra copies all the time.

Many of you who've been following me for awhile probably already have a copy (it went out of print in 2009) but this is great for those who may have just discovered my books and want to see the early patterns where I couldn't sew a straight line if my life depended on it, LOL.

To enter: All you need to do is post a "creative" comment using these 3 words: Scraps, Crazy, and Blue. Like this: "I'm going to go crazy if  I don't win this giveaway and will be very blue if I don't get to make a doll quilt from my little scraps soon." Or: "You're Crazy, Kathy! Who would want this book with the blue cover full of quilts made from your silly scraps??"  Just like those Spelling lessons we had in the fourth grade where you had to use 20 words in sentences. We're all getting older now and this will be a very good exercise for you to think a little and possibly generate some new brain cells . . .

I will use a random number generator to pick the winner. I'm thinking there may also be some small giveaways of fabric for runner-ups - those 2 or 3 who post the most creative comments that make me laugh without being insulting. Be sure to leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you're the winner.  Giveaway ends on Wednesday, March 9 and comments will close at 10:00 pm CST (when I turn off my computer and go to bed). Good luck! Winner will be announced sometime Thursday. And I promise I'll have more special giveaways like this one in the coming weeks.