30 dollars worth of fabric

My friend Jan has sewed many wedding gowns over the years. So when it came time to sew her daughter Ashley's wedding dress (plus 3 flower girl dresses), she checked with her considerable fabric stash on hand. It turned out she only needed to spend $30 to make all these dresses!

They had some fun with the dress. It was full length, but they made the skirt detachable with a short skirt underneath. So after a while, Ashley dropped her skirt.



Oh, it was a beautiful wedding on a picture perfect day. Congratulations Jan, and Ashley and James too! Good job, flower girls Ashley and Brooklin!

Behind the scenes in Lexington, MO

Everyone who was at this photo shoot chuckles when they see this photo.

We were shooting location photos at the lovely gardens at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site in Lexington. Rain loomed and we were trying to get in all the shots we could before it stopped us.

We all liked this shot BUT found it was hard to keep the bed cover on the fence. If you folded enough over for it to stay up by itself, you lost a good deal of it - and we wanted it all to show.

I offered to crouch behind the quilt and hold onto the little edges so more showed. It wasn't hard, it didn't take long at all.

But everyone who was there who sees it remembers there was a determined middle-aged woman crouching behind it to capture this lovely shot.

Check out this quilt and so much more in Maggie Bonanomi's upcoming Kansas City Star book, Nature's Offerings. It's a beauty.

A quilt you can’t get out of your head...

I’m sure you all see quilts that just get you hooked, that you can’t get out of your head (this also happens with songs). Well, it has happened to me with this quilt. A friend sent the picture – she knows it is a Gee’s Bend quilt but can’t recall where she found the picture on the internet. It could be in a museum or collection. I’ve saved it and look at it often. I’ve noticed the center is made up entirely of blue blocks with pockets on them, surrounded by bright colored strips. The border is arranged differently, with blue demin rectangles surrounded by the same plaid fabric. The colors used by this quilter just dance.

A Notable QUILT book

Another behind-the-scenes quilt book adventure:
Yesterday Barbara Brackman and I attended a ceremony in the Kansas State Capitol. Barbara was honored for writing one of the 2008 Kansas Notable Books. She was honored for Making History: Quilts and Fabric from 1890-1970, published by C&T. It is a great book with a great cover quilt (made by yours truly). I edited the book.
The governor's wife, Stacy Parkinson, presented the medals. She is an avid reader with Michelle Obama muscle-y style arms.
Here is a photo of the medal recipients. Barbara is in the front row, third from the left. Stacy is behind her in a white dress.

Touring Knoxville

I visited Knoxville last week. Here are some trip pictures. I love the sign on the restored Tennessee theater in downtown Knoxville.





















406 Church Street in downtown Knoxville is an important landmark for our host. Merikay Waldvogel (right, above) was Executive Director of the Knoxville Women's Center from 1979 to 1982. They helped women find employment and provided information and referrals to legal and health services. She hung antique quilts throughout the building, and became the go-to person for information on quilts--the source of her "quilt lady" label. And the rest is history . . .


Here is the entrance to a fabulous sign shop in downtown Knoxville, Yee Haw. They hand-print amazing signs, I could have looked around there for a LONG time....

Kudzu threatens to overtake this surprised quilter. The leaves were bigger than our hands!












Dolly Parton was in town too, singing and wearing this remarkable suit.

The local newspaper, the News Sentinel, has colorful obituaries. I noticed this one on Sept 2, 2009: Poore, Mary Jane....... of Greenville, TN was born April 22, 1944 and changed her address on Monday, August 31, 2009 when she went home to be with Jesus.......

Our Lawrence (Kansas) Journal World obituaries can't hold a candle to that.

Merikay's home is filled with wonderful quilts (this is one of many). We had a great time!

Carpet in hotels

When I stay in hotels, I always notice how VERY different carpets are there. This one even had fake fringe!

I notice bold design and you must admit, hotel carpets are always very bold. And you must admit they would bear public use well and not show stains and wear like our very plain home carpet.

I was curious - surely there is carpet marketed specifically for hotels.
Sure enough, google supplied many examples.

These people call it hospitality carpet.

Look at this one, it gives specific examples for lobbies and corridors.

A horoscope wish and quilts we did not buy

Forget what sign you are today. My horoscope has a wish so good we should all share it:

Today could mark the beginning of an important growth cycle in your life, making you feel more secure and happy about who you are and what you're doing.

So enjoy this wish and enjoy these pics of quilts we did not buy in western Kentucky yesterday, our first day in the deep South. Both were flawed but both were so boldly creative.


Photos courtesy of the well-charged camera of BBrackman.....