Frugal and Fancy Quilt Exhibit--Some "Fancy" Quilts

I had the opportunity to attend the Frugal and Fancy Quilt Exhibit at the Indiana State Museum recently. I wanted to share some of the quilts with you.

Whig Rose is an appliquéd quilt made by Lavina Fudicil Rubottom from Franklin County (1845-1865). Lavina is said to have pieced quilts at night by lamp and candle light while waiting for her husband William to come home from work. I sure would have had to have better light than that to appliqué and quilt this masterpiece! Pay careful attention to the elaborate stuffed work in the border. In 1887, the quilt was presented as a wedding gift to relatives.

The redwork embroidered signature quilt was made by the Westminster Presbyterian Church Ladies Aid Society, Indianapolis, Marion County (1889). From the 1880s to 1930s, embroidered quilts were a popular way to raise funds. Many well-known Indianapolis businesses or their employees paid to appear on this quilt. A signature from Vonnegut Hardware (owned by author Kurt Vonnegut’s family) and Charles Mayer & Co. appear on this quilt. The finished quilt was presented to the church’s pastor, Rev. Thomas Todd and his wife.

This Crazy Quilt was made by the Grisard sisters of Vevay in Switzerland County in 1884. Zelie Grisard and her sister created an elaborate silk parlor throw to show off their needle skills. If you click twice on this picture to enlarge it, you might be able to find the embroidered Japanese and Kate Greenaway motifs popular in the 1880s and 1890s.

This Amish Nine Patch Variation pieced quilt was made by Lydia A. Yoder of LaGrange County in the 1870s. The simple pattern and rich colors create a striking scrap quilt.

The Pomegranate appliquéd quilt was made by Mary Jane Summers McClellan from Auburn in DeKalb County in the 1850s. This four-block or “quadrant” appliqué quilt is an early style favored before the Civil War.

The most intriguing quilt to me was The Indiania (yes, "Indiania" not "Indiana") Fancy Quilt. It is an appliquéd quilt made by Clarissa Rohrbaugh Strong from Delaware County in 1854. Clarissa was not about to be an “anonymous quilter!” Her masterpiece is named and signed in bold appliquéd letters reminiscent of coverlet weaving or cross stitch. Clarissa Rohrbaugh Strong was born 1813 in Hardy County, in what is now West Virginia. Two years later her family moved to Caesar’s Creek in Greene County, Ohio. On November 18, 1834, she married John Wilson Strong, a farmer. They lived the remainder of their lives near Albany in east central Indiana, where they raised six children. After Clarissa’s death on July 5, 1900, her family lovingly cared for her quilt for another 109 years.

After each word, she has put a period. She names the quilt beginning on the right-hand side and working counter clockwise. I love how she almost runs out of room for her name (check the bottom of the left-hand side) and "squishes" the "G" in.

 The quilting is spectacular, as you can see in this close up shot.

Here is a close up of the lettering. It is all appliqued. Now, that would take a LONG time.

Baskets is a pieced and appliquéd quilt made by Ruth Ann Trinkle of Huron in Lawrence County (1890s-1900). Talk about tiny blocks! Five different blue prints are used to form these itty-bitty baskets. Ms. Trinkle was frugal with fabric but not with her time!

The Dogwood appliquéd quilt was designed by Marie Webster and made by Mary Ann Sipe of Marion County (1940s). Marie Webster of Marion, Indiana, revived quilting in the early 20^th century and wrote the first book about it, “Quilts, Their Story and How to Make Them.” Her appliqué designs appeared in the “Ladies Home Journal” and were sold from her home, now the Quilters Hall of Fame. The Dogwood design was published by the Ladies Home Journal in January 1912. I have also included pictures of some of the preliminary work for the quilt.

I Have Been "Working"--Check Out This Video Series

I have been working on several projects--monoprinting for the "And Then We Set It On Fire Blog" (check that out here--http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/2011/07/monoprinting-results-quilter-beth.html), making pieces for my black and white quilt, and embroidering on "Come Dance with Me" pieces.

These next two pieces are part of a black and white quilt I'm planning. I LOVE the spikes!

I have really been enjoying making these tiny yoyos. I'm using the Clover YoYo Maker (shown on the left), which makes them very easy to make. I cut my fabric the size of the "Perfect Circle" shown on the right. The yoyos finish about the size of a dime. The white ones will be used on my black and white quilt. (I may use a couple of the red ones too.) 

Yoyos are a great take-along project and are really easy to make. I'm exploring the incorporation of yoyos into contemporary quilts.

Bird update--I have yet another nest of eggs outside my guest bedroom window from my mourning doves. This will be the third use of this nest this season. The doves have gotten used to me; they don't even fly away when I come into the room. They make me smile!

Lastly, a friend of mine turned me on to Margaret Fabrizio's videos on YouTube. They are quite a hoot. At the current time, she is working on designing a quilt called "Ryoanji." If you'd like to check it out, click on this link--http://vimeo.com/25890805. She has eight videos (to date) following the designing of this quilt. If you are as intrigued as I am by Margaret, check out her website here--http://margaretfabrizio.com/. She is quite a fascinating person.

Let me know what you think. Please leave a comment.

Progress on "Come Dance with Me" and Beginning Another

This is where I was the last time I posted about "Come Dance with Me." Just so you can visualize the piece a little better...it is over five feet tall!

Here is my latest picture showing my progress. These pieces are just pinned up on my design wall.

There are still buttons to add, embroidery to do, stabilizer to tear off, and applique to complete--just on the central character. I'm going to be dragging this entire piece with me when I'm on my travels this month, so that I can get some of that work done. I'm only home a few days all month, and I HAVE to keep making progress on this piece. I still haven't decided what my background will look like. What do you think? Any suggestions?

I have been reading about Pojagi, (also known as Bojagi or Bojaki) and pronounced "Po-Jah-ki." It is a very old, traditional form of Korean patchwork I just learned about on the Internet. One of it’s features is the way the seams are made, enabling both sides of the item to be used. You can see a great video about Pojagi here--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tKcWBI6zs. A good tutorial for machine stitched pojagi is here--http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2010/07/pojagi-machine-stitch-seam-tutorial.html and here--http://www.quiltingdaily.com/media/p/25984.aspx, but I really prefer the hand stitched look. Check here for how to do a hand-stitched version--http://mairuru.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-sew-patchwork-furoshiki.html. This piece is just a start. I'm not sure where it will lead me. (You can't really tell from the picture, but the background fabric is a subtle black and blue.) The red pieces are machine sewn into the fabric. I am working on doing some of the blocks using reverse applique (by hand) that I'll add to this section later.

I have in mind doing a series of pieces on domestic violence. This is the start of the first piece. I'm really enjoying the feel of the fabric in my hand. I love the peace that comes to me when I do handwork. That peace is SO contradictory to the feeling of helplessness when a loved one is in a situation that involves domestic violence. I'm sure I'll be working through some long buried feelings when I work on these pieces.

"Hurrah for the USA" Southern Indiana Shop Hop--June 23-26, 2011

I had a chance to go with some friends to this year's Southern Indiana Shop Hop last Thursday (June 23). It was an ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS day. It doesn't get much better than spending a day with great friends doing what you love! I got a few pictures but got so excited at some places that I forgot to take any. I apologize to those shops. Also, I didn't get to go to two of the shops included in the hop, but I will include their information.

First, let me show you my "booty" from the trip. This picture is missing a great pair of scissors I bought, because I'm already using them. They are tiny scissors with a serrated cutting blade. I'm using them to cut out VERY detailed fusible applique pieces. I will be reviewing them later, so stay tuned. Actually, I'll be reviewing several of these products since they are new to me.

1. I had been looking for the Heat and Bond Feather Lite since seeing it on The Quilt Show. My preferred fusible is Heat and Bond Lite, but Feather Lite is supposed to be less stiff. I'm VERY anxious to give it a test. I have had trouble finding it. The places where I normally purchase Heat and Bond Lite haven't had it. I found this at Craft Town Fabrics at Salem, IN. Look for a review once I have used it.
2. The egg-looking item is a packet (called a Pebble) of John James beading needles. I love the needle holder. I always have trouble finding my beading needles and haven't, as of yet, found a good way to store them. I'm hoping this will help. I've also heard these are nice beading needles--we'll see.
3. I'm SO lazy that I REALLY hate to sew pieces of batting together to get a piece large enough for one of my projects. I'm also frugal enough to want to use all those pieces. I'm hoping I have found the product to help me out with this situation. It is called Heat Press from Jeanne Harwood Designs. I bought 10 yards of the 1 1/2" wide size. A narrower size is available, but I didn't feel like it would work as well for me. This is another product I will review once I have tried it.
4. Next is the Clover Embroidery Threader. It is supposed to make it easier to thread those pesky embroidery threads into your needle. The older I get...the more trouble I have threading needles of any kind. The problem with embroidery thread is that when I use multiple threads, one of them always seems to wiggle its way away from the others and not go through the eye of the needle. I'm hoping this will help. I'll let you know. I thought the price was a bit high (almost $10). If it works, though, I will think it is worth it.
5. The last product on the table is Clover's tracing paper called "Clover Chacopy." It isn't a real "exciting" product, but it is something I need. It is sort of like the paper I remember using in my home economics class in high school--the yellow paper that we used with a tracing wheel to place the marks from a pattern onto our fabric. Did you all use that paper too? You get five different colored 12" X 10" sheets in the package for $4.25.

The item below wasn't purchased during the hop but appears on the table with my shop hop purchases. I did purchase it the same day, though. I'm really excited to try this product, because it is designed to thread small needles--sizes 9-12. I REALLY have trouble getting those tiny needles threaded, especially if the light is not great. It is made by Sewline and is called the "Sewline Quickthru Needle Threader." They also make a replacement mechanism for the threader. (I'm not sure if that is good or bad. It made me wonder if they have already had to replace a lot of them.) The only place I could find this product is at Shiisa Quilts in Bloomington, IN. They have an on-line store too. Check them out at http://www.shiisaquilts.com/.

The shops included in the hop were as follows. (Some of them have websites--for the ones that do, I have added a link so you can easily visit. Just hover over the shop name. If they are linked, you'll see it.)

• HollyHock Quilt Shop is located at 1148 Hwy 62 NW in Corydon, IN. This is one of the places where I didn't get a picture. This is a nice little shop with a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They really have a great selection of patterns for hand embroidery. Their selection of Crabapple Hill (one of my favorite companies) patterns is really good. They are one of the few places that carry some Cosmo embroidery thread.
• Craft Town Fabrics is located at 21 Public Square in Salem, IN. They have over 7,000 bolts of fabric, a large selection of books, patterns, and quilting notions. They do ship orders made on line.

• The Quilting Bee is located at 4904 Old Georgetown Road, Edwardsville, IN. This shop is located in a red metal building across from the UM Church. I didn't get a picture of this shop either. They have a really nice staff and lots of great fabric, books, and patterns.
• I didn't make it to the Stitching Post located at 401 East St, Washington, IN, but I have been there many times. This store is LOADED with fabric. They do a bang-up Internet business and have VERY reasonable shipping prices. Again, you'll find a very friendly, knowledgeable staff. Check out their website.
• L & L Yard Goods is located at 1814 Taylor Street, Madison, IN. This quilt shop looks small on the outside, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of fabric (and other items) on the inside. Longarm quilting is available at their shop.
• Margie's Country Store is located at 721 West Main Street in Madison, IN. The owner, Margie Webb, has a GREAT eye for fabric and patterns. The shop is very small, but you will be surprised at the treasures you will find if you take the time to visit.

• Sharynn's Quilt Box is located at 1551 North State Street in North Vernon, IN. The shop is an authorized Janome sales and service dealer. They have over 2,000 bolts of fabric along with kits, notions, books, patterns, sewing classes and clubs at this shop. Call 812-346-4731 for information.
• I didn't get to go to The Village Mercantile which is located at 123 South 2nd Street in Boonville, IN. I have spend some time (and money) there too, though. It is only 10 minutes off of I-64 at Exit 39. Betty has over 6,000 bolts of fabric at the shop. She has a huge amount of beautiful samples made up along with patterns, books, and notions.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the shops. If you don't live close by, you can visit the websites. Have your own little Southern Indiana Shop Hop on line!

Hey, leave me a comment every now and then. I hate to think I'm just talking (typing) to myself all the time!

...And the Quilt is Named--"Come Dance With Me"

I was having a hard time coming up with a name for the quilt I'm currently working on. I asked my blog readers to help me come up with a good name for the quilt. My friend, Sharon, asked me the story of the quilt. She suggested that the quilt story might help me come up with a name. This is the story...

The character in this quilt was originally an 8 1/2" X 11" drawing (The character in my fabric piece is over 5 feet tall!) made by my Taiwanese foreign exchange student (Sandie Yi). I loved the drawing the first time I saw it and asked Sandie if I could make it into a fabric piece; she graciously gave her permission. Now, you need to know a bit about Sandie.

Sandie was a VERY shy girl when she came to the school where I taught in 1997. After a while, though, she made friends and learned to love the school. She loved the school and the town so much that she wanted to graduate from there, but the foreign-exchange program would not allow her to attend our school for another year. She ended up graduating from Marian Heights Academy (an academy for girls in the town). We became close friends. I even got to attend her graduation and meet her parents. That was quite an honor for me.

There is lots more you should know about Sandie. She was born with only two fingers on each of her hands and two toes on each of her feet. She used to hide her differences but never used them as an excuse not to be able to do something. For example, Sandie was in my typing class and was one of the fastest and most accurate typists I had. She says, “I grew up with being labeled as ‘disabled,’ and would often hide my hands when I was younger. Now I don't see my body is disabled/impaired at all. My hands and feet are my assets, my special traits. Art is a way for me to understand the beauty of the challenges in my life, and also as a way to adorn myself. I wish to be identified as ‘born with two fingers and two toes on each limb.'" (This quote came from a bio on Sandie. You can see the full bio here--http://www.accessliving.org/index.php?tray=content&tid=top624&cid=375) You can learn more about Sandie and her art at the following site. There are pictures of her and some of her art along with a great interview. That site is...  http://cs4a.org/Just4Kids/tabid/58/EntryId/1/Interview-with-Sandie.aspx.

Since graduating high school, Sandie has received a BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also is in the class of 2011 at UC Berkeley working towards a Master of Fine Arts. (She may be finished by the time you read this!) She makes art for and about people who are considered by society to be "disabled." I'm REALLY proud of her, the work she has done (and is doing), and the growth I've seen in her.

With all this information (and a bit more from me--I ran on and on about Sandie), Sharon said, "After reading this, your project takes on a whole different perspective to me. Before I knew anything about it, I would have said something about Mardi Gras or some far away civilization ritual etc. Now after reading all of this and knowing where it came from, I hear a soft (not meek-soft but more like a whisper on the wind soft) but giddy girl's excited, playful voice saying "come dance with me"....kind of metaphorical for don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone sitting on the sidelines....get up and "dance" to the music that is your life. So anyway, that's my 2cents, I'd call it "Come Dance With Me."" I told Sharon that her description made me cry. She said EXACTLY what I was feeling; I'm just not good at putting those feelings into words. So...."Come Dance With Me" is the name of the quilt. Thanks Sharon!

Take another look at the character in my "Come Dance With Me" quilt (in the previous post). I notice, now, that the hands of the character look like Sandie's hands. I LOVE that about the piece. Now that you know the story...what do you think?

10-Hour "Work" Day

I worked for at least ten hours today on my new project. I do have a name for it (thanks Sharon) that I'll be telling you about shortly. I'm waiting to see if I can get permission to include some information I think would be interesting for you to know about it. Anyway...

This is what it looked like when I started today--I had the rough pieces cut out, but none of the applique done for the top.

This is what I ended up with after ten hours of work... Somehow, it doesn't seem like I got all that much done!  I still have to stitch around most of these applique pieces. (I did get some of the stitching done.) This work takes a REALLY, REALLY long time.

Oh, I did get sidetracked by this for a few minutes! He slithered by my studio window; I was SO excited! It reminded me of the two pet corn snakes (one "regular;" one albino) we used to have. I miss those snakes! Anyway, I ran and got my camera, and took this picture. I think he was trying to get into my landscaping rocks to cool off, but there wasn't any place for him to go. He stayed this way (with his head and about 8 inches of him in the field stone) for two or three minutes and then slithered off into the grass. I guess I won't be going barefooted in my yard anymore!

Seeing him also reminded me of my Grandma Wink. Every time she saw a snake she would run to get her "snake-killin' hoe." That hoe killed many a snake; she just HATED snakes (even though I tried to convince her that they actually do a lot of good). I can still picture her whacking a snake with that hoe. When she died, my cousin David wanted that "snake-killin' hoe"--he got it at her auction. I'm sure it is being put to good use.

Check back; I'll keep you updated on the progress I'm making.

Oh, by the way, I'm trying to increase my number of "Followers," so if you wouldn't mind I'd love to have you click on "Follow." Also, I'd like to hear from you every once in awhile. You can leave a comment. I recently set it up so I would be emailed when I get a comment (so I could answer quickly). I haven't gotten a comment since I did that, so I don't even know if it works. Have pity; please leave a comment!!!!!!