Then we drove a few more blocks and Shirley pointed out the local funeral home, which was built around an original school building from the 1800s. I looked up and saw a bell tower and knew it was probably the old schoolhouse that Adelia mentions in her diary--where she went to "singing school" and "spelling school" every week and where Mr Bennett knocked over the kerosene lamp that almost burned the place down. I feel lucky to have read and reread the original dairy many times. Much was cut from it (she wrote every day) and you have only a smattering of the entries to read because Remembering Adelia is a QUILT PATTERN BOOK above all (my editors had to keep reminding me) and there wasn't room for most of the history.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Back to School
Then we drove a few more blocks and Shirley pointed out the local funeral home, which was built around an original school building from the 1800s. I looked up and saw a bell tower and knew it was probably the old schoolhouse that Adelia mentions in her diary--where she went to "singing school" and "spelling school" every week and where Mr Bennett knocked over the kerosene lamp that almost burned the place down. I feel lucky to have read and reread the original dairy many times. Much was cut from it (she wrote every day) and you have only a smattering of the entries to read because Remembering Adelia is a QUILT PATTERN BOOK above all (my editors had to keep reminding me) and there wasn't room for most of the history.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
In Love with My Scraps
This quilt was made in 2003 and I'm STILL hanging on to some of the same scraps to use in other quilts someday.
These are a few of my favorite scrap quilts from my latest book, Remembering Adelia. I love how you can see the Baptist Fan quilting design, a traditional quilting design that was common during the 19th century. The quilting doesn't really show up very well in the photos in the book. I had my machine quilter use this design for two of the quilts. I'll have to see if I can find a Baptist Fan stencil to use for hand quilting someday.
Every scrap quilt looks better with a "scrappy" puppy, however, don't you think? Don't let the relaxed pose fool you though--this was one of the 3 minutes out of the day she didn't pester me to play, taken after she did several laps around the yard.
Here's an idea--can you make a quilt entirely from scraps in your scrap collection? In these "dire economic times," maybe that's not such a bad idea.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Red Hatters
When I need a break from quilting I enjoy making simple jewelry and have made oodles of earrings, necklaces and bracelets for all of my sisters and friends (Actually, anyone who walks in the door usually gets a bunch of earrings to take home. That's how crazy I am sometimes about this jewelry making. If you happen to be wearing blue, have I got a pair of matching earrings for you!)
Last Christmas I gave Ingrid and Linda 7 pairs of earrings each--one for every day of the week, all labeled, you know, just like the days of the week underpants we all had when we were kids?? (Or was I the only one?) So, when my sister asked me to make her a pair of red and purple earrings for her RED HAT meetings, I went all out and made six pairs of colorful, flashy earrings and told her to pass them out to some of the ladies. I'm thinking that this will intrigue them enough to want to know what else I do in my spare time and then maybe I can eventually convert them all to quilters sooner or later . . . .
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Little Quilts
I recently spent some time sending out e-mails to various shops reminding them about upcoming trunk shows of the quilts from Remembering Adelia that are scheduled for their shops. Right there on the list of shops was Little Quilts of Marietta, GA. Now, this is probably not a big deal to most of you, but it is to me. I made my first "real" quilt 9 years ago from a Martingale & Co. book called Little Quilts All Through the House, written by Alice Berg, Mary Ellen Von Holt and Sylvia Johnson, the famous Little Quilts ladies.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Playing with Blocks
Wonder what shape these will eventually take? Can I fit them into a quilt somewhere? Do pink and purple and green really go together?
Here's a block I decided NOT to use in a quilt. Too matchy for me I think so I "scrapped" it. Like those prints though and will use them somewhere else.
I finished making a couple of small quilts already and, along with making and finishing the other quilts, I have to write the patterns and draw the step-by-step sketches of the projects so the designers at Martingale & Co. can eventually translate them into illustrations so you can figure out how to make them too. Here's a design sketch from my last book, Remembering Adelia, not the one I'm working on now, to give you an idea of how a book comes together. There will be 16 projects in the new book, so I have to make a series of these little drawings for each project, check and recheck and then draw new ones when I find a mistake, which I almost always do. This part and writing the actual instructions is hard for me and I have to stay focused and make sure I don't leave anything out.
The older I get, the harder it is to filter out distractions, of which there are many in the summertime. Aside from kids and playful, barking dogs, simply having to work at home is a distraction. I keep telling my husband I need a studio like the "real" quilt designers have. Maybe in a secluded woods somewhere (difficult, since we live in typical Midwest suburbia). He tells me we'll work on that when we're finished with college tuition (six more years!) and if and when I get over the starving artist phase of my career (craft book authors make very little money, sorry to say, but it's the truth--it's all fame and glory, unless I'm missing something and nobody told ME about the BIG advances other authors get).
Some days the writing part goes like this:
Clearly, that part is hard, too. The only easy part is playing with the fabric and putting colors together and choosing which prints I'll use in a quilt.
Our typical '60s suburban colonial, probably older and smaller than most, needs some work. The gutter guys were here last week making all sorts of noise putting up much-needed $$ gutters $$. My brother-in-law Steve the painter guy is still scraping and painting the outside windows and trim, which means I will NOT have a quiet house for a few more days. I'd be lost without my ipod while I work.
Steve the painter guy helping us make it look a little better (it was looking like those shabby, distressed antique furniture pieces, which I love, just not so chic, especially the shutters):
Andy, Steve's painting partner, looking much happier than I'd look if I had to work so hard on the outside of my house:
I'm counting on my ipod to save me.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Getting a Little Culture
Okay, I have been a little crabby lately. Like a lot of working moms, I'm trying to juggle working at home with 2 kids underfoot all of the time (and what seems like 40 of their friends at any given moment) or driving the one that doesn't drive somewhere every 15 seconds. Granted, they're not toddlers and there aren't eight of them, but even though they're older, they make their presence and needs known and they still need me around. It is not quiet at my house. And let's not forget the playful puppy, who's recovering from an ovariohysterectomy and needs to be kept "quiet" for 10 days (how do you keep a puppy quiet??), requires a huge amount of attention daily and, on top of it, keeps stealing my fabric bundles from a basket on the floor near my sewing table (trust me, no room ON the table) then races around the house until I can catch her.
What's making things even worse is that my husband's job at present requires him to travel Monday through Friday until the middle of October. So yeah, I'm a little crabby. Not exactly Civil War widow crabby for being left alone penniless on the farm, but still--things are definitely tougher without a little help with the normal, everyday household chores he's very good at executing. (Hugs, hon, if you're reading this!) It WAS time for a break and I jumped at the chance to take a pleasant day trip with my first born before he goes back to school. Oh, he said, if we did go, it would be a good opportunity for me to buy him lunch at a nice restaurant on Michigan Ave. I didn't tell him I planned a stop at the textile room to see quilts.
We live about 25 miles north of Chicago and now that the kids are older it seems we don't take advantage of the wonderful local museums like we once did. The Art Institute has always been one of my favorites. I love that it has so many classic works and houses a diverse collection of paintings, prints & drawings and ranks right up there with the other great art museums in the US.
Strolling down Michigan Ave looking for a restaurant, I remembered an entry in Adelia's diary and for a few seconds was struck by how different Adelia may have experienced the city in 1861, when she traveled by train from a small town in northern Illinois to see the State Fair, which was held in Chicago that year. The Art Institute opened as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts on May 24, 1879, eighteen years later, and some eight years after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed much of the city--17,450 buildings in 27 hours, 250 people perished. One-third of the city's population lost their homes. Adelia's diary entry for Sept 11, 1861, reads:
"Sept 11, 1861
"Laura, Alice, Em and I all went to Chicago to the State Fair. Father, Mother, Edwin's folks, Jo and Alf were on the train. Us girls splurged round town that day and did not go to the fairgrounds on account of the mud. Went in the courthouse observatory and on Michigan Avenue. Felt pretty much tired out. Staid with Alice at their cousins Mr Andrus on State St. Went to prayer meeting in the evening."
We couldn't have picked a better day though--sunny and warm but not too hot. We even found a moderate-priced restaurant.
The bridge/walkway that connects the Modern Wing to the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago's Millenium Park offers great views of the city.
I was impressed by everything my son learned in his art class. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm old-fashioned and favor the classics (the museum has a great collection of Impressionist paintings) over contemporary art (his favorite). So, for a change, it was nice to share our likes and dislikes with each other without a single argument. The bad news was that the textile room was closed and undergoing renovation, so no quilts on exhibit. Nobody seemed to know when it would reopen.
It's always exhilarating to see famous works by the great masters up close. Room after room of awe-inspiring talent. Like Adelia, however, by the end of the day, I was pretty much tired out myself.