We Still Quilt

Not as much as we used to but our community still comes together now and then to produce a quilt. This beauty was designed and facilitated by a friend of mine whose first grandchild is on the way. Folks were asked to embroider their name on a strip of red fabric--all of which were put together to make a lovely inner border. A few people sewed together the sailboat blocks, the grandma-to-be put the top together and a few more folks did the quilting.

The sister of the mama-to-be arranged for a baby shower at which the quilt was presented. I remember a similar shower, about forty years ago (really, could it have been that long?)  when the community presented a quilt to this same sister, who was a new-born at the time.

Ay law. Hit don't seem possible.

 

We Still Quilt

Though the pace of quilting has slowed in our community, recently we made two baby quilts for new arrivals. 

Baby Henry's daddy Logan is the son of Libby(now departed, alas) who was one of the mainstays of our community, especially in quilting.

And Baby Zeno's mama Anna is the daughter of the same woman. Anna was also the recipient of one of our first baby quilts.

Both quilts were co-organized by their sister Jennifer  -- who has inherited her mother's talent for quilting -- 

and by Peggy -- who's been a part of our community quilting from the beginning..

The shower was like a  noisy homecoming -- many of our long time quilters, and, in some cases, their, husbands, children, and grandchildren as well.

There were presents for the babies, of course. 

And the last (not exactly unexpected though we always try to keep it secret) package is the quilt, made by loving hands.

It's a big moment too for all who worked on the quilt and may not have seen the finished product.

..

Zeno's quilt depicts his mother's farm -- her dad took pictures of the different features and the quilters each tried to reproduce in fabric and thread the different areas. And then Jennifer and Peggy pieced it all together.

Zeno slept through most of the party. There were plenty of aunties, honorary and otherwise, eager to hold him.

Henry stuck with mama.

Later, Zeno's quilt was hung in a separate room so it could be viewed up close.

The farm and the road connecting house, barn, and yurt . . .

The stream and the rustic bridge . . .

The beagle . . .

Goats . . .

The sign on the barn . . .

The yurt -- used as an Airbnb . . .

Ducks . . .

The house . . .

A gate . . .

Baby Henry's quilt was a traditional design in beautiful soft colors with a pop of red. 

Such a joyful occasion -- so full of memories and so good to see the tradition going on. 

The Next Generation

This picture warmed my heart. On top of her nursing job and her mama-to-Josie job, Claui found time to organize a baby quilt for a friend in Kentucky. Various friends created squares and Claui put the quilt together and quilted it. Then drove to Kentucky where other friends had gathered for a shower for the new baby. 

The next generation is carrying on the tradition my friend Karol and I wrote about.

Here's another Claui did a few years back.

And these two I organized for my niece's babies; Claui and her friends did squares.

The beat goes on!

Some Quilts

Around the Road

On Monday I went around the mountain to a friend's house to do some quilting.  This quilt has been in the works as a gift for a member of our community for an embarrassingly long time and I was happy to help.

That's the lower part of our farm seen from across the hard road and up a bit. . .

And this is down the road a bit . . .

The road around the mountain is quiet and curving . . .

Appropriately enough, my friend's barn is decorated with a quilt square.

There were three of us there to work on the quilt and we got a good bit done. My quilting skills, such as they ever were, have deteriorated badly for lack of practice but it was a pleasant day, catching up with news. Can one of our long time friends, a woman I met when she was pregnant with her first child, actually be a great grandmother? Good grief!

I was the first to leave as my back was starting with that ominous twinge it gets nowadays  . . . 

One never wants to leave a quilting party because you know that then you'll be the topic of conversation. I imagine my friends  noting how much older I seemed and how hard of hearing . . .

I just hope they did't look at my quilting stitches.

The Quilt Story

At last -- the story of the quilt that occupied much of my mind and time ever since last August.  The full story and lots of pictures are in a web album  HERE  -- this is the brief version.

Work on the 80 Log Cabin squares began last August -- and all this while I was warning everyone that this had to be a secret -- no talking about the quilt around Justin and Claui.

 

 About half the squares were done and then came my knee surgery. It was almost two months before I could climb the stairs again and get to my sewing machine but at last, in February, the top was complete and on the quilting frame.  The final bit of quilting -- tiny hearts in the little red squares -- was done off the frame.

And all that secrecy I was carrying on about?  A few weeks before the wedding, I forwarded an email to Claui about all of us having dinner at a friend's house -- totally overlooking that at the end of the email,  the friend had asked how the quilt was coming. . .

Oh, well, given our community history of presenting quilts at weddings, I suspect the only possible surprise would have been if they hadn't received one. 

As I said, the full story is HERE. 

Community Quilts -- The Book

Several of you have asked about my previous gig as co-author of quilt books. I mentioned it back in my November 1 post and I've mentioned in my bio on my website but, what the heck, here I go again. (Not that it'll do me any monetary good as the book is out of print and the only copies available are remainders and used copies on Amazon.)

The book was written under my married name, as you can see on the cover. (The suggestion to use my maiden name for the mysteries was my editor's. ("Middle of the shelf. middle of the bookstore," said she.)

But how'd I come to write a quilting book?

Well, when we moved to the mountains and began to make friends with other newly arrived back-to-the-landers, sooner or later we found that we had become a community. When the first wedding was announced, several of us decided to make a quilt for the couple and have a quilting bee because that fit in with our idea of life in the country. We made a gorgeous quilt and from then on we were hooked. There were lots of baby quilts, more wedding quilts, some friendship quilts, and a few going away quilts. The blue and purple beauty below (the pattern is Sister's Choice) was given to John and me for our anniversary.

Years passed-- around twenty of them. Suddenly we had a body of work -- about fifty quilts, ranging from very simple to very ambitious. We were given a show at the Folk Art Center in Asheville and more than one person at that show suggested that a book should be done to document our work.

And so, knowing nothing about writing a book but thinking this might be worth a try, my friend Karol and I gave it a shot. We decided to showcase each quilt and give a brief history of how it came to be made, along with quotes from the recipients and the makers.

We also decided to have a section detailing the process of planning and organizing a community quilt -- something we'd each had a lot of practice in over the years. (It's not easy, working with all levels of skill and dedication.) And there would be a section of the basics of quilt-making, along with some patterns.

Our book proposal was accepted by Lark Press -- a well-known publisher of crafts books --and we had the guidance of an editor as we worked to flesh out our bare-bones synopsis.

I'm very proud of this book -- The quilts are the stars and pretty much speak for themselves but I think we did a good job explaining the process. The layout and the photography (Lark's professional -- not mine) is outstanding. (Many of the 'beauty shots' were done at our farm -- another reason I really like the photos.) The book was distributed through a crafts book club, as well as book stores.

Karol and I went on to do another book for Lark on weekend quilting projects and after that I turned to a life of crime and craziness in (fictional ) Appalachia.

But I probably wouldn't have learned to use a computer had I not been forced to for the quilting books. And I wouldn't have signed up for the "Writing Fiction That Sells" class, out of which came Elizabeth Goodweather, had I not already gotten a taste of the intangible joys of being an author.

It's all connected.


Maybe this would be a good time to do a drawing for a copy of this book. If you'd like in, leave a comment saying so (only one per reader this time). I'll close the contest on April 30 at 9 PM e.s.t. and announce the winner May 1.