Music, Food, and Quilts

Cajun cooking, jazz music, Mardi Gras parties, with all that going for it Louisiana must have quilts. They do, quilt guilds across the state, at least one show each year, and they have their own block.

The Louisiana quilt block is a patchwork block of flying geese set in a pin wheel design.

The Louisiana Quilt Block, image from ideas-for-quilting.com/images

According to Quilter’s Resource there are two major quilt shows in Louisiana, and I’ve missed both of them this year. That’s ok though, that just gives me more time to plan on visiting.

The first show, presented by the North Louisiana Quilters Guild is a biannual event. That gives me a whole year to plan that visit. Their next show will be in February 2015.

The second show, sponsored by The Gulf States Quilting Association, is an annual event. Held in Slidell Louisiana , one of the towns  affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they have a wide array of teachers, vendors and I’m sure quilts. This one is definitely going on my quilt tour list.

Have you ever been to Louisiana? If so what was your favorite thing to do or see?

Are you from Louisiana? Do you know of other quilt shows?

Have you made a quilt using the Louisiana block? Share it in comments?

Please join me on Facebook at Devoted to Quilting  for more quilting fun.

Joining the The A to Z Blogging Challenge  which includes creative bloggers from all areas and across the globe. 

 

I is for International Quilt Show

                              I

is for the International Quilt Show in Houston Texas.

2nd Place Novice quilt by
Lilija Kostenko, Netherlands

The show runs for a week, and every day is needed. There is so much to see and absorb.

Pictures and memories from the 2012 show have had to sustain me, as I missed last year’s show. This year though, I plan to attend.

The show has everything; international quilts, like the winning quilt shown above, unusual displays, vendors, and more quilt.

Since the show is held the first of November, sometimes it runs into October and Halloween. That happened in 2012 and some of the vendors, to add a little more fun to the event wore “Halloween things.” Like this vendor with the spider on her head.

Spiders don’t stop us from quilting

I’m guessing they have fun and unusual displays every year. They certainly did in 2012. Ever seen a quilted Yurt? Goodness, I’d never even seen a Yurt except on television.

And another view

A quilted Yurt

The Quilted Yurt was the brain child, and work of Linzi Upton. If I didn’t live in windy Oklahoma I’d consider constructing one for myself.

One of the quilts on the inside of the yurt

Amid all the quilts is the opportunity to see live and in person a quilt mentioned, or shown on Facebook, or in a blog. Like this quilt, Anni in the Modern Quilt Showcase by Heather Jones, a quilter and blogger I follow.

 

 

In addition to seeing all the cool quilts, learning about new tools, and meeting new people is the opportunity to actually participate in the show. In 2012 they had a mug rug exchange. Quilters brought a mug rug to contribute, and took a mug rug home. Very fun to see even if I didn’t have a rug to exchange.

 

Aren’t they pretty. I especially like the egg shaped ones. The International Quilt Show in Houston is definitely on my list of quilty places to visit.

Have you ever been to the Houston Quilt show?

What would you enjoy most about going to the International Quilt Show?

What would scare you the most about going?

This month I am participating in the A to Z challenge. I hope you’ll visit some of the other bloggers following the alphabet with their posts.

Quilt Gardens

G is for Garden.

Gardens are beautiful (especially if I don’t have to do the work). Flower gardens, those with beautiful blooms are preferrable to the all green of some gardens.

 

Maybe it’s the quilter in me that loves all the color, I don’t know. I do know that on my list of places to visit is Indiana to take a quilt garden tour.

Just imagine. Wondering around a flower garden inhaling the intoxicating scents of the different plants. Enjoying the riot of color as the patch of one color and flower met with the patch of another.

Why, it might even spark a different color combination idea, or plant the seed for a quilt design.

Enjoying time in the garden is always a pleasure and I’m looking forward to the day I can enjoy both quilts and gardens at the same time in a quilt garden.

 

Have you ever visited a quilt garden?

Have you ever considered trying to plant a quilt garden?

If you were doing a mini-quilt garden which quilt blocks would you try to replicate?

 

Today is for the seventh letter of the alphabet (G) in the A to Z challenge. Due to some family challenges I am a few letters behind. Stay tuned, I will catch up.

 

Amish and Quilting

 

The A to Z challenge begins.

A is for Amish. While Ohio and Pennsylvania are known for their Amish communities. Oklahoma also has a couple of nice size Amish areas and they have auctions each year featuring their quilts. Clarita is the home of Since this blog is about quilts and quilting,

Visiting the Clarita Amish Auction means lots of walking, eating good food, and admiring beautiful quilts. The ladies make quilts using traditional patterns as well as new ones.

A couple of years ago, Paula Nelson, my friend, and partner in my local quilt store, Prairie Notions, designed this quilt for one of the Amish ladies to make.

While the price of the quilts put them well past my spending range, looking at them is free.  The food however, I can afford and enjoy sampling their wonderful cooking at the auction as well as purchasing breads, cakes, and candies to take home and savor.

Is there an Amish community near your?

Have you ever had the opportunity to purchase an Amish quilt?

Have you ever sewn a quilt by hand?

Joining other bloggers with  the A to Z challenge.  Stop by and see what some of the other bloggers are up to.

 

Skirt Hangers aren’t just for Skirts

 

Do you keep those plastic skirt hangers when you buy a skirt at the store? Of course you do. Even if you have nice hangers at home, you need these for your sewing room. And really, what will the store do with them? Throw them away? Recycle them? You can recycle them just as easy, maybe easier than the store, and no other outside costly energy is expended in the process.

How can you use a skirt hanger:

1. Hang your cutting mat on it when not in use. If you only have a small area for your sewing and quilting your mat needs to be stored in a flat area so it doesn’t warp or get all wonky. Hanging it up with a skirt hanger is the perfect solution.

2. Store blocks in progress.  Hanging your blocks on a hanger allows you to have them in view (if you want) yet out of danger of being covered up with other fabric. It also keeps them free of wrinkles. You can add each block as it’s finished which also lets you see at a glance how many are completed. These hangers often will slide, so it doesn’t matter what size blocks you’re making.

3. Hanging a quilt for photos. We want pictures of our quilts, but taking them is often  challenge. Experts suggest taking the photo straight on, that is having the camera and the quilt at the same height and angle. If you don’t have someone to hold the quilt, or a sleeve on your quilt for hanging this can be difficult. Skirt hangers to the rescue. Once you take a “straight on” photo then you can take more artistic ones. Pictures of the quilt covering a loved one, on a bed, draped over a chair or fence. All quilt pictures are worth taking and viewing.

4. Store your fabric.If storage is at a premium add a lower rod to your closet and hang your hangers of fabrics. They will be out of the sun, out of plastic tubs, and easily viewed. Of course this will only work for a few of your fabrics, so you’ll have to make some choice. After all, few people have that many closets.

5. Holding fabric for a project. When you buy fabrics for a specific quilt you can clip all of them to one, or two, skirt hangers to keep everything together as you work on the quilt. You’ll know where the backing and binding fabrics are because they will be on the hangers.

Do you use skirt hangers in your quilt room?

Do you have other uses for skirt hangers?

What non-sewing items do you use in your sewing room?

This post is part of the 31 day challenge. Check out some of the other blogs posting there.

Using Zig Zag in Quilts

Applique, using zig zag stitching and pieced quilt for the grands.

Thanks to Calico Connections for reminding me that a zig-zag stitch is often used in quilting.

I’d planned to write about the Zig-Zag quilt which some call the Chevron, and can be made with half-square triangles. The problem is I don’t have my Zig-Zag quilt finished, which means no picture.

However, thanks to Calico, I remember that the zig-zag stitch can  be used to piece batting together. By bunting two pieces of batting together and using a wide zig zag stitch we can make our batting dollars go further, and not have extra bulk in our quilt.

I also use the zig zag stitch when adding binding. Because, I often either leave my backing big enough to fold over the edges, then using a zig zag or decorative stitch, sew it to the top, or I add the binding backwards. By backwards I mean, most quilters sew their binding to the front of the quilt and fold it over to hand-stitch on the back, I do the opposite. I sew the binding to the back of the quilt, and fold it over to the front and once again zig zag or decorative stitch it down.

The zig zag stitch is also one of the ways to attach an applique. Since I seldom do applique, and when I do it’s for a project that will be used and washed, often, I want the applique to stay put. I usually call it a satin stitch because the zigs are so close to the zags. A satin stitch is, essentially, a zig zag.

The quilt at the top of this post is one made for one of my little grandsons, and his younger brother, and cousins have a similar quilt, they all have  several applique blocks.

Not only was the zig zag stitched used to hold the appliques in place, but it was used a decorative, or defining stitch on the hats and the frog.

The frog block. The frog is one piece, the legs are defined with zig zag stitching. The swirling water around the frog is just my unusual quilting.

That’s it. We’ve come to the end of the month, and the end of the alphabet. I managed to post about every letter, although some times not exactly on the correct day. But, hey, I’m making progress.

I’ve enjoyed meeting some of the other bloggers in the challenge, and found a few new ones to follow. I hope you did too.

For next month, something different, but I’ll wait and tell you about them tomorrow.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this alphabet series. How often do you use zig zag in your quilts?

Are Yo-Yo Tops Really Quilts?

All quilts are not created equal.

The first time I saw a picture of a Yo-Yo quilt I didn’t quite understand it. It didn’t look like any quilt I’d seen before. It had holes in it.

Okay. To be fair they weren’t “holes” they were spaces not filled in with fabric.  Still, they looked like holes to me and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would make a quilt top that, when finished would have the batting sticking out.

A Yo-yo top is a collection of gathered circles sewn together. While they can be sewn into a pattern, most y0-yos are a lighter version of the patchwork quilt.

A completed YoYo quilt from 2 sisters quilting. The green showing through between the circles (yo-yos) is the background of whatever the quilt is on.

The description I read at the time said these “quilts” were for summer, and topped a colored sheet. At the time, it just looked like an unfinished quilt to me. I’ve since learned more about them and appreciate them for their time and beauty.

While they are not quilts, there is only the one layer, possibly  two if the top is stitched to a backing. They are beautiful, and have their own stories just as their “real” quilt sisters.

I wonder if a yo-yo top wasn’t someone’s idea of a pretty, light weight top similar to a crocheted bedspread, or tablecloth. Maybe the first yo-yo maker couldn’t afford all the thread to crochet a pretty top. Maybe she didn’t know how to crochet, but she wanted something light-weight, and airy for  summer.

Just imagine a woman looking at her pile of scraps and her naked table, or a heavy quilt on her bed in the heat of the summer. She could sew, but really didn’t want a “quilt” to dress her table, and she wanted/needed something lightweight for her bed.

She began to experiment, after all isn’t that how we get most of our patterns, experimenting?  Maybe she had made the yo-yos before as a decoration.

Now, however, she sews them together and before long, viola! A pretty, airy table covering, or bed topper.

The sheet that served as cover for the hot Oklahoma nights could be made prettier by topping it with the yo-yo top.

Now, I don’t really know how a yo-yo top came into being, why or how they were first used. I do know they are beautiful, and perfect for someone who loves to do handwork. That wouldn’t be me. I’ll just enjoy the yo-yo tops others make.

What about you? Do you have a yo-yo top? Have you ever made one?

This post was for the letter Y in the A to Z blogging challenge. Tomorrow is the last day of the month and, of course, Z will be the letter of the day. Hope you’ve enjoyed some of the many blogs who joined the challenge.

 

 

X Quisite and X Quarter Quilt Blocks

Finding words, quilts, ideas for each letter of the alphabet that have quilting in common has been much easier than I’d thought it would be. I mean, even Q was easy. Hello? Q? Quilt?

Others with different themes may have struggled with the letter Q, but not me.

However, X was a different story.

According the the Maggie Malone Book of 5500 QUILT BLOCK DESIGNS, there are two X quilt blocks. The X Quartet and the X-Quisite.

An X Quartet Quilt Block from planet patchwork.com

I could only find one example of the X Quartet quilt block, maybe others call it by another name. After all, it looks fairly simple and easy. Half square triangles set in the pinwheel pattern. Half-square triangle blocks together with solid blocks around the four sides of the pinwheel,  and solid blocks in the corner.

 

For the X Quiste block, I found this  baby quilt  by Mary, of the Tulip Patch done in that pattern. Isn’t it cute? I’m sure the parents of the little boy who now owns it were thrilled to receive such a cute quilt for their little one.

X Quisite quilt by Mary at the Tulip-patch

Lucky you. Since I found a couple of X quilt blocks you were spared the Xylophone quilt idea. I’m sure there are other X quilt blocks out there and now I’m on a quest to find them. Do you have an X quilt block?

Still playing with the A to Z bloggers. Up Monday, is Y, and yes, I have a quilt story for Y.

 

 

Quilts, Tied, Unsewn, Washed and Versatile

Playing catch-up today.

Tied or tacked quilts are most often relegated to the functional uses. In fact there are some, like my father, who don’t consider a tacked quilt a “real” quilt.  In his world, a tied quilt was a comforter and a stitched (quilted) one was, well a quilt.

My father isn’t alone. There are quilt shows that limit the exhibition to those quilts that are stitched together.

I think it comes down to how you were raised and what type of quilts you were exposed to. In my father’s case, his mother made both stitched and tied quilts. However, the stitched quilts were the ones given as gifts, and with the more intricate designs.

The tied quilts were those the family used every day. Thus, for him, a tied quilt wasn’t a real quilt.

I didn’t grow up with quilts or quilters and taught myself to quilt, with the help of my mother-in-law. For me, a quilt is a quilt and I love them all. Plus, every quilt has a story, tied, or stitched.

What about you? Are tacked quilts “not real quilts?”

Tied quilt my mother-in-law made, probably in the late 30’s. The 9patch’s are flour sack fabric.

Almost every quilter has a manually operated Unsewing Machine. Otherwise known as a seam ripper. However, a few weeks ago, Alex Anderson unveiled the latest in sewing innovations, a stitch eraser. Enjoy.

Quilts are one of our most versatile household items. A quilt can wrap and calm a crying baby. Give comfort to a grieving adult. Children love hiding in, and playing pretend in their quilt forts.

There are quilted table cloths for both fine dining, and picnics at the park that can double as a cover up should the need arise. Quilts are perfect cushions at outdoor events, ready to be used for warmth should the  temperatures drop.

A quilt can be folded and placed on the foot of the bed for decoration, yet still available as a cover.

Quilts can be made into clothes, stuffed animals, and totes. Whatever the need, the versatile  quilt is sure to be available to fill it.

How do you wash your quilts? My quilts are made for everyday use, they get thrown in the washer and hung out on the line. However, I do have some special quilts that don’t get washed.

They don’t get used, I place them on the bed from time to time to relax the threads and let them air out. Other than that, no washing.

If a special quilt must be washed I wash it in the bathtub. Actually, it soaks in a solution for delicate fabrics. The water is then squeezed out and the quilt rinsed, and re-rinsed. Then, it’s placed on a sheet outside, with another sheet covering it (to protect it from direct sun and bird droppings) until it is dry.

Yes. It is a lot of work. No, I don’t do it often. However, there are times when a washing is just what is called for.

How about your quilts? Washable? Non?

Sewing and Speaking

It’s Show and Tell Monday! Ok, it’s not, it’s just Monday. But, today is letter S for the A to Z challenge.

Okay, it’s not even Monday, it’s Wednesday. The post was ready, except for a picture on Monday. Still no picture, but a post of words is better than nothing. Right?

I’ve been a little (sometimes I am a master at understatement) behind on the blog challenges.  Last week I almost forgot I had a blog, much less a couple of challenges.

What in the world could make me forget something like my blog?

A speech contest. Speech contest begins with “S”, so I’m good. Right?

Sure, speech contest begins with “S,” but what does it have to do with quilts?

Well, the speech was about a quilt. Sort of. In the speech I compared our lives to quilts. To further illustrate the point I made a “quilt” to use as a prop.

I spent last week sewing, and speaking, giving practice speeches wherever and whenever possible including speaking to the dog. Poor baby. This week though, I’m back on track trying to accomplish too many things in too short of time. It was a fun week though. Too bad it didn’t end with a win.

Oh well, there’s always the next contest.

That was Monday. This is Wednesday. Shortly after writing that post and before I could take the picture of the quilt the stomach flu bug found and attacked me. No pictures, no posting, no writing. Just sick.

Better now, and future posts will, with luck, appear on schedule. 🙂 Hope the “bugs” haven’t attacked anyone else.