busy Sunday

 I made this baby quilt in 1994 without any babies to give it to. Leftover blocks, many of which contained fabrics from blanket covers my Nanny made in the 1940's and '50s and we all slept under.
I still love this quilt.

My other children had boys and it didn't seem like the thing to give them, so I still have it.  Today I threw it on the living room floor for Emma to lie on.

Early this morning I drove to Brooklyn to bring Jess and Emma back here. I couldn't really say "bright and early" because the sky looked like this as I drove east at 9:am. Fortunately, while it threatened intermittently all day, it never really rained. But ick, it is humid!

I got to Brooklyn so early that nobody had moved their cars and I had to park a couple of blocks away, next to this camouflage tree.

Around the corner, in front of the school, these roses brightened up the street.

Jessica was coming out to borrow her father's car to get to the Fire Island ferry. Vacation time for Jess, Tommy & Miss Emma. But first, we stopped at the assisted living place to see my mother.

It was just before lunch and all the old ladies were outside, so we wheeled Emma out into the backyard.  They went crazy over her - there is nothing like an infant to make 90 year olds happy!  Kootchie-koo.

 

None happier than Molly, who visited with her granddaughter and great-grandchild for a half-hour or so. I say great-grandCHILD because my mother kept calling Emma "he."  When Jessica finally said for the 20th time, "Emma is a GIRL" my mother's response was "well, at this age it doesn't matter."  Oh, really?

Emma's hair looks red but isn't.  Jessica's is red - and yes, that is her natural color, which has darkened substantially since she was a child. When she was 3, people used to ask whether that was her natural color.  Huh?

A sense of humor is the first requirement for getting through life without going insane.

a quickie post

before I leave for Brooklyn to see you-know-who. Pix later. Meantime, Friday's experiment on the studio wall - I think it might make a nice little 12x12 if I ever need one. OTOH - maybe it should be larger.  We'll see.

On another note - remember when I posted those vintage propeller blocks that I thought were mistakes?  I rearranged one and here is the variation.  Not as interesting, I admit.

Shelley, one of my readers who commented on the block (and found out what it is called  - Propeller) - was so captivated by the block that she used up a pile of half-square triangles she had sitting around and made a quilt top of the pattern.  She hasn't quilted it yet but she did send me a picture. I love it! When I first saw it, I thought it was an antique - but it's a new one - inspired by my blog post. Ya never know...

Ok - off to fight traffic -- will check in later. It is beautiful out -- enjoy your Decoration Day - now called Memorial Day-
weekend (am I showing my age? Yep)

sewing room Saturday

 Thanks to all of you who supplied the names of those patterns from the antique quilts: brain is on vacation. While I was cleaning up the sewing room, dusting the sewing machine and sewing some strips, I found another bag of orphan antique blocks. Sigh... there are many of these.

Two more of these but not with the corners.  And zillions of those arrowhead-shaped cutouts in ugly fabrics.

There are numerous of this particularly egregious block.  I will lose no time in cutting them up and making them unrecognizeable.  I already tackled the first one, which was pink and green in this same pattern.

 It's looking better but not good enough.  It has a way to go before it looks like something else.

 

 Then there is this remnant of a hexagon quilt.  Nice selection of 30's fabrics.

It was sewn by machine - quite poorly, I was happy to see.

 I spent most of the day doing this stuff while I waited for Jane and her friend Mike to slog their way through the traffic between Connecticut and New Jersey.

Worth the wait!   We sat on the deck, had tea and cake and (she got to see my woods in person and even heard the wild turkeys barking, although they never did show their beaks)
Don't we look happy to see each other?  We're working on another date for me to teach in Grand Junction in 2011.

After Jane told me that she and Mike had ironed 300 yds of fabric for a church banner project, I suggested she buy a mangle.  If anybody has one to sell, let me know and I'll pass the info along to Jane.

On the subject of teaching - I will be in Bethesda, MD for a family event the weekend of Nov 12-14. If anybody wants to organize a workshop while I am already there, I'll be happy to stay for two or three more days and let my husband get a ride home - LOL.  E-mail me for a list of current workshops.

Ditto for Chicago first weekend in March 2011.  The other Illinois guilds meet later in the month so the schedule doesn't work, but if you want a workshop while I'm in the area let me know.

Huh?  My camera clicked all by itself and caught this lonely chair.  Waiting for Elijah?  Ilove the way the shadow of the roof leaves its mark in color on the chair.  It was very beautiful and peaceful out there today.  Tomorrow, I sleep late!

week's end

Which, of course, is different from weekend.  When I was in college, the weekend started after Saturday morning classes were over.  Yes, Saturday morning classes!  My kids never took a Saturday class - and in fact, I'm not sure the colleges even had them.  They never took Friday classes, either: the weekend started on Thursday night. Not a bad idea, actually.

My week came to a screaming halt with about 4 hours of sleep Thursday night. I will skip the event (or non-events, as the case may be) of Friday morning and fast forward to Friday evening when I realized the comforter was still in the dryer as my husband headed for bed.  The folding door on the linen closet came off the track as I was opening it to find an alternative quilt and I shall have to hire a handyman to put it back.  But I digress.

Quilts.  I have many antique quilts in the linen closet and needed to find one that wasn't too precious. This one was a candidate, but I never finished restoring all the churn dashes (is that what they are?) and the fuzz or batting or whatever is coming out.  So instead, I hung it on the railing upstairs. Do you think I will ever finish restoring it?  I used to love doing that to orphan antiques.

This one was on the guest bed but is in too good condition to actually USE.  1930's, hand quilted, mint condition. I forget what this pattern is called, but it doesn't matter.

Finally settled on this summer-weight Log Cabin which I also started to repair but is in better condition than the first one.

It is on the bed, where I am headed -- along with the heavier comforter that by now should be dry.

Tomorrow, Jane Aldoretta is paying me a surprise visit -- how exciting! Well, technically it is not a surprise since I got a text message from her tonight saying she is in CT and wants to see me before she heads back to Colorado.  But it was a surprise to me that she is here.  Last time she was in CT visiting family, she and her mother came to the studio and played.  This time, she won't even be able to step foot into this sewing room. What a mess.

more on knitted trees & trunk treasures

NJ isn't the only place with mad knitters. I got a delightful email from Amy Stockwell, a former student of mine who lives in Decatur, IL. Decatur, apparently has a better sense of joy and humor than Cape May, NJ! Here is Amy's tree hugger on the left and the recent article from the Decatur paper is here. Dollars to doughnuts, the Decatur artists didn't have to pay for permits. Did they, Amy?

This is my pink and brown log cabin top, BTW. Not bad from a distance.

I did say I'd show you what else I found in my trunk - and I have to admit I can't chop these up.  Dozens and dozens of wonderful vintage blocks from 1880s-1930s or '40s. I bought them in Florida many years ago, intending to sell them. Maybe I will do that now. Or not.
Most are machine pieced, proving that machine piecing was in use at the turn of the (last) century. No 1/4" seam for those women! Most are more like 1/8" Quite a few are hand-pieced, even within the same batch.

I don't feel too bad because those last two are sort of ugly - but they might make a great quilt put together. Maybe I'll play with them and see.

Meanwhile, I have already slashed into one of those yellow and blue star beauties from yesterday and am not going to bed tonight till I see what I can do (if anything) with it!

my lecture on art quilts

I was invited to give a lecture on contemporary quilts to the Decorative and Fine Arts Society here in New Jersey, which I did this afternoon. The program chair is an admirer of Eleanor McCain's work and has fallen in love with art quilts in general. She decided that the group to which she belongs needed an education about what is being done today in the art quilt world. I brought along, in addition to the slides, a few of my own pieces. This one,"Bad Hair Day," garnered the most enthusiasm. Interesting.

Before I started talking about art quilts, I showed the audience a few of my own antique pieces.I'll share them with you, too - and you really need to click and enlarge them. This Tumbling Blocks top is so vividly graphic that it knocks me over every time I look at it.
I adore this wonderfully quirky pattern and Marty fell in love with it,too, years ago at the Piers in NY, so we bought. I hve been told by someone who should know, that this is very likely an African American piece because of the pieced strips between the rows of blocks. If anybody out there can verify this, I'd be interested in knowing more. I love this top! It was never finished and seems to have been cut off at the bottom.
I bought this one in Denver more than a decade ago. Chimney Sweep? It's an album quilt and some of the blocks have been signed in pencil but none has ever been embroidered. 1860's-1880's, I think.
Finally, two quilts I actually use. I rescued both of these from oblivion when they were dirty old tops. I washed, added batting/backing/binding and HAND QUILTED both of them. The first one is 1910-20; I think I replaced one of the stars that was rotting.It lives in the downstairs guest bedroom.
The next one lives with me: I cuddle under it when I am tired or cold; it is made of feedsacks from the '30's and was so filthy when I found it, tied with an old sheet and red & white striped bakery string, that I didn't think it would every be healthy again. For that reason, it is dear to my heart.
The audience was gracious and enthusiastic and asked lots of questions. Hooray for education! By the time I was done with my slide lecture (thanks to those of you who sent me jpgs or slides) these folks wanted to know when the next juried art quilt exhibit in this area would be so they could take a trip! I'll keep them posted on the next Sedgwick (or whatever it is now called) in Philadelphia, which is a 2 hour drive from here. We've gained a whole new audience - isn't that nice?