Penny Sanford Porcelains

Julia Graber and Her Award Winning Quilts

Now I get to brag on another Mississippi quilter!  I love this part of blogging!

Julia Graber of Brooksville, Mississippi, made these spectacular quilts, all entries into the Museum of the American Quilter's Society (MAQS) quilt competition.

The annual competition is New Quilts from an Old Favorite. Julia just found out that her Indian Fire Ring (first and second photos) has been accepted as a finalist in the MAQS Sawtooth Contest.

The stunning Indian Fire Ring quilt will be exhibited at the Museum of the American Quilter's Society in Paducah, KY,  from March 28, 2008, to June 17, 2008. Then this stunning quilt will travel around the country until December 31, 2009.

Note the sawtooth quilting in the second photo. The finished quilt measures 59"X59".  It is machine pieced and machine quilted on a home sewing machine, Julia said.

There will be a book published of the 18 finalists in the competition, something MAQS does every year for the competition.  This quilt will be in that book.

It's not the first time Julia has made it to the top of this prestigious competition.  She has been a finalist in this New Quilts from an Old Favorite competition for FOUR straight years!  WOW!

In 2004, Seven Sisters, Leaving Home, photo three, was Julia's quilt entry.  It was chosen as a finalist.  This intricate beauty is pictured and written up in the MAQS book from that year.

In 2005, A Plate of Pineapples, photo four,  was chosen as a finalist in the competition, and was included in that year's publication.

In 2006, Julia entered Pineapple Rose and Buds, photos five and six, was an easy choice for finalist in the national competition. Yep, its in a book for that year.

Looking at these four stunning quilts, can you believe that Julia's first entry into the competition didn't make the finals?

"The first year I entered, I got a rejection 
letter!!!! But that didn't stop me from 
trying again the next year," Julia said.

I love Julia's spirit and determination! That is what I have seen many times in the ranks of the Mississippi Quilt Association. These quilting ladies are excellent role models for much more than quilting!

When we get past these killer deadlines this week, I hope to research this competition a bit more.  Hopefully the books of finalists from each year are still available.

If you know any more details, including where the traveling exhibit can be seen, please let me know!

Back to work......
Fondly,
Penny

Sign me up: New Pieced BOM

At yesterday's final meeting for the pieced block of the month quilt for 2007 at the Golden Triangle Fabric Center , we were treated to a preview of the pieced BOM for 2008.

Thangles was the name that elicited appreciative comments from almost everyone.  There were a few ladies, like me, who had yet to learn what the others were so excited about!

It seems Thangles is a system of piecing a quilt that produces precise points and consistent blocks.

Once again, those creative quilt leaders in Starkville, Mississippi, lured us with their beautiful examples!

Once again, Lou Ann Vasek hid behind her quilt, the blue and gold or yellow version, so that I could not snap her photo! 

This is the color version I signed up to make in 2008! 

Saturday I bought some of the blue dotted fabric in the Dick and Jane fabric line from Michael Miller Fabrics. I want to to practice with Thangles and machine piecing after the porcelain deadlines are satisfied. They have an online (free) video.

Mary Wallace made the purple - lavender - lilac version of the Thimbleberries BOM from Golden Triangle Fabric Center for 2008.

Mary, if you read this blog post... is the darkest fabric in your quilt a dark purple or a navy blue? I can't tell from my photos, and I don't remember from seeing the quilt in person yesterday. Gloria tells me Mary's quilt is all different shades of purple. Beautiful!

So many beautiful fabrics and quilts just overloaded my short-term memory banks!

Gloria Reeves showed us how one can use Thangles to make one of the beautiful free patterns offered through the Golden Triangle Fabric Center (with purchase of the inexpensive Thangles paper templates).

One of the ladies sitting near me commented on Gloria's penchant for fun fabrics. I agree completely! 

I've fallen in love with that Dick and Jane Bubbles fabric from Michael Miller, and I adore the fanciful fabric Gloria chose for the quilt back! 

Thanks to Gloria, I can be more brave in my fabric choices in quilts to come, especially for the quilt back!

We have to wait until January 2, 2008, to pick up the fabric for our first block.

Some brilliant person structured some incentives in the BOM program.  It's called Buck a Block.

If I finish my block in the month in which it is assigned, I can get the fabric for the next block for just $1! If I don't finish my block in its designated month, then I pay $3 for the next block.

S-M-A-R-T motivation!  It is still an affordable project if life overwhelms us and I cannot get one block finished in the same month.

Gee, I can't wait for January 2nd to arrive!

Mary, Lou Ann, Gloria, Dot and Everlyn, you have no idea how much energy you gave me from your quilt show-and-tell Saturday! Thank you!

Ending the First Pieced BOM

If you want to get a day off to a happy, upbeat, productive start, go to a quilt meeting first thing in the day!

Today started with the last meeting of the Pieced Block of the Month Quilt from the Golden Triangle Fabric Center in Starkville, Mississippi.

I blogged about this project here and here.

We picked up our December block fabric and instructions, absorbed the instructions from Lou Ann Vasek, and then settled back for some eye candy!

The four organizers for this BOM pieced quilt showed their interpretations of this quilt project!

First, Lou Ann Vasek showed her version with pink "picture frames" around each block. It had been quilted by Mary Wallace, and it only lacks the binding to be completed!

Lou Ann put some extra blocks on the back for whimsey. I just love how these creative ladies add touches like this to the backs of their quilts!

This is the colorway that I chose to make. I certainly hope my first pieced BOM will look this pretty! The audience was also audibly appreciative of this lovely quilt.

Mary Wallace showed how she used her practice blocks to stretch her BOM to two quilts.  That is Mary in the rose blouse to the left.

I love the way she set the blocks at angles and blended the blue, green and maroon of the BOM with the tans of her practice squares.  That angled block technique surely has a name, but I've not gotten that far in my Quilt Knowledge.

Then Dot Livingston wowed us with her BOM with braided sashing and some extra half square triangles in the outer border.  WOW!

I can't wait to see this quilt again once it has been quilted!  That is Dot to the right. 

Dot has promised to teach a class on braided sashing.  Sign me up for that one!

Gloria Reeves took a different approach by adding to her blocks to make them quite large.  I forget how many inches she said they became.

Gloria quilted each block, and she is in the process of connecting each block for a finished quilt. 

I want to learn that "quilt as you go" method also!

That second photo of Gloria peeping over her quilt is my favorite picture from the day.

Lou Ann would not show her pretty face long enough for me to snap a picture of her AND her quilt.  Nor did I manage to catch on camera memory card Golden Triangle Fabric Center owner Everlyn Johnson.  She is always in perpetual motion!

Next time, Lou Ann and Everlyn!  *grin*

More pictures to show you of the pieced BOM for next year from this fabric shop! I've already signed up!

So, just an hour meeting this morning has me really jazzed to finish my first pieced BOM quilt!
I could not work on it today, though. 

We're pushing around the clock on the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church porcelain ornament orders. Blog post to come on that project, I promise!

Lewis & Clark Commemorative Quilt

Happy Day after Thanksgiving!  We've not been contributing to Black Friday in the stores, but I have done my best to help out with purchases online.  *grin*

Here is a stunning quilt that hangs in the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls, Montana.

Knowing my passion for quilts, my friend Dot Ward of Madison, MS, sent us this photo that she snapped on her travels.

If I learn the artist/designer/quilter, I will come back and post that here.

There are such invigorating fall colors in this quilt, and I especially like the silhouetted figures.

This afternoon, the dogs are out sunning on the steps. Gordon is preparing porcelain slip to cast...a tedious process.  I am working on finishing St. John the Baptist Catholic Church ornaments. 

Next time I take a break, maybe I'll have time to edit photos and share with you that charming church in Brusly, Louisiana, and the porcelain they commissioned me to sculpt.

Oh, Mary...What Have You Started?!?

Mary Sorensen.

It was right at a year ago.  Starkville, Mississippi, 2006.

The Mississippi Quilt Association brought in a quilt teacher of national reputation. (MQA does that every year.)

Last year it was Needleturn Applique with Mary Sorensen. 

This year the marquee talent is Ann Fahl.  She will be teaching decorative machine quilting in Starkville, Brandon and Hattiesburg.

Recently I heard, there is a growing waiting list to get in on any of these Ann Fahl MQA Summer Seminars.

I'm so thankful that last year I just jumped in with both feet and began needleturn appliqué with Mary.  Her teaching style fit me to a "T".

Now a year is past, and I have tried to follow her motto, "Applique Every Day".  I'm a calmer, more balanced person when I do squeeze in time to appliqué everyday, even if I can only put in a few stitches. 

Painting with fabric in this year has refreshed my artistic taste buds.

This weekend, I reunited with needle and fabric.  It had been over a month since I had spent any quality time with any of my Block of the Month Quilt Projects.

Would you believe, I had temporarily lost my "feel" ...rhythm ...tempo ...for applique?

It's the same way with my sculpture.  If I am prevented from creating something new on a regular basis, the process of "getting my groove back" for sculpture is like discovering the joy of the art form...again...and again...and again.

I learned so much from Mary Sorensen, and I hope to take another class from her just to follow up on what I learned in those two blissful days in July, 2006.

She has a new pattern out that I discovered on her website tonight, Pieceful Garden!  Very, very pretty, and I love those colors!

So, after I find time to make Simple Gifts, represented here by the first three pictures from our class, maybe I can make the new Pieceful Garden.

But wait, I already have Mary's patterns for her Baltimore Album Baskets. (fourth photo)  And I just discovered she has now published period-inspired wreath and pictorial patterns in that Baltimore Album Tribute section! 

That whole Baltimore Tribute Quilt is divine! I've gotta do that one as well!

How do you do it, Mary?  When do you sleep?

The last photo in this post is my current Quilt Treasure Hunt.  One of the participants in Mary's needleturn applique class had made this gorgeous quilt from one of Mary's patterns published in a quilt magazine "a few years back".

Can you help me find the magazine in which this quilt pattern appeared?   I don't even know the name of the quilt magazine. 

I'm also looking for Mary's Beauty Everlasting quilt pattern.  Was it published in a magazine also?

Hopefully one of my classmates can help me identify the lovely lady standing by the quilt she made (with which she won awards).  She is a member of the MQA, but she lives in another state.

I carried my current applique block around with me all day, along with that cute little organizer tote for all my sewing supplies.  Alas, my chubby little fingers were too tired from sculpting something new in porcelain today to allow me to sculpt in fabric tonight!

It is a wonderful problem to have, and I AM very, very thankful!

---Once again I have prattled away about Mary Sorensen, and I STILL have not talked about her special needles and stem tool!  I would find it hard to exist without these two items!

---Nor have I talked about Mary's SEVEN quilts that were stolen outside of a quilt show!  It sounds naive, but I never dreamed there were targeted thefts of quilts!  There are whole websites dedicated to posting photos of stolen quilts.  The recovery stories are fantastic!

Judy, Judy, Judy!!!

What IS the movie with the line, "Judy, Judy, Judy"?  That is going to bug me until I remember, but the phrase kept looping in my brain as I edited the photos for this post.  Gee, I hope it is a good movie!

Judy Spiers of Foxworth, Mississippi, is a rising quilting star in the industry.

She has been very helpful to a new quilter (me) via email, and I was delighted to meet her at the June Gathering of the Mississippi Quilt Association. (The second photo is of Judy in her class space at the June Gathering.)

This first quilt pictured in this post,
"Mississippi Backroads Treasures" is now available in patterns.  YIPPEE! 

I bought the first three patterns from Judy at the June Gathering, and I will be starting this quilt very soon...probably the Black Eyed Susan block first.  Now all the patterns in that quilt are available.

Take a look at the growing list of honors her quilts have been collecting!

One of her miniature quilts won First Place in the Miniature Category this year at Paducah!  Two more of her winning miniature quilts are featured in the new book by the American Quilter's Society, Oh Wow, Miniature Quilts and Their Makers.

That is her quilt, "Pineapple Surprise" on the cover (last photo in this post)! This very quilt was also one of the quilts in the AQS's Calendar for 2007.

Really, you should read this page of her website and be as awed as I am to see all the honors her quilting has garnered!

Wednesday of this week July 28th, Judy will have a trunk show for the Gulf States Quilting Association in Jackson, MS.  Now I know what a "trunk show" is for furs, but I have never been to a trunk show for quilts. 

Gee, I hope it means that Judy will have examples of all of her quilts to show us and talk about. At least one of her miniature quilts is in the permanent collection at Paducah, so maybe she has made a second quilt of the same pattern?

This district meeting of GSQA will be held at Christ United Methodist Church, 6000 Old Canton Road, Jackson, MS.  So far, I have not found the time of this meeting, not even in the GSQA Newsletter "Quilt Talk".  As soon as I find out the time, I will post it here. (See Roanoke's comment posted below.  She has all the details plus contact info for attending this delicious trunk show!)

Gulf States Quilting Association is a gathering of 1300 member quilters primarily from Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, but membership is open to anyone.  The GSQA stitches go back to 1984.  Judy is also a Circuit Teacher for the GSQA!

(Get it?  Instead of "roots", I used "stitches".  Probably time for me to try to sleep, huh? Just 14 minutes until the Hubby-requested computer shut-down.  *grin*)

Sad to say, I had never heard of GSQA until I overheard a conversation at the Mary Sorensen needle turn applique class I attended last summer.  Gee, there is so much to "catch up on" in this fascinating world of quilting, and I feel SO FAR BEHIND!

Just wait until you see what I started today as a surprise for my mother! I almost finished the applique part of it tonight!

---------------------

Oh, wait, I found the "Judy, Judy, Judy" thing.  It is apparently a Cary Grant movie.  Here is a fun story about the "Judy, Judy, Judy" myth!

 

Celebrate Six Months and Post#110 With Chocolate Candy Quilting

Today is the sixth month anniversary of this little blog!  Imagine that!

Somehow we just zoomed past the little benchmark of the One Hundredth Post.  VROOOOOMMMMMMM

I can't believe I have prattled away that much since December 18, 2006! It also stuns me that right at 30,000 people have visited this blog from an amazing array of countries.

This blogging world has brought into our world a cornucopia of interesting people, great networking and tremendous creative encouragement!  I say "our" because my mother, uncle, husband and I have all been nurtured by blogging.

Blogging has kept me focused on the positives each day.

Life can be amazingly rich and interesting and fulfilling when one focuses on the little joys in each day.  Gordon has shot quite a backlog of photos for me to post as I have time to blog about each topic!

For today's Anniversary Post, I'll share this Quilt-In-Progress by Marilyn Rose of Ridgeland, MS. 

At the June Gathering of the Mississippi Quilt Association, my Hand Quilting teacher, Betty Lewis, was hand quilting this amazing quilt, and she used this Work-In-Progress as an example for the class.

Marilyn is one of the many outstanding quilters in the Mississippi Quilt Association.

Besides the beautiful hand-quilting (see the fourth, seventh and eighth photos to get an idea of the intricacy of the hand-quilting), Marilyn's choice of fabrics just "talks to me"!

In fact, I started really CRAVING chocolate candy while in that hand-quilting class that day.  It was one of those all-consuming, obsessive cravings for chocolate that make women dangerous *grin*.

It took a little while for me to understand that it was Marilyn's quilt that was pushing me over the edge into a Chocolate Frenzy!  *laugh*  If Barbara had not driven us home that afternoon, I would most probably stopped at Walmart on the way home and filled up a shopping basket in their chocolate aisle!

I would never have expected to like a brown background.  Brown just does not "do it" for me, but Marilyn's warm brown fabrics, polka dots and candy-striped leaves and this whimsical pattern make this quilt just POP!

Ill have to ask Marilyn if she followed a pattern for these imaginative appliques or if she created them out of her colorful imagination! 

Marilyn Rose spoke about Journal Quilts at the June Gathering of the MQA.  I have some great photos to share with you from that fun program!  Hopefully that will be the next post (if I can get the photos edited right away).

Marilyn has been particularly helpful to me (as a newbie quilter).  It was special to put face to name at the June Gathering.

For now, thanks to just looking at the pictures of Marilyn's diabolical quilt, I must scavenge the farm for some CHOCOLATE!!!  Each time I manage to kick my chocolate addiction, we confiscate all chocolate from every cabinet, drawer and freezer on the farm. 

Hmmnnn....there just might be some cooking chocolate deep in one of the freezers..........

This quilt is dangerously potent with subliminal suggestion! 

Our Famous Quilter, Martha Skelton of Vicksburg

Back in 1974, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., invited Martha Skelton of Vicksburg, MS, to come to D.C. and demonstrate the art of hand piecing, hand appliqué and hand quilting. 

She was THE featured quilter for the 1974 Smithsonian Festival of American Folk Art. She was featured again in 1997 during the annual festival.

Miss Martha's quilts are in museum collections around the country.  The American Quilting Society has named her one of the top 20 quilters in the United States!

She was born in West Virginia, and her family moved to Oklahoma when she was quite young. She made Mississippi her home in 1947.  Her quilting knowledge and skills were passed down through her family, and she was obviously a very apt pupil of the artform! 

There are many more tantalizing and inspiring details that we can look forward to reading in an upcoming book about Mississippi's Martha Skelton!

This is a similar story to the "discovery" of Ethel Wright Mohammed of Belzoni, whom the Smithsonian dubbed the "Grandma Moses of Stitchery".  She is now deceased, and her work is coveted by the very few museums that have been able to acquire one of her embroidered pieces.  More on her soon.

So, back to Martha Skelton.  She has been a very influential quilting force in Mississippi.  She was involved in the creation of the Mississippi Quilt Association back in 1991. 

She was heavily involved in the state-wide survey of historic quilts in the state that led to our renown book, Mississippi Quilts by Mary Elizabeth Johnson, University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

Miss Martha has taught her art to many Mississippi women over the years which is why we have so many strong quilters today!

The MQA Gala last night in Vicksburg was to honor her and to also raise money to publish that much-anticipated book.  If the previous MQA books are any guide, this book will be of a quality worthy of Miss Martha's artistry and dedication to the quilt world.

Read more about Miss Martha on the MQA website.

These quilt pictures were taken at the Gala last night in Vicksburg.  They are just a few of her extraordinary body of work, all created by hand.

Pictured here (photos by Gordon Fikes):

1.  Four Block Carnation: 2006
     Hand Appliquéd and Quilted by Martha Skelton

2. America and Lady Liberty: 1985
    Hand Pieced, Appliquéd and Quilted by Martha Skelton; Owner - Gordon Skelton

3. Baltimore Album: Late 1990's
    Hand Pieced, Appliquéd and Quilted by Martha Skelton

4. Sunburst: 1993
    Hand Pieced, Appliquéd and Quilted by Martha Skelton

5. Mississippi Hardwood: 2003
    Hand Appliquéd and Quilted by Martha Skelton

At age 86, Miss Martha is still quilting.  She even finished a quilt in time to be auctioned last night for the book fund-raiser! (see the last photo) 

I hope it is ok to share that her latest quilt brought $4,200.00!!!

Any details beyond that I will leave for the MQA "powers that be" to share on the MQA website and in the MQA newsletter.

The Second Great Quilt Find For the Day!

In today's mail a package arrived containing a magazine with the pattern for Piece 'O Cake's "Lone Star and Stripes" quilt.

This was the second "Quilt Find" for the day, after months of searching!

My friend Pam McRae shared her version of this quilt with me right before Christmas (the picture of the quilt in vintage 30's reproduction prints).  Her version hooked me!

I've had these two photos of Pam's quilt on my refrigerator ever since, and I have been looking for the magazine that published the Piece 'O Cake pattern!

Pam began the quilt at her Needle Chaser's Quilt Guild retreat a few years back, but she only finished the appliqué portion, quilting and binding right before Christmas. Then she gave the quilt as a Christmas present!

(Note to self:  Get on Pam's Christmas gift-giving list!)

Here are some photos of Pam's Quilt Guild Retreat. 

Pam had to finish her quilt without the pattern because she had misplaced the magazine with pattern!  She could not even remember the month and year, but she did know it was American Patchwork & Quilting.

I started searching auctions for old quilt magazines, and after about five months, I found the right magazine.  August, 2003, Issue # 63, for those of you who also want to acquire this pattern.

Pam, your colors are captivating.  I don't want to "copy" you, so you may have to help me plan some colors that include that Robin's Egg Blue and the Happy Yellow!

I've never made a Lone Star quilt, and this one adds enough appliqué fun to make it tantalizing.

Pam, I just HAVE to share Kirby's photo of the cabin at Tishomingo State Park in northeast Mississippi.  This is such a dreamy photo!

Gordon and I want to visit there now!  It is amazing how much of one's own state awaits discovery!

Pam is the webmistress for the Mississippi Quilt Association website.

Just Call Me "Jessica Fletcher" Fikes!

He He He! I'm feeling as smug as a bug in a quilt (not a rug!)  LOL

This morning has yielded TWO, count 'em T-W-O, quilts patterns for which I have been searching literally months!

If you want to get me hooked on anything, then make it a challenge.  Make me work for the research or work for a photo.

Months ago on the Mississippi Quilt Association email discussion group (you do not have to be a member of the MQA to join the discussion group), someone mentioned a Mississippi-themed quilt.  That led to a search for quilt blocks or quilts that were named for Mississippi or a place in Mississippi.

That led me to Janet's Quilting Bee in Ocean Springs, MS.  Hurricane Katrina had wiped them out, but they are back (actually they are the only remaining Quilt Shop/Independent Fabric Shop on the Mississippi Gulf Coast).

Janet's Quilting Bee is apparently the source of a Block of the Month quilt called "Southern Comfort".  I've been told it has a block named "Biloxi" in it.  If memory serves me correctly, someone told me it has a block named "Jackson" in it. 

Dear, sweet Janet of Janet's Quilting Bee has just this morning emailed three photos of this elusive quilt!  Here it is in Mardi Gras colors.  (Yes, the Mississippi Gulf Coast has Mardi Gras events...not just New Orleans!)

Janet says she has it in kits now (no longer a BOM) in either a Blue colorway or a Red colorway.

The block that I know to be named a "Mississippi" block is labeled as such.  It is from the Blocks of the State series here.  The second block pictured here makes me think of the etherial Windsor Ruins near Port Gibson. (see Windsor Ruins picture below.)

Here is how you can get in touch with Janet's Quilting Bee if, like me, you just have to make this "Southern Comfort" quilt.

Janet's Quilting Bee
1001 Bowen Avenue
Ocean Springs, MS  39564
PH:  228-818-9560
Hours:  Monday-Friday 9 am to 7 pm; Saturday 9 am to 5 pm
Owner:  Janet Bryant
email:  thequiltingbee (at) bellsouth (dot) net
Long-arm Quilter:  Cynthia Reaves
email:  thequiltnook (at) cableone (dot) net

This information comes from my blog page listing all the Mississippi Independent Quilt or Fabric Shops (that I have found so far).  If you know of one not listed, please let me know.  I've also started a list of Independent Stitching or Yarn shops with which I need your help.

One more tantalizing detail.  Janet of Janet's Quilting Bee says that they are currently planning "Southern Comfort II".  *big wide grin*