My Color Kit

Have you ever seen one of these? A friend passed it on to me a few years ago.

Basically it's an embroidery kit. It's made of a canvas like fabric. Skeins of embroidery floss are stored inside. The outside folds up like a little book.

It's kinda rough and funky, but of course that is why I like it ...

I Love Happy Hour

Here's my favorite show and tell quilt from our Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild this morning.

Ruby Shultz of Shawnee surprised us all. She held up this little quilt and declared, "After a few glasses of wine, I made this!"

How times change! Are our quilting ancestors who labored over their temperance quilts rolling over in their graves?

Thanks to Ruby for sharing her quilt and her wisdom! She gave this quilt to a friend but confided that she made another to keep.

Happy Accident

ser·en·dip·i·ty

ˌserənˈdipədē/

noun

1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

   
   

   "a fortunate stroke of serendipity"

   
   

   synonyms:

   (happy) chance, (happy) accident, fluke; More

   
   

1. I looked up this word and found a new name for this little quilt. It's Happy Accident from now on.
   
   It's a combination of scraps from all walks of fabric-ness. I continue to entertain myself with the wonder of just putting little bits and pieces together. I do look for variety. I think this piece is improved by adding the little bits of the curtain that Christo used to cover walkways in Kansas City's Loose Park long ago. There's also a wacky kimono, some Marcia Derse, tie silk, vintage dress, old shirt, Hawaiian shirt ...
   
   I'm thinking long and skinny pieces might be easy to display. This measures ~8" x 48". It's traditionally bound.

Happy Valentine's Day

An old shirt and no scraps too small make up my Valentine's Day postcards this year. The background is an old shirt that belonged to a good friend. I throw my smallest colorful scraps into a basket by my sewing machine. I picked through them and arranged shapes into heart shapes. Here's an old poem I have always loved:

Old days,
Old ways,
Pass by.
Love stays.

Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Thrifty with thread

I got some sewing notions at an estate sale a few weeks ago. Some of the thread I found reminded me of spools Mom had when I was little. She saved every bit of thread, winding different threads onto spools and bobbins like this.









I found a few other bits of thread that takes this to a whole new level of thrift. Next is a rolled up bit of paper with thread wrapped around it, stored safely inside a plastic tube.

The next ones take the cake! Yes, that is a broken toothpick saving a bit of thread. Along with it is a tiny rolled scrap of fabric with thread wound around it. Some might find this disturbing but I find it very sweet! Ah, thrift!

Come See My Quilts

My quilts are on display now until the end of February at Do's Deluxe, 416 E. 9th Street in Lawrence. It's Marty Olson's hair salon - I like to say it's an art gallery that fronts as a salon ...

This Friday is Final Friday, Lawrence's monthly art walk in the downtown area. Stop by between 5-8 and we'll drink wine and talk quilts.

Some of you will recognize quilts that have been on this blog in the past but there are a few new ones. See if you find any familiar ones on the wall above.

We hung a few vintage tops on a clothesline in the back room ... drop by and see what you think of that. And if you're in Lawrence it's ok to stop by during the hours Marty is open Wednesday - Saturday.

Comfort

I just finished this comfort quilt for a young friend - one of my daughter's best friends. Her mom died a few months ago - way too quickly and way too young. I showed her daughter photos of Passage Quilts made by Sherri Lynn Wood and offered to make a quilt in that style for her.

A few day's later, I had a bag filled with some of her mom Peggy's clothes. The light blue is a soft bathrobe. There were many soft jersey t-shirts, a gold party dress, several beautiful silky dresses and even a sweater. I commenced with the cutting and stripping pieces together. I backed some of the silkier pieces with knit interfacing but found enough stability in the rest of the fabrics to piece them as they were. I included a few details - the robe pocket, belt loop, some labels ...

The quilt is backed with a soft gray flannel. It's 43" x 72", a size you can fold around your shoulders, take a nap with and lay at the foot of your bed. Machine quilting it was surprisingly easy. It is the softiest, cuddliest quilt I think I have ever made. Just perfect for it's purpose - comfort.

Shop While It Snows

Since many of us are snowed in this weekend, I imagine the internet shopping will be brisk. I notice this weekend's C&T BlowOut Sale features some of my favorite Kansas City Star books of all time. Too many to mention, really, but here are a few particularly close to my heart.

You may not know WHY Carrie Hall's Sampler is one of my favorites. Well, that is my quilt on the cover. Barbara designed this as a block of the month quilt for our quilt guild long ago and I made my quilt month by month. When I began quilting, I never imagined I could ever do applique so finishing this sampler made me really happy.

Scroll down a bit more in the sale titles and you will find my 2005 book Quilter's Stories. What a joy it was to put that book together. I got to interview my favorite regional quilters and share their stories, my husband got them to grin at the camera as he shot their portraits ... and it's 140 pages long! Publishers truly don't make books like that anymore.

You can also find one of Bea Oglesby's loveliest books ever, Art Nouveau Quilts; Gloria Nixon's amazing first book Feedsack Secrets; Maggie Bonanomi's beautiful With These Hands -- and the list really goes on and on of what is being offered for the lowest price ever.

From what I hear, this might be the last time you can buy these books for this price. Happy holidays!

1,000 quilts for kids

Quilt #1,000 to warm a child in Lawrence, Kansas was delivered yesterday by yours truly.

This is a satisfying, grass-roots kind of story. Some members at a Kaw Valley Quilters Guild meeting several years ago were bemoaning the piles of quilts they were storing at home. They had volunteered to collect quilts made for kids in the Headstart program at the church where we meet. Headstart needed 40 that year but guild members had produced 80+ quilts.

I proposed expanding the program so that quilts went right to kids throughout our community instead of taking up room in someone's house. The guild board agreed.

Need came knocking. First we gave quilts to First Step, a local alcohol recovery residential program that allows moms to bring their kids along. Their nursery, at the north end of the building, got chilly in the winter. The kids only had fleece blankets so a thoughtful college student working there asked her quilter mom where they could get quilts and her mom asked me. It was Christmas time and our stitch group quickly produced the quilts they requested for Christmas, 2010.

Guild members stepped up to help. They made 74 the first year (2011), 148 the next year and the numbers have increased ever since. In 2015 they made 245 quilts and I challenged them to make 265 this year so we could say we've reached the milestone of 1,000 quilts for kids.

They did it. A true point of pride is that members donate the materials themselves. From time to time there are donations of fabric and batting, but most of the materials come from members' own sewing rooms.

Quilts have gone to the Lawrence Homeless Shelter; Pieces for Pediatrics (Marla Welch's program to supply a quilt to every pediatric patient at Lawrence Memorial Hospital); First Step at DCCCA; Family Promise; Headstart; GaDuGi (now the Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center); The Willow Domestic Violence Center; CASA of Douglas County; the local Oxford House; Kennedy School Preschool: and Cordley Elementary School.

I'm stepping back from the program to let someone else have the fun of collecting and delivering the quilts. Guild members have responded magnanimously to support this program. The goal has been to get quilts to local kids who need them every month. We have succeeded!

Every kind of kids quilt is welcome. We ask that they be sturdy enough to be washed frequently. We accept all sizes as the recipients range from newborn to age 18.

Hankies Come in Handy

Hankies. Old-fashioned relics these days, so of course, I collect them when I come across them.

I save them in a box. When I go to a memorial service, I take an extra along in case someone needs one. I give them to people when they are sad.

I was at a funeral a few years ago, sitting by a friend. Her dad had died too recently for her to hold it together during a funeral. She started crying, hard. Hankie to the rescue. I pulled it outta my pocket and she put it to use. Afterward, I told her it was hers to keep.

My mom died last week. Yesterday, I got a card from that friend. Inside were these 3 beautiful hankies. They belonged to her husband's grandmother. She wants me and the girls to have them at the memorial service. We will use them. Thanks, thoughtful friend.

On Sale This Weekend

Making Memories for only $5. A very sweet book ... one of my all-time favorites!

A Quilt for Cassius

I am looking forward to meeting a new little guy named Cassius. He was born a few months ago so I made him this quilt. I followed my old Gee's Bend housetop style blocks - starting with centers and just adding strips log cabin style. I used a few contemporary fabrics but of course, mostly vintage stuff and old shirts. The border fabric came from an old skirt I really like. The quilt measures 42" x 40". That way little Cash can lay on it now but drag it around later.

I actually thought ahead and got his name and birth year on the back before I quilted it.

Here's a close up of the border fabric:

Such a Deal - Christmas is coming!

C&T is offering lots of Kansas City Star Quilts inventory at bargain basement prices. If you want a copy of my first book at a bargain price ($5), click here. Shop today, sale ends tonight! The designs by Frances Kite are truly wonderful - it's a great deal!

You're Invited

Come to our show! The City of Lenexa makes space available in their City Hall for artists to show their work. Our stitch groups' latest is on display from now through the end of November. It's called Finding Our Voices. You'll see an assortment of textiles, collage and more.

Also - join us for a reception this Thursday night from 6-730 pm. There will be food and drink and even a little ukelele serenading. Hope to see you there!

For more information, click HERE.

Landscape by yours truly

True Blue Royals Fan

Our friend Bea Oglesby is still going strong. She lives at Lakeview Village in Lenexa and visits my folks often, that dear woman!

A summer project for Bea was knitting stripes into a scarf according to the win/lose fortunes of our Kansas City Royals.

The colors have significance. Bea explains:

"The scarf was busy work, but fun to do every day of the season. The royal blue was for a win at home and the light blue was a win away. The white was a loss at home and the gold was a loss away.

I do not think I will make another. I should send a picture to the Royals and ask them for free tickets to next years games."

That Bea. Way to go.

Homemade Hillary Sign

How I cheered when I noticed this sign up briefly (now gone) near the intersection of 13th and Haskell in Lawrence. It's rare to see a homemade sign these days - this one is so simple and to the point. Hooray!

Final Vantage Point Details

Look for more about Maggy here.

A scary section of Vantage Point.

Just wondrous.

Some of the smallest details are my favorites ...

So many of these sections are amazing - so the entire piece is rather overwhelming.

Vantage Point Details 2

Many of the applique pieces are added broderie perse style but some textiles are there intact, like the corn piece top right.

This definitely gives us permission to keep collecting those wacky kitchen textiles ...

This incorporates several pieces - and they are so great together! I have to go back and look at this again!

Vantage Point Details 1

Those of us who love vintage textiles will be delighted at what Maggy Hiltner did with them in her 2015 piece currently on display at the Lawrence Arts Center. Here are some details:

Here's a shot where it turns the corner. It shows the narrative that runs along the bottom - it also runs across the top.

It is beautiful and grim all at once.

I like the stitches Maggy used to applique her pieces in place.

A Home Ec Project Gone Awry

Right edge of Vantage Pint

How often is there wonder right in our own neighborhood that we almost MISS!!

I almost missed seeing this fantastic textile work, Vantage Point by Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, at our very own Lawrence Arts Center. Alert stringer Georgann Eglinski let me know about this when she saw it yesterday. I was there this morning and learned the piece will be on display at the Lawrence Arts Center until July 23.

Go see this! It is described as hand-stitched cotton, found embroidery made in 2015. It measures 46" x 864". Yes, that is 46" x 72 FEET! I am just agog at the wonder of Maggy's work and very sad I missed her talk in May.

The rest of Vantage Point

Below is a photo of Maggy's complete description of this work, along with an artist statement. This work is hand-stitched and incorporates household goods and the story of the area where Maggy grew up in Pottstown, PA. I will let her work and her words speak for themselves. I took a lot of detail shots and will post them in the next few days.

In the meantime, enjoy! And if you can get to Lawrence this week, be sure to see this.

One detail shot for you today, more soon: