"Stitched" Chosen for East Lansing Film Festival

 Stitched the film. Behind Every Stitch There is a Story!
 

stitched - Stitched Videos

For all my quilting friends in the greater Lansing area, let's go out and support this film at the East Lansing Film Festival. The film will be shown on Saturday, November 12 at 3:30pm in Wells Hall (on MSU Campus) and at 6:30pm on Tuesday, November 15 at Celebration! Cinema. The Film Festival has not updated it's website yet, but last year the price was $8.50 for Celebration! Cinema showings.Check their website, http://elff.com/ for updates.

The MSU Museum is sponsoring the film and has a limited number of tickets for sale. I'll have them at the Capitol City Quilt Guild meeting October 20.

Till next time......Happy Stitching

Check Out Our New Show Location – Grand Rapids, Michigan

The American Quilters Society is coming to Michigan. Here's a link to all the info. I'm going are you?

Check Out Our New Show Location – Grand Rapids, Michigan

My quilt "No But It's My Dog" was juried into the AQS show in Nashville in 2003.

And here's the dog in question, Mickey.

AQS Quilters Flash Mob Video

Now this a flash mob I could join.

AQS Quilters Flash Mob Video

New Sewing Toys

Last week I went to visit my sister in Oscoda. We did our own little fabric shop hop. I got lots of fat quarters and a few new toys too.

First is a new light for my sewing machine. I sew in my basement (or as I like to call it, the garden level) and it's hard to brighten all the shadows. I found this light at Delphine's quilt shop in Gaylord.

The light is battery operated and is on the end of a twisty coil (I'm sure the twisty coil has a real name, but I can't think of it). You can see the blue spot it creates on my throat plate.

From the back you can see how the coil wraps around the machine and what the light looks like. You can point it anywhere you want. The best thing is it cost $16. Most other lights like this cost $50 and are plug in.

 The next toy I found was at the Holly Hock Quilt Shop in Harrisville. It's a mini ironing board that clamps onto a shelf or table. I've clamped it on to my sewing cabinet.

My sister told me a 92 year old man in the area makes them. Boy, does he do a great job. It's easy to install and very sturdy and stable. I bought a hobby iron many years ago and never used it. Now it works great next to my machine. The iron gets very hot and does not have steam. It's great for small pieces and blocks. My current steam iron tends to chew up fabric in its steam holes. The best part, when I installed the ironing board and thought of my hobby iron, I actually remembered where I had put the iron years ago!

Here's a close-up of the ironing board.

I just love all the tools of sewing. I have tons of rules, scissors (all sizes), thread nippers, rotary cutters, and sewing baskets. The more the better.

Till next time......Happy Quilting!

Happening Right Now - Amish Quilts

The Flint Institute of Arts has Amish quilts on display through November 13, 2011. The quilts are from the private collection of Marsha and Tom French. The exhibit includes quilts from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Click here for more information. See this link for a Detroit News review.

This is one I've got to make sure and see.

Till next time.....Happy Quilting.

Announcing some new blogs

I want to announce three new blogs. Two I contribute to and one is from the always wonderful Barbara Brackman.

Barbara has decided to blog once a month about the War of 1812, since next year will be the 200 year anniversary of the event and many quilters are asking her advice while making commemorative quilts of the era. Barbara has named her new blog Quilt 1812: War and Piecing. Since one of my favorite books is War and Peace (about Napoleon's war with Russia from 1805-1815)I love the name of this blog. You can find it in my blog roll. She promised her first post today.

The other two blogs are part of a research project on quilts and health. For those of you who don't subscribe to the Quilt History List, her is the post researcher (and my boss) Marsha MacDowell wrote about it:
 

A multi-disciplinary cluster of individuals representing the Great Lakes Quilt Center (Michigan State University Museum), the MSU College of Human Medicine, and other university partners have begun to examine the intersection of quilts and quiltmaking and health. Although we have done literature searches, we have uncovered precious few academic or general articles related to quilts and health. We would greatly appreciate input from list members about any published -- or unpublished - research related to this topic. We are aware of the recent article by Jacqueline Atkinson in The Quilter (issue 127, summer 2011) and a few that relate to the NAMES Project quilt.  Given the thousands and thousands of quilts that have been made, historically and currently, that are tied to individual well-being, health, patient advocacy, fundraising, education, and memorializing or honoring loved ones, we thought there would be a stronger body of scientific literature from humanistic, social science, educational, and medical perspectives BUT we are not finding much. We welcome any assistance in identifying related research.

I'd like to invite everyone to subscribe to the blogs. The above description is a bit academic, but I know there are 10,000s of quilters across the world who make quilts to donate to children's hospitals, raffle or commemorate a loved one. We'd love to hear your stories and welcome your participation. 

The blogs are Quilts and Health and Native Healing Quilts. You can also find the blogs in my blog roll.

And now for a picture of a quilt, just to keep the post pretty!

This is an antique from my personal collection. I purchased
it on eBay. What attracted me was the huge baskets that even
though they were very large, there was no room for the fruit!
The fruit was embroidered outside the handles.

Till next time......Happy Quilting!

Why Quilts Matter

WooHoo! A nine part documentary on quiltmaking on PBS this fall. Check out their website http://www.whyquiltsmatter.org/welcome/. 

Thanks to my friend Phyllis for the link.

Till next time....Happy Quilting 

Merry Silber

Merry called this quilt Rose in the Window. It was made c1860
and was donated to the MSU Museum in 1995.

Merry Silber passed away on July 24, 2011. She was a great friend to the MSU Museum and the Great Lakes Quilt Center. Through the encouragement of her daughter, respected quilt dealer Julie Silber,  and the support of her husband Al, Merry began collecting quilts in the 1970s. Starting in the mid 1980s she began donating quilts to the MSU Museum. In all, she donated more than 35 quilts, tops, and pieces. You can see the collection at http://museum.msu.edu/glqc/collections_sample_silber.html. You can learn about her involvement with the MSU Museum at: http://museum.msu.edu/glqc/collections_special_silber.html. Her interest in quilts included judging shows, producing shows and appraising quilts. She encouraged quilt owners to document their quilts with the Michigan Quilt Project and was responsible for other quilts being donated to the MSU Museum. A few years ago, Merry was interviewed and filmed for the The Alliance for American Quilts, Quilt Treasures project. You can see her interview here: http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/treasures/main.php?id=5-16-B. 


I will miss Merry, but am happy I got to know her.

Till next time....Happy Quilting

Some nifty quilty services, free online!

 Have you run out of a fabric and just need a bit to finish the project? Try Find My Fabric. Upload a picture and this website will search a database of thousands of prints and help you find an online source for it, or a good substitute. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it sounds really cool.

To prevent fabric shortages, try this Free Online Fabric Calculator from QuiltsShops.com. It's rather simple, but if you want a rough idea of how much to buy before you hit the quilt shop, this will be helpful.

If you're a coupon fan you might try Quilter's Daily Special. It offers online coupons for participating quilt shops. Everyday a new offer. To get a sample of what they're up to go to the Quilter's Daily Special Blog.
 
Till next time....Happy Quilting

Cut GlassDish

I just saw a post on facebook where Mark French was asking the name of a pattern. I knew the name, since I made one for my next door neighbor's baby. He just turned 1 last month. Mark's post reminded me that I had never posted Isaak's quilt. So here it is, my version of the Cut Glass Dish.

Happy 4th of July.

Last night I went to my SIL's for a yummy Hawaiian barbecue and to view the fireworks over Sylvan Lake. It was fabulous! We walked from SIL's house down to the lake and shared the experience with her whole neighborhood. The beach was packed, boaters, kayakers, pontooners were on the lake and kids were in the water. It was a pure Michigan moment. And the fireworks were spectacular. The breeze off the
lake kept the mosquitos at bay. I didn't get a single bite, and I'm a notorious mosquito magnet.

To celebrate the holiday here's a quilt I made with my friend Norine for my Charm Quilts book. The shape is the braid and I love the way it tessellates. Norine has been having serious health problems lately, so I'm posting this with a little prayer for her.

 Since I've already seen fireworks this weekend I'll be spending my evening with a James Cagney double feature. Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Roaring Twenties.





It starts tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 8pm EST.

Till next time....Happy Quilting

Another UFO, the tale of many Lone Stars.

In 2001 I worked on the book Great Lakes, Great Quilts for the MSU Museum and C&T Publishing. It was my job, with my colleague Mary Worrall to reproduce 12 quilts from the collection and write the patterns, too. One of the quilts I reproduced was this Native American Lone Star from the Museum's collection.

Below is the reproduction quilt that I made (with fabulous machine quilting from Kari Ruedisale).

I strip pieced the diamonds and had extra left on each strip. I used them to make this little quilt. It measures 28" x 32".

 I still had more diamonds left so I put them together. Just last week I got the star out, added the setting triangles and rectangles to come up with this.

The center diamond is 36" x 36". I pinned it to my design wall to admire it and noticed I put one diamond in backwards. Now I don't believe in putting in a mistake on purpose to appease the quilt gods. I error all on my own. So I took it apart and fixed it. Another of my goals is to master my EQ7 program. I went to my computer, created the center lone star and played around with the borders. I came up with this.

This week I'm on vacation from work. I was going up North, but the weather is bad so DH decided to delay our trip one day. That gives me today to sew. I'm working on the corner blocks in the border. I'll post when the top is done.

So 10 years later, I'll get this project done. Did I mention, I'm only using fabric from my stash? Bonus.

Till next time....Happy Quilting