Indiana quilt

For our guild show, we collaborated on an Indiana quilt to celebrate 200 year anniversary. Here it is finished,The quilt was displayed for the first time at the quilt show. And it will be donated to the Historical society to be hung at the Seiberling Mansion museum. I t is a wonderful collection of quilter's ideas about Indiana. We didn't realize that there were so many block patterns named Indiana puzzle, and all different.

for the back

for my string saturday, I finished 40 neutral 5 inch squares for zuckerwatte ( Bonnie Hunter pattern )

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oh scrap
I may have a scrap problem 

Indiana quilt

Indiana is celebrating it's bicentennial year. Our guild has been working on a quilt to donate to our historical museum.

We decided to do fall colors because that is a beautiful time in all parts of Indiana. My block is to the right of the tomato. called Indiana puzzle. But there are several quilt blocks with that name, some represented here. how exciting to see it coming together.

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Kirklin

Over the weekend, we found a quaint little town promoting fall and antique shops. We love digging around in antique shops, even though we really can't afford the real deals. But we love seeing new to us stuff. It's a bit like visiting a museum without an entrance fee. This spot in Indiana is Kirklin and it became a town in 1900. One of the antique stores is actually in an old bank building with one of the rooms inside the vault. The streets were pumpkin, haybale,gourd, and mum..ified  LOL

My pictures don't do it justice.

 

I loved looking at old quilts - these were my favorites 

 

Both were over $300.00 which is way too much in this economy. Lovely work.

My quilting involved working on Kaleidoscope blocks from my Mary Huey workshop- more here. I am making 40 blocks of light in the corner.

 

I have tried several options for pressing and nesting the center, so far this is the one I like the best and gives a flatter seam. I am doing most of the piecing on my featherweight.

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Final Fabric - Marie Webster

I have been so anxious to start my Marie Webster quilt, since purchasing the quiltsmart kit at a shop hop. I have been waiting for a fabric piece that I had to order online. I couldn't find a big enough piece in my local stores.

But it has arrived and I am excited to try this. It means something to my Hoosier heritage, and I have never tried quiltsmart before to know if I can even understand the instructions, I will persevere.

Marie Webster's quilts have been favorites of quiltmakers ever since they were published over 80 years ago, and all quiltmakers owe her a debt. Her designs... sparked a revolution in quilt design on the heels of the arts and crafts movement and the colonial revival, which emphasized the return to simpler traditions and handmade objects. Webster's quilts, the first to be published in color in Ladies Home Journal, were based on floral patterns which 'revitalized the art of applique with fresh new forms and a palette of pastel colors that would become the hallmark of American quilts in the 1920s and '30s.'

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Finished or Not Friday party
and even though it just started

Elizabeth Burns the blind quilter

Our quilt guild invited Elizabeth Burns to be our August speaker. Her presentation was extremely inspiring. She shared with us her tragedy and how she became a quilter. She completely lost her sight, and almost her life in a car accident when she was 29.

See the stack of quilts on the table behind her? She has them all organized and each one is lovely. She even showed us how she threads a needle. Her blindness is complete. She says she only sees black without shadows or glimmer. But she still sees color in her head and plans what she is going to do.

When she made her first quilt, a nine patch block, she didn't even own a sewing machine. She has a very supportive husband, and they married after her accident. He cuts for her, and lays piles out for her, and helps her select fabric.  When she would run into a roadblock, they would work to find a solution.

My pictures of her quilts were afterthoughts, as I was mesmerized by her story. I was often emotional, as I realized how very hard she has worked and how difficult a journey it has been. And that as we watch each quilt unfolded, and see the colors and the pieces, I was struck with the idea that she has never seen any of them and will not in this life.

But isn't that the heart of a quilter - to make beauty with our hearts and then send t out into the world to maybe lift another?

She had a great sense of humor as well. When her husband saw this quilt ( 1 inch squares) he said that if she wasn't blind already she would be after this quilt.

"The next time that you see a really beautiful quilt, I would like for you to say to yourself, 'I can make that.' What I would like for you to say to yourself is, 'Oh good grief, if a blind woman can do it, I know I can,'"
Here is more of her story

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oh scrap

Shop Hop

Every July, We have a shop hop in Kokomo with many vendors in one convenient place sponsored by Nancy J's quilt shop. I look forward to it every year, although, I do try to talk myself out of going. I don't need anything, I have too much, I don't need to spend the money........ It doesn't work and I go. But I have so much fun. I see so many people I know from our guild, and it feels like young girls conspiring to create great things.

 

My big purchase was a quiltsmart pattern for the Marie Webster quilt, American Beauty Rose. I was born in Marion, In., and love this  piece of quilt history. But I have never used quiltsmart for a quilt. I have made the mondo bag. The vendor made it sound so easy.... sigh

Indiana celebrates 200 years

Our guild is making a quilt to be donated to a local museum to celebrate Indiana's 200th birthday. Each of us will make a 9 inch finished block in fall colors, and then the quilt will be made using the blocks. We were free to choose our own design. I didn't get very creative and used the pattern Indiana puzzle for mine. I am sure there will be be some very creative blocks from our talented quilters, and mine will be needed for visual rest.

Here is the pattern available in 6, 9, 12 inches. I was surprised at how many different Indiana puzzle quilt blocks I found during research.

My Grandmother, Florence Swank Hollister, made this block in red and cream in the early 1900s. I feel very honored to be it's custodian.