Very Quilty Days Part 1

Thursday my quilt guild met and had back for the third time as speaker Gerry Kimmel Carr. What a delight she is. And so generous. She brought along tons of her books that are out-of-print and told us they were free for the taking! You could leave a small donation to a charity if you so desired. Oh, yes, I did! This designer is special to me because I think I have to credit her with my love of primitive folk art. Back in the 80s I was heavily into counted crossstitch. There was a wonderful shop about 35 minutes from my house called Saltbox Sampler that featured beautiful crossstitch patterns as well as quilting designs. One day I noticed Kimmel Carr's amazing quilt called Snowbound on the wall. It is now considered a classic. It is a fantastic applique quilt. I can remember seeing that quilt and thinking it was the most incredible quilt I had ever seen. I immediately bought the book. Of course, I had no knowledge of needleturn applique at that time! Gerry is a master of that skill. I can't put my fingers on the book right now (if you could see my quilt bookshelves, you'd totally understand why!!!) and no, I never did make the quilt, but it was a constant inspiration to me as I was easing back into quilting after about a 20 year absence. The darling little childlike scenes of playing in the snow were just captivating. Over the years I have used bits and pieces from the book and someday....someday...I will make that quilt! Gerry had a quilt shop back in the day inside her family's hardware store in Liberty, Missouri, and I grew to love her dark fabrics and plaids and primitive-looking designs. I was still working full-time and raising two boys who played every sport that came along so I really didn't have much time to pursue quiltmaking, but here and there I would use one of Gerry's ideas. She has retired from publishing books but still designs for Renee Nanneman's Needl'Love series and still does speaking engagements. She showed many, many of her grand quilts on Thursday, but I didn't think to ask her permission to put the photos out on the internet. Trust me, they were divine!

Then on Friday, another delightful quilty day was had. My mini-group came to my house for brunch. Then we headed to a small town, Eudora, Kansas, for a quilt show and of course, some quilt shop therapy! The first shop we hit was having a 20% off everything sale!!! I love to use Mettler 60 weight thread for hand applique but find it very hard to come by around these parts. So when I saw that this shop had the whole ball of wax, I stocked up on some colors missing from my "collection". I also had to add a few more 30s prints to my stash. I have on order a darling paperdoll redwork pattern. Hope it comes soon! I purchased the two new Clover yoyo-type makers--a heart and a flower. Will show those after I have tried them out. Got a new book called Sweet Inspirations and some backing fabric for DS#1's snowball quilt--finally!

And the quilt show was amazing, as well. For a small town there were truly a large number of outstanding quilts. I'll show some of my favorites next post.