Quilters Hall of Fame

I was asked to teach a couple of classes at the Quilters Hall of Fame celebration next month—July 17 and 18—in Marion, IN. I think there are still openings in some of the classes. Here’s a link to the website so you can download a program schedule. http://www.quiltershalloffame.net/celebration.html



The Quilters Hall of Fame is located in Marie Webster's colonial revival house in Marion, IN where she designed her famous quilts and operated a successful pattern business in the early part of the 20th century. She wrote the first book of quilt history, Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them (published in 1915) and was known world-wide for her innovative appliqué quilt designs, which appeared in leading magazines like the Ladies Home Journal.

Every year the QHF honors someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the world of quilting. This year the honoree is Merikay Waldvogel, who has written numerous books on quilting history and who also played a big part in the late 20th century quilt history revival. Her latest book is Childhood Treasures: Doll Quilts By and for Children which highlights the wonderful antique doll quilt collection of Mary Ghormley.



The little quilts I’ll be teaching are the Flower Pot Applique from Remembering Adelia, Friendship Star Quilt from Prairie Children and Their Quilts, and the Civil War Nine Patch from American Doll Quilts. Think about joining us--I know I'm going to have fun!



Here's a link to their blog: http://thequiltershalloffame.blogspot.com

More Puppies, No Quilts

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE dogs. My daughter, Caitlin, is even more in love with dogs than I am. Although we already had a Soft-coated Wheaten Terrier named Rigby she talked us into getting her her very OWN malti-poo puppy (Maltese/poodle mix) last year and named her Ophelia (we call her "Lia"). I call her Princess Lia because--guess what--she's spoiled. But she's still a darling puppy. Rigby is the sweetest, gentlest dog and Lia absolutely terrorizes him (like any little sister) by taking his rawhide bones and hiding them from him. She teases him too. She likes to leave just a tiny bit of food in her bowl every morning, walks away and then watches and waits around the corner for him to come by and taste it. Then she makes a mad dash from across the room and jumps up on him and growls to reprimand him when he does. He falls for it every time, LOL! Silly dogs.


Lia got a much needed haircut/grooming today and while I was waiting I wandered over to the puppy bowl aisle at PetSmart to find a replacement bowl for the one that cracked. Found the perfect bowl on sale for only $1.99. Pink, too! Fit for a princess. Then I bought her a new ball. Wonder if the little scottie quilt is going to end up being hers??




Now you can guess why I picked the quilt I did for our current small quilt group challenge.

Puppies and Quilts

Last year I started a Yahoo group for quilters interested in making small quilts or doll quilts. It's really fun to talk about and see all the different little quilts everyone has made. Every couple of months we have a "challenge" to make a different little quilt (no bigger than 30" x 30"). I pick a block with directions to make it and then give suggestions for making a quilt using that block. The challenge comes from using your creative instincts to come up with a quilt that is uniquely your own. Everyone follows the same guidelines but fabric choices and layout are always different. Seeing what everyone comes up with is the fun part! (SmallQuiltTalk at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smallquilttalk/)

The challenge we are working on now was inspired by some little quilts that several people in the group made--little scottie dog quilts. OMG, they're all so cute! Several of us decided we really needed to make one of these too. Not everybody had a pattern to use so I decided to come up with a template so those who wanted to could make their own appliqued dog quilt. The deadline is August. Can't wait to see all the quilts! A couple of the quilts were inspired by this quilt in the book Quick Quilts from Your Scrap Bag published by Leisure Arts in 1999.



I haven't actually had much time lately to get started on or even think about making mine yet, but yesterday, while I was going through a drawer of old fabric looking for something completely different, I came across a yard of this fabric that I bought years ago. I intended to make a little pinafore dress for my daughter when she was younger. Well, I never got around to making it (She's 16 now--sorry, Caitlin) but I'm sure glad I saved it. It has little scottie dogs on it! Who knew? This is definitely going to be perfect for the border. Pretty serendipitous I think.



Here's a trial scottie dog shape--not sure if I should do pink dogs on a dark background or dark on pink backgrounds, maybe both. And if I can find a way to use some of my favorite Civil War reproduction fabrics, you can be sure I will.

Big Quilt or Little Quilt?

Sometimes it works the other way too. I had originally planned to make a LITTLE Orange Peel quilt for Remembering Adelia, but gosh darn it those appliquéd pieces were so much fun to stitch. I became obsessed with making the orange peels from my reproduction scraps—carried the 3-in background squares and the peels with me everywhere I went in case I had a few minutes here and there to sew. Before I knew it, I had made over 90 blocks to piece together into a larger quilt. I'm so glad I did too because the quilt turned out to be my favorite, after obsessing over the border for weeks, and it made it onto the cover of the book (publisher chooses cover design).





I didn't have a lot of experience with appliqué and I wanted to try to make it the way Adelia would have made it—without freezer paper or stitching down the pieces by machine. Just traced the shape, finger pressed the seam under, pinned and then needle turned the edge. It's not perfect, but then, neither are antique quilts if you look at them closely. Of course, the rest of the quilt was pieced by machine (I'm not nuts) and I found a wonderful, talented woman (Dawn) who machine quilted it for me with a simple stipple design.

There's one entry in Adelia's diary where she says she needed to get away from the little girls (her sisters) and ran off into the woods with her sewing and nobody knew where she was. Wonder if she was making an orange peel quilt??




Adelia's daughters (and dog)--late 1800s

Crazy for Little Quilts

I love making small quilts and if you're reading this and following my blog, you probably do too. Quilts come in all sizes. Small quilts or doll quilts are SO much fun to make and you can actually crank them out pretty quickly in between larger ones. I like to experiment with quilt blocks or styles I wouldn't necessarily try in a large quilt. There's a little Amish quilt and also a crazy quilt in American Doll Quilts, my first book. I may not ever make a large quilt in either one of those styles, but the little ones sure are cute and you can make them in no time at all. Little quilts are also perfect for practicing your hand quilting--it really adds something, I think. Even if the first one you try isn't all that good, keep at it and you'll get better.

Little Beginnings

I started quilting 9 yrs ago by making small quilts or doll quilts for my daughter's dolls. I wasn't very good, but I kept at it because it made me (and Caitlin) feel sooo good to create something small and still be able to call it a quilt. One night before bed we were looking at the infamous American Girl Doll catalog and she asked me, "Why isn't there a quilt for MY doll?" I told her I'd make one for her doll (Felicity) and began a small quilt like those from the 19th century using reproduction fabrics (not the one pictured here). I thought it would be fun to make one for each of the dolls in different styles and began making kits and designing patterns to sell at craft shows. "American Doll Quilts" was born when I accidentally stumbled upon Martingale's website in 2003 and saw that they were accepting submissions for quilting books. Don't know why, but I took the leap. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jumping in

In a very nice way my new friend, Chickenfoot, told me I was slightly behind the times and needed to get started blogging already! Well, it sure seems like I am the only one left in the entire world who doesn’t have a blog. It's been fun reading all of the other quilting blogs out there, so after numerous urgings from well-meaning friends and fans, I'm jumping in . . . . I've always been a little bit of a late bloomer. Stay posted.