Late Night Edition --- Free QUILT Kindle book!

It’s one of those evenings. I checked into my hotel here in Danbury CT for the Somers, NY show that starts tomorrow ((YAY! I can hardly wait to see this show, I’ve been waiting at least 2 years!)) and laid down on my bed for “just a few minutes” to “rest my eyes” ----

3 hours later I’m waking up after 8 pm just a bit disoriented and just a whole lot HUNGRY!

What I love about this area of the country is the abundance of really good NY style pizza places! I found one just down the street….right next to….TADA!!!! Trader Joes!

Since I’m here for 4 nights --- can you say HAPPY QUILTER?!

So I’m tucked in --- no sewing going on…..instead I’m trying to dig myself out of over 800 emails in my inbox that have piled up over the past few days ---THANK YOU so much for the comments on “Talkin’ Tiurkey!” I too love that quilt had a great time making it – and it just reinforces my belief that a great quilt for me is one that is NOT all about “The latest greatest newest fabric line” but about the color, the contrast, the variety and the geometric design. It’s where my heart is. I LOVE time honored traditional well known blocks. And I love kicking them up a notch, plain and simple!

While digging through the emails, I came across this one by Nik, informing me of a great book about historic quilts:

From the Author:

From May 3 - 5, 2012, the Kindle eBook of "This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces" will be available for ... FREE. You can read the eBook on a Kindle or Kindle app.
For the UK: http://amzn.to/KqwzMg
For the US: http://amzn.to/IvGRjL
For France:
http://www.amazon.fr/This-Accomplish-Harriet-Powers-ebook/dp/B003BVJFLK
For Germany:
http://www.amazon.de/This-Accomplish-Harriet-Powers-ebook/dp/B003BVJFLK
Feel free to share the appropriate link(s) with your quilting friends. I'm happy more will learn about Mrs. Powers!
Sincerely, Kyra

Product Description

The powerful quilts of Harriet Powers (1837-1910), a former Athens, Georgia slave, continue to capture our imagination today. Her two-known creations, the Bible Quilt and the Pictorial Quilt, have independently survived since stitched more than a century ago. Over the years, thousands of museum visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have stood transfixed viewing her artwork.

Powers' two quilts are arguably the most well-known and cited coverings in American quilt history. But, until today, no one has told the entire, dramatic story of how these two quilts, one of which initially sold for $5, were coveted, cared for, and cherished for decades in private homes before emerging as priceless, national treasures.

This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces brings to light new, exciting facts - many never before published: complete exhibition history for both known quilts; proof Harriet Powers was a literate, award-winning quilter, who stitched at least five quilts and promoted her own artwork; profiles of the two nineteenth century women who sought to purchase the Bible Quilt; profiles of the three men who once owned the Pictorial Quilt; unveiling of a young artist who embellished the Pictorial Quilt; and the name of the person who first made the connection in the twentieth century that Harriet Powers stitched both quilts.

This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces is the most comprehensive resource guide on this influential African American quilter. The book includes nearly 200 bibliographic references, most annotative, including books, exhibition catalogs, newspapers, plays, poetry, interactive map and more. For the first time ever, readers are provided with clues and encouraged to search for Harriet Powers' lost 1882 Lord's Supper Quilt.
This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces is written by Kyra E. Hicks, a quilter whose story quilts have appeared in over forty group exhibitions in places such as the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY, the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the American Folk Art Museum in NY. Hicks is the author of Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook and Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria. She lives in Arlington, Virginia.

About the Author

Kyra E. Hicks is a marketing professional and quilter. She was so mesmerized after seeing Eva Ungar Grudin's 1990 exhibition, "Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts," that she began to teach herself to create her own quilts. "I found my voice that afternoon in the museum," she remembers. Today, Kyra's quilts have been included in more than forty exhibitions in venues such as the American Craft Museum in New York, the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford. She hosts the African American quilting news blog, Black Threads.

It looks to be an amazing book, and I wish I had sent this on sooner but didn’t find it til now, and that is why it is a LATE NIGHT EDITION! It’s my hopes that it is still free for you when you go to click it….it was for me!

Much love from the NY/CT state line!

iPhone-o-Gram!! Heavy Gifts!

I was setting up for my workshop today in Kingston, NY when my phone rang.

The caller, Gae, was saying that she was sorry she couldn't make the class, but did I find the gift her hubby had left at the office??

I hadn't been down there yet---and told her I would check it out. My first thought being---"Millenium fabric????"

Second thought: bigger than a bread box!

Third thought: heavy as a boat anchor!

Holy cow! It IS a boat anchor!!!

Thank you, Gae! I can't wait to get her home and try her out!!

100 Blocks Vol 5 Blog Tour!

***THIS DRAWING IS CLOSED!!***

Whoooowhoooo! It’s here!

This is the day that I get to reveal my block from the latest issue of the 100 blocks series, volume 5 by Quiltmaker Magazine!

I’ve been waiting with great anticipation for this day, because not only is this a great block ---but it’s all reds and neutrals, AND ---it includes STRINGS!

Do you remember just the other day when I said to keep your eye on that Turkey Tracks Block? There was a reason!

This is how my mind works….if a block is too large, ((I have much more fun making 6” blocks than 12” blocks!)) simply add more PIECES to it to make it more interesting.

Blocks with wide open spaces are PERFECT for replacing big chunky pieces with string pieced units ---you can clear out some really fun stuff, and make your blocks more interesting at the same time….and that’s how I came about with my version of the block:

Talkin’ Turkey!

I used phone book pages as my foundations and covered squares of the phone book paper with my red strings – pushing the red colorway from orangey red to pinky red and everywhere in between including burgundy. Throw it all in there!

And for those of you who have been following along with me for a while….can you spot the “Lucky Cow” fabric?! It shows up in just about every red scrap quilt I do…..and how about that piece at the top center that has writing on it? I had yardage of this and it never worked well for anything, but I love it cut up. I think it’s only in small strips in my stash anymore, sad to see it go! I also see an old Jinny Beyer piece from the 1980s in there….but --- NO MILLENIUM FABRIC!

Are any of these fabrics STILL in YOUR stash!? Fess up!

Here’s a very simple layout for you ---16 blocks plus sashings, and don’t you love that string border?

But let’s take it one step further shall we?

This is a sneak preview of my Talkin’ Turkey quilt as it will appear in my next book due out in July!

30 blocks plus pieced sashings and string borders!

Just love all those reds and neutrals!

The timing couldn’t be better as this is one of the classes I’m teaching at Quiltmaker’s Block Party in Williamsburg, VA in August! We couldn’t show it to you before this point, because it had to come out in the magazine first – and now you know!

Would you like to win a copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Vol 5? Simply leave me a comment below! You have THREE CHANCES to win from commenting on my blog – I’ll be picking 3 winners! 2 will get signed copies from me, and a lucky 3rd winner will have their copy sent direct to them from Quiltmaker Magazine!

We will draw winners on Sunday May 6th ---I’ll be teaching up in Somers, NY at the Northern Star Quilt Show on that day, but I can stop and do some drawing! Good Luck, everyone! And please spread the word on this drawing to wherever quilters gather, be it your email lists, message boards, facebook ---this is a GREAT giveaway!

There are also more prize give-aways going on over at Quiltmaker's Quilty Pleasures Blog!

Be sure to stop on by there daily throughout the tour to find out who else is in the tour, so you can go enter for your chance THERE too! Enter Early, Enter Often as the saying goes! :c)

iPhone-I-Gram! One row down!

Just finished the last block needed to set this row together!

8 blocks left to go! :-)

My lucky panda and the kindle fire are right by my side as I piece---it's a Netflix night!

IPhone-o-Gram! Let the Sewing Begin!

I've reached my next destination of Kingston, NY!

I've checked into my room and made a quick dinner of a chicken quesadilla.

It's not even 7pm but I'm in my jammies and ready to spend the evening sewing on some Nearly Insane blocks!!

The white FW is with me---what a difference her new ecoluxe light makes---wow!

Tomorrow I'm teaching Cathedral Stars to the guild here in Kingston and then after class I'm headed to Somers for the show this weekend---it should be great!

Tomorrow is also my blog tour day for the 100 blocks by 100 designers vol 5 blog tour so be looking for that in the morning :-)

iPhone-o-Gram! Live from Wappinger's Falls!

Cathedral stars class is well under way!

It's drizzly and nasty outside so it is a perfect day to be inside sewing.

The breakfast spread is delicious and the coffee is hot and in ample supply!

Silk, Satin,Velvet & Salt!

I gave a couple glimpses of things that I saw on my one Antique Mall stop on my way to New York…..

There were a few really INTERESTING things that I haven’t had a chance to share yet! I’ve got time to share ONE this morning --- I’ll get to the others later.

Have you ever been more intrigued by the BACK of a quilt than the front?

I rounded the corner and came face to face with an antique silk and velvet log cabin. These are so beautiful --- in such a TRAGIC way, because who KNEW that these fabrics would shred and shatter years down the road?

It makes me wonder what is going to happen to the fabric in the quilts that I've made over the years. I know some of those 1990s and other earlier ones have a bad habit of fading over time. What was once a deep navy is now a very pale grey-blue. It's the life of fabric I guess!

This quilt was pieced on salt sacks and other bits of found “foundation” fabric with advertising on it! THAT is the cool part!

Here’s a glimpse of the quilt as I saw it first:

It was just HANGING there, not even displayed to its best advantage, but the color and the sheen drew me right in.

I noticed right off that the strips varied in width and this gave many of the blocks a more “curved” appearance.

Sadly, this antique mall was rather crowded and there was no place to lay this OUT to get a view of the whole quilt. The fabrics are deteriorating though, so I felt it best to be gentle with it and not cause further damage to it.

Were those blacks from the clothing of someone in mourning? Each stitch was made by hand, and being as it is pieced on a fabric foundation, it is not quilted or bound…maybe they planned on finishing it in another way?

It made me think of my friend Karen Eckmeier and her lecture at VCQ last weekend –entitled --- “Ooops! My Edges Are Showing!!” She does wonderful raw edge work….

This is what I find so interesting!

Salt is not Salt! The Worcester Brand Salt :cD Salt, like flour and chicken feed and many other things also came in cloth bags. The maker of this quilt saved the salt bags for use in piecing her quilt. They must have gone through LOADS of salt! But if you think of it, salt was used for everything including curing meat --

Here’s another advertisement on a cloth bag of some sort.

It sounds like they are describing my quilting space –can you read it?

Basement – Every Space Crowded with Goods! LOL

Believing what I was told as a young girl going to Campfire Girls --- leave each space better than you found it ---- I gently folded the quilt so someone else could view it a bit better. Seemed a shame to hide those cool salt and advertising sacks, though! I didn’t know whether to fold it right side or wrong side out!

There are more quilts to show, but they will have to wait – I’ve gotta get my self in gear and get over to where our Cathedral Stars workshop is for today!

But before I go – heheeh! You have to know what did NOT come home with me, right? You know you are waiting for that one weird thing, aren’t you? And it wasn’t the diving helmet!

How about a life sized Frankenstein?!? LOL!

I actually considered adopting him …..wondering if I put him in the front passenger seat of Shamu --- could I get by in the HOV lane as I drive?!

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

A Quickie Kindle Freebie!

I’m just back from dinner -----and I need to send this off before heading to bed. Man, I’m SO BEAT!

We had dinner at Steffano's Italian Restaurant in Wappinger's Falls ---OH MY GOODNESS. Great food! ((And I sent the left overs home with Andrea to feed her family --- there was THAT MUCH left!))

I got an email from Michelle giving me a heads up on a freebie that I didn’t know about.

She writes:

I think we've got similar taste in books (some at least) and just noticed that Cut, Crop & Die by Kiki Lowenstein is a freebie on Amazon. It wasn't yesterday when I was buying the sequel.

I know you're busy and didn't want you to miss this one! :-)
Michelle

The title caught my eye so I just went and checked to be sure it was STILL free before sending this.

Book Description:

Broad humor bordering on the absurd propels Agatha-finalist Slan's uneven second mystery to feature St. Louis scrapbooker Kiki Lowenstein (after 2008's Paper, Scissors, Death).

When one of Kiki's fellow scrappers, Yvonne Gaynor, keels over during a cropping event because of a severe allergic reaction, the police suspect someone sabotaged the epinephrine syringe Yvonne always carried for such an emergency.

Despite all warnings, Kiki decides to launch her own murder investigation, which is soon complicated by hate crime attacks against Kiki's employer and other local Jews. On the bright side, three handsome men take an interest in Kiki, while her late husband's mother, Sheila, interferes in her life to her benefit.

Filled with scrapbooking lore, this relatively clean cozy contains scenes that will make you either laugh or cringe, like Sheila's sticking penis-shaped vibrators into her lawn to get rid of her mole problem

If this is anywhere near as funny as the Janet Evanovich I have just finished, then I want to read it!

Just be sure to double check before clicking that it is STILL FREE when you do, because prices can change without notice.

An Uneventful Rainy, Drizzly Foggy Drive!

Would you believe it that I only took time to stop at ONE Antique Mall my whole way up to Poughkeepsie?

It’s true ---- I only took time last evening to wander, at the place where the second diving helmet in 3 days was found in Virginia.

I was emailing my friend Lori about the strangeness of these items – and maybe it’s not so strange being in a coastal state like North Carolina or Virginia --- but I bet it would be more rare to find antique diving gear in places like…umm.NEBRASKA?! I do think these things are cool, it’s just something you don’t see every day, and the fact that I saw one Sunday and saw one in another state on Tuesday – what’s the odds of that?!

Yeah, right! And what’s the odds of me winning the jar of jelly beans at the chiropractor’s office?! :cD

When I left Virginia after breakfast this morning – it was 70 degrees. Don’t you love the view of the mountains in my rear view mirror? Sometimes the view behind you IS prettier than the view in front of you --- so I just had to snatch that photo.

This was the view in front of me – see that drizzling rain? It never really poured, but it was hazy, and the farther north I got, the farther the temperatures dropped.

Yesterday as I was returning from dinner, the car thermometer said 87 degrees. 87!!

I continued up I-81, crossing over a corner of West Virginia, skating across just a small portion of Maryland, and into Pennsylvania --- all the while, the clouds gathered thicker, and temps dropped, and dropped and dropped! At the lowest temp it was about 52 and windy ---

Where was my jacket? At home of course! I had to make a side run into a local Walmart to find a sweater that will do me through the weekend! (($7 on clearance --- good deal!))

The clouds and moisture are just hanging over Pennsylvania as I made my way north up I-81 and onto I-84 ---MAN --- that Pennsylvania is a BIG STATE! I thought I’d never reach the New York State Line!

I even made a pit stop in a small town just before reaching New York ---I left North Carolina yesterday morning before my local post office was open –and planned to mail a few book orders while on my way. They got mailed today in a little town somewhere in the Poconos!

I FINALLY crossed into New York – and I knew I was getting close.

This was really the better way to drive rather than fighting my way up I-95 and dealing with toll booths every few miles. I hate that New Jersey Turnpike! This may have taken a bit longer, but the scenery was beautiful and restful ---I just listened to books and unwound.

OH! I listened to Janet Evanovich’s “Explosive 18” OH. MY. GOODNESS! I was laughing so hard I almost wet myself --- seriously. The gal that does the narrating does all the voices SO GOOD! I was sad to have that one end already ----fun stuff.

How about this for a foggy/rainy overlook just over the New York line?!

Of course I was north bound – the south bound lanes are right up at the overlook and don’t have to photograph expanses of road when viewing the valley --- so maybe on the way back I’ll get better photos --

BEAUTIFUL!

I’ve checked into my hotel. The girls from the American Sewing Guild are picking me up for an Italian dinner in about 10 minutes. I’m hungry and tired!

If any sewing gets done tonight at all – it will be a couple bindings/hanging sleeves that need finshing –or maybe --- I’ll crash early!

Tomorrow – it’s a Cathedral Stars workshop with the Hudson Valley chapter of the American Sewing Guild!

Have a great Wednesday evening, everyone!

“Focus On The Center” Blog Tour!

I’m really excited that Pat Sloan asked me to be part of her blog tour! Blog tours are such a great way to discover new people, new ideas, and get a glimpse into other people’s heads! This one should be fun….because she is asking US to be creative!

If you are new here because you followed the links on another participant’s blog ---WECOME! I hope you enjoy your visit, and I hope you’ll be back!

Pat is also writing about us on HER BLOG so if you are one of my regular readers, you need to go over there – maybe you’ll learn something about me that you didn’t already know!

And because I’m an equal opportunity kind of girl – I had my shot at asking PAT a question on something out-of-the-ordinary, because, you see – I think we really could have been great teenage buds in our younger years, and I’m always interested in other people’s growing-up-years!

Pat’s dad was military, so she spent many of her growing up years living over seas!

I asked about her first “REAL” job – thinking that it might be Mc Donalds, or working the movie theater, you know, TEEN JOBS?! This is what she had to say:

I lived in Brussels Belgium and we only had so many jobs at the school and bases for teenager to work at. So you put your name in for a job and I got selected to work at the "motor pool".

That meant it was just ME as the phone answering girl.. and the guy that ran the motor pool. He did a LOT of jobs... like being sure the teenage boys were mowing the school grass in the summer .. and I SO wanted to go out on that check ride!

He also did all the grounds keeping at the general's homes that our government rented. The funniest story was when a 'wife' was calling and was being.. mmm.. well.. I guess a tad annoying with her requests. So my 'manager' taught me how to make a crackly noise then hang up the phone on her... LOL! This is a TRUE story!

LOL! So she was doing crackly noises like…”ooops? Bad signal? CLICK!?” I suppose that is an acquired skill, and one that could come in handy at the right moment.. Hehehe!

My high school jobs? I worked at an HSalt Fish n Chips -- and I did house cleaning. Not quite as glamorous as being a phone girl to the motor pool guy!

So let’s get on to the book:

You know my love for antique quilts RUNS DEEP. I am a very traditional quilter, even if my fabric choices are not --- and I love the timelessness of time honored blocks and designs, and I love “different” ways to showcase things instead of always making a handful of blocks, plopping them down with either alternate blocks and sashings. I also like working with different sizes of blocks and units, and one way that really gives you a place to PLAY is to set things in a medallion setting.

Even the COVER of the book screamed out at me…OOOOOOHHH!

Pat asked us to pick one of the quilts that WE would like to make and to show what fabrics we would use with it…

Oh GOODNESS! This is a NO BRAINER! I bet you would have picked THIS ONE for me too:

Arabella’s Courtyard

Finished Quilt Size: 89” X 89”

Don’t you think this looks like something I would do? I love stars! This has a carpenter’s star center ((ALL HALF SQUARE TRIS – NO INSET “WHY?!” Seams!)) Lots of checkerboards, hourglass units…and oooooOOOOOOoooooH! Yellow!

Can you see a peek of what I’d like to see it made with from MY stash?

CONFESSION: I am writing this post the day before leaving for New York, after just getting back from VCQ in Virginia the night before with one day in between…..I’m grabbing PILES of fabric for this post…..as just a sampling!

TADA!!

I wanna change that gold to cheddar ((Another NO SURPRISE)) --- and use all the shirt plaids in it ((Like you couldn’t guess that EITHER!?))--- still keeping the colors consistent – so I’d use scrappy red where the reds are, scrappy greens where the greens are, etc --- as for that wide floral outer border? I’m thinking stringy piano keys from the bin of shirt strings!

I just love how those “Clays Choice” blocks dance in that wide yellow border outside the checkerboards, don’t you? And a 90” Square quilt? Yup…..those ALWAYS fit the bill for me!

Here is a sampling of what else you can find in the book, whether you want to use yardage of just a few fabrics, or dig into your scrap stash – they are all fabulous:

All Roads Leave Home 49” X 49”

Antique Mist

57” X 57”

Blue Lagoon 73” X 73”

Lucky Charms 61” X 61”

((Love those diagonal bricks framing the center…AWESOME!))

So would YOU like to win a copy of Focus On The Center? I’m going to draw for 2 winners on Monday Evening, May 7th. You can also visit Pat’s Blog and register to win there EVERY DAY during the tour, and visit the links of the other participants – go leave a comment on their blogs too!

Tuesday May 1

• Vanessa http://www.vanessachristenson.com/

• Carrie http://lavieenrosie.typepad.com/lavieenrosie/

Wednesday May 2

• Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

• Michele http://quiltinggallery.com/

Thursday May 3

• Victoria http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/

• Rachel http://www.psiquilt.com/

Friday May 4

• Jackie http://cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/

• Dana http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/

Saturday May 5

• Vicki Welsh http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/

• Faith http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/

And don’t forget to check out the Leisure Arts Blog as well!

Hey, if I can win the Jelly Bean Contest --- you can win a copy of this book!

Please remember to leave me your name and email address if you are commenting as anonymous or if you don’t have your email address visible in your blogger settings. Comments without names and addresses won’t work, and I’ll be forced to draw again!

Good Luck Everyone!

iPhone-o-gram! Live from the antique mall!

Or should that be DIVE from the antique mall??

I've made it about half way to my New York destination. I've checked into a hotel and am exploring the nearby antique mall!!

What's the first thing that I see!?

Another diving helmet. They are everywhere! Lol!

But---there are other goodies to be found as well!