Lookin' For Inspiration In All the Wrong Places...

In addition to a compulsive desire to make quilts and play on the computer for endless hours, I have a deep love of reading. That hobby has been on the backburner for several weeks (unless you count quilt books, quilt magazines and quilt directions!!!) until day before yesterday. I had been on the waiting list at my local library for this book for ages. Finally, I got the email: "Come get your book." Oh, and was it ever worth the wait. Eat, Pray, Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert) is a wonderful read. It's about a 30ish woman writer who decides to "find herself" after a disastrous divorce and the breakup of a second romance. She travels to Italy (my mostest favorite country in the world next to America), then India and last Indonesia in search of--well, food, God, and romance. I absolutely could not put the thing down and it consumed all of yesterday and a bit of the day before. Because of that compulsiveness I mentioned in the first sentence, I went online to my library to request all other books by this author! I tend to overdose on one author then move on to the next LOL! I lost track of how many John Grisham novels I read before discovering Rick Bragg, then Lisa Scottoline, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, Dan Brown and those three fantastic Ya-Ya sisterhood books!!! And there have been more! For the longest time I was on a CIA/spy/mafia/intrigue kick and couldn't get enough of those types. I went through my women's biographies phase, too. Jackie, Eleanor, Dolly (Madison, not Parton, though I'd love to read Dolly Parton's life story too), even Marilyn Monroe. Not to appear sexist (in my own mind) I spent a lot of time with Harry Truman and John Adams! Books that take place in a certain locale that I'm interested in can just take over my life. Before my husband and I went to Charleston, Savannah and Natchez one year, I devoured every book I could find--fiction or nonfiction--on the Civil War and the deep south. It is really quite amazing to be able to get so lost in words and mental images. I was like this as a kid too. I read all the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books and all the Carolyn Haywood books.

Well, now you know more about my reading habits than you ever cared to know.

Just to keep this post the tee-tiniest quilt related, I made the penny rug pictured above several years ago, but darned if I can remember the designer's name.

Very Quilty Days Part 2

A few of my favorites from the quilt show I attended on Friday. Enjoy!
(Click for "big").

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.

Parts Is Parts

I have been intrigued by the wonderful quilts made from orphan blocks being shown over at Finn's Riding the Orphan Train site. I decided to lay some of mine out on the floor just to see if anything would come of it. Well, as you can see, it's pretty much a hodge-podge!!! Not much of a color scheme happening. I would have a lot more orphans except that the last few years our Guild's boutique has sold them and I've donated quite a few to the cause!!! I thought by laying them out I could maybe see if there were enough if any one color family to do anything with, but--alas--I'm not seeing it!!! Finn, HELP! I know they don't need to be matchy-matchy but at the very least they should probably play nice together. Oh, well, I'll keep collecting LOL!

In the "I Thought I Had More Time Department" is this little baseball quilt for a new baby boy coming in October. I had the fabric bought and pre-washed and ironed, but no pattern, no plan, no idea!!! Then I learned that the baby shower is THIS SUNDAY for Pete's sake! So marathon sewing took place this weekend. Granny to be had suggested "think baseball" when it was determined the baby was a boy so at least I had the goods!!! I am almost finished with the quilting--need an idea for the inner and outer borders. One nice thing about baby quilts--it doesn't take much time to handstitch the binding. So I am hoping to have it done done, along with a sock beagle, some bibs and various and sundry other baby loot. The shower is two hours away from here so there may even be last-minute handwork in the car!!!

And what would a quilt blog be without the occasional quilt cat photo??? Here are Rocky and Natasha carefully guarding the Libertyville quilt for me. Isn't that special???

I'll Show You Mine...

and you show me yours---Work Wall, that is. Here are some ongoing projects up against the wall. The 12 Days of Christmas blocks are sewn together. I ended up using 7 of Cheri Saffiote-Payne's blocks and improvised on the other 5. Had to throw in a few prim stars (just to make it all Christmasy, you know). The little doll quilt I'm calling Heart, Heart, Star (remember Duck, Duck, Goose from the playground?) I had lots of chunks of the 30s fabric that weren't big enough for much, but just right for cutting some applique shapes. I wanted a muted, washed out looking doll quilt just like a 30s mom might have made from old aprons, housedresses, and workshirts. Just fun.

The jam jars are from a new project started on Pat Sloan's yahoo group called Farmers Market. Can't wait to see the next block! Pat is such a generous designer and I love her whimsy!

I sure hope you'll show me yours. Work Wall, that is!