Auctions, vendors and randomness

Pair of Amish cross stitch pillow cases

Finally, a little randomness. We always have a silent and live auction at Seminar as fundraisers. I volunteer to be a spotter/runner during the auction. The two pillow cases above were in the live auction and were just stunning in person. Those were the tiniest stitches I've ever seen.  That red line is actually a chain stitch! One of the perks for working the auction is you get to check out all the goodies as they go up on the auction block.

Here's what I got in the silent auction. I couldn't pass up bidding on this hand beaded needle keeper necklace. The price was right and I know I would have spent way more if I'd bought the beads and tried to do this myself.  Besides, it was done in "my" colors!  I just love it.

Encyclopedia of Needlework by Therese de Dillmont

We also have a vendor section where several quilt dealers set up shop for the weekend. I usually can't afford anything in there but I love to go look. They are very gracious about letting you take pictures. This year I found this little treasure. I know you can download it online but there's just nothing like holding this little antique gem in your hand and thumbing the pages. I've got a thing for books but I think you already knew that.

Spool Blocks

When I travel I always like to take some kind of hand work with me.  The day before I left I saw this post and fell in love with the spool blocks.  Not that I didn't have enough to do, but I just HAD to draft a pattern and make some templates for these blocks.  Hand piecing is such a good traveling companion and I dearly love to do it.

Apparently, there is a group of women in the Netherlands who started this craze for making spool blocks.  They call them Klosjes.  This is the blog where I first read about this.  Who knew there were spools being made on Saturdays?

Mine were made in an airport, on a plane, and in a conference!  I will most likely stop when I have enough for a mini quilt.  Whenever that will be.  I don't want to give up too much stitching time right now for spool blocks.  Although, they will be a fun project to take to my little quilt group's once a month UFO night.

Design: Big Berry Scissor Companion Kit

Designer: Ewe & Eye & Friends

Floss: DMC included in kit

Fabric: 32 ct. included in kit

Started:  9/22/11

I also took a new stitching start with me in case I ran out of fabric scraps for the spools or just wanted to do something different.  I actually spent a good bit of time in the Philly airport working on this one.  It went fast since it's pretty much mindless fill work.  I actually got about half of it stitched!

This was one of those that haunted me until I went back to buy it at the LNS.  I've been itching to get going on it but made myself wait until I got my Lucet class piece stitched.  I'll bet telling you more about that soon.

Well that wraps up my grand adventure.  I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings.  Thanks to all who have left me comments.  They really do make my day.  Also, welcome to my new followers too!

The Inspired Stitcher

A special quilt presentation

Don Beld with one of his 9-11 quilts

Next up was a special presentation given by Home of the Brave Quilt Project founder Don Beld. The quilt project was started as Don's response to the tragedies of 9-11. He told us he felt this need to do something. Since he is a quilter, quilting seemed to be the logical choice. He has hand pieced over 2,300 quilts for the families of the fallen. I know there were several times during his talk that I had to choke back the tears. I was not alone. Here are some of the other quilts he shared with us as he told the stories of the families he has served.  He said this was the first time all of these quilts were hung in the same room together.

Don told us he wanted to make quilts that were big enough to use. He wanted the recipient to be able to wrap themselves up in it. I have to say that this man has a calling and a gift. His heart is bigger than the sky. It was an honor to hear this very special talk.

Today's post is a short one.  I'm still gathering my thoughts from a fun filled weekend.  I'll post more about that later.  I hope you all had a good weekend too.

The Inspired Stitcher

Seminar show & tell

Marcus Brothers fabrics

The first night of Seminar we all have a formal dinner together and listen to a keynote speaker.  These were the favors at each person's place setting.   I couldn't believe they were so generous!  I see the makings of a small quilt here.

After dinner and the speaker, we usually end the evening's festivities with Show & Tell.  You never know who is going to dig what out to share.  This year did not disappoint.

In my local quilt guild the ones that take your breath away or get the most gasps for air from the audience are know as "gasper quilts."  We saw several.  Here they are in no particular order.

Red and green pieced stars on pink backgrounds

Early 1800's Palampore

Just a quick note about palampore, a palampore is a hand printed cloth that was made in India for the export market during the eighteenth century and very early nineteenth century.  They usually feature a central tree design often referred to as a "tree of life."  You will usually also find various birds, vines, and flowers.  They are very hard to come by and are considered to be quite rare.  I will caution, during the 1960's these were cheaply reproduced for wall hangings.  Often they were sold on college campuses.  Buyer beware.

Mid 1800's pomegranate applique quilt

Medallion style quilt with "gasper" vine quilting

This quilt is an early medallion style quilt.  You may also hear this style called frame style.  This style of quilt design originates in Great Britain and is often found in New England.  This example has some wonderful quilting in it.  Definitely a "gasper" in my book.  If you want to learn more about this style go check out this website.

 Sunflower quilt

This quilt's block is called sunflower.  It is a variation on the Mariner's compass block.  This particular quilt is unusual in that it has a green background!  Oddly enough, this really is an old quilt.

Oak leaf and reel applique

The blocks in this quilt are known as oak leaf and reel.  What is special about this one is its borders.  They remind me of designs you would see in a woven coverlet.  The colors are similar to traditional coverlet colors too.

Applique with trapunto quilt

Close-up showing the trapunto relief

This one was really fun to look at close-up because of all the trapunto on it.  Here's a very good definition of trapunto from Wikipedia:

"Trapunto, from the Italian for "to embroider," is a method of quilting that is also called "stuffed technique." A puffy, decorative feature, trapunto utilizes at least two layers, the underside of which is slit and padded, producing a raised surface on the quilt."

As a side note, you will also find a stuffed work quilting tradition in Provence known as Boutis.  These quilts are traditionally worked as whole cloth in a solid color and most often white.  Their entire surface is stuffed not just individual motifs.

As you can tell from the pictures we saw some awesome quilts that night.  We Midwestern quilt historians often joke that in New England you can go to the corner store for a gallon of milk and an 1830's quilt.  Needless to say, we don't often find quilts that old just laying around here.

I hope you've enjoyed the show & tell quilts.  I always love seeing antique quilts up close and hearing the stories that go with them.

***

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll share more next week.  I'm hosting Jenny at my house all weekend.  We are going to the Lucet class with Sherri Jones tomorrow morning and then Jenny has the Hare Pyns class on Sunday.  I foresee lots of stitching, gabbing, eating, and staying up way later than we should.  I know we are going to have a ball.

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher

I'm back!

Hi all!  Did ya miss me?  I've been traveling again.  Can you guess where I've been?

Yep, it was so far away that an airplane took me there and then a rental car got me the rest of the way!

For my readers who are local, here's a really cool picture of the city as we took off.  I love how you can see the bridges, the Reds stadium and all of downtown.

It's no secret that I dearly love to fly.  I always look forward to the opportunity to pack a bag and head to the airport.  Although, I can not lie, I do get a bit of a knot in my stomach until we are up in the air.  I think it has to do with anxiety over going through security and all the possible things that could go wrong before you actually get up in the sky.  Ahh...but once I'm up there, I'm like a little kid peering out that window.  I just love it!

Here's where I spent the majority of my time.  It's the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  I attended the American Quilt Study Group's annual Seminar.  I've been a member of this group for many years.

This was not a quilt show.  It was a gathering of academics, historians, museum curators and quilt collectors/enthusiasts/dealers.  Here's an excerpt from our group's website telling you a bit about our mission:

The American Quilt Study Group establishes, sustains, and promotes the highest standards for quilt-related studies. We stimulate, nurture, and affirm engagement in quilt studies and provide opportunities for its dissemination.

As you can tell it's not your grandma's quilt get-together!  I always come home feeling like a saturated sponge from all the knowledge I gain from being there.  During the weekend there were research paper presentations, study centers, museum tours and tons of freely shared knowledge.  It is amazing event if you are into antique quilts and that sort of thing as I am!  You might even get to have dinner or a conversation with a quilter's rock star like Barbara Brackman or Marianne Fons.  Yes, they both were there!

***

When I got to the Philly/Cherry Hill area, I realized I'd totally packed the wrong clothes.  It had been cold and rainy around here for days so I packed warm clothes thinking it would be the same there.  Yes, I checked The Weather Channel's website before I left.  It was supposed to be the same kind of weather there.  Ummm...yeah right!

Well I took off in the rental car with the GPS (her name is Snagnes, short for snotty Agnes...those with a GPS will understand the snotty part) firmly attached to the windshield in search of 1) a cross stitch shop I'd found on the Internet and 2) possibly a place to buy a short sleeve shirt!

Let me just say, if you choose to go looking for a stitch shop you found online make sure you write down the phone number and maybe even call ahead.  Yep, you guessed it, I got to the address only to find the store was totally empty and a for sale sign greeted me in the window.  Yet another victim of today's sorry economy.  Dang!

Frugal Resale Shop

Not to be deterred, I decided to see if maybe they'd moved up the street somewhere.  Nope, nowhere to be found.  I learned this after popping into this cute resale shop called Frugal.  Since I never pass up an opportunity to shop, I had to peruse the store.  Besides, I was in search of a short sleeved top too.  I found a very cute owl necklace and a cute polka dot top so it was all good!

 I tried to get a good picture of the top but the camera wasn't having it tonight.

I loved that this shop is an economically and ecologically responsible business in that all the merchandise is donated and the proceeds go to a local charity.  If something doesn't sell after a certain time it is given to a shelter.  She had a lot of hand crafted gift items there too.  I love that!

The very nice owner let me know the stitch shop was indeed closed for good.  However, she told me there was a new quilt shop in the next block.  I headed up the street to find the quilt shop.  Well, I found it and it had closed a half hour before I got there.  Oh well, I guess it was just not meant to be.  So back to the hotel I went to get ready for the evening's festivities.

***

Bed turning

That evening we had our ice-breaker event.  It was a "bed turning" of quilts.  Actually, the quilts weren't on real "beds."  What we do is put a couple six foot tables together, cover them with a white table cloth and pile on the quilts.  Think "Princess and The Pea" style if you are familiar with the story.  There were eight or so different "beds" you could visit.  Each with quilts from a different local historical society.  Here are some of the lovelies that caught my eye.

Frame quilt

Lyre Quilt

Red, White, and Blue quilt

Red and Green applique quilt

Since this post is getting lengthy, I'll stop for now.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about my visit to the needlework exhibit at Winterthur and the cross stitch shop I did find thanks to the recommendation by Peggy Lee over at Kentucky Sampler.  This shop was definitely worth finding!

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher

Thoughts on creativity and skills

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

~ Ira Glass

I ran across this quote and it really got me to thinking about my early days of quilting.  I can remember having so many ideas and wanting to create so many awesome quilts only to realize I didn't yet have the skills to make them.

People often see one of my quilts and ask me "how long did it take you to make that?"  Lately, my answer is 25 years!  Yes, that's right, 25 years because that's how long I've been at this quilting thing.  It's taken me that many years to acquire the skills to be able to make the quilts I'm making now.

 My First Quilt

In the beginning my quilts were pretty crappy in comparison to the quilts I'm making now.  But you know what?  They were the best I could do at that point in time.  I kept taking classes, making quilts and going to guild meetings.  I kept learning and growing my skills.

One of my more recent quilts

You know what else?  I love each and every one of my quilts too.  They are a reflection of me.  The me then and the me I've become as a quilter today.

A work in progress on my design wall.

So my advice to you is don't give up.  If you get to a point in a project where you are totally frustrated, just bag it up and save it for later.  Whenever later might be.  It could be later this year or it could be years from now.

My point is the skills will come.  Like fine wine, they just need to ripen a bit.  You just have to be patient and persevere!

The Inspired Stitcher