A Fun Quilt Guild Program

Lucky me - part of my work is visiting guilds, promoting my books and showing my quilts to others. Last night I got to put on a show for the Village Quilters in Wheaton, IL.

Getting ready. Looks like I'm saying a little prayer but I'm just obsessing about the order of my quilts in preparation for my Show & Tell after the meeting . . . .

Susan brought some of the quilts she had made from my books. Doesn't the little signature quilt look great with a blue border?

You doll fans will love this - Darlene from the guild makes Gail Wilson dolls and brought one to show me. It matches the one that Gail made and which appears in my first book - American Doll Quilts. Isn't she sweet? I should  have photographed her on the same quilt that was in the book but didn't actually think of it until now . . . .

 

Speaking of  Wheatens in Illinois . . . weren't we?? (You knew I had to figure out a way to get in a picture of one of my dogs, didn't you?) Rigby the Wheaten Terrier seems to be doing really well. Thank you all so much for your comments and concerns about his health. He seems happy and healthy and just about normal so I can't believe he is really sick. The medication he's on is helping him to feel better and we will repeat the biopsy test and see if the results were skewed because of some inflammation from the infection. I know I may be grasping at straws here and hoping against hope but sometimes doctors make mistakes and I will make sure he is rechecked.

Last year when I was in the hospital for such a long time they told me that I might have uterine cancer. Or possibly  ovarian cancer. Then one day they thought it could be colon cancer. You can imagine the  roller coaster ride that I was on for days until all of the proper tests were done and the results came in. Turned out I had a very, very serious infection and none of those diagnoses was accurate. I had a colonoscopy last week in preparation for the final surgery I have to have in May. I needed to wait at least six months for the infection to heal before  they could complete it and the doctor says I am now clean as a whistle. I'm not looking forward to more surgery as you can imagine but I am looking forward to moving forward and putting illness behind me and just getting on with things already. Maybe take that yoga class . . .

Around here we are calling the dog "poodle leg" since he looks so silly because they had to shave his leg for the IV when they gave him anesthesia for his biopsy. The neighbors think we are just grooming him funny. I love this photo of him and sat here and waited until he was panting a bit to take it so you could see his cute teeth. He comes from a long line of pedigreed Wheaten Terrier show dogs (or so the breeder told us right before she took our check . . . ) but  cannot be considered one himself because he has a double row of teeth on the bottom! Disqualified from the AKC show ring as soon as his baby teeth fell out and the new ones came in, just like that! That's okay, we love him exactly the way he is. Please keep keeping those good thoughts for both of us.

1800s Conversational Prints

A few weeks ago,  here,  I mentioned that I was incorporating small conversational prints into the background of the quilt I am making for my daughter. She's a true animal lover and it just seemed to fit, particularly since she wanted me to make it using mostly 19th century reproduction fabrics.

I already had a kitties print designed by Judie Rothermel from her Classic Conversationals line and then found a similar print with doggies. Shaggy doggies, just like our puppies at home.

I went to my Post Office box yesterday and found that Karan had read my blog and sent me these wonderful animal prints, also by Judie Rothermel, but ones I had never seen before. Aren't they just the sweetest things?? My daughter loved them and they will make a nice addition to her quilt.

Don't you just love the hare riding on the turtle LOL??

We typically think of novelty prints as dating from the 1930s but they were actually first produced much earlier, in the later part of the nineteenth century.  Usually, these were white or off-white shirting fabrics printed with themes of animals or small objects, and were sometimes also called object prints. Some of them are often whimsical in nature. Cats and dogs were a common novelty theme because more of these animals were being kept as pets in late nineteenth century Victorian households. Daily life reflected in fabric.

They're not looking very whimsical, are they? Must be the long walk we just took.

My backyard that is a puddle right now. So now ducks have been added to the menagerie . . . .

I'm falling in love with these prints but there do not seem to be many available. I feel the wheels turning and need to make a small something using these fabrics soon . . . . No time today, but maybe I'll sew these together tomorrow.

Powerful Stories of the Civil War

Last Sunday I watched the first episode of  The Civil War, the documentary film by Ken Burns which was  rerun this week on PBS. The documentary was originally broadcast in 1990.

I missed it then because I rarely had time to watch TV, much less think, with a 2-year-old running around. I wasn't a quilter then and I wasn't really much interested in history either. Barbara Brackman hadn't written her books introducing us to quilting during the Civil War and reproduction fabric had not caught on yet to give us even more inspiration.

I've seen a few episodes over the years but this time I saved them all on my DVR so I can re-watch them at my leisure. I know it's a little late telling you now since I think PBS is airing the last episode tonight, but if you have not seen this excellent series, check to see if it's being rerun in your area or try to get it from your local library. Better late than never. According to Christine's comment below, the series is also available now through Netflix.



I am also excited because I just found out that the movie about Lincoln's assassination, directed by Robert Redford, is coming out next week. It's called The Conspirator and stars Robin Wright Penn as Mary Surratt, the  lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln.

According to a press release, "Robert Redford focuses on the chaotic moment in history directly following President Lincoln's assassination to tell the story of the proud mother charged with committing the monumental crime, and the ambitious young lawyer who reluctantly becomes her defense attorney. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life." I can't wait to see it. Too bad Redford himself isn't in it . . .

The Conspirator opens in theaters on April 15, the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination in 1865.

Life Goes On

"Awake, thou wintry earth-

Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness!"

   ~Thomas Blackburn, An Easter Hymn

It's supposedly Spring here in the Midwest but you could have fooled me. When I was walking the dog earlier I spotted some fresh growth in the front garden. Encouraging, but I'd still like to see the sun soon . . .

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day."

~Robert Frost

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again." ~Sarah Ban Breathnach

If there's one quilty thing that reminds me of Spring it's a basket quilt. Baskets have always evoked the simple life and remind me of the past. For some of us, baskets are a great way to decorate our homes in a primitive or Country style. Long ago, there were so many uses for baskets, and they were especially such a part of nineteenth century life, that it’s really no surprise that they found their way into quilting patterns as well.

In earlier times, every home had numerous baskets and every basket had a role – there were egg baskets and berry baskets, laundry baskets and sewing baskets. Quilters in the nineteenth century had sewing baskets that had to be large enough to hold needles, thread, scissors, buttons and perhaps a small project or scraps of fabric. Along with baskets, everyone needs a basket quilt or two.

The Pinwheels were really making me crazy and I've had a hard time concentrating on one single project -  my brain is still flitting all over. So, I thought, today I'll just make a basket quilt to make myself feel better, LOL. Who cares if everything else goes unfinished and nothing gets done? Like the season, I'm just moving on and creating as I go along.

I already had these scrappy little pink and blue basket blocks that were made years ago and just never put them together into a quilt.

Originally, they were intended to be for the little Prairie Baskets quilt in Prairie Children and Their Quilts but somewhere along the line I changed my mind and went with indigo and yellow for that one.

Out from my hoarding drawer came the lovely blue wavy fabric again . . . I have gotten many e-mails from fans asking about this Marcus/Judie Rothermel fabric that I used in the cover quilt for Remembering Adelia. I'm so sorry to those of you who cannot find thise fabric ANYWHERE and have requested my remnants, but I only have a little bit left and am hanging onto it just for quilts like this. You'll surely see it again. It seems to really go with everything I make.

I think someday I'll quilt a nice little flower motif in the plain blocks.

 

There will be more talk about Basket quilts as I show you how to make those curved handles from bias strips for the little Civil War Baskets quilt in my book Remembering Adelia on Wednesday, April 6 when I am guest blogging again on Madame Samm's blog Sew We Quilt. There will also be a nice giveaway of Remembering Adelia, so be sure take a look and post a comment if you don't have this book. Think Spring!

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

~Anne Bradstreet

Life goes on . . .

Making Something Larger Than Sorrow

The veterinarian thinks my beautiful dog has cancer and I feel my heart is about to break. I know many of you have gone through this also and probably much worse and so you will understand. I have gone through much, much worse stuff myself over the years. In the big scheme of things I know that losing a dog is not a huge deal to many. Life in Japan right now must be absolutely devastating. But life here, in this house, will not be the same without our pet.

Wheaten Terriers pups have dark muzzles and rust colored fur - they lose that coat and become lighter as adults.

Our beloved canine companion came to us after the dark days of Sept 11 and after we had already lost another much loved dog that year and also one the year before. Almost immediately, our lives changed for the better and the happiness factor took over as we focused our family energies on nurturing and teaching a puppy to live among humans. He made us laugh again. Silly puppy! Some of you without pets will not understand how much solace they provide.
 

Are you kidding me? You throw the ball and then you want me to bring it BACK to you?

I really am trying hard to be creative on a daily basis to get through. Making things is a nice distraction from this and other stressful stuff going on right now. I am not looking forward to having more surgery next month, for instance. Sometimes worry is like a big dark cloud over my head and nothing gets done around here. But if, when I feel the sad feelings coming on, I begin to make something, I become calmer. All of my energy gets focused on something a lot more pleasant. That's not to say the sadness goes away, but it becomes diluted a bit and doesn't take center stage anymore. It's always helpful for me to channel those negative thoughts into something creative.

Ah yes, time to make yet another quilt! A few days ago I had the urge to play with color some. My daughter's quilt was already planned and the colors picked. So I put it aside for a little bit and started making simple Pinwheels after I saw an antique doll quilt I could not afford. Cheaper to just make my own and much more healing. The colorful antique Pinwheels became stuck in my mind, day and night. They remind me of how my head is swirling right now - Pinwheels of chaos attempting to take over my brain if I let it. As I slowly focus on choosing just the right muted colors and reproduction prints and sew the simple pieces together I sense a calmness coming on. I am bringing something simple and lovely into the world. Never mind the stress.

Does this ever happen to you? A friend once told me she made her largest, most complicated quilt when she thought her marriage was on the rocks. Throwing herself into making the quilt gave her a whole new perspective. I don't have the energy to work on my Dear Jane right now but I wonder just how large this Pinwheel quilt is going to have to be if it's to become larger than my sorrow.

Motherly Love

Here's a secret I don't often share: I sometimes think I am a terrible mother because my daughter is 17 and I STILL have not made her a quilt! Granted, I haven't been quilting all that long and while she's had plenty of doll quilts to play with over the years, she doesn't have a big quilt for herself. Oh dear, how can that be, what have I been doing? Have I been that busy? She'll be going off to college later this year. How time flies . . . .

I was able to sneak in a college quilt for my son while working on Remembering Adelia. I remember being VERY stressed trying to get everything done for the book plus an extra quilt, too, before he left. All a blur now. We've been planning a quilt for my daughter to take with her when she goes away to school.

One of the schools she is thinking of attending (still undecided) is located in a town that played a prominent role in the Underground Railroad movement and the campus has strong ties to the Civil War and anti-slavery activism. This historic campus building below was the site of one of the Lincoln-Douglas senatorial debates in 1858.

Imagine - Lincoln sat in this very chair too . . . .

I am letting her plan her quilt the way she wants it. She fell in love with the Soldier's Cot quilt in my new book The Civil War Sewing Circle while I was making it. But she really loved the pinks and browns in the little Shoo Fly Quilt in the same book. I am trying to get her involved in making this quilt as much as possible. She's not always crazy about my fabric choices for my quilts and tries to advise me. Last week she looked through my fabric and picked out a lot of reproductions prints in pink and brown for her quilt. Made me so happy! Of course, 1800s repros is pretty much all I have, LOL, so there wasn't much choice. But still, I offered to take her shopping for others. I went shopping myself and brought home a few more prints I thought she would like and started cutting out the pieces last week.

I fell in love with Jo Morton's brown Luminaria prints and when I showed them to her she did too. I knew she would.  Look, they almost glow!

Rough sketch. I downsized the blocks to be a bit smaller than the ones in the book - 9" x 9". I'll let her pick out her borders.

I made a few scrappy blocks already. Aren't these sweet?

My daughter is an avid animal lover and I thought about somehow incorporating that into her quilt but she's too old for most of the "kiddie" prints out there. And I don't really have any animal prints in my repro collection -  EXCEPT for this Classic Conversational print of "kitties" designed by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Brothers from a few years ago. She loved  it for a background on some of the blocks and I just ordered a similar print with doggies on it. Perfect!

When I made a quilt for my son, I used rich fabrics mixed with darker prints because that was his style and it was HIS quilt, after all, not mine. It needed to be simple and also practical, to stand up to use - like a quickly  made quilt for a Civil War soldier going off to war, my son was prepared for the college battlefield.

If she decides to attend this school with such a rich history, how fitting to have a quilt to bring along made from Civil War-era fabrics.

Soldier's Cot Quilt

Like many quilters who have daughters, I often think it would be so nice if she shared my quilting passion. Selfish, I know, but hey, I think she'd have fun too. She's very good with color. I've tried to encourage her to learn to quilt many times but she tells me "That's YOUR thing Mom, not mine." If I can't teach her to quilt, how do I pass on the tradition in my family? Is it enough of a legacy to just make a quilt for her? If I don't teach her, the quilting tradition that began with me in our family will also die with me, and that makes me sad. I do know there's still time and quilters I meet always tell me their own daughters came around eventually, some in their twenties and thirties. Perhaps someday, after college, she'll come to me and say "Mom, will you teach me how to make a quilt?" I can only hope. And, if not quilting, at the very least I'll have passed on the legacy of motherly love.

Connecting with My Inner Fish

My son was home for Spring break from college last week and so we took a trip to the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago with his girlfriend and my daughter. I originally suggested the Natural History museum since I'm not a fish person but I was outvoted. It was fun to spend time with them and see them enjoy themselves, however. Also, Chicago is a great city and I love being able to drive down there and visit for a day.

The Shedd Aquarium itself sits on Chicago's lakefront and the Oceanarium (housing beluga whales, Pacific dolphins, sea otters and sea lions) allows a great view of Lake Michigan.

Fish (some) are beautiful and all but I much prefer a pet that fetches . . .

Waiting for the show to begin . . .

Beluga whales

My, they swim fast!

Feeding time for the stingrays

As I mentioned before, I am not really a fish person. When my son, the budding scientist, was in second grade his teacher obtained tadpoles for the children to observe and study for the Science unit on amphibians. By the end of the school year, only 2 of the frogs had survived. So "Swimmy" came home to live with us that year (1996?) and my son kept him in his room in a fish tank (he's an aquatic frog). My son is 22 now and I can't believe that that darn frog is STILL alive.

When my son went away to college, he handed the frog "torch" to my daughter and so now she feeds and takes care of Swimmy. My son says he is NOT taking that frog with him after he graduates and gets an apartment of his own. My daughter will be going to college in the Fall. Can you see where this is going? None of us has the heart to take Swimmy to a "Frog Farm" or throw him into a pond to fend for himself in the wild so I think my husband will have to inherit the torch because, I'm telling you now, I'M not taking care of it when she leaves. My husband recently came up with a brilliant suggestion  -  a frog giveaway!! On the blog!! Swimmy is really cute and has a great personality when he's not trying to eat your fingers. Anyone?? Free to a good home but you'll have to come pick him up . . . .

Swimmy

Giveaway Winner

I have to say, all of you played along with me on this one rather nicely, LOL. I'm sure there were some who thought I was absolutely nuts, though. I really needed a silly distraction and a little fun and I hope you all had some fun too. Can you believe it? Dress #1 came in first, followed closely by The RED Dress. In case you didn't read the comments, here are some of my favorites:

• Go for the red number...hot, hot, hot!! --QuiltinMama
• Absolutely #7. This is no time to be shy. Go for it! Hubby will love it! --Grandma Rita
• #7 It's a good thing to shake a husband up once in a while ;) --Melody
• Red one - it has the most fabric in the dress, therefore, you will have more to cut up and put in lots of special quilts after you wear it to the awards!!!! --Kristy in Ohio (She thinks just like a quilter, doesn't she?)
• I think #1 is the winner- Go for elegant - you could make a shawl of hexagons from your scraps. -- Peg from NJ (Good idea! I sure have a lot of hexagons already made and I do need to do something with them . . .)
• Oh dahling, you must wear number 2 -- all your lovely scraps would go so well over it. Rip off the ruffle and add prairie points.—Bonnie (Yes! I can visualize it!)
• And number 4 is also ok but more for skinny people – Heleen (Thanks a bunch, Heleen.)

• Love the color blue too, but I think the neckline might hit your waistline. --Karen  (I know exactly what you're saying here . . . .)
• OMG......# 4 YES #4, and if that dress could make my thighs look that good, well....I'm just saying I'd wear the damn thing night and day, to the grocery store too!! –Wendy (I'm right there with you, Wendy. I don't see any pockets, where would I keep my coupons??)

• Love love #2 in the blue! What I love best about it is the ruffled neckline which I think will draw the eye away from anywhere you would not like to be focused. Does that make sense? --Louise  (What are you trying to say, Louise? That my hips are too big, LOL?)

You guys crack me up and I wish we were all  in one big quilt guild together - think of the fun we'd have!

*  *  *

So, last night, before he went to bed, My Random Number Generator picked -  Diane H  of Ontario, Canada, as the winner of the 3 fat quarters of Alice's Washday Blues! Congratulations, Diane! Send me your address. Make a cute little quilt, okay?

It's still not too late to vote - go to http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/golden-quilter-awards.html  and choose your favorites.