Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Two years ago, when I was the program chair for our Little Balkan's Quilt Guild I was excited to discover a quilter named Carlene Buck who made such intriguing and imaginative quilts.  I booked her for a trunk show in August 2009. Unfortunately Carlene got sick and had to cancel.  And since programs are pretty much booked a year in advance it wasn't until this month that we were able to reschedule Carlene.

But, WOW!  I knew I'd love her quilts and the stories behind them, but they surpassed my expectations.  What a wonderful night we had. You can visit Carlene on her website, Quiltbabble to learn more of the stories behind some of her quilts. 

Two quilts in paricular were the reason I first became interested in meeting Carlene.

Armistice..Mom I'm Home


The back..mom with open arms


This is Carlene's quilt representing the soldiers returning from the Vietnam war.  Some returned whole..others were missing pieces of themselves...and some didn't return at all.  Mothers welcomed their sons home with prayers that this would never happen again  (and unfortunately of course it has).

Another of Carlene's quilts is truly a masterpiece.
Holocaust: A Hate Movement

This is the explanation sheet Carlene passed out as she talked about her quilt

Holocaust:  A Hate Movement 

Carlene Buck visited Israel in 1992 with her church group from the Des Plaines First United Methodist Church,

Des Plaines, Illinois.    

At the encouragement of a Jewish friend,

she requested the guide take them to Yad Vashem,

Israel’s Holocaust Museum located near Jerusalem.

Carlene was very touched by the sculptures,

photos, documents and exhibits. 

She knew God wanted her to make a quilt about the Holocaust and later visited the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D. C.

All details (blocks titles, layout, colors, fabrics, quilting design, wording on blocks, etc.) were inspired by God.

She chose the block names from Barbara Brachman’s

Encyclopedia of Pieced Blocks.   

The top border fabric represents ashes blowing in the sky. 

The bottom border represents ashes in the furnaces. 

The right border represents small tendrils of life growing from the ashes.

The hand quilting reflects the barbed wire fences in the camps. 

The bright pastel print fabrics of the 1920’s and 1930’s

(on the left side of the quilt)

 suggest life before the Nazi Party took control. 

The solid colored fabrics depict the loss of joy

and the struggle to survive. 

Black represents hate, red represents loss of life, orange fear, and brown the Nazi uniforms. 

 

Blocks which have been pieced backwards

(with seam allowances on the surface of the quilt)

have the opposite meaning of the historical block name. 

[Like Peaceful Hours and  Peace and Plenty]

You can view a slideshow of the photos I took that night on my photobucket site
click here

Please don't miss the opportunity to see Carlene's quilts in person if you get the chance! 

The Gentlemen Quilters From Tulsa

Monday afternoon I had a great time in workshop taught by Gary Wasson and Joe Galusha, aka The Gentlemen Quilters from Tulsa, OK.  We all COMPLETED a wallhanging using their EZ Circles technique.  While not an entirely new technique to me, they do use a slightly different method to achieve PERFECT circles with no sewing (3 different type glues were used).

Step one

Ready to apply to background fabric

The wallhangings required 4 circle blocks which took an hour or less to make

Three of them were sliced to make this 9-patch

 And  about 2 to 2 1/2 hours later we all had wallhangings made.

In the evening Gary and Joe gave a wonderful trunkshow which you can view here

I hope you enjoy!

Two Beautiful Souls

Monday was a really special day. I spent the morning and afternoon in a workshop taught by these lovely ladies

Teresa Sherling and Barbara McCraw make up B&T Studios in Denton, Texas. We spent the day learning to make dimensional flowers like these

to ultimately make this

Kansas wallhanging designed specially for our workshop.

We had so much fun.  Teresa and Barb's style of teaching is relaxed, fun and effective. 

And the day just got better.   Both of these gals are Master Quilters.  Barbara has had quilts juried into both U.S. and international shows and has received numerous awards and accolades for her artistic quilts.  Teresa is also an award winning quilter.  Visit both of their websites to learn more about them and see examples of their amazing work.

Of course I took pictures and with their permission I will share those with you.  But first let me tell you how very much I enjoyed spending the day with these two quilters. The title of their trunk show was "Two Visions, One Soul". I've met a lot of really nice people since I took up this quilting obsession.  But I doubt I have ever met more talented, funny, sweet and gracious ladies.  It is so obvious that they love each other and love working together.  When they first met they soon realized that while they had each made many of the same quilts or quilt patterns, they each had a different approach when it came to both color choices and process.  Their trunk show showed these contrasts.  I will never forget how these two ladies touched my heart and I can't recommend them too highly for your guild.

As has been the case lately..I'm not up to fighting Blogger's whims  so I'll just give a link to my Photobucket slideshow of their beautiful quilts. 

Click on this link to view the slideshow

 

Jukebox Quilts

Monday, Tom and I had the privilege of scribing and assisting with the judging of the entries for our Town and Country Quilt Guild's (Joplin, MO) upcoming quilt show.


Kelly Gallagher-Abbott of Jukebox Quilts in Ft. Collins, CO was the judge.
If you have never had the opportunity to witness judging, consider doing so if you get the chance. It is such a wonderful learning experience.

Yesterday we drove back to Joplin to attend the guild meeting. Kelly gave one of the most fantastic trunk show I've seen. Her whimsical quilt patterns and phenominal machine quilting are a joy to see. Anyone that has been quilting for even a short time has no doubt seen many of her patterns such as Male Bonding:

There is a lot to see and learn on the Jukebox website, including some free patterns, so be sure to check it out.

With Kelly's permission, set back and enjoy. View her trunk show here

Blogger is still giving me fits when I try to post a slideshow from Photobucket. The only way I can get it to work correctly today is to give you a link.)

Tile Quilts

Monday night I had a great time learning about a style of quilts that were new to me.  Carol Gilham Jones presented a program and  trunk show on tile quilts.  It was not at all what I expected.  It turns out a tile quilts is a relatively rare form of quilt possibly related to crazy quilts.  Carol explains them on her blog  and Barabara Brackman has an excellent post with even more links to historical tile quilts on her blog in this post.

It was fascinating to learn about this rare old quilting form and to see this amazing piece from the 1800's

And it was exciting to see how Carol has taken this style into the 21st century.  

(Okay..I give up trying to post another slideshow. If I let Photobucket post it directly it shows up..sometimes...If I then try to add comments or if I try to get the code and post it myself..problems.  Since there aren't that many pictures..I'm just going to post them individually).

Carol's quilts are so creative and colorful.  I enjoyed her show very much. She has a book out called "Tile Quilt Revival" and it's available on her blog.

I may have to try my hand at one of these when I can find some time.

Mary

Try, Try Again

Sometimes you have to find an alternate way to do things to solve a problem.  I still don't understand why the slideshow in my first post is working for some and not for others; working for me when I preview it but not after I post it. 

But I found a work around and I hope everyone can view it this time.

In The Style of Freddy Moran

Last Tuesday Tom and I attended a meeting of the Joplin Town and Country Quilters. Linda Jenkins of Owasso, OK presented a wonderful trunk show that she calls "In the Style of Freddy Moran".  Linda started quilting after taking a class with her daughter not that long ago. 

Shortly thereafter she took another class from Freddy Moran who is known for her fun style of design and exuberant use of colors.  The rest, as they say, is history, and Linda has been turning out  bright and beautiful quilts in Freddy's style ever since.  She has also become close friends with Freddy and has taken many cruises and workshops with her.

This quilt, made by Freddy and quilted by Kathy Sandbach, was presented to Linda when she moved into her new home in OK.
I hope you'll enjoy this slideshow of Linda's quilts

I do not know why this slideshow is not working. When I preview my post it works fine, but after I actually post it, it doesn't work. You can, however click on the "view all" that is showing and it will direct you to my Photobucket album that has all of the pictures of Linda's trunk show. At some point I hope I can figure out what the problem is.

Edit later:  The slideshow seems to work for some and not others (including me).  I'm guessing it has something to do with individual browsers and internet settings although slideshows in earlier posts are working.  Some are..some aren't and I'm not bright enough to figure out the difference.

Encore Viewing

Last night I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see some of Nancy Swanwick's beautiful quilts again.  I posted about them last year when she had a private show in Fort Scott.  Nancy has an amazing gift of color and design and I wish every one of you could see her quilts in person.  On top of that, she is the kind of speaker you could listen to for hours.

I didn't take a lot of pictures last night since I took all of them last year.  But  I had to snap one of my favorite quilt

1/2" finished logs!  Unbelievable!!!!

Her "retirement" quilt (she's ending her teaching career this year).  The little blocks inside the school houses are 3".

And a couple with a Civil War feel to them which of course always appeal to me.

The quilt above is the Wild Goose Chase quilt I missed getting a picture of last year.  It's story is told in those posts (link below).

Now that I've whetted your appetite, it would be a good time for you to review the posts from last April and see more of her quilts.  You can view all there of them together here.

Thank you, Nancy for another fantastic show. 

Kansas Troubles

Monday night our guild had the pleasure of viewing a trunk show by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilts. It was wonderful! So many pretty quilts and so much inspiration. Lynne is an excellent speaker and very funny at times.  Many, if not most of the quilts, feature Lynne's trademark raw edge applique. I'm sorry I had to miss the workshop earlier in the day when the participants made quick and easy table runners using this method.

You can see all of the pictures I took here. 

Lynne also has a blog that you might want to add to your list if you aren't already  reading it.

I apologize for the terseness of this post but I've been battling an intermittent connection problem all week and I'm hoping to get this posted before I get booted offline again.  AT&T finally showed up today only to announce they could find nothing wrong. Of course for that MOMENT things were working.  We'll see.  If problems persist I think it is time to say goodbye to AT&T and hello to Cox.

BTW..I started quilting on Dutch Treat #2 Sunday night and have one row and 2 blocks in the second row quilted!

Toby Lischko

One of the advantages of belonging to a quilt guild is the opportunity to see quilts made by famous quilters up close and personal. Toby Lischko visited our guild Monday night and brought along many of her wonderful miniature quilts, as well as several large quilts.

I first learned about Toby in Miniature Quilts Magazine which remains one of my favorite publications. Unfortunately it is no longer being published and I really, really miss it.   She's been quilting since 1985 and has a fantastic sense of color and design.

I took lots of pictures during her lecture and trunk show,  but the photos you can find in her gallery  are far superior to the ones I took. Be sure and check them out. She brought most of these quilts Monday night. The quilting community contains so much talent and inspiration and Toby is a prime example.  You can't go wrong in booking her for your guild.

Here's just one of her gorgeous quilts:

Monday night was also the time for turning in our guild challenge projects for the current year.  This year's challenge was to "repurpose" something.  We were to take a picture of an old object, then use it to make something else.  What was acceptable was really wide open..the items didn't need to be quilted, just a reuse of something. 

This resulted in some interesting entries.  One person used old nylon hose to make a rug.  Another felted the wool from old sweaters and made flowers.  This was the first year I didn't get an entry made.  Just too much going on in the last couple of months (no excuse for why I didn't get it done as soon as it was announced at the beginning of the year). 

The guild members voted on their favorite entry and prizes were given to the top five or six entries.  This is the project that got the most votes:

Arlinda made a quilt from several old kimonos. 

And this is the back of the quilt

Debbie made this great jacket from an old "cutter" quilt

There were so many creative repurposed projects and it was a great idea!  Thanks  Debbie for leading us along the path of going green!

Lastly..is anyone besides me having major problems uploading pictures using Blogger In Draft?  I finally gave up today and have gone back to regular Blogger.  And I will no longer have to fight the alignment issues either!