Stars and Stripes and Learning to Applique

Managed to finish this in time for Memorial Day so it now hangs on my wall - where it will remain until the 4th of July -- in rememberance of all the things we should be grateful that we have. I got a little carried away with the quilting ... which is why it took me almost a year to complete.

Hope everyone had a pleasant Memorial Day ....

Some of us have been talking about quilting and how different it is today. I wonder did anyone out there learn to applique the same way I did? The challenges were numerous for 10 year olds and I'm amazed anyone did applique after that!

I learned to applique in school in 1956. We had a teacher who was in her 60's and believed every child should know how to sew, applique, mend, darn, etc. She also believed it helped with eye/hand coordination (boy did it!) and patience.

We were given coloring books and told to pick out a picture of something we really liked. Because the pictures were fairly simple the teacher was able to easily show us how to identify the component pieces - usually there were only 3 or 4.

We copied the entire picture onto a piece of tracing paper and set that aside. Then we traced each individual piece using more tracing paper.

Using the old childrens scissors with rounded points - and I'm not sure how we managed this - we cut out the individual pieces from the tracing paper. The individual pieces were glued it onto heavy cardboard.

We picked out fabric we liked or thought would work from the "scrap bag" which mostly consisted of old clothes (gave some interesting features to some of the appliques) and carefully drew around each individual cardboard shape onto the fabric. There were no "marking pens" or felt tipped markers, we're talking pens and pencils here. If it was a dark fabric the teacher had small scrap pieces from bars of soap that really worked well even if it did make thick lines.

Trying to find a large enough piece of fabric for the background was a challenge and sometimes "teach" had to machine sew pieces together for us - but we needed that background.

Not done yet -- to the windows with tape, we traced the entire picture onto the background fabric of choice.

We finally got to sew!!! Carefully (a 10 year old's definition of that word is a bit different from an adult's) we pinned the pieces onto the background fabric, basted them down and began learning that the hard part of this process was yet to come. I think a lot of those children unintentionally learned how to do 3-D applique simply by pulling too tight on the thread or not keeping the smaller piece flat enough. Many times the applique stitches were just as large as the basting stitches - but everyone of us did finish!! We had striped horses and checked pigs along with floral houses but we were all proud of our accomplishment!

And some of us actually continue to do applique today!

Happy Summer to one and all ....

Geri

What does a quilt really mean to someone…..

Quilts mean different things to different people. The designer, the quilter, the receiver – they all have a different feeling of satisfaction over the pattern, the workmanship, the design, the colors, etc. This is a story about what one quilt means to me.

My DH and I were scheduled to take a Hawaiian cruise and I knew we would be 3 days at sea once we left the mainland until we landed. Because of allergies I would be spending most of the daytime inside. I would need a fairly large project to fill ALL that time.

I had told an acquaintance I would make a quilt for her and what a great time to work on it. This is originally a paper pieced pattern from Jennifer Chiaverini. Since I’m a hand piecer I cut out all the strips, packed everything I needed and off I went – oh, I remembered some clothes too.

During the 3 days I pieced the entire center medallion of the quilt!

When we were landing my DH said, “Well, you’ve spent all this time working on quilting but now it’s time to forget about quilting and enjoy the vacation.” I agreed and we happily left the ship.

In the welcoming structure all the walls were covered with Hawaiian quilts – it was one of many shows / displays we would encounter. DH resigned himself to a bit of a different vacation than he envisioned.

– This cruise took place one year after 9/11. After the initial shock of that tragedy, people were organizing drop points for quilts to be “donated” to the survivors or to the families of people who had not survived. Since I knew if I hand pieced and quilt something I would never have it ready in time so I turned out 2 paper pieced quilts in record time, had them machine quilted (the dear long armer was so understanding and moved me to the top of her list) and sent them off without another thought.

While on the cruise I was sitting in one of the public areas working on my piece when a woman approached and said “It was you!”

This lady then explained – she thought faith had brought her on the same cruise with the woman who had made the 9/11 quilt she received. She had lost a son and about 2 weeks afterwards she got a package with the simple explanation that her loss was enormous but someone wanted to let her know she wasn’t alone during these trying times.

She was so moved by this gesture she couldn’t put it in words but simply said that quilt got her through one of the worst periods of her life. She would bury herself in it and felt that someone cared enough to understand and offer her some comfort. She told me she would keep this quilt and cherish it for as long as she lived. That quilt meant so much to the family that her other children would fight to sit under it when they came over.

Because the quilt was not signed, this lady was sad she couldn’t contact the quiltmaker to thank her and tell her what the quilt meant. When she saw me working on a quilt she believed it was a miracle and thought she actually came face to face with the maker. I promised her I would publish this story whenever I could so whoever the quiltmaker was – and the other hundred or so who made and sent quilts – would know what those quilts mean to the people who received them.

It’s taken me a long time of working on that quilt – little by little – over the years but it’s almost finished now. I have since lost contact with the person the quilt was originally for and now have to decide what to do with it.

Thinking about the things this quilt has seen and heard with me and the emotions it invokes when I think about them, maybe, just maybe I’ll just keep it until I hear of someone somewhere needing some comfort….but I don’t think I’ll sign it either. ....

Keep Stitchin'

Geri

Last night was our Applique Group meeting at the Quilted Pearl in Columbia. Everyone was working on setting up things so there are no pictures – sorry 'bout that.

But, more than expected showed up including a newbie quilter who was recently transplanted here from California. We say WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! By all conversations it sure sounds like she will be joining the land of Stashes and UFO's.

We also got our Chocolate Fix with Homemade Fudge made by one of the ladies -- it was GOOD!

Since there were no pictures from last night I'm adding a finished project of my own that was great fun to do. Since I come from the North – well, not THAT far North – this guy reminds me a little bit of some people I knew …. You know the "deer in the headlights" look. He now hangs on the wall by my DH's desk to keep an eye on him.

The flowers stand away and are held in place with 3 French Knots each. It's a technique I learned doing a quilt by Joan Shay.

http://petalplay.com/eshop/

Her quilts are easy but turn out beautiful! I did the Geraniums and bought the Hummingbird when I was in Paducah. I love hummingbirds and just hope I can find the right fabric to do it justice.

Keep Stitchin'

Geri

Applique Group

I'm so excited -- because the third Tuesday of the month is coming up! It took so long to find a group of people who love applique but find them I did! There's a group of us who meet at The Quilted Pearl in Columbia on the 3rd Tuesday and we're all appliquers!! This is my "fix" and I need one right about now.

I've only got one thing I'm appliqueing and it's almost finished I'm working on two hand pieced quilts but all my applique is waiting to be quilted. I need some inspiration and this is the group to do it!

I'll try to get some pictures to publish but for now I just had to YELL in happiness!!

Look for more later,

Geri