And I was already 15 minutes late getting out the door to drive to Mooresville!
Turns out my GPS had fallen from it's place where it is suction cupped to the windshield. In the night it had fallen BAM onto the hazard button, and unbeknownst to me, my flashers were busy flashing all night long in the darkness of my garage. So. In the morning. DEAD BATTERY!
Some jumper cables and some swearing got me running again and I was on my way. I had never been to Mooresville before. It's about 67 miles from me, but off the beaten path. That's what I LOVE about traveling to guilds! You get off the interstate, and it is amazing what you can find. Mooresville is cute and quaint, and the guild meets in the Citizen's Center which was perfect for our lecture and trunkshow..and for the workshop as well.
Mooresville NC Boxy Stars Workshop
We had a blast making Boxy Stars blocks from 2.5" strips. The differences in looks just from the variety of fabrics is amazing. I uploaded a little slide show for you to see. Be sure to check out the tie dyed socks!! What a hoot!
We finished up the workshop about 4:30pm, and I had some time to kill before heading home. My OWN guild meeting was having a special presentation of Amish Quilts, and I didn't want to miss that, but at the same time I didn't want to get there too early, so I dawdled in Mooresville, wandering through a lovely antique shop. The owner was such a ham. He conned (???) me into purchasing these drawers he'd salvaged from a treadle machine. They are beautiful, rounded drawers, not square front ones. Not sure what I'll do with them yet, but I couldn't let them go. Okay, maybe I'm just a pushover! I think they will work great in a skinny place. For now I've put them between my treadle and the sewing cabinet,and they will be fine there for now. I need to have a "top" made for the top drawer, because it is just open to the world on top.
So I wandered over to my guild meeting, getting there early enough to help with the Amish quilts. Just turns out I was a good one to have around early....I even had an extra quilt stand they could borrow to hang their quilts on. I helped hold the quilts, so I didn't get many pics of them. There were some BEAUTIES. I just love hand quilting on solid fabrics, I can't get over the texture and what those little stitches can do with solids. I am definitely going to play with more solids in the future. Let that quilting show!
These pics are of the two quilts that were hanging to either side of the stage...look at these stitches!
I wish I could have gotten pics of the ones that I was holding. One was SO humble...really what some would consider as ugly. Workman's clothes were the main fabrics. colors were brown black gold and blue...chambray? All different kinds of weaves of fabrics, from wool to almost a canvas feel to cotton twill. It was a tied quilt, and you could see through some holes in the backing that it was tied through another quilt! It was an Indiana Amish quilt, and those winters can be brutal. I'm sure this quilt kept someone extra warm.
I came home to a brightly colored box covered with hearts! Again, I thought it must be a customer quilt, but lo and behold.....it's a Valentine's Gifty Box!! Thanks Margaret D. I can honestly say I've never tried chocolate covered potato chips before! *LOL* But you know what? It has that certain amount of salty + sweet to make it REALLY good! I guess when you think of it, it is the same salty sweet as the chocolate or white chocolate dipped pretzels,and I love those too. And you know the salty sweet of the raisins in trail mix...yep! Gotta love salty and sweet!
The family went straight for the carmel corn while I horded the fancy chcolates from Bowlby Candy Co myself. MINE MINE MINE! And the fabrics....These are just YUMMY! Thanks so much, your gifty was the perfect ending to a completely quilt filled day!
I love those boxy stars!
ReplyDeleteOk...so I purchased some poison green and cheddar today for my scrappys.
Bonnie, that guild meeting looked like fun! I really loved the tie dyed block, and the socks to match were icing on the cake!
ReplyDeleteMGM
What a wonderful way to end your day! I have never heard of chocolate covered chips and I love the dyed socks that match the quilt block. Very creative!
ReplyDeletethose drawers you bought look like two sets of three drawers... if so you might want to unstack them, put them on top of a table area, add a board across the top of them and create a shelf....
ReplyDeleteI really like the boxy stars you were teaching.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right salty and chocolate just go together...YUMMY. I haven't had chocolate chips before but have had chocolate popcorn and that was good...of course choc. covered pretzel are to die for.
Loved the Amish Quilts...they are all beautiful.
Oh I LOVE those drawers! And oh how great to see those amish quilts! BABY!
ReplyDeleteLove those boxy stars. That's one of the best things about patchwork, the same block can look so different, depending on color placement.
ReplyDeleteI envy you those cool drawers, too!
Chris
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6686309
http://madcreekdesigns.blogspot.com/
Bonnie
ReplyDeleteLove those drawers, I agree how could you have passed them up????
oh my those amish quilts are jsut beautiful
sure wish you could have taken more pictures
YOU Know how much I love seeing the hand quilting too.
thanks as always for sharing.
kathie
Those drawers are beautiful, I'm afraid they would have ridden home in my car, too! Great seeing you at Guild, I was mesmerized by those Amish beauties!
ReplyDeleteOh how I love Mooreseville NC Our relatives live in Davidson. Whenever we visit I make the trek over to The Quilter's Loft on Main St. in Mooresville. Such a cute place and very hard on the charge card!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you fell under the spell.
I recognize those Fat Quarter wrappers from Primitive Gatherings -- one of my favorite shops here in Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteI have a sewing machine cabinet with curved drawers. Can you believe I am missing one? Too bad yours aren't a match or I would be begging for one. Ha Ha
I have just found your gorgeous blog. the boxy stars are great, I'm doing an Evening star block at the moment, so it was good to see the differences.
ReplyDeleteThat black quilt with the blue stars is soooo beautiful. My first few quilts were of Amish patterns and they still speak to me.
ReplyDeleteI used four drawers like yours and made a cube for them to go in and had it hanging on the wall. I used it to store button cards and other "priceless" things.
Wow, love the quilts. There is alot of punch in them. Beautiful. Have a safe drive up to Virginia next week. I've been looking forward to your talk next Tuesday for a while.
ReplyDeleteThose drawers are fabulous!! No conning required...I would have taken them home too.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely. I used to live in Mooresville. I currently live in Wilkesboro. We're so close........do u know of any guild's in this area?
ReplyDeletehow lucky you were to have seen these quilts. that olive and magenta Bars quilt is lovely.
ReplyDeleteBonnie,
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't happen to have a Honda would you? The GPS falling off happened to me, too. I called my dear Ex who had purchased the GPS for me (for Xmas) and thanked him again. [And warned him to move his GPS so it didn't fall on his hazard switch because he, too has a Honda.]
Ida
Love the boxy star quilt. Congrats on the book.
ReplyDeleteLove the cheddar block. At Paducah the Museum had an entire display on the orange/cheddar quilts both antique and modern. They were incredible. Love them!
ReplyDelete