Davies Plantation Quilt Show

So this quilt show I went to last weekend was a lot different then I thought it’d be.  It was really pretty neat.  I don’t really know anything about the history of the Davies Manor, but it’s this really neat old house set off in a wooded area of town.  It’s on a bit of acreage, and there are several old buildings on the property too. 

This is the main house, and all the antique quilts in the show were displayed here.  But they also had a lot of neat old antiques around, and the house was all furnished like it might have been back when it was built.  I’ll show you some of my favorite quilts there, and you can see the neat furnishings too.

For all the tatters, here’s some antique shuttles on a very delicate tatted doily.

All these squares were about an inch.  I can’t imagine how much work that would be all by hand.

My grandma went with us and I think she really enjoyed it.  She liked seeing a lot of the stuff that she remembers from when she was little.  There were very ornate pee cans under the bed in this room.  My grandma said that’s why you don’t pronounce the nut ‘pee-cans’, they’re ‘pecans’.  She said a pee can is what you keep under the bed.  Words of wisdom.

This neat little sewing set up had a gorgeous old machine.  The papers there were set out to tell about old Singers, but I think it ruins the look a little bit.  The machine had gorgeous flowers painted on it.  Makes me want to paint some on my machine. 

This man was demonstrating how to cane a chair. 

And there was a woman demonstrating how to make bobbin lace.  All those sticks are called bobbins, and they’re weighted so that they stay where you put them.  It might be hard to see, but up on the roll are a bunch of straight pins stuck on a paper pattern.  She was weaving the different bobbins between the needles, and coming out with the lace edging you see on the left side.

My Mom said she didn’t realize ‘wonky’ was an old thing.  She thought it was a new idea.

Then there was this other building that had all the ‘contemporary’ quilts hanging in it, and a few vendors.  I apologize to this lady for putting her back end on the internet.  This is the building my 2 quilts were in.

This picture is a little blurry, but I really liked this quilt because of all the 3D stuff in the scenes.  It was a really cute version of sunbonnet sue.  And I’m just now noticing, as I look at the picture, that each scene is for a different month.  Now I like it even more!  How cute!

This quilt was impressive because all the veins on all the wings were stitched.  The wings are made out of solid fabrics, and the person went back and did all that. 

And I love selvedges, so these were 2 of my favorites.

And here are the 2 quilts that I entered:  the first is the Washington’s Cherry Wreath, and the second is the Chubby Chicks.  If you read my blog regularly they probably look very familiar

These are just a few of the one hundred eighty something quilts that were there.  It was a really neat show, and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Free motion quilting, you are a cruel mistress.  I spent 3 hours ripping all the messed up lines.  Not all the lines,  mind you, just the messed up ones.  I got down to just the fairly decent quilting left, which was about 1/3 of the quilt.  Because I’m stubborn, and I was tired of ripping, I decided to try just.one.more.time.  I redid everything I had already redone, and then…it worked.  I didn’t breathe.  I didn’t speak.  I didn’t want to break the spell.  It’s not perfect, mind you, but it’s acceptable.  Which is 3000x better than what it was.  Thank you to those that responded to my cry for help.  Those “I can feel your pain” comments really did make me feel better.  So now I just have to attach the binding, wash it, and see if I think it’s acceptable enough for a gift.

And please, if I ever talk about doing free motion again, somebody please just say, “Sadie, don’t be a hero”.  Or knock me over the head with something, either will work.

HELP!

I know I said I would post pictures of the quilt show today, but that’ll have to wait…

Freemotion quilting is the bane of my existence right now.  I’m at my wits end.  I’m about ready to hang up the rotary cutter and call it quits.  I started free-motioning the baby quilt.  It went really well for the first 1/4 of it.  I was using gutermann poly thread and it was great…until I ran out of thread.  So I put in guterman cotton and it all went to crap.  I started having skipped threads and it was looking awful.  So I quit for the night.  Today I went and picked up the same gutermann poly and it’s just getting worse.  Skipped stitches, frayed thread, I can’t figure out what’s going on.  I’ve done everything I can think of.  I changed the needle, took everything apart and cleaned it, changed threads. messed with the tension.  It’s a mess.  So now I don’t know what to do.  I can’t just quilt part of it free-motion but it’ll take me hours to rip everything that’s in it.  Does anyone know what to try to fix it?  Should I just rip it all and start over?  I’m almost to tears I’m so frustrated.  Please help.

Busy Bee

It looks like we’re going to have enough interest to do at least 1 or 2 groups of 9 people for the House Swap.  I’m going to get the details all together and then put up a details/official sign-up post in the next couple of weeks.  If you’ve already told me you’re interested, I’ll send you an email when the post is up.  Be thinking of what kind of block you want to make…some ideas are: house/cottage, quilt shop, barn, school, church, post office, playground, park, grocery store…anything you might find in a neighborhood.  Just remember, we’re going for lots of detail here.  There will only be 1 of each category for each group, and so we’re looking at probably only 2 people being able to make any of these categories.  It’ll be first come, first serve, so be thinking about what you’d like to make, but think of a second choice too.  And watch this space for more details…

I had a super productive second half of the week last week.

I started quilting the Halloween swap quilt.  A little late, I guess, but I prefer to think that it’s super early for next Halloween.  I don’t understand how I have as much arm jiggle as I do with as sore as I get wrangling these huge quilts through my machine.  When I was basting this one I finally decided that bigger is not better, and vowed to make my next few quilts small.

But it’s all done with the exception of whipstiching the binding.

On a post about thread recently, several people mentioned how much they love YLI thread, and I happened to see some in a store for the first time.  And wouldn’t you know, my machine hates it.  It’s really thick, though.  I wonder should I not have gotten ‘glazed’ cotton?  Is that the problem? 

I got my first Christmas gift bought and wrapped, along with a January birthday present.  And this is especially exciting because this particular person is one of the hardest I have to buy for, so I’m so glad to cross it off the list first.

I got this book on sale, but I haven’t had the time to open it yet, although I have flipped through it at a bookstore before.  Anyone read it? 

And in honor of making smaller quilts, I started on my very first baby quilt.  I have a shower this next weekend, and hadn’t even thought about making a gift until last week. 

It’s for a little girl who is going to have a lilac and sage nursery.  It’s in line to be quilted at the moment, but I’ll show the finished product as soon as it’s done.  The best thing about this project was that I made the entire top and binding from scraps I already had.  I only had to buy the backing and batt.  I did do a little ’shopping’ through my mom’s stash, but that doesn’t count.  I couldn’t believe what a difference it makes to baste something so much smaller than my last ones.  I could definitely get used to that.

And finally, I went to a fantastic quilt show, pictures tomorrow…

New Yawk

It’s getting closer.  Our big trip to New York will be here before I know it.  We picked up these maps at the store the other day.  (Yes, I’m a list girl and a map girl) No, we won’t be pulling them out in public view while on a NY city street.  If we get lost, I promise to go into a bathroom somewhere and pull out the map in the privacy of a toilet stall.  I don’t want to incur that famous NY rudeness by being ‘that’ tourist.  Besides, I think if you stop moving on the sidewalk, you get run over.  I don’t want to get run over.

The folded up map is of a bigger area, more of a general map.  But the map on the bottom lists where all the shops are!  I thought I’d show you a few highlights of where we’ll be, and where I hope to go visit.

Here’s our hotel, The Algonquin.  It’s on 44th, between 5th and 6th (I’m trying to practice the lingo…)

And the Majestic Theatre where all my dreams come true and I can die a happy and complete woman because I will have seen Phantom of the Opera.  Look, there’s Broadway!  The actual Broadway!

And just look at this little stretch of 5th Avenue.  My hubby wants to check out the Apple Store, and I want to see FAO Schwarz.  Which, by the way, I always thought was Schwartz.  But then keep walking, and look!  Louis Vuitton, and TIFFANYS!  And Burberry, Dior, Chanel.  I don’t think I could even step into those stores.  You know that scene in Pretty Woman, where the sales clerks won’t give Julia Roberts the time of day?  That’ll be me, except without the whole hooker thing. 

Now this little area might not look like much at first, but if you were standing there in the middle of the map, on 25th between 6th and 7th, you’d be standing here…

And I very much intend on standing there.  I was going to be good, and have this a quilt-free trip, but my Beloved Husband actually found this shop online and suggested we visit it.  (Everyone together now, Awwww!).  So you don’t have to tell me twice, I’m going to visit it alright.  And I’ll probably blow all my souvenir money here.  They have their own New York fabric that I think will be perfect for some kind of New York quilt to commemorate our trip.  I can’t believe they didn’t specifically put this place on the map.  I mean really.  They can put Tiffany’s on there but not the City Quilter?  Who’s writing this map?!

Then if I don’t spend all my money at the City Quilter, we’re going to go eat at Tavern on the Green.  I heard they have horse-drawn carriages that pick up outside the restaurant and go around Central Park.  That sounds like fun.  Do you think there are actual sheep in The Sheep Meadow?

Now, in my husband’s perfect world, we could do this…

But seeing as it’s not the baseball season, it’s not likely that’s going to happen.  We’d still like to visit the stadium though, but look…

It’s kind of ‘over the river and through the woods’ from where we’re going to be.  We’re going to be down in the bottom left part, and it’s waaaaay up in the top right.  I’m sure a cab is way out of our price range, seeing as how they seem to charge $10 a block, or something equally crazy.  The subway runs out there, but I don’t know how intensive of a trip that would be.

This is a bit overwhelming, and it’s just the midtown part.  Do you think the actual subway trains are color-coded to match their route?  That would be really helpful for me.  Maybe New York transit can work on that before I get there…

New Year House Swap

I have gotten the biggest kick out of seeing some of the house blocks that the ladies in my ‘Around the World’ quilting bee are making.  They’re fantastic!  So creative and so much detail.  Here’s some examples…

This one is by Tanya. 

This one was done by Flossyblossy.

This is Katy’s.

This one and the next one are by Anita.

So I was thinking a house swap would be really fun.  I don’t have a lot of specifics yet, but I think a whole neighborhood would be neat.  And these should be detailed houses, with neat extras.  I mean, don’t you just love the letters in that little mailbox?  (I like the vague, wonky, picasso-like houses also, but that’s not this swap). Perhaps each person could take a theme, like a house, barn, shop, church, post office, or something you’d find in a neighborhood.  Then make ‘houses’ that matched that theme.  There are lots of neat ideas on Flickr too(I saw a really cool lighthouse).  Maybe someone could do trees, or some other element you find in a neighborhood.  Maybe a park with slides and swings.

I want to keep this swap small.  I feel like everyone will have the energy to put more details into the houses if they don’t have a whole ton to make.  So it’ll probably be more of a wall hanging size than actual quilt size.  Maybe 9 people?  If a lot more people want to do this swap, I could just put people in groups of 9 and have several groups, like Jane’s swaps.  That way lots of people could participate, but then no one would have to make more than 9 blocks.  Everyone would just get their blocks done in a certain timeframe, (3-4 months?) mail them all to me, and then I would  mix them up and mail them back out.

I picture sashing in between that looks like streets.  Gray with a yellow dashed line in the center?  Something that looks like a gravel country road perhaps? 

So my question is, would you be interested in a house swap for sometime after the first of the year, and if so, what suggestions do you have?

The Sound of Quiet

It’s been so beautiful here this week.  It’s sunny and there’s a crisp breeze that lets us know fall is here.  I dropped a couple of quilts off for a show today, and it was in a really pretty area I hadn’t been in before.  Lots of historical homes on tree-lines streets.  Picture perfect.  The building the show is going to be in is a neat old wooden slat building, and they’re starting to get it set up on the inside.  It’s going to look so great when filled with quilts, so I’ll make sure to get some pictures for you this weekend.

On the property, there was this vine covered gazebo that was just the neatest thing.  This picture is standing inside of it and looking up.  The sun was peeking between the leaves and it was a perfect photo opportunity.  

Someday I’d love to live out somewhere like this.  There was no traffic noise, no city noise.  All you could hear was the wind rustling the leaves.  It reminded me of the verse, “Be still and know that I am God.”  I think everyone’s lives would be less stressful if they could live somewhere like this. 

Tune in tomorrow for an idea for a new swap for next year.  Something to have fun with after the holidays are over…

Accountability

I’m a list girl, I always have been.  I think it comes from the fear of forgetting something important.  If I don’t write things down, I spend so much energy trying to make sure I don’t forget, or feeling like I have forgotten something but not being able to figure out what it was.  So for me, writing things down provides some much needed peace of mind.  Having said all that, I’ve started a ‘projects’ tab at the top of my blog.  It’s pretty much just a list of all the projects I have going on, what stage they’re at, etc.  I have lots of little short to-do’s strewn around the sewing room, so I thought it would be good to combine them all into one.  And now they’re online, so you all can take a peek if you ever feel so inclined.  And if my overly long to-do list is online, maybe I’ll feel a little more motivation to get things done.  There’s nothing like having your dirty laundry aired publicly to make you clean up your act, right?

So to get me started off on the right foot, I finished this christmas gift quilt.  This peek is all I can give now, but after the recipient recepts it, I’ll show the whole thing.  The binding on this one went much quicker and was much less painful then past ones I’ve done.  I still hate doing the binding, but it’s a much less severe hate now.

Happy Halloween tomorrow.  I’m supposed to wear a costume to work, and I haven’t the slightest idea what to do.  AND, I’m supposed to take some halloween treats.  I guess I should get started on that…

Controversy

I’m finally to the quilting step of the quilt I’m making for a christmas gift.  I was originally going to do quilts for 2 people, but seeing as I’m moving at the speed of molasses on the first one, I’m guessing the second one will be for a Christmas gift next year.  Apparently, I’m quilting with both polyester and cotton.  I don’t remember if I knew that when I bought the thread or not, and I’m sure some of you are probably cringing right now.  I claim ignorance.  And yes, I’m quilting with Gutermann.  If I should know better, please educate me.  I don’t know what else to use, or where to get it.  And please don’t say Mettler.  Mettler and my machine are not friends.  Not even frenemies.  They flat out hate each other, and don’t care who knows it.  I try to stay out of the line of fire on that one…

I’m Running Out of Titles

Well I’m about 90% healed, and I’ve actually gotten a few things done.

Remember the awfully ugly, but hugely sentimental quilt I took a vote on recently?  About whether to leave it as is, or cut it up and sash it?  Most people said not to cut it, so I left it whole and tied it.  It was sort of a disaster, but it’s done.  The original construction, done circa 1997, was so horrible it was hard to salvage anything remotely correct about it. 

I understand the idea that it’s important to keep it intact, for all those reasons yall gave.  But to be honest, in hindsight, I wish I had cut it up into blocks, sashed it, and put it back together.  I think it could have made a neat looking quilt.  But, it’s all done, and that was my main goal.  Perhaps someday, far in the future, I’ll rip it all apart and do that, but for now, it’s crossed off the list.  I do have to say though, even though it’s really ugly, it’s the coziest quilt I’ve done so far.  I think it must be the tying that had that effect.  And I can cuddle up in it all the time, and not be afraid to spill anything on it.  I like that about it too. 

I got the binding stitched to the front of the chubby chicks quilt, and it’s off to my grandma’s to whipstitch it to the back.  Thanks grandma!  I forgot to take a picture of it, but I’ll put some up when I get it back.  I had pieced the back together in all the bright colors from the front, and it turned out pretty neat.  When I send it to Randi to long-arm, I have to add quite a few inches to all the edges so she can load it on her machine.  This time, I cut off those excess edges and turned it into binding.  Since it was already pieced from the back, it turned into a really cute, really quick, 430 inches of binding for some future brightly colored pieced quilt. 

I got a few more things done, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with my productiveness.   I’ll leave you with a picture of some cute Christmas fabric I got recently.  I’m slowly collecting some vintage looking christmas prints, and I just fell in love with these.