Fabric Winners

Giveaways are so much fun and I really love the excitement they generate. Congratulations to the two winners of the American Made Brand fabric bundles.

 

The winner of the Grand Prize fat quarter bundle -

• Susan Smith  from GA, who loves to visit the state of Virginia

and, the winner of  a smaller bundle made up from my leftover fabric -

• Carmen y Prady, from Spain

Winners -  Please contact me and send your mailing address to receive the fabric. I hope you both make something pretty with this gorgeous, colorful fabric.

                  

Thanks, everyone, for joining in and posting a comment. This was a lot of fun. Remember -  the blog tour continues and there are more prizes waiting to be given away. So if you did not win this time, be sure you visit the remaining blogs and sign up to win some fantastic American made fabric from giveaways on their blogs.

  

I have had a pretty busy couple of weeks and now that the summer season is in full swing it does not seem like it's going to let up any time soon. I know I said I would show you how I made my Illinois block today but I've been really busy with family and other stuff so I will do my best to write the tutorial very, very soon, as promised.

 

Remember -  even though you did not win, you can still buy some of the Clothworks American Made Brand fabric at your local quilt shops. Find a store near you here. 

 

Illinois quilters - you can find the fabric at Material Girl Fabrics in Crystal Lake, IL or Quilters Destination in Arlington Heights, IL.

 

 Have a great weekend!

 

Fabric Giveaway - Welcome to llinois

 

Welcome to the Illinois leg of the American Made Brand Blog Tour. I'm Kathy and I'll be your tour guide today. Using the American Made Brand fabric, here's the  block I designed to represent my state -

 

Our vehicle license plates say Land of Lincoln. You can see that my block incorporates President Lincoln, log cabins, prairie points, violets (state flower) and the Chicago skyline -  some of my favorite things!

 

 

 

I had a lot of fun making this,  playing around with all the different colors and then adding little details that represent my state. (That's the Chicago skyline embroidered on the top.) I'll show you how I made the block on Thursday when I announce the winners of the fabric giveaway.

*  *  *  To win a fat quarter bundle of some gorgeous, colorful American made fabric of your own, just post a comment and tell me which is YOUR favorite state to visit (other than the one you live in) and why you love it. Leave me an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.
          

 

I was born and raised in Illinois. Chicago, to be exact. So you'll have to forgive me if I appear biased. Illinois gets some pretty bad press, what with the high crime and unemployment rates, not to mention the weather. Despite it's reputation for political corruption, "gangsters" and high taxes, it's actually a great place to live. I'm not kidding.  I'm still here so it can't be all that bad, can it? About 70% of Illinois residents live in or near the Chicago area. While Chicago may be considered the "Second City" by some,  to many of us living here it's the greatest city and we wouldn't trade it for any other. If you're traveling this summer and are lucky enough to be able to drop in for a visit, here are a few things that may interest you in Chicago and other parts of the state.

Illinois is the called The Prairie State (hence my prairie points on the block). It's also called the Land of Lincoln and has quite a few attractions revolving around the 16^thPresident.

If you love Lincoln history, you need to visit the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. 

                              

 

Or, you might want to walk in Lincoln's footsteps at the Lincoln Home Natural Historic Sites, a four-block neighborhood restored to the way it was in the 1860s and includes his actual home. There's also New Salem, a recreated pioneer village where you can see where Lincoln spent part of his adulthood. Period re-enactors are on hand for demonstrations, and you can even participate in activities from that era.

 

 

However, if you're coming to Illinois for even a short time, you have to see Chicago. It's a very nice city. Our Chicago museums are some of the finest museums around. Most of them border the shores of Chicago's fabulous Lake Michigan.

 

The Art Institute of Chicago  (scroll down and read my recent blog post from last week on this one).  

 

                         

 

The Field Museum   - Dinosaurs! Mammoths! Mastodons! We visited so often my son practically lived here as a child.

 

                    

 

The Museum of Science and Industry  Make sure you see Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle doll house.

 

 

The Shedd Aquarium has a wonderful aquatic show with dolphins, whales and sea lions.

 

                        

 

The Adler Planetarium has one terrific sky show.

 

 

 

Of course, you'll also want to visit downtown Chicago, Navy Pier and the Children's Museum, Millenium Park, ride the elevator up to the observation decks at the top of either the Hancock building or Willis (Sears) Tower to get some great views of the city, visit Michigan Avenue and Water Tower Place on the Magnificient Mile for shopping and dining, take in a show at The Second City comedy club, schedule a shoreline cruise or a drive down LSD - Lake Shore Drive - for some scenic views.

 

 

 

 

 We have a couple of nice zoos (if you happen to like zoos.)

 

 

 

Ride a fantastic Ferris Wheel on the lakefront. Did you know that the very first Ferris Wheel debuted in June 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair?

 

Check out the heart and soul of Chicago by visiting its diverse ethnic and historical neighborhoods.

 

 

You may want to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in nearby Oak Park. Did you know that Prairie Style architecture has its roots in Chicago? I'm going on a walking tour this summer.

 

 

 

Also, make sure you try some Chicago-style deep-dish pizza before you leave.

  

There's so much to do here, it's almost impossible to tell it all. There are a few attractions I've never seen but I'm hoping to take care of that this summer. We live a few miles outside the city but I drive in often and feel lucky to be able to take advantage of all that Chicago has to offer. Sure, it's noisy and busy and traffic is always a pain but, afterwards, I get to go home to my quiet space and my little colonial in the (boring) suburbs where I can chill. I love the excitement and energy the city has to offer but I also love my home away from the city. Living in both worlds suits me just fine. Illinois - a nice place to visit and a great place to live.

 

Don't forget  - in order to be a winner in this giveaway - you have to post a comment telling me your favorite state aside from the one you live in now. If you live outside the states, just make something up, LOL. Make sure you leave me an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. There will be 2 winners. I'll also be giving away a smaller bundle with some of the fabric I have left over from making my block. Winners will be picked after comments close on Wednesday night. I'll announce them on Thursday. That's when I'll show you how I made my block. Good luck to all of you! And don't forget to follow along the Blog Tour to see all the other fantastic state blocks and chances to win even more fabric.

 

 

 

The Power of Art

All this talk about the American Made Brand Blog Tour got me thinking about fun things to do in my state of Illinois. So, the other day I decided I would try to do a tour of museums in Chicago and other surrounding areas this summer and then blog about them. If you're planning on traveling around this summer and happen to be in the Chicago area, maybe you'll get some ideas.

Yesterday, I kicked off my tour and went to Number One on my list -  the Art Institute of Chicago - with my husband, daughter and sister-in-law. Nothing revitalizes me like being in downtown Chicago.

Some of the wonderful things you can see at the Art Institute if you're ever in the city -

First, we saw the  Arthur Rubloff paperweight collection. Over two thousand (!) glass paperweights, filled with gorgeous color, pattern and design. Some paperweights are antique French (Baccarat); others are contemporary with an antique look. All are mesmerizing.

I've had  a glass paperweight collection for years - but with only one paperweight, sigh. . . . Time to add more I think.

According to the Chicago Tribune, paperweights also have an interesting link to Chicago.

"They're part of Chicago history, which makes this very exciting. Chicago is where the skyscraper was invented. And skyscrapers were without air conditioning, so you opened the windows. Sullivan and Burnham would have had stacks of pieces of paper, and open windows everywhere. How do you keep those papers in place? Why, with paperweights, of course."

 "Honey Bee Swarm With Flowers and Fruit" - honeybees floating over a cluster of flowers and around a honeycomb. The only place I would consider getting close to bees - when they're in a paperweight.

Next we went to see the Thorne rooms -  the miniature rooms I know I've talked about here before. The Thorne rooms were the "creative endeavor" of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, a Chicago socialite who began collecting antique miniatures at a young age. Inspired by actual rooms in historic houses and museums, the permanent collection features 68 rooms that were made (commissioned by her) between 1934 and 1940, constructed on a scale of one inch to one foot. As a child growing up in Chicago, I remember visiting and drooling over these tiny rooms and furnishings, my nose pressed up to the glass, and my daughter did the same (still does). I could have spent hours here.

 

Continuing on, we saw the Modern Art Wing, the American Art section, the Medieval Art section and much more.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Actually, I was more struck by this young woman and how she seemed to match the painting.

The museum also houses one of the largest and most significant collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in the world. Second to the Louvre in Paris.

It's hard to get near this famous painting - A Sunday on La Grande Jatte  by Georges Seurat. 

It helps if you're persistent, tell everyone in your group to go on ahead and then just wait it out (or push your way up to the front).

I love learning about how famous art is acquired - In the summer of 1924, Frederic Bartlett and his wife, Helen, had the opportunity to purchase Georges Seurat's masterpiece A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Writing from an ocean liner en route to the US from Europe, he enthused:

"We had wonderfully good luck . . . as we were able to get almost by a miracle what is considered to be almost the finest modern picture in France, La Grande Jatte by Seurat."

Bartlett began assembling a collection of "modern" (at the time) paintings and in 1926 he gave the collection to the Art Institute in memory of his recently deceased wife. 

This painting has been one of my favorites for years - Paris Street; Rainy Day by Caillebotte. The people in the foreground look like they're going to just continue walking and step outside the painting right in front of you.

Well, that's it - you've seen a portion of what's there. We had a great time. As usual, I hope many of you weren't bored since it was not about quilting. I have a life too you know, LOL. This was a nice cap to my week and I wanted to share. There's nothing quite like a nice overdose of culture to make you feel good about life and art. Studies have shown that viewing works of art can not only give your brain a boost but give the viewer as much joy as gazing upon a loved one. Even art you don't like still sends a message to the brain and increases blood flow. So now this means there's scientific truth to what has been known for a long time – that beautiful paintings have the power to make us feel good, about ourselves and life.