Market Quilts I Love

I feel fortunate to be in the quilt business and see what vendors show - without the pressure of buying for a shop. So I'll share some fun things I liked enough to photograph as I wandered through quilt market yesterday.

This was just one of the things I liked at the SUCH designs booth. Pieced houses like these were popular, I saw them in many booths. The animals designed by Carrie Bloomston were great, her booth was too crowded to get a shot of them!

THIS is a design inspiration wall in Denyse Schmidt's booth. I had read that she did this, and was fascinated to see an example of it at her booth.  I see fabric swatches, old photos, little drawings, maps......

And wow, even Sonny and Cher! back when they were both so young and cute and on TV every week. Note the Partridge Family and Mary Richards, reporter.....

I liked these quilts. They feature Windham fabrics by Lotta Jansdotter. Note the random salesperson's head that will appear in a market photo if you are not careful....

How about the biggest hexagons ever? They were featured at Nellie's Needle Quilt Patterns booth. Note there are often random people in front of you at market.....

I'd been hearing about Amy Butler's booth, how they assemble it at home, then truck it to market. Here it is it was gorgeous.....

Read more about market at Barbara's blog, we both have a lot to say (always).

Market Report #1

Quilt Market is in Kansas City this week! We've got lovely weather for it and the usual lively crowds - what fun it is to have everyone here.

I got to hear Amy Butler speak the other night. She presented a talk about her life and work. I was particularly interested in her new venture, an online magazine called Blossom. It will be free and will debut in July.

At Amy's schoolhouse yesterday, she gave away swag - fabric bags! I love mine, it is #20426 (yes, more than 20,000!) made by the green bag lady, see more about her at www.greenbaglady.org. When they ask paper or plastic at the store, we are to exclaim FABRIC! How cool is that?

Barbara Brackman gave a wonderful talk about the many free resources you can access on the internet. Free patterns especially. She'll be blogging about market this week, check it out.

I'm looking forward to the free quilt exhibit at the Kansas City Star Press Pavilion this week. Stop by if you are in town.....

A sweet Mother's Yellow Rose quilt

I spoke about memory quilts at the April meeting of the Town & Country Quilters of Southwest Missouri  in Joplin. Several members brought memory quilts they had made. I was impressed with this one made by Ruth Pendleton. After her mother Elma Rosbrugh passed away, Ruth and her older sister, Lolis Rosbrugh gathered her clothing. Ruth wrote this:

"So far I have completed 2 bed-size quilts and have a good start on 4 more at this time.  I am leaving an empty block at the bottom of the quilt where I can embroider a yellow rose, which was Mother's favorite flower.  I will be calling my quilt Mother's Yellow Rose.

Since our  father, Marvin Rosbrugh, has passed, Lolis is cutting his clothing apart and is making quilts for the family also.  So far, I think she has delivered 3 of the ones she is working on.  She is adding darker colors for the filler blocks.  Again, we are using the quilts and not putting them away to sit for further generations."

The plan is to make 6 of these quilts - one for each of Elma's children - and 16 for her grandchildren. With this simple and very utilitarian design, she can piece together smaller scraps to make the  square blocks.

Here's Ruth, wearing a vintage bonnet that  belonged to one of her sisters - Mary Beth or Marjorie.. Ruth said this would mean the bonnet is a 1949 model or a 1952 model. She wore it because it was hat day at the guild, this one won the vintage category prize, of course. 

Happy Mother's Day! I thought you might enjoy this story on this lovely day.  Many thanks to Ruth for sharing her lovely project with all of us.

A Pine Burr RUG

I was invited to see the textiles collected by a retired KU professor, Doris Stubeck. As we looked through her delicate, intricate pieces, my eye kept wandering over to a rug nearby. I could only see a corner of it, but it looked interesting. The fabrics seemed very practical, like they were from worn-out clothes.

When I got a closer look, I saw it was a pine burr RUG. Can you believe this coincidence, that I would see so many pine burrs in such a short time? This one was assembled on a very sturdy backing, like a heavy feedsack. You can see that the stitching is fairly close together. Because the points face OUT on this piece, the edges are a row of points.

It's a small rug, about 2 1/2' wide by 3 1/2' long.

Here's a detail shot. Doris found it at an antique shop/estate sale/garage sale years ago, as she did much of her collection. She doesn't use a computer, but she said it would be ok to show it here. I am delighted she shared it.

Jean's Pine Burr

MANY of us were blown away by this entry in our quilt show last week.

It's a Pine Burr quilt recently acquired by KVQG member Jean Ayres. One the back of one corner it says "Bea Birthday from Lou 1982". Jean found some research done by Cuesta Benberry - Cuesta noted this type of quilt was commonly made by African American Quilters in the South - and that it is also the Alabama state quilt.

 

A true potpourri of fabrics were used. Lots of clothing scraps, some shiny fabrics too.

11-11-11 finished

I finished my corduroy appreciation day quilt for the show. You will remember my being a fan of CBS’ Sunday Morning led to this quilt. They featured a Corduroy Appreciation Club in New York City, getting revved up to celebrate the ultimate Corduroy Appreciation Day on 11-11-11 (November 11, 2011). I blogged about it and a challenge was on. Many of my internet friends made corduroy quilts and showed them that day. This is my version. It was inspired by a quilt by Anna Williams. I cleaned out my closet and snipped apart many of my thrift shop corduroy shirts to make this. It measures 31” x 43” - I quilted it in the ditch mostly. The last time you saw it it didn't have the borders. I thought it needed those.

Tomorrow's the Quilt Show

We close with Carmen Rinehart's Star Spangled Santa. It is a thrifty block, Carmen said: "The Santa was a collaborative effort because I got the initial block free at our guild meeting and the beard is a curtain that shredded in the wash which Karen Hansen gave me. (Guess what? I love this because that was a block I made, back in the 90s - and parted with in my year of cleaning out.....)

Come see our minis at the quilt show. There will be 120 mini quilts available for sale. Saturday 10-5, Sunday noon-5. Bidding closes at 4:30 Sunday!

Benefiting Organizations

• Douglas County CASA utilizes community volunteers to act as advocates for children who have been abused or neglected and are under the protection of the juvenile court.

• Douglas County AIDS Project provides supportive and responsive care for those affected by HIV/AIDS as well as education and advocacy to raise awareness and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

• GaDuGi Safe Center provides 24-hour comprehensive advocacy and support services for child and adult victim-survivors of sexual violence.
• Lawrence Habitat for Humanity builds homes for deserving families in Douglas and Jefferson Counties.
• The Social Service League serves low income residents of Lawrence.  Auction proceeds go to the League’s program to provide eye exams and glasses for Lawrence school children and eye glasses for adults.
• The Spencer Museum of Art, on the KU campus, has an outstanding collection of quilts and quilt blocks. Auction proceeds go to quilt preservation and exhibition activities.