La Grange

exhibition opening day, photo courtesy of Texas Quilt Museum

My exhibition of New York Beauty quilts is now open at the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, Texas. La Grange...where have I heard that name before?

What were they singing about in the song? The Chicken Ranch, an infamous location a couple miles east of La Grange, the inspiration for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas! Although I do love Dolly Parton, I've never seen the film, or the original Broadway play.

Times have changed. The Chicken Ranch closed in 1973, and in 2011 The Texas Quilt Museum opened, giving La Grange an exciting new cultural venue especially for displaying quilts.

Deborah Hensel wrote a great article about it in Quilters Newsletter leading up to the museum's grand opening in 2011.

It was an honor to be invited to display quilts at the museum. I have seen pictures of the space, and it's gorgeous. I can't wait to visit!

exhibition opening day, photo courtesy of Texas Quilt Museum

one of the quilts on display, a favorite of mine

a beautiful space! photo courtesy of Texas Quilt Museum

when you drive through town, you can't miss it!
photo courtesy of Texas Quilt Museum

The exhibition runs from today, September 29th to December 18th, 2016. So, it will be up during this year's Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival in Houston!

an 1850s masterpiece, the oldest quilt in the exhibition

Several tour busses will be going, and I'm excited to know so many people from around the world will go see the quilts. For more information about the Texas Quilt Museum and the exhibition of New York Beauty quilts, visit the museum's website.

GIVEAWAY!! A New Spin on Drunkard's Path by John Kubiniec

Drunkard's Path is a classic American quilt design. It features curve-pieced blocks, typically arranged in meandering paths. Quilts of this pattern appeared some time in the middle to late 1800s. It is one of the designs said to be adopted by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, along with Double T and Goblets, and that could be why so many antique Drunkard's Path quilts are blue and white.

I've seen a lot of Drunkard's Path quilts over the years, and thought I'd seen it all, but John Kubiniec completely knocked my socks off with his first book, "A New Spin on Drunkard's Path: 12 Innovative Projects, Deceptively Simple Techniques" (C&T  Publishing, 2016). The book includes 12 timeless quilts based on the historic block, and the possibilities are infinite. He gives curved blocks a makeover with pre-assembled strips, triangles and sixteen-patches. The patterns, designed to look complex, feature simple and straightforward construction.

All the designs are wonderful. One of my favorites is Snake in the Grass. The block includes a Rail Fence strip set combined with the curved piecing to create a charming new design.

I first learned about John when he was a finalist in the 2010 McCall's Design Star Competition, and ever since then I have enjoyed getting to know him through social media. He is now a Bernina Brand Ambassador and was one of the testers of the Bernina Q 24 and Q 20 longarm machines. When he asked if I would be part of this blog tour, I was thrilled. I always hoped he would write books, and I'm sure this one is the first of many.

Enter the Giveaway!

Win a free copy of John Kubiniec's new book, "A New Spin on Drunkard's Path" - just leave a comment and check back on October 9th for the randomly-drawn winner!

Follow the blog tour...

September 26, 2016

Jenifer Dick   www.42quilts.com

C&T Publishing http://www.ctpub.com/blog/

September 27, 2016

Sara Lawson www.sewsweetness.com/blog

Heather Kojan http://www.heatherkojan.com

September 28, 2016 (Today!)

Bill Volckening http://willywonkyquilts.blogspot.com

McCall’s Quilting  http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/

                          

September 29, 2016

Teri Lucas https://terificreations.com

Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com

September 30, 2016

made by ChrissieD http://madebychrissied.blogspot.com

LoveBug Studios https://lovebugstudios.com/blog/

October 1, 2016        
Kathy Patterson  http://hillstreetquilts.blogspot.com

Teresa Coates http://www.crinkledreams.com

October 2, 2016

Carl Hentsch http://3dogdesignco.blogspot.com

October 3, 2016

Generation Q Magazine http://generationqmagazine.com

Lisa Calle https://lisacalle.wordpress.com

October 4, 2016

Linzi Upton https://thequiltquine.wordpress.com

Nicole Daksiewicz www.modernhandcraft.com/blog

October 5, 2016

            Marti Michell http://frommartimichell.blogspot.com

Debby Brown http://higheredhands.blogspot.com

October 6, 2016

Melody Crust  http://melodycrust.blogspot.com/

Kim Niedzwiecki http://www.gogokim.com

October 7, 2016

Patrick Lose http://www.patricklose.com

John Kubiniec https://bigrigquilting.com/blog/

a day with Melissa

I spent the day with Melissa Averinos on Wednesday. She was in Portland to lecture and teach for Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and stayed a few extra days to soak in our amazing city.

First order of business was donuts. We went to Blue Star, got half a dozen donuts and ate them all! I got chocolate ganache all over my face, but was able to get reasonably cleaned up before going to the quilt show.

The annual Northwest Quilting Expo at the Portland Expo Center was another great show. There was something for everyone!

Best of Show winner, "Extraneous Female EscapementMechanism"
by Rebecca "Becky" Price, Henderson, TX

1830s chintz star quilt, collection of Latimer Quilt & Textile Center

"Keep Portland Weird" by Barbara Sanders

After the show we went to my place to have one last donut, see some old quilts and meet Lulu, my crazy, talking feral rescue cat. Lulu often hides under the bed when new people come to visit, but she came right out to greet Melissa. Cat whisperers, we are.

Melissa brought gifts. One of my favorites was a fabric swatch printed through Spoonflower, with one of her amusing drawings.

Being around Melissa inspired me. She's written a pile of books and works in a wide variety of media, including music. She teaches a "Making Cat Faces" class, and I thought it would be fun to make a Lulu cat face.

I was just returning from a week-long visit to Maine and New Jersey, and sadly missed her class, but asked a couple simple questions about how the cat faces were made. It was something like this:

"Fusible?"

"No, glue stick."

"Quilt it down?"

"Yup"

There were a few other details, such as possible methods of quilting, but the technical information was only a small part of what I needed. It's been a dry year, creatively. I haven't made a thing, except maybe dinner. Being around Melissa made me want to make more things.

Of course, I'm always a little unsure about making a quilt since I'm highly unqualified in sewing. Melissa even asked if I wanted her to make me one. I would love that, but also thought I could do it. She helped me believe I could do it.

I went straight home after dropping her off, pulled out some of my Spoonflower fabrics and made a Lulu cat face quilt. Finally, I'd thought of something fun to do with my Green Alien Space Baby fabric!

The quilt is inspired by Lulu, and a photo I took of her when she sniffed something funny. Cats make this funny face when they sniff something interesting. Poor Lulu, such an unflattering pose! She really is a beautiful kitty. Many thanks to Melissa for the inspiration!

SaveSave

velvet & the little red house

There's something about velvet, the way it catches the light. I love velvet quilts and often wonder about the makers. The quilts have such character.

velvet crazy quilt top, c. 1900, Ohio, 78" x 88"

This velvet crazy quilt top came from an eBay seller in Holmesville, Ohio. There was no information about its origins, but it was so intriguing to see a single red house at the center of organized chaos. The little house stands out against the mostly dark velvet.

During the year I picked up a few other velvet quilts, all head turners, in my opinion. Here they are

SaveSave

some new things

polyester string quilt, Chicago, Illinois, c. 1970, 62" x 74"

Hello, blog readers! It's been a while. Kind of a crazy year. Not as much collecting as previous years, but a few new things trickled in recently. I'm starting to get a little more particular, with more than 400 quilts in the collection, 150 of them from the 1970s.

polyester strip quilt, Houston, Texas, c. 1970, 67" x 89"

Two of the new arrivals are polyester. One is from Houston and the other is from Chicago. Both quilts are exceptionally vibrant, a hallmark of the fade-resistant polyester quilts of the period.

rainbow quilt, Cincinnati, Ohio, c. 1975, 87" x 107"

The third one is a tied rainbow quilt made of seven different gingham fabrics: purple, dark blue, light blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Light blue gingham always reminds me of Dorothy Gale, but this quilt is really somewhere over the rainbow.

I use Blurb BookSmart to self-publish catalogues of quilts

Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all these quilts, so I am putting together a catalogue with images and basic information about each quilt: pattern name, maker's name and location of origin if known, materials, dimensions and circa date.

The book will be for internal use only, so I will not be offering it for sale. I make a lot of these books documenting my collection, but many are never offered for sale. They are very helpful, though. It's great to be able to pull a book off the shelf and look up information whenever I need it.